H6258 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE September 21, 2012 

jobs and the economy. I believe that 

the best thing Congress can do is to 

find common ground to move our country forward. This week, I’m happy to 

say, we did just that. 

On Wednesday evening, the House of 

Representatives passed a bipartisan 

jobs bill—which I am pleased to say I 

championed—which would encourage 

global investment here in our country. 

This means jobs in our local communities. Companies in the 10th District 

like Astellas and Takeda and Siemens 

are able to invest here in America and 

put people to work. 

This bill passed with broad bipartisan 

support. And I certainly want to thank 

Representatives ROSKAM, PETERS, and 

BARROW for reaching across the aisle 

and coming together and helping to 

pass a commonsense bill that helps 

businesses to grow right here at home. 

When we put people before politics and 

progress before partisanship, we can 

get things done for the American people. 

f 

b 1220 

RECOGNIZING THE BRAVE 

DISSIDENTS IN CUBA 

(Mr. RIVERA asked and was given 

permission to address the House for 1 

minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. RIVERA. Mr. Speaker, last week 

I took to this floor to discuss the brave 

dissidents inside Cuba that went on a 

hunger strike to protest the jailing of 

one of their own. The end of that hunger strike came this week when the 

Castro dictatorship announced the 

pending release of that dissident. This 

was a victory for the heroes of the opposition movement inside Cuba, but 

there is still much to be done. 

The international community must 

continue to denounce the human rights 

abuses occurring inside Cuba, the lack 

of civil liberties and democratic rights, 

and continue to support the heroic opposition struggling for a free and democratic Cuba inside the island. 

f 

WE WILL NOT SUPPORT 

RADICALISM 

(Mr. BURTON of Indiana asked and 

was given permission to address the 

House for 1 minute and to revise and 

extend his remarks.) 

Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, recently we passed a continuing resolution to take care of the funding of 

the government until next March. And 

one of the things that concerned a lot 

of us was: Is any of that money in that 

continuing resolution going to go to 

help the Government of Egypt or Libya 

or any of the other countries where we 

see all that civil unrest and all the horrible acts of murder taking place? 

And I never did get an answer, so I 

would just like to say to my colleagues 

who are going to be here—I’m retiring 

at the end of this year—we should not 

give one dime, not one penny, to any 

country that tries to undermine the 

United States’ interests around the 

world, and we should not give one 

penny to anybody that constantly tries 

to spread radical fundamentalist Muslim beliefs in this world. 

Shari’a law is something we can’t 

live with, and we need to let them 

know very clearly that if they want to 

work with the United States, fine, but 

they’re not getting any money from us 

if this continues. 

This world is in a terrible state because of these radicals, and we must 

not let them win this battle. 

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER PRO TEMPORE

The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. 

REED). The Chair would remind Members to refrain from trafficking the 

well while a Member is under recognition. 

f 

AMERICA SHOULD STOP TRYING 

TO RUN THE WORLD 

(Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee asked 

and was given permission to address 

the House for 1 minute and to revise 

and extend his remarks.) 

Mr. DUNCAN of Tennessee. Mr. 

Speaker, Americans do not want, forever, permanent wars that last three or 

four times longer than World War II. 

And they especially do not want to 

spend hundreds of billions on people 

who hate or don’t at least appreciate 

what we’ve done for them. 

Probably half the spending we have 

done over the years in Iraq and Afghanistan has been pure foreign aid. And we 

have poured many, many billions into 

Egypt, Pakistan, and other countries 

throughout the Middle East. 

Our own Nation is $16 trillion in debt. 

We are borrowing all this money to 

send to countries that are exploding 

with anti-American rage. 

Fifty-one American soldiers have 

been murdered over the past several 

months by Afghan police and soldiers 

who they were training. Now we have 

had our Ambassador and three other 

Americans killed in Libya. 

We should have gotten out of Afghanistan years ago. We need to get out 

now and not take too long to do it. 

We need to stop trying to run the 

whole world, creating so much resentment, and start putting our own country first once again. 

f 

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE SPEAKER 

PRO TEMPORE 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The 

Chair will recognize Members for Special Order speeches without prejudice 

to the resumption of legislative business. 

f 

DO-NOTHING CONGRESS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. HOYER) is recognized for 60 

minutes as the designee of the minority leader. 

Mr. HOYER. And so this 112th Congress convulses to an ugly end of its 

time before the national elections. All 

of us must be sad, and the American 

people are angry and sad that this Congress has been so inattentive to the 

needs of the American people. 

Mr. Speaker, today House Republicans are leaving town and will not return until after the November elections. 

Two very respected political scientists—not Democrats or Republicans; 

one a representative of the more conservative think tank and another a 

more liberal think tank—have written 

a book about the dysfunction they 

have seen in this Congress. Mr. Mann 

and Mr. Orenstein—quoted by many reporters from many journals, from all 

different perspectives—they said this: 

We have been studying Washington 

politics in Congress for more than 40 

years, and never, never have we seen 

them as dysfunctional. In our past 

writings, we have criticized both parties when we believed it was warranted. 

Today, however, said these two respected political scientists and observers of Washington, today, however, we 

have no choice but to acknowledge 

that the core of the problem lies with 

the Republican Party. 

They went on to say that the GOP 

has become an insurgent outlier in 

American politics. It is ideologically 

extreme; scornful of compromise; 

unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence, and 

science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. That 

is the nub of the problem. 

Our Republican colleagues are leaving without getting their work done. I 

said, ‘‘their work done.’’ Without getting our work done, the work of the 

American people. 

Comprehensive jobs bills, middle 

class tax cuts have not been extended, 

farmers are left on their own to face 

the worst drought in decades—the 

worst drought in decades—and a farm 

bill reported out of the Republican 

committee lays unconsidered by this 

floor. Reported out of their committee, 

from their majority, and they haven’t 

brought it to the floor, while farmers 

remain in trouble. We’ve not reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act, 

and we have not passed the postal reform bill. 

I am glad to take this Special Order, 

Mr. Speaker, to say to the American 

people that we’re prepared to stay. 

We’re prepared to stay and work on 

these bills. And I’m going to talk about 

some of these bills, but my colleagues 

are here as well. 

I first want to yield to the former 

president of the Senate of Vermont for 

his observations as we leave this town, 

my friend, Mr. WELCH from Vermont. 

Mr. WELCH. I thank the gentleman. 

You know, on the farm bill, we’ve got 

the worst drought we’ve had in 50 

years. We’ve got people who need nutrition programs. We’ve got farmers who 

need certainty about what the price 


jbell on DSK7SPTVN1PROD with HOUSE