H188 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 13, 2009 

we actually have, instead of spending 

money we do not have. 

This unrestrained borrowing and 

spending has got to stop because it’s 

not working. Now, one of the things 

that we need to do to actually begin to 

stimulate the economy is just leave the 

money in the economy. How do we 

leave the money in the economy? 

Well, Mr. Speaker, what we do is we 

lower the taxes. We lower the taxes on 

individuals. We lower the taxes on corporations. We lower the taxes on small 

businesses. 

Our small businesses, for example, 

are the number one job creators in 

America. By lowering the taxes for 

small businesses, we are able to create 

jobs and opportunity. Whether it’s Joe 

the Plumber or Ray the Electrician, 

when they have the opportunity to 

keep more of the money that they are 

making, they go out and buy a new 

service truck. 

Well, you know what happens when 

they buy a new service truck? They 

have got to go hire someone to run 

that truck, so they go out and hire an 

electrician or a plumber and maybe a 

helper. So that creates more and more 

jobs. 

But every time we take more and 

more of the money of Joe the Plumber 

or Ray the Electrician or the American 

hardworking people, when we take that 

money into Congress or into the government, one, that dollar gets a lot 

smaller when it goes back out and, yet, 

so we are taking, the net effect is, we 

are taking money out of the economy. 

I introduced a bill last week that 

would try to leave the money in the 

economy. What this bill would do 

would be lower each one of the tax 

brackets by—the tax rate on each one 

of the brackets by 5 percent. 

Also, it would make the top brackets 

in this country, both corporate and individual, 25 percent. That means that 

we have a further reduction in the 

amount of money that we take out of 

the economy on a daily, weekly and annual basis. 

Now, what could this do? Well, according to the Heritage Foundation, 

this could help create more jobs in our 

country. Possibly in 2009 it could create a half a million new jobs; by the 

year 2012, 3.6 million new jobs. 

If Americans and the American people are going to enjoy the freedoms and 

liberties that this Nation offers, the 

best way to do that is to allow them to 

have the opportunity to work and to 

earn their money, but, more importantly, to keep more of their money. 

One of the things that we have done 

in this country that concerns me, I 

think it concerns the American people, 

is this country was founded on principles of empowerment. People came to 

America with dreams that they would 

work hard, apply themselves. And if 

they did that, they could reap the benefits of their hard work and enjoy their 

successes. 

But, unfortunately, in our country 

today, they were running away from 

big government. Now the country that 

was founded on the principles of small 

business is moving more to big government. And how is the government getting bigger? It’s taking a bigger and 

bigger chunk out of the American people’s, American taxpayers’ hard-earned 

money. 

Mr. Speaker, these are difficult 

times, yet they are challenging times, 

but they are times where we must 

make good decisions. Going out and 

mortgaging another $1.3 billion for future generations to pay back is not a 

good investment. 

I ask my colleagues to join me in 

supporting this bill so that we can 

leave more money with the American 

taxpayers. The American taxpayers deserve a better plan from the Federal 

government than more spending on top 

of a deficit already projected to be 

more than $1 trillion this year. 

Congress should focus on solutions 

that empower individuals and businesses to succeed in the economy, rather than solutions that make them more 

dependent on the Federal government. 

f 

WALL STREET’S BANKSTERS ARE 

COMING BACK TO MAMA 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under 

the Speaker’s announced policy of January 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from 

Ohio (Ms. KAPTUR) is recognized for 60 

minutes as the designee of the majority leader. 

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, wake up, 

America. Get your telephone calls 

going to Congress. Set up your 

robodials in gear. Wall Street’s 

banksters are coming back to mama. 

Here they come again, and shame on us 

if we let them do it to us again. 

America, pay attention. Batten down 

the hatches. Let your Member of Congress know the banksters are coming 

back to mama. 

We are about to be taken for a ride 

by the banksters again. These 

banksters bank on us making the taxpayers pay again. 

Don’t let them do it. Why? Because 

what they are doing is trampling our 

democracy. We are getting set to have 

another piece of legislation crammed 

through the Congress regarding the 

bailout. They call it TARP, the Troubled Assets Relief Program. It’s the old 

bank bailout bill from last year. 

Despite the fact that due deliberation 

is required of us as Members of Congress through regular order of this 

House, and, frankly, our Constitution, 

this new cram down comes with a 

twist. Instead of not holding any hearings on the reform of the TARP, like 

happened last time, and only letting us 

see the bill 18 hours before $700 billion 

of the taxpayers’ money was to be put 

on the table, one hearing is being held, 

exactly one, tomorrow, and it happens 

to be being held at the same time that 

amendments to that bill are supposed 

to be filed upstairs in the Rules Committee. 

So Members who spent over 20 years 

on that committee are unable to take 

what they hear at the hearing, and the 

information learned, to make recommendations for amendments to the 

Rules Committee. Any Member who 

might not be on the committee, and 

who wants to go to the hearing and listen, and then maybe propose amendments, well, you can’t do that because 

it’s being held at the same time. 

The committee will be holding the 

hearing here in the Capitol where most 

Americans can no longer afford to travel. They are not bothering to go out to 

the country, to the communities that 

have been so badly devastated by the 

rising foreclosure crisis, that the 

TARP, the bank bailout bill is not 

solving. 

No, the public won’t be included, and 

the subpoena power of the committee 

will not be used. So here we go, the 

banksters are back. They want another 

$350 billion of our taxpayers’ money, 

and the deliberations inside this Chamber are throttled. Isn’t that sad, particularly given what happened to the 

first 350 billion. Once again, we are 

being pushed and told we have to hurry 

this up. We are going to have a new 

President. So we are told to hurry up 

and be hasty and not be thoughtful, because, of course, something might happen. But you know what? It’s already 

happening. 

What we are doing isn’t working. But 

we are going to have to be voting this 

week on a big unthinkable wad of our 

taxpayers’ money, $350 billion more. 

And if we learned anything from the 

release of the first half of the TARP 

funds, it’s that hurried legislative action brings undesired and sloppy results. 

Back in the fall we were told we 

didn’t have the time to be deliberative, 

that if we didn’t pass it, the economy 

was going to continue a downward spiral, that the economy would crash, and 

we would be to blame. 

Well, some Members voted for it, and 

it passed, and guess what happened? 

What they said wouldn’t. Never mind 

that Secretary Paulson’s management 

of the economy and the bailout still 

has resulted in 1.2 million jobs lost in 

November and December. Believe me, 

people in my State know what those 

numbers really mean. 

One in 10 homeowners are in arrears 

or in foreclosure, imagine that, 10 percent of the people who own homes in 

this country. 

b 2000 

And $4 trillion of wealth has been 

lost by our families. The American people were played, and $350 billion later 

Secretary Paulson has given us no 

progress for the American people. We 

are in a deeper economic hole than 

when we began. 

TARP isn’t working. It hasn’t 

stemmed the foreclosure crisis, which 

is at the heart of what is wrong with 

our economy. It didn’t help unfreeze 

credit inside our financial system. The 

auto industry didn’t go into a nose-dive 

because people didn’t want to buy cars. 


wwoods2 on PRODPC68 with HOUSE
January 13, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H189 

They couldn’t get the loans from the 

banks to buy the cars because the 

housing foreclosure crisis froze up the 

credit system. Instead, TARP has 

brought the auto industry and hundreds of thousands of businesses across 

our country to their knees. 

A staggering 693,000 jobs were lost 

across this country in the last month, 

three-quarters of a million, following 

533,000 jobs the month before, half a 

million more. There are now nearly 

four job seekers for every one job opening. And, again, one in ten homeowners 

nationwide are now in arrears or facing 

foreclosure. My advice to people in 

that position: Don’t leave your property. You claim your own property, because chances are if you had a good 

lawyer and they went to court on your 

behalf, they couldn’t find who really 

holds your mortgage. If they go to the 

Truth in Lending laws, you might be 

surprised. The law might be on your 

side. Don’t leave your property. 

So what have the banks done with all 

this money? Shouldn’t we know that 

before we vote to give them more? I 

ask every Member of Congress, 

shouldn’t we know where the money 

went and what they did with it? Have 

they reworked mortgages and started 

lending again? No. No, they have not. 

Instead, they have had a party buying 

one another up. The big banks, particularly the Wall Street banks, they are 

getting bigger. Community banks are 

under stress. Many StateHeadquartered banks are being bought 

by the bigger banks. 

PNC, already one of the Nation’s 

largest banks, bought National City 

Bank in Ohio. They are throwing 4,000 

people out of work in Cleveland, Ohio. 

But PNC became, hold on to your seats 

now, the fifth largest bank in the 

United States from the infusion of 

TARP funds it received. The fifth largest bank in our country, and their corporate expansion bought and paid for 

by you, our taxpayers. 

Now, look at who else is getting bigger. Last night, CBS news reported on 

CBS.com that Bank of America received $15 billion, and then they bought 

Merrill Lynch, that had gotten $10 billion even as it was put up for sale. 

Total that up. That is $25 billion. Now 

Morgan Stanley, the recipient of $10 

billion, is buying China Trust Bank. 

Another half dozen banks, including 

M&T, Capital One Bank, US Bancorp, 

Hampton Roads Bankshares and PNC, 

got bailout money, and then they 

bought up other banks. They just keep 

getting bigger. And what is interesting 

about that, under the law, when they 

buy another bank, they can probably 

book losses on their 2008 tax returns. 

It is very interesting how the financial system works on behalf of the big, 

and yet for those losing their homes, 

they have almost no one to represent 

them. They are having a royal time 

with our money, the banksters up there 

on Wall Street. 

Money Morning reports the 116 banks 

that are receiving billions in taxpayerprovided bailout money this year actually paid out $1.6 billion in compensation to their executives, plus benefits, 

even though the results at some of 

these institutions were so poor that 

they would soon have to turn to Washington for government-engineered rescues. The $1.6 billion in compensation 

and benefits to the banksters was paid 

out to nearly 600 executives at the 116 

banks that have so far accepted Federal money to bolster their financial 

situation. 

The Associated Press concluded after 

a review of U.S. security filings that in 

addition to salary, the compensation 

included bonuses paid in both cash and 

stock. The benefits reaped by top executives included the use of company 

jets for personal purposes, personal 

chauffeurs, home security services, 

country club memberships and professional wealth management services, 

the news service said. 

Now, let’s give them credit. These 

banksters know how to walk our 

money around. They even know how to 

create money when there isn’t any 

there. They create fancy names; derivatives, credit default swaps and 

collateralized debt obligations. But 

those instruments are not worth anything, because the underlying assets 

cannot pay back the money if someone 

tries to collect it. That is usually 

called fraud or money laundering. 

But could it be a cruel twist of fate 

that the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 

Paulson, former chief executive officer 

of Goldman Sachs, oddly took care of 

Goldman, his firm, first during all of 

this, making it a bank holding company, so it could get its nose under the 

tent cover—I mean qualify for Federal 

insurance, like the well-run banks do, 

which had paid into the insurance system. He did that for his own institution, but then he shed crocodile tears 

and he pushed Lehman Brothers overboard with no mercy. I would really 

like to know the full truth behind that 

story. 

But then Mr. Paulson, by coincidence 

surely, picked his top money man at 

Goldman Sachs and moved him too, 

lock stock and barrel, into the U.S. 

Treasury to hand out our cash. Now, 

this surely must have been done accidentally. How can you have two men 

from the same Wall Street firm delegated all this power? Oh, you might 

have heard his name. It is Mr. 

Kashkari. Yes, Neel Kashkari. He came 

from Goldman. 

It must surely be another coincidence that Goldman was also Wall 

Street’s largest contributor to Federal 

campaigns last year. Check it out 

yourself at opensecrets.org. That is a 

Web site, opensecrets.org. In fact, Wall 

Street overall became the largest 

donor to Federal elections. And they 

are not showing any signs of slowing 

down. According to the Wall Street 

Journal, 90 percent of donations received so far for the Inaugural Committee have been raised by well-heeled 

fund-raisers, including Wall Street executives whose companies have received billions of dollars in Federal 

bailout money. 

Well, think about that one. Of the 207 

fund-raisers that have collected $24.8 

million of the $27.3 million in contributions through Thursday for the coming 

inauguration, according to an analysis 

by the nonpartisan campaign finance 

group Public Citizen, Wall Street employees as a group have been the biggest single source of these donations. 

Much of their donations, in fact $5.7 

million total, has been channeled 

through financial services executives 

who each have bundled together donations worth hundreds of thousands of 

dollars. 

Goldman Sachs has provided $175,000 

in donations primarily through the 

bundling efforts of Jennifer Scully, 

who has raised over $100,000; Bruce 

Heyman who raised $50,000, including 

$10,000 of his own money; and another 

gentleman, David Heller, who donated 

another $25,000. Think about what is 

going on here. 

But, you know, a lot of people say 

they don’t influence peddle. Banksters 

don’t influence peddle. They just want 

good government. Sure they do. Of 

course, all this is accidental. Nobody 

planned it this way. Just like Bernie 

Madoff. Oh, he didn’t plan anything either. Some might believe what these 

banksters do in their private affairs 

has absolutely no relationship to what 

happens here in Washington, and if you 

believe that, you were born yesterday. 

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me 

twice, shame on me. 

There are problems with the bill 

drafted to address the administration’s 

mishandling of the bailout. This is the 

bill that is going to come before us, we 

think, H.R. 384, the TARP Reform Accountability Act of 2009. TARP doesn’t 

need reforming. We need to kill it. We 

need to put the attention at the Federal Deposition Insurance Corporation 

and the Securities and Exchange Commission in order to resolve the interbank lending problem and the foreclosure credit crisis. We don’t need to 

give this job to the Treasury. The 

wrong agency has the lead. 

Let’s look at title II, called ‘‘foreclosure relief.’’ Number one, the legislation provides no new plan to stop 

foreclosures. That is what it was 

passed to do in the first place. This bill 

doesn’t have it either. It continues to 

do more of the same, which simply 

hasn’t worked. Servicers are not motivated through this bill to modify loans, 

because they are making money handover-fist servicing defaulted loans, 

foreclosing on loans and profiting from 

real estate that they have come to 

own. And they are awaiting booking 

huge tax losses on their 2008 income 

tax filings. The Tax Code favors them, 

not us, not the people who sent me 

here. 

This legislation that is proposed does 

not help homeowners defend themselves against criminal acts of fraud 

being perpetrated against them in 


wwoods2 on PRODPC68 with HOUSE
H190 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE January 13, 2009 

processing foreclosures. A majority of 

the loans originated between 2000 and 

2008 have legal defenses against foreclosures, but because the scheme has 

drained consumers of financial resources and because there are so few 

consumer law attorneys who know how 

to raise these defenses in a court of 

law, consumers have no access to their 

rights, for example, under the Truth in 

Lending Act. 

The legislation continues to shift 

both the risk and the cost of the program off corporations who perpetrated 

the scheme and on to homeowners, our 

American taxpayers. The legislation 

does not address the root of the problem and it will be just as ineffective as 

the first round of TARP funding in addressing the core problem, the home 

foreclosure crisis. The current loan 

modification restrictions are 

unsustainable and they will redefault. 

Let’s go to title V, and I can’t go 

through every title tonight, called 

Hope For Homeowners Program Improvements. Hope for Homeowners consist of industry players who created 

the mortgage mess to begin with. They 

are milking the system and not providing any relief to homeowners now. 

New nonprofit companies and loan 

modification companies are cropping 

up all over, and most of these have 

been established by the very mortgage 

brokers who defrauded consumers and 

sold them into subprime slavery. They 

should not now be rewarded with a new 

business opportunity to revictimize the 

victims. 

So let’s look at some recommendations that make sense. The bill that 

will be sent to us will not correct the 

root of the problem and it will not 

achieve the goal of preventing foreclosures and keeping people in their 

homes. There are many effective foreclosure prevention strategies being deployed by attorneys and advocates, and 

we need to translate these into systemic solutions. 

We need to investigate, and it is a 

sham that this Congress is not doing 

appropriate oversight; how the shadow 

banking sector created by the Wall 

Street investment banks after the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which was 

called Gramm-Leach-Bliley, constructed a private money creation system that in a short 10 years equals or 

exceeds the assets of all regulated 

banks nationwide. 

In short there are solutions. We need 

a consumer-centric model. What we 

have now is a creditor-centric model. It 

will eventually lead to a complete collapse, because consumers and taxpayers cannot handle this burden. 

Let’s go back to Ohio and take the 

case of National City, which has been 

an institution headquartered in Ohio, 

in Cleveland, since 1845. 

b 2015 

Now, Treasury’s money, the taxpayers’ money, our money, went to another out-of-state bank, PNC, of Pittsburgh, whose vice president, Mr. 

Demchuk, invented the derivative instrument. They came to Ohio, PNC, 

and they bought National City Bank, 

putting all the National City Bank employees on notice with pink slips, 4,000 

of them, that they would be out of 

work on the tape. PNC became bigger. 

So what Mr. Kashkari did was take 

our money and give it to PNC, that 

hasn’t worked out any of its mortgage 

loans. They, then, came to Ohio and 

bought out National City Bank. So 

PNC got bigger, our banking system 

gets more concentrated, and PNC became more powerful. Some say they actually have price control power now 

over all of Western Pennsylvania. 

So, PNC got $7.5 billion from us. 

Cleveland and Ohio lose a Fortune 500 

company. They lose 4,000 National City 

Bank workers, and in Ohio, foreclosures are raging. And Ohio, it gets 

nothing. We get nothing. We need $20 

billion just to fix what’s wrong in Ohio. 

But all we get is more foreclosures. 

Now, take another institution. In 

2008, Citigroup, one of the main culprits that caused the financial meltdown, was bestowed $25 billion. They 

got more than PNC. They got it from 

us, the taxpayer. And then they just 

kept foreclosing. In my district alone, 

another 235 families just were told, 

you’re out of your house. 

Last November I found an advertisement in my local paper that said there 

was going to be an auction in my home 

community, and I was surprised. I 

didn’t know the company coming in. It 

was called Hudson and Marshall of Dallas, Texas. So I went to the auction. 

And guess what? Citigroup was one of 

the banks selling the properties 

through Hudson Marshall. I attended. 

And I watched homes in my community sold for as little as $7,900, a price 

so low that we could have put the 

original owners back in those homes. 

Not only was Citigroup auctioning 

homes that night, but so were lots of 

other bailout recipients. Those are the 

banks that got the money from Treasury through us. Here they are: Wells 

Fargo, US Bank, Deutsche Bank, ABN/ 

Amro, Chase Home Finance, Fifth 

Third Bank, Standard Federal, and LaSalle. They all got the money, and 

then they turned their backs on the 

very people that they were meant to 

help. That’s what the people who 

passed the bailout bill last year said, 

that we would help those being foreclosed. But that hasn’t happened. 

It is clear that the recipients of the 

Treasury money are unwilling to craft 

real workouts. And so what happens in 

our region is people just keep getting 

kicked out of their homes. 

Wall Street hired the auction company from Dallas, Texas. They didn’t 

even hire an Ohio auctioneer. They 

came to our region. They sold all those 

properties for very little money. And 

they’re going to get big, huge tax 

losses written off their IRS filings for 

the tax year of 2008. 

But where are our families who lost 

their homes? Out on the street. Our 

people lost their homes and they lost 

their way of life. 

I would like to invite Mr. Kashkari 

and Secretary Paulson and all the PNC 

executives to come to Ohio. I want you 

to live in one of the neighborhoods that 

your actions have affected. We’re going 

to give you a little heater, a Bunsen 

burner heater overnight so you don’t 

get too cold in those houses. And we’d 

like you to experience the results of 

what you are doing to the American 

people. You’re holed up here in Washington with lots of security. 

We need to get people back on Main 

Street. That’s where we represent. Last 

year 4,100 homes, just in my home 

county, were foreclosed. And in the 

last 21⁄2 years, 10 percent of the properties in my home community foreclosed. 10 percent of the entire housing 

stock. And as foreclosure rates continue to rise in places like Ohio, it’s 

pretty obvious that’s what’s happening 

here in Washington isn’t connecting to 

Main Street. 

Why don’t people here see that? Why 

are people afraid to look at the details 

of what’s being proposed to us and say, 

no, no, to the banksters? 

Sadly, Hudson and Marshall, the auction house that Wall Street hired to 

sell all those homes in my community, 

they’re coming to your town too. This 

month alone they’re slated to be in 

several cities, in Michigan, Arizona, 

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey. Think about this. 

Think how much money they are making. And they’re going to auction at 

least 1,455 properties. They’ve now sold 

over 70,000 homes just in the last few 

years, and they are expecting, just this 

one company, to sell another, to auction another 30,000 properties in 2009. 

Mr. Paulson and Mr. Kashkari, your 

program isn’t working. 

What is happening is an outrage to 

the American people, and they are 

being asked to pay for this. There 

shouldn’t be any more TARP bills 

clearing this Congress. Full hearings 

must be held in the communities being 

affected, not some little hearing up 

here in one room in the Capitol on one 

afternoon or in a couple of hours. We 

need to use our power to get to the 

truth and represent the voters that 

sent us here. 

Equity is bleeding profusely from our 

communities, and the sheer volume of 

the properties sold at auction is disturbing. Financial institutions which 

have been capitalized through the 

TARP program have failed to do mortgage workouts. FDIC and SEC are the 

institutions to take care of this mess, 

and they must be required to do mortgage workouts, rather than foreclosing 

on homes and participating in these 

auctions. 

Hudson and Marshall stated in a 

press release today that they have 

made over $1.2 billion recently doing 

auctions. $1.2 billion. These are dollars 

that could have been turned to do 

mortgage workouts at the local level 

and put people back in their homes. 


wwoods2 on PRODPC68 with HOUSE
January 13, 2009 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE H191 

The intent of the TARP was to help 

stabilize our financial system, which 

includes, in large measure, our housing 

industry. Yet, what are the financial 

institutions doing? Enriching themselves, merging, creating mega-giant 

institutions and foreclosing on families, rather than working to stabilize 

families and neighborhoods across this 

country. 

A stable home permits people to 

focus on obtaining and maintaining 

employment, purchasing food and contributing to society in positive ways, 

rather than relying on Social Services 

funded by State and Federal dollars. 

We see communities falling apart. 

Community members and local banks 

are effectively locked out of the opportunity to reinvest in themselves because monies from the Department of 

Housing and Urban Development, 

which we were told would get to the 

communities so they could buy these 

homes, guess what? They’re not there. 

They weren’t there in October. They 

weren’t there in November, they 

weren’t there in December. They’re not 

there in January. Now we’re told 

maybe they’ll be there by March. Nobody seems to know. So all of these 

programs that were supposed to work 

to help the American people who are 

paying the bill aren’t working. 

No second round of bailout money, 

under TARP, should emerge from this 

Congress unless real hearings are held 

under all the committees of jurisdiction, unless the subpoena powers of 

this Congress are used, and that the 

victims of this crisis can have their 

voices heard in the deliberative process, not just here in Washington but 

where they live, where we live, in the 

real America. The committees should 

treat the American people with respect, and they should travel to the 

communities most impacted. 

Why should we trust the banksters, 

those Wall Street banks that are going 

to be up here again this week, as we 

watch families in our regions pushed 

over the edge every day of every 

month, as the year proceeds? 

Mr. Speaker, this is probably the 

worst financial crime I’ve ever seen 

committed against the American people. And yet, Congress seems almost 

somnambulant. It seems to be walking 

around in a daze, the institution largely shut down, all of this happening before the new President even assumes 

office. 

Think about the politics of the timing of this. I think the new President 

should suspend foreclosures. He should 

make a statement on that, and he 

should ask that this action be suspended. What’s going to happen in 7 

days that hasn’t happened already? 

And then assume office and appoint 

people at the FDIC and SEC who will 

use the normal means to resolve real 

estate problems across the banking 

system of this country. 

To give $350 billion more, 1/3 of a trillion dollars, to the banksters who have 

led America to this precipice, is absolutely backwards. 

I ask my colleagues, wake up. 

I ask the American people, get your 

calls coming in. Let’s let the new 

President and the new Congress use the 

full powers they have been given to address this deeply, deeply rooted economic crisis. Until we fix the housing 

crisis, and we get those real estate 

loans worked out on the books of institutions locally, and we stand up to 

Wall Street, we are not going to fix 

this problem, and the American people 

are going to continue to bleed, and 

that is morally wrong. That is simply 

morally wrong. 

I agree with the new President-elect 

who said he believes in a moratorium 

on foreclosures. That ought to happen 

until he puts people in place who can 

remedy this problem without $350 billion more dollars walking out the door 

before he even assumes office. As a 

former community organizer, he must 

know the pain that exists across this 

country. 

And just because Wall Street has 

more money and a lot of political 

power doesn’t mean that it’s right. We, 

as a Congress, must do what’s right for 

the American people. We must say 

‘‘no’’ to the second $350 billion, and we 

must represent the people who depend 

on us to do what’s right for them and 

right for the country. 

f 

RECESS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 12(a) of rule I, the Chair 

declares the House in recess subject to 

the call of the Chair. 

Accordingly (at 8 o’clock and 28 minutes p.m.), the House stood in recess 

subject to the call of the Chair. 

f 

b 2050 

AFTER RECESS 

The recess having expired, the House 

was called to order by the Speaker pro 

tempore (Mr. MCGOVERN) at 8 o’clock 

and 50 minutes p.m. 

f 

RESIGNATION AS MEMBER OF 

COMMITTEE ON RULES 

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following resignation as a member of the Committee on 

Rules: 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

Washington, DC, January 12, 2009. 

The Hon. NANCY PELOSI, 

Speaker, House of Representatives, 

Washington, DC. 

DEAR SPEAKER PELOSI: I am writing to notify you of my resignation from the Committee on Rules, effective January 14, 2008. 

I appreciate the incredible opportunity you 

gave me to serve on this important committee two years ago. As a new Member of 

Congress, the Committee on Rules provided 

me with an invaluable introduction to the 

legislative process and a key opportunity to 

serve Vermonters. I look forward now to 

working on the pressing national issues as a 

new member of the Committee on Energy 

and Commerce. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

Sincerely, 

PETER WELCH, 

Member of Congress. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without 

objection, the resignation is accepted. 

There was no objection. 

f 

RESIGNATION AS MEMBER OF 

COMMITTEE ON RULES 

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following resignation as a member of the Committee on 

Rules: 

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 

Washington, DC, January 12, 2009. 

Hon. NANCY PELOSI, 

Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, 

DC. 

DEAR MADAM SPEAKER: I am writing to notify you of my resignation from the Committee on Rules, effective January 14, 2009. I 

enjoyed serving on such a prestigious Committee and look forward to serving on the 

Committee on Energy and Commerce Committee. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

Sincerely, 

BETTY SUTTON, 

Member of Congress. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without 

objection, the resignation is accepted. 

There was no objection. 

f 

RESIGNATION AS MEMBER OF 

COMMITTEE ON RULES 

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following resignation as a member of the Committee on 

Rules: 

JANUARY 12, 2009. 

Hon. NANCY PELOSI, 

Speaker, House of Representatives, 

The Capitol, Washington, DC. 

DEAR SPEAKER PELOSI: I am writing to notify you of my resignation from the Rules 

Committee, effective January 14, 2009. It was 

an honor to serve you and Chairwoman 

Slaughter as a freshman member of this 

prestigious committee. 

I look forward to continuing to serve you 

from the Energy and Commerce Committee 

in the 111th Congress. 

Sincerely, 

KATHY CASTOR, 

United States Representative, 

Florida District 11. 

The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without 

objection, the resignation is accepted. 

There was no objection. 

f 

RESIGNATION AS MEMBER OF 

COMMITTEE ON VETERANS’ AFFAIRS 

The SPEAKER pro tempore laid before the House the following resignation as a member of the Committee on 

Veterans’ Affairs: 


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