Date: 2011-02-14
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Congresswoman CHRISTENSEN. you dont know now how difficult it is for many of us to accept the assignment or the lack of assignment that this present majority leadership gave to the territories. and I want to thank you for placing this squarely on the record. frankly. We worked harmoniously with the District of Columbia and the Virgin Islands and Samoa and Guam and other places. Puerto Rico. We worked because it was important to have the insight and constructive input on these legislative initiatives but. more importantly. on the floor of the House. So let me just reemphasize in joining you to say that the territories should not suffer. In the CR. they do. I just want to hold up. this was a letter to my colleagues. a letter to America. a letter to Houstonians. This is the long list of cuts. and let me just cite for you very quickly so that you understand what were talking about. We have to cut. but can we do it in a manner that is constructive? Everybody is running from Social Security. Medicare. and Medicaid. and we frankly understand that. and so they put the pressure on 16 percent. but youre cutting in the middle of the year. when people are dependent on this funding. Juvenile justice. $2.3 million. The COPS program. I already mentioned. many cops will be laid off. NASA. $379 million. literally stopping NASA. the National Aeronautics Space Administration. in its tracks. forgetting about human exploration. forgetting about science. The Legal Services Corporation. No one without counsel can speak for a person who is desperate and cannot access counsel. So. if you have counsel. which really was what I was saying. you cannot speak for someone who does not. Legal Services Corporation is the wedge between justice and being thrown out. EPA. $1.6 billion. women and infant children. $758 million. job trainingI just mentioned you have to invest in job training-$2 billion. and community health centers. $1.3 billion. highspeed rail. $1 billion. And of course. all of that is about jobs. As so. as a member of the Congressional Black Caucus. as a Member of the larger body of Members. Republicans and Democrats. this CR is going to be a bite that is so stiff and so tough. I am hoping that some will view it not as a political prize. not as "I did it. They told me to go here and do it." When you come inside this august body. you drop your partisan politics and you ask the question: What is good for America? Youre not a partisan Democrat. a partisan Republican. or a partisan tea party. What you are is "Can we come together?" Now. I know I am not going to agree with all these cuts. but I didnt mention all these cuts. I know some of these things have to be. I didnt mention GSA. I think were cutting them too much. but I believe we have some common ground. but how can you cut Pell grants? Students are in. if you will. theyre actually in school and you are cutting them. Let me just say to the gentlelady as I yield back. thank you. Lets come together as Americans. And I thank you for leading this hour on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus. President Clinton left President Bush with a ten year projected surplus of $5.6 trillion in 2001. Whereas. President Bush on January 20. 2009 left President Obama with a $1.2 trillion deficit. Keep in mind that this was the deficit on day one of the Obama Administration. weeks before the President enacted a single piece of legislation and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The failed economic policies of the Bush Administration led to this enormous deficitthe 2001 and 2003 tax cuts totaled $1.3 trillion over ten years. in which most of the tax relief went to the top 10% of income earners. a Medicare Prescription Drug benefit with a ten year cost of nearly $1 trillion that was not offset. two overseas wars that are nearing a cost of $1 trillion. a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street banks. and all these unpaid for policies were compounded by the worst economic recession in 70 years that began in 2007 which led to huge shortfalls in federal tax revenue and increased reliance on unemployment insurance and other federal social safety net programs. In order to get these large deficits under control. we have some tough choices to make. How much longer can we afford to extend the Bushera tax cuts? The President and Congress extended all of them through 2012 at a two year cost of $800 billion. A ten year extension of all these tax cuts will cost $3.8 trillion-$3 trillion of which are the popular middleclass tax cuts. Earlier this week. the Congressional Budget Office released its latest projections of the Social Security Trust Fund. It was previously projected to go into a cash deficit in 2017. but now CBO has projected that the trust fund is now running a deficit. The trust is expected to be exhausted in 2037. We can no longer operate under the assumption of the last decade. that we can increase spending and reduce taxes without having to pay for it. The last Congress took important steps to restore some important tools that were used to produce the first budget surplus in more than a generation in the late 1990s. such as Statutory PayAsYouGomeaning if Congress wants to increase mandatory spending. we have to offset it by reducing spending elsewhere in the budget or increase taxes to cover the increase. Unfortunately. the new Republican majority has changed House rules gutting PAYGOs effectiveness in the congressional budget process. The socalled CUTGO rule prohibits offsetting any new mandatory spending with a revenue increase. This makes it nearly impossible to offset any new spending or tax cuts with revenue increases and will require only spending cuts. In another unprecedented change. the House voted to give the House Budget Committee Chairman the sole responsibility for setting discretionary spending levels for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011. The House of Representatives as a whole will be deprived of the right to vote up or down the Budget Chairmans levels. We have to remember that what we do with the Federal budget touches everyone. Our fiscal problems are very complex and they need to be addressed. but there is no simple. onesizefitsall solution. H.R. 1. the Continuing Resolution making appropriations to fund the federal government through September 20. 2011 contains some very deep cuts that will be very hurtful to many Americans. especially those who are the most vulnerabledisadvantaged women and families. children. minorities. and the elderly. As we face a large deficit and growing debt. we know that cuts will have to be made. And yes. some of those cuts will be painful. However. we must be careful not to place added burdens and cause greater harms to those Americans who are the most vulnerable in need of our support the most. The proposed CR will cut funding allocated to support Community Health Centers. These types of facilities are widely utilized in low income areas and oftentimes. are the backbone of healthcare services in the areas in which they are located. Without them. quality health care for many poor and disadvantaged Americans will be out of reach. Although my Republican colleagues claim that the proposed CR will not cut precious education funding. there are. in fact. significant cuts that will have a detrimental impact on educationespecially higher education. Many fellowships offered at institutions of higher education are funded by competitive and noncompetitive grants issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Cutting funding to these organizations will impose a great hardship on students striving to educate themselves in order that they can be competitive in a global economy. Under the proposed CR. NSF funding would be cut by $139 million. Under the proposed CR. NIH funding would be cut by $1 billion. The proposed CR will cut nearly $2 million dollars from the Minority Business Development Agency. The proposed CR would cut $600 million dollars from the Community Oriented Policing Services programs (COPS). Such a cut would require a complete elimination of the hiring programs. Over the years. COPS has funded the hiring of more than 122.000 state and local police officers and sheriffs deputies in communities across America. This proposed cut will prevent the hiring and rehiring of over 3.000 fewer law enforcement officers. The public safety of our communities is important. and during these tough economic times as we recover from one of our countrys worse recessions. every job counts. We can not afford cuts that will cost jobs for hardworking American people. Another instance where the CR disproportionately effects our lowincome. minority population is the cut to WIC funding. The current CR calls for a huge cut. $758 million. to funding for the WIC program. which supplements nutrition for lowincome and disadvantaged women and children. Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). we set aside funds to help invigorate the economy across various areas. These funds were intended to be used over a number to encourage the continued growth of the economy. However. under the proposed CR. any unobligated or uncommitted stimulus funding would be eliminated.