macleginn/stanford_congress_record_longer_speeches huggingface dataset:
Date: 2005-06-07
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. Congress needs to hear from America about the severe loss of private pensions. Tonight. I would like to share with my colleagues some of the testimony my Democratic colleagues and I have received through the firstever congressional Ehearing. It is clear from United Airlines attempt to dump $6.6 billion onto the Federal pension agency known as the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation and to cut over $3 billion in pension benefits from its employees that the Federal pension laws are seriously broken. Like United. other large companies have also abused Federal law to terminate their employees pension plans and to deeply reduce the retirement security that hardworking Americans had every right. to expect to have. These runaway pension terminations threaten employees. investors and taxpayers. In the case of United. if it is allowed to dump all of its pension obligations onto the Federal Government. then its competitor airlines will seek to do the same. This is a real crisis. and it demands actiofi. This crisis is about hardworking employees who in many cases will lose half or even more than half of the nest egg promised by their employers. United failed to put away enough for the hard times. but it is the employees and taxpayers that are suffering the consequences. Congress needs to hear from United employees and from other Americans suffering from the collapse of private pension plans. But. as with so many other important pocketbook issues. this Congress. under the Republican leadership. does not listen. It does not afford average Americans an opportunity to be heard. Democrats are listening. and we want to hear from America. To do that. my Democratic colleagues and I on the Committee on Education and the Workforce. and also with the gentlewoman from Illinois
Date: 2005-06-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

I am so glad to be here. and I appreciate the gentlewoman from California willingness to put this group together of the members of the 30something. 10year period. We each have a few more years to go. I want to piggyback on something you were just talking about related to the eligibility bar for financial aid. I can tell you just from personal experience all of the way back to when I was entering college- and my parents were applying for financial aid for me. and the calculation. even back then. as to what we were eligible for and what the formula said that my parents could afford to pay and lay out that would come out of their pocket for college costs was unbelievable then. And now. with the changes in the financial aid formula today. I mean. even. I grew up in a middleclass family. you know. regular. average middleclass family. you know. not wealthy at all. parents who certainly did not live paycheck to paycheck but had a mortgage and car payments and credit card debt and. you know. pretty significant monthtomonth bills. And none of that is taken into consideration when you calculate financial aid. I mean. those major expenses. other than your income. have nothing to do with the formula. So when they say. and back then the numbers were something like. my .parents. based on their income. could be expected to pay $16.000 a year for my college education. Now. given all of the bills that they were struggling to pay for. there was no way. Now. fast forward to 2005. and the bar has been raised even higher. And add the credit card debt that has drastically increased. with the bar on the graph at a steep incline. You add that to parents credit card debt. you have kids now who are starting out with credit card debt even in high school. I mean. that was unheard of when we were in high school. I mean. kids did not start college with credit card debt.. They certainly did not begin having credit card debt as early as they do now. with credit card companies literally preying on brandspankingnew college students with offers- and. you know. kids who are willing to sign up to get a credit card just to get a cool tshirt. These are students that are not financially sophisticated enough to make the kinds of .decisions that they are going to have to make so that they will understand the ramifications for themselves financially for themselves down the road. And we have got to have policies that are going to be able to help them get along in the years to come.
Date: 2005-06-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

You talk about financial literacy. You are absolutely right. What is happening now. number one. we are not setting the example at the top of the mountain. I mean. what we are doing here is adding to our deficit month after month. year after year. What kind of message are we sending. to generations that are going to come behind us about the importance of minimizing your debt? I mean. we are deficit spending. So why would most Americans think that that is not a normal way. a responsible way to live? Most Americans. let me not overstate it. many. many Americans live paycheck -to paycheck. and they live right to their means. This is a society where. no. I cannot have that now because I cannot afford it right now. is not instilled in people from the time that they are young. That is why financial literacy is so important. We have a Financial Literacy Caucus. I am on the Financial Services Committee. and we have begun an effort. especially on the Democratic side. to try to educate generations coming up through life that at some point you have to decide what you can afford to have. and there has to be a now and a someday and not everything can be in the now. That is also a lesson that Congress and the President could learn. too: Not everything can be in the now. Some*imes we have to make some financial decisions that will say. well. it would be nice if we could afford that humongous tax break for the wealthiest few. but in order to be fiscally responsible we cannot have that now.
Date: 2005-06-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

I represent a district with a pretty sizable percentage of wealthy individuals. And when I am home. I cannot tell you the numbers of people who come up to me and say. you know. I would love to have a tax break. but I care about my childrens education a lot more. I care about the Nations financial and fiscal health a lot more. Keep your tax break. I barely felt it. and it really is not going to make that much difference in my life. Many. many people who are wealthy and qualify for those tax breaks understand where their priorities are and should be. It seems that only the administration and the leadership of this Congress does not have their priorities straight. I mean. even Mr. OBEY. when we were considering the Defense Appropriations Bill in the last couple of weeks. when he offered an amendment to reduce the tax break for the wealthiest few Americans. I think it was half a percent. I think it was an incredibly small amount of money. just a little bit less of a tax break. that the wealthiest few would have received in order to expand the inspections. the percentage of inspections that we perform at our ports. for the cargo in ports. and that. even that amendment was rejected. We chose tax breaks for the wealthy over our homeland security. Now if that is not priorities being out of whack. then I do not know what is.
Date: 2005-06-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. we cannot emphasize enough. this is just another example of how the priorities here are out of whack. We had an opportunity a few weeks ago to visit our troops who were injured in fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital. These were young men. about a dozen of them. that I had an opportunity to visit. the most heartwrenching stories. many of whom lost their limbs. mostly lost their legs. had their limbs obliterated. defended our country. Every single one of them said to me that all they wanted to do was to go back and they were. so sorry to leave their buddies behind. These are people that when they become veterans we slap them with a disabled veterans tax. We say to them that for every dollar that they earn in disability payments. we are going to deduct a dollar from their pension. That is the reward we are giving them for serving our country and for becoming injured in the line of duty. Then we are saying to our members from the National Guard that unless you are within. I think it is. 90 or 180 days of being activated for duty. we are not going to pay for your health care. We do not provide health care to our members of National Guard who we know now are going to be activated at some point. who we know are giving up the salaries that they earn in their regular jobs. who are sometimes covered. sometimes not covered by health insurance at their regular jobs. But one of the things that members of the National Guard have to have to worry about is how to even pay for health care for themselves and their families. Yet we are still providing tax break after tax break for the wealthiest few Americans. I mean. it just is shocking that the top of the priority list is tax breaks and this trickledown concept that does not ever seem to go away when it comes to the Republican leadership in this Congress. that if we give the tax breaks to the wealthiest few that somehow their investing and spending is going to flow down and help all the little people. We are at the point in our lives where we are real live grownups now. Has it worked in our lifetime? It still is not working. and we are still not providing for the people who really need the help. who are defending our country. Instead. we are taking money back from them. We talk about the death tax. We should be talking about the disabled veteran tax. because that is what we are doing to our veterans pensions when they have been injured in the line of due. and it is absolutely unconscionable.
Date: 2005-06-07
Speaker: WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (democrat)
Chamber: H

There is not a lot more that can be said other than that I think that we need to continue to come to this floor every week and I can commit to you that I will join you and make sure that we can continue to highlight the direction that they are taking this country and the increased debt and the selection of the people who need the least over the people who need the most. And I am not talking about people who are struggling to make ends meet. You have average working families in America whose priorities include health care and quality education and just making sure that they can stay out of debt. And. instead. the wealthiest few are the priority of the leadership in this Congress.
Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Chairman. I rise today to express my disappointment at the underfunding of the Commodity Supplemental Food Program under the Agriculture Appropriations bill for FY The Commodity Supplemental Food Program is a federal program designed to improve the health of senior citizens. pregnant women and children whose income is not enough to pay for nutritious food. Through this program. seniors. pregnant and breastfeeding women. and children younger than 5 in 34 States in this country have access to a monthly basket. which provides them with basic food. such as milk. rice. pasta. juice. canned vegetables. meat and fish. and cheese. � Each basket is designed to satisfy the specific needs for people who often have to choose between purchasing food and satisfying other necessities. Each basket has the purpose of assisting elder people to stay healthy and active. and children to grow healthy and productive. H4222 . Inadequate funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program would result in the removal of more than 75.000 people currently participating in the program. Senibrs. women and children in poverty cannot wait until next year to get adequate funding for the food they need. For these reasons. I recommended to the Committee that funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program be increased to $148 million. Unfortunately. the House appropriation falls far below the amount necessary. I can only hope that my colleagues in the other Chamber will approve the adequate funds to avoid this social catastrophe. By approving increasing fund for this program we will show seniors. women and children in need. that we care and work for them.
Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. reclaiming my time. I think the gentlewoman has raised a number of people who wrote her from Illinois. the retirees and employees of United raised this point. that it was actually the President that said what is good for the crew is good for the captain. What we see here clearly is what so many of these employees recognize. and what we have watched now is company after company that terminates these employee pension plans. that go into bankruptcy. at the end of the day the company goes on. less these liabilities. and the very people who administered the company into the bankruptcy. their pensions in many cases were guaranteed. they were moved outside of bankruptcy. they were put into trusts. or as the company is reorganized. they then go back to issuing stock options for themselves. issuing bonuses. as if nothing happened. Yet what we see here is tens of thousands of United employees who are left in the dust bin. Many of these people cannot go back to work. They cannot go back and accumulate a retirement nest egg again. and I think it is something we see run through all of our letters. I want to thank the.gentlewoman for raising that point.
Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Reclaiming my time. time and again these employees have given back on retirement. have given back on wages. have given back oh hours to keep this airline flying. and yet at the end of the day. the executives walk out to the new company and the employees are stuck without their retirement. without their health care benefit. I now recognize my colleague. the gentleman from Massachusetts . who was part of our ehearing. the firstever Congress ehearing to provide this kind of access to ordinary Americans who are suffering the. disaster. the personal disaster of the larger disaster of the United Airlines decision to go into bankruptcy and get rid of these pensions and health care plans.
Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. reclaiming my time. I thank the gentleman. Again. he has raised an important point. These employees of United Airlines. these employees for the last several years have worked with this company to give back part of their retirement. give back part of their health care. give back part of their wages. give back part of their hours. all the rest of it. They were struggling to stay in the middle class. These are good. middleclass jobs. They were struggling to stay in those jobs. to stay in the middle class with the assurance of that retirement. Very often people think. well. the retirement is something you get at the end of your employment. The fact of the matter is. every hour of pay you have negotiated. you give something for retirement. You. earn it on an hourly basis. Your employer decides how much they want to pay you and they figure in your benefits and all of the rest of it. It is a package. Now. of course. here at the end. people after 30. 40 years. finding out that they have lost a huge percentage of their retirement and have no ability to replace it.
Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. reclaiming my time. over the last several years. the gentleman is quite correct. we have seen CEOs and other corporate officers who are retiring. and they have worked for the company for 3 years and they are given a retirement package as if they worked at that company for 23 years. if they worked at that company for 15 years. So they just make up the retirement package for the CEOs and they go on their way. The CEOs that ran United into the ground here. that have destroyed this company. they get severance packages. they get golden parachutes. they go on their way. The employees who are left struggling trying to rebuild this airline to try to keep it competitive. they are the ones that take the slicing and the dicing of the loss of the pensions. the loss of the health care. the loss of the retirement.
Date: 2005-06-08
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

M. Speaker. I just recently wrote to the chairman of the committee and. after reviewing that information that was given to us by the PBGC. I asked him. I think it is very important that the committee go ahead and have a vote and make this information public. Because. obviously. what we have seen is there is a huge disparity between what the public has been told of the pension problems of these companies and what the PBGC has been told in secret. out of the public eye. not for disclosure. what the real situation of these pension plans are. So that we have millions of Americans who believe the conditions of their companys pension plan is one thing. and the company knows it is another. In many cases. as we wrote to the chairman and said. the difference is hundreds of millions of dollars and. in some cases. billions of dollars in terms of those liabilities. I think that those employees. when they see how this can happen with the United case. those employees are entitled to that information. Interestingly enough. the President of the United States asked 4 years ago that this information be made public. but the companies are lobbying hard so it will not be made public. and. so far. the committee has not responded to our letter. But certainly before we begin writing a new pension bill we ought to have this information laid out on the public record so people can comment on it to see whether or not the bill that we are considering. the ideas that the President has will make this worse or make it better. I thank the gentleman for raising that point. I would like at this time to recognize another member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce. a member of long standing of the Committee on Education and the Workforce who. in every session of this Congress. has taken on the responsibilities of this committee to look at these issues that confront working families in the workplace. in their health care. in their daily lives in the workplaces of America. and that is the gentleman from New York . Mr. Speaker. I am going to yield the balance of our time to the gentleman from New York for the purposes of this discussion and to read the communications from individuals from New York. Mr. Speaker. I thank the gentleman for joining us tonight.
Date: 2005-06-09
Speaker: LORETTA SANCHEZ (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. I rise in opposition to H.J. Res. 27. a resolution withdrawing the U.S. approval of the WTO. While there are legitimate disagreements about how world trade is organized. and how trade agreements are negotiated. I think that it is important to have a forum and structure for international trade. And thats the World Trade Organization. Lets not overlook the fact that in the 10 years since the WTOs inception. weve seen global tariff rates fall and U.S. exports rise. Moreover. ninetyseven percent of our international trade is with other WITO nations. Withdrawing from the WTO would upset relations with these important partners and markets. That being said. the WTO is by no means a perfect institution. It is important that we are having this debate today. In the ongoing Doha round of trade negotiations. the U.S. and our global partners have the opportunity to substantially .improve the WTO by reaching agreements on service negotiations. the reduction of tariffs and nontariff barriers. and the authority of the WTO dispute resolution system. We need to see these negotiations through to a satisfactory end. Nevertheless. despite its imperfections. the WTO provides a stable and predictable global trading system that benefits the U.S. both economically and strategically. And although I will be watching the Doha Round with keen interest. I support U.S. participation in the WTO and therefore oppose this resolution.
Date: 2005-06-13
Speaker: GENE GREEN (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: Texas

Madam Speaker. I rise today in support of HR 1812. the Patient Navigator legislation. This legislation would help reduce health disparities and barriers to health care through the increased use of patient navigators. Under the program. Community Health Centers. National Cancer Institute centers. Rural Health Clinics and other nonprofit groups can utilize federal funding to help patients navigate through the complex health care system. Patient navigators can help to stem the rising number of uninsured in our country by helping individuals understand their eligibility for health care coverage. These kinds of services are needed throughout the country. but they are particularly helpful in underserved communities. where uninsured individuals foo often put off health care either because of a lack of coverage or due to the difficulties in finding the appropriate health care home. In my hometown of Houston. patient navigators have made tremendous strides in helping patients find an appropriate health care home. Our Harris County Community Access Collaborative has implemented a Navigation Services program that has helped 31.000 patients find health care homes. In a related navigation service. the collaborative began an Ask Your Nurse phone service. whereby nurses are available 24 hours a day. 7 days a week to steer patients to the best providers for their health care needs. Studies have shown that 57 percent of the diagnoses in Harris County safety net hospitals emergency rooms could have been treated in our clinics and primary care physician offices. With this kind of ER overutilization. the Ask Your Nurse services are a welcome addition to the public health care infrastructure in our county and steer an average of 2.700 patients each month to the best health care provider for their condition. This legislation we consider today would allow other communities to replicate the successes weve achieved in Harris County. In addition. the legislation places an important emphasis on patient navigator services for individuals with cancer and other chronic conditions. For these diagnoses. it is extremely important that patients receive the scheduled followup treatment. and patient navigators can play a critical role in ensuring that patients receive the necessary care to successfully manage their health care conditions. I would like to thank my friend and Chairman. JOE BARTON. for the bipartisan nature in which he shepherded this bill through committee. I offer particular thanks to Mr. BARTON for his willingness to work with me to eliminate an unhecessary reference in the bill to the HCAP programa program that is important to me and my constituents. This- is just one example of the lengths he will go to seek consensus. and I thank him for those efforts. With that. Madam Speaker. I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation that will help many more Americans gain access to quality health care.