Pete Stark

An extension of unemployment benefits has gained support from bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress.

as the senior Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee, I am honored to be here today to continue the tradition begun by Senator Humphrey and Congressman Hawkins. I came here last year and accused President Bush of being a liar. A year…

This is the first President since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs during his Presidency. In the same report, the President tried to reinvent history of our current recession and blame it on the Clinton administration; but the National Bureau…

I first start by reminding the distinguished gentlewoman from Washington that the Seattle Times said that one suspects that many conservatives do not really care how the chips fall as long as they are heavy enough to break the back of…

I think that I have today to give credit where credit is due. This bill should really be referred to as the Deborah Stark bill. Now, who is Deborah Stark? She happens to be the mother of my children and my long-suffering wife. And this…

there doesn't seem to be a program, other than tax cuts, to deal with the 6 million people

So that would be about 200 million a year that you are short. I wondered if the gentlewoman was aware that in this bill there is $61 million for the State of Washington and the Weyerhaeuser Timber Corporation to do a kind of experiment in…

As this is the first significant trade agreement in the 21st century, let us look back and see, is our trade policy working? 2001, $358 billion trade deficit; 2002, $436 billion trade deficit; a record first quarter this year, $136 billion…

I rise once again in opposition this time to H.R. 2739, the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act. It is not bad enough that we trash workers' rights in Chile. We might as well do two of them at once and trash any…

Mr. Scully, the director of CMS, said last week that it would not extend the solvency of Medicare 1 day and indeed might shorten the solvency, and that is of course from the Republican director of CMS. Further, both GAO and MedPac…

each one of us has had a special teacher that touched our lives as children--a teacher who managed to capture our minds and create in us a hunger for more information. Mr. Speaker, I rise here today in support of H.R. 438, the Teacher…

we've heard the President, Republican Members of Congress, Administration officials, and Republican Senators claim time and time again that their Medicare prescription drug plan will provide seniors with the same choices as Members of…

The AFL-CIO opposes H.R. 2351, the Health Savings Account Availability Act. This legislation would establish an enormous tax shelter for wealthy individuals and at the same time undermine employer-based health coverage and shift more cost…

I will start with an apology to all my Republican colleagues. For, oh, at least the 30 years or so I have been here, I have been accusing the Republicans of not being inclusive, just dealing with the rich and forgetting about the…

The premium is $25. The deductible is $100 a year. The coinsurance means you pay 20 percent, the government pays 80 percent for your drugs, and there is a cap on how much you can spend out of pocket, $2,000. That is written into our bill…

I was raised so poor that I never slept alone until I was married. I want to go on and suggest that I am not going to let you have that field all to yourself. We have introduced a substitute. Unlike your bill, ours has specific benefits…

Mr. Speaker, just to straighten out some of the figures, the Republicans do indeed add $26.7 billion for rural providers. We add $39.1 billion for rural providers. That is $2.5 billion more, and I would hope that the Republicans are not…

I yield 2\1/4\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Jones), a member of the Committee on Ways and Means who understands that the Republican bill does not extend the life of the Medicare Trust Fund at all. In fact, it probably reduces…

We do not oppose this bill because of what is in it, because there is nothing in it. There are no benefits in it. There is nothing in the bill except to spend money to get private insurance companies, if they decide to come.

I rise to raise concerns with House Resolution 294, Condemning The Terrorism Inflicted On Israel And Expressing Solidarity With The Israeli People. I am greatly troubled by the violence between Palestinians and Israelis over the last two…

I rise today to oppose H.R. 660, the ``Small Business Health Fairness Act of 2003.'' This bill is badly misnamed. Rather than make the cost of health insurance for small businesses more fair, this bill would have the perverse effect of…

There are two issues with this bill. One is fairness. And the other is lost opportunity. Let me give the Members a hypothetical. Let us take a young man, young woman, who started out after school and never worked anyplace but for the…

I rise today to oppose this misguided legislation. Don't be fooled by the title of this bill. It would lead some to believe that Congress is standing up for the average American--modifying certain inequities in our judicial system…

I rise to join my colleagues gathered here today to honor and memorialize Ways and Means Democratic Staff Economist Al Davis who life was tragically cut short. Al dedicated many years of his life to helping Democrats in the House of…

I rise today to oppose H.J. Res. 4, a constitutional amendment to prohibit the desecration of the U.S. flag. In doing so, I rise in support of protecting the right to free speech. The First Amendment to the Constitution says, ``Congress…