I oppose the passage of this bill. The passage will make it much more difficult for Congress to enact a meaningful prescription drug benefit for our Nation's seniors. Let me give you five reasons why. Reason number one. There is no…

I am afraid, though, that the bill without the Pomeroy substitute is going to offer no help whatsoever for a decade to people who may find themselves in this same position. One of the principal advantages of the substitute is that not only…

Mr. Speaker, working families that make between $10,000 and $26,000 a year were left out of the tax bill that was recently signed by the President. These are people who pay taxes, Mr. Speaker. They pay sales taxes, they pay property taxes…

Mr. Speaker, let me just in response to our friend from California, point out if the gentleman has so much confidence in current law in the results that have just been spelled out, I am curious as to why the bill that passed the House that…

Mr. Speaker, first, let me just comment briefly on my friend's, the gentleman from Pennsylvania's (Mr. English), revisionist history. The original welfare reform bill was signed by President Clinton. He held out his final support because…

the bill before us does extend unemployment insurance benefits for 7 months. I agree with the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms. Dunn) that a 7-month extension of the unemployment insurance benefits at this time is the appropriate length of…

Mr. Speaker, let me assure the House that on the Democratic side of the aisle, we are pleased that we have legislation before us that extends the Federal unemployment compensation for an additional 7 months. We think that is the right way…

Mr. Speaker, last week Democrats tried to get a vote on extending unemployment benefits three times on the floor of this House. Each time the Republican majority said no. So we are happy that the Republican leadership has finally agreed to…

Mr. Speaker, I have had a lot of town hall meetings in my district; and I will tell my colleagues what my constituents do not like. That is, they do not like us to charge and spend; and that is exactly what this conference report is going…

if the House does not act today or tomorrow, 80,000 Americans will be denied extended unemployment benefits on June 1. Every week thereafter, another 80,000 laid-off workers will be denied benefits, totaling $2 million over the next 6…

if I might, let me raise three points as to why this amendment should be made in order. The first, the bill deals with transportation safety. Over 70,000 people in the aviation industry alone have lost their jobs in the last 2 years. They…

this rule brings to the floor a bill to reauthorize the National Transportation Safety Board, which is perfectly fine, but I must tell my colleagues that it is in no danger. It is funded through the end of this fiscal year, so there is no…

let me try to explain the problem with the advice sections of the bill that is on the floor. What my colleagues have done in this legislation is remove the prohibited transaction on giving advice by the agent that is selling the product to…

this week in the Committee on Ways and Means we attempted to offer this amendment to extend unemployment insurance benefits for those people who are going to lose their benefits at the end of this month. That bill will spend $550 billion…

Mr. Speaker, I must admit I am somewhat baffled by the comments of my distinguished chairman. If it is in the interest of this body to enact legislation quickly, then we should just take the Senate bill and ratify the Senate bill and send…

I do not think that it is ever extraneous to try to offset the cost of the bill, and that is the reason this provision was put in, so we do not add to the deficit.

my constituents find it very difficult to understand why at these times that we have economic uncertainty, that we are at war, we have large deficits and we are considering a reckless new tax cut. This amendment is even worse than the…

I think this is the first of, I am sure, other actions that we will be able to do as a body to show our support for the men and women that are in harm's way that are ready to answer the call of our Nation. I think all of us want to do…

The Congress finds that additional funding for child care is necessary given the additional financial burdens on the States resulting from the implementation of this Act, due to the worsening of economic conditions since the last…

I am somewhat confused. I have listened to the debate from the other side and I think they are supporting my substitute, but then at the end they say they are not. They all say they are for child care support, and yet we know in California…

Mr. Chairman, this is a bad bill at the wrong time. I supported the 1996 welfare reform legislation. I thought it was the right thing to do. In 1996, we gave the States flexibility. This legislation takes it back. In 1996, we gave the…

the majority will say that they have a letter from the Congressional Budget Office saying that this is not an unfunded mandate, but what the majority will not mention is that they have a letter from the Congressional Budget Office that…

But I remember the verse in the Bible where they were asking Christ how you would know if you were really a good Christian, and he said, well, it is how you take care of the least of these, meaning the poor people and the sick and all of…

In supporting this resolution, each of us expresses our deepest condolences to the families of our seven explorers, our seven astronauts, who lost their life this past Saturday. Each of us feels a connection to this tragedy. Mr. Speaker, I…

Mr. Speaker, I think that we need to pass legislation today, so I support legislation. I think it is important that we deal with the people who lost their benefits in December because we failed to extend the law. I think it is important…