David Thomas: “Mr. Speaker, the last time we addressed a piece of legislation that was designed to help us stimulate the economy, as…”

“Mr. Speaker, the last time we addressed a piece of legislation that was designed to help us stimulate the economy, as requested by the President, as Alan Greenspan had indicated, this economy needed some help, and that perhaps by making some decisions in the tax and business area we could assist the recovery. Equally important, those people who lost their jobs, and, as we have come to realize now more and more associated with the loss of job is the loss of health insurance, that that had to be part of the package as well. We started, as we normally do in the legislative process, by passing a bill out of the House of Representatives. What then normally happens is the Senate of the United States passes a piece of legislation, and, if it is different in the House and the Senate, we go to a conference. The conference then works out the difference between the two bills. The House did its job. On October 24 we started the process by passing our Stimulus and Recovery Act. The Senate did not do its job.”