House Proceeding 05-12-09 on May 12th, 2009 :: 1:44:00 to 2:04:00
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1:36:45 to 1:44:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Earl Blumenauer

1:43:41 to 1:44:01( Edit History Discussion )

Earl Blumenauer: on track, create millions of jobs, strengthen our strategic position, while we make a contribution to the future of humankind. mr. speaker, i appreciate the opportunity to spend some time this evening dealing with this issue. i look forward to continuing the discussion about the new technologies, about the facts of

1:44:02 to 1:44:22( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: science and economy on the floor as we prepare to move this legislation forward. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from ohio, mr. latourette, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the

1:44:05 to 2:40:30( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Steven C. LaTourette

1:44:23 to 1:44:45( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: minority leader. mr. latourette: thank you very much, mr. speaker. tonight i return to talk about an old topic and also something that's happened in the last couple of weeks. the speaker may recall that a number of weeks ago there was outrage at both ends of pennsylvania avenu determined that located within

1:44:46 to 1:45:06( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the 79 -- $792 billion stimulus bill, there was a provision that authorized $173 million in bonuses to executives at the insurance company a.i.g. and at the time, a number of us thought, well, how could that happen? and it seems, just to review,

1:45:07 to 1:45:27( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: mr. speaker, that when the stimulus package was considered on the other side of the capitol in the united states senate, two senators in a rare display of bipartisanship, senator snow of -- a republican of maine, and senator wyden, a democrat of oregon, offered an amendment that would hav

1:45:28 to 1:45:48( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and indicated that if you were a firm like a.i.g. that's received billions and billions of dollars in bailout money, perhaps there should be restrictions on executive compensation and what people should make. a funny thing happened, however, on the way to the conference committee.

1:45:49 to 1:46:09( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and the snow-wyden language removed and instead paragraph was inserted. now this paragraph, you read it carefully, mr. speaker, indicates that rather than

1:46:10 to 1:46:30( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: placing restrictions on the bonuses, it specifically authorizes and exempts any bonus at a.i. or anybody else, any other wall street giant that received billions and billions of taxpayer money, any executive compensation scheme entered into before february 11 of this year, which happened to be the date that the stimulus package was

1:46:31 to 1:46:51( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: considere and the bonuses would be pai now, i have indicated a number of times on the floor that i know a lot of people were embarrassed by that. i would suggest that that's what happens when you legislate in a sloppy, rushed, haphazard, nonpartisan fashion. speak -- the speaker will

1:46:52 to 1:47:13( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: recall, the week of the consideration of the stimulus bill, the members of the republican party, the minority party, put forward so of a novel proposition. that was, since we were talking about spending $792 billion in a stimulus bill, it might be a good idea if members had 48 hours to read the bill.

1:47:14 to 1:47:36( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and further suggested that it should be put on the internet so anybody in america could take a look at this over 1,000 pages of legislation. well, that proposal passed. it came to a vote here in the house. and every member who was present that day, republican or democrat, voted and agreed that that was a good idea, we should

1:47:37 to 1:47:57( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: have 48 hours to read the bill. that was tuesday. on thursday, apparently the majority leadership forgot about the vote on tuesday and the was filed about midnight on thursday. the next morning, and i've apologized to my constituents that i didn't read the 1,000 pages at midnight, it didn't come to my attention at we had

1:47:58 to 1:48:18( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: 1,000-page bill we were going to consider on friday until i arrived at the office that morning. the debate was 90 minutes and members, both republican and democrats, had 90 minutes to digest 1,000 pages and determine whether or not that piece of legislation deserved an up or a down vote. it was a bipartisan vote in that

1:48:19 to 1:48:39( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: every member of the republican caucus, conference, voted against the stimulus bill, together with some democrats. but the overriding majority of the democratic party voted in favor of it and it passed and it went on to be signed by the president of the united states. what is strange is that everyone

1:48:40 to 1:49:00( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: who voted for the stimulus bill, voted for this paragraph that authorized the bonuses to a.i.g. yet, the next day, or days after the bonuses were announced, everybody was coming to the floor with -- beating their est, pulling out their hair, saying, i'm shocked. i can't believe it.

1:49:01 to 1:49:22( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: i don't know how this happened. we want our money back. well, nobody should have been surprised. nobody suld have been shocked. because anyone who supported the stimulus package in the house or senate ved to -- the final conference report, voted to specifically allow a.i.g. and anybody else that had received billions of collars of taxpayer money and bailouts to receive

1:49:23 to 1:49:44( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: those bailout payments. but people were shocked. so they came up with -- i'll call them goofy. they came up with goofy pieces of legislation in an attempt to cover their political rear ends. and so the first one was, let's tax those bonuses at 90%. what a dumb piece of legislation that was, mr. speaker.

1:49:45 to 1:50:07( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: i mean, so, tomorrow we decide we're mad at somebody else, maybe tomorrow we're mad at, you know, the oil companies. let's tax them at 90%. day after that, we're not really happy with the airlines, let's tax them at 90%. to use the tax code to punish a small group of people when the mistake was made when this

1:50:08 to 1:50:29( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: paragraph was inserted in the stimulus package is inappropriate d thankfully, the president of the united states, president obecause marx expressed his opinion that it wasn't a worthy piece of legislation and it's died a natural death over in the united states senate where it exactly should have. the next dumb idea that people

1:50:30 to 1:50:50( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: came up with was, i know, let's not tax these bonuses at 90%. let's have the united states treasury, the government tell people how much money they can make. what a dumb idea that is. now, listen, today it's the a.i.g. guys, tomorrow let's say that we are not so crazy about

1:50:51 to 1:51:11( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the amount of money that bus drivers make. why doesn't the government, the department of transportation, secretary lahood, figure out what the bus drivers in the country should make. another cover your rear end piece of legislation. so in response to all this, we have been coming to the floor on a semiregular basis to try and determine, becauseo one, even

1:51:12 to 1:51:32( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: though everybody was outraged, no one will say how the first language was removed from the bill and how this paragraph was placed in the bill. so we have devised a game that most americans are are familiar

1:51:33 to 1:51:54( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: with, the game of clue, great game, i recommend that everyone think about running out to hasbro to get the original edition or is edition. this is the case of the hidden hand. that is, who took out the snow-wyden amendment and who wrote that paragraph i had displayed on the chart before?

1:51:55 to 1:52:17( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: now, there are a number of suspects. we've taken some out, put some in, but if you read the news reports of the final gokeses on the stimulus bill we know that it either happened in the speaker's office or the conference room. there was a shuttle diplomacy going back and forth as to what the final bill was going to look like. as a matter of fact, the

1:52:18 to 1:52:38( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: distinguished chairman of the wamse committee, mr. rangel of new york, -- of the ways and means committee, mr. rangel of new york, said it's really difficult to get things done when three people run the institution. we excluded chairman rangel, he's not the hidden hand, he didn't do it.

1:52:39 to 1:52:59( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: we know it happened in the speaker's office or the conference room, and we know the weapon was the pen what we haven't figured out is who did it. it's pretty simple. think thing didn't appear from nowhere. and someone had to actually say to the drafters of the document,

1:53:00 to 1:53:21( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: take out snow-wyden and put in what's commonly been referred to as the dodd amendment. put in the dodd amendment. we have asked repeatedly and we have asked everybody we can find, did you do it? and no one has answered the question, i did it, or why. so because we couldn't finish the game of clue on our own, we

1:53:22 to 1:53:46( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: embarked on another tack, about a month ago, i filed a resolution of inquiry, directed to the secretary of the treasury. it basically asked the treasury to provide to the united states congress all of the documents and communications with a.i.g. and others to try and figure out who the hidden hand was, how the do amendment got into the stimulus package.

1:53:47 to 1:54:07( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: . i want to recognize the chairman of the full committee of financial services, barney frank, said i'll do whatever you want me to do. do you want me to consider it? i said i would like you to consider it. chairman frank took it before

1:54:08 to 1:54:28( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the financial services committee and this is a little bit like the vote we had that we would have 48 hours to read the bill. the resolution of inquiry was called up. every republicannd every democrat voted for this resolution of inquiry and i'm thinking now we're going to get

1:54:29 to 1:54:49( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: someplace and figure out who the hidden hand is and who sought to protect the bonuses pa to a.i.g. and right before we broke a couple of weeks ago, chairman frank came to the floor, good to his word and filed the report and recommended that the financial services committ reported the bill favorably to

1:54:50 to 1:55:12( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the house. now, i thought surely we would have a debate on that. again, this wasn't a party-line vote. it wast close. it was 63 or 64-0. and i thought for sure that we would get this resolved and go down to the treasury and they could hand over the documents and be done with the game of

1:55:13 to 1:55:33( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: clue and solve whether or not it was the speaker, whether it was harry reid, the majority leader in the senate, whether it was mr. geithner, the new secretary of the treasury, whether it was the chief of staff to the president of the united states, mr. emanuel, because some press accounts indicated that before it could be removed, they had to get the approval of the white ouse.

1:55:34 to 1:55:55( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: who at the white house approved it? we've cleared chairman rangel. and a lot of fingers were pointed at senator dodd, the distinguished chairmanf the snet banking committee, perhaps he inserted it. what people have said at this moment in time, mr. speaker, is that secreta geithner called the head guy at a.i.g. and head

1:55:56 to 1:56:16( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: guy said, well, i have some legal problems with the bonuses, so we need to go forward, but nobody yet has come forward and said, i took the language out and i put the lang so i was happy when chairman frank reported the bill. and i thought, i know that the distinguished leader, majority

1:56:17 to 1:56:37( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: leader of the house, mr. hoyer of maryland, is going to call that bill up, we're going to debate it and vote on it. 63-0. all the republicans and democrats voted for it. i was sure it would sail through the house. but i've been waiting and waiting a month. and those folks -- i know you

1:56:38 to 1:57:00( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: know this, mr. speaker, but legislation can only come to the floor here in the house of representatives when it is authorized and called up by the majority leader, in this case, mr. hoyer of maryland. there is an exception to that. i waited for the bill to be calleup. i waited for debate. never happened. and so i filed about two weeks ago a rule.

1:57:01 to 1:57:21( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and today at the speaker's desk is a discharge petition to discharge that rule so we can have a debate and get down to brass tax and figure out who the hidden hand is and who decided that we should protect the a.i.g. bonuses when the company has gotten billions of

1:57:22 to 1:57:42( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: dollars of bailout money and why. i'm optimistic, there is a meeting tomorrow at 4:00 with the treasury department and they have been pretty cooperative and they're going to come over and hopefully we'll be able to resolve what it is we're seeking through the resolution of inquiry. i hope so. if not, i really hope that the

1:57:43 to 1:58:04( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: distinguished majority leader would call up this piece of legislation so we could have a debate and get on with it and solve this proem that outraged the president of the united states, it outraged members of congress, it outraged the public. this would help us figure out how to solve the problem.

1:58:05 to 1:58:25( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: what we hear is that we hav many important things to do that you're looking backwards. ok, we gave away billions of dollars in tarp money. we gave away and authorized $173 million and somehow, somebody in the dead of night inserted this language into the bill with a hidden hand.

1:58:26 to 1:58:46( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: but get over it, because we have important work to do in the house of representatives. and sadly, mr. speaker, we have heard that a lot since the beginning of the 110th congress, the last congress. and it's -- we voted today, i think every person in the united states needs to feel

1:58:47 to 1:59:08( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: comfortable because they will not go in and buy a new 44-cent stamp in a post office that hadn't been named by the house of representatives in the last two years. we spend a lot of time naming federal buildings and post offices. and this happened to us last

1:59:16 to 1:59:37( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: year, too. the speaker may remember that last summer, everybody was talking about not a.i.g. and bailouts, but everybody was talking about gas prices. and in many parts of the country, gas, for the first time in my lifetime, gallon of gasoline, went over $4 a gallon.

1:59:38 to 1:59:58( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: at that time we asked the new majority party could we have a debate and come up with an energyill and relieve some of the pain that people are experiencing at the pump. busy to get to that. and so a lot of republicans took to the floor during our august recess an

1:59:59 to 2:00:20( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: the fact that we needed to do something. we needed to do all of the abov we needed to have clean coal technology. we needed to look at the re nubles, wind, solar, geo thermal, explore oil and natural gas in the united states. again, because it is the majority party that calls the tune in the house of

2:00:21 to 2:00:41( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: representative they are the only people that canall up legislation, that never happened. they said we're really busy and we don't have time to talk about gasoline. and a lot of us said, you know, january 29 of 2007, which was

2:00:42 to 2:01:02( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: about the beginning of the 110th congress when the voters, because we republicans done such a great job and threw us out, gas was $2.22. and rather than talking about energy, we passed a resolution congratulating the university of californiasanta clara

2:01:03 to 2:01:23( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: soccer team. you know, mr. speaker, i'm sure every parent and player on that soccer team are proud of what it is they accomplished, but not as important as the pain that our constituents were beginning to feel at the pump. but you could say, hey, it's only $2.22, what's the big

2:01:24 to 2:01:44( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: deal? maybe it's not a crisis. on september 5 of that year, gas goes up to $2.74. you say, i bet we're going to talk about gasoline prices and the national energy policy. that has to be something we're going to consider on the floor of the house of

2:01:45 to 2:02:06( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: represe when gas hits $2.74, the most important issue that the majority can bring up is national passport month. now, i like passports. i think passports should be honored, but gas is creeping up to $2.84. well, it begins to get more serious in february of 2008.

2:02:07 to 2:02:30( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: it hits $3.03. you know we are going to take this problem seriously, but on the day that the national average reached $3.03 a gallon, the most important piece of legislation that the majority could bring to the floor was to commend the houston dynamo soccer team for what they did.

2:02:31 to 2:02:52( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: we new the buzz word is, soccer mo. we had to get them not once, but twice. our two resolutions, when gas was $3.03 and when we started, they honored soccer folks. a big jump happens in the

2:02:53 to 2:03:14( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: spring of 2008, gas goes to $3.77. you think we're going to talk about gas. my phone was ringing off the hook and you know we're going to have a national energy bill -- there aren't disagreements. people were saying drill, baby, drill. all we wanted was a debate. gas hits $3.77.

2:03:15 to 2:03:37( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: you know we're going to have that debate in the house -- but not yet. i have to get longer fingernails.

2:03:38 to 2:04:00( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: on that day, gas hits $3.77, and on that day, we commemorate national train day. i think trains, we have made a big mistake in our country by not investing in passenger rail transportation, but when gas is $3.77, maybe we could come up with somhing better than national train day. we are out to memorial day last