Donna Christensen

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Fudge, for that legislation and for your leadership on so many issues that are important to the people of this country. I would next like to yield such time as she might consume to the former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus--again a leader on many, many issues, whether it be health care, global health, AIDS, as well as developing our agenda that we've continued even into this Congress of creating pathways out of poverty--Congresswoman Barbara Lee of Oakland, California.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Lee. You were the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus as we created and passed the Affordable Care Act. And without your determination, many of the important provisions that we felt were important to our communities and to communities across our country would not have been there. We thank you for that. And thank you for reminding us that the Affordable Care Act is a jobs bill. It is reported that it may produce as many as 4 million jobs. And so it's not only a bill, an act, a law that would allow over 30 million people to finally become insured and provide access to quality health care for many people who have never had it, but it will also create jobs. It's interesting how health care is connected to so many of the other things that we are dealing with. Two of the most important things that have to be fixed, if we are to get out of this recession: We have to create jobs, and we have to fix the foreclosure crisis. There was an article in The New York Times today by Craig E. Pollack and Julia F. Lynch that was entitled ``Foreclosures Are Killing Us,'' and it caught my eye. I just want to read a little piece of it into the Record: ``A growing body of research shows that foreclosure itself harms the health of families and communities. In our 2008 survey of 250 people undergoing foreclosure in the Philadelphia area, 32 percent reported missing doctors' appointments and 48 percent said they let prescriptions go unfilled, significantly higher rates than others in their community. A paper released last month by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that people living in high-foreclosure areas in New Jersey, Arizona, California, and Florida were significantly more likely than those in less hard-hit neighborhoods to be hospitalized for conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart failure. ``More than one-third of homeowners in our study had symptoms of major depression.'' The N.B.E.R. study found significantly more suicides also. So these issues and these problems that affect, in large part, minority, racial, and ethnic minority populations are responsible for some of the health disparities that we talk about.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I yield to the gentlewoman from California.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Waters, and thank you for the work that you've done to ensure that our financial regulatory agencies have women and minorities on their boards, for the work that you've done to help homeowners stay in their homes and address the mortgage crisis, and for all that you do. You know, even though many of the people who came to those fairs didn't get a job, they got hope, and many of them had given up. I'm sure that re-energized them to go out and keep looking. If they didn't get a job then, they will get one. Thank you so much for your leadership on that. I'd like to yield now to the gentleman from Michigan, Congressman Hansen Clarke. Thank you for joining the ladies this evening.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Clarke. Your passion is clear, and Detroit doesn't have a stronger advocate than you, and we are pleased to be a co-sponsor of your bill. Thank you for joining us. As you've heard, the Congressional Black Caucus is here this evening. We're still waiting for the first jobs bill to pass this Congress. And as you've heard from my colleagues, we need to begin with the American JOBS Act which was proposed by our President Barack Obama. And just to be clear, while we're advocates for the African American community, we are advocates for everyone; and this bill is good for everyone, everyone who lives in this country, and it is a good bill for our country. We happen to feel that putting people back to work in this country now is more important than fighting over an election that is more than a year away. The American JOBS Act provides tax cuts that will help businesses grow and create jobs, it will help provide incentives to hire the long-term unemployed, and it will keep teachers and other essential workers like police and firefighters in their jobs where we need them to be; and it will strengthen, repair, and build needed and faulty infrastructure and in doing so will create even more jobs; and it will give people a decent job which will allow them to take care of their families, to buy what we make here in America, and it will stimulate economic growth. It would give every American worker and their family a tax cut through extending the tax payroll tax holiday and do more to fix the mortgage crisis that got us here in the first place by allowing more refinancing of mortgages. It would help our fellow Americans take better care of their families, putting their children in better schools, supporting small businesses, building consumer confidence and spurring the spending that our economy needs to get back on track. This is what this Congress ought to be doing, not focusing on the solitary goal of making President Obama a one-term President. That is a losing proposition anyway. No one should be willing to let our fellow Americans suffer, fall into and become mired in poverty, remain unemployed, lose homes and to cause our economy to crumble further just because they have political and whatever other differences with our President. Mr. Speaker, the Republican leadership, led by the Tea Party extremists, are taking this country in the absolute wrong direction by insisting on cutting and cutting and cutting important programs and services like the Women, Infants and Children program, Maternal and Child Health and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance programs at a time when there are more people and more children in poverty, by working to deny the opportunity for health care to the over 30 million people who we worked so hard to get insured, including sick children, and people who would otherwise go bankrupt because of catastrophic illnesses over which they had no control, people who are already getting care because of the Affordable Care Act that is being so wrongly maligned. I agree with some of the posters I saw in the newspaper this weekend calling for jobs, not cuts; jobs, not cuts. That is what we have been saying all year, including here on the floor of the House every Monday that we've been in session. If our leadership listened instead of talk, talk, talk, I believe that is what they will hear the American people at large are saying: jobs, not cuts. And we have a golden opportunity to listen to them. For over the last 2 weeks, there has been an ``occupation of Wall Street'' because while homeowners and pensioners and many people have suffered because of their meltdown, we have not seen the kind of remedies for the folks on Main Street, the side streets or the rural roads that would make them whole. They are speaking loudly and effectively on their and on our behalf. And then right here in Washington, D.C. today and for the next 3 days the Take Back the American Dream conference is here. They will be on the Hill on Wednesday calling on us to end the nightmare that the dream is turning into for far too many people and to restore the American Dream access which has been the hallmark and the pride of this country. What is happening at this conference and the one in New York is that Americans are saying enough is enough. And they are fighting back against the cuts that are making it hard for far too many people in this country to survive. They're fighting back against attempts to repeal health care reform, fighting back against proposals that would weaken Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and fighting back against voter suppression laws. They're fighting for jobs, for a future for our children, and they're fighting for our democracy. It is so very interesting this talk about President Obama and Democrats waging class warfare all because we want everyone in this country to do their part to help this country recover from a deep recession, all because we want to let tax cuts that were only supposed to be around for 10 years that have now been extended to 12 years finally expire like they were supposed to. Come on, colleagues, let's be honest. They were never meant to be permanent. And how many jobs have these tax cuts created as was loudly touted they would do? In 2001, at the end of the Clinton administration, he handed over this government with an over $2 trillion surplus. Now, after those tax cuts enacted in 2001, after almost 12 years of them, we are in record deficits and the worst recession since the Great Depression. And President Obama did not create that; he inherited it. The poverty rate is at the second highest in 45 years, and it is hitting, as you've heard, African Americans and Latino Americans hardest. The share of Americans in deep poverty, with incomes below half of the poverty line, is at the highest level ever recorded. And African Americans are more likely to be in extreme poverty. While we hear a lot about how much of a share of taxes the richest 1 percent or the richest 10 percent pay, let me remind everyone that white Americans' wealth is 20 times--and you heard it earlier, but it bears repeating--20 times that of African Americans and 18 times that of Latinos. And that between 2000 and 2007, not 10 percent, not 20 percent, not 40 percent, but 100 percent, all of the increase in wealth went to the top 10 percent in this country--all, the top 10 percent. The gap between rich and poor got wider. The rich got richer; the poor got poorer. That's a very dangerous trend for the future of this country. And then unemployment has reached record highs as well. You don't hear about it much. You hear it from us. But in far too many places, our rural and our urban areas, communities of color, unemployment remains in double digits. African American unemployment nationally is over 16 percent, but as you've heard, we know that it is higher than that in many parts of our country. So if we want to talk honestly about class warfare, class warfare is what too many people in this country have been experiencing since 2001. And now that we have a President who wants to end it, he is being accused of class warfare. If we really want to end class warfare, my colleagues, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle should be supporting rather than opposing him. Let's get real. In all of our 40 years, the Congressional Black Caucus has always been a caucus of action. Our agenda has been consistent, and we've pushed every Congress and every President. And so we resent anyone trying to put a wedge between us and our President to further their own agenda, one which is clearly not ours. But we continue to be the conscience of the Congress, as Maxine Waters coined when she was chair, the ``fairness cops of our Nation.'' That is why, when we could see none of our 40 job-creating bills come to the floor under the leadership of our chairman, Emanuel Cleaver, and the Jobs Task Force chair and former CBC chair, Maxine Waters, we called on the private sector as well as government agencies to come with us across the country to get people working again. And that is why we worked so hard with our Hispanic and Asian colleagues to get the Affordable Care Act passed. And we will work just as hard to see that it gets implemented. We are not going to sit quietly and let a vital door that is just opening for many to be slammed shut in our communities and communities like ours who need it most. Many scholarly reports have shown that just eliminating health disparities could save $1.24 trillion in just over 4 years in indirect and direct costs, in addition to saving lives. So if we really wanted a deficit reduction, eliminating health disparities and achieving health equity is deficit reduction at its best. And that's why we will continue to work relentlessly as a caucus to save homes, to build and equip better schools, to support regulations that protect our families and all families from the health and other effects of pollution. We have also worked together on budgets. And because we know that our country can invest where needed in health care, education, green energy, and job creation and reduce the deficit at the same time, we are preparing to send our recommendation to the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. It will likely be based on our proposed 2012 budget. And it will end class warfare by allowing the high-end Bush tax cuts to expire while strengthening the middle class, continuing to create pathways out of poverty for our fellow Americans, and protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. This country, Mr. Speaker, is fortunate to have a Congressional Black Caucus fighting on its behalf. And it is not only our duty, but it's our honor and privilege to do so. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I am very worried about our country. Democrats and our President are calling on the Congress to pass the Jobs Act so that our fellow Americans who have been unemployed can go back to work; so that teachers, firemen, and police can keep their jobs; so that those whose incomes have dropped will have a little more money to spend on their families; so that our children will have schools that show we care about them; and so that struggling small businesses will get the help they need. Building the political will to do this requires not only patriotism; it requires compassion. After watching the Tea Party debate, where the audience and some candidates indicated an uninsured person should be left to die and where there was loud applause for capital punishment, I wonder if we can still feel another's pain. This calls out to the good people that I know who remain the majority in this country to do more, to speak louder to drown out the voice of hate, and to renew and strengthen the values that have always made the United States of America the greatest country in the world. We are commanded to love our neighbor. As my pastor preached last Sunday, if we do, we will not wish our neighbors ill or do them harm.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. This evening, I am again pleased to join my colleagues in the Congressional Black Caucus to talk about jobs for this first hour, and we are really pleased that we're going to be led off this night by our Democratic whip, The Honorable Steny Hoyer, the person who has led us in the Make It In America agenda.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Democratic whip, for joining us, and please come back and join us anytime that we're on the floor. And thank you for reminding everyone that the people of this country just cannot wait 14 months to go back to work to take care of their families. At this time I would like to yield to Congressman Davis from Illinois.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Danny. This morning I was with the postmasters at their convention, and they're facing some difficulties and are having to downsize. And those are some jobs that we know that you and Elijah Cummings, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ed Towns, and Lacy Clay have been working to protect; and we thank you for that. At this time I yield to the gentlewoman from California, Congresswoman Maxine Waters.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congresswoman Waters. We want to thank you for your leadership in leading the jobs task force for the CBC and for being such a strong voice for those who are continually being left out and left behind. At this time I would like to yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Congressman Butterfield, and thank you for pointing out the fact that America's corporations are sitting on billions of dollars. They have an obligation. As I understand it, they claim there is uncertainty, and so they are holding onto their funds. But there can't be any more uncertainty in our corporations than in the families around this country who are hurting because they need a job.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you again, Congressman Butterfield, for joining us. At this time, it is my pleasure to yield to the leader of our Congressional Black Caucus, Reverend Emanuel Cleaver. And thank you so much for your work and reminding this Congress and this country on the importance of job creation for America's families and for leading us on that tour over the August recess.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Thank you, Chairman Cleaver, and thank you for the perspective that you always bring to these discussions, helping us to focus on the important issues, sometimes the underlying issues that often get overlooked. Yesterday and today, we've taken time out of our daily routine to remember the over 3,000 people who went to work on a bright, sunny morning and whose lives were snuffed out in three dastardly acts of terrorism. We remember and honor them and their families and the first responders who returned to help and also met their death on September 11, 2001. We pay tribute also to the men and women of our Armed Forces who lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, continuing our fight against al Qaeda and other terrorist groups, and those who are still there protecting us and the world from attack. Today, I had the honor of addressing our postmasters at their annual convention and remembered Thomas Morris, Jr., and Joseph Curseen, who died after being exposed to anthrax sent in the mail in the weeks after as they worked at the Brentwood postal facility here in Washington. We didn't look at those who died or talk about those who died as Republicans or as Democrats or Independents. They were workers in both the public and private sector, who some groups today are trying to pit against each other. We honor them all and their families for their sacrifice. Tonight, we've been focusing on the workers that remain with us, but most especially we are singling out for our attention--to the attention of this Congress and for all Americans--those who have no job and for whom, until now, it had appeared as though there would be no legislation to come to their aid. But thanks to our great President, there's now a bill before us, and we're calling on both bodies to pass it as soon as possible and without taking it apart. The 1.9 million jobs and the 2 percent economic growth projections are dependent on those two things--that we pass it promptly and that we pass it intact. Most importantly, as President Obama said, and all of us know, the American people cannot wait 14 months until after the next election. They have already been hurting too long and they need those jobs. They need our help today. As you heard, the Congressional Black Caucus did not wait either. We felt the pain and anxieties in our communities and communities across the country and used our August recess to partner with the private sector and some government agencies to bring jobs that are needed so desperately into our communities now. People of all ages, all educational backgrounds and levels came out in the thousands everywhere that held those job fairs. Mr. Speaker, the people of this country are crying out to us to put them back to work, to allow them to make it in America and to be able to take care of their families and our Nation once again. Sure, there are things in the President's draft bill that some of us are not particularly fond of that we're willing to accept for the integrity of the entire package and for the good of our country. And others, like Social Security and Medicare, we accept the President's goals and hope that we can work with him to achieve them through any alternative measures wherever our approaches might differ. The ladies in the markets in the Caribbean at home in the Virgin Islands used to what we call ``marry'' different fruits and vegetables for sale. You had to buy the two of them, whether it was limes and peppers or yams and okra, you had to buy the two; the vegetables were married. The purpose of that, of course, was to get everything sold by tying something everyone wanted to something that might not be as popular. Now I know that was not our President's approach, but he did put together a package that could best appeal to us so that we could all come together and buy it as a package. And so, Mr. Speaker, and colleagues, that is exactly what we should and must do. Creating jobs and stimulating our economy is critical not just to our present, but to our future. This is not an issue that's about the President, and it ought not to be about the next election. Neither is it about the CBC or Members of Congress, or about Republicans or Democrats or Independents. It's about the welfare and the well-being of the American people and of our country, which I know all of us care about. We are in a crisis. In crises, people always come together to the aid of each other, as we did on 9/11/01 and in the weeks and months after. So it's our hope and prayer that this Congress can do the same thing now. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of our time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Tonight, our President will speak to us and all America and will call on Congress to put America back to work and our economy back on a stronger track to recovery. House and Senate Democrats have kept up a steady drumbeat for jobs since we convened in January. As our Democratic leader says, it's as easy as ABC--make it in America; build our infrastructure; and focus on community recovery, which so many parts of our country desperately need right now after tornadoes, storms, floods and fires, with more storms to come. I support our President's call to action and ask all of my colleagues to do the same, but I also hope that we in Congress can make sure the jobs package we pass is big enough to do the job. We are where we are now because we listened to the deficit hawks and agreed to a Recovery Act that was not big enough to bring us out of the recession. Our constituents all over this country are hurting, and I really hope we can put aside partisanship and put them first. We can get an important two-for because job creation is also deficit reduction. When we make sure our fellow Americans can take care of their families, we will also be making sure America can begin to take care of its debt.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Today, the Senate will begin debate on the debt ceiling agreement. It is being billed as a two-step approach to hold President Obama accountable: To hold the President accountable or to hamstring his agenda to revive and redirect our economy to domestic manufacturing and clean energy--or to limit investment in infrastructure, education and health care? To hold our President accountable or to stifle our meager recovery to make it harder to create jobs and lower the unemployment rate? To hold our President accountable or to use the forced caps to undermine Republicans' main target--the Affordable Care Act? Saying there will be no cuts to Medicare services is a sham because cuts to Medicare providers will reduce beneficiaries' access to needed care. To reduce domestic discretionary spending to the lowest level since Eisenhower years? We might as well resign ourselves to giving up our place of leadership in the world. We do need a clean debt ceiling but with no conditions; and, yes, we need to reduce our deficit. I didn't like the suggestion that all of the Bush tax cuts expire when I first heard it, but if we end them now, we could save $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. Not a bad place to start.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. We should be here today passing a clean debt ceiling and creating jobs; but in these challenging times of high deficits and a fragile economy, when it is critical that our limited spending priorities be focused on programs that can achieve results and encourage the creation of jobs and economic growth, the majority is, instead, bringing an unprecedented attempt to gut pollution controls and public health protections in order to give bigger profits to Big Oil and other special interest polluters. By attaching more than three dozen policy riders to H.R. 2584, the House GOP is attempting to use a spending bill to make backdoor changes to 40 years of important Federal laws. H.R. 2584 makes drastic spending cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency, as you've just heard, and to the Department of the Interior. It fuels a multi-front assault on America's air, water, lands, wildlife, and public health; and it severely undermines the environmental integrity of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. In doing so, this legislation cripples the budgets of key Federal agencies charged with protecting American citizens and natural resources. The bill is laden with contradictions and regressive reforms: It slashes funding to the Environmental Protection Agency by $1.8 billion, yet restores $55 million in oil and gas subsidies; It dramatically cuts the U.S. Fish and Wildlife budget by 30 percent; It zeros out funding to list new endangered species; It reduces the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration budget by 18 percent from the President's 2012 budget and wholly eliminates funding for NOAA's climate service; It cuts the Land and Water Conservation Fund by 80 percent--a program that has been critical to my district of the U.S. Virgin Islands and to everyone's districts. H.R. 2584 renders this program's funding to its lowest level in history; It cuts $19.7 million from the National Endowment for the Humanities, threatening support for teachers, community colleges, museums, libraries, and archives of important historic documents and many others, as well as the preservation projects that enhance local economies and create jobs. Another program that is affected is one that's near and dear to my community. That's the National Heritage Area program. I have recently introduced a bill to create a National Heritage Area on the island of St. Croix, which we have been looking forward to, not only to preserve and protect some of our local historical treasures, but as a badly needed economic development tool that would create jobs. National Heritage Areas are some of the most effective public-private partnerships for resource conservation and heritage tourism supported by the Federal Government. National Heritage Areas have matched every dollar of Federal support with $5.50 of other public and private funding, demonstrating a high yield of return on Federal resources. I am appalled that this bill puts so much energy into tearing down America's foundational environmental protections, especially as the Representative of a place with some of the highest greenhouse gas emissions per square mile in the country. Instead of working on the bigger looming issue of our deficit crisis, this bill flies in the face of decades of bipartisan support for the protection of public health and environmental issues. It does not put the American people first as it should. It further endangers them by allowing for more dangerous air pollution. It does not clean up urban and other critical waterways. It threatens clean water that millions of our constituents depend on. It shuts the door on endangered species, and ties the hands of our Federal agencies. As leaders, we should not advance a budget that eliminates critical protections that our constituents so desperately need. We should not turn a blind eye to corporate polluters while holding the right of our future generations to clean health and a clean environment hostage just as the leadership is holding the well-being of the poor and middle class Americans and the economic security of our country hostage to an absolutely necessary lifting of this debt ceiling. I urge all of my colleagues to vote against the fiscal year 2012 Interior and Environmental appropriations bill and any antienvironment and antipublic health and anti-American amendments that may be offered. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Chair, I rise to introduce an amendment that would simply add a provision to H.R. 1938 to recognize that the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline would increase carbon emissions and make it harder to address global warming. Permitting Keystone and allowing the transport of heavy petroleum product from the Canadian tar sands to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico has serious environmental and economic ramifications. Reports indicate that the production of fuel from tar sands can yield greenhouse gas emissions nearly three times as high as those produced from conventional extraction. While my colleagues and I last Congress worked to reduce greenhouse emissions by 2020, Canada has projected that their emissions will grow 25 percent by 2020, with those from tar sands being the single largest contributor. This is not something that we should be working to expedite. H.R. 1938 makes a series of findings related to the Keystone XL pipeline. Some of these findings are a matter of opinion, and some are just flat-out wrong. All of these findings share one characteristic-- they all support the pipeline. And inconvenient facts are not included. In fact, there are a lot of inconvenient facts about the pipeline that the American people should know. Tar sands require far more energy to extract and process than conventional crude oil. The result is that emissions from using tar sands fuel are approximately 9 to as high as 37 percent higher than from our baseline fuel mix. This pipeline would almost double our current use of tar sands fuel. At a time when we're trying to curb carbon emissions and stop global warming, Keystone makes us more reliant on one of the dirtiest sources of fuel currently available. In short, tar sands oil threatens our air, water, land, and economy, and will increase already dangerously high greenhouse gas emissions and demand for natural gas. It has no place in the clean energy economy. On page 3-198 of the State Department's Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement, it is estimated that Keystone XL pipeline could increase carbon pollution associated with U.S. fuel use by up to 23 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent per year. This is equivalent to the annual emissions from an extra 4.5 million passenger vehicles. The SDEIS further indicates that most of the greenhouse gas emissions will come from the production of crude oil, refining of the crude oil, and combustion of the refined products. Transportation of the crude oil to the refinery and transportation of the products to the market also contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. This does not include the range of secondary carbon emissions to be considered as well. In a letter to the State Department, our very own EPA indicated that the extra greenhouse gas emissions associated with this proposed project may range from 600 million to up to 1.15 billion tons of CO2 over Keystone XL's lifecycle. It's unfortunate that while the Department of State and EPA have recognized the huge risk that would be incurred, the proponents of H.R. 1938 simply ignore them. While some will tout that the Keystone XL will enhance energy security, the other side of this equation must be considered. Now is not the time for us to increase harmful air emissions and further jeopardize the people in our environment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Chair, my amendment really says nothing about the placement. This is also a problem. And while I realize that we will be using oil for a long time, it's time for us to begin to move towards a clean and greener economy and to slow down global warming and do what we can to protect the public health. My amendment is in direct opposition to the finding. The finding says the XL pipeline will result in no significant change in total U.S. or global greenhouse gas emissions, when EPA and also the supplemental EIS from the Department of State clearly says: range from 600 million to 1.15 billion tons of CO2, assuming the life cycle that's projected, and also that the range could be equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from the combustion of fuels in approximately--this is from the State Department--588,000 to 4.5 million passenger vehicles, or the CO2 emissions of combusting fuels used to provide energy consumed by approximately 255,000 to 1.9 million homes. In addition to that, the social cost has not been assessed. The social cost to agricultural productivity, human health, property damages from flood risk, ecosystem services due to climate change. So even though this has been under discussion for a long time, there are a lot of things that have not been considered. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Madam Chair, while we're trying to reduce the emissions, when you look at Canada, primarily because of the tar sands, their emissions are projected to rise by 25 percent. So I continue to offer my amendment and ask for the support of my colleagues. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to an outstanding faith and community leader from my congressional district in the U.S. Virgin Islands, The Very Reverend Kenneth F. Gaddy, C.Ss.R., a Redemptorist priest who has served the St. Croix community for 21 years. On Sunday, July 31, 2011, the Holy Cross Catholic Church will honor Father Gaddy for his years of bountiful service to the Church and the parish before he leaves the Virgin Islands for a new assignment. Born to the late John and Beatrice Gaddy, Father Gaddy was the third of six children. He attended Catholic school for elementary and part of his secondary education. In 1977, Father Gaddy entered the Redemptorist Formation system, in Northeast, Pennsylvania. He went on to further his studies and in 1984, he graduated from St. Alphonsus College in Suffield, Connecticut, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy. Father Gaddy completed his theological studies at Washington Theological Union in 1988 and on May 14, 1988, he was ordained to the priesthood. Father Gaddy's first assignment was to St. Boniface Church, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In January of 1990, he was reassigned to St. Patrick's Catholic Church on the island of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and arrived in the Virgin Islands during a tremendously challenging time in our history--just months after Hurricane Hugo devastated the island of Saint Croix. He served as an Associate Pastor for six years, and then in August of 1996 he was appointed Pastor of St. Patrick's Catholic Church. Father Gaddy served as Pastor for 9 years before he was appointed director of the Blessed Peter Donders Formation Residence in July of 2006. Mr. Speaker, in July of 2008, Father Gaddy was appointed pastor of Holy Cross Catholic Church on Saint Croix, where he is currently serving. He credits two Redemptorists, The Rev. Jerome Moody and The Rev. Henrique Schulterbrandt, for encouraging and supporting him in his decision to pursue his studies to the priesthood. Several years later he was introduced to Rev. Carlyle Blake, another Redemptorist, whose friendship and mentorship continue to this day. Father Gaddy believes firmly that we stand on the shoulders of those who precede us and it is our responsibility to keep their memory and contributions alive and to provide shoulders for those who come behind us to stand on. He also believes that we are all responsible for building upon what has been entrusted to us and that we are to leave our community better than as we inherited it. The Saint Croix community will not soon forget the ministry of Father Gaddy, his impassioned sermons, his wise and down-to-earth demeanor, and most certainly we will not forget his infectious laughter and kind- hearted smile. He is a great listener who exudes sincerity and humbleness. He has shared our ups and our downs, our trials and our triumphs, our grief and our joys and has become a much beloved and integral part of our community. We wish that Father Gaddy were not being reassigned, but wherever he goes, however far, he will always be a Virgin Islander and more so a Crucian. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people of the U.S. Virgin Islands and a grateful flock, I wish Father Gaddy continued success, and on behalf of the Congress of the United States, thank him for his long, dedicated and bountiful service to the parish of Holy Cross, the community of St. Croix and the Diocese of the U.S. Virgin islands. May God continue to richly bless him with good health and long life in service to the Almighty God.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Mr. Speaker, this evening the Congressional Black Caucus is pleased that our Democratic leadership has given us the opportunity to once again come to the floor for the first Democratic hour this evening. I want to just talk a little bit about some of the people who came and visited me in my office in my district this morning. I had a visit from AARP leadership and some of their advocates and volunteers this morning in my St. Croix office. They came to bring this petition to the office, signed by hundreds of people just on one of my islands. And it says: ``Dear Members of Congress, ``Seniors and future retirees earned their benefits after a lifetime of hard work and paying into the system. Yet some Members of Congress from both parties are considering harmful cuts to Medicare and Social Security''--I know nobody in the Congressional Black Caucus is considering those kinds of cuts--``as a part of a deal to pay the Nation's bills. A deal like that could dramatically increase health care costs for seniors and future retirees, threaten their access to doctors, hospitals and nursing homes, and reduce benefit checks they rely on to pay the bills. ``Instead of cutting the benefits of seniors and future retirees, Congress should be reducing wasteful spending and closing tax loopholes. Instead of shifting more health care costs to seniors, Congress should be working to hold down health care costs for everyone,'' as the Democrats worked very hard to do last year when we passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. So these undersigned are calling on us to oppose any deal that would make harmful cuts to the Medicare and Social Security benefits Americans have been working on for all these years. And this is just the beginning, Mr. Speaker and colleagues. There will be more of these petitions to come. Some of the participants that came to my office this morning are: Aloma Peters, Lucie Rodriguez, Elizabeth Torruela, Nicolas Encarnacion, Luz D. Sierra, Theodora Moorehead, Ann Thomas, Ellarine Batiste, Joan Sackey, Miguel Ramos, Ramomta Cagnes, Doris Brown, Paul Simmonds, Denyce Singleton, Genny Dargan, and Lumoz Ayala, but representing the hundreds of people that sent this petition to the Congress of the United States. In my district, and they talked about this this morning, we have one of the highest utility bills in our country, and they're just trying to figure out what they would do if their Social Security checks were not coming to them next month. But a default is not just catastrophic for individuals on Social Security. It would be catastrophic for everyone. It's catastrophic for our Nation and our economy. The poor, of course, would lose their safety net and the ability to pull themselves out of poverty, the help that they need. And the middle class will also pay a price. It would be so catastrophic that mortgage payments would increase by over $1,000 for the average family. Credit card interest would increase by $250 for the average family. Families could pay an additional $182 per year on utilities. I'm sure our utilities in the Virgin Islands would be much higher than that. And families could pay an additional $318 per year on food. They could lose thousands of dollars in their retirement savings. We are so proud and honored to have a leader like Leader Nancy Pelosi, who has represented us in all of the discussions at the White House, and has stood strong for Democratic priorities and kept the voices of House Democrats and the interests of the American people on the table. We have heard of two different proposals that are coming forth this evening. It's interesting that Speaker Boehner has brought forth a proposal with, still, no tax hikes. We were never talking about tax hikes, Mr. Speaker. We were talking about letting the temporary Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire, as they were always intended to expire. His proposal speaks about entitlement reforms and savings. I just read the letter from the AARP, the petition, at least in part, which calls on us to save Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Yet the Republican proposal would include entitlement reforms and savings. And again, here comes the balanced budget amendment, a budget amendment that would be required before the end of the year. And then a short-term lifting of the debt ceiling, something that will not bring the stability to our economy and that would still put our credit in the world at risk. He says it's a two-step approach to hold President Obama accountable. Is that what this is all about? Or is it that we're trying to restore the good faith and credit of this Nation? Their two-step approach to hold President Obama accountable, I don't think he needs to be held accountable. He's been a good President, and he doesn't need us to help him be accountable. They have cuts. They want cuts that exceed the debt hike, the hike in the debt ceiling. I think that's a new one. I thought that originally we talked about having a balance between the lifting of the debt ceiling and the cuts. Caps to control future spending. Well, we know what that would mean. All the programs that our communities, the communities that we represent, would lose funding for programs that they need. Again, here comes the balanced budget amendment and entitlement reforms and, of course, no tax hikes. Now, I've been joined by several of my colleagues, and I'd like them to join in this Special Order if they are ready at this point in time. And I'm always pleased to be joined on these Monday evenings by the gentlelady from Houston, Texas, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, and we're glad to yield to her such time as she might consume.

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. Does it require a balanced budget?

Mrs. CHRISTENSEN. I thank you, and I thank you for bringing the charts so we can see very clearly how much money is lost from just not taking the tax cuts back to the Clinton tax rates. You can imagine, and I'm not doing any math on the floor, either, but how much money we have lost during the time those cuts have been in place and will continue to lose through next year. The Republican proposal that is being brought to us now, I don't see any investment for the future. No investment in education, no investment in relieving ourselves of our dependence on foreign fuel or continuing to invest in health care or creating jobs. There is nothing like that. It is just cut, cut, cut; and the economists also tell us that this is not the time to be cutting spending. We have a budget guru here with us this evening, the person who leads us every year in putting together a fantastic Congressional Black Caucus budget, one that not only invests in the future and in all of those things that I talked about, but also has every year, has found a way while investing to also reduce the deficit. I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from Virginia.