Phil Crane

Mr. CRANE

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger), our distinguished colleague.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Roukema). (Mrs. ROUKEMA asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose). (Mr. OSE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CRANE

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden).

Mr. CRANE. If I can reclaim my time, they have already invested.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I would remind our distinguished colleague that the estimates are that in less than 5 years, 230 million Chinese will be classified as middle-income consumers with an annual retail sales rate exceeding $90 billion, almost $1 trillion, a year; and I would urge him also to try and have an opportunity to speak with Billy Graham's son who has been involved in the missionary activities in Mainland China for several years. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to our distinguished colleague, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton).

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English). (Mr. ENGLISH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I respect the passion that my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher), has. But I would remind him that he should go back to reexamining what his former governor, Ronald Reagan, did with regard to our Caribbean neighbors when the Caribbean neighbors were subject to the possibility of communist expansion and tyranny and Ronald Reagan initiated the Caribbean Basin Initiative, which was to make that economic outreach in hopes that economic improvement would lead them down the path to democratic institutions. It was a marvelous program, and it worked superbly well. I would remind my distinguished colleague, too, that we have the missile capability to kill millions of Chinese people; and we do not want that to happen and we do not want China to consider using their capabilities against us, either. The best way we move down the path of guaranteeing that these things do not happen is establishing those better relations. I would suggest to my colleague from California, talk to Dr. Billy Graham about it. His son has been doing missionary activity over there for several years and has distributed literally millions of Bibles in mainland China over the past several years, and they are actually printing their Bibles in the mainland right now. So we have a chance to exert that personal contact and move it in a constructive direction. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad) to elaborate a little further on this issue.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to remind my distinguished colleague from Indiana that there is nothing about this action we are about to take that is irrevocable by any future Congress. Permanent trade relations can be granted today and taken away tomorrow. This is an action that Congress can take any time that it is so inclined to do so. I would like to remind my colleague, too, that he made reference to the fact of the $68 billion trade deficit we have with China. If you lock yourself out of the Chinese market, how do you plan to address that? What the existing relationship does is guarantee that we do not have access to their market. Permanent normal trade relations with China gives us access to their market as they have access to our market at this time.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of the time. Mr. Chairman, I would like to read a quote of President Chen Shui- bian, the newly inaugurated President of Taiwan: ``We would welcome the normalization of U.S.-China trade relations, just like we hope the Cross Strait relations between Taiwan and China can also be normalized. We look forward to both the People's Republic of China's and Taiwan's accession to the WTO.'' The next quote is from the EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who said, ``WTO entry has benefits for China, as it has benefits for EU companies, and it will enhance EU-China relations and that has just been concluded.'' And finally, ``American businesses and religious leaders need to remain engaged in China as an example and as a voice for our values. Rejecting the constructive bilateral trade agreements offered by the Chinese and denying normal trade relations would mean severing ties that would take generations to repair.'' I would remind colleagues, this may be the most critically important vote they will cast in their entire career in the Congress of the United States. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CRANE. I have the headquarters of Motorola in my district. Motorola has a plant they have had in Shanghai for some time. I was over there. I had the opportunity to visit with the head of the Motorola plant in Shanghai. He made reference to the fact that in their plant, they provide the employees clean working conditions, they provide overtime pay for more than a 40-hour workweek, they provide health care benefits to their employees. And I said, gee, did you bring that all over from the United States and they said, no, those are the guidelines of the Chinese government to foreign companies doing business there. I thought about it for a moment because there were some grungy Chinese factories in Shanghai that I had seen when I was walking around neighborhoods. And I thought about it for a moment, that if the gentleman from Indiana is working in a grungy Chinese factory and I am working for Motorola and we are having our Tsingtaos together at the end of a long workday and the gentleman is moaning about the grungy working conditions and no overtime pay and no health care benefits, it is only logical that I am going to say, hey, why do you work there? Come work for Motorola. Ben Franklin made the observation, a good example is the best sermon. We provide that good example and the best sermon. It is something that has an effect that goes beyond just the parochial interests of that company. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Salmon).

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe).

Mr. CRANE. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller).

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Toomey).

Mr. CRANE

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Chairman, I just wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank the Appropriations Committee in general, and the chairman and members of the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee in particular, for their efforts on the legislation that is before us today. As reported, H.R. 4475 is a well conceived piece of legislation. Not only does it keep faith with the principle that revenues raised for specific purposes, such as highway and airport improvements, should be devoted to those purposes, but it will be of immense benefit to the traveling public. By helping to ease the transportation bottlenecks that impede commerce and by mitigating the traffic congestion that plagues so many of our cities and suburbs, it will be of great benefit to millions of Americans who have to commute to work, drive their children to and from school, deliver shipments, shop for necessities and travel on business or in case of an emergency. How can I be so sure of that? Because I have the privilege of representing an area that is indicative of both the problems H.R. 4475 seeks to address and remedies that it is intended to provide. As many of my colleagues know, the north and northwest suburbs of Chicago are very busy places. Not only can commuting to or from downtown Chicago by car be very time consuming at rush hour, but traveling from suburb to suburb is no easy or quick matter when traffic is heavy. To be sure, the Chicagoland is blessed with an excellent commuter rail system and a large number of light rail and bus routes. But, it also has a population that is expected to exceed nine million by the year 2020, which means that the pressures on the area's transportation systems will only get worse unless substantial steps are taken to relieve them. Which is where H.R. 4475 comes in. If enacted into law, this bill will facilitate the double tracking a portion of METRA's North Central line through northern Cook and central Lake counties, enabling 22 commuter trains a day to serve many of Chicago's northwest suburbs--plus Chicago's O'Hare Airport--instead of the current 10. In addition, the bill will lead to an expansion of METRA service to a number of communities west and southwest of Chicago as well. Also, H.R. 4475 will help reduce traffic congestion in the area serveral other ways. One is that it will help finance the development of intelligent transportation systems in both Lake County, north of Chicago, and DuPage County, west of the city. Another is that it will contribute to the rehabilitation of two important light rail lines--the Ravenswood Line and the Douglas line--in the city itself. Inasmuch as the aforementioned population growth is expected to occur within the City of Chicago as well as in its suburbs, I cannot emphasize enough how important these improvements are, not just to the people of my district, but to the entire Chicago metropolitan area. In addition to giving us more ways to get around, they will ease traffic congestion and make it easier for us to drive around. Moreover, they will lay the foundation for additional commuter rail service expansions and other transportation improvements in the future. In short, they promise real relief, not just to those who live in or near Chicago, but also to the millions of people who travel to the city while on vacation or to do business. For all those reasons, Mr. Chairman, I wish to thank my colleagues on the Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee and the full Appropriations Committee for including those items, the METRA projects and the ITS project in Lake County in particular, in the fiscal 2001 Transportation appropriations bill. You have done my constituents and their Chicagoland neighbors a considerable service, one I am sure they will appreciate every bit as much as will the residents of many other cities and suburbs who likewise stand to benefit from its provisions. Which brings to mind one last thought, it being that the projects and benefits associated with H.R. 4475 stretch far beyond the city limits of Chicago and the State of Illinois. One way or another every State in the country will profit from enactment of H.R. 4475, as will many of their communities and residents. That being the case, I urge my colleagues to vote for the bill today so that we can begin to realize its potential before to many tomorrows come to pass.

Mr. CRANE

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the Speaker's table the Senate concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 112) to make technical corrections in the enrollment of the bill, H.R. 434, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. CRANE

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to express appreciation to all present and those who are not here on the floor right at this moment but who have been actively involved in this bipartisan effort. I cannot stress that enough. It has been such a real comfort when we have an opportunity for an overwhelming majority of us to come together on issues where we share common views and values and we are trying to advance an agenda that works to the interest of people less fortunate than ourselves. We are doing good work here. And I want to express particular appreciation to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel), our ranking minority member on the committee. I have had the pleasure of working closely with the gentleman not just on this issue, but a number of issues; and we do have remarkable things in common. I have always viewed him as potentially salvageable. Mr. Speaker, I am kidding. I do so much appreciate him. And I want to just thank everybody else and urge them all to cast their votes in support of this strong bipartisan effort. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield the balance of my time to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Royce).

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes).

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Florida (Mr. Foley).

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. CRANE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.