Tom DeLay

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. I do not want Members to misunderstand me. Also, it is coming to the end of the session, and as the gentleman knows, I would not encourage Members to make a lot of plans for Mondays and Fridays, plans that cannot be broken because as we get to the end of the session, the weeks could very well get longer.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I do not want to prejudge the Committee on Appropriations' work, but I think in dealing with the Senate, the House and with both sides of the aisle it looks like everybody is coming together in a consensus around a continuing resolution that might run us to October 31, and that should be a very real signal to our Members that we will probably be in session to at least October 31. However, trying to figure out exactly what weeks we will and will not work depends a lot on the work that we still have pending. Any day now we anticipate receiving from the administration a supplemental appropriations bill. Obviously, the Committee on Appropriations will go immediately to work on that, but I am informed that it may take at least two, three, even four weeks with hearings and things that need to be done, I think all Members want to really look at that supplemental and make sure that we are doing the right thing, and I cannot say today that, definitively, we would be off the week that the Senate has taken off, but I am hoping that working over the weekend and through the week next week, we ought to be able to give Members some sort of idea as to what the month of October might look like.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman for yielding. Let me just correct the gentleman. The week of October 6 is 2\1/2\ weeks from today, and I really believe that it is going to hinge on what the supplemental looks like and what the Committee on Appropriations thinks that their schedule might be in order to get the supplemental to the floor as quickly as possible, giving the Members every opportunity to look at the bill and participate in it. My thinking is that if we can get that supplemental to the floor of the House by that week of October 6, we could very well be here voting on that supplemental.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. As the gentleman knows, the House has been very active this year, and we have gotten a lot of our business done, and there is very important business left, but the requirement for floor time is getting less and less, and we do not want to keep Members here any longer than they have to be. So, yes, we anticipate that the schedule would run at least Tuesday through Thursdays in the weeks ahead, but that could be adjusted, too.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, would the gentleman yield?

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, the gentleman is absolutely correct, and the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure are working very hard, and hopefully, we will have a resolution by next week.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. It is my understanding that two bills were introduced today extending the funding for transportation infrastructure for the next 5 months in one bill and 6 months in another bill. We hope to have one of those bills to the floor by next week. The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is working very hard to prepare that bill for floor consideration, and the gentleman is absolutely right. It is critical to keep highway funding flowing, particularly going into the winter season. We want to get as much construction finished in the northern States now before the winter completes, and there are a lot of contracts of construction out there right now. So it is vitally important for us to extend the highway program while we are working on a more comprehensive 6-year highway bill.

Mr. DeLAY. We are working hard to get it to the floor next week because we only have, starting off next week, I think we have 10 days before the end of this fiscal year.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. While I heard there is growing support for a CR that carries us through to October 31, to my knowledge no final decisions have been made on that, but a decision on it is getting closer and closer.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I have enjoyed my time in this institution working with the gentleman on institution matters, and I know the gentleman has strongly-held beliefs of protecting the prerogatives of this institution and the will of the House, and I just say to the gentleman under this issue, his words ``extending the child tax credit'' are critical. This House has spoken on that issue. This House has considered the Senate bill he mentions. This House has rejected that Senate bill as flawed, and this House has expressed itself because it wants to extend the child tax credit beyond the next election, and we expressed it in passing with a very good vote a bill and sent it to the other body. I just would recommend that the gentleman direct his comments and his strategy toward the other body. All they have to do is pick up the House bill and the gentleman will get everything that he has asked for.

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman would yield, I would just mention to the gentleman we do have a disagreement. The gentleman is correct. Everyone in this House wants to accelerate the child tax credit that is already on its way for the 6\1/2\ million families. The disagreement in this House is on my colleague's side. They would like to allow that to expire, and these 6\1/2\ million families would have their taxes increased the following year. We think that is a horrible policy, and we would like to, if they get this tax break, that they can count on this tax break for more than 1 year. This tax credit. It is not a tax break. This tax credit for more than a year.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, a generation from now Iraq will either be a thriving democratic ally of the United States, or an enemy of unimaginable hatred, ruled by a violent government of, for, and by international terrorists. A generation from now the battle of Iraq, now the central component of the war on terror, will have succeeded or have failed. America will have won or lost; and our brave heroes who gave their lives there will have sacrificed for virtue or died in vain. The toppling of Saddam Hussein's status in Firdos Square will have been the dawn of an age of Middle East freedom and stability, or it will have been the cruel joke that ushered in an era of unspeakable terror in the region. There is no middle ground. Freedom and terrorism cannot co-exist. This struggle between good and evil will be decided by victory or surrender, in security or in shame. And the terrorists understand the stakes. That is why they swarmed like scorpions into Iraq. They know that their true enemy is not our weapons, but our own will. And thankfully, so does President George W. Bush. That is why he spoke to the Nation last week and announced his request for additional funds to prosecute the war. The question now before us is whether we realize, as the terrorists do, that the separate stand they are making in Iraq is the last best hope for their evil ideology. Mr. Speaker, our mission in Iraq is not related to the war on terror. It is the war on terror. The enemy has chosen to make his stand right there. And if victory is our aim, we must not yield until the last terrorist in Iraq is in a cell or in a cemetery. Whether it costs $87 billion or $187 billion, our absolute victory in the war and the peace is worth any price, because without victory, there will be no survival. If we are to take the war on terror seriously, we must spend what it takes to win. Critics and candidates may measure wars by the dollars that they cost, but the American people will measure this war, as we did in World War II and the Cold War, by the lives it saves, the evil it destroys and the freedom it preserves.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the call of the Private Calendar be dispensed with today.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, this afternoon I want to take a moment to recognize the members of the 2003 Lamar Little League all-stars from Richmond, Texas, for their sterling performance in the Little League World Series. First of all, I want to commend Jim Michalek, the team's dedicated manager for his magnificent leadership. Mr. Michalek and his coaches, Tim Hollek and Tom Staudt, devoted an enormous amount of time and effort to these young men. They made this team their lives for the summer of 2003, and the team's success is a testament to their dedication. As for the boys themselves, Brian Foster, Randal Alexander Grichuk, Brandon Hollek, Marcus Martinez, Jimmy Michalek, Robert Psenka, Cody Robinson, Brady Rogers, Eli Sepulveda, Chris Smith, Garrett Austin Staudt, and Wayne Willis, they did Richmond and Fort Bend County proud this year and gave us a series to remember. After that heroic battle with the kids from Saugus, Massachusetts, it will be a long while before the rest of the Nation forgets what the Richmond all-stars are made of. I am honored to represent these young men and their families. Their determination and dedication is an inspiration, an example to Texans of all ages. Over the course of this spring and summer, the Richmond all-stars have refined their characters along with their batting swings. They have learned the virtues of teamwork, virtues that will make them better boys, and one day, better men. Competing in team sports teaches children the virtues of honesty, perseverance, loyalty, and courage; and doing so in the name of their hometown instills in them a sense of civic pride as well. More than that, they have helped instill that very pride in all of us, their fans, who watched and cheered their amazing march to Williamsport. No matter what the scoreboard said at the end of the game, the Richmond, Texas, Little Leaguers of 2003 will always be our champions.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, today the United States is a Nation in mourning. And yet, Mr. Speaker, even as we grieve, we fight. Even as our hearts burst with compassion, our souls burn with resolve. Because today the United States is also a Nation at war. We are at war for the survival of our Nation and the cause of freedom. And we are at war against the evil that planned and executed the attacks we coldly remember today. That evil we fight today is the same evil mankind has always fought, the violent lie that with enough brute force, human cruelty can subdue human freedom. In the 2 years since we declared war on this new, old enemy, the United States has not suffered a major terrorist event on our soil. Thousands of terrorists have been brought to justice by our law enforcement community and thousands more have had justice brought to them by the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Even so, after 2 years, two successful military campaigns, and 50 million liberated Afghanis and Iraqis, our dangerous days are still just beginning. Winston Churchill, in a similar moment at the dawn of the Second World War, braced his countrymen by saying: ``We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering.'' But he would not yield. He understood that in the face of evil, mankind's only option was to wage war by land, sea, and air. He understood that its only objective was victory. Victory at all costs. Victory in spite of all terrorists, however long and hard the road may be. The moral defiance Churchill voiced that day, Americans fired within ourselves that moment 2 years ago when we realized we were at war. Today our Armed Forces are deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq because we are resolved to wage this war for human liberty to its end. We know now the lesson of 9/11, that freedom and terrorism cannot coexist. This battle will be decided by our victory or by our surrender, in security or in shame. America will have won or lost, and the brave heroes we mourn today, those who gave their lives in New York, Pennsylvania, the Pentagon, Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world over the last 2 years, will have either sacrificed for virtue or died in vain. The question, then, before the American people today after 2 armed years of struggle in the face of a relentless evil is whether our will is as powerful as our weapons. This September 11, let us reaffirm our commitment to freedom and our resolve to end global terrorism everywhere its merciless hatred lurks. For if we stand together so committed and so resolved, we shall overcome. And even now as we look back on the day America came to know evil, we can by the grace of God also look forward to the day America will come to know evil's defeat.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Chairman, there is no such thing as a ``Cuban tourism industry.'' There is only Fidel Castro and his thugocracy. If we pass this amendment, the money American travelers spend in Castro's Cuba will be confiscated by his regime and invested in his criminal empire. If you believe American tourism will somehow help the situation there, remember that Cuba's tourist hotels--enjoyed by travelers from Canada, Europe, and elsewhere--have been up and running for decades, yet Castro's regime remains one of the horrors of the Western Hemisphere. Make no mistake: Fidel Castro is not some curious anachronism. He is a violent criminal. More than 100,000 Cubans have been imprisoned, and more than 15,000 murdered by his regime. Just in the last six months, he ordered what Amnesty International called ``an unprecedented crackdown'' on Cuba's pro-democracy movement. This past spring, seventy-five pro-democracy advocates, working within Cuban law, were rounded up and imprisoned by Castro's secret police. They are now serving prison terms of up to 28 years, in unsanitary conditions and without access to health care, many for simply borrowing the wrong library books. This amendment would reward such injustice. Fidel Castro--thief, murderer, and tyrant--is the only Cuban who will benefit from this amendment. The hotels American tourists will patronize are off limits to ordinary Cubans, and so will be the profits they generate. Proponents of this amendment would have us believe that vacationers in flip-flops and Hawaiian shirts, sipping mojitos at Cuban beach resorts will somehow improve human rights conditions there. Instead, Mr. Chairman, it will subsidize Castro's oppression and torture. Those are the stark and unavoidable terms of this amendment. And I urge all my colleagues, in the name of justice, to vote no.

Mr. DeLAY

Mr. DeLAY. I appreciate the gentleman yielding and his concern on this issue, and I assure the gentleman that we would very much like to address his concern. But the truth is, we disagree so strongly on this issue, on how to address this issue. We on our side just do not believe that the tax credit should expire right after next year's election and certainly do not want to see it decrease in value over the next several years, so we have continued to insist to the other body in our negotiations that the child tax credit cover more families for a longer period of time with more relief. I just hope very soon that we can convince the conferees that this is the right approach to take.

Mr. DeLAY. I thank the gentleman from Maryland for yielding. Yes, we have just had the last vote of the day. The House will convene on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. for morning hour and 2 p.m. for legislative business. We expect to complete consideration of H.R. 2989, which is the Transportation, Treasury, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2004. Any votes called on amendments on this bill will be rolled until after 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday we will consider several measures under suspension of the rules. A final list of these bills will be sent to Members' offices by the end of the day. We will plan then to consider H.R. 2622, the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and hope to conclude with consideration of the conference report on H.R. 2115, the Vision 100, Century of Aviation Reauthorization Act. Thursday, as you know, is September 11, and we are currently working on several measures to recognize the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. In addition to these measures, which we would expect to have broad bipartisan support on, I would certainly expect to have a moment of silence on the floor of the House and a ceremony similar to the one held in the Rayburn Courtyard last year. Finally, Mr. Speaker, I would like to note for all the Members, we do not plan to have votes next Friday, September 12. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, I would say at least by 2 p.m. on Tuesday, because for Members who are offering the amendments or who wish to be heard in the debate, we will begin consideration of the Treasury-Transportation bill at 2 p.m. in the afternoon.

Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will continue to yield, I have heard of delegations leaving on Wednesday night and understand that, and that is why we anticipate a very light load, if any, on Thursday. But I cannot definitively say there will not be votes on Thursday. I think with the two sides of the aisle working together, we can come to some accommodation to where we can properly celebrate, not celebrate, that is not the right word.

Mr. DeLAY. Commemorate the events of 9/11, and still allow Members to go about their normal business.

Mr. DeLAY. I would expect that the votes on final passage of the D.C. appropriations bill could very well be held the evening of Tuesday, after the rolled votes on the Transportation-Treasury bill.

Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, I share the gentleman's concern; but I do not think that that 6.5 million families would want to see a tax increase right after the election, having enjoyed getting a tax credit and then seeing their taxes go up $300 per child almost immediately. So I totally agree with the gentleman. But this bill, as the gentleman may recall, has very important provisions for the military in it. I would just urge the gentleman to make his concerns known to those over in the other body that could move this bill within nanoseconds if they had real concerns for those 6.5 million families and the military families in this country.

Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, the gentleman is very aware that, as he just stated, we just appointed conferees last night. They had their first conference this morning. They are working as hard as they can to get this bill out as soon as possible. The gentleman knows that the Nation's energy crisis is not just about electricity. Gasoline prices are at an all-time high, natural gas prices are at an all-time high, natural gas supplies are at an all-time low. This is not the time to do piecemeal work or patchwork in putting together a bill. We need a comprehensive energy policy to meet the urgent needs across this country and across the spectrum of energy sources. I might say that this House has tried for the last 3 years to pass a comprehensive energy package; and we are now only two votes away, a vote in the House and a vote in the Senate, to being able to put together a good package that we can send to the President, and I am hoping that work can be done expeditiously and we can see a bill in the next 2 to 3 weeks.

Mr. DeLAY. If the gentleman will yield further, the gentleman knows, as we all do, that improving and strengthening Medicare is going to be one of the toughest conferences that we will face. There are a lot of issues, very complicated issues, that have to be dealt with. The chairman of the conference, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas), is working with all parties on the conference and it just takes a lot of time to work through these issues. We have already worked through some. I happen to serve on the conference. We have worked through some and progress is being made. But our Members need to stay focused. The Members of the other body need to stay focused in order for us to get this done before the end of this session. But as far as predicting when we will be able to do that, that would be very difficult for me to do. But I hope that everyone will work together and get something out before we adjourn for this session of the 108th Congress.