Marcy Kaptur

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, everybody is talking about Chrysler's Super Bowl commercial ``Halftime in America.'' It featured Clint Eastwood, relating the recovery of the American automobile industry. That inspirational ad has now gone viral as people share its positive message about our country and our workers. Trust me, Mr. Speaker, in America's heartland, we know about hard times. Our people have been through a lot these last few years. But that commercial has it right: We took a punch, but we're still standing. President Obama made a bet on America's workers and companies, and it saved thousands of jobs. It saved our industry. ``This country can't be knocked out with one punch,'' Clint Eastwood says. ``We get right back up again. And when we do, the world is going to hear the roar of our engines.'' You can already hear that roar in Toledo. We're building Jeeps day and night. You can hear it in Lorain too, and in Sandusky, Avon Lake, Brook Park, and Parma. We're going to win this competition. We're going to win it with teamwork. And we're going to win it because we want it more. Gentlemen and gentleladies, start your engines.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. I want to thank Dr. Christensen for holding this very, very important Special Order as we begin Black History Month here in the United States and say how proud I am to serve with her, her path- breaking work in health care, leading us to coverage for all, to Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee. I had not heard that story, what she personally has lived and helped push America forward to a new day. It is my distinct pleasure and honor to be here with them tonight. I wanted to participate in this Special Order because of what we are going through in Texas and Ohio and Florida, and around this country with redistricting. It is true that Ohio, because the population hasn't grown, has to lose two seats. But we have seen a redistricting like none other. I wanted to put some of this on the record because I think scholars around the country and young people studying could really take a look at what has happened in this recent redistricting that I think has a subtle and very insidious agenda that isn't immediately apparent to the eye. I had a woman come up to me yesterday in a church in Ohio. She happened to be an African American woman. She said: I want to ask you a question, Congresswoman. Why is my voting location changed all of the time? Why is my precinct flipped all the time? I said: You know, ma'am, I know something is going on here that isn't good. Ohio was never technically a voting rights State, but there's something strange. And I thought I would put on the record some of what's strange about what's happening in Ohio. Individuals like herself constantly have to go to a different precinct. She never moved her house. She lives in the same place. A lot of people maybe don't realize that their precinct has been changed, and some percent of people will not go to the other precinct. It may be a small percent. It may be 0.02 percent; but you add that up around a State that votes 50/50, and you begin to see a fall off in voting. I can tell you this, and I wish to place this on the Nation's record tonight: for every Republican Congress Member from Ohio who sits here, and they have the majority, 13 out of 18, their home county was kept whole. Every single one. But for every Democrat--there are only five of us out of 18--their home county was crashed and broken up into parts. Every urban county, if you look around at the five of us who are here: Cuyahoga has been split into four parts in a very strange way; Lucas County is missing its western half now; you go down to Akron, you look at that county, cities like Parma, Parma, Ohio, one of the largest cities in Ohio, sliced in half. What do those places all have in common? They all happen to be urban areas. They have mixed populations. They have diversity. They like people who aren't like themselves. They like the diversity of life. Those communities have been hacked apart in Ohio. Our colleague, Congresswoman Betty Sutton, 42 percent of the precincts in her new district are broken. That means booth workers can make mistakes. More than one Member of Congress is running in that precinct. Sometimes as many as three are running in the same precinct. When that goes on the ballot, do you realize how much confusion, even if everybody has an IQ of a gazillion, somebody is going to go in the booth and put the wrong vote on the ballot because of the confusion with so many Members running in the same precinct. Booth workers will make mistakes. And just like the woman I mentioned at the beginning whose precinct keeps changing although she hasn't moved, there is a certain percentage of error involved in that. And it's happening in the Democratic areas, not the Republican. So I would say this: I would ask those who are listening tonight to think about really peeling apart the layers of this redistricting in places like Texas and Ohio and look at the subtle nature of the type of gerrymandering that's being done around the country. Communities are being hacked apart. Communities of interest are being hacked apart. Doesn't Parma, Ohio, have the right to be its own city? It's hard enough to get things done across communities where needs are great. We have so many people losing their homes. There's all kinds of problems in this country with the unemployment, but we make it harder for communities to hold together. There seems to be something un-American about that. There seems to be something really ugly, something very insidious when it pulls people apart rather than holds them together. We have one Congressman, actually a Republican from the other side of the aisle. Ohio has 88 counties. Do you know how many counties they put in his district, 20; 20 out of 88. That means 60 county commissioners. Can you imagine how many mayors? Unbelievable. This makes no sense. But it's what happened. And I am very concerned, as my colleagues are, about what happens to people who are elderly, who can't travel far, who sometimes have trouble seeing. And as you start switching things around and you make it more difficult, even I notice the way they print the absentee ballots in Ohio--I'm glad to have them early--but you need a magnifying glass to see the letters when we know that the population in many of these urban areas are a high percentage of senior citizens. There's something very un-American, something very unfriendly about what is going on here. It makes me think about the Voting Rights Act and maybe strengthening it and taking a particular look at urban areas that are being broken up in very, very strange ways. You can't even explain, the lines don't even make any sense where they are putting them in urban areas. It's like they are shattering communities of interest. There's something really wrong about that. I wanted to say also to Congresswoman Christensen, in Ohio we've had a lot of great African Americans. I've had the opportunity to serve with some of them here, and I would like to place in the Record tonight the names of some of them in honor of Black History Month. One of the individuals I would like to talk about is a great writer, Toni Morrison, a woman who was born in Lorain, Ohio, now part of the Ninth Congressional District. We know how important Black History Month is because it's the time of the year to reflect and be thankful for the countless contributions of African Americans like Ms. Morrison who have made enduring contributions to American life and to world history. This year's Black History Month theme is ``Black Women in American Culture and History.'' And I would say this Caucasian woman is very proud to join my colleagues of color and say that I'm glad it's all women down here tonight for the moment because, really, our voices need to be magnified, and certainly Ms. Morrison did that. In honoring women, we honor her. She is exactly the type of person we should be recognizing, given this Black History Month's theme, for her work in American literature. She is a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and became the first black woman to win the Nobel Prize in literature, making her the 90th Nobel Laureate in literature. She came from Lorain, Ohio. She didn't come from the places that are known as the cultural meccas. She came from a tough place where people work hard for a living. She was born during the Great Depression in that working-class city. Ms. Morrison showed an interest in literature at an early age. Through hard work, she received degrees from Howard University here and Cornell. She subsequently taught at Texas Southern University, Howard University, Yale, and Princeton. Her contributions to American history come from her six novels. During her Nobel Prize ceremony, the Permanent Secretary of the Academy said: ``In her depictions of the world of the black people, in life as in legend, Toni Morrison has given the Afro-American people their history back, piece by piece.'' Mr. Speaker let us take time to fully recognize the contributions of Toni Morrison and the many others during this year's Black History Month. While the United States is facing many challenges today, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that the work of leaders such as Tony Morrison do not go unnoticed. I just wanted to mention, also, she penned a story about a girl from her childhood who prayed for blue eyes. I happen to have blue eyes. I never thought about that. She said this was the basis for her first novel, ``The Bluest Eye,'' published in 1970. I have to say I admire the African American people because I always wanted curly hair, and I never really had it. So you see, we learn from one another and appreciate from one another. In concluding tonight, let me say that I wish to place in the Record from the Cleveland Plain Dealer a wonderful story honoring the achievements of great African Americans who have come from our part of America. There are a few whose names I would like to read into the Record: Langston Hughes, playwright, poet and writer; our dear beloved colleague, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to be elected to Congress from Ohio. I miss her to this day. I have her picture in my office. Halle Berry, the first black woman to win an Academy Award as best actress. Think about that. Carl B. Stokes was the first black mayor--first black mayor--of a major American city, and it was Cleveland, Ohio--Cleveland, Ohio. We are so proud of that. And I was proud to serve with his bother, Louis Stokes, who was here for so many years, who preceded me on the Appropriations Committee. I could go on, Mr. Speaker. There are others who wish to speak tonight. But I have to say, I'm proud to be an Ohioan, one of the States that was always a free State, home of the Underground Railroad as it came through, and people disembarked and escaped for their lives to places like Canada through northern Ohio, through the communities that I am privileged to represent now. I am very proud to stand with my colleague, Dr. Christensen, here tonight, in honoring all Americans, certainly in this Black History Month, and what they have taught us over our centuries about full representation and the decent and fair treatment of people. What a legacy they have given and continue to create for our country. I want to thank the gentlelady for yielding to me this evening. [From Cleveland.com--The Plain Dealer, Feb. 2, 2012] Toni Morrison, Author, Won Pulitzer, Nobel Prizes: Black History Month (By Ellen Kleinerman) As part of Black History Month, we recognize Toni Morrison, a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and the first black woman to win a Nobel Prize in literature. Morrison, born Chloe Anthony Wofford in 1931, grew up during the Great Depression in a working-class neighborhood in Lorain, where European immigrants, Mexicans and Southern blacks lived. As a child, Morrison listened intently to the stories her parents, Ramah and George Wofford, told of the traditions and struggles of blacks in the South. Morrison earned a B.A. at Howard University in 1953 and an M.A. at Cornell University in 1955 in humanities. At Howard, she met Jamaican architect Harold Morrison. They married in 1958, had two sons and divorced six years later. For a temporary escape from her unhappy marriage, Morrision joined a small writer's group, where she penned a story about a girl from her childhood who prayed for blue eyes. This was the basis for her first novel ``The Bluest Eye,'' published in 1970. Morrison worked for Random House publishing and taught at several universities including Yale and Princeton. Her novel ``Beloved,'' about a captured slave woman who tried to kill her children rather than see them live as slaves, won the Pulitzer in 1988. She won the Nobel Prize in 1993

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank my esteemed colleague, Congressman Mike Michaud of Maine, for allowing me this time to join him and to rise in support of his motion to instruct conferees on a payroll tax cut extension bill that strikes a section that undermines the normal procedures of unemployment compensation to people who are out of work as it diverts those funds to other purposes. Here we have the hardest of hearts that exist in this House, the majority on the other side of the aisle, who allowed the market to crash in 2008, putting millions of people out of work and then throwing millions more out of their homes and turning a cold eye toward them. And then proposed to cut heating assistance to those who are struggling across this country, and then a majority on the other side voting to not extend unemployment benefits to the victims. I didn't see any enthusiasm over there for prosecuting the big banks on Wall Street and those who had committed the fraud that got us into this mess in the first place. No, they want to cut it out of the hearts of the victims. Now, the House Republican proposal in H.R. 3630 would allow States to apply for waivers to bypass basic protections and standards that now apply to the permanent unemployment extension program. States already have ample flexibility to determine eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits and to set the amount of those benefits, but they must now operate under a basic set of rules. For example, States are required to spend unemployment insurance funds solely on unemployment benefits. They must pay benefits when due, and they may not condition eligibility on issues beyond the fact and cause a person's unemployment. The Republican bill would circumvent these basic protections. Under the proposed waiver policy, States could divert unemployment funds to other purposes, which seems particularly ill-timed when over half of the States' unemployment trust funds are insolvent because there's so many people still out of work. This diversion policy could lead to jobless individuals being denied weekly unemployment benefits and instead being offered less useful benefits. Furthermore, a waiver could allow new requirements to be imposed on unemployment insurance recipients, including a requirement that they perform a community service job to be eligible for benefits. Unemployment insurance is an earned benefit for people who have worked hard. It's insurance. Effectively they have paid into those insurance funds and have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. These individuals must actively search for work to be eligible. I have people in my district that have sent out 400 resumes, knocked on hundreds and hundreds of doors. They want to work. And many receive services through the Federally funded one-stop employment centers. Regrettably, House Republicans that have consistently targeted this system for steep cuts in services at a time when they are needed most again have a proposal here. You know, I really wonder why they don't focus as much attention on prosecution of the Wall Street perpetrators who got us into this mess in the first place. I think you've got the telescope turned around in the wrong direction. You ought to be caring for those who have an ethic of work and who have earned these benefits. And we need to recoup money to balance the budget and to meet our societal needs by making sure that prosecution occurs for those who took the Republic to the cleaners and are still fat and happy sitting in the same chairs that they were in back in 2008 up there on Wall Street. So I would say to the gentleman I rise in strong support of your effort to instruct the conferees and to protect the earned benefits of those in our society who build this country forward through thick and thin no matter what. They have earned the right to their unemployment benefits.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, today the House considered the World War II Memorial Prayer Act, which I cosponsored and was pleased to vote in favor of. The bill directs the U.S. Department of the Interior to include President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer with the nation on D- Day at the World War II Memorial in Washington, DC. It is not possible to overstate the importance of D-Day in World War II, or the enormity of the battle the 160,000 Allied troops faced. The victory there allowed 100,000 soldiers to start to march across Europe to defeat Hitler and the Nazi forces. The battle came with an enormous cost; 9,000 soldiers were killed or wounded, including thousands of American troops there to help liberate Europe and win the war. At home, as the battle was being waged on the beaches of Normandy, President Roosevelt led the nation in a prayer over the radio. The moving prayer concluded with these words: With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. Thy will be done, Almighty God. Amen. As the author of the original legislation to create the World War II Memorial, I think it is fitting to include President Roosevelt's prayer at the Memorial grounds. The prayer is not only important historically, but it allows us to honor those for whom the country was praying, but also those at home who were comforted by this prayer. It will be 25 years ago next month that an important question was posed to me at a fish fry in Jerusalem Township, Ohio, by a World War II veteran, Roger Durbin. Mr. Durbin was a veteran of World War II and he wanted to know why there was no memorial for the war in our nation's capital. We set to work together, and 17 years later the nation dedicated the World War II Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, Roger passed away before the dedication. But I am sure he would be pleased with the passage of this bill here today.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, tonight the President will speak to America and the world in the annual State of the Union Address. I'm eager to hear his ideas about additional job creation because job creation must be America's number one priority. Back home in northern Ohio, we are seeing manufacturing starting to pick up. In Lorain, Ohio, Republic Steel is gearing up production. In Toledo, GM Transmission and companies like BX Solutions are bringing back jobs in the transportation and logistical services industry. And across our region, the auto sector is making major investments. The Detroit auto show just wrapped up, and there is much to be optimistic about. For one, GM is officially back on top, claiming the title as the world's largest automaker, an amazing comeback for the American automotive industry. Our resilient autoworkers brought it roaring back, even after some here would have left it for dead. Just between 2009 and last year, the U.S. auto industry created over 75,000 new jobs. We see the impact in places like Toledo, where Chrysler is expanding production at the Jeep plant, creating thousands of new jobs. In Avon Lake, Ford is investing. And GM's hot-selling Cruze is lighting up factory floors in northern Ohio, from Toledo and Defiance to Parma and Lordstown. However, we cannot forget that countries like China want to muscle in on the U.S. auto sector. If we want to see the U.S. auto industry in a continuing state of growth, creating jobs and building our economy forward, Congress must champion fair trade. In December, the Congressional China Commission held a hearing on China's unfair trade practices. I used that opportunity to point out exactly how the government in Beijing blocks fair trade in U.S.-made cars and trucks. When Congress ceded China permanent normal trade relations, proponents promised that U.S. products would gain real access to the Chinese market. This has not happened. Would you believe that a Jeep Grand Cherokee costs $85,000 in China? That is three times what it costs here in the United States. And why? The Chinese Government has created an elaborate system of protective tariffs meant to keep U.S.-made trucks and cars out of China. I asked the U.S. Trade Representative in December to develop a comprehensive strategy for addressing China's anticompetitive behavior. Main Street manufacturers are hard at work creating jobs along Ohio's north coast and throughout the Midwest, but it's overtime for the administration and Congress to get to work on the very real impact that the trade deficit has on lost U.S. jobs. Economists estimate that for every billion dollars in trade deficit, we lose 15,000 jobs here. For 2011, our trade deficit with China alone will be close to $300 billion. If we do the quick, back-of-the-envelope math, this means that the U.S. ceded over 4.3 million jobs to China last year. The entire U.S. trade deficit for 2011 is projected to reach an incredible $727 billion in the red, three quarters of a trillion. China accounts for 40 percent of it. Congress and the President must stand up for U.S. manufacturing and American jobs. On December 15, the Chinese Government ratcheted up its attacks on our auto industry by levying an additional 21.5 percent antidumping duty and a 12.9 percent countervailing duty on top of their already unfair practices. That is why I and other Members are asking the President to take the Chinese before the World Trade Organization. We need official action to confront China's job aggression. While the official unemployment rate is coming down here, we have a major fight to create more jobs in America. In places like northern Ohio, there are still over 100,000 people out of work. Greater Cleveland has over 75,000 people out of work, Toledo over 27,000, and Sandusky over 3,000. Our economy is still struggling forward. We can see how many jobs have been stamped out in not just the auto industry, but in manufacturing across our country due to unfair trade regimes. We need Congress and the executive branch to stand up and demand fairness for our companies, our workers, and our communities that are working so hard to build forward this country as our economy-- our fragile economy--keeps rebounding. While it's rebounding forward, it could do a lot better with some help from the President and this Congress.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, my first reaction upon reading Dr. Gordon Gee's denigrating comments about the Polish Army was to see red--blood red. As a Polish American, I fail to see the humor when the president of The Ohio State University described bureaucratic turf battles at his school with administrators ``shooting each other'' as ``kind of like the Polish Army.'' His comments revealed not only insensitivity to the suffering of the Polish people over the past two centuries, but a shocking lack of knowledge of history. Surely, the leader of a major institution of higher learning should know better. Ohio State, after all, is home to the Center for Slavic and East European Studies. Having spent my public career trying to overcome ethnic stereotyping, I thought about how to respond: Do I hold a press conference? Do I make an official statement? The Polish American Congress quickly demanded, received, and accepted an apology from President Gee. But I kept thinking about my dear friend Colonel Marian Wojciechowski, a true hero of Poland and America, who died last year at age 97. I have known the Wojciechowski family for almost half a century. Marian's brilliant daughter Mary Ann was my friend in high school and the valedictorian of our class at St. Ursula Academy in Toledo. Her father, Marian, had commanded a Polish Army cavalry platoon at the place where World War II started on land September 1, 1939. Against impossible odds, the Polish Army secured a tactical victory in the battle of Mokra. There was nothing disorganized or chaotic about Marian's home unit, the 21st Regiment Pulku Ulanow Nadwisclankich, which eventually was awarded the Virtuti Militari, Poland's highest military honor. No, President Gee, the Polish soldiers at Mokra did not shoot at each other. In fact, they inflicted surprisingly heavy losses against the more heavily equipped Nazi invaders, who lost 800 men. Eventually, the Poles' situation deteriorated, as they ran low on ammunition and medicine. No Western country came to their aid. No Western country. The infantry commander considered surrendering, but the cavalry commander ordered a charge. Polish cavalry soldiers bravely drew their swords, positioned their artillery, and heroically charged German positions, even though they were hopelessly overmatched by mechanized blitzkrieg forces on the land, including two Panzer divisions, and Luftwaffe planes in the air. A fellow soldier from Marian's hometown of Polaniec thought Marian had been killed and reported the sad news to Marian's family who held a funeral for him. But in fact, Marian had survived, had moved east with his remaining cavalry forces to fight the Red Army that attacked Poland 3 weeks later on the Russian front, on September 17. My friend Marian was grazed in the head by a Russian bullet. He then joined the underground resistance for over 2 years in such dangerous work until he was arrested, brutally tortured, sent to Auschwitz in Death Block 11, and then transferred to Gross-Rosen and finally to Leitmeritz in 1945, from which he escaped. I must mention that the woman who had accidentally revealed his name was beheaded by Nazi forces. Of course Poland, which had been partitioned by adjoining empires since the late 18th Century for daring to write its own democratic Constitution in 1791--2 years after our own and upon which it was modeled--was devastated by World War II. Poland lost a higher percentage of her population than any other nation, approximately one in five people. Cities such as Warsaw were razed because their people fought unrelentingly until they were subdued. Fleeing to Germany and a U.S. Army-run refugee camp, Marian met his life-long love, Wladyslawa Poniencka, a Polish girl scout and also a member of the women's Underground resistance. She and her family had been arrested in Warsaw and sent to the notorious Pawiak Prison and then she to Ravensbruck where unspeakable experiments were performed on her while all of her closet relatives were killed. Marian and Wladyslawa married. They had their first child, my friend, and immigrated to America in 1950 under the Displaced Persons Act. They were sponsored by Marian's cousin in Toledo. They raised their family. And he published a Polish language newspaper Ameryka-Echo in Toledo, for more than 7 years. He also built a career in neighborhood community development, working until age 80. Like Generals Kosciusko and Pulaski, Colonel Marian Wojciechowski dedicated his life to the cause of liberty and community building. He was an extraordinary man. In different times, I think he might have been president of Poland. He surely should have run for office here. I am going to send a copy of the book ``Seven Paths to Freedom,'' edited by Miroslawa Zawadzka and Andrezj Zawadzki, to President Gee. I hope he reads it. It's over time for the President of Ohio State University to show reverence and respect for Poland's heroic struggle for liberty. The Kosciuszko Foundation, New York, NY. Subject: Ohio State President Gordon Gee Must Be Reprimanded For Polish Slur. Chairman Leslie H. Wexner, Board of Trustees, Ohio State University, Bricker Hall, Columbus, OH. Dear Chairman Wexner and Trustees of Ohio State University: As a son of Polish war heroes, I ask that you publicly admonish University President Gordon Gee for his unacceptable comment that your staff, ``were shooting at each other . . . like the Polish Army.'' In addition, the Board of Trustees must truly serve the 465,000 Polish-Americans living in Ohio by funding classes on Polish history at the University. With a President who lacks erudition, how can you expect to educate your students about World history, or Poland? I can assure Mr. Gee that my father, Corp. Dionizy Storozynski was shooting straight as a motorcycle scout for a Polish tank division during the allied invasion of Normandy. Afterwards, he was awarded the Polish Army Medal, and three medals from the British Army. And I can assure Mr. Gee that my grandfather, Sgt. Wladyslaw Krzyzanowski was shooting straight when his Polish regiment, the Anders' Army, helped drive the Germans from North Africa, and when he destroyed two German tanks in the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy. For this he received three Polish medals and three British medals. And I can assure Mr. Gee that the Polish WWII pilots that set records in accuracy in destroying German Luftwaffe planes during the Battle for Britain were shooting straight. It's Mr. Gee who is not a straight shooter. Gee has made a half-hearted apology. That is not enough. Gee has a history of putting his feet in his mouth and having to apologize. Yet the Ohio State Board of Trustees has made him the highest paid college president in the United States, paying him $1.6 million annually. As Trustees, you are the governing body for a state university in a state that has nearly half a million Polish- American taxpayers and voters. Yet you offer few classes in Polish language and literature, and no classes in Polish history. With your university receiving $493 million in state appropriations and $426 million in other government funding in 2012, surely you can afford to rectify this situation. This should be put on the agenda for your next Board of Trustees meeting on Feb. 9. After Mr. Gee made his unenlightened comment, he said, ``Who did I embarrass now?'' For starters, Mr. Gee embarrassed himself and Ohio State University. This is also an embarrassment to United States foreign policy. With thousands of Polish soldiers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gee's comments have caused a stir in Poland. And the Polish soldiers supporting the American mission in Afghanistan will not be pleased with Mr. Gee's benighted opinion. Poland's Special Forces unit shut down oilrigs in the Persian Gulf during the invasion of Iraq, and the Polish Army played a major role in the war. When I traveled to Iraq in 2006 to write an article for the New York Sun, U.S. Army lieutenant general, Peter Chiarelli, told me that the Polish troops ``are doing an absolutely outstanding job. They've been one of the most steadfast members of the coalition. And these are two of the most peaceful provinces in all of Iraq, Diwaniyah and Wasit. And that's largely attributable to the great leadership of successive Polish generals who have come down here and the Polish units who have served here.'' The Polish Army has made major contributions to European and American history. King Jan Sobieski turned back the Ottoman Empire during the Siege of Vienna in 1863 when the Turks invaded Europe and tried to turn it into a Muslim colony. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the largest country in Europe at the time and Sobieski's Hussar Knights were the most feared soldiers in Europe. The President of a major university should also know the military contributions of Poles to this country. The Father of the American Cavalry, Gen. Casimir Pulaski saved George Washington's life at the Battle of Brandywine. Gen. Thaddeus Kosciuszko built the largest fortress in America, West Point and suggested putting a military academy there. That was before he devised the plans for the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point of the American Revolution. And Abraham Lincoln appointed Wlodzimierz Krzyzanowski Brigadier General in the Union Army during the Civil War. Would Abe Lincoln have picked a Polish general if he could not shoot straight? Mr. Gee further exposed his ignorance about Poland when after his witless comments about the Polish Army he told the crowd at the Columbus Metropolitan Club, ``Oh, never mind, who did I embarrass now? I'll have to raise money for Poland now.'' If Mr. Gee read the Wall Street Journal he would know that despite Europe's financial woes, over the past several years, Poland has had one of the fastest growing economies in Europe. So no, Poland does not need Mr. Gee to help it raise money. But he can help himself by curing his foot-in-mouth disease and working to rehabilitate his image with the many Polish-Americans in your state. Here's where he can start. Thaddeus Kosciuszko was given 500 acres on the Scioto River in Ohio by the Founding Fathers for his exemplary service in the American Revolution. That original tract of land borders the Ohio State University campus in Columbus. Today, part of that land is the Riverside Drive Park in Dublin, Ohio, and in May the city will rename it Thaddeus Kosciuszko Park. In addition to his military service, Kosciuszko put his money where his mouth was when it came to standing up for liberty. Kosciuszko donated his salary from the American Revolution, $17,000 and asked that it be used to purchase slaves, and to free and educate them. Kosciuszko was a virtuous straight shooter who did the right thing. If Mr. Gee is as much of a straight shooter as Polish soldiers, and has any semblance of decency, he should pay to erect a statue of Kosciuszko in that park. With a salary of $1.6 million per year, Mr. Gee can clearly afford it. Alex Storozynski, President & Executive Director, The American Center for Polish Culture.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I want the 2.3 million unemployed Americans to know that not all Members of this House are heartless. In fact, 193 Members of this House stand with the unemployed of this country, the 2.3 million mothers and fathers who have children and families to feed as we move through this very, very poignant holiday season. I hope when we come back in January we can do what's right for America. But we fell 36 votes short. That's because the Republicans, and I hardly see any of them on the floor at this point, care more about taking care of those who earn over a million dollars than they do about the people who are falling off the edge. I feel sorry for our country today. But you know what? The American people have a way of righting the tables when they get sadly out of balance, and that moment is coming. I feel sorry for the people who are unemployed. Be strong during this season, know that when we return in January, we have a chance to correct what sadly was voted down today.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, here we go again. Another phony crisis, courtesy of the extremist bah-humbug House Republicans. House Republicans have never met a deal they couldn't find a reason to dislike. Now they've resorted to fighting their colleagues in the other body to avoid doing something positive for our country. Right now, we could be cutting the payroll tax, we could be extending jobless benefits, and approving a Medicare fix for our doctors. The average American family in Cleveland, Lorain, Sandusky, and Toledo now faces a $1,000 tax hike because of the Republican game of chicken. American middle class families want the payroll tax cut or their taxes will go up on average about $1,000. Millions of Americans need unemployment benefits, but House Republicans need to pick a fight. And it doesn't matter with whom. If they can't fight with Democrats, who are standing up for the middle class, they will fight with their colleagues in the other body. Here's what I want for Christmas: I want the Republicans to care half as much about manufacturing jobs in America as they care about manufacturing crises. Now wouldn't that be a holiday present?

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank my dear friend and colleague Congressman Dicks. I rise in support of this conference report. This bill is welcome news and helps restore confidence that America can govern. It is essential to economic growth and job creation in our country, and the bill cuts overall discretionary spending by $7 billion over last year and also $98 billion less than the President's FY12 budget proposal. This bill demonstrates the Appropriations Committee is still one of the few that properly functions in this institution, and I can't thank enough Chairman Hal Rogers and Ranking Member Norm Dicks for their bipartisan leadership and hard work, along with their staff, to bring this House to regular order. This legislation includes vital funding for the defense of our Nation and our domestic imperative. The bill includes support for our Great Lakes ports, as in Cleveland, Lorain, Sandusky, and Toledo, as well as around the country, and invests in their infrastructure necessary to modernize those facilities to increase our exports and increase jobs. It also includes environmental restoration funding needed for the Great Lakes to allow economic revitalization as we create more maritime jobs and nature tourism. The bill keeps our commitment to establish America's energy independence with robust investments in renewable energy in solar, wind, and biomass. The investments in technology for those represent not just jobs for today, but for tomorrow. As we grow our economy forward, budget certainty matters for fiscal year 2012. I urge my colleagues to support this so that we can govern our Nation and the Nation's interests.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and rise this evening on the subject of MF Global and the clear need for oversight by the Congress. Mr. Speaker, Congress isn't doing its job to investigate the fraud that has infected our entire financial system, fraud perpetrated by Wall Street, and it has hurt the global financial system as well. I think the reason is that too many people have forgotten that gambling with other people's money often entices very addictive personalities who are incapable of self-policing. They need rules, they need limits, and they need oversight. Otherwise they just keep getting into the same trouble again and again, harming innocent people in the process by looting their assets. The American people know that corruption on Wall Street is pervasive, and millions upon millions of our fellow citizens have been harmed by it. The Republican leadership in this House have failed in their responsibility to aggressively investigate crime in the financial services sector. Earlier this month, I spoke about Bloomberg's report on how President Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, in 2000, inappropriately and behind closed doors in a private meeting tipped off his former colleagues at Goldman Sachs and a handful of Wall Street insiders about how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac might collapse and what steps the government intended to take. All of this occurred on the very same day that Secretary Paulson led The New York Times to believe that those two companies would give a signal of confidence to the markets. You can imagine what those financial insiders did with their investments before the rest of America was even aware. I also reminded my colleagues that the Securities and Exchange Commission was finally rebutted recently in a New York court for settling fraud cases with major Wall Street banks like Citigroup in a way that allowed the biggest banks to walk away by simply paying a few fines without so much as admitting any wrongdoing. I ask, where is this Congress' oversight of these most crucial financial machinations that have so harmed our Nation and world since the market crashed in 2008? Finally, after months and months of press coverage, Congress is taking a tad of action. Last week, the House's Agriculture Committee held one of the first hearings we have seen all year. That hearing, called by Chairman Frank Lucas of Oklahoma and Ranking Member Collin Peterson of Minnesota, began to shed some light on what is the eighth- largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at MF Global Holdings. Its misdeeds had been widely reported, but they deserve much closer scrutiny. We need to subpoena their full records and transactions that led to the collapse. Even before last week's hearings, we knew that MF Global Holdings filed for Chapter 11 on October 30. Citizens in my district have been impacted and harmed as over $1 billion disappeared from customer accounts. The Washington Post and other press reported weeks ago that the firm's CEO, former Governor Jon Corzine, had essentially placed a $6.3 billion bet on the sovereign debt of several European Governments. After its most recent quarterly return showed almost $200 million in losses, MF Global stock lost 67 percent of its value. But this is not just a case of an investment firm being lured by the higher returns of riskier bonds. As investigators continue to piece together what happened at MF Global, there is increasing evidence of criminal activity. This case has all the trappings of a massive case of fraud. Now, CME Group Incorporated, which audited MF Global's accounts, reported weeks ago that Mr. Corzine's company violated key Federal requirements to keep its accounts separate from their customer accounts. At last week's Agriculture Committee hearing, the public was once again told that as much as $1.2 billion may still be missing from segregated customer accounts. This isn't just a case of misplaced money. The financial press has been reporting a staggering amount of malfeasance in the days before MF Global filed for bankruptcy. In an apparent effort to buy themselves time, MF Global sent checks instead of wiring money. Many of those checks, we all know now, bounced. There are stories of requests to transfer funds being denied and even inaccurate account statements being issued. Even more egregious are accounts of people receiving bounced checks going back and finding their accounts were also altered inappropriately. May I ask, if this doesn't sound like fraud, what is it? The American people must demand more congressional oversight. Congress needs to produce more information. I attended last week's hearing in the House Agriculture Committee. While some important questions were asked of Mr. Corzine, Congress' responsibility has been far from met. Anyone who carefully followed the hearing watched as Mr. Corzine dodged questions and provided hollow responses. The Wall Street Journal provided us with an interesting assessment of Mr. Corzine's testimony that is worth entering in the Record. According to the Journal, Governor Corzine ducked or deflected questions 15 times. On five occasions, he used a well known strategy for avoiding accountability by using some variant of the phrase, ``I did not intend to break any rules.'' He apologized or expressed regret six times for the damage his choices wrought on countless families and businesses. But the operative fact is $1.2 billion; that is the amount that is missing from MF Global's segregated client funds for which Mr. Corzine could provide no explanation. In fact, astoundingly, this seasoned trader pleaded ignorance of what was happening at his own company. Let me mention that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Jill Sommers, a representative who testified at the hearing, was very invaluable to public understanding.

Ms. KAPTUR. Perfect. I just want to say a deep thanks to Congressman Garamendi for bringing us together tonight. I wanted to say as a member of the China Commission, we had testimony yesterday from various witnesses on the economy, on the legal structure of China, on democracy and the lack thereof in that country. One of the points that we discussed was how closed the Chinese market is to products from around the world--much like Japan, much like Korea. You look at Singapore, many of the Asian nations keep our products out. And we're asking American companies to try to compete in a situation where our market is open and their market is closed. So we can't get access to those customers. One of the points that was brought up by one of the top economists that testified before the China Commission was the fact that the Chinese Government backs those companies. Really, the government owns the companies, and they infuse billions of dollars. So think about this. The workers and companies of northern Ohio and the U.S. automotive industry are trying to compete in a global market where some of the major markets in the world, like Japan, are closed. And they've remained closed for decades. China does not welcome us in. We are literally competing against state-managed capitalism. It is not a free market. It is not a market economy we are dealing with. It is very controlled. There was criticism by some that, oh gosh, look at Congress, they are helping the U.S. automotive industry. It showed a lack of understanding of what these companies face in the global marketplace. It is not a level playing field. It is simply not. And, unfortunately, we have never had a trade ambassador knowledgeable enough about the automotive industry--that came out again yesterday--who can really successfully bargain to give us a level playing field in one of the most important industries that we have.

Ms. KAPTUR. You raise a very good point, Congressman. And I went into one of these dollar stores--I won't say which name it was--with one of my good friends the other day. I couldn't find a non-Chinese-made item on the shelf.

Ms. KAPTUR. I'm a city planner by training. So I look at the space in these stores, and I thought, I could do this. I could clear one of these aisles. I could consolidate over there. I could provide a place for locally made items, and let the local entrepreneurs compete. But give them a place on the shelf, and don't make them pay these exorbitant fees. It doesn't take an act of Congress for some business innovation in these big box stories. And I am thinking, you know, maybe America in some ways is losing her edge. Because if the CEOs in charge of these retail stores can't be creative enough to figure out how to help us encourage innovation at the local level, what are they getting paid so much for? I think of all the local food products, all the hand-made sweaters, all of the artwork, all of the pottery that's made locally, the food products that can't get to shelf because they keep them out. Come on, men and women out there in the retail world. Show a little creativity here. We have a lot of innovation at the local level.

Ms. KAPTUR. Well, if you try to find different brands, you will see certain brands at eye level because they pay thousands of dollars to each grocery store to put it there. But if you want locally bottled soda, or pop, you are lucky if you can find it on the bottom shelf, and you probably can't. So we have like gatekeepers. The public is largely unaware of this. Local meat. I represent a region that is both urban and rural. I love it. I am privileged to represent it. Try to get locally produced pork on the shelves of large supermarket chains. Good luck. You know, the same is true with vegetables. We could have so much more income growth and job growth in this country if we would have some consciousness by these big retailers and box stores to go local. We grow local. We make local. But then to try to move it to the shelf, it's almost impossible.

Ms. KAPTUR. This year, again, I went to craft shows. I buy dozens and dozens of gifts. And I find locally made items because I know the money will go right in the pockets of local people. And why is it these craft shows, they hold them in churches, and they hold them in auditoriums, why don't some of these big shopping center complexes invite them in? What's the problem with trying to help local innovation, local development? We find so many restrictions that make it hard. One of the reasons we can't grow jobs fast enough is because certain interests in our society have such a lock on who can get in the door. There ought to be a section for local. We shouldn't have to pass a Federal law for that. People should be smart enough out there to do it. It creates more customers all ways around, and a lot of us want to support local.

Ms. KAPTUR. I wanted to just comment obliquely here based on what you've been talking about. In looking at job creation in a given region, if I look at the regions that I've been privileged to represent, we have many small companies or medium-sized companies. I happened to be speaking with one of them the other day, Hirzel, which is a major producer of tomato products in our region. And I said, you know, I was looking for your spaghetti sauce on the shelves of one of our major grocery chains, and I couldn't find it. And it's the best sauce I have ever eaten. I said, How can I help you expand your product placement on the shelves of stores across the country? The owner of the company, a family-owned company--and they are the most wonderful people--he said to me, Well, you don't really understand, Marcy. We really aren't allowed on those shelves because one of the big spaghetti sauce manufacturers--and I won't mention the name--pays the grocery store a fee to keep all new products off their shelves. And even though Hirzel's is not a new product, it's regionally bound; and they can't get on the shelves of supermarkets because of what's called ``slotting fees.''

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I believe that I have a Special Order and time remaining, my own Special Order for 30 minutes.

Ms. KAPTUR. You know what, these large outfits that control retail sales in our country hurt innovation because what they do is they make deals with some of the biggest companies. Ask yourself, why, when you go through a supermarket and you want to find soda pop--they call it soda pop in some places, and they call it--what do they call it in your part of the country?

Ms. KAPTUR. Congressman Garamendi, as you were talking, I was thinking about that chart that shows the flatness of income growth in the middle class, and I was thinking about the last several years and about our U.S. trade deficits. Most Americans probably don't realize it, but annually, we rack up about $500 billion more in imports coming into our country than exports going out, and it hits the working class--the middle class of people-- very, very hard because it substitutes for the income that they would normally earn if they were manufacturing in this country as many cars as they used to. What we see happening is a tipping toward the top, but really all sectors are affected by the fact that our trade deficit lops off most of the gross domestic product growth every year. A half-trillion dollars bleeding out of our economy for purchases of everything from electronics to energy to automobiles, which are things that should be made inside this country, is a huge downdraft on every income quartile in our country. Thus, your efforts to promote American-made goods are right on target.

Ms. KAPTUR. The problem is, when you have 100 people out there looking for a given job, it means 99 won't get it. And these are people who want to work. They have a record of working. They have actually collected their benefits. They've paid into the insurance fund for unemployment in their respective States. But when the economy doesn't recover as fast as it must, then what happens is, after they use up their first 26 weeks of unemployment, what are they supposed to do? Where are they going to work in order to provide for their families? We've had to, at the Federal level, extend unemployment because of this massive recession that we are digging out of. We have had to extend people. These are people who want to work, who have worked, who have a working record. So they continue looking for jobs. And I can tell you, some of them have been looking for jobs for 3 and 4 years. It isn't that they don't want to work. How many have I talked to where they have sent out hundreds of resumes? They have gone door-to-door looking for work. They have tried, and yet the door keeps getting shut in their face. At some point, any human being begins to think, There must be something wrong with me that I can't obtain work, when they have a very good record. Many of them are doing two and three jobs just to bring income in and then look to find a full-time job. It's very disruptive to family life. Many of them have moved in with their relatives now. And they shouldn't feel like failures. I said to my audiences back home, It isn't your fault. You didn't do this to America. The biggest banks failed us. They failed our country. They've hurt us. They've created false money. Many of them became so rich that no normal person could even imagine what they're floating in. But it isn't the fault of the ordinary worker. They shouldn't eat themselves up in self-agony. There's a lot of that out there.

Ms. KAPTUR. I would like to add one item, though.

Ms. KAPTUR. Again, it's like a teeter-totter. It's like it's tipped in one direction.

Ms. KAPTUR. I think everybody in our country knows that we all will have to sacrifice in order to pay down our long-term debt and that when we make public decisions that we help our economy grow. In every business I go into, they say, Marcy, bring me customers, bring me customers. Whether they're out of work and they receive unemployment benefits, which they have earned, or whether it's allowing an individual through a payroll tax holiday to have a few extra dollars of spending money, the advantage of helping the middle class is that it's going to go directly into our economy. It goes to every small business. Whether it's to buy vegetables at the corner stand, whether it's to buy gasoline for your car, whether it's to buy clothing for your children, when you think about where those dollars will go, it's going to go to essentials. It won't be wasted money. All of history shows us, because their incomes have really not gone up, because buying power has gone down for the average family and prices are going up, that the middle class is guarding every penny so much more carefully. I had to go out and buy some throw rugs the other day because of all the rain in the Midwest that had caused water to rise in our basement. I couldn't believe the price of throw rugs. I thought, oh, my goodness, and I went to two or three stores. I don't have time to do that, but I was reacting to the increase in prices. The average family has great difficulty in buying those kinds of items, so those few hundreds of dollars mean everything, and they will use it to improve their homes, for example.

Ms. KAPTUR. Boy, it takes a little bit of patriotism.

Ms. KAPTUR. I wanted to mention as you were talking, Congressman Garamendi, as a result of the refinancing of the U.S. automotive industry in northern Ohio--from Cleveland, Elyria, Lorain, Avon Lake, Sandusky, Toledo, Defiance, the whole corridor--what we are seeing is a reinvestment in the supplier chain. That includes steel such as Republic Steel. People don't realize how many jobs in America are connected to the automotive industry. Your State of California, which manufactures a lot of semiconductors, half of the semiconductors procured in this country go into the automotive industry. If you think about carpeting, half of the carpeting sold in this country goes into automotive production. Plastics, glass--think about what is really in there. As a result of what we were able to do here, with a lot of flak from one side of the aisle, although there was some support, was to refinance the U.S. auto industry. We just had an announcement in Avon Lake that the truck platform will be coming back to us from Mexico. So that is retention of jobs in Avon Lake. It is part of the rebirth of automotive and truck transportation across the north. We are producing vehicles like the Wrangler, one of the most popular vehicles in the country, obviously, and the new Cruze for General Motors. But all the supplier chain, Republic Steel, they're putting in a new arc furnace. You're looking at the restoration of production. It's coming slowly, but it's coming. So we have to be proud of actions that were taken by the Government of the United States of America through the action of Congress and by the President to help save one of America's lodestar industries, which has now paid back its loans and is rehiring.