Ron Klein

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Lieutenant Rafael Vazquez of the Palm Beach Fire Rescue. Known as ``Ray,'' this brave firefighter died tragically on Monday, March 3, as a result of a random shooting in West Palm Beach, Florida. The details of Lt. Vazquez's death are heartbreaking. The 42-year-old lieutenant had just finished eating lunch with his wife, Michele, and their 4-year-old son when, ever the caring parent, Ray decided to go back inside the restaurant to exchange a toy that had come with his child's meal. It was a fateful decision. Once inside, Ray was met by a deranged gunman, Alburn Edward Blake, who opened fire. When it was over, Lt. Vazquez lay dead and four others were injured. Then Alburn Edward Blake turned the gun on himself. Ray's life was one of tireless dedication toward protecting his fellow citizens. Formerly a firefighter with the town of Lake Park, he was hired by the Palm Beach Fire Rescue in February 2001 and was promoted to Rescue Lieutenant in January 2007. He had been assigned to Rescue 28 in Royal Palm Beach, Florida. Lt. Vazquez is survived by his wife Michele, an officer with Palm Springs Public Safety, and their 5 children, ages 4-21. In closing, I think the best way to honor Ray's life in Congress is to let his wife Michele speak for him in her own words. She says, ``I don't understand why these horrible things happen. But no horrible thing can take away our memories. My husband was an outstanding father and the most giving husband. He was my best friend; I'm going to miss him so much.'' A dedicated firefighter, father, and human being, Lt. Ray Vazquez deserves all the honor and praise this distinguished body can bestow upon him.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of the Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education Act, otherwise known as the GIVE Act. This legislation speaks to what makes our country great, Americans volunteering to give back to their communities. Volunteerism is so important to helping the less fortunate, working to better one's community, and instilling a sense of patriotism and love for one's country. Volunteers are critical to pulling our country through hard times. Following the hurricanes that plagued my home State of Florida, I witnessed firsthand the overwhelming response from volunteers who came out to respond to the needs of hurricane victims. Volunteers came together to provide these victims with clothing, food, shelter, and other items that displaced residents and families needed to get their lives back on track. The GIVE Act will continue this strong tradition of volunteerism in America by increasing community service opportunities and providing new incentives for volunteering. Furthermore, I am proud to support legislation that puts a premium on disaster preparedness and emergency response. I would like to commend Representative McCarthy for her work on this bill and urge my colleagues to support this bill for the betterment of all our communities and our country as a whole.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1922, the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse Outstanding Natural Area Act of 2007. As one of its cosponsors, I applaud my good friend, Representative Tim Mahoney, for shepherding this bill through the House. H.R. 1922 will establish the Jupiter Lighthouse and the surrounding 126 acres as an ``outstanding natural area,'' only the second in the country and the only one east of the Mississippi. The lighthouse area is well-deserving of this designation. It is home to a wide range of endangered species of flora and fauna, and it tells a rich story of Florida's history and prehistory. The Jupiter Lighthouse is the epicenter for education, history, ecology, science, and recreation. This legislation will elevate this local and regional site to national prominence and help an important part of Florida's history become a valuable part of our shared American history.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, it's a pleasure to be here. I'm going to be joined by a number of the members of the freshmen class, and I appreciate the Speaker being one of our Members from Ohio. We have a great group of Members from all over the United States who were elected a year ago on certainly a campaign of change and bringing some new ideas, new energy. And energy is going to be the subject tonight because a lot of us have a lot of it. I know Americans are looking for some new ideas on how to solve our problems with energy and how to move our country forward. And the reason it's important, particularly important today is because today this House Chamber took a bold, new step, and we passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act of 2008. And as I said, many freshmen, and many Members, Democrat and Republican, ran on a platform of change and new ideas. Energy is that idea. It's that platform. And if you're old enough, you'll remember the Manhattan Project. I know I'm speaking to people who are listening in this Chamber tonight that are familiar with that Manhattan Project. It was that great ingenuity that Americans came together and knew what they had to do in order to win World War II. It was done in secret, but it produced the results that were necessary to save lives at the end of the day. More recently, again a number of years but more recently, we had something called the Sputnik that Russia sent up, a little tin can that went up into space. And for those people who were alive at that time, they were frightened, rightfully so, that the Russians had gotten ahead of us and had put something in space that could potentially give the Russians the control, the Soviet Union control, of the space above our heads and maybe they would rain down on us weapons and have other kinds of threats against the United States. And President John F. Kennedy, at that moment in time when Americans looked up and saw that can, that little flash in the sky, and realized that it wasn't the United States that put that up there but a country that at that time was viewed as in competition and the Cold War was just developing, what happened at that moment was John F. Kennedy said we are going to take this moment, capitalize on the concern, and channel that into a new program, a space program that was going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. And, boy, that was something that was incredible. It was unheard of. Could we do it? I mean, the Moon is up there, and it would take a great amount of technology and science, and maybe it was a dream that our philosophers and other scientists years ago had, but to actually accomplish that in 10 years? And lo and behold, in 1969, in July, I remember the moment. I was in a camp at that time, and I remember watching with my friends. In July of 1969, Americans put a man on the Moon and landed a man on the Moon. What an incredible accomplishment. And today we are still receiving the dividends from a space program that has just had so much impact not only on American ingenuity in terms of the space program and all the great things that have come out of that, but in consumer products, microwave ovens and a whole lot of other things that we take for granted today that came out of the science, and the math and the science and all the great things that went on in our schools to create the future leaders and the science program and the space program that has continued through today. This is that moment. This is that time when Americans need to seize this crisis that has been developing for quite some time, and we need to do something about it. And there are three groups of people in the United States that are all coming together behind renewable energy and making sure that America becomes energy self-sufficient over the next number of years. We have had many people in this country from the environmental community that for years have said that the pollution caused by various types of fossil fuels have clouded our air and damaged and polluted our waters, and it's not only in the United States but throughout the world. The environmental community has been very concerned about this and has tried to build bridges and coalitions, and they've really worked hard on that. And they are now joined by two other groups. All Americans join in the notion that as a matter of national security, and I certainly believe this and I know the Speaker does too, and many of the men and women in this room and most Americans understand this, that for too long we in America have made foreign policy decisions based on where the next drop of oil is coming from. And what a mistake. What a mistake. We've done it over and over and over again, whether it's dealing with Iran in our past history, dealing with Iraq presently, dealing with Venezuela, or any number of other countries in the Middle East, some of whom at best, at best, may not be our friends and, at worst, are our enemies. And yet every time you go to the pump, you're putting money not necessarily in an American company, but you are putting money that is eventually getting into the pockets of some of the owners of these oil wells in these countries that are damaging our interests and in many cases are funneling to the terrorists and the people around the world that are really putting our men and women at risk, whether it's in Iraq or anywhere around the world. This is a very dangerous prospect and it's unacceptable. The third group, of course, and I think this is one of the most exciting things, is the new economy that is developing out of this energy discussion. The job opportunities, the great innovators, the scientists, the American men and women at our universities, our business entrepreneurs that understand that not only is this good for America in terms of our environment and our national security but we could be very successful at it from a business point of view. We can create new technologies. We can do lots of things that create jobs, create revenue, create income, make our standard of living higher and greater. And we cannot only take that and build for America, this can be the next economic boom that exports our technology, our products, our sciences to other countries around the world. It's pretty exciting. And I really believe very strongly that the great notions that have come out of today's bill recognize the fact that a few years ago when President Bush was inaugurated as President, oil was at $26 a barrel. Think about that. That's $26 a barrel. Today it's hovering around $100 a barrel. And I know that every American should say shame on all of us, not only as elected officials, but also as American consumers, shame on us for allowing that to happen. That's not just a political thing; that's literally our responsibility. We have our own responsibility to make a decision and make a difference here. So what we have done today, and I am joined by other members of our freshmen class and others and we are all going to talk about this for a few minutes, is pass a bill that does what we were talking about. It puts the emphasis, it puts the incentives, economic and otherwise, into the science, the technology of renewable energy sources, whether it's wave power, wind power, any combination of coal, nuclear. And, yes, I hear from so many people that some of these have issues, technology issues, safety issues. And they may. And it's up to us to solve those. Let's think big. I'm not here to advocate for any one of these alternatives. I think all of them have possibilities, and we have to make sure that all of them have the necessary safety and necessary science that goes with them before we move in any direction. But this is the time for us to focus all of our energy, our attention, and our resources on making sure our country is energy independent. And today is the first step where we are going to do that. And I look forward to working with all of our colleagues in the Senate and hopefully get our President to go along with us because I know America is ready, willing, and able to accomplish this goal. I am joined by a good friend, Congressman Ellison. Congressman Ellison has been a very outspoken person on the importance of energy independence, and I'm going to yield to him to give his thoughts on today's action.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from New York for the encouragement to help move this in the right direction. And to close, I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Congressman, and I appreciate, I know you come from the Midwest and obviously dealing at this time of the year with the oil costs for people that have to heat their homes and to drive cars, this is a very serious issue. As we take a look at some of these charts that we have here, we already talked about the fact back in January of 2001, it cost $1.47 for a tank of gas. Today, it is $3.13. Now the inflation rate hasn't gone at that pace. The inflation rate is starting to pick up now, but nothing like this. And I have to tell you something, where I live in south Florida, it is not $3.13. It is higher than that. It is $3.40.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Absolutely. And as a matter of fact, we had a discussion in our Financial Services Committee today. I am on the Financial Services Committee with you. And we heard Mr. Bernanke, who is the chairman of the Federal Reserve, who is really trying to do the best that he can under difficult circumstances, and he talked about 6 months ago, we talked about the fact that we had a subprime mortgage crisis problem and a couple of other things, but that all the other indicators, inflation and cost of living were pretty okay. Well, guess what? Today, we see the things that really affect families. When we talk about families, we are not talking about Wall Street. We are talking about what it really costs to live day to day. Look through your checkbook, your monthly expenses. Your mortgage or your rent, the cost of utilities, all have gone up because oil prices have gone up. The cost of food, extraordinarily, inflation, big inflation costs of food, a gallon of milk, vegetables, fruits, cereals, all these kinds of things all have gone up. Gasoline now costs $50, $60 a tank, depending on what kind of car you have or how big the tank is. Do you know something? For people that are earning 20, 30, $40,000 a year, it is pretty hard to make ends meet. For people on minimum wage, it is even worse. So I think this is a real economic issue for people at this moment that we have to solve. And there will be short-term issues we put in this bill and some longer term issues we started out talking about today. Let me just talk for a second, Congressman, about the bill itself and talk about what it does. First of all, it extends the tax credit for solar energy and qualified fuel cells. We start talking about some of these renewable energy ideas. I happen to be from Florida, so I'm a big fan of solar. But do you know something? The State of Washington, with all the rain that Seattle gets actually does more solar than other States and Florida does. Nationwide there are opportunities to do solar. Solar power has been around a long time. Many countries depend on solar. The State of Israel, the Middle East, a big portion of their electric grid is supported by solar power. Technology just has to make some changes in the battery capacity and storage and things like that. But these are all solvable problems when we put our minds to it. Again, investment tax credits, using the Federal Government to stimulate market, which is exactly what we want to incentivize the science and business development. We are authorizing over $2 billion of new, clean renewable energy bonds for public power providers and electric cooperatives, again encouraging through market, through incentives, our utilities, to start to convert over to clean, renewable energy products and fuels. We create a new production tax credit for cellulitic alcohol produced for fuel in the United States. Now we all know about corn ethanol, corn-based ethanol. Brazil, the largest industrial country in South America, 190 million people, they are now energy independent. This is not an 8 million person country. This is a country that put its goal on the line about a generation ago and said we are going to do it, and a whole lot of different types, but they use sugar-based ethanol as one way of doing it. We extend the biodiesel production tax credit. We extend the tax credit for purchase of fuel-efficient plug-in hybrid vehicles. We extend the energy-efficient commercial buildings deduction. All these things are designed to create market. We don't have to have the Federal Government involved in all of this, other than to say create market. Federal buildings, let's make them energy independent. And by doing so, as taxpayers, we are getting a better cost for our utility, and we are also creating the products and encouraging the development of products that are going to save money. So these are the kinds of things that are in this bill. And there are a whole lot of other things we have already done. We have increased the CAFE standards, that is for fuel miles per gallon in automobiles, for the first time in 36 years. Imagine Congresses over the last 10, 20 years that haven't touched that. Technology has grown, but no commitment. So I am really proud that we have worked together in a bipartisan way to do this. And President Bush has gone along. One thing President Bush has not gone along with, and I hope he does right now, is this notion of $15 billion or so of tax rebates or incentives to oil companies for more oil drilling. God bless the oil companies. They are doing just fine. As a matter of fact, I think there is a chart that we have here on oil company profits. This is not a question of bashing oil companies. We are all entrepreneurs. We are all capitalists. We understand what that means. But at the same time, a little fairness here, this is a chart that shows the major oil companies in the United States. In 2002, $30 billion of profit. In 2004, $109 billion of profit, 2 years later. In 2007, $123 billion of profit. That is a lot of profit. That is more money than any other company in the history of the United States has ever made. Now I am not even going to knock that. But what I will say is the American taxpayer doesn't have to put $15 billion of additional taxpayer money on top of that. And when you hear our friends on the other side of the aisle say, oh, well, if you take away the incentives that the Federal Government is giving them, all you are going to do is raise the price at the pump. Excuse me? Lots of profit here to generate more oil wells and things like that, and they will do that because it makes good economic sense, and let them do it. That is good. I just don't think we have to put some frosting on the cake. I would rather take our taxpayer money and put it toward development of energy independence.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Congressman, and I just want to touch on, if I can, because this freshman class of ours along with many others in the Congress were very frustrated, along with most Americans, about the way that Congress had been operating for the last number of years. The last 6 years before this past term, Congress was passing these bloated budgets, the President was signing them going deeper and deeper into deficit, and obviously there are a lot of very expensive things going on right now, but no lack of discipline in terms of control of our fiscal house. And I have kids, Congressman, you have kids, we all have children, grandchildren, parents whatever, why would we, as a country, want to continue to put ourselves farther and farther in debt? And that is the direction we have been going. I am very proud to say that this Congress in the first week, we passed something called PAYGO. It's a simple principle, pay as you go. It is no different from when I had a business, if I couldn't meet my payroll, I made cuts. You can't spend more than you have coming in. Maybe you can borrow a little bit. But you have to pay your debt service. You can't keep on borrowing, and in the case of government, printing money. The good news is that this Congress is showing fiscal discipline for the first time in a long time. I am committed to it, I am a fiscal discipline person, a hawk if you will, and I know you are, as well, Congressman, and as we go through this process, this bill is fully paid for. And the rule that we have, PAYGO, is that no bill can pass unless it is fully paid for. So that means no speculation that the budget is going to grow by 3 percent next year and we will have the money next year, and money is going to appear out of nowhere. The money has to be in the budget. We have to make cuts somewhere else or prioritize something. And that is exactly what budgeting is all about. I am proud not only as a Democrat but as an American, as a Member of this Congress, that is the direction we are going. It is going to take time to dig out of this hole, but it is a start. This particular piece of legislation is paid for. The way it has been paid for is in part taking the subsidy I mentioned a few minutes ago which is billions and billions of dollars and saying instead of just giving it to oil companies for more oil drilling, oil is always going to be a part of our national energy policy. But it can't be the only. And just to give more money and flush it in that way, let's bring it in. And so we have taken money from one source and put it in what I believe and I think many of us believe is a higher priority of renewable energy sources and moving in that direction. I will just share this with you real quickly because I thought it was quite unique. A lot of this stuff that we pass out of Washington is viewed in a partisan way, but there are different groups that have different positions on it and different opinions. I am going to read, this is a very long list, I will read just a handful of the supporters, the organizations that are supporting this energy legislation because I think it speaks volumes coming from different points in the country and how important it is. We have the American Institute of Architects, American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the Audubon Society, DuPont, a big manufacturer; Friends of the Earth, an environmental group; Greenpeace, The Home Depot, Florida Power & Light, a big producer in my State of electricity; Macy's, Mitsubishi Electric and Electronics U.S.A., National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Industrial Office Properties, PG&E Corporation, Target Corporation, Wal-Mart, Yahoo. And I can go on. There are pages and pages of groups that are behind this, environmental all the way on one end or wherever you want to place them, to large industrial corporations, entrepreneurs, innovators, venture capitalists, scientists and universities on the other. That to me is the ideal position you want to be in. You want to have an ownership of an idea that we've taken into context all the various ideas and brought in a piece of legislation that is good for everyone. It is not perfect. We are going to continue to build on this. But it is an excellent first step, Congressman.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I agree with you. And if you think about the bills that we passed, this one and the other one, the other bill we passed, in addition to increasing the fuel efficiency for automobiles, which I think is long overdue, also creates changes in specifications of light bulbs, dishwashers, refrigerators, freezers. These are products all of us have in our home. Many of them, they are inefficient. They may be older, or they may just not be efficient to start with. What we have done is, as the products are now going to come out of the market, they are going to have to have a greater efficiency standard for the amount of power that they use. That is a very important thing, because now what we are seeing is with light bulbs or any other thing that uses electricity out there, that over time we are going to be able to save massive amounts of power, and the amount of power that we save directly goes into the amount of fuel and pollution and hydrocarbons and all of the rest of those things that are produced. This is something that Americans are asking for. And as competition comes into play, more and more companies will be producing these, the prices will come down, the normal competitive forces work. So the fact that if you hear about one company right now that manufactures a refrigerator that uses 30 percent less power but it costs you $1,000 more, well, you are not going to buy it. Some people may, but it is not going to have wide market appeal. But it will when you have 10 companies producing it, and they are all in there trying to make it better than the other companies. This is just like any other product that comes to market. We know that happens with TVs, and even with the flat screen TVs. They are all coming down in price now, and DVDs and VCRs and all those kinds of things. It is the same concept. American people want products that are going to be efficient because they can save money in the long run. If you can pay for it over the next 3 years in savings, it is a wonderful thing. But I think it is very exciting, because we are in there to promote the general idea of renewable energy. There is not one answer for all of this, but there are so many different parts of this country where there is lots of great research going on. Right off the coast of Florida where I live is the Gulf Stream. You may be familiar with the Gulf Stream. It is a current that developed off the coast of the United States and goes all the way up north. I am told by the scientists who are working on this right now that the power of the Gulf Stream, if harnessed with various types of turbines and things like that, and these turbines have to be generated and have to be environmentally friendly and all the rest and all of this is under development, that over time they believe that power can generate enough electricity to power half of Florida's power needs. Wow. I don't know if that is going to happen, but I like the idea that people are thinking and creating and innovating. We have enough coal in the ground in the continental United States to power this country for decades to come, but there are problems with coal. Some of it is high sulfur and it creates pollution problems. But there may be technology that can be developed to scrub the coal. Again, there needs to be this emphasis to say, we are not just going to accept the fact that this is coal and that we are going to continue to pollute. We are going to be able to find a solution here. There are solutions to every problem. As I said before, it is not only the United States, because we can do all that we want to do in terms of leading the world in dealing with these environmental issues and energy solutions, but there are other countries, China and so many other countries, that are huge power users and huge fossil fuel users, that if we can create something that is cost-effective, environmentally friendly, will create a better life for everybody, we are going to have a huge market to sell those products to. So, I am just very excited, and you can probably hear it in my voice because I have been talking about this for many years, but I am so happy to be a part of Congress with our freshman class, Democrats and Republicans and Members who just have been hearing loud and clear from people back home, all over America, that they want change. And this is one of these areas that allows such opportunity for us to come together as a country, solve a problem, create jobs, fix the environment, and do things that will increase our national security. As we go forward with this, we have so many members of our caucus who have been interested in this. We are joined by another member of our freshman class, I like to call them freshmen, we are still freshmen, it is Congressman Hall from New York. Congressman Hall has a long history before he got to Congress of having a tremendous amount of interest in energy, and he has some personal experiences in work in his own community on energy issues. I am glad you joined us for this discussion. We have been talking about the landmark bill that we passed today and what a great thing it is for America and how we are going to take many, many more steps forward. But please give us your thoughts, Congressman Hall.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Well, I hope that as we are all discussing this today, it's clear that the level of deep understanding of this issue from my colleagues here and many on the floor of the United States House of Representatives today really gives you the sense that we are moving in a direction that has been well thought out, it has been deliberated carefully. As I said before, you have got a remarkable group of people from one end of our country to the other, the business community, the environmental community that have come to embrace this and break down this, it's either good for the environment and bad for the economy or, you know, bad for jobs and good for the environment. It's a fallacy. It's a false statement, it's a misstatement, and it's just the wrong way to approach it, but it has been that way for so many years. People seem to position it that way in the political environment. As you very clearly made the case today, it's a win-win-win, good for the environment, good for our economy and people's lives and really solves a national security problem that we should have never been in but has now come to the point where we have to listen to OPEC. We have to listen to these countries that are deciding our future. As I said previously in this Chamber, all it's going to take is one super tanker to go down the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East and we will have a worldwide energy crisis. We can't allow that to happen. We cannot allow that to happen. We will not solve it overnight, we will have to take the necessary steps, but today through your efforts Mr. Hall and Mr. Ellison and so many people in the United States House of Representatives, so many Americans who came forward and said take these ideas and put them in legislation and collaborate together, work with Democrats and Republicans, people from all walks of life to come up with something that is innovative, exciting, forward thinking, progressive, this is what we have today. I thank the gentleman from New York for great insight and great thought, because you are truly one of the architects of the great piece of legislation today. Mr. Ellison, I know you were ready to add something to Mr. Hall's comments as well.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you, Congressman. Again, Minnesota is well served by great leadership there. You know, it's funny, as the gentleman was talking about our children, I look back and think when I was growing up, and you would drive down the road, and people would just, when they were done with a bag of food, they would just throw it out the window; a can of soda, throw it out the window; cigarettes, throw it out the window. On any side road, you just see garbage. It wasn't until our kids started saying what are you doing, why are you doing this? Then the whole notion of recycling and how that became built in. But it wasn't from parents that came forward or grandparents. It was children. Learning in school, learning about their environment, learning about how important it was to preserve and to protect and clean up and not add to pollution and things that caused environmental problems. Those are the things. Those are the changes. Seat belts, those are another example. Children were taught about it. We as adults, many people didn't do it. Obviously laws were passed later, but it was children. I remember my kids saying to my wife early on, you got in the car, where is your seat belt? Why don't you put your seat belt on? She obviously was not shamed into it but learned from our kids. I think our generation today is a generation, as I started today's conversation, this is the calling of this generation, a calling of our young people to call upon our adults, our grandparents, everyone in America to say this is something that is so important to the United States on so many levels as we have been discussing, that we are going to have to do it. It's the generation that's in school today, that's in college today that are young adults that are driving and realize that they have a lifetime to live. That lifetime needs to be on a planet that is clean, has fresh air, has fresh water and all the things that are important, and, at the same time, we can live in a country that produces high- quality jobs and creates all sorts of products and services that can be done. Last week in West Palm Beach, I was in an office building that's a green building, a certified building. Now some people don't know what that is, and I am learning about this as we go, but this is a building that is designed from top to bottom. Its energy use, the whole construct of the building is such that it is really designed to save energy, to create a much more productive environment. So it's not just the energy side, but it's the whole environment, working and living and all those kinds of things. It was fascinating, because a lot of people say, well, I am not going to go there. It costs a lot more. If you build it from the ground up, it doesn't cost that much more. There are a lot of savings to be generated out of these types of savings, savings of water in the plumbing, savings of water in the energy, the lights, the electricity, the heating, the ventilating and the air conditioning, all very important, lots of opportunity. Market is being created. The support is there. These people are leasing up this building. Things are a little slower for it right now, but this gentleman who has speculated on this building, he is finding tenants because they are saying, you know something, it makes sense. It's good for my corporate image. It's good for my employees, my production. We're going to save money in the long run. Why not. There are lots of ways to retrofit buildings, too, that I know the gentleman is very familiar with. So these are the kinds of things that I know are very important to all of us that are created and encouraged in this bill and in other bills. Of course, as we move forward we are going to look for ideas from our constituents, our business people, our kids, our scientists and what other things we can do for our country, some through legislation, some just talking about it, moving it forward. These are the things, and now we are joined by another Member who is so active, and I know his campaign was heavily involved in environmental and energy issues, the gentleman from California, the Golden State, Mr. McNerney. If you would please join us and give us your thoughts on today's legislation and how you feel about the issue.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from California. I certainly call on those in the other body, the Senate, to also think boldly about energy independence and help us pass this bill as fast as possible. When the Senate passes the energy bill, we as Americans urge the President of the United States to sign it quickly and to join together with all of us. This is the calling of our generation, and the time is now. I thank the gentlemen and all of our Members of the House of Representatives, those who supported the bill today, and encourage others to join us on the ride.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a great man, Congressman Tom Lantos. I would like to send my deepest sympathies to Annette and the whole Lantos family. Congressman Tom Lantos' partnership with his wife, Annette, was one of respect and true adoration. I hope that the whole family will be comforted by the knowledge that Tom's work has enhanced the lives of millions around the world. I was proud to serve on the Foreign Affairs Committee under the chairmanship of Tom Lantos. Within the Congress, he was viewed as the strongest and most vocal defender of human rights. When he spoke, people listened, and when he led, people followed. His moral clarity serves as an example that generations to come will strive to follow. His achievements in world affairs will live on as his legacy. His impassioned protection of human rights, his crusade for democracy, his defense of Israel and Jews worldwide, show that one individual truly can make a difference in this world. Last fall, he and Annette asked me to lead the Congressional Taskforce on Anti-Semitism, which is a project that they started together as Holocaust survivors. Now, as we continue our fight against anti-Semitism throughout the world, his memory will carry on in everything that we do. Congress and the Nation have lost an important voice. But that voice will continue to inspire America and people throughout the world.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a distinguished member of our community in Broward County, Florida. I would like to recognize and congratulate Ms. Nicole Marsala as Broward County's Teacher of the Year for 2009. Ms. Marsala has taught her students the true meaning of civic duty, not only through her creative teaching style, but also by example, having served Coral Springs for over eight years. Her innovative approach to teaching traditional topics in social sciences provides her students with a new perspective on some of the most important chapters in our country's history. She believes that teaching involves more than just following lesson plans in textbooks, and that it is critical to step outside the classroom from time to time and learn through hands-on experience. I believe that there is no lesson more significant and appropriate for our students than how this country was founded, and how we can continue to improve our community. As caring as she is competent, Ms. Marsala has shown faithful dedication to the education of her students by inspiring creativity and encouraging parents to take an active role in fostering a passion for history and civic responsibility. Madam Speaker, Coral Springs is privileged to have Ms. Marsala as a teacher, and our entire community is grateful for her leadership. Her lessons have truly gone beyond the classroom, and her contributions to our community will certainly last for generations to come.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Mr. Speaker, our economy is in trouble, and millions of hardworking American families are feeling the impact as we speak. Since 2001, the real income of a typical working family has fallen by $2,500, and workers' wages have failed to keep up with the inflation for the fourth time in the past 5 years. In December, the unemployment rate shot up to a 2-year high of 5 percent with over 900,000 more Americans looking for work over the same period last year. Stagnant wages are not only forcing families to squeeze more out of every dollar, but are also taking a toll on our overall economy. Retailers suffered their worst December shopping season in 5 years, and consumer confidence fell this month to its lowest point on record. Last week, the House approved a bipartisan economic package that will provide urgent relief to 117 million Americans. This is a fair economic package that gets money to the workers, the people who need it the most; and they are most likely to spend it on necessities like groceries and gas. Economists estimate that each dollar of the rebate will lead to $1.26 in economic growth. Mr. Speaker, economists also say we have to act fast. That's exactly what this House did, and I hope the Senate joins us.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I thank the gentleman from Kentucky and the gentleman from New York. I certainly agree with all the statements you have made and would just share a few of my own thoughts on the budget. A budget is a statement of our values, as Americans, collectively. We are not Democrats, we are not Republicans, we are not independents, we are Americans. We all are putting a lot of money, hard-earned money into the government. The question is what's going to be done with it. What is the best value that can be used to help people achieve a better life, help our economy, help job creation and all those things that are important to our communities. The biggest concern that I have with the budget that is being proposed by the administration is to me it is more of missed opportunities. We know that we have a difficult economy right now. Certainly in Florida where we have had tremendous growth over the last number of years, all of a sudden things have stopped. The real estate market and all of the various businesses that are affected, and homeowners that are affected by a real estate market that has slowed to a standstill, we need to help people through the foreclosures and various other things. But what does this budget do, something that all of us said we were going to change. In this body we have PAYGO, pay as you go. We can only pass legislation that is paid for in advance. My two friends here are fiscal hawks. We believe in a deficit that has to be brought down and a balanced budget. That is the way we live our personal lives. In the State legislature, we had balanced budgets. That is the way you run your business. What does this budget do? First of all, it is over $3 trillion. The amount of money going into the Federal Government is extraordinary from an administration that said they wanted smaller government and less spending. Put that issue aside for a second, this continues the budget deficit and increases it by another $400 billion. This is after, as the gentleman from New York said, this does not stop the biggest tax increase, the alternative minimum tax, which we tried to fix. We had a very good way of fixing it this year, and the President refused. Some people on the other side of the aisle in the Senate refused to do it. It has to be fixed. The President in his proposal cuts Medicare and Medicaid. I don't know about you; I am sure you are hearing the same thing I'm hearing. Our doctors, our hospitals, our providers, they are taking care of our Medicare population in our communities, and they are feeling it. They have been cut and cut and cut, and it is not keeping up with the cost of operating a practice. We know that they need to receive fair compensation. That is unacceptable. I don't think that is something that this Congress is going to support. So again, an assumption that doesn't have any bearing on where things are going. The President, who has been a big supporter of the Iraq war, as we know, and has continued to ask for more and more money, hundreds of billions of dollars, interestingly enough, in this budget sets it up for $70 billion of additional expenditures only through January 20. Now, what is January 20? That is Inauguration Day of a new President, whoever that may be. But boy, is that an unrealistic way of looking at it, particularly after he has been criticizing Members of Congress saying that you can't put a date at the end of funding because you are going to cut off our troops, cut off funding of the bullets and all of the necessary support, which we are not prepared to do, but he is doing. He is saying on January 20, if you pass this budget, there is no more money after that date to fund the Iraq war, not because he doesn't want to fund the Iraq war, but that is how he is creating a smaller amount of a big deficit. Instead of $400 billion, it would be $500 billion or something like that. So the question is what can we do, because I think there are a whole lot of assumptions here that are incorrect. I have a chart here that I have talked about before, and I think this is totally unacceptable. The lack of fiscal discipline of this administration over the last 6 or 7 years has resulted in increasing debt to an unacceptable amount in terms of us bringing our budget in line. So, although the financing of the war, which has been off the books, the financing of all of these various things that the President wanted to fund, instead of cutting spending or being a little more fiscally responsible, we have been borrowing, and borrowing from foreign investors. Those are foreign countries. We are a debtor country to China and Mexico, and the list goes on and on. Under this administration, in trillions of dollars we are talking about, in 2001 the amount of foreign-held Treasury securities was $1 trillion. That is a massive amount of money. In the last 6 years, it has now doubled to $2.3 trillion. Just to put it in perspective, the amount of interest that we are paying this year, strictly interest, not principal, not amortizing of the principal and interest together, just interest is over $300 billion. To me, that is money we are just flushing down the drain. If there was some fiscal discipline like the House leadership has been pushing, we could take that money and do a number of things. We could take care of Americans first. How about all of us, whether it is health care, job creation, job training, so many infrastructure issues in our communities; these are the issue of our day. And instead of sending that money overseas to pay interest, not even principal, that is $300 billion that is being thrown out the door offshore to some other country because we don't have the wherewithal, as we do in this House, because the President hasn't been willing to work with us in bringing this budget in line. Mr. Speaker, there are many Republicans as well, but certainly the Democrats have stood together on this, and we welcome everyone as Americans to focus on this together. We have to get the budget in line. The budget that is being proposed by the President right now is something that is relying on a lot of unrealistic assumptions that will never pass because the American people don't want them to be cut, whether Medicare and a number of other things, and we have to find a way to get the budget deficit under control. That is essential. We can't mortgage the future of our country. We cannot allow our children to have to pay and our grandchildren to have to pay for something that this generation wasn't prepared to stand up and say, Yes, we can live within our means. Yes, we can have a strong economy and fight wars when necessary. And yes, we will take care of Americans when there are natural disasters, and it can all be done under a fiscally responsible way, and that has not been the record of this administration. We are going to work hard in a bipartisan way to get this under control. I appreciate the fact that the gentleman from Kentucky brought this to us, and I look forward to working with him and the gentleman from New York on fixing this problem.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Thank you. I think both of you were talking about two priorities of our country and the shortfalls and where we need to be, where we've been, and where we are going as a country. And I think we look at ourselves, and you hear this in the Presidential debates right now about the vision. And any Presidential candidate that comes forward and talks about the vision of what our country needs to be, where we need to go, the heritage of our country, the legacy of all of the great innovation that's happened and the fact that maybe we've missed a couple of steps. Not to say we can't regain and continue to move forward, because that's exactly what we are going to do. But it is going to take some new leadership through the Congress, through the Presidency and through the American people, and through our business community as well. It is a cooperative effort. And I think about a few of the things that are the priorities that help us get there. Education, as you just said, is one of them. And one of the things that concerned me about the budget was the fact that the President had dropped the amount of college grants and the tuition assistance programs in the budget. And again, once again, this Congress, bipartisan, came forward and increased the Pell Grants and increased the college tuition, because if there's one thing I think we can all agree on as Americans, every student, every teenager, every adult who wants to get a higher level of education and create a greater level of workforce training which will only make their lives more productive and make their country more productive, that's a good thing. It always has been. Education has been the great equalizer in the United States, and we ought to be doing everything we can to make sure that we are giving that access and that opportunity for every student. So, again, a misdirection in this budget which needs to be corrected. Another thing that I think is extremely important, and all of us have some family history of illness whether it is Alzheimer's, whether it is kidney disease, or whether it is cancer or heart disease. And one of the things that our government has consistently done working with the private sector is research, basic research, which will hopefully find cures. I know my mother passed away at a young age of 52. She was a very vibrant person and developed cancer, and after she went through some treatments over a period of time, we lost her. But it certainly gave me that commitment, and I know I fought along with many Members of the Congress, and the people who are listening tonight have their own family histories. And we know that collectively, we have to find ways of curing diseases. Cuts in this budget to the grants for research, wrong direction. Really wrong direction. I feel extremely strong about this that we need to have the National Institute of Health grants to work with scientists or universities in our health institutions to find the therapies, to find the cures, to help make people's lives better. It's also a wonderful way of expanding our economic opportunity in exporting and licensing and creating technologies to help people around the world and selling those products around the world as well. So, again, something we need to fix in this budget. I think the gentleman mentioned the COPS program, which is something that is very much on our streets, and that's, of course, the ability to have safety and public safety and security in our communities. I know in my local community, $8.5 million in our area would be cut from that funding. That's real dollars that affect real people in terms of putting police and security on our streets. It is one of the most important things our government can do to provide for the public safety. These are the kinds of things that are misdirections. They can all be fixed. It is a question of all of us coming together, putting a budget together, hopefully persuading the President that these were mistakes and we need to come back and fix them. And lastly, of course, I just want to touch on the fact of our economy, and the people back home are hurting right now. And we hear it every day, whether it is subprime, whether it is foreclosures, any number of things; and the Congress is working right now, and we will be passing, in the next number of days, an economic stimulus, which is designed to be short term. It's designed as a little bit of a prop up and a support of people. It will give them some cash and hopefully retire some of those responsibilities and pay for some of the necessities. But long term, we have got to work together on energy issues. It's already been discussed. Paying $50, $60 for a tank of gas on someone who is earning $30,000 a year is a real issue. And at a time, as we already talked about, when energy companies are making incredible, historic amounts of money, we need to work together to substitute those resources for renewable energy programs, which I know the Congressman from New York has been all over and all of us feel very strongly about. This is our moment. This is our time. This is our ``Sputnik'' moment. This is our putting-the-man-on-the-moon moment. This is the time for the American people to work together with the business, private sector, and government to create the markets and to do it. But we have to do it and start that process now. So I think there are long-term and short-term issues on our economy. I look forward to working on infrastructure issues with everyone else, recognizing, as our Speaker said last week, in 1806 you had the Louisiana Purchase period of time, and that was a moment when President Jefferson said, This is the time we are going to start building our country: the Erie Canal and the canal systems, the road systems that got our country going in the industrial revolution. A hundred years later, 1908, President Roosevelt coming forward and saying, This country is building and developing. Let's preserve some of our great areas, and we developed the National Parks System. Now 100 years later, to her credit, Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying this is our time to now focus on rebuilding this country: our road systems, sewer systems, bridge systems, all of those kinds of things. It has everything to do with the economy. It has everything to do with the quality of life. Our commerce, people's quality of life, these are the things that we need to be working on together. Where there's a will, there's a way is my attitude, and I know we are going to do this all together.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I am an eternal optimist, like everyone in the Chamber, Democrats and Republicans. I feel the American people are up to the challenge. We are up to sacrifice. And we're going to do this. And we will convince the administration along the way here that it's the right thing to do. And we're going to continue to rebuild our country and be successful. But let's put our nose down and work hard. And I look forward to working with all my colleagues to accomplish that.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor Mrs. Marguerite Cantini of Fort Lauderdale, FL, who will turn 100 years old on January 25, 2008. Mrs. Cantini is the paradigm of her generation. Her parents immigrated to the United States, making her the first generation of her family to be born on U.S. soil. She was the second daughter to her parents, Edgar and Thea Barbe, who had recently arrived in New York. The family moved to California and then returned to the East Coast. In 1936, she married Raphael S. Cantini, a surgeon from New Jersey, and together, they raised a family. She dedicated her life to the welfare and happiness of those around her. The American people can look to Mrs. Cantini as a model for family values. Mrs. Cantini has always lived a graceful and creative life, and throughout her 100 years, she has excelled in flower arranging and drawing. She would create doll houses out of cardboard with her grandchildren and especially enjoyed making paper dolls and all their clothing for her granddaughters. I join her family and friends in wishing Mrs. Marguerite Cantini a very happy birthday.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I would like to thank my good friend from Washington, who has been working on these issues and talking and moving toward getting the Congress to act on behalf of the American people on energy issues for 10 years-plus. And as you and I have talked about this this year, I have learned a lot from you. I know that I personally have had 20 years of my own personal beliefs that Americans can accomplish anything. You've talked to me about the Manhattan Project. We all know about Sputnik. And these were callings of a generation ago to say when America wants to do something, we want to focus our scientists, our education, our entrepreneurs, all the elements that come together so that Americans can accomplish anything, we did it. And this is the moment in time in the national security side in making sure that we never have to make another foreign policy decision based on where the next drop of oil is coming from; the new economy side, and that's the job creation that you are talking about and many people are talking about, the entrepreneurs at home in our communities that are developing the GM Volt and the other car companies and all the entrepreneurs that are developing the alternative means of furnishing energy that are different from fossil fuels; and certainly the environmental side. And being from Florida and your being from the other corner of our country, we have a great sensitivity to our environment. And I represent a coast of 75 miles at sea level; so we are particularly sensitive that we do everything we can to make sure that our environment is protected, that we don't do things to affect the global temperature, which may, in fact, change the level of the ocean and, of course, do a lot of other damage. These are very exciting times. And, again, as a member of the freshman class and with Democrats and Republicans in our class, we have all come to that same conclusion that you have come to along with many others and the leadership of this Congress to say this is not a choice of drilling more off the coast of Florida or in Alaska. Those are false choices. When you hear the discussion that we have to drill or we can't become energy independent, that's ridiculous. What we really need to be doing is focusing, as this bill does, on alternative renewable energy sources. And one of the things that I am very excited about also is the correcting of something that Congress did a year or so ago, and I know you were against this at the time, but it was passed by the leaders at that time in the Congress and the President signed it. The President correctly said a couple of years ago in his State of the Union we are addicted to oil. So what did Congress do over your objections and others? They basically gave some $15 billion or some number like that to the oil companies to subsidize them for more oil drilling. Now, we all believe in a capitalist system. We believe in for-profit and companies prospering. And the oil companies right now are making more money than any company in the history of the United States. So I find it particularly offensive as a taxpayer like everybody in the country to have to add frosting on the cake and give Federal tax subsidies to those oil companies over and above that. That's not right. And what this bill does, and I know you are going to talk about this, is it redirects that type of incentive, those tax incentives, to change consumer behavior, to incentivize our entrepreneurs and our scientists to come up with the kinds of products that will move us toward energy independence, because it is all about this next generation. And when I speak to kids in school, I know we charge them up and say this is your calling. This is something that we as adults and our children have to really work together to make sure that we do this together. So I'm very happy to be here in support of what you are doing tonight. And I look forward, when you are done with that, talking about a specific kind of energy alternative that is very exciting that I have been watching in my community. But I appreciate your bringing this up tonight.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I would like to thank the gentleman for the recognition about solar. Being from Florida, we call ourselves the Sunshine State. It seems like one of the most appropriate places to be one of the founding areas of solar, and yet many other States, including the State of Washington, which has a fairly active solar program, have been developing this further. But I am very excited about this project that you have mentioned in Florida or anywhere in the United States. Of course, we all know about wind power. We have large utilities in the country. We have one in our area, Florida Power and Light, FPL, that is one of the largest wind generators in the country, in Texas and other places, California. There is no one solution here. The good news is there is a competitive economy out there. There are competitive scientists that are coming up with different ideas. I am going to mention another very interesting one. Part of what this bill does, as you correctly mentioned, is it provides grants and seed money and challenge grants to new industries and entrepreneurs that are developing new ideas. The Gulf Stream, we have all heard about the Gulf Stream, it is a current that runs along the eastern United States from the southern part all the way up to the eastern coast of the United States and Nova Scotia. It's a fast-moving current. Billions of gallons per minute pass off the coast of Florida, for example. We have a Centers of Excellence at Florida Atlantic University that has been developing, and there is a program out in Oregon that is doing something similar, where with turbines in the Gulf Stream itself, they can generate enough electricity, they believe, over time, to power one-third of the power needs of the whole State of Florida. Now, we have 18 million people that live in the State of Florida. Think about that opportunity. And there are other places along the eastern seaboard of the United States that if this technology can be captured and the electricity can be generated, again, as you point out, no greenhouse gas emissions. This is totally 100 percent clean, renewable. They are working through all the environmental issues right now. They believe there will not be any as they continue to develop this. It is still at midstage testing, but the opportunity is there. And again, what's exciting now is we're capturing this excitement. The American people understand this is a necessity that we have to do these kinds of things. This is one particular program I'm interested in because I've already seen the potential that it may accomplish. But along with solar, along with some of the other things that we're going to talk about, there are great opportunities for the United States to become energy independent in a relatively short period of time, no different than Brazil, no different than other countries around the world that have found their own natural resources that can be used, Iceland and other places, that can be used to generate the power needs for growth, for success, for a clean environment. And again, it's just very exciting. I'm glad to be here to support this bill and encourage not only the Senate, but the President, too, when this bill gets to him, because I'm confident that Congress is going to pass a bill that's going to include most of these items that we're talking about today. When it does pass, we are going to really get the American people behind this. So, Mr. President, I hope that as we get this to you, that you join us in really taking this mission that we have to the American people and our next generation.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. If I can just add something to the gentleman's thoughts about that. Part of what we're doing here is creating market. That is the exciting part. Obviously entrepreneurs are going to invest and make the capital investments if they know that they can sell the product. As you said with the windmills, the turbines, a market has been created. It has now justified itself to the point where the price is actually going up because the demand is there, which is great. That's great news. And some of these technologies that are being developed are at different stages. But the whole notion of creating an obligation to have 15 percent of the electricity we generate, instead of from fossil fuels, coming from these renewable energy sources will, again, move in a way which are your public utilities will come together and find ways to enhance and encourage companies to come forward and provide these products. We are behind the curve in Europe. Europe is way ahead of us on this. Most European countries already generate a much larger percentage of their energy from renewable energy sources. And they have recognized and they've taken it upon themselves to do this, by law, voluntarily, or otherwise. The whole notion of the environmental impacts of global warming and things like that, these are not limited to anybody's border. They're not limited to the United States' borders. They're not limited to any State. They're not limited to China. It's a worldwide issue. But Europe, in fact, has shown some good leadership here. And I think that the United States, and I know that Americans, as I said before, are very innovative people who respect their environment, that we can all work together. And this notion in this bill of making the 15 percent obligation is good because it not only makes the statement, but it creates the market which will in turn create the jobs and the new economy that will sustain and build these types of products, which is very exciting.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. And to further your point, the supply is indefinite. It's infinite. It's perpetual. It's forever. Oil is not. And it's not a question of whether there is going to be enough oil on the ground for the next generation; it's the question of the people that are supplying the oil are not reliable sources, they're not necessarily friends of the United States. We're at their whim. We've seen the statistic, when President Bush was sworn into office in 2000, oil was at $28 a barrel. It is now $90 to $100 a barrel, depending on what day is going on here. OPEC, we have no control over that. This is a cartel of people that are not acting in our best interests at best, and at worst, in some cases, some of these organizations, these countries are financing people who are out to harm the United States. So, we are totally off in the wrong direction in terms of oil, and that has obviously been a mainstay. Now, oil will continue to be part of our source, and that's fine. But in terms of our future, as you correctly said, where do we want to put our efforts, our resources, our energy? It should be in these renewable resources because they are coming to the point where there is going to be a crossover, and the sooner we have total control over our energy destiny, the better off we're going to be from a national security point, from an economic growth point, and everything else.

Mr. KLEIN of Florida. I am going to add another form of ethanol out there that I think people around the world are familiar with in Brazil, which is a very large country, it is a fully industrialized country. They decided a generation ago to move towards energy independence for the same reasons we are having these discussions here today in this country. And they have oil. They have lots of other things, but they use sugar-based ethanol, a different type of ethanol based on a sugar product, and it is cellulosic based. I have heard and some of the research that has been done, well, it is not as efficient, and there are food-chain issues and everything else. As far as I am concerned, and I know that many Members of Congress and most Americans believe, where there's a will there is a way. If there are any technological limitations to anything we have talked about tonight, they can be overcome. I think this entire conversation needs to be about how can we move forward in all these areas. If there is a limitation, let's figure out how to overcome that. Again, sugar-based ethanol in Brazil, their ethanol that is a big part of their production. The cost is slightly different from here, but, again, let's figure it out. It could be a question of production; it could be a question of greater efficiency of production of sugar cane, where in Florida we have a very large production of sugar cane, and obviously most of it is used for production of food. In other parts of the country, sugar beet and other things are used to produce sugar. But the point of all this, and I think the part that is so interesting, is that various types of alternative or renewable energy sources are already in production as you have in Washington in different stages. And we are allowing every one of these to compete. That is the greatest thing about our economy. It is a system where the great ideas, the great science will move forward and whatever is most efficient over time, it could be any combination of ways that we are going to achieve energy independence in this next generation, we will do it. So when I hear people, the naysayers, the people who say, oh, we can't do this, there is this problem, there is that problem, we can do it. We are going to do it. We will do it. It is going to require everybody to partner together, consumers to drive this, industry to drive it, education and scientists to drive it, government partnering with the private sector to drive it. It is going to happen. Again, I am so proud to be part of a Congress that recognizes this and is moving this notion forward, and I'm proud the American people are finally coming together and saying, hey, this is something that is all about who we are, how we define ourselves, we being the great leaders in the world; and science and other things are going to use our scientists and our technology to achieve these great goals. It is exciting to see a plant like that with all the silos and all the great things going on there. They are already the largest in the world. That is pretty exciting.