Sander Levin

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny K. Davis), another distinguished member of our committee.

Mr. LEVIN. I now with great pleasure yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews). (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LEVIN. It is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

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

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. It's so ironical it's worse than that. The Republicans are in their budget saying, ``let's block grant Medicaid and all nutrition programs and send back those programs entirely to the States in the name of flexibility.'' And now they come forth arguing that the proposal of this administration to provide flexibility to the States, if requested, and if it increases work participation 20 percent, they throw up their hands and say, ``no.'' It's worse than contradictory. CRS has made clear the following: The Secretary's interpretation of her current authority under section 1115 with regard to waivable TANF provisions under section 402 appears consistent with the Secretary's practice under the same provision as it existed under the AFDC program. TANF is going to be extended. We don't need to do it with this provision that harks back to the campaign. The 20 percent requirement, the Secretary made clear, it isn't waiving the work requirement; it's letting the States implement it. It was requested by the Governor of Utah, a Republican. Bill Clinton has been mentioned so often. And I just urge everybody to listen to what he said. It strengthens the work requirements: The requirement was for more work, not less. So to come forth here and say that it weakens it is fallacious, to put it mildly. Do you know what this is in a few words? This is an effort in 2013 to validate a fallacious political ad of the year 2012. And that's worse than unhappy when this place is searching for some ability to work together. The election is over. Let's get on with the work ahead of us. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, in the wake of the devastation caused by Superstorm Sandy, Congress must be an active partner in the effort to rebuild, so I will vote in favor of the bill before the House today, which extends FEMA disaster relief assistance to houses of worship on an equal footing with other not-for-profit organizations affected by the storm. I wish, however, that the House had taken the time to hold hearings on this legislation before bringing it to the House Floor so that we could have more fully explored the constitutional issues involved with this matter. Clearly, the federal government can and does provide federal resources to houses of worship for a variety of purposes, including homeland security grants and small business loans, but we must tread carefully in this area to ensure that the assistance extended passes muster with the basic provisions of the Constitution. It would have been better to thoroughly vet the language of this bill, among ourselves in the House and with constitutional scholars before bringing it up for a vote. As this legislation must pass the Senate in order to become law, I hope there will be in their proceedings a careful review of these issues before they act, including making any needed changes, which would bring the bill back to the House for final enactment.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. The Republican mantra is no revenues, cuts at any price, whether it damages health research, our kids' education, our national defense, or our national economy. So beneath their new talk of softening their image remains their hard edge. Now we're less than a month away from a sequester--$85 billion in arbitrary, across-the-board cuts just in 2013. Just yesterday, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office warned us that allowing the sequester budget cuts to take effect would reduce GDP growth by more than 25 percent this year, wiping out hundreds of thousands of jobs-- hundreds of thousands of jobs--and pushing the unemployment rate back up to 8 percent. So I say to the Republicans, instead of opening your arms to the sequester and risking our Nation's economic recovery, Republicans should be opening their minds to a balanced, bipartisan solution.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Delaney).

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I shall consume. This Republican bill is not a change in policy. It's a change in tactics. House Republicans continue to play with economic fire. They're playing political games with the debt ceiling, and that undermines certainty. Yesterday, economist Simon Johnson of MIT testified before our committee saying that a short-term increase would only extend uncertainty. He said: You will continue to undermine the private sector. You will continue to delay investment and to reduce employment relative to what it would be otherwise. Let's, for a second, remember history, the last time the House Republicans played political games with the debt ceiling. In August 2011, our economy produced the lowest job growth in 3 years. During that 2-month period, the Dow Jones plummeted 2,000 points, including one of its worst single-day drops in history--635 points on August 8. S&P downgraded the U.S. credit rating for the first time in history. Leading Republicans in June, 2011, criticized the notion of a short- term debt ceiling increase as providing a lack of certainty. The majority leader said: We feel very strongly that one of the reasons why we continue to see an ailing economy is that people have very little confidence, have very little certainty in terms of where we are headed. Our Ways and Means chairman echoed that feeling only days later saying about the prospect of a short-term debt ceiling increase, It does not give you certainty. This bill does not give certainty, but uncertainty. The action we took New Year's Day to avoid the fiscal cliff brought our total deficit reduction over the past 2 years to $2.5 trillion. What's more, it set the stage for future further balanced agreements that include both spending cuts and new revenue. We should proceed with that effort, not plunge into further uncertainty. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 2 minutes to the ranking member of the Budget Committee, Mr. Van Hollen.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel). (Mr. RANGEL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to another member of our committee, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. McDermott). (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 1 minute to a member of our committee and chairman of our caucus, the gentleman from California (Mr. Becerra).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to another member of our committee, the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell), a member of our committee.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?

Mr. LEVIN. I now yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley), a member of our committee.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), our whip.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.