Sander Levin

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I now insist on my point of order that the gentleman's motion is not germane to this legislation.

Mr. LEVIN. I want to say briefly, we have already debated this issue. This is not a germane amendment. Also what it is, is an effort to use emergency funds targeted to create jobs to fund emergency unemployment insurance. This is another excuse on the part of the minority that won't work. If we pass this, this bill will go over to the Senate. Hopefully, it will be their first order of business when they return. Mr. Speaker, 1.7 million have already lost their unemployment insurance. It will be over that by several hundred thousand when they return. There's a reference here to jobs that are lost. I want to just quickly repeat what was said during the debate. During the 8 years of the Bush administration, there was a loss of 673,000 private sector jobs. And in the first 5 months of this administration, there has been a gain of 495,000 private sector jobs. We're aware. Not enough has been done. But compared to the Bush years, we have made some progress. And those who are still unemployed should not suffer because of the indifference of the minority. That's what this is all about. Point of Order

Mr. LEVIN. I continue to reserve.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order on the gentleman's motion.

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

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of the time. I'm glad my colleague from Michigan just spoke, and I think, laid it out very clearly what's before us. He said, this is the eighth time and we call it an emergency. This is the hurricane season. I assume that if there are eight hurricanes, that, when the damage is done the eighth time, we'll call it for what it is, an emergency. So the fact that this is the eighth time, first of all, it shows that under Presidents of both parties we've extended unemployment insurance in an unfunded way, as an emergency. But I think what this shows is that, indeed, it is an emergency for numerous families. Essentially, the minority is looking for cover. This is an emergency within statutory PAYGO that passed this Congress, so we are following it. The Senate rejected it last night, short one vote, only because of the death of Senator Byrd, and there were only two Republicans. His position may be filled soon as we mourn him, and then this bill can pass the Senate. And hopefully there will be more than two Republicans, the rest not standing in the way. There's been some reference here to job loss. I just want to repeat: during the 8 years of the Bush administration, there was a loss of 673,000 private sector jobs. In the first 5 months of 2010 alone, there's been a gain of 495,000 private sector jobs. So, even that excuse won't work, nor the notion of the deficit, when those who are trying to invoke it helped to create most of it. So I simply want to read some stories, because everybody needs to go home and face people like this. I start with a gentleman from Warren, Michigan: ``I am a U.S. Navy veteran and am trying to get things going, but I need just a little more help.'' And, next, a person in touch with us from Grand Rapids: ``I worked 22 years in automotive, 60 to 70 hours a week, supporting my family, paid my taxes and worked in my community. Every single day I send my resume out, to no avail.'' And I interrupt this quote. Don't say these are people who are not looking for work. That's also an excuse that won't work. And I continue. He said: ``I've lost my home and one vehicle and my sense of the ability to take care of my family.'' And now a person from Madison Heights, Michigan. ``We depend on unemployment to help pay our house payment and our bills. Without that check, we would definitely lose our house.'' And now this person from Fraser, Michigan. And there are people like this throughout the country. ``As of June 2,'' and I quote, ``I will no longer be collecting unemployment on the emergency extension. I cannot stress to you enough how very hopeless this all is for me and millions of people. I have worked since I was 13, making my own way, served my country in the Vietnam war, raising a family, paying my taxes, and now facing total ruin. What is being done to help people like me in my time of need?'' The answer on the minority side, with a few exceptions, too few, is nothing, a cold shoulder, an excuse. The next I quote from a person in Sterling Heights, a woman who wrote this: ``My husband is a union electrician, and is about to lose his unemployment. He has always worked, and never been laid off for more than a few months until now. No matter how hard he tries to find work, there is not much work in the building construction in Michigan. This extension can't wait much longer.'' What the minority has been saying, and I hope it won't say today, is the answer for the unemployed is you will wait, and you will wait, and you will wait. The House will pass this, we will send it to the Senate, I hope with some bipartisan support here. It will go to the Senate. And as I said before, I hope as their first regular order of business they will find the 60 votes. To do that, those in the minority will have to rise above politics. For a moment they'll have to put down their political banner and remember the plight of not only 1. 7 million, but their families, and more to be added, while this institution, without bipartisan help, has not responded. There is only one answer. No excuses. None holds any water. We are holding up the basic, basic elements of life for millions of Americans. We can do better. We must do better. We shall do better in just a few moments.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5618.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan).

Mr. LEVIN. Now I am privileged to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Kucinich).

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I now yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. LEVIN. I want to read quickly a report from the CBO regarding the recovery program, and I quote: ``It increased the number of full-time equivalent jobs by 1.8 million to 4.1 million compared with those amounts that would have been otherwise.'' I now yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), a very able member of our Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to H. Res. 1495, I call up the bill (H.R. 5618) to continue Federal unemployment programs, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. Almost two years ago, this House was faced with painful dilemma: risk the collapse of our financial system and a second Great Depression, or take action to stabilize financial markets. The comprehensive financial regulatory reform before us will help to ensure that we are never again forced to choose between bailing out banks and saving our economy. In the run up to the financial crisis, rampant speculation, and in some cases fraud, in the residential housing and mortgage markets combined with an explosion of complexity in our financial markets to create a bubble that when it burst, rippled through our entire economy. The financial crisis that began in 2008 was the worst since the Great Depression and was enabled and made worse by a lax regulatory environment that for many years failed to properly supervise financial markets and control the risks Wall Street was creating. Under the bill before us, for the first time, there will be a federal regulatory body with the responsibility to identify and address systemic risks to our economy. Transparency will be brought to derivatives markets so that these complex financial instruments cannot transmit shockwaves through our financial system. Consumers will be able to get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for credit cards, mortgages and other financial products, rather than being sold products that are too good to be true by unregulated lenders who know they are unaffordable. Mr. Speaker, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will restore responsibility, accountability and transparency to our financial markets. I urge all of my colleagues to stand with the working Americans who have been the victims of the financial crisis rather than defend a discredit ideology that says government is always wrong and markets are always right. We have seen in the last two years that markets can get out of control, and we need appropriate structures in place to ensure that our financial markets work for all Americans.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, Section 211(a) of the bill before us gives funding relief to multiemployer defined benefit plans, by giving them more time to make up for the severe investment losses that they suffered in 2008 and the first quarter of 2009. One of the options would give multiemployer plans that meet a solvency test permission to amortize the net investment losses incurred either or both of the first 2 plan years ending after August 31, 2008 over 30 years. The other option--which can be elected independent of the plans' decisions on the first choice--would allow multiemployer plans to smooth those losses up to 10 years, in determining the actuarial value of their assets. The full market value of the investment loss is intended to be calculated as the difference between the actual market value of the assets and the expected market value of those assets, calculated using the assumed rate of return used by the actuary for valuation purposes, at the end of the relevant plan year, with adjustments for contributions and disbursements. In addition, it is also intended that multiemployer plans are to be permitted to reflect the full amount of those losses in their funding calculations, including those portions of the losses that will be recognized over a period of up to 10 years in the actuarial value of assets. The bill limits the circumstances under which plans that elect either or both of the funding relief approaches may only be amended to increase benefits. It is intended that those restrictions apply for the first 2 plan years after the plan year in which relief is first reflected in the funding standard account. For instance, if the multiemployer plan chooses extended amortization for the losses incurred in the 2008 plan year, that would first be reflected in the funding standard account for the 2009 plan year, and the benefit- increase restrictions would apply for the 2010 and 2011 plan years; if extended amortization (or 10-year smoothing) is also used for losses incurred in 2009, the restrictions would apply for the 2011 and 2012 plan years. I note that a special effective date rule applies the restrictions only to benefit increases that become effective after the date of enactment. The funding relief approaches are also intended to be available to plans that use actuarial funding methods that do not identify experience gains and losses as separate items. Treasury and the IRS is expected to allow all multiemployer plans to use the relief, either as an overlay to a funding method that otherwise does not produce experience gains and losses or by giving blanket permission to multiemployer plans to switch to a method that does produce them, effective for all relevant plan years, and without regard to procedural restrictions in relevant Treasury and IRS guidance (such as Revenue Procedure 2001-40) on the number of method changes a plan can adopt within a given period of years or the deadline for electing the change for a given plan year. It is also intended that the funding relief approaches be made available in the case of a plan for which the deadline for determining funded status has already passed, and for a plan for which the deadline is approaching so quickly that plan sponsors and actuaries will have little time to take the relief into account in making these determinations. It is intended that Treasury and the IRS will provide a reasonable period for plan actuaries, if directed to do so by plan trustees, to withdraw their zone certifications for the first plan year that started after September 30, 2009, and substitute revised certifications if the result is different when the relief is taken into account. Treasury and the IRS is also expected to treat plan actuaries as not violating the deadlines for pending status certifications, even if they are completed within a reasonable period after the statutory due date, so that they can take account of changes due to the relief. Finally, because time is of the essence, it is expected that the Secretary of the Treasury and IRS will issue guidance under this legislation promptly after the bill's enactment and that such guidance will provide that an action taken in good faith based on a reasonable interpretation of the legislation (including these statements) until the guidance is issued will be deemed to comply with the legislative provisions.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. I simply want to say to the gentleman from Texas he will have to go home, if he votes ``no,'' and give an explanation why he voted ``no'' when 113,000 residents of the State of Texas will have lost unemployment benefits by the end of this week without the enactment of this bill; 113,000. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. LEVIN. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5618) to continue Federal unemployment programs.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Berkley), a member of our committee.

Mr. LEVIN. I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 5618.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield 1 minute to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. LEVIN. I yield myself the balance of my time. I have listened to my colleague from Michigan who comes here almost alone, and I think those who vote ``no'' when they go back home are really going to find themselves basically alone, because those who vote ``no'' have no place to hide. This is an emergency for 1.7 million people and their families right now; therefore, it's an emergency for the community of the United States of America. And that 1.7 million will grow and grow under this banner that is floated by the minority. Look, the excuses fall of their own lack of weight. You say we did nothing on the Democratic side. Yes, we passed a bill that extended unemployment insurance. They could not find a single Republican in the Senate to vote for that bill. And so you finger point at those who acted and excuse those who refused to act? And you bring up the deficit, a deficit that grew under the previous administration. You can't hide behind that. This is an emergency. You can't hide behind the Republican bill either because, as I understand it, it was for 1 month paid for and that month is gone. You have not come up with any responsible, feasible way to excuse inaction. Unemployment insurance was extended many times under Republican Presidents, so you don't even have that excuse. Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. LEVIN. There's no excuse, and so what was done under previous administrations, Republican and Democratic, should be done right today. I'm afraid you don't see that there's an emergency for the families, soon to be 2 million. And also, let me say in terms of economic growth, when you provide unemployment insurance to people, they spend it. So, if you're worried about growth and consumer demand, put money in the pockets of people who are desperate, who are out of work, who are looking for work. Instead, you turn your back on them. I want to read a story. I met this person in Hazel Park, Michigan, last weekend. He served 3 years and 9 months in the U.S. Army, including a year tour in Iraq. He has an associate's degree from a community college and a bachelor's degree. He was employed by a loan company, a mortgage company, as a broker, and then the mortgage crisis came and he was laid off. He was unemployed for 3 years, and then he was hired by Kmart as an assistant store manager. He was laid off in 2009, August, due to store closings. He has currently, approximately, 4 weeks left on his Tier 1 extension, due to expire on July 14. There are 1.7 million people like this gentleman already in this country. I don't know how you look them in the face. I don't know how you explain a ``no'' vote. I think the flimsy arguments that are used won't work in this hall and won't work back home. This is an emergency. I really can't believe that people from the minority are going to come here and vote ``no.'' They are voting ``no'' for millions. I think they are voting ``no'' for what is best in the United States of America. We are a community of people. When people lose their jobs and can't find them, we don't simply stand idly by. This is the time for you to stand up, and the only way to stand up is to vote ``yes.'' I plead on behalf of the millions of people in this country who are out of work, who are looking for jobs, that you provide the unemployment insurance that they have worked for and that should be provided. Don't turn your backs on them. In the end, there will be no excuse, no excuse, no excuse.

Mr. LEVIN. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LEVIN

Mr. LEVIN. Mr. Speaker, now it is my privilege to yield 2 minutes to a very vigorous Representative, the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus).