Jim McDermott

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Inslee). (Mr. INSLEE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to the Senate amendment to the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010. This bill has good parts to it for the poor and the middle class, but it gives away $120 billion to the superrich, $120 billion the rich don't need, and will not create any jobs. It's a huge giveaway to the superrich in these tough economic times. It just boggles the mind. It's unconscionable. It's indefensible. We all know the only reason we're even considering this craziness is to get Republican votes in the Senate so they won't filibuster the bill. That Republicans insist on giving away taxpayer money to the rich while sticking it to the poor and the unemployed is worse than wrong. It is without conscience. Yesterday, my State of Washington announced it will cut all of the working poor health care from the State basic health plan. 66,000 people and 16,000 low-income children will lose their health care. All they will have is the emergency room. It doesn't end there. Washington State is also cutting off 85,000 elderly off their drug assistance program. These are people's lives we're talking about, and we're pushing American families off their last lifelines during a recession to give tax breaks to the rich. That's the Republican tradeoff. Americans don't want this giveaway. They want us to act with compassion and economic common sense and not help start another Republican economic disaster. We could and should fix this bill with fair rates, but we won't because Senator McConnell says, Give me money for the rich. I urge you to vote against it. Mr. Chair, I rise today in opposition to the Senate Amendment to the Middle Class Tax Relief Act of 2010. This bill has good parts to it for the poor and middle class, but it gives away $120 billion dollars to the super rich--$120 billion dollars the rich don't need and will do nothing to create jobs. A huge give-away to the super-rich in these tough economic times just boggles the mind. We all know the only reason we're even considering this craziness is to get Republicans votes in the Senate so they won't filibuster the bill. That Republicans insist on giving away tax payer money to the rich while sticking it to the poor and unemployed is worse than wrong--it's without conscience. Just yesterday my own State of Washington announced it will cut all of the working poor from the State basic health plan. Working poor numbering 66,000 and 16,000 low income children will lose their health care--all they'll have is the emergency room. It doesn't end there--Washington State is pushing 85,000 elderly off of drug assistance too. This bill undermines Social Security and increases taxes on the poor. Republicans won't ever want to restore the so-called temporary 2-year cut to social security taxes in this bill. Republicans will soon be calling the restoration of this tax, which keeps social security solvent, a `tax hike'. Then Republicans will bring up privatization as the only way to solve the shortfall. As a replacement to the Making Work Pay Credit, this tax cut actually increases taxes on the poor, and gives even more tax benefits to the rich. This bill creates only stop-gap funding for unemployment insurance. Next year at this time unemployment will still be high, and we'll have another mean-spirited debate that demonizes the unemployed. The give-aways and bad policy in this bill are capped off with the wasteful, environmentally disastrous Ethanol subsidy. Subsidizing ethanol distorts food markets and slows this country's real progress toward a sustainable green energy economy. This bill transfers enormous amounts of wealth from the average American tax payer into the pockets of the wealthiest of this country at a huge cost. These are people's lives we're talking about. We're pushing American families off their last life lines during a recession to give tax breaks to the super rich. That's the Republican trade off. Americans don't want this give-away. They want us to act with compassion and economic common sense--and not help start another Republican economic disaster. We should fix this bill with fair rates for the wealthy and funding for unemployment insurance that lasts until the working families of this country are back on their feet. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the International Protecting Girls By Preventing Child Marriage Act. Recently, Nelson Mandela asked a group of the world's most thoughtful and experienced political and moral leaders to identify the largest issues fueling humanitarian problems, and forced child marriage is at the top of the list. Child marriage denies girls the chance to get a full education. Every country in the world that has advanced has educated their women as the first step. Child marriage prevents girls from contributing to their communities in the fullest way possible, and it contributes to the health crisis among women and babies in countries around the world. In the next 10 years, it's estimated that over 100 million young girls will be forcibly married if we don't act, and the policy of the United States right now is to write more reports. With this bill, we can make a huge difference with no additional taxpayer moneys being spent. This bill gives clear guidelines on how already-appropriated moneys are to be spent in countries with the greatest problems, in ways that are culturally sensitive and community-based. It requires the State Department to track the issue annually as part of our human rights considerations. Mr. Speaker, this bill will save lives and save dreams, and I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support it.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Omnibus Trade Act of 2010. Mr. Speaker, you know that when the AFL-CIO and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are energetically in favor of the same bill, that's a pretty good day and probably a pretty good thing to do. This bill helps U.S. businesses. It reduces their costs with tariff reductions on things they need that aren't made here in the United States. Each one of these tariff reductions have been carefully vetted. They have been on the Web site. Anybody can see them. It has been a very transparent process, and it is good that we're able to get it done before we leave the Congress at this time. It will create billions of dollars of economic activity and help kick-start the creation of jobs. This bill also helps struggling economies around the world--the Andes, the Caribbean, and others--by keeping our trade programs in place and stable for the next 18 months. We can't let these programs lapse. They are too important to Americans and also to our good partners worldwide with whom we want economic development, with whom we do better if they're doing better, and these programs are helpful to them. To cut them off is to leave them with no place to sell the goods they are making. In fact, I would like a longer extension, and I really think there needs to be a trade preference bill. I hope, in the next Congress, Mr. Brady and others on the other side will bring that forward. We had hoped to get it done this time, but we didn't get it done. We need to do it, and this is a good intermediate step. Finally, we are keeping our Trade Adjustment Assistance program in place and are continuing to improve on it. This helps hundreds of thousands of workers every year, as you have heard, who are negatively impacted by trade. 227,000 workers have benefited from this in this year alone. They receive educational benefits and help in making the transition from an industry that has disappeared to one that is now expanding in the United States and will provide jobs. Our workers need to be mobile and retrained, and the Trade Adjustment Assistance helps get that done. This bill costs almost nothing. It is fully paid for and will boost the economy. I urge all of my colleagues to vote for it.

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

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge). (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Well, thank you. Mr. Speaker, I am grateful that Representative Garamendi is talking tonight on this issue because it's one that we're going to argue over the next couple of weeks. And people ought to understand or have an opportunity to understand what really is going on. And I think that what the value of these kinds of hours is is that we can educate people about what's happening. A man named Jacob Hacker wrote a book which is now on the newsstands called ``Winner-Take-All Politics.'' It really is a description of what has happened to the American economy and the American public over the last 30 years. If you just remember one fact, in 1980 the top 5 percent of people had $8 trillion worth of wealth. That's 1980, 30 years ago. Today, that top 5 percent have $40 trillion. They have quintupled, they have gone times five what they had in 1980. The movement of money up to the top by the tax structure has been dramatic. And the average people who are out there working, both husband and wife are working, and they've been struggling, they've been working more hours, they have barely seen any increase in their net worth over the last few years, especially with the drop in real estate prices and the fact that pensions are gone, and all these things are happening. The people on the bottom have not reaped the benefits. Now we come to what we're doing here. These taxes were put in before either of you came to the Congress. They were put in in 2001 in order to expire in 2010. As long as they defined them as expiring, they didn't count. They were just temporary. So they put in this huge giveaway for the whole society at the top, and expected that the people would come in in the year 2010 and reenact them. Now, the Republicans are faced with a dilemma. In about 3 weeks they're going to take over this House. The Republicans will have the House of Representatives. They will have control of the Senate through the filibuster and the fact that the Democratic majority is reduced. So they are going to be forced to deal with this issue if we don't. They want us to deal with it. They bullied the President into putting this package together, and they're trying to give him the bum's rush to get it all done before they take over in January because they know a secret. They have over there a number of people who ran for election saying they would not raise the debt limit and they would not increase the deficits, and yet the first bill that would be presented to them is to cut taxes and increase the deficit. And they know it. And they want to get it done. The Democrats are being pushed into it. Now, how did they do it? Well, it's very simple. We care about workers. We care about the unemployed. We care about people who don't get a check to put food on the table and pay the rent and keep the lights on. So, we want to take care of the unemployed. The unemployment program ran out the 1st of December, and it's more running out by the end of December. You are going to have 2 million people lose their ability to put food on the table for their own children at Christmas time. So the Republicans said, all right, we're not going to deal with this unemployment thing. We're going to stop it. We're going to stop it. And we're going to use it as the lever by which we force the Democrats to give us this tax break for the rich. So the decision that's going to be made on this floor is shall we give--the bill that the President put out today, I am voting against it. I will make that real clear. It says 1 year of unemployment benefits for the unemployed in this country, and we're going to give 2 years, $84 billion, or you say 70, but whatever, it's somewhere up above $75 billion that goes to people on the top who already are rich beyond belief. And the hostages in this whole thing have been the unemployed. What is absolutely unconscionable is what has been done to the unemployed. This is the second time. Last August they let it drag through about 51 days where nobody got a check because the program had expired. And unless you have been unemployed, you don't understand what that means. That means nothing comes in the mailbox, no check. So you have no way to go down to the grocery store and get food for your family. Now, what do you in that case? People say, well, they go on welfare. No, they don't. There's no welfare program today. The only thing that's available for somebody who is without an unemployment check is food stamps. Or they can of course go to the food banks. The food banks are panicked by the fact that we have not extended unemployment benefits because they gave it all away at Thanksgiving, and here comes the month of December, and people are coming in droves, and they have nothing to give them. That's what's going on in America. The people on the other side that would say we would not--this is what Mitch McConnell said. If you listen to him, it drives you nuts, because he said if you won't pass the tax break for the millionaires, nothing is going to happen in here. That kind of attitude is simply wrong, and that's why what you are doing here tonight, letting people be aware of what's happening and what the options really are, and what the impacts are going to be, is very important. Because the whole of the base in a democracy is an informed electorate. If we don't understand what's going on, if people aren't paying attention, they are going to wind up saying how did this happen? Well it happened because we didn't pay attention. This is a real turning point for the President and the Democrats in this year. Because what we do here will set the stage for the next 2 years. We will be backing up. I learned when I was a kid on the playground, bullies will make you back up. And if you keep backing up, you will be backing up your whole life. You have got to stop at some point and say ``no,'' we are not going any further, you do it. And I really think that the Democrats would be much better off to force the Republicans to put up the votes for this event. They are going to try and slip around and say, well, we will give you 10, 15 votes but no more. I think what you are doing here is starting to put the pressure on that whole process, and I commend you for doing it. Thank you.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, Benjamin Franklin once said: ``Nothing in this world is certain but death and taxes.'' Ha, Mr. Franklin had never met the modern Republican Party. The only thing certain about taxes these days is that the Republicans are going to use them to take from the poor and give to the rich again and again and again; and now the Senate Republicans have brought all legislation to a halt--a halt--in this building until the super-rich get their tax cuts. They are determined to take care of the rich. This political maneuvering by the Republicans brings uncertainty to the middle class at a time when they really need certainty so that they know what they are going to have in the next year. Food banks are panicking all over this country because the Republicans in the Senate say the tax cuts for the rich go before any money for those unemployed people who are looking for their unemployment insurance. The food banks know what is going to happen: hungry people are going to be coming in, but it doesn't make any difference to the Republicans. In fact, it's time to hang your Christmas stocking. Can you imagine the rich in this country hanging their Christmas stockings and putting in the gold of the tax cuts? Can you imagine the unemployed hanging their Christmas stockings?

Mr. McDERMOTT. To pay for food or to pay the mortgage, they're going to look in their Christmas stockings and see what? Coal. We know how this movie is going to turn out. This bill will pass over to the Senate. It will come back with the big tax cuts for the rich. Some of us are going to vote ``no.'' We will vote ``yes'' today, but ``no'' when it comes back because it isn't fair to the unemployed people of this country that the rich get their money for sure when we dole it out to the unemployed one bite at a time.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Claims Resolution Act to remedy past injustices against Native Americans and African Americans. This bill will provide a resolution to respond to past mismanagement of tribal lands and to discrimination against African American farmers by the Department of Agriculture. In short, we are taking at least a partial step to right old, old, old wrongs. This legislation also extends, through fiscal year 2011, the basic Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. That's the TANF program. This extension of the program is welcome, but it is not enough. This bill does not include the TANF Emergency Fund, which provided funds to our States to help needy families and to establish or expand employment programs for jobless Americans. Roughly 250,000 jobs were created by the program, primarily through private sector employers. The House passed the extension of these job programs on two separate occasions earlier this year, but Republicans in the Senate have repeatedly blocked the extension. Additionally, the bill before us fails to maintain full funding for the Child Support Enforcement Program, which means less support will be ultimately collected and sent to children. The fact that these important supports are expiring should be a wake-up call to the American public. Watch the Republicans control this House. They need to know that Republicans are actively working to shred America's safety net just when it's needed most. In closing, I will support this bill's response to those who suffered in the past. It is said that justice delayed is justice denied, but it's better to get it late than never. But I find it regrettable that this bill does so little to help those who are suffering today. This is about what went on a long time ago. It is not dealing with what's happening today. I urge the support of this act. We will be back on unemployment insurance and the other issues that need to be dealt with in the near future. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall).

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, the current recession has impacted the lives of millions of American families. Unemployment rates in the past 3 years have reached record highs, with competition for employment so steep that roughly five Americans compete for every available job. Providing meaningful relief to the unemployed in these scarce times is, by definition, our responsibility as legislators. To get through these hard times, millions of unemployed Americans are raiding their retirement savings to put food on the table. In 2007, over 34 million Americans participated in their employer-sponsored retirement plans, and over 20 million Americans had an Individual Retirement Account. Unfortunately, withdrawing retirement funds early can carry stiff penalties. That is why I am introducing legislation to waive the penalty for unemployed taxpayers who have turned to their retirement savings for an early distribution. This bill will waive the penalty for such distributions made during 2009, 2010, or 2011, so long as the taxpayer received 12 consecutive weeks of unemployment compensation in the year the distribution was made. In creating retirement accounts with special tax treatment, Congress was encouraging saving towards a financially stable retirement. It was the right thing to do. Congress wanted these funds to be for retirement, but Congress did not foresee the economic disaster we are going through. By allowing temporary, penalty-free withdrawals from retirement accounts when folks are unemployed we are helping the unemployed when they need it most.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, Oliver Wendell Holmes said ``taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society'' and taxes are a very big topic in our national debate today. How much federal income tax people pay and what those taxes buy is not well understood by many Americans. It is hard and complicated to figure out. Very little information about how tax revenues are spent is ever made available to the American people. This results in significant misinformation. For example, a Washington Post and Kaiser Foundation poll found that by a margin of two to one, Americans believe that the federal government spends more on foreign aid than on either Social Security or Medicare. This is why I am introducing the Taxpayer Receipt Act of 2010. This bill requires the Secretary of the Treasury to provide each taxpayer with a simple annual statement explaining how his or her federal income tax dollars were spent. Similar to the annual Social Security statement, the Taxpayer Receipt will show the taxpayer's income tax liability, the amount of the liability spent on major spending categories, and the actual federal outlays for each category. It will also provide information on the state of the deficit and the 10 costliest tax breaks for that year. This simple annual Taxpayer Receipt will provide clear and consistent information to taxpayers that will serve to educate taxpayers on government spending--a subject full of misinformation. Thomas Jefferson once said, ``Information is the currency of democracy.'' To that end, providing Americans with information and transparency on government spending is essential to maintaining the strength and health of our democracy.

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, could you tell us how much time we have left?

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H.R. 6419, which will extend current unemployment insurance benefits through February of next year and will provide much needed help to unemployed Americans during the holiday season. From the beginning of the unemployment insurance program 75 years ago, we have never cut off benefits for out-of-work Americans when the unemployment rates have been this high. Without this extension, temporary Federal extended benefits will shut down shortly after Thanksgiving, the 27th, denying benefits to 2 million of our fellow citizens over the holiday season. It is unthinkable to me that we can allow these benefits to lapse during the holiday season and before the economic recovery is on solid ground. Despite the severity of the Republican economic collapse, which started under Mr. Bush, there have been 10 straight months of private sector growth under this Democratically controlled Congress and administration. Despite the huge accomplishment of digging the American economy out of the Republican economic ditch, too many Americans remain unemployed. There is still only one available job for every five unemployed Americans. To make matters worse, the press is now carrying reports that employers around the country are refusing to hire the unemployed. They're saying to the unemployed, We want to hire somebody who has a job to come over and fill our job because we know you were laid off because you weren't a good employee, and that's why they let you go. We don't want to hire people who aren't worth anything. That's the message that's going out in this country now to the unemployed. Many of those people are middle class people who have worked very hard, and through no fault of their own, their industries have collapsed--banking, housing--as a direct result of what the Bush administration did--or didn't do, really, which is to have regulated Wall Street. Unfortunately, the Republicans have already made it clear that, instead of helping the middle class, one of their top priorities is to give millionaires and billionaires a huge $700 billion break. Now, the same people who are saying this should be paid for will be out on this floor sometime in the next couple of weeks, saying, We don't have to pay for a tax break. Why, that'll pump jobs into the world. All we have to do is cut taxes everywhere and give $700 billion to people who make more than $500,000 a year--that's okay--but an unemployment check for somebody to keep bread on the table and keep a mortgage paid is not okay. We can't not fund that. This is an emergency. People who talk like that on the floor of this House have never been unemployed or have never known anybody who has been unemployed. You would not talk that way about unemployed people if you knew them. Now, this should give every middle class American a lot to think about with the results of this last election. This is your first chance to observe what you can expect in the next 2 years. The minority leader in the other body said, My number one priority is to prevent Barack Obama from having a second term. Not public policy. Not jobs for people. Not health care for people--but political gain. And that's what this is all about. The experts agree--two out of every three people who get unemployment benefits are in the middle class. We're not talking about people who weren't trying or weren't working or weren't doing their part as Americans. While the Republicans were bankrupting the country to help the rich with one hand, giving tax breaks all over the place, the Republicans were using the other hand to push the unemployed middle class of America out of their homes and never dealt with the foreclosure issue to prevent them from having food on their tables and to keep their children from being properly clothed. On the campaign trail Republicans called the unemployed ``lazy.'' Boy, you haven't met an unemployed person or you would never say that a second time to them. And they said that unemployment benefits ``spoil'' out of work Americans. They get lazy and they just sit around the house and wait for their unemployment check. Those checks aren't that big in the first place, and secondly, people don't like to be unemployed in this country. People look for work, and they are looking for work and they are now being told you've been unemployed for 2 years, we're not interested in hiring you. We want somebody who's got a job over here. That was on NPR just yesterday. So it isn't made up. That's what's going on. Some Republicans even question the constitutionality of the Unemployment Insurance Program. The health and welfare of the American people is unconstitutional, according to some people. Fortunately, the American people don't feel the same way. A recent poll showed that 86 percent of Americans believe the unemployed really want to work. That's what the people think. That's not the political rhetoric of people running for election. That's what the people really think. The election is over now, and Americans have said we want both parties to work together to get things done and do it by listening to the American people. Americans don't want to push American families whose breadwinners lost their jobs through no fault of their own into poverty during the holidays. I think we should end these debates and extend benefits longer and allow benefits to be scaled back as the economy improves. The reason we've had all these votes out here is because the Senate is unable to do anything. We've tried to extend this for extended periods of time, and over in the Senate, they say, well, let's extend it for a month, let's see if we can starve them for a month, and then we'll go in. They let this program lapse for 3 months over there, and you're telling me that we're going to work together. Well, I think we ought to work together. This is a short-term extension in an effort to see if our Republican colleagues will support any kind of help for the unemployed. I am told by the other side that there's no plan in the Senate to take up this bill. Well, they're waiting to see if we can get it out of here. If you don't help, maybe it won't get out of here, but the message to 4 million Americans will be the Republican Party doesn't care whether you have a Christmas or a way to fund your mortgage or a way to put food on the table for the first three months of the next year. I hope my Republican colleagues will join the American people in supporting this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney).

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I have found that the other side is very adroit at finding some reason not to do anything to help the middle class. Now, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that the people in this country are not interested in cutting off food and housing and medical coverage for people who are unemployed in this country. And to use these arguments about, Oh, we're going to get the money from the stimulus money, I defy anybody on this floor at this moment to stand up and tell me where that stimulus money is and what the impact would be if you cut it because that money was allocated to various agencies, some to pay salaries for schoolteachers, some to pay salaries for policemen and firemen and local governments, some to pay the States for Medicaid. All this money is out there. Maybe some of it hasn't yet been spent, but it's allocated. Some of it is for construction projects. I suppose, just like that Governor in New Jersey who thinks it's really politically smart to stop a public works project under the Hudson River because then he can use that money to pave potholes in New Jersey, and he puts the construction workers out of work all over the place. Those infrastructure projects, you can't spend all the money on the first day. It does take a little while to build it, and you pay it out as you build it. Now, you know that. Republicans are just being deceptive. They think because it still is there in the Treasury, it can be used for something else. Well, it might have been committed for something else. But not my Republican friends. This emergency that these 4\1/2\ million people have over here who have no benefits coming by the end of March, ``You folks understand that you shouldn't worry about this. I mean, the Speaker will explain it to you that you just have to wait until we can find where that money is in the budget.'' This is an emergency for people who have no check coming. We would all like this thing to be all over. There isn't anybody on this floor, Republican or Democrat, who wouldn't like the mess that was created by the Bush administration to be over with. It isn't. And the problem is, a guy in my district said, you know, Jim, I can tell you what the problem with America is, and your Republican side has a bad dose of this. He said, It's the belief in the microwave. If they have a problem, they come down to the refrigerator. They open the refrigerator, pull something out, close the refrigerator, open the microwave, throw it in, hit two buttons and wait 30 seconds and they've got lunch. They think everything can be solved like that. It took a long time for Mr. Bush to create the mess that we are now dealing with, and it isn't going to be over in 30 seconds like the microwave dinner is. And the fact is that you've got people who contradict you directly. The real budget--no one's going to ever accuse me of being a big budget warrior or a deficit warrior. I'm no deficit hawk. But Bob Bixby, President of the Concord Coalition, that organization dedicated to eliminating Federal budget deficits said, and I quote: ``As a deficit hawk, I wouldn't worry about extending unemployment benefits. It is not going to add to the long-term structural deficit, and it does address a serious need. I just feel like unemployment benefits wandered into the wrong street corner at the wrong time, and now they're getting mugged.'' He's absolutely right. For us to pick on the unemployment benefits as the problem for this deficit, wait till we have the debate on taxes on this floor and I hear people whining and whining around here about people making more than half a million dollars and we've got to give them a tax cut. I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 6419.

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield myself 30 additional seconds. My friend on the other side clearly understands, I'm sure, the legislative process. We put a bill over to the Senate. They can make a change. If they want to pay for it, they can pay for it. They are safe, they're comfortable, because they know you're going to stop the bill or try to stop the bill. They know that the House Republicans are determined that they're not going to let this bill through here. So they say, all right, we can say we don't have any way to do anything with it. My belief is that we put a bill over there, they will pass a bill. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis).

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, may I ask what the division of minutes is at the moment?

Mr. McDERMOTT

Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, in the midst of this recession, the American people face impossible job prospects, decreased wages, and the continuing decline in the value of their homes. Reports show that 23 percent of all residential properties are underwater and the foreclosure rates are only rising. Underwater homeowners are often ineligible for refinancing, and are kept from restructuring the mortgage debt on their primary home in bankruptcy. With banks being largely ineffective in modifying loans, homeowners are left with little choice but foreclosure. The American people deserve better, and fixing this problem will help the economy and American families. The ``Protecting Homeowners and Foreclosure Stabilization act of 2010'' will give homeowners the ability to restructure the debt on their primary residence in bankruptcy. Furthermore, homeowners will receive increased protection from foreclosure by the automatic stay in bankruptcy, and increased time to file a plan in Chapter 13. Homeowners facing foreclosure have the additional benefit of waiver of the pre- filing counseling requirement to ensure minimal delay in accessing the court. As a condition of filing, homeowners must certify that they requested a loan modification from their bank. The ability to restructure the debt of all assets in bankruptcy has long been enjoyed by businesses. There is no reason that the American people should receive fewer protections than businesses do in bankruptcy. The ``Protecting Homeowners and Foreclosure Stabilization act of 2010'' will help put American homeowners on equal footing with the banks when working to save their homes.