Nancy Pelosi

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. What is the leader's latest prediction on when the House will adjourn before the election? Closer to October 11 or 18? And when do you believe we will return for a lame duck session?

Ms. PELOSI. I certainly hope so. And I hope that we can work together to pass more of these appropriations bills. We have taken them up in committee. Some of them are ready. In fact, the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, Export Financing and Related Programs last Thursday on the floor asked when his bill would be taken up. We are working on transportation, but we passed District of Columbia today. So many of these bills are ripe for coming to the floor. That is why I am disappointed not to see them on the schedule because when we pass up votes on Monday, I remind my colleagues that is September 30, the last day of the fiscal year, Mr. Speaker, and once again there are no appropriations bills scheduled to be on the floor. We used to say, and you know the expression, you are a young man, ``Thank God it's Friday.'' Around here it is ``Thank God it's Thursday.'' Now the Republican leadership is giving us a work week that ends on Thursday afternoon. I am sure hard-working Americans who are holding down two jobs to support their families and work more than 40 hours a week would appreciate a schedule like this. We spent weeks telling the other body that they have made no progress taking care of business we think they should be doing, and yet we have neglected so many of our own responsibilities. We have eight appropriations bills to fund the entire government that the House has yet to consider: education, veterans' medical care, transportation, agriculture, energy. The list goes on and on. And the disappointment is that these are being held up because an element, not the entire, but an element in the Republican Party wants to cut $7 billion out of education and you do not have the votes to do that; so you cannot bring it to the floor and therefore we are engaged in this business of one CR after another. I thank the gentleman for the information.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District, known as BART, as it celebrates its 30th anniversary this month. BART is the San Francisco Bay Area's premier mode of public transit and has carried nearly 2 billion passengers quickly and efficiently since it opened in 1972. Established in 1957 by the California State Legislature to relieve the unbearable traffic congestion on Bay Area roads, the BART concept was popular with the public from the very beginning. BART service began on September 11, 1972, an event that signaled a renaissance in rail transit in the United States. It was the first new rail rapid transit system built in the U.S. in more than 60 years and the first fully automated transit system in the world. The American Public Works Association named BART one of the ``Top Ten Public Works Projects of the 20th Century,'' an honor it shares with the Golden Gate Bridge, the Panama Canal, and the Hoover Dam. The BART District includes the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco, with service to San Mateo County. On an average weekday, BART carries about 310,000 passengers. The system consists of 95 miles of double track and 39 stations. With nearly 3,500 employees throughout the system, a $420 million operating budget and $561 million capital budget, BART is an important part of the Bay Area's economy. BART continues to grow and thrive. Four new stations and 8.7 additional miles of double track are set to open in early 2003 with service to the San Francisco International Airport and the Peninsula. BART will connect with Caltrain, a 77-mile commuter rail service, at the Millbrae station to create a 180-mile combined regional rail network. Continued regional transportation needs are spurring several BART extensions, now in the planning stages. These extensions would take BART to Warm Springs, to San Jose, to the Oakland International Airport, and possibly other heavily traveled corridors in the East Bay. Mr. Speaker, BART has consistently provided safe, fast, and reliable transportation to Bay Area residents and visitors. BART has served the San Francisco Bay Area well for 30 years, and we look forward to an even more extensive and more efficient rail system 30 years from now. I urge my colleagues to Join me in wishing BART a Happy 30th Birthday.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and for his leadership. I wonder if the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Smith) realizes that his constituents in the State of Texas have lost $11.5 billion of their hard-earned nest eggs due to corporate scandal and weak pension laws. It is very interesting to see us gathered on this floor telling the other body that it should pass legislation when we have been so delinquent in this body in doing our own business. The other body has passed a prescription drug benefit which we are trying to discharge with a discharge petition. We should be taking up that prescription drug benefit. The American people want and need it. Not one single appropriations bill has become law even though the fiscal year is less than 1 week away, October 1. The Republican leadership has refused to schedule desperately needed bipartisan school construction legislation. That leadership has also failed to schedule legislation to help all Americans with escalating prescription drug benefits, as I mentioned. Now the Republican leadership has a new strategy, pass resolutions praising old, irresponsible tax bills and blame the other body. The resolution before us today is not only a press release, it is a very misleading one. Members can see what we need to do for education in our country and how far short the Republican initiative on this comes, and that we are taking no action to meet the needs of America's children. The administration and the Republicans say Leave No Child Behind in their rhetoric, but in reality their budget request leaves millions of children behind by having a $7 billion deficit in what they are sending to this floor. Hopefully, some of the Republicans on the other side of the aisle will prevail so we can do justice for our children. This is surreal. This is not sense of the Congress; this is nonsense of the Congress. Mr. Speaker, our Founding Fathers placed a value on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That pursuit of happiness included working hard, playing by the rules, and being able to reach their self- fulfillment and retirement with dignity, not to have to be dependent on their children to support them; indeed, helping their children reach their fulfillment. What has happened to the pensions of America's workers is absolutely a travesty of justice and goes against the principles of our Founding Fathers who valued the pursuit of happiness. Separate and apart from the ridiculousness of us telling the other body what to do when we have not done our own business, this bill is a bad bill and should not become law. Shareholders should be made aware of and allowed to vote on perks provided to retired executives, but not under this bill. Retired corporate executives often get large retirement benefits above and beyond their pensions and other conventional benefits. These include housing, corporate jets, living expenses, tickets to sporting events and the rest. Congress should impose penalties on corporations providing such benefits unless shareholders know and approve of such things. We should ensure that corporate executives that crash their companies cannot escape with golden or platinum parachutes. But corporate executives also get retirement benefits that they can collect even after the corporation fails. Congress should tax executives on their deferred compensation benefits like all other income if the benefits are paid to executives in the case of bankruptcy or corporate corruption. This bill should be opposed because it endorses the Republicans' inadequate pension legislation. The GOP bill does not show what we have learned from the collapse of Enron, WorldCom and other corporate scandals. The underlying bill does little to protect employees' retirement savings. The underlying bill does not hold executives accountable. The underlying bill is not worthy of passage. Let us mind our own business, heed the needs of the American people, and pass our education bill, our prescription drug bill, and our own good pension bill. I urge my colleagues to vote against this nonsensical sense of the Congress.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman yielding. I will do my best not to name the other body by its name. First of all, let me say that perhaps it is news to the gentleman that many people in our country have very serious concerns about the cost of drugs. The Senate, the other body, passed in a very strong way, 78-21, a generic drug bill that is on that table. We want it to come to the floor so this House can act upon it to lower the cost of prescription drug to the American people. As far as the bill that passed this House, that is a sham in my view. The Democrats were proposing a prescription drug benefit with guaranteed benefits under Medicare for America's seniors. The Republican bill is a bill that tells seniors to go into the private market and we will help you buy insurance for prescription drugs there. But that is not a real guaranteed benefit.

Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding time. Mr. Speaker, it seems strange that we are here debating a sense of the Congress to instruct the other body how to do its business when we are not even allowed to use the name of the other body here. It seems strange that we are here talking about what they should do with their schedule when we have a schedule that begins on Tuesday night and ends on Thursday afternoon. We give new meaning to reducing the week. It used to be ``Thank God it's Friday.'' Now it is ``Thank God it's Thursday afternoon,'' so Congress can go home, without passing any appropriations bills, turning them into law before the end of the fiscal year, which is October 1. Not one appropriation bill is law. Yes, I say to the gentleman, the Republicans did not pass a prescription drug bill under Medicare. The Democratic proposal was a prescription drug benefit under Medicare, guaranteed benefits for our seniors. The Republican bill is a hoax. Let us not try to fool the American people. They know what is real. Let us do an education bill so that we can fund education and afterschool programs and helping children. Let us pass our appropriations bills, let us have HMO reform, let us pass a prescription drug bill. Let us past electoral reform so we can have honest counts in our country about who should serve in office.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire about the schedule for next week. I am pleased to yield to the distinguished majority leader.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, there are no dates in particular. Can the gentleman tell us when the Iraq resolution will be brought to the floor that was distributed to us today?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that information. I have some further questions if the gentleman will be available. I understand the gentleman is saying H.R. 4600, the medical malpractice bill, will be on the floor next week. Could the gentleman give us a little more what day it would be?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, so it is my understanding that next week we will be in Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday again; we have given away Monday and Friday again?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, we have given away tomorrow, we are giving up next Monday, we are giving up next Friday, and the list of unfinished business continues to grow. The number of legislative days continues to shrink. Does the gentleman expect the bill to deduct education expenses to be scheduled for next week? If so, on what day?

Ms. PELOSI. The back to school act, so-called.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, how long will the continuing resolution be?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, my understanding is, the gentleman, when asked about this continuing resolution, if we are going to have a lame duck session, et cetera, said that he consults with Puff the Magic Dragon. Puff the Magic Dragon, lame duck, this place is getting more and more like a menagerie or some would say a zoo. I have some concerns because today we voted on a resolution that urges the Senate to take certain action; but I know there is a bill that has overwhelmingly passed the Senate 78 to 21 that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would lower prescription drug prices by $60 billion over the next 10 years, $60 billion. Can the majority leader inform us if that bill will be scheduled before Congress adjourns in October, heeding the gentleman's concern about not following up on business completed by the Senate?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, perhaps the gentleman did not hear me. He said that the Senate had not passed a bill. The Senate had passed it 78 to 21, the prescription drug bill relating to generic drugs which would lower the cost by $60 billion over 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office. We have a discharge petition to that end to bring it to the floor. I urge our colleagues to sign it, but it was passed by the Senate, contrary to the gentleman's comment that the Senate had not passed a prescription drug bill. We now have 4 legislative working days until the end of the fiscal year. We also have eight appropriations bills to fund the entire government, and the House has yet to consider them. Are there any appropriations bills that will be considered to be scheduled next week or the week after so that Members can be prepared?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the seriousness with which the gentleman is treating the consideration of that resolution; and as soon as my colleague knows, I am sure he will let us know and when it will be brought to the floor. There are many other issues that the American people are concerned about that relate to education, to a prescription drug benefit, to access to health care, pension security. The list goes on and on; and as we come in for our 2-day-a-week work weeks in Washington, D.C., we are becoming less relevant to the problems that the American people are facing. It is almost as if they are saying to us, Earth to Congress, we are still here, we have these challenges in our economy and our workforce, et cetera, and get to work and get some of this done so that we can go forward.

Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from Arizona.

Ms. PELOSI. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the subcommittee of the distinguished gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Kolbe), I have a great deal of interest when the bill comes to the floor as well. I associate myself with the questions asked by the gentleman from Arizona. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished majority leader.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 401, a resolution to recognize the heroism and courage displayed by airline flight attendants each day. The anniversary of the September 11 terrorist hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is just two days away. All Americans remember and mourn the lives lost that tragic day. The world has changed for all of us. Before that time, flight attendants and their families and loved ones lived and worked with the knowledge that rare instances of mechanical failure or hijackers could endanger their lives. But no one imagined the dreadful assault of September 11, when terrorists turned four airborne planes into missiles used to attack thousands of Americans. That day, flight attendants again demonstrated their courage in the face of extreme danger. From all that we know of the final minutes on those flights, flight attendants worked to communicate with the ground, and in all likelihood helped prevent Flight 93, which crashed in rural Pennsylvania, from taking many more lives. I would like to bring my colleagues' attention to the heroism of Betty Ong, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, whose family lives in my district of San Francisco. On September 11, Betty called the airline reservations center from the plane to sound the alarm and provide information about the terrorists who had taken over the plane. I am aware of the enormous pain and suffering her family has been experiencing and extend them my deepest sympathy. It is an honor to pay tribute to Betty and express my appreciation for her life and bravery in the face of enormous danger. Now, even stepping onto an airplane is an act requiring willpower and courage for many Americans. Yet flight attendants do it every day. Flight attendants deserve our respect, cooperation, courtesy, and commendation for their hard work and courage their hard work. I urge my colleagues to vote for this resolution.

Ms. PELOSI

Ms. PELOSI. I would further like to inquire of the majority leader when the appropriations bills will come to the floor?

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I take this time to inquire of the distinguished majority leader what the schedule is. Was that the last vote of the day, and how are we going to proceed? I am pleased to yield to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Armey).

Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I would like to inquire of the majority leader when he expects the bill that was just pulled to be rescheduled?

Ms. PELOSI. So it is our understanding we are leaving at 20 after 12 on Thursday, coming back at 6:30 on Tuesday, and we may be out next Friday?