Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for taking a lead on this. He is quarterbacking tonight. I think there are some great issues. Just so we know, we wonder sometimes when we stand on the floor how many people are out there watching. And I just got off the phone with my wife and she is changing from ``Law and Order'' to C-SPAN so that they can watch us here tonight. So we know we have a little bit of an audience out there. But, again, it is the Thirtysomething Democrats@mail.house.gov. And I have a stack of e-mails here that we have received since we started doing this, and it is amazing the response we are getting. I think as we have talked about this, and it was not too long ago that we were in college and participating in a variety of activities there, and we felt that the political leadership was not engaging us. And I think that is something that the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) has made it a point that as a Democratic Caucus we are going to go out and we are going to pay attention to what the needs of the students are. We recognize that they are the future of the country. We do not just want to pay them lip service. We want to make sure that we are there for them with the issues that they care about and on the issues they need us to be there for them. If we are going to continue to thrive as a democracy and country we are going to need to invest in our young people, and we cannot just say we are only going to take care of senior citizens. I think there is a responsibility there and we have a commitment there, but at the same time, we need to make sure that we let these young people know that we are committed to the issues they care about, we are committed to them, we want to see them get educated and see them recognize their own dreams, their own aspirations. In many instances, that is through a college education, period, end of story. It is not the only thing you need but for a good many Americans, if you want to succeed, you have to do it by going and furthering your education. So the question that we have here tonight is, are young people better off today, are students better off today than they were 4 years ago? I think if you look at the chart that we will put up and some of the statistics that we will talk about here today, it is clear that young people are not better off today than they were just 4 years ago. In the past 4 years, the unemployment rate for people ages 16 to 24 has gone up 3.7 percent through the Department of Labor statistics. So there are thousands of kids who are young people who are out there trying to get jobs, trying to find work, and they cannot find work. Then this is not so much off the subject, but I found this article today that I wanted to talk about and bring up today. This is from San Jose, California, and the title of the article is Offshoring of U.S. Jobs Accelerating. We talk about how we have to educate our young kids. In every single trade agreement that we have passed, the commitment was we are going to continue to invest in education, K through 12, No Child Left Behind, Pell grants, consolidation of student loans, investment in our young people. We are going to move the country forward by investing in our young people, and if you get an education, the promise was, then you have work in this country. So this study that was done roughly, and that is a quote, roughly 830,000 U.S. service sector jobs ranging from telemarketing and accountants to software engineers and chief technology officers will move abroad by the end of 2005. Eight-hundred-and-thirty-thousand jobs will move offshore, high-tech jobs, by 2005. This same outfit did a study a couple of years ago, and they said it was only going to be 588,000. Now it is 830,000. So the question is, do you have the opportunity that you had if you would have graduated in 1999 or 2000 and the kind of job market that a Democratic Congress and a Democratic President created through balancing the budget and being fiscally responsible and leading an enormous economic growth and creating the kind of jobs needed?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If the gentleman will yield, Mr. Speaker, the ultimate irony of this whole deal, and this job provides a lot of opportunities to have some very great moments, very sentimental moments, and one I remember distinctly is when we walked into the Cannon caucus room and we were having a veterans' hearing for their budget. All the veteran organizations were there and filled this huge, beautiful room. They were in wheelchairs, on crutches, bent, amputees, just sacrifice written all over their face. Those are the veterans who have created and protected the system, the democratic and capitalistic system that we have right now and that allows people to create wealth for themselves. The fundamental aspect of this system is to have a strong economic and democratic system which has been given to us by these veterans. And these people who are benefiting from this system have not been asked to sacrifice. I just wanted to make that point.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 409. This important resolution recognizes the service and sacrifice of our World War II veterans, the domestic contributions of Americans in support of the allied victory, and celebrates the completion of the National World War II Memorial located on the National Mall here in Washington, D.C. I thank the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) for his work on this resolution, as well as all of my colleagues who assisted in its drafting. I especially thank the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for all of her work and perseverance to ensure the establishment of the National World War II Memorial and for her hard work on behalf of the many veterans in the great State of Ohio. Most importantly, I thank and express my gratitude to all of the World War II veterans. Without their efforts and sacrifice, this world would be a quite different place. This resolution is indeed important and appropriate as we prepare to dedicated the National World War II Memorial. Not only does it recognize the heroic veterans of World War II, but it also commends the individual and collective contributions that American citizens have made on the homefront in support of the Nation's war effort. This memorial that we will soon dedicate and celebrate will stand before us as a reminder of the great sacrifices and the great triumphs of the Greatest Generation. I am proud and humble to represent the 17th Congressional District of the State of Ohio where many veterans of World War II reside. This resolution is for them and all of those who have fought to protect this great country, and I thank them. Mr. Speaker, I support this measure, and I urge all Members to do the same.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds just to say that as a Member of this body who arrived here at 29 years old, a member of the generation or two to follow the greatest generation, I would just like to thank all of the veterans who gave us this great system that we have, where young men and young women from all over this country can run for office and get voted on by their community to come down here and represent their views. We have a tremendous system here that was achieved by great sacrifice from those who came before us. Again, I thank everyone who has brought forth this particular resolution and the World War II Memorial that we will be celebrating here in the next few weeks.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) who initiated this whole process.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), and a personal friend of mine.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) for his leadership and for the gentleman's work on the previous resolution on Vietnam human rights today, and also those people who fought in the past for our freedoms that we have today. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, as we are wrapping up here, I want to thank the gentleman from Florida, the gentlewoman from California and the gentleman from Alabama. I want to take this opportunity to say e-mail us, 30-SomethingDems at mail.house.gov, and check out rockthevote.com for the voter suppression. I just want to read a couple e-mails real quickly that we received last week. Melanie from Maryland said that she heard us last week. It almost brought her to tears, that people in the Congress were actually talking about her. Amy from Abilene Christian University wrote. And there was also one other student who called and said he never watched C-SPAN, but ended up watching it for 45 minutes last week to watch ``Gregory Meeks, Tim Ryan and one other guy.'' That ``one other guy'' was the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek). We will be back next Tuesday. Drop an e-mail to us. We are going to continue to have this dialogue and make sure that the students and 20- somethings and 30-somethings of this country are represented in the United States Congress.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Do not do it.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, so in essence we do have universal health care in the country but it is through the emergency room.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman was extremely articulate in his analysis of the situation that we are in, and I think he is right, that a lot of us that are here, and I have seen many Members who are just a few years older than us, have maintained that attitude that say this institution and politics in general is about what can be for the rest of society. We have talked a little bit about health care, and I think there are two ways to look at this. I think both are very valuable, but the one is we need to cover people because it is a justice issue. It is an issue where we all believe that every person in America should have adequate health care regardless of one's wealth, period, end of story. That should not be a debate that we are having in the 21st century in America. And as we provide health care for young people, we are beginning to educate them on the way to behave, the way to treat themselves, the way to be more healthy, so that when they are in the Medicare program one day, that they are not costing us as much money as they would have cost us had they not had the education that they had at a young age. This should not be just about providing health care coverage. This should also be about teaching wellness in our schools, whether it is through Leave No Child Behind or some other Federal program that we have, but to make sure we are teaching people at a very young age how wellness is the best way to approach life. That is one. And then the second reason is an economic argument. Imagine if we were providing health care to manufacturers here today. Young kids graduate from school. They go and they work. Maybe they do not even go to college. They go get a 2-year degree, run the new machines, have a technical degree, and they have health care. Imagine the burden that would be released from those people who were owning small manufacturing shops and the money that they would save that they could put back into their business to create economic wealth in the country again. So this is an investment that I think when we want the government to invest money, we say we want to get the best bang for the buck. We get a justice issue solved, and we also want to get economic development and assist small businesses in a way that they have not been assisted under the current regime that we have here in the United States.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Go to rockthevote.com. Or, if the C-SPAN cameras can come in here, 30somethingdems@mail.house.gov. Send us some e-mails. We received a bunch just from last week, our first week here. Send us some e-mails. Let us know what you think, what your issues are so we can develop a students' bill of rights in order to advocate. I would like to welcome a great new Member of our freshman class the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Linda T. Sanchez).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, on that point, we have many kids in school surrounded by their peers who want to participate in the process, who are campaigning for a certain candidate or referendum on a State ballot, but they are from another State. How do they register to vote? I remember being from Ohio, and I went to school in Bowling Green which is across the State, how do you get registered to vote? Should it be by absentee ballot? You have to send a formal letter and you have exams, and you are trying to balance your duties at school to try to achieve a better life; and it becomes a very complicated process, instead of saying register to vote where your school is and being able to participate in the process. There are many instances where we have a college or university in a congressional district that is controlled by a Member of Congress or a party that is not representative of the people who are at that university, where if all of those kids would be able to register to vote at that university, they would swing a congressional election.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we are here on our second weekly 30- something working group, and I am joined by the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek). We started this last week on Tuesday. Every Tuesday night we are going to come here and talk about issues facing the young people, not only in our own communities in Florida or in the State of Ohio, not only young people who are at universities or private schools throughout the country, but people who are in their 20s, in their 30s and the kinds of challenges they are facing in society here today. As Members can see, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), who we would like to thank for the opportunity to do this, sponsoring the 30-something working group, we are going to ask young people, and you do not have to be 30, you can be 20, 40, 50, to contact us by e-mail at 30somethingdems@mail.house.gov, and we will repeat the mailing address later, but just to talk about issues that are facing young students, young people today. Last week we talked for about an hour about the challenges that are facing young people with summer jobs, student loans, Pell grants, and issues related to getting into college, having access to college, having access to higher education in this country. The majority of the discussion we talked about last week revolved around the priorities of the country. As we sit in this Chamber late on a Tuesday night, the issue again is priorities. We just want to communicate to young people today that there is active participation in this democracy in which young people who think that democracy does not matter, who think that their vote does not count, who think that somehow they cannot participate in the system, we are here to tell them that they can, and they do have an opportunity to participate in this system; and for two young people like the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) and myself and several others who are here, have gotten to this establishment, this institution, the United States Congress, through the help of a lot of young people. You can either say no, reject the system, you can say no, we do not have an opportunity to talk, we do not have an opportunity for our voice to be heard, or you can say, yes. Yes, we can participate in the system; we can participate in our democracy. I heard some of the gentlemen before us talk about how the democratic process works and how people will, if given the opportunity, they will dictate what kind of government we get and what kind of government as citizens we receive; but it has to be active participation. We are here to say we believe, and I know I believe passionately and have spoken on the House floor and I know the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) has also participated in these discussions, that we believe that the priorities of this institution over the last year, year and a half, several years, have not represented the interests of young people. The Republican Party has controlled the House since 1994. They have controlled the Senate for a good portion of the years since then. They have controlled the White House for the last 3\1/2\ years; and the agenda for young people, the agenda for students has not been addressed. As we talked about last week, our discussion had a lot to do with Pell grants and access to college. The question that we want to present to young people today, tonight, is: Do you agree with the priorities that this administration has established for you? Do you agree with trillions of dollars of tax cuts over the next 10 years? Do you agree with borrowing money to pay for the deficits that we have today in order to give tax cuts primarily to the top 1 and 2 percent? I know the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek), who has been very active in this discussion, has agreed with the majority of us on the Democratic side that we believe that money would be better spent balancing our budget, making sure we have fiscal responsibility in the country, and making sure we make the proper investments. We believe that some of those investments, and it would be misleading to say all of those investments, but a good portion or many of those investments should be made to our young people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I also want to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) for his leadership on this issue and a lot of other issues. Regardless of party and regardless of what the political pressure is, the gentleman has taken a stand; and being a new Member of Congress, I want to thank the gentleman for an opportunity to be able to witness that up close. Mr. Speaker, the issue of Dr. Wang is a very interesting one, for a variety of reasons. The one reason that strikes me, and the gentleman from Indiana alluded to this, is that he was meeting with a labor activist. I find that very interesting, and I find this particular situation a symptom of a larger disease that we are trying to deal with. They are saying there was a violation of three articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. There is obviously no longer a Universal Declaration of Human Rights because countries like China do not agree to this kind of standard that we have set. So this man was trying to help organize labor in China and trying to help bring some dignity and justice to the labor industry in China. It is obvious that China does not want it, but I think it is becoming more and more apparent that the major corporations in the United States who do business in China do not want China to have labor standards either. If citizens of the regime in China try to unionize, they will be arrested, they will be beaten, they will be tortured. Many of the workers are bonded workers that come from the farms and go in to work in some of the factories. These people in China and the government of China do not enforce the minimum wage standards that they have, nor some of the safety rules that they have. Why do they not want to do this? Because if they enforce these rules, as the AFL-CIO has indicated to us, there would be a 10 percent to 77 percent increase in the cost of goods coming out of China. We do not want to say that we want to raise prices, but I thought that this would bring about global competition, and I thought we were going to spread democracy. We want to lift the Chinese worker up. We want to lift them up to live, hopefully, one day, with the standards that we have here in the United States of America. But just think, if this would happen, if there would be a 10 to 77 percent increase in the goods coming out of the Chinese market, the U.S. worker would finally be able to compete, Mr. Speaker, would finally be able to compete; and it would eliminate the problem we are even having dealing with the currency right now, if we would have those kinds of labor and human rights standards put in place. I want to share a quote from the President of the United States when he was in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 10, 2003. He said to the workers in Ohio, ``Ohio workers, if given a level playing field, can outproduce any worker anywhere on Earth,'' if we had a level playing field. What we need to do is ask this administration to get tough on China. A level playing field will not just fall out of the sky. Then when we saw, and the AFL-CIO petitioned for, an opportunity to try to fix the currency manipulation problems and some of the labor rights problems, four Members of this administration's cabinet said that the administration's efforts at diplomatic engagement with Beijing on these two issues, currency and labor rights, would produce more results than threatening punitive tariffs. Efforts at diplomatic engagement? This is coming from an administration that, when they walk the halls of the United Nations, it is like a bull in a china shop. They have no diplomatic touch. We have alienated all of our allies. Now we want to go and try to deal with China with diplomacy, while they are abusing workers, while they are abusing people, going to Vietnam to pick people up who are going to help workers organize in China. Something needs to be done, and something needs to be done now. I appreciate the opportunity that the gentlewoman from California has given me and the gentleman from California. I rise in support of this; but, again, I think it is a symptom of a larger problem that needs to be dealt with, and this administration and this Congress need to continue to push China to enforce the human rights that we have been exporting from this country for many, many years and want to continue to export out of this country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would like to see the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) pull his wallet out again.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is right. I think a lot of people out there listening now who are young students who may not be tuning in tonight but, may be in the future, I do not think if you cross-reference the stories of those of us who are standing here, probably many of the Members here, the stories would be much different. You work hard, you go to college, you get a summer job, you work in a steel mill in the summer, you cut grass in the summer, you do what you can to help move things along, and you hope that you are blessed with families who help you, parents who support you, grandparents who want to step in and support you to make sure that you can have what you have. That is becoming less and less available. I think part of the reason I am here is because I was blessed to have a family who was able to help me out. I was blessed to have a summer job. Kids today are not even going to be able to get a summer job, because the market is so terrible that people who have been unemployed for the last 7 or 8 months are taking the summer jobs FROM the college kids, so that job I got cutting grass at Trumbull County and I would drive the thing on the side of the highway and drop the arm down to cut grass to make 6 bucks an hour so you would have money in the summer so you were not a further burden, those jobs are not available. The summer employment working the steel mill on the midnight shift, those jobs are not available because no one is hiring. So there is a connection to all of this. It is not just about the student loans, it is about the economy, it is about the tax decisions that we are making here, it is about the money we are spending, it is about the deficits, it is about the irresponsible fiscal policies that we have here that are all, that are all affecting this for all students and people who are going to get a 2-year degree, or do not even go to school at all. They are still affected by the job market.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume just to say I have been proud to be part of the Connecticut delegation here today.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I also would like to congratulate the gentleman and the University of Connecticut. I will not be participating in the cheer, however. They were very exciting games and a very exciting year for the University of Connecticut. I rise in support of this resolution. I notice that the gentleman does have a few extra T-shirts over there that I will be more than pleased to take off his hands if he needs to get rid of any of those extra ones. I extend a hearty congratulations, too, to both of the head coaches, both Coach Calhoun and Coach Auriemma. It is just fantastic. One, the excitement of the Final Four and the college basketball tournament. There is nothing in professional or collegiate athletics like the Final Four and the road to the Final Four. Again, we congratulate you. We will let you boast throughout the day today without being bitter at all. I want to just say, the great sportsmanship, the excellent play, the great strategy and tactics of both coaches, it was very, very enjoyable to watch. It was a great year. I look forward to the Ohio State Buckeyes maybe participating in a little better fashion next year. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Larson).

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, again, I want to reiterate our support and thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper) for his leadership on this particular piece of legislation and also all of his work as far as encouraging music in our schools. We have stories abound about famous musicians who have stumbled onto music class somehow or other. One story I am familiar with is Boyd Timsley, the famous violinist from the Dave Matthews Band. He started off in a middle school strings class, and the rest is history. The next thing we know, we have one of the premier violinists in the history of the world. We want to encourage this, but I also agree with the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cooper). We want to take this to the next level. We cannot rely on organizations like Save Our Music to try to help encourage this. This is our government. We understand the importance of the arts. We understand the importance of the stamp of approval that the Federal Government has. I think we also want to start putting our money where our mouth is on this issue. I thank the gentleman from Nevada and the gentleman from Tennessee and all who were involved in this. We are going to support this resolution.