Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. This is almost hysterical, in a bad sense hysterical. We were in the Committee on Education and the Workforce today marking up the TANF bill. We offered an amendment to raise the minimum wage to a living wage. Shot down. We offered an amendment that we wanted to give more money for people who were going from welfare to work, we were going to step in and provide them with child care, more money for child care. We have a study that says you need about $8 billion for these people to have adequate child care so they will actually get off the welfare rolls and get to work. That got shot down.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That one program was for low-income folks?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, let me just say that it is great to have you here, and I think it shows that it does not matter whether I am a red State, Florida's a red State, Oklahoma unfortunately is a red State. You are the only blue Stater here, but I think what the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Boren) brings here is that there is this idea that we are trying to promote the Democratic agenda. This is about America. This is not a partisan issue. I mean, help us out here. The kid who is getting Head Start or the kid that wants to go to college or the parents that are trying to pay for the school or whatever it may be, this is not a red State-blue State issue. I think the 30 Something Group is all about talking about what is best for the United States of America, and that means making sure that those people in your district have an opportunity to go to college, that they have a healthy start. I think we have talked about that, and that is not a partisan issue. This is about what is doing what is best for the country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let us reiterate that point right before we go. We have about 5 minutes left. Every cut that is being made to fund the Katrina relief is being made to a group of people who do not donate to the Republican majority. They are Medicaid recipients. They are food stamp recipients, and they are college students and middle-class parents who do not have a big lobby group here.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I appreciate that. That is the distinction that we need to make here. The Republican Party controls all the levels of government, the committees, the House, the Senate, the White House. What they say goes. We are an opposition party at this point, and they are the governing party. They are taking the country off the cliff is basically what is happening here. The point I want to make to my friends in the 30-Something Group and to the Members who are watching and the American people is this. When this body was originally trying to figure out a way to pay for Katrina, all those pictures that you show, when they were originally trying to figure out a way to pay for this, you know what came up? Across-the- board cuts in all programs, 2 percent, in order to pay for this, across the board. Then, when the extreme right wing Republicans in the caucus came over and those corporate interests here in Washington, D.C., came over to the Hill and they started exerting their influence here, it changed because we cannot cut programs that the big-time lobbyists want. That would be wrong in Washington, D.C. Notice what is being cut, notice. Look at the list: Medicaid, Head Start, college loans. There is not a program that is getting cut where the people can actually donate money to Congress. We cannot cut programs where people have to donate and they make big profits. Is that not a coincidence? Of all the programs we have, not one program is going to be cut in which a special interest would be hurt. What a shame. What a sham. It is a joke that we are going to ask Medicaid recipients, Head Start, free and reduced lunch, college loans. Those people are going to take the brunt of the hit to pay for a natural disaster. I heard a columnist today say we are going to take from the dry poor and give to the wet poor, and is that not something?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Our Web site is 30somethingdemocrats@mail.house. gov. We have been getting a ton of e-mails. Keep sending them. We love to get them. I appreciate the strong cast we have here and maybe tomorrow or next week we will be able to fill the whole Chamber up. Let us keep rolling.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as far as I can see, there are not any.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That is a joke.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is all about what is my title. After the greatest natural disaster in the country and everything that is going on, you are talking about your title. That just proves what we talk about a lot here with the 30- Somethings. It is more politics than it is policy. It is more politics than it is actually fixing the problems.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Evident by, my God, this guy is worried about his title after Katrina. Give me a break.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Right.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Terrible.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. It is not random.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. What is coming out of the conservative think tanks at this time, well, what is going to happen is these workers are going to get this extra money from the prevailing wage, and they are going to give it to the unions. Then it is just going to pad the union coffers. I do not know if you have the chart there or not, union membership in the three hardest hit gulf States, the highest was 10. The lowest was four, and another one was like five. Five percent of the workers were union workers. It was just nonsense, and then you look how many union members are there, none basically. None.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments of the gentleman, and I want to welcome back the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), who we missed desperately last night.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And I announced last night that my brother had a baby last week.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Yes, that was my big announcement. His name is Nicholas John. So I will probably be saying that to every 30-Something for the next 6 months. But we had a great discussion last night on so many different issues, and the Katrina issue was one. I want to go back and sort of fill in the blanks here a little bit and let people know that the Democrats are proposing that we create an independent Katrina commission like we had an independent commission to oversee 9/11. And here is the bill, H.R. 3764. We are asking for an independent commission, meaning Republicans or Democrats do not rule the commission. It is independent of this body. It is independent of the White House. It is like we had for 9/11. Because we feel, as Democrats, that what we all had to watch happen on TV was one of the great national tragedies, not only the natural disaster that happened but the response from a government that we have been promised over the last number of years would be adequately equipped to respond, would respond in a timely manner, and that they would have a coordinated response in order to save American lives if there was an emergency. Because after 9/11, and since then, we have been told by this administration and by this Congress that we are protecting you. You are safe. It is okay. We are going to do it. We are the party that is strong with these kind of issues. Then we found out during Katrina that that just was not the case. You throw that on top of what we are watching happen in Iraq, and we are losing our confidence. If you ask the American people, they are losing their confidence too. That is why over 80 percent of the American people in every poll that we have seen want this independent commission. But what the Republicans have set up is a real farce. They might as well put the Chair of the Republican National Committee in charge of the oversight committee of Katrina. There are eleven Republicans and nine Democrats, which means the minority party is not allowed to subpoena witnesses. The Republican Chair of that committee and the other 10 Republicans on the committee will be the only ones who can subpoena people to come and testify before the committee and really give this thing a thorough overview and a good look-see and overturn every rock possible to figure out what the real problems were and what the real problems are. This is not about politics. This is about making sure the United States post-September 11 has an adequate emergency response system in place regardless of where you live. Because that could very easily been New York, it could have been L.A., or it could have been Youngstown, it could have been Miami. It just so happened to be New Orleans and it happened to be a natural disaster instead of a terrorist attack. But if it was a terrorist attack, we cannot explain how we would have responded any differently. It was about communication and coordination and all these other things that we need to ensure for the American people. And we believe that an independent commission that is free of politics is the only thing that is going to give us those answers. That is what the Democratic Party is asking for, that is what the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) is asking for, and that is what 80 percent of the American people are asking for.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Does that not say a lot about what we are dealing with in the leadership today?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I agree. We want to take the country in a new direction, in another direction. Since 1994, the Republicans have held this Chamber. The President has been in for 5 years. They have controlled the Senate on and off for a good while over the past decade and a half. We want to take the country in another direction, because if you look at the leadership, I just believe that because of the lack of experience they just are not governing. They just do not know how to govern. When you look at the increased poverty rates, when you look at wages, when you look at what is going on with companies like Delphi and General Motors, when you look at the health care crisis in this country, when you look at the poverty crisis, the cuts for school funding and local communities, libraries being cut, prisons and jails that cannot handle the load that is coming in, in every single aspect here, reducing our dependence on foreign oil, every single aspect here has been the ball has been dropped. We want to take the country in a new direction, in a better place, with the changes that I think the Democratic Party wants to provide. If you want to e-mail us, it is 30somethingdems@mail.house.gov, and let us know if you want to be a citizen cosponsor of the independent Katrina commission, which we think would be the best way in a nonpartisan, bipartisan way to try to address the issues, and I thank my good friend from Florida for the opportunity to join both my colleagues here tonight.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I really think if I was not here and coaching some football in high school in Ohio and I was flipping through and watching us, if I was not exactly plugged in as much as we are, I would think they have got to be making this up. I mean, they just cannot be serious about all of this stuff. They have got to be fudging the facts or misrepresenting them or putting a certain spin on it like they do in D.C. We are not making this stuff up. I do not think you can, even if you wanted to. Picture this, natural disaster in the U.S. In the U.S. years ago, they passed the Davis-Bacon provision, which two Republicans authored just by coincidence, that when Federal money is spent somewhere, including natural disasters, wherever the money's being spent, the workers have the right to be paid the wage in that area. Then during the greatest natural disaster, the President repeals it for the very people who are going to go back in and rebuild their own community. What? You have got to be kidding me. Who would believe that? At the same time, to pay for the rebuilding of the community, we are going to cut health care for the poor; we are going to cut student loans for middle-class people; and we are not going to ask the rich people to pay for anything, not even the rich people, people who make four or five, six, seven, eight. Even during this, you just wanted to ask millionaires to give a portion of their tax cut back to help us fund this. It is like you cannot believe it. It is almost like when you play sports, did you ever have those moments where things kind of slow down a little bit? That is what it feels like down here. You are just slowly watching the unraveling happen. We come to the floor every night not for therapy, but we come here because we hope that we can convince the American people that the Democrats are for changing all this and making this better and reforming the way government works. Reform is not consistent necessarily with tax cuts for wealthy people. It is about fixing the way government executes its responsibilities, and this is what we are for, and that is what this independent commission is for.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We are not making this up.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, there is no doubt about it, to be so far removed. And if we look back, we have got three wars going on right now and four tax cuts primarily to people who make hundreds and hundreds of thousands, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800,000-plus, billionaires who are getting these kind of tax cuts, and then not only to do this. After Katrina we have got a $500 billion deficit. Now we are going to cut $10 billion out of the Medicaid program for low-income folks who need health care and their kids. $9 billion out of college students loans. What? It is so competitive out in the world today, and we are going to cut student loans? And throughout this whole process, through 9/11, the war, Katrina, natural disasters in the gulf coast, hurricanes last year, all this stuff that has been going on, not one time has the President asked those people who make more than $1 million can they maybe help us out a little bit? A novel idea. Please, somebody who makes more than $1 million, help us. And he is the President of the United States, for God sakes. He can call these people into his office and ask them for help. Ask them for assistance. We need to balance the budget. We need to make investments in education. We need to make sure that the poor folks and the middle class folks in our country have adequate health care coverage. And then with the wounds wide open, to throw a little salt in it, he repeals the Davis-Bacon provision, which says that for the Federal money being spent to rebuild the gulf coast after Katrina that the people working would have to get prevailing wage in that area. And the prevailing wage in that area is 9 or 10 bucks an hour, and the President repealed that so the Federal money going to that area does not have to be prevailing wage. How much lower is he going to go? He is trying to help these people, and they want to go back and rebuild their community, and he is saying no. He is going to say we are going to pay them minimum wage. That is salt in the wound. And those same people are going to be the same folks who will probably need Medicaid, who still want to send their kids to school and need the student loan and the Pell grant, which is being cut by $9 billion. Meanwhile, and I am going to just reiterate what the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) said before we got here, all the while we are spending $20 billion in reconstruction in Iraq, building and renovating 110 primary health care centers, vaccinated 3.2 million children, rehabbed 2,700 schools and trained 36,000 secondary teachers, funded 3,100 community development projects, and provided housing for tens of thousands of Iraqis. Meanwhile, we are repealing the prevailing wage provision for our own people? We are cutting health care and student loans for our own people? This is outrageous. This is absolutely outrageous what is going on. We need change in the government. We need reform. We need people to come down here who are not going to be so tied to the special interests to be independent and make independent decisions for the best interests of this country, not any other, and in the process hurt our country.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, they can e-mail us at 30SomethingDems@mail.house.gov. They can e-mail and be a citizen cosponsor, but call their Members of Congress, call their Senators. I mean that is what really needs to happen.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, we can blame the FEMA people complaining about their title and all of that stuff, but who appoints these people? These people are appointed by the President of the United States. This goes to his judgment to hire a horse attorney, not a horse's attorney; but he is an attorney for equestrian activity, that is what this gets to. This President appointed this person, and he appointed the other people. The top seven or eight people who were involved in the top FEMA flow chart were appointees from President Bush, and they were not qualified. They had no emergency management experience. We need change in the government today. We need to change the way the situation is. We need to change the leadership. We need to reform the way we do business. We need to change the way we do business, and you do that through an independent commission, not through politics. Do Members think that the majority party here, the Republican Party, is going to somehow oversee this whole process and dig up and say, What were we thinking? This guy was asking about his title during the greatest natural disaster in the history of the country. They are not going to highlight that and say maybe that was a little bit of the problem. They are going to do their best to keep that out of the press. Fortunately, that stuff makes its way in. But why not have an independent commission, bipartisan, to figure out exactly what happened. If we do not implement this change, we are going to be in real trouble the next time this happens.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Third-party validators.