Tim Ryan

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of my amendment offered with the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Oberstar), and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Stupak). I would like to thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Sensenbrenner) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Conyers) for their work on the reauthorization. I would also like to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) and especially the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter) for allowing me to offer this very important amendment on domestic violence against pregnant women. My amendment authorizes the Office on Violence Against Women to provide grants to States for carrying out a campaign to increase public awareness of issues regarding domestic violence against pregnant women.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.

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

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I would be happy to join in, and I thank the gentleman again for having me here. There is a lot going on here in Washington. And just to kind of follow up where the gentleman was going, we had about 70- or 80-some e-mails just last week talking about we want to have an independent commission and it should be removed from the traditional partisan bickering that goes on in this Chamber; there should be an independent counsel and independent commission that oversees what is going on with Katrina. We know about the appointments, and we know that we had a gentleman who was a lawyer for equestrian horse shows that was not qualified, and seven or eight of the top brass in FEMA were political appointees. We know all this stuff, but we need to figure out how to get to the end and how to respond next time. Because next time it may not be a hurricane. Next time it may be a biological attack. The next time it may be a 9/11-type of attack. And though we do not like to talk about these things, our constitutional obligation here is to talk about worst-case scenarios and prepare for them. If the President and this administration is not going to appoint the proper people, and I saw today or yesterday that Michael Brown, Brownie, is now being hired as a consultant for FEMA. So he is still in the mix.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. That was beautiful. You know, you play sports when you are a kid, and I know the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) was a college athlete, a college football player, a great athlete back in his day, a little slower afoot now than he used to be. But if you used to play sports as a kid and if you would not start or you did not get in the game right away, you would be watching everybody play and you knew you were better than everyone else that was playing, and you just thought, put me in coach. Well, the Democrats are saying, put me in, coach. We will do better than this. And quite frankly, it does not seem that hard, given everything that has been going on, the corruption, the cronyism. Democrats know how to run the government. Are we perfect? No. But we had a great FEMA director, we knew how to respond. We passed the first Family and Medical Leave Act. We know what families need and we know how to deliver. In 1993 we balanced the budget, leading to the greatest economic expansion in the history of the United States of America, without one Republican vote. Al Gore had to come to the Senate to make the tie- breaking vote. Many people on this side of the aisle lost their seats because they made a tough vote that was in the best interests of the country, but not in the best interests of their own political careers. If you get a chance to read President Clinton's book, he highlights a couple of those people who made those tough votes. My point is that the Democrats know how to govern. Are we perfect? Absolutely not. But you do not see this nonsense going on. They had to spend $40 million to chase our President around for something that had nothing to do with the public affairs of government. Was he wrong? Absolutely. But we are talking about the public affairs and public responsibilities. Put us in, coach.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. ``Brownie.''

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I want to try to break this down because we do not want to accuse anybody, and I want to make a different point. The indictment today that was filed against the majority leader, and everyone will read it in the newspaper tomorrow and hear it on the news, I am not explaining anything new, but the basic charge is in Texas there is a law that does not allow corporate money to get involved in political campaigns. The charge is that corporate money went into this leadership PAC and that money made its way into the State elections for senators and legislators within the State of Texas. The Republicans then, with that money, ended up winning seats and taking control, then using that power to then reapportion congressional districts off-cycle. We normally do it every 10 years. So every 10 years when you do the Census, you reapportion congressional districts. But they did this 3 years after the Census. This did it in 2000. This is the allegation. They took this corporate money, won the seats, did the redistricting again and got rid of four out of five Democratic Members in Congress because of the redistricting. It is alleged this corporate money made its way to influence elections here in the United States Congress and Democrats lost five seats. Now that if it is true is horrendous and a total breach of trust for the American people, if that is true. But I want to make another point. This highlights, whether this is true or not, this highlights the number one problem in the United States Congress. There is so much money in this institution it sickens me, and I know it sickens the 30- Something Group, because that money influences too much of the policy that comes forth, and every single decision that is made in this Congress is about money. It is about fund-raising, it is about how we can squeeze somebody else for another dollar for our front-line candidates. The policy that comes through here consistently reflects how can we raise more money. That is the problem. I think that is the issue that the incidents today lead to. This institution has become more about money than about governing. When you have your policies set around money, you end up getting bad policies and you end up getting an abuse of power. That is exactly what happened. Look at the Medicare bill. At 3 in the morning, they told us it was $400 billion, that was a lie. It ended up being $700 billion, and the actuary was told not to tell Members of Congress, elected officials in the United States of America, that they were not allowed to know the true cost of the Medicare program. Give me a break. They knew there were Members who would not vote for a bill that cost more than $400 billion, so they said $400 billion. Weeks later we find out it was $700 billion. That was a lie. The war and all of the nonsense leading up to it was a lie. Every single thing. We are safer now since we elected this new President and we have the Republicans in control; wrong. We saw what happened with Katrina, another lie. We are good stewards of the government, less government more efficient; wrong. Cronyism at FEMA, eight of the top people all political hacks, and people died because of it. Our responsibility here is to oversee this kind of thing, and everyone keeps telling us we are safer and we saw it was not true. After September 11, we do not have time to be nice. We do not have time to sit here and accept everything at face value. This has all led to an abuse of power. Homeland Security and the FAA was used during this whole Texas debacle to track down Texas legislators who feared their government so much they flew to Oklahoma. They feared their government and they flew to Oklahoma. And then the war, again misinformation coming from the government. Again, FEMA, cronyism, abuse of power again. And now, which really, really frightens me, we have this President talking about getting rid of the Posse Comitatus law in the United States of America which means if you do not think using Homeland Security and FAA to abuse power is not enough, if you do not think appointing cronies at FEMA to oversee emergency management in the United States of America is enough of an abuse of power, now the President is suggesting that we get rid of Posse Comitatus, which means the military can take over emergency situations and have police powers in your communities. Now wait a minute, this has got to stop somewhere. This has got to stop somewhere, and it all comes back to this money being so ingrained into this system that it drives everything. And too much money, too much power, one party control here, House, Senate, White House, leads to an abuse of power. That is what you are seeing on the news tonight and that is what you will see on the news tomorrow. You will hear about it for the weeks and months to come because one- party rule in the United States of America is bad for our government. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Just get around the airport.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Let us be sure how this works. This is a grand jury. This is not a prosecutor, this is a grand jury.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. No doubt about it. This goes right to the heart of every single thing that has happened here in the last 5 years. This outfit does not know how to govern. They do not know how, period, dot, end of story. They just do not know how to govern. They do not know how to control the government. They do not know how to utilize the government for good purposes. They cannot do it with FEMA. They screwed up Medicare. The tax cuts are not working. Their tax policy, it stinks. Our trade policy is no good. Our international relations are atrocious. There are very few countries in the world that even like us any more. We are having hearings on global threats. Who likes us? China is going in and scooping up all the people we have upset over the past few years. What are we doing right, I ask my good friends from the 30- something Group? And since we are talking about homeland security and communicating with people, most people at home that are watching now understand what has happened here today. Unfortunately, it is a very, very sad day in the history of this institution where someone in leadership has been indicted on the Republican side. And as I am going through my notes here, I am realizing that the leadership over there can get hold of Homeland Security if we have an issue in Texas, a political issue. They can call the FAA and have them track down some information. There was no hesitation in the calling and using of a Federal Government agency to track down Texas legislators during the whole redistricting deal, so we know how to get hold of them if we need the Federal Government for political purposes. But if we need to rescue people or to cut through bureaucracy during a natural disaster, all of a sudden we do not know what we are doing.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the gentleman, and I think this is an opportunity for us to step up and do this in a way that the American people will see this as an honest attempt to try to figure out what the problems are and what the problem was and what the problem is, and if we continue down the road, what the problems will be. The real issue I think and why over 70 percent of the American people want an independent commission, bipartisan, half Democrats half Republicans, people who do not sit in this body, people who do not have to ask the administration for favors during the appropriations process, or through the regulatory process, that is, the problem is we have Members who will be on this floor who will need favors from the administration, will be cutting deals in here, will be the same people who are going to try to figure out what the problems are. I want to say on behalf of myself, I hate this. I hate the fact that we have to come to the floor and talk about this stuff. We spoke about Social Security for months and months. I hate the fact that we have to be critical of this administration. I hate the fact that we have to be critical of Michael Brown and the whole process, but that is our constitutional obligation. When we raise our hands the first week in January every other year, we swear an oath to the Constitution. The outfit, the gang that is running this place, just cannot seem to shoot straight. They did not tell us the truth with the Medicare prescription drug number. It was $400 billion the night we voted on it, and it turned into $700 billion or $800 billion. There was misinformation before the war on terror. The budget numbers that were given daily, weekly over the past few years are not accurate, never are. The spiel about the tax cuts are going to create all these new jobs, not true. That is why 70 percent of the American people want an independent commission. They think this is the gang that cannot shoot straight, and it is. And for the President to be giving a speech on Social Security two days afterwards when all of America is watching this on their television, how far removed is he? How insulated from the average American is he? That is the problem: we have a disconnect between this government and the American people. I hope that this independent commission that we are pushing for, like the 9/11 Commission, will be one that will bring some credibility back to the government, one that will take an accurate look at what happened here and bring us the facts.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, it does not look like it. And I think David Broder had a great quote saying that majority Republicans see themselves first and foremost as members of the Bush team. Well, this is not about their team winning. This is not about politics, and we know for the last 5 years it has been all politics all the time here, as I talked about Medicare and all the other issues. And now here we go again. Here is the thing I think that we need to recognize. When we have this colossal of a screwup, somebody is going to get embarrassed. It is not going to be pretty. Someone has got to hang for this, and someone has got to take responsibility. And that is the thing I think the American people want from their government. They want responsible Members, but they want accountability. And accountability means someone is going to get embarrassed, and it means that someone in FEMA screwed up. But do my colleagues know what? It is not about President Bush. It is not about that one person who screwed up. It is not about the series of people who contributed as the days went on from the screwup. Do the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Meek) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz) know what this is about? This is about fixing the problem, as they said earlier. And if someone needs to get embarrassed, they need to recognize that this Chamber, this country, and the way we respond to emergency situations, whether they are natural disasters or terrorist attacks, that response and our responsibility is bigger than the couple of people who are going to get embarrassed. There are certain things that are bigger than winning and more important than winning, and that means we have got to make sure that we do this in the right way. This cannot be a whitewash. We cannot get out the Brillo pads and try to make this look clean. We have got to find out where the ugliness is, where the lack of communication was. Knowing about the simulation last summer in July of 2004 of Hurricane Pam, a simulated hurricane that FEMA did a study on that, if it hit New Orleans what would happen, and they predicted right down the line every single thing that would happen. A category 4 in New Orleans, levees would break, a million people would need to get evacuated. And every other situation that happened, FEMA's response, the simulated Hurricane Pam told us exactly what is going to happen. So my point is that someone is going to get embarrassed here and it is not going to be pretty. But at the end of the day, the system is going to be stronger because we are going to know what the mistakes were and we are going to know how to fix them. But if they are not willing to find out what the problem is, then they are not going to be able to fix it. And our responsibility is to fix it. So although this may be painful for the majority party and it may be painful for the Bush administration, this system that we have is bigger than all of them put together, and that is what we are here to do is preserve this system.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, let us put a little meat on this bone. Let us put a little meat on this bone. Why do they not want us to look at this thing? Because they know what we are going to find out. They know we are going to find out that FEMA became a haven for political hacks, period; end of story, dot. Political cronyism at its best. College roommates, the campaign manager's college roommate gets the head of FEMA. They get the head of FEMA? They have no emergency management experience at all, none. James Lee Witt, who was there for President Clinton, was the FEMA emergency manager for Arkansas. So if we have a bipartisan commission that maybe is not run by this House, that will come out. It will come out that eight of the top-level people in FEMA were all political cronies, all political hacks given a job. We do not give people jobs in FEMA. We give people ambassadorships who make big campaign donations. We know that happens. But we do not put them in charge of FEMA. What would come out is that we would find out that FEMA's budget was slashed. All the offense that the Clinton administration was playing with FEMA to prevent some of this stuff: budget cuts, tuck FEMA in with Homeland Security, make it more bureaucratic, and you put a bunch of political hacks in charge of it. That is what is going to come out. That is what is going to come out. You cannot run down government at every turn. For the last 10 or 15 years down here, everybody has just been running down government: Government cannot do anything right, government is the problem, government is bad, government is in our way, government this, government that. Every problem in the whole world was the government's. And then when we need the government there to help, well, no wonder it is ineffective. It has been disrespected, the budget has been cut, we do not have professionals there. We need the best and brightest in government. If you keep running it down, you are not going to get them. So that is the meat on that bone, is that they are going to find out it was a haven for political hacks, the budget was cut, no professionals over there, no certified emergency management specialists. And that is what happened, and that is what will come out if there is a bipartisan commission.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And let us be honest. This outfit, this gang has had their chance for the last 5 or 6 years, in Congress for the last 11 years, going on 12 years. They have had their chance. Look at FEMA. Look at the economy. Look at the tax structure. Look at the Medicare program. Look at the health care situation. Look at the poverty that we saw, with no real attempt to even try to fix it. I mean, let us be honest, there has been no attempt, none. Tax cuts? Wait a minute. How are tax cuts helping people that can barely survive?

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Maybe we made a bunch of mistakes. Maybe we made a couple mistakes.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Period. End of story. Dot. And you might as well put Ken Melman or Ed Gillespie in charge of the committee, because you are going to get a political response. You are going to get a political whitewash from this whole thing. And the American people are going to let this stand. I made the prediction last week, and I stand by it today, the American people will not let this stand. When there are 11 Republicans there tomorrow organizing this committee, you will be able to do it in a phone booth, because the Democrats are not going to be around. We are not going to lend any credence to this at all. And put Ken Melman in charge of this committee because that would reflect accurately the end response in what it is going to be. 30somethingDems, 30 the number, somethingdems@mail.house.gov. E-mail us. Let us know what you think. Tell us your thoughts. Share with us.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Before I give away the magic address here, I think we just need to call this what it is. This is a Republican committee. This is a Republican committee that will oversee a Republican mess.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. They are right-to-work States.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And if we just had the leadership, my friends, to ask those people. It is not like the American people are not generous at this point. They have given everything, if you just ask them. And we are not even asking average Americans to give. We are just saying the top 1 percent of the people; $70 billion in tax cuts over the year, primarily to the top 1 percent. Will somebody in Washington, D.C. who has the hand on the lever of government ask these people to contributes to what is going on here? No, they want to come to Youngstown, Ohio, where 50 percent of the kids going to the school district in Youngstown live in poverty. They want to ask them to give up the millions of dollars in transportation money that will build a roadway to build an industrial park so that we can get jobs to help grow our economy so that people can actually pay property taxes and so that we can fund the schools so that maybe some of those kids do not live in poverty. They want to take it from us. And honest to God, honest to God, I raise my hand right now, if the President was willing to ask the top 1 percent to give up their tax cut, I would be willing to give up some of my transportation money. I really would. Honest to God, as much as it would hurt my community, I recognize the situation that the country is in right now and I would be willing to say, Mr. President, how much do you need? As long as everyone is sharing the burden here. I just cannot accept the fact that they are going to ask us to give up our money for poor districts and not ask the wealthiest people in the country. That is insanity. It is criminal.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. If I can say something here. We are taking from the poor to give to the poor. That is exactly what we are doing. My district is one of the poorest in the country, and they say they want to take the $15 million, which is not really a whole lot of money, for projects that are going to increase economic development in a district like mine, and I know my colleagues have some areas in the same way, and shift it to poor people? Well, what have the wealthiest people in the world or in the country been asked to sacrifice in the last 5 years? Nothing. Bill Clinton said he got four tax cuts. This guy makes millions of dollars a year. He gets four tax cuts in the last 3 or 4 years. This President needs to have the guts, and I choose my words carefully, the guts to ask his wealthiest contributors to pony up and actually help the country. This is not partisan. This is not about a particular insurance industry or pharmaceutical industry. This is about the country. Can we for once make a decision that is based on the whole country, blue States, red States, everyone included? We are all going to help them. We are even going to ask the wealthiest people.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Bingo.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And I think the 30-something Working Group is encouraging and 100 percent behind Leader Pelosi on this. We do not want to appoint anyone to this.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. We do not need the government to come in here; we will investigate it. You are exactly right. That is what is going to happen. It is going to be the same kind of cover-up and whitewash, get out the Brillo pads because we are going to clean this up. We need accountability and I think the American people want it and demand it right now.

Mr. RYAN of Ohio. And so Republicans do not want certain people to testify. They have votes to prevent the Democratic group from saying, hey, we need to talk to this guy from FEMA or wherever, homeland security.