Bill Thomas

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, speaker after speaker after speaker on the other side of the aisle went in the well. What was the common plea? Give us a clean vote on minimum wage. Just give us a clean vote on minimum wage. You have got 169 pages here. They wrote it. They can't even write a motion to recommit that is a clean vote on the minimum wage. I am offended. And any other Member who is offended, vote ``no'' on the motion to recommit.

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

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of the bill just passed.

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of the bill, H.R. 5970.

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, as sponsor of this bill, I support continuing to help the thousands of Americans fleeing the hostilities in Lebanon and returning to the safe confines of the United States. As of Sunday, July 23, 20 flights had rescued 3,890 U.S. citizens from Beirut and the surrounding area. Of those rescued Americans, hundreds received aid from the Health and Human Services, HHS, repatriation program after they arrived in the U.S., including 25 unaccompanied minors and 21 special needs cases--of which 12 were medical cases. However, under current law, there is a $1 million spending cap on this program, which is close to being reached. Without legislative action, the repatriation program will no longer be able to provide aid to Americans in need. There may be 10,000 more U.S. citizens repatriating from Lebanon in the coming days who might require assistance through this program. To make this aid available to other Americans as they arrive from Lebanon, this bill temporarily lifts the $1 million annual spending cap on the current HHS repatriation program. The Congressional Budget Office predicts this will allow about $4 million in additional spending for the thousands of Americans evacuating Lebanon. Additionally, today's action, while increasing aid, also increases program integrity and oversight. The bill requires that the HHS Inspector General report to Congress on how the money in the program is being spent and it requires congressional action for the continuation of this program beyond fiscal year 2007. Therefore, even with the one- time increase in the spending cap, CBO estimates that this bill will be cost neutral over the next 5 years and will achieve savings over 10 years. Mr. Speaker, this bill is good policy that ensures the continuation of aid for Americans in need, while providing the opportunity to improve upon this program. It is timely and because of the ongoing situation in the Middle East, it is important that we act quickly. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation today and am hopeful that the Senate will consider this bill in short order so we can send it to the President for his signature.

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 925, I call up the bill (H.R. 5684) to implement the United States-Oman Free Trade Agreement, and ask for its immediate consideration.

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

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, this particular agreement is an important one for a number of reasons. One, the United States and Oman have been friends in a formal way for almost 100 years. The Sultanate of Oman occupies an important geopolitical location in the world, which has become even more meaningful in recent times. Oman has shown its true friendship to the United States because of the adage: ``A friend in need is a friend indeed.'' And Oman has been a friend in the Middle Eastern portion of the world when we needed a friend indeed. In addition to that, this free trade agreement is significant in the advancement of opening trade in a number of areas very quickly, sort of a solid, leading-edge kind of agreement that we would like to see in a number of other countries around the world. One of the remarks that might be made is, Oman, Oman, let me double- check, take a look at an atlas or the globe, and then ask, to what extent are we dealing with significant trade with the United States? The answer is, the United States is the world's largest importer and the world's largest exporter, so when you measure significance of trade, sometimes you would ask yourself not what the impact is on the United States, but what the impact would be on the country in which we are entering into this free trade agreement. And to Oman, I believe it is extremely important as it continues to modernize itself under the Sultan and continues to extend freedoms and liberties to its people. Yes, it is oil rich. They know that is a limited resource. They are interested in investing in their people. We are interested in helping them do that. But it cannot go unmentioned that we also need, as we look at the globe or the atlas, to make note of the location of Oman, and that this agreement can be seen in any number of ways, and one of the ways would be to allow for a closer economic relationship with a friend that has had a close security relationship with the United States. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 20 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), and I ask unanimous consent that he be allowed to control the 20 minutes.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger).

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I do so with a degree of trepidation, because I take the time, number one, to thank my colleague from Virginia. I hope my acknowledgment doesn't do him too much damage, because his statement was not only eloquent, but accurate and, we all know, prescient. It is absolutely critical that we continue to build the kind of relationships in that portion of the world that this agreement reflects. Mr. Speaker, I yield the remainder of the time and control of that time to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Shaw), the chairman of the Trade Subcommittee; and prior to that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Weller).

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with my colleague Mr. Costa to honor the life of our friend, Jim Burke, a Bakersfield community leader, philanthropist, and businessman, who passed away on Monday, July 17, 2006. In Bakersfield, the name Jim Burke is synonymous with generosity. Jim was born on August 1, 1925, in Bakersfield, California, to Mr. and Mrs. James Joseph Burke, a family with Kern County pioneer roots. His great grandfather, Daniel Burke, came to Kern County in 1864 from Ireland. Jim graduated from Kern County Union High School in 1943 with accolades as a scholar, athlete, and president of the student body. He attended Stanford University for a year before joining the Navy and serving on the USS Midway and the USS New Mexico. After two and a half years of service in the Navy, Jim returned to Stanford and graduated in 1948 as an Industrial Engineer. In 1950, Jim married Bebe Rinker and they subsequently had a daughter, Michele (Mikie). Jim began his career in the parts department of Haberfelde Ford in 1949, became a partner in the Haberfelde family business in 1964, and purchased the remaining business interest in 1972. In 1977, he renamed it Jim Burke Ford and it has since become one of the largest Ford dealerships in the country, with over 370 employees. Jim cared deeply for his employees and customers and was known to buy back a vehicle if a customer had an unresolved vehicle problem with Ford in order to address the issue with Ford himself. Throughout his life, Jim's passion was in the areas of education and health care. He worked with educators to create ``The Ford Dimension,'' which is a program that for 32 years has taught high school students about the private enterprise system and the practical problems of the business world. In 1994, over 200 Ford Dimension alumni from across the nation founded the Jim Burke Education Foundation in his honor. Later in 2003, Ford Dimension alumni and the Jim Burke Education Foundation created a leadership program, Dream Builders, to develop leadership and life skills in high school seniors and share with them the value of civic responsibility as a lifetime commitment. Jim also actively worked to address the hospital and healthcare needs in Bakersfield. He was a founding director of the Friends of Mercy Foundation, which assists in the healthcare needs of the local community, and he served as Chairman of the Mercy Hospital Board of Trustees as well as a director of Bakersfield Memorial Hospital. Jim was also involved with numerous organizations in the community such as the Campfire Girls, Better Business Bureau, the Trade Club of Greater Bakersfield, Bakersfield Chamber of Commerce, the California State University Bakersfield Foundation, and served as chairman of the Kern County Business Outlook Conference. Jim was also very active in the Catholic community. Jim's fundraising efforts and work with the Sisters of Mercy addressed the special needs of others, such as construction of the Madison Place, a model low-income housing project. Over the course of his life, Jim received numerous awards and honors for his service to the community and business achievements. In fact, in 1976, he was recognized with the Time Magazine Quality Dealership Award for his outstanding business performance and involvement in the community. In 1995, Jim was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame and he received a Honorary Doctorate from California State University, Bakersfield in 1997. Yet no award will ever capture the true humanity, strength, and leadership that Jim achieved. Throughout his life, Jim and his family continuously strived to better our community and help others, with humility and true compassion. Jim was immensely successful in his efforts and we will never know the full extent of the impact Jim's kindness and compassion had. On this day, we rise, on behalf of a community in mourning, to remember with great appreciation Jim Burke, a man who embodied the civic generosity and leadership that is uniquely American and that has made Kern County such a great place to live. Accordingly, we offer our deep condolences to Bebe and his family.

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. The gentleman moves to lay the motion on the table.

Mr. THOMAS. The gentleman from California rises, just as he did previously, to gain recognition to indicate that I move that we table the motion to lay the bill on the table of the objection of the gentleman from Maryland on the ruling of the Chair. So I now have a lay on the table of two objections of the ruling of the Chair.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I move to table the motion.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 885, I call up the bill (H.R. 5638) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to increase the unified credit against the estate tax to an exclusion equivalent of $5,000,000 and to repeal the sunset provision for the estate and generation-skipping taxes, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, on June 16, the United States Senate majority leader put out the following statement asking for the House to send estate tax legislation to the Senate: ``I will ask the Speaker of the House to send a bill to us that would be a permanent solution to the death tax. I will encourage them to attach appropriate provisions to make it attractive and will hold a vote by July 4.'' This measure, H.R. 5638, is the response to the majority leader's request. This House is on record with a bipartisan vote in favor of repealing the estate, or death, tax. But we know that the Senate on a procedural or cloture vote rejected that offer from the House by 57 votes in favor of moving forward, short of the 60 necessary. I heard during the discussion on the rule the ranking minority member on Rules, Ms. Slaughter, say that this bill, H.R. 5638, will pass. I, too, in agreeing with her, believe that the bill will pass. It will be available to the Senate to take from the desk, and it will be then the Senate's decision to pass or defeat it. I want to underscore the point, this is a response to the majority leader's request. This is not a first offer; it is the only offer to the majority leader's request that the chairman intends to offer. This bill was crafted as a compromise. Compromises are supposed to be reasonable; but, most importantly, they are supposed to be doable. The goal of a compromise is to make law. H.R. 5638 is a compromise. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as we might have expected, the gentleman from New York wheeled out all the usual arguments. I hope he didn't trip as he went back to his seat with the flag tightly wrapped around him in terms of his arguments of patriotism. The class warfare card was played; the rich card was played. ``This is for the richest of the rich,'' he said. I tell the gentleman from California, I will quote who know who the richest of the rich are. In today's Wall Street Journal editorial they said, ``But now comes Mr. Thomas, the chief tax writer, who has proposed a compromise that would be voted on as early as today but is hardly an improvement over current law.'' I will tell you who the richest of the rich are. Dick Patton of the American Family Business Institute says, ``We flatly oppose the Thomas plan. The more our members hear about it, the angrier they get.'' Who are they? The real richest of the rich. So I find it rather ironic that they need to play those same old tired cards that this is the rich versus everyone else, when today the rich have spoken. They don't like the compromise. A compromise is a compromise. Now, let us turn to a paper, The Washington Post, which said yesterday: ``The search for a compromise has pitted affluent small business owners against the truly rich, families with estates valued at tens of millions of dollars.'' The paper says: ``Thomas came down in favor of the business owners.'' And we know the Wall Street Journal agrees I didn't come down on the side of the rich. This is a compromise. We will send it over to the Senate, and we will see if there are 60 Members of the Senate that want to remove once and for all the uncertainty in this very difficult area. The National Federation of Independent Business says this is a reasonable compromise and they will be watching everyone's vote. Who? For the very rich? No. For the small businessman that creates all the jobs. A few extra dollars and the ability to keep the business together after the principal owner has died will make sure that we can continue this economy in the robust way in which it has continued. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am heartened by the gentleman from Maryland's statement that he is now in support of current law which will move to 3.5. Everyone just needs to remember he was opposed to the legislation that put it into effect. I expect 5 or 6 years from now he will be in favor of this particular measure when he speaks on the floor, although he will be opposed to putting it into law. I always appreciate those kinds of positions. The gentleman also quoted a very liberal think tank that dreams up numbers that allows them to make outlandish statements on the floor of the House. The Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper, says that over a 10-year period this measure will not be $700-some billion; it is $283 billion. Again, you will hear extremely outrageous statements, as we heard on the underlying legislation in which, for example, the gentleman from Maryland opposed but now blithely says I support. The point is, why not be right the first time? Why not support the legislation when it is in front of you? Why not vote now for H.R. 5638 instead of waiting to say you are for what the bill did after it becomes law? Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to a member of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Hayworth). (Mr. HAYWORTH asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa) on the compromise bill, H.R. 5638. (Mr. ISSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to provide 3 minutes in support of H.R. 5638, the compromise that is endorsed by the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Realtors, the United States Chamber of Commerce, the majority whip of the House of Representatives, to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Blunt).

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Herger), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. It is a pleasure to indicate that for the first time in my memory I completely agreed with the gentleman from Washington when he said, if you have just tuned in, and you are watching me, you are watching the theater of the absurd. We are not repealing the estate tax so Mr. Gates wasted a phone call. I hope he is a little more in tune with what is going on in the software world than he is what is going on in the floor of the House. We are not doing away with the estate tax. We are producing a compromise which will pass this House and go to the Senate in an attempt to make permanent law and remove uncertainty. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady), a member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to a member of the Ways and Means Committee, the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania (Ms. Hart). (Ms. HART asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to a newer Member of the House of Representatives, the gentleman from California (Mr. Campbell).