Bill Thomas

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds. The gentleman from New York really does need to know that out of the $9 billion, New York gets half a billion; out of the block grant alone, New York gets another half a billion; and out of that victims tax relief, New York gets another $5 billion. Even a New Yorker would recognize that a billion here, a billion there, finally adds up to real money. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. English), a valued member of the Committee on Ways and Means.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to yield 15 seconds to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson).

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Mrs. Johnson.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, each day is slipping away. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon). (Mr. McKEON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana.

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Reynolds), a member of the New York delegation.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Gilman). (Mr. GILMAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I include for the Record, since there is no committee report, the Joint Committee on Taxation's technical explanation of the bill.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, I yield myself my remaining time. Mr. Speaker, I do want to thank my colleague from New York for the kind courtesies and generosities that he has displayed and, most importantly, the House's willingness to move as quickly as we did and recognize that these individuals were, in fact, victims in war and deserve to be focussed on, not just in terms of the symbolism because, clearly, although there were tragedies elsewhere in the United States on that same day, it is not unfair to say that New York City took it on the chin for the rest of the country. And that I, too, have been pleased with the outpouring of response. We now know that those who died did not die in vain in terms of the symbolism, the rallying of the moral fiber of this country. But at the same time, we have to address the very real physical and material needs of these people who, after all, lost loved ones and had lives devastated. In that regard, I am very pleased to say that this is not the end of our continued focus on the need of these individuals in New York City and elsewhere.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Grucci), actually Long Island. (Mr. GRUCCI asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Fossella), someone who has been on top of this from day one, and I appreciate his advice and counsel. (Mr. FOSSELLA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order at any time to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2884) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide tax relief for victims of the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, with Senate amendments thereto, and to consider in the House, without intervention of any point of order, any motion, or any demand for division of the question, a single motion offered by the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means or his designee that the House concur in the Senate amendments with the amendment I have placed at the desk; that the Senate amendments and the motion be considered as read; that the motion be debatable for 40 minutes, equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means; and that after such debate, the motion be considered as adopted; and that the amendment I have placed at the desk be considered as read for the purpose of this request.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, perhaps in the explanation if we could start with the bill that originated in the House, which was an attempt to take current law that is available to service members and civilians overseas in a terrorist attack, which would provide income tax relief and estate tax relief, and we brought them to the gentleman's city to say that the New York area was, in fact, tantamount to a war zone and that the victims in that area should receive the same benefit as current law provides for people who are victims of terrorist acts overseas. That was the sum and substance of the bill we sent to the Senate. For the 3 months that the Senate has had the bill, they examined it in a number of different ways. They added a particular death benefit for those individuals who were involved not only in the September 11 terrorist attacks, but also the Oklahoma City bombing of 6 years ago and for those individuals who, through no fault of their own, were victims from anthrax attacks. In addition to that, they added a number of particular provisions dealing with charitable organizations, disaster relief payments, victims' compensation funds, and a number of other items. What we did was examine those items and, where it was appropriate, offer a generic response. I will give the gentleman an example. Oftentimes, in dealing with disaster situations, disability trust funds will be established for individuals. The problem has been there has been no consistent approach to the way in which those disability funds would be treated from disaster to disaster. However, there is a typical response which occurs, but it has never been codified. What we tried to do in this, working together, is to find those areas in terms of structured settlements, disability trusts, and similar arrangements that could be handled on a consistent basis, regardless of which disaster is involved, using this particular vehicle to assist us in that broad-based arrangement. In addition to that, we have one additional amendment which examines the geographic area of New York that is a zone that is clearly described in the legislation and provide a number of tax measures to relieve those individuals, authorize the issue of tax-exempt private activity bonds, create a 30 percent bonus of depreciable property in the recovery zone as defined, a 10-year life on leaseholder build-outs for those individuals who own commercial property and want to rebuild it so that the vital aspects of New York City, which we visited, the restaurants and the shops and the others, can be restored as quickly as possible, and then extension of certain replacement period provisions which those of us on the Committee on Ways and Means know are extremely important in making sure that people make a decision quickly to move back in or to establish in the recovery zone to assist in the recovery of New York City.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Sweeney) who, without his involvement and active participation in structuring work with the governmental officials in New York, we would not have been able to move with the haste with which we did. (Mr. SWEENEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I will tell the gentleman that I had the privilege at one time, for example, of accompanying the gentleman to Ground Zero, which I had not done, given the duties that we had here, and spent some time with a number of city business leaders that the gentleman and others were kind enough to bring together at the stock exchange location and, over lunch for several hours, listened to the particular concerns that those individuals had about the need and the way in which we needed to respond. I met with several New York City, New York State governmental teams, including the Mayor, and, of course, listening to on both sides of the aisle the members from the New York delegation, both from the city and the State. In addition to that, as we all know, there are several other States that are just across the river and our colleagues from New Jersey and Pennsylvania had significant concerns as well. All of those came together culminating in this package today. And I would be remiss if I did not thank the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) for his immediate and continuing offering and the members' willingness to accept his kind invitation to come and visit the city, albeit not in the way most of us had visited New York in the past on those wonderful trips that we used to have, but a very realistic trip to understand firsthand what had happened to the Big Apple.

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

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to the order of the House, I offer a motion.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's comments. That means, then, that perhaps he was closed out on the other side, and that I will be doubly sensitive to make sure that if the gentleman's own Members on the other side will not work with him, that we will continue to work with him. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Houghton), someone who has had a major impact on this legislation.

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from New York for his kind observation. The Tuesday event precipitated a need for rapid response. On Thursday, the House moved. Three months later this bill now presents itself to us. I find it ironic that if the gentleman says he has been closed out of participation in this particular piece of legislation, the last time I checked, his party controlled the Senate and I would expect that at some time over the 3 months that the Senate was mulling over what it was going to do with this bill, he would have an opportunity to examine various provisions. It is my pleasure to yield to the ranking member, the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel).

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Ferguson). (Mr. FERGUSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This legislation fulfills President Bush's promise to provide every child the opportunity to learn and to hold schools accountable to parents, and I commend the President and my colleagues, particularly Chairman Boehner, for all of their hard work on this important legislation. First, Mr. Speaker, our local schools will immediately have additional resources at their disposal as a result of this legislation's requirement that 95 percent of federal education dollars go directly to America's classrooms. Currently, as a result of 40 years of Democratic control of this body, the federal education system takes more than 30 cents of every education dollar to support its own administrative bureaucracy, rather than the needs of our children. This sad situation will end because of the legislation we are passing today; almost all of the funding now will go to provide our teachers with the technology, textbooks, and training they need to help our students succeed. Having taught in the California Community College system for 10 years before being elected to the California State Assembly, I want to address what enactment of H.R. 1 will mean for America's teachers. Our teachers face an enormous task every day to provide our young people with the tools needed to succeed in the 21st Century world. Teachers make sacrifices often at the expense of their own time, and in some cases, their own funds. Furthermore, our current educational system has for too long fostered mediocrity and stifled creativity. This legislation will give teachers the resources they need and will financially reward them for their excellence when their students make significant achievement gains. Of great importance, the No Child Left Behind Act will also give teachers the help they need to control their classrooms by directing schools to develop policies which will discipline disruptive students and control classroom behavior. Finally, the Act will make it easier for school districts to recruit and train qualified teachers, and encourages school districts to hire secondary teachers who have advanced education in the subject they will teach. It is clear, Mr. Speaker, that this bill is good for America's teachers, America's parents, and most importantly, America's children. Thus, I encourage my colleagues to join me in supporting the No Child Left Behind Act.

Mr. THOMAS

Mr. THOMAS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of H.R. 2884, the bill just passed.