Pat Tiberi

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. Madam Speaker, as many of my colleagues know, today is Earth Day. Earth Day is dedicated to raising awareness of how we can all be good stewards of our environment and leave our world better than we inherited it for future generations. An important task to achieve this laudable objective is a comprehensive federal energy policy, one which puts all options on the table for debate and discussion. In other words, an ``all of the above'' approach. Included in this energy policy will be exciting new technologies which incorporate more efficient, cleaner and safer ways to harness energy from the sun and our natural resources. There will also be an expansion of common-sense practices to conserve our resources. One such method is recycling. We're familiar with recyclables, as more and more Americans chose to participate in local recycling programs nationwide. Recycling results in a net reduction in ten major categories of air pollutants and eight major categories of water pollutants. To put this in perspective, a national recycling rate of 30 percent reduces greenhouse gas emissions as much as removing nearly 25 million cars from the road. One vital contributor is the scrap recycling industry. In these challenging economic times, the scrap recycling industry employs more than 85,000 workers while providing high-quality products at lower costs, thus strengthening our economy. Each year the scrap recycling industry keeps over 160 million tons of material out of landfills. Recycled aluminum saves our country 95 percent of the energy that would have been required to make new aluminum from ore. It also invests significant capital in high-tech, environmentally-designed manufacturing machinery that is used to sort, pack, transform, process, manufacture and ship materials to become new products. As a member of the House Recycling Caucus, I believe Congress must continue to build our partnership with the scrap recycling industry. Last year's Recycling Investment Saves Energy tax credit has been well received, and I think we all agree that more can be done. On this Earth Day I would like to thank the scrap recycling industry for the dedication to strengthening our economy in earth friendly way.

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor and pay tribute to Northland High School in Columbus, Ohio. Northland High School is in my congressional district, and as a Northland graduate, I am proud to recognize a school that not only excels in academics but also distinguishes itself on the basketball court. The Northland High School basketball team recently won the 2009 Ohio Division I Boys Basketball Championship. In the championship game, Northland defeated Cincinnati Princeton 60 to 58. The basketball team is an outstanding example of hard work, determination and perseverance. They had 27 wins and only one loss in the 2008-2009 season, and have earned the first boys basketball title in school history. They are led by their top scorer, Jared Sullinger, who was recently named the Associated Press ``Mr. Basketball'' for Ohio, Junior James ``JD'' Weatherspoon, Seniors Sam Belisle, Dimonde Hale, Ricky Bennett and Javon Cornley, along with teammates Charles Edgerton, Quentin Henderson, Trey Burke, Lavante Justice, Ke'Chaun Lewis, Jordan Potts, Devon Scott, Jakyl Cornley, and Roberto Pierre. The team is led by Head Coach J. Satch Sullinger; Assistants Frank Smith, Michael Clouse, Leigh Horston and Jerome White. It is an honor to represent such a fine group of young people who have a strong dedication to team work and academics. I know each one of them will treasure the memories of their championship season and I commend them, and the Northland community, for this truly great achievement.

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. I think again it is important to note, interrupting, and I apologize for interrupting, what Mr. Austria said earlier in which Americans are beginning to find out and are very troubled with, is that the American people own 80 percent of AIG. So somebody had to approve it with the Federal Government, and maybe that is the smoking gun.

Mr. TIBERI. Not to interrupt, but should we add the Budget Director to the chart?

Mr. TIBERI. Well, yielding back to me again--and I appreciate that--I think what we found in his comments last week in that impromptu press conference is that, one day, he said he didn't know anything about it, and the next day, he said, ``Well, yes, I did do it, but it was at the direction of somebody in the administration.'' Obviously, he doesn't want to throw somebody under the bus, but he has already been thrown under the bus, so I would hope that we could end this rather quickly with: Who is it?

Mr. TIBERI. I think the gentleman is right on target here. And as stocks tank, let me tell you, it impacts everybody. It impacts those police officers that protect our streets, firefighters, who are working in a courageous line of work, teachers in Ohio, as you know, who are part of a state teachers retirement system. As someone whose dad lost his pension and health care and job in high school, when someone sees their pension related to the stock market tank, sees their moms and dads seeing their children's college funds absolutely go into the ground, this is important. It impacts every single family out there as this market has tanked. And what are we doing? We are debating the Shark Conservation Act. In fact, the last several weeks, to your point, we have debated noncontroversial issues that have passed nearly unanimously, and not taken up the hard stuff like your resolution that could come to the floor. In fact, let me just add one thing. Today the leader, John Boehner, put together a working group with respect to savings, and I was part of that group. And we unveiled a blueprint that will help American families and American savers. And unfortunately, based upon past history, that piece of legislation will not see the light of day. And it is not like we are spending a lot of time around here passing substantive pieces of legislation. And when we do, we don't get to read it. And what else was in that stimulus bill that was as controversial as this? We don't know. That may be another exercise for us to find out what other controversial measures, in addition to the game of Clue, I think we know it was the Speaker's Office, based on press reports, but maybe it was the Senate leader's office. Maybe it was on the other side of the Capitol.

Mr. TIBERI. I think what he is saying is three Members of the Senate. We have two Members of the Senate on the Clue board, so I keep, you know, I keep wanting to take names off, but maybe we should add another picture there. We have got to figure out who the other Senator was that he is speaking about. I do think we can take off the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Rangel. I feel pretty confident he wasn't the one. I think we can take the chairman of the Appropriations Committee off. But I am thinking we need to add a couple too.

Mr. TIBERI. I know that you're pushing that legislation. You have many cosponsors. But some think we are too busy to deal with that important legislation. I think you have a chart that demonstrates maybe we are not.

Mr. TIBERI. To your point, I would like to submit this for the Record as well. It's a Los Angeles Times article from February. [From the Los Angeles Times, Feb. 14, 2009] Private Talks for Public Stimulus; Obama Has Said He Wants Congress to Work in the Open. But He Isn't Troubled by the Recent Negotiations (By Peter Nicholas) Washington.--Upending Washington's entrenched ways of doing business is proving tougher than President Obama may have assumed. The nearly $800-billion stimulus bill served as a test case. During the campaign, Obama released a position paper stating his commitment to open government. As president, he said, he would not only insist on transparency in his own administration, he would press Congress to revamp its practices as well. Obama has no constitutional authority to set rules for Congress, but he suggested he would use his influence to see to it that Congress doesn't conduct its work ``in the dead of night and behind closed doors.'' In the first major piece of legislation pushed by Obama, transparency was missing. Important negotiating sessions devoted to the stimulus took place in congressional offices, outside pubic view. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills) said he was in a meeting about the stimulus plan Tuesday night in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Among the participants was White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. ``We had to do some hard bargaining,'' Waxman said. The abundance of private deliberations made for some comical moments. Rep. Dave Camp (R-Mich.) was walking through the Capitol on Wednesday on his way to a public meeting in which Senators and House members were supposed to hash out differences over the stimulus. As he passed the Rotunda, Camp spotted Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) holding a news conference announcing that a deal had already been struck. ``This is the largest spending bill in the history of the United States, and I believe the public business should be done in public,'' said Camp, who had been appointed to the 10-member conference committee created to reconcile differences between the two chambers. ``President Obama made that commitment repeatedly in his campaign,'' he said. Obama aides say that the president is still committed to transparency in government. He reiterated the pledge during the transition, posting a promise on his website to ``restore the American people's trust in their government by making government more open and transparent,'' and cited closed conference committee sessions as a practice ripe for overhaul. But the White House isn't apologizing for how the stimulus bill was handled. Given the dismal economic climate, White House aides said, the country needed a stimulus bill--fast. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, asked abut the private negotiations, said that Obama wasn't troubled. ``He's pleased with the process and the product that has come out,'' Gibbs said while briefing reporters Friday. ``I think when the process is done, the American people will be proud of the product that we believe and we hope will begin to stimulate the economy.'' Democratic leaders said the bill was handled according to procedures and customs that have been in place for years, including when Republicans controlled Congress. Waxman said Congress' treatment of the bill was fairly standard. Could Congress have demanded that all negotiations play out in public? Waxman said that would have been impractical. ``There are too many moving parts in this bill,'' Waxman said. ``We would be sitting in an open conference committee meeting for weeks, if not a whole month, to process all the amendments that would have been offered.'' Again to your point, this says the President has no constitutional authority to set rules for Congress, ``but he suggested he would use his influence to see to it that Congress doesn't conduct its work `in the dead of night and behind closed doors,' '' when in fact, in this particular exercise, as we know and as your chart indicates and as the Senator from Connecticut has indicated, these words came from the administration and were put into the stimulus bill in the dead of night. We still don't know who in the administration. We don't know everybody who was in the room from the administration, so the administration can claim they have nothing to do with Congress. Based upon the documents from the press that we have submitted tonight and that you have submitted tonight and based upon the shuttle diplomacy that occurred during the days before the stimulus vote, there were top administration officials involved, in the room, writing the bill in the dead of night, with no transparency, no Republicans, no press, no C-SPAN, with nobody witnessing what was being done. The product you have at the end of the process are these 50 words that nobody in America is taking credit for. Your resolution tomorrow will begin to get to the bottom of this, unfortunately, if someone does not come forward.

Mr. TIBERI. If the gentleman will yield, certainly I think as we continue forward having a special investigation, an Inspector General report trying to get to the bottom of this, if someone doesn't come forward and say, yes, this is the language that I wanted, and this is the reason why, and X number of people that were paid were paid retention bonuses, and by the way, we weren't able to retain them, and by the way, over half the bonuses were paid to non-Americans, which is outrageous in the first place.

Mr. TIBERI. We are getting more questions on the table than answers. And that is what happens when you don't have transparency. That is what happens when backroom deals are cut, backroom deals on this stimulus bill that was done back in February. In fact, Mr. LaTourette, I will quote from a Los Angeles Times article back in February that in the first major piece of legislation pushed by the President, transparency was missing. In fact, the President has no constitutional authority to set rules for Congress. But he suggested he would use his influence to see that Congress doesn't conduct its work ``in the dead of night and behind closed doors,'' which is exactly what happened in this process. The Times article goes on to say, Mr. Speaker, maybe we can add a picture here to your graph, important negotiating sessions devoted to the stimulus took place in a congressional office outside public view, Representative Henry A. Waxman (D) Beverly Hills said he was in the meeting about the stimulus plan Tuesday night in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) San Francisco. Among the participants was White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. So, one person who says he was in the meeting in negotiations was the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee. But still, my question back to you would be, do you have to be in the meeting to instruct conferees in the dead of night in one of these offices to put something in this bill? Because you could still have the Treasury Secretary instruct everybody else that this is an important measure by telephone, couldn't you?

Mr. TIBERI. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TIBERI. Thank you for your leadership. I would certainly like to thank you for bringing this matter to light this evening and last week. I know both of you have shared the same experience that I have shared back in my district. People are dying to know what happened and when? Who was responsible for this? As you said, the Senator from Connecticut has said that somebody from the administration or somebody from Treasury instructed them to put this language in the bill. I think it is interesting to note the language behind me that you talked about earlier wouldn't have gotten in the bill if, if we had transparency from the beginning, something that the new President has talked about, talked about during the campaign, talked about repeatedly during the campaign. In fact, as both of you know, our Speaker of the House talked about transparency before she became Speaker and how this was going to be the most transparent House ever, the people's House, and the fact is, not only on this legislation, but this certainly demonstrates it, but on countless pieces of legislation, there has been anything but transparency. And transparency has led to what this chart is really all about, and that is finding out who knew what when? People in my district are outraged that this language ended up in this stimulus bill without anybody knowing about it, anybody but apparently the author of the amendment, but most everyone else, allegedly, didn't know about this important wording that allowed AIG officials to receive millions of dollars in bonuses. In fact, I don't know if the gentleman has an answer for this, as I digress a bit, there was a news report today that over half of the bonuses that were paid to AIG went to non-Americans.

Mr. TIBERI. Would the gentleman yield? And you're being far too modest because the resolution does much more than that. And in fact, in reading a poll today, over half of the American people believe that AIG should be broken up. And part of your resolution does just that, if you want to expand upon that.

Mr. TIBERI. The gentleman from Ohio has a chart that just shows an amazing----

Mr. TIBERI. Let me just, again, thank you for your leadership on this. I would hope that we don't have to come back next week and add pictures and subtract rooms, but I am willing to do that if nothing occurs tomorrow. I certainly would not want to be in the majority--a Democrat in a competitive district--having to defend a ``no'' vote on your resolution tomorrow and a ``yes'' vote on a bill that allowed these 47 words to go forward and millions and millions of dollars to citizens and noncitizens of a failing company that should go into bankruptcy or should be split up into several different companies. This is an outrage. Americans are outraged. We will get to the bottom of this, and at the end of the day, I predict that we will find out who was responsible for that pen.

Mr. TIBERI.--which probably means he didn't do it, which probably means it's somebody else, because he is the most obvious choice having played the game.

Mr. TIBERI. Clearly, to your point in this exercise, most would point the finger at the Senator from Connecticut--

Mr. TIBERI. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. TIBERI. Or the conference room.

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. I thank the gentlelady from Minnesota for yielding me some time to talk about a very important subject. As you mentioned, as the new father of triplets, looking at this budget is pretty frightening, not just for me, but obviously what I feel for them and my older daughter as we have in this budget an unprecedented level of spending and also some policy issues that are going to cost them and many in my State of Ohio a tremendous amount of money. So this budget has real consequences on real people. In fact, the chart behind me demonstrates a little bit about that budget and what that budget does to our national debt. This debt, as you see in red, is representing the administration's budget, a staggering number that will go up considerably if this budget, which is being debated in the House Budget Committee this week, presumably on the House floor, next week, if it passes, as it is, this will be the result, a doubling of the debt held by the public. It is unbelievable. Who is going to pay that debt? It is going to be our children and our grandchildren. They are going to be saddled with unprecedented debt, debt as far as the eye can see. When I got elected to Congress in 2001, when I was sworn in, you can see where the national debt was. The Republicans and the administration during the last 8 years were criticized for not dealing with that debt in blue. And it went up. And it went up entirely too much. But not nearly as much as it is going to go up if this budget passes. The consequences are devastating to our economy. In fact, within that budget is something called ``cap-and-trade.'' It is an energy issue to deal with the issue of global warming. But in Ohio, what it will do is devastate our already ailing economy. It will cause people to leave and businesses to leave. In fact, within my district, there is a municipal power company. It will create the loss of jobs as well. Within my district and many other districts in Ohio there are municipal power companies, not investor owned, but owned by municipalities. And one such one has said that it will quadruple, quadruple the rates that their ratepayers pay. Quadruple. Now my mom and dad, who are on a fixed income, will see their electric go up. They will see their gas bills to heat their home go up. They will see their gasoline that they pay for in their 14-year-old car go up in cost. This will be a huge, huge tax increase on them not to even mention the goods and services that will go up, just the energy tax alone. We on this side of the aisle believe that an all-of-the-above energy approach to solving our domestic energy needs should be debated rather than a cap-and-tax program that will devastate economies like Ohio's economy. It will be absolutely a killer to jobs in our State. Now the other issue that you may hear about in the next week is spending, that my colleagues and friends on the other side of the aisle are going to constrain spending. Well, here are the facts, the Congressional Budget Office facts. The blue has been the spending over the last 8 years. The red is the spending over the administration's budget. Clearly, we are going to see an incredible amount of new spending. So the problem in Washington, D.C. is not a revenue problem. The problem in Washington D.C. is a spending problem. There is no such thing as a spending restraint. Ladies and gentlemen of the House, this is an eye-popping proposal, one that is going to have huge consequences to our economy, to our children, to our grandchildren, to our way of life. We must, we must put a stop to this proposal, and the only way we can do that is with the help of the American people because, quite frankly, this side of the aisle just doesn't have the votes. The other side of the aisle does, and we need the American people engaged in a proposal that will have a killer effect on our economy and one that will have a devastating effect on the future of our children and our children's children. I yield back to the gentlelady from Minnesota.

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1512. As the gentleman from Georgia said, this is a straightforward bill to provide a 6-month extension of the various excise taxes that support the Airport and Airway Trust Fund as well as the trust fund's expenditure authorities. These taxes and authorities are currently scheduled to expire at the end of this month, and today's legislation will permit Congress the time it needs to consider a longer-term FAA reauthorization bill. As the ranking member of the Select Revenues Subcommittee, I'm pleased that Chairman Rangel has asked our panel to examine tax issues related to the transportation trust funds, including the Airport and Airway Trust Fund. I certainly look forward to working with Chairman Neal, Chairman Lewis, and all the members of our committee over the months ahead as we determine whether modifications to the financing structure of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund are warranted going forward. Ways and Means is clearly the appropriate committee of jurisdiction regarding these tax issues, and I anticipate working with other members of the Ways and Means Committee of both parties to ensure that our committee continues to shape the FAA reauthorization process this year. I would note for my colleagues that under the CBO baseline, expiring excise taxes that are dedicated to a trust fund are assumed to be extended at current rates for budgeting purposes. Consequently, the Joint Committee on Taxation is expected to score H.R. 1512 as having no revenue effect, Mr. Speaker, no revenue effect, just as it has with similar short-term extensions of FAA taxes in the past. While many Members on our side of the aisle would argue that CBO and Joint Tax should make that same assumption about expiring tax cuts as well, that's a bigger debate for another day. For now it's important that we all extend the current FAA excise taxes on a temporary basis, and I am pleased to join with my colleagues from the other side of the aisle and Chairman Lewis in support of this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. Ladies and gentlemen, in the coming weeks, we are going to debate the budget for the United States of America for the next 10 years, for next year and beyond. This budget clearly taxes too much, spends too much, and borrows too much from the American people. In fact, not only does it do that, but for someone like my mom and dad who are on fixed incomes, seniors, this will cause their taxes to go up every time they fill the tank of their 14-year-old car, turn on the lights of their 35-year-old house, or turn up the thermostat to heat or turn it down to cool their home. This is a huge tax on American consumers, particularly from my State in Ohio, with this cap-and-tax issue that is within this budget, a debate that we're going to have in this House this month and next month. Americans deserve better. They deserve better solutions. Republicans in the minority here are willing to be part of those better solutions. I hope that the Speaker and the leadership of the House will be partners with us for those better solutions.

Mr. TIBERI

Mr. TIBERI. Madam Speaker, it is my pleasure to recognize Mr. Dana Gioia for his service and tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts. Mr. Dana Gioia has been a tireless advocate for bringing the arts to communities across the country. Through his NEA National Initiatives, such as The Big Read, Poetry Out Loud, and American Masterpieces, Mr. Gioia has given all Americans the opportunity to enjoy the finest artistic and cultural programs. During his two terms as chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts he has successfully worked across party lines to bring broad support and enthusiasm to the arts and art education. As a lifelong trumpet player and a member of the National Council on the Arts, I have seen first hand the positive impact art education can have on a person's life. It has been a pleasure working with Mr. Gioia during his two terms as chairman, granting more opportunities for more Americans to experience the arts. Mr. Gioia has traveled to my district and many others, educating members of the community and promoting the grant process at a grassroots level. Through the Challenge America: Reaching Every Community initiatives, he has guaranteed that direct grants will reach art organizations in every congressional district in every State. Many of these organizations are first time recipients of Endowment support. Mr. Gioia is continuously ensuring all communities have the ability to bring the arts home. For his life of service to the arts and consistent hard work toward the betterment of our country, I commend Dana Gioia upon his retirement from the National Endowment for the Arts.