Research shows a correlation between school facility quality and student achievement but according to recent estimates, America’s schools are without the funding they need to bring them up to good condition. Today, the House began consideration of the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act (H.R. 2187) which will make critical investments to modernize, upgrade and repair school facilities across the country – authorizing $6.4 billion for school facilities projects for fiscal year 2010 to create healthier, safer, and more energy-efficient teaching and learning climates. This legislation will improve education, create jobs, and encourage energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources in our schools. In addition, modernizing school buildings will help revive our economy by creating jobs and preparing workers for the clean energy jobs of the future.
Rep. Loebsack: “Many schools in my district and across the state and indeed across the country have already begun to go green. For example, the Cardinal Community School District has a wind power classroom that I visited that saves energy and gives students a hands on experience on an emerging industry.”
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR):
Rep. Blumenauer: “Schools are the foundation, the building block of a livable community and green schools are the schools of the future. It’s where America and the world is going in terms of being sustainable, efficient and healthier. But green schools are also the schools of today. This is an opportunity…to be able to illustrate our environmental values, that young people who are in school will be able to see through the operation of this legislation that we are going to walk the talk, we’re going to implement our values.”
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ):
Rep. Pascrell: “This legislation would provide the dollars in grants for FY 2010 to local school districts so that they can make the repairs, provide the modernization, and green their facilities so that our kids can learn in safe, modern, well equipped and environmentally friendly facilities. Many schools are not safe and the states don’t have the money, local communities don’t have the money to make them safe. This is not acceptable to anybody.”
Rep. Dale Kildee (D-MI):
Rep. Kildee: “Some years ago in Flint, Michigan, my hometown, a judge ordered a jail to be torn down because it was unfit for human occupation. Yet, many local educators at that time told me that that jail was in better shape than some of the schools in which they worked hard every day.”
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009 by Office of the Speaker
In his inaugural address to the nation on January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama declared from the steps of the U.S. Capitol, “The state of our economy calls for action: bold and swift. And we will act not only to create new jobs but to lay a new foundation for growth.”
Today marks the first 100 days of President Barack Obama’s Administration. Working in full partnership with the President, the 111th Congress has had an historic start and made great progress on our joint effort to put this nation on the path to recovery and growth. Together we have enacted:
Both the House and Senate have also adopted a budget blueprint that closely reflects President Obama’s priorities of affordable health care, clean energy and excellence in education while cutting taxes for millions of middle income Americans by $1.7 trillion and cutting the deficit by nearly two-thirds. This budget – a statement of our national values – is critical to building a stronger economy to create a lasting and broadly shared prosperity.
On Equal Pay Day, we recognize the point in the year it takes a woman to make the same amount of money made by a man in the previous year. As families grapple with an uncertain economy, equal pay for equal work is about daily survival for millions.
This Congress has already taken action to strengthen economic security for women. We passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act to help ensure gender equity in pay, and I was proud to join President Obama as he signed it into law.
When a woman is not paid fairly, her entire family suffers. And when a woman is not paid fairly, it does not afford women the respect and equality that they deserve in a country that promises to strive for equal opportunity. The New Direction Congress will continue to put women and children first.
President Obama’s time in office has been distinguished by bold action; on the great challenges facing our nation, the President has shown tremendous leadership.
In the last two years, Congress has enacted comprehensive innovation legislation, put America on a path doubling funding for basic scientific research, and established an Agency for Energy (ARPA-E) to encourage high-risk, high-reward clean energy research. We know that science has the potential create jobs, strengthen our economy, and even save the planet.
Investments in science are investments in the future strength of our nation. That is why the Congress will work with the President to ensure that science continues to be a top priority.
By a vote of 342-78, the House passed the COPS Improvements Act (H.R. 1139) this afternoon. Created in 1994, the COPS (Community Oriented Policing Services) hiring grants program was enormously successful – helping local law enforcement agencies hire more than 117,000 additional police officers in every state from 1995 to 2005 and our nation experienced a significant drop in crime rates. Unfortunately, the GOP-led Congress sharply reduced the funding for COPS hiring grants – reducing them from more than $1 billion a year in the late 1990s to $10 million in FY 2005 and zero funding in FY 2006 and FY 2007. In a first step to restart the program, the Democratic-led Congress included $1 billion in the Recovery Act passed in February.
The COPS Improvements Act passed today puts 50,000 additional police officers on the street over the next 5 years – authorizing $1.25 billion a year for COPS hiring grants. It also authorizes $350 million a year for COPS technology grants, and $200 million a year for hiring community prosecutors.
Rep. Weiner (D-NY), the author of the legislation, responds to inaccurate claims during the floor debate regarding the effectiveness of the program (to read the GAO report Rep. Weiner references, click here):
Rep. Weiner: “The gentleman artfully pulls a line from the report, let me tell you the conclusion. This is the GAO report, for years 1998 through 2000 we estimated the COPS grant expenditures were associated with the decline in index of crimes that ranged from 2,000 to 220,000, about 1/3 of these were violent crimes, 2/3 were property crimes. If you want another report that this has worked, ask the 383 Members of Congress who voted for it last year.”
Rep. Pascrell (D-NJ) speaks in favor of the legislation:
Rep. Pascrell: “After September 11, we as a nation, as a Congress made a new commitment to homeland security in protecting our communities. The fact is that for years under the Republican-led Congress, COPS hiring grants were gutted for more than $1 billion a year in the late 1990’s to only $10 million in fiscal year 2005. And then zeroed out, zeroed out - not only do they want to be outgunned, but they want them to be outfunded.”
Rep. Pierluisi (D-Puerto Rico) speaks in favor of the legislation:
Rep. Pierluisi: “As Attorney General of Puerto Rico, I worked alongside the Clinton Administration to secure passage of the legislation that established the COPS program. As someone whose own family has been deeply touched by violent crime, I’m unbending in my belief that the most basic human right that a government owes to its citizens is the right to personal security. The COPS program is rooted in this premise.”
Rep. Jackson Lee (D-TX) speaks in favor of the legislation:
Rep. Jackson Lee: “Law enforcement provides for the prevention of crime. That’s why I’m a strong supporter of the Cops on the Beat program and particularly glad that in March, our Attorney General, through the Administration, offered a billion dollars to our police departments across America to ensure that there would be stimulus dollars being used for the COPS grants.”
This afternoon, President Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act into law - launching a new era of service that will give Americans of all ages the opportunity to help our nation recover and make progress on education, health care, energy and other key goals by volunteering.
Speaker Pelosi on the bill signing:
The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act honors both the historic legislative accomplishments of Ted Kennedy and President Obama’s pledge to ‘encourage a renewed spirit of national service for this and future generations.’
By creating 175,000 new service opportunities – more than tripling the number of volunteers nationwide – and rewarding those who volunteer in their communities with an investment in their education, we are strengthening our neighborhoods and educating a talented workforce to compete and win in the global economy. There is no better time to support and energize volunteerism to help our country get through this economic crisis, restore confidence and prepare our nation for the future.
Thanks to the bipartisan efforts of many here in Congress, and the commitment and leadership of President Obama, the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act will launch a new era of public service that will provide a stronger nation for all Americans.
As he signed the legislation, the President asked Americans to serve saying, “a week from tomorrow marks the 100th day of my administration. In those next eight days, I ask every American to make an enduring commitment to serving your community and your country in whatever way you can. Visit WhiteHouse.gov to share your stories of service and success. And together, we will measure our progress not just in number of hours served or volunteers mobilized – but in the impact our efforts have on the life of this nation.” Visit whitehouse.gov/change and share how you are delivering change in your community>>
Today, the Congressional Oversight Panel held a hearing with Treasury Secretary Geithner. The Congressional Oversight Panel was created to oversee the expenditure of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds authorized by Congress in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) and is required to submit monthly reports to Congress on the use of the Treasury Secretary’s authority under the EESA, the impact of the government’s asset purchases on financial markets, the effect of transactions’ disclosure on market transparency, and the effectiveness of the program on mitigating foreclosures and maximizing taxpayer benefits.
Congressional Oversight Panel Chair Elizabeth Warren opens the hearing:
Chair Warren: “People are angry that even if they have paid their bills on time consistently and never missed a pay-ment, their TARP-assisted banks are unilaterally raising their interest rates or slashing their credit lines. People are angry that small businesses are threatened with closure because they can’t get financing. People are angry when they read headlines of record foreclosures because even if they aren’t personally facing trouble with their mortgages, they see their own property worth less and their communities declining as a result of the foreclosures all around them. People are angry because they are paying for programs that haven’t been fully explained and that have no apparent benefit for their families or the economy as a whole, but still seem to leave enough cash in the system for lavish bonuses and golf outings. None of this seems fair.”
Neiman: “I placed a blog post on a prominent website yesterday that asked people to submit questions to you. I placed it on the Huffington Post, because that blog reaches over ten million readers per month, thus representing a good, but imperfect, cross section of American opinion. Literally, within hours of the posting, there were hundreds of responses that expressed deep concerns and even skepticism about the program, many accompanied by deeply personal stories…Mr. Secretary, does Treasury have its own metrics in determining success in reaching its goals and if so, can they be shared with the American public be posted on your website so that all citizens can see how your plan is measuring up? My worry is that if you do not, one of the most common questions I encounter when I hear from people about your plan will remain unanswered. One person put it quite bluntly on the blog, stating ‘When are all those banks going to stop sitting on all that money and start lending again?’”
Chair Elizabeth Warren asks Secretary Geithner about the differences in addressing bank and auto stabilization:
Chair Warren: “The auto industry has received taxpayer money, but it has been linked to changes in management, changes in business practices, breaking labor contracts, and causing bond holders to take losses, at a minimum. The banks have received ten times more money than the auto industry, and yet they seem to be receiving a very different treatment. So the question I have is, why the different treatment, and in particular, do you think the banks are better managed than the auto companies?”
This evening, the House passed the FY 2010 Budget Resolution (H.Con.Res. 85) by a vote of 233-196. The 2010 Budget Resolution incorporates the four key priorities of the President’s budget. It makes strategic investments in education, health care reform, and energy independence that are necessary to restore our crumbling economy and put the country in a position to remain globally competitive. It also takes the needed steps to restore fiscal sustainability by cutting the deficit by nearly two-thirds by 2013. The budget provides the fiscal blueprint that will allow Congress to debate and adopt legislation that will reach these goals, but, by its nature, the Budget Resolution does not dictate the specifics of the legislation.
Speaker Pelosi: “This budget upholds the principle of responsibility. The budget resolution begins the process of turning around the Republican budget legacy of deep deficits, mounting debt, and economic decline due to the Bush Administration’s reckless fiscal policy. It takes steps to put the budget back on a fiscally sustainable path by restoring fiscal responsibility and cutting the deficit by more than one half by 2013. It upholds the principle of responsibility for our planet, by investing in science, technology, and renewable energy resources to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.”
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) begins the House floor debate of the rule providing for consideration of the budget resolution and speaks against the Republican substitute budget:
Rep. McGovern: “Because of the recovery package that we passed a few weeks ago, a family in Massachusetts will see an increase in their food stamp benefits by around $39 dollars a month - but the Republican budget eliminates that increase, literally taking food out of the mouths of Americans already struggling to make ends meet. This increase averages out to a little more than a dollar a day. Now, many of my colleagues spend three or four times that amount on a latte. Maybe $39 dollars a month isn’t a big deal to those in this chamber, but it’s a lot of money for people who have been adversely impacted by this lousy economy. I believe it is wrong to cut food and nutrition programs for vulnerable people in order to pay for capital gains tax cuts for Wall Street traders.”
Rep. Blumenauer: “The Republicans are intentionally misrepresenting the research from MIT….now i would suggest that it’s further flawed, because we have in the budget left this element to be worked on by people who want to legislate, but this canard ought to be rejected.”
Rep. Rob Andrews (D-NJ):
Rep. Andrews: “Those on the minority side gnash their teeth and weep that the debt, according to them, will be doubled in five years - they know all about that, because that’s exactly what they just did. They just doubled the national debt in the last five years under their watch. The fact of the matter is that this plan reduces the deficit by two thirds over the next five years.”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY):
Rep. Maloney: “We can choose to honor the pledge we made to the American people in the last election, and begin the process of health care reform, make investments that will lead to energy independence, and invest the needed funds to reinvigorate our educational system - or we can follow the same failed policy of the past that brought us to the crisis we find ourselves in today.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) speaks against the Republican substitute budget:
Rep. DeLauro: “This is cutting food programs for hungry kids - we know what the devastating effects of unemployment, the cut off for benefits for health care. People today are going to food pantries who never thought in their lives that they would have to do that. A gentleman who says ‘I have to take care of my kids, I never thought I would go to a food pantry, I was humiliated and I felt like a lowlife, but my kids need to eat.’ That’s what this budget would cut: nutrition programs.”
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) speaks against the Republican Study Committee’s substitute budget:
Rep. Van Hollen: “This budget, like the next Republican budget we will see, is going to slam a brake on the economic recovery plan that Congress passed and is now working its way through our economy, through all the communities in this country. While that economic recovery plan is putting shovels in the ground and putting people back to work, this budget puts up a big stop sign, and says ‘We’re not going to provide any funds after the first year, we’re going to take those shovels away, we’re going to take those jobs back.’ I think anybody who thinks that the economic recovery plan should be stopped after only one year does not have a clear understanding of the economic pain that is being experienced throughout this country.”
Chairman Spratt (D-SC) closes the floor debate:
Chairman Spratt: “If you want to vote for bold initiatives, like health care for the millions who don’t have insurance, our resolution lays out the framework for helping that to happen, and for funding it so the net cost is not adding to the deficit. If you want to say to the next child you meet in a classroom, ‘You can go to college, yes you can. You can go because Pell Grants will help pay the way if you do your studies and work hard.’ If you want to look that child in the eye and say just that, our resolution is the resolution you should vote for.”
By a vote of 247-171, the House passed the Pay for Performance Act this afternoon. This legislation amends the executive compensation provisions of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards at companies that receive capital infusions from the Treasury. While such a capital investment is outstanding, and regardless of when a compensation payment arrangement was entered into, recipients of a direct capital investment from the Treasury would be prohibited from:
Paying any executive or employee any compensation that is “unreasonable or excessive”
Paying any bonus or other supplemental payment that is not directly based on performance-based standards
Entering into new contracts for compensation that are “unreasonable or excessive or not performance-based
Rep. Grayson: “We offer HR 1664, the Pay For Performance Act, based on two simple concepts. One, no one has the right to get rich off taxpayer money. And two, no one should get rich off abject failure. The U.S. Government spent $170 billion to stabilize AIG, and it now owns 80% of that company, yet recently AIG paid more than $165 million in bonuses to 73 employees with this taxpayer money. We should not be paying arsonists to put out his own fire, and we should not be paying an executive to ruin his own bank.”
Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT):
Rep. Himes: “The only question that matters is, should we look after those dollars? Should we as the Representatives of the American people, look after their dollars to make sure that they are used wisely? The answer to that question must be yes. HR 1664 says one thing to TARP recipients, one thing. Pay your people, but do so reasonably and according to their performance. Pay reasonably and according to performance.”
Speaker Pelosi:
Today the House took another step toward better protecting the taxpayer with the Pay for Performance Act. This legislation adds new compensation and bonus restrictions to financial institutions that receive direct investments from the Treasury Department and applies these limits regardless of when the company agreed to pay a bonus.
This is a matter of simple fairness. If American autoworkers are expected to reduce their pay and benefits because the industry is in trouble, then a senior executive at financial institution can forgo a bonus when their company is in dire straits and supported by the taxpayer. Executives at institutions receiving taxpayer funds should be able to abide by the reasonable restrictions on their compensation that are contained in this bill.
The Pay for Performance Act is the right thing to do for taxpayers and to restore stability and investor confidence in our financial markets, which are essential to our economic recovery.
Tomorrow, the Making Work Pay tax credit passed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act goes into effect and families across the country will be seeing more money in their paychecks. The Making Work Pay Tax Credit provides immediate and sustained relief to about 95 percent of American workers and their families. Most working individuals will receive $400 a year and working families will receive $800 a year through reduced payroll deductions and taxpayers do not have to take any action to receive this tax credit.
Speaker Pelosi:
The Making Work Pay tax cut will put more money in workers’ paychecks each week, helping to jumpstart our economy and provide some much-needed relief to Americans who are having a difficult time making ends meet. Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act one month after President Obama took office, giving workers across the country one of the fastest tax cuts in our nation’s history.
Putting more money directly into the hands of 95 percent of working Americans is only the beginning. This week, Congress will pass a budget blueprint for America that cuts taxes for middle-income Americans by $1.5 trillion, cuts the deficit by two-thirds, creates new jobs through investments in health care, clean energy and education, while cutting spending to its lowest level in a generation.
With the Making Work Pay tax credit, President Obama and Congress have made clear that American families are at the top of our agenda.
Leader Steny Hoyer:
We have already seen real results from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, including jobs saved and created across the country. Tomorrow, we will see another result: tax relief for middle-class Americans.
Much of the focus of the economic recovery bill was assistance to middle-income families. The ‘Making Work Pay’ tax credit will start showing up in paychecks tomorrow, with credits each month adding up to $400 for adults and $800 for families over the course of a year. This additional money in their paycheck as a result of this tax credit is vital to working families who are struggling to pay their bills and make ends meet during this recession.
This Democratic Congress has consistently fought for the needs of the middle-class in America, and the ‘Making Work Pay’ tax credit is just one more piece of our efforts to help them face the current economic crisis.