House Proceeding 03-19-09 on Mar 19th, 2009 :: 1:16:00 to 1:36:00
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1:11:50 to 1:16:00( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Stephen Cohen

1:15:44 to 1:16:00( Edit History Discussion )

Stephen Cohen: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? >> to address the house for five minutes and revise and extend my remarks. the spea objection. >> mr. speaker, i bring a serious economic concern from my district today.

1:16:01 to 1:16:22( Edit History Discussion )

mr. speaker, in the northwest corner of my district is a beautiful rural pennsylvania lies theal gainy national forest, established when the federal government purchased acres. by agreement in 1923, the mineral rights in the forest did

1:16:23 to 1:16:44( Edit History Discussion )

not convey with oil and natural gas as been harvested from the forest. timber harsted and the oil and natural gas produced, it serves as the economic engine for the region providing good paying jobs in the oil and natural gas

1:16:45 to 1:17:07( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: and timber industry. it is not taxable since it is owned by the federal government making municipal governments reliable in the development of oil and natural gas and timber. what's important to note is the an agreement with the owners of these subsurface minerals. unfortunately that process has

1:17:00 to 1:20:20( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Glenn Thompson

1:17:08 to 1:17:28( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: come to a halt and reacting to lawsuits brought by environmental groups, forest service and justice department lawyers, who most likely never stepped foot, are now managing the forests who despite many challenges over eight decades have carried out their duties. so when the forest service does

1:17:29 to 1:17:49( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: not issue new permits to proceed with harvesting oil and natural gas, people lose their jobs. and the local economy suffers. to demonstrate there is much more than a legal battle between the forest service and legal groups, i would like communication.

1:17:50 to 1:18:11( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: with local drilling being slowed to a halt, we have seen the effects significantly decrease our business. the timber industry is in the worst shape we have ever seen and loggers aren't needed to clear roads, pipelines. we have had to reduce our work force and contribute to nearly double-digit unemployment rate.

1:18:12 to 1:18:33( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: i find it to be the height of hypocrisy that the secretary of energy recently asked opec not to decrease oil production while at the same time our government is taking actions to prevent production of our own oil and natural gas importing 60% of our oil and sending money to foreign countries, often unfriendly

1:18:34 to 1:18:55( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: countries that dictate policies that dictates production of our own oil. if the defense project, which is run out of portland, oregon, 3,000 miles from pennsylvania, continues to use the legal system to and their environmental shield to stop the harvesting of tber, natural

1:18:56 to 1:19:17( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: gas and oil from forests, i ask they consider the effects of such efforts on the communities, families and individuals who depend on the safe and sound harvesting of those commodities to keep their jobs and pay their bills. oil and gas production in western -- is western pennsylvania. it's part of our life. it's what we do. it's where colonel drake sunk

1:19:18 to 1:19:39( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: the first commercial oil well 150 ears ago. the safe and environmentally harvesting of our resources in the alleghany national forests has been going on for decades. no reason to stop now especially during a recession. it has been 63 days since the forest service has issued any permits for new oil and gas

1:19:40 to 1:20:02( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: wells in the a.n.f. this is unacptable. i trust that the forest service and the department of agriculture will resolve this problem quickly so our community can get back to work producing and if not, i will return to this floor and do all i can until it is resolved. mr. speaker, i yield back the

1:20:03 to 1:20:20( Edit History Discussion )

Glenn Thompson: balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. ms. foxx of north carolina.

1:20:21 to 1:20:41( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: ms. kaptur of ohio. mr. schiff of california. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from ohio, mr. latourette, is recognized for 60

1:20:35 to 1:26:45( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Steven C. LaTourette

1:20:42 to 1:21:03( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. the recognition and thank our leader f giving us an hour to talk about something that happened today, this week, that really has us befuddled, i guess. i like a good mystery.

1:21:04 to 1:21:24( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: i just finished reading "bitter coffee" and wound up being the personal secretary to the manner lord who poisonned him poison and it took me to the last couple of pages to figure out who poisonned the boss.

1:21:25 to 1:21:47( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: who would have thought we have a real life mystery here on capitol hill and we are going to talk about a.i.g. and the stimulus pacge and these bonuses that have been paid out that really have people's anger up in ohio. but here's what happened.

1:21:48 to 1:22:08( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: . a few weeks ago the president wanted to put forward a stimulus bill. i wanted president obama to succeed. i think he's doing t best job that he can. and he entrusted the leadership of the house and senate to write the bill. the bill was a little over 1,000 pages.

1:22:09 to 1:22:29( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: i think it was 1,700 -- 1,017 pages long. we were nervous because we were spending over $1 trillion. it was proposed to spen trillion rather quickly and we asked early in the week before the vote, do you think we could read the bill before you ask us to sign on in spending $1

1:22:30 to 1:22:51( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: trillion? so we had a little motion here on the floor and every member in the house, every republican, every democrat said you will have 48 hours to read this before we ask you to decide whether it's a good piece of legislation or a bad piece of legislation. well, it left the house, it left the senate, it went to a

1:22:52 to 1:23:14( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: conference committee but, mr. speaker, you may know but others may not know wher nd some guys and gals from the house, they send some over from the senate, they work together, bring back the final product and bring it back to the house and senate for a vote. well, something happened on the way to the vote in that we weren't given 48 hours to read a bill. we were given 90 minutes to

1:23:15 to 1:23:36( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: read the bill. and we made the observation that that's 90 minutes to read 1,000 pages. a lot of us read quickly. that was a big challenge. and so could you please not ask us to do that cause when you do something that quickly somebody's going to be embarrassed. well, that leads us to this mystery.

1:23:37 to 1:23:57( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: in the conference report, today we had some legislation where there's a lot of gnashing at teeth and pulling of hair saying that a.i.g. and they're crooks. somebody called them traitors. so on and so forth and they shouldn't have gotten these bonuses. when the bill left the senate there was an amendment offered by a democratic senator from oregon, wyden, and a republican

1:23:58 to 1:24:18( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: senator from maine, olympia snowe, that said we're not going to be -- if you took money for the bailout and you were an institution, you couldn't give these crazy bonuses to people. you couldn't give them $18 million, $20 million worth of bonuses. that seemed pretty reasonable. but when it went into thi

1:24:19 to 1:24:40( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: meeting all of a sudden that language came out and this language that i put up on the easal here was inserted. and for those who want to read it, it's title 7, section 111, subparagraph 3, subparagraph iii. now, unlike the wyden-snowe

1:24:41 to 1:25:02( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: language that said we weren't going to do it, th language specifically says that any bonuses, any executive compensation, any million-llar golden parachute, any retention pay that was agreed to before february 11 of 2009, guess what, it wasn't covered.

1:25:03 to 1:25:24( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and authorized the payment of these bonuses. well, as we warned and we're not happy our prediction came true but there were some people this week that was embarrassed by that. so we passed a bill that taxed these bonuses 90%. stupid idea.

1:25:25 to 1:25:45( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: but we wouldn't have had that discussion if somebody, somebody put this paragraph into the bill that specifically let them pay for these bonuses at a.i.g. now we have a who done it.

1:25:46 to 1:26:08( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: now from our social studies we know there are 435 members of the house of representatives and there are 100 senators. i had a piece of paper with the breakdown. i misplaced it. but i think after the last election there are 178 republicans in the chamber and

1:26:09 to 1:26:29( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: there are 247 drartic representatives. over in the senate there are 41 -- democratic representatives. over in the senate there are 41 trattic senators and -- democratic senators. the minnesota race has not been resolved. we know that al franken or norm coleman didn't put this

1:26:30 to 1:26:47( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: paragraph in the bill. now, during the debate today, i asked the distinguished chairman of the financ services committee, mr. frank of massachusetts, if he did it and he said no. so we're going tcross barney frank off the mystery list.

1:26:48 to 1:27:08( Edit History Discussion )

and now we're down to only -- well, let me say this, i didn't it. so we're down to 533. and i'm joined by other members here today -- and let me -- >>ill the gentleman yield? mr. latourette: well, as we attempt to solve this problem, mr. mccotter of michigan, did you put this into the bill? mr.

1:27:09 to 1:27:30( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: room that inserted the pro-a.i.g. language into the stimulus. mr. latourette:. thank you. let me go to mr. thompson, did you write this? mr. thompson: no, it wasn't me. mr. latourette: mr. cole of oklahoma, did you? mr. cole: no. i think you should ask every in

1:27:30 to 1:28:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Cole

1:27:31 to 1:27:51( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: i do have a signed list of people that were in the ro that were principal negotiators in the room. i do want to point -- and i think they need to answer for themselves. one of them, mr. frank, already has. i do want to point out in defense of some of our mr. lewis is from california's name is there but he was

1:27:52 to 1:28:12( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: scratched out because he was not allowed in the room. mr. camp from michigan, his name is scratched out because he was also not allowed to be in the room. mr. latourette: excellent. mr. cole: and mr. crockett of louisiana was not in there. senator grassley from iowa, his

1:28:13 to 1:28:16( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: name, as well, is scratched out. i think that's a strong

1:28:17 to 1:28:37( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: indication that they did not. could he incidentally, they are all republicans. mr. latourette: right. mr. cole: i think that would help you when you pursue your investigation. mr. latourette: thank you. i think as angela in "murder

1:28:20 to 1:30:05( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Steven C. LaTourette

1:28:38 to 1:28:58( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: she would say, they didn mr. fleming: congressman flemming from -- fleming from louisiana, i did not sign it. i would have liked to have been there. mr. latourette: we have only about 525 people to go.

1:28:59 to 1:29:19( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and i pledge to you, mr. speaker, that i will spend as long as it takes to identify who wrote the language. and the reason -- you know, we're making little light of it but it's not funny because what you have here on both ends of pennsylvania avenue, you have a senator from connecticut, the chairman of the banking committee over there, and he

1:29:20 to 1:29:40( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: says, well, yeah, maybe i wrote it but i only wrote it because somebody in the administration told me to write it. well, again, going from our social studies we know for a fact that the administration can't write laws. this is the united states congress. so somebody had to pick up a pen and scratch out the wyden-snowe amendment, which

1:29:41 to 1:30:01( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: would have prohibited these bonuses, and then written this new paragraph. it's only about 50 words long. and inserted this. and somebody needs to own up to this because you can't have all the drama that we had on the floor today where, i don't know, this is outrageous, they're crooks. well, somebody, the person that wrote this let this happen.

1:30:02 to 1:30:05( Edit History Discussion )

Steven C. LaTourette: and that's why we find ourselves in our situation toy.

1:30:06 to 1:30:27( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: we have a lot more that we're going to talk about and now it's mpleasure to yield to mr. cole of oklahoma for how much time do you want? mr. cole: four, five minutes the most. mr. latourette: five minutes. mr. cole: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank him in the way which he framed the debate and did it in a way where we can all understand. but this has been a troubling

1:30:10 to 1:37:55( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Tom Cole

1:30:28 to 1:30:48( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: episode as well. you know, i think -- well, i guess what i would call bonusgate, begins, i like to think of three words. we've heard a lot of three words. we've hearthe word inherit. we've heard the word transparency. and we've heard the word accountability.

1:30:49 to 1:31:10( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: well, this is not a situation that was inherited by this administration or by this majority. this was a situation that came into being on their watch. this is a situation where they've not been transparent. quite the opposite. they've done everything they can to obscure what happened, when it happened, who's responsible. and finally, it's certainly an incident, at least to this

1:31:11 to 1:31:31( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: point, nobody has been held accountable for anything. it's just something that somehow is unfortunate but we're going to move collectively to try and correct before we've even identified who created the problem for in the first place. what do we know? well, we do know a lot. we do know that secretary geithner has been involved in

1:31:32 to 1:31:53( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: designing legislation around both the bailout and the stimulus literally since november -- really, since september, involved in his capacity as director of federal reserve, chairman of the federal reserve in new york. we do know that frankly heas aware at some point late last

1:31:54 to 1:32:15( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: this year at the minimum that there were going to be large bonuses paid, certainly e fed had been inford that and we would expect in his position there and as secretary treasurer he would have been informed. we do know tt he had the means to stop this. he literally released $30 billion at the beginning of

1:32:16 to 1:32:36( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: this month to a.i.g. at that point he could have literally said, look, you do this, no money. you're bankrupt. i suspect something could have happened where these bonuses wouldn't have been pai out. we also know that he didn't bother to tell the president of the united states for whom he works and to whom he is responsible anything about this

1:32:37 to 1:32:57( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: until the day before it happened. that's what the secretary said. that's what the president has said. you know, so we know that mr. geithner has been around this problem a lot, and we know that he did not -- it appears he did not inform the president of its dimension. now, the second thing we know

1:32:58 to 1:33:18( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: relates to the smulus bill. and my friend, mr. latourette, went through that pretty well. we had a bill that was ram through, that literally was put together in a hurry, where this body guaranteed its members by unanimous bipartisan vote we would have time to read it. we weren't given the time in this body we said we would give

1:33:19 to 1:33:39( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: members. we know that the bill eventually ended up in a conference committee. we have a pretty good idea who the six people were that were there. one of whom we now presume had nothing to do with this. i'm sure i would certainly take the chairman at his word. and we know that that language was inserted in that conference.

1:33:40 to 1:34:00( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: it was not something that was inherited from the last administration. it was not something to be fair that was even in the first version of the stimulus bill. it was something that was ecifically put there. and so while we know that the majority didn't read the bill and we know that the minority didn't read the bill and i doubt the president read the

1:34:01 to 1:34:22( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: bill, somebody read the bill. somebody read the bill well enough to know, hey, there's language in here to prevent the payment of bonuses and we need to get that out and put something in. so somebody did indeed finally read the bill. we also know that today, you know, rather than confront those questions we decided we'd

1:34:23 to 1:34:43( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: do everything we cld on the floor of this body to look like we were doing something. as a matter of fact, i would argue we made a lot of the same mistakes. you know, we presented a bill that hadn't gone through committee, that people hadn't seen, that people hadn't discussed because we were trying to show that we were

1:34:44 to 1:35:04( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: trying to act. we presented a legislation, which didn't go through, which would exonerated the administration. now, those are all things that we know. what should we do is now the real question, it seems me. the first thing we should do is do what the president did in the very first week of this administration and say, i made a mistake.

1:35:05 to 1:35:26( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: i think the classic word was, i screw up. i think the president, the administration, certainly the majority, screwed up. i think admitting it would be helpful. the second thing i would do if i were president of the united states is firehe secretary of the treasury. you know, i wouldn't wait for him to resign. i would make the point. if there's something this explosive and this important

1:35:27 to 1:35:47( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: and this damaging and you know about it for months and you don't bothero tell me about it until the day before it happens when i'm in almost no position to do anything about it, i'm sorry, i don't think you're who i need to be secretary of the treasury. goodbye. i think the president would score enormous points within his whole body.

1:35:48 to 1:36:09( Edit History Discussion )

Tom Cole: we heard a democratic member of congress calling on this floor to do something like that. finally, we need the people in that room to just simply fess up. one out of six of them did it. and if they did it at somebody else's instructions at the white house, then they ought to tell us who that was. who sent that language down?