Departments Of Labor, Health, And Human Services, And Education, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Chairman, there have been a lot of people saying: Why are we rushing? Why aren't there more amendments? Why isn't there more debate?

We have an obligation to the American people to get these budgets done. The fiscal year starts at the end of October, and we need to get our job done.

I want to commend Chairman Obey for making sure that we are going to get all of these House bills done before we leave in August. Given all of the tactics that our friends on the other side have used, I think it's going to be quite an accomplishment. It's important for us to remember that our friends on the other side had control of the House, had control of the Senate, had control of the White House, had control of the Supreme Court, had a chance to implement their health care policy, their energy policy and their overall economic policy. That's the world that we're living in right now. They had control of everything, and we're trying to fix it.

The $1,100 increase in gas prices per family over the course of the last 10 years and the increase in health care, going up 120-some percent over the last decade for small businesses--that's a tax. We're trying to fix it. If we do nothing, gas prices are going to continue to go up; energy costs are going to continue to go up; health care costs are going to continue to go up. We are trying to rein this in, and we are trying to fix it. I think this bill does a lot of what we need to do.

This eliminates 28 programs; it cuts $1.3 billion out of the bill; it funds community health clinics so that 17 million patients can have some access to health care; it increases the Pell Grants since Democrats have had an opportunity to move in; there is a $1,500 increase, a 37 percent increase, in charter schools.

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Mr. RYAN of Ohio. There is $256 million for helping start up 1,300 new charter schools; there are investments into the NIH for cancer research.

These are the investments that we need to make. This is the situation we've been given, and these are the cards we've been dealt. I think this bill goes a long way in trying to clean up this mess. It's not going to happen overnight. It took 10 years of Republican leadership to get us in the worst economic situation we've been in since the Great Depression. It's going to take a few years for us to get out. The current system cannot continue. This bill, the energy bill and the health care reform are all opportunities for us to change the direction in which we're going.

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