ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 107th CONGRESS
House of Representatives
October 10, 2002

HOUSE ACCOMPLISHMENTS A Responsible Budget Welfare Reform Reauthorization Dept. of Homeland Security Education Reform Prescription Drug Package Pension Protection Trade Promotion Authority Middle-Class Tax Relief Corporate Responsibility Election Reform Veterans Benefits

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of what we have been able to accomplish here. Some of us were just going through the litany of items which the 107th Congress, specifically the House of Representatives with this very narrow 5-to-6-vote margin that we have been able to do. And it is true, one of the first things we did, as the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. YOUNG) has pointed out so well, we were able to pass a budget, and no budget has passed in the Senate; but we have been able to pass a budget here, and we have gone through a rigorous debate on that. But let us look at some of the other things that we have been able to accomplish to help the American people, and I think it is very important to note that one of the greatest successes we had back in 1996 has proved to be passage of welfare reform. We have been able to pass a very meaningful, positive welfare reform measure from this House of Representatives.

One of the other items obviously, as we have looked at now bipartisan support for President Bush's initiative to potentially use force in dealing with the horror of Saddam Hussein and Iraq and, along with that, the potential for some kind of response to that from Iraq, we have passed out of this House a measure that was called on by the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Gephardt), the minority leader, to do it by September 11; and we have passed a bill establishing a Department of Homeland Security. That is something we are very proud of as we deal with the war on terrorism.

We also are very proud of the fact that in a bipartisan way, both Houses of Congress and with the President's signature ultimately, we passed the No Child Left Behind Act, dealing with education, what before September 11 of last year was our number one priority.

Prescription drugs, a very important issue which was talked about in the Presidential campaign, we are proud of the fact that we have been able to pass out, within the guidelines of our budget, a $350 billion prescription drug program so that seniors can have access to affordable prescription drugs. The other body has not taken action on that.

We have been able to pass out of this body a very, very meaningful reform of the pension structure; and we all know with the economic challenges that we are facing, our retirees, those who are looking towards retirement in the future, the challenges they are facing, we have been able to bring about meaningful reform on that issue.

I am very proud about something that we worked to try to give President Clinton beginning back in 1994 when it expired, we have been able to pass Trade Promotion Authority. Both Houses of Congress have done that. The President signed it. Our ambassador, the U.S. Trade Representative, Mr. ZOELLICK, is in the process of trying to work out new market-opening opportunities for us. That is going to provide an economic boost for the United States of America; and we have been able to pass that out of this House, again something we have not been able to do in 8 years.

We also were able to bring about meaningful middle-income taxpayer tax relief. We have heard this criticism of the tax package, but it was focused towards middle-income wage earners with the provisions that we have had in there on the marriage penalty, the death tax, the child tax credit. These are things that have been designed to help working Americans.

We also have been able to deal with the challenge of corporate fraud, and we all have been horrified by the actions of some top executives in this country. We have been able to pass out of this House and the other body meaningful reform when it comes to corporate fraud.

We hope very much that we will be able to get election reform passed. We have had what I believe to be a very good conference package. Again, it started right here in this House of Representatives. We did it in a bipartisan way. I am very, very proud of that. We have been able to increase veterans benefits. We have much to be very proud of, much of it done in a bipartisan way.