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Xavier
Becerra
US Congressman, CA - 31
Member:
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS
Subcommittee on Social Security
Subcommittee on Trade |
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November
6, 2003
Our local US Congressional Representative, Xavier Becerra, has asked
LACP to help him explain to the constituents he serves his perspective
on what's going on in Washington, it's impact on the Greater LA
community and why he takes the positions he does.
We're delighted to do this, and offer you the two articles you'll
find below.
Congressman Xavier is an appreciative fan of LA Community Policing,
but he's not optimistic about the ability to find much Federal financial
support for any law enforcement and quality of life issues here
in Los Angeles in the near future.
As the only California member of the important House Way and Means
Committee, the oldest standing committee in Congress, Xavier has
a unique perspective on how our Federal money is raised and spent.
The Committee has jurisdiction over legislation, methods, and means
of raising revenue for the use of the government. In addition to
legislating, the Committee exercises broad oversight authority over
economic policy, international trade, welfare, Social Security,
Medicare and health care policy.
These two topics offer some insight:
1) President George W. Bush today signed into law the $87 billion
bill supporting the efforts in Iraq as grants, not loans. The first
offering we'll present from Congressman Becerra's illustrates his
reason's to have opposed the plan when he had to vote on it in mid
October. The words are his own ... his speech, from the Congressional
Record.
2) Secondly, you'll find the Congressman's opinion on "the
ironically named Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act,"
passed earlier this year, which he says is an "ill-structured
tax cut failed to cover all American families with the child tax
credit provisions it included."
Look to LA Community Policing for more from Congressman Xavier Becerra
in the near future.
Becerra
Votes Against $87 Billion Supplemental Package
October 17, 2003
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States House of Representatives
today passed H.R. 3289, the $87 billion supplemental appropriations
package, by a vote of 303 to 125. Representative Xavier Becerra
(CA - 31), the only congressional member from Southern California
on the House Committee on Ways and Means, voted against the
bill.
During debate on H.R. 3289, Rep. Becerra submitted the following
statement into the Congressional Record:
"Mr.
Speaker, last year, during debate on the resolution granting
the president the authorization he sought to commence
a war against Iraq, I was concerned that the administration
was ignoring the fact that actions and words have consequences.
The consequences of our actions then are exactly what
we are trying to address through H.R. 3289 today. We took
the burden of a notoriously ill-advised, preemptive war
and placed it on the shoulders of our young men and women
in the military to carry virtually alone. Now we are asking
the American taxpayers to take on the burden almost exclusively
of rebuilding an entire nation, while our own nation finds
its schools in disrepair, 44 million Americans without
health care, and our homeland security needs underfunded.
"If this were a spending package focused on supporting
and protecting our troops, this would be an easy vote
for me. Nearly five months after the commander-in-chief
declared, 'mission accomplished,' too many of our troops
are dying daily. I do not think these young men and women
in the armed forces, National Guard, and Reserves expected
to still be there so long after our president's proud
and premature declaration of success in Iraq. Our soldiers
are sacrificing too much: some their lives, and others
their valued role as a parent, breadwinner, or caregiver
to their families and their communities.
"I would support whatever it takes to bring these young
men and women home as quickly as possible, and to ensure
their success and safety in their mission while they are
away. But even the portion of the bill that would support
our military's 'post-war' efforts in Iraq is deficient.
We know from reports that weapons caches are poorly secured
and that our troops are lacking absolutely vital equipment
such as body armor. The bill also would leave 80 percent
of our troops in Iraq without the ability to ensure a
clean water supply for themselves. We should also be paying
for our soldiers' rare calls home and for the full cost
of traveling home while on leave. Equally disturbing are
reports that our troops in Iraq are fatigued and suffering
from low morale, the direct consequence of the administration's
failure to secure extensive international cooperation
and compose a comprehensive exit strategy.
"A significant portion of this bill's $87 billion is for
rebuilding Iraq, and like it or not, we now have a moral
responsibility to carry much of this burden. When scrutinized
in the light of day, however, many of the items for which
the administration is asking us to sign away precious
tax dollars simply do not make sense. I was appalled by
findings reported in the New York Times that Halliburton
has been exploiting the American taxpayer with a 140 percent
mark-up for a gallon of gas in Iraq. Despite our best
efforts today to include some congressional oversight
to the contracting process, I am afraid that the administration
and its representatives in Iraq will continue to oppose
sensible oversight even while they have compiled a very
poor track record of ensuring that the largesse of the
American taxpayer will not further be abused. As an example
of what is already occurring on the ground, I would reiterate
what the Democratic members of the Appropriations Committee
reported about the reconstruction of a cement factory
in Northern Iraq. In that instance, after the American
contractor estimated that it would take $15 million to
upgrade the factory, local Iraqis got the job done for
$80,000. Something is wrong here, and I do not believe
we have done enough to make sure the administration does
not continue to make these mistakes.
"I understand the overwhelming pressure to rebuild as
quickly as possible, but we cannot afford to do this at
any cost and without greater discipline.
"The American people know that this will not be the only
request on their tax dollars - some have characterized
the president's $87 billion request as a mere down-payment
in a rebuilding effort that I expect to be long and very
expensive. I am heartened that our international allies
are starting to offer help, but these agreements should
have been taken care of long ago through a collaborative
international partnership. Again, the consequence of acting
alone and without credible evidence has come back to haunt
not just the president, but America's soldiers and taxpayers.
"Having said all of this, the most troubling aspect of
this bill before us today is that it is not paid for at
all; the full amount is added to this year's already alarming
$500 billion deficit. Why? We have been told that the
funds are simply not available. Why not? In large part
it is because of the cost of the excessive tax cuts benefiting
the wealthiest among us that this Administration decided
were its first priority. The 2001 repeal of the estate
tax alone - which benefits 30,000 of America's wealthiest
individuals and only them, at the expense of more than
140,000,000 other taxpayers - costs more in two years
than this entire appropriations package.
"Mr. Speaker, this is a policy with no fiscal discipline
that stands in stark contrast to the discipline and sacrifices
our young men and women are demonstrating every day in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I sincerely wish I could have voted for the amendment
offered by the gentleman from Wisconsin that would have
met the burden that we have assumed in Iraq in a responsible
way. I do not understand why the leadership denied us
the ability to vote on that amendment, which would have
reset our priorities in a very sensible manner, asking
Americans to heed the call of shared sacrifice and asking
the wealthiest one percent of Americans to give up just
a little bit of their tax cut to help bring our troops
home and rebuild Iraq.
"What the administration has asked us to do here today
- approve deficit spending in the amount of $87 billion
- will place the cost of rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan
squarely on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren
and those of our soldiers, too many of whom have already
made the ultimate sacrifice. We should be more responsible
than that. I will vote against H.R. 3289." |
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Leaving
Americans Behind
By Representative Xavier Becerra
US Congressman, CA - 31
November 6, 2003
Six-and-a-half million families, 12 million children, and perhaps
most egregiously, the families of thousands of military personnel
serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and other combat zones were forgotten
when Congress, on a party-line vote, passed the ironically named
Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003 back in
May. This ill-structured tax cut failed to cover all American
families with the child tax credit provisions it included, making
it essentially a giveaway to the wealthiest Americans that cost
the Treasury $350 billion.
The Children's Defense Fund estimates that one million children
from active military or veterans' families are ineligible for
the expanded credit. The news is even worse for the children
of the 200,000 men and women currently serving in Iraq, Afghanistan
or other combat zones. Those men and women receive a combat
pay exclusion. The combat pay exclusion benefits many, but it
has the perverse effect of increasing, not decreasing, taxes
on those who have children and a family income below $26,000
(the threshold to benefit from the expanded tax credit). This
exclusion eliminates the benefit of the per?child credit for
those families despite having such a low family income, making
them worse off - not better.
The Senate recognized the inequity of this treatment of the
families of our soldiers serving in combat zones around the
world and included a bipartisan provision to address the problem,
which passed by a vote of 94 to two. Surprisingly, the House
bill fails to include this provision. My colleagues and I have
offered up motions to include this Senate provision in the latest
tax bill being considered by Congress (H.R. 1308), but have
been voted down along party lines - 25 times.
Who else was left out? The children of janitors and maids who
clean the places where we live and work; the cooks and kitchen
workers in our cafeterias and restaurants; farmers and farm
workers who grow and harvest the food we eat; teachers who educate
our sons and daughters; child care workers whom we entrust with
our kids while we work; nurses and caregivers who care and comfort
the sick; bus, truck and cab drivers who get us home, get us
to work, and move goods across our great land.
Who benefited from this year's tax cut legislation signed into
law by President Bush? While working families lucky enough to
meet the income requirements received an average child tax credit
increase of $615 this year, tax filers with incomes of more
than $1 million will receive on average an additional $93,500
in tax breaks.
Meanwhile, the poverty rate has increased and the number of
jobs available continues to decrease. In my congressional district,
over half the families received not one cent from the president's
tax cuts. These families are those dedicated workers - a mother,
a father, or both - that have put in full-time hours at minimum
pay, make less than $26,000 a year, and pay taxes on every dollar
they earn. The parents have contributed enough to deserve a
break, a break that would enable them to buy new school clothes
for their children, put a little money in the bank for an emergency,
or maybe pay for that long-postponed trip to the pediatrician
or dentist. The holidays are rapidly approaching and these well-intentioned
parents will want to get a little something for their children
- they deserve the opportunity to do that without falling further
into debt.
But rather than spend the $3.5 billion that would adequately
correct this inequity, the House once again wreaked havoc to
our fiscal bottom line by passing $80 billion in additional,
unpaid tax cuts for wealthy benefactors. It sounds like the
punch line of a bad joke -- $80 billion spent to solve a $3.5
billion problem. Worse, it is a joke put forward at a time when
the Treasury is suffering under the weight of annual deficits
exceeding $400 billion for years to come.
This Congress and the president have failed our children and
working families. We, however, have the power to change all
that. It is time to end this impasse and make the child tax
credit work for all Americans.
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Official Websites:
U.S. Congressman
Xavier Becerra, CA - 31
House
Committee on Ways and Means Committee
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Los
Angeles Office
1910 Sunset Blvd.
Suite 560
Los Angeles, CA 90026
(213) 483-1425 |
Washington,
D.C. Office
1119 Longworth House
Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-6235 |
Steve Haro
Press Secretary
Congressman Xavier Becerra (CA - 31)
213 / 483-1425
213 / 483-1429 fax
steve.haro@mail.house.gov
www.house.gov/becerra
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