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Xavier Becerra
US Congressman, CA - 31

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Xavier Becerra
US Congressman, CA - 31


Member:
COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS
Subcommittee on Social Security
Subcommittee on Trade

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