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Hoyer: Optimistic on ‘rescue’, joy on Metro bill passage
FederalNewsRadio talks to the House Majority Leader about two important pieces of legislation.
By Max Cacas
FederalNewsRadio
With the House of Representatives set to vote on the controversial Wall Street ‘rescue’ bill on Friday, one top Democrat says he’s optimistic that the measure will pass, though a similar measure went to defeat last Tuesday.
In an exclusive interview with FederalNewsRadio, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said:
I’m going to vote for the rescue package. I don’t like it as much as I liked the bill that was on the House floor earlier this week, because the Senate saw fit to add a package to the bill that adds $100 billion to the net deficit. I’m for many of the component parts they added to it, but they should have paid for it.
After the House rejected the bill 228-205 on Monday, the rescue package went to the Senate, where it was resuscitated by a vote of 74-25.
In doing so, Senators added billions of dollars worth of tax cuts and other sweeteners aimed at luring the dozen or so votes necessary to get the bill to the White House for Bush’s signature.
House rules require that any measure, including tax cuts, must be offset by cuts in spending or increases in other federal taxes. House leaders, however, are expected to suspend that rule for this bill.
“This bill is critically important to stabilize markets,” said Hoyer, “Get credit flowing again, and make sure that working men and women aren’t hurt by an ever deepening recession.
“If we don’t pass this bill, I am fearful that the markets will fall apart, additional financial institutions will fail, but the people who will really be hurt are average working men and women in this country,” he said.
The rescue package would let the government spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets held by troubled financial institutions.
If successful, advocates say, that would allow frozen credit to begin flowing again and prevent a serious recession.
Hoyer says Congress, and the House in particular, received a, “stark wake up call when the markets dropped almost 800 points. Essentially that means someone’s 401K with their retirement savings just plummeted [in value]. It had an immediate wake-up call, ‘This is the result of failure.’ I think members saw that, and I think the public saw that. The public’s attitude has changed.”
Asked if he believes the financial rescue package will pass on Friday, Hoyer said, “I think it will.”
Hoyer applauds Senate Passage of Metro funding bill.
The House Majority Leader says it’s been a long time coming, but he is pleased that the Senate, on Wednesday night approved, and sent on to the White House a long-planned measure to provide federal funds for a permanent source of funding for D.C.’s Metro subway and bus system.
Hoyer is one of several original authors of the legislation.
Hoyer told FederalNewsRadio:
I first got involved with this in 1968. I’ve been involved with this as a member of the [Maryland] State Senate, and as a member of Congress, in trying to get funding for Metro, saying this was an important system. This system has been 40 years in being. It needs maintenance, it needs new rolling equipment. This $1.5 million continuing authorization will be an on-going partnership with the federal government.
The Maryland Democrat notes that the Federal Government is, “the largest user of Metro, because federal workers use it to go to and from work. So the Federal government has a real stake.”
Hoyer calls Metro “America’s subway” because Americans visiting from all across the country use the rail system to visit the Nation’s Capital.
Senate passage of the measure now puts the ball back in Annapolis and Richmond to fund Maryland’s and Virginia’s portion of the permanent funding program.
Hoyer says that with Maryland facing huge budget shortfalls, the politics of getting the states to fund their part of the permanent funding package for Metro is going to be “very, very difficult.”
He adds, however, that he plans to work with Maryland’s governor and state lawmakers in Annapolis to try to get the state to fund its part of the program.
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On the Web:
House Majority Leader’s Web site
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