Fighting for change: Congressman Al Green wraps up his thoughts on the 111th Congress
- By Marvin D. Cloud
- Published 02/1/2010
- Political
- Unrated
Marvin D. Cloud
Marvin D. Cloud is Web Developer and a writer for the African-American News&Issues.
In part 3 of Fighting for Change, Congressman Al Green explains appropriations and how the 9th District he serves will benefit from them.
After Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley for the seat formerly held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, the mood in America tended to suggest that Americans were fed up with President Obama and his administration’s policies. After his State of the Union address last week, an instant poll conducted by CBS News and Knowledge Networks found that 83 percent of speech watchers approve Obama’s proposals, while 17 percent disapprove them. It also revealed that 70 percent of speech watchers think that Obama shares the same priorities for the country as they do, although 57 percent thought so beforehand.
This was despite the fact that viewers also saw a partisan response from Republicans in attendance which seemed to contradict those poll numbers. However, it aptly describes the fight on Capitol Hill.
“People at other levels need to heed the clarion call to bring about change,” said Congressman Al Green who admits that it’s a significant battle. “We have people who want jobs and we hear from them; people are trying to get loans and we hear from them; people who need healthcare, insurance, we hear from them. These are the kinds of things that we have been talking about in Congress. We have been meeting with various persons in leadership capacities, to talk about how we are going to bring about systemic change in this process.”
Green also explained the universally misunderstood term, “appropriations.” Although an appropriation bill is a legislative motion which authorizes the government to spend money, it sets money aside for specific spending and many of the items selected to get funding have been proven over the years to be nothing more than personal projects, approved as favors.
“Appropriations are commonly known as earmarks. While there are some earmarks that are inappropriate, some that should not be defended, … bridges to nowhere, there are many that are good for the community that we serve.”
According to Green, the 2010 package consists of $121,523,000 worth of appropriations. As examples of localized earmarks, he pointed out the city of Stafford ($100,000), Harris County Constable for Precinct 6 ($110,000), and various community organizations such as HoustonWorks ($400,000) in addition to $2 million for a Science, Engineering and Mathematics initiative. In the medicine area, Methodist Hospital will receive $1 million, and the Center for Research on Minority Prostate Cancer Outreach Project, will receive $1 million.
As an example of the importance of funding certain projects, Green explained, “Prostate Cancer is something that African-American males suffer from greatly. We [have] to do more to find out what is creating this desperate impact on African-American males and try to find a cure for it.”
Other not-for-profits in the 9th District will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for the work they are doing, including Memorial Hermann ($250,000) and Houston Transit ($75 million).
“We have monies included for flooding. This package has $20,736,000 to fight flooding on Sims Bayou,” he stated. Green made it clear that this did not include the $4 billion that he and nine of his colleagues of the House Committee on Financial Services brought to the African-American community by way of the Consumer Protection bill that passed out of the House of Representatives.
“One more important piece of legislation that we passed in Congress as a whole was the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization, which added 4 million additional children to the program. We passed the Jobs for Main St. Act which gives $75 billion for highway and transit, school renovation, small businesses, job training, and affordable housing. Twenty-three billion will go into eduction and help create an estimated 250,000 jobs in education. Fire and police departments will receive almost $1.7 billion for hiring and training programs. This is something that passed in the House on Dec. 17 and it is presently before the Senate.”
Although most legislation is important, Green is proud of HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, which is pending before the Senate. It creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency with an agenda to look out for consumers and make sure that deceptive practices are not imposed on consumers.
“It puts in place an agency that deals with a lot of the problems that caused us to get into the financial crisis in the first place. For example, there were loans that were made to persons called ‘no doc’ loans, meaning you provided no documentation and could get a loan. As a result of this agency, there will be documentation for loans. Also there were loans that were made that had teaser rates and the teaser rates coincided with prepayment penalties. If you wanted to get out of the teaser rate before it adjusted to a higher rate that you couldn’t afford, you would have to pay a big penalty, thousands and thousands of dollars to get out.”
Green states that a process called the Yield Spread Premium, allowed a broker who qualified you for a loan at a certain percent get a kickback for putting you into a higher percent loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency prevents exotic products like this, which are harmful to consumers.
He said that practices like this led to the rash of mortage defaults in this country, which in turn caused banks and mortage companies to fail, leading to more people becoming unemployed and losing their homes as well. This vicious cycle is just one reason why he fights so hard for the change President Obama promised as he campaigned for a better America.
After Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley for the seat formerly held by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, the mood in America tended to suggest that Americans were fed up with President Obama and his administration’s policies. After his State of the Union address last week, an instant poll conducted by CBS News and Knowledge Networks found that 83 percent of speech watchers approve Obama’s proposals, while 17 percent disapprove them. It also revealed that 70 percent of speech watchers think that Obama shares the same priorities for the country as they do, although 57 percent thought so beforehand.
This was despite the fact that viewers also saw a partisan response from Republicans in attendance which seemed to contradict those poll numbers. However, it aptly describes the fight on Capitol Hill.
“People at other levels need to heed the clarion call to bring about change,” said Congressman Al Green who admits that it’s a significant battle. “We have people who want jobs and we hear from them; people are trying to get loans and we hear from them; people who need healthcare, insurance, we hear from them. These are the kinds of things that we have been talking about in Congress. We have been meeting with various persons in leadership capacities, to talk about how we are going to bring about systemic change in this process.”
Green also explained the universally misunderstood term, “appropriations.” Although an appropriation bill is a legislative motion which authorizes the government to spend money, it sets money aside for specific spending and many of the items selected to get funding have been proven over the years to be nothing more than personal projects, approved as favors.
“Appropriations are commonly known as earmarks. While there are some earmarks that are inappropriate, some that should not be defended, … bridges to nowhere, there are many that are good for the community that we serve.”
According to Green, the 2010 package consists of $121,523,000 worth of appropriations. As examples of localized earmarks, he pointed out the city of Stafford ($100,000), Harris County Constable for Precinct 6 ($110,000), and various community organizations such as HoustonWorks ($400,000) in addition to $2 million for a Science, Engineering and Mathematics initiative. In the medicine area, Methodist Hospital will receive $1 million, and the Center for Research on Minority Prostate Cancer Outreach Project, will receive $1 million.
As an example of the importance of funding certain projects, Green explained, “Prostate Cancer is something that African-American males suffer from greatly. We [have] to do more to find out what is creating this desperate impact on African-American males and try to find a cure for it.”
Other not-for-profits in the 9th District will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars for the work they are doing, including Memorial Hermann ($250,000) and Houston Transit ($75 million).
“We have monies included for flooding. This package has $20,736,000 to fight flooding on Sims Bayou,” he stated. Green made it clear that this did not include the $4 billion that he and nine of his colleagues of the House Committee on Financial Services brought to the African-American community by way of the Consumer Protection bill that passed out of the House of Representatives.
“One more important piece of legislation that we passed in Congress as a whole was the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization, which added 4 million additional children to the program. We passed the Jobs for Main St. Act which gives $75 billion for highway and transit, school renovation, small businesses, job training, and affordable housing. Twenty-three billion will go into eduction and help create an estimated 250,000 jobs in education. Fire and police departments will receive almost $1.7 billion for hiring and training programs. This is something that passed in the House on Dec. 17 and it is presently before the Senate.”
Although most legislation is important, Green is proud of HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009, which is pending before the Senate. It creates the Consumer Financial Protection Agency with an agenda to look out for consumers and make sure that deceptive practices are not imposed on consumers.
“It puts in place an agency that deals with a lot of the problems that caused us to get into the financial crisis in the first place. For example, there were loans that were made to persons called ‘no doc’ loans, meaning you provided no documentation and could get a loan. As a result of this agency, there will be documentation for loans. Also there were loans that were made that had teaser rates and the teaser rates coincided with prepayment penalties. If you wanted to get out of the teaser rate before it adjusted to a higher rate that you couldn’t afford, you would have to pay a big penalty, thousands and thousands of dollars to get out.”
Green states that a process called the Yield Spread Premium, allowed a broker who qualified you for a loan at a certain percent get a kickback for putting you into a higher percent loan. The Consumer Financial Protection Agency prevents exotic products like this, which are harmful to consumers.
He said that practices like this led to the rash of mortage defaults in this country, which in turn caused banks and mortage companies to fail, leading to more people becoming unemployed and losing their homes as well. This vicious cycle is just one reason why he fights so hard for the change President Obama promised as he campaigned for a better America.