Mr. LaTOURETTE. Mr. Speaker, it is nice to see you in the Chair again, and I think you are getting the short straw in your caucus when we give these 1-minute speeches.
It is always nice, Mr. Speaker, when the veil lifts and you finally get to understand something. I have been puzzled since 2007 when the Democrats became the majority party in the House of Representatives, when gas prices went from $2.22 to $4.14 over the summer. I was puzzled why they passed such meaningful legislation as National Train Day and so forth and so on.
But two that caught my eye was the bill honoring cats and dogs and then the Monkey Safety Act. I thought they were chastened in this Congress, as we saw the unemployment rate go from this level to this level, and if I had a bigger chart, it could keep on going up.
But again, there is sort of a theme. While people are losing their jobs in America, they again passed the Monkey Safety Act and the Shark Conservation Act. I am thinking to myself, What's their fascination with animals? And it wasn't until I read Speaker Pelosi's government takeover of health care bill, if you go over to page 1,255, it makes veterinary students eligible for up to $283 million in Federal scholarship and student loan forgiveness.
