{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2002-11-22-pt1-PgE2135-2", "2002-11-22", 107, 2, null, null, "RECOGNIZING CONGRESSMAN BILL COYNE", "HOUSE", "EXTENSIONS", "RECOGNIZING", "E2135", "E2135", "[{\"name\": \"John P. Murtha\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "148 Cong. Rec. E2135", "Congressional Record, Volume 148 Issue 152 (Friday, November 22, 2002)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 152 (Friday, November 22, 2002)]\n[Extensions of Remarks]\n[Page E2135]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n                   RECOGNIZING CONGRESSMAN BILL COYNE\n\n                                 ______\n\n                          HON. JOHN P. MURTHA\n\n                            of pennsylvania\n\n                    in the house of representatives\n\n                       Friday, November 22, 2002\n\n  Mr. MURTHA. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to my long\ntime friend and colleague. Bill Coyne will retire from this institution\nafter serving 11 terms as a Member of this institution.\n  Bill is a lifelong resident of Pittsburgh, and so like myself, is a\nnative of the southwestern Pennsylvania district he has so faithfully\nrepresented for the past 22 years.\n  The 14th District includes the city of Pittsburgh as well as 33 other\nsurrounding communities in the very heart of this country's steel\nproducing center. From his post as a senior member of the Ways and\nMeans Committee, he has been able to develop and promote countless\neconomic policy initiatives to the benefit of the Southwestern region\nas well as the Nation, including those dealing with Social Security,\ntrade, tax reform, health care, housing and community development, job\ncreation, and job training.\n  In addition to serving as ranking member of the Ways and Means\nOversight Subcommittee Bill has served on the Banking Committee, the\nBudget Committee, the Committee on House Administration, and the\nCommittee on Standards of Official Conduct. He has consistently used\nhis committee assignments to promote federal policies to the benefit of\nurban America.\n  During the 103rd Congress, Bill succeeded in making the tax-exempt\nIndustrial Development Bond permanent. IDB's helped to create or retain\nmore than 26,000 manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania alone between 1987\nand 1992. He also led the successful House Ways and Means opposition to\na proposed $1 per gallon hike in the Federal fuel tax for waterway\ncommerce in 1993, which was of enormous economic benefit for the Three\nRivers area he represents.\n  Bill also successfully inserted language in the 1993 reconciliation\nbill that provided low-income workers with an improved opportunity to\nreceive an Earned Income Tax Credit on a monthly basis, instead of\nwaiting for a single annual payment.\n  In the 104th Congress, Bill Coyne worked with many of his Democratic\ncolleagues to protect Federal funding for programs serving children,\nseniors, and working families, and to ensure that the burden of Federal\ntaxation was not disproportionately borne by working families. He also\nworked to provide tax incentives for businesses and municipalities to\nclean up and redevelop abandoned industrial sites, and he worked to\nexpand protection for workers' rights in international trade\nagreements.\n  In the 105th Congress, he worked for middle-class tax relief while\nbalancing the Federal budget responsibly. He was a supporter of both\nthe Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 and the Balanced Budget Act of 1997. He\nworked successfully to include a provision in the Taxpayer Relief Act\nof 1997 which allowed businesses to deduct the cost of cleaning up\nbrownfields sites in certain targeted areas. He was also actively\ninvolved in developing and enacting legislation to reform the Internal\nRevenue Service, and much of his Taxpayer Bill of Rights legislation\nwas in that bill.\n  Bill Coyne worked to make organ transplant regulations fairer and\nworked with me to make the Disproportionate Share Hospital program's\nformula for hospitals fairer as well. He also worked to provide nearly\n$800 million in projects for his district in the Transportation Equity\nAct for the 21st Century (TEA-21) including reconstruction of Drake,\nLibrary and Overbrook trolley lines, construction of an extension of\nthe MLK Jr. Busway, construction of an industrial access road in\nLawrenceville, and construction of transit links between downtown and\nthe North Shore.\n  During the 106th Congress, Bill Coyne continued to work to protect\nfederal programs that serve children, senior citizens, the disabled,\nand working families; enact a Medicare prescription drug benefit;\nstrengthen U.S. laws that punish unfair foreign trade practices;\nprotect Americans' pensions and other retirement benefits; increase\nfunding for medical research and education; and make the Federal Tax\nCode simpler and fairer by reforming the capital gains tax and the\nalternative minimum tax. He also worked successfully to increase public\nawareness about food stamp eligibility and to expand the brownfields\ntax provision and push back its expiration date by several years.\n  Bill Coyne is a graduate of Central Catholic High School and Robert\nMorris College. He served in the United States Army in Korea from 1955\nto 1957. He worked as a corporate accountant for 13 years before\nentering politics in 1970. He served in the Pennsylvania House of\nRepresentatives from 1971 to 1972 and on the Pittsburgh City Council\nfrom 1973 until 1980.\n  I'm proud to have served alongside Bill Coyne and worked with him for\nthese many years for the benefit of our adjoining districts and\nPennsylvania as a whole. Bill's seniority on Ways and Means will be\nsorely missed by Pennsylvania. His expertise as a legislator will be\nmissed by all Americans who were helped by his good work. His good\nnature, friendship, and collegiality will I know be missed by his\nfellow Pennsylvania Members and indeed by all of us here in the House\nof Representatives. Please join me in wishing him well in his\nretirement from public service.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2002-11-22-pt1-PgE2135-2"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 6.180022959597409, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}