Directing the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives to provide individuals whose pay is disbursed by the Chief Administrative Officer by electronic funds transfer with the option of receiving receipts of pay and withholdings electronically.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H. Res. 1207, which would enable House staff to receive their pay stubs electronically and encourages the CAO to make further technological improvements that would enable employees to make changes in withholding, deductions or deposits electronically.

Increasingly, individuals are using technology to keep track of their financial information, and putting key data such as compensation information online will assist many in their efforts to keep track of their finances.

With the impact of junk mail, paper bills and other items delivered via postal mail, reducing the amount of wasted paper, even by a single item each month, would be good for the environment and likely will be a welcome change for many employees.

In this spirit of developing online tools for House staff, I also introduced an amendment to this bill that would direct the CAO to allow employees to make changes in withholdings, deductions, or deposits electronically. Not only would this service be of great use to employees, but it would also lessen the burden on payroll counselors who currently make these types of routine adjustments manually, which would in turn free them up to handle more complex questions that are not suited to a self-service model.

I am pleased that the committee voted unanimously to accept the amendment. I thank the chairman for his leadership in bringing this bill to the floor. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of H. Res. 1207.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield such time as she may consume to the gentlelady from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx).

Mr. Speaker, I have no further comments on the bill, but I do have further comments to make.

In particular, all of us have spent 5 weeks or thereabouts home with our constituents and were impressed at how seriously our constituents and the Nation is taking the energy crisis that we face. There is a huge concern about this, particularly with the cost of gasoline.

In one example, a young woman in my district lives on a farm. It's hard today to make a living on a farm, and so she has a job off the farm as well. Their only vehicle is a pickup with, of course, very poor gas mileage. And she's faced with a position where the cost of driving to work is almost greater than the pay that she receives. This is one small example, and I believe that it is absolutely urgent for the House of Representatives to address this issue.

There are several bills out there regarding the energy crisis. There's been a lot of discussion about it. I think the only way I can summarize it after looking at the various bills is to say, what we really need is all of the above. Some members are focused totally on drilling, some are totally focused on alternative forms of energy, some on conservation. But what we really need is a comprehensive bill which addresses all of the above, because we are in a situation where we cannot depend on oil for very many more years.

Back in 1954 scientists predicted that by 1970, American oil production would peak, and they were right on the mark. In 1970, American oil production peaked. It's been going down ever since.

That same research projected that in about 2005, or 2010, world oil production would peak, and it looks like we've entered that period, and that's one reason why prices are going up.

We clearly have to develop the resources we have in this country. We clearly have to develop alternative forms of energy, particularly related to solar. An incredible amount of solar energy hits the Earth every day from the sun, to the point that in one year we get more energy from the sunlight hitting our planet than is contained in all of the resources of energy and the fossil fuels that are in the Earth.

So clearly there are ways to address this. We must address this. I just want to speak out and say it's absolutely essential for us to develop new approaches to energy. We certainly ought to put the money into developing alternative forms of energy. We have to put the money into developing drilling techniques that are safe, environmentally safe, and are not going to pollute the waters if they are offshore. We really have to take this seriously.

And I think it's reached the point where we can't just throw spitballs or snowballs at each other, but must simply say that we have to do all of the above approaches to energy production, and develop legislation that does that. I am concerned that the legislation being proposed by the leadership of the House will not do all of the above. It will only do part of it.

So I urge all of the Members to work together to really solve this problem and show the people of this country that we can deal with an important problem like this. And it's my pleasure to raise this issue, and we will continue discussions on that in the House.

As we know, the minority party discussed it every day in the House during the recent recess, out of a sense of disappointment that we had taken the August recess without first dealing with the energy bills that were available for us to consider. We should carry that on and make sure that we do address this issue, especially before we adjourn for the next recess.

I thank the group here for listening, and I hope this will result in some action on the part of the House of Representatives.

I don't believe I have any further speakers, and if the gentleman from Pennsylvania doesn't, I will, at this point, yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1207) directing the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives to provide individuals whose pay is disbursed by the Chief Administrative Officer by electronic funds transfer with the option of receiving receipts of pay and withholdings electronically, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks in the Record on this bill.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution is a commonsense step in modernization of our pay system. It would offer Members and staff the option, not the requirement, of receiving their pay stubs electronically. It would also make W-2 forms available electronically and allow individuals to change the deductions and withholdings, and to electronically redesignate the depository institutions for their electronic deposits.

Not only will this simplify pay records for Members and staff, it will reduce paper waste to support the Speaker's Green the Capitol Initiative.

This resolution has strong bipartisan support. Once it has been adopted in the House, and the committee will work with the CAO to ensure a smooth transition.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

I would also like to thank the gentlelady from North Carolina for a very sensible bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, again, I thank the gentlelady for her very responsive bill, and I thank the gentleman from Michigan for his remarks even though it had nothing at all to do with this bill whatsoever.

And, Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support this resolution.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I would like to thank Chairman Brady, Ranking Member Ehlers for bringing this bill to the floor and for their kind comments. What they have said is what we are attempting to do, which is to bring an important innovative and needed resolution to the House for consideration. I would also like to thank Alec Hoppes of the Committee on House Administration for working with my staff to bring this bill forward. A separate thank you to Mr. Ehlers for offering his amendment which makes the bill an even better bill by including additional services to be made available to House employees.

While many private companies, corporations, and State governments like Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Nebraska give the option of accessing employee pay stubs electronically, e-stubs, the U.S. House of Representatives does not. Safer than receiving pay stubs by snail mail, electronically accessing pay stubs saves money and an immeasurable amount of paper.

H. Res. 1207 would simply direct the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives to take the steps necessary to provide House Members, their staff, committee staff, legislative counsel, Sergeant at Arms employees, and all other employees whose pay is disbursed by the Chief Administrative Officer of the House the option of accessing their pay stub electronically.

Moving forward with technological advances means going paperless with pay stubs as so many employers have already done. I urge my colleagues in

supporting this nonpartisan sensible resolution and join with me in choosing to access our pay stubs electronically, and I ask my colleagues to vote for the bill.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the motions to suspend the rules relating to the following measures be considered as adopted in the form considered by the House on Tuesday, September 9, 2008: House Resolution 1207, H.R. 6169, and H.R. 6513.