To provide authority to compensate Federal employees for the 2-day period in which authority to make expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund lapsed, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, before I begin my remarks, I would like to thank the gentleman from Washington for his magnanimous comments and the bipartisan spirit of this bill as we come to the floor right now. At least it is not as much animus as we find in the United States Senate.

I rise today in support of this legislation to extend important benefits that help long-term unemployed workers, including unemployment insurance and health coverage assistance through COBRA. In addition, H.R. 4851 postpones the drastic cuts to Medicare physician payment rates, a critical factor for our health care providers, as well as a number of other important provisions that expire at the end of the month or sooner.

While I support this assistance, the American people should be under no illusion that this will create jobs. It does no such thing. In spite of claims last year that the Democrats' stimulus package would keep unemployment from rising above 8 percent, it has risen from 5.5 to 9.7 percent nationwide and 10.7 percent in Kentucky. Just yesterday, senior administration officials testified they don't expect to see much improvement in the job market this year. We have already spent almost $100 billion on unemployment benefits, with another $50 billion in the pipeline through 2010.

I am disappointed that the majority has again chosen to subvert their so-called PAYGO rules by not paying for this short-term extension. Again, 83 percent of the Federal budget is exempt from the PAYGO legislation that was supposed to pay-as-you-go. While the bill before us today is necessary, it is not a long-term solution. It is inefficient, and it buys us time to actually fix the root causes.

Instead of creating 3.7 million jobs as promised, the Democrats' stimulus bill was followed by more than 3 million additional job losses. A record 16 million are now unemployed. A significant number are underemployed. And all Americans are asking one simple question that I hear all the time at home, and all of my colleagues do, Where are the jobs? Record numbers are collecting unemployment benefits instead of paychecks.

The need to pass this bill today reflects the failure of the Democrats' stimulus bill and subsequent efforts to create the jobs they promised. For this failure we will spend another $6 billion next month on Federal unemployment benefits, borrowing that money from our children and our grandchildren. Millions will soon exhaust these benefits and wonder what comes next.

What Americans want are jobs, not handouts. To really help unemployed workers, we need to craft policies that will actually create jobs so unemployed workers can get back to work, so capital will be invested, so companies will invest in machines and development and growth, so the market will come back and they will hire people who will in fact become taxpayers to contribute to the economy and to meet their own needs.

Doing so requires ending the massive tax, spend, and borrow plans of the Democrat Congress and administration. These policies have created severe uncertainty among American workers and businesses that leads to economic stagnation and discourages hiring.

If you want to look at the full fruit of such policies, all we need to do is look at Eastern Europe in the 1960s, the 1970s, and the 1980s that led to the collapse of the Soviet empire. We could eliminate all of the uncertainty that we have today economically and get the private sector American job creation engine humming again by immediately providing real tax relief to businesses and families across the Nation. In addition, we should scrap plans for a government takeover of health care and focus on reform that actually

reduces cost; reengineer the government system that wastes almost $200 billion a year on overhead that never sees the way to senior citizen health benefits; and do the private market reforms and bring about meaningful medical liability reform that will end defensive medicine costs that cost almost one-third of all medical costs.

We should rescind unspent funds from the failed stimulus bill and the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the so-called TARP bill, and apply all of these funds to one thing, which is reducing our deficit, which I believe the gentleman from Kentucky, the United States Senator, tried to do 2 weeks ago and was disparaged by people in the Democratic Party in the House and the Senate and in the administration for simply saying let's pay for something with money that we already have available.

Businesses can't thrive in an economy falsely buoyed by temporary stimulus funds and taxpayer-funded bailouts. In order to create jobs, we have got to empower the people to make their own choices. We need to craft legislation in Congress that won't cause additional harm to our economy but will instead give Americans the flexibility they need to grow their businesses.

With that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 10 minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the distinguished gentleman from Texas control his 10 minutes.

Madam Speaker, as I said in my opening statement, I urge support for H.R. 4851 to

continue unemployment and health insurance benefits for long-term unemployed workers, along with extensions of other important expiring provisions like the Medicare reimbursement provisions that my colleague from Texas just mentioned.

But as we, as a Congress, redouble our efforts on the task of empowering Americans to create jobs, we need to remember the four causes of this. Even as we help in those places where jobs are hardest to find, promoting job growth ultimately needs to be the broader goal.

One thing that we could do as a Congress to promote job growth and help our economy stand up and restore confidence in investing would be to stop the ramming of this health care bill through the House of Representatives presumably without even taking a vote on it. I think there is a small detail in the Constitution that would suggest my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have a small problem explaining that to their constituents.

But let's look at the base principles in this bill. There are good elements in it, small individual elements. But the framework, the foundation on which it is built is not only flawed, it would be destructive to the American economy and make it into the equivalent of an Eastern European health care system within 10 years.

First of all, it's based on huge tax increases. We still don't know what the reconciliation numbers are, but we know by commentary off the floor that the score from the Congressional Budget Office was far more than anything that's been presented in public thus far. Taxing health insurance is going to do one thing. It's going to reduce access to health insurance because less benefits will be provided by employers. It's very simple. Those of us who have run businesses understand this. We go without payroll to make sure our employees are covered. But we need to keep in mind the reality of what is happening. Taking money out of our pockets to fuel the growth of Federal bureaucracy is not right.

The second thing that's done on the opposite end of the pipeline is a half a trillion dollar cut in Medicare benefits. In my going on 6 years in Congress, I have never seen $1 taken out of waste of the Center of Medicare Services. We hire more people, we put more rules in place, but we don't take the overhead out to simplify the processes.

Indeed, in the Ways and Means Committee, a simple amendment offered by the gentleman from Illinois to study point of sale and credit card architecture technology that's used in every convenience store in America was rejected; as one gentleman from Texas called it, a pumpkin designed to enrich insurance executives. We use that every day. We use that in our identification cards here to vote. We don't have that integrated in our government. That's why citizens complain all the time about dealing with Washington, D.C.

The final thing that's done on top of all of this is the only job creation program that's coming out of the legislation being considered this week is the hiring of over a hundred thousand new Federal workers who have to be paid for by taxpayers. That means that many jobs have to be created for every one of those.

When I stop and think about this, I'm amazed, because we're not fixing the waste, the excess, the broken processes, the unintegrated database, and the contradictory regulations between the agencies. All we're doing is making the problem bigger and, in the end, it will result--as your own bill says with its waiting list language--in rationed care.

Finally, let's talk about the overwhelming majority of the American people. It is astounding to me the awareness level at all levels of our society of this bill and, frankly, the fear that is out there; not fear from things I say back home, but when people read the bill and see what it means. I'm not talking about cable television fear mongers. I'm talking simply about good Americans who are doing their civics homework like some of my colleagues in both bodies have failed to do and don't remember the basis of why we're sent here. And then when we can't get that popular vote because of fear of Members of retribution in the fall--which I guarantee you is going to come and all of us will be held accountable for our vote--to deem a bill that takes over nearly one- fifth of the economy--let's think what ``deeming'' means for my fellow Americans watching.

I could deem each of my children a Ph.D. I could deem them a good house. I could deem them a great future. In fact, while we're here deeming things, let's deem world peace, then we would do away with lots of expenditures. You all know the absurdity of that statement on the false premise that is raised with deeming. Why are we doing it? Because it creates a subterfuge that is wrong and violates Article 1 of the Constitution.

At the end of the day, there will be an accounting to the American people. We agree on good things that can get done. Let's do those good things. Let's fix the government waste, fix the private market, and provide real medical liability reform.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding. My question is when you, as a party, deemed the debt increase of nearly $2 trillion, I would say that it makes any deeming of budgetary issues, even the Deficit Reduction Act reconciliation process, seem almost as a grain of sand. We might as well deem all votes and not even come here and answer mail in our offices if we are going to continue to deem one- fifth of the economy under government control.

Would the gentleman yield?

When the cashier at our local supermarket asked me about the reconciliation process and deeming and how can you pass something you don't vote on, I think the message is already at the grassroots.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4915) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to extend the funding and expenditure authority of the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, to amend title 49, United States Code, to extend authorizations for the airport improvement program, and for other purposes.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4915.

I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4915, the Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010. Last week, the House passed H.R. 4853, also entitled the Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, to extend aviation program taxes and the Airport and Airways Trust Fund expenditure authority through July 3rd, 2010, and to modify the formula by which highway funds would otherwise be distributed under the HIRE Act.

Earlier this week, the Federal Aviation Administration requested a technical correction to H.R. 4853 as passed by the House. The FAA needs this technical correction to ensure sufficient airport improvement program funds are allocated to AIP formula grants rather than AIP discretionary grants.

Madam Speaker, the House has previously passed two FAA reauthorization bills in 2007 and again in 2009. We have been waiting on the other body to act. Finally on Monday, the Senate passed its FAA bill, H.R. 1586, using an unrelated House-passed tax bill.

Madam Speaker, tomorrow the House intends to take up the Senate bill, H.R. 1586 and amend it. We will insert the text of the House FAA reauthorization bill, H.R. 915, and the bipartisan House aviation safety bill, H.R. 3371, the Airline Safety and Pilot Training Act of 2009, which is one of the strongest aviation safety bills in decades.

The purpose of the House taking action to amend H.R. 1586 is to ensure that important provisions we included in H.R. 915 and H.R. 3371 to improve aviation safety, to provide consistency and collective bargaining rights throughout the express carrier industry, to increase the Passenger Facility Charge to assist airports in meeting their capital needs, to create jobs and to modernize our air traffic control system, are maintained throughout the conference with the Senate.

The Aviation Subcommittee held over 20 hearings on the reauthorization bill and the safety issues. In addition, we had five roundtables to discuss aviation safety in the reauthorization bill with everyone from the FAA to everyone in the aviation community.

H.R. 915 is a comprehensive bill. It will provide approximately $53.5 billion to modernize our air traffic control system, fund airport development, research programs, small community service, and Federal aviation operating expenses.

Our bill reflects a continued effort toward ensuring our aviation system remains the safest in the world. In the FAA forecast, the airlines are expected to carry more than 1 billion passengers in the year 2021, up from almost 760 million in 2008. To deal with this growth, strengthen our economy, and create jobs, H.R. 915 provides historic funding levels for FAA's capital programs. This includes $12.3 billion for the Airport Improvement Program, nearly $10.1 billion for the FAA's Facilities & Equipment fund, and $685.4 million for Research, Engineering, and Development. The bill also provides $30.3 billion for FAA operations over the next 3 years.

These funding levels will accelerate the implementation of NextGen, enable the FAA to replace and repair existing facilities and equipment, improve airport development, and provide for the implementation of high-priority, safety-related systems.

Let me mention the importance of NextGen. Both the full committee and the Aviation Subcommittee has spent a great deal of time trying to move the Next Generation Air Transportation System forward. NextGen is critical to the future of aviation, not only for safety reasons, but also to reduce congestion delays and save time as well as fuel. We have operated now under a ground-based radar system for far too many years. We need to move forward with the NextGen system so that we can implement a satellite-based system in order to make the improvements that are necessary.

In H.R. 915, we also changed the organizational structure of the FAA's Joint Planning and Development Office, the body charged with planning NextGen. To increase the authority and visibility of the JPDO, H.R. 915 elevates the Director of the JPDO to the status of Associate Administrator for NextGen within the FAA to be appointed by and reporting directly to the FAA Administrator. To increase accountability and coordination of NextGen planning and implementation, the bill requires the JPDO to develop a work plan that details, on a year-to- year basis, specific NextGen-related deliverables and milestones required by the FAA and its partner agencies.

Like the 2007 bill, we increased the Passenger Facility Charge cap from $4.50 to $7 to those airports who choose to implement the increase, to help airports choose and those who participate in the program to meet their capital needs. According to the FAA, every airport currently collecting $4 to $4.50 under the PFC, if they raise it to $7, it will generate $1.3 billion in additional revenue every year for airport development, which strengthens our economy and creates additional jobs at a time that both are critically needed.

The legislation provides significant increases in AIP funding for smaller airports that rely on AIP for capital financing. The ability to raise the PFC and the increase in the AIP funding provides financing for airport capital development that will help reduce delays.

The bill also dramatically increases funding for and improves the Essential Air Service program and reauthorizes a small community Air Service Development Program through 2012.

Here at home and across the globe, more is being done to reduce energy consumption and emissions. The FAA and the aviation community continues to be a leader in greening its operations. We further those efforts by establishing the CLEEN Engine and Airframe Technology Partnership and the Green Towers program, which was modeled after what is currently being done at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago.

The United States has the safest air transportation system in the world; however, we must not become complacent about our past success. To keep proper oversight over the FAA and safety, the FAA, under the H.R. 915 legislation, directs the FAA to increase the number of aviation safety inspectors, initiate study on fatigue, and requires the FAA to inspect part 145 certified foreign repair stations at least twice a year.

The legislation does not increase or place new user fees on users of airspace.

We believe that the Airport and Airway Trust Fund revenues, coupled with the additional revenue from the recommended general aviation fuel tax increase and a reasonable general fund contribution will be sufficient to provide for the historic capital funding levels required to modernize the air traffic control system.

Madam Speaker, this legislation before us today is critically important to the FAA.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a valued member of the subcommittee, Congressman Capuano.

Madam Speaker, at this time I would yield to my friend from Maryland (Mr. Cummings) 3 minutes.

Madam Speaker, at this time, I would yield 2 minutes to a member of the subcommittee, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Carnahan).

Madam Speaker, at this time I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished chairman of the full committee, Chairman Oberstar.

Madam Speaker, I yield 1 additional minute to Mr. Oberstar.

I yield 1 additional minute to Chairman Oberstar.

Madam Speaker, I would ask how much time we have remaining.

Madam Speaker, let me say, with the action taken by the Senate on Monday of this week, we are one step closer to having an FAA reauthorization bill. It is an important piece of legislation. As I stated earlier, the industry generates nearly $900 billion in economic activity annually that represents 9 percent of our GDP and employs millions of American people.

As our Nation struggles with high unemployment, it is necessary that we pass this legislation and move forward so that we can improve safety, improve congestion, and reduce delays.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank both Chairman Oberstar, Mr. Mica, and Mr. Petri, and I would urge passage of H.R. 4915, the Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself so much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I support American workers and families, and that is why I must oppose the legislation before us that would heap another $18 billion onto the dangerous deficits this Congress has already amassed and that American workers will ultimately be made to pay for in the coming years. On this Tax Day, as an overburdened Nation staggering under dangerous deficits, we need to send this bill back to the drawing board and return with legislation that is paid for that will not create more debt, that will help create more jobs instead of economic uncertainty and, ultimately, more job losses.

The legislation before us would extend for another 2 months special Federal spending programs that today allow unemployed workers to collect up to 99 weeks of benefits in most States. That is nearly 2 years of unemployment checks today which are by far an all-time U.S. record. That compares with a total of up to 26 weeks of benefits payable in almost all States during normal times.

We all want to help unemployed workers who are frustrated by a White House who has taken their eye off the economic ball. They're frustrated by this Congress that has sought an extreme agenda rather than focusing on jobs. But it is impossible to ignore the fact that those extra 73 weeks of Federal benefits paid today, a full 17 months courtesy of Federal taxpayers, come at an enormous price.

In all, this bill would add $18 billion--that is more than the size of the entire NASA budget--add that to this year's trillion dollar deficit, including $13 billion more for the unemployment benefits it would extend. That is on top of the approximately $100 billion spent so far on these programs; and, if extended for the remainder of this year as we expect, another $50 billion more would be added to the national debt.

None of this has or will be paid for. In fact, the Federal unemployment account has long since been bankrupted; yet we continue to spend, and now are being bailed out with general revenues. And who will bail out general revenues when they run out? Taxpayers, through more taxes and more general revenues the government extracts from them.

So far in the past year and 2 months since the President has been in office, taxpayers are paying $2,100 more per individual because of $670 billion in new tax increases. And if President Obama's budget is approved by the Democratic Congress, we will heap almost $3 trillion more on American taxpayers. And what's sad, again, is that we continue to heap debt without any opportunity, without any promise that is kept to pay for them.

When our Democrat friends took office, they promised they would pay for the wars, pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but not a dime yet. They

promised they would balance the budget. Today we see trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. They enacted PAYGO and said we're going to pay for all new spending, but as this bill today shows, they've done nothing of that and, in fact, have invented extravagant loopholes, declared anything an emergency simply as an excuse to continue spending. And, of course, they promised to curb earmarks. In fact, eliminating earmarks could nearly pay for this bill, but they've not kept that promise either.

Mr. Speaker, we can do better than this. What unemployed workers really want are jobs and paychecks, not almost 2 years of unemployment checks and more massive debt for our country. Unfortunately, jobs are something Democrats in this Congress have been totally incapable of delivering.

Instead of creating 3.7 million jobs as promised, their stimulus bill was followed by 3 million more job losses. Instead of holding unemployment under 8 percent as promised, it soared to nearly 10 percent and remains close to that today.

Sixteen million Americans are unemployed, including record numbers for over a year. In fact, the White House promised, if you passed the stimulus, 90 percent of the new jobs we create would be in the private sector. The opposite is true. The private sector has lost 3.7 million jobs, but government jobs have been created--almost 300,000. So the people who are getting these unemployment benefits are the ones whose promises have not been kept by this White House and this Democrat Congress.

We need to start over and actually start paying for new spending, starting with this bill. The only way to do that is to defeat this bill and bring it back in a paid-for fashion.

But beyond that, Mr. Speaker, we also need to do the things that really help create jobs for workers. We can start by stopping frightening the job creators; businesses who are delaying important rehiring decisions, investment decisions, frightened by all of the new taxes proposed in Congress, the new health care mandates, the rising energy taxes, the talk of new regulations. We have to stop frightening consumers who know that, ultimately, they'll be relied on to pay this terrible debt.

We need to reward innovation and small business job creation through lower taxes and support for innovation, and we need to pursue free trade agreements that find new customers for American workers and American companies. That is why, Mr. Speaker, we must send this bill back and make it paid for, and stop punishing American workers and families.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself 30 seconds.

I would remind people the Democratic Congress handed President Obama a trillion dollar deficit, eight times larger than Republicans when we held this Congress. The stimulus bill alone was larger than the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And, unfortunately, only 6 percent of Americans feel the stimulus has helped create jobs in America. What a terrible waste.

With that, I would yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

I yield myself as much time as I may consume for closing remarks.

Mr. Speaker, if the Democrat stimulus plan had worked as promised, we wouldn't be here tonight. If we had really created 3.7 million new jobs, as President Obama promised, as this Democrat Congress promised, these programs would have phased out already. Instead, we witness another 3 million Americans sitting home tonight without a job.

If the unemployment rate were 7.4 percent and falling as Democrats promised, these programs would be phased out, and we would be celebrating job creation. Instead, unemployment is near 10 percent and will remain at that level for more than a year. Consider that when the other side says we have to extend unemployment benefits to reduce unemployment, we have to extend unemployment to reduce unemployment. Consider that when the other side claims that Vice President Biden once said we have to spend money to keep from going bankrupt. We have to raise health care costs to reduce health care costs.

Well, we have done the stimulus and spent and spent and spent and added trillions of dollars to this dangerous American debt. Meanwhile, we are 6 million jobs short of where Democrats promised we would be. It hasn't worked. It's time to stop the madness. It's time to stop the spending. Defeat this bill and bring back legislation that will actually create jobs, not add to our Nation's horrible debt.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4786) to provide authority to compensate Federal employees for the 2-day period in which authority to make expenditures from the Highway Trust Fund lapsed, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on the bill, H.R. 4786, and to include extraneous material.

Mr. Speaker, we are here on both sides of the aisle this morning on a mission of equity, fairness, even mercy, on behalf of 1,922 career Federal employees of the U.S. Department of Transportation. They were unintended victims of a standoff in the other body, which resulted in a 2-day lapse in the authorization of funding for Federal highway, highway and motor carrier safety, and public transit programs.

On February 25, the House passed by voice vote H.R. 4691, the Temporary Extension Act of 2010. The bill extended the authorization for Federal surface transportation programs which otherwise were scheduled to expire on February 28.

The Senate's efforts to pass the bill and to clear it for signature by the President were stalled by the actions of one Senator from the other party. His repeated objections held up consideration past the February 28 deadline.

As a result of those objections, the authority to reimburse States, metropolitan regions, and public transit agencies for federally approved Highway Trust Fund expenditures lapsed. Several States, like Missouri, immediately cancelled bid openings. DOT's authority to pay administrative expenses for Federal employees from the Highway Trust Fund also lapsed.

These authorities were restored only when the Senator relented on the evening of March 2, allowing the Senate to consider the bill. The Senate passed it, and the President signed it that evening, but these 1,922 employees were collateral damage. They were doing their jobs, career professionals, and they just happened to be hit by this roadside bomb. It affected them in a very specific way. Let me toll the numbers:

1,307 employees of the Federal Highway Administration, 434 employees of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, 143 employees of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and 38 employees of the Research and Innovative Technology Administration.

Well, in a few days, on March 16 to be exact, the DOT will process its payroll for the current March pay period. If Congress does not act to reinstate those career employees, those 1,922 public servants, through no fault of their own and having simply been doing their jobs as they have done for decades in many cases, will suffer a 20 percent pay cut in their biweekly paychecks. Now, this is not an abstraction. This is not a debating point. This is not something that, oh, we'll put this off, and we'll think about it later.

At the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a long-term career secretary of NHTSA in Seattle, Washington normally would net $1,540 per paycheck, but because of the furlough, would be paid $1,150, a $390 cut. A $390 cut could affect your paying your mortgage, buying your weekly groceries, buying fuel for your car. Maybe it could even affect your sending a birthday card to a child or to a grandchild. It has a real effect, and I think the Senator on the other side just had no idea, no interest, and no care about what the effects would be of his actions.

An entry-level program analyst, a GS-7 in Chicago, Illinois at NHTSA, normally would net $1,200 per paycheck in 2 weeks. Because of the furlough, he would be paid only $900. That's a $300 cut. If you're taking $900 home over 2 weeks, $300 out of that paycheck is serious money, a serious effect on your life, and it's a serious devaluation of appreciation for your service to the public.

These are career personnel. At any time, that's painful, but at this time, with this severe meltdown, economic recession, it's devastating. Miss a car payment; miss a tuition payment; miss part of your mortgage payment; miss your fuel bill; miss your electric bill. All of these things are the real-world consequences of one person's peak over some piece of this bill that had nothing to do with these personnel, with these careerists.

To the great credit of Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, a former colleague of ours in this body, he called and said, I am really concerned about these career personnel. We have to make them whole. They didn't do anything wrong. The department didn't do anything wrong. They were just standby victims of this action, and we will be able to restore their pay without any increase in budget. We will just shift dollars from one account to another.

The bill that we bring before you today does not require any new Federal funding. The Secretary, as I just described, will draw on administrative funding previously authorized and appropriated to finance the lost compensation for those personnel. It is the right thing to do. We need to do this. We have got to pass it by a unanimous voice vote.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Northern Virginia (Mr. Connolly). I wish to express my great appreciation and admiration of his concern for these Federal employees. Many Federal employees reside in his district. Even some of these 1,900 likely reside in the gentleman's district. I appreciate his coming forward to champion this bill.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I wish to express my great appreciation to Mr. Mica, the senior Republican on our committee and my partner and good friend and co-participant, in all of the works of our committee.

I share with him this tragic fact of the loss of pay for these 1,922 employees. He immediately said, We have to fix that. We have got to make it right by them, and he volunteered to cosponsor the legislation, which he has done.

I am delighted he designated the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Speaker, who a great advocate for our committee, a great participant in all of our work and who is also a very good, fair and decent-minded Member.

Today, we will do something really good and decent. We can all go home and feel we have accomplished something useful in a very specific and direct fashion for 1,922 career professionals in transportation of the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Again, I express admiration for Secretary LaHood for taking the initiative to bring this issue forward and to find a funding solution for it as well.

We have got to be able to pass this on a voice vote and to do good by these 1,922, and we need to set a good example for the other body as well.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I recognize myself for 1 minute, Madam Speaker.

I appreciate the Chair insisting on regular order. It's nice that we have that. That's a good thing, not a bad thing.

I am going to yield myself, Madam Speaker, 1 minute.

We are here today because sometime this morning the majority decided, or at least they decided to inform the minority, to extend a number of bills, several of which are primary jurisdictional to the Energy and Commerce Committee, of which I am the ranking member. Probably the most important of the bills in terms of economic impact in the short term is the physician reimbursement fix, the DRG fix. If I understand this bill correctly, it has been extended for another month.

We also have the Satellite Home Viewer Reauthorization Act, which is totally within the jurisdiction of the Energy and Commerce Committee. And it is also being extended for 1 month.

Madam Speaker, we don't have to do this kind of thing. If we could really get to regular order, we could bring these bills up, we could work in a bipartisan fashion, and we could find permanent or at least annual solutions to these bills. We don't have to hully gully this type of thing.

I yield myself an additional 15 seconds.

And to be told at 10 o'clock this morning about this bill, which is a compilation of several bills, is just a disservice to the American people.

With that, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Mr. Cliff Stearns of Florida.

Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes.

It may have been explained before I got on the floor, so if I am repeating something that has already been said, I want to apologize in advance. But I do want the American people to know what this bill does. It is a bill that takes eight existing laws, and as I understand it, extends them for 1 month. It takes the unemployment insurance fund, extends it for a month; the COBRA premium assistance fund, extends it for a month; the Medicare physician freeze, it prohibits that for another month--or the cut to physician reimbursement under Medicare. An extension of Medicare therapy caps, extension for a month. A very unusual situation where we are going to use 2009 poverty numbers instead of 2010 poverty numbers, because apparently in 2010 the poverty level in the United States went down, so the majority wants to use 2009 numbers so that there will be larger payments for some of the poverty programs, which is interesting given that the deficit is over a trillion dollars this year.

An extension of the National Flood Insurance Program, extension of the Satellite Television Home Viewer Act, a program out of the transportation committee to repay furloughed workers on highway projects, those are the eight current laws that are being extended. There is also a technical fix on health IT in terms of the definition of doctors that worked for hospitals or worked for clinics.

None of these issues, Madam Speaker, needs to be addressed in the type of an omnibus extension on such a short term. Every one of these on its own has merit. Every one of these on its own could come to the floor in a bipartisan fashion and be debated and probably pass for longer than 1 month.

I am trying to understand why the three bills that are in the committee of jurisdiction that I am the ranking member of, the Energy and Commerce Committee, that's the Medicare Physician Freeze, the Medicare Therapy Caps Extension, and the Satellite Television Home Viewers Act, why those three bills have to come to the floor for 1 month in this fashion.

I don't know when the majority decided to do this. I know that the minority staff was informed of it at approximately 10 o'clock this morning. We're now on the floor at 3:15 in the afternoon.

Take aside the merits of the programs on policy and process alone, we should vote these down on suspension. In a week in which the American public is expressing legitimate outrage because the majority is contemplating bringing the biggest domestic policy bill of this Congress, i.e., the health care reform package, to the floor under a rule that would have a self-executing feature to it where we would deem something passed if we pass the rule, it would seem to me that the Speaker and the majority leader and the committee chairman would not want to pile insult onto insult and bring these bills to the floor under a process where you combine bills from numerous committees of jurisdiction with no notice, for all intents and purposes, and bring them to the floor. At least in this case we are going to get an up-or- down vote on the bill, which is a good thing. But it's not a vote on the rule that self-executes. So I want to commend Chairwoman Slaughter of the Rules Committee for that and Speaker Pelosi.

But again, we don't have to operate, the United States of America, like we're a third-world country that doesn't know how to run a democracy.

Again, on the merits, Republicans have said for physician reimbursement we believe there should be a fix. We believe that the physicians need to be reimbursed in a fair fashion in the current Medicare reimbursement system. We support some of these therapy cap reforms. We certainly support the Satellite Television Home Viewer Act. So this isn't something that the only way to do it is to put it together in a big package and put it on the floor 1 month at a time. The only advantage I can see is that this just kind of treads water; it provides some sort of a vote this afternoon.

I would yield myself 30 additional seconds.

So I guess the other thing that I need to point out to Members of the body and to the American public is, because of the procedure, this is all deemed, apparently--and I hate to use that word. This is all defined to be emergency, and so it's not paid for.

The rule that brought these bills to the floor waives PAYGO, and my recollection is not too many months ago my friends in the majority were beating themselves and congratulating themselves because they had instituted these tough PAYGO rules. But if I am correct, I believe that none of this is paid for and the rule does not require PAYGO.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

How much time do I still have?

I would yield 1 minute to a distinguished member of the Energy and Commerce Committee from Flower Mound and Denton, Texas, Dr. Michael Burgess.