A concurrent resolution commending the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the occasion of its 125th anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 30) commending the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the occasion of its 125th anniversary.

Mr. Speaker, I request 5 legislative days during which Members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on Senate Concurrent Resolution 30 into the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 30, which commends the work of the Bureau of Labor Statistics as it celebrates its 125th anniversary.

Since its founding in 1884, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has served as the principal factfinding agency for the Federal Government for all matters in the fields of labor, economics, and statistics. In this capacity, it has collected, analyzed, and disseminated essential labor- related data to all levels of government, various Federal agencies, and the American public.

As an institution, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has evolved throughout its 125 years. Originally serving a broad fact-finding mandate, the Bureau has since developed into many specialized arms that study a multitude of labor issues, including wages and prices, the state of industrial relations, unemployment, demographic shifts, and workplace safety conditions.

The Bureau has stringent criteria for its data and analyses in order to ensure that it is not only accurate but relevant to society. As a result of rapidly changing economic conditions, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has developed a reputation for responsiveness, swiftly adjusting its measures and indices to provide citizens and policymakers of this Nation with high-quality statistical data.

In its commitment to disseminate this valuable information, the Bureau of Labor Statistics established a Web site in 1995. Since that time, a variety of data access tools have been developed, providing increased access to the statistical data it analyzes and develops. Today, the use of the Web site is over 1,000 times what it was when it began, with more than 20 million users in the months of this year alone.

The data and analyses provided by the Bureau are invaluable, contributing to policy development process as well as the allocation of Federal funds

and private payments. I commend the work of the Bureau's many economists, mathematical statisticians, information technology assistants, and administrative specialists as they celebrate an impressive 125-year legacy.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in support of this important resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, again, the resolution which we're focused on is about celebrating 125 years of great work by the people from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obviously the discussion, because the rules of our House permit it, sort of went off into different areas. I would like to just quickly note two things: number one, the Bureau of Labor Statistics would demonstrate or would show that we've had serious job losses over the last 6 months; but it would also show that in the final quarter of 2008, the GDP of this country dropped by 6 percent, the biggest drop since the Great Depression. Obviously, it was the policies which preceded that downturn that have created the situation and the environment that we're in right now.

Given the fact, as the Bureau would show, we have exhausted almost every tool in the monetary toolbox in terms of lowering interest rates, it was critical for our country to step in and use fiscal policy as a way of turning this country around. And if we look at the bipartisan Governors conference, which met this past weekend, Republican and Democratic Governors all acknowledged that the fiscal relief that came through Medicaid payment boosts, through increases in education spending through the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, through increased funding in title I and special education literally made the difference of whether dozens of States were able to balance their budgets in this critical downturn.

Go ask a Realtor in this country whether or not the stimulus bill, which

provides a first-time home buyer tax credit, has, in fact, revived the real estate market, because they will tell you a resounding ``yes.'' I know in my district we saw a 4 percent increase in home sales; and every single Realtor that was interviewed--in the reporting, again, that came out from the government on that increase in sales--attributed the stimulus package and the first-time home buyer tax credit for the fact that we are seeing that turnaround.

Now as we see the infrastructure dollars filter their way through the bidding process, which every State must conduct for surface transportation projects, we are going to see an uptick in construction and building trades from the stimulus package.

The other brief mention and the second point I want to make is, again, I respect Dr. Broun for his profession and many of the doctors that serve in the House of Representatives. But as we listen to some of the hysterical statements about the health care reform initiative, I would point out that the American Medical Association, the largest trade group which represents doctors all across this country, came out foursquare in support of the House health care reform bill.

I will not yield because I sat and listened to representations about that plan which are inaccurate in terms of what it's going to do, in terms of patient choice, but certainly, and more importantly, in how providers are going to be treated. Because the AMA and the American College of Surgeons came out loud and clear in support of this measure and for good reason, because they know that we have a system which is in desperate need of reform.

In conclusion, regarding this resolution before us, when we make choices, both as policymakers in the legislative branch and the executive branch, the key is that we need good data. We need to see where we're going as a Nation, and the people who work at the Bureau of Labor Statistics provide decision-makers and policymakers that opportunity with the great work that they do. I think it's wonderful that on a bipartisan basis we're able to come together, celebrate and recognize the great work that they do.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank my friend from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson) for yielding some time to me.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to tell you and the American people a labor statistic that just came out from CBO last week in testimony before the U.S. House. The CBO director said that the ObamaCare Washington bureaucrat-run socialized medicine health care bill that's being considered here in the U.S. House is going to cost Americans 750,000 jobs. I think it is a minimum that 750,000 jobs are going to be lost. We keep hearing various figures in ObamaCare of the cost of $1 trillion, $1.5 trillion, $2 trillion. The CBO has not released off- budget figures. We're just getting a paltry amount of those off-budget figures.

This is going to be extremely, extremely costly to the American people. The CBO last week also said that this is not going to lower the cost of health care delivery. Mr. Speaker, I am a medical doctor. I have practiced medicine for over 3\1/2\ decades. What's fixing to happen to the American people, Mr. Speaker--and you need to understand that the ObamaCare bill is going to insert a Washington bureaucrat between them and their doctors. This Washington bureaucrat is going to make decisions for them. It's not going to be made by the patient or the patient's family, not by the doctor, but by a Washington bureaucrat who is going to ration their care.

That Washington bureaucrat is going to tell all patients in this country, whether in private insurance or public insurance, whether they can have a procedure, such as a surgery, that's very needed. This Washington bureaucrat is going to tell the American people, the patients, whether they can have an MRI that's desperately needed to evaluate a cough, a pain in their chest, pain in their knee, pain in their low back.

A Washington bureaucrat is going to make those decisions, Mr. Speaker; and I hope the American people are listening today so that they can understand what's going to happen if we have ObamaCare. The Bureau of Labor Statistics is going to give us more and more bleak news if this goes into law about how people's incomes are going to go down, literally go down because the health care commissioner, or health czar, as Mr. Scalise was talking about, is going to dictate their health care policy plan to them, even if it's privately paid for, privately administered.

There are not going to be any more private insurance plans because the health care commissioner is going to dictate all the plans in this country, every single one of them. We hear over and over, if you like your private health insurance plan, keep it. But, Mr. Speaker, not one single person in this country, unless they're extremely wealthy--and I mean extremely wealthy--is going to be able to keep their private health care plan. The reason for that is because most people are dependent upon their employer to provide their health insurance. But a government bureaucrat is going to tell every single employer in this country what kind of health care plan, what kind of limits, what kind of coverage, what doctor, everything that plan offers.

So the plan that they have today is going to be obsolete. It's not going to be available anymore. What's even more unfortunate is every single employee, worker that does not accept the government-mandated plan is going to be fined by the Federal Government, fined for not accepting a government-mandated plan.

Now, Mr. Speaker, that's not freedom. That's socialism. We, in this Congress, are going to dictate to employers, employees, to those that are buying their own insurance what kind of health care insurance they have; and it's going to be disastrous. The cost is going to skyrocket. The CBO has already said it's going to cost millions of others jobs. People are going to have long waiting times to get the surgery that they need, MRIs, and maybe even plain x rays.

Mr. Speaker, folks in Canada and Great Britain are coming to this country now to get health care because we have the best health care in the world. We're not going to have anyplace to go because our quality of health care is going to be destroyed by the ObamaCare plan. Mr. Speaker, the American people need to understand where we're headed. I hope the American people will rise up and tell their Members of Congress in the House and the Senate ``no'' to ObamaCare.

Republicans are offering many alternatives that will literally lower the cost of health insurance, literally lower the cost of medicines in the drugstore, literally empower the doctor-patient relationship into how health care decisions are made, and will stop the government from dictating things. Mr. Speaker, practicing medicine, I've seen how government intrusion into my practices has increased the cost to my patients.

Two good examples: Congress passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, HIPAA. That act has cost the health care industry billions of dollars and has not paid for the first aspirin to treat the headaches it has created, and it was totally unneeded legislation. Congress passed CLIA, the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act. It ran up the cost of just simple labs that I used to do in my office to extraordinarily higher costs to patients, thus increasing the cost of the insurance to every person.

We are being offered an expansion of Medicare or an expansion of Medicaid. We already see tremendous problems in both of those programs. Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is going to expand those; and we're going to have more fraud, more abuse, more waste, higher costs because of government intrusion into the health care system. Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is going to put the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics into overtime, providing more statistics, more job losses, lower wages, more people out of work and higher costs for all goods and services in this country. They're going to give us data in the future of a poor economy.

Stealing our grandchildren's future has to stop, and I hope the American people will stand up and say ``no'' to the cap-and-tax or tax- and-trade bill that's in the Senate and ObamaCare.

Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

I want to thank my friend from Pennsylvania for yielding me time, Mr. Speaker. As we're talking about the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it's an interesting period in our country's history because, just in the last few months since President Obama's taken office, our country has lost 2 million more jobs; 2 million more Americans are out of work, are part of those statistics. I think it's much more than statistics. It's policies by this administration that have caused those 2 million Americans to lose their jobs since January.

If you go back to the stimulus bill, that was the bill that was touted at stopping the bleeding. All of us on this side that opposed that bill, that opposed spending $800 billion of money that we don't have, said back then that that bill would actually make matters worse because it was adding mountains of debt to our children and grandchildren, but also it wasn't addressing the problems in our economy.

In fact, now we're seeing unemployment at 9.5 percent, approaching 10 percent, with 2 million more Americans having lost their jobs since President Obama took office. And what's this administration saying? Are they finally admitting that the stimulus was a failure? No. In fact, some in the White House are calling for another stimulus bill, more spending.

In fact, just last week at a convention of the AARP, Vice President Joe Biden said, ``We have to go spend money to keep from going bankrupt.'' Those are words the Vice President actually said just last week.

And so as this mountain of debt is piling up on the backs of our children and grandchildren, as the President is running car companies and running banks and running all of these other institutions--with over 30 czars, and it's not working--their own Vice President is saying they need to spend money to keep from going bankrupt.

These are ludicrous policies. We have got to go back to common sense. We've got to go back to fiscal discipline and start balancing our budget like every other State is dealing with their budgets, like American families are dealing with these tough economic times as they're pulling back and living within their own means. It's the Federal Government here in Washington that seems to be out of control on a spending frenzy.

Then, just a few weeks ago, they brought this cap-and-trade national energy tax, where they're literally proposing a policy that would run millions more American jobs out of this country to places like China and India, where they'll actually emit more carbon than we do here in America to do the same thing, while rising utility rates on every American family.

The President's own budget director said that the cap-and-trade energy tax would add another $1,200 a year to every American family's utility bills. So, as they're thinking about turning on their air conditioner in the summer, they're going to be thinking about whether or not they will pay these higher electricity rates.

These policies are helping lead to this rapid unemployment that is now approaching double digits. And the latest here we have in front of us in Congress is this debate over the President and Speaker Pelosi and others' proposal to have a government takeover of our health care system, where the estimates are that we would have hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes, over $580 billion in new taxes on the backs of small businesses.

You would have $240 billion in fines in their approach on the backs of American families, including--get this. This is according to the Congressional Budget Office. In the President's takeover, proposal to take over the health care system by the government, they have $29 million in penalties against people who are uninsured. It's in the bill.

They have the ability for this health care czar--a health care czar that would literally be able to tell Americans whether or not they can see a doctor and which doctor they can see. It actually gives the authority to this bureaucrat in Washington to disqualify a company's entire health benefits plan.

So if you like the health care you have, the health care czar in their bill allows the health care czar to take your health care benefits away.

I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

If you look at these policies--and the American people out there across the country are looking at these policies, and that's a good thing because as they look at these policies, and they hear the leadership here in Washington, the people running Congress, saying they need to ram these policies through before the next 2 weeks are over, I think people are figuring it out. They're saying, Wait a minute.

Many Members who actually voted for that cap-and-trade energy tax didn't even read the bill because they dropped 300 pages of amendments down the day of the vote. And we know they're going to try to do the same thing again on this government takeover of health care, and people are sick and tired of it. People are finally saying, Enough is enough; control spending and these czars; stop running car companies; stop running banks; and, surely, don't try to have some government bureaucrat take over our health care system.

So hopefully we won't add millions more Americans to these statistics that we're talking about today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of Senate Concurrent Resolution 30, commending the Bureau of Labor Statistics on its 125th anniversary.

In our current economic climate, there is a lot of discussion about economic data, what the data means for our recovery, and more importantly, how many of our fellow citizens are going back to work.

What is not talked about is the government agency that is responsible for gathering this data. For 125 years, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS, has been charged with collecting and examining information related to our economic health. According to the BLS mission statement, the agency is the principal factfinding body for the Federal Government.

A survey of any economic analysis demonstrates that this information is widely used by academics, Federal and State governments, private companies, and news reporters. The agency has more than 2,000 economists in its headquarters and eight regional offices, gathering unemployment data, wage data, safety and health statistics, and a whole host of information to provide us with a clear picture of the state of the economy across this country. Congress relies on the statistics produced by the Bureau for a variety of programs and for guiding a myriad of policy decisions.

The Bureau examines payroll data and various demographics so that we have detailed information about employment by hours, by industry, and geographic areas. BLS also provides a snapshot of employee benefit plans or labor productivity.

When your children ask if they will ever use anything they learn in school in real life, you can point to the economists and statisticians at BLS as an example of putting math and science to work. When your children complain about how much time that they spend in school, you can tell them, according to the American Time Use Survey developed by BLS, 9 percent of the population is engaged in educational activities daily. I doubt if it brings them any comfort, though. That 9 percent spends, on average, 4.5 hours in class and 2.4 hours engaged in homework.

I rise today to commend the staff of the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 125 years of dedicated service and urge the passage of S. Con. Res. 30, commending their service to the Nation. I ask my colleagues to support this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise).

I yield 1 additional minute to the gentleman from Louisiana.

Mr. Speaker, I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

I yield as much time as he may consume to Dr. Broun of Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I don't have any additional speakers, so I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, yesterday, I missed nine votes. Had I been present I would have voted.

Rollcall No. 596, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree to H.Con.Res. 164, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 597, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended H.R. 2729, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 598, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended H.R. 1622, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 599, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree to, as Amended, H.Res. 507, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 600, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree to H.Res. 270, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 601, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree to S.Con.Res. 30, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 602, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Agree to H.Con.Res. 123, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 603, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass H.R. 1933, I would have voted ``yea.''

Rollcall No. 604, on the Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass H.R. 2632, I would have voted ``yea.''