SENSE Act of 2013

Madam Speaker, as part of the House Energy Action Team, it is important for us to address the hardworking American taxpayers that are concerned about their rising energy costs and who want to know what their United States Congress is going to do about the issue of energy independence, the cost of fuel, the cost of electricity, and the fact that they have got less money in their wallet after a week of driving back and forth between work and taking the kids to school and ball games and church and all the things that we, as average Americans, do. After they pay for the fuel to do all of that, to drive their vehicles to and fro, they reach in their wallet for extra cash, and there is none left. What is the United States Congress going to do about the rising cost of energy?

I came to Washington to focus on three things: jobs, energy, and our Founding Fathers.

Jobs. How about unleashing and unbridling the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit of Americans that will actually turn this economy around by putting Americans to work, lessening the number of Americans on the welfare rolls, and actually having Americans earn their way? Jobs.

Energy. Energy is a segue to job creation in this country. Look at the States that have energy-driven economies like Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, and North Dakota. North Dakota has a 3 percent unemployment rate or less. In fact, McDonald's is paying a finder's fee. If you have got somebody who wants to go to work at a McDonald's in North Dakota, they will pay you a finder's fee.

Jobs and energy. Energy is a segue to job creation and putting Americans to work. We are not just talking about the men and women wearing the hard hats and the oil uniforms out on the drilling platforms or in the Bakken up in North Dakota, turning those drills and producing that, whether it is through horizontal drilling or hydraulic fracturing or shallow water or deep water offshore. Yes, those are good-paying jobs. Those are hardworking American taxpayers. But think about all the other jobs that support the offshore industry and the onshore industry.

These are Americans that are working doing pipefitting and welding. And guess what. Pipes fall on truck beds,

and the beds have to be repaired. So there are auto body mechanics and engine mechanics. All these people work in that industry. It can be those in HVAC. Folks are going out on the rigs to fix the air conditioner or provide the food service or the transportation or the supply vessels carrying the drilling mud and the diesel fuel.

Everything that it takes to support energy production in this country, guess what. Those folks are going to the local restaurants and they are eating and they are giving tips to the waitresses. They are going to their churches and they are tithing. They are joining the United Way and they are sponsoring ball teams. They are supporting our local communities.

You see it all up and down the Texas and Louisiana highways. You see it in North Dakota and Oklahoma. And guess what. We want to see it in South Carolina.

In fact, there are some gentlemen here that want to see it off their coast or may want to see it expanded in their States, whether it is onshore or offshore. They understand that energy production is a segue to putting Americans to work.

Jobs, energy, and our Founding Fathers. Limited government, free markets, individual liberties, unleashing that entrepreneurial spirit that Americans have within us to go and create and do and put Americans to work and, yes, pay taxes to the government so the government can do its constitutional role.

Jobs, energy, and our Founding Fathers is a great acronym. It spells ``Jeff,'' and I am all about Jeff.

We want to see the Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf opened up. We want to see some seismic work done first. That is the first step. Let's see what is out there.

They are looking at 30-year-old seismic graphs, trying to figure out are there recoverable resources off the coast of South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, the States that want to see that area opened up.

Using 30-year-old technology and 30-year-old graphs, let's see some 21st century technology drug in the Atlantic, like 4-D and 3-D technology, to actually see down in the Earth and see what sort of resources might be recoverable.

Let's allow the seismic work, and let's allow universities like the University of South Carolina do it. Being a Clemson graduate, it pains me to say that the University of South Carolina and Dr. James Knapp are leading the way, teaching the young, new minds to use that seismic technology and look at those graphs and figure out where those resources are. He is doing tremendous work there at the University of South Carolina. Let's open up more areas.

It is hard for me to applaud the Obama administration on a whole lot, but I will applaud them on a transboundary hydrocarbon agreement signed by then-Secretary Clinton with Mexico that opened up a million and half acres in the Gulf of Mexico, shared resources right under that maritime boundary between the United States and Mexico.

Mexico just denationalized their energy company, Pemex. They are opening up to more private investments. We are going to see great things happen in the transboundary area. But even though she signed that agreement, the administration failed to send to this Congress the implementing language to actually make it happen and to include those areas in the next 5-year plan. That took an act of Congress. That took a bill that passed out of this body last year. That took efforts like Paul Ryan had in the omnibus to get the transboundary hydrocarbon implementing language in the omnibus so that we could open up that million and a half acres and we could put more men and women here in America, hardworking American taxpayers, to work developing the energy resources that we have in this country.

God bless the United States of America. He continues to bless us with the resources here to be truly American energy independent. We are working with our neighbors to the north with something like the Keystone pipeline--which should happen--to bring that Canadian oil into this country to the refineries where we have idle capacity and to put that oil into the marketplace in gasoline and plastic and asphalt and diesel fuel and all the other butanes and all the other elements that come out of a barrel of hydrocarbons when you put it under pressure and it separates naturally in all sorts of wonderful God-given elements.

The Keystone pipeline should happen. That is a no-brainer for most Americans that I talk to, but apparently the administration just doesn't get it. They don't get that the Keystone pipeline will put Americans to work.

We are talking about jobs. We are talking about energy. We are talking about less government. The Keystone pipeline and North American energy independence includes working with our neighbors to the south in Mexico as they decentralize, denationalize their energy industry, and more private investment, more American companies going down there developing those resources so we can possibly have North American energy independence, if not just American energy independence.

I am joined by a number of Members of Congress here that are part of the House Energy Action Team. One gentleman from the neighboring State to my north understands what I talked about with the Outer Continental Shelf and that mid-Atlantic, south Atlantic OCS area that we believe has resources. If you look at the geology, North Africa and the Middle East and England were all together one time with the United States, and the resources and geology are very similar. We believe that in the south. I know in South Carolina we may have some recoverable resources, and we can be players in that.

I know the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hudson) wants to talk, I am sure, about that North Carolina offshore area.

I thank the gentleman from North Carolina.

This is a picture of the State newspaper in South Carolina. It says: Oil Exploration OK'd Off South Carolina and the Entire East Coast.

The Department of the Interior has actually said: You know what? We are going to allow some seismic to actually happen off the coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Virginia so we can see what is out there.

This is good news, America. This is good news because we are actually going to see that there are recoverable resources of our coast.

And I ask the question again of the Americans that may be tuned in: How much more is your regular travel costing, with gasoline prices being well north of $3 a gallon in this country? Or to ask a different way: How much less money do you have in your wallet after you travel back and forth to work--your normal travel and not summertime vacation travel--your normal travels from home to work and back, taking the kids to school, taking them to the ball games, going to church, going to the grocery store, all the things that you do, how much less money do you have?

I know in North Carolina and South Carolina, our constituents have experienced that.

Another member of the House Energy Action Team from Texas--and Texas gets it, because, God bless Texas, with Spindletop, Eagle Ford, Barnett, and a lot of other resources, they understand energy and they understand the jobs that come about from energy production.

I yield to Mr. Weber of Texas, because I know he has got a great story to tell.

I thank the gentleman from Texas. As I said earlier, Texas gets it.

I remember a colleague of ours from Louisiana who said that drilling equals jobs. That sums it up--drilling equals jobs. I appreciate the gentleman from Louisiana, Jeff Landry, our former colleague, for sharing that with us.

I drive a diesel truck. I was filling up just recently back in the spring, and there happened to be an off-road diesel pump right beside the on-road diesel pump that I was at. I was paying about $3.59 a gallon for diesel fuel for my pickup, and I noticed the off-road diesel fuel price was about 10 cents less, about $3.49. I took a picture of it, and I shared it on Facebook because I wanted folks to realize America's farmers are paying $3.49 a gallon for off-road diesel fuel. This is a fuel you can't run on the highway because the Federal Government and the States don't collect any highway taxes from off-road fuel. It is just pure diesel fuel. If this is what America's farmers put in their tractors, it is off-road for a reason. If they are paying $3.49 a gallon for off-road diesel fuel, that is an input cost. That is a cost of production.

They are putting $3.49 a gallon of diesel fuel in their tractors to plant our crops and, in the fall, to harvest our crops. I think about the cost of fertilizer right now, which should be low because natural gas is abundant in this country--and I think the gentleman from Pennsylvania is going to talk about this in just a minute and what they have found in Pennsylvania. Natural gas is a huge component in the production of fertilizer, but fertilizer is at an historical high still. So you have got the input cost for farmers of off-road diesel fuel at $3.49 a gallon--that input cost and the cost of fertilizer.

We know of the regulations the gentleman from Texas was talking about that the EPA continues to push down on Americans, and America's farmers are feeling the brunt of it on where they can spray their pesticides or their herbicides and how far from ditches they need to be. There is some common sense there, I understand, but there is regulation after regulation. We have even combated, since I have been in Congress, the regulation of farm dust. Now, can you believe that the EPA would want to regulate dust created through the normal agricultural process?

The input cost of farmers will be affected and will affect the price, rather, of the commodities that moms and dads buy when they go to the grocery store this fall after harvest time. You think about commodity prices being high, and we are already seeing historically high milk prices, historically high beef prices, historically high fuel prices to go back and forth to the grocery store just to buy those commodities. It means less money for the hardworking American taxpayers at the end of the day who are having to pay extra for ObamaCare, extra in taxes to pay for the large government and government spending that we see. We can help. This Congress can help by lowering the price of fuel-- gasoline for America's truckers and for America's moms and dads who travel back and forth.

We have got an abundance of natural gas in this country. It gets a bad rap when you use words like ``hydraulic fracturing.'' I will tell you it is working in Marcellus in Pennsylvania and Ohio. It could work in New York if they would get off their can and open up those areas.

The gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus) understands. He understands the area of Marcellus, so I yield to the gentleman so he can talk about that area.

I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania. He has been a leader in his short time in Congress as a freshman on energy issues because he gets what is going on in his home State.

I keep returning to the State of Texas because Texas, they have been developing energy resources for a very, very long time. When you think about Texas and Oklahoma, that is where it began in this country, the immense resources they have.

I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe), one of my heroes and good friends who wants to talk about what is going on in his home State.

I thank the gentleman from Texas. He has been a leader as long as I have known him on energy issues, representing Houston. I have been to Houston. I have seen the activity around the oil and gas industry, and I can tell you there are some States that want a little piece of that. South Carolina is one of those.

You are exactly right on the LNG terminals. Ukraine, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, they are all reliant on Russian gas now and they are concerned about the posturing of Russia, and they are concerned about whether that spigot might be turned off, that pipeline might be interrupted that supplies the much-needed energy that they enjoy currently.

They are looking west. They are looking to the United States. How about exporting your natural gas? You have got a ton of it. How about giving us some of it? We will buy it. We will pay you for it.

India, as the gentleman said. It is a geopolitical advantage that the United States has.

I was mentioning earlier about the areas that are opened up for development, and I wanted to show America this. I know it is small, but you can see the orange. That is right around South America. All that area in orange is open for energy development.

But look at North America. There is a lot of blue water. There are a lot of areas outside of the Gulf of Mexico, outside of the area off of Alaska, that are not available to energy production. They should be and they could be.

We have got a letter, a Dear Colleague letter, that we are sending to Secretary Jewell, saying, Look, we need a new 5-year plan for leasing the Outer Continental Shelf area. We want to see certain areas like the mid- and South Atlantic included in that area, want to continue opening up more and more of the gulf.

But we would love to see the areas that are reflected in blue and not open on the map I just showed. Countries like Canada and Mexico and China, they are ramping up their efforts to develop their offshore resources and will be directly competing with the United States.

It is past time, America, that we develop the resources that we have been blessed with here in this country.

This letter, I am a leader on it. I am asking my colleagues, I am asking Americans to contact your Congressman and say, how about get on that letter to Secretary Jewell that Congressman Duncan has got, and let's encourage her to open up more areas that might be available in the next 5-year plan.

Five years out, let's open up more areas for energy production. Let's have lease sales. Let's allow exploration.

I know the next gentleman from Virginia, he gets it as well because I have dealt with Virginia for a long time. Senator Frank Wagner, from over near Norfolk, I met early on in my delving into the whole energy spectrum and arena.

I went offshore on the Gulf of Mexico with the Senator, and he taught me about what Virginia was doing. They were leading with an energy plan for the State of Virginia. They were leading with looking toward the offshore areas.

I know the gentleman that represents that area in the United States Congress, Mr. Rigell, fully understands that. I yield to the gentleman.

I thank the gentleman from Virginia for getting on the letters, the right letter to include that area.

Energy production in the United States means lower energy costs for Americans. It is as simple as that. Energy independence through production here at home in our own backyards keeps Americans safe from the turmoil around the world.

The U.S. Atlantic and the entire OCS is a missed opportunity, but it is not an opportunity we are going to continue missing. It is an opportunity we are going to continue to propose, we are going to continue to support, because when Americans are free to dream and innovate, they will always find a cheaper, safer, cleaner, and more efficient way to produce energy and use energy. We need to make it happen.

I will now ask my colleague from Oklahoma--who I believe will be the next Senator from Oklahoma and will take a tremendous amount of experience over to the United States Senate, where I know he will talk about what is going on in Oklahoma now and what has gone on in Oklahoma in the past because he has educated me.

They have been fracturing down in Oklahoma for about 50 years. I remember the comments he made to us on the floor one day, right here in a HEAT Leadership Hour. He said: come to Oklahoma, and drink our water.

So I will now yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Lankford).

I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma for sharing that. He is exactly right.

It is simple. It is supply and demand. That is simple economics. Let's put American oil and natural gas out there on the world market, and I believe you will see the spigot turned on by others that don't want to see us become energy independent, and I think you will see the price down go.

You know, I will get criticized because I want to allow seismic to happen off the Atlantic coast in the OCS areas, and they will say: oh, you are going to hurt the marine mammals, the dolphins and whales and other things.

Well, the environmental impact statement came out. There is good mitigation in there that industry can live with to mitigate any damage. If the whales are migrating north, they could stop those activities, but even with that, there hasn't been a single proven instance.

Now, we have been doing seismic all over the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Africa, in the Mediterranean, in the Red Sea, in the Persian Gulf. All over the world, they have been doing seismic work and not a single proven instance where seismic testing has caused permanent deafness or any other injury to a marine mammal, not a single one, but yet that is the criticism that we will take for wanting to actually look down on the Earth and see if there are recoverable resources.

I will tell you where there are recoverable resources, and that is in the great State of Wyoming, where they get energy--about $1 billion of revenue back to the State of Wyoming through revenue sharing, through the development of their natural resources and those oil and gas and coal deposits they have, and the single Member representing the State of Wyoming (Mrs. Lummis), I am sure can talk about that.

I thank the gentlewoman from Wyoming. She does a fabulous job.

That is one of the things I enjoy about serving in the United States Congress, is meeting the congressmen from all of the other States that can educate me and can educate America about what is going on in their States--what is going on in their

States to help meet Americans' energy needs, to help us truly become energy independent, to do all of the things that we have talked about here this evening.

You know, people back home may say: What have y'all done in Congress? What have you done in the House to address these issues?

We have sent numerous bills over to the Senate, where they languish in Harry Reid's office. The majority leader fails to bring the bills that the House has passed--even if you differ with the elements in those bills, bring them up. Bring them into a committee hearing, and let's have a markup.

Let's change those bills and pass whatever meets your desires for American energy independence or a lack thereof in the Senate. How about change the bills and send them back? We will go to conference, and we will work something out.

Instead, we have got a logjam. All these bills are right behind the dam, and then we could unleash all that power behind the dam by unleashing the American energy independence potential that you have heard talked about here tonight.

We just recently passed an offshore energy jobs bill, Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act, to open up these areas.

I want to commend Chairman Doc Hastings for his work on the Natural Resources Committee to really open up those Federal areas where we talk about those resources. I would like to give a moment of praise to my Senator Tim Scott who has got the SEA Jobs Act that would address a lot of the all-of-the-above energy issues that I have got in the EXPAND Act, to expand Americans' opportunities to pursue their resources and become energy independent, and it provides resources back to the State and revenue sharing and jobs. It works, America.

Energy is a segue to job creation, and that is what we are here to talk about tonight, putting Americans to work, meeting our energy needs, using those geopolitical levers that we may have to influence politics around the world, to help our friends and allies in Ukraine and in Europe that need America's energy resources, that want America's energy resources.

So as we wind down our time here tonight, energy production in the United States means lower energy costs for Americans.

I started out with a very simple question: Americans, how much more is your regular travel costing you? How much more does it cost you to drive from your home to work and back, from your home to school and back, from your home to church and back, and how much less do you have in your wallet at the end of the day because of the amount of money it has taken you to meet the energy needs of just transportation and electricity costs because of EP regulations?

You heard the gentlewoman from Wyoming talk about it and others. We could do something about it. We could solve it here today by meeting our energy needs with energy production. That is why the House energy action team is leading on this issue.

I appreciate the other colleagues being here tonight, and with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate you being down with me here tonight. It took me awhile to get my materials over here because the topic I have tonight is the topic of what this House has been doing to make a difference in the life of families across this country. That is the good news. I have to confess, I am here with good news/bad news tonight.

This is the stack of bills that this House has passed, again, to make a difference in the lives of families, to makes a difference in small businesses, to grow the economy, to create jobs, the bills this House has passed collaboratively that sit collecting dust in the United States Senate. That is the bad news part of tonight.

It is fair enough if folks think this process is broken. It is fair enough if folks think there is too much partisanship in Washington, but what we have here are the successes. What we have here are not the hypothetical ``if only'' bills. What we have here are the bills that have actually left this House and sit in the United States Senate. It is 356 bills, Mr. Speaker, 356 bills that have left this House that sit collecting dust in the Senate. We did a hashtag, Mr. Speaker: #StuckInTheSenate. We all remember, ``I am just a bill sitting on Capitol Hill,'' that Saturday morning cartoon. This is not a dictatorship. We had that conversation a little bit earlier this afternoon. It is not a dictatorship. It is a collaborative effort, and the House has collaborated to pass over 356 bills that have gone to the Senate to do nothing.

Now, again, it is good news/bad news day. Let me start with something that is good news, because if folks don't believe there is opportunity for success, I could imagine how folks would give up, not just folks here in this Chamber, but folks across the country, families across the country.

This, Mr. Speaker, you may remember it, H.R. 803, the Workplace Innovation and Opportunity Act. This passed the House. It passed the Senate. It was signed by the President. This has become law. This was a bill to consolidate a variety of workplace training programs. We talk so much about a trained workforce, how it is we get Americans who may be transitioning in their life, are transitioning home from Iraq or Afghanistan, transitioning from an industry that is in decline to an industry that is growing, how do we get those folks trained.

I credit Dr. Virginia Foxx with this. She is one of my colleagues here in the House. I serve with her on the Rules Committee, but she also serves on the Education and the Workforce Committee. She has been working to try to consolidate programs, take money from programs that were not effective and move the money to programs that were effective. Imagine that. Imagine that. Here she is, a conservative Republican, and what she was trying to do was take money from places that weren't working and put it into places where it would make a difference for moms and dads and kids. And she did it. She did it.

Now, what we passed out of the House was strong, Mr. Speaker. We went out and we found every single program that was failing in America and we brought them together and put them into a single pot and sent it over to the Senate. The Senate said: No, we don't think all of those programs are failing. We don't want to move that big of a package. We want to do something smaller. They ended up consolidating about half of what we consolidated in the House.

But guess what. When you elect Rob Woodall dictator, then I get to have it my way every day. Until then, this is a collaborative effort here: the House, the Senate, and the President.

So we worked with the Senate, and we worked out our differences. We found that package of consolidation that we could all live with, and we sent it to the President and we got a signature. That is what the American people expect. That is what my constituents expect. They expect us to work together to get things done, not sacrificing principle, not compromising on values, but finding consensus because we all agree that American workers need help. We all agree that moms and dads in transition need to find a better way to feed their families.

We can spend tax dollars better. We found a way to do that here. I call it common sense, Mr. Speaker. It is not supposed to take a rocket scientist to sort some of these issues out. It is supposed to be common sense.

Did I mention #StuckInTheSenate, Mr. Speaker? If I didn't, I want to mention it right now because here is one that really gets me.

We were just talking about hiring more moms and dads. It is called the Hire More Heroes Act. Do you remember it, Mr. Speaker? We passed it out of this House with over 400 votes. Now, young high school students, middle school students, they might not know how many Members there are in the House. There are 435 Members in this House, and more than 400 of them said we should pass the Hire More Heroes bill, but it is stuck in the Senate. Over 400 folks voted ``yes,'' only one voted ``no,'' so I don't want to hear about bipartisanship in the House. I don't want to hear about Republican this and Democratic that.

Mr. Speaker, 400-plus folks said let's pass this bill. I will tell you what it does. The Hire More Heroes Act says one of the highest rates of unemployment we have in this country are men and women in uniform coming home from overseas. It says that we have small employers in this country, and as you know, Mr. Speaker, most of the employment in this country is not driven by the big guys. It is driven by small employers. We heard from small employers in this country who said: I want to hire those veterans, but I am worried about that 50-employee threshold that throws me into this brand-new round of ObamaCare regulations.

Guess what this House did, Mr. Speaker. More than 400 out of 435 got together and they said, if you are a small business owner in America and you want to put unemployed veterans to work but you don't because you are worried about some Federal Government regulation dealing with ObamaCare, we will waive that regulation for you. Hire all of the veterans you want to, and be not afraid of Federal Government regulation.

Think about that. Think about that. It is what I think about. It is why I ran

for Congress. It is why my friends on the other side of the aisle ran for Congress. We came to make a difference--to make a difference. Who among us doesn't want to see unemployed veterans get a job? Who among us doesn't want to see small businesses succeed? We came together, more than 400 of us, to pass the Hire More Heroes Act, but it is stuck in the Senate.

Why? Why? Over 400 of us, almost every Democrat--we lost one--but every Republican, almost every one of us voted ``yes'' to make a difference for small businesses, get them the labor that they need and make a difference for veterans looking for a job.

That was a good bill, Mr. Speaker, and still is, and it is stuck in the Senate. It is not stuck because we can't come to agreement on it, Mr. Speaker. It is not stuck because Republicans are intransigent. It is stuck because the Senate can't get these bills moving.

Mr. Speaker, I am not asking folks to just come together and do what I want them to do. What I am talking about are things that we are celebrating in this institution. I am not talking about things that squeaked through by the skin of their teeth. I am not talking about Republican proposals that we jammed through with the might of the majority. I am talking about commonsense proposals that make a difference in people's lives.

I will give you another one. How about H.R. 4414, Mr. Speaker? It is the Expatriate Health Coverage Clarification Act of 2014. That doesn't sound very exciting, does it? And you know what, it is not very exciting for about 99 percent of Americans. But for Americans who have to work overseas and who have seen their health insurance policies canceled, quadrupled in price, folks who have struggled to find coverage, what this says is, if you don't live in America but you are working for an American company, really, you can sort out your insurance needs on your own over there. If you don't live in America, you don't have to comply with all these needs because--guess what--if you are doing business in London, the health care system is different in England.

If you are doing business in Paris, the health care system is different in France. If you are doing business in Moscow, the health care system is different in Russia. The rules we passed here won't work in those places. It is commonsense.

Had we not jammed that bill through Congress, that Affordable Care Act, maybe we would have gotten to that, but I don't know. It is a small group of people.

We passed a solution--let's look--269-150. I dare say those folks who voted ``no'' wouldn't say they opposed the policy, they would say they just thought it was a symbol of undermining ObamaCare in some way, they didn't want to undermine the President. I say nonsense about undermining the President. I want to make a difference in the lives of families.

Ninety-two days, Mr. Speaker, 92 days this bill has been sitting in the Senate.

Now, that is a minor piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker, that could make a big impact, but for a small number of people. What about things that make a big impact for a large number of people? What about those things?

The REINS Act, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 367, the REINS Act says--and it is a crazy bill, I will confess--it says before you pass a regulation, you need to consider the economic impact of that regulation. Now, while that is commonsense back home in Atlanta, it may seem crazy here in Washington, D.C.

Before you pass a regulation, weigh the pros and the cons to see if it is a good idea or not, weigh those pros and the cons. It is a REINS Act because we are just out of control here with regulation and we need to have a thoughtful conversation about it.

H.R. 1105, the Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act. Trying to find ways for our small businesses to get access to the capital they need in what have been incredibly tight credit markets.

H.R. 2374, the Retail Investor Protection Act.

Time and time again, Mr. Speaker, we are passing bills--they are all here, they are all sitting on Harry Reid's desk over in the Senate-- passing bills in an effort to make a difference in people's lives. If it didn't matter, we wouldn't be interested in doing it. I don't have a bill in this stack that is about making a political statement. I don't have a bill in this stack that is about trying to be one up on the other guy, trying to embarrass somebody, trying to call somebody out. What I have in this stack--did I mention there are 356 bills in this stack?--what I have in this stack are bills that could make a difference to a struggling economy today--today. I say today. These bills passed a week ago, a month ago, a year ago or more. They could make a difference. They are #StuckInTheSenate--356 bills.

I have got the great honor tonight, Mr. Speaker--I am not alone in this endeavor, haven't been alone in passing 356 bills. It has been a team sport from day one, team sport from day one--Republicans, Democrats, folks from the North, folks from the South, folks representing families from across the country.

Tonight, I have got Mr. Rothfus here, an 18-month Member of this institution, who came, I wager, not to make a point, but to make a difference, and has been doing that every day he has been in this Chamber.

I would be happy to yield to the gentleman.

Will the gentleman yield?

I may have misunderstood what you said, because what my constituents believe is that it is partisanship that has shut this down. That it is Republicans fighting with Democrats and Democrats fighting with Republicans.

We are talking about over 350 bills that are sitting in the Senate that have passed this House, that we have come together on this House, you are saying 60 of those were introduced by Democrats?

I thank the gentleman.

I would like to ask the gentleman if he would stay just 1 more minute. I see you are down here with three lovely young women from the next generation of Americans. When they grow up, they are going to be the leaders of this country.

You mentioned energy in your presentation. I have got to be honest with you, I didn't come to deal with those big issues that are sometimes amorphous. I came to deal with the issues that make a difference in families' lives today, tomorrow, and in the next generation.

We talk about energy, we talk about streamlining production, we talk about the Keystone pipeline, but I live in Georgia. We are not drilling any wells in Georgia. I can't tell much of a difference at the price of the pump. I don't have that many families who say: This is going to make a difference in my pocketbook, this is going to make a difference for a job right here in Atlanta, Georgia. But you come from a different part of the country.

Can you see the difference that these bills make, not from a Republican/Democrat partisan perspective, but from a real world difference, real dollars in families' pockets back home?

I am looking at the Northern Route Approval Act poster you have got behind you, and I am

looking at the ``days in the Senate'' column. It says it has been 434 days that that bill has been in the Senate.

You are a new Member in this body. I have only had a voting card for 3 years. I know it is a collaborative process, but as I look at that 434 days in the Senate, does it mean that we have sent over a proposal to expand energy production to make those family-providing jobs that you mention and the Senate didn't like our idea, and so they sent us back a different proposal, and we have dropped the ball? Is that a possibility?

The gentleman said it so well. This isn't about one person. This isn't about one Chamber. This isn't about one part of the government. We are all in this together. Families in western Pennsylvania and families in north Georgia are in this together. We will rise or fall as a Nation together.

I go back to what you said when you first took the well. There are so many awful stories about Washington, D.C., and the way that we work together. Some of them are true, and many of them are just lore, but I believe you said--and my staff handed it to me after you said it--that about 254 of the 356 bills that are stuck in the Senate passed this House either unanimously or with more than two-thirds of the Members voting in favor of them.

I don't know everything about western Pennsylvania, but I know you don't get elected to Congress there because you are interested in propounding wild views that make no difference to people. You get elected there because you care about people and you want to do the things that matter. You know who the boss is, and it is those folks back home.

When I think that about this stack of bills, it would be so easy for people to dismiss it as: well, those are those crazy Republican ideas, and this is just some sort of political stunt.

How many times have we heard that it is a political stunt? Why are those guys talking about those bills? It is because of what you said. Sixty of these bills introduced by Democrats passed this Chamber, and 254 of these bills stuck in the Senate passed with two-thirds of us coming together--or more--to send them over to the Senate.

We have an obligation to work together. The answer to the question is that, after 434 days, the Senate hasn't said no. The Senate hasn't said: we have a better idea, so we will send this back to you. The Senate didn't say: you are focused on the wrong pathway; let's look at a different route approval.

The Senate did nothing.

I think about those seven appropriations bills you talked about. I want to remember the numbers. We have gotten 12 out of committee. We passed seven on the floor of the House. We have sent those over to the Senate.

Again, I don't know if the Senate is going to take our ideas or reject our

ideas or come up with their own ideas, but they have done none of those things. They haven't taken our ideas, they haven't rejected our ideas, and they promulgated absolutely no ideas of their own.

I don't enjoy being down here. This is not #kickthesenate. This is #StuckInTheSenate. It is not that there is not a way forward. You have described the way forward. It is not all my way. It is not all your way. It is not all anyone's way. It is a negotiated pathway forward.

When I ran for Congress, that is what I expected. When my constituents sent me here, that is what they expected.

I thank my friend for focusing on those commonsense points.

Again, when I open up the newspaper, what I hear is it is about partisan nonsense and it is about election-year politics. When we are talking about over 350 bills and we are talking about 60 of those bills being introduced by Democrats, but passed with Democrat and Republican support here in the House, when we are talking about 250 of those bills being passed with more than a two-thirds vote--many of those unanimously--what it tells me is we are not in the business of trying to make a point.

We are in the business of trying to make a difference, and if we had a willing partner in the Senate, we could absolutely make that difference.

I yield to my friend from Indiana, a former secretary of State, which has you in the executive side of things. You actually had to be responsible for getting things done. I guess that is my frustration with the Senate.

I just need somebody to stand up and be a partner and take responsibility for moving a few of these things forward, trying to make a difference in people's lives.

I would just like to ask my friend because, in serving on the committee, you have an insight that most of us don't have.

I am looking at those numbers, at 360 Members of this House voting ``yes.''

That is more than you need to pass a constitutional amendment, for Pete's sakes.

That is about as close to unanimous as we generally get. I am looking, and it hasn't been at the Senate for 1 week or 2 weeks. It has been there for almost 3 months so far.

What have they said? Have they said, We have got a better idea, and they have sent back an alternative to the committee? What have you heard?

These are not partisan issues. Education is not a partisan issue. Children are not partisan issues. We have votes with 360 Members of this body. Again, this is the hyperpartisan House--so the news tells me--and two bills right there in front of you are making a difference in people's lives. They could make that difference today, and yet the Senate does nothing.

I have been preaching the ``Stuck in the Senate'' hashtag message, I will say to my friend, because I still believe. I told folks when we started this hour tonight that this is a good news/bad news hour. The good news is I am sitting on top of a stack of 356 bills that this House has passed in a bipartisan way, and the bad news is that they are stuck in the Senate.

I believe that perhaps you and I, as young Congressmen, can't move the Senate, but I believe the American people still can move the Senate.

It is a ``we'' question. I thank my friend. There are folks who get wrapped up in the partisan issues of the day, and there are those folks who have committed themselves to finding willing partners wherever those partners may be.

What I have seen of you in our 3 years of working together is that you came here to do things that mattered, and whoever you have to partner with and however late you have to work and however early you have to get up--whatever you have to do--if this job is worth doing, it is because it is making a difference in people's lives, and I am grateful to you for that.

It may be a Midwestern values night. I have got the gentleman from Indiana, and I have been joined by a gentleman from Illinois, who has also been a true champion, Mr. Speaker. You didn't have the great pleasure of coming in with this big freshman class of 2010, but what was so neat about it to me was that, in showing up to freshman orientation, I met these two guys for the very first time, and I met my new Democratic colleagues for the very first time.

Truthfully, when we talked about why we came here, I couldn't tell the difference between the two because the American people sent a crowd of folks here to do the things that mattered, and we have partnered to do those.

The gentleman from Illinois is one of those great partners, and I would be happy to yield.

I thank my friend. It is exactly that commitment to working together to make a difference that I think folks long for in this place. And it is exactly what you have there, H.R. 803, the Workplace Innovation Act. It is true. That is one of our success stories.

But you first came to the floor to support that in March of 2013. The reason we are able to call this a success is because the Senate finally got around to dealing with it in June of 2014--over a year. It could have been making a difference in people's lives.

I am thrilled that now we are making that difference, but we wasted a year. And the family that you talked about, a family struggling to try to decide what tomorrow is going to look like, doesn't have a year to wait.

The Internet Tax Freedom bill you discussed just came out of this body this summer. That is something the Senate could take up immediately. As you said, it came out of here with wild bipartisan support. It could begin to make a difference tomorrow--tomorrow.

I am happy to yield to my friend.

I thank my friend. He is such a great leader. Bringing voices together is that skill set that sometimes this institution lacks, and he has it in spades.

As I close tonight, Mr. Speaker, I just want to make it clear, this isn't a partisan stunt. This isn't Republican machinations. 356 bills sit in the Senate right now that, if the Senate moved them, could begin to make a difference in the lives of American families.

I want to tell you about those bills: 98 percent of them passed with a bipartisan vote. 98 percent of these bills passed with a bipartisan vote. 254 of these bills passed with either no opposition or two-thirds support. Almost 200, no opposition at all; 60 introduced by my Democratic colleagues.

Making a difference for America is not a partisan exercise, Mr. Speaker, but it is a sacred trust. I am so proud of this House for moving forward on these bills to make a difference. I know that we can work together to encourage Harry Reid to do the same. I know our friends across the country, the bosses of the United States Senate, can encourage the Senate to do the same.

This country is thirsty for leadership. I am proud of my colleagues on both sides of the House for providing it. I look forward to partnering with the Senate and the President to move these bills into that difference-making position for those families across this country.

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

I thank the gentleman from Georgia for organizing this very informative Special Order tonight.

You are right: I came here to make a difference. I came here to be part of a team that wants to relight America, relight the job market, relight opportunity, relight the American Dream, because people are hungry for it. They see this town that is out of control, they look at this town, and if they visit this town, they marvel at the growth that is happening in Washington, D.C.

I challenge everybody who visits Washington to count the construction cranes they see and the explosive growth and the high-end shops that open here and the concentration of wealth and power in this town. It is a scandal to the rest of the country. I see these construction cranes here on Pennsylvania Avenue. I would like to see those construction cranes back in Pennsylvania, Mr. Speaker.

But this is a very important discussion we are having about the actions that this House is taking to relight the American economy and how it gets snuffed out in the Senate.

As we have reviewed this evening, Mr. Speaker, the House has continued to pass legislation that would move our country ahead, grow our economy, add more jobs, and increase wages and prosperity. Then there is the brick wall across the other side of the Capitol.

Nowhere is the Senate's inaction more evident than in the budgeting and appropriations process we have here in Washington, D.C. The Senate and House have together managed to pass all 12 appropriations bills and complete the appropriations process on time by September 30 only four times since 1977. It is shocking.

This House, Mr. Speaker, has been working to correct this problem. I want to recognize the hard work of the House Appropriations Committee and my colleagues from both sides of the aisle.

This year, the Appropriations Committee has already passed 11 out of the 12 appropriations bills out of committee. Seven of those bills have already passed the House here, most of them with strong bipartisan majorities.

How many bills, how many appropriations bills has the Senate passed? Zero. They have yet to pass a single one.

The Senate's failure to do its work is disappointing, but it is not surprising. That is why I introduced the Congressional Pay for Performance Act earlier this year.

The bill is simple. The House and Senate must each pass a budget and all annual appropriations bills by August 1 or have their pay withheld until the job is done. It applies that fundamental lesson that we learn in our first job: if you don't do your work, you don't get paid until you do. That is the lesson that millions of young Americans learned working their first job this summer. It is the lesson I learned on my first paper route. I didn't get paid if I didn't deliver the newspaper. It is past time for Members of Congress to live by that lesson.

Beyond the Senate's failure to execute their constitutionally prescribed job of appropriations, the House has passed, as you noted, more than 350 bills, including many jobs bills, that Senator Reid allows to collect dust in the Senate. Over 98 percent of these bills have passed with bipartisan support, both Republicans and Democrats.

As of this morning, Mr. Speaker, 195 of these bills passed without opposition. House Democrats introduced 60 of these bills that now gather dust in the Senate. Again and again, the Senate refuses to act.

I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Georgia.

Sixty of those bills, Mr. Speaker--you look at the stack of paper that the gentleman from Georgia has with him here today--Mr. Speaker, 60 of those bills were introduced by Democrats, and yet they gather dust in the Democrat-controlled Senate.

Mr. Speaker, we passed dozens of energy-related bills designed to increase production, reduce prices, add family sustaining jobs, and promote American energy independence. Bills like the Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act, the Energy Consumers Relief Act, the Northern Route Approval Act, which is going to get the Keystone XL pipeline going, passed in May of 2013, 241-175. It has been sitting over in the Senate for 434 days.

We have passed dozens of regulatory reform bills to promote job growth and keep an out-of-touch and out-of-control Washington, D.C., bureaucracy in check. Those like the REINS Act that the gentleman from Florida mentioned. A very simple bill. If a regulatory agency puts out a regulation on the economy that is going to cost more than $50 million to implement, suppressing job growth, bring it back here for an up-or- down vote. Let's restore the constitutional responsibility for both the Senate and the House, who have that responsibility for making the law. Let us take accountability for that. If there is a regulation that merits approval, we are going to vote for it. It is called being accountable. But you can't fire these bureaucrats who come up with these regulations that have a negative impact on our economy.

We have also passed the Achieving Less Excess in Regulation and Requiring Transparency Act, known as the ALERRT Act. It is an effort to improve thoughtful consideration of the consequences of regulation.

I offered an amendment to the ALERRT Act. The amendment requires the capital bureaucrats to acknowledge whether their regulations will have a negative impact on jobs or wages in a particular industry.

Any such regulation will be subject to additional review to ensure that the benefits justify the costs to families and communities. The principle is simple: if Washington bureaucrats are going to implement rules that take wages or jobs away from hardworking Americans, they should take responsibility for and justify their decisions. It is important that regulators think through the impacts, costs, and burdens that red tape imposes on families and communities, and it is time for the Senate to come to the support of those individuals and those communities and take up the ALERRT Act.

We have passed several tax-related bills to help individuals keep more of their hard-earned money and to help small businesses add jobs and increase wages, like the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act and the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act.

We have also heard stories of people whose hours have been cut because of the 30-hour work week in the President's health care law. But the House has acted. That is why we passed the Save American Workers Act to restore the traditional 40-hour work week and help those who want the opportunity to work more hours and see their wages go up.

The Senate has to act. Time and again, Mr. Speaker, the House has acted but the Senate has not.

I really thank the gentleman from Georgia for shining a light on what is going on at this Capitol, the production that is coming out of this side of the Capitol and then hits the wall on the other side. It is time for the Senate to act, Mr. Speaker.

Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. The gentleman from Georgia notes that western Pennsylvania has a growing energy industry. We are seeing a tremendous number of jobs coming in, family sustaining jobs.

Bear in mind, Mr. Speaker, when somebody gets a job in that field and they start to get that paycheck--and every American who gets a paycheck sees this--there is some stuff that is taken out. There is a FICA charge, a Medicare tax charge, and Federal taxes.

Mr. Speaker, that is how we are paying for Social Security, that is how we are paying for Medicare. When people pay their income taxes, it is how we pay for the defense of our country. This is a dangerous world, Mr. Speaker.

We need to have an economy that is generating the kind of jobs where people can get back to work and get those salaries and wages so that when they pay taxes, they are paying for Social Security, Medicare, and veterans benefits. We have got a boom like you have never seen before, Mr. Speaker.

The gentleman from Georgia has all these bills there that show the work that this House is doing, all to help this economy get growing again.

If you want to be paying for Social Security, if you want to be paying for Medicare, if you want to be paying for veterans benefits, we have got to grow this economy at 4 percent, at 5 percent, yes, at 6 percent. So many people, Mr. Speaker, have said, that is not going to happen, we can't get there. It happened. It happened in the 1980s, it happened in the 1990s. We can do this. We are a blessed land, Mr. Speaker, and in western Pennsylvania we see that.

We are having a big debate right now with respect to the President's greenhouse gas emissions, and there is testimony being taken across the country, including in Pittsburgh. We have to use our resources.

Under his plan, in 2008, when the President was running for his seat, he promises, ``Electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.''

No single person should have the authority to impose a policy on a country that would cause electricity rates to necessarily skyrocket. That is why the REINS Act is so important. That is why Senator Reid has to move the REINS Act to the floor of the Senate, to have this Congress have a voice. Our Constitution has an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. The legislative branch is where those policy decisions should be made.

Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia is asking questions about what is happening on the Senate side. They are simply not acting.

It was 241-175. I think the last time I counted, there are some 234 Republicans in this House. It was 241, so there are Democrats voting for this bill.

There is almost universal support for Keystone XL. The President could allow it to go forward. Thousands of jobs are in the waiting-- thousands of jobs where people would be paying Social Security tax and Medicare tax and increasing the supply of North American energy being able to be refined in this country, which means American jobs refining that.

So what is happening over there in the Senate? It is not coming up. We get phone calls all the time from our constituents, and it is important that constituents call their Members of Congress, who are their employees. We are the employees of the American people. The Senators are the employees of the American people because they pay our paychecks.

Their hard-earned tax dollars are what fund the paychecks for Senators and the paychecks for the Members of this House. We are the employees of the American people.

So we welcome phone calls from our bosses, our employers out there. They need to be calling their employees in the Senate and saying: Why aren't you approving the Keystone XL pipeline? We need those jobs. Why aren't you approving the REINS Act?

We don't think one person should make the decision that would turn off the lights in this country, turn off the lights at power plants, turn off the lights in coal mines, turn off the lights in factories because the prices are going too high.

When the President said that electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket, if you are opening up a plant and you are looking at that, that is a cost. If the income doesn't exceed the cost, that factory isn't going to get built.

So there are folks across the country--entrepreneurs--who want to get things going. They want to hire people, but then they look at the cost, and they say: no, we are going to put our money elsewhere.

We need people investing in this country because that is what is going to cause this country to boom again, and look at some of the tax bills we passed out of this House, which wait in the Senate--where is the Keystone XL pipeline? Where is the Northern Route Approval Act right now?

I can't answer the question that the gentleman from Georgia asks, but I think maybe the Senators could answer that question if their bosses-- the people who pay their salaries--would call them.

You raise a good point because the way the process is supposed to work, one side of our Capitol--the House--will pass the bill or maybe the Senate will pass a bill, and then there might be a slightly different bill passed out of the other Chamber, and then the two sides would come together in a conference, and there would be some negotiating. There is some compromise going on.

Prior to coming to Congress, I had a job of negotiating contracts. Your client would tell you when you go into that negotiating room: whatever you do, make sure you get A and B into that contract.

So you know what your marching orders are, but you understand the other side has come in, and they have been told by their client: make sure you get C and D in that contract, whatever you do.

The art is that the two of you get together and you negotiate. You go back and forth. Are you going to get 100 percent? You never do. That is negotiating. That is life, but here, we passed these bills. We are waiting to negotiate. They are not even acting.

I go back to the appropriations process, which is fundamentally broken. Since 1977, you have only four times that the House and the Senate got this job done by September 30. That is a scandal.

Everybody in this country knows that April 15 is an important date. You have got to pay your taxes that day. You can't call the IRS and say: Hey, can I get a continuing resolution on that? Can I have 3 weeks?

The gentleman from Georgia pointed out that I have two of my young children with me. We know that the Tuesday before Labor Day, school starts. Am I supposed to able to call the principal and say: hey, we're not ready? Can I have a continuing resolution on that summer, so we can have 3 more weeks to get ready?

It shouldn't happen. The spending bills will be passed, whether it is through a continuing resolution that will extend it until December or January or February or March. Why can't it get done by September 30? It is an act of the will.

If the other side of the Congress--the Senate--hasn't passed any, where can you even begin to have that negotiation between the two different ideas and what is in those bills? We would love to negotiate with Senator Reid.

We would love to negotiate. In fact, it has worked. I think you pointed out the SKILLS Act which, again, the House passed some 16 months ago. It took a while for the Senate to get going. It finally did. We passed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act last summer. We finally got it to the Senate and got together. It got done.

We passed a temporary patch for the highway trust fund that we sent over to the Senate. The Senate had some other ideas, so they are making some changes, but this is the process that is supposed to work. One House moves; the other House moves. They are not even moving, Mr. Speaker.

It isn't my way or the highway, but if you have one part of this Congress--the Senate--not even acting, what is the communication there? It is no way.

We invite the Senate to act. We invite the Senate to come and start to talk about the Keystone XL pipeline and the thousands of jobs that are waiting, talk about the REINS Act, talk about the ALERRT Act to require the bureaucrats in this wealthy and powerful Capitol to take a look at the regulations that they are putting out and making an assessment whether those regulations are going to hurt wages or jobs.

I talk to people who are capped at 29\1/2\ hours. They can't get above 30 hours, Mr. Speaker, so we passed legislation that, again, sits in the Senate. We need to boom this economy again. That is how you pay for the critical programs that we have.

We have to use the God-given resources we have in this country--yes, prudently, smartly, and in a responsible way. There are ways to do that.

We have made tremendous progress in this country over the last 50 years. I am from Pittsburgh, and they talk about, back in the day, that you had to bring two shirts to work because, by noon, your shirt would be dirty.

We are making tremendous progress with the environment. I have another bill that I am trying to get this House to move, so we can send it over to the Senate to help that progress continue, called the SENSE Act, H.R. 3138. Again, I hope to get this House to move it, but we have to get the Senate to act.

Thank you so much. I want to thank my good friend from Georgia for hosting this hour.

It is so important to talk about what really matters to people--our constituents, hardworking families--who are just trying to make it through, to get by, and to have hope for a bright future.

Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight, troubled over a recent email I received from a constituent of mine. Jessica from Lake in the Hills in Illinois wrote me with concern about her current economic condition.

She is a single mother with two teenagers, but like many Americans, she recently lost her job amidst the slow economic recovery. Of course, she is greatly concerned about providing for her children, now that her main source of income has dried up.

As Gallup recently confirmed, many Americans like Jessica are having to spend more on items they have to buy and less on items they choose to buy. This mandatory spending is squeezing out everything else in their budgets.

The rising costs of basic necessities, like groceries, gas, and utilities for middle class families like Jessica's, smothers them as the cost of day-to-day living goes up and up. At the end of the month, there is little left over for them to choose to buy something for their homes, for their families, or for themselves.

This is heartbreaking and frustrating because the House has passed legislation to lower energy prices, create jobs, improve work-life balance, and do many other things to help people.

Energy prices are an ever-present concern for Americans who drive their kids to school, commute to their jobs, cool their homes, run their manufacturing plants, or harvest their crops.

The House passed Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That Works Act, and it would do just that, cut prices at the pump by opening new Federal lands to energy development. The Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation Act would grow Main Street jobs by reducing regulatory burdens on American businesses.

The Working Families Flexibility Act would help workers better manage their work-life balance. That is especially crucial for families like Jessica's who are stretched thin between caring for their families and working just to earn a living.

The House has also acted on behalf of veterans, and I am so proud of this. When our servicemen and -women return home, the last thing they should have to worry about is unemployment.

It is our duty in Congress to ensure there are jobs available for our veterans, but the employer mandate in the President's health care law has discouraged many small businesses from hiring more workers at a time when our economy is still struggling to recover.

H.R. 3474, the Hire More Heroes Act, is commonsense legislation that relieves the employer mandate burden on businesses that want to hire veterans.

It is just astounding to me that the Senate still refuses to take up this legislation that would help our veterans. Still, I do have hope. I have hope that we can work across the aisle to help address the problems of the middle class.

That is what the American people sent us here to do. Just this month, the House and Senate passed and the President signed H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or the SKILLS Act, which helps reform and modernize our Federal jobs training programs.

By 2022, our country will lack millions of skilled workers with degrees beyond high school, such as paralegals, welders, radiology technicians, and police officers. Federally funded job training programs help Americans of all working ages gain the knowledge and skills necessary to reenter the workforce, retrain for new jobs, or increase their value to their current employers.

When far more people in my home State of Illinois have given up looking for work and have left the workforce than have found new jobs, our communities need the tools necessary to match available jobs with available and trained workers.

H.R. 803 will help put local workforce investment boards in the driver's seat to tailor their services to fill the local jobs of the 21st century. It also streamlines a confusing maze of programs and ensures the business community's voice is heard, putting businesses above bureaucrats.

At the same time, it ensures that we have strong accountability over the use of taxpayer dollars. H.R. 803 is a good example--when regular order is followed and both sides agree to talk and work out their differences--that the House can pass important legislation.

We have also passed the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, a bill I cosponsored, which permanently prevents States and local governments from taxing Internet services. Taxing the on-ramp to the Internet is just bad policy.

It hurts lower income families the most and penalizes Americans for communicating with family or for looking for a job online. Again, this bill passed with strong bipartisan support.

The Science Committee recently passed the RAMI Act, which will help

the strong manufacturing base we have in Illinois and others across the country. The bill creates a network of nationwide regional institutes, each specializing in the production of a unique technology material or process relevant to advanced manufacturing.

Small- and mid-sized manufacturers can expand their research and development capabilities and train an advanced manufacturing workforce.

The Senate also introduced a companion bill, and I trust the RAMI Act will become law soon. When it does come down to it, I truly believe we can all agree on about 80 percent of the issues facing this Nation.

Building relationships and working on common goals can help us address the other 20 percent without being divisive.

But where does this leave middle class families right now? They are still finding their paychecks don't go as far as they used to go. Energy prices are still high, and groceries aren't getting any cheaper.

More than 350 bills are stuck in the Senate. Many of those would help Americans get back on their feet again. We don't need political posturing. We need real solutions for hardworking individuals and families. Let's help families like Jessica's and get these bills passed through the Senate now.

I agree with you. And families like Jessica's can't afford to wait any longer. They want help. They are not looking for something to be given to them. They are just looking for opportunity. They are looking for hope, and that is the legislation that we have passed, any legislation like this that just makes sense.

As I travel around my district, it is in the western suburbs of Chicago. As I travel around and talk to job creators, small businesses, entrepreneurs, people who are starting up small businesses or want to start up small businesses, I ask them over and over again--I would love for them to hire 20 more people, but I ask: What would it take for you to hire one more person, just one more person? And over and over again it is common themes of: deal with the things that are causing us to struggle. They are convinced they can continue to make a great product, provide a great service, serve their customers, beat all competition all throughout the world if they can just have an opportunity, if government can get out of the way.

Their fear is uncertainty that is coming out of Washington, D.C., uncertainty under high taxes, increase of taxes and different things, so much regulation that is out there, and now the high cost of health care, uncertainty there as well.

We have taken some commonsense steps, as my good friend from Georgia has pointed out so well. So many of these votes have been strong, bipartisan votes, people on both sides of the aisle working together, cosponsors on both sides of the aisle getting this done, oftentimes with well over 300 votes, and yet it languishes over in the Senate. 356 bills stuck in the Senate.

It is about time that we get that moving. Families like Jessica's, so many other families across this Nation want that help, want us to get out of the way, want the Senate to act, move things forward, and have that hope and opportunity once again.

I thank my good friend from Georgia.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the things that make America great are the things that America makes.

Now, how do we do that?

We have a stable, reliable, affordable energy supply.

Mr. Speaker, I want you to think with me here for a second. We have to have a strong America. Whether it is a typhoon or whether it is a hurricane or whether it is famine or flood or pestilence or civil war-- no matter what it is--when the world has a catastrophe and they dial 911, who is it who answers?

It is the Americans--isn't it?--with our military, with our might, with our goodness, I would argue. So I would argue that, for the world to be a safer place, we must have a strong America.

How do we do that?

Like I said, a stable, reliable, affordable energy supply.

Mr. Speaker, this is not just about jobs and the economy. This is about a strong America that leads this world and makes the world a safer place to live in. I would further argue, Mr. Speaker, that you are seeing the result of an administration's policy. Around this world, we are seeing the results of people who understand that the current policy is weak, ineffective, and to be trampled upon.

It is bewildering to me and, quite frankly, to many Americans that the President and his administration continue to stand in the way of the potential that this country has to offer with respect to domestic energy production for the reasons I just stated. In fact, the President has canceled lease sales and has effectively closed off 85 percent of our offshore resources from exploration. Yet the majority of Americans support tapping these resources so that we can make our country more energy independent--and again, so the world is a safer place to be.

This country needs a President who will empower our energy sector, not suffocate it. I always say, as I did in my opening remarks, that the things that make America great are the things that America makes. Mr. Speaker, when more things are made in America, more Americans will make it in America. When government gets out of the way, we can create thousands of good-paying jobs and a whole lot of affordable, reliable, dependable, secure energy. Then and only then, when more things are made in America, more Americans will make it in America.

The energy sector, as the gentleman said, is one of our Nation's leading job creators, and much more can be done to unleash our energy in these United States. Just look at my home State of Texas. Texas has been responsible for close to half of all new jobs created in the United States since the end of the recession. Texas has allowed the energy industry to flourish while, at the same time, protecting the environment.

Shale gas development, which is booming because of innovations like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling--despite this administration--is leading to billions in new investments in my district alone, billions in my District 14 on the gulf coast of Texas, for example. Chevron Phillips Chemical Company is investing $6 billion to build two polyethylene plants in Sweeny, Texas, bringing 400 new permanent jobs and 10,000 new construction jobs to my district alone. You all know polyethylene is used to produce common plastic products we use every day, and it is derived from natural gas. In addition to many other projects, two companies in my district are waiting to invest billions--with a ``b''--of dollars in liquefied natural gas export facilities, which would bring an untold number of new construction jobs to my State and the Nation.

It is a puzzle to me that this administration, instead of encouraging more of this kind of private investment nationwide, has decided that what we need now are more regulations. Are you kidding me? Just this past March, the administration announced that it is in the process of developing regulations on methane emissions from various sources, including from hydraulic fracturing sites. This is despite the fact that methane emissions have fallen by 11 percent since 1990. Such government overreach, which, undoubtedly, will also encompass emissions from cattle--if you can believe that--will raise costs for consumers, destroy jobs, and hurt energy production. This administration is so extreme it is proposing to regulate cow emissions. Now, in Texas, we call that a lot of bull. This Obama administration is out of touch with everyday Americans and is out of control with energy regulations. The administration's announcement on methane emissions is just one small piece of a much larger regulatory strategy.

Take the EPA, for example. The EPA is requesting millions of dollars to conduct a study of hydraulic fracturing, which is a technology that has been safely utilized by the oil and gas industry in Texas since at least 1947. In at least three cases, the EPA has blamed hydraulic fracturing on water contamination. In all three of those cases, they were forced to retract their conclusions. Therefore, I suspect the purpose of their study is only to justify further regulatory actions.

Most importantly, we cannot forget that the administration is planning to repropose a new rule on ozone this December. When originally proposed in 2010, this regulation was widely cited as the most expensive regulation in history, which would cost hundreds of billions of dollars and put over 80 percent of our Nation out of compliance--80 percent of our country in nonattainment when it comes to ozone regulations. Mr. Speaker, I would offer that the EPA needs to use common sense when it comes to the common sense of their nonattainment.

Unlike our counterparts in the Senate, the House has passed legislation to expand domestic energy production. It has acted to hold the Obama administration accountable for its regulatory agenda. On June 26, with my support, the House passed H.R. 4899, Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America that Works Act. If enacted, this legislation will require the administration to move forward on the new offshore

production that the gentleman was referring to in areas that are projected to contain the most oil and natural gas resources by requiring new lease sales and by streamlining permitting. I could go on and on and on.

I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, even though, when he was running, the President said he had an all-of-the-above energy strategy, the truth is it is none of the above. He is in the process of killing the coal industry. Make no mistake. Fossil fuels will be next.

Let me close by saying I call on the President, as the gentleman did, to permit the Keystone pipeline. Let it get built. Let America continue to be an energy leader in the world. Let America be solid and strong, and let us, once again, have a safe world.