Floor Statements

There's something that I'll personally never forget. That occurred in April, 2007. I'll get to why that is something I'll never forget in a second. That's when the majority leader, Senator Harry Reid, said of Iraq, ``I believe myself that the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and--you have to make your own decisions as to what the President knows--know this war is lost and that the surge is not accomplishing anything, as indicated by the extreme violence in Iraq.''

As in 2007, Senate Majority Leader Reid was in a rush to the exits in Iraq and a rush to declare the war had been

lost. Why was that important to me? Because I was in Afghanistan at that time--or a nation by Afghanistan--getting ready to fly a KC-135 aircraft into combat in Afghanistan. As I was on the treadmill exercising, I saw what the number four most powerful guy in politics said, and I felt it in my soul. I felt anger. I knew that there was celebrating in the caves in Iraq and in the caves in Afghanistan because the United States said we were going to lose. Well, guess what? It took the brave leadership of somebody to say we will not lose in Iraq and we're on the verge of victory. We had a surge in Iraq. And today, it appears to be a more stabilizing situation, and hopefully in 10 years Iraq will be an example of democracy in the Middle East.

Last night, I heard the President say nothing of the word victory in Afghanistan but talked about how this is the beginning of the end. General McChrystal recommended to the President that to win in Afghanistan, we need 80,000 additional troops. Mr. President, at a bare minimum, we need 40,000 additional troops. The President gave 30,000. And in giving the 30,000, he immediately gave a timeline for withdrawal.

Now, I will tell you the Taliban are used to fighting for long periods of time, and they know that if they simply have to wait a couple of years, that is an encouragement to them. But I supported and support what the President was doing in Afghanistan up until last night, even though I believe he should have given the troops required for victory. But last night I saw that all the surge troops are going to be pulled out of Afghanistan, magically, by Election Day. As a military pilot and an Air National Guard pilot, I can tell you the soldiers are weary of war. The American people are weary of war. But leadership is not about saying, We're tired, we're going to quit. It's about standing up for freedom and standing against those that would destroy our way of life.

I was in Afghanistan just a month ago talking to generals on the ground who say we literally have turned a corner in Afghanistan. It is bewildering to me that yesterday we send a message that we're wrapping this thing up and it's the beginning of the end before we have seen that victory arrive. Let me ask you, do you believe last night in the President's speech that the Taliban was sad to hear what he was saying or that they were happy to hear it?

Ladies and gentlemen, just as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid couldn't have been in a bigger hurry for the exits to Iraq, he was proven wrong. So, too, if we stick this out will those that say we cannot win be proven wrong again. America has a vested interest in seeing an Afghanistan that can stand up against terrorism, that can begin to defend itself against terrorists who seek to overthrow their country, who seek to overthrow Pakistan, and can do so with limited U.S. help. That is how we begin to see victory. Or, we can just give up.

I can tell you that as a military member and the military members I've talked to, we don't want to have to be there another day. But we also don't want to come home in any condition less than total victory. Let us finish the job. Let the generals on the ground have the tools they need to finish the job. How we get good news and turn that into an immediate pullout of Afghanistan is beyond me.

Mr. President, I did not hear you once last night mention the word ``victory'' in your speech. I hope that was a needless and sad omission from your speech and did not reflect what you believe in Afghanistan. Ladies and gentlemen, we can win. America only loses when we choose to. America will win in Afghanistan.

I thank the gentlelady for yielding.

I think she said it perfectly. I'm a young guy. I remember in the eighties watching the ``Where's the Beef'' commercials. Everybody remembers that. Well, here is the question: Where's the jobs? Where's the jobs?

I remember a little over 2 years ago the President promising that if we passed an $800 billion stimulus, unemployment would not exceeded 8 percent. Well, where did that get us? In fact, if you look at the President's own charts, they said that by this time under this stimulus plan unemployment would be about 6.5 percent.

I will tell you, that is compelling when you see that on a chart. When you are a country facing a huge economic crisis in a slide, that is very compelling. But it didn't work. It was a waste. We wasted $800 billion of hard-earned money, most of which was borrowed, on something that didn't work.

Now, Americans are still feeling the pain. In fact, unemployment went up towards 10 percent. Counties in my district in Illinois have unemployment upwards of 11 percent. It didn't work at all. And now I have actually heard our colleagues on the other side of the aisle float a second stimulus. They say, well, $800 billion wasn't enough. It probably needed to be more. Well, why don't we just make it $5 trillion or $10 trillion. If we can just print money and borrow it, tax, borrow, and spend our way to prosperity, make it $10 trillion. That is ludicrous. We know that is ludicrous.

I hail from Illinois. Illinois is the President's home State. Illinois has a huge problem with folks looking for work that can't find it. Illinois used to be a manufacturing economic powerhouse in the United States. It is not hard to drive around and see abandoned warehouses or abandoned factories. Joliet, Illinois, a city in my district, knows that all too well. They understand that.

So what do we do? Well, recently Illinois came up with a decision. Well, the budget is bad. Yeah, the budget is bad, because you are running business out of your State. As a result they say, we have to raise taxes, so in Springfield they raised the individual income tax rate and then they raised the corporate tax rate.

Now, there has got to be some good news to this, right? Well, the State of Illinois has had $300 million in increased tax revenues that they have

seen from this corporate tax increase. Oh, but if you read The Wall Street Journal just shortly ago, you would read that $240 million has already been given away to these corporations to incentivize them to stay in Illinois because they were looking at leaving because of this high tax rate.

I will tell you, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, but expecting different results. We cannot tax, borrow, and spend our way to prosperity.

You talk to any small businessman out there, small businesswoman or job creator, owner of a factory that is just trying to take their products to market, and they will tell you the biggest hindrance, one of the biggest hindrances, besides a lack of confidence, is the government.

I have talked to a lot of people and said, how much better would your life be if you weren't forced to sit around day after day and just fill out government paperwork? You could take that employee and make them productive. They may be able to go out and sell goods. They may be able to go out and expand the business.

Nope. We have got to tax and regulate in this town. This town is really good at taxing and regulating, at putting things through a bureaucracy and letting bureaucrats have their way.

We are going off a cliff, and it is time to pump the brakes. It is absolutely time for us to get deadly serious about reducing the size of the Federal government, cutting spending, and getting Americans back to work.

Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle like to say, where is your jobs plan? Well, we have put forward plenty of jobs plans. One of them includes drilling for oil here at home, which we will get into, which my good friend here actually that will be speaking soon sponsored, and I commend him for that.

But there is a fundamental difference between the two parties here. The Democrats believe that government creates jobs. You hear that all the time in what they say. Listen closely. They say, we just need a jobs bill. We need $800 billion in more spending. We need this program.

What you are going to hear tonight is the Republican view. The Federal Government doesn't create jobs. The Federal Government can't make jobs. We can take tax money and put it through a bureaucracy and spit out a paycheck. Jobs are created in the free market. We can create an environment for job creation, and that is what our freshman class came here to do, and we aim to do it.

I want to say, look, this is a great example of freshmen that have come here from all different backgrounds for the purpose of saving our country, saving our Union. And we've seen a great diverse group here from different States, from different backgrounds, and it really is amazing.

I've got to just say, standing here, I am inspired by what I am seeing for the future of America, and I really think we are going to go some places.

I think we cannot be second-best anymore. I don't think people have to say that America is going to be second-best. We can always stay best.

Madam Chairman, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2021, the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011.

Every generation has an opportunity to excel in one area. Every 10 years or so, a country decides whether they're going to be a recipient of something or whether they're going to be a world leader.

For too long, the United States of America has accepted that we are going to be a net importer of energy, that we are always going to be energy dependent, that we are always going to be reliant on foreign sources of energy.

Ladies and gentlemen, two of Alaska's arctic seas contain up to 27.9 billion barrels of oil and 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. This could deliver up to 1 million barrels of oil a day, beginning the process of getting us unaddicted to foreign oil, beginning the process of bringing us energy security, and getting America back to work.

We have an opportunity here in the United States to get people back to work, but it is being limited and hamstrung by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., and by those with a political agenda.

We have the equivalent of a pile of cash under our mattress, but we're taking out loans from the Mafia to care for our energy needs. It is high time that we stand up and say we have resources in the United States, and we're not going to allow political agendas to drive us to continued energy dependence, and we're going to stand up and say produce it here in the United States of America and do it now.

The American people, Madam Chairman, are beginning to understand that this administration and its agencies are having real consequences and real impacts on the unemployment rate, on the joblessness, and on the price we are paying for a barrel of oil and a gallon of gasoline, because every dollar that a gallon of gasoline increases, it is a regressive tax on Americans. Meanwhile, we sit around and we argue while bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., have their way.

Mr. Speaker, last September President Obama referred to America's small businesses as the ``anchors of our Main Streets.'' Unfortunately, economic data released on Wednesday proved that the President's actions speak louder than words. The failed policies of the Obama administration have left small businesses struggling.

According to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, confidence in small business has dropped into recessionary levels. And the reason? Small businesses will tell you that their economic uncertainty is caused by low sales, high taxes, and burdensome government regulations.

Now, I hail from the State of Illinois. Let me tell you a little story about Illinois. Illinois just went and raised its

personal income tax level and it raised its corporate tax level. So, as a result of this, just a few days ago, we saw The Wall Street Journal put out an editorial which basically said Illinois has raised $300 million in revenue because of the corporate tax increase. Oh, but however, because of the businesses threatening to leave Illinois, they've already spent $240 million in giveaways to corporations to keep them there.

This idea, this thing that we've been on over the last couple of years of tax, borrow, and spend our way to prosperity isn't working. I remember when the President's economic--well, you know what? In my own home district, unemployment exceeds 11 percent in many of the counties. People are asking me: What are you doing to create jobs? Well, I tell them this: Look, the Federal Government can do one thing. We can create an environment for job creation, but the Federal Government doesn't create jobs, and that's been the problem, because in the last 2 years we've been counting an $800 billion stimulus as a miraculous job recovery bill.

In fact, the President promised that by this time unemployment would be 6.7 percent. How's that working out? The President's team promised that if we passed an $800 billion stimulus bill unemployment would never exceed 8 percent. We saw it approach 10 percent, and now it's back on the rise again.

Mr. Speaker, you don't solve our jobs problem by spending more money, because we spent money, and where are the jobs? Where are the jobs? What we need to do is to understand that jobs are not created by this body, but they're created by the private sector, by the folks who get up every day and they put their minds together. They come up with an idea. They risk their capital. They risk their financial well-being, and they hire somebody in hopes that this dream that they have succeeds. In many cases, it doesn't. A lot of folks with an idea to begin a small business are not successful, but then they get up and they try again.

But if you talk to any small business owner, you talk to any manufacturer in the United States, they will tell you that the biggest impediment to job creation is government regulation and taxation.

Is there really anybody that believes--now, I understand some people can argue we have to raise taxes to get more money to government, fundamental disagreement, but I understand people can argue that. But is there anybody that truly believes that raising taxes creates jobs? Is there anybody who really believes that? And what's the number one issue we have right now.

We want to take people, the almost 10 percent, the 9.1 percent of folks in this country that desperately want to have a job, we want to take them from a tax recipient to a taxpayer because they want to be a taxpayer, too.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and over and over and expecting different results each time. But you're going to get the same result. When this body spends money, when we spend $800 billion on a stimulus, we've got nothing but a future of debt, doubt, and despair. Well, I believe we have a future in this country that's prosperous, that never accepts second best.

There's a lot of youth watching here today, but you have a job when you graduate from college, a country that never accepts anything less than being a world leader, and I believe we never ever accept second best. So when we talk about what to do in the future, we need to talk about the most important thing. We do have to rein in spending, but we have to get people back to work, and more and more spending isn't going to do that.

I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, we are facing some pretty tough times in our country. I remember the days when we had very low unemployment, and if you wanted a job you had multiple offers when you got out of college, and everybody needed you and the economy was thriving. And now we are creeping back up in the unemployment.

I remember when we passed an $800 billion spending package out of the House of Representatives--$800 billion--and we were told that if we pass this spending package, unemployment will not exceed 8 percent, and we approached 10 percent. Thankfully, unemployment began to go down, but now it is stalled out, and it is beginning to go up again.

What we have is this idea of we need to spend, we need to borrow, and we need to tax our way to prosperity. And what does that do? Well, I will tell you what it does. It raises our taxes, and it just piles burdens on our children and grandchildren--and us. Yes, we all care about our children and grandchildren, but even this generation now is swimming in debt.

Think about this: If you combine the cost of the war in Iraq and the cost of the war in Afghanistan, you combine them this year, do you realize that is less expensive than what we are paying just in interest on our national debt? Just in interest. And that is going to continue to grow. As we add more and more debt, that interest is going to continue to get bigger and bigger. And do you know what? We have another year of deficits, so the interest is bigger, and we have another year, so the interest is bigger.

Meanwhile, the job creators, the people who really get this economy rolling, the people who we are going to rely on to take individuals who are unemployed and take them from recipients of tax dollars--where they don't want to be--to taxpayers, the small business owners and these factory owners that we want to get manufacturing back, they are the ones that have to say, look, I have to invest for 10 and 15 and 20 years in the future, and all I see is a future of debt, doubt, and despair.

I think my colleagues will agree with me when I say that we live in the greatest country in the world, and I think they will agree with me when I say there is absolutely no reason, there is no reason that Americans should begin to accept the fact that we are in decline.

America doesn't have to be a nation in decline. America is a world leader, and we can retain our position as the world leader, but it is not going to be through what is done in government. It is not going to be by passing more regulations. It is not going to be by passing more taxation. It is not going to be by more and more rules and redtape. No. It is going to be done by restoring that entrepreneurial spirit that made our country so great in the first place.

I remember as a kid watching cowboy movies and seeing the old West and how America built the country that we have today, and learning about the Industrial Revolution and learning about those folks that worked long hours to make what we have, and being very proud of what I saw, every moment. But we began to accept that is no longer in our DNA. Ladies and gentleman, that is not true. That is in our DNA. That is who we are.

We can recover from this massive debt we are seeing, and we can do it easily. Well, we have got to cut spending, but we have got to get people back to work.

My home State of Illinois, the President's home State of Illinois, is a shining example of what not to do to create jobs. In Illinois, we just increased the individual tax rate. Well, that was probably not overly brilliant, because now people are leaving Illinois at an even faster rate than they were prior.

But then we did something especially crazy--we increased the corporate tax rate in Illinois. So now you have our neighbors in Indiana that are really

having a field day with businesses coming over to them. You have our friends in Texas and in the South, like my friend from Arkansas, that are begging folks to come over and bring their businesses from Illinois. In fact, The Wall Street Journal just came out with an article that said while Illinois has raised $300 million in receipts from this tax increase, they have given away $240 million just to keep businesses there that were leaving because of the tax increase. Then we even contemplate in these halls increasing taxes on job creators again.

Debt, doubt, and despair and big bloated bureaucracy is in our future right now. It doesn't need to be. Our future is the future of the America that when you remember your parents and grandparents working hard, that is what we are going to be again.

The situation we are in is not fun. The situation we are in right now is very difficult. It is going to take a lot of hard work. It is going to take tough proposals. We put forward a budget plan to begin to get us out of the deficit and balance the budget. But you know what we got from the other side of the aisle, as my colleagues can attest to, is just demonization. No, not an alternative that we can take our budget and their budget and try to come up and meet in the middle somewhere, which the American people want. They want both sides to talk and come to a conclusion. But we didn't get that. We got television commercials. We got attempts to frighten senior citizens. We got politics as usual.

I don't think it is any doubt if you are watching, I am a young guy. I can tell you that the generation today believes in an America that I believe in. We see people go overseas all the time to Iraq and Afghanistan and defend freedom and stand for what they believe in. And do you know what? Some of these people going overseas today were 8 years old when 9/11 happened, but they know what we represent.

I will not accept second place. My colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle will not accept an America in decline, because we will maintain our position as the greatest country in the world. But, ladies and gentlemen, to do that, we have got to make tough decisions. It can't be about the next election anymore. It has got to be about the next generation. It can't be about 2012. It has got to be somewhat about 2011--right now.

So I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for organizing this opportunity to just talk to the American people and say, look, we want to get people back to work, but you can't spend, you can't tax, and you can't borrow your way to prosperity. Never accept second best. We will continue to maintain our role as the greatest country in the world, and I kind of like being in that position.

I appreciate the gentlelady for yielding.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a moment in time. The Middle East is awakening to freedom. They're seeing the opportunities that lie before them that we have experienced for hundreds of years, and they're begging for freedom.

The greatest disinfectant to terrorism is not necessarily bombs. It's not necessarily armies. It's freedom. This war, this action in Libya, I believe sells itself. I believe it is in the United States' interests and in the interests of freedom-loving people everywhere to support it. But, Mr. President, you need to come to Congress, and you need to say what our interests are there and allow Congress to vote on that, because I believe the action in Libya sells itself.

People all across are begging for this. In 50 years, when boys and girls in school read about the great awakening in the Middle East and the wars and the consternation that we used to have to fight and now you have a bastion of freedom, let us be on the right side of history. Let us be the ones that stood up with people that said, we're going to throw off the reins of terrorism and the reins of dictatorship. This sells itself.

Thank you.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

I thank the chairman for yielding.

I rise today in support of amendment No. 114.

A few months ago, the DOD awarded a $99 million contract for the redesign of the flight suit. While the intentions are definitely good, at a time when we find ourselves in fiscal strains and finding ways to spend money most efficiently, I believe this isn't it.

As an Air Force pilot, somebody that wears the current flight suit, I believe--and I've talked to many of my colleagues in the military, as I currently serve, that believe the current flight suit works just fine. It serves the purpose that it was designed for and in fact does a very good job.

So again, while we're looking at ways to have efficiencies and ways to spend our money most wisely, I ask that you adopt amendment No. 114, which would stop this $99 million redesign of the flight suit worn by only a few thousand people.

Mr. Speaker, let me just read a quote here:

``Leadership means that the buck stops here. Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better.''

Some things never change. That was Senator Barack Obama in 2006 talking about the seriousness of the debt problem and the crisis that we find our Nation in. And today, we've spent over $1.5 trillion of money that we don't have.

Republicans have put forward a budget, a proposal, a blueprint to begin to have the serious discussion that our country needs to have to make sure that the children and we are not left with an unrecoverable debt situation. Americans expect leadership. Even if you don't agree, Americans expect leadership from us, and what do they get? They get demonization. They get accusations. They get fear tactics.

You know, our senior citizens in many cases sit at their homes and wonder what's going to happen. They find themselves concerned with their financial situation. And people on the other side of the aisle sometimes get together and figure out how they can take that fear and use it to a political advantage. That's terrible. Has it been done on both sides? It has.

But today is the day that we get together, and we have to hit the reset button and say for the future of our country, we have got to have a real serious conversation about how to save this Nation for the generation to come after us. This country is the greatest country in the world, and we are not about to give that up. It will never happen. We are going to be the strongest country for the foreseeable future.

There are a lot of folks talking ourselves down thinking that we are going to be usurped by another country. No, we are not. But we do have to come together, and we do have to have the serious conversations if we are going to maintain our place as the world's superpower and as a shining example to other countries all around the world.

I fully believe in what this country is. I fully believe in what we represent, but the days of demonizing each other and not leading have got to end.

It has been 756 days since Senate Democrats have passed a budget. The most basic job of a legislator is to pass a budget, and we haven't done it. Instead, we bicker. Instead, we argue. Instead, we run 30-second television ads and try to scare people so that we can win a reelection again. It's happened on both sides.

But today, please, I implore my friends on the other side of the aisle, on both sides of the aisle, stop today and let's have adult conversations. America is too great, America is too important, and America is too excellent of an example for the rest of the world to be mired down and bickering and to be mired down in debt.

I thank the gentleman from Louisiana, and I thank him for setting this up.

One of the great things about when you talk about, just, in general, America and what we stand for, there is a lot of disagreement. But when it comes to supporting our troops, when it comes to what America stands for, there is no disagreement.

The gentleman from Louisiana and I have become great friends, and on this mission we got to really see what America stands for. And even though there are differences sometimes in where we should see foreign policy, and that is understandable and that is fine, there is no difference right now in supporting troops and supporting those who put their lives on the line.

As a military pilot, I never would expect to be in a situation where myself and scores of my brothers and sisters would be killed by a mad gunman walking into a room. That is something that I am sure these brave heroes that we are talking about never expected. But it happened. It was tragic. But they stood up and fought for their country, and in the process they lost their lives.

One of those brave heroes who lost his life is a fellow Illinoisan, Captain Nathan Nylander. Captain Nathan Nylander was born outside of Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in Illinois and Texas.

His military career began in August of 1994, with his enlistment in the United States Air Force. After completing basic military training and follow-on technical training in Texas, Florida, and Mississippi, he served as an enlisted weather forecaster, rising to the rank of technical sergeant.

His enlisted assignments include weather forecaster at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and Seoul, Republic of South Korea, and culminated as the Presidential Weather Forecaster at Camp David, Maryland.

In 2006, Captain Nylander did what few do: He earned his commission through Officer Training School, and ended as a distinguished graduate.

As a weather officer, Captain Nylander held positions as a weather flight commander at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, and Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. Captain Nylander was most recently assigned as the lead weather adviser for the Afghan Air Force with the 438th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group.

His awards include the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with three oakleaf clusters, Joint Service Achievement Medal, and Air Force Achievement Medal.

He is survived by his wife, two sons, daughter, and his father and mother.

These brave heroes are an example of what is best about our country. And while we mourn their loss, we celebrate the freedom that they passed defending.

So I would say over the next couple of years as we go forward and we debate really big issues here in Washington and we have disagreement,

never forget that we are all Americans. That is the most important thing.

So to the nine heroes, and to those who gave their lives already, to those who continue to serve every day, let me just humbly say, on behalf of everybody in the United States Congress, on behalf of Americans, on behalf of a Republican and a Democrat standing here in the Chamber united on this: Thank you. Thank you for defending your country. Thank you for being an example for generations to come. We mourn for your loss, but now we celebrate the freedom that you defended.

Mr. Speaker, what started out as a small pirated radio show of two men running from the law under a bridge and turned into a successful empire today, the Roe & Roeper Show has entertained many people for a long time. Today it's reached its whole 1-year anniversary.

While many radio shows struggle to increase listenership, the majority of drive time listening Illinoisans tune in to Roe & Roeper from 2 to 6 every weekday. In addition to providing cutting-edge news, listeners tune in to hear entertaining and informative exchanges between Roe & Roeper and their callers.

But both come with a very unique and admirable trait that makes the show a success. Roe Conn has a strong level of dedication to his community, and was recently honored as the 2010 Chicago-area recipient of the FBI Director's Community Leadership Award for unwavering support of law enforcement in general. Richard Roeper is a fellow Redbird alumni of Illinois State University, and has led an outstanding career as a columnist, critic, and show host, covering topics ranging from politics to media and to entertainment.

On WLS's Roe & Roeper's 1-year anniversary, I'm honored to take this time to recognize two successful individuals who provide an outstanding show on a daily basis, but also two men whom I'm proud to call friends. Congrats, gentlemen. Here's to another year.

Mr. Speaker, this is a big shocker. I am new here, me and about 86 new people on my side. I watched last year as I was running for office to represent the 11th District of Illinois. I watched as this House failed to produce a budget, which is why we are where we are today. But I also watched as this body, the Democrat- controlled body, attempted to implement net neutrality through the legislative process but failed to garner enough votes. They didn't, and that's fine. That's good. Everybody has a right to do that. This is the people's House.

But what happens if you are unable to do that through a legislative process? Well, why not call a regulatory agency in to do it by fiat. Ladies and gentlemen, the FCC and a whole host of other regulatory agencies have acted outside the will of the people. It is high time that the regulatory agencies do what their job is, which is to regulate, not to legislate.

We were sent here in November to stand up and say the will of the people will be respected in the House of Representatives and the will of the people will be respected by the Federal Government.

I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Madam Chairman, this is an interesting amendment. This is an amendment to a bill to study the cost of regulations that if this bill goes through, regulations won't exist. I don't get it, but okay.

We don't need another study. We need jobs. I come from the 11th Congressional District in Illinois. We have high unemployment. Where I come from is an industry base, a manufacturing base. Americans are hurting. We have high unemployment. Statistics show that jobs are leaving at a record pace.

There is no longer any question about whether the EPA's climate change regulations would actually hurt international competitiveness and affect American companies. We already know they would. We already know that. I talked to a factory in my district that said when cap-and- trade was going to be passed, or this de facto cap-and-trade that's being looked at, if that passes, that will definitely result in them leaving. There's no benefit. It's a higher cost of doing business. It makes us uncompetitive in the free world, especially in areas affected where we have an ability to trade with other countries.

Now here's the very interesting part about that, though. We're concerned about the environment, and we're very concerned about the environment. When you add cost to doing business in a country that already well regulates what is put out of an industry's smokestack and you add cost to that, you drive those businesses overseas into areas where they have far less environmental regulation. So not only are we losing jobs here in the United States, not only is the middle class continuing to be squeezed again by not having their manufacturing jobs, but now we've hurt the environment.

This is backwards. This isn't what we want to do. This isn't the kind of America that we strive to come back to, to get a middle class that's vibrant and producing things and exporting them overseas and people are getting a good paycheck. This amendment studies something that will not exist if we pass this bill.

We heard from a wide cross-section of energy producers and manufacturers on the Energy and Commerce Committee who testified as to the harm these regulations will do in steel and chemical and refineries. The fact that China, India and other industrial competitors have no intention of imposing similar regulations is further evidence that such regulations are costly and economically damaging.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield myself 15 seconds to say that China is not the only other country. There are hundreds of countries, hundreds of opportunities for American companies to go overseas if they are forced and squeezed out of this. I think green energy future is a code word for a no manufacturing jobs future.

With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Bilbray).

I yield myself the balance of my time.

I only have 15 seconds.

I heard two crazy things. Number one, this doesn't change the Clean Air Act at all. This prevents them from going outside of the legislative will of the American people and implementing a legislative idea. By the way, if we're looking at a government shutdown, it's not because we haven't tried on this side; it's because no budget was passed last year.

Madam Speaker, this is unbelievable. We are in a mess. We are in a fiscal mess, and we continually are still throwing barbs and saying, Well, it's not our fault. Yeah, we've been in charge of the House for 4 years and we've had the Presidency for 2 years, but it is not our fault; and we don't want to do anything to fix it.

So in fact here, last year when our friends on the other side of the aisle had all the majority, they failed to do the most basic thing that you ought to do when you run something: you pass a budget. No budget was passed because the November elections were coming up. You didn't want to make the tough choices that would hurt you in reelection, and you didn't want to have to go through that route, so you didn't pass a budget. You passed a continuing resolution.

Guess what, the American people in November spoke. They said the Federal Government is entirely too big, and the big bloated bureaucratic government is crowding out the free market.

And so what happened? We were sent here to Washington, D.C. to control the size of the Federal Government, and we are doing exactly that. We passed a significant budget cut to just a small part of the budget. We are not even talking about the 2012 budget year. That is coming up. But our friends on the other side of the aisle don't even want to show us where they are at. They can't cut spending. They can't do it. They don't want to say no to people. The American people and the children are asking us to say ``yes'' to the future.

I'm a military pilot. That's what I do as a Reservist. I have friends wondering if we are going to get paid. I say, Ask Harry Reid. I don't know. We have tried to make sure that you continue to get paid through this.

I have a friend, Tim Normand, who runs SDL Technology Partners back home. And as he is sending kids to college and as he is building his small business, he doesn't know if he can trust in the faith of what this government is going to be in the future because our friends on the other side of

the aisle don't want to do anything to begin to rein in this out-of- control government. We do. Pass this bill.

I thank my colleague from South Carolina for yielding.

This is great. You know, it's very interesting to listen to this concern. When I was actually out on the campaign trail, I talked to a lot of small business owners. These small business owners were fired up. This is exactly what they're saying is wrong with Washington--more and more government regulation, more and more paperwork--and this is exactly what we have to clean up now after 4 years of what we've been dealing with.

Mr. Speaker, as a new Member I was not in the body when the previous Democrat majority passed this job-destroying regulation, taxes on every sector of our economy. But as I did go around, I heard from businesses like Mussman's Back Acres in Kankakee County in my district, and I heard about the illogical burden that this would place on them, the people they would have to hire just to take care of this requirement-- one of the most illogical requirements I can say of the health care bill. It doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense.

The 1099 requirement impacts small businesses disproportionately by requiring them to file and collect 1099 tax forms for any business transaction--any one--over $600 or more per year, these new requirements at a time when businesses can't afford it.

Actually, if you would allow me to keep speaking, I would appreciate that.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of this legislation to strip the 1099 requirement on business. This body will continue to remove the undue burden on small businesses, the undue burden on society in general that was placed out of this body for the last 4 years.

It is high time that the Republican majority, and, frankly, with many colleagues on the other side that have said it's time to make small business work again--it's time to give them the freedom to hire people back. It's time to take our country back, get people back to work, rein in government spending, and put government where it should be: limited, effective and efficient.

I move to strike the last word, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, my friend from Michigan, I appreciate his interest in this issue. I have to strongly stand up and oppose it, though.

The 11th in Illinois, which is my district, is very, very focused and very reliant upon the ability to move commerce, the ability to have transportation, the ability for free flow of goods back and forth. That's a major, major industry in my district. A lot of jobs rely on that.

One of the great assets we have is the ability to float goods. That's a great thing. The fact of the matter is, when we talk about closing the locks and dams, we talk about the entire Chicago region's water and sewer infrastructure system is built on the idea that water flows out of Lake Michigan via the lock system; and cutting those off would completely devastate the area.

Possibly closing the locks permanently is totally not a solution to the problem. As most people have seen, the locks themselves are not even completely sealed. Even when closed, it still allows for some leakage.

At a time when we are addressing a continuing resolution, we should give the Army Corps of Engineers time to finish their study. Let's continue to be cautious. We're talking about $30 billion in commerce that's going to be affected in my area because we want to quickly make a judgment on this. I understand the passion. I understand the concern, but let's be very cautious.

At a time when the Chicago area, when my district has an economic downturn and people are waking up every day wondering if they're going to be able to feed their family or if they're going to have a job the next day, or people are driving on the interstates wondering if they can even get to work on time because there's already enough trucks, and now we want to add more and more trucks if we close these. That is the absolute wrong answer to this.

And so I'm asking, let's defeat this in this continuing resolution. Let's give the Army Corps of Engineers the time they need.

I ask my fellow colleagues to stand up and oppose this. It's too quick. We have to be cautious. We have to wait. We have to see.

When we took the majority, one of the things we talked about is being cautious when we get involved in free market and commerce; and we've talked about that caution and what we want to do to create jobs and what we want to do to allow people to get back to work and to solve this deficit not just by cutting spending, but by cutting the unemployment rate.

Well, I'm telling you, this would be terribly devastating for the people in Illinois, for the people in the 11th district and, frankly, for folks in the region.

I yield to the gentleman from Michigan.

No problem.

I understand, this takes time. When we talk about affecting $30 billion in economic commerce, I would expect that to take some time.

Now, again, I appreciate the concern. I appreciate everything we're dealing with. This is a very serious issue. But, my goodness, the people in my district are already waking up wondering if they are going to have a job tomorrow, begging the free market to work. And that's all we're asking.

If we want to take this up at a later time, fine. But is it really appropriate, when we're debating hundreds of amendments to a continuing resolution, for this to be the area where we do something that's, frankly, been working or has been in study for 5 years and has a lot more to go?

I yield back the balance of my time.