Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I missed votes on July 21, 2011 in order to attend the funeral of one of my staffers. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall votes 612, 613, 614, 619, 621 and ``no'' on rollcall votes 615, 616, 617, 618, and 620.

Mr. Speaker, I ask you to join me in honoring Mr. J.D. Lindsey of Tift County, GA. Mr. Lindsey is a U.S. Marine and a decorated World War II Veteran. He received the Purple Heart for wounds suffered while serving our Nation on active duty. Since his discharge from the Marine Corps, he has worked tirelessly for veterans' causes and issues. He was responsible for obtaining the DAV van that is used to transport veterans to their medical appointments at the VAMC facility in Dublin, GA each week. He uses his personal funds to see that the van continues to run each week without interruption. When necessary, he has also used his personal vehicle to ensure that every veteran in need makes it to his or her appointments. He has unselfishly given of his time and money to not only serve our Nation while on active duty, but has remained committed to caring for his fellow veterans and their families all over the Tift area. Any number of citizens of Tifton have benefited greatly from his kindness and benevolence.

Mr. Speaker, I ask that you join me today in honoring Mr. J.D. Lindsey for his unwavering commitment and service to our country and our community.

Madam Chair, on rollcall No. 481 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

Madam Chair, I know that $250,000 sounds like a lot of money. It will buy you a third of a new John Deere cotton picker.

From our standpoint as a country, agriculture and manufacturing have been the foundations of our economy. The things that we need to get our economy back on track are access to capital and regulatory certainty. And when you make changes that are this drastic on the floor through an amendment process instead of going through the committee process where it should be done, then you hinder those two things. Farmers lose confidence, and their lenders lose confidence in Federal policy, and that does away with the stability and predictability that some of these issues are designed to provide. The loans necessary to operate the business may become harder to come by if we start to make amendments like this and allow amendments like this on the floor.

I simply rise to say this: Agriculture has been strong. It's been one of the bright spots in America, and it will continue to be one of the bright spots in America because of the work ethic of the people involved in the agricultural industry.

I would ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment and allow us to deal with this in the Agriculture Committee in the farm bill that we will be starting over the next couple of weeks.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, please join me in wishing a very happy 70th birthday to the Warner-Robins Air Logistics Center and Robins Air Force Base. This is an appropriate occasion to reflect and celebrate their proud history and heritage.

From the United States' entry into World World II to today's conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, the men and women of Warner- Robins ALC and Robins AFB have been an essential ingredient in our U.S. Air Force's ability to provide airpower for freedom around the globe.

One constant theme these past seventy years has been that the men and women of Team Robins have been most ready when the nation has been least ready. In 1948-1949, Robins' repair and supply personnel played a critical role in the Berlin Airlift. In 1950, workers at the center literally unwrapped and refurbished hundreds of ``cocooned'' Boeing B- 29 Superfortresses. Understaffed and working around the clock, they made sure that United Nations forces in the Far East had the necessary tools to fight the North Korean invaders. And in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War,

Warner-Robins personnel surged to resupply Israel during Operation Nicklegrass with dozens of C-141s. Providing the Israeli military with critical supplies helped to prevent their defeat in its war with its Arab neighbors.

As we approach the tenth anniversary of September 11, 2001, we must never forget those who paid the ultimate price that day. I can think of no better way to honor their memory than maintaining a world class U.S. Air Force with world class installations like Robins AFB!

Mr. Speaker, please join me to wish Robins AFB many best wishes during this important anniversary year. I remain confident that the men and women of Team Robins will continue their tradition of excellence over the next seventy years.

Mr. Speaker, it's been 45 days since House Republicans passed a bill to cut $100 billion in Federal spending, spending that quite honestly the prior Congress didn't have to spend and should have never appropriated.

I want to remind you that we are here today because Senator Reid, the Democrats in the House, and the President when they were in charge last year chose not to pass a budget. It was irresponsible of them then and it is irresponsible of them now to continue to do nothing.

House Republicans spent 72 hours debating spending bills. We held 107 votes on spending amendments. Senate Democrats, 4 hours, four votes--4 hours and four votes in 45 days, Mr. Speaker.

I want you to think about that. It's unacceptable.

Senator Reid needs to get to work and pass a bill. The American people need it. American livelihoods are depending on it. Senator Reid just needs to wake up in the morning, put on his big-boy britches, come to the Capitol, pass the bill, and help us reduce this big hairy deficit.

Mr. Speaker and ladies and gentlemen, I rise today to speak about H.R. 872.

I was pleased to see this resolution pass the Agriculture Committee with a bipartisan vote. Not one single objection. I want you to think about that. Not one objection from a Democrat or a Republican in the Agriculture Committee.

It somewhat baffles me that we have to waste floor time in the U.S. House of Representatives to help the EPA understand that they're creating regulations that they themselves do not understand.

Mr. Speaker, the EPA already requires pesticide permits from every farmer, rancher, forest manager, State agency, city, county municipality, mosquito control districts, water districts, and golf courses, just to name a few of those that they require permits from. If we do not enact H.R. 872, the EPA would then require an additional Clean Water Act permit for pesticides. I will add again, Mr. Speaker, that many of these permits are already redundant as pesticide applications are already highly regulated under the FIFRA Act.

We all care about the environment, but these EPA regulations fail the common sense test, Mr. Speaker. That agency is on a regulatory path of the destruction of our economy. They are destroying our jobs, and they must be reined in.

Mr. Speaker, perhaps we need a permit for the EPA that says the EPA must understand a rule before they pass one.

To my colleague from Georgia, I want to thank you for your lead on this and for sharing your time with me.

Mr. Speaker, this past November the American people sent a clear message that they want and demand that representatives in Washington get our fiscal house in order. In fact, our very livelihoods as Americans and that of our future generations depend on it.

Now, Americans understand and we as Republicans understand that we cannot eliminate this deficit with one piece of legislation, but they do expect Congress to work continuously to reduce spending, excessive spending in all areas of the government.

Mr. Speaker, last week, it was announced that February's deficit reached a record $223 billion. The House's continuing resolution simply cut $100 billion, approximately 2 weeks' worth of February's deficit, and yet the Democrats refer to that as reckless cuts, 2 weeks worth of February's deficits that we attempted to reduce.

Today, I ask my colleagues to join me in voting for this continuing resolution, which will once again reduce the Federal budget deficit, this time by $6 billion. No, it's not enough, but it is a step in the right direction.

House Republicans recognize that we need to do more to reduce the deficit. We also know that the country expects the President and Senator Reid to accept their responsibility for this fiscal reality that they have helped create and to work with the House, the House as a whole, to reduce this deficit.

I would like to thank the gentleman from South Carolina. I'm looking forward to visiting the family at Christmas.

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of this House and this great country, as I traveled to cities like Covington, Warner Robins and Tifton, Georgia this past week, the main issue I heard from constituents was their growing fear of the size of government's regulatory burden on their business and their way of life.

Now, I find it laughable that today Democrats say that they didn't know this 1099 provision was in this bill. The fact is this 1099 provision was part of a continuous assault by the Democratic Party on small businesses across this country. Now, eliminating this provision will further reduce the government's burden placed on these businesses.

As a small business owner myself, I know from personal experience that passing this resolution will allow employers the time necessary to focus on creating jobs rather than dealing with the burden of government paperwork.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my fellow colleagues to vote in favor of repealing this overbearing, burdensome, job-killing 1099 provision that the Democrats put into that bill. And as Thomas Jefferson once said: ``When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people there is liberty.''

Mr. Speaker, it is time to liberate our people, our small businesses from the burdens of this 1099 provision.

Parliamentary Inquiry

Madam Speaker, we all know this is a challenging time for many families across America. Just like the rest of the country, folks in middle and south Georgia are struggling because of this economy. You see, the government has taxed and spent the American home into a recession. In fact, Madam Speaker, the current administration, in the last 2 years, in piling on regulation after regulation has made it more difficult for small businesses and family farms to grow and create jobs. Agencies like the EPA and laws like the recently enacted financial regulatory reform bill stand to do nothing but kill jobs. As a member of the Agriculture and Armed Services Committees, I look forward to working with my colleagues to tackle the burdensome regulations at these Federal agencies.

President Eisenhower famously said, ``Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you're 1,000 miles away from the cornfield.'' We need to take an eraser to a lot of these rules and regulations that the bureaucrats in Washington are placing on the American small business owner.

Ladies and gentlemen of the House, I just want to say this about President Reagan. He understood that it is the American, not the government, that will make America the greatest Nation on Earth. It's time for this body to tackle some tough issues and follow through on tough decisions. And if I can just read his words, the Gipper's own words: Let us be sure that those who come after will say of us in our time that in our time we did everything that could be done. We finished the race; we kept them free; we kept the faith.