Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Elizabethtown Community and Technical College (ECTC). Headquartered in Elizabethtown, KY, ECTC will celebrate 50 years of educational excellence and service to Kentuckians during the 2014-2015 school year.

For five decades, ECTC has enriched the lives of its students by providing access to quality and affordable academic, technical and community education programs. By partnering with the public, these efforts have been felt by the community as well.

From 355 enrolled students in 1964, to 7,000 today--it is clear that ECTC has blossomed into a strong institution of learning. With four campuses and additional extended campus sites, ECTC directly serves 12 counties in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

To everyone at ECTC--your commitment to the education of future leaders is commendable and I hope you are very proud of this achievement. I join with all of Kentucky's Second District in congratulating everyone at ECTC on reaching this milestone and wish you many more years of continued success.

Madam Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 4984, the Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act.

But first, I want to say thanks to my friend from Oregon, Congresswoman Bonamici, for putting together a coalition of both sides where we can come together to address a problem that faces so many of the people who sent us here to represent them. And to the chairman, we are going to pass three or four bills this week in a bipartisan manner. The President signed a bill that passed this committee this week as well. It shows that he is putting together where we can find common ground to solve problems that really affect the people who sent us here to represent them. We appreciate him for that.

But to address this bill: with the rising costs of attaining a college degree, many students need financial assistance to make that dream a reality. This bill will increase financial literacy by reforming the current guidelines to require annual counseling for student borrowers. In doing so, students will be empowered with the knowledge necessary to understand what they are borrowing, which financial options to draw from first, and the implication of their future debt load in repayment scenarios.

A June 2014 report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that less than 50 percent of survey respondents with student debt have what they consider a high loan literacy.

Current Federal law only requires colleges and universities to provide financial counseling to student borrowers at the beginning of their studies. In short, these students get a quick snapshot of their loan obligations after they have already committed to the first year's loans, and then again once they have accrued their entire loan burden. Making matters worse, these counseling sessions tend to be broad and not based on information specific to the borrower. Many of today's students do not have a clear picture of what their financial obligation will look like upon graduation, and aren't necessarily given any opportunity to make decisions to alter that course. So will this bill make a difference?

Well, we have an example. Indiana University--being from Kentucky, I have to admit, Indiana University has begun a process of educating students annually prior to accepting their aid package for the following year, similar to our efforts in this bill. IU found that Federal undergraduate Stafford loan disbursements dropped by $31 million, or 11 percent, from the previous year. That is five times the decline in the national average. And they still were served in college. They just didn't take out too much excess debt.

Through this bill, we hope to expand upon what institutions like Indiana University are doing and reform the current guidelines to require annual counseling for student borrowers, and ensure that students are empowered with the information they need to take control of their financial futures.

I encourage my colleagues, and I appreciate the bipartisan support, and particularly my friend from Oregon, for working together, and I encourage my colleagues to support this meaningful legislation so we can arm students with the financial knowledge needed and help lower their debt burdens.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in memory of Chris Billa of Park City, KY. Only 26 years old, Chris lost his battle with cancer on July 14, 2014.

Chris was a son, father and brother. But many knew Chris as a local firefighter. Despite having his own personal battle with cancer, Chris continued to battle the fires in our own community.

WBKO, a TV station in Bowling Green, KY, named Chris a ``Hometown Hero'' in October 2013. In an interview with the station at the time, Larry Poteet, Deputy Chief said, ``He's not changed. If anything has changed about him its made him put everybody in front of him more, and I just don't know how he does it.'' It was Chris's commitment to serve his community and decisions to put others first that rightly caught the attention of so many.

While a community is in mourning, we are all lucky to have shared this earth with Chris. I am grateful for his passion for life and his desire to serve our community. We will miss him and are thankful for his service.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to support the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and it is important. When I first came to Congress, I was the sponsor of this bill when it was in our committee when I first came here.

My experience is I worked for 18 years before I came to Congress in my family's manufacturing business. I remember, when I first got there, we needed skilled workers. We were trying to find skilled workers, and we found out we had a plant full of very smart people who just didn't figure it out when they were in high school for some reason.

I have seen what additional training and education will do for adults--take some of the tool and diemakers in our world, robotics repairmen, and computer-controlled machine programers to a high-wage, high-skilled job and lifestyle.

Also, as I travel through my district--I travel through my district all the time--and all of us do--go into businesses, and there is not a single business that I visited any time recently, even with the unemployment numbers where there are, not a single business, whether or not they are advertising in the paper for applications or not, but not a single one that says

that, if the right person came today with the skills that I need, I would hire them.

This is why we are here today. This is what is happening. The process has worked. We are coming together as a country today, to make sure that the workers are getting a hand up, and we are going to make sure they have the opportunity to improve themselves.

I have seen it, Madam Speaker, I have seen it. When people go through these programs and they complete them successfully, they don't just become a more valuable employee. Each employee becomes more valuable to his and herself.

I am very proud to be here. I am very proud to support this. I appreciate our chairman and Ms. Foxx of North Carolina and all the work together through the House and the Senate, to give the workers of America a victory today.

Mr. Speaker, it has come to my attention that I inadvertently voted incorrectly on the Gosar amendment to H.R. 4745, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015. This amendment prohibits the use of funds to implement, administer, or enforce the proposed rule entitled ``Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing'', published by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development on July 19, 2013, in the Federal Register. It was my intention to vote ``aye'' on Rollcall vote 285.

I want to thank my friend from California for yielding.

I rise today, Mr. Speaker, to talk about this devastating disease that impacts nearly every family in America: Alzheimer's disease.

According to the Alzheimer's Association, Alzheimer's is the costliest disease in America, with a direct cost of roughly $200 billion--most of which is paid by Medicare and Medicaid, and accounts for 20 percent of Medicare spending. These numbers will only continue to increase, making the discovery of a cure, or a way to delay onset, critical to our health care economy.

Across the United States, more than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's today. In addition, the Alzheimer's Association estimates that someone will develop this disease every 67 seconds. Eleven percent of Kentucky's seniors are currently living with Alzheimer's. It is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States.

But it is not the financial drain that is the most devastating.

My family has been personally touched by Alzheimer's. My great uncle suffered from the disease. I will never forget as a little boy hearing my grandmother talk to my mother about my uncle getting lost and trying to find his way home from the grocery store. Nobody really understood it. I remember as a young boy being confused about how this uncle I knew could be so confused and lose his way.

I also experienced it in my family with my wife's grandfather. I will never forget when my wife and I went to visit him the first time he didn't recognize her. The devastation on her face that someone she loved so much didn't know who she was has still stuck with me today.

This disease is emotionally wrenching for families who are impacted.

Beyond the direct emotional and physical impact, family members serving as primary caregivers are stretched to their limits. Many spouses and grown children work full time-jobs and then come home to care for their family member.

Finding a cure or treatment for Alzheimer's is of the utmost importance. I was pleased to introduce H.R. 4351 with my colleague, Representative Paul Tonko of New York.

H.R. 4351, the Alzheimer's Accountability Act, seeks to ensure that the research and resources needed to find a cure for Alzheimer's are properly conveyed to Congress. By receiving a professional judgment budget directly, Congress will be in a better position to see the needs and promise of researchers and use that information to make critical decisions, especially during difficult budgetary situations.

Today, H.R. 4351 is bipartisan. My friend Paul Tonko and myself filed this legislation. We have 80 cosponsors. There is also a Senate companion bill, and it is gaining momentum.

Again, I want to thank my colleague for organizing this evening and for allowing me to be part of this effort to shine a light on Alzheimer's disease. I would also like to encourage all of my colleagues to cosponsor H.R. 4351, and help make fighting Alzheimer's a top priority.

I will just take a couple of minutes. Thank you for yielding.

I thank Representative Tonko for cosponsoring and working on this legislation together.

I will have to give also my sympathies to Ms. Slaughter. She took me in when I first got here. I know she is from upstate New York, but if you listen to her accent, it has got a little bit of Kentucky mountain in it.

She is from our beloved mountains. We had that connection. She has been special to me. So my prayers are with her.

The one thing I want to share, because we are short of time, is we are doing research into this. The Alzheimer's Association said by 2050, Alzheimer's disease will cost the Federal treasury a trillion dollars.

So I remember thinking, Well, by 2050 my great grandkids would have to take care of that. Then I did the math. I am going to be 86 in 2050. So the generation that will be in that category is me. It is not some long-off issue. So my children will be dealing with it, as well as me and people my age.

I am the end of the Baby Boom. I was born in 1964. So by the time I am 86, the entire Baby Boom will be older than me. At least my age, or older. And that will be not just a stress on the Federal budget, but as I said, the dignity of the person with the disease and the stress on the family dealing with the disease and the emotion of it is why it is so important.

I saw it with my great uncle, with the early onset of Alzheimer's when I was a young boy and didn't quite understand what was going on. And later on in life, we figured out what was happening. Our whole family didn't really understand what was going on in the 1970s. But we do now. And I think it is something we need to put the efforts of both parties together on--as you see, we are standing here together--the effort to move forward. It is when my generation is retired, our children aren't going to be able to sustain it financially or emotionally. Therefore, it is something we need to do today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of William (Bill) J. Rissel. After 23 years of serving as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Fort Knox Federal Credit Union, Bill will retire on July 1, 2014.

During a recent interview with The News-Enterprise, Bill said he tried to build a family environment at the credit union during his tenure. He has absolutely accomplished that goal, while growing the credit union and all those who it serves. According to The News- Enterprise, those numbers add up to $1.2 billion in assets, serving more than 80,000 members.

Bill's departure will be felt beyond the credit union's four branches of Hardin County that he expanded upon. It is because of his expertise and aspirations that the credit union serves all of central Kentucky. But it is because of that same leadership and knowledge that the credit union will be in good hands following his departure.

I am grateful for Bill's hard work and vision, and would like to wish him well in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Janice Byrge. On Thursday, May 15, Janice will celebrate 50 years with Corning Inc. Corning, known for its glass products, has grown in Harrodsburg. Some of the most cutting-edge projects are being worked on in Harrodsburg, including Corning Gorilla Glass.

This growth and the great successes of Corning, is due in large part to the employees. One of those employees is Janice.

A Harrodsburg native, Janice has spent half a century exemplifying the hard and quality work being done at Corning Inc. From her early days in ophthalmic, to sheet glass operations, to today's role of being a store room attendant, Janice has been a fixture of the Harrodsburg plant.

Janice still resides in Harrodsburg with her husband David. She is the proud mother of Tammy, the beaming grandmother of Jeremy and a loving great-grandmother.

I applaud Janice on this milestone anniversary, and for her dedication to the job. Please accept my best wishes for today and the years to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the Troops to the Track's fifth anniversary.

A partnership between the Armed Forces Foundation and NASCAR, Troops to the Track is a recreational group therapy program for servicemembers, veterans, and their families. Now in its fifth year, Troops to the Track has reached more than 2,000 individuals since its inception. I am humbled to be part of this initiative.

Last year, I was honored to join participating soldiers and their families from the 19th Engineer Battalion at Fort Knox for last year's Quaker State 400 at the Kentucky Speedway.

I would like to commend the Armed Forces Foundation and NASCAR for joining together in the creation of this important partnership and in giving our troops the recognition they so richly deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Kingsolver Elementary School. Located in Fort Knox, KY, Kingsolver Elementary was presented with the National Blue Ribbon Award earlier this year.

I would like to commend Kingsolver Elementary School's educators and administrators on their many hours of hard work and service to Kentucky's students. Your commitment and devotion to the education of future leaders is commendable and I hope you are very proud of this achievement.

I join with all of Kentucky's Second District in congratulating everyone at Kingsolver Elementary School on this honor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Dr. Franklin D. Cheatham. After 40\1/2\ years of educating Campbellsville University math and computer science students, Dr. Cheatham will retire on December 31, 2014.

Dr. Cheatham, senior vice president for academic affairs, attended Campbellsville College (before it became Campbellsville University) and graduated in 1965. He joined the university as a faculty member in 1973.

Named a Distinguished Alumnus in 2002, Dr. Cheatham received several awards for his dedication to academic excellence and the students at Campbellsville University. Among the awards are: Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award (1989) and the Campbellsville/Taylor County Chamber of Commerce ``Educator of the Year Award'' (1992 & 2000).

IN addition to teaching, Dr. Cheatham has also served as a faculty advisor for Sigma Zeta and the science and math honor societies. He also served as president of and on the board of directors of the Consortium for Computing in Small Colleges.

Dr. Cheatham has gone above and beyond his duties as professor and Campbellsville University and his many students have seen the benefits of those actions. Today I thank Dr. Cheatham for his four decades in education and wish him well in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of Al Rider. Born and raised in Hardin County, Al strived to better the community by promoting a quality education.

On Friday, January 31st, Al will retire from his role as President and CEO of the Central Kentucky Community Foundation (CKCF). Since 1992, Al has worked to develop and implement initiatives to promote a good education and ensure that students follow through on those efforts.

Al has, at one time or another had a hand in virtually every component of education in central Kentucky. According to CKCF, Al has most recently served as the Educational Liaison for the transformation at Fort Knox, facilitator of the K-12 education roundtables, and as the chairperson of the Education Subcommittee of the Hardin County United Project.

An editorial in his hometown paper, The News-Enterprise, said it best. ``From that time to today, Rider has been an influential and instrumental player in improving educational opportunities and, thereby, quality of life in Hardin County.'' I could not agree more.

Al has received several awards relating to his leadership in the field of education, including: the Joseph W. Kelly Award from the Kentucky Department of Education and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Lincoln Heritage Council Boy Scouts of America.

I am grateful for Al's dedication to bettering the education of Kentuckians and wish him well in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I was absent from votes in the House January 7-10, 2014, due to the death of my mother. Had I been present, I would have voted: rollcall No. 1 (Quorum call): Present; rollcall No. 2 (H.R. 724): ``yea''; rollcall No. 3 (H.R. 3527): ``yea''; rollcall No. 4 (H.R. 3628): ``yea''; rollcall No. 5 (Previous Question): ``yea''; rollcall No. 6 (Rule for H.R. 2279 and H.R. 3811): ``yea''; rollcall No. 7 (Sinema Amendment to H.R. 2279): ``nay''; rollcall No. 8 (Tonko Amendment to H.R. 2279): ``nay''; rollcall No. 9 (Motion to Recommit H.R. 2279): ``nay''; rollcall No. 10 (Passage of H.R. 2279): ``yea''; rollcall No. 11 (Passage of H.R. 3811): ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I was absent yesterday due to several flight cancellations and delays due to severe weather. As a result, I missed two votes on Tuesday, December 10, 2013. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall votes 630 and 631.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this legislation allowing individuals to keep their plans into 2014.

Yesterday, my colleagues and I shared powerful stories of many of our constituents who have experienced cancelations and mass rate increases due to ObamaCare. In addition to these individuals, I have many more stories of Kentuckians seeing their plans canceled due to ObamaCare.

More recently, Sylvia Martin from Owensboro wrote to me that her coverage was canceled, and she so far has been unable to get insurance.

H.R. 3350 would allow insurance companies to continue offering 2013 plans, which would benefit the millions of Americans who have seen their current plans canceled. The American people were told repeatedly that if they liked their plan, they can keep it. House Republicans today are trying to honor that promise.