Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, today I would like to pay tribute to Mr. Dan Fager on his retirement with thirty-five years of service with Chevron Corporation.

Dan was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, and he graduated from Topeka West High School in 1970. After high school he attended the University of Kansas for two years. He then transferred to Michigan State University and graduated in 1974 with a degree in Criminal Justice. Dan was a police officer in Baltimore, Maryland for one year before heading back to the University of Kansas Law School, where he obtained a Juris Doctor degree in 1977. Dan lived in Denver right after law school where he worked as a law clerk for the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Dan Fager began his career with Chevron in September of 1980 as a Land Representative in the Denver office. In 1985, he became District Supervisor for Land. Dan then moved to Washington, DC as the Upstream Representative in 1988 on a ``temporary'' assignment. That temporary assignment soon morphed into his permanent placement.

Fager quickly became a highly respected and effective lobbyist in Washington, DC establishing Chevron as a go-to company on Capitol Hill. His word was his bond and his fact-based approach and commitment to integrity made him indispensable to Chevron and the people in Washington with whom he worked.

His accomplishments are numerous, including the Unocal acquisition for Chevron, first preserving Chevron's right to operate in Burma and then later helping to lift the sanctions that allowed the U.S. to normalize the commercial relationship. He also played a key role ensuring that U.S. tax policy encouraged U.S. investment in oil and gas.

As the head of Chevron's federal affairs team, Dan managed a staff of four. While his tendency to play the ``devil's advocate'' could sometimes frustrate the team, they agree that his challenges helped them sharpen their lobbying skills.

Anyone who knows Dan will describe him as a true gentleman with a bi- partisan spirit. He is well respected for both his knowledge on issues and his calm and kind demeanor. He is a consummate professional, with a warm sense of humor and strong work ethic. I am proud to call him a personal friend.

I congratulate Dan on his retirement and thank him for his diligent service to the energy industry. I wish him all the best that retirement has to offer.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to draw attention to an issue with serious implications for Louisiana.

Over the past 20 years, Customs and Border Protection has not only failed to collect $2.3 billion in antidumping duties, it has doubled down by refusing to pay collected interest owed to American industries like Louisiana's crawfish processors.

Last October, CBP promised this Louisiana industry it would disburse $6 million in interest, only to reverse its decision 1 month later. This is just unacceptable.

While I was able to include language in the Homeland Security Appropriations bill to address this issue, I still don't believe it goes far enough to ensure that CBP is forced to follow through on paying what it owes under the law.

It is vitally important that Congress hold CBP accountable. This industry is not only an important job creator, it has deep Louisiana roots in Louisiana's culture.

Mr. Speaker, I will not allow CBP to run over this industry without a fight.

Mr. Speaker, it has been demonstrated many times over that ObamaCare is a broken law. For example, under the law, full-time employment is classified at 30 hours a week, requiring these businesses to provide insurance to these employees.

Now, what is the consequence? This creates an incentive to limit hours. This will disproportionately affect 2.3 million low-income workers. It puts our economy in danger of creating a class of part-time employees where having two or three jobs is the norm. That is just unacceptable. That is not the answer for America.

Even major unions like the Teamsters say this law will destroy the very health and well-being of working families. That is not the promise of America. That is not the America we all aspire to. We should be encouraging businesses to hire more, to offer more pay, not to limit growth and employment. That is not the answer.

Today, the House is taking action to save the American worker by lifting this threshold to a more realistic 40 hours a week.

I could tell you real-life experience. Having talked to companies, they are going to be pushing more and more of these workers into part- time employment. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to talk to businesses in their districts and understand what is really happening as a consequence.

That is why we should pass this legislation. I encourage all Members to please support this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the anniversary of a pivotal event in history. Twenty-five years ago, November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, heralding the end of the Cold War. Today Germany is the vibrant financial, economic, and political heart of all of Europe. Germany is an important ally of the United States and central to European integration and a unified Atlantic community.

Today a large segment of the Berlin Wall, accepted by former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and James Baker, as well as Atlantic Council's Fred Kempe, will be unveiled at the German Embassy until a permanent location for the public is found here in Washington. It is signed by the statesmen and activists whose vision in leadership made this possible and led to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It will serve as a very important reminder of the diplomatic ties between our two countries.

Mr. Speaker, I pledge to continue working with my colleagues to ensure that our two countries continue to strengthen our diplomatic, economic, and strategic partnership into the 21st century.

Mr. Speaker, I want to put this in strategic context. We are seeing a once-in-a-century upheaval in the Middle East, and the most virulent manifestation of that is occurring in Syria today with a very complex civil war raging over several years.

On one side you have the brutal Assad regime aligned with Iran and Hezbollah, another terrorist group, and on the other side a panoply of Sunni groups of which the worst, the most barbaric, is ISIL. It is in America's national interest, our national security interest, to defeat and destroy ISIL, period, hands down.

This is going to require American unity, American resolve. And I can tell you, never, never in recent times has American leadership been more in demand. This is the time for us to step up. It will take a lot of work. It is going to take merging the fighting capabilities of the Kurdish Peshmerga with the Iraqi forces; and, yes, it will take the U.S. training and vetting moderate Syrian forces to deal with this.

This is a necessary first step, and that is why I support this amendment. It is necessary. It is not sufficient. Again, we need a broader strategy that is going to involve a coalition. This first step will show that American resolve to friends and foes alike as well as those who are on the sideline. We will demonstrate that and pull this coalition together.

This will help the President have the necessary leverage to do this and put this coalition in place to defeat this threat of ISIL, but also to get to a broader political settlement in the region, because what is going on in Syria, even beyond ISIL, is a national security threat to the United States. That is why this country, all Americans, must speak with a unified voice. A strong vote on this amendment is essential as a first step to putting this in place.

My colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I urge the President--I urge the President--to put all diplomatic efforts into putting together a strong coalition and to ask for very specific deliverables on each of these countries, whether it is Turkey or Qatar or the Saudis. These countries have to step up if we are going to have a successful strategy in the long run.

The President needs leverage. This gives him the first step. I would hope that he will come to the Congress for a broader authorization for the use of military force because I do believe that will give him all the leverage he needs to complete this diplomatic task in putting a coalition together, along with the military strategy with these allies in the region, to defeat the immediate threat of ISIL and to eliminate this major problem we are seeing with a failed state in Syria that has allowed ISIL and some of these other extremist groups to arise.

This is the time for unity. This is the time for American leadership. This is a time that we step up.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5418) to prohibit officers and employees of the Internal Revenue Service from using personal email accounts to conduct official business.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

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

Tonight I rise in strong support of H.R. 5418. This bill which I introduced is a response to the Ways and Means Committee's year-and-a- half-long investigation of the IRS' targeting of taxpayers based on their political beliefs.

In its exhaustive ongoing investigation, the committee found that some IRS employees risk that confidential information by circumventing official email and using their personal, nonsecure email for official business. H.R. 5418 fixes this problem by prohibiting employees of the IRS from using a personal email account to conduct any official business, ensuring there is a full record of IRS activity and that taxpayer information is secure.

There is no reason for an IRS employee to have confidential taxpayer information on his or her home computer without the necessary safeguards against disclosure. This behavior must be stopped, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I think it is a good bill. It is a commonsense bill. It has broad support. I urge its support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5419) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for a right to an administrative appeal relating to adverse determinations of tax-exempt status of certain organizations.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members

have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

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

Tonight I rise in strong support of H.R. 5419. This bill which I introduced requires the IRS to grant the same fair and unbiased appeal process to groups applying for tax-exempt status as it grants to other taxpayers.

During the investigation, we found that groups were being denied their ability to appeal denials of tax-exempt applications due to an unfair administrative practice at the IRS. This puts too much decisionmaking power in the hands of Washington bureaucrats, the same people we now know were depriving certain conservative groups of their right to operate as tax-exempt groups. This bill fixes that and provides equal rights to appeal for all tax-exempt applicants.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I think this is, again, commonsense legislation that is needed. It is a necessary reform which came out in the investigation that we have done so far.

I urge its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5420) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to permit the release of information regarding the status of certain investigations.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on the subject of the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, tonight I rise in support of H.R. 5420. This bill, which I introduced, reforms the Tax Code's rules on information disclosures to victims of unauthorized disclosures.

In recent years, the IRS has leaked the confidential tax information of numerous groups: The National Organization for Marriage, Crossroads GPS, Americans for Responsible Leadership, Freedom Path, and others. Disclosing taxpayer information like this is a crime, but current law does not allow the victimized taxpayer to know anything of the status of the investigation into the leak.

H.R. 5420 fixes this by allowing victims of unauthorized disclosures to learn about the status of any investigations into their particular cases.

Additionally, some victims of IRS targeting were subject to the flagrant disclosure of their confidential tax information to the media. Yet these victims are not permitted access to any information about the progress on the investigation of these violations.

This bill provides certainty to taxpayers who have been victimized in this manner to inquire about the status of their investigations. It is a commonsense bill. It is a good reform.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend across the aisle. I think if only we could conduct business this way, it might all be good and we could solve a lot of problems, so I thank the gentleman.

This is, again, a commonsense reform, it came out of the investigation, I urge its passage.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge House and Senate conferees to send bipartisan veterans' legislation to the President's desk before we break for August. This legislation would authorize new community- based outpatient clinics for Lake Charles, Lafayette, and others around the country.

Our veterans have waited long enough. They have waited since 2008, and they have been blocked because of bureaucratic roadblocks. This is unacceptable. And now we are even closer to honoring this promise, because the House and Senate have passed legislation.

It is time to act on behalf of our veterans who have served this country. If Congress fails to act, we will continue forcing veterans to drive hours to Houston or Alexandria, Louisiana, for specialty care or even primary care or, even worse, they will be forced to go without care.

This is just unacceptable, and I will not stand until we get this legislation done. That is not the standard of care and accessibility these men and women deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Jeff Miller for his strong leadership on this issue. He has fought beside me and others to get these clinics.

I urge conferees to work together. Put veterans' medical care ahead of election-year politics, and let's get this done.

Mr. Chairman, the Ways and Means Oversight Subcommittee, which I chair, launched this investigation about 2 years ago into the targeting of conservative organizations, and the IRS has continued to be evasive and obstructive. It is unacceptable.

We have kept pressure on, and cracks are now showing, illustrating a culture at this agency that tolerates and even encourages politically motivated activity.

Mr. Chairman, the IRS has lost credibility with the American people. Today, the American people view this agency as a tool of political intimidation and retribution, instead of an unbiased nonpolitical agency.

The American people demand truth and justice in this matter, and so do I. No American should live in fear of an administration willing to use the IRS to inflict pain on those who they do not agree with ideologically. This amendment will help solve some of that.

By reducing the commissioner and the Office of Legislative Affairs by $2 million, we will use the power of the purse to put them further on notice that they have to come clean on this. We will not stop until we get the answers.

Mr. Chair, first of all, I want to compliment Chairman Simpson on all the work he has done on this bill, but also the work he has done with me to plus up the harbor maintenance account and the funds available for dredging. It is critically important.

I am very proud to stand with my colleague from Louisiana in support of this very important amendment. As my colleague expressed, the President's fiscal year '15 budget creates even more of a shortfall.

We have got a significant backlog in harbor maintenance. This is going to hurt American competitiveness. In fact, roughly $3 billion worth of coastal navigation operations and maintenance work could be done if the funds that are collected for this were actually made available to be used for it.

Louisiana is a leading State in trade, international trade, with three of our top ten ports that conduct trade in goods and energy.

More U.S. merchandise travels by ocean-going vessels than by airplanes, trucks, freight trains, and pipelines combined. That is why these funds are critical for American competitiveness, and that is why they are really important in facilitating U.S. foreign trade.

Our waterways are vital economic pathways for our Nation's commerce and the ability to move American goods to these foreign markets. Hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on this--jobs in Louisiana and across the United States. This infrastructure is vital.

Our amendment would take a modest step. It would redirect $1 million from the Department of Energy's administrative offices to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operations and maintenance account. I believe this was a simple, strategic, and commonsense approach to help prioritize necessary maintenance and move us in the right direction.

The Federal Government has the principal responsibility for maintenance of these harbors and shipping channels. Let's make sure that the Corps has the tools to do the job with the money that is collected for that job. The President failed to do that in his budget request. We can make that change now.

I urge my colleagues to support the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I want to applaud the gentleman from Colorado for bringing this bill to the floor.

I wholeheartedly support H.R. 6 for a number of reasons. I also want to address some of the issues that the gentleman from the other side raised.

First of all, let's consider international trade is the key to growth, it is the key to job creation, it is the key to reducing our deficits, and it is important geopolitically for the United States.

Because of this great advance in technology with hydraulic fracturing and drilling, we now have unprecedented levels supply of gas that we can use domestically for manufacturing, and we are seeing a domestic manufacturing renaissance.

Secondly, the amount of gas that we will export from this country, for a number of reasons, will not cause significant price spikes. In fact, it will add stability to the pricing of gas in this country and promote more drilling, which is what we need to do.

We need to take care of our own energy security here, and we can provide energy security for our partners--our trading partners--around the world. This is why we need to move forward on this.

It is clear that, over the last 2 years, the U.S. Department of Energy has raised its long-term forecast on gas production by nearly 40 percent, with price expectations having declined 15 percent over the same period.

So the point that the gentleman makes about price spikes because of LNG exports is really, really unfounded--an unfounded point.

LNG exports could contribute up to 450,000 jobs between the years 2016 and 2035 and add $73.6 billion annually to our GDP.

My home State of Louisiana--in fact, the Third Congressional District, my district, is the leading area in this whole effort. We have currently the first two Department of Energy and FERC-approved facilities that are undergoing construction today.

The first one, the Sabine Pass facility, will see its exports probably the end of 2015, early 2016. The others will follow.

We currently have eight--eight--that are waiting and have been waiting over a year--eight facilities waiting over a year for approval from the Department of Energy. That is before they go through the expensive FERC process.

This is why we need this legislation: to get the Department of Energy to move forward on this, so that we don't hold up something that is going to help us grow our economy, create jobs, and be very important geopolitically.

Trade not only acts as a catalyst for creating jobs, it reduces deficits, promotes American goods and services internationally, and energy should be no different.

That is why we need to move forward. We have a unique opportunity. Let's embrace it now, and let's do the right thing for our country.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to commemorate the passing of a great man in our community who served his country as a United States Marine and later as a community leader in South Louisiana.

Earl Brown Flatt joined the Marine Corps in 1941 at the ripe old age of 17. Earl knew from Day One he wanted to serve his country and make a lasting impact for future generations. He accomplished that goal. Participating in the Iwo Jima campaign during World War II, Earl was a proud member of the Marine Corps exemplifying its core values of honor, courage, and commitment.

After his distinguished career in the Marine Corps, Earl took a leading role in the organization of State Farm Agencies in the State of Louisiana. He was a State Farm Insurance Manager for 44 years and retired in 1994. Earl made sure to give back to his community and worked tirelessly to improve it. He helped establish the Crime Stoppers of Lafayette and was very active in the Republican Party of Louisiana. In addition, he was a charter member of the Oakbourne Country Club. But Earl never wandered very far from the armed services as he served as the President of the Honor Air and arranged 22 flights to Washington, D.C., to visit the memorials. He attended countless funerals throughout Acadiana to honor the lives of fallen soldiers. His patriotism was only matched by his devotion to his family.

Earl is survived by his wife of 62 years, Darlene Storey Flatt of Broussard; two sons, Pat Flatt of Broussard and Jon Flatt of Austin, Texas; two brothers, Wayne Flatt of Dallas, Texas, and Estle Flatt of Nashville, Tennessee; five grandchildren, Rachel, Wesley, Alys, Leigh Anne, and Olivia; and one great-grandson, Cooper.

I applaud Chairman Brady's leadership on this issue. He has been instrumental in getting us to this point.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill after 3 long years of working on the policy to actually get to a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on policy and divided government. It has not been easy, but we have managed to get an agreement on a policy to repeal automatic annual cuts to physicians. A 24 percent cut in just a matter of weeks is facing doctors under this flawed formula.

Now, Congress first promised to repeal this formula more than a decade ago. Democrats repeated the promise when we were debating ObamaCare. They failed to put it in there. They failed to address it in ObamaCare. The passage of this important bipartisan legislation would finally honor that promise, that of protecting seniors' access to doctors. A doctor-patient relationship is built on trust and high quality. It ensures quality measures going forward, and it creates certainty for physicians and seniors.

I want to point out something because our friends have not given the full story here.

We have agreed on the policy, but we have a problem in coming up with the pay-fors. It is a tough conversation, but the talks have broken down in a divided government. Senate leadership has refused to negotiate in good faith and to discuss responsible ways to pay for the bill's $138 billion price tag. We are going to pass this bill to get those discussions started. Republicans proposed savings from the delay of ObamaCare's very unpopular individual mandate.

Now, I don't think it is acceptable to do nothing, and I don't think it is acceptable for the Senate Majority Leader and others in the Senate to just put their heads in the sand on this. I hope that the Senate will pass a version of H.R. 4015, giving us time to get together to hash out the differences. We are so close. We are on the goal line in this work that has been undone for years. It is time to get it done.

The President's own budget lists bipartisan Medicare reforms that the President put on the table that could

easily raise the bulk of savings needed to repeal the SGR, and we could do this without shifting more costs to our Nation's credit card and without resorting to budget gimmicks or by imposing massive new cuts on hospitals and other providers. We have a clear path. We can get this done in a bipartisan way.

Mr. Speaker, as a heart surgeon who has cared for thousands of seniors under the Medicare program, I urge my House and Senate colleagues to pass this bill. Let's get down to the negotiations of how we are going to pay for it in good faith, and let's finalize an agreement on how to fix this longstanding problem, which has been a thorn not only in the sides of doctors but which has been a real problem for Medicare access, a real problem for seniors seeking access to a high-quality doctor-patient relationship.

Mr. Speaker, I have had enough. It is time to get this done. Pass this bill.

Mr. Speaker, due to inclement weather on the morning of Tuesday, March 4, my flight was unable to leave for Washington, DC, from Lafayette, Louisiana. Therefore, I was unable to return in time for votes. Had I been present to vote, my voting record would reflect the following: H.R. 3370--``yea''; H. Res. 488--``yea.''

I also offer the following statement in favor of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act:

I support H.R. 3370, responsible legislation keeping thousands of Louisiana homeowners from facing dramatic increases in their flood insurance premiums.

The National Flood Insurance Program must be financially sustainable and it is irresponsible for it to carry a debt of $24 billion.

However, we must find a balance between fiscal stability and punishing homeowners who followed the rules. This legislation brings fairness to homeowners and much-needed stability to the NFIP.

I am pleased this bill restores the grandfathering provision, the home improvement provision clause, and provides meaningful protection to Pre-Firm properties. I look forward to FEMA improving the flood mapping process to help inform the decision-makers in communities across America.

Local leaders must be vigilant in managing the growth of our neighborhoods in South Louisiana to ensure they are using the best available data to drive our zoning requirements, our building codes, and our insurance ratings.

Congress must remain engaged in its oversight of this program and its implementation in the years ahead. It must be committed to finding creative ways to further strengthen the NFIP without harming policy holders or the general public.