Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 502, had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

In light of the concern of the chairman of the committee and the whole of the bill, which is his jurisdiction, I respectfully yield to his opinion on how he wants that handled.

I would accept the time.

I would like to thank my colleague from West Virginia for his help on this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment to lift the deepwater moratorium for companies that meet the new safety requirements and guidelines recently set in place by Secretary Salazar.

Make no mistake, BP was a bad player. As we have discovered through numerous congressional hearings, this company took dangerous shortcuts to save money. They ignored warning signs and the advice of their own workers who were concerned about the stability of the well, and they continued to drill even when they knew that the safety mechanisms in place to prevent a blowout were not working properly. Eleven good men died because of their greed.

The tragedy on Deepwater opened our eyes to the need for tougher safety regulations for offshore drilling, to the need to strengthen the enforcement of both new and existing laws, and to the need to protect workers who report their companies' dangerous and even illegal practices to regulators so that we can stop another accident before it happens.

Yet an indiscriminate blanket moratorium punishes the innocent along with the guilty for the actions and the poor judgment of one reckless company. If a rig meets all of the tough new safety requirements issued by the Department of the Interior, if it has been fully inspected and deemed safe, why should it sit idle? The workers of that rig, why should they go jobless until the arbitrary 6-month period is over?

People in Louisiana understand that it doesn't make any sense. Louisianans, more than any other people, want to prevent another disaster from happening in our waters, but the irresponsible decisions and the dangerous actions of one company shouldn't shut down an entire sector of our economy, sending thousands of workers to the unemployment line. We need to fix the problems that led to this disaster in the gulf without paralyzing America's domestic energy industry in the process.

That is what my amendment does. Instead of a blanket moratorium, my amendment would allow drilling permits to be approved for those rigs that meet the new tougher safety requirements issued by the Department of the Interior in the wake of the explosion. Those 31 stalled drilling rigs directly employ some 1,400 workers. Hundreds of small businesses in Louisiana service those rigs or are, in some way, supported by the offshore oil and gas industry.

According to research by Dr. Joseph Mason of Louisiana State University, under the current 6-month moratorium, the gulf coast region will lose more than 8,000 jobs, nearly $500 million in wages and over $2.1 billion in economic activity, as well as nearly $100 million in State and local tax revenue--and that's only if the drilling will start back immediately in 6 months.

You don't need to be an economist to see the impact of the moratorium on south Louisiana. You just need to drive through coastal parishes like Lafourche, Terrebonne, or Grand Isle, Louisiana. Talk to people like Shelly Landry, who owns and operates a family grocery store there on Grand Isle. She told me, with tears in her eyes, that the moratorium was shutting down the coast and that it was hurting her business more than the actual oil spill. People like Ms. Landry are still learning to cope with the impact of the oil disaster, and now they feel they are being dealt a second blow--this time by their own government.

Louisiana has a working coast where people make good paychecks producing domestic energy that drives our Nation. They want to get back to work doing the jobs they love, the jobs that provide good lives for their families.

The Childers-Melancon amendment will lift the moratorium in a responsible way and allow our workers to continue producing energy. It will still hold companies accountable for higher safety standards so that we never again experience a disaster such as that like Deepwater.

On behalf of the workers of the gulf coast, on behalf of the small businesses, and on behalf of all of the people of my State who thought they had made it through the worst part of this disaster, I urge my colleagues to vote for this amendment to lift this administration's offshore drilling moratorium to make life better and as normal as possible for an area that has been devastated several times over the last several years.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from West Virginia, Chairman Rahall.

Parliamentary inquiry.

I would like to thank my colleagues and ask for unanimous consent to consider a revised amendment which addresses the issues they are concerned about.

Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support the Gulf Coast Restoration Amendment for one simple reason: responsible oil- spill response legislation must include funding to address the rapid deterioration of our crumbling coast.

Coastal erosion has chipped away at our barrier islands, beaches and marshes for decades. Louisiana alone loses a football field of coast every 38 minutes and is set to lose another 500 square miles by 2050. But the BP oil

spill will accelerate land loss as our marshes die from exposure to oil and chemicals from the cleanup. This disaster has effectively hit the fast forward button on an already terrible problem.

BP will foot the bill for the cleanup effort. We will hold them to their responsibility and their word, but they are not legally bound to address the accelerated land loss as a result of the spill. My amendment will make certain they don't simply clean the water and walk away from the long-term damage to our coast and marshes.

My amendment would create a new civil penalty on gulf coast spills of more than 1 million barrels. The owner or operator of the rig would be responsible for paying $200 million per 1 million barrels spilled to fund environmental restoration projects to save the gulf coast. Restoration projects would be spread across the Gulf Coast States and would be overseen by the Gulf Coast Coordination Council, a task force of Federal, State and local stakeholders, created by this bill. My amendment is deficit-neutral and comes at no cost to taxpayers or to the Federal Government.

Survival of the gulf coast's fragile ecosystem and the fishing and tourism industries that rely on them hinges upon successful restoration of our wetlands. Without them, many gulf communities will vanish, and the rest of the country will lose access to the seafood and recreation they have enjoyed for decades.

The gulf coast is America's working coast. We contribute $3 trillion annually to the economy. Seven of our country's top 10 ports are located in the gulf, and 40 percent of our Nation's seafood is harvested from its waters. President Obama has charged the oil spill response team with finding long-term solutions for repairing our coast. Our families back home are depending on Congress to restore their livelihoods, and we have that opportunity today.

Earlier this month, just after news broke that BP had finally capped their well, Bob Marshall of The Times-Picayune wrote a lengthy column about the long road ahead for south Louisiana and this cleanup. He wrote: ``We need to remember this is a temporary problem on top of a permanent disaster. Long after BP's oil is gone, we'll still be fighting for survival against a much more serious enemy--our sinking, crumbling delta. Our coast is like a cancer patient who has come down with pneumonia. That's serious, but curable. After the fever breaks, he'll still have cancer. Our officials' focus should remain on stopping the activities that continue to destroy our marshes and getting national support for projects that can protect what we have left.'' He's right. And make no mistake, this is that time.

Five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, our country is again focused on a tragedy in south Louisiana. For the past 102 days, every time you opened your paper or turned on the evening news, you saw the well, our oiled marshes and wildlife, and our people, struggling to get through the day and unable to imagine a better tomorrow.

We are staring at a cleanup that will take a decade or more to complete. We will only get there if we address our disappearing coasts. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support my Gulf Coast Restoration Amendment. This is that time, and we can't wait another day.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I yield 1 minute to Mr. Oberstar.

I yield 30 seconds to the chairman.

Thank you, Mr. Rahall.

I thank the 216 people that stood by me to try and protect what is best and loved by the people of south Louisiana and the entire State. Yes, 80 percent of the people in Louisiana believe that they are directly or indirectly affected by this moratorium, directly and indirectly affected by the spill. So what do we do?

If we have it the way of the other side, we will send rigs back out, not inspect them, the hell with it. Next thing we know, we're back where we started.

My amendment provides for safety inspection in accordance with a rolling stock, to get people back to work, to make sure that America has energy, to make sure the people of my district and the State of Louisiana have jobs, good jobs, and we can continue the prosperity that we have had in the past.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of thousands of Louisiana families that have worked tirelessly in the seafood industry to deliver shrimp, oysters, crab and countless varieties of fish to restaurants and markets across this country.

While the news coverage of the BP oil spill is constantly reminding us that we are facing the largest environmental disaster in our Nation's history, it is imperative that we prevent another disaster from developing, that of the death of the Louisiana seafood industry.

I come to the floor today to let you know that Louisiana seafood on the market is safe to eat. There's daily testing, as never before, of all seafood catches, by local, State, Federal experts and scientists.

To aide in this oversight, Congressman Boyd of Florida and I sent a letter to the President requesting that a seafood safety task force be assembled. Their mission would be to further ensure the safety and wholesomeness of gulf-harvested commercial seafood products that are being presently gathered.

Some areas of our coastline are now closed to fishing. These closures are necessary and should underscore our steadfast commitment to consumer safety. But the world must know that approximately 40 percent of our oyster areas are open and harvesting, and 70 percent of our coast remains open to commercial and recreational fishing.

Mr. Speaker, Keith Jones' father, Gordon Jones, and I spent several hours together in recent weeks traveling back to Louisiana. A quote that he said, ``When Michelle tells her boys about their dad, she's not going to show them a pay stub. She will tell them how much their father loved them. I want to say how offensive it is when the law recognizes only pecuniary loss in cases like these 11 deaths. Please believe me; no amount of money can ever compensate us for Gordon's death. We know that. But this is the only means available to begin to make things right,'' and to make them right for Michelle and the two boys.

Mr. Speaker, 11 men died in the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, and as a 90-year old law stands now, the families that lost their loved ones cannot hold those responsible for the harm they have caused them. I have met with the family members of those workers and have seen the pain on their faces. While we cannot relieve these families from the unimaginable grief they will go through for the rest of their lives--losing a husband, a father, a brother, and a son--we fix a law that's clearly outdated and wrong.

When it comes to compensating victims' families, current law is inconsistent, lax, and encourages companies to take risks--gambling with the lives of workers throughout the process. Today, we have the opportunity to change those laws, and the SPILL Act does exactly that. This bill amends the Death on the High Seas Act and the Jones Act so that the surviving relatives can recover some measure of compensation for the loss they have suffered. It is impossible to replace a husband or a father, but just compensation is absolutely necessary to help these families pay their house note, put food on table, educate the children, and live a decent life.

We know that current law encourages risky behavior. We've seen through the ongoing investigations into the Horizon disaster that BP chose to ignore safety concerns about the volatility of their well. As a result, hardworking men lost their lives and we have the worst environmental disaster in our Nation's history in the Gulf of Mexico. We can't let current law stand. Congress must act now so that we encourage safe operating policies and hold companies accountable to the highest standard of workplace safety.

I want to thank Chairman Conyers and the Judiciary Committee for working so swiftly to fix this law, and I urge all my colleagues to side with the victims' families and not the irresponsible corporations.

I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Thank you, Representative Speier. Thank you all very much.

I rise today with a heavy heart to remember the 11 men that died on the offshore rig Deepwater Horizon. Those men and thousands of them like them, women included, travel out to offshore rigs every day to work hard and provide opportunities for the rest of us to make a living.

As the crisis in the Gulf of Mexico continues to grow, we see shorelines, fisheries, and other economies threatened. This unprecedented event has the entire gulf coast and country watching to see how soon we can end this.

Setting aside the present crisis for a moment, I am proud to stand with Members of this Congress to remember those men who represent a very human face to this tragedy.

I would also like to take a moment to recognize the families of those 11 people. Those men were doing what so many other men and women do in Louisiana every day. They were working to provide a better life for their families while braving difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions to provide domestic energy needed to drive our Nation and our economy. Our thoughts are with these families, and I pray that their grief is not forgotten by the rest of us.

And we should also recognize the courageous work of the emergency responders who fought the blaze and saved lives that night. The loss of those 11 workers is a high cost to their families, and so I ask everyone to please remember the personal side to this tragedy as we move forward. Please keep them in your thoughts and, particularly, keep them in your prayers.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1079) congratulating the National Football League Champion New Orleans Saints for winning Super Bowl XLIV and for bringing New Orleans its first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I am proud to present House Resolution 1079 for consideration. This resolution congratulates the National Football League Champion New Orleans Saints for winning Super Bowl XLIV and for bringing New Orleans its first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

House Resolution 1079 was introduced by my friend and colleague, Representative Joseph Cao of Louisiana, on February 9, 2010, and enjoys the support of over 70 Members of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, on February 7, 2010, after a hard fought and dramatic game, the New Orleans Saints, playing in their first ever championship game, defeated the Indianapolis Colts by a score of 31-17 to win Super Bowl XLIV. The victory is the first championship in the Saints' 43-year history and caps a truly remarkable season for the franchise. The Saints finished the regular season with a franchise best 13 wins and 3 losses.

During the 2009 season, they led the National Football League in average points per game and yards per game. Furthermore, the 2009-2010 Saints set franchise records for most points and most touchdowns in a season, as well as most interceptions returned for a touchdown in a single game. Still, it

was during the Super Bowl that the Saints truly distinguished themselves as the best team in the NFL. Despite facing a formidable opponent in the Indianapolis Colts, led by a New Orleans native, Peyton Manning, the Saints relied on head coach Sean Payton's aggressive game plan and the outstanding play of starting quarterback Drew Brees to win the game.

Brees, who was named Super Bowl MVP, passed for 288 yards, threw two touchdown passes, and tied a Super Bowl record with 32 pass completions. Along with Brees' impressive performance, Saints kicker Garrett Hartley set a Super Bowl record by making three field goals of over 40 yards. The Saints also successfully executed a risky onside kick to start the second half of the game. And Tracy Porter's--a Port Allen native--74-yard interception return for a touchdown ensured the Saints' victory.

The New Orleans Saints' success in Super Bowl XLIV stands as a testament to what can be achieved through hard work, dedication, and a never-say-never spirit. In fact, the Saints' motto throughout the 2009- 2010 season was ``Finish Strong.'' And they certainly did. The Saints' commitment to teamwork and to the achievement of excellence is both inspiring and commendable.

Furthermore, their victory has helped raise the spirits of the City of New Orleans and the entire State of Louisiana in the midst of the region's continued reconstruction efforts following Hurricane Katrina and subsequent hurricanes. For all these reasons, the New Orleans Saints' achievement deserves our praise. And personally, I want to applaud the team's players, coaches, management, and all those who helped them accomplish this historic event.

Mr. Speaker, let us as a body take the opportunity to commend this year's Super Bowl champions through the passage of House Resolution 1079, which congratulates the New Orleans Saints on winning Super Bowl XLIV and for bringing New Orleans its first Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to my friend from Indiana (Mr. Carson) to express his gratitude for the New Orleans Saints winning. I think that is what he wants to say.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have?

Let me just start by saying in New Orleans we have what is known as the Who Dats. That is the people that have been loyal since day one. We now have in New Orleans a group called the Renew Dats, which is the group that wasn't sure every year, and the Saints had to try and prove themselves. And we now have a group of people in New Orleans and Louisiana and in the South and in the Nation for that matter called the New Dats, who have now become believers in the Saints.

My 92-year-old mother-in-law has been a fan of the Manning family, since she comes from North Mississippi, and it took her until Super Bowl Sunday morning to reconcile how she handled the daughters, particularly the one that lives in Louisiana, my wife, and the New Orleans Saints versus the Baltimore Colts and Peyton Manning. That Sunday morning she called her daughter and said, ``Peachy, I figured it out. Peyton has a Super Bowl ring, so I will pull for the New Orleans Saints today.'' And Peachy turned around and said, ``It looks like we're going to win it.''

So with that, New Orleans has seen an historic occasion. It is euphoric in its mood. It is in a new time, if you would, because of the excitement, the love of the franchise, the team players themselves, the coaches, and the people that have made this such a great and wonderful year.

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

Madam Chair, I rise today on behalf of thousands of families in Louisiana and across the nation who have been devastated by the fraud of Allen Stanford and his financial companies.

Earlier this year, men and women who had played by the rules and worked hard to prepare for retirement and their children's futures learned that they had been cheated out of a lifetime of savings.

While we continue in our efforts to make these families whole, we have a responsibility to ensure that this kind of fraud never again happens in the United States. The investor protections included in H.R. 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act are a monumental step toward this goal.

One thing we have learned through this tragedy is that the greed of criminals like Stanford is matched only by the danger of deregulation. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which was designed to prevent this very situation, is deeply flawed. The bill we are now considering reforms the agency and strengthens its authority to effectively and forcefully protect investors and our securities markets.

In addition, the bill creates incentives for whistleblowers to expose crooks like Stanford. Through a new whistleblower bounty program, we will reward individuals who provide tips that lead to the prosecution of fraud.

Finally, under this bill, every financial intermediary who provides advice to an investor will have a fiduciary duty toward them. This standard will force broker-dealers and investment advisers to put first, their customers' interests--not their own pocketbooks.

American citizens need the confidence that their government will act quickly and forcefully to protect their hard-earned savings. The investor protection measures in the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act will provide families the security they need to prepare for the future.

Madam Speaker, whether serving in Congress or as Governor or working as a private citizen, Dave Treen always put Louisiana first. Dave was bipartisan, a middle-of-the-road compromiser who never forgot that there were greater principles worth fighting for beyond party and politics. He will be remembered fondly by all of us who knew him as a warm, wonderful person and a committed reformer.

My thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.

Having been a Kappa Sigma, that was one of the places where we had common interest and bond. Dave Treen will

be sorely missed. He was a gentleman, an honorable person, and he loved this body when he served here, and he will be well remembered as Governor of the State of Louisiana.

Madam Speaker, today I come to the floor to talk about an issue which I think makes a lot of sense: home health care. Being from a rural area in Louisiana, home health aides provide a tremendous benefit to my constituents, many of whom live 25 minutes or more from the nearest hospital. I believe home health care provides a necessary service to those who need a little extra assistance meeting their health care goals.

A new report by Avalere Health found that home health use saved Medicare $1.71 billion from 2005 to 2006. That's a real savings while providing good health care.

Here is an example from my district. Jimmy Jordan's life was saved when his mom's home health care nurse, Rochelle Mixon, noticed he was suffering from congestive heart failure. Since being released from the hospital with his own home health care service, he has lost 170 pounds and improved his diabetes. He no longer uses a wheelchair and has improved mobility. Jimmy says he owes his life to the care he has received from his home health care team.

I believe in home health care, and I urge my colleagues to support these providers as we move forward with the debate on health care reform. Home health makes a difference and saves money. There is no better combination than that.

Mr. Speaker, many of us have heard the terrible story of Jamie Leigh Jones, the employee of a U.S. defense contractor who was brutally attacked and sexually assaulted by coworkers while working in Iraq in 2005. Instead of being allowed to seek justice, Jamie Leigh was held in a shipping container by company employees so she couldn't report the crime.

When Jamie Leigh returned to the United States, she learned that a clause in her contract barred her from taking her case to court. Instead, it forced her into a company-run arbitration process; the same company that failed to protect her in the first place.

It is our responsibility to make sure that this horrific story can never happen again. No American citizen should ever have to sign away his or her rights to justice in order to get a job. Not a dime of taxpayer money should go to companies that would rather sweep an assault under the rug than allow our justice system to work.

The Franken amendment will forbid Federal dollars from going to companies that engage in these practices. If we fail to enact this measure, we have failed to protect the rights and values we were sworn to uphold when we took our oath of office. We cannot let this happen again.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

If we do not begin paying our bills today, we will continue to short- change future generations who face higher taxes and cuts to Federal investments in priorities such as education, health care and national security. In order to ensure our long-term fiscal sustainability, we must all work together and return to the proven, effective pay-as-you- go rules that brought our Federal budget to balance in the 1990s.

We now have a President who is committed to changing the fiscal course of this country. Together, we are committed to putting an end to the reckless fiscal policies and out-of-control spending of the past that has given us the record deficits we see today. To that end, the President has charged Congress with passing statutory PAYGO, and we have an obligation to see that this critical piece of legislation reaches his desk for signing.

Our Federal Government simply cannot continue to live beyond its means, mortgaging our future on the backs of our children and our grandchildren. Reinstituting statutory PAYGO will send a message to the American people that their government is serious about putting the country back on stable economic footing. The time to act is now. The President has put his words into action and I look forward to working with the Blue Dogs and my colleagues in the House and the Senate to make statutory PAYGO a reality again in this country.

I thank my friend.

I thank Mr. Flake for his leadership on the issues of fiscal responsibility. As a Blue Dog Democrat, I appreciate the importance of fiscal responsibility; and getting our fiscal house in order is the best way to come out of this recession quickly, a recession caused by 8 years of irresponsible spending. And I am aware that my friend was one of the few people that continued to hawk his side of the aisle.

Part of fiscal responsibility is the need for legislators to prioritize spending, spending on projects that improve our constituents' safety, health and their livelihood. This institute will be working toward developing standards and guidelines for seafood safety as well as methods to advance sustainable fishing practices. In fact, this project dovetails nicely with the work being done in Energy and Commerce as we speak regarding the food safety bill and the issues that confront us. The rash of food-related illnesses and the deaths in the past few years highlight the vulnerability of our country and what we face from unsafe food sources and imports.

Louisiana is the number one producer in the continental United States of the most valuable commercial shellfish and finfish species, providing about one-third of the Nation's commercial seafood species. Our working coast sends fresh seafood around the country, including States in the West like Arizona. I remember spending one Mardi Gras week in meetings in Phoenix and enjoyed fresh crawfish from Louisiana in Arizona restaurants. And that was because of the fact that our people in Louisiana try to bring the freshest and the best to the rest of the country.

So it's imperative that we have the ability to ensure that this valuable resource be kept safe and sustainable.

Why should we be using taxpayer funds? The seafood industry in Louisiana--and in many parts of the country, not just Louisiana--is a conglomerate of many small, single-owner businesses. Sometimes a member of the industry owns a single boat, and that is part of the industry that we know in south Louisiana along the entire gulf coast. And if you go throughout the fishing industry in the United States, you will find that does not differ a lot.

Many beneficial domestic policies have strong, positive impacts on all of our constituents. In the case of food safety and sustainability, all of our constituents--regardless of whether they're from the north, the west, the south, the east, middle-America--share in the peace of mind that they can feed their families with clean, healthy, safe food. While those benefits are shared by all, it makes sense that the costs be shared as well.

This project that we're discussing today focuses funding on food safety and sustainability in the location that produces a large portion of the Nation's seafood. By prioritizing the funding of the Institute for Seafood Studies at Nicholls State University, we are responsibly investing in a food supply that we can all enjoy. This is not just a Nicholls State University, a Third Louisiana District, a south Louisiana thing. This is about safe seafood, whether it's shrimp, whether it's fin fish, regardless. It's about the study and the making sure that the products that are delivered to America are safe for the people to consume.

With that, I urge a ``no'' vote on this amendment and hope that the Congress of the United States will recognize the importance of the working coast. We're not the Sun Coast, we are not the Sand Coast, we are not the Condominium Coast. We are the coast of the United States that produces over 30 percent of the seafood, and good quality, safe seafood that we hope to preserve.

Thank you for the allotment of time, Mr. Boyd.

Let me start by saying that a budget resolution is not a binding document. It is a guideline, it is a principle, it is to give guidance to the Congress and to the administration. It has no taxes that are included in it. There are, in fact, spending cuts included in it.

Working with Chairman Spratt, who has been diligent in trying to put together a good spending package, a good budget package, we, as the Blue Dogs, have consistently asked for help in trying to bring control over the spending that has occurred in this country over the last 8 years that has given us the deficit we have.

If you go and take a look at the last budget that President Bush put forward, add into that the offline budgets, the offline spending that he had, if you put them together then you'll find President Obama's budget in roughly the same numbers.

We are not fooling the American public anymore. We are trying to say to the American public, This is what your government has been spending and you deserve to know that. And as a Blue Dog, what we're saying is we're here to work with people to try to make this government work for the American public and the taxpayers of this country.

We have gone for too long with deceit and trying to trick the American public by thinking that they are not watching what was spent in the war, by not paying attention that the alternative minimum tax was funded out of budget, that we were just borrowing and spending, borrowing and spending. And if we keep this up, there will come a day when China will tell us when we can borrow and when we can spend, and I think I would rather have the dictate come from the American public rather than the country of China that holds our debt.

Thank you, Representative Boyd.

A budget is only as strong as those who are here to enforce it. The Blue Dogs have been committed to fiscal responsibility and accountability for over 15 years, and we will be here to make sure that the House follows this blueprint for putting our government and the economy on a fiscally sustainable path. We are here to work with all in this Congress for a budget, for a country, for a government that works for the people again.