Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I watched the President on television the other night defending his energy policy, and he said, ``The Republicans say drill, drill, drill, drill, baby, but that's not the answer.''

The fact is that the people of this country are suffering under severe energy prices that are rising at a rapid rate. Everything that we buy is affected by energy prices. I went to the store the other day to buy some apples and some tomatoes. We got three tomatoes for $5, and I think we got four apples for $5. Now, the reason those prices are going up so rapidly is because when you transport those across the country, or you use energy to produce those products, it costs more.

If you talk to the guys that drive these tractor-trailer units, they'll tell you how expensive it is to transport goods and services, clothes, food, and everything else that we buy. So we really need to move toward energy independence.

Now, the administration has had the ability to help other countries explore for oil. We sent I think $2 billion or $3 billion down to Brazil for deepwater drilling, but we cut back on the permits that we could get to drill in the Gulf of Mexico. Because of the environmental ``nut cases,'' as I call them, the President has restricted the ability of the American energy sector to drill for

oil in the gulf. We cannot drill for oil in the ANWR in Alaska. I've been up there and talked to the gentleman who represents Alaska in the Congress, Don Young. He'll tell you there's nothing up there that's going to be damaged if we drill, and besides that, you can do it in an environmentally safe way. But we can't drill offshore because they've limited permits. The President is now saying he'll allow some permits, but they are very minimal.

We can't drill on the Continental Shelf. We can't drill in the ANWR. We can't do anything to explore really for additional energy. We have probably a couple hundred years' supply of natural gas that we can drill for and use the fracking procedure, but a lot of the environmentalists are trying to stop that as well.

Our dependency on the Middle East is unbelievable. There's a potential for a major war over there because of Iran's nuclear development program, and we continue to depend on energy from that Persian Gulf area, from the Saudis. They're using a lot of our money to support Wahhabism and the madrassas over there that create radical Islam. So we need to move away from dependency on foreign oil.

In South America, President Chavez in Venezuela--who doesn't like us--is working with Tehran. He's selling his oil to China, and yet we buy an awful lot of our oil from him because we're dependent on him. We need to move toward energy independence.

The President will not allow the gulf pipeline, the pipeline from Canada down to Texas, because of environmental concerns. That's been looked at for 3 years. There's other ways around the potential problem, but he won't let it happen because of environmentalists, the radicals.

Now, we can depend in the future, to a degree, on wind, solar, geothermal, and nuclear, but that's going to take a long time. Even if we use all of those technologies today, it will only be a drop in the bucket as far as our energy needs are concerned. You know who's demanding more and more energy all the time? China and India buy thousands and thousands of barrels of oil a day, so that oil that's coming out of other parts of the world is going to be gobbled up more and more and more by China and India. We need to move to energy independence.

The President says, oh, you know, we can't solve the problem by drilling. The fact is we can. There's a lot of things we can do: the pipeline from Canada, drill offshore, drill in the gulf, drill in the Continental Shelf, use more natural gas, do away with all the regulations that are strangling the private sector as far as energy development. So what does he want to do? He says we've got to raise taxes on energy exploration, on the oil companies. That's going to be passed on to the consumer in higher prices.

This administration, nice guy, good smile, gives a great speech, but he's not solving our problems, and our dependency continues to increase on foreign energy. We need to move toward energy independence, and we need to do it now and not wait until after the election.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to ask for a moment of silence. We just lost a former Member of Congress, Katie Hall, from Gary, Indiana. After that, Mr. Speaker, if you would be so kind, we would like to have a moment or two to make some comments about Ms. Hall.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Let me just start off real quickly, before I yield to my colleague from Gary, Indiana, and say that Katie Hall, who was a Member of this body, died just this last few days from an unknown illness. She was 73 years old.

She came from very humble beginnings in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. She grew up on her grandfather's cotton farm, and she was a teacher for more than 30 years. She was a very fine teacher.

She moved, in 1962, to Gary, Indiana, where she became a very good friend of Richard Hatcher, the mayor. When a good friend of mine, Adam Benjamin, who was once a Member of this body, died, Mayor Hatcher appointed her as the nominee of the Democrat Party to succeed him. She also served in the Indiana Senate. I served with her there.

She was a very fine person. During her time in the Congress, she sponsored, along with others, but she was one of the key sponsors, in 1983, of a national holiday in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King. She was credited for playing a very key role in getting that bill passed after it had stalled in the House for over 14 years.

Let me just say that she was a great lady and a great Congresswoman, and she will missed. We want to extend our deepest sympathy to her family and her friends.

With that, I will be happy to yield to my colleague, the senior Member from Gary, Indiana.

I thank the gentleman for his remarks, and I would be very happy to yield to my colleague from Indianapolis.

Mr. Speaker, Katie Hall will be missed. And once again, our sympathy goes out to her family and all of her loved ones.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Rauf Denktash: a statesman, lawyer, author, and the leader of the Turkish-Cypriots, who passed away on January 13, 2012 at the age of 88.

Rauf Denktash was born on January 27, 1924 at the village of Ktima, near Paphos, Cyprus, the son of a judge, he went on to study law at Lincoln's Inn in London. During the London Blitz of World War II, he served as an air-raid warden and helped to save Lincoln's Inn Hall from destruction. After the war, he practiced as a prosecuting barrister in Nicosia. By the time Denktash became Solicitor General in 1956, he was already a prominent leader within the Turkish-Cypriot community and served in numerous leadership capacities in the following decades on behalf of the Turkish-Cypriot community. In 1983, Denktash became the Turkish-Cypriot leader, a position he held until his retirement in 2005.

Spanning his entire political career, Denktash worked tirelessly in support of his Cypriot homeland. He defined his vision of Cyprus as ``a place where my grandchildren can grow up free from fear.'' In addition to Denktash's extensive political career, he was also the author of over 40 books, and was an avid and renowned photographer. During the course of his life, his works were exhibited throughout the world.

I extend my condolences to the Denktash family and I join my Turkish- American friends and constituents in recognizing Rauf Denktash for all of his achievements throughout his lifetime. I know that those who knew and admired him will greatly miss him.

Mr. Speaker, I was listening to Rush Limbaugh today, as I quite frequently do, and they had a Democrat truck driver, African American Democrat truck driver, come on and he talked for about 4 or 5 minutes, which is unusual, when you listen to Rush, for him to let somebody talk that long.

But this fellow was very intelligent, and his remarks were something I wish everybody, including the President, could hear. And he said, you know, I was a big supporter of President Obama, and I voted for him. He said, but when he stopped that pipeline, which would bring thousands of jobs to America, and also maybe help us lower the price of gasoline and diesel fuel--and I presume he used a lot of diesel fuel--he said that really, really bothered me.

And he said, when they started talking about inflation, whether or not we had it, he said, I'm telling you, there is inflation. I can't hardly afford to buy groceries or to live anymore. And he said because of that, I'm not going to vote for President Obama this time, I'm going to vote for whoever is running against him.

Now, I hope, since the President is working on his State of the Union speech, he'll take what that African American, intelligent young man said today and take it to heart. It's extremely important that we get that pipeline and start worrying about American jobs.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

You know, this whole process amuses me because, when we passed the Budget Control Act, we, in effect, gave the President the ability to raise the debt ceiling by an additional $500 billion without us having any control whatsoever. And with this $1.2 trillion we're talking about raising the debt ceiling today, we really don't have any control over that either.

Now, I voted against the Budget Control Act and I voted against raising the debt ceiling, or giving the President the authority to raise the debt ceiling by that first $500 billion, and I'm going to vote against the $1.2 trillion increase today.

But here's how it works, and I don't think the American people understand it. We disapprove today and let's say the Senate disapproves, and it goes to the President and he vetoes it. It comes back to us, and we have to have a two-thirds majority vote to override it. So this is not going to happen. We have, in effect, given the President of the United States the ability to raise the debt ceiling without us having any control whatsoever, and that's just wrong.

We should never have passed that Budget Control Act the way we did. This body should always have the ability to stop raising the debt ceiling. But when we passed the Budget Control Act the way we did, we gave the President carte blanche, and it's dead wrong.

This President now has control that no President has had in history. He is making appointments without advice and consent of the United States Senate. He is able to raise the debt ceiling without us being able to do a darn thing about it. It's just wrong, and this body made a big mistake when we put that provision in the Budget Control Act, and the American people need to know it.

Mr. Speaker, while we talk about the issues of the day, one of the things that has been missing over the past several months in the discussions on the floor is the amount of treasure from the American taxpayer that's going to Europe. We have through the Fed been sending hundreds of billions and trillions of dollars in loans to Europe.

In addition to that, we're sending money through the International Monetary Fund, in which we put 18 percent. We're sending hundreds of billions of dollars to Europe.

We've got a lot of problems here at home, and we shouldn't be risking American taxpayers' money by sending it to bail out countries in Europe that very well might go belly-up and if they do go belly-up, that's going to come back to haunt us in America; and the value of our currency will be depreciated, and we'll have very high inflation. We need to take care of the United States and not worry about Europe right now.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

With the economy the way it is, with unemployment very high, we don't need more government regulations. More regulations strangle the private sector and create more economic problems, and especially right now we don't need more regulations.

The Obama administration continues to circumvent Congress to go around us by passing more regulations, and the economy can't stand it. We need to stop more regulations. Even the threat, even the threat of more regulations must be stopped.

I mean, farm dust? Farm dust? Give me a break. We can't give these bureaucrats more authority. We don't need to give this administration or the bureaucracy more control over the lives of Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my congratulations and best wishes to the world's longest serving monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, on the occasion of his 84th birthday this past Monday, December 5th. King Bhumibol is beloved by his people and esteemed for his great humility, compassion and proactive engagement with everyday Thais.

King Bhumibol has spent decades in virtually every corner of Thailand, engaging with the Thai people face-to-face, seeking new and improved ways to make their lives better. Since the early years of his now 65-year reign, he has been mindful of the livelihood of farmers and others dependent on agriculture. He made water management a key priority in royal development projects, with the first such project initiated in 1963. Taking a holistic approach, the King's projects also sought to ensure local residents understand the importance of proper water management to avoid flooding, droughts and pollution.

The King has also promoted sustainable agricultural practices along with soil resource management, to maximize economic success in rural areas and to help farmers become self-reliant. His economic advice based on the ``Sufficiency Economy'' philosophy, which calls on individuals and businesses to practice moderation and reasonableness, and seek self-immunity against external factors in their pursuit of growth, has been embraced by rural farmers and private businesses alike.

Agriculture, environmental conservation and sustainable development are among the many other areas of King Bhumibol's initiatives to contribute to the progress of Thailand and its people. During the 1960s and 1970s, the King developed an opium crop substitution program that encourages hilltribe people to grow cash crops so that they abandon the drug trade. His initiatives on health--started even earlier in the 1950s--helped Thailand's efforts to eradicate and combat diseases such as leprosy, cholera, tuberculosis and smallpox. These and the scholarship programs he created to support Thais to study medicine and medical advancement overseas have contributed to the development of the country's public health system--today one of the most advanced in Southeast Asia.

King Bhumibol's values, initiatives, and passion for improving life for all Thais have earned him the respect of the people of Thailand. He has also been recognized internationally for his unique leadership, which has uplifted the people of Thailand during difficult times.

Mr. Speaker, I am honored to join the people of Thailand--America's friend and oldest treaty ally in Asia--as they pay tribute to King Bhumibol and celebrate his 84th birthday this week.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the lives of Ray A. Harris, Ramie L. Harris and Shey M. Harris, of Marion, Indiana who perished in a tragic plane crash on November 26, 2011. Ray was 46, Ramie was 21, and Shey was 20. I join the Marion community in expressing my deepest condolences to Ray's wife, Sherry, and his son, Blake, who are left to carry on in this world without them. In one tragic day, Sherry lost her husband and two daughters. Likewise, Blake lost his father and two sisters. Other survivors include Ray's parents and in-laws and numerous aunts and cousins. Chris Backus, a student at Indiana Wesleyan University also died in the crash.

As a businessman Ray was a pioneer of sorts in Marion. He moved his car dealership known as Ray Harris Chrysler Jeep from its established location to a new location at Ind. 18 and 1-69. He knew the risks associated with the move but he held a deep desire to make Marion a better place and because Ray was a visionary he knew the new location would grow into something good and benefit the community around it. Ray was a true community leader. He was a supporter of the Marion Giants; served 8 years as the President of the Marion Board of Works; was a member of the Meshingomesia Country Club, the Aero Club, Marion Pilots Club, and the Elks. Ray was a skilled hunter and fisherman. One of his favorite events was the annual Community School for the Arts, CSA, Go- Kart race.

As busy as Ray was in business and in the community, his family always came first. Ray was an attentive father and husband, rarely missing one of his children's events. Ramie was a 2009 graduate of Marion High School where she played soccer, basketball, and tennis. Ramie's soccer jersey number will be retired in her honor. Ramie also played in various PAL club sports and was the recipient of numerous scholarships. As a student at Marion High School, Ramie was active in Youth for Christ. She was also active in God's House Ministries' Children's Ministry Department. Ramie was a junior at Wheaton College, majoring in pre-med.

Shey was a graduate of Eastbrook High School after having attended Marion High School until her junior year. Shey loved to dance and was majoring in dance with a minor in business at Anderson University at the time of her death. Shey attended and later taught at the Community School of the Arts and taught gymnastics at Mid America. Like her father and sister, Shey's love for the Lord guided her in her daily life. She was involved in the liturgical dance program at her church and the children's ministry department at College Wesleyan Church.

Ray, Ramie, and Shey will be forever remembered by all who knew them as a loving family who devoted their lives and talents to community and God. In their death their memory will live on through the CSA Ray Harris Family Memorial Endowment Fund that was established at the Community Foundation of Grant County as a way for the community to honor the family. The money from the endowment will go to the organization for the Shey Harris Dance Scholarship, which will be awarded to a student from CSA. The Harris family were key supporters of the organization. Shey distinguished herself as a dancer and choreographer by the choreographing the first commercial CSA did for the Gorman Center for Orthodontics and being the youngest person to teach at the organization at the age of 14. Ramie danced at the school and danced in the first show that CSA ever did. Shey's and Ramie's surviving brother Blake was the CSA's ``Go Arts! Go Karts!'' 2010 champion when he raced for his father's business. Ray's wife, Sherry, is also active in CSA events and is a former board member.

The Harris family attended God's House Ministries and by all accounts, their lives were guided by their love for the Lord. At times of deep sorrow and grief, I am comforted by Psalm 23.

Psalm 23--A Psalm of David

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me

beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of

righteousness for his name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and

thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine

enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup

runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my

life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD

forever.

Today, I pray for all of God's love and healing to be bestowed upon the Harris family.

Mr. Speaker, no nation, no economy can survive without fiscal discipline. Printing more money is never the answer. Bailout funds have already been granted to Greece, Ireland, and Portugal; and the European crisis has gotten worse, not better.

And here in the United States, the Obama administration has cranked up the printing presses first through their $800 billion stimulus boondoggle and then through the Federal Reserve's Quantitative Easing Program. And what did it produce? Nine percent unemployment and a $1 trillion-plus budget deficit for the last 3 years, and we have $15 trillion in debt.

I want to read from a couple of articles that were in the paper yesterday.

The first one from The Wall Street Journal, and it's entitled ``Blame It on Berlin.'' It says: ``Berlin's alleged sin is its reluctance to write a blank check to save the euro--either by underwriting a new euro zone fiscal union, or by granting permission for the European Central Bank to buy trillions of dollars in sovereign debt.'' And they'd have to print money to do that.

``The chant comes in unison from the debtor nations themselves, the bailout caucus in Brussels. An Obama White House concerned with its re- election and liberal pundits worried about their welfare-state economic model is under assault. Like the `rich' American who must pay their `fair share,' the Germans are supposed to pay up to save a united Europe.

``The reality is that the Germans, along with the Dutch and the Finns, are the rare Europeans who understand that saving the euro requires more than a blank check. It requires a new political commitment to better economic policy to fiscal discipline.''

Now let me read from another article that was in the paper. I think it was this morning in this Washington Post. I will read it in part. It says: ``Investors have grown wary of lending money to European banks.'' People who invest, they don't want to invest in European banks because they're worried that their firms could lose vast amounts of money in their holdings of bonds issued by cash or European governments. So investors don't want to invest, and Germany does not want to invest.''

So what happened? ``The world's most powerful central banks, including the United States,'' our Fed, ``are stepping in and using unlimited ability to print money and to lend it across national borders to try to arrest that dangerous cycle. The central banks are using what are called `swap lines' to exchange their respective currencies.''

And then it goes on in the article and says: ``The swap lines pose little risk to the U.S. taxpayers. Fed officials have said, because''-- it says little risk, they didn't say no risk, little risk--``the swap lines pose little risk to the U.S. taxpayers'' Federal officials have said because ``the Fed is doing business with foreign central banks viewed as trustworthy. Those foreign central banks, in turn, take the risk of loss if the banks they're lending to go under.'' But it goes right up the line. If they can't make it, then they go back to the original lender, which would be the United States Fed.

Why are the Germans so reluctant to invest? Because they've been through hyperinflation. They know what it's like to have the EU Central Bank printing money because they remember under the Weimar Republic after World War I people took baskets of money to go buy a loaf of bread. And why are the investors reluctant? Because they don't want to lose their money. They're afraid that they'll lose their investors' money and they might go out of business.

So what happens? The United States comes to the rescue by bailing out the central banks in Europe by saying that we're going to have a swap line with you and our currency will guarantee your currency, and we'll charge you almost no interest to do that. This is an exercise in futility. That is not the answer.

We should not risk the American taxpayer by giving money or lending money to Europe under these circumstances. It's crazy, in my opinion.

Mr. Speaker, I hope that the President and the Fed will reconsider this and not put us into the basket with the Europeans under these circumstances right now. It makes absolutely no sense, and it risks the American taxpayer.

Mr. Speaker, diabetes is a common, and growing, disease in Indiana. According to 2009 CDC data, approximately 451,000 Hoosiers--9% of the state's population--had diagnosed diabetes. Adults who are overweight and not physically active are at risk for developing diabetes. Among adults with diabetes in Indiana, 88.1% are overweight and 42.5% reported physical inactivity.

In addition to the human toll diabetes places on people in Indiana, the financial burden diabetes places on the health system in Indiana is staggering--in 2007, the direct and indirect cost of diabetes in Indiana was approximately $3.09 billion.

Americans with diabetes, particularly young children with diabetes, desperately need better tools to manage their disease and thereby prevent many of its life-threatening and costly complications. Some of these breakthrough tools and technologies are already available.

For example, Low-Glucose Suspend systems--devices that automatically suspend insulin delivery when blood sugar levels are dangerously low-- have been approved in more than 40 countries around the world. But not here in the United States.

In fact, the FDA only this year--almost four years after these devices were approved for use in Europe, issued draft guidance on what studies manufacturers would need to conduct in order to win approval for Low-Glucose Suspend systems in the United States.

To make matters worse, according to the Nation's leading clinical organizations specializing in diabetes care, the guidance proposed by FDA in June 2011 for Low-Glucose Suspend systems created many unnecessary obstacles to the evaluation of those systems.

Thankfully, the FDA recently took an overdue step to clarify that ill-conceived guidance. However, there is significant concern within the diabetes community that forthcoming guidance--which the FDA has committed publicly to publishing by December 1st--on even more revolutionary technology--the artificial pancreas--will either be delayed or suffered from many of the same problems which plagued the FDA's Low-Glucose Suspend system guidance.

The development of the artificial pancreas is critically important to many of my constituents, which is why I signed a broad, bipartisan letter in support of prompt and appropriate guidance on the artificial pancreas earlier this year. Any delay will slow an innovation that has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of those with diabetes.

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the thousands of Hoosiers, and millions of other Americans with diabetes, I urge the FDA to issue this draft guidance no later than December 1, if not sooner, so that artificial pancreas technologies can be tested in an outpatient setting and be made available to those who need it in the near future. This is literally a matter of life and death.

I also would like to insert a copy of my letter to FDA Commissioner Hamburg in this subject in the Congressional Record.

House of Representatives,

Washington, DC, November 29, 2011.

Hon. Margaret Hamburg, M.D.,

Commissioner, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Silver

Springs, MD.

Dear Commissioner Hamburg: I am writing to urge the Food

and Drug Administration (FDA) to expedite the development of

the artificial pancreas for the treatment of type 1 diabetes.

Specifically, I urge FDA to

immediately issue clear and unambiguous guidance so that

outpatient artificial pancreas studies can proceed as soon as

possible.

Nearly 26 million Americans have diabetes, and one in three

American children born today will develop the disease.

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure and adult-

onset blindness. Moreover, diabetes increases the risk of

heart attack deaths by two to four times, and causes more

than 80,000 amputations each year. People with diabetes are

also at risk for seizures, comas and sudden death. Americans

with diabetes, particularly young children with diabetes,

desperately need better tools to manage their disease and

thereby prevent many of its life-threatening and costly

complications.

Some of these breakthrough tools and technologies are

already available in other parts of the world. Low-Glucose

Suspend systems--devices that automatically suspend insulin

delivery when blood sugar levels are dangerously low--have

been approved in more than 40 countries around the world but

not here in the United States. In fact, the FDA only this

year--almost four years after these devices were approved for

use in Europe, issued draft guidance on what studies

manufacturers would need to conduct in order to win approval

for Low-Glucose Suspend systems in the United States. To make

matters worse, according to the Nation's leading clinical

organizations specializing in diabetes care, the guidance

proposed by FDA in June 2011 for Low-Glucose Suspend systems

created many unnecessary obstacles to the evaluation of those

systems. For example, I understand that this guidance

requires multiple clinical trials (inpatient and outpatient)

involving a large number number of subjects to show

statistically significant differences in preventing

hypoglycemia. This is an excessive hurdle when all that is

required is data showing safety and effectiveness (in other

words equivalent glycemic control) not that the Low-Glucose

Suspend system is BETTER than other techniques.

Nighttime is a particularly dangerous time for individuals

with diabetes because their blood sugar level can drop while

they are sleeping, potentially leading to seizures, coma or

death. I have heard heart wrenching stories from parents

forced to wake their diabetic children in the middle of the

night to check their blood sugar levels and, if necessary,

administer insulin. Access to Low-Glucose Suspend systems,

and ultimately to artificial pancreas technology, is

desperately needed to help manage this disease and

effectiveness, would be unconscionable.

We are at a critical point in the development of the

artificial pancreas. Timely approval of this technology will

help improve health outcomes for the millions of Americans

afflicted with type I diabetes; and potentially save hundreds

billions of dollars annually in health care costs. I urge

your timely consideration of this matter and respectfully

request a prompt response.

Sincerely,

Dan Burton,

Member of Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to take a moment to pay my respects to road traffic victims in honor of World Remembrance Day, this Sunday, November 20th. Since 1993, this special Remembrance Day responds to the great need that road crash victims and their loved ones harbor for public recognition of their loss and pain.

The sense of grief and distress of this large group of people is all the greater because many of the victims are young and many of the crashes could have been prevented. The response to road death and injury is often experienced as inadequate, cruelly unsympathetic, and inappropriate to a loss of life or quality of life. In 2005, the United Nations took it global, endorsing it to be the third Sunday in November each year, encouraging NGOs, such as the Association for Safe International Road Travel to commemorate this day.

I am proud to say, this past July, Indiana became the 32nd state to ban texting while behind the wheel. On May 11, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the legislation which became effective July 1, 2011. Distraction is still a factor in too many serious crashes, and the new law is a small step to help make Indiana roads safer--and a small initiative which I hope will inspire road safety initiatives worldwide.

It is estimated that 1.3 million people die in road crashes each year. Unless action is taken, road traffic injuries are predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.

It is my hope that recognizing Remembrance Day will signal the importance the issue of reducing road danger to government.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to take a moment to pay my respects to road traffic victims in honor of World Remembrance Day, this Sunday, November 20th. Since 1993, this special Remembrance Day responds to the great need that road crash victims and their loved ones harbor for public recognition of their loss and pain.

The sense of grief and distress of this large group of people is all the greater because many of the victims are young and many of the crashes could have been prevented. The response to road death and injury is often experienced as inadequate, cruelly unsympathetic, and inappropriate to a loss of life or quality of life. In 2005, the United Nations took it global, endorsing it to be the third Sunday in November each year, encouraging NGOs, such as the Association for Safe International Road Travel to commemorate this day.

I am proud to say, this past July, Indiana became the 32nd state to ban texting while behind the wheel. On May 11, Gov. Mitch Daniels signed the legislation which became effective July 1, 2011. Distraction is still a factor in too many serious crashes, and the new law is a small step to help make Indiana roads safer--and a small initiative which I hope will inspire road safety initiatives worldwide.

It is estimated that 1.3 million people die in road crashes each year. Unless action is taken, road traffic injuries are predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death by 2030.

It is my hope that recognizing Remembrance Day will signal the importance the issue of reducing road danger to government.

Madam Speaker, today the House, as required by the Budget Control Act, voted on a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) to the Constitution. It is disheartening that we could not get the required two-thirds votes needed to pass the BBA. With the National Debt topping $15 Trillion this week and our country continues to reel from the effects of irresponsible government spending, now more than ever, Congress needed to take bold action to permanently stanch the bleeding.''

Unfortunately, the BBA was dead on arrival in the House after President Obama announced his formal opposition to the legislation. Today's vote proves that Washington is not serious about solving our Nation's spending problem. Forty-nine out of fifty states have set an example for Washington by passing BBA's of their own. As Hoosier families continue to struggle to live within their means, the President and House Democrats clearly believe those same rules shouldn't apply to Big Government. Washington continues to borrow 40 cents of every dollar it spends, robbing Peter to pay Paul in a vain attempt to perpetuate the existence of the federal government's bloated bureaucracies. The system is broken and they simply refused to see the reason in this common sense measure. The President and his like minded cronies instead have chosen to reduce this debate to election year scare tactics by falsely claiming to seniors that the BBA will kill Social Security and Medicare all the while continuing to stoke the coals of their burgeoning class war, rather than work with their colleagues across the aisle to stave off out of control spending and get American's back to work. In defeating the balanced budget amendment they have made their priorities clear.

Mr. Speaker, in these tumultuous times, it is important to take the opportunity to highlight the successes of some businesses. One such business is SMC--a leader in industrial manufacturing whose U.S. headquarters is in my district in Noblesville, Indiana.

SMC's products have improved upon the ideas that have enabled manufacturers to operate efficiently for years. Recent innovations include a light-weight actuator that fits into older systems, allowing businesses to increase efficiency without a costly and complete system overhaul. A new SMC pump consumes less energy than its predecessor, but outlives it by 10 million pumps. Lastly, I believe their premium on face-time with customers enables their next innovation to be inspired by the very hard-working people that use them.

It is also worth noting that the company has partnered in some fashion with 38 countries across the globe. Their sales market connects them to almost 50 countries, affirming their stance that ``products are not confined to the limits of conventional pneumatic control components, but are reaching out to cover peripheral markets as well.''

These accomplishments have recently landed SMC on Forbes' list of the Top 100 Most Innovative Companies, sharing the list with industry leaders such as Apple, Google, and Amazon. Their core business policy of ``Customer First and Quality First'' has propelled the company forward. They should be applauded for such achievements and for their future. SMC, along with Mayor Ditslear and the people of Noblesville, no doubt are excited, as I certainly am.