Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Bobby Hicks, a resident of the First Congressional District of Tennessee, who passed away January 7, 2006 after an extended illness.

Bobby Hicks lived his entire life in the beautiful hills of East Tennessee and spent his adult life in a career of entrepreneurship and public service for the area he called home. A graduate of Sulphur Springs High School, Bobby worked on the farm at an early age, learning to appreciate the value of hard work. He served in the Army Reserve and worked for the Tennessee Eastman Company until choosing to begin his own business, the Hicks Construction Company, in 1970.

His career in construction was distinguished, where he served on the Johnson City Area Home Builders Association. He was president of the association in 1983 and 1984. He also served as president of the Home Builders Association of Tennessee in 1990. On two separate occasions, he was named Builder of the Year, winning the prestigious honor in 1988 and 1994. In 2002, he was inducted into the Building Industry of Tennessee Hall of Fame and continued to be actively involved in business into his final days.

Bobby also served our area with distinction, serving 12 years as a county commissioner for Washington County. He was a member of the Washington County/Johnson City Chamber of Commerce and the Economic Development Board serving the same region.

From 1994 to 1998, Bobby was elected to serve the constituents of the Sixth House District of Tennessee as their State representative. He was a relentless advocate of promoting the interests of Upper East Tennessee during his time in the legislature, and I was privileged to be his successor to that seat.

Bobby's service to the community has been noted and appreciated. The library in Gray, TN, and the local Emergency Medical Service buildings have been named in his honor. In addition, one of the major State highways in our area, Highway 75, has been named as the Bobby Hicks Highway by the Tennessee General Assembly, as a result of his tireless efforts to gain the approval for necessary upgrades to this well- traveled road.

Madam Speaker, I ask that the House join me this evening in offering our sympathies to the family and friends of Bobby Hicks. He was a good businessman, a fine public servant, and a decent and kind person. His service is greatly appreciated, and he will be deeply missed.

Thank you, Congresswoman Blackburn, thank you for your leadership, your friendship through down through the years. You have been a great friend of mine in the State General Assembly, and it is an honor to be on this distinguished floor with you tonight.

It is a great opportunity. As we get ready to conclude this second week of the 110th Congress, I look back over this time, and I think of the elections. We look

back at the elections that took place, and I think the American people voted for change. I think there has been a change, as the majority changed, but I am not sure it is the change that the American people voted for.

I tell you what I heard back in my district about change: Government had gotten too big. I think the American people voted for change to make sure that we brought some responsibility to the government.

If I look back over what has taken place in the last 2 weeks, we are not going towards the change the American people voted for; we are going just the opposite. I don't think the American people are going to be happy with that type of change.

One of my roles in life as a Tennessee State representative was to work with the Democratic majority in Nashville to open up government. When I first went in to the Tennessee legislature, I went in and I found out that you could go on to the House floor, in the committee system, the subcommittees, and take votes, and those votes were not even counted. That is just wrong.

I thought it is going to be nice and refreshing to go to Washington, where we have an open process, and we have a party that has just taken over the majority, and they tell us, it is going to be even better than it was.

When I look back at Tennessee, you could cast a vote in committee or subcommittee, and you could tell the speaker, Mr. Speaker, don't worry about me, I am with you. Then you could go back to your home district and say, don't worry about me, I am with you, and be talking about two different things.

I was hoping it was going to be different as I came to Washington. It was, until last week.

Last week, one of our first votes on the House floor was to close the House of Representatives and the Rules Committee to the American people. That is not openness. That is not transparency. That is just wrong. That is exactly where we have come to in this House of Representatives. We have come to a situation where Rules Committee Members can go in and decide on the American people's business and not have their votes counted. That is not right.

Then we look at some of the other things we have voted for on the House floor. Again, as we recall, the American people voted for change, and in my district, the first district, the beautiful mountains of east Tennessee, I think they were telling me, and I think as we saw change coming across the United States, they wanted the government to be more responsible.

What I found the first week we are here, we actually removed the rule that took a three-fifths majority to increase taxes, and we lowered that threshold in the majority rule down to a simple majority.

Now, Mrs. Blackburn, I don't know about you, but I certainly believe it will be much easier to raise taxes. I don't believe that rule would have been changed had they not have foreseen a tax increase coming down the road.

That is not what the people of Tennessee want, I can tell you that. I think what it leads to is bigger government, bigger bureaucracies, somebody has to pay. Money comes from the people, and it comes from small business owners. It comes from people that are willing to work hard.

Another vote we have taken in the first two weeks, well, I don't know exactly where the first 100 hours starts or when it stops, but in the first 2 weeks, we passed a bill on this floor, without my vote, that threatens the life of the unborn.

I think we have done it under some deception, because if you look at embryonic stem cells, they have been researched for a number of years; it was not illegal. The bill that was passed on this House floor did not change that law. It was about taxpayer funding of destruction of human life. I don't think that is what the people of the First Congressional District wanted. I don't think that is the change the American people wanted.

Another bill we dealt with was a bill that would put our national security under control of the United Nations. I certainly don't believe that is what the people of the First Congressional District or the people of America wanted. We are a sovereign Nation, we should be able to protect ourselves without the approval of the U.N.

In my opinion, bigger government is not always the answer. At times, oftentimes, it is the problem.

What I find as I talk to real people back in my district and what I believe deeply in my soul is that the answers to American problems come from our families; they come from our State legislatures, our local governments, our business owners. Big government in Washington is not always the answer. Oftentimes it is the problem.

With that, I yield back and welcome your comments.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Shuster for giving me this opportunity. I too am a father of two and a small business owner, and I am truly honored to have this occasion to discuss my ideas. This open discussion is part of what makes us so great as a Nation.

I am from the First District of Tennessee. It is a place of beautiful, majestic mountains, thriving communities, and a growing economy. Northeast Tennessee has unrivaled beauty and unsurpassed potential. However, the beautiful First Tennessee District and our country could be headed toward economic danger. For instance, in the last week, the three-fifths majority required to raise our taxes has been removed by the Democrat Party.

Tax cuts are not permanent. Seemingly, it is only a matter of time before these massive tax increases are put in place. It is our responsibility to protect the American people from these unnecessary tax burdens. If the tax cuts that are in place are allowed to expire, some families could see an increase in taxes up to 39 percent. Married couples and families will once again be subject to the tax penalty.

As I speak tonight, time and time again history has proven that tax reductions have spurred economic resurgence. Our current economic figures once again prove this fact. With the tax cuts in place, real after-tax income has risen 9.6 percent since the year 2000. The United States has grown faster than any other G-7 industrialized nation over the past four quarters. The time to control spending and to make tax cuts permanent is now.

I will be joining many of my colleagues in signing a letter to President Bush encouraging him to veto any legislation implementing tax increases on working people and on the businesses of America. It is not the time to place greater financial burden on the families of the First District of Tennessee nor the many other people of this great Nation.

Thank you.

I think it is vitally important that it is individuals and small business owners and businesses across this country that pay these taxes. And I want to put a personal face on this.

If the majority party allows taxes to be increased, it will cost us nearly $2.4 trillion in new taxes to American taxpayers. What does that mean to people across America tonight and the people in the First Congressional District of Tennessee? It means that there will be 115 million taxpayers who would pay an average of $1,716 more each year. It means that 48 million married couples would pay an average of $2,726 more every year; and it means that 17 million seniors would pay an average of over $2,000 more a year. It is real people paying real dollars, and I hope the people in this body will remember that as we move forward.

I am disappointed that we changed the rules last week with the majority vote to decrease the amount of people that it takes to increase taxes. I think it should have been left at three-fifths, not a simple majority. I think that was a mistake last week when the majority party did that. I hope they will protect taxpayers in America over the next 2 years.