Floor Statements

Thank you for yielding your time, my dear friend from Missouri. It's very good to be here today as Republican women and lifting up seniors.

When I think about the seniors in my life, my grandmother and my grandfather, I really hope that my children and grandchildren will think the same way about me. Because when we ask people who are their heroes, so many times what we hear is about their grandmothers and their grandfathers. And that is because they have so much to offer, especially the Greatest Generation--the generation that right now we are trying to protect every benefit that we can for them because they have worked hard and they have put money into the system and they deserve to be cared for.

Now, one thing I do know about seniors, having worked with seniors in home health care as a nurse, is they really feel like many times they don't have choices. Our seniors, just because they turned 65, should not be having their choices taken away. We shouldn't think that they can't make good choices. And that's exactly what the health care bill that was passed by the Democrats last year, the Patient Affordability Act, does. It removes the ability for them to make choices.

In particular, the Independent Payment Advisory Board, also known as IPAB, is a group of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats that are assigned by the President; and their job will be to cut the costs and limit access for our seniors to care. They will have the ability to deny care and not give choice to our seniors. This is wrong.

Our plan, the Path to Prosperity, would give our seniors choice. It would not affect those 55 or older, but it would give those 54 and younger an opportunity to be able to have choice in their program. We address the unsustainable growth of Medicare so the program does not bankrupt us in 10 years so that we can have money in the bank for our seniors as they age.

It is only fair and right that our seniors should have choice and that they should have the care that they put into the bank and they so deserve. Let's give seniors their choice.

I thank my friend for yielding.

I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding.

For over 30 years, the Hyde amendment, in conjunction with a patchwork of other policies, has regulated the Federal funding of abortions under programs such as Medicaid; and together, these various policies ensure the American taxpayer is not involved in funding the destruction of innocent human life.

And despite the assurances from President Obama, the Patient Protection and Affordability Care Act will allow Federal funds to subsidize abortions for the first time since 1976 through State high- risk pools and community health centers.

While the President's Executive order was an attempt to reassure Congress after the Stupak amendment did not make it into the bill's final version, the fact of the matter is that the Executive order is not law and it can change all too easily.

This bill will prohibit funding for abortions and abortion coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordability Act. This legislation also protects the conscience rights for health care workers such as myself by providing that Federal agencies and State and local governments funding by PPACA may not discriminate against health care entities that refuse to be involved in abortion.

Madam Speaker, this bill is not about a mother's right to choose, as the President and the congressional Democrats would lead us to believe. Rather, this is about ensuring that the proper restrictions are in place in order to assure that taxpayer funds are not used to fund abortion or abortion coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

Madam Speaker, as our servicemembers return home from Iraq and Afghanistan, Congress must continue to focus on assisting in their transition back to civilian life. For many of these individuals, the wounds of war are not easily forgotten and it is imperative that we stand by these soldiers.

As the wife, mother and daughter of servicemen I have a strong appreciation for the contributions of our United States military personnel and I am a constant advocate for improving military and veteran benefits. That is why I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 2433, the ``Veterans Opportunity to Work Act of 2011.''

H.R. 2433 provides unemployed veterans and active duty members who are about to retire with comprehensive training opportunities and employment assistance. It achieves these goals by: extending training benefits to unemployed veterans to teach them new skills for high- demand jobs; making career and transition courses mandatory for servicemembers leaving the military; strengthening re-employment protections for National Guard and Reservists; and improving licensing and credentialing processes for new veterans.

Recently I held a veterans job fair in my district and got to meet with some of these brave men and women as they looked for jobs. It is an honor to be able to help veterans while at home and this bill serves as a chance for us to help our veterans back home from Washington, DC.

Ensuring that our servicemen are well taken care of is one of our Nation's greatest responsibilities and I am pleased we will take up legislation today that will do just that.

I thank the gentleman from Alabama for yielding.

Madam Speaker, the tragic death of Tad Mattle that took place in Huntsville, Alabama, on April 17, 2009, serves as a sad reminder of the broken immigration system that we have here in the United States. We see stories like this in our local newspapers and on our local and national news. They're reminders that we have a serious illegal immigration problem in our country and the need to take action to secure our borders. As a member of the Immigration Reform Caucus, I believe that while we are a nation of immigrants, we are first and foremost a nation of laws. I'm a cosponsor of a number of comprehensive bills that would help combat illegal immigration. One bill, the CLEAR Act, would authorize State and local law enforcement to assist in the enforcement of the U.S. immigration laws, which means that they can investigate, apprehend, and transfer over to ICE officials illegal aliens in the United States.

Another bill that I'm cosponsoring goes after sanctuary cities, denying State Criminal Alien Assistance Program funding for any State or local government that has in place any law, policy, or procedure that breaks Federal immigration law.

The SAVE Act is another great bill. The SAVE Act would increase Border Patrol and investigative personnel, encourage recruitment of former military personnel and use of Department of Defense equipment, calls on the administration to develop a national strategy to secure our borders and, finally, directs authorities to check against terrorist watch lists those persons suspected of alien smuggling and smuggled individuals.

Defense of our country and securing our borders is one of the primary responsibilities of government, and I believe that those who enter this country illegally are not only breaking the law, but risking the very security of this country.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I thank my colleague from South Carolina for yielding time.

Mr. Speaker, I'm here today as a member of a right-to-work State and a cosponsor of this legislation to speak out against NLRB's actions against Boeing in South Carolina and NLRB's assault on the right-to- work States. Not only are the NLRB's actions a gross intrusion of government on private business, but this suit, if allowed to proceed, would have a chilling effect on the business growth in all right-to- work States like Tennessee.

In my home State, the unemployment rate is at a staggering 9.8 percent. And in some of my counties, we are well over a double digit in unemployment. Too many Tennesseeans are out of work, and I don't want companies with good-paying jobs to feel like they can no longer move a facility to Tennessee for fear that there will be an NLRB lawsuit.

The actions of NLRB set a very dangerous precedent that the Federal Government can tell a private company in which State they can or cannot locate. Policies like this could very well drive a company to leave the United States and go overseas where agencies like this don't exist. That is why I stand here today in strong support of the Protecting Jobs from Government Interference Act. This is an important first step not only to put NLRB on notice that their actions will be checked by Congress, but also to ensure that NLRB cannot dictate which State an employer can locate jobs in the United States.

At a time when 14 million workers are unemployed, we must get Federal agencies like NLRB out of the way and clear the path for job creation.

Mr. Speaker, on amendment rollcall Nos. 622, No. 623, No. 624, No. 625, No. 626, No. 627, No. 628 as well as rollcall No. 629 for final passage of H.R. 2551, I am not recorded because I was attending to a family matter. Had I been present, I would have voted:

``Yes''--Representative Melvin Watt Amendment;

``Yes''--Representative Nan Hayworth Amendment;

``No''--Representative Paul Broun Amendment;

``Yes''--Representative Marlin Stutzman Amendment;

``No''--Representative Glenn Thompson Amendment;

``No''--Representative James Moran Amendment;

``No''--Representative Rush Holt Amendment; and

``Yes''--Final Passage of H.R. 2551.

Mr. Speaker, on amendment rollcall No. 615, No. 616, No. 617, No. 618, No. 619, No. 620 as well as rollcall No. 621 for final passage of H.R. 1315, I am not recorded because I was attending to a family matter. Had I been present, I would have voted: No-- Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment No. 4; no--Representative Brad Miller Amendment; no--Representative Sheila Jackson Lee Amendment No. 3; no--Representative Carolyn Maloney Amendment; yes-- Representative Scott Rigel Amendment; no--Democrat Motion to Recommit; and yes--Final Passage of H.R. 2551.

Last week, President Obama got up on his bully pulpit and he told the House Republicans it was ``time to eat our peas'' as a part of the debt deal. The President said that to us, yet he has not come forward with a detailed written plan of his own. All we hear from the White House is about job-killing tax increases and a mystical dollar amount of cuts with no actual concrete figures on how to achieve it. The President has yet to put his plan on the table, even though the Congress has been asking for a scorable plan from him for months. In fact, he did not even respond to a request from myself and 76 of our freshman members who wrote to him and asked him over a month ago to come to the table and put pen to paper. And yet, even in the absence of a plan from the White House, the President is now threatening to veto a cut, cap, and balance before it was even brought to the floor for debate.

And this isn't the first time that the President has rejected a good plan put together by the House of Representatives. Not only did the House provide a plan in the Path to Prosperity, our House Republican budget, but here we are today, about to vote on Cap, Cut, and Balance, which represents a solution to the current debt ceiling debate. For someone who claims he wants to solve this issue, he has rejected every good proposal that has come his way.

Mr. President, it is time to eat your peas.

I urge my colleagues to vote for Cut, Cap and Balance.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 601, for final passage of H.R. 33, I was previously detained for a family matter. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

My name is Diane Black, and I represent the Sixth Congressional District in Tennessee. I am hearing more and more from women in my district. More and more women are decision makers in their households. As a matter of fact, statistics show us that 84 percent of women are primary decision makers today. They set their budgets. They buy groceries. They take their children to school and to doctors, and they also work outside the home. I hear from women all over my district who are on the front lines, and they say that the economy is making life tougher and that they are constantly trying to do more with less. They tell me that when they go to the grocery store, how much the rising food prices are cutting into what they buy. Gas is more expensive, and their budgets are shrinking, and their choices are limited because Washington is deciding for them.

As these past few years got harder, government stood in the way of our economy getting back on track. And in Tennessee, we have an unemployment rate of 9.6 percent. I also hear from women in my district whose husbands are looking for jobs, and these women

are working two jobs to make ends meet, a struggle that is very real to me. As a nurse for over 40 years, I worked two jobs when my children were little and our family was trying to better ourselves, as my husband was working on his degree. I worked not only as a nurse, but I also had a school for children in my home. My fellow GOP women here tonight, we are all with similar stories of struggles and challenges and working hard for our families. Government needs to get out of the way and allow businesses to grow so that jobs are created and America gets back on track.

I am a Republican woman, and I am proud of that. I am proud to say that I am not only protecting children and their families but also am working to make sure that our country gets back on track so that we have jobs that will allow these families to be strong and grow.

I believe that I'm not only speaking for myself, but also for the women back home and across this country.

Mr. Speaker, I came to Washington because I knew that we had a debt problem. But you know what? Once I got here and I started getting all the facts, I realized that we didn't have a debt problem. We have a debt crisis. We are $14.2 trillion in debt. And you know what? That number is even hard to comprehend, it's so large.

Over and over we hear from economists, both conservative and liberal, that we've got less than 5 years to turn things around or the United States is going to sink under all this debt. We've seen what has happened in Greece and Ireland, and I reject that future for the United States.

The time is now to fix this, because we're out of time and we have an opportunity to change for the good the way Washington is spending. But it doesn't seem the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue thinks that we should change anything. They're happy to keep kicking the can down the road. But you know what? The road has run out. In fact, the administration and over 100 Democrats in this Congress want a straight up or down vote on the debt ceiling. Well, that's what we're going to get today.

And when this measure to raise the Nation's debt limit fails on the House floor tonight, we will be sending the White House a message loud and clear: You will not get another blank check from us, Mr. President. That's because I and 87 of my freshman colleagues were sent here to Washington with strict marching orders to change the borrow-and-spend cycle that is bringing our country down.

Tonight, the people back home can see that we listened to them and that we are acting for them.

The American people reject the idea of a clean debt limit vote and so will the House tonight. Enough is enough.

The gig is up, Mr. President. So now is the time to get serious: Get serious about ending this debt; get serious about ending Washington's spending addiction; and get serious about getting this country back on track.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

I have been doing town hall meetings for the last 4 months, and up to this point I have had about 12. When Medicare comes up, people tell me, Don't touch my Medicare. Hands off my Medicare.

And you know what I tell them? There is a dirty little secret that the Democrats in Congress and the President don't want them to know, and that is their Medicare is already changed. Because last Congress, when this House passed ObamaCare, they robbed $500 billion from Medicare to pay for their government takeover of health care.

Not only that, but ObamaCare set up an Independent Payment Advisory Board, or an IPAB, and you know what those 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats will do? They are going to ration your Medicare to cut the costs and limit seniors' access to Medicare.

You know what else happens under this plan in a decade? There is no Medicare because the program will become bankrupt.

Now, the truth about the Republican plan and the Path to Prosperity: Under our plan we save Medicare. We address the unsustainable growth rate of Medicare so the program doesn't go bankrupt in 10 years. The Democrats have no plan to stop Medicare's descent into bankruptcy, but the Republicans do. And unlike ObamaCare, where you

have no choice, the Republicans give you a choice.

Now the dirty little secret is out there, and the real choice is in front of us. The choice is easy.

Madam Speaker, today we have heard many misrepresentations of the true nature of this bill, and so I want to boil it down to the simple facts of what this bill actually does--no hyperbole, no scare tactics.

This bill codifies the Hyde amendment that no taxpayer dollars will go to funding abortions. And this is a longstanding policy of the Federal Government since 1976.

We already know how medical expenses of all sorts are treated under the Tax Code. Taxpayers who use itemized deductions for medical expenses, who have HSAs or FSAs or MSAs, do not, and I want to highlight that, do not identify each medical expense on an individual tax return. That is not the case today nor will it be the case if this bill is signed into law.

And to be clear, what this bill does not do, a woman would not have to list on a tax form that a specific medical expense was for an abortion. That's simply not how the process works. It's not how it works today nor will it be how it works if this is signed into law.

So it's important to make clear that no one would ever be audited because of an abortion. They would have to already be under an audit for some other reason before--and I want to emphasize before--the IRS would even consider asking about any medical procedure.

Many types of medical care are very private. And as a nurse for over 40 years, I fully understand how personal medical issues can be. And taxpayers who don't want to tell the IRS about medical procedures they wish to be kept private can do so by not claiming those tax credits for such care.

Now, even if this issue did arise in an audit, other Federal agencies that already use taxpayer dollars, such as Medicaid and the Federal Employee Health Benefit Program, have had no problem distinguishing between abortions following rape and incest and elective abortions, and have done so without a reporting requirement. It's already there. They generally accept

the statement of the provider, basically, a doctor's note. And I would expect the IRS to do the same in these extremely rare cases.

Now, that doesn't mean that this is not a very difficult situation for that small group of women. And I understand it is incredibly difficult, and my heart goes out to them. But if you claim a tax benefit for a medical procedure like an abortion and you get audited, you can either choose to forego that tax benefit or else prepare to substantiate the tax benefit.

Last week I held three town hall meetings back in my community, throughout my district; and the number one topic was the staggering national debt. People in my district are angry at Washington that they have allowed the debt to balloon so far out of control. Many understand that big changes have to be made to reduce spending and to address our debt. And while the problem includes billions that have been spent to grow agencies and bloat programs over the years, the big problem is the auto-pilot programs.

Medicare spending is growing at an unsustainable rate of 7.2 percent every year; and unless we start now, Medicare goes bankrupt in 9 years, according to the CBO, and in 7 to 19 years, according to the Medicare Trustees Report. Left unchecked, the explosive growth of these programs, especially Medicare, threatens not only the ability of government to keep its promises to the beneficiaries but also the solvency of the Federal Government and the health of the U.S. economy.

Our Republican plan addresses this unsustainable growth while ensuring that our current seniors, those 55 and older, are still taken care of. Our Republican plan attacks the growth. And when we hear the political fodder, I ask, Where is your plan to address Medicare and reduce our debt? The time for leadership on this issue is now, not in 5 to 10 years when Medicare is almost bankrupt. Let us seize this moment and do what is necessary to preserve this vital program and save America from our looming debt crisis.

Mr. Speaker, as a nurse for over 40 years, I have spent my entire career protecting life. And those who need the greatest protection are those who have the least voice, that is, children born and unborn.

Now as a Member of Congress, I will continue to fight for the rights of the unborn through this legislation we have here today. And today, I am here as a sponsor of this resolution to ensure that no Federal funds are used for either the promotion or the performance of abortions.

There are people around who would lead you to believe that this bill is

about Republicans wanting to deny women access to preventative care, but they are using scare tactics and their lies are distracting you from the real facts. As a matter of fact, Title X funds which fund these types of preventative care for women will continue to fund those organizations and agencies that provide preventative care but do not promote or provide abortion services. What my colleagues and I are here doing today is standing up and saying we do not support Federal funding of any organization--any organization--that promotes or performs abortions.

There is an urgent need to stop taxpayer dollars from funding abortions. And the Republican majority in the House has already made clear our commitment to ending the funding for Planned Parenthood, which is, by the way, America's largest abortion provider. The Senate has ducked this legislation and this important discussion for this legislation for too long. It's time that the Senators debate this in the open, as we have here in the House in H.R. 1, and take a vote to end taxpayer funding of Planned Parenthood.