Floor Statements

I thank my friend and colleague and fellow Texan, Chairman Smith, for yielding.

Today, I honor a great man, a great Texan, a great American, Ralph Hall. As he makes history today for being the most experienced Member-- in lifelong years--of this Chamber to cast a vote, I am proud, as a member of the Texas delegation, to call him a friend and a colleague.

Ralph Hall embodies so many of the virtues we celebrate as Americans. He is a man who is forever devoted to his family. He is a patriot who served his country during World War II. He is a public servant who has dedicated his life to serving the people of Texas and the United States. He is an example to all Americans not just for his service to family and country but in the graceful manner in which he goes about his tasks and the joy that he inspires in all of us.

This Chamber will always be grateful for the service that Ralph Hall has given to the House of Representatives and to the Nation.

We all enjoy his good humor, his dedication, and his love of country that he brings to his job each and every day.

Tonight, as we pay tribute to Ralph Hall and wish him many more years of service to the people of Texas and the United States, I thank him for the privilege of serving by his side as a friend and a colleague in the House of Representatives of the United States Congress.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today to recognize and honor the centennial celebration of the founding of Natalia, Texas.

Natalia, which is located approximately 30 miles southwest of downtown San Antonio, was founded in 1912 by the Medina Irrigation Company. The town was named after Natalie Pearson, daughter of Fred Stark Pearson, who oversaw the irrigation company and building of the Medina Dam. During the town's application process for a post office the following year, Natalie's name was misspelled and the town became known as Natalia.

After the deaths of Pearson and his wife, who were passengers on the ill-fated Lusitania which was sunk by German forces in 1915, the Medina Irrigation Company went bankrupt and was subsequently reorganized under the name of Medina Irrigated Farms in 1931. Despite the tough economic environment in the U.S. during that time, Charles F. C. Ladd was successful in selling bonds in the amount of $2.5 million to pay for the Medina valley irrigation and to create a new loan fund for prospective land purchasers. As a result, the town prospered and increased its population from 150 in 1933 to 400 in 1939.

Today, Natalia is home to more than 1,400 people and is a vibrant community that is home to many families and businesses. Its centennial celebration will be marked with proud and exciting festivities that symbolize Natalia's wonderful history. I am proud to recognize this special event and have the opportunity to represent Natalia in the United States House of Representatives.

I want to thank my friend and colleague and fellow San Antonian--the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Mr. Smith--as well as his diligent and hardworking staff, for their help on this very important matter.

I come to the floor today, Madam Speaker, in support of my legislation, H.R. 6368, the Border Security Information Improvement Act.

As the Representative of a district with nearly 800 miles of U.S.- Mexico border, I know firsthand how important the security of our citizens along our shared border with Mexico is. As I visit with the people of the 23rd District of Texas, I hear time and time again from Americans living along the border that they do not feel safe or secure. They talk of living in fear. They tell me that Washington is not paying attention as drugs, weapons, and humans are smuggled through their communities. Washington is not listening as they ask for help as violence from Mexican drug cartels spills into their communities and cities and towns.

Many of the statistics and information used to make claims about the security of our southwest border are based on information from sources, such as the Uniform Crime Report, that are not intended to measure security along our border.

Administration officials have claimed that the border is safe and secure. Yet, while attending a Homeland Security Committee hearing last May, I learned that the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice do not have a working, uniform definition of ``spillover violence.'' Yet witnesses at the hearing--

high-ranking officials from Justice and Homeland Security--stated that there is no cross-border violence.

This is completely unacceptable. If the Federal Government cannot even define what endangers border citizens, we cannot ensure their safety. H.R. 6368 is simple. It is straightforward. It is a bill that will address this very problem.

It directs the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security to submit a report to Congress on their ability to define, to track, to investigate, and to quantify cross-border, or spillover, violence.

The Departments of Justice and Homeland Security will furthermore report what information and statistics are available and that are at their disposal in order to understand the amount of violence spilling into the United States. The ability to correctly monitor the level of spillover violence occurring across our Nation's borders will allow us to assess the success of our border security policies and to ensure that we have the correct policies in place in order to stop violence, stop drugs and contraband from spilling into the United States.

Lastly, the Departments will recommend to Congress what additional resources are necessary in order to track, quantify, and report on cross-border violence so that Congress can do its part and ensure that our Federal law enforcement agencies have the tools and the data that they need to do their jobs. Congress must be a willing and able partner in the fight against the ruthless Mexican cartels and the violence that they bring into our American communities.

Madam Speaker, the American people deserve to know the capability of their government to address cross-border violence. This bill does not seek to prove that one party is right or that one party is wrong. It simply seeks to find out the ability of the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security to define, to track, and to understand the amount of violence spilling into the United States from Mexico. In order to achieve a secure border, we must be able to correctly gauge the amount of violence that is spilling into the United States, and I believe that this bill is an important first step in that direction.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and career of a true American hero--Air Force Major General Gerald L. Prather. General Prather was born in LaGrange, Georgia in 1935. He enlisted in the Air Force in 1954, and received his pilot wings and commission in August of 1956. During his distinguished career, General Prather has flown F-84F's, F-100D's, C-130's, and was a B-52 pilot and training instructor. In 1967 he was assigned to Mactan Isle Airfield in the Philippines, where he completed more than 500 combat support missions in Southeast Asia. The general eventually became the commander of the European Communications Area in 1977, and was promoted to Major General in March of 1983, with date of rank July 1, 1979. General Prather's military decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star Medal with ``V'' device, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with two oak leaf cluster, Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, Air Force and Marine Presidential Unit Citation Emblems, Air Force Outstanding Unit Award Ribbon with oak leaf cluster, and the Air Force Organization Excellence Award Ribbon.

General Prather's life and career embodies the best of America and of our armed forces, and just recently he was named by the Boy Scouts as the ``Man of the Decade'' in Del Rio, TX, home of Laughlin Air Force Base. General Prather was also honored this past weekend when Laughlin Air Force base named a street on the base after him--a great honor for a great American.

As the representative of the 23rd District of Texas, which includes Del Rio and Laughlin Air Force Base, I wish to congratulate General Prather on his recent honors and thank him for a tremendous life of service to our nation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Joaquin Jackson's induction into the Texas Heroes Hall of Honor. Haynie Joaquin Jackson was born in Anton, Texas and served as a Texas Ranger from 1966 to 1993. During his career, Joaquin was committed to protecting our border communities and ensuring justice was served to those who broke the law. Also during his time, he saw the Rangers transition into the modern law enforcement agency it is today.

After being featured on a 1994 cover of Texas Monthly magazine, the retired Ranger became personified as the modern Texas Ranger. Joaquin appeared in several movies, including: The Good Old Boys with Tommy Lee Jones, Rough Riders and the Streets of Laredo, Palo Pinto Gold and Poodle Dog Lounge.

As a constituent of mine in Alpine, Texas, I am proud to congratulate Mr. Jackson on his outstanding life achievements and induction into the Texas Heroes Hall of Honor.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Chad Foster. Chad passed away this past Saturday after a battle with cancer at the age of 63. He is survived by his wife Jill and their son Chad Jr. and daughter Savannah.

Chad was a true public servant, who will be remembered as a committed leader and strong supporter of the Eagle Pass community. After serving three terms as Eagle Pass mayor, Chad went on to serve the community by leading numerous local and state organizations, including as the chairman of the Texas Border Coalition.

Chad was passionate about the advancement of our border communities. He focused his life on encouraging education, border security, health care, and other development programs that supported the people of South Texas. Chad will be sorely missed in our community, but his passion and legacy will certainly live on.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady from North Carolina, and I rise today in strong support of the rule for H.R. 4078.

The Regulatory Freeze for Jobs Act is an important piece of legislation that will ensure the government does not stand in the way of America's job creators.

I have the honor of representing a district that reaches from San Antonio, Texas, to El Paso, Texas, including nearly 800 miles of U.S.- Mexico border. When I head home for a work period, my days are spent on the road meeting with diverse groups of small businessmen, entrepreneurs, community bankers, farmers, energy producers, teachers, and law enforcement agents.

The most common theme that I hear from my constituents, whether they're Democrat or Republican, conservatives or liberals, to the left or to the right, is that the Federal Government is intrusive and standing in the way of job creation by issuing job-killing regulations. One constituent even sent a letter to my office on how regulations and high energy costs are impacting his family. He writes:

Our family is on a fixed income. It has become a hardship

to buy gasoline. Now, with the coal mines being shut down,

our electric bills are going to go through the roof. I guess

the wife and I will have to get a block of ice and a box fan

to stay cool this summer.

Since President Obama took office, we have seen a 52 percent increase in regulations deemed economically significant, which means a regulation costs the economy at least $100 million annually. And according to a September 2010 report from the Small Business Administration, total regulatory costs amount to $1.75 trillion annually, enough money for business to provide 35 million private sector jobs with an average salary of $50,000. In the midst of an economic downturn in which the unemployment rate has been above 8 percent for 41 consecutive months, 35 million private sector jobs is a very significant amount of jobs.

The legislation we begin to consider today is an important step in the right direction to provide certainty to our Nation's job creators so they can start hiring again and get our economy back on track.

It is amazing that this year alone, the Federal Register, where rules and regulations are published for the public to view, has seen more than 41,000 pages alone devoted to this regulatory explosion. These regulations would cost $56 billion and result in paperwork burdens that would take 114 million hours to complete. That is 13,000 years working 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Imagine how many jobs we could create in America if those 114 million paperwork hours were spent on building roads, issuing loans, expanding small businesses, and selling products instead of pushing paperwork across a desk to please a government regulator.

From regulating farm dust, stock tanks, and streams on private property, keeping young people off the farm, and imposing the most expensive rule ever on the energy sector, nothing is off limits for the out-of-control regulators in this administration. Even

though the House of Representatives has had some success in reining in job-killing regulations, right now it is still a good time to go to work for the Federal Government as a regulator in Washington, DC, because they are hiring.

If we want more jobs on Main Street, we need less red tape from bureaucrats and other regulators in Washington, DC.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding this time, and I rise in support of the rule and the underlying bill to completely repeal ObamaCare.

Though ObamaCare has been found to be constitutional, it doesn't mean it is good for our health care nor good for our economy. ObamaCare is still a government takeover of health care, putting Federal bureaucrats in charge of decisions that should be made by you and your doctor by creating 159 different boards, bureaucracies, and programs that will increase Washington's control over health care, like the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is compromised of 15 unelected bureaucrats that will be empowered to decide what treatments Medicare will and will not cover.

ObamaCare also could lead to less access to care and lower quality health care. I recently visited with several physicians last week in my district, and they told me that ObamaCare could lead to a large exodus of physicians from active practice, leaving many Americans with health care coverage but without health care access.

ObamaCare also cuts over half a trillion dollars from Medicare to pay for other spending, which could lead physicians to cut back on the number of American seniors that they will see, negatively impacting their care by leaving seniors with health care coverage but without access to care.

Besides being bad for health care, ObamaCare is bad for our economy. I've visited with numerous small businesses throughout the 23rd Congressional District of Texas, and almost every one of them has told me that the biggest factor keeping them from expanding their businesses and hiring more employees is the uncertainty about health care costs due to various taxes and mandates contained in ObamaCare.

Given the Supreme Court's ruling, it's now up to the people's elected representatives in the Congress to provide American families and small businesses with much-needed relief from the burdens of ObamaCare by repealing it completely. Only after ObamaCare is repealed can we then work to implement commonsense reforms to make health care more affordable and accessible.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Colorado for yielding time.

High energy prices are having a negative impact on our economy and on our family budgets. But don't take my word for it. This is what my constituents have told me firsthand.

There's David from Castroville, Texas, who wrote:

As a self-employed carpenter, gas prices for a large truck

cut into my profits. It is madness that the USA is not oil

and gas independent. Energy independence is essential for our

economy to grow and protect our freedom.

Another constituent, Ray, stated:

I'm a retired engineer and planned to travel with my wife

this summer but had to curtail these plans because of the

high cost of gasoline. This has cut deeply into my retirement

pay and I'm spending more time at home because of gasoline

prices.

Mr. Chairman, this isn't rhetoric from Washington insiders, but input from working-class Americans who are struggling to make ends meet. I urge my colleagues to support the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act in order to increase energy production, eliminate red tape, and create jobs.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the chairman, Mr. Hastings, the park subcommittee chairman, Mr. Bishop, and the staff of the Natural Resources Committee for working with me to move my legislation, the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Boundary Expansion Act, through the committee and have it included as part of the bill before us.

Would the chairman enter into a brief colloquy with me?

Is it the chairman's understanding that, after adoption of the manager's amendment, the bill contains reforms that would only allow for lands to come into the park via donation or exchange, and that these reforms apply only to the land coming into the park boundary as a result of the legislation before us?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm pleased to rise in support of the underlying legislation which contains my legislation, the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park Boundary Expansion Act, which I introduced with the entire Bexar County, Texas delegation.

In efforts to settle North America, the English founded Jamestown, Plymouth Rock, and other colonial settlements that schoolchildren learn about in U.S. history classes. The Spanish took a very different approach in their efforts to settle their possessions in North America. Instead of sending ships full of families to found new towns, the Spanish sent Franciscan priests to establish missions. At the missions, the Spanish priests would bring local Native Americans to live at the mission, teach them farming, educate them, and ultimately convert them to Christianity.

The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is an important asset to the community in San Antonio, Texas, and one of our Nation's historic treasures. The San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is comprised of four mission churches: Mission Concepcion, Mission San Jose, Mission San Juan, and Mission Espada.

Adjusting the boundaries of the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park is absolutely critical to protecting these treasures and allowing the park to continue thriving and further enhance the visitors' experience. It is also a critical part of the redevelopment taking place on the south side of San Antonio.

A recent study found that the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park supported over 1,000 local jobs and almost $100 million in economic activity. This boundary adjustment will help reconnect the missions to the San Antonio River, where the Mission Reach Project is taking place to extend to the south side the economic prosperity and job opportunities enjoyed in other parts of San Antonio. Such redevelopment will allow for significant job and economic opportunities that currently do not exist in parts of San Antonio.

The San Antonio missions are important to the Nation in that they help visitors understand the history of our Nation, its diverse origins, as well as the history of San Antonio and the history of Texas. I would also add that the four missions that comprise the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park are still functioning parish churches, continuing to fulfill the role in the San Antonio community for which they were founded almost 300 years ago.

The San Antonio missions are just as important to understanding the story and the history of America as other historic places like Jamestown, Independence Hall, or Mount Vernon, and this legislation will help protect and preserve them for future generations of Americans to enjoy, all the while helping to create jobs and economic opportunity on the south side of San Antonio.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Dr. Alfredo Gutierrez Jr. Dr. Gutierrez was a beloved and trusted doctor and dedicated former mayor of Del Rio, Texas. On April 24, 2012, at the age of 80, Dr. Gutierrez passed away from heart failure. He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Olga Hernandez Gutierrez, seven children, seventeen grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

Dr. Gutierrez was a leader and role model in the Del Rio community. His passion and love for Del Rio was most exemplified through his work as a doctor and leadership as mayor. Dr. Gutierrez served for 20 years as Del Rio's mayor, earning the title ``dean of Del Rio's mayors.'' He was also as equally dedicated to serving the community through his medical practice, delivering nearly 5,000 babies over a career that spanned five decades. Only after suffering a heart attack in 2010 did he decide to close his practice.

While Del Rio has lost an icon and hero, Dr. Gutierrez's impact and passion for the community will certainly live on.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today to congratulate students from Presidio High School and Lucy Rede Franco Middle School for qualifying for this year's Team America Rocketry Challenge national finals. This prestigious competition, which includes approximately 7,000 students from across the country, is the largest model rocket contest in the world.

Through their extraordinary talent and hard work these 3 teams earned a spot within the top 100 finalists, earning them a trip to Washington, DC for the national finals on May 12th. I am proud to congratulate Ana Karen Nieto, Itza Hanai Rodriguez, Antonio Bujanda, Marla Baltazar, Dylan Rivera, Rene Cardona, Gwynelle Condino, Jillianne Franco, Andres Villa, Hector Montemayor, and John Valeriano for this outstanding achievement and wish them the best of luck in the competition.

I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the Financial Services Committee has responsibly contributed, roughly, $35 billion in deficit reduction measures to this bill, and I am happy that one of these measures that I sponsored--a repeal of the Office of Financial Research--was adopted by voice vote in our committee. This agency, which was created by the Dodd-Frank, is a threat to the privacy of every American citizen, and it has no place in a system of checks and balances such as ours. Repealing the OFR will save $270 million over 10 years, and Americans will be better off for it.

Mr. Speaker, due to a family emergency that required me to return to Texas, I missed several votes during two separate vote series on April 26, 2011 and April 27, 2011. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall vote 184, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 185, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 186, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 187, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 188, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 189, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 190, ``nay'' on rollcall vote 191, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 192, ``aye'' on rollcall vote 193, ``nay'' on rollcall vote 194 and ``aye'' on rollcall vote 195.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today to recognize and honor the extraordinary history of the town of Dunlay. Dunlay, located in West Texas, was originally established to service the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railroad, GH & SA RR CO, that came through Medina County in 1881. Initially named Enterprise, the town's name was changed in 1895 to Dunlay, after railroad conductor Jerry Dunlay. The town's primary purpose was to house railroad section crews who were responsible for a ten-mile stretch of track between Dunlay and Hondo.

During its heyday, Dunlay had a cotton gin, general store, lumber yard, restaurant, depot, grist mill, blacksmith shop, butcher shop, saloon, boarding house, school, and a Hermann Sons Hall. When the railroad left, many of the businesses in Dunlay dismantled and followed the railroad. The general store continued, as well as, a filling station and post office.

Today, Dunlay is still home to many families and new businesses. Dunlay's history symbolizes a special time in America and I am proud to represent this town and their great people.