Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on this coming Sunday, January 19, communities and churches across America will be celebrating the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is a call to defend the sanctity of human life. Since 1983, Americans have observed Sanctity of Human Life Sunday as a day to celebrate the intrinsic value of all human life. This important day also provides an opportunity for pregnancy centers to share about the work they do to bring life-affirming resources to their communities and to empower women and men to choose life for their unborn children.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is held on the Sunday in January that falls closest to the day on which the ROE v. WADE and DOE v. BOLTON decisions were handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on January 22, 1973.

I look forward to celebrating this Sanctity of Human Life Sunday worshipping with the DuBois First Baptist Church, which is located in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, an area I proudly serve and represent.

That same week, on Wednesday, January 22, the March for Life will be held here in Washington, D.C. What began as a small demonstration has rapidly grown to be one of the largest pro-life events in the world. The peaceful demonstration will be attended by hundreds of thousands of Americans, including many from Pennsylvania's Fifth Congressional District.

Mr. Speaker, our Founders who penned our Declaration of Independence recognized this first principle, as they stated:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are

created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with

certain unalienable rights, that among these are life.

Mr. Speaker, today, we continue to live out this principle. For all of us, protecting the unborn is a value system. It is a cause. It is a distinct understanding that every child, every human life, has a purpose in this world; and that life is sacred, and it must be protected.

The only way to offer a voice for those who have no voice is to band together. By educating our children and effectively communicating with our communities on the importance of life, this is how we will successfully lead this fight. Both Sanctity of Human Life Sunday and March for Life are spent doing that--celebrating life and spreading our message.

Mr. Speaker, as for the right to life, Americans, born and yet to be born, deserve as much.

Mr. Speaker, today the House took a positive step towards restoring fiscal discipline in Washington with passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2014.

In years past, Congress has relied on continuing resolutions, which is no way to run the government, and it cedes all spending decisions to the White House.

Alternatively, this measure restores the role invested by the Constitution in the legislative branch, the power of the purse, the ability to authorize and appropriate public money for the national government.

Furthermore, the bill reduces regulatory burdens, protects our national security, and enforces stringent oversight of the executive branch.

The bill protects our constituents from arbitrary and drastic flood insurance rate increases, maintains pro-life policies, and protects Second Amendment rights.

The bill creates efficiency by eliminating areas of waste but also makes critical investments in areas most in need.

Congressman Jim Langevin of Rhode Island and I, cochairs of the bipartisan Career and Technical Education Caucus, have led the charge for fully funding career and technical education. This bill increases funding for CTE programs by $52 million.

I want to thank my colleagues for their work and call on the Senate to pass this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration has repeatedly asserted their regulations on coal-fired power plants will not be a death blow to the industry. Unfortunately, the Environmental Protection Agency's most recently published rule for new coal-fired power plants tells us this claim could not be further from the truth.

The administration asserts this regulation on new coal-fired plants will make use of ``adequately demonstrated'' technologies. Well, according to the Washington Examiner's editorial board:

Federal law has long barred the EPA from mandating industry

use of technology that has not been ``adequately

demonstrated'' as ready for commercial use. It is simply

ludicrous for the EPA to claim in its proposed new rule that

CCS technology has reached such a point.

Mr. Speaker, this administration is dead-set on eliminating coal from our fuel mix without a plan to make up for the energy that it provides or the jobs that it supports. It is an anti-energy agenda that is costing jobs, harming economic growth, and placing a greater burden on family budgets. The American people deserve better.

Mr. Speaker, as a father of a Purple Heart wounded warrior and father-in-law of a recently discharged soldier, my promise is to serve and advocate for those who serve this country. Our troops have earned our support not just during their service, but after they return to civilian life.

I am proud to support the COLAs for medically retired Armed Forces personnel and survivors, particularly doing away with the 1 percent reduction that has been put in place. This will be considered in the House later this week under the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2014.

Also included in this legislation is a 1 percent pay raise for our troops, as well as funding and guidance for the Department of Defense to support our warfighters overseas and our military and humanitarian missions around the globe.

Our military must remain strong to enforce the peace, and the soldiers, airmen, sailors, and marines that make this happen must always be the best trained and equipped force in the world.

Mr. Speaker, let's continue to serve those who serve in uniform. Our American heroes deserve as much.

Mr. Speaker, under the Affordable Care

Act's employer mandate, volunteer organizations with 50 or more employees could be forced to provide health insurance or pay penalties. This could decimate the financial solvency of firefighting organizations across my home State and the country.

I, along with colleagues from the House and Senate, have pushed to have the Internal Revenue Service clarify this situation. Last month I joined with Pennsylvania Representative Lou Barletta, along with 30 other colleagues, on the introduction of legislation that would ensure these volunteers are not counted as full-time employees under the ACA.

As a result of these efforts, on Friday, January 10, the IRS announced they will not be considering volunteer firefighters as employees for purposes of the law. While the IRS announcement is a huge step in the right direction, that does not make the decision final. The devil always tends to be in the details.

Mr. Speaker, this cloud of uncertainty for our volunteers and the populations they protect must be removed. With that said, I look forward to reviewing the final ruling and will work to ensure there is certainty provided in a timely fashion.

Mr. Speaker, although the www.healthcare.gov Web site launch was a severe disappointment, an even greater concern has been expressed regarding the Web site's security vulnerabilities, including the security of personal and medical information.

What is most concerning is that it appears to be more important for this administration to avoid political fallout than to conduct a thorough evaluation of the Web site's security. Unfortunately, it has become very clear that the rushed implementation of the launch has affected the site's ability to perform on both accounts.

Mr. Speaker, if the administration wants the confidence of the American people, they should make every effort to ensure private information is kept private. The bill we passed today with significant bipartisan support, the Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act, would require the Department of Health and Human Services to notify individuals if their personal information has been stolen or unlawfully accessed through an ObamaCare exchange. This is a simple, commonsense reform that will go a long way to help stem the fears that Americans have with the online exchanges and the security of their personal information. Mr. Speaker, the American people deserve as much.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the top three award winners for the 2013 Penn State University Civic Engagement Public Speaking Contest.

Students for the competition are nominated by their classmates in recognition of their speaking performances throughout the semester. In total, 1,500 students vie in the competition. Their speeches are what Aristotle, who wrote about rhetoric, would classify as ``deliberative,'' meaning their work is intended to spark public dialogue on matters of social or cultural importance.

The contest is judged by representatives from Pearson, The New York Times, Penn State, and the State College community.

For this year's competition, Amanda Hofstaedter of Chalfont, Pennsylvania, won first prize for her piece titled, ``Mandatory GMO Labeling: A Win-Win for Companies and Consumers.''

Sarah Bastian of State College, Pennsylvania, took second place for her work titled, ``Driving Down Demand: An Answer for Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking.''

And finally, Prithvi Nilkant of Mars, Pennsylvania, took third place for her work entitled, ``Creating a Safer Society for All.''

Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate these winners, along with all the competing students, for not only their hard work, but also for their creativity and for their passion for public engagement.

Mr. Speaker, on December 26, 2013, President Obama signed into law the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act, which sets policy and funding levels for the U.S. Department of Defense.

In large part, the bill went through regular committee order on the House side, with the consideration of amendments from both Republicans and Democrats. A somewhat similar series of actions was taken by the Senate. Despite a small amount of political theater, both Chambers not only found common ground in and passed this important measure, but in placing good policy before politics, Members overcame differences and acted in the best interests of the country--in this case, to the benefit of our men and women in uniform. Mr. Speaker, this is how the institution is supposed to work.

The measure offers our servicemembers resources to safely fulfill their

missions and the support that they deserve when they return from service. I offered an amendment to the bill, which passed as part of the final agreement. This will help improve the support we offer those who serve as they transition to civilian life, especially those coping with behavioral health injuries.

Under the previous policy, servicemembers and their families could utilize 180 days of health care coverage during the transition from military to civilian life through what is known as TAMP, the Transitional Assistance Management Program. Unfortunately, posttraumatic stress and other behavioral injuries oftentimes do not present symptoms in some cases until 8 to 10 months after leaving the military. Now, this can be overwhelming if not debilitating for an individual seeking to reenter civilian life and start the next path. This amendment extends TAMP coverage by an additional 180 days for all services rendered through telemedicine.

The amendment builds on a bill I introduced in 2011, the STEP Act, now Public Law 112-81, section 713, which expanded Federal exemptions for telehealth consultations across State lines by removing the individual State requirement that health professionals must hold licenses in the State where servicemember care is received. Health care professionals who are credentialed by the Department of Defense are now able to offer these services regardless of the patient's physical location.

In addition, it allows military doctors to reach more patients, and it allows more patients to access care without the stigma often associated with the seeking of treatment for the first time. If desired, such support can now be accessed from the comfort of one's own home, through video teleconference, Skype, and a range of other telemedicine practices. In part due to this commonsense change, in 2012 the Army was able to perform nearly 36,000 teleconsultations, which includes over 31,200 telebehavioral health clinic encounters. The numbers continued to grow in 2013.

For those burdened by physical and psychological injuries as a result of their service in uniform, we must take every action to help them rebuild and become whole. Both of these policy changes are positive steps forward in modernizing how the Department of Defense delivers health care, making widespread telemedicine possible and accessible to those most in need.

Mr. Speaker, Washington remains divided as we begin the second session of the 113th Congress, but I remain hopeful in knowing that bipartisan accomplishments such as this can serve as a guiding light for this institution in the weeks and months to come.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman for yielding, and I appreciate my good friend from Pennsylvania for hosting this Special Order on a very serious issue.

Biggert-Waters, I think, was a piece of legislation that we all had great hopes for in terms of the National Flood Insurance Program. As the commercial insurance industry really exited the insuring of flood risk, it was left to the Federal Government; and with the recent flooding, obviously, over the past number of years, that fund has been decimated. Last year, on a bipartisan basis, Congress passed the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. The measure included some long overdue reforms that strengthened the financial solvency and administrative efficiency of the National Flood Insurance Program.

The rationale for the 2012 law was the need for the National Flood Insurance Program to more accurately reflect flood risk. Historically, most low-risk States have subsidized higher risk States, mostly coastal. Similarly, low-risk areas within the States have tended to subsidize those areas with a higher risk, more prone to flooding. The linchpin of the 2012 law, however, was to use true actuarial rates in order to prevent very low-risk areas from subsidizing moderate to high- risk areas. The unintended consequences have been drastic premium increases for those plans that were traditionally subsidized by the National Flood Insurance Program.

Under the law, Congress mandated that the Federal Emergency Management Agency complete an affordability study to further evaluate any unintended consequences as a result of the changes. The study was to be completed before the rate increase went into effect. I want to repeat that. The law that was passed in 2012 had a safeguard in there that the administration, through the agency FEMA, was to do affordability studies before rates went up. That is not what happened, Mr. Speaker. That would have been critical to understanding the full scope of the new risk model. FEMA has failed to complete the affordability study that was required under the law. Additionally, there remains a huge concern that FEMA does not have the data that it needs to accurately determine risk under this new policy regime and that it is incapable of creating a new mapping system that truly reflects true actuarial rates.

Now, while 80 percent of the policyholders in this country will not see an increase as a result of the new policy, a small portion of the properties in this country--actually, I think it is a significant portion of properties--are being hit with staggering increases. This is a serious concern for communities and individuals across the country, including many from the Fifth District of Pennsylvania.

Just recently, I have heard from counties, communities and homeowners from Cameron County and Erie County--Clinton, McKean, Crawford, Potter, Huntington, and Centre--and

that is just in recent days. I think we are at risk of creating ghost towns as homes have lost so much value. You may be able to afford the mortgage, but you can't afford the flood insurance. As my good friend said, the number one assets that individuals have in their lives are their properties--their homes, their real estate. When it comes time to be able to sell them, they are not able to liquidate them because there is no one out there who is able to buy. So we are really at risk of creating these ghost towns unless we make the necessary changes, I think, to have the administration comply with the law as it was passed in 2012 in terms of affordability rates.

Colleagues on both sides of the aisle have come together to correct this critically important issue. I am an original cosponsors of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, H.R. 3370. I know my good friend Mr. Marino has introduced another bill that would completely repeal Biggert-Waters, most recently introduced within the past couple of days.

H.R. 3370 is a bill to terminate the rate increase under the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 until 2 years after the Federal Emergency Management completes the rate affordability study originally mandated under the law. The bill also makes structural changes to FEMA to ensure that there are advocates for homeowners when flood maps are drawn or adjusted.

Mr. Speaker, improving the financial viability of the Nation's flood insurance program while ensuring that program protects those it was designed to support is something every Member of this body should support.

I encourage my colleagues to join in this commonsense effort to protect and improve our Nation's flood insurance program but also to make sure that our real estate market remains strong and viable and that that important asset that individuals have remains able to be bought and sold.

I thank the gentleman for hosting this Special Order.

I thank the gentleman for yielding and for sponsoring this. As a 30-year-plus State-certified volunteer EMT and rescue technician, on behalf of my brother and sister firefighters and rescue workers, EMTs, EMS folks, thank you for your leadership on this.

Just very quickly, our volunteers are not employees. Our volunteers are neighbors helping neighbors. Our volunteers are community servants. They are trained professionals today. They are heroes. They are willing to walk into burning buildings when everyone else is running out. But they are not employees. And it is time for the Obama administration and the IRS to give us that clarification.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday, the White House claimed ObamaCare is partially responsible for helping to slow the growth rate in health care spending. Health care spending did grow at a record slow pace in 2012. Unfortunately, according to NPR:

The Federal officials who compiled the report disagree with

the Obama administration about why.

That's right. The annual report from the actuaries for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services disagrees with the White House.

NPR disagrees as well:

One thing that did not lead to slower growth, according to

the report's authors, was the Affordable Care Act.

``It's the recession, not ObamaCare, that is slowing health spending,'' writes the National Journal.

Mr. Speaker, hospital costs are increasing. Out-of-pocket costs continue to increase, and any reduction in the rate of growth isn't due to the Affordable Care Act.

A closer look at the numbers shows us that this law has made matters worse. A closer look at the numbers tells us more about what the White House would rather not discuss. A closer look tells us that the American people deserve better.

Mr. Speaker, each year, Congress deliberately acts to craft, pass, and sign into law the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual policy bill for the U.S. Department of Defense.

For the first time in 52 years, this may no longer be the case. This year, the House passed its version in June, while the Senate, again, dragged its feet.

Fortunately, earlier this week, congressional leaders reached a compromise that will allow both Chambers to move forward. It includes an important amendment I offered accepted under the House version dealing with the Transitional Assistance Management Program, or TAMP, which offers health care coverage for servicemembers transitioning into civilian life.

All too often, symptoms related to post-traumatic stress do not appear until 8 to 10 months after deployment. The amendment will extend coverage under TAMP by 180 days for all services rendered through telemedicine, which is critical, especially for those coping with mental injuries.

As a father of an Active Duty soldier, I am hopeful we can bring this bill to the finish line and make good on our commitments to our troops and continue meeting our obligations around the world.

Mr. Speaker, the Food Network recently broadcast an episode of their hit reality-based cooking television series, ``Chopped.'' Aspiring teen chefs highlighted their culinary skills and competed for a scholarship that would be put towards a leading culinary school. Competition aside, these young chefs are ambassadors of career and technical education programs. They amazed professional judges and made the viewing public second-guess mom's cooking.

As cochair of the bipartisan Career and Technical Education Caucus, which I am proud to lead with my good friend, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), I congratulate the Food Network and ``Chopped'' for promoting these young culinary professionals.

Mr. Speaker, inspiration is like lightning; it doesn't strike in the same place twice. With 2014 quickly approaching, we should do everything in our power in order to support the culinary arts and the entire range of other career and technical education programs and fields that offer aspiring young minds and transitioning adults a gateway to success in a rapidly evolving and dynamic job market. The future of America deserves as much.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to support volunteer fire and emergency services organizations by cosponsoring a bill introduced today by Pennsylvania Congressman Lou Barletta, H.R. 3685, the Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act.

This bill ensures that emergency services volunteers are not counted as full-time employees under the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Because of the nominal fees that at times are given to volunteers and the rate at which the new definition of ``full-time'' is calculated, many volunteer companies are concerned about having to provide health coverage for firefighters or face a penalty. The IRS has been asked to rule on this determination, yet Congress has not received a response.

Having served as a firefighter and EMS volunteer since 1983, I know as well as anyone just how crushing this impact would be for these volunteer organizations. Fire department and municipality support for fire and EMS volunteers is important; however, incentives given to these community volunteers do not change the fact that these are volunteers serving their neighbors.

I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join in support of the commonsense effort by cosponsoring H.R. 3685.

Mr. Speaker, in October, natural gas production in the Marcellus shale region reached 12 billion cubic feet a day. That is six times the production rate in 2009.

To put this in perspective, the Marcellus would rank eighth in the world in gas production if it was classified as its own country.

This month, the number will be exceeded yet again. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration report released today, production in the Marcellus shale region is projected to exceed 13 billion feet per day this month. This means the Marcellus shale is expected to provide 18 percent of the total U.S. natural gas production this month.

This type of energy production creates American jobs, spurs economic growth, lowers energy prices, brings much-needed tax revenue to local and State governments, and begins us on a path to greater economic competitiveness.

Mr. Speaker, the Nation must continue to pursue policies that lower energy costs for American families and improve our energy security. If we follow the model built by States like Pennsylvania, and keep the Federal Government from over-regulating these industries, we can achieve these goals.