Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, during rollcall vote No. 587 on Previous Question H. Res. 788, I mistakenly recorded my vote as ``yea'' when I should have voted ``nay.''

I ask unanimous consent that my statement appear in the Record following rollcall vote No. 587.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Delaware Speaker of the House Bob Gilligan.

In November, Speaker Gilligan will conclude a 40-year career as a member of Delaware's house of representatives, making him the longest- serving member in State history.

Throughout his career, Speaker Gilligan has been one of the most effective leaders in Delaware State government. Speaker Gilligan has been a trusted and compassionate leader during times when Delaware needed him most. He helped lead the State through some of its most difficult fiscal challenges. He championed open government legislation that gave Delawareans unprecedented access to their representatives and oversaw the passage of landmark civil rights reforms. And he did this while maintaining the friendship and respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle.

On a personal level, I will always appreciate Speaker Gilligan's friendship and support. He gave me my first job in public service as a legislative fellow, an experience that inspired my work in government and politics.

It has been a real privilege for me to work over the years with Bob, and I would like to congratulate Speaker Bob Gilligan on an outstanding career and wish him well in his retirement.

Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, the Delaware delegation recognized the vision and tireless efforts of former Congressman Mike Castle of Delaware to develop a recreational trail along the Chesapeake and Delaware (or C&D) Canal by breaking ground for construction of the trail.

The C&D Canal, managed by the Philadelphia District of the Army Corps of Engineers, has been in operation since 1829. Today, it is one of the busiest working waterways in the world, with over 25,000 vessels passing through it each year. The canal is a critical commercial waterway serving the Ports of Wilmington, Baltimore, and Philadelphia. The C&D Canal is bordered by a 16-mile stretch of flat, uninterrupted land, perfect for a trail, and surrounded by more than 7,500 acres of public land, creating a unique and safe environment for recreationists. In 2004, Congressman Castle saw these assets as an ideal opportunity to enhance the canal's existing resources by adding a recreational trail.

Under Congressman Castle's leadership, a working group was formed in 2004 with representatives from the State of Delaware, New Castle County, the Army Corps, Delaware City, Chesapeake City, the State of Maryland, and recreation groups. In 2005 and 2006, public workshops were held to solicit ideas and comments from local residents regarding potential recreational uses along the C&D Canal. In March 2006, a concept plan was completed by the working group, recommending the creation of a recreational trail along the canal to be used by walkers, joggers, cyclists, and equestrians. In 2007, design work for the trail began and environmental assessments were completed, and in 2009 trail design was completed.

Congressman Castle was instrumental in obtaining resources for the trail. In addition to supporting efforts to acquire state and local funding, he also secured a total of $2.2 million in Public Lands Highways Discretionary awards in fiscal years 2008, 2009, and 2010 from the Federal Highway Administration to go toward planning and construction of the trail.

Congressman Castle's vision and years of work to build a trail along the C&D Canal was not forgotten when he left office. Recognizing the tremendous benefits that could be realized by the trail, the delegation picked up the project where Castle left off. Since then, the delegation has worked with the Federal Highway Administration, the State of Delaware, New Castle County, the recreation community, and others to reinvigorate the working group and secure additional funding to build the first phase of the recreational trail along the banks of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal.

The recreational trail along the C&D Canal will provide a common link to communities across the States of Delaware and Maryland from Chesapeake City to Delaware City. It will create a safe and inviting recreational opportunity along the canal and will bring families and other groups to hike, bicycle, jog, skate, or ride horseback along the trail. Local business, including restaurants and shops, will reap the benefits of this increased tourism to the area. The C&D Canal trail will also support healthy lifestyles through outdoor recreation. The trail will improve safety along the canal and increase the appeal and land value of residential developments in the area. The C&D canal recreation trail will be an attractive asset for the Middletown, Odessa and Townsend region that will draw new residents to the area.

Congressman Castle long ago embraced the notion that the C&D Canal is like an emerald necklace draped across the northern portion of our beautiful state, and we are so very pleased that this jewel will be named after our dear friend.

On July 9, the Delaware Department of Transportation broke ground on Phase I of the recreational trail. This first phase will complete approximately nine miles of the trail from Delaware City to just beyond Summit Marina in Delaware, including the construction of two trail heads, parking areas, and comfort stations.

Honoring Congressman Mike Castle's long-time support of recreational and commuter-oriented greenways and trails in Delaware and across the nation, as well as his vision, leadership, and steadfast support of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal trail, the Delaware delegation hereby dedicates the trail to him, and officially recognizes the name as the ``Michael N. Castle Trail at the C&D Canal.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my thoughts about the tax on medical devices.

The House voted on H.R. 436, the Health Care Cost Reduction Act of 2012. This bill would have repealed the 2.3 percent tax on medical devices that was instituted to pay for the Affordable Care Act. While I did not support H.R. 436, I recognize that medical device makers are at the forefront of innovation and that Federal legislation should support those efforts. I am concerned about the impact that the medical device tax will have on American jobs. Particularly during these difficult economic times, I believe we must do everything we can to encourage, not stifle, job creation.

I believe the Affordable Care Act will provide critical health care coverage to millions of Americans, and I also believe that paying for it responsibly is important. I did not support H.R. 436 because I do not believe that Americans already struggling to afford the cost of healthcare coverage should bear the burden of eliminating this tax. Moreover, I believe we should refrain from making significant changes to the funding structure of the Affordable Care Act until the Supreme Court has rendered its decision on the constitutionality of the law. At that time, the House should revisit repealing the medical device tax with an offset that protects American families while being fiscally responsible.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Food and Drug Administration Reform Act and, in particular, the provisions it contains to address critical drug shortages. Across the country, patients are not getting critical medications they need to battle diseases and stay healthy. This crisis is hitting cancer patients especially hard, with serious shortages of chemotherapy drugs.

In response to this crisis, I introduced the Drug Shortage Prevention Act with my colleague, Representative Larry Bucshon. I'm pleased that key provisions of this bill are included in the legislation that the House passed last night. These provisions help FDA and the DEA fix some of the regulatory problems that are causing these shortages.

This is not a partisan issue. Drug shortages affect all of us. I'm pleased that the Senate passed its own version of this legislation last week, and I'm hopeful that both Chambers can quickly come together to present a final package for the President's signature.

When a family gets hit with a diagnosis like cancer, they have enough things to worry about. Running out of chemotherapy drugs should not be one of them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of a 10-year, $4 trillion deficit-reduction plan that is both balanced and comprehensive. In the Congress today, there is now broad support in both parties from both Chambers to reduce the deficit by $4 trillion over 10 years. That's the goal set by the President's deficit reduction commission.

Today, we will consider a number of budget proposals for fiscal year 2013. None of them is perfect, but it is critical that we come together behind a reasonable 10-year, $4 trillion framework and start working on the details. Time is running out to fix this critical problem.

I believe the Van Hollen and the Cooper-LaTourette proposals are both frameworks that deserve support and consideration. Both of them are balanced and fair. They include revenue increases and spending cuts, and they don't undermine the fragile economic recovery in the short term.

Progress is difficult, and today's budget votes are only the first step. I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on this difficult task.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember the Reverend Maurice Moyer, who died Tuesday, March 6, at age 93.

Rev. Moyer was one of Delaware's most respected and beloved citizens, and a prominent civil rights leader.

As president of the Wilmington Branch of the NAACP from 1960 to 1964, Rev. Moyer led the fight for open public accommodations and fair housing. He was part of the 1963 March on Washington, and participated in the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

Rev. Moyer fought tirelessly for equal rights for all and was an inspiration to everyone who knew him. He did so much to make Delaware and our country a better place for all of us.

It was a privilege for me to know him personally and to join his family and friends for his 90th birthday party, where we celebrated his incredible life and legacy.

I will always remember Rev. Moyer's broad smile, his strong voice, and his kind heart. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remember the Reverend Maurice Moyer who died Tuesday at age 93. Rev. Moyer was one of Delaware's most prominent civil rights leaders. As president of the Wilmington Branch of the NAACP from 1960 and 1964, Rev. Moyer led the fight for open public accommodations and fair housing.

He was part of the 1963 March on Washington and participated in the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

Rev. Moyer fought tirelessly for equal rights for all and was an inspiration for everyone who knew him. He did so much to make Delaware and our country a better place for all of us.

Rev. Moyer was one of Delaware's most respected and beloved citizens. It was a privilege for me to know him personally and to join his family and friends for his 90th birthday party where we celebrated his incredible life and legacy.

I will always remember Rev. Moyer's broad smile, his strong voice and his kind heart.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to encourage all my colleagues, Democrats and Republicans, to support this important piece of legislation to create jobs.

In December, Representative Fincher and I introduced H.R. 3606, the Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011. Today, our legislation is the vehicle for a package of bills to help small businesses access capital and grow.

I'd also like to recognize Mr. Fincher and his staff, Jim Hall and Erin Bays, for their bipartisan work on this bill. I would also like to thank Ranking Member Frank and Representative Waters for their assistance and leadership throughout this process.

The original bill, H.R. 3606, which is contained in the bill today before us, will create jobs in part by making it easier for emerging growth companies to undertake IPOs and go public. On average, research tells us that 92 percent of a company's growth, job

growth, occurs after they go public. But in recent years, the number of companies going public has fallen off dramatically.

This legislation takes a commonsense approach to reduce the cost of going public for these so-called ``on ramp'' status companies by phasing in, not exempting, by phasing in certain costly regulatory requirements. Our bill creates a new category of issuers called ``emerging growth companies.'' They have annual revenues of less than $1 billion and, following the initial public offering, less than $700 million in publicly traded shares. Exemptions for these on-ramp status companies would either end after 5 years or when the company reaches $1 billion in revenue or $700 million in public float.

The legislation will also make it easier for potential investors to get access to research and company information in advance of an IPO, and this is an issue around which there's been quite a bit of discussion in committee. This is critical, though, for small and medium-sized companies trying to raise capital that have less visibility in the marketplace.

Last month, these provisions were passed out of the Financial Services Committee with a bipartisan vote of 54 1. We've worked hard to craft legislation that could garner support from Democrats and Republicans and that can pass both the House and the Senate. And as you heard earlier, it's supported by the administration. In fact, many of the ideas in this bill were generated out of a process started by the Treasury Department itself.

Making it easier for small and medium-sized companies to grow is an effective way to create jobs and improve the economy, and we all know how important that is to the constituents that we serve. This legislation will encourage more entrepreneurs to start businesses and allow more start-ups to become public companies and grow and create jobs.

Please join me in supporting H.R. 3606.

I thank the gentleman. Being new at this, I think I was supposed to grab that time in opposition, but I don't oppose this amendment. So I stumbled there for a minute.

I rise in support of the technical amendment that is under consideration at this time and also say that, in the work through the committee, we also had a technical amendment that was adopted by the committee that addressed a number of the concerns that were raised by Ranking Member Frank and by my good friend from Ohio (Mr. Renacci) consistent with this amendment that's under consideration right now.

This is the spirit in which we've worked this bill, tried to address concerns that were raised both by interested parties as well as by individual Members. So I rise in support of the amendment.

I rise to claim time in opposition, though I'm not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I'd like to first thank the gentleman from California for his amendment and for working with the minority party and the ranking member on the provisions of the amendment. I understand there's support for the amendment on this side of the aisle as well.

I would like to take a minute, if I could, or a couple of minutes, to talk about the Waters amendment, which was discussed a few minutes ago, just to clarify a few points, if I may. Congresswoman Waters, in committee, raised the concerns about the way information was used during the dot-com boom in the early 2000s, and there were obviously some problems with that.

But I think the Record needs to be clear that under our bill, all analyst research for emerging growth companies will remain subject to certain provisions. They will be subject to the Global Research Analyst Settlement, which was a court settlement that resulted from the problems in the early 2000s. This settlement established a comprehensive set of rules that severed the link between investment banking and research activities at large banks.

They will be subject to section 501 of Sarbanes-Oxley, which requires research analysts and broker dealers to disclose all potential conflicts of interest in research reports; they will be subject to Regulation AC, which requires research analysts to personally certify that the views expressed in research reports accurately reflect the research analysts' personal views about the securities, and to disclose whether research analysts were compensated in connection with specific recommendations; and, they would still be subject to stock exchange listing standards.

The point is that the protections against these conflicts that the gentlelady from California is concerned about are preserved under our bill, and we would argue that the amendment is not necessary. In fact, what the amendment would do is it would take away what we think is an advantage to our legislation, which is research that would be available on small emerging growth companies which are not covered currently by certain of these regulations.

So I'd like to just ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle-- obviously, the amendment failed on a voice vote, and I would ask, as the amendment goes to a recorded vote, that my colleagues keep in mind that these protections still exist for investors.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues to support bipartisan legislation to create jobs. In December, Congressman Stephen Fincher and I introduced H.R. 3606, the Reopening American Capital Markets to Emerging Growth Companies Act of 2011.

Our legislation will create jobs by making it easier for emerging growth companies to undertake an IPO. On average, 92 percent of a company's growth occurs after they go public. Unfortunately, in recent years the number of companies going public has fallen dramatically. This legislation will reduce the cost of going public for emerging growth companies by phasing in certain costly regulatory requirements.

Last night, our legislation passed out of the Financial Services Committee with a bipartisan vote of 54 1. We have worked hard to craft this legislation in a way that can pass both the House and the Senate and be signed by the President.

Please join me in supporting this bipartisan legislation that will create jobs and grow the economy.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to clarify my position on a vote cast on February 9, 2012. The vote was on passage of S. 2038, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which would prohibit members of Congress and staff from benefiting from insider trading based on non-public information.

On rollcall vote Number 47, I did not vote. It was my intention to vote ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the prescription drug shortage crisis we have today in America. Across the country, patients are being forced to go without the critical medication they need to battle diseases and stay healthy. This crisis is hitting cancer patients especially hard, with serious shortages of chemotherapy drugs.

That's why this week I introduced the Drug Shortage Prevention Act with Representative Larry Bucshon, my Republican colleague from Indiana. Our bill helps FDA work with drug producers and distributors to fix some of the regulatory problems that are causing these shortages. It also improves communication so doctors and patients have the information they need to make smart treatment decisions.

This is not a partisan issue. Drug shortages affect all of us, and so I urge my colleagues to quickly pass this bipartisan legislation. When a family gets hit with a diagnosis like cancer, they have enough things to worry about. Running out of chemo drugs should not be one of those things.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to commemorate two very important events in our Nation's history that occurred on December 7. As we know, today is National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. We pray for the more than 3,500 U.S. soldiers and civilians who were killed or wounded in defense of our Nation that day. The sacrifices they made 70 years ago are not unlike the sacrifices that our soldiers and their families are being asked to make today.

December 7 is also an important milestone for the founding of our Nation. Today is Delaware Day, the 224th anniversary of Delaware's ratification of the United States Constitution, making Delaware the first State to join the Nation.

Delaware's Founding Fathers saw the vision and genius of the form of government laid out in our Constitution. It is this vision and this document that continues to guide everything we do today.

So let us take time today to remember the contributions every generation has made to protect the values and freedoms upon which this great Nation was founded.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a remarkable woman and to honor her decades of service to the State of Delaware. Former State Senator Nancy Cook has been a leader in strengthening Delaware agriculture and our economy for the past 40 years.

Senator Cook has been an irrepressible leader since becoming Delaware's first female Democratic senator in 1974. For 36 years, Senator Cook served with distinction on the Senate Agriculture Committee, where she accomplished so much for Delaware farmers. Recently, a legislator remarked that agriculture had no better friend in the Delaware Senate than this lady, and I couldn't agree more.

In 1991 Senator Cook helped create the Aglands Preservation Program, which has preserved over 20 percent of Delaware's farm land. In 1999 she helped establish Delaware's landmark Nutrient Management Program. The program is now a role model for the entire region in the effort to manage animal waste responsibly and protect precious bays and waterways.

I would like to thank the Delaware Farm Bureau for its decision to honor Senator Cook with the Distinguished Service to Agriculture Award, and to join the bureau in celebrating an incredible leader for Delaware.

Congratulations to my good friend, Senator Cook.

Mr. Speaker, last week I sponsored a job fair in my home State of Delaware in Georgetown. The good news is that nearly 2,000 people turned out to meet 55 employers, some of whom had jobs for them. The bad news is that so many people out there are looking for work. Thousands of people in Delaware and millions across the country are looking for work.

Mr. Speaker, it's time we vote a jobs bill here in the House of Representatives. The President set up the American Jobs Act. It contains infrastructure investments on roads, highways, and schools. It contains tax cuts for small business. These are things that

we could all agree on here in Congress, and they will help businesses create the jobs that people need right way in our districts.

It's time we do what the people sent us here to do in Washington. It's time to pass a jobs bill here in the House of Representatives.