Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, this week I received a letter from a friend who works for a medical device company that is looking to expand its business by attracting an angel investor. Who are angel investors? They are wealthy individuals who invest their own money in companies with promise. They are not speculators. They are not brokers. They are individuals with vision who seek out entrepreneurs with creative ideas.

New regulations proposed in the Senate financial reform bill would require a 120-day waiting period for startups seeking funds and add more restrictions on the minimum assets or income needed to become an angel investor. Angel investing is not what brought down our economy. In fact, startups funded by such investments provided 10 percent of all new jobs even though they account for less than 1 percent of the new companies. Starbucks, Costco, Facebook, Google, the list of successful angel investment companies is long.

In my friend's case, if his company is not able to attract new investment, they will be unable to hire new workers or invest in new equipment. We should not cut short job growth with excessive new regulations.

Mr. Speaker, as a Nation, one of our strongest allies in the Middle East is Israel. For decades we have stood with this free and democratic state as it has been assaulted. We have always respected the right of Israel to defend itself and to build for itself a stronger nation.

But now our President is causing problems for our ally. The President takes offense at the bureaucratic approval of settlements. But these are not settlements deep in the heart of the West Bank. They are in their capital, Jerusalem. East Jerusalem is an area where half the Jewish population of the capital city currently resides. Prime Minister Netanyahu has made clear: This is an area that will be part of Israel in any peace settlement considered.

In just a few weeks, Israel will celebrate its 62nd year as an independent nation. The United States was the first to stand and recognize Israel on the day of their independence, and since that time we have remained close allies. Let's not let this close relationship move apart. The President should stop giving the cold shoulder to our friends in Israel.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of House Resolution 1033, expressing support for National Autism Awareness Month, and I am pleased to join the gentleman from Pennsylvania, the cochair of the Autism Caucus, on behalf of the other cochair of the Autism Caucus, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), as well as the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Reichert), the prime sponsor, and Mr. Bachus of Alabama and Mr. Gerlach from Pennsylvania, who are other sponsors of this resolution.

The resolution, as was stated, acknowledges April as National Autism Awareness Month, and it supports the research efforts for the causes and treatments of autism. I would like to recognize the efforts of those who have gone through the appropriate training and who have provided support to individuals with autism.

I would also like to recognize the parents, the relatives, the friends of those with autism for their sacrifices and dedication, especially for absorbing many times the significant costs for specialized education and support services.

Some have estimated that one in every 110 children in the United States is affected by a disorder on the autism spectrum. Once diagnosed, early intervention is important to improve the outcomes of those with autism and to reduce the level of funding and services needed to treat people with autism spectrum disorder later in life. Continued research to identify the root causes of autism and support for the training of caregivers and teachers who work with children with autism will ensure that people with autism will continue to be important and productive members of society.

I would like to thank especially the author of the resolution, Mr. David Reichert of Washington, for his leadership in raising autism awareness, and I would like to commend the efforts of those who care for individuals with autism. I encourage all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the cochair of the Autism Caucus, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).

I yield the gentleman an additional 2 minutes.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to one of the cosponsors of the resolution, the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Bachus).

I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.

I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Pennsylvania, my good friend Jim Gerlach.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, beginning in the fall of 2008, Congress approved, and the Bush and Obama administrations began to hand out taxpayer money freely to banks and, eventually, auto companies, with little transparency and, in some cases, little hope that the money would be repaid.

Now, the Senate is set to consider legislation that will create a permanent culture of bailouts on Wall Street. The legislation moves us away from sending failed companies into bankruptcy and toward government-managed bailouts. There would be a different set of rules for the largest firms, rules that create a perverse incentive for these companies to take risks, rules that encourage lower rates for the largest firms because of the implicit government guarantee. Ultimately, we would be creating a dozen new Fannies and Freddies, not reforming a broken system of government oversight.

I think the American people have had enough of bailouts. The Dodd bill creates an endless cycle of failure where Wall Street bankers are the only ones who come out ahead. It should be stopped.

Mr. Speaker, tax day. Today is a grim day for many Americans. It was only last week that the average American taxpayer had worked enough days to pay their annual bill, and the current Congress is looking to add even more days to that burden.

In the present Congress alone, taxes have been increased by $670 billion, and at least 14 new taxes will hit middle-income Americans. At the end of the year, the death tax will snap back up to its 2001 level, gobbling up family farms and small businesses. Marginal tax rates will snap back up to previous levels reducing America's take-home pay. And now we hear that the administration may consider a new value added tax to pay for the entitlements and increased government spending.

The simple fact is that more money in the pocket of the government is less in the bank accounts of our family businesses.

Today is a grim tax day. But I worry that 2011 will look much worse for the American taxpayer.

Mr. Speaker, every day, dozens of Web sites entice Web surfers to bet online with free software offers. Online poker sites advertise openly on TV. Stores carry books on how to get rich by gambling online. The only problem is that online gambling is illegal. That is why Congress passed the unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, to provide the necessary tools and mechanisms to effectively enforce the law.

This year, Americans will send billions of dollars to offshore, unregulated, online casinos. The Justice Department has warned that many of these sites are fronts for money laundering, drug trafficking, and even terrorist financing.

At its core, the law is about protecting American families from addiction, bankruptcy, and crime. All you need is a computer, a credit card, and Internet access, and with that, players are able to play 24 hours a day from the privacy of their homes. Real lives, including those of minor children, are being affected by illegal online gambling, and it's time that this administration enforce the law on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to speak on the bill.

As the chairman of the Congressional Electronic Warfare Working Group, I believe that the electromagnetic spectrum is critically important to our current and future military operations and national security. And I'm pleased to see that the committee has taken into consideration some concerns raised by the administration and the electronic warfare community regarding this bill. However, the electromagnetic spectrum is a dynamic and ever-changing environment, and we must ensure that our Armed Forces can manage the utilization of the spectrum and provide long-term strategic planning and program development.

While I understand the importance of the potential economic value of the spectrum inventory, it is vital that this bill take into account the criticality of the electromagnetic spectrum to military training and operations and the importance of the U.S. military controlling the spectrum in conflict.

I will support this bill today, but we must be very vigilant as the inventory is taken. If mistakes are made, serious negative consequences will ensue, consequences that could harm the warfighter and his ability to use the spectrum in training and war.

Mr. Speaker, no one is angrier than I am that Congress has just voted to bankrupt the Treasury. Fiscally speaking, the health bill that the President just signed is the single most irresponsible act this government has already taken. We already have over $100 trillion in entitlement promises that we can't keep, and Congress just poured gasoline on the fire.

However, violence and threats are not the right way to respond. Some of our colleagues have received threatening phone calls. A brick has been thrown, a window has been smashed. This is not the right way to respond. When the government ignores the will of the people, a high level of frustration is to be expected. But that frustration needs to be channeled into political activity, not threats and violence.

I urge those who oppose this bill to remember that history and fiscal reality will prove them right, and I urge the citizens of this country who are angry to remember that they are on the right side of this debate, and they should act accordingly. In America, that is what elections are for.

This bill violates the conscience of the American people. It violates the principle that we should not spend more than we have. This bill is not reform. It just makes our existing entitlement crisis even worse. This bill violates the belief held by more than 70 percent of Americans that money collected by the government should not be used to pay for abortion or abortion coverage, but that's what this bill does.

Regardless of the colloquy, an Executive order is not a statute. It doesn't trump a statute. The government will end up directly paying for abortions at community health centers. Taxpayer subsidies will, for the first time in decades, subsidize insurance coverage that

includes abortion. The bill and the accompanying Executive order turns over the protection of the unborn to the most pro-abortion President in our history.

This extreme legislation is being forced on an unwilling Nation. It is the most pro-abortion bill and the largest expansion of abortion in our history. No Member who votes for it will ever be able to claim again that they have always stood on the side of the unborn. I'm sad to say this. This is a career-defining vote. There will be no living it down.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this terrible bill.

I rise in support of the motion before us. Over and over again, polls have shown the public does not support Federal funding of abortions. Unfortunately, the Senate rejected the will of the people and passed a bill that has become known as the most massively pro- abortion piece of legislation to come before Congress since Roe v. Wade.

Despite the political runaround that we've been given this last week, the facts remain before us today: The Senate bill departs from longstanding current policy and achieves the exact opposite effect of current law, and an Executive order promised by the President will not change these facts. An Executive order does not trump a statute. The courts will undoubtedly look to the legislative text to interpret the law.

Moreover, the promised order fails to even correct the egregious pro- life concerns contained in this bill. It will simply reiterate the meaningless accounting scheme cooked up by the Senate bill. Regardless of what type of gimmick is employed to facilitate the abortion payments, the result will be the same. The abortion rate will rise and more unborn lives will be lost.

The Executive order does nothing to prevent funding for abortion in the co-op program or prevent funding for abortion in the high-risk insurance pool program. The Executive order does not prevent HRSA from issuing regs that include abortion as a preventive service, thereby mandating all individual plans and group plans include abortion as a required service. The Executive order does nothing to prevent that abortion surcharge mandate from being implemented. It is full of loopholes.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reinstate the pro-life protections that passed this Chamber last November in a bipartisan vote, the Stupak-Pitts amendment. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this motion.

Mr. Speaker, we have all heard about the Cornhusker kickback and the Louisiana purchase. But there are other special deals in the Senate health care bill that are on the verge of becoming law.

In Connecticut, there is $100 million for a university hospital inserted by Senator Dodd. There is $500 million in Medicaid to bail out the health care program in Massachusetts. The small State of Vermont gets $600 million for their Medicaid program. This bill will subsidize New Jersey pharmaceutical companies and will give $5 billion to union health care plans in Massachusetts and Michigan. It will slash Medicare Advantage programs for every State except Florida. It will exempt Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Michigan and Nebraska from the new annual fee on health insurers. This bill will provide higher Medicare payments in North Dakota and exempt hospitals in Hawaii from cuts.

All of these will become law the moment this House arrogantly ``deems this bill passed'' to the President. Is it any wonder the American people don't like this bill being crammed through, forced through, and bribed through?

Madam Speaker, we have talked a lot about how this bill is distracting us from the issue that the American people want us to focus on, and that is jobs. But this bill isn't just merely a distraction. It will have a profoundly negative impact on the job market.

You cannot raise taxes by hundreds of billions of dollars on individuals and businesses and expect that it has no impact on employers and employees. Raising taxes per employee by $2,000 would not encourage businesses to hire more workers, and workers receiving health care subsidies would see their new Federal entitlement evaporate when their wages increase by too much. Under this bill, more pay could mean less health care, effectively trapping workers in lower-wage jobs. So not only would this discourage job growth, it would discourage wage growth also.

The bottom line is this bill will destroy jobs at a time when we can least afford it.

Mr. Speaker, today we will hear again from the President about health care reform. However, moving forward on another version of these massive health care bills is not progress. Raising hundreds of millions of dollars in new taxes is not progress. Cutting half a trillion dollars from Medicare is not progress. Putting the government in charge of health care in this country is not progress.

We all know how flawed the Senate health care bill is, how it is full of backroom deals like the Cornhusker Kickback and the Louisiana Purchase and many others. Some say the American people will appreciate this bill after it becomes law.

Let's not pretend that the American people just don't know enough about this bill to make an informed decision. They are informed, and they reject it. Let's scrap this massive bill and start over, just like the American people would like us to.

Mr. Speaker, last week marked 1 year since the passage of the $862 billion so-called stimulus bill, a bill that was supposed to keep unemployment below 8 percent, a bill that was supposed to boost the economy and private sector job creation, a bill completely paid for with borrowed money in a time of ballooning deficits. We have not seen the broad benefits promised by the stimulus bill, but we will soon have to pay the price for this borrowing and spending.

I would encourage all of my colleagues to turn to page A19 in today's Wall Street Journal and read about the true economic cost of the stimulus bill. According to Harvard economist Robert Barro, over 5 years the stimulus package creates an extra $600 billion in public spending, but at the cost of $900 billion in private expenditures. We spent money that we didn't have, and for each dollar spent, we will have to pay back $1.50 in higher taxes. Mr. Barro sums it up by saying, ``The 2009 stimulus bill was a mistake.''

We need to focus on private sector job growth, not borrowing for more government spending.

Madam Speaker, I first got to know Jack as a freshman legislator in the Pennsylvania House of 1973-1974, where he and I served together until he was elected to Congress in 1974. We were both Vietnam veterans--the only two in the State house, so we had something in common with that that we chatted about.

Jack served his community in western Pennsylvania as both the State and Federal Representative for nearly four decades, and he will be missed by his hometown of Johnstown and residents of the 12th Congressional District.

He served his country as a Marine drill instructor. As an officer, he remained in the Reserves after leaving full-time service in 1955. He volunteered to return to full-time service in 1967, and he served honorably in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star with Valor and two Purple Hearts.

Even after being elected to the House in Congress, Representative Murtha continued his service in the Reserves, finally retiring as a colonel in 1990. Just a few weeks ago, he became the longest-serving Pennsylvania Member of the House of Representatives.

He will be dearly missed by his wife of 55 years and his children and grandchildren that he leaves behind. I join with my colleagues in the Pennsylvania delegation to extend our condolences to his family and friends.

Tonight, we honor his service.