Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 57 on H. Res. 78, I am not recorded because I was absent due to illness. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Tony Houseman for his continued conservation efforts and his dedicated service to the Houston Safari Club. Tony has been a member of the Houston Safari Club for over twenty years and has served as the Club's Convention Chair in 1996 and the President from 1997-1998. He also has been awarded three distinguished awards from the Houston Safari Club with the 1998 Conservation Award, the 2005 Lifetime Service Award, and the 2007 Frank Green Award.

His tireless leadership has had a positive impact in Texas and across our nation. When Tony and Ray Petty were asked by Congressman Jack Fields to help organize and start the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus, which I am a proud member, he never hesitated in saying yes. Every year, for ten straight years, they traveled to Washington D.C. to increase the membership and clout of the Caucus and help fight for the rights of the hunter and the hunting community. Now, the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus has one of the highest memberships and continues to advocate the interests of sportsmen.

Tony also has taken a leadership role in too many projects to list, with notable ones being Operation Bright Lights and the Tony Houseman State Park and Wildlife Management Area. Operation Bright Lights raises funds and works with professional hunters to build schools and water wells in Tanzania, and recently he and his wife Gisela took a trip there and visited one of the newly built schools. For the state park, Tony donated 1,500 acres to conserve the Blue Elbow Swamp in South East Texas. This 3,300 acre conservation site on the Sabine River remains a magical place for wildlife.

Madam Speaker, Tony Houseman is the consummate hunter and conservationist and a friend I deeply admire. Thank you for helping me honor him today.

Mr. Speaker, I agree completely with our Democrat friends: we need to invest more in renewable energy. It is the right thing to do, and it is long overdue. But doing it by taxing American energy companies more for exploring and creating jobs here at home makes no sense.

Let's be clear. This bill says, foreign oil and foreign jobs are good; American oil and American jobs are bad. And that is crazy.

The new House leadership may believe it scores in political points to target Texas energy companies and refiners, many of whom are union workers. But our communities don't think it is so funny and our union workers don't think it is so funny.

This bill punishes energy companies for doing the research that leads to successful wells. The old Tax Code had a perverse disincentive. If you failed in finding a successful well, you could write off expenses. If you are successful, though, we punished you for it. We changed that, because we think companies ought to do more research, not less, drill accurate wells, drill fewer of them, and have smaller footprints.

This provision is an anti-research and an anti-environmental provision. This bill declares energy jobs in America aren't manufacturing jobs. Under this bill, we treat energy workers, including high-paying union workers, as foreign workers. We treat our people as foreign workers. And farmers are manufacturers under this bill. Cartoonists are manufacturers under this bill. But those who work on oil rigs and refineries in Texas are foreign workers, and we don't touch the foreign oil companies at all.

Ladies and gentlemen, this bill will not lower gas prices one penny. It won't lessen our dependence on foreign oil one barrel. This bill does not strengthen our energy security. Just the opposite. It does not deserve our support.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 6, the ``Clean Energy Act of 2007.'' I agree with Democrats that we need to invest more in renewable energy, including new ways to fuel our cars. But by taxing American companies more for exploring and creating jobs here at home--and letting foreign oil companies off the hook--this bill says foreign oil and foreign jobs are good, American oil and American jobs are bad. That's just crazy.

It's bad energy policy--with big costs. Costs to the consumer at the pump, to the refinery worker in the Gulf, and to the retiree whose pension depends on the strength of American industry.

Don't be fooled--the special tax breaks they say the oil and gas industry gets aren't special at all. In 2004, at a time when manufacturing jobs were heading overseas by the thousands and we were increasingly worried about our foreign dependence on oil, Congress passed a bill that gave a tax incentive to all American manufacturers to get them to invest more here at home--including oil and gas producers.

A year later, Congress passed the Energy Policy Act that the Democrats say provided huge tax breaks to ``big oil.'' But they got that wrong, too. According to the non-partisan Congressional Research Service, this bill imposed a net tax increase of nearly $300 million over the next decade. At the same time, we provided incentives for energy exploration in difficult terrains so that our country could take another step toward weaning ourselves off foreign oil.

And we're seeing an important result from these policies: Jobs. The U.S. energy sector employs more than 1.8 million Americans, with good pay--up to $30 an hour on average, and often with union benefits.

In Texas, energy independence is our economy's life blood. Over 35,000 people work in the oil and gas sector in the Houston area alone, and nearly a quarter of our nation's crude oil is refined along the Texas Gulf Coast. Drilling is at record levels and reserves of natural gas are growing. Production is holding steady. The cost of oil, which is historically volatile, is down. And while Democrats like to take a swat at record oil and gas profits, these same companies are putting those profits back

into infrastructure and technology--often more than twice their profits in a year. Margins are actually much lower.

But the damage inflicted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to our exploration and refining capacity in the Gulf unmasked just how vulnerable our energy sector is. Plans are underway to strengthen that capacity--but that progress could be jeopardized if we place an undue tax burden on our refineries. In an area of the country that's still recovering from these disasters, why strip away even more jobs by taxing an industry that is helping supply thousands?

What's even crazier is that House Democrats will now consider American energy workers, including oil rig and refinery workers, as foreign workers for tax purposes--just so they can raise taxes on U.S. companies. Under this bill, farmers, software designers, and even cartoonists are considered manufacturing workers, but Americans who go to work each day to supply energy for this nation are classified as foreign workers. Explain that.

Democrats like to claim that we need this bill to lower gas and oil prices. I'm not sure who came up with that theory, but common sense tells me that if we put a strain on domestic manufacturers, that only serves to give a boost to foreign competition--and a boost to prices.

At a time when some Americans are relying on Hugo Chavez to heat their homes this winter--we need to take a step back and clearly understand the consequences of our actions. Repealing these tax incentives would only serve to stifle domestic production of oil and gas, raise gas prices and home heating costs for Americans, send more jobs overseas, and increase our dependence on foreign sources of energy.

The new House leadership may believe it scores them cheap political points to target Texas energy companies, many of whom employ union workers, but our communities don't think it's so funny. And at a time we need more U.S. energy and less foreign oil, it makes no sense at all.

As I said before, I believe we should invest in the development of renewable energy and alternative fuels to protect our future and our children's future. But short-changing American jobs today isn't the way to do it.

Mr. Speaker, I am a member of the Ways and Means Committee, proud to have helped create the Medicare prescription plan; it is really helping a lot of our seniors in Texas, especially those who are very poor and have some of the most expensive illnesses.

I think we can do more to improve the Medicare prescription drug plan, we ought to work better together; but I oppose directing the Federal Government to interfere with the successful Medicare prescription drug plan.

If you look closely, this is a senior scam. I am warning my mom, who is on Medicare, that this is just another senior scam. It sounds fantastic, but when

you read the fine print, you realize the only savings you get is, if you just restrict the drugs that she can get, you limit where she can go to get them, and every expert says this won't save a dime. Sure, I can save everyone in this room costs on their medicines. I am just going to, like the VA does, I will tell you, you can't have those medicines and you can't get them where you need them.

Our seniors, my mom has a choice of 4,000 drugs, if she was in the VA, she would get a choice of a thousand, most of them generics. Now she has 55,000 pharmacies, hopefully she won't go to all of them; with VA, she would get to go to 300 of them. If she tried to find the drugs she needs, a one out of four chance she would find the one she really needs.

The truth of the matter is that we ought to be working together to help improve Medicare. We ought not be trying to score political points. We ought to be helping seniors lower their drug costs.

This is a scam; and I predict it will not ever become law because this scores political points rather than helping seniors with their medicines. Let's find a way we really can work together for our seniors.

Mr. Speaker, I think we are missing a historic opportunity to change the paradigm to really help workers get into a living wage for the long term. The fact is, an increase to $7.25 an hour will still leave a single mom with a child at or near poverty. And there is no doubt that a video store owner in Texas or anywhere else with five workers, when faced with a $25,000 increase in payroll and no chance they are going to rent that many more videos, are going to look at whether they can afford all those workers.

Remembering well the minimum wage jobs I held when younger and also having worked hard to make a small business payroll, I think we need new thinking. America's goals should not be to raise the minimum wage; our goals should be to get workers off it and into good-paying jobs that you can raise a family on.

So rather than recycle the same 60-year-old arguments, why don't we help workers break out of the minimum wage trap? Rather than raise the minimum wage, let employers create education debit cards where workers can take those debit cards to the local community college or the trade schools so they can get a real job. Let business and professions, whole industries contribute to those debit cards so we can train workers for the jobs of today which are crying for many American workers. And since Congress is eager to do this pay raise on someone else's dime, let small businesses deduct and receive credit those dollars, receive a tax credit for their education contributions above the current state of minimum wage.

In effect, rather than a jobs bank, create a skills bank for workers in the 21st century. Give workers an opportunity to get out of a struggling job that leads nowhere and give businesses the skilled workers they need to compete and win against international competition. We have done it before with welfare. The Republican Congress and Democrat President worked together. We sent a strong signal we would no longer give up on workers, relegating them to a subsistence living generation after generation. We ought to do it again.

I oppose this bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this proposal. For the first time in more than a decade and in recent memory, the new House leadership, and this is hard to believe, is attempting to keep secret the votes of one of our most important committees, the Rules Committee. It determines which bills are sent to the House floor, for how long they may be debated, and what amendments the people's House will consider. It is a critical part of our democratic process. Hiding these votes from the public, cloaking this committee in secrecy where backroom deals are shielded from the American voter, is an outrageous and arrogant step backward from open and honest government. This is abuse of power that must be stopped. And, sadly, I will file a Freedom of Information Act request on every Rules Committee vote so that the American public can see what this committee is trying to hide.

We ought to defeat this proposal

Will the gentleman yield?

First let me thank you, Chairman Thomas, for your years of hard work to provide real tax relief for families.

Mr. Speaker, I know in Texas, in our region, our community, your leadership on restoring the State and local sales tax deduction, that saves our Texas families $1 billion a year that we

do not have to send to Washington, that can stay in their pocketbooks, stay in our communities, creates jobs in our State. And I know that on behalf of seven States to whom that deduction is so important, you have saved us from a $5.5 billion tax increase, and we are grateful.

In Washington we spend too much time debating what bills mean to each other and not enough about what bills mean to real families. Being able to deduct that sales tax is a real help for families, especially those who are starting out in life. Sales taxes add up so quickly.

This bill helps families struggling to afford tuition for their college students. It helps teachers who have to go into their own pocketbook to pay for classroom supplies each year. I do not think they ought to ever have to do that, but when they do, at least let them write those expenses off.

It helps American companies who are trying to compete against the rest of world afford the type of research it takes to keep jobs here in America. This allows people who are trying to get their first job off of welfare a chance to get some job openings they might not otherwise help. It allows seniors, like my mom, to see a doctor whom she knows and a doctor who knows her, because it does an important fix on the Medicare.

And for States like Texas, with this new bill, we will get some revenues from leases off our shores that will help us rebuild our coastal wetlands and preserve our shores.

This is a classic piece of legislation that helps so many people in America.

And while you can talk a good game about tax relief for middle-class families, it is another thing to actually vote for it. I am proud to vote for this bill. This is going to help a lot of families.

I encourage your support.

Mr. Speaker, I wanted to take a minute to thank Chairman Shaw for his leadership, not only in opening markets around the world to American products and services, but his leadership over the years on key issues like Social Security and others.

I think it is appropriate for Mr. Hayes to raise the issues of enforcement. If there is a common ground among Republicans and Democrats in this body, it is to strongly enforce free trade agreements and the benefits programs, and we, I know, can work together on that in this next session. I strongly support this bill.

America is the world's largest consumer of goods. We are also the largest seller of goods. It gives us an opportunity to open new markets and the power also to help other countries be lifted out of poverty.

This bill extends to our neighbors and friends in sub-Saharan Africa, Haiti, the Andean region of Latin America trade benefits to help stimulate economic growth and provide jobs for their people. It supports businesses and workers here in the United States by giving them a break on a necessary tariff so we are able to pass more of their dollars back to their employers and customers. It helps ensure American companies won't be left behind while our competitors overseas benefit from Vietnam's recent entry into the global trading system.

As a Representative of the 8th District of Texas, I tell you we see billions of dollars of cargo and goods come into our State, as well as shipping. It creates tens of thousands of jobs. It is key to our livelihood. Under a long-standing bipartisan program, our Latin American neighbors Peru, Colombia, Bolivia and Ecuador currently receive trade benefits that have reached many, many thousands of jobs in the region, meaningful jobs. They offer an alternative to the drug trade and guerrilla warfare and contribute to the stabilization and economic growth in the region, all of which are in America's interests.

We must continue the Andean program over the short term to encourage approval of already negotiated trade promotion agreements with Peru and Colombia that are critical to our region.

I strongly support this measure.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Heather Montgomery upon her retirement as District Director for the Eighth Congressional District of Texas.

I've had the privilege of working alongside Heather for many years as co-workers at the South Montgomery County Woodlands Chamber of Commerce, as colleagues while she led the North Houston-Greenspoint Chamber of Commerce, and re-united again in 1998 in service to the constituents of the 8th Congressional District of Texas.

Heather brought to my district offices her wealth of knowledge and experience from leading communities and helping small businesses, as mother of three children, a grandmother, and devoted leader and volunteer of many volunteer efforts in The Woodlands, Montgomery County and north Houston area.

For the past nine years Heather has managed an extensive district staff, day to day operations of three offices, and served as direct extension of myself throughout the community. Heather always manages to find a personal connection with each of our constituents and the challenges they face.

Extremely hard-working, painstakingly fair, exceedingly knowledgeable--these are qualities Heather has not only honed, but also put at the disposal of constituents. She is gracious at all times and simply a class act.

Heather's retirement comes at a time when she and her husband Gary are the proud grandparents of nine grandchildren. I know her family is eager to have more of her time.

In the years I have worked with Heather, I have come to know a civic minded leader and a woman of broad and varied interests which I hope she will pursue in the time afforded by retirement.

Mr. Speaker, I know you join with me in saying ``thank you'' and ``job well done'' to Heather Montgomery for her years of loyal service to myself, but most of all, to the people of Southeast Texas whom she has served with distinction. She is one of my closest friends.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate Congressman

Marchant for his leadership on this issue.

On Easter Sunday, 2004, Apache helicopter pilot, Army Chief Warrant Officer Wesley Lee Charles Fortenberry and his gunner answered a desperate call for help from a convoy of 29 Reservists trapped in an ambush with an estimated 300 Muslim extremists, pinned down in a mile- long kill zone in Baghdad, literally down to their last rounds of ammunition.

Pilot Chuck Fortenberry and his gunner fought to save the lives of 29 soldiers, repeatedly silencing enemy guns and drawing fire to themselves. As one Reservist said, everywhere the Apache flew, the fire stopped. And when I heard the Apaches all I could think of was thank God, I am going to live.

Well, an enemy rocket eventually silenced the 30 millimeter cannons and the life of Chuck Fortenberry. On that Easter Sunday, Chuck Fortenberry willingly gave his life to save the lives of many of his countrymen knowing he may never hold his loving wife again or see his three sons grow into men.

He represents a new generation of hero, fighting for our security, and he is the latest in a long line of Tyler County veterans who answered the call to our Nation's defense. I want to make sure that future generations understand the freedoms they enjoy are paid for by the blood, sweat and tears of the families in Tyler County who raise their sons and their daughters to love and serve their country at any price.

I am proud to author this legislation. I urge its support.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of a dear friend, Frank H. Bass from The Woodlands, TX who passed away after suffering a stroke on September 15, 2006. Mr. Bass was a true servant to society and left a lasting impression on all he encountered.

Frank was proud to call The Woodlands his home since 1985 where he served in numerous positions throughout public, private, and corporate sectors. Before this he graduated from Mercer University where he received his undergraduate and Doctorate degrees and served valiantly in the United States Navy.

After a lengthy career with Florida Power Corporation in St. Petersburg Florida, he came to Texas to serve as the Director of Legal Services for the Texas Municipal Power Agency. Following this, he served Montgomery County first as an Assistant County Attorney and then as the elected County Attorney for two 4-year terms.

In 2001, Mr. Bass was appointed Associate Judge to hear cases relative to Children's Protective Services in several Texas counties. Judge Bass was truly a natural on the bench and was renowned for his kindness, fairness, compassion, even handedness, and his intolerance for those who mistreated children.

Continuing in his serving nature, Judge Bass also served on the boards of The Woodlands Community Association and the Montgomery County Women's Center. Notably, he was also a founding member of the Town Center Improvement District.

Judge Bass was an active leader in many areas of the community and his leadership, service, and the example he set will be missed by all. He is survived by his wife of 29 years Diane, and their four grown children Mark, Jeff, Marcia, and Michele.

Mr. Speaker, Frank was a rare individual whom I will miss greatly. Thank you for helping me honor Judge Bass, one of the most kind-hearted individuals I know.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mark Chesnutt on this day September 6, 2006, his 43rd birthday. This outstanding country music star currently has 14 No. 1 hits, 23 top ten singles, four platinum albums, five gold records, and continually maintains a hefty live tour schedule.

Born in Beaumont, TX, Mark got his start playing in honky-tonk bars throughout his hometown area singing alongside his father, Bob Chesnutt. His dad traveled often to Nashville and started taking Mark along at 17 where he was soon discovered by talent agents who recognized the vocal and authentic talents Mark possesses.

Signed at 17 by MCA, Mark soon won the coveted Country Music Association's Horizon

Award recognizing the industry's top new talent. At the awards ceremony, he was introduced by legendary country music star George Jones who remarked, ``This boy from Beaumont, Texas is the real deal.''

Throughout the 90's Mark's singles continued to light up the chart including some of the decade's most memorable up-tempo hits like ``Bubba Shot the Jukebox'' and ``Going Through the Big D.'' Also accelerating his rise to stardom were hits like the emotional ballads ``I'll Think of Something'' and ``I Don't Want to Miss a Thing.''

Mark's excellence continues today combining world-class vocals and awe-inspiring stage performances that leave crowds standing in ovation until they themselves are hoarse! Most remarkable of all, he stays true to his roots keeping the traditional country music style he was raised on in an ever-changing country music landscape.

Mark Chesnutt is a true gift to Country Music and specifically the 8th District of Texas. Not only has he blessed us with musical hit after hit, he also has tirelessly given of his time and talent to assist east and southeast Texas in their recovery from the devastating effects of Hurricane Rita. Mark also has a wonderful marriage to Tracie Chesnutt with three beautiful children: Waylon, Casey, and Cameron.

Mr. Speaker, thank you for helping me honor Mark Chesnutt, this America country music superstar, on his 43rd birthday.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the leadership of Chairman Shaw as we try to open new markets around the world for American products and services.

I strongly support this agreement with Oman. As you know, America is so open to other countries selling their products and goods into America, but oftentimes when we go around the world, we find that their markets are not so open. And so we try to open those markets through trade agreements to allow our farmers, our small businesses, our manufacturers, our banks, everyone, to sell our products around the world, and these trade agreements are succeeding in doing that.

In each one that we have had, our sales in those countries have nearly doubled. So we are creating jobs here at home selling more products. This free trade agreement does the same thing. It is not huge, but for those who are selling to them, it is very important.

Not only does this help America, but this is an important cog in our Middle East free trade agreement, which is key, because I think that a lot of unrest is caused when people don't have hope, when they don't have a chance to better themselves, when they don't have a high standard of living. The more we are able to create job opportunities and hope in the Middle East, I think the sooner we do that the safer we will have that region. This won't do it by itself, but everything helps move that peace process along.

And I support it because Oman, while it may not be where we want it to be on labor yet, they have made tremendous progress in labor issues and in the rule of law and in a number of areas that we ought to be supporting as a country.

Let me conclude with this. This agreement stands on itself, but there is more than that. I have a soft spot for countries that have come to the aid of our American soldiers. My baby brother has served in Iraq as an Army medic and is now a sergeant major and has just returned from his tour in Iraq. Recently I just attended two funerals of local soldiers who died defending us. When we have countries like Oman who allow our personnel to stop there, our aircraft to fly there and land there, when we have a country like this that houses our personnel, basically makes them safer while they are away from their families trying to defend our freedom, I think we ought to reward these countries.

To me on national security when I see this intellectually dishonest argument about our port security, what I am afraid of is we have people who want to punish the countries that are helping our soldiers, punishing countries who are coming to help our men and women who are trying to fight for our freedom. We ought to be rewarding and thanking those countries. I support this agreement.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate, first, the leadership of Ms. Ros-Lehtinen and Mr. Lantos on this important issue of leadership, not just this critical time, but throughout the years.

Yes, I strongly support the resolution, but listening tonight I think there has been some odd debate. To suggest, as some did, that Israel and America have somehow conspired to encourage this attack on Israel as an excuse to invade or attack Iran, to me, is absurd.

It is a dangerous claim, and at this important and critical time in history has no real place in this important debate on this floor in this Chamber in this democracy.

We reaffirm America's support for the State of Israel. We support Israel's right to take appropriate action to defend itself not only in Israel, but in the territories of those who would threaten it in accordance with the international law.

We condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for cynically exploiting civilian populations as shields, then locating their equipment and bases of operations in civilian areas.

We recognize Israel's long-standing commitment to minimizing civilian loss.

We demand the Governments of Iran and Syria to direct Hamas and Hezbollah to immediately and unconditionally release the Israeli soldiers which they hold captive.

And we condemn the Governments of Iran and Syria for their continued support of Hezbollah and Hamas in these armed attacks against Israel.

Make no mistake, an attack against Israel is an attack against the peace and security of America. Israel's fight is America's fight. America will stand with Israel.

Mr. Speaker, when I first came to Congress, I had a family-owned nursery come sit down with me and explain to me the effect of the death tax, and two of the three children still worked in the nursery. What they showed me on paper was that because the tax, when their parents died, if they could take out enough life insurance on their parents, and if they could go back to the bank and borrow enough money, which, by the way, they spent years getting out of debt, but if they could borrow enough money, they might be able to keep their family nursery. Think about that. They were telling me if they could make enough money off their parents' death and borrow enough money, they might be able to keep their family nursery, might.

The death tax is the wrong tax. It hits the wrong people at exactly the wrong time. It is the number one reason small businesses do not get handed down to the next generation. It is the main reason more and more family farmers and ranches get sold off to pay Uncle Sam for all the big spending programs we have here today.

Permanent repeal of the death tax remains everyone's goal, my belief, on the Republican side of this Chamber.

But any day I can free more family farms and ranches from the specter of the death tax, I am going to support it. Any day I can lower the death tax rate permanently on family groceries and family small businesses, I am strongly going to do that. Until full repeal occurs, I will strongly support lowering this tax. I support this bill.