Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, yesterday in Leawood, Kansas, I had the privilege to meet with a bright, energetic young man named Garrett. Garrett is 4 years old and suffers from type 1 juvenile diabetes.

Garrett's story is touching, and it is all too familiar to families across this country who struggle with the stress and strain of juvenile diabetes and the constant concern about the right diet, the right insulin levels, about the highest quality of life for their children.

Last month, I was pleased to hear the Food and Drug Administration issue new guidelines aimed at helping speed up the development of artificial pancreas systems.

Mr. Speaker, it's clear that we as a country need to continue to do all that we can to help bright children like Garrett who need better tools to manage their disease and prevent life threatening and costly complications.

Madam Speaker, the American economy is crying out for certainty. Every day the instability created by new Washington rules, regulations, new taxes, et cetera makes it harder for the economy to recover and harder for small businesses to create jobs.

That's why today I stand in full support of the Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny Act, known as the REINS Act.

As our Federal agencies churn out regulations by the truckload, it's our small businesses, those very entities that we expect to create jobs and are struggling to survive, that are burdened with implementing them. In fact, regulations cost the economy $1.75 trillion per year. New regulations this year alone will cost business over $60 billion, all driving up the cost of doing business and putting more people out of work.

I'm supporting the REINS Act because this legislation will provide

Americans with an additional level of accountability when it comes to job-killing regulations from government agencies.

Madam Speaker, it's time we stand up for small business owners, and it's time we do all that we can to remove the barriers Washington is putting in their way. Let's come together as a Congress and help get America back to work again.

Mr. Speaker, the American people are calling on government to help the economy grow, but apparently Washington still hasn't gotten the message. The onslaught of new government burdens on the economy have become unbearable; yet Federal regulators pile on more and more. So far this week alone, the Federal Register has over 1,799 pages of new rules and regulations facing our Nation's small business owners.

Mr. Speaker, complex and burdensome regulations drive up the cost of doing business and, therefore, drive up unemployment. A great example is the EPA's new Cross State Air Pollution Rule. This rule, to be imposed by January 1, will not only cause rolling brownouts in places like Kansas, but will dramatically drive up the cost of energy production, increasing the costs of doing business and, therefore, putting more people out of work.

Mr. Speaker, if both parties are serious about job creation in this country, then we must put a stop to the constant attacks on those who create jobs.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday was another landmark day in Washington's borrow-and-spend legacy. The national debt now stands at a staggering $15 trillion. This comes at a time when our economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and Americans are tightening their belts and doing more with less. It remains clear that the Washington theory of borrowing and spending to create wealth and grow jobs simply is a fraud on the American people.

Both political parties know that this staggering debt is a cancer on the future of our Nation and something we can no longer ignore. I ask my colleagues to join together and save the future of this country, to stop the suffocating debt and spending. Let's pass a constitutional amendment that requires a balanced budget, that prohibits Congress from borrowing from the future, and let's pass a legacy of prosperity and wealth to the next generation.

Madam Speaker, both parties in this Congress have espoused support for job creation. In fact in this House daily, both Republicans and Democrats have said the economy and jobs should be our top priority. The President has stated in recent months that he would pivot his time and energy to a focus on jobs.

Yet, last week this administration pivoted away from jobs again when it effectively delayed until 2013 the construction of the Canadian Keystone XL pipeline, and along with this delay, killing the potential to create 20,000 jobs. This $7 billion pipeline would bring oil from Canada to refineries in the United States, and it is expected to add billions of dollars of investment in the American economy.

With the economy continuing to struggle, we can't wait to create these new jobs.

The American people are tired of seeing their government say one thing and do another. It's time for the rhetoric to meet the road, and I urge this administration to reconsider its decision, to reconsider this delay, and to unify this country back to a focus on jobs.

I appreciate the gentleman from Colorado for yielding your time.

I was listening to the comments from the gentleman from Illinois discussing the unemployment rate being over 8 percent now for some time. In fact, it's been over 8 percent for 32 months,

which is the longest period of unemployment this high since the Great Depression. I mean, the things we're doing in Washington, D.C. frankly haven't been working, and so it's time to start pushing the types of bills that the House has been pushing this year to try to get this economy back on track.

I'm happy to join my colleagues tonight. I'm also happy to be a strong supporter of the forgotten 15 and the new seven bills and dozens of bills that are passing the House throughout this session that will help the economy recover and help small businesses create jobs.

Now, Americans are frustrated with what they see going on in Congress, with what they see going on in Washington, D.C., and there's a reason, because they see the policies that have failed in this town over the past few years and they don't believe that Washington can function and they can do things to help the economy recover.

That's because we've been doing all the wrong things. Whether it was the bailout, stimulus bills, Cash for Clunkers, the health care takeover, cap-and-trade, Card Check, you couldn't think of a more anti- business set of legislation that this Congress passed over the last few years than those bills. And what they did is they've held down the recovery and they've stopped small business owners, they've stopped entrepreneurs from growing and creating jobs.

Frankly, we know that jobs are not going to be created in Washington, D.C. They're going to be created back home in places like Illinois and in Colorado and in Kansas and in Alabama and, yes, even Wisconsin--all across the country--by innovators and job creators and entrepreneurs, the people that built this country and that create the jobs.

They're not going to come from big Washington programs, and that's what has caused the problems in this country. These big Washington bailouts run up national debt. All of it has not worked. And so it's time we changed course. It's time we start pushing legislation that will promote small business, that will promote the free enterprise system. And frankly, these things are common sense. The American people want Congress to pass commonsense legislation.

The point about these commonsense bills that the House is pushing, these pro-business, pro-job-creating bills that the House has been pushing and sending over to the Senate, is that they focus on the very things that built this country in the first place. This Nation was not built because we had the highest tax rates in the world, because we had more regulations than any country in the world, because we had national debt in the trillions. That's not what built this country. It was the hard work and determination, the sweat equity of the American people-- who had no guarantees--who built this country brick by brick.

The commonsense things that Congress doesn't do, that they've been doing the wrong way for years--look, tax increases. Tax increases don't create jobs. Borrowing and spending doesn't create wealth, doesn't create jobs. Regulations don't create jobs. And so every day in Washington we're putting more barriers in the way of these small business owners that we want to have create jobs, and it's making things worse.

In fact, just looking at the regulations that are coming out every week out of Washington, it's unbelievable. This is just a stack of the regulations that have come out just this week in Washington, D.C. Monday, a new set of regulations. Tuesday, a new set of regulations. Wednesday, a new set of regulations. That one was pretty thick there. Thursday, another set of regulations. Just this week, these regulations, they just don't stop. It just keeps coming and coming and hitting our small business owners and stopping the economy from recovering.

Let me just give you an example of what these regulations have. On Wednesday alone, 188 pages of new regulations dealing with the health care takeover. Is that what the economy needs? Is that what you hear from your small business owners at home? Is that what Americans are crying out for, 188 new pages of regulations dealing with health care? It's got to stop.

And yes to the President: we can wait on having new regulations, we can wait on the President's big tax increases, we can wait on this stuff. We don't need 188 new pages of ObamaCare regulations. We don't need this new stack of regulations this week. It's not helping the economy recover. It's making it more difficult.

That's why I'm proud to stand with my colleagues today on the House floor and fight for the American people and fight for the prosperity of this country that we all believe in. We know we can restore it, but we've got to stop doing the stuff in Washington that's making it hard to recover.

These are the regulations that have come out since Monday. You have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, the regulations. These didn't create jobs. These made it harder on the economy. Every day--in fact, I think there's been over 65,000 new pages of regulations coming out of Washington, D.C. Frankly, to the gentleman from Colorado, the people at home, they hear us talking about the regulations, but they may not always see and understand what Washington is actually doing. This is what we're doing to the job creators; this is what we're doing to the entrepreneurs of this country. We are strangling them. These regulations are making what was once the most prosperous Nation in the world, that was a beacon of hope around the world that we all still believe in, it's trying to strangle that and we've got to stop it.

Mr. Speaker, our economy cannot recover without tapping into the unlimited creative talents of the American people. Innovators and entrepreneurs all across the country are primed to be the spark that ignites the economic engine of America, putting millions of Americans back to work. But these bright job creators face many government-made obstacles to success.

In our free enterprise system, access to private capital and investment is the lifeblood of our economy. With the threat of higher taxes on investment income and new financial regulations on community banks, it's no wonder that these small business owners aren't expanding or creating jobs. H.R. 2930 and H.R. 2940 are two bills that remove government barriers to economic growth by helping American businesses gain access to the vital investment capital they need to create jobs and grow the economy.

Mr. Speaker, together we can pass legislation that will unleash the energy and talents of the American people and restore the prosperity and promise of the United States of America.

Today, I rise to recognize the service and sacrifice of our Nation's veterans and military servicemembers who have answered our country's call to serve.

Last month, we commemorated the 10th anniversary of the attacks of September 11, 2001, in remembrance of the victims and their families, while at the same time recognizing the need for continued vigilance as the United States seeks to rid the world of terrorism.

This month, we commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Afghanistan war. Ten years later, our Nation is safer as a direct result of the voluntary service of men and women who are willing to place themselves in harm's way, often under circumstances many Americans cannot fathom.

This willingness to serve and dedication to duty remains consistent with previous generations of veterans who chose to serve their country during our greatest time of need. Unfortunately, we have lost some of our greatest treasure in our fight against terrorism. Since October 2001, 4,914 servicemembers have been killed and another 46,376 injured as a result of military action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recently, we again faced a tragic loss of life.

On August 6, a CH-46 Chinook twin-engine helicopter, carrying U.S. Army soldiers, U.S. Navy SEALS, and Afghan soldiers, was shot down in the Wardak province of Afghanistan, resulting in the greatest loss of life in any combat incident of the entire conflict thus far. The unit involved, B Company 7th/158th Aviation, is headquartered in New Century, Kansas, in the southernmost part of my district.

Last March I had the privilege to attend the deployment ceremony for the unit as they departed for training at Fort Bliss, ultimately deploying to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. As my colleagues are well aware, deployment ceremonies are often somber affairs with family members wanting to spend every last second with their loved ones before they depart for duty and soldiers assuring family members that they will be okay and not to worry.

This past August, I was saddened to learn about the tragic events of August 6, 2011, hearing the news that three members of the unit had been killed during the combat operation. These soldiers, Army Specialist Spencer Duncan, Chief Warrant Officer Bryan Nichols and Army Specialist Alexander Bennett, are remembered as outstanding soldiers, dedicated to duty, their unit, and to each other.

Spencer Duncan was just 21, a 2008 graduate of Olathe South High School. He enlisted in the Army Reserve shortly after graduation; and before deployment to Afghanistan, he served at New Century AirCenter Aviation Support Facility in Olathe, Kansas. First he was an aircraft mechanic, and later he trained to become a Chinook door gunner. I had the honor of attending a memorial service for Specialist Duncan and witnessed the outpouring of friends and loving family.

Bryan Nichols was 31 and a pilot from Kansas City, Missouri, who, when hearing of the need to train people for mobilization, followed and sacrificed for our country, leaving behind a wife and son.

Alexander Bennett was 23 and was trained as a Chinook helicopter flight mechanic. Originally from Tacoma, Washington, he had already served one tour of duty in Iraq in 2009 before being deployed again, this time to Afghanistan.

Mr. Speaker, our hearts go out to the families and friends of these three patriotic servicemen who gave the ultimate sacrifice that we all in this country might continue to live in a Nation of freedom and liberty. For their service and sacrifice to our Nation, a grieving country says thank you.

Mr. Speaker, next month we will celebrate Veterans Day and once again remember the service and sacrifice of all those who have faithfully and dutifully served, in peacetime and in war, throughout.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today again in support of small business owners and builders all across the United States who will be harmed by a new tax withholding requirement by the Federal Government.

With unemployment at 9.1 percent and holding, we desperately need to come together to do all that we can to get our economy growing. But our economic recovery will not come from government growth. It will come from entrepreneurs, innovators, and small business owners who take risk, expand, hire new workers and create economic growth the old- fashioned way--in the private sector through hard work and free enterprise.

The imposition of a 3 percent withholding tax increase is the cost of doing business for our small business owners and therefore hurts job growth and the economic recovery. We cannot create jobs while punishing job creators. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 674, legislation that will remove this burdensome new tax requirement on our small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, we must come together as a Congress and do all that we can to promote legislation like this that will remove barriers to economic growth and get America back to work again.

Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today to recognize October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month. While I'm sure I am not the only member to come before you and recognize the importance of breast cancer research, I feel it is necessary for me to discuss the benefits that come from continued funding for a disease that affects 300,000 women every year.

Aside from recognizing the important work done by the many Breast Cancer Organizations around the country, I would like to take this opportunity to highlight the Breast Cancer Survivorship Center that is part of the University of Kansas Cancer Center. While the KU Cancer Center does important research into early detection and treatment of breast cancer, the Survivorship Center is an important facility for women who have been diagnosed and have gone through or are currently being treated for breast cancer. Specifically, this facility helps women cope with various treatments, assists them with complications, helps them to manage side effects. I applaud the KU Cancer Center for the tremendous progress they have made and the thousands of lives they have saved.

One of the most reassuring aspects of discussing breast cancer is when we can talk about survivors. The continued decrease in the mortality rate of women diagnosed with breast cancer is due in large part to remaining focused on the need to find a cure. The progress that has been made in finding a cure for breast cancer has been made possible through very generous donations by the American public, but also through funding for National Institutes of Health (NIH).

As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, I am pleased that Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers and Subcommittee Chairman Dennis Rehberg recognized the value of the work being performed by the NIH. I am particularly pleased that the House version of the FY 2012 Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill provides robust funding for NIH, and its efforts to fight cancer. I look forward to working with my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee as the House and Senate negotiate the FY 2012 Appropriations bills.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to praise a not-for-profit organization in Kansas that I recently visited. Cottonwood, located in Lawrence, Kansas, provides a valuable service to our country by establishing employment and living opportunities to individuals with developmental disabilities. Over the years, Cottonwood has earned a reputation for quality services and care as a community service provider.

At Cottonwood, workers help make a number of consumer products, including industrial-strength cargo straps

that are used by our troops here at home and overseas for a variety of purposes. Thanks to the workers at Cottonwood, our soldiers have a great and much needed tool to help them do their jobs and keep them safe.

Cottonwood is a shining example of the potential within every American that can be developed and maintained when local community groups couple with the private sector to create products at a good value for our American military and other consumers. I am proud to use my voice on the floor of the U.S. House to praise Cottonwood and other organizations who provide meaningful employment for Americans with disabilities across the United States.

I thank the chairman for yielding me this time.

As my colleagues have listened to this debate today, and as we listen to our constituents at home, our constituents are asking us to focus on one thing--jobs. We've talked about a lot of issues today. We've talked about unions. We talked about all sorts of issues; but at the end of the day, the American people are asking us to focus on jobs.

These trade agreements allow American companies to export more products to Colombia. They level the playing field, and they create jobs back here at home in America. Colombia is the third largest U.S. export market in Latin America; and for farmers and companies in places like Kansas, exports have grown over 667 percent in the last 13 years, even with the one-sided tariffs that Colombia is currently imposing. If we level the playing field, allow companies in Kansas and across the country equal access to Colombian markets, exports will go up, as will the jobs those exports create.

Mr. Speaker, every day we don't pass these agreements we are falling behind, and our companies and our workers are at a disadvantage. If our top priority is jobs, then it's time to open up these markets, put our businesses on a level playing field, and create jobs at home as opposed to exporting them overseas.

Mr. Speaker, it's time to put America back to work again, and that's why I rise today to lend my voice in support of the three pending free trade agreements that the President has submitted to Congress.

At a time when 13.9 million Americans are looking for employment, these commonsense, bipartisan bills are the types of pro-job legislation upon which this Congress should be focused.

It's estimated that these agreements could create hundreds of thousands of jobs in the United States and increase American exports by tens of billions of dollars a year. This means real jobs in the Third District of Kansas and throughout my home State, where exports are a major component of our economy, accounting for almost $10 billion in economic activity and supporting 30,000 jobs.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are tired of partisanship and they're looking for solutions to our economic challenges. Today, let's come together, pass these trade agreements, and let's get Kansas and all of America working again.

I appreciate the gentleman from Arkansas yielding to me.

I have been watching this debate as we discuss what are, to most people, commonsense American values. Hard work, a free enterprise system, and opportunity for all, the American system we all believe in that made our country so great, one of the most prosperous nations in history, the most prosperous nation in the world. And we see it being threatened every day by policies that are coming out of Washington, DC. It is heartache for a lot of us because we see the very principles that built this country being threatened in this very process.

So I'm pleased that the gentleman from Arkansas, the gentleman from Wisconsin, and the gentleman from Colorado are all arguing so passionately today for what they see as the future of the United States of America. I think one of the things that confuses a lot of folks back home is they see both sides of this debate on the floor saying, we're all for jobs. In fact, some people just come down and repeat it, Jobs, jobs, jobs. They say, Where are the jobs? And we just keep saying ``jobs'' over and over again as if that's somehow miraculously going to get the private sector to start creating jobs again.

They have come up with Washington solutions: borrowing and spending, creating jobs in Washington, DC. And what we know is that jobs aren't created here in Washington; they are created at home by small business owners. They are created through the free enterprise system. That's what made our country great.

But I think the reason this debate is so challenging and the reason that we're having such a hard time getting the sides to agree and the two Chambers to agree and the President to agree is because we have different principles by which we are arguing this debate. I want to lay out a couple of very commonsense principles that I wish this Congress could agree to and this government could agree to so that we could move forward with job creation. The first one is, regulations don't create jobs. And if we could get this body to simply agree that regulations don't create jobs, we would be moving a long way down the path toward job creation.

That's absolutely correct.

So the regulations we're putting forward, not only do they not create jobs, but the gentleman from Arkansas is correct, they kill jobs. But yet I hear folks on this House floor, I see folks on the left, I see folks in the media arguing repeatedly that these regulations are actually good for business.

In fact, Robert Reich argued earlier this year, he said, There's no necessary tradeoff between regulations and jobs. In fact, regulations that are designed well can generate innovation as companies compete to find the most efficient solutions. And innovations can lead to more jobs as they spawn new products and industries.

Regulations don't create innovation. Regulations don't create jobs. They are a job killer. This is a commonsense principle that I know a majority of Americans agree with, and it's one that is completely refuted day after day on this House floor. If we can come to an agreement that regulations don't create jobs, we can get somewhere.

One of the reasons we don't, and you've been debating that this afternoon, is because they create additional burdens, additional hoops and additional challenges for small business owners that we're expecting to create two-thirds of the jobs in this country. In fact, just for fun, I brought down the stack of rules and regulations that have come out just in the last week. Every day, our small business owners have to deal with another one of these. Another one of these. Every day.

There's last Tuesday; there's last Wednesday; there's last Thursday; there's last Friday--a pile of new rules and regulations for business owners. Even if they don't affect them, they still need to read them and follow them and hire folks to be able to respond to them. You talk to folks at home, you say, Are you creating jobs? Are you hiring new folks? They say, We are hiring a few folks in the compliance department. So yes, you might create a new job, but you're killing the jobs in innovation, entrepreneurship, and free enterprise.

The other principle I want to leave with the folks here is that taxes don't create jobs. Taxing and spending doesn't create wealth. That is something that is in dispute on this House floor. If we could get an agreement with both parties that regulations don't create jobs and taxing and spending doesn't create jobs, we would be going a long way to solving this debate.

So when folks at home wonder, Why are they arguing so much? Why can't they ever get anything done? Why aren't they moving forward? Because we're debating basic commonsense principles of the free enterprise system. And folks come down here and argue, Hey, these regulations are good for jobs. Hey, these new tax increases, that's good to create jobs. We're not going to get the free enterprise system going while we're smacking them down with new taxes and new regulations every day.

I appreciate the gentleman from Arkansas, the gentleman from Colorado and others down here having this debate, because it is essential to what it means to be an American in this free enterprise system we all believe in.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the history and accomplishments of the Kansas School for the Deaf as we prepare to celebrate the school's sesquicentennial this week. It was 150 years ago that Philip A. Emery began teaching deaf students in a small two-room schoolhouse in Baldwin City, Kansas, using the techniques of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet.

Throughout the years, the Kansas School for the Deaf has been noted for its academic excellence in pre-college preparation and its career and transition program, leading to job placement upon graduation.

Along the way, the school has had many exciting moments, including almost being destroyed in Quantrill's infamous sacking of Lawrence, Kansas, and even boasts of beating the University of Kansas baseball team twice, in 1897 and 1900.

As the oldest educational institution in the State of Kansas, the Kansas School for the Deaf continues to provide a world-class education to young students, and I am proud in the United States Congress to represent the school and its many families and students.