Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today America and our allies in Iraq are breathing a collective sigh of relief as we continue to receive successful report after successful report of al Qaeda's demise in Iraq.

We continue to pray for a complete end to hostilities, but today we pause to thank America's brave military members and also their family members.

Just recently, 168 brave men and women returned from the famous Red Bulls to Minnesota. They were deployed for 13 months, and we thank them for their sacrifice.

The happy news is that not one of the 168 returned home with serious injury. Everyone was able to walk out and meet their loved ones.

It seems every generation has to learn the lessons of freedom. Freedom is precious, Madam Speaker, and we thank those today who secured our freedom and the freedom of our allies.

Madam Speaker, Halloween was last week, but trick or treating may be a part of the House of Representatives this week if the Democrats have their way on the veterans funding bill.

It was over 140 days ago that this Congress passed a veterans funding bill. It was a good bill. So why hasn't this bill made its way to the President's desk? The President has said he will sign this bill. Our veterans need this funding. They deserve this funding that the bill would provide.

Instead, the Democrats are preempting Thanksgiving holiday by serving up a turkey of a funding bill, a turkey that is filled with pork-based stuffing.

The business of national defense and the business of taking care of the very real needs of our veterans is just too important just to satisfy the urge to spend extra money that we just don't have in order to fund pet projects.

I want to say thank you to America's veterans, to those veterans who go to our veterans health care center in St. Cloud, Minnesota. I want to thank you for what you have done, for your sacrifice for this country.

Let's pass this bill.

Madam Speaker, I want to bring before the body this morning an issue that needs more attention, not less, and that is the issue of the huge blob that ate the American Dream called the alternative minimum tax. One thing that we are seeing is that the alternative minimum tax, Madam Speaker, is set to rise at a level so unprecedented that the American economy has not experienced anything like this in the last 40 years.

Right now, the tax burden for the average American and to the economy is about 18.5 percent of GDP. If we don't scale back on the alternative minimum tax, we are looking at the tax burden of GDP being almost 24 percent by mid-century. We have never seen this level of taxation in our GDP. This means this money will come out of the pockets of the American taxpayer and will go into the coffers of the Federal Government.

This is a big concern, Madam Speaker, one that I am very concerned about, as I know most of the Members in this Chamber are as well.

In 1969, when the alternative minimum tax came in, it was 155 people. I will close with the fact that this year we are looking at 23 million Americans impacted.

Mr. Speaker, Minnesota is known as a State of great longevity. We have the longest married couple in the history of the United States living in my district. We also have some of the longest living people in the United States in my district. This week I had the occasion to wish one of my constituents happy birthday on her 102nd birthday.

I want to honor another constituent from my hometown who is 100 this week. I want to wish happy birthday to Erna Welte of Stillwater, Minnesota. She has seen the Great Depression, she has seen World War II, she has seen the space race. She has been alive before television and during television. She has seen it all. But Erna says, ``I don't feel that old.'' She's young at heart.

Just recently, when she celebrated 90 years of age, her granddaughter taught Erna how to drive a car. For the first time, she learned to drive a car. She's a wonderful, witty, wise individual, and I am so grateful for the senior citizens of the United States, particularly those long-living, happy people who live in my district.

Erna, happy birthday to you, and to our Nation's finest, our senior citizens.

Madam Speaker, it is with great pride that I come to the House floor today to congratulate a small business in Monticello--a growing community in Minnesota's Sixth District.

Ultra Machining Company (UMC) was recently 1 of 5 companies nationally to receive the prestigious Secretary of Defense Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) Freedom Award.

The Award was created to recognize employers who provide exceptional support to their employees serving in the National Guard and Reserve. It's the highest in a series of ESGR awards.

Sergeant Lou Jacobson, who works at UMC and recently returned from a 22-month deployment in Iraq, nominated UMC for the Freedom Award.

Jacobson wrote, ``UMC has made up the difference in my pay while I am deployed. Last summer, a storm knocked down our fence. UMC put out a sign up sheet and the next Saturday 40 of my co-workers showed up at my house . . . UMC paid for all the materials. They said that is what family does, they help.''

Madam Speaker, family does help. Minnesota helps. Americans help. Congratulations and thanks go to Terry and Mary Tomann--founders of UMC, all the employees of UMC and Sergeant Lou Jacobson for his service to our country and for letting all Americans know what it means to be family.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote 937, I was recorded as ``nay.'' It was my intention to have voted ``yea.'' I would like the Record to reflect my support of H.R. 928.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in proud support of this legislation which commends Minnesota's First Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division for their completion of the longest continuous deployment of any United States military unit during Operation Iraqi Freedom.

This extraordinary group of men and women, also known as the Red Bulls, is comprised of about 3,700 dedicated Minnesotans and some 1,300 more soldiers from other Midwestern States. Recently, more than 1,000 of our courageous Red Bulls returned home from a 22-month deployment to Iraq.

During their time in the Middle East, the First Brigade Combat Team protected lives and helped to preserve the blessings of liberty here at home. They discovered 462 improvised explosive devices, IEDs, before they were able to wreak havoc on the innocent. By finding these IEDs prior to detonation, the First Brigade Combat Team surely saved the lives of countless fellow soldiers and Iraqi citizens. They also captured over 400 suspected insurgents and completed 137 reconstruction projects. In addition, the First Brigade Combat Team successfully processed over 1.5 million vehicles and 400,000 Iraqis into entry control points without any insurgent penetrations.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to honor the First Brigade Combat Team, whose bravery and commitment to serving our country is as apparent today as it has been in wars long past. These soldiers have returned with an outstanding record of achievement and have earned hundreds of awards including: one Silver Star, 151 Bronze Stars, 32 Purple Hearts, 771 Army Commendation Medals, 136 Combat Infantry Badges, 302 Combat Action Badges and 14 Combat Medical Badges.

The important measure before us today recognizes the service of our Red Bull soldiers, and reminds us of the price of our freedom, and those who have freely chosen to honor it.

To our Red Bulls, and all of the men and women that defend this Nation, my colleagues and I continue to stand in awe of you.

Thank you, and may God bless you and your families.

Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to recommit.

In its current form, I am.

Mr. Speaker, today, over 5 million Americans rely on the National Flood Insurance Program to protect their homes and businesses in the event of a flood.

But since January of last year, there have been over 77 declared disasters involving flooding. And just this August, in our home State of southeastern Minnesota, we experienced severe flooding that caused distress to over 1,500 homes.

According to FEMA, and according to the Minnesota Homeland Security and the Emergency Management, the Federal Government has disbursed at this point nearly $31 million in Federal recovery funds to over 4,200 people. And currently, there are over 8,000 people, specifically, there are 8,434 national flood insurance policies in effect in my home State of Minnesota.

But, unfortunately, as floods continue to occur across our great Nation, the National Flood Insurance Program is in trouble. It's not good news. It's bad news. And the program today, unfortunately, is $18 billion in debt. That's today, as it stands, and it's required to pay that debt back with interest over time. This debt will be paid back with the premiums that are charged to those families who are relying on this flood insurance program.

The base bill that's before us is a good one because it attempts to help solve some of the fiscal problems today that are facing the National Flood Insurance Program. We agree with that, Mr. Speaker.

But, yet, there is one provision in this bill that has the potential to undo the very positive reform that is before us, and that is to send the flood insurance program into even further fiscal disarray and result in premium increases for homeowners all across America, something that no one in this body would want to do.

The proposal, Mr. Speaker, that's included in this bill is to expand the National Flood Insurance Program by creating a brand-new insurance program for wind damage. That's something that has never existed before, and it's akin to a homeowner who, upon discovering that his foundation is rotting, decides to ignore that problem and instead adds a second story on to that rotting house. And he shouldn't be surprised then when the whole house collapses around him.

I have a very simple amendment, Mr. Speaker, and it says this: it does not strike the brand-new wind insurance program. What it does is this: it stipulates that before the program can go into effect, three things have to occur. This is something that we can all agree on:

Number one, there has to be a certification that the existing National Flood Insurance Program, in fact, is actuarially sound, and this certification would provide all of us with the assurance that this program is correctly pricing its policies and has adequate reserves on hand to handle large flood events. We've seen that there's been a problem with this in some of the State reserve accounts.

Today, right now, both the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office have reported that the National Flood Insurance Program is likely to not be actuarially sound.

Second, there has to be a certification that premiums for people in the existing flood insurance program will not be increased to subsidize this brand-new insurance program. People all over America are wondering if that's going to happen to them as well as the insurance companies.

And then third, of this simple amendment, it says there has to be a certification that the new wind insurance program will, itself, be fiscally sound. Who can argue with that?

So, Mr. Speaker, the 8,434 people of the State of Minnesota and the 5 million Americans who today rely on our National Flood Insurance Program, they need to serve as a lifeline in the event of a major storm, that they would not have that program in endangered, that their premiums would not, in fact, be increased in order to help create, in fact, this new expansion of an expansion of a wind program.

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

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, too often we heard about the negatives of America's teenagers, but today I rise to congratulate the work of a wonderful young accomplished woman from my district, the Sixth District in Minnesota. Her name, Mr. Speaker, is Ann Miron of Hugo, Minnesota. She is a very accomplished young woman, representing the next generation of American dairy farmers, being an American dairy farmer herself at age 19.

She descends from a long line of Minnesota dairy farmers, living on a country dairy farm, and she was just recently crowned Princess Kay of the Milky Way. In Minnesota, this is a pretty big deal at the county fair. She was crowned Princess Kay, and Ann Miron will begin a year of speaking and promoting Minnesota area dairy farms.

I am privileged to represent the area with the largest number of dairy farms in the State of Minnesota, and even more privileged to have married a dairy farmer myself.

Ann, I join your great parents, Mayor Fran Miron of Hugo, Minnesota, Mary Ann Miron, and the people of Minnesota to wish you a wonderful year promoting dairy farming in the State of Minnesota.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the great State of California, Congressman McCarthy. What a wonderful leadership role he is playing with our freshmen class.

It is true, Mr. Speaker, we are so grateful, as freshmen Members, to be here with new ideas and a new perspective. Part of that perspective is a positive outlook on life and a positive outlook on our country. One thing about Americans, Mr. Speaker, is we tend to be happy people, go-getter people, people that have ideas, innovation. We are entrepreneurs. We always look over the next hill. We always look for the next goal. We are forward-looking people.

One thing that I have been a little dismayed about in my time here in the Congress is I have heard so much negativity on the floor. As a matter of fact, in the previous Special Order, I was amazed at the level of negativity that I heard. That is not representative of the American people. It certainly is not representative of the people of the Sixth District of the State of Minnesota. They are positive people that are looking, as we Republican freshmen are looking, at new ideas, at fresh perspectives.

I was so intrigued this weekend when I was home in my district, I had the chance to read the Sunday paper. I found an article in that paper that talked about the incredible progress we have made in recent years. So much of that has to do, Mr. Speaker, with a lot of the very good decisions that were made in the previous Congresses, particularly, Mr. Speaker, the tax cuts that were passed in 2001, 2003. I say that because I am a Federal tax litigation attorney. I hate high taxation. If you speak with most Americans, they also detest high levels of taxation. One thing that the Congress did so well was to reduce that level in 2001 and in 2003. The one thing we don't want to see happen is to have the country take a dramatic turn now under the Democrat controlled House of Representatives and embrace tax increases. This really concerns us because what we have seen so far is the Democrats are now embracing what, you know, the argument is, will it be the largest or the second largest tax increase in American history? Whatever, it is a very large tax increase. But what the other formula for success has brought about, Mr. Speaker, is prosperity.

Prosperity not just for those who are the high income earners, not even just the middle income earners. We have seen tremendous levels of prosperity, even for those who we would consider the poor among us, who government considers the poor among us, and if there is anyone who deserves help up, a hand up, it is the poorest among us.

In this article I read this weekend, it is really a scorecard of sorts on the Republicans and the great tax cuts that they put through this Congress, and it is very good news.

If you dig into the numbers, as this author writes, his name is Jason Lewis, he is a writer from the Twin Cities, and I want to quote from this article, he writes, ``We now have a record number of Americans with health insurance.''

I will tell you what. You would never know that, listening to people speak on the floor of this House. You would think everyone is destitute and no one has health insurance. We are at an all-time high in this country with the number of people that have health insurance.

The doom-and-gloom focus says that most of those people who do not have health insurance currently live in households with incomes that are in excess of $50,000 a year. So even the people who don't have health insurance in the United States are making over $50,000 a year. In fact, many of them

today are eligible for government healthcare programs. They have just simply decided or elected not to enroll in those programs.

The median household income, more good news is that adjusted for inflation, the median household income today has risen in 2006 to over $48,451 nationwide, and in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, median household income today is at a robust $62,223.

This is great news. We should be talking about this great news. And how did we get to this level of prosperity? It is because of the tax cuts that came in 2001 and 2003, and that great investment is now paying off.

Surprisingly, in August, the figures show the first significant drop in poverty in a decade. This is great news. Shout it from the housetop, which we are. This is the ``big House.'' We are shouting it. The official rate declined from 12.6 percent in 2005 down to 12.3 percent. That is great. We want to reduce the level of poverty in the United States.

The Federal tax cuts of 2003 gave us an economy that added $1.3 trillion in real output. We have grown more than 3 percent annually, according to Investors Business Daily.

Business spending, way up, adding 8 million new jobs to this economy. Real labor compensation per hour has rebounded, because now wages have advanced 3.9 percent from a year ago.

Those are statistics. But it really means things for American families. As a woman, as a wife, as a mother of five children, we have raised over 23 foster children, I will tell you what: When your wage goes up, that means you can afford to pay the light bill at the end of the month. You can afford to have groceries. You can take your kids and buy them the clothes that they need for school. You can pay for the field trips they have to go on. And you can pay for all the sports activities that they love to do after school.

These are real benefits, when government doesn't have that money, when normal real people have this money. That is what we want, to have all households have that money, and the poorest families are the ones that need to benefit even the most.

Mr. Speaker, even with the slight decline in job creation in August, the Nation's unemployment rate remained in record low territory of 4.6 percent. Great news. Great news for today.

Robert Rector also just came out for the Heritage Foundation, and he told us among the households considered poor in our country, of those households that we call poor, 46 percent of those households in America, almost half actually own their own home. That is something that we don't always understand, that almost half of all poor people in this country own a home. If you own a home, Mr. Speaker, that is your greatest down payment on the next generation and on wealth creation.

Most people that are considered poor by our government own a car. In fact, of people considered poor, 31 percent of poor households own two or more cars. That is great, and we want to keep prosperity going for the poor.

Seventy-eight percent of those who are considered poor by the government have a DVD player or have a VCR player. In fact, 62 percent have cable or satellite TV. One-third of poor households have both cell phones and land line phones. And a stunning 80 percent have air conditioning. This is really good news, significant, because as recently as 1970, and I remember this, only 36 percent of all American households had air conditioning. My family wasn't one of those. So I am grateful that today 80 percent of the people that even the government considers poor today have air conditioning. This is great news that we have.

In fact, the study said that 89 percent of poor families themselves, and this is very important, say that they have enough food. Boy, if there is any measure of poor, it is, are you hungry? No one wants to see one child, one older person, anyone go hungry in this country. Eight-nine percent of people who themselves are categorized as poor say that that they have enough food. Only 2 percent of that category say that they don't.

That isn't to say, Mr. Speaker, that there are not serious problems for those who live below the poverty line. Trust me. The foster children that we took into our home, they were categorized in this category. There are needs aplenty for those who are below the poverty line. We need to address those needs.

That being said, there is good news out there. Let's celebrate the fact that Census Bureau figures don't even include when they categorize people that are poor the value of non-cash benefits. So if you are poor, the government doesn't even include the fact of the amount of money you receive in food stamps. They don't include the amount you receive in housing subsidies, in Medicaid, or even the Earned Income Tax Credit. That is to say, and this again is good news, that the gap between the poor and average households is even smaller than sometimes what it is stated to be.

That being said, we are now at a juncture, Mr. Speaker, when we are looking at a turn. I know my colleagues that are also going to be speaking in the freshman class are going to be talking about this turn.

I will end on this note, because I gave a lot of great news. The negative news that we are looking at is that so far in this Congress, the Democrat majority in the House has passed their budget, and their budget included, again, the largest, or however you want to parse it, the second largest tax increase in American history. I just want to say that for the people of my district and the people for your district, they will probably have to be paying an additional $3,000 a year for every average American family, and that will negatively impact the poorest among us the most.

So we have two choices in front of us: Do we want to continue with lower taxes and prosperity, where the poorest among us have seen actually tangible benefits? Or do we want to take the route that the Democrats have proposed, and increase taxes knowingly $3,000 a year on my family, on your family, on families in our districts? I can't abide by that, especially for the low-income families in my district.

With that, I say let's do what our founders would want us to do, and that is to embrace hope, prosperity, new ideas and a fresh perspective.

Mr. Speaker, with that, I yield back to the kind gentleman from California, Congressman McCarthy.

Madam Speaker, I thank my dear colleague for allowing me this moment to address the body.

I, too, offer my condolences and sympathy to the Members and families of our Minnesota community who endured one of the most horrific losses that anyone can imagine. When it's a beautiful, wonderful evening in Minnesota in August, August 1, when people are on their way to the Twins game and home from work, their minds are on the BBQ and what they're going to do when they go home, what they're going to say to their husband, what they're going to say to their wife, going to their child's T-ball game or their soccer game, those were the kind of things that were on the minds of Minnesotans when all of a sudden, inexplicably, this bridge that is the most traveled bridge in the State of Minnesota went down. Something no one would ever imagine could happen happened.

The Saturday after the bridge collapse occurred, I had the opportunity to go back and meet with some of the first responders, as my colleagues did as well. And I think to a person we can say what we saw that day was nothing short of just the joy and the grief, all of the emotions mixed together on the faces of the firemen, faces of the policemen, faces of the health care professionals as well who were there, who saw that horror firsthand and did what we expect that they would do, be first responders. Seems like an ordinary thing that they should do their job, but it's never an ordinary thing to lay down your life for your fellow man. That's what a police officer does every day when they put on that uniform. That's what a fireman does every day when they put on that uniform. And that day they were called upon to do that duty, make that sacrifice. They did it. And I'll tell you what, I could not be more proud of those first responders.

And it was wonderful, too, Madam Speaker, to see how in this body this wasn't a Republican or Democrat issue, this was about being human, this was about loving our fellow man. And I can't say enough about the effort of the two parties to come together and unanimously making the right decision, and that is, authorizing the

money for this bridge to get it up and built again, and then hopefully now appropriate that money to get it up again.

I commend Congressman Ellison, Congressman Walz, I commend Congresswoman McCollum and everyone in our delegation who came together to get behind this bridge. But more importantly, it's the first responders who came together and laid down their lives.

One of the people who did that was a constituent of mine. I just want to mention him a little bit. His name is Gary Babineau, 24 years old, lives up in Blaine. He is a construction worker. Gary was coming home from work that night, like most Minnesotans, thinking about what he was going to do. His wife is due with their first baby 2 weeks later. And that's what he was thinking about, that new little baby that was about to come 2 weeks from now, when all of a sudden he was right across from that yellow school bus that we all saw on the news. And Gary's truck was on the bridge, and he felt the bridge go down. And in a moment of time, his black pickup truck fell 30 feet down to the bottom. He never thought he would wake up again. He never thought he would open his eyes again, but he did. And he couldn't believe it, he could move. His back was severely hurt, but he could move. He got out of that truck and he went and he helped person after person get out of their vehicle, carried people to safety. And then Gary remarkably, here in the midst of having a severely injured back, he jumped off the bridge, got onto the ground, got back on the bridge, not knowing that the bridge would be stable, got on that bridge and went immediately to that yellow school bus. And he then assisted those 50 children getting off that bus. And as a matter of fact, it was reported in the paper it said, Gary Babineau said, ``I could see the whole bridge going down, and I was going down, too,'' he said. ``I have a baby coming in 2 weeks and that's all I could think about. We hit bottom, and I couldn't believe that I could open my eyes, I couldn't believe that I could move.''

Gary Babineau was an ordinary man, but he became a first responder and he helped save lives. At the moment that he was needed he did it. We kind of expect that that's what Americans would do. We're just good people, we help each other in time of need. And here in this tragedy, as we have seen other tragedies that have befallen our Nation, when things didn't go exactly right in the recovery effort, here in Minnesota we saw that things were right. It happened right. And the reason why it happened right was because of first responders, official first responders, nonofficial first responders. But they did what was right because they acted out of love, out of a heart of love for their fellow man.

So I thank those first responders, the firemen, the policemen, the average Joes, the Gary Babineaus in their truck. And I thank the Federal officials, our President, our Members of Congress. I thank the county officials, the city officials, the State officials. Everybody did what was right.

But thank you, Congressman Ellison. This was the right resolution to bring forward today to honor these selfless individuals who none of us could live without. Thank you, first responders. I encourage my colleagues to give us a unanimous vote to this wonderful resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me.

In what feels now like a lifetime ago but was in fact only 2 days ago, on August 1, the world changed forever for the people of our State of Minnesota. Our people witnessed an event so unlikely, the sudden and complete collapse of nearly 2,000 feet of eight lanes of highway, propelling nearly 50 cars in midair for a horrific 60-foot plunge into the currents of the Mississippi River. An event so unlikely that we in Minnesota collectively remain shocked and filled with sorrow, knowing the inevitable sad news that is yet to come once our heroic first responders have freed our fellow Americans who even now as we stand here remain trapped underwater.

Minnesota needs the help and the prayers of all Americans and we appreciate the overwhelming support in our time of need. I know I speak for my husband Marcus and myself. We offer our deepest sympathies, as does everyone in our delegation, to the family and the friends of those who were killed.

Mr. Speaker, America believes in extending a helping hand to people who are in trouble due to no fault of their own, and I want to assure the residents of Minnesota today that we will have help in cleaning up and rebuilding. We will have help until the job is done. Because Congress understands, Republicans, Democrats, we're all Americans in this and we understand that this is not just an emergency for a day or for a week. We will provide the support and the work that is necessary to rebuild the lives and the communities that were damaged until this tragedy is over. And that is what makes America so great.

This bill is just our first step toward recovery. I thank Chairman Oberstar for his brilliant work, working around the clock to bring this to the floor. It's inspiring the way so many have come together and worked together over these last few days.

I join my colleagues from Minnesota, a great State that each one of us loves so much, in requesting your support to rebuild this bridge. Once again, I know we can count on you, the Members of this great deliberative body, to rebuild the great city of Minneapolis and again to make it whole.

Madam Speaker, today the United States Congress will take up the full march towards socialized medicine here in the United States. This isn't mission creep, Madam Speaker; this is mission leap.

Imagine, under the Democrat plan, someone who is old enough to be able to run for the United States Congress would be considered a child and eligible for taxpayer-subsidized health care.

This is socialized medicine in its truest form. As a matter of fact, in Minnesota today, under the SCHIP proposal, fully 85 percent of all recipients are adults. Under the Democrat proposal in Minnesota, over 20,000 senior citizens in Minnesota will lose their Medicare Advantage.

Madam Speaker, this is mission leap towards embracing full socialized medicine, and I hope this United States Congress rejects this untimely proposal.

Mr. Speaker, at 7:10 this evening, 6:10 Central Standard Time, a tragedy occurred with the collapse of one of the most highly traveled bridges in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

While Minnesotans were making their way home from work and on to the Minnesota Twins game, the I-35W bridge suddenly came down. Even now, as we stand here this evening, search and rescue teams are searching the waters of the Mississippi River for survivors.

The Minnesota delegation remains committed to ensuring that Minnesota receives the resources necessary for recovery. I want to thank the House leadership, in particular Speaker Pelosi and Leader Boehner, for responding so quickly and agreeing to lend their support.

I would ask that all Americans would join with the Minnesota delegation in praying for those that are impacted by this disaster.

Mr. Speaker, in this debate tonight I think we can all stipulate that discrimination in the workforce is wrong. It is wrong if it is against employees, and it is wrong if it is against employers. This bill may very well be seen as discrimination against honest American employers, job creators, because it has a seemingly unending period to file a lawsuit.

With that, women may very well experience real discrimination in that they may find that future employers are reluctant to hire them in the first place for fear of a lawsuit 5, 10, 20, maybe even 40 years down the road. Let's face it, memories fade, people die, they move away, and it becomes difficult, if not downright impossible, for a job creator to defend themselves.

It is a very impractical bill that we are looking at and could likely result in even more paperwork and higher cost for employers, and ultimately less wages for all American employees.

Congress needs to stop discriminating against American companies that are just trying to provide decent jobs to great employees. Instead, I think Congress should focus on enhancing American competitiveness and American prosperity.