Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,784,676,619,110.62. We've added $5,157,799,570,197.54 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

On this day in 1782, the Great Seal of the United States was adopted. This seal represents the freedom that we as Americans so

cherish. Let us not relinquish the freedom depicted by our seal by shackling ourselves to the national debt.

Madam Speaker, this act removes the obstacles that are blocking our efforts to achieve greater American energy production and job creation by providing more certainty and clarity to the public lands leasing and permitting process.

In particular, my part of this legislation will ensure that Federal oil and natural gas lease sales occur on a consistent basis and provide the necessary lease certainty so production is made easier.

Currently, there are roughly 1,631 outstanding projects on Federal lands, including lands in Colorado, which have been delayed over 3 years. Federal regulatory delays to these projects prevent the creation of over 60,000 jobs.

We have endured several years of over 8 percent unemployment. Over 12 percent of our veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan are still out of work. The fact that we are not fully benefiting from the employment and financial potential of our energy resources is simply wrong.

The President often boasts about his energy record, but this administration regularly delays and blocks leases. In fact, BLM only approved 11 oil and gas leases in Colorado in 2011 where, in 2006, there were 363 approvals.

We in Colorado understand the importance of harnessing our own resources and the value it provides our economy. The oil and gas industry in Colorado directly employs 50,000 people and supports over 190,000 jobs in our State. This industry is responsible for roughly 6 percent of total employment in Colorado. We have an opportunity with this legislation to create jobs by developing our own resources right here at home.

Opponents of domestic energy exploration claim that the industry already has thousands of acres but are not producing the wells. These critics point to recent Department of the Interior reports that this report represents the

reasons for nonproducing wells. More often than not, the factors that cause our production are delays instituted by the Interior Department itself by requiring redundant reviews of projects, one example being the newest Master Leasing Plans instituted by the Secretary.

Delays also occur because exploration companies do not have full information as to the capacity of production on the land until after the lease sale is finalized. Therefore, some leases prove to be noncommercial and go unused. Although industry has already paid the government thousands of dollars in fees for the opportunity to explore, many times they receive no economic benefit, and the risk is entirely on them.

Let me also be clear, because this fact is largely missed by the opponents of this legislation. Only lands that are already approved by BLM for exploration can be nominated by industry. This bill is not a green light for immediate production on all Federal acres. Rather, it grants access to a very small percentage of the total of Federal lands.

As a Coloradoan, I respect the need to preserve our wilderness areas, but I also understand the need to responsibly capitalize on our vast resources in order to get people back to work.

As a Marine Corps combat veteran who has served multiple tours in the Middle East, I fully understand the need to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and this legislation will help do that.

For these reasons, I ask my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on certainty, ``yes'' on jobs, and ``yes'' on the final passage of the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,776,139,241,010.39. We've added $5,149,262,192,097.31 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Forty-eight years ago today, the Civil Rights Act was approved. This act provided for a brighter future for all Americans. We must not eclipse the hope included in this legislation with the grim future of debt repayment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, on the 200th anniversary of President James Madison signing a declaration of war against Great Britain, it is $15,736,971,094,472.17. We've added $5,110,094,045,559.09 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, today the oil and gas industry in Colorado directly employs 50,000 people and supports over 190,000 jobs in our State. However, the Obama administration has increasingly put up barriers that drive out energy development on Federal lands--a practice that disproportionately impacts job creation in Colorado and other Western States.

For this reason, my colleagues and I have introduced the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act of 2012. My portion of this bill will ensure responsible, steady, and reliable exploration of our abundant resources every year, which will facilitate the job creation that comes from expanded energy development.

We have endured 38 straight months of higher than 8 percent unemployment. The fact that we are not fully benefiting from our energy resources here at home is simply wrong. I urge this administration to follow our lead in the House and support an energy policy that puts people back to work.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,734,596,578,458.59. We've added $5,107,719,529,545.51 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

On this day in 1776, Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposed to the Continental Congress a resolution calling for a Declaration of Independence. We have squandered our independence by shackling ourselves with this national debt.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,733,409,283,200.18. We've added $5,106,532,234,287.10 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,728,112,402,859.92. We've added $5,101,235,353,946.84 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,713,655,602,953.23. We've added $5,086,778,554,040.15 to our debt in a little over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, over the last few years, the prevailing trend within the Department of Defense has been an increased bias for the use of Federal employees to perform commercial services. This pendulum has swung too far in the direction of a noncompetitive, Big Government model.

Congress is cutting the defense budget by $487 billion over the next 10 years and simultaneously preventing the Pentagon from utilizing free market competition to drive down the cost of doing business. We must take the handcuffs off the Department of Defense and allow the Secretary to shop for the best products and services at the best price.

I am offering amendment 17, which simply returns balance to civilian employees and private contractors in the Department of Defense. My amendment removes any bias towards private or public workforce performance of commercial activities. It allows the Secretary of Defense more options and discretion to efficiently manage taxpayer money authorized to run his Department.

In 2010, then-Secretary Gates admitted, ``We weren't seeing the savings we had hoped for from insourcing.'' Despite the candid assessment, the Department of Defense remains prohibited from utilizing any form of competition when looking for new commercial services, and it is too often directed to insource services that are currently being performed by private contractors.

Small businesses that received government contracts by virtue of a competitive bidding process are powerless to stop the loss of their jobs under the practice of insourcing.

Noncompetitive and nearly unrestricted insourcing practices are fiscally irresponsible and ones that we cannot afford in the current or foreseeable fiscal environment.

My amendment will strike the law that prevents the Secretary of Defense from utilizing private sector competition to provide new products or services. It replaces those restrictions with the ability to competitively bid out for new commercial products or services and select the most cost-effective option. Further, it removes criteria that compel the Pentagon to insource competitive contracts currently being performed.

According to OMB, GAO, and the Center for Naval Analyses, savings of 30 percent are achieved when implementing competitive sourcing for commercial activities currently performed by the government. The Federal Activities Inventory Reform, or FAIR, Act requires the Director of OMB to compile a list of activities performed by Federal Government sources that are not inherently governmental functions.

The Department of Defense, the FAIR Act identified 453,000 jobs that could be performed by a competitive source. If competition is applied to all DOD FAIR Act positions, the annual savings could exceed $13 billion.

My amendment recognizes that there are certain functions that should be performed by Department of Defense civilian employees. It does not adjust the definition of ``inherently governmental functions'' or functions ``closely associated to inherently governmental'' and does not seek to outsource those functions in any way. It will only address commercial functions and afford the Department of Defense options to reduce the cost of providing those products and services.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, there are three principal changes that this amendment makes to current law:

One is it states that new functions that the Department of Defense enters into, as far as having contract requirements, can be done by the private sector. It doesn't say shall be done by the private sector. It merely gives the Department of Defense an option, a tool to save money.

Functions that have been performed by the Department of Defense civilians for the past 10 years, irrespectively, whether they're done cost-effectively or not, again, it doesn't say that the Department of Defense has to outsource these functions. It says that they may, based on whether or not it's a cost-effective option.

Expansion of existing functions performed by Department of Defense civilians, again, if, in fact, there's additional requirements later on, something that's currently done by civil service employees, current law says we have to only accomplish it through civil service employees. This gives them the option.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis).

Mr. Chairman, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The Pentagon has proposed removing two brigade combat teams already from permanent bases in Europe. The U.S. Army would still have about 37,000 soldiers in Europe even after it withdraws two of its four combat brigades, which is about 7,000 soldiers. The United States has about 80,000 military personnel still in Europe. There are 28 U.S. military bases--16 Army, eight Air Force, and four Navy.

The Coffman-Polis amendment would authorize the removal of all four brigade combat teams. The only permanent forces stationed in Europe would be those that are required to maintain our expeditionary capabilities and conduct engagement with the leadership of our NATO allies. We will continue to meet our security commitment to our NATO allies by utilizing rotational forces. This could be accomplished by expanding existing programs like the National Guard State Partnership Program.

Since 2008, the Defense Department, among European NATO countries, fell 12 percent, from $314 billion to $275 billion. Only four out of our 28 NATO allies are spending even 2 percent on their GDP on defense. The United States spends 4.7 percent on defense.

Our European allies are facing a fiscal crisis of their own; however, instead of being forced to find the same balance that the United States is trying to achieve, they are able to drastically reduce their national defense spending because they can take for granted that the United States will continue to be the guarantor of their security. This is an unfair burden to U.S. taxpayers.

With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, unlike my two colleagues, and God bless them for their experience, but they've not served in our military, and they've not served in the United States Army in Europe as I have. So I can challenge the assumptions of the United States Army here.

The Cold War has been over with since 1989. We're spending 4.7 percent of our GDP on defense and our European allies, most of them, are spending less than 2 percent. There's an overreliance on the United States, and that's different from being allies. These are not expeditionary forces. These are really, truly relics of the Cold War with no border to defend. So it is time that we take them back.

Where is the savings? Well, the savings is in part because there is already an agreement that we are going to draw down the end-strength of our active duty forces. So that certainly fits within that criteria that's already been agreed to.

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

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,676,996,273,860.82. We've added $5,050,119,224,947.74 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,674,047,733,490.96. We've added $5,047,170,684,577.88 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, today I am announcing my intention to offer an amendment on the Defense authorization bill to reduce our military footprint and spending in Europe.

In January, the Pentagon announced that two U.S. Army combat brigade teams would be withdrawn from Europe. I don't think that goes far enough. The current proposal is only a step in the right direction. We should retain only the headquarters and support infrastructure necessary for expeditionary capabilities, and we should withdraw all four combat brigades from Europe.

In order for the U.S. military to modernize and move forward towards a more agile strategy, we must close bases in Europe. There is no longer a strategic reason to maintain nearly 80,000 troops in Europe.

Additionally, only four of our 28 NATO allies are spending more than 2 percent of their GDP on defense. The reason they can get away with spending so little on defense is that they are relying on the United States to provide it for them. We currently spend 4.7 percent of GDP on defense, but we should have higher priorities for our defense dollars these days than for the defense of Europe.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,675,791,363,404.17. We've added $5,048,914,314,491.09 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $15,671,916,356,611.36. We've added $5,045,039,307,693.28 to our debt in just over 3 years. This is debt our Nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.