Floor Statements

Yesterday afternoon, I happily signed the conference report that was very, very well put together; and I commend Chairman Camp for the hard work that he did and my fellow conferees. This joint conference committee came together, and it was tasked to negotiate the payroll tax holiday extension.

This is a very important breakthrough and shows that we can actually work together and compromise for the sake of the American people. I would like to thank, again, Chairman Camp and my fellow conferees once again for the honor and privilege to serve on this committee.

Our report does what is necessary to provide a responsible level of certainty to job creators and ensures that millions of hardworking Americans will be protected. In this Obama economy, it is important that American taxpayers keep more of their money and use it to make ends meet. Gas prices are projected to go up above $4 a gallon, Madam Speaker, by the summer. If this puts a little more money in individuals' pockets so that they can pay for a half a tank of gas or one-quarter of a tank of gas, then I say I'm all for it.

Furthermore, this deal strikes the most dramatic blow to ObamaCare yet, keeping a promise I made when I first came to Washington. With this agreement, we are cutting spending by more than $50 billion and using a portion of these savings to pay for the doc fix. What is the doc fix? The doc fix ensures that millions of Medicare patients, our seniors, will receive that medical care. It will prevent the 27.4 percent cut to physicians for Medicare services.

We must now return our focus to the most pressing issue facing our Nation, which is job creation and fixing this economy.

Madam Speaker, the President has submitted another bloated budget that ignores the economic crisis we are all living through under the Obama economy. It's time to roll up our sleeves and get to work on removing these barriers to prosperity and focus on the one thing that matters most--job creation and continuing to provide certainty to millions of Americans who are looking to us to make concise decisions about their future and the future of their children.

I thank my freshman colleague from New York for yielding.

I've been watching this discussion, this debate going on, and I am once again amazed by the issue.

I am in favor of this motion to instruct. In fact, I am so much in favor of it that I wish we weren't here talking about it right now. I wish we had finished the people's work in 2011. As my colleague has pointed out, we were here. This idea that somehow we don't work up until the minute, Mr. Speaker, this is ridiculous. This is absolutely ridiculous. This is nothing more than a dog and pony show.

As a conferee, I am anxious to begin the House and Senate-level meetings and to learn about what policy pathway will get us to the yearlong extension we are all seeking, what we voted for, what we passed in the House of Representatives--bipartisan effort, mind you. I am waiting to see what the Senate has to say about this on this 1,000th day of their not even passing a budget. The Senate's willingness to produce a plan is critical to giving employers, workers, and those seeking to reenter the workforce certainty they need.

Again, I am ready to work on this issue. My colleagues are ready to work on this issue. We were ready to fix this problem in 2011, where it should have been left, so that into 2012 we could provide certainty for the American people.

I support this effort, and let's get to work.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Time Warner Cable for its investment in local television news coverage in North Carolina and its recent expansion into Washington, D.C.

By opening a news bureau in our nation's capital, the people of North Carolina will have another outlet to learn about the important work being done on their behalf and other updates that are important to the communities throughout the region.

Mr. Speaker, TWC is dedicating significant resources to high quality local news channels that provide critical local news, weather, traffic and sports coverage in the communities that they serve.

In my district, the Raleigh research triangle area is home to some of the leading innovators in technology and healthcare. The legislation that we pursue and enact in Washington has an enormous impact on these businesses and research facilities. With Time Warner Cable's commitment to reporting both at the local and national level, they are giving our residents an important resource to stay informed and involved.

I applaud Time Warner Cable for recognizing the importance of local news, for investing in it and creating jobs while providing this critical service to their customers and the constituents I serve.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on the topic of this Special Order.

Mr. Speaker, I am here tonight with my colleagues to discuss the importance of small business in America.

Small businesses are our job creators in America, and we here in Congress must do everything that we can to help them to be doing exactly that in creating jobs in our country.

We're here to talk about these issues. We're here to talk about the burdens that are on small business that remain intact that we can help with. We must do everything we can because right now our small business hands are tied. They are telling us over and over again that regulations and the threat of taxation uncertainty continue to hold them back from creating jobs, innovating, and investing in their own companies.

With that, I yield to my colleague from Washington.

I will just echo my colleague's remarks by saying that, according to the NFIB, compliance with environmental regulations costs small businesses four times more than larger firms. Larger firms do have the ability and employees in place to deal with these issues. Our small businesses simply cannot afford to do business that way.

With that, I yield to my colleague from California.

I thank my colleague from California. Your perspective alone, as a small business owner and as a farmer, really gives us that strong idea of what we're really facing.

Many of us here in Washington now are and have been small business owners, and we understand the burdens that we are having to undertake and that the rest of America is dealing

with. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I'm going to just talk a little bit about some statistics and poll data.

According to a recent Gallup Poll, small business owners in the United States say complying with government regulations is the most important problem facing them today, followed by consumer confidence in the economy and a lack of consumer demand. Small business firms bear a regulatory cost of $10,585 per employee just to deal with the regulations, which is 36 percent higher, there again, than larger businesses. Small business is what drives our economy, yet it is what is continuously targeted, and we must act on it with the bill that we will pass tomorrow, H.R. 527.

I spoke a little bit about the excessive costs of dealing with environmental regulations. According to the Small Business Administration, regulations cost the American economy $1.7 trillion annually, which is an enormous cost. You can see by our unemployment rate why we continue in this. Until we are able to cut the excessive, overbearing regulations that are facing our businesses, we will not turn this economy around. That is why we must act now. That is why, of the many bills we have passed over to the Senate, we repeatedly ask for a vote so that we can get started. We could do this tomorrow if these bills were voted on.

One last bit of information before I introduce my next colleague.

Of the administration's new regulations--``new'' regulations--200 are expected to cost over $100 million each. Seven of those new regulations will cost the economy more than $1 billion each. We cannot continue on this path.

With that, I yield to my colleague from Illinois.

I thank my colleague from Illinois for that very important information.

Again, as a small business owner, this information is vital to the solutions that we're coming up with here in Washington. We're not just Members of Congress who don't have the experience out there, and we aren't just listening to the usual Washington bureaucrats.

We are actually small business owners who deal with these real-life experiences and understand what works and what doesn't, and this simply is not working.

Mr. Speaker, in my district, where the unemployment rate hovers at about 10.3 percent, I am hearing numerous stories highlighting how small businesses are ``hanging on by a thread,'' and I say that in quotes. ``Hanging on by a thread'' is what I hear. ``Over-regulation is killing us,'' is another quote I hear over and over and over again.

They feel that they are being punished by Washington. They, years ago, felt that their competitors were the ones that they were working against and trying to compete with for a better product. Now they feel that they are working against the Federal Government and the Federal Government is working against them. The Federal Government has become their enemy.

One of the local small businesses in my district is Kivett's Incorporated in Clinton, North Carolina, owned and operated by Mr. Jerol and Telia Kivett. They are wonderful people, and I met them when I was actually running for

office. Why? Because I needed to go in. They called for a meeting with me because they were so concerned with where our country was going and what was happening to their business.

They were not people who had been politically active, they were not people who had ever sat down with a Member of Congress or a want-to-be Member of Congress, but they felt trapped and continue to feel trapped by the government regulations and all of the uncertainty, including the President's health care bill, which they know will harm them greatly.

Kivett's Incorporated, is the largest family-owned and operated church pew manufacturer and pew refinisher in the United States. In addition, they build and refurbish other church furniture and fixtures, such as steeples and stained glass windows and provide a full range of services from delivery to installation.

This is a jewel in my district. So many are sending these jobs over to China, and yet the Kivetts have maintained their business. Their business was started by Jerol's father, I believe, back in the fifties. They have spent their lives and dedicated their lives to their business, and they are feeling that it is being pulled out from underneath them.

Mr. Kivett's company had 160 employees in 2005, and they are now down to 52--from 160 to 52. Their volume of business is down 60 percent. Their business has not made a profit in the last 3 years. That is significant. They have not increased the prices on their products either since 2005.

This has been due to the fear of losing more business, even though their costs, their costs for products, have escalated; but they have tried to maintain their business by keeping their prices at the same level. At one point they were averaging one church, church furniture for one church every day, and are now down to approximately two per week.

Mr. Speaker, how are they going to be able to keep their doors open and keep those 52 remaining employees working? Churches depend on charitable giving, and they are having a hard time finding a way to meet their operating budget, which leaves any kind of future planning completely out of the realm of possibility.

I spoke a moment ago about the health care law, the uncertainty it's creating for small businesses. Owners make it harder for us to determine--and this is coming straight from Mr. Kivett--it is making it harder for us to determine what our costs are at a time when we are struggling to meet the most basic cost of running our business.

As Mr. Kivett puts it, we are just trying to maintain and praying for the government to stop attempting to regulate small businesses and ``get out of the way.'' That is another quote I hear over and over and over again: ``Get out of the way.''

That's some of the gloom and doom that my business owners in my district are faced with. As you heard tonight from some of my colleagues, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Mr. Schilling from Illinois showed you the card, the number of bills, again, that we have passed in the House with bipartisan support to create jobs.

We keep hearing how America wants jobs. We keep hearing about the 99. The 99 percent is sitting on the floor of the majority leader in the Senate, because if those bills were passed and sent to the President to be signed into law, we could have jobs created in this country. We need to decrease the unemployment rate.

We can talk about cutting spending all day long, and we are all about that, but until we get people back to work, we're not going to turn this economy around. Again, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and you have heard us speak tonight about H.R. 527, which we will be voting on tomorrow.

We simply cannot continue the one-size-fits-all regulations produced by this administration which hinder our small businesses. This bill will help alleviate needless burdens. Economic recovery begins with our small businesses, but this will not happen unless we rein in the mass of regulations coming from right here in Washington.

The Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980, as amended by the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act, requires Federal agencies to assess the economic impact of their regulations on small business. Imagine that, imagine having to run an economic impact study to find out how much damage they will be doing to small businesses if these regulations are put in place.

If the impact is significant, they must consider alternatives that are less burdensome. However, the agencies have used loopholes to get around this statute, and that is why it is so important that we pass H.R. 527, the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act of 2011, which would remove the loopholes and strengthen the flexibility act by increasing the power of the office of the chief counsel for advocacy to enforce the RFA, ensuring complete analysis of potential impacts on small business and forcing agencies to perform better periodic review of rules.

Regulations often impose unnecessary burdens on small business. You've heard that over and over and over again tonight, that impede their ability to create jobs. Agencies frequently fail to consider appropriate alternatives that allow agencies to achieve their regulatory objectives without imposing burdens on America's job creators, our small business owners.

The Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act, H.R. 527, provides urgently needed help to small businesses facing an onslaught of Federal regulations. It has been 15 years since Congress last updated the Regulatory Flexibility Act of 1980. During that time, we have seen that there are weaknesses in the regulatory process that Federal agencies have exploited to the detriment of small businesses and job creators.

This bill ensures Federal agencies can no longer ignore the RFA. Job creators are the key to economic recovery and the small businesses are America's job creators. Over-regulation requires the diversion of scarce capital from job creation to regulatory compliance.

I said earlier, Mr. Speaker, North Carolina's unemployment rate is now 10.4 percent. This is not a statistic; this is a catastrophe.

Mr. Speaker, thank you so much for this opportunity tonight.

I yield to my colleague from Iowa.

I thank the gentleman from Iowa.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to take the opportunity to say in closing that, as a small business owner with my husband back in Dunn, North Carolina, with our surgical practice, that we have faced exactly what my colleague is talking about, these excessive regulations that have continued through the years.

We are at a point now where we are seeing our fellow colleagues back home with medical practices closing their doors, being bought out by hospitals because they just cannot and know they will not be able to adhere to the mandates coming forward with the health care bill and all of the uncertainty with the doc fix, SGR, all of those wonderful things.

Mr. Speaker, we must act now. We can turn this economy around by acting on these regulations, by passing these regulatory decreases for our businesses so that, there again, our job creators can do what they do best, reinvesting in this country and being the job creators that they are.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Congresswoman Buerkle, for holding this Special Order tonight, along with my colleagues on the Doctors Caucus. And thank you, Mr. Speaker, for being here. We are all here because we are health professionals. We know the real world of health care, and we know the real world solutions. It's the reason I'm here in Washington now, that and the fact that I'm concerned about where the future of the country is going for our children.

Many times in our health care practice as a nurse and in my husband's surgery practice as small business owners, over time we have always looked at these issues, whether we're talking about Medicare, whether we're talking about the possibility of having real, good, concrete tort reform, all of these different issues that we've said if we could put these in place, health care could have a much more solid foundation moving forward.

We already know that we have the best health care in the world. But being in the industry, having that small business and understanding where Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements--which were down--were going, you have to ask yourself, how can this continue? How can we provide health care into the future? Well, of course we know that the health care bill was passed in the 111th Congress, and now we are seeing the effects of it. One of the effects, as you've pointed out, are to our hospitals. You know, it's important that we are able to articulate this to the American people, connecting the dots.

When we talk about the importance of why ObamaCare is devastating to physicians, it's because it affects their ability to be reimbursed for their services. When Medicare will be cut--as we know in ObamaCare, it was cut by $500 billion. Today our seniors are saying to us, we're worried that you're going to cut our benefits. Well, their benefits will not be cut by any of us in Washington. However, because the dollars have been taken out in a significant amount, Medicare will have to say, I don't know what we'll cover. What are we going to cover?

And as we know, again, in the President's health care bill, the 15- person panel has been put in place. This 15-person panel will decide what Medicare will and will not pay for. That will be direct payments to hospitals, not just physicians but hospitals, based on the services that they're providing. And if they decide that a service cannot be paid for, there are penalties that can be assessed.

There are solutions to this issue, and I pointed out one would be significant tort reform. Not only for our physicians, but again for hospitals. Why is that important? Sometimes I'm afraid we don't explain well enough to the American people why something like malpractice reform would help the situation.

Well, we know that in our Nation's hospitals if you go into the emergency room, you're going to receive care whether you can pay for it out of pocket or not, whether you have an insurance card or not, whether you're on Medicare or Medicaid, it doesn't matter. You're going to receive the care. The problem is someone does have to pay for those services because services are rendered. You go into the emergency room, and many tests are ordered. Physicians order more tests out of pure fear for missing something. You can't go into an emergency room and get the good care that you need to get if you cannot identify the problem. So as we know, physicians and hospitals, physicians and doctor's offices, tend to cover all their bases rather than simply relying on the medical education that they have received, the ability to diagnose with just that--with the ability of their practice.

So here we are. We talk about health care costs every day, and the escalating cost of them. A good contributor to that is another piece of the President's health care bill which basically puts a tax on all medical devices. Well, think about the cost for any hospital, any provider. What do we do in hospitals? We do surgery. We provide health care. These are medical devices. These are instruments that have made our lives better and help us live longer, but yet now they will be taxed. This is a tax that will have to be assessed. Someone will have to pay for it. If the effort is truly to decrease the cost of health care, how can we continue by increasing the cost? It doesn't make sense. It doesn't add up.

So again, the importance is for us to connect the dots for the American people; to show that if we are able to pull back on ObamaCare, that we are able to remove it, repeal it, as we have already voted here in the House, then we can make the significant changes.

There is one more point that I would like to touch on, and it has to do with the ability to pay for services. There was a consulting firm, Mercer Consulting Company, and they did a study that shows that 9 percent of employers with 500 or more workers say they are likely to cancel health benefits in 2014 after State-run health insurance exchanges begin offering coverage under the health care law. There again, once again, it will become the government paying for it, which is paid for by the American taxpayers' dollars. We simply cannot continue on this path with health care or any other issue. It has to come with free-market solutions, and we have those solutions and we are ready to put those in place.

I just, again, want to reassure our seniors who are receiving Medicare now or in the near future that we are doing everything we can to rescue Medicare from the President's health care bill and put those necessary pieces in place so that we can continue those services into the future that they have paid for their entire lives.

I again thank my colleague from New York for holding this Special Order.

I rise today in favor of H.R. 822. The right to bear arms is a staple of our Constitution as a basic American right, and we should continue to protect it while making sure our laws remain efficient.

I am one of 268,000 permit holders in North Carolina. This is not only a rights issue; more importantly, it is a safety issue. As millions of American families know, there is no greater threat to our families than the ability to protect. We must protect our families, and it cannot stop at States' borders.

H.R. 822 also does not impact State laws governing how concealed firearms are possessed or carried. Again, it does not jeopardize the States' rights.

I call on my colleagues to support this important piece of legislation.

I thank my good friend from Ohio. Thank you for holding this Special Order. The American people are ready for solutions, as you know. We are working so hard here in the House on coming up with those solutions. We will be voting on a balanced budget amendment--and I'm very excited about that--as has been required by the Budget Control Act that we passed in August.

I'm here now as one of those new freshmen. And it is amazing to me and, of course, we all know that for over 200 years we've functioned without the Federal Government having to be held to--

Absolutely. All of our homes, we all live by budgets. The American people have had to redo their budgets over and over and over again. Why? Because of the economy that we're in today, because of the cost. And yet the Federal Government does not do this. Now we are up to what, 930 days that the Senate has not passed a budget? We passed our budget. We passed a budget in the House. The President had a budget. But his budget called for over $1 trillion more of spending that we were not taking in.

It didn't balance, and it didn't pass in the Senate. Ours did not come up for a vote. So Washington continues to function without a budget. And yet, again, our households function with a budget. Mothers and fathers are up at 3 o'clock in the morning worrying about how they're going to pay the bills this month, and yet the Federal Government just says, it doesn't matter. We can just continue to spend money. As long as we don't have a budget, we can spend as much we want.

That is the problem. And the American people are tired of this. They are tired of us just with our open checkbook writing, having to raise the debt ceiling to take care of the bills that have already been submitted and the interest that we have to pay.

The balanced budget amendment that we're talking about passing passed the House in 1995, went on to the Senate, missed passing by one vote. Where would we be today in our economy if that had passed back then? The Federal Government would have been held to a vote, they would have been held to a budget, and we wouldn't be deciding these things. We wouldn't be having to pass continuing resolutions that the American people look to us in Washington and say, where is the leadership? How can it possibly be that that's the way they're functioning? And yet this is what we have to do to keep Washington running because Washington does have a purpose. We have to provide for the national defense, we have to take care of our seniors, and we have to take care of those individuals who cannot take care of themselves. And yet, without a budget, we have no way of deciding how much that will be. And so we continue on.

This version makes it harder to raise taxes. This version is substantial. The balanced budget amendment says that in order to raise the debt ceiling, the future Congress will have to have a three-fifths majority to vote in each Chamber in order to raise the debt ceiling. That will become even more difficult.

This is what the American people are calling for us to do. They're crying out for leadership. If we pass this balanced budget amendment in the House and it goes on to the Senate and passes there as well, then it will move on to the States for ratification. This will be historic. We will now be saying to the Federal Government, you must adhere to a budget. It's as simple as that. The most basic function of any household and of any business is to have a working budget in place, and yet the Federal Government, in its arrogance, says, no, we do not. Therefore, we are stuck in this situation that we, as you know, are dealing with every day, trying to figure out how we're going to pay for the things that we have that the American people need.

Under President Obama, the national debt has increased 34 percent. Clearly, it is time to stop. Clearly, the American people are saying to us, come up with a solution. We're dealing every day here in Washington with trying to make it through, trying to build a foundation for the future. This balanced budget amendment will be a tool that we can use so that our children and our grandchildren will know prosperity, and we will ensure it. It's time to get it done.

Thank you so much for letting me speak on this issue.

Thank you so much, and thank you for leading this Special Order tonight. It's so important.

You've heard from my fellow women colleagues the discussion we're having about our families, our seniors, Medicare, Social Security, and the importance of operating under a budget. We continue to grapple with these issues because here in the House of Representatives we've passed numerous bills, we've passed the repeal of the President's health care bill, and yet only to go on to the Senate and not be taken up for a vote.

You heard my fellow women colleagues discuss how we've passed 15 bills on to the Senate, including the repeal, with no action whatsoever. The American people are calling for jobs, the American people are calling for a change in our economy, and those bills will take care of that issue. Those bills will set us on a path towards recovery, and yet we continuously play politics on the Senate side. We don't bring these things for a vote.

We're here tonight talking about all these issues that affect our families, again, our seniors. Our seniors are so concerned about what's going to happen in the future. Our seniors have paid into a system their entire life, into Social Security and Medicare. They deserve those benefits back.

As a nurse, taking care of seniors was part of my core health care life, taking care of seniors and ensuring that they're going to receive good care throughout the remainder of their life. And they've paid into that benefit willingly. They paid into that benefit and deserve to get it back. They don't look at Medicare and Social Security as budgetary issues. They look at these as benefits that they deserve, and it is incumbent upon us to make sure that they receive them.

You've heard my fellow women colleagues reiterate over and over again that if you are 55 and older, through our House-passed budget they will not be affected. Anyone 55 and older, no benefit is changed whatsoever, and yet in the Senate that budget is not taken up for a vote.

The American people are looking for answers. The American people know the issue. They understand, because we have made the point over and over and over again, that Medicare, down the road, just a few years down the road, will be bankrupt because of the situation that we're in today.

Seniors are calling my office every day concerned that as Republicans we are going to ruin Medicare for them and that somehow they're going to lose that benefit. I can tell them honestly that is the last thing that any of us as Republicans want to do. In fact, the problem lies with the President's health care bill that was passed in the 111th Congress because, in that bill, a half trillion dollars was taken out of Medicare, and put into place was a 15-person panel, which you've also heard my fellow colleagues discuss, IPAB, Independent Payment Advisory Board. Fifteen individuals, 15 bureaucrats will be able to decide what Medicare will pay for and what they will not, essentially taking away the patient-doctor relationship.

My husband is a surgeon. I don't want my husband to have to sit down with his patients and discuss what they cannot do because Medicare will not pay for it. But that, unfortunately, is the future if we are not able to remove this, if we are not able to repeal, as we have already passed here in the House.

My fellow colleagues are working very hard--very hard--to rescue Medicare from the position that it's in right now because it is doomed to failure. But, unfortunately, this issue has been kicked down the road through previous administrations, through previous Congresses. But we can no longer allow this to go on. We have to address the issue now. And I believe that our seniors understand this. And I believe that if we can continue to give them this message that we are in no way wanting to harm the benefits that they're receiving now or the benefits that they will be receiving if you're 55 and older, we will be able to accomplish that.

But again, the calls that are coming into my office--that I am more than willing and my staff is more than willing to answer these issues-- need to be going on to the Senate. They need to be going to the Senate and asking why these issues are not being brought up. Why are we not voting on these bills? Why are we not passing a budget?

You've heard my colleagues say it's been over 900 days since the Senate has passed a budget. There is no household that can function without a budget, and there is absolutely no business that can function without a budget. Our seniors understand that, too, because they have lived very responsible lives and deserve all of the benefits that we should be providing for them.

So thank you again for holding this very important Special Order. And to those seniors out there, we are working very hard for you, and we will continue to do so.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize 25 years of service by Hospice of Harnett County (North Carolina). They offer the highest quality non-profit hospice services and support to Harnett County patients and family caregivers facing serious and life-limiting illness regardless of their income or ability to pay.

Hospice of Harnett County providers take the time to ask what's important to those they are caring for--and listen to what their patients and families say.

For 25 years, Hospice of Harnett County's skilled and compassionate hospice and palliative care professionals-including physicians, nurses, social workers, therapists, counselors, health aides, and clergy- provide comprehensive care focused on the wishes of each individual patient.

Through pain management and symptom control, caregiver training and assistance, and emotional and spiritual support, Hospice of Harnett County helps patients to live fully up until the final moments, surrounded and supported by the faces of loved ones, friends, and committed caregivers.

The provision of quality hospice and palliative care reaffirms our belief in the essential dignity of every person, regardless of age, health, or social status, and that every stage of human life deserves to be treated with the utmost respect and care.

Since 1986, more than 1,700 persons in Harnett County living with life-limiting illness, and their families, received care from Hospice of Harnett County.

Hospice of Harnett County encourages all people to learn more about options of care and to share their wishes with family, loved ones, and their healthcare professionals through community events, educational activities, and public awareness.

I would like to proclaim November 2011 the 25th Anniversary of Hospice of Harnett County by encouraging citizens to increase their understanding and awareness of care at the end of life and to celebrate Hospice of Harnett County's 25 years of service to the citizens of Harnett County.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today during National School Lunch Week to express my concern about the U.S. Department of Agriculture's proposed rule change to the National School Lunch Program. As a mother and a nurse and a representative of the medical community, families, and farmers in the second district of North Carolina, I fully support improving nutrition for our nation's school children, and I believe that we must do everything we can to protect against childhood obesity.

But in this time of economic uncertainty, we cannot overlook the unintended consequences of these new and conflicting standards. A recent Gallup poll found that 19 percent of American families are food insecure. According to a study by the USDA, nearly 17 million American children struggle with hunger. For many of these children, school is their most reliable source of a well balanced meal.

In my state more than half of the school food programs in the state are operating in the red, losing a total of $28 million in 2008. Their financial problems are mounting at a time when parents, child health advocates and legislators are looking to school food programs to improve students' nutrition at a sensible and affordable price. In 2006, the state legislature required schools to serve more fruits, vegetables and whole-grain food, and fewer dishes with lots of fat and sugar. However, it did not kick in extra money for the higher costs of the more nutritious foods. Collectively, school food programs in North Carolina spent $683 million during the last school year. Almost half, 47 percent, went to salaries and benefits. The rest went to food purchases (44 percent) and other expenses (9 percent).

According to USDA estimates, this new school meals rule will cost taxpayers $6.8 billion over the next ten years. How are we going to afford that?

At a time when so many are hungry and the National School Lunch Program is serving more children than ever, I have strong reservations with USDA's proposal to place serious limitations on school nutritionists' options

in building nutritious meal plans for the nation's school children and increase the price of school meals. In many cases, the proposal would eliminate foods that are both nutritious and popular with children. The school lunch program is intended to feed hungry kids, not pick ``good foods'' and ``bad foods''. The new guidelines would limit starchy vegetables--corn, peas and lima beans, in addition to potatoes--to two servings a week. That's about one cup. As a parent, I would like to see more of these vegetables consumed, not less. School nutritionists should be applauded for the work they do in constructing meals that kids love and give them the energy they need to succeed in the classroom.

This rule will cost taxpayers $6.8 billion over the next ten years. In this current fiscal crisis, our school children and taxpayers cannot afford to adapt to inconsistent, costly and unproven regulations. USDA should revisit its proposal and write a rule that does not put limitations on school nutritionists' choices in how to best feed hungry children or put further economic pressures on food companies that supply schools and the American taxpayer.

Mr. Speaker, today we have a wonderful group of women who are going to come together and discuss the issues at hand right now in Washington and across America as we all are so concerned with what is happening to our economy.

Some of you out there are up late at night wondering how you are going to be paying that mortgage, wondering how the car payment is going to be made and which payments you'll make this month and which payments you may have to put off for another time. We're all doing it. We might as well all admit it. And it's time to come together for solutions and answers.

We, as GOP women in Congress, know how important these issues are. We are the women that are taking care of our children. We're taking care of our households. We're taking care of our parents and their health care needs, and we're watching out for our neighbors to make sure that they're okay.

And we continue on this path. We simply cannot run on this path of unsustainable spending and financial uncertainty. We need jobs back in this country. There are those who have jobs and are worried if they're going to be able to keep them. And yet there are others who have lost their jobs and wonder if they'll be able to find another job. We understand this. We understand that it's affecting all of our households, and we're going to come together and discuss these very important issues.

Before we get started, I'm just going to pass along to you one of the greatest quotes that I think hits home to all of us from Ronald Reagan: ``All great change in America begins at the dinner table.'' How true is that.

Now, in many of our households, we don't all eat dinner together anymore like we used to. When I was growing up, dinnertime was a specified time and we all came together. And if you didn't get to the table, you didn't eat. Today we're all on different schedules, but that dinner table still remains. And we still sit there and we discuss these issues with our spouses.

My husband is a doctor. Brent is a surgeon. He practices in Dunn, North Carolina. We have a son, Ben, who's 16. I'm worried about his future. I'm worried about my husband's practice because he is suffering, realizing that the volume of patients he once was seeing has decreased. That's out of fear, and that's out of the health care system that we have created now.

So as we move forward, I am going to be introducing to you some of the greatest women that I have had the honor of getting to know here in D.C. I have many friends back home, but these ladies are my family here, and I'm going to start off with my esteemed colleague from North Carolina, Ms. Sue Myrick. She has been a mentor to me but mostly a friend.

I thank you, Sue, for coming today and sharing your thoughts.

Thank you so much.

I yield now to Ms. Herrera Beutler from Washington. Thank you so much for coming today. She is one of my fellow freshmen, and we have gotten to be good friends.

Thank you so much.

I yield now to my very good friend from Alabama (Mrs. Roby), who is the mother of two, and she is wise beyond her years.

I would now like to yield to my very, very special friend, Mrs. Biggert from Illinois, who has been a voice of reason. She is a strong woman here in Congress for us in the GOP conference, and I appreciate all of her remarks, which are always extremely thoughtful.

Thank you.

And to your point, I would just like to refer to this chart right here. As you can see, we have two individuals who are talking about how they're going to pay those taxes, and that checkbook right there, with obviously a nice lady's hand filling out that check. We don't know what it's for, but we all know that feeling. And this actually ran in The Chicago Tribune May 6, 2011. It says, ``Financial planners say they are seeing more women becoming the sole decisionmakers when it comes to the family's finances,'' as you were speaking. ``More and more women are taking on the role of their family's chief financial officer; they set the budget, pay the bills, make the grocery list, and can tell you how much it truly costs to run the family.'' And I believe that the American people, as you do, should be able to know how much it costs to run the country, and we should stick to that budget as well.

Thank you so much for your comments.

I would now like to yield to my good friend who, the last time we had a Special Order, I just literally watched her because she is a numbers person, and I am always so impressed by that because I am not a numbers person. So thank you to the gentlelady from Kansas. She is, again, just so incredibly smart, and I thank you, Lynn Jenkins, for coming today to help us with this effort.

Thank you very much.

I now yield to my good friend from South Dakota, part of our freshman leadership, part of our freshman class who has truly shown her leadership. Thank you for coming today, Mrs. Noem. I am very excited to hear your comments.

Thank you so much for your comments.

You know, it's interesting, we all have our stories, our anecdotes about our household budgets and what we're dealing with. My son is 16 years old, and he received his driver's license a couple of months ago. But the deal with him is, Ben, you can't get a car until you finish that Eagle Scout project. And you're going to have to be responsible to pay for the gas that goes in it. Well, there's not a day that goes by here in Washington that I don't receive a picture that he texted me of the newest truck he's found or the newest Jeep. But there again, he understands the deal. The deal is no vehicle until the Eagle Scout project is at least under way. I'm yielding on that. I'm negotiating with him, but that's the plan.

Sometimes, as you said, we just can't have everything that we want. In a perfect world we could, but we can't because when taxpayer dollars are being spent, it's not an endless flow of money coming into Washington that is from some unknown source. It's taxpayer dollars that we are spending. We have to be good stewards of that. And what better way to do that than the Cut, Cap, and Balance plan that we passed here in the House yesterday evening.

It was so incredibly powerful to see those numbers up on the board and to think that we could actually put a balanced budget amendment in place, which is basically amending the Constitution. This would be a historic moment for us, and we will be part of it. And President Obama would be the President that puts that forward for future generations. I just again am so proud of it. Like I said, when you bring it home, we all have to deal with those budgets in our own household. Washington should be doing the same.

I would like to yield now to our vice-chair, the gentlelady from Washington, another member of leadership and a voice of understanding, reason and leadership for the GOP women, vice-chair of our GOP Conference. Mrs. McMorris Rodgers, thank you so much for coming to offer your comments.

Thank you so much.

I would now like to yield to the gentlelady from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito).

Thank you so much.

I would like to now yield to one of my fellow freshman colleagues who I have gotten to be very good friends with. She is an incredible individual. She is a great person to be serving with. I truly appreciate all of her input, thoughtful comments. We discuss issues every day here in Congress.

I yield to my good friend, Sandy Adams, from Florida.

I thank the gentlelady.

I now yield to the gentlelady from Ohio.

Thank you so much.

I now yield to my other--I say ``other'' but we have many--good friend from Missouri (Mrs. Hartzler), who is one of those great freshmen that I'm serving with.

Thank you so much.

The gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Granger) will be finishing this evening's comments.

She is a good friend to all of us as freshmen, a mentor to us, and I thank you for coming this evening as well. It means very much that you contribute to this.

Thank you so much.

My good friend was pointing out the need to be following our finances as more and more women are becoming businessowners. They are the breadwinners, as you can see from this chart here, once again figuring out the bills, balancing the budget, taking care of our family members and their health care needs. It's so important.

In order for us to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars here in Washington, it's time for a balanced budget amendment. I am very proud of what our House did in a bipartisan effort yesterday, and I'm hoping that the Senate and the President will also be part of that very significant, historic move so that we can get this country back on sound financial ground.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge my dear friend Craig Olive. Since taking office in December, 2002, as Johnston County's Registrar of Deeds, Craig Olive has made tremendous strides in efficiency, innovative office automation, streamlining services, reducing costs to citizens and going the extra mile to serve the people of Johnston County.

Craig has been consistent in his efforts to reduce fees, maximize office efficiency, improve computerization and automation of services, and provide excellent customer service for Johnston's citizens. He implemented a recording software program, to streamline the process of recording documents at a cost savings of over $300,000 in a five year period. He has automated the marriage license process--allowing issuance of a license in 10 minutes. He has also automated the issuance of other vital records, i.e., birth and death certificates, reducing waiting time and increasing productivity. He has digitized all records dating back to the beginning of the county; mid-1700s. Craig was the first Registrar of Deeds in North Carolina to follow the North Carolina Secretary of State's standards and submit an ``eRecording.'' Craig's office was the first in the Nation to electronically record a survey map. Through the automation of his office, Craig has been able to increase the efficiency of his office, while at the same time saving valuable tax dollars.

In service to the county and State, Craig has spearheaded the effort to have legislation enacted that would conceal individuals' Social Security and driver's license numbers from appearing on the Internet, via public records.

Craig and his staff always go the extra mile while treating everyone with respect. In February 2010, NC Secretary of State awarded Craig with the Honorary Keeper of the Constitution for outstanding recordkeeping of public documents.

Craig has been consistent in carrying out policies and methods that have reduced fees and costs for citizens and professionals, improved productivity and efficiency through automation, and has consistently made sure that his office provides outstanding customer service. Mr. Olive, through his service, provides the blueprint of how a Registrar of Deeds office should be run in order to provide the highest levels of efficiency, productivity, innovation and service for the people of this county.

Mr. Chair, on rollcall No. 535, I inadvertently voted ``no'' when I intended to vote ``yes.''

Amendment Offered by Mr. Scalise

Mr. Speaker, the Obama administration has moved our country backwards in terms of energy production.

The de facto moratorium on offshore drilling is causing a significant decline in American energy production. When President Obama took office, these offshore areas were open to drilling and production. Since that time, President Obama has taken steps to effectively reimpose an offshore drilling ban.

Mr. Speaker, this is an issue of common sense. Failure to develop our offshore energy resources is increasing our dependence on foreign sources of oil and denying much-needed revenue to help pay down the national debt. But, most importantly, it is costing us American jobs.

We have an abundant supply of natural resources off of our shores. Common sense dictates the use of our own resources to meet our energy needs.

I cosponsored and voted in favor of H.R. 1231, Reversing President Obama's Offshore Moratorium Act. Not surprisingly, the Senate has failed to consider this bill.

We will continue to push for access to our energy resources.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Broughton High School Band of Raleigh, North Carolina and Band Director Mr. Jeffrey ``JR'' Richardson.

The Needham B. Broughton High School in Raleigh will be representing North Carolina and the Mid-Atlantic States for the 2012 Tournament of Roses Parade. In an almost unheard of occurrence, the Broughton Band has been invited back after their successful 2008 Parade showing. Being invited back after only 4 years is a great accomplishment considering that most bands, if ever asked back, are usually asked back many years later. The Broughton Band was one of three bands that made it through the entire 6 mile parade in 2008 without one student having to leave the parade route early; the only other two bands were the Marine Band and the Virginia Military Institute Band. The students of the Broughton High School Band have not only worked very hard to be invited back to the Tournament of Roses Parade, but they have also raised the money to pay their own way to California.

I am very pleased to recognize the Broughton High School Band of Raleigh, North Carolina for this prestigious invite. I wish them the best as they continue their preparation for this exciting event. An event of this magnitude is certainly something in which the school, the students, and the state of North Carolina can have great pride.