Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, we are in the closing hours of the first year of the 113th Congress, and the pundits who examine Congresses past and present have concluded that this is the most unaccomplished Congress in the history of the country.

We have passed a total of 56 bills here in this Congress. The fact is, we have taken 239 days off, and we have worked 133 days. And let's be honest with ourselves here: those 133 days often included a Monday or a Tuesday where we came in at 6:30 in the evening and took a handful of votes on some noncontroversial issues. Where most of us come from, that is not a day's work.

And by the same token, more often than not, we left on a Thursday or a Friday, somewhere after taking a few votes that morning, and then heading back to wherever we were headed.

Back in 1948, Harry Truman got elected President of the United States by campaigning against the do-nothing 80th Congress in 1948. Well, guess what, that Congress passed over 900 bills. And we are looking at 56 here at the halfway mark?

I cannot begin to imagine how history is going to evaluate this Congress. The Wall Street Journal said:

This Congress is long on partisanship, indecision, and

brinksmanship.

Others have constantly referred to the fact that most of what is done here and considered here in the past year has been political posturing in preparation for the next election.

To be fair, we have accomplished some things here: the middle-class tax cut, Hurricane Sandy relief, the Violence Against Women Act. We passed a couple of appropriations bills, and we may be on the brink here of actually passing a budget bill, which would be most important and quite an accomplishment. Not to mention, we formally recognized Soap Box Derby Day, and we have made it possible for hunters to buy their duck stamps online.

Mr. Speaker, the fact is that we are not getting the job done. And the fact also remains that, in this country, the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and the middle class in this country is getting crushed. We are looking at large deficits and broken priorities and a broken government, and we are not addressing those issues of our time.

I did a little research. I have the unique perspective of having served some 32 years ago, and at that time we had between 7,000 and 8,000 subcommittee, full committee, conference committee hearings, markups, and meetings. This Congress, by contrast, has had 500, and most of those were procedural and Rules Committee meetings.

The Speaker himself said that we need to return to regular order in this country if we are going to get things done. ``Regular order,'' for those who don't know, means going to work 5 days a week, like everybody else in America. It means working full days. It

means fully engaging the subcommittees and full committees and all the Members of the Congress, because when we do that, that is when we get things done. When we sit down and we have open, bipartisan discussions, everybody gets their amendment, everybody gets an opportunity to exhaust all the arguments, everybody gets a vote. That is how people come together. That is how you get things done. That is how you fix things, and that is the way the Congress operated for several hundred years. That is not the way it is operating today.

Mr. Speaker, my fellow colleagues, if we are going to get things done and reverse the terrible reputation of this Congress, I implore the Speaker and the leadership and all of the Members to demand that, starting in January of next year, we restore regular order, we go to work 5 days a week, and we employ the subcommittee and the full committee process that has worked so well for so many hundreds of years in this country, because that is how we get things done. That is how we fix things here in this country. That is how we get our economy back on a pro-growth trajectory, and that is how we restore the people's confidence in what is now a broken government and a broken Congress.

Mr. Speaker, as we approach the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, I rise to pay tribute to one of the true American heroes of that day, and of the long World War that followed--former Boatswain's Mate First Class Arleigh Birk, United States Navy.

Today, as Arleigh approaches his 94th birthday, he and Marion, his lovely wife of 67 years, still live in their family home in the northern Minnesota community of Hoyt Lakes, where they retired after Arleigh's 25 years of employment at Erie Mining Company from 1957 to 1982.

Seventy-two years ago, on Sunday, December 7, 1942, Arleigh was 4,028 miles west of Hoyt Lakes, stationed on the USS Honolulu, watching as Japanese warplanes filled the skies and the USS Arizona exploded in fire. The Honolulu itself sustained damage in the attack, and Arleigh was transferred to the USS Denver where he remained in the Pacific Theatre until the war's end.

During those years in the Pacific, Arleigh and his mates on the USS Denver were part of the force that engaged and sank the Japanese destroyers Minegumo and Murasame in the 1943 Battle of Blackett Strait.

In October 1943, they earned the Navy Unit Commendation for outstanding performance in the battle of Empress Augusta Bay for helping sink one enemy light cruiser and a destroyer, and heavily damaging two heavy cruisers and two destroyers.

On July 4, 1944, Arleigh and the crew of the USS Denver bombarded Iwo Jima, fought numerous battles throughout the Pacific, and fought off a Kamikaze attack on November 27th during action in the Leyte Gulf.

In September 1945, Arleigh and the Denver sailed from Okinawa to cover the evacuation of Allied forces imprisoned in the Wakayama area before heading home to Norfolk, Virginia, where they arrived on November 21st.

Arleigh was honorably discharged from the Navy on January 12, 1946-- and honorably married to Marion a little over a year later.

On behalf of a grateful Congress and a grateful nation, we honor and thank Arleigh Birk for his service in the preservation of American freedom.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague from Arizona, Congressman Grijalva, for his leadership on this committee and his management of this bill here, in particular.

And thanks to all those who have worked together in a bipartisan manner to bring this important legislation to the floor of the House here today. In particular, I want to thank Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings; former ranking member and now United States Senator Ed Markey; current Ranking Member Peter DeFazio; as well as my old friend Chairman Don Young, the chairman of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Alaska Native Affairs; Ranking Member Colleen Hanabusa; and, of course, a thank you to Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, who shepherded the companion bill in the Senate.

I also want to thank Karen Diver, the chairwoman of the Fond Du Lac Band, her colleagues on the Reservation Business Committee, as well as their natural resources management team of Reggie DeFoe, Steve Olson, and Jack Bassett. And, finally, a thank you to Gregory Bernu, the Carlton County land commissioner, and the entire Carlton County Board of Commissioners and their staff for their diligence and good faith in negotiating the agreement we are prepared to ratify today. And, of course, last, but not least, I thank my legislative staff assistant Will Mitchell.

Mr. Speaker, this bill, H.R. 2650, provides the legally required approval by the Congress for an exchange of land between the Fond Du Lac Band and Carlton County in the Eighth Congressional District of Minnesota.

By way of a brief background, Federal land allotment policies in the early 20th century played havoc with an 1854 treaty that set aside 101,000 acres of reservation land exclusively for the Fond Du Lac Band.

I would like to point out to my colleagues that as they enter the Chamber over here from the west front, there is a bust of Chief Buffalo, the great Chippewa chief from the Minnesota Territory who negotiated this treaty in 1854. He and fellow Band members got in a canoe; and they canoed, starting in Lake Superior, all the way through the Great Lakes out to New York City, and then took a train from there down to Washington to negotiate this treaty. And then, of course, they took the train back to New York and canoed all the way back through the St. Lawrence Seaway, the Great Lakes, and then back to the Chippewa Nation in the Minnesota Territory.

As I enter this Chamber myself each day, I am reminded sometimes of the long, hard travel that is required to do the right thing representing our people, as I know all the Members of this Congress are committed to doing. So each day when I enter this Chamber, I say ``hi'' to Buffalo, and I recommend that each of my colleagues do the same.

And I am not sure, but when I walked by Chief Buffalo today, I thought I saw a pleasant look of approval, if not a little nod, that the Congress was going to work here today to take care of this legislation, because, unfortunately, after that treaty was negotiated, homesteaders and others were wrongly permitted to settle on this tribal land, much of which was later forfeited to the county for nonpayment of taxes. The result today is a checkerboard of ownership that significantly limits both the Fond Du Lac Band and the county's ability to effectively use these lands that they control.

Under this agreement, which meets all requirements of Minnesota law, the Fond Du Lac Band will transfer 1,451 acres of land they own outside the Fond du Lac reservation to Carlton County. In return, Carlton County will transfer approximately 3,200 acres of land of equal value, I must point out, that they now administer within the boundaries of the Fond du Lac reservation back to the Fond Du Lac Band.

It is a sensible agreement that provides space for the Band to construct much-needed housing for its 6,700 members, as well as provide more area for hunting, gathering, and native activities. Additionally, the agreement provides Carlton County with valuable new timber and forestry resources.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I would point out that H.R. 2650 is modeled on statutes that were passed in this body in 2000 and 2004, allowing the Lower Sioux Indian community in Minnesota and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux community in Minnesota to accomplish similar transactions. It is also my understanding that passage of this bill will greatly help facilitate possible similar transactions between the Fond Du Lac Band and Carlton County in the future.

Mr. Speaker, I respectfully ask my colleagues to approve this legislation; and, again, I thank all those who have worked to pass this legislation in a bipartisan effort.

Mr. Speaker, had I been present on rollcall vote No. 611 (on passage of H.R. 1900) I would have voted ``no.''

personal explanation

Madam Speaker and Members of the House, I rise in support of the motion to recommit.

I would like to also commend Chairman Shuster, Ranking Member Rahall and, in particular, my colleague Sean Patrick Maloney for bringing this important issue to the attention of the House and, Mr. Maloney, for your motion to instruct.

We clearly have 14,000 dams throughout the country that have been designated as high hazards. That is a well known fact. Another fact is that there are 20,000 dams that are over a half a century old. These facts underscore the neglect, as well as the profound need, to put forth better inspection plans and to invest more in the rebuilding of our dams and our infrastructure.

Quite frankly what the whole WRRDA bill is really all about is not just investing in our dams, but investing in our roads, our bridges, our ports, our rivers, our lakes, our health, our safety, our tourism, and our economy. In some respects, that is what has laid the foundation for the great economic success and prosperity that we enjoy here in this country. We have neglected it, and this is an important and profound motion to address the dam issue, if you will pardon the expression in that manner.

This whole bill is important for us to embrace. I commend the members of the committee for putting this together. I hope that we will all join and continue through this House in the way that we did in committee, in a bipartisan manner, to recognize the profound need that we have here and start reinvesting in America. It will create jobs. It will increase our prosperity. It will help reduce the deficit in our budgets. It will have so many profound and positive rippling effects throughout our country and throughout our economy.

It is with great pleasure that I have the opportunity to stand here and embrace this and urge my support for the motion to recommit, and perhaps even more importantly, the importance of passing the WRRDA legislation.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 581, I was inadvertantly detained and missed the vote. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, Members of the House, distinguished Member from Florida, I rise in support of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. I am a proud cosponsor of this legislation. It is a good example of bipartisanship and cooperation and common sense, as opposed to some of the politics that have dominated this Chamber.

As a member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources, I was pleased to have had a part in several bipartisan provisions beneficial to the economy, to the environment, and to conservation.

We are creating jobs and stimulating the business economy with this legislation. We are putting a stop to raids on the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. We are expanding the definition of invasive species, now limited to plant life, to include animal life species like zebra mussels and Asian carp, and we are closing the lock and dam at St. Anthony Falls to prevent the spread of Asian carp through the precious lakes and rivers of northern Minnesota.

Mr. Speaker, by passing this bill, the Congress demonstrates that we are still capable of achieving reasonable, bipartisan solutions that solve problems and get things done here in this country.

Mr. Speaker, the time is long overdue for us to put an end to this government shutdown and the tremendously harmful effects it has had on the people in our great Nation.

We need to get behind the Senate's reasonable, bipartisan plan that has been put together to open up our government, pay our bills, and put an end to this shutdown.

Failure, by the way, means that 5 million disabled veterans won't receive their benefits in November. Failure means that 10 million Americans won't receive their Social Security checks on October 23, and 26 million more people will not get their Social Security checks on November 1. Failure means $36,000 in additional interest on an average home loan and an additional $1,000 on an average student loan. Failure means hundreds of thousands of public employees won't get paid, with the businesses and the jobs and the people they serve being at enormous risk.

Mr. Speaker, the simple truth is that we need to end this government shutdown and stop the harm and damage it is causing.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to House Joint Resolution 59 to open the government and to go to conference on a budget so that we can end this Republican government shutdown so hurtful and harmful to the American people.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to House Joint Resolution 59, the clean CR, so that we can go to conference on a budget so we can end this Republican government shutdown.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the work that has been done here in this bill. I want to commend Chairman Lucas and Ranking Member Collin Peterson for the tireless work that you and your staffs and your subcommittee chairs put into writing this legislation. It is the product of many years and a wealth of experience that has brought consumers and producers together, that has brought urban and rural people together, and that has produced an abundant supply of food for people here in this country and all over the world.

American agriculture is just absolutely one of the wonders of the world. I believe that this motion helps to keep that great success and progress moving forward.

Last but not least, I want to say how refreshing it was to be part of that committee markup. As you know, I was on a 32-year hiatus--the longest in history.

I have been asked time and time again how things are different from the way they were then. Believe me, there are a lot of differences, big and small; but one of the most refreshing things was to be a part of that Ag Committee open, bipartisan, free-wheeling markup, where anybody and everybody got their moment, got an opportunity to offer their resolution, got an opportunity to have a vote on it.

I commend you, Mr. Chairman, for that kind of spirit. That is the kind of spirit that has moved this country and accounted for so much of our great success over the years.

I urge adoption of this motion.

Madam Speaker, listening to the debate here this afternoon, I am reminded of a statement from an old University of Minnesota law professor who once said that ``all political decisions revolve around who you're for.'' And I've heard both sides of this issue castigating one side or the other; but it becomes rather clear, as you listen to this debate, that the supporters of this resolution are in support of those multinational corporations and foreign corporations and foreign governments that stand to benefit from a change in our U.S. sugar policy.

On the other side, the side that I choose to stand with, we have the producers such as the cane growers, the beet growers who put their crops in the field at risk every year, the men and women who work in the fields, who work in the plants processing sugar, and the consumers who benefit from a stable supply of reasonably priced sugar to satisfy our food needs here in this country.

Madam Speaker, I strongly urge that we defeat this resolution and stick with the sugar program that has worked so well in this country for so long. In Minnesota alone, we have 32,500 people working in that industry. There are 142,000 people working throughout the country in this industry.

Madam Speaker, this was a jobs bill. This was an American manufacturing and production bill. Let's defeat this resolution. Let's support the farmers. Let's support the workers. Let's support the consumers. Let's defeat this amendment.

Mr. Speaker and Members of the House, I am proud to say that Rod was a constituent of mine in the last years of his life, running a small town radio station at which he did just a wonderfully good job.

He was always so thoughtful and so dedicated to public service and so highly regarded by all who knew him. He was a wonderful public servant. He contributed much to the well-being of Minnesota and to this Nation and to the civility of this Chamber, itself. His contributions are enormous, and his presence will be forever apparent here, and we will miss him greatly.

We extend our deepest, heartfelt sympathies to the family and to all of those who had the good fortune to know and work with Rod Grams.

Mr. Speaker, the simple truth is--and everyone in this free world for that matter knows it--these amendments are intended for the soul purpose of shutting down the government. They're not going anywhere. Everybody knows it.

To deny this House of Representatives an opportunity for an up-or- down

vote is an affront to the American people, it's an affront to this institution, it's an affront to this democracy and every Member of this House.

Mr. Speaker, Members of Congress, reject this rule so we can have a vote on a clean resolution and fund our government going forward.

Mr. Speaker, it is time to put an end to the political stagecraft and the gridlock that's come to characterize this Chamber. It is time for a little common sense, some collaboration, and some compromise.

Two hundred and thirty-eight years ago, the Founders of our great Nation risked their lives to establish this government. Imagine their reaction today as this body contemplates actions that would shut it down.

I'm a business guy of 32 years. I've tried a lot of ways to fix problems over the years, but shutting down the store has never been one of them.

Mr. Speaker, this is not a game. This is real life to the kids on Head Start, to the National Guard and the men and women in our Armed Forces being furloughed, to the seniors, to the students, the families struggling to get by, and to the millions of hardworking public servants who go to work every day on our behalf.

Mr. Speaker, we need to put an end to this folly, pass a clean continuing resolution funding our government, and then get to work balancing our budget, ending the sequester, rebuilding America, rebuilding the middle class, and putting America back to work.