Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with the very sad duty of reporting the tragic loss of U.S. Marine Corps Corporal Philip Charte. He had just turned 22 years old. Charte was killed in action in Afghanistan on Monday, September 6, 2010.

Corporal Charte, a rifleman, joined the Marines in June 2007, the same day he graduated high school. Last year he served in Iraq; and after being promoted to Corporal little more than a few months ago, he was deployed once again, this time to Afghanistan.

Corporal Charte was willing to give his life in service to all of us and to the country he loved. Our gratitude cannot simply be expressed nor our sorrow properly conveyed.

Charte will be remembered as many things: a prankster, a dedicated athlete, a competitor and a teammate. But above all else, he was a soldier, serving his country and community with honor.

While Philip lived in New Hampshire, he grew up and his family still lives in Washington County in New York. My heart goes out to Philip's father, also named Philip, and his sister, Alicia.

His father perhaps said it best: ``Philip served his country with courage, honor and distinction. He was a great son, brother, nephew, uncle and friend. He will be missed sorely.''

On behalf of a grateful Nation, our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Charte family during this incredibly difficult time.

Madam Speaker, the following is an exchange of e-mails between Derek Farley and his mother, Carrie.

Communication between Carrie Farley and Derek Farley before he left for Afghanistan September 11, 2009:

It was nice hearing your voice and thank you for the call.

I'm proud of you Derek, you are right. For a young man

you've accomplished and experienced a lot within your years

of travel. You've met some really good friends, people you

will always be able to depend on and will have your back.

All these experiences have made you a wonderful young man

and I'm proud to be your mother.

I love you,

Mom.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with the very sad duty of reporting the tragic passing of Army Staff Sergeant Derek Farley. Farley was killed in action Tuesday, August 17, in Afghanistan while disarming a roadside bomb. Farley was a member of the 702nd Ordnance Maintenance Company. His job as a bomb disposal technician was to diffuse bombs and IEDs to keep other soldiers and civilians safe.

He graduated from Columbia High School in East Greenbush in 2004 and made up his mind to join the military at the age of 17, continuing his family's tradition of service to our Nation. His father served in the Vietnam era.

In a previous tour in Iraq, where he served from 2006 to 2007 with the 756th EOD Company, Farley received a Purple Heart after losing his hearing in one ear during a bomb detonation.

In a letter to his mother, Derek said the following: ``If something were to happen to me, just remember that I do the most dangerous job because it has the most rewarding payoff. . . . There would be no greater honor for me if it comes to it, but I keep fighting because there are thousands of mothers out there just like you who want to see their sons and daughters again.''

My heart goes out to Derek's parents, Ken and Carrie; his brother, Dylan; sisters, Colleen, Theresa and Julie; and his beloved Maria.

On behalf of a grateful Nation, our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Farley family during this difficult time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor and thank Father Doug Fisher from Millbrook, New York, for serving as the guest chaplain today for the House of Representatives.

For over 10 years, Father Doug has served as the rector of Grace Episcopal Church, which is located in the 20th District in Millbrook, New York. Previously, he served as the Episcopal Chaplain at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and he continues to correspond with many of the graduates who are serving their country throughout the world.

Father Doug has been a leader for our community in difficult times, serving on the board of directors of Rural and Migrant Ministry. Grace Church is known throughout Dutchess County for its many outreach programs, including its food pantries, service and support groups for the unemployed and underemployed, its AA groups, its nursery school. He has brought together people of diverse socioeconomic, cultural, racial, and religious backgrounds to promote dialogue, social justice, and hope.

On behalf of the 20th Congressional District and my colleagues in this House, I thank Father Doug for his work on behalf of our community and for his invocation here today.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today supporting House bill 5982, the Small Business Tax Relief Act of 2010. This bill is incredibly important for us to pass. As I travel around my district in upstate New York, I hear consistently, all the time from my small business owners that they need regulatory relief, and they need support if they're going to invest and expand our economic recovery that we have going on.

As somebody who has been a small business owner, who has started small businesses and has been building them up all of my life, I know what a burden regulatory hurdles can be for small businesses. This bill is going to repeal what could potentially be a huge hassle for a lot of small businesses. This 1099 reporting was a well-intentioned provision to try to catch people who were cheating on their taxes; but it has some unintended consequences, in my opinion, that will create a lot of extra work and hassle for our small businesses.

This is something I hear about every day when I travel my district. I am sure that our colleagues across the aisle hear this from their small business owners as well. And everyone in this body who knows what's going on with our economy will know how important it is to stimulate activity and to get people back to work. The best way we do that is to support our small businesses. They're the ones who create new jobs. Sixty to 80 percent of the

new jobs are created by small businesses--in particular, new small businesses. That's where the economic activity comes from in our country. That's who we have got to be supporting. This bill does a great job of doing that.

I know that many of my colleagues on the other side know that this hurdle that we have out there, with this 1099 reporting, needs to be repealed. They've been talking about it. We've been talking about it. There's bipartisan consensus there, but this bill does something else that's very valuable for the American public as well. It closes some foreign tax loopholes. Some of these are very egregious. Companies are getting the United States Government to refund foreign tax credits they're paying on income that they had never reported in the United States. This is something that should be fixed. We need to make sure our corporations have incentives to invest here, not incentives to invest overseas based on complex tax schemes that keep them from paying taxes.

I want to be building stuff in America. I want to be making stuff in America. I want our tax policy to encourage corporations to make stuff here in America. That's what I hear from big companies. They want to build it here, but our tax rules make it so that it's better for them to build it somewhere else. This is how we solve that. This will bring American jobs back here. It will bring American investment back from American corporations, and it will help our small businesses get some regulatory relief. This is a win on both sides. This is a bipartisan kind of solution because we're helping our small businesses by getting government out of the way. We're fixing our Tax Code to make it so that American companies will have incentives to invest here in America, not in China and not anyplace else around the world.

This is the kind of policy that will help get our economy moving. This will put Americans back to work. This will help our middle class folks who are struggling all over this country, looking for good jobs. This is the way that we do that. I think this is a great piece of legislation. I expect we'll have good bipartisan support for it.

Madam Speaker, this bill is very simple. It does two things. There has been a lot of talk here to confuse people, but it's very simple. One, it provides regulatory reform to our small businesses so they can get busy putting Americans back to work. And two, very important, it closes a tax loophole that encourages businesses to invest overseas. The other side is claiming somehow that's a bad thing. It's exactly what we should do.

I want the tax code to be set up to encourage businesses to invest in America. Because if we do that, we will see more investment in America. We will see American workers back to work. We will see our middle class back to work and feeling their incomes rising, and we will see the greatness that has made this country, the innovation, the forward thinking. It comes from doing our manufacturing, our agriculture, our mining here in the United States. But we've let our tax code incent businesses to go away. So this does two things. One, it helps our small businesses with relief. Two, it turns our tax code in the right direction so that businesses have incentives to be here.

I just wanted to add one thing that didn't come out in the debate yet. There's a lot of talk about this being a bill from our side, and the Republicans seem to disagree that it's going to be helpful for business. The National Federation of Independent Business has endorsed this bill and is asking people to vote in favor of it. I wanted to make sure all the Members knew that.

Parliamentary Inquiries

Madam Speaker, there are times when words fall abysmally short to describe the horrors that punctuate our lives. A few weeks ago, our community was shaken by the devastating loss of six children in a house fire. As a father of three, a loss of this magnitude is beyond my comprehension.

Fort Edward has come together to remember and mourn the loss of these young lives. After the fire, a makeshift memorial grew up on the sidewalk in front of their home with a sea of flowers, toys, teddy bears, candles, and cards. Our community has grieved the loss of these children and come together in prayer and silence to offer support to their family and friends.

It is always a tragedy when children are taken before they've had a chance to grow, and it leaves us wondering, why did this happen? Hope was 12, Paige was 8, Lewis was 7, Mackenzie was 6, Emilie was 3, and Abbigayle was just 1 years old. Our hearts go out to their parents, and today I rise to remember the six children who lost their lives on that tragic night. Our entire community grieves their loss and keeps the memory of their lives close to our heart.

I rise today to congratulate and commend the Saratoga Springs Race Course. In just 3 days, it will open its doors and embark on its 142nd consecutive season.

The Saratoga Race Course has a critical impact on our local community, contributing both its historic and economic value to upstate New York. Saratoga is the oldest continuously operating thoroughbred racetrack in the United States and the oldest organized sporting venue in the entire country.

The Graveyard of Champions, as Saratoga is so often known, has a rich history of competition. In 1973 Secretariat was defeated at Saratoga after winning the Triple Crown. But Secretariat was not the first to lose at Saratoga after coming in a heavy favorite. Others like Gallant Fox and Man o' War have also been bested by Saratoga at the Travers Stakes. Travers Stakes, the country's oldest major thoroughbred race, is held each year at the Saratoga summer meet and is arguably the most important and well-known thoroughbred event each summer.

Each year people from across the Nation and the world come to experience Saratoga's wonderful atmosphere and heart-stopping races. Perhaps that is why Saratoga has been recognized by Sports Illustrated as one of the world's great sports venues and has contributed to the town of Saratoga receiving the first ``Great American Place'' Award from American Heritage Magazine.

This past weekend an article in the Saratogian talked about the impact that each season has on the local economy and community. Shopkeepers, homemakers, hoteliers, and local restaurants all rely on the income generated from the Saratoga season to help promote and grow the economy, and it brings together the community so that they can celebrate this rich racing tradition.

The race course is one of the economic backbones not for only for Saratoga Springs, but for all of upstate New York and my entire district. Racing in Saratoga provides for more than 2,500 local jobs in the immediate community and 17,000 jobs in the surrounding communities. Each year over 30,000 visitors come each day to the racetrack and over 1 million visitors will visit annually. Racing will contribute more than $200 million annually to our local economy.

This year's season is extra long. We've added a few days, and it will be a 40-day season. That extra weekend will create even more revenue than usual and opportunities for tourists to come and see Saratoga's wonderful historic track and downtown.

Horse racing is the heart and soul of the Saratoga community, and I am proud to rise today to offer this resolution honoring the Saratoga Race Course and acknowledging the important place that it has in racing history, in our economy, and to join with my community and my colleagues here in congratulating Saratoga on opening its doors this Friday for another great season.

I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, as a small businessman, I'm deeply concerned with our Nation's fiscal mismanagement. In fact, we've now learned that in fiscal year 2009, Federal agencies were estimated to have made nearly $98 billion in improper payments. You don't have to be a Democrat or a Republican to know that this is just unacceptable. It's just common sense.

My simple amendment to this bill reiterates that all the funds authorized in this act must be spent in compliance with the manual on Standards of Ethical Conduct for Employees of the executive branch.

As Members of Congress, it's our duty to allocate taxpayer dollars in a measured and responsible way, and we all know that Congress must do more to rein in wasteful spending. However, it is also our responsibility to make sure that the money we allocate is spent appropriately by the Federal agencies.

Sadly, we're far too accustomed to reports of Federal dollars being used inappropriately. Just recently, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General issued a report noting that $247,000 in improper expenses were charged to FEMA credit cards.

These examples highlight the need for Congress to be vigilant in its oversight of Federal agencies and to hold the agencies accountable and to create a system in which waste, fraud and abuse are eliminated. Yesterday, the House took an important step toward this goal when it passed legislation to identify, reduce, and eliminate improper payments, as well as recover lost funds that Federal agencies have spent improperly.

In that same spirit, my amendment today is intended to reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that Federal employees, in this case FEMA employees, spend Federal moneys properly and on their intended purpose, with only the best interests of the taxpayer.

I urge my fellow Members to support this amendment as well as the underlying bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of seniors across upstate New York. Since coming to Washington, I have fought to strengthen Medicare, protect Social Security, and ensure that our seniors can retire with dignity. As a founding member of the Seniors Task Force, I was proud to help introduce the Seniors Bill of Rights to guarantee the dignity and independence of all older Americans. We need to ensure that they have access to quality, affordable health and long-term care. We need to provide protection from scams, abuses, and exploitation. And we need to provide safe and livable communities.

For years, credit card companies have taken advantage of our seniors by

doing things like changing the terms of their agreements without telling them or advertising one rate and giving another. Last year, we saw a bipartisan effort with the Credit CARD Act to prevent these kinds of scams. We also worked this year to close the Medicare part D doughnut hole. Last month, our seniors started receiving $250 checks to close that hole. And by 2020, it will be gone entirely. No senior should have to choose between purchasing drugs and medicines they need or putting food on their table. And no senior should be scammed by credit card companies.

I rise today with the very sad duty of reporting the tragic passing of U.S. Army Private First Class David Taylor Miller. Miller was killed in action by a suicide bomber who detonated an explosive device at a checkpoint Miller was guarding in Kunar Province of Afghanistan on Monday, June 21, 2010.

Taylor was just 19 years old, having graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 2009. Despite his young age, his contributions to this world exceeded those of many people many times his age. The loss of so young a life is truly heart wrenching.

This tragic news comes as our community is still reeling from the loss of another young hero just last week.

Whether on the football field or on the battlefield, Taylor was a leader. He showed the strength and bravery that makes this Nation great. My heart goes out to his parents.

This true American hero made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of his Nation, and we owe him our eternal gratitude.

While it is moments like these that bring the true cost of our freedoms to the forefront of the public discussion, it is imperative that each and every one of us never forget what's at stake. We must always remember the hardships, suffering, bravery, and sacrifices for the families of those who serve our Armed Forces.

On behalf of a grateful Nation, our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Miller family during this tough time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today with the very sad duty of reporting the tragic passing of Army Specialist Benjamin Osborn. Osborn was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 15, 2010. Specialist Osborn was assigned to the Army's 101st Airborne based out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. A beloved son, husband, friend, and soldier from Lake George, Ben will be sorely missed by the entire Adirondack community. My heart goes out to Ben's wife, Nicole, and to his parents, William and Beverly. This true American hero made the ultimate sacrifice in defense of his Nation, and we owe him our eternal gratitude.

Ben Osborn, just 27 years old, volunteered for the position of gunner because, in the words of his sister, Bethany, ``He was a proud soldier and believed in what he was doing.'' Specialist Osborn was willing to give his life in service to all of us and to the country that he loved. The expression of our gratitude for his sacrifice to our Nation is beyond words. This Nation has been built by great men and women like Ben Osborn, and we must never forget the true cost of the freedoms that we hold dear. I pray that it's not just on days like today when everyone is reminded of the hardships, suffering, bravery, and sacrifices of our Armed Forces. Every day we must try to be more like Ben and dedicate ourselves to these worthy ideals for which he gave his life.

On behalf of a grateful Nation, our thoughts and prayers are with the entire Osborn family during this difficult time.

Today we're seeing the implementation of one of the things in the health care reform bill: payments of $250 to help our seniors with the doughnut hole coverage. One of the things that's also going on that most Americans don't know about is fundamental reforms with respect to waste and fraud in the Medicare system. Our efforts on that front have been dramatically improved by things that were in the health care bill that was passed earlier this year, giving Medicare the power to do commonsense things that any small business in America would do, do a better job of checking new providers as they come into Medicare, do a better job of putting people on probation and checking up on them in that first year to make sure they are not abusing our system.

There is a rampant problem with waste, fraud and abuse in our Medicare system. The health care bill we passed earlier this year is making steps to bring that into check. Today we had a hearing here in Congress about other things that we can do. And I testified about my legislation to put more tools in the hands of our law enforcement professionals and CMS to cut down on the waste and fraud in Medicare. I look forward to continuing to work on this and making sure that we use the dollars in Medicare to provide health benefits to our seniors, not allow criminals to run rampant.

Mr. Speaker, today we see the first benefits from the new health care reform law that was passed earlier by this Congress and signed into law by the President.

Eighty thousand seniors across America will be receiving checks that are being sent out, starting today, for

$250 to help pay the costs of their prescription drug coverage while they are in the doughnut hole. Other seniors that reach the doughnut hole through the rest of this year will also receive $250 checks to help them afford the prescription drugs they need to live their lives safely and happily.

Over the next 10 years, this health care reform will eliminate the doughnut hole completely for our seniors. That's a step in the right direction, providing security and safety in the health care that our seniors need.

Amazingly, though, some on the other side of the aisle are continuing to call, not to change the health care reform bill but to repeal it entirely, to cut up the checks, take them away from our seniors and stop the help that they need to pay for their prescription drugs.

We will always be working to make our health care system better, but repealing this positive step forward makes no sense to me.

Thank you, Mr. Brady, for yielding.

I rise today in support of my resolution, House Resolution 1178, requiring the Clerk of the House to make available Congressional Budget Office cost estimates for each bill considered by the House by including a link to the official CBO Web site on the Clerk's official Web site.

For every bill that comes to the House floor from committee, there is included a cost estimate or a score. This estimate is included with the conference report. We here in the House all know this and we use these scores to make informed decisions about our votes every day. But the CBO score can be difficult to find for my constituents. I've had many complaints about this from people in my district looking to find out what we are spending our money on here.

The Clerk's office keeps the official records of the bills that we are working

on; and by including this link, it will be much easier for constituents all over the country to get access to this important spending information and how these bills that we're working on will affect the bottom line of government finance.

The CBO score lets us know how this legislation will affect our long- term fiscal solvency and whether it will increase our debt. Obviously, as we live in this time of very great debt, it is something that is very important to my constituents. Making sure that our constituents have the information they need to see how legislation will affect them and their families is not only good policy but good government. By promoting openness and transparency in everything we do here in Congress, we can begin to restore the public's trust in this body.

For me, openness and transparency are things I've been working on since I got here just a year ago, and there are many opportunities for us in Congress to do this and to dialogue more effectively with our constituents so they know what we are doing here in Washington. For me, that includes posting my schedule online so that people can find out what I'm doing every day on their behalf. It includes posting appropriations requests online so that people can see for what money I am asking for my district. This is the kind of transparency that people tell me every day they want to see, and this resolution will do that with respect to CBO scores and making them available about the legislation we are considering here.

This legislation is only one piece of the equation in increasing openness and transparency in Congress, but it is a critical component to ensure that our constituents have the information they need to accurately judge our actions here in Congress and to ensure that we continue to uphold the standards of our office. Beyond reforms like this, it is our responsibility as Representatives to do our own part to promote openness and transparency. It is the only way that we can restore faith in this broken system.

Again, I would like to thank Chairman Brady and Ranking Member Lungren for their support in bringing this resolution to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, as a small business man, I came to this Congress a year ago to solve problems. One of the critical problems facing the United States right now is how to regulate our financial industry. Everyone in this country knows that, over the past decade, Washington has failed to regulate our financial industry, and some people on Wall Street took advantage of that to take outsized risk and to cause a financial collapse that impacted people all across this country.

Today, we stand at the precipice of coming up with legislation that will end bailouts, that will provide consumer protections, and that will regulate and illuminate the complex derivatives markets.

As a small business person who came here to solve problems, I cannot understand why no one on the other side of the aisle, why none of my Republican colleagues, is interested in solving this problem. There don't seem to be any reasons why not, yet they continue to refuse to move forward to solve the problem that we all face in America.

I hope, over the next month, the Republicans in this Chamber will join with the Democrats in regulating our financial industry in a sensible and sound way to protect American consumers and to make sure that we have sound and responsible financial markets.