Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, imagine telling the IRS you ``just lost'' your paperwork; or ``sorry, I accidentally deleted my tax forms, guess I won't be getting those to you.''

How do you think the IRS would respond? Not well. The IRS would find your actions ``inexcusable,'' paid back with a fine or criminal punishment, but when the IRS asks the same of us, we are expected to let them off the hook.

Losing 2 years' worth of emails is not only unlikely, but it is unacceptable. The IRS would not accept that excuse from the people of Montana, and Montanans will not accept that excuse from the IRS.

This double standard is abusive. It is irresponsible. The IRS holds a great deal of power over the individual lives of the American people, and the requirements they ask of us, we are asking of them.

As representatives of the people the IRS is hurting, the House will hold the IRS to the standards that they hold the rest of America.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from Tennessee for her leadership on this important issue of this do-nothing Senate.

The President likes to refer to us as the do-nothing Congress. Well, tonight, we are presenting 332 reasons why it is actually the do- nothing Senate, as seen by the stack of the bills here on the gentlewoman's desk. This has made it the least productive Congress in history.

332 bills have passed the House and are sitting on Harry Reid's desk. These are not just Republican bills. 178 of these bills passed the House with no opposition at all. In fact, nearly 70 percent of these bills passed with two-thirds support or more. Fifty-five of these House bills were introduced by Democrats--still, Harry Reid refuses to bring these bills up for a vote.

While House Republicans are focused on building up America's middle class, the Senate Democrats are content to let dust gather on hundreds of bills that would grow the economy, reduce the size and scope of an overbearing Federal Government and, importantly, help create jobs in America.

Take the Keystone XL pipeline, for example. This is truly one of those shovel-ready projects that would create more than 42,000 direct and indirect jobs nationwide. Across the political spectrum, there is overwhelmingly support for this project, yet Harry Reid refuses to bring it up for a vote. I have got that bill right here. It is H.R. 3. This is a bill that we passed with bipartisan support, yet Harry Reid refuses to bring it up for a vote.

The Keystone pipeline enters Montana. It is the first State that the pipeline enters after it comes to us from Canada.

I was out in eastern Montana recently, and I was meeting with the NorVal Electric Co-Op. This is a small co-op in Montana that provides electricity to a few thousand Montana families. They told me that if the Keystone pipeline is approved, they will be able to keep electric rates for these Montana families flat for the next 10 years.

If the Keystone pipeline is not approved, the electric rates for these Montana families will go up about 40 percent over the course of the next 10 years because this co-op supplies electricity to one of the pump stations on the Keystone pipeline, and that extra volume will lower the rates for all users.

Sometimes, I wish the President would get out of the White House and come to a place like Montana and talk to those families and have him explain to them why he continues to block the Keystone pipeline. I would like Harry Reid to come out to Montana and explain to these Montana families why the Senate refuses to take up a vote and approve the Keystone pipeline.

The House, we are going to continue enacting solutions to help create jobs and build a healthy economy because that leads to greater freedom and opportunity. We are not going to stop doing our job simply because Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid has stopped doing his. It is time for the Senate to get back to work.

It is interesting, it has been quoted here tonight that Sheila Jackson Lee, the Democratic congresswoman, who we serve with here in the House, has had 18 rollcall votes on her amendments in the House in the past year.

That is more than all the Republicans in the Senate combined. When asked about those amendments in a recent interview, she said, ``I want to thank the Republicans for their generosity.''

It is time for the Senate to act. The Obama recovery, economic recovery, is 5 years old, and what have we seen? We shared this week the share of adults who are working is back to 1984 levels.

That is the year I graduated from Montana State University, with a degree in engineering. Far more adults have left the workforce than have found new jobs, and it has been said this is the worst recovery ever for long-term employed Americans.

The House has passed dozens of bills to create good-paying jobs and build a healthy economy, bills like the America's Small Business Tax Relief Act, which would lower costs for small businesses to allow them to hire more workers; or the Veterans Economic Opportunity Act, which improves programs that promote economic opportunity and ensures our Nation's vets have the tools and resources they need to find jobs they deserve.

Let me conclude by saying this: it is a shame that Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats won't take up more of these 40-plus bills of these over 300 bills that we have passed that will get our economy moving because it is clear that the President's policies aren't working.

House Republicans have a plan to get America back to work and get our economy moving in the right direction once again.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he doesn't have to agree with our ideas. That is the nature of democracy. That is the nature of having the Senate and the House. We are not expecting him to agree on our ideas, but he does owe them a simple up-or-down vote. If he doesn't owe it to us, he certainly owes it to the American people.

I know ObamaCare was over 2,000 pages.

Here is the H.R. 3, the act to approve the Keystone XL pipeline. It is very simple. In fact, it is two pages and about a third of a bottom of a third page, so call it 2-1/3 pages, and we can approve the Keystone pipeline.

Will the gentlewoman yield?

On the issue of the Keystone pipeline and the benefits, many of those ratepayers in Montana are hardworking families that live month to month. Many of them are seniors that are living on fixed incomes. And so this President, by stopping the Keystone pipeline and not approving that bill that is just slightly over 2 pages in length, in essence, he is declaring war on the middle class of America that is struggling to make ends meet month to month.

Our daughter just graduated from Montana State University with a degree in elementary education. She is going to be a teacher. If we can approve the Keystone pipeline, we recognize these tax revenues in the State of Montana, and millions of dollars that will help fund our teachers, our schools, our infrastructure in Montana.

These are other benefits of the Keystone pipeline that we need to talk about that affect more than just the jobs. It also the tax revenues, as we talked about, and keeping the electric rates flat for many, many Montanans that live on fixed incomes.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4508) to amend the East Bench Irrigation District Water Contract Extension Act to permit the Secretary of the Interior to extend the contract for certain water services.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Hearing that water services delivery could be in jeopardy for 60,000 acres of some of the most productive farmland in my home State of Montana, I was happy to introduce this legislation that ensures that irrigation in southwest Montana is protected.

H.R. 4508 protects irrigation and water supplies in the Beaverhead Valley by extending the district's contract while an updated contract is pending approval by the Montana Water Court. This contract extension is necessary since the Montana court system is in the middle of conducting a necessary State-required review of the new contract between the irrigation district and the United States. This bill does not prejudice the outcome of that examination but keeps in place the existing 1958 contract so area farmers and ranchers in the Beaverhead Valley of Montana have water supply certainty for nearly 60,000 acres.

The legislation has no cost to the Federal Government and is based on congressional precedent. In fact, Congress has extended this 1958 contract a number of times, since an extension provides an irrigation district with an absolute right under Federal law to negotiate a new contract with the Bureau of Reclamation. This bill simply adds 6 additional years to the last extension, thereby extending the 1958 contract until December 31, 2019, or until a new contract is executed.

This bill is the result of hard work that is being done in Montana. I especially want to thank Mr. Bill Hritsco and the East Bench Irrigation District for their leadership and for working with me on this legislation to provide Montana farmers and Montana ranchers with much- needed certainty about their water supply.

Mr. Hritsco, the Dillon, Montana-based attorney representing the Irrigation District, provided expert testimony on this bill before the House Natural Resources Committee earlier this year. The Irrigation District's work with me on this bill represents how Montanans can roll up their sleeves and get good things done. As a result, water will continue to flow in the Beaverhead Valley's fields for years to come if this legislation is enacted. I urge adoption of the bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4562) to authorize early repayment of obligations to the Bureau of Reclamation within the Northport Irrigation District in the State of Nebraska.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

H.R. 4562, sponsored by the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith), allows farmers to repay accelerated or lump sums of capital debt owed to the Bureau of Reclamation.

In many cases throughout the West, current Federal law does not allow landowners to make such early repayments on Federal irrigation projects. These outdated Federal hurdles are similar to a bank prohibiting a homeowner from paying his or her mortgage early.

Congressman Smith's bill removes the Federal Bureau of Reclamation repayment prohibition for individual landowners within the Northport Irrigation District. In return for such payments, these farmers will no longer be subject to the acreage limitations and the paperwork requirements in the Reclamation Reform Act.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill could generate up to $440,000 in Federal revenue. The bill is based on two recent precedents that passed in both Republican- and Democrat- controlled houses, and today, we should continue those efforts by adopting this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith), also a former member of the Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I urge approval of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3716) to ratify a water settlement agreement affecting the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

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

H.R. 3716 is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Congressman Amodei of Nevada. The legislation ratifies a water rights agreement between the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe and the Fish Springs Ranch.

Although the bill does not authorize the expenditure of American taxpayer dollars, it is necessary due to the Federal trust responsibility for the tribe and because it decreases the Federal Government's potential liabilities related to those trust duties.

H.R. 3716 allows a water pipeline project to go forward while codifying an agreement that allows non-Federal payments to mitigate for water supply damages associated with the pipeline. This is a win for the American taxpayer, this is a win for the tribe, and this is a win for water users.

I commend Congressman Amodei for his leadership and urge adoption of the legislation.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Amodei), who I served on the Natural Resources Committee with recently.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 2430) to adjust the boundaries of Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park to include Hinchliffe Stadium, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

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

Hinchliffe Stadium is a historic 10,000-seat municipal stadium in Paterson, New Jersey, built between 1931 and 1932, surrounded by the city's national historical landmark district. It is one of only a handful of stadiums surviving nationally that once played host to Negro League baseball.

H.R. 2430 adds the historic Hinchliffe Stadium into the boundaries of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park, which was created in 2009.

This legislation amends the park's boundary to include the stadium, but an amendment adopted by the Natural Resources Committee prohibits Federal ownership. The stadium will remain as it is today, owned by local government.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3802) to extend the legislative authority of the Adams Memorial Foundation to establish a commemorative work in honor of former President John Adams and his legacy, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.

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

In 2001, President George Bush signed Public Law 107-62, which authorized the Adams Memorial Foundation to create a commemorative work on Federal land in the District of Columbia. When completed, the memorial will honor former President John Adams, along with his wife, Abigail Adams, former President John Quincy Adams, and their legacy of public service.

The Foundation has been working towards securing a location for the memorial, but a previous extension to their authority expired in 2013. H.R. 3802 authorizes an extension to this authority so that the Foundation may continue development and planning until December 2, 2020. No Federal funds are involved in the creation of this memorial and this extension has no impact on the Federal budget.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, strongly support the passage of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the America Gives More Act because it encourages charitable giving. This bill includes the Conservation Easement Incentive Act, which is very important to the people of Montana.

Rising property values and estate taxes make passing down working lands to future generations very, very difficult. In fact, in 2010, the Leep family, a family that has farmed in the Gallatin Valley, my home county, since 1926, faced the challenge of transferring a family farm to the next generation. Because of this incentive, the Leeps were able to donate land to the Gallatin Valley Land Trust, an organization that works on conserving working lands and other areas valued for wildlife habitat and for outdoor recreation, and kept the land in production and in the family's ownership.

The America Gives More Act makes this provision permanent and gives landowners the assurances they need to make long-term estate planning decisions. It is a commonsense, smart tax policy that makes a real difference in the lives of Montanans.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for this measure.

Mr. Speaker, Montanans have long known that ObamaCare's taxes and mandates are a direct threat to thousands of jobs, and this fact is becoming all too clear for in-home care providers.

ObamaCare's burdensome employer mandate would force in-home care businesses to cut jobs or employee wages and, in turn, hurt the elderly, the disabled, and low-income Montanans who rely on them for critical services.

The Ensuring Medicaid and Medicare Access to Providers Act protects Montanans' access to care by exempting their health providers from ObamaCare's oppressive employer mandate, and it protects health care workers from losing their jobs or getting their hours or their pay cut.

I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5098 and help ensure that disabled and vulnerable Americans can continue to receive critical health services in the comfort of their own homes.

Mr. Speaker, Colstrip, Montana, is a town that runs on coal. Hundreds of hardworking Montanans depend on jobs in Colstrip's coal-fired power plant and its coal mines to provide for their families, but one anticoal energy consultant said that Montanans ``should plan for life without Colstrip,'' due, in part, to job-killing regulations proposed by the Obama administration.

EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy recently met with a group of Democrat Senators who commended the Agency's efforts on these emissions rules.

I urge Administrator McCarthy to get out of Washington, D.C., and speak with the Montana families who will be directly and negatively affected by these regulations and to explain to them why the Obama administration is waging a war on their livelihoods and their town. He is waging a war on the middle class.

I want to thank the gentlewoman for her leadership on this amendment, as well as the chairman for allowing us to have this debate.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment. In the appropriations process, we must prioritize funding for necessary projects and balance those with spending reductions to reduce the national debt.

In Montana, we depend on a steady supply of water to irrigate our crops, to water our livestock, and to provide energy through hydropower--a renewable resource.

The struggle for clean water continues to create health challenges for Indian Country and nearby communities, in addition to making economic development more difficult.

Without this critical funding for Rocky Boy's-North Central Mountain Rural Water System and the Fort Peck Reservation-Dry Prairie Rural Water System, thousands of Montanans in rural communities could go without quality water accessibility.

The President's budget requests for these critical projects continue to decline each year, while prioritizing other accounts that are not related to the basic needs of our rural communities.

Mr. Chairman, every year that we wait to delay the funding of these essential projects, the more expensive construction, operation, and maintenance become.

For instance, the Fort Peck project's reduced funding levels have doubled the authorization period, and inflation has nearly doubled the overall cost of construction, but the projected savings is still $11 million.

However, overhead will consume the projected savings on the project to date and will encroach upon the authorized construction ceiling.

The CBO has just scored this amendment. This decreases the net budget outlays. Passing this amendment is the responsible stewardship of tax dollars and is important to rural communities.

It is also a nonpartisan issue. Funding these projects is supported by the entire Montana delegation--both Republicans and Democrats--and last year, a similar amendment passed by voice vote. I urge the support of this amendment.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Vice Chairwoman Annette Lambert of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation, who recently passed away.

Serving her people was Ms. Lambert's calling in life. Prior to her election to the tribal executive board, she was a businesswoman who helped provide services and jobs on the reservation.

She inspired the young men and women to pursue higher education as a volunteer member of the tribe's higher education board of directors and one of the founders of Fort Peck Community College, a tribal college in Poplar, Montana.

Ms. Lambert will be greatly missed by many. Her commitment to service and leadership should not only serve as an inspiration for her fellow tribal members, but for all Montanans.

Mr. Speaker, since it was first offered as part of the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005, the Indian Coal Production Tax Credit has been a crucial tax incentive that levels the playing field for the production of Indian coal. However, it expired last year.

Before its expiration, this important incentive served as a counter- balance to the additional costs and time required to develop Tribal coal deposits, which are subject to more regulatory requirements than comparable development on private, state, or federal lands.

The production of coal has been a boon for the Crow Tribe of the State of Montana and has already generated more than 125 jobs for Tribal members. Crow Tribal Chairman Darrin Old Coyote has called the tax credit an ``essential tool'' to ``the economic viability of our existing coal mining operations.''

Montana's Northern Cheyenne tribe and other coal-producing tribes stand ready to likewise utilize this important policy to create jobs and increase energy development.

I urge my colleagues to pass H.R. 4785 and make the Indian Coal Production Tax Credit permanent to ensure strong economic benefits for future generations of Montana Tribes.

Mr. Speaker, today, I am so proud to congratulate Sean- Daniel Taylor, Kane Knudson, Emma Gabbert, and Hayden Kunhardt, who are students from Washington Middle School in Glendive, Montana, for being top finishers in the Montana History Day Contest.

This week, they are among seven Montana students who traveled to the National History Day Contest in Washington, D.C. Out of 600,000 participants in National History Day, less than 3,000 advance to the national contest, so I speak for all Montanans when I say that we are incredibly proud of their success.

It is truly great to see young students--young Montanans like Sean- Daniel, Kane, Emma, and Hayden--thinking critically about our Nation's history and the rights and responsibilities that come with citizenship.

Congratulations, again, to all seven Montana students competing in the National History Day Contest.

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

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

Mr. Chairman, our Nation's nuclear triad is an essential aspect of our national defense and makes the world safer by deterring our rivals and reassuring our allies. Every leg of the triad is critical and protects our Nation on a daily basis.

The Defense Department recently put forward a nuclear force structure plan under the New START Treaty. It is committed to maintaining 450 nuclear launchers in at least a warm status. In doing so, the Pentagon recognized the strategic value of preserving our robust nuclear deterrent capability. Just last month, the House of Representatives reaffirmed its support for the triad and for maintaining the current ICBM force.

Unfortunately, the base bill includes language that could open the door for the premature decommissioning of our Nation's missile silos. I believe this would be unwise.

My amendment ensures the United States has maximum flexibility to respond to nuclear threats and makes it more difficult for adversaries to target our nuclear assets. Maintaining our nuclear launchers provides our commanders with the tools necessary to respond to potential nuclear threats against the American people and, importantly, our allies.

Recently, I visited Montana's Malmstrom Air Force Base and heard firsthand from missileers about their very critical mission.

In fact, I have in my hand today the Malmstrom commander coin, which expresses why the nuclear deterrence they help operate still works. It simply says this:

Scaring the hell out of America's enemies since 1962.

I urge House passage of my amendment to help protect this critically important capability.

I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.

Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

While I appreciate the gentleman's comments, we have the strong support of HASC, and this is just ensuring that we don't have a decommissioning moving forward here as we reconcile both the appropriations with the NDAA.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment strikes section 8132, which prohibits the use of funds to reduce or decommission Minuteman III ICBM silos or to put these silos into a nondeployed status other than warm status. A warm silo is one that can be made fully operational with the reintroduction of a missile.

Let me remind those who are listening tonight that anybody who says, ``Thank God we have never had to use our ICBMs,'' I would argue they are used every day to ensure that we maintain peace and stability in the world. This section is modeled after language that was included in the House-passed NDAA to maximize the readiness of the land-based leg of the nuclear triad.

I rise in opposition to this amendment. The language in this section is essentially the same as the language that was included in the House- passed National Defense Authorization Act. This section says that, if the Department of Defense takes a silo down to nondeployed status, it must keep it warm. That means it must be kept in a state that would allow it to become fully operational if a missile is reintroduced. This section would ensure that we maximize the readiness of the land-based leg of the nuclear triad and inhibit the administration from making unilateral cuts to our strategic deterrent.

I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.