[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 165 (Tuesday, November 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H7188-H7194]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REPUBLICAN FRESHMEN ON JOB CREATION
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 5, 2011, the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Griffin) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. Mr. Speaker, I have joined some of my
colleagues here tonight to talk about the most pressing issue in this
country, which is job creation, private sector job creation and what we
need to do to get our country back on the path to prosperity and job
growth.
I had a jobs conference in the Second Congressional District, my
district, down in Arkansas in Little Rock a couple of weeks ago. We
held it at the Clinton Library. It really was an extension of the 25 or
so town halls that I've had this year in that we talked a lot about
jobs. And I thought that a jobs conference would be a good idea because
who better to ask about job creation than job creators. So we had five
panels, over 60 panelists, and I wanted to hear from the job creators
in the Second Congressional District. I asked them two main questions:
What are the obstacles that you face in creating jobs, and what
opportunities do you see?
As I indicated earlier, this was really an extension of what I've
been talking to constituents about for the 9 months I've been in
office, and even before that. I expected I would hear answers to those
questions consistent with what I have heard in town halls, in meetings
in my office, and throughout the year, and I wasn't surprised.
What I heard from the over 60 panelists that gathered at the Clinton
Library in Little Rock a couple of weeks ago, what I heard was
uncertainty is the number one obstacle to job creation in this
country--uncertainty. Now, I've heard that word used a lot since I've
been here. I heard it a lot last year when I was traveling around my
district before I ever came to Congress. And it was pretty clear, has
been pretty clear to me, and still is, that uncertainty is the biggest
problem we face.
The job creators that gathered in Little Rock at the jobs conference
were from the manufacturing industry, energy industry, health care,
retail, financial services, aerospace, infrastructure, construction,
real estate, you name it, agriculture. We had folks from all across the
spectrum, and they all indicated that uncertainty is the biggest
obstacle to job creation.
What kind of uncertainty were they talking about? Well, the number
one type of uncertainty cited by job creators was regulatory
uncertainty. They indicated at the conference, this jobs conference,
that, number one, in many instances they know new regulations are
coming, but they have no idea what they're going to be. So they have no
idea whether they're going to be able to comply with those by spending
a little extra money, no extra money, or a whole lot.
They're also concerned about regulations that are floated. They're
floated out by the agencies as a potential regulation that may or may
not be implemented. And those sorts of regulations give these job
creators great pause because they don't know whether they're going to
have to comply with them. And it's not just one agency and it's not
just one industry.
I will say that the EPA's name came up more than any other. The job
creators made it very clear that there are a number of regulations
coming out of the Federal agencies that they are concerned about, and
the EPA has issued a number of regulations and some that are yet to be
enacted that these job creators were very concerned about.
I heard from the panelists the common theme that they're not against
regulations. We've always had regulations, at least since I've been
around, and we're going to continue to have regulations. And we need
reasonable regulations to keep our water and air clean. I have a 4-
year-old and a 19-month-old, and I want them to have a clean and safe
environment. But we're not talking about just regulations, reasonable
regulations; we're talking about excessive, overly burdensome
regulations that in some cases require such drastic steps to comply
that they just run people out of business. We've dealt with a lot of
those here in the House trying to reverse some of the stuff coming out
of the administration.
I heard from our energy industry, the energy corporations and the
electric cooperatives--some of the panelists represented those
companies--and they indicated if some of the EPA rules are implemented
as they have been proposed, they could result in the shutting down of
several power plants in Arkansas, with a potential impact of raising
energy costs 25 percent. Now, these same panelists said, Look, we're
not necessarily against this sort of regulation, the sort of regulation
they're referring to, but the time frame for compliance is so short
that there's no way, it's almost humanly impossible for them to comply
with some of the EPA's mandates. So we heard a lot about the EPA, but
not just the EPA. HHS, the Department of Labor, many other agencies
here in Washington put out regulations often with no or little regard
to the impact those regulations are going to have on the folks back in
my district and around the country.
So regulatory uncertainty was specifically identified as an obstacle
to job creation in this country. In addition to regulatory uncertainty,
there's uncertainty over the health care law. Is the health care law
even going to be implemented or not? Certainly I voted to repeal the
health care law that passed in the last Congress. I think we need
health care reform, but not the health care reform we got. Now the
courts are looking at the health care law and there's a good chance in
some folks' opinion and my opinion that the Supreme Court might strike
the individual mandate portion of the President's health care law, the
health care law that we have now. So there's a lot of uncertainty
surrounding that.
There's also uncertainty over our fiscal situation. The President had
a perfect opportunity to lead after his bipartisan debt commission came
out with some recommendations. I don't agree with all of them, but it
was a good place to start.
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But instead, right after they came out with their recommendations
late last year, early this year the President came out with his
budget--no reform of Medicare to save it, no reform of Social Security
to save it, no reform of Medicaid, just keep on spending. So we missed
an opportunity there.
But the debt is a part of that uncertainty. The debt impacts our
currency valuation, and it impacts our markets. You don't have to look
far. Just look at what's going on in Europe. It's sort of like you're
looking in a crystal ball, and what's going on in Europe is
potentially--not identical--but potentially, in some regards, our
future. That's where we're headed--more uncertainty.
So, it was very clear, after listening to all of these job creators,
that the problem is not that the Federal Government hasn't spent enough
money. We've spent $1 trillion on the last stimulus at a cost of about
$300,000 per job.
[[Page H7189]]
Discretionary spending has gone up 84 percent under this
administration. I don't think, in fact, I know, that spending is not
the problem. It's the uncertainty that the job creators addressed. So
what we're going to talk about here tonight is what we've been doing
for the last 9 months to address the uncertainty on regulations with
regard to the debt and our spending, and with regard to our Tax Code so
that we can remain competitive.
What have we been doing here in this body, in the majority in the
House, to address the uncertainty that I think, beyond dispute, is the
biggest obstacle to job creation in this country? And I'm citing the
job creators of my district. We've been doing a whole lot over the last
10 months. We passed a lot of legislation. I think we've had about 800
votes. Unfortunately, a lot of those good ideas are stacking up like
cordwood over in the U.S. Senate. We pass it, send it down to them, and
they stack it up. That's the way it's worked for the last 10 months or
so.
I am happy to be joined by my colleagues here. I thought we'd talk a
little bit about the different things that we passed that the American
people would have heard a lot more about if they had been acted upon
and become law. But most folks don't hear a lot about them because they
go down to the other end of the building and they just sit there like
that little bill sitting on Capitol Hill that some of us grew up with
as a cartoon. It's just a bill, it's not a law.
I am happy to have my friends join me here tonight on the floor to
talk about jobs and what we've been doing in the House over the last 10
months.
I yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. REED. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I'm proud to join
him and my other colleague from Wisconsin tonight to talk about jobs
and what we are doing here in this Chamber on that issue.
I listen many times to my colleagues from the other side of the
aisle, and they say we haven't put forth a jobs bill, as if there's
some simple fix that we here in Washington, some bureaucrat sitting in
a cubicle over at the White House is going to come up with a plan
that's going to cure this economy with a magic wave of the wand here in
the U.S. House or in Washington, D.C.
I join my colleague in his sentiments that I'd rather be listening to
the people on the front line. I'd rather be listening to the people
that are in the position to really create those jobs, because I believe
in a private sector-based economy. I believe it's going to be the
private sector that is going to be the primary engine of pulling us out
of this economic crisis that we now find ourselves--not the public
sector, not more spending out of Washington, D.C. But rather, what we
need to do in this House is come together to create an environment so
that the private sector can be competitive in this world economy and
this world market, and it can really lead us to a better condition
tomorrow so that generations of families, of American families, will
have the opportunities that generations of families before us so
enjoyed.
I've gone out and I've also had those town halls, and I've talked to
people on the front line. And really, it boils down to some simple
philosophies. We run our office here in the New York 29th Congressional
District like a business. I come at this from a business perspective.
Having started four businesses on my own, I've always had a business
plan, and I've always had accountability metrics built into those
plans. So we put forth a mission statement. We developed themes, we
developed goals, and we put metrics to those themes and goals to make
sure that we accomplish them. And the primary theme that we have
adopted in our office is to create economic opportunity through the
private sector.
How do you do that? We have adopted four main goals that we work on
each day. We tackle this debt in a credible way, as my colleague from
Arkansas has indicated, because it has so many indirect implications to
our private-sector economy, be it in the financing world and be it in
just the uncertainty of the U.S. markets. And we really have got to get
a credible plan put together so that we can bring back that confidence
in the American market that our job creators, the people that are going
to invest in the American market, feel comfortable putting that capital
at play.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. If I can mention one thing, on the issue of
the debt, we don't have to solve it overnight. We didn't get in this
mess overnight, and we certainly aren't going to solve it overnight.
But I sort of analogize it to going on a trip. If you're going to
travel from Arkansas to Washington, D.C., you don't have to get there
instantly, but you need to have a roadmap. You need to know where
you're going, and everybody in the car needs to have confidence that
the person driving is taking you in the right direction. If you're
driving from Little Rock to Washington and you start seeing signs that
say ``L.A. 100 miles ahead,'' you're going to wake up everybody and
figure out what happened.
So we don't need to deal with this debt overnight, but we need a
credible plan that brings us back to balance, that brings us to a
sustainable path and that gives people confidence--not confidence that
it's going to be fixed immediately, but confidence that the path we're
on will eventually get us back to where we need to be.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. REED. I appreciate that. And what a great comment. That's exactly
what I'm trying to articulate. I join my colleague and associate myself
with those words, that we need a true plan that will solve this
problem. And the $14.8 trillion in debt is such a huge problem that
it's not going to be solved overnight. But we have the vision, and we
have the plan. We're going to bring that certainty and confidence back
to the American market.
The second point on our four-point theme in our office that we
operate under is going after our Tax Code in a way that is going to
make it competitive in this world economy. That means going from page 1
to the 70,000th page of the IRS code and streamlining it and doing
comprehensive tax reform in such a way that simplifies it and makes it
so that we are competing on the same field as competitors around the
world.
The third point of our plan is to focus on a comprehensive, domestic-
oriented energy policy right here, going after not only the fossil
fuels in our backyard but not taking our eye off the long-term vision
of the alternatives and renewables; looking at the commonsense
solutions of going after our natural gas supplies, our oils and our
shale formations and our tight sands formations around America but at
the same time focusing on the alternatives and renewables, because we
know those fossil fuels are a limited source.
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But not only because of the national security implications that so
many people in America know so well, but also looking at it from the
perspective of making a competitive private sector arena in which our
manufacturers and industry can compete again here right with operations
in America. Because if you put those supplies in motion, you can create
low-cost utility rates for 30, 40, maybe even 70, years is what the
projections I've read in the reports and talking to people on the front
line have articulated to me. So those decreased utility costs make our
market that much more competitive when we're dealing with a world
market that we now find ourselves in.
The last point that we always stress in our office is going after
this regulatory burden that my colleague from Arkansas spoke about
earlier. It's about not living in a world where there would be no
regulations, but where there will be reasonable regulations,
regulations based on a cost-benefit approach, a business approach,
recognizing that with every regulation there's a cost. We're trying to
achieve a benefit, but we've got to be reasonable to make sure that
those costs don't outweigh those benefits. And so we've adopted that
type of framework of operation in our office, and we've found some
great success.
One last point I'll make before yielding back to my colleague from
Arkansas is one of the stories that really resonated with me as I went
through some of these town hall meetings--and we've done, I don't know,
30 or 40 of them now at this point in time--is I heard this story in
August, and I'll call him Dr. Bill. He was a physician, and he had a
small practice back in the 29th Congressional District. He was talking
[[Page H7190]]
about how he wanted to invest and expand his practice. And he went over
to the bank to get the financing to build the little addition--he was
going to put maybe three people, new people to work.
And I listened to his story, and he was talking about the uncertainty
that my colleague from Arkansas is talking about. And I want to put a
face to it because Dr. Bill, as he told me, whenever he would go to the
bank historically, he would go in and he would give his financial
projections as to what his practice was going to do. A lot of times he
would have to footnote because we have a lot of issues here in
Washington with temporary policies that have been done more for
politics than for true policy.
And what I'm talking about is we're dealing with things like the SGR,
the physicians reimbursement under Medicare and the doc fix that always
comes in. Typically what happens, America, if you haven't been aware of
it, there's a fix, a Band-Aid that's put on it each year. And what he
was able to do is he was able to always go to his bank and say, you
know, I know the law says that I'm going to take a 30 percent cut, for
example, this year in my reimbursements under Medicare, but we all know
that Congress is going to get around and eventually fix it by putting
another Band-Aid on it. So then he projects out a 2 percent increase in
his reimbursements for his practice.
Well, he went to the bank. He went to the bank and he said, okay,
here are my financials again. I want to do this expansion. And you know
what the bank told him? The bank said, you know what, we don't know
what's going on out of Washington, D.C. You've been dealing with the
issues in your physician practice under ObamaCare, the Health Insurance
Reform Act--whatever you want to call it--we're dealing--this is the
bank talking to him--under the new Dodd-Frank bill that came into
existence. Those regulations are uncertain to us. We don't know what
they're going to require.
And the bank told him, we're not going to accept that footnote
anymore. You've got to project out what your revenues are under what
the law says, and that's a 30 percent cut in your revenue. And when he
went back and he did the numbers, obviously, with the 30 percent cut to
his revenues, he couldn't get the financing; the bank had to say no.
So that's the real story from the front lines that we have to come to
terms with down here in Washington. Our decisions, our policies have
ramifications. And if we can just have some commonsense points and deal
with people like Dr. Bill in a way that says we're going to adopt
policy for the long term, not the short term. We're going to get away
from the politics or the tax politics and get into tax policy. We're
going to get into the substance of these issues and adopt certain rules
and regulations and legislation that's going to go on for 5, 10, 20
years so at least people know what the rules are. I think if we do
that, we're going to go a long way to improving the private economy of
America. We're going to work day in and day out.
I know my colleagues share a lot of these sentiments; and I'm just
here to join them, to really focus on what has to be the priority
issue, and that's putting people back to work. That is what we're doing
here in the House. We're not looking for the political headline of a
jobs bill. We're here to talk about jobs policy and leading this
country out of the recession it finds itself in through strong policy
rather than politics.
With that, I thank my colleague from Arkansas for yielding.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I thank the gentleman from New York for his
thoughts. Before I yield to my friend from Wisconsin, I'd like to just
revisit some of what you said.
We've identified the problem as uncertainty. I think we're all
confident of that based on talking to our constituents and job
creators. And we, over the last 9 months, have passed a number of bills
that support the different aspects of our plan to get this country
moving again and creating jobs.
Number one, fundamental tax reform. We need it on the individual
side; we need it on the corporate side.
Regulatory reform. We have passed countless bills that reform the
regulatory process or address specific regulations.
And dealing with the debt. We've been trying to raise the issue of
spending and overspending--and have raised it successfully numerous
times over the last 9, 10 months. We haven't been able to do as much as
we'd like; we are just one body here in the House. But dealing with the
spending and forcing the Federal Government to live within its means
has been and continues to be a priority.
And also, what the gentleman from New York mentioned, is the
importance of energy exploration and energy development to our national
security, because we want to depend on our own energy sources or at
least on our friends in Canada; but it's also very important in terms
of job creation. The energy development that we could have in this
country could create up to, some say, at a minimum, 1 million jobs.
I was watching a new show on the networks last night, on NBC, and
they had a whole segment on what's going on in North Dakota with some
of the shale drilling and how there are just tens and hundreds of jobs
waiting to be filled in this country, in that part of our country,
because of energy exploration.
So tax reform, regulatory reform, dealing with the debt so that we
can invest in infrastructure, which is so important to economic
development and energy development, those are critical.
And if you want to talk about a jobs plan or what have you, or jobs
bills--it's not jobs bill; it's jobs bills. We've been passing jobs
bills since January. In fact, as I indicated before, they're piling up
like cord wood in the Senate.
I yield to my friend from Wisconsin.
Mr. DUFFY. I commend the gentlemen from Arkansas and from New York
for the work you've been doing in your own districts, reaching out to
job creators, listening to them about what they need to make sure they
can expand their businesses and grow their businesses. I've been doing
the same. Over the last couple of weeks I've done a number of different
events.
I did a jobs fair in central Wisconsin; that's where my district is,
central Wisconsin up to northwestern Wisconsin. We had 100 employers,
and we had 1,200 job seekers come through that jobs fair. And if you
looked out at the 100 folks who were there looking to hire, you didn't
see too many people from the government looking to hire because the
real job growth in America is in the private sector. And if you looked
out over that arena of employers, they're not big businesses, they're
small businesses. They have anywhere from 10 employees, some of them
were as big as 100, 120 employees, but all characterized and
categorized as small businesses.
I thought it was important to note that there are people hiring; but
if you look at the quality and the quantity of people who need work in
central Wisconsin, there is a disparity between the number of jobs that
are available and the number of people who want to support their
families with hard work and hard labor and a good paycheck. And so the
work is not done. We have to continue pressing on to make sure that we
have the environment for job growth.
As the President says, We cannot wait, and I don't know what he's
referring to when he says ``we cannot wait.'' My reference to we cannot
wait is we cannot wait, as the Speaker said, for the Senate to start
passing our bills that are going to put Americans back to work.
{time} 1940
I did a forest policy conference. In my area, we have a large forest
product industry. And the Chief of the Forest Service was kind enough
to come to my district, a well-spoken, very knowledgeable individual
who's spent a lot of time in the Forest Service. Rangers were there,
and it was a great conversation with a lot of our loggers.
But in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, we have 1.5 million
acres, great resource in central and northern Wisconsin.
Let me tell you a story of one of the forest products individuals
that came to that conference. He's an individual that owns Action
Floors. They're from Mercer, Wisconsin. Now, Mercer is not, by far, the
biggest community in Wisconsin. It's a small town that relies on the
forest products industry and premier gym floors they make at Action
Floors in Mercer, Wisconsin.
[[Page H7191]]
But do you think they get the wood from the 1.5 million acres in the
Nicolet and Chequamegon Forest? No. Over 50 percent of the wood they
use to make those floors is imported from Canada because they can't
access timber in central Wisconsin. That's a shame.
Now, listen. I live in Wisconsin because I believe that we should
have clean water and a clean environment. I live there because I like
the outdoors. I like to use it. I want my kids to experience it. But
managing forests is critical to preserving it. It's the first green
industry. It's renewable. It grows back if it's managed well.
And here we have folks in central Wisconsin that can't access it.
Those are real jobs. Those are real families that are impacted by the
decisions that are made here in Washington, D.C. But timber being
imported from Canada? Give me a break.
We had a field hearing just yesterday, Financial Services, the
subcommittee was Financial Institutions. And we had some small small
banks and some medium small banks, and we had small credit unions,
medium-sized credit unions all in there talking about the rules and
regulations that are coming from Dodd-Frank.
And if you think that these credit unions and these small banks are
big Wall Street banks, I would encourage you to come to central
Wisconsin. They're the furthest from a big Wall Street bank. These are
people who have grown up in these communities that are helping get
capital out of the bank into the hands of job creators and to
homeowners, people who want to buy a car. And they are burdened by
regulations and mandates and rules. They can't comply with them.
At some point, banking needs to be regulated--we all would agree with
that--but let's have smart regulation. Let's make sure the capital can
get out the door to those small businesses that want to expand or grow.
There's some interesting information that I think just came out from
the NFIB; and if you look at the end of the last recession, 2001, to
the beginning of this new recession in 2007, businesses that have fewer
than 500 employees, they have created 7 million new jobs during that
time frame. And 60 percent of those businesses, they'd only been in
existence for 5 years. So these are new start-ups, small, that are the
engine of job growth in America. Now, on the other hand, we had
employers or businesses that had 500 employees or more. Those
businesses had cut 1 million jobs. And the point here is job growth is
coming from small businesses.
But today, we are at a 16-year low for start-ups. Businesses aren't
growing. Businesses aren't beginning in this new environment. And I
think it goes to what you gentlemen were just talking about. I think
there's three things. One, it's access to capital. They don't have the
ability to go to the bank and get a loan. There are a lot of factors
that used to be considered when making a loan in small-town America:
character and cash flow and a number of considerations. What's
happening today with our banks is they're just looking at the file; so
when the regulators come, their file looks clean, and they can't take
all the factors they used to take into consideration.
I think it's important to note that the banks and the credit unions
in my district, they weren't part of the financial crisis. They had
nothing to do with it. They were implementing sound banking principles
in their communities that were launching small businesses that were the
engine of growth in our communities. But today, they can't do that, and
so we don't see that job growth take place.
They also talk about regulations, which I think you two did a
wonderful job. Just to name a few, remember the 1099 bill? In
ObamaCare, in PPACA, there's a 1099 piece of legislation where, if you
had a transaction that was over $600, you had to send the other
individual or business a 1099. The workload, the paperwork that that
puts onto a small business is unconscionable. They can't focus on doing
the work of their business. They're focused on doing the work of the
IRS. What we're saying here is we need reasonable, commonsense
regulations that are going to help our small businesses expand and
grow.
And another thing they talk about is uncertainty, and this all feeds
into each other. But in here is taxes. It's health care. It's
regulations.
Before I yield back, I'm going to tell you one story, and this is a
story from central Wisconsin. It's an individual that I went to see.
He's a small manufacturer. He has about 100, 110 people who work for
him. As I was sitting in his office, he was saying, Listen, I've got a
great idea. I'm going to grow my business. It's going to cost me $1
million to make this investment. I've been in business for a long time,
and I know this idea that I have is going to work. If I make this $1
million dollar investment, I'm going to create 10 to 15 new jobs in my
community. But guess what? I'm 62 years old. I look at all the
uncertainty. I look at ObamaCare. I look at taxes. I look at new
regulations, look at new banking regulations. He said, With all of that
uncertainty in the marketplace, I'm not going to make that investment.
I'm 62.
Who got hurt?
This guy has enough money. He's made enough money in the course of
running his business. It doesn't hurt him because he didn't make that
investment, but it hurts 15 families in that community that don't have
a good-paying job. Fifteen families don't have work because he didn't
take that risk, make that investment.
We have to make sure that people are encouraged to take risk, to
invest and expand and grow and compete. And if they do that, we're
going to see great growth in this country.
But I believe we're at a crossroads. If we don't go down the path of
free markets and free enterprise, American capitalism, a system that
has worked since our founding, that has created incomparable wealth in
this country, I think we're going to go down a different path, and that
path does not lead to prosperity. It doesn't lead to opportunity. It
doesn't lead to job growth. It leads to something far less than that.
I think, in this country, we want to fight to make sure we stay on a
path of prosperity and opportunity so we can pass that off to the next
generation. That's worth the fight. I'm willing to fight for those
principles.
In this House, we argue, and I think the American people would say
probably too much. But I know there's friends on the other side of the
aisle that would agree with this, that agree that we have to come
together to find solutions that are going to help the private, small
sector grow and put our hardworking people back to work.
So I appreciate the hour that the gentleman from Arkansas has
reserved, and I appreciate the conversation and the focus that my
colleagues here in the freshman class have put on job growth, not only
for their own districts but for the country as a whole. And with this
effort and with some cooperation, hopefully, from the White House,
we're going to be able to turn this economy around, which is not us.
It's actually policy that we turn over to the private sector for that
job growth.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I thank the gentleman.
Before I yield to my friend from Colorado, I just want to follow up
on a few issues. We call the jobs-related bills that we've passed here
that will help the private sector grow the forgotten 15 because these
are the bills that made their way down to the Senate and just sat
there. The only problem with that is it's not 15 anymore; it's 16 or 17
or 18. And they're not one bill. It's more complex than that. They're
plural.
There are a number of jobs bills, a few of them: the Reducing
Regulatory Burdens Act, H.R. 872; the Energy Tax Prevention Act, H.R.
910; Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, H.R. 1230; Putting
the Gulf of Mexico Back to Work Act, H.R. 1229. These are all related
to job creation, getting the private sector creating jobs again, and
the list goes on and on.
Now, one of those is the North American-Made Energy Security Act,
H.R. 1938. Now, this bill is also just sitting in the Senate. It passed
the House July 26 of this year.
{time} 1950
Now, we're up here talking about bills and legislation and what have
you, but speaking for me, and I think I can speak for my colleagues
here, we're talking about bills and legislation and laws, but
ultimately we're talking about policies that will allow folks who are
hurting back in our districts who
[[Page H7192]]
have been out of work--we're talking about how bills that have passed
into law would help job creation, which will help those folks who are
still looking.
I'll give you a specific example.
There's a company called Wells Fund in Little Rock. And they make
massive pipe. And they're talking about expanding. Well, what are they
waiting on, or what is one of the things that they're looking at that
is a potential obstacle? They make the pipe for the Keystone pipeline.
Why are they in Little Rock? Because they're right there at the port of
Little Rock. So they can really haul a lot of steel in those barges,
and they've got a huge high-tech, state-of-the-art facility. It's an
Indian-based company, lots of jobs right there. They want to expand,
they want to create more jobs. They're building up that pipe.
And we've got an administration that's not sure how they feel about
the Keystone pipeline that's going to allow for more energy to come
from our neighbors through the north instead of from around the world?
They're not sure about the Keystone pipeline that will create energy-
related jobs right here in the United States?
Where I come from, the Keystone pipeline's a no-brainer. That means
you don't even have to think about it. And now I read actually a few
minutes ago, I got a news clip that the President now has decided that
he's going to make the ultimate decision on the Keystone pipeline. If I
was making that decision, I'd take about 2 seconds. It's absolutely
critical that we build this both for national security and for energy
here at home in terms of jobs.
Now, on the issue of regulations, I want to touch on it real quickly
before I pass to my good friend from Colorado.
At my jobs conference that we had a couple of weeks ago, senior vice
president Ken Kimbro of Tyson Foods--we've all heard of Tyson. My kids
and I, we love the chicken. We've all heard of Tyson. Ken Kimbro,
senior vice president, says this about regulations in general: ``I
understand the intended consequences of regulations, but it seems like
we turn a blind eye to the unintended consequences of what that's going
to mean to us in Arkansas, our industry, to the State of Arkansas, and
to the jobs that support everything that we do. And it seems to be lost
in an academic exercise without the consequence of what's going to
happen. And we face it across the full spectrum of government agencies,
and it's terribly frustrating because we all want to do the right
thing.''
Now, on the regulatory front, he's identified the problem.
I had another panelist who owns ten International House of Pancake
restaurants. I love them. I like to eat breakfast there. Here's what
she said, ``As a business owner today, I am in a constant posture of
defense.'' Is that what we want? We want job creators in a constant
posture of defense?
So I just want to put in a plug. I have just introduced a bill called
the Job Creation and Regulatory Freeze Act. It's somewhat similar to a
bill introduced on the Senate side by Susan Collins of Maine, and it
puts a moratorium on all major regulations coming out of this
administration until January of 2013. And my colleague on the Senate
side, hers is for a year. I didn't think a year was sufficient because
at the end of that year the administration could just implement
regulations that are waiting.
So I say let's take it through January to Inauguration Day of 2013
because this administration has not gotten the message on
overregulation.
This bill would stop major regulations being implemented, new ones,
until 2013.
Mr. REED. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I yield to the gentleman from New York.
Mr. REED. I appreciate my colleague from Arkansas, my great friend,
for yielding to me.
Just to add a comment. When my colleague from Wisconsin spoke and my
colleague just mentioned when we talk about the Forgotten 15, now 16,
we've got to be clear to the American public that those bills that came
out of this House had bipartisan support. There are colleagues from the
other side of the aisle that have seen the wisdom in the sound policy
that's represented by those bills, and they've joined us and supported
those bills going over to the Senate.
Yet Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has blocked, in my
opinion, those bills from coming to the floor. It's time now for the
Senate to act. At least bring them up and debate the issue.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. In fact, on the Keystone bill that I
mentioned, H.R. 1938, that was passed on July 26, 2011, the North
American-Made Energy Security Act, looks like there were 47 Democrats
that joined with us on that bill. Many of our Democrats joined us in a
bipartisan effort.
But again, stacking up like cordwood on the steps of the Senate.
Mr. REED. Just to conclude on this point. Now is not the time for our
President to divide this country. We have had bipartisan support on
these bills here in the House. I know it hasn't been reported on by the
press. But that's the fact.
Now, what we need to do now rather than divide the country--when I
hear comments from our President talking about how he has to break up
the American Jobs Act that he submitted so that we Republicans can
understand it. That's not productive conversation. We understand the
jobs bill. I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle
understand it, too, and that's demonstrated by the fact that there's
only one sponsor of that proposed piece of legislation from the
President. No other individual in this Chamber cosponsored
that legislation. I think that speaks volumes. They understand that's
not good sound policy.
So now is not the time to try to divide the country with scare
tactics, class warfare, trying to go after and paint the top 2 percent
as the reason why we're in this situation. This is not the time to try
to say, ``Oh, China is the bad guy.'' Of course it's not the policies
coming out of Washington and the overregulations and the noncompetitive
Tax Code or the lack of a vision for a comprehensive energy policy. Or
doing the responsible thing with coming up with a credible plan to deal
with the debt.
No. We have to divide this country is the rhetoric that I'm hearing
on the campaign trail during this Presidential election from our
President. I disagree with that.
We're here as a freshman class to really change the culture of
Washington, and I think we are. We're making progress. But we've got a
lot more work to do.
Let us never forget that the Forgotten 16 bills that are now on the
Senate floor were done with bipartisan support. And we'll continue to
work at it because I don't believe the American people are stupid. They
will see through all of the rhetoric because the American people are
like me. They are sick and tired of politics as usual out of
Washington. That's why we ran. That's why I'm sure my colleagues who
joined me today would join in the sentiment that we ran, we left our
families and our businesses, to come down here and once and for all
stand up for what's right.
And what is right is a strong private sector America, an America of
principle based on capitalism, based on individualism, individual
accountability, and responsibility. Those are the themes that we
promote and that we stand here and will fight for, because if we can
get those themes implemented into strong, long-term policy, America not
only will survive, it will prosper for generations to come. That's my
promise to you here tonight.
I again thank my friend for yielding.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I yield to the gentleman from Colorado.
Mr. GARDNER. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas and my colleagues
for joining us to talk here today about this important issues.
Eastern Colorado, the district that I represent, is about 32,000
square miles. It's bigger than the State of South Carolina. And one of
the greatest privileges that I have in representing that district is
meeting with the people at the local coffee shops, talking to business
owners at the car dealerships, talking to people who are really making
our economy run, what I call the front line of our economy, ground zero
for economic development.
{time} 2000
The challenges that they face are no different in Colorado than they
are in Wisconsin or New York or Arkansas because we have people who
expect this Congress and this administration to
[[Page H7193]]
work together to create jobs and to create opportunities to get people
back to work.
This morning when I left the house, I drove by some farmers who were
picking corn out in the field. The pile of sugar beets is getting
bigger right outside of town as people are digging sugar beets. Then
you head up to northern Colorado a little bit further; and early in the
morning, you see the drilling rigs leaving town, going out to find a
new place to start their drilling operations. Closer to Fort Collins,
Colorado, you see the trucks hauling the blades of new wind turbines.
People are working each and every day to make ends meet in order to
put food on the table for their families. They're wondering what's
happening in Washington, D.C., and they're wondering what's going on:
Why can't you guys do what we do? That is, when times get tough, we
find a solution; we find an answer; we do the right thing.
The forgotten 15 is our way to do just that because we have passed a
number of bills to get this country back to work and to make sure that
our country's job creators have the policies that they need to expand
their businesses, to grow their opportunities, to put people to work.
I had a chance the other day to meet with a number of businessowners
and with a number of employees at a coffee shop in my district. There
were probably about 15 people around the table. We were talking about
what's happening to this country from a debt perspective, from an
economic perspective, about the fact that we are now in the 32nd month
where unemployment has exceeded 8 percent, and about what we could do
as a country to move forward again. The waitress was coming in and out,
helping people at the table--taking orders, putting food on the table.
As we began to leave and I started to walk out, she came up, and she
grabbed me by the shoulder. She says, Hey, I heard what you said in
there. Who are you?
I said, Well, maybe I haven't done the best job of getting around and
letting people know what our message is but, I said, Thanks for
stopping me.
Who are you?
I said, Well, I represent the eastern plains of Colorado in Congress.
She said, How can I help get the message that you were talking
about--how can I help get that message around town, around the
district? What can we do to get your message out of job creation? of
freeing up small businesses? to do the right thing?
I said, You know, it's going to take everybody to send those letters
to the editor, to make sure that we are talking to all of our elected
officials--the city councils and the other Members of Congress in our
States and our delegations--about the fact that regulations when they
go too far can hurt job creation, that taxes when they increase can
hurt small families' and small businesses' abilities to grow and
expand. Make sure that you're expressing that. Make sure you're telling
them that. Make sure you're talking about America's job creators, about
our idea--the Republican plan--for job creation, what we are going to
do to get this country's job creators moving again.
One of the forgotten 15 is a bill that I introduced/passed. It's the
Jobs and Energy Permitting Act. It's H.R. 2021. This bill passed back
on June 22, 2011, to be exact. It passed with 255 votes in support.
There aren't 255 Republicans in the House of Representatives. It took
both Democrats and Republicans to get to 255 votes. That bill, if it
were to become law, would create 54,000 jobs around this country,
54,000 good-paying jobs around this country. It has been introduced in
the Senate with a bipartisan group of sponsors, but it hasn't been
acted on yet.
The Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, H.R. 872, which is something
that farmers in my district are very concerned about, passed with 292
votes on March 31, 2011. It's a bill that would make sure that our
farmers, our ranchers, our communities can continue to grow and
flourish in their economies; but it hasn't seen the light of day over
in the Senate.
Yet those farmers who are picking corn, the people putting together
the wind turbines, the men and women out on the drilling rigs don't
wonder why the forgotten 15 haven't passed. They wonder why Congress
can't get its act together, why this President can't work with us to
find the solutions this country needs. That's why we are here tonight,
talking about our commitment to this country, about our commitment to
our country's job creators, to the men and women who have struggled far
too long in looking for work. It's so that we can find opportunities
for them and their families so they can get back to work with the jobs
that they need to survive.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I thank the gentleman from Colorado. I just
want to make a few points, and then I'll yield to the gentleman, my
good friend from Wisconsin.
First of all, I want to make clear that the number of the bill that I
have just introduced, the Job Creation and Regulatory Freeze Act, is
H.R. 3194.
Earlier, we were talking about commonsense regulations, and I want to
mention one regulation. I had a constituent fly to D.C. to discuss
something with me. She lives outside my district, this businesswoman,
but she has numerous stores in my district. She has 300 stores in four
States. They're convenience stores. She came to me and met with me in
my office right up here in the Longworth, and she had some other folks
with her. They told me the problem that they have with horses coming
into their convenience stores.
I said, Excuse me?
She said, Yes. We're being told by the Department of Justice, through
the Americans with Disabilities Act, that we have to let horses/ponies
come into our stores if someone wants to bring a horse or a pony into
the store.
I asked, Why would anyone ever need to bring a horse or a pony into
your convenience store?
They said, Well, apparently, it's not common.
I didn't think it was common, because I'm 43, and I've never heard of
anyone taking a horse into a convenience store; but she told me, in the
way some folks rely on seeing eye dogs, some other folks in the country
rely on horses for balancing or for whatever other service that horse
provides, maybe guiding them. I'm not sure of all the details. The
validity of that aside, I took her at her word that people were in the
practice of taking horses into stores.
She said, Look, I've got liability problems here potentially. People
are going to bring horses in. They might kick somebody; they may be
dirty; they may dirty up the store; they may knock things over.
I said, Okay. If someone relies on a horse, that's fine; but why do
we have a Federal regulation on this?
I've never even heard of it. We have people being paid to draft rules
that deal with horses going into stores. I almost couldn't believe it.
So I did a little research with my staff. Sure enough, she wasn't
kidding. She wasn't making this up. ADA, title III, regulation 28 CFR,
part 36, section .36.302: ``Modifications in policies, practices, or
procedures.'' There is a provision entitled, ``Miniature Horses'':
A public accommodation shall make reasonable modifications in
policies, practices, or procedures to permit the use of a miniature
horse by an individual with a disability if the miniature horse has
been individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit
of the individual with a disability.
Now, if individuals have to rely on horses for balance or guidance or
whatever, then that's absolutely fine. I just find it incredible that
the Federal Government is telling a businessowner, who has never in her
life even heard of a horse coming in a store, that she has to comply
with this and has to make sure that there is room for a horse to get
in--or a pony or a miniature horse. I just think that this is where
common sense comes in. We obviously can't regulate for every
contingency, but apparently we're trying to.
{time} 2010
So I'm taking a closer look at this to try to get some more
information, but I think it's one that at first impression tells me we
need to apply a little more common sense with regard to regulations.
I yield to the gentleman from Wisconsin.
Mr. DUFFY. I thank my friend for yielding.
As we look at what's happened recently, as the President has come out
[[Page H7194]]
with his jobs bill proposal--and, frankly, many who analyze it would
say this is stimulus number two. It's just another government spending
program hoping the government borrowing and spending will lead to
economic growth and wealth and jobs. And if you look at it, I think the
President is saying, I want to do something. And I say, I don't want to
do necessarily ``something.'' I want to do the right thing so we can
create economic growth and prosperity and wealth and jobs.
This is my concern of what's happening right now: I think the
President came into office talking about hope and change and job growth
and job creation, and he implemented stimulus number one. And from
that, it didn't work because it's never worked. Government borrowing,
government massive spending doesn't create jobs. But that was his sell
to the American people.
Now as we roll into the second phase, I think this is the campaign
phase, the political phase. So instead of focusing on policies that
bring the bottom up, that help give hardworking folks a good-paying job
or a good-paying opportunity, he is now focusing on class warfare. I
think that's the wrong way to go. Our policies that we are
implementing, that we passed and have sent to the Senate are policies
that will create jobs.
Mr. GRIFFIN of Arkansas. I thank the gentleman, I thank all my
friends for being here tonight, and I yield back the balance of my
time.
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