[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 53 (Wednesday, April 2, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H2839-H2846]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE STATE OF OUR CONGRESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be able to stand
here today with my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino) and Mr.
Wenstrup from Ohio, behind me, in order to talk a little bit about not
only the state of our country but of our Congress. When we came here 3
years ago, we were on a mission to get America back to work. We have
watched now over the last 3 years. And some of the criticism that comes
about all the time is, You know, you guys just aren't getting anything
done. I hear people talk about not getting anything done, about being a
do-nothing Congress, about not really pushing the agenda forward, about
us not being able to get America back to work.
Well, today, Mr. Marino, our colleagues, and I are going to be here
in the position of myth-busters. This myth that somehow the House of
Representatives--and I think the key to this is that there are actually
two Chambers to this Congress. There is a House of Representatives and
there is a Senate. In the House of Representatives, we have done
incredible work over the last 3 years. We are talking about 220 House-
passed bills that are stuck in the do-nothing Senate. And of those 220
bills, 30-plus of those bills are about job creation. They are about
getting America back to work. They are about giving people confidence
in the future that they can look forward and begin to plan their lives.
Now, we can't do it alone. And while we get criticism from the
administration and as we look down the hall to the Senate, we start to
wonder ourselves, what would it take to get America engaged in this
process? What would it take to get our American citizens aware of what
is actually going on in the Capitol? Why is it that we are stuck here?
Why can't we move forward?
So today's exercise--for the next 60 minutes, Mr. Marino, myself, and
our other colleagues are going to have an opportunity to speak to the
people of the United States to make sure that we expose this myth that
this is a do-nothing Congress. No, no, no, no. This is not a do-nothing
Congress. This is a Congress that has worked very hard. This is a
Congress that has done monumental work to get our fellow Americans back
to work.
The problem is, when you walk it down the halls and into the Senate,
it
[[Page H2840]]
gets lost. It gets tabled. It doesn't get amended. It doesn't get
discussed. It doesn't get debated. In fact, it doesn't do anything. It
just collects dust.
So I welcome this opportunity to speak not just to this House but
also to the people of America. And at this time, I would like my
colleague and my good friend in Congress, Mr. Marino from Pennsylvania,
to also weigh in on this.
Mr. MARINO. Thank you, Congressman Kelly. I appreciate this. It is an
honor to be here with you, and it is an honor to be setting the record
straight.
You know, I spent a couple minutes in here listening to my colleagues
about what we are not doing and what they are doing. The facts and
figures that they are throwing out are coming from the White House.
They change on a regular basis. We will get into that stuff in a little
bit.
But I want to hold up something and show it to the American people
and then touch on it a little bit, about what we have done in the House
of Representatives. What the Republicans have done in the House of
Representatives for the 113th Congress--that is just last year and this
year. That is not including the legislation that we passed in the 112th
Congress, from 2011 to 2012.
I am holding in my hand here the names, the numbers, the dates, and
the details of 220 bills that the House passed--220 bills. Some of it
was with support from a handful of Democrats who saw that this is good
legislation, that it will create jobs, it will keep taxes low. It does
away with job-crushing regulation. It lets the private sector do what
it does best. It allows the hardworking taxpayers to have a level
playing field.
I am just going to recite some of the bills. I am not going to go
over nearly all 220 bills that are sitting on Democrat Senate Leader
Harry Reid's desk that he refuses to bring to the floor for a vote. I
ask the Democrat leader: Senator Reid, what are you afraid of? Why do
you not bring these bills to the floor for a vote so the American
people can see the legislation and how their Senators vote for it? They
can see it right here in the House. They can go to our Web site. They
can go to the congressional Web site. They can see how we voted on
legislation.
I think it is despicable that one person in Congress can hold up 220
pieces of legislation and hide it from the American people. And do you
know why he does it? Politics. There is an election coming up this
year. He doesn't want his Democrat Senators to have a voting record.
Well, that is why we are here. We are supposed to have a voting record.
We are supposed to represent the American people.
Some of the legislation concerns energy, the Offshore Energy and Jobs
Act, H.R. 2231; Northern Route Approval Act, H.R. 3; hydropower
regulation; Energy Consumers Relief; Coal Residuals Reuse; Federal
Lands; Energy and Water appropriations; Department of Defense
appropriations; Homeland Security appropriations; Preserving Work
Requirements for Welfare Programs; the SKILLS Act; Student Success Act;
the RAPID Act, which does away with regulation and time that prevents
businesses from creating jobs. And who creates the jobs the best? The
private industry.
{time} 1645
Look, the Federal Government has a rough time keeping Amtrak on time,
and they are always way over budget, and we are going to trust them
with health care? We are going to trust the Federal Government with
creating jobs when entrepreneurs are the best people, women and men, to
do that?
Any time you want to see what legislation is on Mr. Reid's desk, you
just go to the Web site, the congressional Web site and see what was
passed.
You are going to hear some facts and figures. I was a prosecutor for
18 years. Actually, I started working in a bakery, a wholesale bakery,
at 17. I worked in that bakery until I was 33. The owner died, and a
new company came in. They overlooked me for a promotion because I
didn't have a college degree, but they wanted me to train the guy with
the college degree coming in. I went home and said to my wife: I want
to go to college and law school. My wife worked full-time, and I worked
part-time. We got through college and law school, which normally takes
7 years, in 5 years. I wouldn't have been able to do it without my
wife.
But I know what it is like to work in a factory 60 and 65 hours a
week. I know what it is like to stretch a paycheck. My wife knows what
it is like to stretch a dollar from here to next year. And I also know
what it is like in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor for 18
years. I have seen it all. I have seen the worst sides of life that I
have ever seen. But do you know what I have a passion for? It is the
children. And our children's future now is dismal.
My father gave me a better life than he had. I am not sure I can do
that for my children. They are now looking at over $50,000 of debt--
each of them. So that means that every dollar that they earn, over 50
percent of it--if we ever get to the point to pay the debt down--is
going to our debt.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman.
At this time, I am going to yield to a new Member from the State of
Ohio. Brad Wenstrup is with us today. He has done remarkable work since
he has gotten here in just a little over a year.
So, Mr. Wenstrup, thank you for being with us today.
Mr. WENSTRUP. Thank you very much. I appreciate that, Mr. Kelly.
Mr. Speaker, we have a problem. We have an inactive Senate with Harry
Reid at the helm as the majority leader. Someone on the Senate side
seems to have hit the pause button, and it has been stuck there for a
while, and we are having to deal with that. But here in the House of
Representatives, the people's House, we have passed over 200 bills
since I came to Congress that just seem to be gathering dust over in
the Senate.
We have hardly been inactive on this side of Congress taking up
important energy, education, health care reforms, and numerous jobs
bills--some Republican bills, some Democratic bills--and most passed
with bipartisan support. Yet Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has
thrown them on the ground.
Ohioans ask me what we are doing here in Washington, D.C. I am at my
wit's end trying to explain that every reform-minded bill that I have
supported that we passed on behalf of the American people is stuck in
the Senate. It is a legislative purgatory. It just sits. And I don't
wish that on my fellow Ohioans or my fellow Americans. I am not asking
the Senate to agree with every bill that we pass, Mr. Speaker, but at
least allow a vote and at least allow a discussion.
One example is the Keystone XL pipeline. The energy security
legislation passed the House with bipartisan support nearly a year ago;
241 Members of Congress voted for the Northern Route Approval Act. More
than that, a filibuster-proof majority of Senators, Republicans and
Democrats, are on the record as supporting this project.
A recent Washington Post-ABC poll demonstrates that the American
people also support the goals of this legislation of building the
pipeline by nearly a three-to-one margin. But the Senate has thrown the
bill on the floor blocking any vote. Does the Senate have a solution?
Not really. They just seem to want to stand in the way.
Another example is the SKILLS Act. I hear from Ohioans frustrated
that Washington isn't working, especially in year 6 of this Obama
economy with disappointing job growth. And as we continue to face
unacceptable unemployment levels, the Senate refuses to take
commonsense steps to get Americans back to work.
Over a year ago, I was proud to support the SKILLS Act, legislation
that would have helped job seekers, helped employers, reformed
government, and cut bureaucratic costs so that more money can go
directly to help people getting back to work. This legislation offers a
long-term solution to help those looking for work, combined with smart
government reforms. And what do we hear from Senate leadership?
Nothing.
It is bipartisan frustration, I think, on some parts because these
aren't just Republican bills that are being blocked. Nearly three dozen
Democratic-sponsored bills have passed the House of Representatives
with overwhelming support from both sides of the aisle--no action in
the Senate. These are noncontroversial bills. But some in the Senate
are more concerned with demonizing individual Americans than helping
every American.
[[Page H2841]]
The legislative branch is the most direct representation of the
American people, yet the Senate leader is content to hand over his
constitutional responsibilities to President Obama and the executive
branch rather than do his job and to legislate. It is a myth that this
is a do-nothing Congress, but we are witnessing a do-nothing Senate.
I ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: relieve this legislative
backlog; hundreds of bills and millions of Americans are waiting.
Here in the House, we have taken action. We are active. We have taken
the vote. We have taken the action as far as we can take it, and
America waits for a further response. Most of these bills that we pass
usually involve having less government involvement, not more, not more
involvement. The table is set. Our Founders set it up in such a way
that we are to represent the people and we are to act, and the Senate
is to act, and we are all supposed to come together at the table. I
have been here just over a year, and I have been waiting at that table.
I have been waiting for the Senate to engage with us. I have been
waiting for the President to engage with us. But that hasn't happened.
I left a medical practice to serve here, and I am proud and honored
to be here. People often ask me, well, what is the difference between a
doctor and being here? Well, as a doctor, I can make a diagnosis. I can
get together with a patient and their family and provide a treatment,
and together we go to work on that. It takes both of us to do that.
Sometimes when you make the suggestion of a treatment, you even suggest
that there be a second opinion. And I can tell you right now on all of
these things that we have passed, all these treatments that we have
recommended, we are still waiting for our second opinion from the
Senate.
The House is active. We are waiting for the Senate to take up the arm
and do their job, as well.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank Mr. Wenstrup.
Mr. Marino and I were talking for a second. Mr. Marino had touched on
something that had just happened recently when you talked about
activity on the Senate floor and inactivity on the Senate floor. There
was a night not too long ago where the Senate talked all night long,
and I think Mr. Marino wants to just touch on that right now.
Mr. MARINO. If this were not nauseating, it would be hilarious. There
are millions of people out of work, Mr. Speaker, millions of people who
are losing their health care and millions more whose health care is
increasing. There are 230 pieces of legislation sitting on Harry Reid's
desk. And do you know what they debated a couple weeks ago all night on
the floor? Nothing to do with jobs, nothing to do with deregulation,
and nothing to do with getting out of the way of the hardworking
taxpayer business. They debated climate change all night on the floor.
Now, there is no one that is more than a conservationist than myself.
I live out in the country. I love seeing the bear and the deer walk
across my property. I get my water from a well. My children have grown
up there. I will do everything I can to protect my children and make
sure that the air they are breathing is clean, the water is clean, and
the land is pristine. But do you know something? I am pretty sure the
hardworking taxpayers, the people in this country, the farmers in my
district, and the entrepreneurs in my district want to see the
government get out of the way and let entrepreneurs and business do
what it does.
I am a states' rights guy. I believe the less Federal Government in
my life the better. That is proven by--I just met with a group of
entrepreneurs a little earlier. They are called start-ups. They are
young kids. They are geniuses who know the IT industry and who create
apps, create hardware, and create software. They are saying to me:
Congressman, our hands are tied. We are being overregulated, and we
have a lot of good ideas that will help the American people.
You are going to be hearing some figures quoted. I am not a big
figure guy, but I think it is important that you listen to these
figures and see these figures. But I want to tell you where I got them,
because as a prosecutor, I always had to back up, in court, where I got
my evidence and cite it.
You have all heard of the Congressional Budget Office. We refer to it
as the CBO. I am going to tell you just in two sentences what the
Congressional Budget Office does. The Congressional Budget Office, CBO,
is a Federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States
Government that provides economic data to Congress. The CBO was created
as a nonpartisan agency by the Congressional Budget and Improvement
Control Act of 1974, which means they are independent. They are not
Republican, and they are not Democrat. These are people who crunch
numbers, make estimates, bring us information, and then submit it to us
so the American people know what the actual facts are.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Thank you, Mr. Marino.
We all have similar experiences. I know you do, Brad, when you are
back home; and, Tom, I know you do when you are back home. It really
doesn't matter where we are. A lot of times it is coming out of Mass on
Sunday morning, and sometimes it is just being down at the K-Mart or
the Walmart, or maybe I am up in Erie and I am out near Presque Isle,
or I could be in Grove City or I could be in Slippery Rock, and people
come up to me all the time and say: Do you know what? You all need to
get busy. And they talk about: We don't want to hear any more about the
battles between Republicans and Democrats. Quite frankly, we are tired
of hearing it because, if you can't work together, you can't get things
done. And then the question that comes up is: Can't you just compromise
once in a while to get something done? And then you have got to scratch
your head and say: Yes, but, do you know what? We are doing an awful
lot right now, but you are just not hearing it.
The reason that comes about, and we all know this, is because the
biggest megaphone in the country right now is at the White House.
Now, Brad, you and I sat here, and, Tom, you and I sat here during
the State of the Union. The President made a very chilling statement.
He said:
America can't wait, and I can't wait. And if this Congress
won't act the way I want it to do, I will go around them, and
I will get it done.
Half of this side of the House stood up and cheered that, cheered up
their forfeiture of their duty of the oath that they took when they
came into office.
Now, I stand here today as a representative of Pennsylvania's Third
District. That does not mean that I only represent Republicans that
live in the Third District of Pennsylvania. That does not mean that I
am only concerned with the concerns of Republicans in the Third
District of Pennsylvania. That does not mean that I represent anything
else but every single person--every citizen--that resides within that
district.
So the things we are talking about today are not Republican issues,
and they are not Democrat issues. These are American issues. We are
talking about American jobs. We are talking about getting back to work.
We are talking about coming here, taking an oath of office, and then
fulfilling that oath to the people who sent us.
Now, I know that you go through the same thing. I have many people
that approach me and say: Do you know what, Mike? I didn't vote for
you. And I say to them: Well, do you know what? I didn't know that
until right now, but I will forget about it, believe me. And they will
say: Well, this is an issue I have, and these are some things that
concern me, and I just want to know where are you all going and what is
it that you are trying to do? And why can't you get America back to
work? Because you all said when you ran for office that we have got to
get this Nation back on track and we have got to get America moving in
the right direction. We have got to get America being America again.
We know that oftentimes in our life we look at all the problems we
have, and the answer to everything right now is these things need
fixing. Now, how do you do that? You can only do it with a very dynamic
and robust economy. So when I hear the conversation that takes place
either in our Chamber or the Senate Chamber and you start to say to
yourself, it is nice to have that conversation, it is nice to have that
little talk, and it is nice to have that debate, but do you know what?
You
[[Page H2842]]
haven't created any jobs. Because without a dynamic and robust economy,
it is all just idle chatter. It is just politicians getting up,
speaking and hoping that somehow they hit a chord with some
constituents somewhere that says, boy, she is speaking for me or he is
speaking for me.
{time} 1700
We speak for everybody, not just the towns we come from or the
townships we come from or the counties we come from or the States we
come from, but this entire country.
So when we look at what is going on now and people say: yes, you say
that is going on, but you know what, there is no proof.
Here is what I would ask our friends to do because the President says
this all the time. He says: you know what, pick up your phone or pick
up your pen, and that is what I am going to do, and I am going to get
things done; I am going to use my executive powers, which are vast and
enormous, to do what I want to do, despite what Congress may say,
despite especially what those characters in the House of
Representatives are pushing down your throat because that is just not
what I want you to hear.
Well, my message to the American people is: you all have phones, and
you all have pens, and you all have the ability, because of the country
we live in, to speak out on anything, any time, anywhere you want; no
place else in the world can we do that.
As an example today, as my colleagues and I are doing--because, as I
said earlier, it is time to do some mythbusting, it is time to call a
halt to this idle chatter about what America really needs.
We know what America really needs. America needs to get back to work,
and this Congress needs to get out of the job creators' way. We need to
get the heavy regulatory boot of the government off the throat of our
job creators, and we need to let them breathe again.
We need to let them look to the future with some certainty and know
that you can go ahead and plan. You can go ahead and make a strategy.
You can go ahead and look to the future with a great degree of success
waiting for you.
Now, opportunity is there for everybody. There is equal opportunity.
There is no question about that. We know there is not equal outcome. My
goodness, that is just not the case.
We do know that hardworking Americans throughout our history have
done things that are absolutely incredible, and they have done it
because of a government that lets people be free. It gives them liberty
to go on and do what they need to do and when they want to do it and
the ways that they want to do it.
There is no place else in the world, so the question comes down to:
Why now? Why now have we hit such a logjam? Why is it that we can't get
a law to get America back to work?
The answer is quite simple. Mr. Marino has talked about it. Mr.
Wenstrup has talked about it. My goodness, there is another election
coming, and if it truly comes down to we can't get these things done
because of another election coming, then we can never get anything done
because there are elections every year.
Now, if Mr. Reid can say to his people in the Senate and if he can
look to this country and if he can go on TV and tell people these
things you are hearing about the health care law are all lies, these
things have been conjured up by people who don't really exist, the
stories that they are spreading are lies, there is not a shred of
evidence that would support what they have said--now, he stands in
front of the American people and says that you are all liars and that
we are not going to tolerate that type of behavior.
Then he goes behind his desk at the Senate and said: all of those
pieces of legislation, those 220 House-passed bills, put them on the
table because we are not going to talk about them. We are not going to
debate them. We are not going to amend them. And you know why we are
not? Because there is an election coming.
Right now, there are a third of the Senate Members up for election.
That is their rotation--a third, a third, and a third. Every couple of
years, there is a third reelected, or new Senators come in.
He has placed the reelection above the redirection of this country.
The reelection of his Senate is more important to him than the
redirection of this country. That is absolutely unforgivable.
So I would just ask our friends, as they listen--and this is a
message to America, not so much to the House of Representatives or to
the Senate because we are pretty much ignored, but let me just say
this: for those of you who are at home and listening to this, there are
several things you can do.
I said about picking up your phone or picking up your pen. How about
this, just getting on your computer. Go to www.speaker.gov/jobs. You
can also go to majorityleader.gov/bill-tracker.
What will these two sites give you? They will give you everything we
are talking about. It is all there. You don't have to come to
Washington to see us. You don't have to send away for a book.
You don't have to do anything except go online and pick up this
information. You can sit at home and see what it is this House of
Representatives has passed; and then you, too, can sit, as myself, Mr.
Marino, and Mr. Wenstrup do every day, and ask: What is it that we are
waiting for?
The answer is leadership; quite simply, it is leadership. America,
right now, is hunting for champions. They are hunting for people who
will rise up and take control of this situation, and this idea that,
somehow, somewhere, some knight in shining armor has to come riding in
on a white charger to get us there is baloney because, every election,
it comes right out your hometown.
It comes right out of your churches, and it comes right out of the
folks you work with every day and have grown up with and have lived
life with. That is who is here. That is who is here. It is so unique;
it is the only place in the world that you can do it.
I just tell you, because of the social media, you can go as an
individual in your home. You don't have to get in your car and drive
anywhere. You don't have to waste any money on gas. You don't have to
worry about sitting in traffic.
Just sit at home and go to those two sites, www.speaker.gov/jobs or
majorityleader.gov/bill-tracker. You can find out everything we are
talking about.
Mr. Wenstrup, you did talk about the Keystone pipeline, and we ask
ourselves all the time: What is the holdup on the Keystone pipeline?
One person, one person; and if you don't know where that person is,
let me give you a clue: he lives in a white house at 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue. This is not a tough place to find.
Pick up the phone and call him. Tell him: Mr. President, let's get
back to work; Mr. President, let's make America energy independent; Mr.
President, let's quit worrying about the next election, and let's get
this country back in the right direction.
We can do it as a people. We can do it together. We must do it. It is
not just a responsibility. It is our obligation, not just for the
future, but to all those from the past.
So I would just tell you, my friends, there is so much going on right
now, and I really would like my two colleagues, let's all join, and we
can have a colloquy right now between the three of us and talk back and
forth because I think it is important for the people of America to
understand.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Valadao). Members are reminded to
refrain from engaging in personalities toward Senators and are further
reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I yield to Mr. Wenstrup.
Mr. WENSTRUP. The gentleman mentioned the Affordable Care Act, and
you mentioned a phone and a pen. I would encourage all Americans to use
their phone and to use their pen to let the other parts of our
government know where you stand and know that you do want to see some
action taking place.
We are a Nation of laws, and we should live by the rule of law. It is
very difficult for the American people to understand when certain laws
are passed and signed by the President and then just changed as though
it is a menu, you can just select which laws you want to enforce.
[[Page H2843]]
That makes it very difficult for the American people to understand,
and it makes our job more difficult, too, as we go ahead and pass laws.
While we are talking about some of the things that we have done here
in the House, both in the 112th and in the 113th Congress, we passed
the REINS Act. For those who aren't familiar with the REINS Act,
basically what it does is it brings more power back into Congress and
into those who represent you. It gives you a voice.
We have established, over the years, many agencies where we have
empowered those agencies, and we have empowered the people within the
agencies to make the decisions, and often, it is punitive, regulatory
decisions that they are making, so this makes it very difficult for our
businesses.
What the REINS Act does is it says that, if a regulation has a
negative economic impact of over $100 million, then it has to be
approved by Congress. That gives you, the people, a chance to reach out
to your Representative and let them know how you feel about these
regulations, rather than just having a bureaucracy deciding that this
is what is going to take place.
As I said, I think, over the years, this body has given up some of
that power to these agencies, and that takes it away from the American
people, and we want to get that back.
Now, we talk about if it is over $100 million of negative economic
impact. Well, I tell you I rarely see a regulation that has a positive
economic impact in America, and so this is an opportunity for us to get
that back.
Again, it is something that we passed in the last two Congresses here
in the House of Representatives, and it has not been taken up in the
Senate.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank the gentleman, and I yield to the
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).
Mr. LAMBORN. I want to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for his
leadership on this and many other issues, and I thank him for putting
this time together.
Whenever anyone says it is a do-nothing Congress, they are only half
right. It is actually a do-nothing Senate.
In this Congress, the House has passed and sent over to the Senate
311 total bills, and we have talked about the 220 jobs-related bill.
There are 311 total bills.
In stark contrast, the Senate has sent to the House only 67 bills.
The Senate produces just about one-third of what the House does--one-
third of the work, Mr. Speaker.
I am not saying that passing bills in and of itself is an unalloyed
good. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or ObamaCare, is
a primary example of that, but it is one way to measure how hard you
are working.
From the House Natural Resources Committee I sit on, we have passed
six bills opening up American energy that would create over 1 million
new jobs, lower gasoline and electricity prices, reduce our dependence
on foreign oil, and help lower our national debt by generating over $1
billion in new revenue. These bills are now stalled in the Senate.
The U.S. Senate has turned into a productivity graveyard. President
Obama has signed only 24 Senate bills into law during this Congress. In
contrast, 91 bills from the House have been signed by the President
into law. These are total bills of all different subjects.
Senate Democrats' sole concern seems to be protecting themselves from
taking recorded votes that might anger their liberal donors or their
voters. They do this by closing off debate, eliminating amendments, and
writing their bills in secret, shutting out Republican voices and
input.
This broken and dysfunctional Democrat Senate has produced many
disasters for the American people and not just ObamaCare. They also
passed the trillion dollar so-called Stimulus Act, refused for 4 years
to pass a budget, and allowed the President to balloon the national
debt in five short years from $10 trillion to $17 trillion.
Don't let the President or Harry Reid fool you with false narratives
that those rascally Republicans are holding up the Nation's business.
This is just another gimmick to shift the blame away from where it
really lies.
Our country deserves better. Bills that would grow our economy and
put millions of our friends and neighbors back to work should never die
in the depths of the Democrat Senate. It is critical for every single
American to let Senate Democrats know that they are sick and tired of
the do-nothing Senate.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank Mr. Lamborn.
If I may inquire, how much time remains?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 25 minutes remaining.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Marino).
Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I heard a little bit ago when my colleagues
on the other side of the aisle were talking about ObamaCare, and they
said that Republicans tried to repeal it over 40 times; and that is
true, we did.
We tried to fix it, with no help from the other side, but he said,
twice, that we didn't have anything to offer. Again, that statement is
not correct.
Look at H.R. 3121, American Health Care Reform Act. It repeals
ObamaCare and puts together a health care program that physicians and
hospital administrators and the public took part in suggesting what we
need in a health care program, so it is there. It is backed up. H.R.
3121, we did do something.
Now, we need to talk a little bit about some issues concerning what
my colleagues have said with regard to ObamaCare.
I just recently heard and verified this by my staff that the House
minority leader, Nancy Pelosi, said Tuesday that the Founding Fathers--
talking about Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, and Washington, the Founding
Fathers--would be pleased with ObamaCare because it means that
Americans can pursue happiness without being stuck with a job just to
have health care.
{time} 1715
This is the same person that says we have to pass it so we know what
is in it. Well, we all know what is in it, and we all know what is not
in it.
Now, I want to make a point clear. Congressman Kelly and myself, this
is our second term. We new Members of the House, we have a little
different approach to things.
This $18 trillion of debt that we are in, this just didn't happen
over the last couple of years. This happened over the last 50 years. I
often say to my constituents, if I had the ability to have every living
President in a group of my constituents, Mr. Speaker, and every leader,
I would say to them: how dare you do this to us; how dare you,
Republicans and Democrats, put us into this debt.
The Republicans had some opportunities when they had control of the
House and the Senate a decade or so ago, but times are changing. There
is a new breed here.
I just want to bring some issues to your attention concerning
ObamaCare that the American people need to know about. When ObamaCare
was first implemented, first told about what is going to happen, it was
supposed to cover 60 million people. Again, go to the Congressional
Budget Office Web site at www.cbo.gov. It is supposed to cover 60
million people at a cost of $900 billion and some change over a 10-year
period.
You were told you can keep your doctor; you can keep your health care
program. If you didn't want to participate in ObamaCare, you didn't
have to. And do you know something? It wasn't going to cost you one
penny more. Well, the Congressional Budget Office just released new
figures and they simply put it this way: instead of covering 60 million
people, maybe--maybe--ObamaCare will cover 24 million people; and
instead of costing $900 billion, it now is closer to $2 trillion.
And, oh, by the way, were you able to keep your insurance that you
had prior to ObamaCare? No. The President said you could, but you
can't.
Were you able to keep your physicians? In many instances, no.
Your rates weren't going up. How many of your rates stayed the same?
We are talking about millions of people, millions and millions of
people who lost insurance because of ObamaCare, and millions more whose
insurance rates went up significantly.
The President waived more than 30 provisions of his law in order to
try and make it work, number one.
Despite his promise that everyone who likes their plan can keep it,
between 4 and 7 million Americans have had their health care plans
canceled.
[[Page H2844]]
Approximately, 7.5 million seniors will be forced from their Medicare
Advantage health care plan of choice in 2014. Others will see more than
$3,700 in services cut.
ObamaCare imposes 21 different taxes on Americans and businesses and
an additional cost of more than $1 trillion to Americans and the
economy.
The workforce will shrink. My colleague said there is no evidence
that the workforce would shrink. Well, you go to www.cbo.gov and you
will read that the workforce will shrink by 2.5 million jobs because of
ObamaCare. Not a good sign for the 4 million Americans who have been
unemployed for over 6 months.
Eleven million small business employees will see premiums rise under
ObamaCare.
And Medicaid, a program that already has reimbursement rates below
Medicare and one in which one out of three doctors does not accept new
patients will see enrollments rise by more than 91 million Americans,
34 million of whom are childless adults.
This, ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Speaker, this does not work, and we
have to fix it. We have offered a way to fix it, but the President said
there is nothing wrong with it.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank Mr. Marino.
I think, Mr. Speaker, as we draw to the end of time, I think it is
time for us now to take a look at the world and our place in the world.
Geopolitically, we know we have been hurt lately because America has
decided to follow something called ``leading from behind.'' I have
absolutely no idea what that possibly could mean.
But I hear constantly about the next great emerging economy. You sit
back and say, well, who could it possibly be? Well, let me tell you who
it is, and it doesn't take much guesswork. It is us. It is the U.S.
Now, why do I say that? Because right now we are uniquely positioned
in history at this moment in time to be the greatest economy the world
has ever seen. Why? Because we have been blessed by our Creator with
abundant, accessible, and affordable fossil fuels. These can be
extracted safely, and that creates thousands of jobs. This can lower
our cost per energy unit far below anyplace else in the world and
allows us, in fact, to let our wages rise because our cost of producing
goes down as far as energy is concerned.
What else we have, if you look just to the north of the district I
serve, the Great Lake system is there. Lake Erie is there. Also what is
there is one-fifth of the world's freshwater. Also, if you were to look
at our land, our tillable soil, the production per acre that our people
in agriculture are able to achieve.
So I would ask you then, at this point in time, at this point in
history, if we know that really what we need to do is to have a robust
and dynamic economy, what would be holding us back? It certainly is not
our cost of energy, because we are blessed with energy everywhere. It
has been placed there by the Good Lord for us to use. Through new
technology we are able to extract it. We are able to heat and cool our
homes, to light our homes, to run our factories, to light our streets
at night, to do almost anything we want to do at a rate that is lower
than anyplace in the world.
In fact, we are at a point right now we don't have to rely on anybody
else on this globe other than ourselves. We can be energy independent.
We have drinking water that the rest of the world would love to have.
And we have the ability to produce, as you know, Mr. Speaker, because
of where you come from in California, the ability to produce food for a
population that doesn't need to go starving, it doesn't need to look to
the rest of the world for help, because we can create it right here,
right now, for every single American.
The question becomes then: Why are we where we are at right now? Why
do we have the lowest labor participation rate we have had in 35 years?
My goodness, when you look at all the assets, when you can look at
everything that we have, when you can look at the opportunities we
have, when you can look at everything, being there and being within our
grasp without too far of a reach to get there, the question becomes:
What is holding us up? What is holding us back? What is keeping us from
achieving that destiny that we have been granted by the Lord? What is
keeping us from that?
Look, I would just say this. There are many, many millions of
Americans that are out of work. All you have to do is go out of this
Chamber and go down the hall and I can show you a lot of Americans that
actually have a job that aren't working. I can show you a Senate that
continues to sit on all these jobs bills, on all this legislation that
would get America back to work.
I am so sick and tired of hearing about, well, you know, if the House
would just do something. I will tell you something; I would suggest
this: the President would wear out his fingers on that phone calling
Harry Reid; in fact, his left arm would probably go numb from signing
all the legislation that could be sitting on his desk right now.
What is holding it up? What is the roadblock? What is keeping us from
that pathway to prosperity? Do you know what it is? It is a do-nothing
Senate. It is a Senate that sits back and calls the American people
liars. It is a Senate that sits back and distorts the facts. It is a
Senate that puts out, every day, myths about a House of Representatives
not working. It is a Senate that had to go under the gun to pass a
budget and say: Do you know what? Here is the deal. You don't pass a
budget, we don't pay you.
Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You have to threaten them
that you are going to cut their pay if they don't pass a budget. Oh,
Good Lord. I would like to see us do that in our schools. I would like
to see us do that in our homes. I would like to see us do that in our
factories and in our businesses in the private sector.
When we have to pass a bill to make them pass a budget, is that where
we have reached? Have we reached the depths? Is that how low we have
become?
It is a great honor and a privilege to serve in this House. It is a
great honor to come before the people and to go home and say: We are
working hard for you. We are going to do the best we can do.
But do you know what? It requires a little help. It requires a little
help. This system, this system where there are two Chambers, it
requires us being able to get things through the House, which we have
done. 220 House-passed bills are stuck in a do-nothing Senate right
now. It requires some teamwork now. It requires us to truly be the
``united'' States and not the ``divided'' States of America. It
requires us to be a body that works for the American people and not for
a political party. It requires us to work on an agenda that puts
America back to work and does not worry about the next election that is
coming up and worries about the new direction this country needs to go
in.
It is a responsibility to take advantage of all those assets the Lord
has given us; and it is time for the United States to now become the
next great emerging economy, one that will be heralded all over the
world, one that the rest of the world is looking to and scratching
their head and says: My goodness, you have got everything. What is it
that you are waiting for?
And the answer, again, is leadership. That leadership has got to take
place, and it has got to take place soon.
We will continue to do our job in the House of Representatives. We
will continue to push bills forward. We will continue to debate and
amend bills. We will continue to pass bills, and we will walk them down
the hall to the Senate. But after that, the Senate has to pick these
bills up. It has to debate them. It has to amend them. It has to vote
on them, and it has to send them down to the White House for the
President's final signature.
If we are truly going to get America back to work, then let's get to
work. My colleagues in the House have already heard that clarion call
and they have done their job. I am just going to yell it down the
hallway as we walk out of here tonight: Hey, you all need to get to
work because America is waiting for you to lead. Then the phone should
be ringing off the hook in Mr. Reid's office and at 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue as America says it is time to get up off your seat and get the
job done.
It is time to quit talking the talk. It is time to walk the walk. It
is time to actually do what we know we can do and take advantage of
every single asset the Lord has provided for us.
[[Page H2845]]
I would just say, Mr. Speaker, in closing, thank you so much for
allowing us to be here.
Mr. Marino, always a pleasure to be with you, sir. As we go back to
Pennsylvania, we will continue to fight those fights.
Mr. Wenstrup is gone and also Mr. Lamborn is gone, but it is good to
have colleagues to join us.
I would just tell you this. If there is nobody that sits in this
House of Representatives that doesn't want to see America do well, it
is just time to get back to work.
Mr. Speaker, how much time do we have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Pennsylvania has 11
minutes remaining.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am going to
yield to Mr. Marino, and he will finish up.
Mr. MARINO. Mr. Speaker, I am going to hit on two areas here for a
moment and ask the American people to get more involved, to call your
Representatives, to call your Senators, demand from them that we get
legislation passed through both Houses, or at least the legislation is
brought to the floor for a vote. The American people deserve that.
As I said earlier, I am a states' rights guy, a constitutionalist,
worked in a factory, worked in industry, and then put myself through
college and law school.
My father, as I said, gave me a good life. My father was a
firefighter, a janitor, a painter, and whatever else he could do to
raise money to keep a roof over our heads and to feed us. He always
said, if you are going to say something, first of all, to someone, that
you look right in their eye and you speak the truth. You don't make it
personal, and you base what you say on facts and you support those
facts.
I am a true believer that Americans, over the last decade or two,
even more so today, have been asked to do more with less. Their budgets
are tight. Some are laid off. Some are completely out of jobs. They are
working one and two and three part-time jobs. But we have the
technology out there to create better jobs.
Also, the American people should demand that government operates the
same way. I am a believer that the Federal Government is much too
large. The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. It
needs to be downsized by at least a third.
{time} 1730
From those of us still here, the taxpayers should demand that we do
more--do more with less--just like industry does, just like we do at
home. The government should operate under that basis.
I am now going to switch back to ObamaCare for a moment. In an
article of 2-24-2014 in Forbes magazine, it reads: ``ObamaCare Will
Cost 2.9 million or More Jobs a Year.'' I have more health care
people--physicians, hospitals, constituents--constantly calling me,
saying, What am I going to do? I can't get insurance or I cannot afford
this insurance. We, the Republicans, have put a proposal together, and
we would like to see that voted on. We would like to see that get over
to the Senate.
I also want to bring something else to your attention concerning
ObamaCare, and it is concerning our young people, the future of this
country. I have met so many bright young people who are out of college
but who cannot get a job. They are very talented. They are smart
individuals. There was a feature issue put out by Sea Change, and it
was a poll. It reads: ``Policy Feature Issue: ObamaCare and Youth--Why
Millennials are Right to be Concerned.'' These are young people,
particularly those out of college who can't find work.
It reads:
A recent poll of millennials, released by Harvard's
Institute of Politics, found that, today, ``only 41 percent
of millennials approve of the President's performance, down
11 points since Harvard's last survey in April.''
I am going to go further on to read:
With respect to ObamaCare, young Americans are even more
suspicious. More than half of the poll's responders believe
that health care costs will increase under ObamaCare, with 44
percent indicating that they believe the quality of care will
decline. Moreover, almost two-thirds of the respondents say
they do not plan to enroll in ObamaCare, which, if accurate,
would be extremely problematic for the future viability of
the Federal exchanges.
The White House just released that now they have--I heard it on the
floor today--almost 7 million. It was 7 million, and then it was over 7
million. Again, the White House has not been consistent with its
numbers, and it hasn't, I believe, given all of the information. I read
an article here in which it says they are touting that 6 million, 7
million--whatever figure they have come up with--got on the Web site
and signed up. There is a big difference there, folks, because, Mr.
Speaker, there is a difference between signing up and paying. This
article stated that most of those individuals who signed up did not pay
and that they project that those individuals will not pay. That is what
this ObamaCare health care plan was relying on, for young people who
are in good health today to pay. Yet they are saying, I am in good
health. Why should I bail others out?
Now, let me make this perfectly clear. I believe that everyone should
have health care. My daughter has cystic fibrosis, a disease for which
there is no cure. The hoops that my wife and I had to jump through and
still are jumping through in order to cover my daughter are
extraordinary. If there are people out there who cannot afford health
care, we, as Americans, have to help them. We have to pay for them. We
have to give them health care. That is what America is about. That is
what Americans do. We help people. We try to improve the quality of
life.
I am asking, Mr. Speaker, that the American people get more involved
in the political system, to be aware of what is out there, to hear what
is going on. You heard what I stated and what I cited. Check my facts.
Follow up. Just don't take what you hear as actual fact and actual
truth. Back it up. Ask your elected officials, Where did you get that
information? On what did you base it?
It is about time, as my colleague Congressman Kelly said, that we
level the playing field, that we take the handcuffs and the restraints
off of hardworking taxpayers so they can give their children and their
grandchildren a better way of life. I know that we can do that in this
country. We are the greatest country in the world. I am a member of the
Foreign Affairs Committee, and I am a member of the NATO alliance. I
talk to people who represent 27 other countries about how great America
is and about how they look to us and what we can do. Even the countries
that do not like us look to America for leadership. They look to
America for a better way of life, not only here in the U.S. but around
the world.
I have to tell you that every time I drive from Williamsport,
Pennsylvania--the 10th Congressional District there--after a week of
listening to my constituents and seeing what they go through--my
farmers, businesspeople, homemakers, single moms, men who can't find
jobs, women who have to work two and three part-time jobs to raise
their families--I know we have a responsibility. As I turn on to
Independence and as I see the dome of this beautiful building, I can't
believe that I am fortunate enough to be here, to represent not only my
10th Congressional District in Pennsylvania but all of America, but it
is a responsibility that I chose. It is a responsibility for which I
have to continue to fight every day of my life.
I heard one of my colleagues say--and I am going to borrow his line,
and I am going to ad-lib it a little bit. He would say to his people as
he was speaking to them in a group--and he would stand up and take his
glasses off--do you see this line here, this wrinkle here? This was
caused by fighting to keep your taxes low. Do you see this wrinkle
here? This was caused by making sure that the American people know what
we are voting on. This line here was caused to make sure that there is
a level playing field, and there is still room on my face for more
lines and more wrinkles to keep fighting.
That is what I am going to do--that is what we all should be doing
here in the House--to keep fighting for the American people. Down the
road, I want someone to say to my children, Do you know something? When
your father was a Member of Congress, he did the right thing for the
American people and for his constituents.
[[Page H2846]]
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I think my time is pretty
close to the end, is it not?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 2 minutes remaining.
Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I will take this brief opportunity to
thank my colleagues Mr. Marino and Mr. Wenstrup for being here and Mr.
Lamborn for being here and for your indulgence and for the American
people's.
We have often said--and we have shared these moments together many
times--that we have not just a responsibility but an obligation not
just to ourselves and to our current generation but to all of those who
came before us for all of the sacrifices that they made--for the 1.6
million men and women in uniform who gave their lives that we could
have this moment today and those into the future. We have a
responsibility to guarantee to them that we made a conscious decision
to make sure that their future would be as secure as the one that we
were given.
In having said all of that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of
my time.
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