[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 30, 2014)]
[House]
[Pages H7109-H7115]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STUCK IN THE SENATE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 3, 2013, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall) is recognized
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate you being down with me here
tonight. It took me awhile to get my materials over here because the
topic I have tonight is the topic of what this House has been doing to
make a difference in the life of families across this country. That is
the good news. I have to confess, I am here with good news/bad news
tonight.
This is the stack of bills that this House has passed, again, to make
a difference in the lives of families, to makes a difference in small
businesses, to grow the economy, to create jobs, the bills this House
has passed collaboratively that sit collecting dust in the United
States Senate. That is the bad news part of tonight.
It is fair enough if folks think this process is broken. It is fair
enough if folks think there is too much partisanship in Washington, but
what we have here are the successes. What we have here are not the
hypothetical ``if only'' bills. What we have here are the bills that
have actually left this House and sit in the United States Senate. It
is 356 bills, Mr. Speaker, 356 bills that have left this House that sit
collecting dust in the Senate. We did a hashtag, Mr. Speaker:
#StuckInTheSenate. We all remember, ``I am just a bill sitting on
Capitol Hill,'' that Saturday morning cartoon. This is not a
dictatorship. We had that conversation a little bit earlier this
afternoon. It is not a dictatorship. It is a collaborative effort, and
the House has collaborated to pass over 356 bills that have gone to the
Senate to do nothing.
Now, again, it is good news/bad news day. Let me start with something
that is good news, because if folks don't believe there is opportunity
for success, I could imagine how folks would give up, not just folks
here in this Chamber, but folks across the country, families across the
country.
This, Mr. Speaker, you may remember it, H.R. 803, the Workplace
Innovation and Opportunity Act. This passed the House. It passed the
Senate. It was signed by the President. This has become law. This was a
bill to consolidate a variety of workplace training programs. We talk
so much about a trained workforce, how it is we get Americans who may
be transitioning in their life, are transitioning home from Iraq or
Afghanistan, transitioning from an industry that is in decline to an
industry that is growing, how do we get those folks trained.
I credit Dr. Virginia Foxx with this. She is one of my colleagues
here in the House. I serve with her on the Rules Committee, but she
also serves on the Education and the Workforce Committee. She has been
working to try to consolidate programs, take money from programs that
were not effective and move the money to programs that were effective.
Imagine that. Imagine that. Here she is, a conservative Republican, and
what she was trying to do was take money from places that weren't
working and put it into places where it would make a difference for
moms and dads and kids. And she did it. She did it.
Now, what we passed out of the House was strong, Mr. Speaker. We went
out and we found every single program that was failing in America and
we brought them together and put them into a single pot and sent it
over to the Senate. The Senate said: No, we don't think all of those
programs are failing. We don't want to move that big of a package. We
want to do something smaller. They ended up consolidating about half of
what we consolidated in the House.
But guess what. When you elect Rob Woodall dictator, then I get to
have it my way every day. Until then, this is a collaborative effort
here: the House, the Senate, and the President.
So we worked with the Senate, and we worked out our differences. We
found that package of consolidation that we could all live with, and we
sent it to the President and we got a signature. That is what the
American people expect. That is what my constituents expect. They
expect us to work together to get things done, not sacrificing
principle, not compromising on values, but finding consensus because we
all agree that American workers need help. We all agree that moms and
dads in transition need to find a better way to feed their families.
We can spend tax dollars better. We found a way to do that here. I
call it common sense, Mr. Speaker. It is not supposed to take a rocket
scientist to sort some of these issues out. It is supposed to be common
sense.
Did I mention #StuckInTheSenate, Mr. Speaker? If I didn't, I want to
mention it right now because here is one that really gets me.
We were just talking about hiring more moms and dads. It is called
the Hire More Heroes Act. Do you remember it, Mr. Speaker? We passed it
out of this House with over 400 votes. Now, young high school students,
middle school students, they might not know how many Members there are
in the House. There are 435 Members in this House, and more than 400 of
them said we should pass the Hire More Heroes bill, but it is stuck in
the Senate. Over 400 folks voted ``yes,'' only one voted ``no,'' so I
don't want to hear about bipartisanship in the House. I don't want to
hear about Republican this and Democratic that.
Mr. Speaker, 400-plus folks said let's pass this bill. I will tell
you what it does. The Hire More Heroes Act says one of the highest
rates of unemployment we have in this country are men and women in
uniform coming home from overseas. It says that we have small employers
in this country, and as you know, Mr. Speaker, most of the employment
in this country is not driven by the big guys. It is driven by small
employers. We heard from small employers in this country who said: I
want to hire those veterans, but I am worried about that 50-employee
threshold that throws me into this brand-new round of ObamaCare
regulations.
Guess what this House did, Mr. Speaker. More than 400 out of 435 got
together and they said, if you are a small business owner in America
and you want to put unemployed veterans to work but you don't because
you are worried about some Federal Government regulation dealing with
ObamaCare, we will waive that regulation for you. Hire all of the
veterans you want to, and be not afraid of Federal Government
regulation.
Think about that. Think about that. It is what I think about. It is
why I ran
[[Page H7110]]
for Congress. It is why my friends on the other side of the aisle ran
for Congress. We came to make a difference--to make a difference. Who
among us doesn't want to see unemployed veterans get a job? Who among
us doesn't want to see small businesses succeed? We came together, more
than 400 of us, to pass the Hire More Heroes Act, but it is stuck in
the Senate.
Why? Why? Over 400 of us, almost every Democrat--we lost one--but
every Republican, almost every one of us voted ``yes'' to make a
difference for small businesses, get them the labor that they need and
make a difference for veterans looking for a job.
That was a good bill, Mr. Speaker, and still is, and it is stuck in
the Senate. It is not stuck because we can't come to agreement on it,
Mr. Speaker. It is not stuck because Republicans are intransigent. It
is stuck because the Senate can't get these bills moving.
Mr. Speaker, I am not asking folks to just come together and do what
I want them to do. What I am talking about are things that we are
celebrating in this institution. I am not talking about things that
squeaked through by the skin of their teeth. I am not talking about
Republican proposals that we jammed through with the might of the
majority. I am talking about commonsense proposals that make a
difference in people's lives.
I will give you another one. How about H.R. 4414, Mr. Speaker? It is
the Expatriate Health Coverage Clarification Act of 2014. That doesn't
sound very exciting, does it? And you know what, it is not very
exciting for about 99 percent of Americans. But for Americans who have
to work overseas and who have seen their health insurance policies
canceled, quadrupled in price, folks who have struggled to find
coverage, what this says is, if you don't live in America but you are
working for an American company, really, you can sort out your
insurance needs on your own over there. If you don't live in America,
you don't have to comply with all these needs because--guess what--if
you are doing business in London, the health care system is different
in England.
{time} 1945
If you are doing business in Paris, the health care system is
different in France. If you are doing business in Moscow, the health
care system is different in Russia. The rules we passed here won't work
in those places. It is commonsense.
Had we not jammed that bill through Congress, that Affordable Care
Act, maybe we would have gotten to that, but I don't know. It is a
small group of people.
We passed a solution--let's look--269-150. I dare say those folks who
voted ``no'' wouldn't say they opposed the policy, they would say they
just thought it was a symbol of undermining ObamaCare in some way, they
didn't want to undermine the President. I say nonsense about
undermining the President. I want to make a difference in the lives of
families.
Ninety-two days, Mr. Speaker, 92 days this bill has been sitting in
the Senate.
Now, that is a minor piece of legislation, Mr. Speaker, that could
make a big impact, but for a small number of people. What about things
that make a big impact for a large number of people? What about those
things?
The REINS Act, Mr. Speaker, H.R. 367, the REINS Act says--and it is a
crazy bill, I will confess--it says before you pass a regulation, you
need to consider the economic impact of that regulation. Now, while
that is commonsense back home in Atlanta, it may seem crazy here in
Washington, D.C.
Before you pass a regulation, weigh the pros and the cons to see if
it is a good idea or not, weigh those pros and the cons. It is a REINS
Act because we are just out of control here with regulation and we need
to have a thoughtful conversation about it.
H.R. 1105, the Small Business Capital Access and Job Preservation
Act. Trying to find ways for our small businesses to get access to the
capital they need in what have been incredibly tight credit markets.
H.R. 2374, the Retail Investor Protection Act.
Time and time again, Mr. Speaker, we are passing bills--they are all
here, they are all sitting on Harry Reid's desk over in the Senate--
passing bills in an effort to make a difference in people's lives. If
it didn't matter, we wouldn't be interested in doing it. I don't have a
bill in this stack that is about making a political statement. I don't
have a bill in this stack that is about trying to be one up on the
other guy, trying to embarrass somebody, trying to call somebody out.
What I have in this stack--did I mention there are 356 bills in this
stack?--what I have in this stack are bills that could make a
difference to a struggling economy today--today. I say today. These
bills passed a week ago, a month ago, a year ago or more. They could
make a difference. They are #StuckInTheSenate--356 bills.
I have got the great honor tonight, Mr. Speaker--I am not alone in
this endeavor, haven't been alone in passing 356 bills. It has been a
team sport from day one, team sport from day one--Republicans,
Democrats, folks from the North, folks from the South, folks
representing families from across the country.
Tonight, I have got Mr. Rothfus here, an 18-month Member of this
institution, who came, I wager, not to make a point, but to make a
difference, and has been doing that every day he has been in this
Chamber.
I would be happy to yield to the gentleman.
Mr. ROTHFUS. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for organizing this
very informative Special Order tonight.
You are right: I came here to make a difference. I came here to be
part of a team that wants to relight America, relight the job market,
relight opportunity, relight the American Dream, because people are
hungry for it. They see this town that is out of control, they look at
this town, and if they visit this town, they marvel at the growth that
is happening in Washington, D.C.
I challenge everybody who visits Washington to count the construction
cranes they see and the explosive growth and the high-end shops that
open here and the concentration of wealth and power in this town. It is
a scandal to the rest of the country. I see these construction cranes
here on Pennsylvania Avenue. I would like to see those construction
cranes back in Pennsylvania, Mr. Speaker.
But this is a very important discussion we are having about the
actions that this House is taking to relight the American economy and
how it gets snuffed out in the Senate.
As we have reviewed this evening, Mr. Speaker, the House has
continued to pass legislation that would move our country ahead, grow
our economy, add more jobs, and increase wages and prosperity. Then
there is the brick wall across the other side of the Capitol.
Nowhere is the Senate's inaction more evident than in the budgeting
and appropriations process we have here in Washington, D.C. The Senate
and House have together managed to pass all 12 appropriations bills and
complete the appropriations process on time by September 30 only four
times since 1977. It is shocking.
This House, Mr. Speaker, has been working to correct this problem. I
want to recognize the hard work of the House Appropriations Committee
and my colleagues from both sides of the aisle.
This year, the Appropriations Committee has already passed 11 out of
the 12 appropriations bills out of committee. Seven of those bills have
already passed the House here, most of them with strong bipartisan
majorities.
How many bills, how many appropriations bills has the Senate passed?
Zero. They have yet to pass a single one.
The Senate's failure to do its work is disappointing, but it is not
surprising. That is why I introduced the Congressional Pay for
Performance Act earlier this year.
The bill is simple. The House and Senate must each pass a budget and
all annual appropriations bills by August 1 or have their pay withheld
until the job is done. It applies that fundamental lesson that we learn
in our first job: if you don't do your work, you don't get paid until
you do. That is the lesson that millions of young Americans learned
working their first job this summer. It is the lesson I learned on my
first paper route. I didn't get paid if I didn't deliver the newspaper.
It is past time for Members of Congress to live by that lesson.
[[Page H7111]]
Beyond the Senate's failure to execute their constitutionally
prescribed job of appropriations, the House has passed, as you noted,
more than 350 bills, including many jobs bills, that Senator Reid
allows to collect dust in the Senate. Over 98 percent of these bills
have passed with bipartisan support, both Republicans and Democrats.
As of this morning, Mr. Speaker, 195 of these bills passed without
opposition. House Democrats introduced 60 of these bills that now
gather dust in the Senate. Again and again, the Senate refuses to act.
Mr. WOODALL. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. ROTHFUS. I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Georgia.
Mr. WOODALL. I may have misunderstood what you said, because what my
constituents believe is that it is partisanship that has shut this
down. That it is Republicans fighting with Democrats and Democrats
fighting with Republicans.
We are talking about over 350 bills that are sitting in the Senate
that have passed this House, that we have come together on this House,
you are saying 60 of those were introduced by Democrats?
Mr. ROTHFUS. Sixty of those bills, Mr. Speaker--you look at the stack
of paper that the gentleman from Georgia has with him here today--Mr.
Speaker, 60 of those bills were introduced by Democrats, and yet they
gather dust in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
Mr. WOODALL. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, we passed dozens of energy-related bills
designed to increase production, reduce prices, add family sustaining
jobs, and promote American energy independence. Bills like the Natural
Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act, the Energy Consumers Relief Act,
the Northern Route Approval Act, which is going to get the Keystone XL
pipeline going, passed in May of 2013, 241-175. It has been sitting
over in the Senate for 434 days.
We have passed dozens of regulatory reform bills to promote job
growth and keep an out-of-touch and out-of-control Washington, D.C.,
bureaucracy in check. Those like the REINS Act that the gentleman from
Florida mentioned. A very simple bill. If a regulatory agency puts out
a regulation on the economy that is going to cost more than $50 million
to implement, suppressing job growth, bring it back here for an up-or-
down vote. Let's restore the constitutional responsibility for both the
Senate and the House, who have that responsibility for making the law.
Let us take accountability for that. If there is a regulation that
merits approval, we are going to vote for it. It is called being
accountable. But you can't fire these bureaucrats who come up with
these regulations that have a negative impact on our economy.
We have also passed the Achieving Less Excess in Regulation and
Requiring Transparency Act, known as the ALERRT Act. It is an effort to
improve thoughtful consideration of the consequences of regulation.
I offered an amendment to the ALERRT Act. The amendment requires the
capital bureaucrats to acknowledge whether their regulations will have
a negative impact on jobs or wages in a particular industry.
Any such regulation will be subject to additional review to ensure
that the benefits justify the costs to families and communities. The
principle is simple: if Washington bureaucrats are going to implement
rules that take wages or jobs away from hardworking Americans, they
should take responsibility for and justify their decisions. It is
important that regulators think through the impacts, costs, and burdens
that red tape imposes on families and communities, and it is time for
the Senate to come to the support of those individuals and those
communities and take up the ALERRT Act.
We have passed several tax-related bills to help individuals keep
more of their hard-earned money and to help small businesses add jobs
and increase wages, like the Child Tax Credit Improvement Act and the
Student and Family Tax Simplification Act.
We have also heard stories of people whose hours have been cut
because of the 30-hour work week in the President's health care law.
But the House has acted. That is why we passed the Save American
Workers Act to restore the traditional 40-hour work week and help those
who want the opportunity to work more hours and see their wages go up.
The Senate has to act. Time and again, Mr. Speaker, the House has
acted but the Senate has not.
I really thank the gentleman from Georgia for shining a light on what
is going on at this Capitol, the production that is coming out of this
side of the Capitol and then hits the wall on the other side. It is
time for the Senate to act, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. WOODALL. I would like to ask the gentleman if he would stay just
1 more minute. I see you are down here with three lovely young women
from the next generation of Americans. When they grow up, they are
going to be the leaders of this country.
You mentioned energy in your presentation. I have got to be honest
with you, I didn't come to deal with those big issues that are
sometimes amorphous. I came to deal with the issues that make a
difference in families' lives today, tomorrow, and in the next
generation.
We talk about energy, we talk about streamlining production, we talk
about the Keystone pipeline, but I live in Georgia. We are not drilling
any wells in Georgia. I can't tell much of a difference at the price of
the pump. I don't have that many families who say: This is going to
make a difference in my pocketbook, this is going to make a difference
for a job right here in Atlanta, Georgia. But you come from a different
part of the country.
Can you see the difference that these bills make, not from a
Republican/Democrat partisan perspective, but from a real world
difference, real dollars in families' pockets back home?
Mr. ROTHFUS. Absolutely, Mr. Speaker. The gentleman from Georgia
notes that western Pennsylvania has a growing energy industry. We are
seeing a tremendous number of jobs coming in, family sustaining jobs.
Bear in mind, Mr. Speaker, when somebody gets a job in that field and
they start to get that paycheck--and every American who gets a paycheck
sees this--there is some stuff that is taken out. There is a FICA
charge, a Medicare tax charge, and Federal taxes.
Mr. Speaker, that is how we are paying for Social Security, that is
how we are paying for Medicare. When people pay their income taxes, it
is how we pay for the defense of our country. This is a dangerous
world, Mr. Speaker.
We need to have an economy that is generating the kind of jobs where
people can get back to work and get those salaries and wages so that
when they pay taxes, they are paying for Social Security, Medicare, and
veterans benefits. We have got a boom like you have never seen before,
Mr. Speaker.
The gentleman from Georgia has all these bills there that show the
work that this House is doing, all to help this economy get growing
again.
If you want to be paying for Social Security, if you want to be
paying for Medicare, if you want to be paying for veterans benefits, we
have got to grow this economy at 4 percent, at 5 percent, yes, at 6
percent. So many people, Mr. Speaker, have said, that is not going to
happen, we can't get there. It happened. It happened in the 1980s, it
happened in the 1990s. We can do this. We are a blessed land, Mr.
Speaker, and in western Pennsylvania we see that.
{time} 2000
We are having a big debate right now with respect to the President's
greenhouse gas emissions, and there is testimony being taken across the
country, including in Pittsburgh. We have to use our resources.
Under his plan, in 2008, when the President was running for his seat,
he promises, ``Electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.''
No single person should have the authority to impose a policy on a
country that would cause electricity rates to necessarily skyrocket.
That is why the REINS Act is so important. That is why Senator Reid has
to move the REINS Act to the floor of the Senate, to have this Congress
have a voice. Our Constitution has an executive branch, a legislative
branch, and a judicial branch. The legislative branch is where those
policy decisions should be made.
Mr. WOODALL. I am looking at the Northern Route Approval Act poster
you have got behind you, and I am
[[Page H7112]]
looking at the ``days in the Senate'' column. It says it has been 434
days that that bill has been in the Senate.
You are a new Member in this body. I have only had a voting card for
3 years. I know it is a collaborative process, but as I look at that
434 days in the Senate, does it mean that we have sent over a proposal
to expand energy production to make those family-providing jobs that
you mention and the Senate didn't like our idea, and so they sent us
back a different proposal, and we have dropped the ball? Is that a
possibility?
Mr. ROTHFUS. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Georgia is asking
questions about what is happening on the Senate side. They are simply
not acting.
It was 241-175. I think the last time I counted, there are some 234
Republicans in this House. It was 241, so there are Democrats voting
for this bill.
There is almost universal support for Keystone XL. The President
could allow it to go forward. Thousands of jobs are in the waiting--
thousands of jobs where people would be paying Social Security tax and
Medicare tax and increasing the supply of North American energy being
able to be refined in this country, which means American jobs refining
that.
So what is happening over there in the Senate? It is not coming up.
We get phone calls all the time from our constituents, and it is
important that constituents call their Members of Congress, who are
their employees. We are the employees of the American people. The
Senators are the employees of the American people because they pay our
paychecks.
Their hard-earned tax dollars are what fund the paychecks for
Senators and the paychecks for the Members of this House. We are the
employees of the American people.
So we welcome phone calls from our bosses, our employers out there.
They need to be calling their employees in the Senate and saying: Why
aren't you approving the Keystone XL pipeline? We need those jobs. Why
aren't you approving the REINS Act?
We don't think one person should make the decision that would turn
off the lights in this country, turn off the lights at power plants,
turn off the lights in coal mines, turn off the lights in factories
because the prices are going too high.
When the President said that electricity rates will necessarily
skyrocket, if you are opening up a plant and you are looking at that,
that is a cost. If the income doesn't exceed the cost, that factory
isn't going to get built.
So there are folks across the country--entrepreneurs--who want to get
things going. They want to hire people, but then they look at the cost,
and they say: no, we are going to put our money elsewhere.
We need people investing in this country because that is what is
going to cause this country to boom again, and look at some of the tax
bills we passed out of this House, which wait in the Senate--where is
the Keystone XL pipeline? Where is the Northern Route Approval Act
right now?
I can't answer the question that the gentleman from Georgia asks, but
I think maybe the Senators could answer that question if their bosses--
the people who pay their salaries--would call them.
Mr. WOODALL. The gentleman said it so well. This isn't about one
person. This isn't about one Chamber. This isn't about one part of the
government. We are all in this together. Families in western
Pennsylvania and families in north Georgia are in this together. We
will rise or fall as a Nation together.
I go back to what you said when you first took the well. There are so
many awful stories about Washington, D.C., and the way that we work
together. Some of them are true, and many of them are just lore, but I
believe you said--and my staff handed it to me after you said it--that
about 254 of the 356 bills that are stuck in the Senate passed this
House either unanimously or with more than two-thirds of the Members
voting in favor of them.
I don't know everything about western Pennsylvania, but I know you
don't get elected to Congress there because you are interested in
propounding wild views that make no difference to people. You get
elected there because you care about people and you want to do the
things that matter. You know who the boss is, and it is those folks
back home.
When I think that about this stack of bills, it would be so easy for
people to dismiss it as: well, those are those crazy Republican ideas,
and this is just some sort of political stunt.
How many times have we heard that it is a political stunt? Why are
those guys talking about those bills? It is because of what you said.
Sixty of these bills introduced by Democrats passed this Chamber, and
254 of these bills stuck in the Senate passed with two-thirds of us
coming together--or more--to send them over to the Senate.
We have an obligation to work together. The answer to the question is
that, after 434 days, the Senate hasn't said no. The Senate hasn't
said: we have a better idea, so we will send this back to you. The
Senate didn't say: you are focused on the wrong pathway; let's look at
a different route approval.
The Senate did nothing.
Mr. ROTHFUS. You raise a good point because the way the process is
supposed to work, one side of our Capitol--the House--will pass the
bill or maybe the Senate will pass a bill, and then there might be a
slightly different bill passed out of the other Chamber, and then the
two sides would come together in a conference, and there would be some
negotiating. There is some compromise going on.
Prior to coming to Congress, I had a job of negotiating contracts.
Your client would tell you when you go into that negotiating room:
whatever you do, make sure you get A and B into that contract.
So you know what your marching orders are, but you understand the
other side has come in, and they have been told by their client: make
sure you get C and D in that contract, whatever you do.
The art is that the two of you get together and you negotiate. You go
back and forth. Are you going to get 100 percent? You never do. That is
negotiating. That is life, but here, we passed these bills. We are
waiting to negotiate. They are not even acting.
I go back to the appropriations process, which is fundamentally
broken. Since 1977, you have only four times that the House and the
Senate got this job done by September 30. That is a scandal.
Everybody in this country knows that April 15 is an important date.
You have got to pay your taxes that day. You can't call the IRS and
say: Hey, can I get a continuing resolution on that? Can I have 3
weeks?
The gentleman from Georgia pointed out that I have two of my young
children with me. We know that the Tuesday before Labor Day, school
starts. Am I supposed to able to call the principal and say: hey, we're
not ready? Can I have a continuing resolution on that summer, so we can
have 3 more weeks to get ready?
It shouldn't happen. The spending bills will be passed, whether it is
through a continuing resolution that will extend it until December or
January or February or March. Why can't it get done by September 30? It
is an act of the will.
If the other side of the Congress--the Senate--hasn't passed any,
where can you even begin to have that negotiation between the two
different ideas and what is in those bills? We would love to negotiate
with Senator Reid.
We would love to negotiate. In fact, it has worked. I think you
pointed out the SKILLS Act which, again, the House passed some 16
months ago. It took a while for the Senate to get going. It finally
did. We passed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act last
summer. We finally got it to the Senate and got together. It got done.
We passed a temporary patch for the highway trust fund that we sent
over to the Senate. The Senate had some other ideas, so they are making
some changes, but this is the process that is supposed to work. One
House moves; the other House moves. They are not even moving, Mr.
Speaker.
Mr. WOODALL. I think about those seven appropriations bills you
talked about. I want to remember the numbers. We have gotten 12 out of
committee. We passed seven on the floor of the House. We have sent
those over to the Senate.
Again, I don't know if the Senate is going to take our ideas or
reject our
[[Page H7113]]
ideas or come up with their own ideas, but they have done none of those
things. They haven't taken our ideas, they haven't rejected our ideas,
and they promulgated absolutely no ideas of their own.
I don't enjoy being down here. This is not #kickthesenate. This is
#StuckInTheSenate. It is not that there is not a way forward. You have
described the way forward. It is not all my way. It is not all your
way. It is not all anyone's way. It is a negotiated pathway forward.
When I ran for Congress, that is what I expected. When my
constituents sent me here, that is what they expected.
Mr. ROTHFUS. It isn't my way or the highway, but if you have one part
of this Congress--the Senate--not even acting, what is the
communication there? It is no way.
We invite the Senate to act. We invite the Senate to come and start
to talk about the Keystone XL pipeline and the thousands of jobs that
are waiting, talk about the REINS Act, talk about the ALERRT Act to
require the bureaucrats in this wealthy and powerful Capitol to take a
look at the regulations that they are putting out and making an
assessment whether those regulations are going to hurt wages or jobs.
I talk to people who are capped at 29\1/2\ hours. They can't get
above 30 hours, Mr. Speaker, so we passed legislation that, again, sits
in the Senate. We need to boom this economy again. That is how you pay
for the critical programs that we have.
We have to use the God-given resources we have in this country--yes,
prudently, smartly, and in a responsible way. There are ways to do
that.
We have made tremendous progress in this country over the last 50
years. I am from Pittsburgh, and they talk about, back in the day, that
you had to bring two shirts to work because, by noon, your shirt would
be dirty.
We are making tremendous progress with the environment. I have
another bill that I am trying to get this House to move, so we can send
it over to the Senate to help that progress continue, called the SENSE
Act, H.R. 3138. Again, I hope to get this House to move it, but we have
to get the Senate to act.
Mr. WOODALL. I thank my friend for focusing on those commonsense
points.
Again, when I open up the newspaper, what I hear is it is about
partisan nonsense and it is about election-year politics. When we are
talking about over 350 bills and we are talking about 60 of those bills
being introduced by Democrats, but passed with Democrat and Republican
support here in the House, when we are talking about 250 of those bills
being passed with more than a two-thirds vote--many of those
unanimously--what it tells me is we are not in the business of trying
to make a point.
We are in the business of trying to make a difference, and if we had
a willing partner in the Senate, we could absolutely make that
difference.
I yield to my friend from Indiana, a former secretary of State, which
has you in the executive side of things. You actually had to be
responsible for getting things done. I guess that is my frustration
with the Senate.
I just need somebody to stand up and be a partner and take
responsibility for moving a few of these things forward, trying to make
a difference in people's lives.
{time} 2015
Mr. ROKITA. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank the gentleman
for organizing this here tonight.
I think the gentleman is exactly right. We need leadership. Leaders
are supposed to lead. When you look at what the gentleman rightly put
here on the House floor in terms of the stack of work that sits in
Harry Reid's--the Senate majority leader's--in-box, you realize what
leadership isn't, and that is a real problem.
If my constituents, Mr. Speaker, saw that pile in my in-box, I don't
know how much longer I would last. I wonder what the citizens and
voters and taxpayers of Nevada think at this point.
Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood,
Elementary, and Secondary Education, I rise today to discuss with my
colleagues the importance of improving education in our country.
This House has done excellent work in that regard. We understand here
in the House--and parents, teachers, and school administrators are all
too aware--that the current state of our education system threatens the
American Dream for the current and future generations of students.
I know that we want to help create a better world and the possibility
of a better life for our young students. Leaving the world in better
shape than we found it is as much a part of our American exceptionalism
as is the freedom we enjoy that allows us to pursue the American Dream.
To our credit, frankly, when American citizens see what is not being
done in the Senate, they can look to the House for some great things
that have been accomplished in terms of righting what is wrong on
education.
Right now, sadly, we are not faring well on the international
education stage. Our children are not reading at grade level, while
math and science performance by U.S. students trails far beyond that of
our counterparts in other developed countries. We are not competing to
win in a 21st century world.
The comical irony of that--if it weren't just so plain sad--would be
that the American education system is failing the students that its
most passionate advocates claim to want to help. Sure, you can argue
that somehow while we aren't universally successful, our best and
brightest rival any in the world, and our leading institutions will
continue to provide the high-quality instruction that will keep us
afloat, but I would say to the gentleman of Georgia, Mr. Speaker, that
the America I know, the America that I believe in--the America that my
constituents and that, I think, Americans across the country believe
in--doesn't include a two-tiered system. We want everyone to have an
equal opportunity. We want everyone to only be limited by the capacity
of their dreams.
At the subcommittee level, in what we call K-12 education and in a
more broad sense on the Education and the Workforce Committee and then
on the floor of the House, we have done some things to right that ship,
as I explained.
One of those bills that passed the House was H.R. 10, the Success and
Opportunity through Quality Charter Schools Act. This was a bipartisan
bill. It passed on 5-9-14, just this year. The vote tally, Mr. Speaker,
was 360-45. It has been in the Senate for 82 days. 360-45 is a huge
bipartisan victory. It is one of the biggest bipartisan victories we
have had on the floor of the House.
This is a charter school bill. It is school choice. I believe charter
schools--like a majority of the people on the floor of this House
believe--play a critical role in creating educational options for all
children. Charter schools encompass two key principles American
families want from our Nation's education system: choice and
flexibility.
These innovative institutions will empower parents to play a more
active role in their children's educations, open doors for teachers to
pioneer fresh teaching methods, encourage State and local innovation,
and help students escape poor-performing schools.
Why do we want to continue to shackle students to poor-performing
schools and give them no choice and take away that equal opportunity
for them to be successful? This bill, Mr. Speaker, did it. This bill
now sits in Harry Reid's in-box.
Across the Nation, charter schools are leading the way in innovation
and in improving education outcomes. In my home State of Indiana, for
example, the Charles A. Tindley Accelerated School in Indianapolis--
which serves a predominantly low-income and minority student body--
expects every student, no matter his or her background or
circumstances, to have a college acceptance letter upon graduation.
No matter his or her background or circumstances, one has to have a
college acceptance letter upon graduation. The school's rigorous
curriculum and laser focus on preparing students for higher education
has helped 100 percent of its students to date gain acceptance into
college. This bill sits, awaiting action in the Senate. It is not
leadership.
Mr. WOODALL. I would just like to ask my friend because, in serving
on the committee, you have an insight that most of us don't have.
I am looking at those numbers, at 360 Members of this House voting
``yes.''
[[Page H7114]]
That is more than you need to pass a constitutional amendment, for
Pete's sakes.
Mr. ROKITA. That is right.
Mr. WOODALL. That is about as close to unanimous as we generally get.
I am looking, and it hasn't been at the Senate for 1 week or 2 weeks.
It has been there for almost 3 months so far.
What have they said? Have they said, We have got a better idea, and
they have sent back an alternative to the committee? What have you
heard?
Mr. ROKITA. I would love at this point--I think we all would--to hear
them say: We have a better idea, we are going to take it up, and we
will show you.
I would take that as progress, sir. This is what we have heard:
silence.
Mr. WOODALL. These are not partisan issues. Education is not a
partisan issue. Children are not partisan issues. We have votes with
360 Members of this body. Again, this is the hyperpartisan House--so
the news tells me--and two bills right there in front of you are making
a difference in people's lives. They could make that difference today,
and yet the Senate does nothing.
I have been preaching the ``Stuck in the Senate'' hashtag message, I
will say to my friend, because I still believe. I told folks when we
started this hour tonight that this is a good news/bad news hour. The
good news is I am sitting on top of a stack of 356 bills that this
House has passed in a bipartisan way, and the bad news is that they are
stuck in the Senate.
I believe that perhaps you and I, as young Congressmen, can't move
the Senate, but I believe the American people still can move the
Senate.
Mr. ROKITA. I think the gentleman is exactly right, if the American
people show the Senate that the American people care as we know they
do. This is still the home of the free. This is still an open republic,
and it is still we, the people, who are in charge. We can make the
change happen if we show the ``leaders'' of this country that we care.
Mr. WOODALL. It is a ``we'' question. I thank my friend. There are
folks who get wrapped up in the partisan issues of the day, and there
are those folks who have committed themselves to finding willing
partners wherever those partners may be.
What I have seen of you in our 3 years of working together is that
you came here to do things that mattered, and whoever you have to
partner with and however late you have to work and however early you
have to get up--whatever you have to do--if this job is worth doing, it
is because it is making a difference in people's lives, and I am
grateful to you for that.
It may be a Midwestern values night. I have got the gentleman from
Indiana, and I have been joined by a gentleman from Illinois, who has
also been a true champion, Mr. Speaker. You didn't have the great
pleasure of coming in with this big freshman class of 2010, but what
was so neat about it to me was that, in showing up to freshman
orientation, I met these two guys for the very first time, and I met my
new Democratic colleagues for the very first time.
Truthfully, when we talked about why we came here, I couldn't tell
the difference between the two because the American people sent a crowd
of folks here to do the things that mattered, and we have partnered to
do those.
The gentleman from Illinois is one of those great partners, and I
would be happy to yield.
Mr. HULTGREN. Thank you so much. I want to thank my good friend from
Georgia for hosting this hour.
It is so important to talk about what really matters to people--our
constituents, hardworking families--who are just trying to make it
through, to get by, and to have hope for a bright future.
Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight, troubled over a recent email I received
from a constituent of mine. Jessica from Lake in the Hills in Illinois
wrote me with concern about her current economic condition.
She is a single mother with two teenagers, but like many Americans,
she recently lost her job amidst the slow economic recovery. Of course,
she is greatly concerned about providing for her children, now that her
main source of income has dried up.
As Gallup recently confirmed, many Americans like Jessica are having
to spend more on items they have to buy and less on items they choose
to buy. This mandatory spending is squeezing out everything else in
their budgets.
The rising costs of basic necessities, like groceries, gas, and
utilities for middle class families like Jessica's, smothers them as
the cost of day-to-day living goes up and up. At the end of the month,
there is little left over for them to choose to buy something for their
homes, for their families, or for themselves.
This is heartbreaking and frustrating because the House has passed
legislation to lower energy prices, create jobs, improve work-life
balance, and do many other things to help people.
Energy prices are an ever-present concern for Americans who drive
their kids to school, commute to their jobs, cool their homes, run
their manufacturing plants, or harvest their crops.
The House passed Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America That
Works Act, and it would do just that, cut prices at the pump by opening
new Federal lands to energy development. The Small Business Capital
Access and Job Preservation Act would grow Main Street jobs by reducing
regulatory burdens on American businesses.
The Working Families Flexibility Act would help workers better manage
their work-life balance. That is especially crucial for families like
Jessica's who are stretched thin between caring for their families and
working just to earn a living.
The House has also acted on behalf of veterans, and I am so proud of
this. When our servicemen and -women return home, the last thing they
should have to worry about is unemployment.
It is our duty in Congress to ensure there are jobs available for our
veterans, but the employer mandate in the President's health care law
has discouraged many small businesses from hiring more workers at a
time when our economy is still struggling to recover.
H.R. 3474, the Hire More Heroes Act, is commonsense legislation that
relieves the employer mandate burden on businesses that want to hire
veterans.
It is just astounding to me that the Senate still refuses to take up
this legislation that would help our veterans. Still, I do have hope. I
have hope that we can work across the aisle to help address the
problems of the middle class.
That is what the American people sent us here to do. Just this month,
the House and Senate passed and the President signed H.R. 803, the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or the SKILLS Act, which
helps reform and modernize our Federal jobs training programs.
By 2022, our country will lack millions of skilled workers with
degrees beyond high school, such as paralegals, welders, radiology
technicians, and police officers. Federally funded job training
programs help Americans of all working ages gain the knowledge and
skills necessary to reenter the workforce, retrain for new jobs, or
increase their value to their current employers.
When far more people in my home State of Illinois have given up
looking for work and have left the workforce than have found new jobs,
our communities need the tools necessary to match available jobs with
available and trained workers.
H.R. 803 will help put local workforce investment boards in the
driver's seat to tailor their services to fill the local jobs of the
21st century. It also streamlines a confusing maze of programs and
ensures the business community's voice is heard, putting businesses
above bureaucrats.
At the same time, it ensures that we have strong accountability over
the use of taxpayer dollars. H.R. 803 is a good example--when regular
order is followed and both sides agree to talk and work out their
differences--that the House can pass important legislation.
We have also passed the Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act, a bill I
cosponsored, which permanently prevents States and local governments
from taxing Internet services. Taxing the on-ramp to the Internet is
just bad policy.
It hurts lower income families the most and penalizes Americans for
communicating with family or for looking for a job online. Again, this
bill passed with strong bipartisan support.
The Science Committee recently passed the RAMI Act, which will help
[[Page H7115]]
the strong manufacturing base we have in Illinois and others across the
country. The bill creates a network of nationwide regional institutes,
each specializing in the production of a unique technology material or
process relevant to advanced manufacturing.
Small- and mid-sized manufacturers can expand their research and
development capabilities and train an advanced manufacturing workforce.
The Senate also introduced a companion bill, and I trust the RAMI Act
will become law soon. When it does come down to it, I truly believe we
can all agree on about 80 percent of the issues facing this Nation.
Building relationships and working on common goals can help us
address the other 20 percent without being divisive.
{time} 2030
But where does this leave middle class families right now? They are
still finding their paychecks don't go as far as they used to go.
Energy prices are still high, and groceries aren't getting any cheaper.
More than 350 bills are stuck in the Senate. Many of those would help
Americans get back on their feet again. We don't need political
posturing. We need real solutions for hardworking individuals and
families. Let's help families like Jessica's and get these bills passed
through the Senate now.
Mr. WOODALL. I thank my friend. It is exactly that commitment to
working together to make a difference that I think folks long for in
this place. And it is exactly what you have there, H.R. 803, the
Workplace Innovation Act. It is true. That is one of our success
stories.
But you first came to the floor to support that in March of 2013. The
reason we are able to call this a success is because the Senate finally
got around to dealing with it in June of 2014--over a year. It could
have been making a difference in people's lives.
I am thrilled that now we are making that difference, but we wasted a
year. And the family that you talked about, a family struggling to try
to decide what tomorrow is going to look like, doesn't have a year to
wait.
The Internet Tax Freedom bill you discussed just came out of this
body this summer. That is something the Senate could take up
immediately. As you said, it came out of here with wild bipartisan
support. It could begin to make a difference tomorrow--tomorrow.
I am happy to yield to my friend.
Mr. HULTGREN. I agree with you. And families like Jessica's can't
afford to wait any longer. They want help. They are not looking for
something to be given to them. They are just looking for opportunity.
They are looking for hope, and that is the legislation that we have
passed, any legislation like this that just makes sense.
As I travel around my district, it is in the western suburbs of
Chicago. As I travel around and talk to job creators, small businesses,
entrepreneurs, people who are starting up small businesses or want to
start up small businesses, I ask them over and over again--I would love
for them to hire 20 more people, but I ask: What would it take for you
to hire one more person, just one more person? And over and over again
it is common themes of: deal with the things that are causing us to
struggle. They are convinced they can continue to make a great product,
provide a great service, serve their customers, beat all competition
all throughout the world if they can just have an opportunity, if
government can get out of the way.
Their fear is uncertainty that is coming out of Washington, D.C.,
uncertainty under high taxes, increase of taxes and different things,
so much regulation that is out there, and now the high cost of health
care, uncertainty there as well.
We have taken some commonsense steps, as my good friend from Georgia
has pointed out so well. So many of these votes have been strong,
bipartisan votes, people on both sides of the aisle working together,
cosponsors on both sides of the aisle getting this done, oftentimes
with well over 300 votes, and yet it languishes over in the Senate. 356
bills stuck in the Senate.
It is about time that we get that moving. Families like Jessica's, so
many other families across this Nation want that help, want us to get
out of the way, want the Senate to act, move things forward, and have
that hope and opportunity once again.
I thank my good friend from Georgia.
Mr. WOODALL. I thank my friend. He is such a great leader. Bringing
voices together is that skill set that sometimes this institution
lacks, and he has it in spades.
As I close tonight, Mr. Speaker, I just want to make it clear, this
isn't a partisan stunt. This isn't Republican machinations. 356 bills
sit in the Senate right now that, if the Senate moved them, could begin
to make a difference in the lives of American families.
I want to tell you about those bills: 98 percent of them passed with
a bipartisan vote. 98 percent of these bills passed with a bipartisan
vote. 254 of these bills passed with either no opposition or two-thirds
support. Almost 200, no opposition at all; 60 introduced by my
Democratic colleagues.
Making a difference for America is not a partisan exercise, Mr.
Speaker, but it is a sacred trust. I am so proud of this House for
moving forward on these bills to make a difference. I know that we can
work together to encourage Harry Reid to do the same. I know our
friends across the country, the bosses of the United States Senate, can
encourage the Senate to do the same.
This country is thirsty for leadership. I am proud of my colleagues
on both sides of the House for providing it. I look forward to
partnering with the Senate and the President to move these bills into
that difference-making position for those families across this country.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________