[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 36 (Tuesday, March 3, 2015)]
[House]
[Pages H1562-H1564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  REPORT ON RESOLUTION PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1029, EPA 
     SCIENCE ADVISORY BOARD REFORM ACT OF 2015, AND PROVIDING FOR 
     CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1030, SECRET SCIENCE REFORM ACT OF 2015

  Mr. BURGESS, from the Committee on Rules, submitted a privileged 
report (Rept. No. 114-37) on the resolution (H. Res. 138) providing for 
consideration of the bill (H.R. 1029) to amend the Environmental 
Research, Development, and Demonstration Authorization Act of 1978 to 
provide for Scientific Advisory Board member qualifications, public 
participation, and for other purposes, and providing for consideration 
of the bill (H.R. 1030) to prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency 
from proposing, finalizing, or disseminating regulations or assessments 
based upon science that is not transparent or reproducible, which was 
referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed.
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, the next Blue Dog Coalition member who will 
speak is one of our newest members. He hails from the great State of 
Nebraska, and we are honored to have him as one of our newest members 
of the Blue Dog Coalition. He is Brad Ashford from Nebraska's Second 
District. A lot of agriculture and a lot of good people Congressman 
Brad Ashford has the opportunity to represent, and we appreciate the 
fact that he is here.
  Mr. ASHFORD. Thank you, Mr. Costa. I am privileged to have the 
opportunity to speak today.
  Mr. Speaker, you mentioned, just briefly, the concept of ``Profiles 
of Courage.'' John Kennedy, in writing that book, wrote about a great 
Nebraskan, George Norris. George Norris was a Senator from Nebraska, 
and prior to that time, he served in this House. In 1908, he led a 
bipartisan effort in the House to change the rules of the House in 
order to make the House more transparent and more accountable to the 
American people.

                              {time}  1700

  In that regard, in John Kennedy's book he wrote about Congressman 
Norris, and then, subsequently, Senator Norris. In the 1930s, Senator 
Norris, who had worked to create the Tennessee Valley Authority, worked 
across the aisle with FDR--he was a Republican--to pass the Rural 
Electrification Act that electrified the country. He did so working 
across the aisle.
  And in the 1930s--and 1934, specifically--he reached out to the 
people of Nebraska and said to them: We can do better. We can have a 
more transparent government. We can have a bipartisan, nonpartisan 
government that will address the tough issues of Nebraska in the 
Depression of the 1930s. And he recommended to the voters: Look, let's 
do this. Let's have a unicameral, nonpartisan legislature.
  And the lobbyists and the special interests said: George, you should 
go back to Washington. This isn't going to work in Nebraska.
  Well, the voters of Nebraska, in 1934, voted for a unicameral, 
nonpartisan legislature, and I am proud to say that we have such a 
legislature today.
  I am so proud and honored to be here. There was a discussion earlier 
by prior speakers about relationships. And what is so interesting to me 
and amazing to me--not amazing, really, but gratifying--are those 
relationships, are the relationships that I have been able to achieve 
through my association with the Blue Dogs and relationships with 
Republicans and Democrats alike. It is very, very gratifying that that 
exists. That is what I am used to in Nebraska.
  When I first arrived here, I went to a Democratic Caucus. I served in 
the Nebraska unicameral legislature for 16 years. I never went to a 
caucus in my life. I didn't really know exactly what a Democrat or 
Republican really was. I suppose I would have to look, but of the 49 
members of the Nebraska Legislature, I would have to think long and 
hard about what party they belonged to.
  And in the 16 years that I served there, we had many tough issues. In 
fact, one of the toughest issues we had in the State was the pipeline 
issue, and that was referenced earlier--the TransCanada pipeline. Well, 
it goes through Nebraska. As originally routed, it would have gone 
through some of the most sensitive areas of our State, the Sandhills 
area and the Ogallala Aquifer.
  We spent a year together, the 49 of us. Not every day. We would kill 
each other if we spent every day together, but we spent a lot of time. 
At the end of the day, we came up with a process to reroute the 
TransCanada pipeline to move it away from the most sensitive parties of 
the Ogallala Aquifer. We did it with a vote of 49-0, environmentalists 
and those on the other side of the issue coming together to pass a 
routing bill.
  So the idea that George Norris had was, number one, be transparent. 
Let the people of Nebraska know exactly what you are doing.
  What is interesting about the 16 years that I was there--and, quite 
frankly, if you do count Republicans and Democrats in the unicameral 
legislature, you will find that there are a lot more Republicans, 
traditionally, than there are Democrats, at least during the 16 years I 
was there, and I don't think that at any time I was there, any year, 
any legislative session I was there, that there were not an equal 
number of committee chairs that were Republican and Democrat. There was 
nothing magic about that. It was just the way we balanced things out in 
our State. We did it and do it intuitively. We do it intuitively.
  I don't suggest that we are going to decide tomorrow or even next 
year or 10 years from now to have a unicameral, bipartisan, nonpartisan 
legislature, but the lessons that I learned there are the lessons that 
I have brought here. And when I had the opportunity, Mr. Costa, to meet 
the Blue Dogs, it reminded me of home. It reminded me of the Nebraska 
Legislature and the idea that Republicans and Democrats make that 
decision for themselves.
  But as my good friend and former Senator from Nebraska Ed Zorinsky 
used to say, there are no Republican Senators or Democratic Senators. 
There are only American Senators, U.S. Senators. It is in the water in 
Nebraska. That is how we think. That is how we are. And what is great 
about this place is those same relationships, those same committed 
people are there to make those kinds of relationships work in a 
bipartisan way. We have heard examples of that today.

[[Page H1563]]

  When I ran for this office, I said to the voters of the Second 
Congressional District of Nebraska, Sarpy County and Douglas County, 
Nebraska, the two most populace counties: I'm going to go to 
Washington, and I'm going to make 25 friends. Because in Nebraska, if 
you make 25 friends, you get 25 people to vote for a bill, it passes.
  You know what? I found more than 25 friends. I found a lot of 
friends, a lot of great people who sit in this body, this place, every 
single day, Republicans and Democrats.
  I just got back--and then I will conclude, Mr. Costa--from a trip to 
Afghanistan, Iraq, Jordan, the Emirates, and Kuwait. I went with three 
other Members: Elise Stefanik, who is a freshman Republican from New 
York; Joe Wilson, who is a veteran Member from South Carolina; and Seth 
Moulton, who is a freshman from Massachusetts. What great people. What 
great committed Americans to have gone on that trip.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I commend the Blue Dogs to the country, to those 
that are watching, in furtherance of the old tradition of transparency 
and working together and making things happen.
  Mr. COSTA. During your visit, on a bipartisan basis, in Afghanistan, 
Iraq, and Jordan, you were visiting some of the most challenging 
hotspots in the world today, and I suspect you got an opportunity to 
visit and see American men and women serving abroad and the heroic and 
difficult jobs that they are doing and the great sacrifices of their 
families. I suspect you had an opportunity to tell them that in 
Washington we are trying to do all we can to support them.
  Mr. ASHFORD. Thank you for the comment. Yes, I was fortunate enough 
to visit with Nebraskans who were serving in Iraq and serving in 
Afghanistan. I was on a C-130. We were traveling over the Strait of 
Hormuz area. The navigator in the C-130 said to me: Sir--because he had 
to call me ``sir''; that is the protocol--get behind us. We're doing 
the best we can over here, and we need your support.

  And they are going to get our support and have our support. Thank you 
for the question. I was so deeply appreciative of the opportunity to 
meet with my fellow Nebraskans who were there as well.
  Mr. COSTA. Well, I have made that trip several times, and we can 
never say thank you enough to the American men and women who serve in 
our Nation's military.
  I would just ask you, every week, I know you go back to your district 
and the good people in Nebraska--and that good water you are drinking 
there, bring more of it here to Washington because I think, if we can 
drink some more of that water, it certainly wouldn't hurt us here in 
our Nation's Capital.
  I want to thank the gentleman from Nebraska for his good words.
  As I prepare to close, I want to thank my fellow Blue Dog colleagues 
for coming down to the well of the House of Representatives this 
afternoon to talk about the common interests that we as Blue Dog 
Coalition members have, the efforts that we are making to reach across 
the aisle, the efforts that we are making to work with the No Labels 
group, as well as others, on a call to service to repair the engagement 
of civic dialogue, understanding that, frankly, if we tone down our 
rhetoric and we have a better understanding of how the different 
congressional districts that we all represent are, we can find the 
common threads, the common bonds to bring together solutions that we 
can agree upon for all of America. After all, we all believe that is 
what we have been sent here for, I believe, in one way or another.
  Another effort that the Blue Dog Coalition is engaged in with No 
Labels and others is congressional reform. Clearly, many Americans, 
when they look at Washington and they see the news of the evening, they 
think: Jeez, there must be something broke there. It ain't working 
right. It's not working the way we read in our textbooks.
  We are trying to restore efforts in congressional form in terms of 
regular order, in terms of our budget process and producing all 11 
budget bills every year and go to a conference as we are supposed to 
do. We haven't done that in 12 years in Congress, whether it is the 
Democrats in the majority or the Republicans in the majority, so there 
is a lot of fixing. Obviously, finger-pointing doesn't fix the problem.
  In addition to that, we have electoral reform. I think we all know 
that last year, last November, we had the lowest recorded turnout in 
America since 1942. What does that tell you? What does that tell you 
when the majority of Americans, regardless of whether they are 
registered as Republicans or Democrats, identify themselves as 
Independents?
  It tells you that America is looking toward people in Washington to 
provide the leadership to solve problems. They don't expect us to solve 
all of them--they are not unrealistic--but they would like us to 
prioritize on getting a budget on time, getting our fiscal house in 
order, on trying to fix a broken immigration system, produce a 5-year 
transportation bill, improve government accountability, and 
transparency. That is what they would like us to work on.
  As I said when I began earlier this afternoon, I am Congressman Jim 
Costa. I represent the 16th Congressional District in California, 
including all of Merced County, half of the flat land of Madera 
County--a lot of agriculture in both Merced and Madera Counties--and 
Fresno County. Fresno is, of course, my home.
  The wonderful people that are part of the San Joaquin Valley that I 
have had the honor and privilege to represent over the years are what 
all Americans are like. They are some of the best and brightest. They 
are tenacious. They are hard working. They represent the story of 
America.
  What is that story? Immigrants past, immigrants present--people come 
in from all over the world, striving to have a better life, a better 
opportunity for themselves and for their families.
  That is why we are working to solve the water problems in the San 
Joaquin Valley--because, if we can solve the water problems in 
California and in the West, with the planet clicking 7 billion people 
last year and soon to have 9 billion people by the middle of this 
century, our solutions to water problems in California can be a 
template to solving water problems around the world because where water 
flows, food grows.
  Clearly, we know that that is a daunting challenge, just like our 
energy problems are--but guess what. We are making progress on our 
energy problems. When I first came to Congress 10 years ago, we 
imported over 60 percent of our energy needs. Today, we import a little 
over 40 percent.
  If we continue on the current path, in the next 10 years, we will be 
importing around 20 percent or less by using all the energy tools in 
our energy toolbox, just as we must use all the water tools in our 
water toolbox.
  There is a lot to do. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Blue 
Dog Coalition for their time today, and their continued efforts over 
the year. Clearly, we have a lot of work to do together, and we want to 
reach out to work with everybody in the House of Representatives, the 
people's House.
  The Blue Dog Coalition is ready and willing to work with everyone. We 
look forward to creating bridges, not cul de sacs, working with our 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance commonsense policies 
that are physically sound, that benefit our entire Nation.
  You could also call the Blue Dog Coalition the commonsense caucus 
because we reject the notion of gridlock in Washington. It is 
embarrassing; it is inexcusable.
  Every day, when we put politics ahead of policy, we put our Nation at 
risk, and we stand to lose. Therefore, Congress must come together to 
address the critical issues as I said before: tax reform, immigration 
reform, and ways to further our Nation's economic recovery.

                              {time}  1715

  There is no problem in America, if we work together, that we cannot 
solve. We are here to represent and advocate for our constituents.
  Please, for those of you who enjoyed the comments made by my fellow 
Blue Dog Coalition members this afternoon, you can go to www.bluedog
.schrader.house.gov for more information.
  The Blue Dog Coalition will continue to work to make a difference by 
advocating for sound legislation and working together with our 
colleagues on a bipartisan basis. That is what I have always done.

[[Page H1564]]

  Today, as with my Blue Dog Coalition partners, we have the honor and 
the privilege to represent our constituents from throughout the land; 
and I would ask that my colleagues continue to make that effort because 
I think, at the end of the day, that is what all Americans want us to 
do.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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