[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14713-14714]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2350
                       REAL REPUBLICAN SOLUTIONS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gingrey). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 2003, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Tiahrt) is 
recognized for the remaining time until midnight as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to first remind the Members here 
that there is some convenient memory loss for the Democrats when they 
want to blame President Bush on the current economy, especially when 
they want to target the tax relief. So let us just go back to 1999 and 
remember how our economy got into this current situation.
  In 1999, we had the tech bubble burst and we saw tremendous loss of 
jobs in the tech industry, especially in northern Virginia. It caused 
the NASDAQ to drop by over half, almost by two-thirds. Then, in 2000, 
November 2000, the recession technically started while President 
Clinton was still in office, even before President Bush was sworn in.
  And then, of course, who can forget September 11, 2001, when 
terrorists brought the war on terror to America and attacked us in our 
homeland and tore down the World Trade Center and attacked the Pentagon 
and put our economy into a tailspin. It was those events that caused 
our economy to drop dramatically.
  In my hometown of Wichita, Kansas, we had a greater percentage loss 
of jobs than any other community in America following September 11. We 
are the air capital of the world, Wichita, Kansas. It is the home of 
Boeing, Beech, Cessna and Learjet. When you take the number of jobs 
lost, the percentage of those compared to the total number of jobs in 
the community, we were the hardest hit. It was because of the September 
11 terrorist attacks.
  It was the tax relief that President Bush pushed for and that was 
passed in the House in a bipartisan fashion, passed by the Senate in a 
bipartisan way, that has turned our economy around.
  When tax relief is passed, people can do one of three things with the 
money they have in their pocket. The first thing they can do is spend 
it. That is a demand for good, which is a demand for jobs, and that is 
good for the economy.
  The second thing they can do is save it. When they save it, that 
makes money available for home mortgages. Today, we have the most 
homeowners in America, more than we have ever had in the history of our 
Nation. Particularly minorities are owning more homes than they ever 
have in the history of our Nation, and tax relief has been a part of 
that.
  The third thing they can do is invest the money. When the money is 
invested, it allows small companies and large companies to expand their 
plants, to buy more equipment and to hire more workers. And that is 
what we have been seeing.
  Our economy has been growing by 1.5 million jobs just since last 
August, 1.5 million jobs. Today, there are more Americans working than 
ever before in the history of our country. We have more homeownership. 
We have a higher average pay than ever before in the history of our 
country. The economy is turning around. But the Democrats have 
convenient memory loss.
  Now, we do have a plan, we have a plan for improving the economy even 
further. Now, we know that the people who keep and create jobs in 
America have been having to overcome some barriers that were way beyond 
their control. We have listed these barriers in eight categories, and 
the Republicans in the House have addressed a plan to provide relief 
for these categories. Change the environment so we can bring jobs back 
into America.
  These issues were created over the last generation by Congress. 
Congress with good intentions has, in fact, created bad policy. So we 
are in the business of changing that bad policy and bringing jobs back 
into America.
  The eight issues we have taken, one a week at a time; we have gone 
through four issues already this week. We are on the fifth issue. But 
we started with health care security. We have passed legislation in the 
House to help reduce the cost of health care in America. We have passed 
flexible savings accounts, medical savings accounts, medical liability 
reform. Those issues are going to bring down the health care costs in 
America.
  We next went on to bureaucratic red tape. We are cutting the amount 
of red tape in America because those are things that are costs to 
employers that forces them to pay these costs even though they cannot 
control them, and it prevents them from bringing more jobs back to 
America.
  Then we went on to lifelong learning so that we would have an 
educated workforce available. Then we moved on to energy self-
sufficiency. We heard from an earlier speaker about gas prices going 
up. Well, it has been the policies of this Congress over the last 
generation that have caused this problem.
  We have not built a new refinery since 1976 in America. We have not 
allowed for exploration in places that are as far away as the Northern 
Slope of Alaska. Nobody on this floor has ever been to the North Slope 
of northern Alaska. And out of the amount of country the size of 
California, we cannot even allow 1,800 acres to be used to develop more 
resources which would provide more oil than we are importing from the 
Middle East today.
  So there is a great deal that could be done to bring down the price 
of energy in America, but we cannot get the policy passed by Members in 
this Congress. So we are doing an incredible amount to bring down the 
price of energy to help bring jobs back to America.
  This week we are talking about spurring innovation. We have several 
pieces of legislation that we have brought to the floor. They include 
the High-Performance Computing Revitalization Act. They include the 
Department of Energy High-End Computing Revitalization Act. They 
include the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Act, the Harmful Algal 
Bloom and Hypoxia Research Amendment Act, and the Manufacturing 
Technology Competitiveness Act, and the Stock Option Accounting Reform 
Act.
  All of these things are designed to improve research and development 
or take that research and development and put it into practical 
application.
  Now, tomorrow we will be dealing with legislation that will take 
research and development and put it into practical application. We are 
calling it the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program. It is 
already in existence, but we are going to authorize it and expand it.
  The MEP, or the Manufacturing Existence Partnership, is a network of 
60 nonprofit centers in over 400 locations in 50 States. It served 
19,000 clients in 2002. When you do a survey of those 19,000 clients, 
you find out that we created and retained over 35,000 jobs, that we 
increased $953 million in sales in America. That is production of 
American goods in the form of sales, $953 million.
  We also retained sales of $1.84 billion. So the $953 million is in 
addition to the $1.84 billion.

[[Page 14714]]

  We realized $681 million in cost savings by applying research and 
development to these small companies. And we have invested $940 million 
in modernization, including plants and equipment and information 
systems.
  Now, how this helps small businesses is very clear. It helps firms 
understand and applies lean manufacturing technology. We take these 
good ideas that have been created through research and development, 
some of it funded by the Federal Government, some of it funded by the 
Federal Government through the universities, some of it is coming out 
of industry itself. We take those ideas to small businesses and we 
allow them to apply them, redesign factory floors, help firms determine 
what new equipment they need, how they need to place it. It just 
teaches them how to apply the technology that will help them create 
more jobs.
  So the concept of having a research and development application has 
been something that is going to be successful in bringing jobs back in 
to America.
  Now we are going to continue on. In the following week we will be 
dealing with trade fairness and opportunity. Then we will deal with tax 
simplification. Then we will end up with lawsuit abuse. Right now 
lawsuit abuse costs us 2.5 percent on any product made in America. We 
could reduce our costs by 2.5 percent.
  Now, when you look at the current Presidential team that the 
Democrats have, both of them represent trial lawyers. The vice 
presidential candidate has made millions and millions and millions of 
dollars by suing companies, and all that gets absorbed back into the 
cost of creating jobs.
  So to think that the Democrat team is going to create jobs, it is 
just the antithesis of that. They are going to be working in the 
opposite direction.
  We have these eight issues that we are using to break down the 
barriers and change the environment so we can bring jobs back into 
America. Again, they are health care security, reducing the 
bureaucratic red tape, lifelong learning, energy self-sufficiency, 
spurring innovation, trade fairness and opportunity, tax relief and 
simplification, and ending lawsuit abuse. Through these issues we will 
be able to bring jobs back into America.
  Kansans and Americans are known for their ingenuity, a trait fostered 
by our society since Pilgrims found a way to survive the harsh New 
England winter and develop into a thriving community that eventually 
became a great nation. Knowledge and ideas are our most important raw 
materials.
  The American economy has led the world because our system rewards 
innovation. From Benjamin Franklin through Eli Whitney, Thomas Edison, 
George Washington Carver, the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Jonas Salk, 
and Spaceship One promoter Burt Rutan, our entrepreneurs, scientists 
and skilled workers create and apply the technologies that have changed 
and will continue to change our world.
  Our leaders have realized that while they shouldn't tell people what 
to think or how to do things, there is a vital national interest in 
helping the best ideas come forward. America's strength has been in 
encouraging thought and exploration, and providing the resources to 
bringing those dreams to life.
  The United States remains the world's most dominant economy and 
scientific powerhouse. The rest of the world, however, is catching up 
and challenging our competitiveness. Fundamentally, there has been a 
significant increase in the quality and quantity of science and 
engineering (S&E) capacity around the globe. At the same time. America 
has grown complacent in her position as innovation leaders. Without 
adequate support at home, the impact of these two factors has been not 
only a decline in science and engineering professionals, but also the 
movement of corporate high tech investments and jobs to other 
countries.
  The Republican Congress has made great strides in funding research 
and development. We have met and exceeded our goal of doubling the 
National Institutes of Health (NIH) medical research funding, we have 
made necessary reforms to streamline the Patent and Trademark Office 
and FDA processes, and we have promoted nanotechnology, broadband 
dissemination, and a myriad of other important high tech investment. 
Similarly President Bush has focused on evaluating the scale, quality, 
and effectiveness of the Federal effort in science and technology.
  Research and development investments are still the keys to our 
nation's future competitiveness, and thus we must increase our efforts 
to spur innovation. This week, as part of the ongoing 8 week kickoff to 
the Careers for a 21st Century America competitiveness agenda, the 
House is focusing on efforts to spur the innovative, creative and 
entrepreneurial spirit that has always driven America toward phenomenal 
achievement.
  Democrats constantly lament our declining dominance in the sciences, 
yet offer no solutions. ``You need a partnership,'' says NSF Deputy 
Director, Josh Bordogna. ``You need new knowledge out of universities 
and labs, new processes from industry, and a government willing to 
enable it all through appropriate R&D policy and frontier research and 
education investment, by and for the citizenry.'' That is the challenge 
House Republicans have taken to heart.
  Instead of political rhetoric, Republicans are offering real 
solutions. We invite our colleagues to join us in moving America 
forward.

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