[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9828]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2215
                       REPUBLICAN ACCOMPLISHMENTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. McHenry) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to talk about 
accomplishments of this House. When the American people are facing 
rising gas prices, this Republican controlled House of Representatives, 
this Republican majority, has stepped forward and said, yes, we must 
use our natural resources that are available here in this country today 
to provide for our energy needs. We said, yes, we should drill in a 
very barren part of Alaska that some call ANWR. We said yes, we must 
move forward with a bold initiative for hydrogen research.
  Mr. Speaker, I am so proud that my colleague from South Carolina 
sponsored the H-Prize. The H-Prize puts out a motivation for market 
forces and market research to be done, privately funded, and move 
forward with a way to power our economy through the use of hydrogen 
energy. It is a bold initiative, and this House passed it in the last 
few weeks. It is the right move and the right step forward.
  Beyond that, we are working to constrain Washington spending, out-of-
control government spending. What we have done in this House is pass a 
budget bill. Now it does not come to balance as quickly or in a form 
that I would like in the amount of time I would like, but it does bring 
the budget closer to balance.
  Beyond that, I was able to vote for an amendment that actually brings 
the budget to balance within 5 years, sponsored by the Republican Study 
Committee, called the Contract With America Renewed.
  Now, we have done all this in the last few weeks in this House. 
Previously, and the American people need to know this, previously, this 
House acted on border security, which I am happy to see the Senate has 
actually come around to doing something on immigration. Unfortunately, 
I think it is a horrible, absolutely destructive plan for the United 
States.
  But this House acted, this House has acted on border security by 
putting more Border Patrol officials on the southern border, by 
building a fence to protect our southern border, and doing what is 
right for our national security and our border security while at the 
same time providing for employers to verify whether or not those that 
come to be employed with their business, potential employees, are legal 
or not. It is the right move, Mr. Speaker, and I am very proud of this 
House of Representatives moving forward.
  Additionally, what this House did, in closing, I would add, the 
House, this House, along with the Senate, and it was signed by the 
President just last week, we were able to extend the Bush tax cuts, $70 
billion in tax cuts, in order to ensure that the American people don't 
pay more next year in Federal taxes than they did this year, and, in 
order to make sure the stock market continues to move forward and to 
move our economy forward in a general basis as well as affect every 
small business owner across this great country of ours. We have ignited 
this economic growth because of these tax cuts, and we, here, the 
Republican majority, we are moving forward and ensuring that that 
economy continues to grow across this great Nation of ours.
  Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of the work of this Republican majority, 
led by our Speaker, Dennis Hastert, led by a conservative Republican 
majority willing to make the tough decisions to move America forward. 
We should be proud of our accomplishments. We should go home after 
Memorial Day, Mr. Speaker, we should go home and tout these 
accomplishments. Let the American people know that what we are doing is 
good for them. It is good to their pocketbooks. It is good for their 
family. It has the right values, and it constrains the government so 
that families can grow and prosper as well as business owners.
  It is a good thing to do, and I am proud of our ability to act and 
move the agenda forward even when the other side of the aisle gets so 
mired in attacks and negative politics. I am so proud of what we have 
started to do here to turn the tide in this country and to move things 
forward.

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