[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 830-831]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        CONGRESS IS NOT A CAREER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Nugent) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. NUGENT. Mr. Speaker, we in the House of Representatives need to 
start restoring the trust that the American people gave when they 
elected us to this office. Last night, 100 Members voted to give 
themselves a pay raise. Is that what we're all about? It's not about us 
enriching ourselves, because I don't believe that's what our Founding 
Fathers thought.
  When I first came to Congress last year, I found out that I had an 
option to either take the health insurance plan that the Federal 
Government offered or to go out on my own and do my own thing. And I 
took the option, even though it cost myself and my family over $10,000 
more. But then we started to look at options with regards to the 
Federal Employee Retirement System that all Members of Congress are 
required to be in, and also the Thrift Savings Plan that all Members of 
Congress are part of, whether they want to be or not--even though it's 
different for the Senate. The House of Representatives back in the 
104th Congress decided that they wanted to take that option away. I 
think that's wrong. I believe that America is about choices.
  I also believe that Congress is not a career. And so when those 
Members of Congress don't have an option to remove themselves from the 
Federal Employee Retirement System, as I wanted to, or those Members of 
Congress that wanted to participate in the Thrift Savings Plan but are 
told that you, the taxpayers, are going to give us an additional 5 
percent of our salary because you like us so much, I asked if I could 
exempt myself from that. And guess what? We were told we couldn't 
because those prior to us had made a decision for us now that we 
couldn't do that, we couldn't do what we think is right for this body.
  Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Speaker, it is about doing the right thing. 
It is about looking back at what our Founding Fathers envisioned for 
this country. It's about service to this country, not about enriching 
ourselves on the backs of our fellow countrymen.
  On the ``60 Minutes'' program we saw the insider trading issue that 
has gone across this Congress. It brings to mind that it is about doing 
the right thing. And unfortunately, there are those among us that 
really believe that it's about enriching ourselves on the backs of 
those that we're supposed to serve.

[[Page 831]]

There has been a number of bills put forth in regards to stopping 
insider trading, and so we have put forth a bill to do the same thing. 
It's very simple. It just requires that Members of Congress, the 
President, and the Vice President put their holdings into a qualified 
blind trust, which means no matter what information they may have they 
can't enrich themselves with it because within 30 days of their taking 
office, they must put it within a blind trust. It takes away all the 
issues in regards to how do you enforce some of the issues that were 
talked about in the STOCK Act.
  These are noble intentions, but when you make it more difficult to 
enforce, what you do is you give people loopholes to get around it and 
skirt around the issue. If you put it into a blind trust, it takes away 
the ability to skirt around the issue.
  Ladies and gentlemen, it's not about creating more loopholes. It's 
about making it simpler to do the right thing here in Congress. When we 
have the lowest approval rating, I'm shocked. I'm not shocked because 
we don't deserve it, I'm shocked because we don't want to do anything 
to improve it. As sheriff, I had a 73 percent approval rating. I come 
to Congress, and I find out that we're not as respected as we should 
be. But it's because of our own hand that we're not. It's nobody else's 
fault. Its not the press' fault. It's not anybody's fault. It's what we 
do within these Halls. What we do sets the tone for what the American 
people believe in or what we are supposed to be providing to the 
American people, and that is a level of trust.
  So in two things: A bill that was called Congress is Not a Career Act 
is sitting out there and also one in regards to blind trusts. Mr. 
Speaker, I ask that we think about those issues and move forward.

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