[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 13686-13693]
[From the U.S. 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

[[Page 13687]]

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 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

[[Page 13688]]

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.
  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. Reclaiming my time, 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

[[Page 13689]]

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 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?

[[Page 13690]]

  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 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.

[[Page 13691]]

  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.'' 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

[[Page 13692]]

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 
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.

[[Page 13693]]

  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.

                          ____________________