[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 13134-13139]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    BILLS LANGUISHING IN THE SENATE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Collins of Georgia). Under the Speaker's 
announced policy of January 3, 2013, the gentlewoman from Tennessee 
(Mrs. Blackburn) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the time and appreciate 
being here on behalf of my colleagues and to have a discussion that is 
going to focus on what we are doing with our time.
  Mr. Speaker, it seems like it never fails. When we are out and about 
in our districts talking with our constituents, people will approach 
us, and they want to talk about how concerned they are about the cost 
of living and what they see happening to the price at the pump and to 
the price at the grocery store. They want to talk about how concerned 
they are with how much more education seems to cost them. They are 
concerned about our national security. They are concerned about the 
border security. They are concerned about their retirement security. 
The list goes on and on and on.
  They will look at us and, Mr. Speaker, without fail, they will say: 
Tell me exactly what you are doing about this. I want to know what you 
are doing to address this problem or that problem or any of the issues 
that all of us hardworking families are out there facing every single 
day--every day.
  What they are looking for is solutions. What we have realized is that 
many times they don't know exactly how hard we are working here in the 
House and that the obstruction that is happening is not necessarily 
here in the House. What is happening is across the dome over on the 
Senate side.

[[Page 13135]]

  Now, I have got in front of me 300 of the 332 bills that have passed 
this House--300 of the 332 bills that have passed this House. Now, 
sometimes people will say: Where are those bills sitting? Why haven't 
they gone to the President's desk?
  Well, I always like to tell them, they are on the desk of Harry Reid. 
It is unfortunate, but it is where those 332 bills are languishing.
  Now, as we begin to look at being out of D.C. and working in our 
districts for August, one would think that the majority leader over in 
the Senate, Mr. Reid, would get busy with trying to clean his desk. 
Most people do that. When they expect to be out of town working for a 
few weeks, they try to get their desk cleaned off, and they try to get 
things pushed out to where they need to go. They get things organized. 
They get things done. But that is not what we are seeing in the Senate.
  I had one of my constituents come up to me one day and say: Look, I 
am all for the Larry the Cable Guy approach.
  I said: Tell me what that is.
  They said: Git-R-Done.
  That is what people are looking for, getting the job done on behalf 
of hardworking taxpayers.
  Now, sometimes people will say: Tell me what all is in this list of 
things that you have done.
  Let me just go through what we have found in our bills that have been 
passed. 178 of these 332 bills, 178 of the bills passed with no 
opposition, none at all. There was agreement, total agreement, on these 
bills.
  One would think that the Senate majority leader would say: 178 bills 
in which there is complete agreement, those bills coming out of the 
House? Surely we can move those forward in the Senate. Surely, out of 
100, we can get 60 to agree on something.
  But it is amazing. The Senator still has not called for a vote on 
those.
  Beyond that, 54 more bills passed under suspension. That means you 
had to have two-thirds of this body agree. So all totaled, that is 232 
of the 332 bills that have passed this body with either no opposition 
or two-thirds of the body voting in support of that.
  I also find it very interesting, and probably some of our Democrat 
colleagues would like to join us in our Special Order tonight, because 
55 of these bills--55 of these bills--were authored by Democrats. I am 
certain that they would like to see the majority leader take up their 
bills and push them through.
  Mr. Speaker, when you are so far behind in your work, you generally 
work nights and you work weekends. You roll up your sleeves, you buckle 
down, and you get the job done. But that is not what we are seeing 
happen coming from the Senate. What we are continuing to see is a 
resistance, an absolute resistance, to moving forward and taking up 
these bills.
  Now, as we go into our last week next week before our August work 
period, there are several issues that we would love to see the Senate 
address. As I said, the issues that are stacked in front of us cover 
everything that the American people are talking to us about, that our 
constituents are talking to us about when we go into our town halls.
  On the issue of energy, we have 16 bills that deal with the issues of 
energy, 16 different bills that are right here that would address 
energy issues. Many people have heard us talk about the Keystone 
pipeline. Do you realize that the bill that would address the Keystone 
pipeline approval you are going to find right here in this hefty stack 
of paper?
  For those who are just really concerned about what they are paying at 
the pump--and I don't know about you, Mr. Speaker, but I have been 
watching the price of a gallon of gas when I fill up my car, and in the 
last few months, I have gone from $3.59 to as high as $4.15 to fill 
that car up--far too much. For people who are paying too much at the 
pump, there is legislation in here that would get the cost down. It is 
Lowering Gasoline Prices to Fuel an America that Works, getting that 
price down at the pump.
  For individuals that feel like we are paying too much on our 
electricity rates--and we have all watched these rates go up. You look 
at that bill every month and you see, compared to last year, you are 
using fewer kilowatt hours but you are paying more. And you think, how 
could this be? Well, of course, we all remember the President saying 
that the prices would necessarily skyrocket under him, and he has made 
good on that promise. Maybe a lot of promises he hasn't made good on, 
but, the fact that gas was going to cost us more and electricity was 
going to cost us more, he is making good on that.
  Well, here is a bill, the Electricity Security and Affordability Act. 
All of these are cost-of-living items that we look at in our monthly 
budgets, energy being one of those that affects us all, everywhere we 
drive, when we turn on the lights, when we light the fireplace or turn 
on the burner of the stove to cook lunch. Bills that address those 
issues, they are found right in front of us.
  So there is plenty of work on Harry Reid's desk. Harry Reid has been 
unwilling to call the vote. I know that my colleagues join me in saying 
we would love to see him call the vote on one of these 332 bills.
  At this time, I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota 
(Mrs. Bachmann).
  Mrs. BACHMANN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Mrs. Blackburn for the 
wonderful leadership that she is providing on this bill this evening.
  It really is quite shocking. We have had a conversation this week 
about all the work that has been done in this Chamber. We have worked 
really hard. We have been here late at night, and we have been here 
every day because we know people across the United States are 
suffering. They are suffering in this economy, as Mrs. Blackburn has 
said. They are suffering from the rising gas prices. They are rising 
because of joblessness. They are very worried because their children 
aren't getting jobs. Most particular, the African American youth, it is 
out of control the number of African American youth who don't have 
employment, and in the Latino community, as well.
  We are heartbroken about that because this is hurting families across 
the United States, so therefore we have been here doing the work. We 
have been here passing jobs bill after jobs bill. And this week we 
learned, as Mrs. Blackburn rightly said, that we passed 332 bills out 
of this Chamber.
  Now, we didn't fully expect when we passed these bills that every 
word and every jot and every title of every bill would be immediately 
unanimously agreed to by the Senate.

                              {time}  1945

  We didn't kid ourselves, but we thought at least let's get started 
and do the work; 332 bills, and out of those Harry Reid couldn't find 
one that he could pick up and we could have a conversation about and 
pass and do something to move this economy forward? The economy is one 
thing, Mr. Speaker, it is also all of the firefights around the world 
that are happening. We are concerned about America's national security 
issues. We are concerned about our allies, like Israel, and what is 
happening in these countries.
  We have bill after bill, scores of bills to address getting our 
Nation back in order. We want to work with the President. We want to 
work with the Democrat-controlled United States Senate and with Harry 
Reid, and what doesn't make one bit of sense to me, Mr. Speaker, when 
we have all these scandals, whether it is the VA or the IRS that is 
using the power of the Federal Government to punish innocent American 
citizens for simply expressing their political beliefs, all of these 
scandals, and we can't even get the attention of the U.S. Senate?
  We have heard about a do-nothing Congress. I think we have to be a 
little more specific. It is a do-nothing U.S. Senate. There is a 
distinction here. There is no equivalency. So I wanted to come down to 
the floor when I heard Mrs. Blackburn speaking this evening, I wanted 
to come to the floor because she is exactly right. I know that many of 
our colleagues on the floor today agreed with the position Mrs. 
Blackburn is putting forward this evening. Many of our colleagues 
wanted to be

[[Page 13136]]

here because they want to work, and have worked, and now we are saying 
to Harry Reid with one voice, please come back, we are happy to work 
with you. There is plenty of time. If you want to come back in August, 
we will be here. Whatever it takes, we are here to work on behalf of 
the American people. Why not come and join us?
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentlelady.
  She mentioned jobs bills. Mr. Speaker, 40 of the bills sitting in 
this stack are related to jobs. Just the Keystone pipeline bill, there 
are 42,000 direct and indirect jobs that are related to getting the 
Keystone pipeline started. So the question becomes: What are you afraid 
of? What do you fear from taking up some of these bills? Do you fear 
the American people going to work? Do you fear that things just might 
get on the right track? That you would find in these 332 bills that we 
expand some opportunities and the environment for opportunities and the 
environment for jobs growth to take place? Why is it that the Senate is 
content with being a do-nothing Senate? Why is it that they are 
accepting of being a do-nothing Senate? I think we would all like to 
know the answer to that question. Do they like it? Do they like that 
they have a stack of work this high sitting on their desk that they are 
just not able to get around to?
  You know, I used to do some door-to-door sales, and we had a little 
wooden coin and it was called ``a round to-it.'' Any time we felt like 
procrastinating, any time we felt like we just didn't have the energy 
to do the heavy lift or make one more sales call or go to another 
prospect, we would take that round to-it out of our pocket and look at 
it and remind ourselves, the important thing is to get around to doing 
the job in front of you.
  You know what, Mr. Speaker, I still have my round to-it. I have it on 
my desk. It is getting old and worn-out, but anytime you think I could 
just be lazy, I could just not finish this and go do something I want 
to do, you look at the work in front of you, you look at the fact that 
you have a cluttered desk, and you look at the fact and consider that 
people are counting on you to do your job, and you make it a priority 
to get around to it and to get the job done. That is precisely what the 
American people have expected of this body, and we have done it. We 
have done that. And it is frustrating to us and to the American people, 
and I tell you, we join them in their frustration because look at this, 
all of these bills, and nothing has been done.
  The gentlewoman from Minnesota mentioned the issue of veterans. Do 
you think it would be considered appropriate to not solve the VA issues 
and the issues for our Nation's veterans? Of course not.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Bachmann).
  Mrs. BACHMANN. There is a heartbreaking story that happened to me 
this week. I was on the plane, the usual Delta flight that I take out 
of Minneapolis at 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon when we come back to 
resume our work here, and a veteran came up to me, a young man who 
couldn't have been more than 30 years of age. He told me that he had 
been deployed in the Iraq war. While there, his knee had been shattered 
in a combat operation in service to his country. He told me that he has 
been waiting for over 1 year to get an appointment with the VA to go in 
to have the surgery done to fix his knee with arthroscopy. He called 
the VA center in Minneapolis to try and get in, and it has been over a 
year for a young man of maybe 30 years of age, and he can't get in and 
get his knee taken care of. I think that begs our involvement.
  He wasn't even from my district, but I took his name and his address. 
I took all of his information, and then I took his hand, most 
importantly. I held his hand in mine and I looked into his eyes and I 
called him by his name and I said: I promise you I will personally call 
the VA center and make sure that you get a call back and that you get 
the appointment you need. And I will make sure that your Member of 
Congress gets this information and is able to help you because there is 
not one Member of Congress that I can imagine who wouldn't want to see 
a veteran get the help he has earned and that he deserves and that he 
needs. Anyone I believe in this House Chamber would do it, Republican 
or Democrat, this is not partisan.
  But what absolutely floors me, Mr. Speaker, and I think floors Mrs. 
Blackburn, is that we want to help these veterans. How could anyone on 
the Senate side, anyone, possibly refuse reform of the VA?
  Mr. Speaker, I understand and I am sure that Mrs. Blackburn is aware 
that today there was supposed to be a conference committee hearing on 
the VA reform bill and the Democrats in the Senate chose not to even 
show up to conference the bill.
  Now, how in the world is this young man who is a veteran who served 
his country honorably supposed to expect that his government cares 
about him when the Senate won't even show up to talk about VA reform?
  That is why I am so proud of the fact that Mrs. Blackburn has the 
physical stack of the work that this body has done, work to help 
veterans like this young, 30-year-old Iraq veteran. Or the moms that 
are waiting tables tonight and the dads who are at T-ball games tonight 
who are asking us, Could you please get the Keystone pipeline bill? 
Could you please do something about the Tax Code so my business can get 
up and fly?
  That is why we are here tonight, not expecting that the Senate would 
agree with everything that is in these papers. We do not expect that 
for a minute. All we are saying is show up to your job, show up and 
work. We want to talk. We are here. The President is very happy to talk 
to the terrorist nation of Iran. He has been very willing to negotiate, 
even to offer them a deal on developing a nuclear weapon, but for some 
reason, they won't talk to Republicans in the House of Representatives.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, on the veterans issue, there are three 
bills specifically that cover exactly what Mrs. Bachmann has just 
mentioned. H.R. 4031, which is the Department of Veterans Affairs 
Management Accountability Act, this is something desperately needed. 
Accountability in the VA, absolutely. Why will the Senate not take this 
up? Why will they not come to work on this bill?
  Another, H.R. 2072, Demanding Accountability For Veterans Act, again 
languishing on the desk of Harry Reid. Of course the VA should be 
accountable to the veterans and to the American taxpayer. Why are they 
not moving this forward so that it gets addressed?
  H.R. 4810, Veteran Access to Care, precisely what Mrs. Bachmann is 
speaking of, making certain that the veterans are guaranteed that they 
are seen in a timely manner.
  I have one constituent who got on the VA list for a primary physician 
15 years ago. Guess what? He is still waiting. I have another 
constituent who has been on the list for 3 years and has never gotten a 
call.
  This is completely unacceptable, and in this stack of 332 bills, you 
are going to find bills that will put that accountability in place. 
Mrs. Bachmann mentioned also the issue of taxes. We hear about it 
everywhere we go. People are overtaxed. They are overworked. They 
realize that they are taxed far too much, and they are tired of it. 
They want to see the tax rates lowered and the tax burden lowered as 
well as seeing the regulatory burden lowered.
  And on taxes, we have got seven bills, one we passed today, the 
Student and Family Tax Simplification Act. We have got permanent 
Internet tax freedom. It is right here, seven bills that deal with 
taxes. We also have H.R. 4457, America's Small Business Tax Relief Act. 
Hardworking men and women, small business owners, small business 
employees, they all want to make certain that we deal with this 
complicated and overbearing Tax Code. They want to make certain that we 
are reducing that burden on them.
  We could take some steps, not solve all of the problems, but take 
some steps in that direction if the Senate would show up and take up 
some of the tax bills that are here and help us lower that burden.
  We hear a lot about government spending. You know, government never 
gets enough of the taxpayers' money

[[Page 13137]]

and government spends too much. You give them a little, they are going 
to take a little more. We have 31 different bills that are in this 
stack that deal with reining in government spending, that deal with 
some of the budget reforms that are desperately needed so that we get 
rid of some antiquated processes and move to a new template for how we 
need to approach our spending and approach being a good steward of the 
taxpayers' money; 31 different bills. Pick one. Get going.
  It is amazing, once you get going on a task, it is easier. You get 
momentum, and that is something that we would like to see the Senate 
get and take up some of these 332 bills that are sitting over on Harry 
Reid's desk.
  Maybe you are aggravated about government waste and you are 
frustrated with regulatory overreach, and you would like to see a 
smaller Federal Government, and you would like it if some of these 
Federal agencies would stop wasting your money.
  Well, we have 16 bills in this stack that deal with stopping that 
overreach and curbing that waste and putting the bureaucracy on the 
track to being a better steward of the taxpayer money. We have to 
remember it is not Federal Government money, it is not the money of 
this Chamber, it is the taxpayers' money. They want these issues 
addressed.
  How about reining in red tape? You know, I talk to lots of small 
business manufacturers on a regular basis and they will say to me, the 
red tape is killing us. The regulation and the red tape is just killing 
us. We spend too much time on compliance. We have four different bills 
in here that deal with compliance and cutting red tape. That is another 
way that government can do a better job of responding to the needs of 
the American people and the taxpayers.
  I think everybody, Mr. Speaker, is concerned about national security.

                              {time}  2000

  Every time you pick up a paper or you flip on a channel or you turn a 
page on your iPad and go to a Web site and look at what is happening, 
whether it is in Ukraine, the belligerence of Russia, whether it is 
what is happening in the Middle East, and what we see happening in 
Israel, concerns about Iran, everybody is concerned about foreign 
affairs and concerned about our Nation's security.
  We have six different bills that would deal with these issues of 
national security. We would appreciate it if the Senate would take up 
some of these House-passed bills. Again, Mr. Speaker, 178 of these 
bills--178 of 332 bills have come out of this Chamber with no 
opposition at all.
  Another 54 have passed, 54 have passed, with a two-thirds vote of 
this Chamber. As I said earlier, that is 232 of the 332 bills. By the 
way, 55 of the bills out of the 332 bills are bills that have been 
authored by the Democrats, our colleagues on the other side of the 
aisle.
  Mr. Speaker, we hear a lot about repealing and replacing ObamaCare 
and making the health care system work, getting it into a healthy, 
healthy place, so that you are going to see people actually have access 
to health care.
  Right now, we have got a situation where everybody's health insurance 
costs are going up, and they are concerned about that. Access with 
these very narrow networks is becoming more difficult. We are hearing 
of people that are having to travel great distances to get to 
physicians or they are having longer waits.
  We found 11 bills right here that deal with health care. Some of 
these are repealing and replacing ObamaCare, 11 bills right here that 
could be taken up that would help with those situations, that would 
help with the access to health care, access to the doctor.
  What we have seen happen with ObamaCare is that people have access to 
the queue because they have got a health care card, but what they do 
not have is access to the physician.
  By the way, education--I talked to a constituent at the grocery store 
on Saturday morning, and she said that she was beginning to plan toward 
back to school for her two children. I said: Oh my goodness, it seems 
so early to be planning for back to school.
  She said: Well, you know, they are going to be starting back to 
school the end of the first week of August and then into school the 
second week of August, and there are fees to pay, there are different 
class fees that have to be paid, sports teams that have to be signed up 
for, sports physicals that the children have to get, and those 
beginning-of-school expenses.
  So she was beginning to focus on education and asked what were we 
going to do about letting parents and local school districts and 
getting rid of common core and replacing it with commonsense and 
putting parents and teachers in charge of those classrooms.
  Well, we could make some progress in that direction. Seven of the 
bills that we have right here deal with education and with the issues 
that face parents and students and teachers. We are all concerned about 
the future and what is going to be there for our children, in making 
certain that they are prepared for the future and having access to a 
quality education and having that right there in our neighborhoods and 
our communities.
  We could take some steps in that direction if the Senate would begin 
to take up some of the legislation that is over there on the Senate 
desk. As was said earlier, we are facing a do-nothing Senate because 
they have chosen not to get to work on this stack of legislation that 
would address some of these issues.
  Mr. Speaker, this week, as we have looked at the crisis on the 
southern border, we have heard quite a bit of talk and conversation 
about the issues of human trafficking, drug trafficking, the sex 
trafficking that is taking place in this country.
  Many people probably are not aware, and many of our colleagues 
probably haven't thought about the amount of work that we have done 
over the past 2 years on this issue, getting ready to address the 
issue, doing some research and some digging and some education and 
addressing human trafficking, taking steps to prevent this, to have the 
ability to do some intervention, penalties, and making certain that we 
are strengthening the family unit and fighting these trafficking 
elements.
  We have 11 bills specific to human trafficking that are right here, 
11 bills that would help hold accountable some of the traffickers and 
smugglers and put penalties in place, strengthen and shore up families, 
take care of victims, do some work on prevention. It would be 
encouraging if the Senate would join us and address those.
  There are other bills that are here. We have got bills that deal with 
innovation. We have got flexibility for working families to make it 
easier for working moms. All of those issues are issues that could be 
addressed.
  Yes, we have worked in a bipartisan manner. Indeed, we recently--just 
a few minutes ago, Congresswoman Jackson Lee was here on the floor 
talking about some of her work. I thought it was interesting. There was 
a report earlier in the week. She had had 18 rollcall votes on her 
amendments in the House in the past year. That is more rollcall votes 
than all the Republicans in the Senate combined.
  She was asked about the amendments in a recent interview, and she 
said, ``I want to thank the Republicans for their generosity.''
  That is the manner in which we have approached our job. As I said, 
178 of the 332 bills that you are going to find in this stack, 
unanimous votes. You have got another 54 bills that are in this stack 
that had two-thirds majority support.
  I thought it was also interesting, in the same article, Senator 
Manchin has not received a rollcall vote on an amendment since June of 
2013. He had recently aired his frustration. He said, ``I've never been 
in a less productive time in my life than I am right now in the United 
States Senate.''
  Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you that there are many people that 
probably share that thought over in the Senate because they are looking 
at the fact that things are not getting done in the Senate. Ninety-
eight percent of these 332 bills have passed with support from both 
Democrats and Republicans.

[[Page 13138]]

  If we were in school, that would be making an A grade on bipartisan 
support for legislation that is coming out of this House. Our committee 
chairmen have worked hard to be able to do that, and we have, in good 
faith, passed these bills, and in good faith, we have moved these bills 
to the Senate.
  Right now, we are watching these bills sit on Harry Reid's desk. For 
whatever reason, he is choosing not to take these bills up.
  At this time, I would like to yield some time to the gentleman from 
Montana (Mr. Daines).
  Mr. DAINES. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee for her leadership on this important issue of this do-nothing 
Senate.
  The President likes to refer to us as the do-nothing Congress. Well, 
tonight, we are presenting 332 reasons why it is actually the do-
nothing Senate, as seen by the stack of the bills here on the 
gentlewoman's desk. This has made it the least productive Congress in 
history.
  332 bills have passed the House and are sitting on Harry Reid's desk. 
These are not just Republican bills. 178 of these bills passed the 
House with no opposition at all. In fact, nearly 70 percent of these 
bills passed with two-thirds support or more. Fifty-five of these House 
bills were introduced by Democrats--still, Harry Reid refuses to bring 
these bills up for a vote.
  While House Republicans are focused on building up America's middle 
class, the Senate Democrats are content to let dust gather on hundreds 
of bills that would grow the economy, reduce the size and scope of an 
overbearing Federal Government and, importantly, help create jobs in 
America.
  Take the Keystone XL pipeline, for example. This is truly one of 
those shovel-ready projects that would create more than 42,000 direct 
and indirect jobs nationwide. Across the political spectrum, there is 
overwhelmingly support for this project, yet Harry Reid refuses to 
bring it up for a vote. I have got that bill right here. It is H.R. 3. 
This is a bill that we passed with bipartisan support, yet Harry Reid 
refuses to bring it up for a vote.
  The Keystone pipeline enters Montana. It is the first State that the 
pipeline enters after it comes to us from Canada.
  I was out in eastern Montana recently, and I was meeting with the 
NorVal Electric Co-Op. This is a small co-op in Montana that provides 
electricity to a few thousand Montana families. They told me that if 
the Keystone pipeline is approved, they will be able to keep electric 
rates for these Montana families flat for the next 10 years.
  If the Keystone pipeline is not approved, the electric rates for 
these Montana families will go up about 40 percent over the course of 
the next 10 years because this co-op supplies electricity to one of the 
pump stations on the Keystone pipeline, and that extra volume will 
lower the rates for all users.
  Sometimes, I wish the President would get out of the White House and 
come to a place like Montana and talk to those families and have him 
explain to them why he continues to block the Keystone pipeline. I 
would like Harry Reid to come out to Montana and explain to these 
Montana families why the Senate refuses to take up a vote and approve 
the Keystone pipeline.
  The House, we are going to continue enacting solutions to help create 
jobs and build a healthy economy because that leads to greater freedom 
and opportunity. We are not going to stop doing our job simply because 
Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid has stopped doing his. It is time 
for the Senate to get back to work.
  It is interesting, it has been quoted here tonight that Sheila 
Jackson Lee, the Democratic congresswoman, who we serve with here in 
the House, has had 18 rollcall votes on her amendments in the House in 
the past year.
  That is more than all the Republicans in the Senate combined. When 
asked about those amendments in a recent interview, she said, ``I want 
to thank the Republicans for their generosity.''
  It is time for the Senate to act. The Obama recovery, economic 
recovery, is 5 years old, and what have we seen? We shared this week 
the share of adults who are working is back to 1984 levels.
  That is the year I graduated from Montana State University, with a 
degree in engineering. Far more adults have left the workforce than 
have found new jobs, and it has been said this is the worst recovery 
ever for long-term employed Americans.
  The House has passed dozens of bills to create good-paying jobs and 
build a healthy economy, bills like the America's Small Business Tax 
Relief Act, which would lower costs for small businesses to allow them 
to hire more workers; or the Veterans Economic Opportunity Act, which 
improves programs that promote economic opportunity and ensures our 
Nation's vets have the tools and resources they need to find jobs they 
deserve.
  Let me conclude by saying this: it is a shame that Harry Reid and the 
Senate Democrats won't take up more of these 40-plus bills of these 
over 300 bills that we have passed that will get our economy moving 
because it is clear that the President's policies aren't working.
  House Republicans have a plan to get America back to work and get our 
economy moving in the right direction once again.
  Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he doesn't have to agree with our 
ideas. That is the nature of democracy. That is the nature of having 
the Senate and the House. We are not expecting him to agree on our 
ideas, but he does owe them a simple up-or-down vote. If he doesn't owe 
it to us, he certainly owes it to the American people.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman. I love the fact that he talked 
about Montana and what is going there and the northern route approval, 
Mr. Speaker, the H.R. 3. I wish he would hold that bill back up.
  I will yield to the gentleman. How many pages is actually in that 
bill that would approve the route for the Keystone pipeline?
  Mr. DAINES. I know ObamaCare was over 2,000 pages.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. So it is 2,700 pages.
  Mr. DAINES. Here is the H.R. 3, the act to approve the Keystone XL 
pipeline. It is very simple. In fact, it is two pages and about a third 
of a bottom of a third page, so call it 2-1/3 pages, and we can approve 
the Keystone pipeline.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. That is easy to read, and people could easily read 
that.
  Mr. Speaker, I think it is important to note that our bills are not 
2,000 pages or 2,700 pages or 2,300 pages. You are talking about bills 
that are readable. They are easy to work through. You can take them up 
one at a time, get going on them, and get some things done for the 
American people.
  You can see the different bills. This one is two pages. This one 
can't be more than about 15 or 20 pages.

                              {time}  2015

  So this is not too much of a heavy lift. You can look at a bill like 
the Keystone pipeline bill, H.R. 3. It is simple and easy to read, but 
yet this would help create the environment for jobs growth. It would 
put in motion the components that are necessary to get 42,000 direct 
and indirect jobs started and on the books.
  For an electric power co-op in Montana--and I think it is important 
to realize that co-ops are membership-led and owned organizations; 
these are the people that live in the communities that own these 
utilities--it would be able to hold those utility rates flat.
  What a boom that would be for those families that are members of that 
co-op and those small businesses to be able to say, We have got 
certainty and stability and we have got security of electric power that 
is going to be predictable and our rates are going to be stable and low 
for a 10-year period of time.
  That helps them to know what to expect, to work those business plans, 
and develop plans for expansion. That aids job growth. And that is an 
indirect benefit. It is a positive consequence of taking a step and 
passing a bill that is not even 3-pages long that would approve a route 
for a project.
  Mr. DAINES. Will the gentlewoman yield?

[[Page 13139]]


  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I yield to the gentleman from Montana.
  Mr. DAINES. On the issue of the Keystone pipeline and the benefits, 
many of those ratepayers in Montana are hardworking families that live 
month to month. Many of them are seniors that are living on fixed 
incomes. And so this President, by stopping the Keystone pipeline and 
not approving that bill that is just slightly over 2 pages in length, 
in essence, he is declaring war on the middle class of America that is 
struggling to make ends meet month to month.
  Our daughter just graduated from Montana State University with a 
degree in elementary education. She is going to be a teacher. If we can 
approve the Keystone pipeline, we recognize these tax revenues in the 
State of Montana, and millions of dollars that will help fund our 
teachers, our schools, our infrastructure in Montana.
  These are other benefits of the Keystone pipeline that we need to 
talk about that affect more than just the jobs. It also the tax 
revenues, as we talked about, and keeping the electric rates flat for 
many, many Montanans that live on fixed incomes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. That is exactly right. And it is about making certain 
that we get our labor force participation back up in this country. We 
have the lowest labor force participation rate we have had since the 
misery index days of Jimmy Carter's Presidency. We would love to see 
more individuals back into the workforce.
  There are 40 bills that would deal with creating the environment for 
jobs growth to take place. There is opportunity for innovation in some 
of these bills. There is predictability and certainty in bills as 
simple as the little bit on the Keystone pipeline. All of it is sitting 
on Harry Reid's desk.
  Mr. Speaker, as I said earlier tonight, one of the questions many of 
us in the House are asking is, What is the Senate afraid of? What is it 
the majority leader and the Senate fearful of? Why does he not take up 
some of these bills?
  We have 332 bills, and 232 passed either unanimously or with a two-
thirds vote. That is a pretty amazing record. And in these bills are 
solutions that the American people are looking for--solutions to jobs, 
to veterans issues, solutions in certainty for our Nation's economy, 
for our national security, and opportunity for our children.
  Those are the things that our focus is on. It is what our 
constituents have sent us here to do and the job they have sent us here 
to do.
  So I would encourage my colleagues. And as we move forward, we will 
continue in the House to do our job and to send bills to the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, I have to tell you I think that we would be encouraging 
of our friends in the Senate to not be a do-nothing Senate--not to be 
content with that--but to be aggressive in taking up these bills. And 
as they get ready for August and go back to their districts to work, to 
get around to it and get to work to clean and organize their desks and 
do what is right for the American people by addressing the issues that 
concern them and finding solutions to the issues that they bring to us 
each and every day.
  With that I yield back the balance of my time.

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