[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 1735-1738]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                NEW MEMBERS WORKING TOWARD A COMMON GOAL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is good to be back on the 
floor. We have had a productive week so far. Things are moving along. 
We are doing exactly what we promised the American people, and that is 
removing regulatory burden, that is beginning to move toward an economy 
that looks after the needs of our communities--our moms, dads, aunts, 
uncles, and grandkids. They come together to know we are working toward 
a common goal, and that is looking ahead and making sure that what we 
do is in the best interests of our neighbors and our communities.
  Today, I want to continue in what we started, Mr. Speaker, just a 
week or so ago. We are introducing the folks that the country has sent 
from our side to be Members here, to join myself and others, to take 
this fight from the majority not only from their streets in the 
campaigns, but now onto the floor of the House.
  So this afternoon, we are going to start off with one of our new 
Members from New York's 19th Congressional District, John Faso. I found 
out as I was looking through his background that John comes from the 
same hometown as President Martin Van Buren and also our former 
colleague Chris Gibson, who was here for a while.
  I think if there is anything that sums up what I have heard from 
John's heart, it is the economic condition that we are in and the fact 
that our debts cannot continue to be sustained, and we have to put in 
good practices that not only take into account his district--which is a 
wonderful part of New York State--and the growing application there, 
but how we can take that all over the country.
  So with great pride, it is my privilege to introduce the newest 
Congressman from New York's 19th Congressional District, John Faso, to 
tell us a little bit about why he is here and his vision for what we 
have.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Faso).
  Mr. FASO. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate that, and I appreciate the 
gentleman from Georgia's hospitality in yielding the floor to me at 
this time.
  Mr. Speaker, indeed, I am privileged to represent the 19th 
Congressional District of New York State. This encompasses a wide area 
of the mid-Hudson Valley and the Catskill region. The district touches 
Vermont in the northeast corner and Pennsylvania in the southeast 
corner. We go out to Cooperstown, and we have great local locations 
like Woodstock. Many people are familiar with Woodstock, where the 
concert was supposed to be back in the late 1960s, but also where the 
concert occurred in Bethel, New York, in Sullivan County. The district 
encompasses all or part of 11 counties.
  The gentleman from Georgia referenced the fact that I have resided 
for

[[Page 1736]]

the last 30, almost 34, years in Kinderhook, New York, the hometown of 
Martin Van Buren, our eighth President. Our district also has within it 
the town of Hyde Park in Dutchess County, which is the home of a 
President who was extraordinarily well-known and recognized for his 
great contributions to our country, Franklin D. Roosevelt. I encourage 
people to come visit Hyde Park and the Roosevelt home and mansion, and 
also Kinderhook.
  I would be remiss if I did not also mention that the 19th District 
has the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, where I know a 
number of Members will be coming up later this year to play a game of 
baseball in a charitable fundraising event.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Collins had made reference to the economic 
condition. The economic condition in upstate New York is extremely 
difficult. Of the 11 counties in my district, for instance, all 11 have 
lost population in the last 5 years. What has happened is that people 
are leaving because of high local taxes and burdensome rules. These 
come not just from Albany, but also from Washington. This is one of the 
things that I think the people sent me here to Congress to work on.
  I ran on a platform of economic growth. We must get our economy 
moving, and we must get it moving fast and growing at rates that are 
not in the anemic 1.5 to 1.8 percent level, but up to 3, 3.5, and 4 
percent if we are going to produce enough wealth and opportunity for 
our children and grandchildren. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, we cannot allow 
this generation to leave to the next generation a country that is 
immeasurably poorer and less well off than the country that we were 
given by our parents and grandparents.
  I am privileged to serve on three committees here in Congress: the 
Budget Committee; the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 
where I am honored to serve as the vice chairman of the Subcommittee on 
Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials; and also the Committee 
on Agriculture. All three of these committees are going to be vitally 
significant in terms of my tenure here in these 2 years of Congress, 
but also for the people of our district.
  Agriculture, we have a robust and growing agricultural economy. It is 
dairy, where a lot of dairy farmers are struggling with the low price 
of milk, but also fruits and vegetables. We have got a remarkable 
number of new producers--yogurt producers, cheese producers, and beef 
and pork producers--because we live only 125 to 150 miles away from the 
city of New York and the tremendous metropolitan area and the 
tremendous market that that entails.
  On the Agriculture Committee, I will be fighting hard to protect the 
interests of our dairy community and small farmers and to make sure 
that we encourage our young people to go into agriculture. I am pleased 
to soon support a measure which will encourage young people to go into 
agriculture.
  On the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, I mentioned 
the Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee. Our 
district is blessed to have the beautiful Hudson Valley. The Hudson 
Valley--the Empire State corridor of Amtrak--is one of the busiest in 
the Nation. It is also one of the profit centers for Amtrak. Many, many 
people ride the train between Albany and New York City on a daily 
basis, in fact. It is vitally important to our commerce and to our 
business interests in our district.
  We also have a number of freight rail facilities. I will be working 
closely with folks out in Otsego County and Oneonta for the project 
that they are looking at for their rail facility in that community.
  Lastly, as I mentioned, I serve on the Budget Committee. Just today, 
we heard a report from the Congressional Budget Office. The chief of 
the CBO came before us. He indicated that today we have almost $20 
trillion of national debt.

                              {time}  1630

  That is just the on-the-books government national debt. He also said 
to us that within 10 years we are going to be facing another $10 
trillion on top of that. And $30 trillion, my colleagues, is not 
sustainable. It is, in essence, generational theft. It is saying we 
would spend today our children's and grandchildren's inheritance and 
that we are forcing, by borrowing way beyond our means, our children 
and grandchildren in the future to pay for our spending today.
  So this, indeed, is a crisis point. It is a crisis point for our 
country. It is a crisis point for every man, woman, and child in our 
Nation.
  In fact, if you look at the data, right now our national debt is the 
equivalent of about $60,000 for every man, woman, and child in America. 
We have to get this under control. The way to get it under control is 
we have to deal with growth. We have got to get economic growth. Smart 
tax and regulatory changes can help us spur the private sector economy 
to grow this economy, to create more opportunity, to create more wealth 
and jobs for our families all across the Nation, but particularly, from 
my vantage point, in upstate New York.
  But we also need to take a hard look at reforming entitlement 
programs. There is precedent for doing this. President Ronald Reagan, 
Tip O'Neill, the great former Senator from New York State Daniel 
Patrick Moynihan, and others came together in the early eighties and 
fixed the Social Security financing problem for over 40 years. Well, 
the timeline for fixing that problem is running out.
  I encourage people at home and citizens all across this country, pull 
out your Social Security earnings statement. Pull out that statement 
that the Social Security Administration sends to you each year. If you 
look at it closely, it will say that, in 2034, just a mere 17 or 18 
years from now, Social Security can only pay approximately 75 or 76 
percent of the promised benefits.
  We have it in our capacity to fix this problem to assure that all the 
seniors are taken care of and that those close and near retirement will 
not be affected. But we also have to reform the system so that our 
children and grandchildren have the prospect of something there for 
them in the future. We cannot, again, be the generation to leave our 
kids and our grandchildren holding the bag with a country less wealthy, 
with less opportunity than the country that our parents and 
grandparents gave to us.
  So I am really pleased to have this opportunity to come before the 
House today. I am very happy that Mr. Collins has, with his wisdom and 
experience here in the House, afforded us this opportunity to come here 
and describe what is going on in our district, why we came here, what 
we want to do, and what we hope to accomplish over the next 2 years.
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, one of the reasons we do this--
and I think Congressman Faso actually mentioned this--is what we forget 
so many times is we come in here, and we are grouped together as 435, 
but, the reality is, we all come from our individual districts.
  Listening to the gentleman's story, listening to why he came, that is 
what keeps us grounded. This is the wonderful hallowed halls for us to 
remember all the history that has been here, but, when we come here, 
you bring that personal story. And that is what the voters elected you 
to do.
  Again, it is a pretty amazing district. I am learning about a lot of 
districts. When you have the area of Woodstock and Cooperstown in the 
same district, that is pretty cool.
  I appreciate the gentleman being here, and I am looking forward to 
his service.
  Mr. FASO. Well, I look forward to working with the gentleman from 
Georgia, and I look forward to working with all of my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to try to fix what is wrong with our country 
today, to improve on what we already have, and to create a sustainable 
future for all Americans. This is why I ran, and that is why I am here.
  I thank the gentleman from Georgia for the opportunity to come before 
the House to speak with him today.
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. We are very glad to have the gentleman here.

[[Page 1737]]

  Mr. Speaker, as we go along, you have seen one great new Member from 
New York's 19th District, but then there is also a new Member who comes 
from the Big First out in Kansas. He is a doctor. He has been married 
for 32 years and has four children.
  I think the coolest thing about this is we talk about a culture of 
life. For me, it is not just a life issue of getting up every day. I 
believe that you take every day as a gift that has been given to you, 
and you grasp and you take that joy. But life has to start. For a 
doctor who delivers 5,000 babies, it is pretty cool to see that life, 
as a husband who has been there.
  He has talked about his greatest role as a husband and father. That 
is mine and, I think, Mr. Speaker, as most, as we look at this. Seeing 
my kids come in was a special time. To know what that means in the life 
of a family, Dr. Marshall brings that personal touch to the House. He 
brings that personal touch from the Midwest.
  Mr. Speaker, you do know I am in the Air Force Reserve. Mr. Speaker 
understands that very well. Also, I will say that he served as well in 
our once-parent operation, the Army Reserve. It is good to have him 
here. That military background also gives us a new perspective because 
our world is not a safe place, and we need to understand what we are 
going through.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the Big First, the First 
District of Kansas, Dr. Roger Marshall.
  Mr. MARSHALL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for Georgia for 
yielding.
  I am so proud to be here today. Before I talk about my district, I 
just want to say thanks to my fellow freshman class. I am so grateful 
to be part of the freshman class of the 115th Congress--a freshman 
class that includes 10 Members with military experience, a sheriff's 
officer, an FBI agent, two physicians, a dentist, and the rest of the 
class being mostly businessmen and businesswomen full of real-life 
experiences, which helps us solve problems with some little common 
sense.
  As my family and I traveled our district of Kansas this last 2 years, 
traveling 30,000 miles, they constantly identified the three common 
problems. They were concerned about the economy, national security, and 
health care.
  The first 2 years of those travels, I listened a lot. The last 6 
months, I focused on solutions. I thought I would share today some of 
the common solutions that my classmates and I have talked about, as 
well as my constituents back home.
  First of all, as far as the economy goes, the number one problem with 
the economy is government overregulation. Overregulation creates 
uncertainty and consolidation. When there is uncertainty, businesses 
don't grow; they don't invest.
  The overregulation creates consolidations. So instead of having three 
or four community banks in town, consolidation forces there to be only 
one bank. Oftentimes, those single banks no longer even make bank loans 
to people from their own community. Consolidation has occurred in 
hospitals and with physician practices as well, all too often.
  I am so proud to stand up here today and hear that the Senate also 
approved one of the laws we have passed repealing regulations. We 
think, as we go down this path, repealing regulation will be a 
continued path for small businesses to grow. That is where 80 percent 
of our future job growth is going to come from: small businesses.
  It is hard to believe, when I talk about national security, that men 
and women who live 1,300 miles inland from the nearest ocean, separated 
by mountains and rivers, are concerned about their own safety.
  It is hard to imagine that before there was the Paris massacre or San 
Bernardino or Orlando that my constituents in Kansas were concerned 
about national security. I stand beside our President in making our 
border secure and working through immigration and refugee issues to 
make our Nation more secure. We think that is vitally important, and 
that is one of the reasons we elected this President and many, many 
people from my class as well.
  Lastly, I want to talk about health care, something very near and 
dear to my heart.
  For the past 6 years, I have lived the nightmare of ObamaCare. It has 
caused many, many physicians I know to quit, to give it up. ObamaCare 
has reduced us to data entry positions rather than physicians who can 
listen and develop their clinical skills as we try to work with 
patients to solve their healthcare problems.
  ObamaCare has led to consolidation of physician practices. It has led 
to high prices as well for insurance products. It has led to $12,000 
deductibles for most families. It is no longer affordable. It is like 
having no insurance at all.
  Eighty percent of Americans are not happy with the Affordable Care 
Act, but I want to assure the American public and my constituents that, 
for every 5 seconds I have spent thinking about repeal, I have spent 5 
days thinking about replace.
  Though quite often the press wants to talk about this as two separate 
books, this is one book in my life--a book of repealing and replacing 
as quickly and efficiently as possible.
  I want to assure all my constituents back home that, if you are on an 
ObamaCare product right now, we are not pushing you off any cliff. We 
are going to give you a period of transition where you can have a truly 
affordable healthcare product that works for you without a $6,000 or 
$12,000 deductible.
  We are a party of solutions. If you will look at Dr. Price's bills he 
submitted the last 6 years, you will see great alternatives and 
solutions that the party has presented. We do think there are good 
solutions out there.
  Speaking of Dr. Price, I can't help but just stop and say we need to 
approve him, confirm him as quickly as possible. Dr. Price is a 
physician, an orthopedic surgeon from Georgia, who has served Congress 
in multiple ways, including leading the Budget Committee.
  I have not met a man I would rather have serve as the Secretary of 
HHS than Dr. Tom Price, a mentor to me--a mentor to many of us--a kind 
man, a Godly man, a person who cares about patients, who understands 
health care, but he also understands government. Before we can take 
many more steps with health care, we need someone in that position. I 
believe with all my heart that Dr. Price will do a great job.
  I look forward to continuing my next several weeks here working with 
the freshmen, working with the rest of Congress. We are so optimistic. 
We think that great days are ahead of us.
  I am going to close with a memory today that I will have forever of 
going to the National Prayer Breakfast. I have had the privilege of 
going to many, many events, but this may have been the greatest event I 
ever attended in my life to see men and women, leaders across the 
world, praying for our President, praying for our Vice President.
  I am just thrilled to be a part of this. I am proud to turn this 
country back in a positive direction.
  Mr. COLLINS of Georgia. It is good to have Dr. Marshall here and be a 
part of bringing that vitality of someone in the health field, knowing 
and understanding that relationship between the patient and the doctor 
and finding the best way so that all can have that access. I think that 
is what we see.
  He ended with something, and I will sort of end with that: the prayer 
breakfast. From my background as not only an Air Force chaplain but 
also a pastor for over 11 years, we can have disagreements. And we are 
going to have disagreements. But what I have found is, when you pray 
for each other, you can have disagreements, but you can't be mad.
  I think that is what we have got to do as a country is we have our 
disagreements and we move forward and we look for what is best for the 
individuals and not best for what is this government.
  I think that is what you brought to the table today and talked about, 
that passion to get it back to the individual who looks to Washington, 
knows it is

[[Page 1738]]

there, and doing what the Constitution said, but not overreaching into 
the areas of their life that take them away from the things they want 
to do.
  So I appreciate the gentleman's service. I appreciate him being here. 
It is going to be great as we go forward.
  Mr. Speaker, we have gotten a fast start. There are some things going 
on where we are doing what we promised. I had an interview just the 
other day, and the reporter asked me the question: Well, what do you 
think about X? They named off like two or three things. I said: What is 
surprising right now to many folks who have reported on this place for 
so long is the fact that things are getting done and being promised to 
get done, and they are happening.
  Mr. Speaker, that is what we are sent here for. And as we see that 
through the regulatory issues we have been dealing with this week, we 
are going to deal with again next week, and as we look ahead to the 
battles of repealing and putting together access to affordable health 
care for all Americans and not doing the scare tactics and not doing 
the straw man and not trying to push anybody off a cliff but saying: 
let's talk about this together; let's listen and work together, as 
opposed to the way it was done.
  Then, we look into tax reform. We look into energy development. It is 
a time in America to be smiling. It is a time when we can look around 
and the rest of the world is saying: that is the country that we know. 
That is the shining light that we know. That is the place that the 
world looks to. Because we are the freest country in the world, and we 
gave our spirit to others.

                              {time}  1645

  So it is exciting for me, as part of my work for the Republican 
Conference, to bring the freshman Members up here to let them tell 
about their areas. And as we do so, it just shows you, I believe, that 
America, in many of these districts, saw promise. And we are looking 
forward to continuing with our new Members and continuing to introduce 
them over the next weeks.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________