the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 417 -- the yeas are 417.

2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentlewoman from california, ms. watson, to suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 605 as amended, on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 605, resolution recognizing the continued persecution of falun gong practitioners in china on the 10th anniversary of the chinese communist party campaign to suppress the falun gong spiritual movement and calling for an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture falun gong practitioners. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to the resolution as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. v ys

are zero. 2/3 being afffirmed, the rules are suspended. the resolution is agreed to and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that i may may be considered as the first sponsor of h.r. 3402 and 3457, bills introduced by representative abercrombie of hawaii for the

purposes of adding co-sponsors and requesting reprinting pursuant to clause 7 of rule 12. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. so ordered. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? mr. polis: i ask unanimous consent to be considered as the first sponsor of h.r. 2536, a bill originally introduced by robert wexler for the purposes of adding co-sponsors pursuant to clause 7 of rule 12. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20,

the chair will postponefurther proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which recorded votes or the yeas and nays are ordered or on which the vote incurs objection under claut 6 of rule 20. recorded votes on postponed questions will be taken later. please take your conversations off the floor. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new hampshire seek recognition? ms. shea-porter: i move the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1089 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: resolutioning recognizing the 150th anniversary of augustana college. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the

gentlewoman from new hampshire, ms. shea-porter and mr. guthrie, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new hampshire. ms. shea-porter: i request five legislative days during which members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on house resolution 1089 into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. shea-porter: i yield to the the gentleman from illinois such time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> i thank my colleague from new hampshire to speak. i rise in strong support of house resolution 1089 recognizing the 150th anniversary of augustana college. this year marks the 150 year and i proudly introduce this resolution to highlight the long tradition of academic excellence and distinction. founded in 1860, augustana

college in illinois has grown from a small school educating swedish immigrants. today, with over 75 fields of discipline, augustana properly known as augie provides a rich environment for the diverse student body. augustana, students either learn and -- learn to enter to serve. throughout its 150 years, augustana college has remained committed to educating its students for a rewarding life of leadership and diverse and changing world. it has graduates including a nobel peace prize winners, c.e.o.'s and members of congress, my predecessor and good friend, representative lane evans. beyond the classroom, it has

established itself as a top athletic program with a 37 ncaa three national titles in six sports and produced 131 ack emmick all-american athletes. the six highest among all schools in our nation. in addition, it has partnered with the community to sponsor economic development and impact of $75 million on our local economy. the ongoing success can be directly attributed to the quality of the leadership of the college. under the direction of the president, augustana has positioned itself to be a flagship college in my district and in the state of illinois. also the president has spread efforts to respond to students' immediate needs during the economic downturn and made a commitment to help any stupid dropping out because of financial difficulties during creation of the immediate scholarship support fund,

substantial investments in financial aid and tuition cost control. mr. speaker, in closing, i congratulate augustana college on the occasion of its 150th anniversary and i wish the college, students and faculty continued success. i thank the illinois delegation joining me to celebrate the 150 years and urge my colleagues to support house resolution 1089. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky rise? mr. guthrie: to speak on the resolution, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. guthrie: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. guthrie: i appreciate my friend from illinois bringing this resolution forward and i rise today in support of this house resolution 1089 recognizing the 150th anniversary of augustana college. it was founded by swedish lutheran settlers in chicago and

moved to rock island, illinois in 1875. the college has grown from a small school educating swedish immigrants to a college of liberal arts and sciences. today, the college serves 2,500 students from various backgrounds, social, ethnic and religious backgrounds. students at augustana receive a personalized liberal arts in science education with 11-1 students to faculty ratio. they are involved in groups and activities including social and in-service organizations. augustana has been recognized for its excellent academics. the carnegie foundation has classified the college as a arts and science-plus institution. they are selected from the top quarter of their class and notable academic achievements. they compete in ncaa division three athletics and 20 sports

and also participate in numerous clubs and sports. the vike -- vikings have won 21 ncaa national championships. augustana college students have ex selled in all areas. i congratulate them and the students, faculty, staff for 150 years of excellence in education. i congat late my colleague on this resolution and urge my colleagues to support house resolution 1089. and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new hampshire, for what purpose do you rise? ms. shea-porter: does mr. guthrie have further speakers? mr. guthrie: i have none. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. ms. shea-porter: i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the question, will the house suspend the rules and agree to

house resolution 1089 as amended. those in favor say aye. opposed? in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being afffirmed, the rules are suspended, the -- ms. shea-porter: on that, i request yeas and nays the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8, rule 20, the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland rise? mr. sarbanes: mr. speaker, i ask that my name be removed as co-sponsor of h.r. 1255. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. for what purpose does the

gentlewoman from new hampshire seek recognition? ms. shea-porter: i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1167. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will read -- report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1167, resolution expressing the support of the house of representatives for the goals and ideals of professional social work month and world social work day. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from new hampshire, ms. shea-porter, and the gentleman from kentucky, mr. guthrie, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new hampshire. ms. shea-porter: mr. speaker, i request five legislative days during which members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on house resolution 1167 into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the question is -- the gentlelady is recognized.

ms. shea-porter: i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. speaker, i rise today to support the goals and ideals of professional social work month and world social work day. there are more than 600,000 people in the united states who devote their lives to social work and to the improvement of the society in which we live by obtaining social work degrees. social workers dedicate their time, energy and career to assisting individuals, families and communities through complicated social issues and complex social issues. as many of you know, social workers have been instrumental in helping social movements in the united states and abroad. charles perkins, who reduced the workweek to 48 hours. and hopkins, who relocated to new orleans in order to work for the american red cross as director of civilian relief, gulf division. two examples of social workers who saw a need to change conditions for a community and sent us to work in the

community to help meet that need. social workers use their tools and skills in schools, courtrooms, clinics, nursing homes and the military, just to name a few. however, the need for social workers is expected to grow twice as fast as other occupations, especially within the health care sector as our aging demographics require more services. professional social work month and world social work day, which is march 16, 2010, builds awareness of professional social workers and their commitment to people. i urge my colleagues to support this resolution honoring those who choose social work as a profession to better society. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. guthrie: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. guthrie: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of house resolution 1167, expressing support of the goals and ideals of professional social work month and world social work day. social workers are an important part of communities throughout the nation, and they inspire

community action to improve lives. social workers know the full range of challenges facing families of every description, and they -- to help people reach their full potential. social workers make a wide range of social contributions throughout their careers. many social workers work to resolve systematic issues that negatively effect a community. some work in education or research and others serves as heads of nonprofit organizations to create positive, sustainable change in communities. most social workers serve individuals and families working through private practices, agencies and organizations, they provide resources and guidance that support social functioning. many people have become professional social workers believe there's no limit to human potential and use their talents to help others. social work is a profession of hope, grounded in practical problem solving expertise. southerly workers are employed in courtrooms, schools,

hospitals, senior centers, shelters, nursing homes, the military, disaster relief, prisons and corporations. they are on the front lines developing social programs that are responsive to such needs as homelessness, poverty, mental illness, physical and mental disability. substance abuse, domestic violence and many other issues. this year social workers inspire community action, showcase the impact they have on the improvement of community life. today, we recognize the contributions of millions of caring individuals who have chosen to serve their communities through social work. i ask that my colleagues support this resolution, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. for what reason does the gentlewoman from new hampshire rise? ms. shea-porter: does mr. guthrie have any further speakers? mr. guthrie: i have no further speakers and i will yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. ms. shea-porter: i urge my colleagues to support this

resolution, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1167. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended -- ms. shea-porter: mr. speaker, on that i request the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new hampshire seek recognition? ms. shea-porter: i move that the house suspend the rules and agree to house resolution 1174. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house resolution 1184, resolution congratulating

the 2009-2010 university of maryland men's basketball team, greivis vasquez, and the coach, on an outstanding season. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from new hampshire, ms. shampte, and the gentleman from kentucky, mr. guthrie, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new hampshire. ms. shea-porter: mr. speaker, i request five legislative days during which members may revise and extend and insert extraneous material on house resolution 1184 into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. shea-porter: i now yield to the gentlewoman from maryland for such time as she may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from maryland is recognized. ms. edwards: mr. speaker, i rise today to support this resolution, congratulate greivis vasquez and coach gary williams for an outstanding for the university of maryland's basketball team.

the home is in principles george's county, my home -- prince george's county, my home county, and i congratulate them on a season that ended with san of monumental victories, including a double overtime game win against the virginia tech hokies. the season ending victory over the university of virginia placed the terrapins as the number two seed going into the atlantic coast finals quarterfinals. they concluded their regular 2009-2010 atlantic coast conference season with an impressive 13 wins and three losses. earning first place honors along with the top rank duke university blue devils. i'd like to point out as a point of personal privilege and note that one of the three losses that maryland face this had year was to the demon deacons of wake forest university, my alma mater, but i stand here nonetheless in support of our hometown maryland terps. the season got off to a promising start with star player greivis vasquez electing

to foregogh the national basketball association draft and play his senior year with the terrapins. it proved to be a good decision because he averaged 19.6 points per game during the season. he even scored a career high 41 points in a single game. it was a rare feat for any basketball star. i know i was a fan. throughout the season, vasquez received the atlantic coast conference player of the week honor four times and was unanimously selected first team all-a.c.c. by the sports media association. he led his team into the quarterfinals of the a.c.c. tournament as he honored atlantic coast conference player of the year, which he was named on march 9, 2010. in 1967, while attending the university of maryland, coach gary williams played for the terrapins. he wasn't coach then, and served as team captain.

he returned to the university in 1989 to coach for the same team he once played for. it's been an honor to watch him as coach williams has led his alma mater basketball program to a -- an era of national prominence. he had seven sweet 16 appearances, and in 2002 led the terrapins to win the national title in the national collegiate athletic association championship. i know i, along with other maryland tare pin fans, followed those -- that season and all the others watching gary williams and sitting on the nail biters in the stand. the opening of the 2009-2010 college basketball season marked the 21st season as head coach with the university of maryland for gary williams. as a member of the university of maryland's alumni hall of fame, coach williams was named atlantic coast conference coach of the year for the second time in his career on march 9, 2010.

i wish to congratulate greivis vasquez 2010 a.c.c. player of the year, coach gary williams on being named the 2010 a.c.c. coach of the year and the entire university of maryland men's basketball team on a truly outstanding season. and i wish them and my other favorite team, wake forest university, great success in the 2010 ncaa tournament, university of maryland facing the university of houston, and another texas team, texas facing wake forest university. and we all look forward to that and we'll be cheering them on their way. again, congratulations to coach gary williams and to player of the year greivis vasquez. go, terps. and with that i yield. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky rise? mr. guthrie: to speak on the

resolution. the speaker pro tempore: you're recognized. mr. guthrie: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. guthrie: mr. speaker, i rise today in support of house resolution 1184, congratulating the 2009-2010 university of maryland men's basketball team and player greivis vasquez and coach gary williams on an outstanding season. they completed the season 23-7 and completed the atlantic coast conference with a 13-3 record. this year will mark its 24th tournament appearance. and i extend my congratulations to the university of maryland head coach gary williams and his staff and the hardworking players, especially greivis vasquez, and the fans. i wish i'd say continued success except there will be several kentucky teams playing. i will support my team, and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves.

for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new hampshire rise? ms. shea-porter: i now yield one minute to the house majority leader, the gentleman from maryland. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentlelady for yielding. go terps, and they did. i am a graduate of the university of maryland, and like so many others, i am very proud of my alma mater. i went there many, many years ago, and i've owned a number of homes throughout my life, but one of them was three doors from gary williams. i've known gary williams for all the time he's been at the university of maryland, which is now over 20 years. gary williams is an extraordinary individual, extraordinary coach, has had great success at every school he's coached at throughout this country. he's been at maryland for, as i said, over two decades. he's the winningest coach in maryland's history.

his predecessor did a great job at the university of maryland. maryland was picked very low in the a.c.c. standings at the beginning of the season. the expectations were not high. the university of maryland team had a freshman strong forward, and so it was perceived that inside they wouldn't have the kind of game they needed to compete in a conference like the atlantic coast conference, which we in the a.c.c. believe it's the best conference in the united states. it may not be the best conference this year in the united states, but over the years it certainly has been, but there was some very strong conferences. not to mention the big east pretty strong itself. but in any event, we weren't picked very high, and the reason gary williams has been chosen appropriately for the honor of being coach of the

year in the a.c.c., which has some extraordinary coaches like coach krzyzewski, coach williams, roy williams at the university of north carolina, and other great coaches, is because he took a team that did not have high expectations from the public and took it to a tie with do you go, one of the great teams in this country, to lead the a.c.c. they finished 12-3, i believe, or 10-3 in the a.c.c. wake foreeducation, great team as well, i want to thank the gentlelady from maryland, donna edwards who shares prince georges county in which the university of maryland-college park is located, for her gracious congratulations. she gives me a hard time, wake forest beat us this year, i don't know if we'll meet again, but i appreciate her support of

this resolution. i want to say, we have a young player, a senior, greivis vasquez. he's a real personality on the court. greivis vasquez was the high scorer, picked as player of the year in the a.c.c., was an extraordinary leader of our team on the floor. was the spark plug of our team. when our team was down and needed to get up, needed to be inspired, it was greivis vasquez, who, along with other extraordinary players we had nine or 10 players who could have started in some other teams, very frankly, wonderful young players, jordan williams, our new freshman who is going to be an extraordinary sophomore, hopefully we even keep him until his junior year. that's why we prevailed in the a.c.c. that's why we're going to prevail in the ncaa, because

houston, as you've heard, i want to talk to the houston representatives about this game, we'll talk to you a little more, what you think what we think, it's going to be an excellent year. but notwithstanding that, i was in atlanta when the university of maryland won the national championship we played indiana that year and i want to personally congratulate my friend, gary williams, on the great coaching job he did. i want to congratulate the entire team for the great job they did and i want to wish them the very best of luck in the ncaa tournament. i thank the gentlelady and i thank the gentleman for bringing this resolution to the floor to appropriately recognize a great year for a great team a great coach, and a great a.c.c. player of the year. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky rise? >> i'd like to yield as much time as he may consume to the

gentleman from california. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from kentucky for yielding. i stand in opposition to this resolution and i stand in opposition, you know, we're having a lot of discussion today, and i don't mean to cast aspersions on the gentleman's alma mater or any terp fans or anything like that, but we're having discussion this week a lot about health care, and there's a lot of discussion on the government-run health care bill about fairness and equity in the process. i would like to point out a little bit about the fairness and equity of the process of this resolution. back last october, i authored a similar resolution we all often do, for university of california irvine, whose men's

volleyball team won the national championship. the majority leader, whose bill this is, pulled that resolution from the floor. so he did not allow that resolution last october to be heard. so therefore, those kids who won that national championship were not able to get the same recognition that apparently today these players for maryland who are just in the playoffs are going to receive. second of all, mr. speaker, in the past, we have done these for teams that win national championships. this is for a team that's making the playoffs, one of 65. now there are a lot of people out there, mr. speaker, who believe that we're wasting the taxpayers' money and the taxpayers' time by doing these sorts of resolutions. there's an argument for that. that's also an argument to be made that it's a great thing for the kids who win these to

have these additional resolutions to put in their trophy case. but the one thing i do believe is that we shouldn't descend into doing theaverpb wins, that gets into a playoff that would be 65 teams just here in men's basketball. and think of all the men's and women's sports out there and how many teams that would include if we begin to do that as well. and finally, mr. speaker, i have here the sports section from today's "washington post." i read from the front page where it says, according to a study, maryland has the lowest graduation rate, 8%, among the 65 ncaa tournament teams. given that this is being put forth in the education and loy boar committee, if we were going to look at the 65 teams in the ncaa championships, shouldn't we be considering the academics of the teams that are in or not in mr. speaker, and

to the majority leader, i don't like doing this. i can see the banter going on, these things are usually fun, usually easy. but it seems like in this house recently, we have lost a sense of equity and fairness in the process. it seems like if a school is represented by someone if the minority party, they don't get a recognition, whereas perhaps if they're from the majority they do. it seems like there are different thresholds, different standards, different ways that things happen in this house rather than simple equity and fairness. so for that reason, mr. speaker, i oppose this resolution and i would encourage my colleagues to oppose it, not, again to cast any aspersions on the university of maryland, but to send a message that process matters and that the way fairness and equity matters and

little things like this aren't nearly as important as big things like the government-run health care bill that we're doing this week. but the fact is that this little bit is endemic of what's going on in the bigger bills in the house and the way it operates and has unfortunately in this congress. i yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from kentucky. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from new hampshire rise? ms. shea-porter: do you have any further speakers? mr. guthrie: i do. ms. shea-porter: i reserve. mr. guthrie: i thought i had another speaker, but i yield back.

ms. shea-porter: keeping myself neutral as a graduate of the yurlte of new hampshire, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on suspending the rules and aeing to house resolution 1184. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. >> i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman asks for a recorded vote. >> yes. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause of rule 20 and the chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be postponed.

for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mr. young of florida for today. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas rise? mr. poe: i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special orders heretofore entered into, the following members may be permitted to address this house, revise and extend their remarks and to include therein extraneous materials. myself, mr. poe, for march 23. mr. jones for march 23. mr. souder for today, march 17,

18, and 19. mr. boustany for today. mr. smith of new jersey for today. mr. moran for march 23. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that today following legislative business and any special order heretofore entered into, the following members may be permitted to address the house for five minutes to revise and extend their remarks and include therein extraneous material. mr. etheridge from north carolina for five minutes, ms. woolsey of california for five minutes, mr. defazio of oregon for five minutes, ms. kaptur of ohio for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009 and under a previoused orer of the house, the following members are recognized for five minutes each. mr. etheridge from north carolina.

mr. poe from texas. the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. poe: mr. poe: we are told we must immediately pass this government takeover of health care or there will be health care panic in the streets. now we know the real reason this bill is being rushed to passage, even though no one has had time to read it. according to the speaker, as quoted, we have to pass this bill so that you can find out what is in it. let me repeat what the speaker said. we have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it. after all, it's 2,700 pages

long, it's too long to find out what's in it before we vote on it. so now we know, it has to be voted on so it can be read. i guess if members read the whole bill before they vote, they might actually vote it down. there's one thing we do know that's in this bill and it's that it steals the right of privacy for all americans. it will invade people's legal right to medical privacy. the government gets control over everybody's health care information and it's another reason why we should oppose the bill. the government has no business sticking its nose into people's medical records. it's none of the government's business. the bill creates a health care integrity data bank for the feds -- where the feds have access to everybody's medical records. health care information is supposed to be between the patient and the doctor. not the patient and some yet-unnamed, anonymous, unaccountable federal bureaucrat hiding somewhere in this building. when the government has

everybody's medical records, they are at risk for misuse. giving -- giving government bureaucrats access to people's most private and intimate health information means their health records become public property. people's most intimate health care information, warts and all, becomes the property of the u.s. government. the federal government grab of health care will eliminate any masquerade of medical privacy. being 111 new federal agencies in this bill that we have yet to read will be snooping through your records. talk to your doctor and the government will know what you said. you've got some type of illness or disease? the government's going to know about it. feeling a bit depressed after a family death and need some medication? the government will even know your mental health issues. is this the kind of information that should be in the hands of federal bureaucrats? a bunch of busy body

bureaucrats bestowed with the task to go forth and do good to the people. the famous author c.s. lewis once said, of all the tyrannies a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. it may be better to live under robber barrens than under omnipotent busy bodies. robber barons may sometimes sleep but those who try to do good will do it without end. it's for your own good, it won't hurt too much. once medical records are available to the fids, every government agency will want to get their hands on the private medical records. that's the way the bureaucrats work. every american will be required to be part of the big brother health care database. people won't talk to their doctor anymore about their problems. they'll know somewhere in the deep, dark, dank dungeons of

washington, d.c. a federal bureaucrat will be reading and perusing their medical records. this is an invasion of privacy and it violates the u.s. constitution. the whole scheme denies individual liberty and the government takes -- when the government takes over health care. thomas jefferson even talked about universal health care once he said, if the people let government decide what foods they eat and what medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in the sorriest state as the souls of those who live under tyranny. when government takes over health care, it will equalize poor health for everybody. the government takeover of health care is not about health and it's sure not about care. it's about government control of our personal lives. and this legislation violates our u.s. constitution. because it steals the right of privacy right from underneath us, all in the name of taking care of us. that's just the way it is. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: ms. woolsey. >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to reclaim my time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today to call on the united states senate to follow the house's lead in passing the jobs bill. the house passed the hire act last week and now the senate needs to send it to the president for his signature. americans need jobs and we need them now. my constituents tell me they want congress to quit the bickering and the partisan posturing and get to work and fix the economy. wall street may be doing well enough for the bankers to reward themselves with big bonuses but folks on main street are still hurting.

north carolina's unemployment rate has been above 11% for too long and some counties in my congressional district are experiencing unemployment as high as 14.6%. more than half a million north carolina workers are unemployed according to the new figures released by the employment security commission. i said before and i'll say it again, my top priorities are -- of what we need to be doing is jobs, jobs, jobs. the jobs bill will provide the incentive companies need to put people to work today, give employers a tax credit for every new worker they hire. i recently visited with local business leaders at a chamber of commerce as well as the benson chamber of commerce and they told me that this is the kind of federal assistance that they need to help jumpstart hiring in their communities. i think that's true not only in north carolina but across the country. and congress needs to take action on jobs now. the centerpiece of the jobs bill

that the house passed last week is a hired tax credit similar to the one i proposed in my hire act of h.r. 4437, a bill that would encourage businesses to invest by putting labor on sale for a limited time, helping small businesses expand and grow. the bill provides a payroll tax holiday to businesses that hire workers that is estimated to support roughly 300,000 jobs and encurning employers to keep those workers -- encourage employers to keep those workers longer term so they will receive a tax credit of $1,000 if they retain them. the jobs bill was passed last week, also included another proposal of mine, to support local school construction buildings by providing a tax credit for qualified school construction bonds that were included in the american recovery and reinvestment act last year. it will allow the issuance of qualified school construction bonds to receive a direct payment from the federal government equal to the amount

of the federal tax credit. this modification will help north carolina schools access nearly $500 million in school construction bonds to address our students' needs and support more than 15,000 jobs just in north carolina. you can imagine what it will do for the rest of the country. last week i visited a school in franklin county that was being built from the first piece of the school construction bonds and it's amazing to see what it does for the community and how it gives them an uplift. this provision will create jobs now, building the schools of the future, it's a win-win, it makes sense and i urge the senate to pass the hire act now. it will be like c.p.r. for our economy. and i hope the senate will join the house in getting it done. i thank you, mr. speaker, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. jones from north carolina. the gentleman is recognized for

five minutes. mr. jones: mr. speaker, thank you very much. recently i introduced h.r. 4639, corporal dustin lee memorial act. what this bill would do is allow the adoption of military worker dogs by family of deceased or seriously wounded members of the armed forces who was the dog's handler. and, mr. speaker, beside me i have the poster of a family from mississippi whose son was killed for this country, dustin lee. he was the dog handler in iraq. he was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade and his dog, lex, was wounded. the marine corps very kindly at the funeral of distin lee carried lex to be there -- dustin lee carried lex to be there with his master and the family asked the marine corps to please let the dog stay with them. the dog had two more years of

service. this was brought to my attention. i called a very dear friend of mine, general mike wagoner who is now in afghanistan, told him the situation and said, mike, is there anything we can could to help the lee family adopt this dog, lex? and so long story short, mr. speaker, the marine corps contacted the air force and the adoption took place two years ago in georgia. i have beside me a photograph taken by the family. lex, the dog, is looking at the headstone that's got an engraving of dustin lee and lex and it says, in loving memory of corporal dustin injury home lee. mr. speaker, what happened -- gerome lee. mr. speaker, what happened is as soon as they got the dog home, lex, the german shepherd, they alow youed lex to sniff the -- allowed lex to sniff the boots

of their son, dustin, who had been killed and then they took lex to the cemetery. i've seen photographs of the cemetery, it's a rather large cemetery. and they took the dog away from the area, then they let him out and said, find dustin, find dustin, and the dog ran up to the headstone and laid down. i hope that my colleagues will join me in this effort to allow a family of a deceased soldier, marine, airman, whomever, that maybe was a dog handler who was killed for this country or seriously wounded soldier, marine or airman or seaman who was wounded to be able to adopt the dog without going through a long process. so, mr. speaker, i again will ask my colleagues to please join us in h.r. 4639 and before i close, as i always do on the floor of the house, i ask god to

please bless our men and women in uniform, i ask god to please bress the families of our men and women in uniform -- bless our family -- bless the families of our men and women in uniform, i ask god to hold the families who have lost a child fighting for freedom in iraq and afghanistan. i ask the senate to do what's right in the eyes of god for this country and i ask god to give wisdom, strength and courage to president obama that he will do what is right for the people of this country and three times i will say, god, please, god, please, god, please continue to bless america and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: mr. defazio. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> to claim ms. woolsey's time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> a few moments ago we heard one of the most outrageous charges i've seen in many days and heard in many days around here concerning the health care

bill. the notion that somehow the health care bill overrides the hipaa law that's more than a decade old is foolish nonsense. the privacy remains for every individual in america under the hipaa law and in no way does the health reform bill invade or change in any way the hipaa law which provides privacy on hall medical records, whether they are with your local doctor, the clinic, the hospital, the federal government, whether you're on medicare, medicaid or whatever program you are in, your privacy is assured by a decade-old law and what will be before us in the days ahead is a change not in the hipaa law but in other sections of the laws pertaining to health care in america. there is absolutely no truth whatsoever that the privacy of individuals are in any way changed by the laws -- by the bills that we will be taking up

in the days ahead. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: mr. defazio. mr. moran. >> mr. speaker, thank you. iran's nuclear program is in a fast pace. they could soon build a nuclear bomb putting the united states, israel and the entire middle east at risk. the need for congress to pass strong and comprehensive sanctions against iran is urgent. iran currently possesses enough low enriched uranium to produce two nuclear weapons upon further enrichment. last month iran began enriching the stockpile of low enriched uranium to a level of 20% under the guise of needing more highly enriched uranium for medical purposes. yet the truth is that iran lacks the technical know-how to turn 20% enriched uranium into fuel rods. rather than meeting its medical needs, this step only put it's iran that much closer to having

-- only puts iran that much closer to having a nuclear weapon. in fact, nuclear experts say this level of enrichment represents 95% of the work to make weapons-grade fuel. allowed to continue on this course, iran could potentially complete the enrichment process in a few months at a small facility according to former member and fist sift davidal bright. they have also raised concerns about the military nature of iran's nuclear program. in february the u.n. nuclear watchdog agency issued a report saying iran may be working to develop a nuclear armed missile adding further evidence that iran's nuclear work is not for peaceful purposes. if iran is successful in building a nuclear weapon and fitting it into a missile, the entire region will be at risk. iran already has missiles with a range of more than 1,200 miles which puts israel, iraq, turkey, pakistan, egypt and the ukraine and many other countries within striking distance.

advancements in iranian technology threaten nations further away from iran as well. iran has launched a satellite into space demonstrating that it has the technical capabilities that may allow it to build ballistic missiles capable of hitting american cities. while nuclear proliferation is dangerous in any context, there is greater reason to be gravely concerned about a nuclear armed iran. for years iran has fought american presence in the middle east and has supported terrorist groups that have targeted and killed american troops. american officials believe iran supported the group behind the 1996 terrorist attack on a u.s. military residence in saudi arabia that killed 19 of our servicemen. a nuclear armed iran would put american troops serving in the middle east today at even greater risk. in addition, iran's leaders frequently speak of a world without israel. iranian president -- iranian president has called for israel to be wiped off the -- map. if iran gets a nuclear weapon, its leaders will have the capability to do these hateful destructive things that they

speak of. americans and israelis around the world would also be at likely greater risk of a terrorist attack if iran obtains the bomb. iran is already the leading state sponsor of terrorism, funneling money, weapons and training to terrorist groups including hezbollah, hamas and other terrorist organizations. these groups have goals and ideologists inconsistent with our american values. emboldened by a nuclear-armed iran they may launch even more frequent and deadly attacks on innocent civilians. clearly the consequences of a nuclear-armed iran are intolerable. to stop iran's drive to a nuclear weapon we must act now and we must act decisively. the house of representatives and the senate have both passed legislation to impose strong and comprehensive sanctions on iran. the iran refined petroleum sanctions act and the comprehensive iran sanctions accountability and investment act target iran's reliance on foreign suppliers to meet its fuel needs. although iran sit on top of a wealth of oil and natural gas it lacks the ability to turn much

of that oil into gasoline. consequently iran imports 40% of its gasoline insides. the iran refined petroleum sanctions act and the comprehensive act offer the best prospect of compelling iran to give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons. congressional leaders must quickly resolve the differences between these bills between the house and senate versions of these bills while keeping the teeth of these sanctions in tact so the president can sign a final bill into law. at the same time the administration and like-minded allies should impose multilateral sanctions now while also pressing reluctant nations to agree to strong and comprehensive sanctions at united nations. the administration must also enforce current law and levee sanctions against companies that violate our laws. time is not on our side. the sooner, strong -- the sooner strong and comprehensive sanctions are applied on iran, the sooner we prevent a nuclear-armed iran, saving the line ofs of many and the

security of our own and allies in the region. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: mr. burton. for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana rise? >> ski unanimous consent to claim my time. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. boustany: tomorrow, ambassador kirk will meet behind closed doors with the house ways and means committee, and while i appreciate the meeting, why do congressional democrats refuse to talk in the open about creating jobs through internabble trade. i'm encouraged by the opentons promoting american goods and services overseas but the current situation is bleak. nearly one in 10 americans who want work cannot find a job. the recent economic downturn erased the certainty many families came to rely on and

now they turn to washington for solutions. unfortunately, a health care overhaul with new mandates, energy taxes that will drive up energy costs and a massive tax code full of quirks and loopholes add to their doubts. to truly grow american jobs, entrepreneurs and businesses need new markets where they can compete to sell their products. we must restore american competitiveness to create new jobs and a prosperous future. with 95% of the world's consumers living outside the united states, our ability to compete fairly and successfully in these markets is vital to our long-term economic growth and security. as the president said last week, i quote, we need to compete for those customers because other nations are competing for them, end quote. today, almost one in five u.s. jobs are supported by international trade. i welcome president obama's

lofty goal of doubling u.s. exports in the next five years through his national export initiative and i look forward to discussing his plans with ambassador kirk. as our economy continues to struggle, it's evident americans will not be able to consume their way out of this recession. we must focus on getting our products and services to emerging markets around the world. american ingenuity, creativity and innovation can spur new jobs and new factories here at home. according to the obama administration, increasing trade by 1% will create 250,000 jobs, a significant start to helping americans find work. passing the colombia, panama and other free trade agreements would accomplish that, increasing trade exports by 1% and creating an estimated 250,000 jobs. these free trade agreements put american workers on a fair footing with workers in those countries, instead of

alienating our global trading partners through programs such as buy american. many goods produced in other countries have no tariff at all when sold to the u.s. the president's goal is ambitious. surpassing these free trade agreements is an important first step to restoring american competitiveness in global markets. the last time the u.s. doubled its exports, it took nearly 10 years. final implementation of the north american free trade agreement, nine bilateral agreements and the successful conclusion of the uraguay round. since 1984, louisiana has increased its exports to nafta countries by 200%. as a result, thousands of work verse job stability but we can do much more. trade creates good-paying jobs for millions of americans and

leveling the playing field abroad increases our opportunities. truly supporting american workers and creating new jobs will not be accomplished by closing our doors to the rest of the world while they continue to strike new deals and expand their exports. now is the time to reach and to work with our allies and major trading partners. american leadership is in jeopardy. not because of a rising power, but because of a shrinking level of -- level of american engagement. the world will not wait for us to wake up and realize the opportunities out there, that's why we need to act on expanding these trade agreements. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: ms. foxx. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana rise? mr. burton: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes.

>> actually, my main subject i want to cover is israel, but i didn't want the day to pass without making comments about the health care bill, because that's the number one subject on the minds of people in indiana as well as the rest of the country. one of the things that's happened here without getting into what i believe are the demerits of the bill, the 17% economy in many companies in my district are threatened, but i think one of the frustrations here is the arrogance of the process. initially, we were promised that it was going to be live on c-span and we would see all the negotiations and we're all familiar with how that was abandoned. then many members refused to do town halls, wouldn't answer phone calls, still won't answer phone calls or mail. then we saw deals made in the senate bill unprecedented in american history, as i pointed out, earlier today, thomas jefferson got all of 13 states as part of the first louisiana

purchase in $150 million in inflation adjusted dollars. getting the vote of one person from louisiana cost $300 million. the founding fathers set up process in the senate that's being abused to go down to where with it's 50 plus the vice president to pass the bill. now we're going to pass this in the house if they have the votes and it's going to be deemed passed, we're not even going to vote. no wonder so many people are losing confidence. it wasn't that we were high before, but we've hit new lows. it's going to be difficult to establish new -- confidence in the american people at this pace. i'd like to ask unanimous consent to insert this article from the jerusalem post into the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. souder: it's an article that makes some nuanced points but first let me start and say,

israel has historic importance to the world and to ourselves, not just because of its history but the tremendous history of the jewish people and the nation of israel but also with the returning homeland for those after the holocaust from around the world from they could gather again from the land from which they had been evicted. then it's important because it's a democratic bastion in the middle east where there are not democratic bastions. we're trying to see if iraq can form a democracy and turkey's a kind of a democracy as well but israel has been from its founding such a democracy, and refounding in 1948. not only that but they're our best and really only consistent ally in the middle east. but tls also because israel is going to be of importance to future world history as well in many ways. in fact, not only are -- all americans should be concerned about what's happening in israel but many people have

special concerns about the future of israel and how the united states responds to israel. 6 therefore it is extremely disturbing to watch the arrogance of this administration to bully our best ally this article in the "jerusalem post" says this is the worst the united states has treated israel since 1975, that the american leadership is mistakenly painting israel into the corner, is the thrust of this carl. -- article. one of the more sophisticated statements in it by mr. avner, who has written on the 1975 crisis he said, if the united states wishes to advance a peace process, it must never paint israel into a corner, and he points out that what is needed is constructive ambiguity. that is an interesting term because most of us like to be very forthright and i would say that most people in israel would like to be forthright most of the time. but when dealing with historic conflicts that have gone back

to how this -- the divisions first occurred in what i believe when god gave israel its land and divisions that occurred since then, straightforwardness does not bring peace. constructive ambiguity brings peace system of when the united states takes sides in calling this a settlement, they chose words from the other side that sends a message that becomes then very difficult for israel. the question is, have we switched our positions or are we not as fully behind israel? anybody who has ever visited there, reads about it, follows israel, real -- realizes on all sides at least claim they want to destroy it. and from time to time they have had wars to attempt to destroy it. you don't have to be kind of informed on international issue to realize iran is trying to develop a nuclear bomb.

why? because they want to destroy israel from the feas of the earth. the people -- from the face of the earth. the people of israel are a tad worried about iran. they believe the united states and the rest of the world don't seem to be taking it as seriously as they do. maybe because you can get obama over jerusalem from amman -- a bomb over jerusalem from amman, jordan, in a minute and a half. they have deep concerns. in this case, they have concerns that we're all going to talk, talk, talk, they're going to be in danger because of a nuclear weapon. if we're going to address this, we need to stop giving signals that we do not stand behind israel andy need to stand directly behind israel and let the world know that's what our u.s. position is and do a little bit of constructive ambiguity. i yield back, thank you. the speaker pro tempore: ms. foxx. lincoln diaz-balart.

mrs. capito. mr. smith. under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentlewoman from pennsylvania, mrs. dahlkemper, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mrs. dahlkemper: thank you, mr. speaker. i look forward tonight to, in this next hour, to discuss the democratic small business agenda. one that i believe will really help to bring our country further out of the recession we are now climbing out of. i'm glad that some of my colleagues are able to join me tonight as we talk about this agenda doing forward. as our country struggles to overcome the effects of the financial crisis and economic recession we must look for innovative ways to help create new jobs and foster the private sector growth. we must act aggressively to counter the job losses of the past two years and those job losses have been great. more than eight million jobs

have been lost since the recession began in late 2007. our nation's unemployment rate is near 10% and in many areas, well above 10%. job losses are on the decline, which is good news amidst so many months of recession, but we still have a very long way to go. the number of long-term unemployed individuals in the united states is extremely high. totaling 6.1 million people as of last month. that's 6.1 million people who have been out of work for 27 months or longer. that's nearly seven months of unemployment. approximately 2.5 million people are considered marginally attached to the labor force, meaning they want work but because the job market is so inviting they have not looked for work in the last four weeks. one of our nation's greatest historical strengths has been our optimism. when faced with the long-term,

gradual recovery as we are today, it's understandable that patience wanes and it becomes difficult to retain the optimism that's served us so well in the past. that is why we must act aggressively and decisively to help our private sector grow and create jobs and i believe the best place to start is the area of our economy that has the greatest record of success in creating jobs and that's our small business sector. as a former small business owner, my husband is still running the business, i have seen firsthand the pow over small businesses in our communities. a grocery store can transform an urban landscape, improve health, and lower crimes in neighborhoods others may have thought was a lost cause. a retail store or restaurant can energize a community by drawing patrons to lesser-traveled areas. a small business can turn an empty street into a destination

for customers and tourists. manufacturers and producers canned create hubs of commerce when the jobs they create beget jobs. manufacturers need supplies to create product, and they workers need a place to eat lunch and shop. when small businesses grow and prosper, their communities reap the benefits. small businesses are the engine of economic grolte and job creation in the united states and they have been for years. over the last 15 years, small businesses have created nearly 65% of the nation's new jobs, approximately 14.5 million jobs. small businesses represent the -- 99.7% of all employer firms. that means less than 1% of our employers are big corporations. small businesses are the starting point for economic success. the small businesses of today are the success stories of

tomorrow. it's smull small businesses that create the technologies that profoundly affect our lives and our culture. medical devices that regulate heartbeats, software that allows us to connect with people across the globe, products that rid our groundwater of arsenic, these are just a few of the examples of innovations of small businesses. the american entrepreneurial spirit will help drive our economy out of recession. creating jobs and innovation along the way. that's why we must do all we can to help businesses, small businesses, grow and prosper. i now like to yield to my good friend, mr. tonko from new york. mr. tonko: thank you, representative dahlkemper, and thank you for bringing us together this evening for discussion on the small business agenda here in washington. obviously as has been stated so many times during this session of congress, the number one priority is jobs, jobs, jobs and jobs. we cannot overemphasize the impact that job creation, job

retention bears on the discussion that we have here in restoring this nation's economy. and you may get -- you make a very valid point in assessing the very deep loss of jobs that we experienced at the beginning of this administration. it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 750,000 job losses per month in the last three or four months before the obama sad administration began its work here -- administration began its work here in washington. that was a tremendous loss to our economy, seven to eight million jobs lost in this recession, a very painful blow to the american economy and certainly to the american households across this nation. and as we look forward to progress to inspire us it is good to note that while it's not good enough, some 20,000 to 30,000 jobs lost in the last few months is a vastly improved

outcome. a long way to go but moving in the right direction. the american recovery and reinvestment act enabled to us place down payments on small business production and creation and retention. certainly those efforts are coming in cutting edge fashion where we're now addressing job growth in a way that speaks to research and development, allowing us to spark an innovation economy that enables us to respond in very valid terms by embracing our intellectual capacity as a nation. these are the sorts of efforts that require our investment and i am so impressed that we can move forward now with many issues that were back burnered. when we look at the need to produce here locally in this country, to produce nationally for our energy needs, nothing could be smarter than to move forward with a clean energy economy. to be able to draw down that glut news to dependency ons for -- glut news to dependency on

fossil-based fuels that enabled us to add to that carbon footprint and we're putting dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars per year into the treasuries of unfriendly nations to the united states and our allies across the globe. that is not smart government. that is enabling us to continue along the course of status quo where we don't exercise the options available to us. i look within my district, i look within the region that i represent and beyond in upstate new york and there are such great things happening in nanoscience, in semiconductor, in superconductive cable, in renewables that we are now cultivating this climate that enables us to respond to a clean energy economy. it's growing our energy independence, it's growing our energy security and therefore favorably addressing our national security because as we conduct these sorts of experiments and grow opportunities in the energy world we are giving bitter to

wonderful startups, to entrepreneurs and that's the spirit that is uniquely american, as you suggested. so i'm very, very enthused about where we're heading. i believe that as we've stopped the bleeding of this recession we now go forward with the tool kit that will enable our small business community to respond in fullest fashion where we embrace the intellect of this nation and allow us again to taste that sense of pioneerism that really is the flame that really sparks america's comeback. mrs. dahlkemper: i think the gentleman makes a great point, as you talk about the american recovery and reinvestment act, i think the part of that bill that we continue to fail to maybe get the message out there enough is the reinvestment side. mr. tonko: absolutely. mrs. dahlkemper: in the beginning we were just trying to help those who were hurting most, those who needed an extension of their unemployment or needed help with cobra, etc. but now we see many of our small businesses are actually involved in the reinvestment side. as we're actually reinvesting in

our economy, one of the exciting things i recently got to see was a new biomass heating unit full of three different businesses, one was a school district-owned business, one was a recreation center and one was a career center in one of my communities and i asked them about the project, $3.2 million project, 500 -- $500,000 of that coming from the reinvestment act. and i asked them how important that money was to them. they said it's what they needed to get over the hump. this is going to create 25 new jobs in our region for the construction site and then jobs beyond that. but our small businesses will be involved in putting this whole new system in and it's going to actually save a lot of money for these three organizations on the long run and take us, as you say, to a cleaner economy as we go forward. so there's certainly -- there certainly are some very exciting things. our agenda really started with the american recovery and

reinvestment act and it is what has taken us out of the recession and we have to continue to work for that and one of the things that i think we need to talk about is the aggressive agenda that we have as democrats for small businesses. to give the support they need to create jobs and speed that recovery. and one of those is extending access to capital. i'm sure we all travel around our districts and hear from our small businesses that they can't get the capital that they need, they want to grow their business, they see positive signs and we need to be there and our agenda is going to take them there. for every small business they need capital to grow and this is really the first piece of the puzzle but the tight credit has limited their capacity. so we need to provide means for small businesses to access capital to grow. that's why we have a couple pieces of legislation, one which is the expressed loans improvement act to increase the availability and the utility of s.b.a. express loans. a vital source of really working capital for small businesses.

and so i certainly would like to thank people who have come on that bill and i want to thank particularly congresswoman bean because she helped introduce that legislation with me. there's a number of other loan programs through the s.b.a. that we're working to improve for our small businesses that will help them access the capital they need to grow. right now i'd like to yield to one of our newest members from california, certainly a very welcome addition to our democratic caucus and to congress as a whole. mr. garamendi: thank you. i want to thank the gentlelady from pennsylvania and the gentleman from new york for the opportunity to discuss this critical issue of small business and jobs. we know the statistics are very bad but the discussion that you two were having a moment ago used the word investment. we talked about the american reinvestment act, the now 13 months old. and it's absolutely critical that we always ponder investment

because the investments that we can make at the government level will lead to short-term job growth as well as to long-term job growth and stability. years ago we looked in california about how do you grow the california economy, i did a report on it, this was more than 25 years ago. and we noted that the history of california's great economic growth was centered on five things. the first and foremost of them was the enormous investment that was made in education. both in k through 12 and community colleges and in the research institutions. it was that investment that gave the foundation and here we are today with enormous disinvestment, backing away from that critical investment in education. now, the legislation that we -- that you talked about, the american reinvestment act, moved billions of dollars into the education sector so that we

could continue to educate our kids. at the universities and k through 12 and the community colleges so that people could, who had lost their jobs, could come back and learn the new skillses, as you were saying, mr. -- skills, as you were saying, mr. tonka, the new skills in the green technology. extraordinarily important investment in knowledge. investment in the ability of people to compete internationally. our friends on the republican side say, no, we shouldn't have done that. so what are these people to do? they've lost their job, they don't have the opportunity to get new knowledge and new skills. the second thing that we learned was one that you also just talked about, the two of you a moment ago, about the necessity for research. it is in the research that the new jobs are created. why? because those are new products, those are things that people demand and want and need for the growing economy and in that is the high profit margin and,

again, for the first time the democratic congress and the president, without the help of the republicans, passed the greatest increase in research money in the last 20 years, putting money into research that again will lead to jobs sooner and later as the economy grows. now there are many other pieces of this. one is of course the health care legislation. i know a young couple in their mid 30's that want to start their own business but they cannot leave the job that they have today because they know that as small business people they will not be able to get health care insurance, they have two kids. so these are things that we're bringing to the american public. last year with the american recovery act and now this year as we look at how we're going to deal with health care, these are the critical investments that we need to make and i thank you so very much for bringing this to

the attention of the american public. mrs. dahlkemper: i thank my friend from california and i now like to yield to my friend from michigan, mr. peters. mr. peterson: thank you for putting together and assemming -- mr. peters: thank you for assembling this special order. i'd also like to thank chairman larson and hastings for chairing the house task force which i think i'm a member and others are members of tonight here as well which is doing important work to make sure we're creating jobs in this country. we all know that small businesses employ half of all private sector employees and are responsible for creating 60% to 80% of all new jobs over the last decade. they create more than half of our nation's nonfarm g.d.p. small businesses employ 40% of high-tech workers and small businesses create 13 times more patents per employee than large firms and improving access to

credit is a key aspect of helping these small businesses grow and create jobs and ensure that america remains a global economic powerhouse. i am pleased that the american recovery and reinvestment act provided $30 billion in tax relief for small businesses and increased the percentage a business can write off in capital expenditures by 50%. additionally the total amount a business can write off has been doubled to $250,000, allowing for a substantial investment in equipment and resources for small businesses. but much more, as we know, much more needs to be done to help our small businesses in this country. last year i had the opportunity to host a field hearing in oakland, county -- oakland county, michigan, where i gave borrowers and lenders an opportunity to discuss the challenges that we're facing in michigan. bank regulators attended the hearing as well, so that we could hear firsthand their policies and how those policies are making it very difficult for banks to make the loans to very

worthy businesses in my state. i know it's a problem not just in michigan but in states all across this country now. one of the biggest problems that borrowers and lenders outlined was that the value of -- their value of commercial real estate, manufacturing equipment and other sources of collateral has dropped, it has made it very difficult to obtain a line of credit. even for a company that has purchase orders in hand, it is difficult for them to get that money. that's why i'm working with congressman levin and congressman dingell on legislation that will provide states with funding that they can use to create a collateral support program to make sure that these businesses get the vital lending that is so important for them. that's why i've also proposed a small business lending plan that will redirect unspent wall street bailout funding to instead help small businesses in our communities so they can get the credit that they need to grow and to create jobs. efforts to help small businesses are especially crucial in areas of high unemployment.

i was happy to author legislation through the small business cu which i know representative doll kemper is a leader in to provide dear zoo -- zero interest loans in high unemployment areas with payments on these loans deferred for 18 months. it also makes high unemployment areas eligible for the new market venture capital program providing strong financial incentives for investment in new and emerging industries and in areas where the work force is necessary to build up the new economy and is ready and enthusiastic and just needs that additional help. in addition to helping businesses access capital we must make sure that they also have access to key partnership programs that are proven to spur job creation. for example, the manufacturing extension partnership, the m.e.p., is a crucial national program that provides technical services and assistance to increase productivity and efficiency in small and medium sized businesses.

the partnership is a model of an effective and efficient program credited with creating and retaining over 55,000 jobs per year and $10.5 billion in increased or retained sales. the support is vital to the long-term success of small and medium-sized american businesses and preserving and strengthening the program should be a priority of congress as we continue to work on reviving this economy and getting that growth going. currently the cost of the m.e.p. service are shared between the federal government, state government and industry with federal government contributing 1/3 and states and industries contributing the remaining 2/3. however, state budgets have threatened the m.e.t. existence and at least 23 state centers report a decrease or elimination of state funding in 2009 alone and some centers have been operating without state funding for years.

when a state eliminates this vital funding, it is up to small business to cover the gap and they risk losing federal government support in the places that need it most. that's why i've asked for a bill to reduce the matching amount for small businesses. also there's a bill projected to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs. i'd like to thank my colleagues for working with me on this bill and the support for those of you here in the special order here tonight as well. this bill in a sense will allow companies to use the alternative minimum tax credits that they now hold but otherwise must save for future years to be used this year for job creation, job retention and capital investments. the bill is estimated to directly recrate over 65,000

new jobs and help businesses retain 170,000 jobs in the next two years plus spur 40 $40 billion in new job investment. a number of organizations endorse this bill, including the national chamber of commerce, associated builders and contractors association and the association for manufacturing and tech nothing. this is an incredibly efficient and common sense way for us to spur job creation. companies are sitting on these tax credits but under current tax law cannot use them until future years. this bill allow -- will allow them to use the tax credits they accrued to create jobs now, when we need them most. i would like to encourage my colleagues to co-sponsor this very important bill. while i'm proud of the work we have done in congress to help turn around the economy and help families and small businesses, i think we all agree there's no question there's more work to be done. small businesses will be the

key to my state's and the entire nation's economic recovery and i believe, as i know all of you believe, that helping businesses have access to capital that they need to grow, invest, and create jobs is the key to helping our economy moving and putting americans back to work. i look forward to continuing the work with all of you and applaud your efforts here tonight to bring this important issue to the american people as we continue to work to create jobs in this great country. thank you. mrs. dahlkemper: thank you, i thank the gentleman who is out there fighting for jobs in this country to make sure we have a robust plan going forward. many of your pieces of legislation that you've brought forward will do that. i'm glad you brought up m.e.p., which i'm also a big fan of. i think we need to make sure that's funded and funded in a way that our states don't lose the funding if our community -- our communities don't lose the funding if our states don't have the money.

i'm glad you're working on that and i appreciate your work in that area. i'm glad you brought up the recovery act tax relief. there are so many parts we don't talk about, it gets stuck as a stimulus bill but i like the recovery act name better. i think we need to talk about the recovery and reinvestment side. the tax relief that came to individuals. the tadges re-- tax relief that came to small businesses to allow them to reinvest in small businesses continues on and i think it's important not to forget those pieces. i want to yield again to my friend from new york. mr. tonko: it's a pleasure to hear all you -- of you speaking for the voice of the freshman class. we have brought, i believe a lot of thought, a lot of energy, a lot of vision and we're attaching it to the leadership of this house, which is broken from some of the failed attempts from the prior administration. the entire focus on

manufacturing, the m.e.p. program, was denied. there wasn't a respect shown, i believe, strong enough toward the manufacturing sector and the american manufacturing sector is alive. it will be competitive on the global scene because it can do it smarter and the investment of that intellectual exatsity of this nation gives us great promise with the manufacturing sector. so to hear all these ideas from tax benefits that will go toward creating small business opportunities to dealing with the credit crunch, making certain that we raise the loan opportunities, the -- to allow for the working capital needs to be met for our small business community. those are important aspects. those are -- the h.r. 4598 which you're sponsoring, congresswoman is a tremendous benefit to the opportunities to invest in small business. and they are the back bone of this american economy.

but to the gentleman from california, when he spoke of health care, i talked to a number of small businesses that might have five, 10, 15 employees and when they're insuring their employees for health care purposes, they're looking over a rather small base. and the bill we're look at before the house allows for an exchange to be developed where there's a large pool of employees where there's going to be a regulatory environment to hold down those costs and beyond that, if you have one employee or five or 10, impacted with catastrophic illness, you'll probably see rate increases in your insurance rise exponentially. when you put them into a larger sea of employees, by operating through these exchanges, that's the kind of reform that's responding to the needs of small business. we've talked about it today in my office. people understand that concept. you put people's situations into a large audience and it neutralizes the outcome in a

way that spreads the pain and allows small business to continue to provide for their employees, which they want to do. we have decided in this country, we're going to stay with an employer-based health care system. so let's provide the reforms that allow small business to have the benefit in that outcome. if we put that small business to be the division of the future, to be the job growth market, certainly we've seen it in the last decade or two, 75% to 80% of all the new jobs created are coming from small business. let's be there in a user friendly way that allows them to provide for their employees so that they have a healthy and strong work force so we can put together the physical health care and mental health care concepts that will enable them to prosper, put together the funding opportunities dealing with that credit crunch we saw what happened. the banks were not regulate wesmed saw the institutions out there collapse. it killed the american economy. the global economy. and the credit lines were dried

up. they were exhausted for households and businesses. that is not good. so now it is our challenge as democrats to respond. i think we are, in many dimensions. we're responding. we're going to open those credit lines, we're going to provide for that capital need to be met for the business community. we are responding. and people need to know that it's a full agenda, from a jobs pack a g to health care reform to energy reform, clean energy economy, an innovation economy, these are the concepts that are going to provide the change that was long overdue and utilize the american know-how, the great pioneer spirit, i represent a host of communities, a necklace, as i like to refer to it, of milltowns. they were the epicenters of invention and innovation that spirit still prevails in this country today and we need to foster that kind of growth and we need to grow out of this recession. now that we've stopped the bleeding, and build this economy the way we envision it

to be most powerful. small business at the front and center of that. mrs. dahlkemper: i'm sure as the gentleman goes around his district, we see the innovation. it is exciting to go visit small businesses in our region who are really doing some very amazing and innovative work. again, we have a robust and strategic agenda, the democrats. and we have got to continue to work on this, we want to continue to help our small businesses and i think we've got a lot of good pieces in place and as mr. peters said, even more. i'd like to yield again to the gentleman from california. mr. garamendi: i want to thank you again for all of the work you've put together. there's another piece, i want to talk about it in one of the

counties i represent, contratosca -- contracosta county -- contra costa county, they said let's use this to incentivize small businesses. there are major research institutioningses, the university of california, the lawrence livermore lab, the other labs in that area. out of that comes a number of new ideas. but they're often left without a real market because they're new and haven't been able to grow and develop their market. so the local government said, why don't we get together and become the purchasing and to jump start, use the purchasing power of government, particularly in the area of energy conservation. for example, streetlights. there's a new company that is in the l.e.d. lighting system and it's possible to -- for that company in their own neighborhood to create a huge

market replacing the existing streetlights, they use an enormous amount of energy, with the new l.e.d. lights. one example. in order to do that, that's the wise use of government. at the federal level, billions upon billions of dollars are spent every year, often going to the large companies to what are known as the beltway bandits, the companies that hover around washington. if we and the democratic party is doing this today, the democrat congress, pushing the president, pushing the administration, to push those jobs back to the local community. by contracting with small businesses. the small business community needs access to the federal contracts, just as they would like to have access to the local government. that has been the policy of the democratic congress and is the policy of the democratic president, make sure that small businesses have access to the federal contracts. doesn't come easy. i was the deputy secretary of

department of interior in the 1990's, and we had to literally force the bureaucracies to contract for small business, putting in reporting requirements, we're continuing that today. once again, there's a web of opportunities, education, health care the tax laws, all of these things, including contracting and access to the federal and local government purchasing power, creates opportunities for small businesses. that's our agenda. and it's a good agenda for america. it's a good agenda for business. i yield back. mrs. dahlkemper: another piece of legislation we have passed through the house and the senate, i believe, is taking it up tomorrow is the hire act, hiring incentives to restore employment act, which includes tax cuts for small businesses to invest, expand, and hire more workers. it also takes on unemployment directly, creating a payroll tax holiday to create some 300,000 jobs in our country and

income tax credit of $1,000 for businesses that retain the employees. these tax cuts and credits will help our small businesses grow and push our unemployment rates down. as i said, the senate is considering this, i believe, tomorrow, so we'll look forward to the senate passing that legislation and again, getting that out to help our small businesses throughout this community. as a consequence of our recession, small businesses are hesitant to invest in expansion and the current economic climate. so to encourage those investments, we must continue, i think, to offer tax incentives to give small businesses the comfort they need to have, to move forward and grow their businesses and again, going back to making sure access to capital is there, the tax incentives, the m.e.p. program, even as our colleague from california talked about, the education facilities, making sure there's a connection between our small businesses and our education

institutes and so that's an important piece we can't forget about. there needs to be that good connection, i think many of our pieces of legislation are working to make sure that connection is there that wasn't always there. sometimes there's a disconnect between what happens in the university setting and research and what happens in our manufacturing facilities. i think we've worked really hard in some of our legislation and we will again in our america competes legislation we're bringing now through the science and tech committee that many of us sit on, we'll be working to make sure that connection is there. that's another important piece. mr. garamendi: let me give you a brief example of that connection. the community colleges across this nation, are one of the very best places for -- places for people to get specific job training. when the community college is connected to business communities, the business community can directly affect the educational program that

that community college is providing, making the education pertinent to the employer, so that when that employee finishes, or when that workers finishes the community college program, they are specifically ready, i was listening to this last week when i was back in california, to a local radio station talking about the way in which the community college and the employers were working together to educate unemployed construction workers, preparing them for the solar industry. . so they could be the sails persons and the audits that are necessary. and those people would be immediately prepared. now the problem is, the community colleges are running out of money. now mr. miller, the chairman of the education and labor committee, has proposed a new

piece of legislation called the local government jobs act. and it has $23 billion to directly go to the educational system so that they can hire the teachers and do the training and the community colleges to prepare workers for the new economy that's coming our direction. this is the kind of really important and useful legislation that's needed. some 250,000 teachers would be employed. i was reading in the "washington post" today, headlines, the right-hand column, thousands face furloughs, schools may lose millions. that same headline was found in "the sacramento bee" and los angeles times in the last week. we need to have unemployed

workers to be better prepared to take jobs. the new economy kicks in. as we move to the green technologies. there is a whole totality here. and that's what the democratic agenda provides, health care, education, purchasing power made available to small businesses, bringing new businesses online. all of these create a totality that will restart our economy and keep us moving. and take these workers that are now tax takers on unemployment insurance, some on welfare, using the cobra money that we provided through the american recovery act and let them become taxpayers, building our commip once again. that's our agenda. thank you very much for bringing this small business agenda to the american public so they

understand that this party, the democratic party is the party that is concerned and is willing to use the power of government to restart our economy and to give small businesses an opportunity to prosper and grow. mrs. dahlkemper: i thank the gentleman from california who is very passionate about these issues and we appreciate you joining us tonight and being part of this discussion. i said for years that a strong economy begins with a strong education system, we've got to have our students ready, stem education, all the different aspects, a student base that will be our next innovateors and our next scientists and our next artists, because we need all those different aspects of our culture. we have been joined by a freshman member from florida. representing the southern part of our country, i now yield to the the gentlewoman from

florida. ms. kosmas: i thank you for hosting this. i see the picture that has been painted here on the large issue and how they are affecting our economy and i have been a small business owner, self-employed my entire adult life. that means in my community, most of my friends and community are small to medium-sized business owners and i recognize the things that are important to them. we recognize them as the engines of our economy. and what we know for sure is that over the last decade, 70% of new jobs created in this country have been created through small businesses. that's why they are so important to us during this economic time. we want to ensure that they are able to survive and trive and we are all working together to make

that happen. we recognize the american recovery act has been important to these small businesses and that measures have been introduced to help them have access to loans and to capital. but i know that in my district and in others, businesses are still struggling in order to access the capital they need in order to grow and add jobs. just last week, i visited a biotech company in my district that wants to expand. but in order to do so, they need to attract resources. so what we need to do is take additional steps to open up the flow of capital to small businesses. and that's why i have introduce add bill that will eliminate the capital gains tax on long-term investments on small business stock and so they can attract the long-term investors they need and grow new jobs. we recognize that's a very important part of what we are trying to do during this

particular economic downturn. as was previously stated by representative dahlkemper, the house has recently passed legislation that plays an important role in providing a tax break for businesses and $1,000 credit for keeping new hirees on and these are important incentives. i have introduced several other measures that i think are extremely important based on my experience in small business and my recognition of the issues that are important to them in my district. some of these include incentives to encourage private sector investment in areas of high unemployment, which is a serious problem in many districts, but 12% in parts of my district. and while we have had these incentives in place in the past for low-income areas, we are now wanting to apply those incentives to high unemployment areas. i have long suggested that we should allow sole propertyors of

small businesses to be able to deduct the cost of their health care, which they aren't able to do. this has the benefit, of course, of providing them with a tax incentive but also encouraging them to have health care for themselves and their families. we have introduced legislation that increases the new business startup deduction from $5,000 to $20,000 and a shop act, which we introduced that allows small businesses to pool together to purchase insurance. some of these will be taken care of in other ways. and through other pieces of legislation, but they are important initiatives that i personally have taken on as part of my own agenda for my district. we passed an amendment to support an industry through the small business and innovation research act. and that is central to florida. these are some examples of what i call common sense, and they

are bipartisan solutions that i believe will help our small businesses spur investments and to create jobs. and it would be my intention to continue to work with my colleagues and to try to continue to find new ways to increase opportunities for small businesses to grow and to hire more folks in central florida and across the country. and i certainly am proud to be here this evening and concur with all of the big picture you have painted as to how small business is connected to the educational system and the opportunity for innovation that grows out of small business is a very important component of how we see improving our educational system at all levels. so i thank you again for bringing this issue before us and for the opportunity to speak tonight. mrs. dahlkemper: i thank my friend for joining us. and one of the encouraging things that i have seen -- we

are all new members but many of the members that came in in 2009 and also who came in in 2007 were small business owners at one point in their life and understand the issues that small businesses have to deal with. and that gives great comfort to my small business owners back home. we started the small business owners caucus to talk about the issues as we deal with legislation. and i think it's important for people to understand the issues are different for small businesses versus large businesses. and the issues bring forward the fact that we realize that and we are taking many steps here within our democratic agenda to address those issues. i yield to the gentleman. mr. tonko: you and our colleague from florida spark a thought as you were both talking about innovation and small business creation. to the credit of the leadership

of the house and i have to credit speaker pelosi for really advancing the innovation economy. she beliefs in that investment and -- she believes in that investment and jobs that are out there in terms of challenging this country and providing the support. this monday before i traveled here to the nation's capital, i was invited to attend the 10th anniversary celebration of superpower, which is producing all sorts of demonstrations in the high temperature, super conductor cable market. as we talk about creating our own american-produced supplies of power, there is a delivery system that needs our investment. the transmission and distribution system, the arteries and veins of the network has been designed for a monopoly setting. and as we deregulate this

industry, this country is wheeling electrons across borders as we look at supplies from canada. all that being said, the august, 2003 failure that impacted the northeast of the united states, the eastern sea coast, states along the eastern seaboard, tens of millions of people in a blackout situation for days, if that didn't expose a weakness in this nation, i don't know what would. we need to invest in that delivery system. that's critical. superpower, celebrating its 10th anniversary, far more efficient than conventional cable, where multiple times more electrons can be transmitted along the lines. as we look at the agenda in this country, there's no room for waste. i talked earlier about our

dependence on our fossil fuels, so if these researchers are developing this cable, they had on display a piece of the cable that was used as a demonstration project in the city of albanny, new york, which proved successful. now the work is to further develop so we can commercialize this discovery and drive down the cost so it is an economic benefit. that is where r&d comes into play. and i truly believe we as a country when investing in these efforts create jobs from the trades on over to the p.h.d.'s. and i was there at the front end of investment when we put down a bit of investment for capital purchases, for economic for this

startup, now 10 years later, they are doing great work and breaking their own records and are being recognized nationally and internationally. so, that has inspired me, along with conversations with small business innovateors, entrepreneurs, that are doing the same sort of science and discovery that will change our response and responsiveness to a number of challenges out there. i have introduced a bill that deals with the small business innovators. they are in situations, scenarios that are high risk but high reward, and the angel network and venture capital community, especially in this tough economy is skiddish about going out there lending to them on their own. so government has a role here to soften that blow and those high risks, but high reward

situations. and my bill would take the 2007-2008 success stories with the department of energy, where phase one and phase two investments have been made, investments in pro toetyping. you bring an idea to the table and convince d.o.e. it is a good project and develop it and then you test it. they have built it and it met the test. but then we don't do the final stage or third stage which is invest or deploy it to commercialization. my measure would take those success stories and standing inspiration, like superpower, they are breaking their own records and getting into demonstrations. we need to invest. we don't need to walk away but invest in it. we have potential that is limitless and we need to go forward.

and in response to those present-day and future needs of this nation and does it in great measure that produces jobs in every element, every sector of the workforce. so these are the great investments, just like we are investing in community colleges where we'll have before us measures to invest in community colleges. one of my local community colleges is investing in clean room science technology so as we develop these clean rooms with the nano science technology with chips manufactured, they can be coupled with everything from agriculture as an industry, to the pharmaceutical industry, to health care, to energy. there is great potential there and these are partnerships that need to be fostered by the government. this is a role where the government can produce jobs, because they are removing some of the risks and they are there because all of society benefits from these opportunities. and to superpower, i want to thank them for 10 years of success stories and i know they

will go on to greater things where we can apply this into high efficiency situations. think of it as we begin to grow our renewables out there with solar rays, solar and wind farms and take direct current cable where there is 100% efficiency, no line loss, so as you are taking that generated energy, you are now making certain there is no loss of that product in its delivery mode and we are all prospering from that. these are the opportunities we are talking about. they were put on the back burner. they were put on the back burner. manufacturing doesn't need our attention? nothing can be farther from the truth. we need to invest in these industries and we can do it because we have the know-how and investing through higher education, trade unions, we do all of this investing and we

need to provide the hope and that comes through a job. let's do it and do it in a progressive vacationary way that enables all of us to prosper. and i'm so impressed that the democrats are putting together a strategic plan that ranges from health care reform to job creation to incentives and tax relief and credit line opening, dealing with that credit crunch and putting foringts the workforce training. these are the tools that will take us to a new era of job creation, some jobs not on the radar screen. that's the remarkable bit of visiononning here, of public policy development and resources that are put together in the budget. i can't think you enough. representative dahlkemper, your record as a small business person is that inspiration for

you toinflunes us in putting together packages that allow us to provide that opportunity coast to coast for this great country. mrs. dahlkemper: representative tonko, i want to thank you, you've been a great leader in our class and this congress. i'm excited about some of the new pieces of legislation i've heard about here tonight, pieces of legislation that are coming out of the democrats, coming out of particularly the freshman class of the democrats who i think have come to washington with great ideas and with great solutions with how we can move forward. you know, it was said that the irquo -- irquoy indian -- iriquois indians when they made decisions looked seven generations out. i'm not sure we're looking seven generations out, but we're looking forward the -- toward the future. we have to continue to make things in this country, as i know you and i both believe

strongly, we have to be innovators in finding solutions to problems that are huge as we move forward. mr. tonko: i know you have brought students to town from your district, i greeted schools -- students from a school in schenectady, and they came across the speaker, the speaker had seen them in the hall of statuary where they remind office the leads of the great country, where they spoke to a vision for the future. they are now those heros that develop a strong sense of our past. as she shared her thoughts with the students she said to the eighth graders, these are the giants that led us to today. you're talking to representatives here that are going to do the same thing, going to take us into the future. the students understood it. they thaund what we're doing here today is developing opportunity for them in a career path, an education curve

that will take them to higher ground and in job creation that will be there for them. that is the challenge to each and every one of us as legislators, not to walk away from the crisis. a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. we have an opportunity to take an economy that crumbled because of the lack of regulatory aspect the lack of stewardship, the lack of watchdogs that could have kept it in working order. as that collapsed, this president offered a recovery act and it stopped the bleeding. now the awesome task is to build the economy we believe is strongest, that will be most responsive to needs of this nation. when we look at it, the investment in technology from health care, to education, hard wiring our communities with broad band and communications, creating opportunities and energy generation and energy transmission, smart grids,

smart metering, all these opportunities that were denied are now front and center. so it's been a pleasure to join with you this evening to talk about not only growing out of this recession with soundness, but developing small business. jobs, jobs, and hope for america's people. thank you so much for your leadership. it's a great freshman class i'm proud to be part of it. mrs. dahlkemper: it is a great freshman class, we have leaders in the freshman class that will take us to the future those students are looking forward to. i do want to share a few examples of some successful small businesses from my own district, the third district of pennsylvania. ibis tech is located in saxsonburg specializing in products and accessories critical to the defense industry. they design and test transparent armor solutions for tactical solution videos, radio and video communications for

unmanned ground vehicles and emergency rescue devices for quick vehicle access and rescues. they're one of the many companies in our district providing quality for keeping our troops safe. having been in iraq an afghanistan over the past year, we want to do everything we can to keep our troops safe and i want to -- i'm proud that a company in my district is working to do that. another company in jamestown makes crowd control devices and defense. small businesses are exceling in other areas, such t.c.i. container and herm taj, a maker of recycleable aluminum products, including aerosol cans, aluminum bottles and other specialty aluminum packages. since 1981, they've been

creating innovative solutions that can be found in every home. any number of goods that come in packages that use recycled aluminum, which is great as we look forward the -- toward the future. last december, a new small business came to the community, shipbuilding and repair. they're a welcome addition to erie's business community and a revitalization of using the lake we have in front of us. finally, i'd like to highlight a small business that's been serving the community since 1876, hodge foundry. they're actually working in the wind industry, producing castings for those large poles that go up to the windmills. so they have -- 130 years of expertise, they're producing some of the world's largest engineered iron castings in my home district of mercer county. small businesses like these that build the products and

create jobs that change people's lives and move our economy forward. we must act swiftly here in congress to enact legislation that will help our existing small businesses grow and hire new workers. we must create pathways for startups and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into those successful businesses that i just mentioned and my colleagues have mentioned tonight. small businesses are investments in our communities and our entire nation. i urge my colleagues to support the robust and strategic democratic small business agenda that will help our businesses gain access to capital, create jobs and develop the technology and innovation that will move america forward. it's very exciting to be here at this point in our history and i thank our -- i think our freshman class is a big part of the forward movement in this great agenda that we have. i thank my colleagues and i yield the rest of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 6, 2009, the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. burgess: i thank the speaker for the recognition. well, here we are, tuesday night, washington, d.c., 20 minutes until 8:00 in the evening, what a day we've had here in the capitol. mr. speaker, many of your constituents and my constituents probably tried to call our offices today to register how they felt about this health care bill. i know i've been encouraging people, whether they agree with me or not, whether they think i'm spot on or all wet, i've been encouraging people to call and let congress know what you think about this massive government takeover of 1/7 of our nation's economy and people have responded. they have been calling. but today they were met with either busy signals or interminable rings because apparently the house

switchboard was overwhelmed with the calls coming in. i will tell you, i was concerned because i called my number for my office and got a busy signal and yet walking around in the office, not -- certainly not all the phones were in use. apparently this problem that americans have encountered all afternoon has been one that has at its root, at its cause, the antiquated house switchboard. i do hope the speaker, i hope the architect of the capitol and the capitol business manager will take that into account because clearly, clearly we need to be able to hear from our constituents when we have such important legislation coming up to the floor. so where are we as we work through this? are we in the last throes? are we in for a long, hard,

slog? we've heard terms like the final push, the final stretch, the 5-yard line from president obama, speaker pelosi and majority leader reid have ignored calls by every republican, many democrats, many independent americans, and just the american people in general to really put the brakes on this current bill and to look at some of those things that people really want to see done and do those. we don't have a lot of credibility right now in the united states congress. recent kohls today put it at around 17% no one trusts with us a 1,000-page bill we passed out of committee last july 31. they didn't trust us with a 2,000-page bill the speaker's office came up with in october and that we passed in this house in early november. they darn sure didn't trust the 2,700 page bill that passed in the senate on christmas eve and they sure don't trust what they

see as a very difficult, tortured process that is now working its way through the house. the reason they're having to resort to such legislative high jinx is because this is -- high jinks is because this is a flawed bill a bad bill. but most of us went home in august we did our summer town halls, as we always do. we were all, i think, somewhat astonished as the outpouring of the american people just showing up on a hot saturday morning in texas to stand in a parking lot and listen to their representative and question their representative about what they saw happening up on capitol hill. to be sure cap and trade was in the news those days, to be sure, the stimulus bill was in the news those days, but they were most concerned about this massive takeover of heather. most of the questions dealt with that. and it wasn't like they didn't want to see anything done but they didn't trust us to

overhaul the entire system with one massive bill. sure they want some help with pre-existing conditions. they'd like to see people be able to buy across state lines and bring the cost down. maybe some liability reform would be nice. wouldn't it be great if cobra was more flexible? these were things we heard. when we came back in september, i thought, ok, rewind, pause, slow this thing down and let's look at it. maybe let's work together, maybe republicans and democrats can kind of come to some common ground because every democrat was hearing the same stuff i was hearing. i know that because i saw it on the evening news, i saw the youtube clips, their town halls in florida, their town halls in arkansas, their town halls in michigan were exactly the same as the town halls going on in north texas. there was no difference. but instead in september we come to a joint session of the house and the senate, the president came and addressed us and it was nothing of the sort that we're going to rework this

process. we were going to check the -- we weren't going to check the weather, we're going to fly anyway, full speed ahead, let's get this done, i think i heard it again tonight in the discussion that preceded us a crisis is a terrible thing to waste. let's take this crisis we're in and force this health care bill on the american people, they don't know what's good for them, but we do, and this is what they're going to get. this is a flawed bilk it's a tore thurred process, i'm going to do everything in my power to stop it, but it may become law. if it does we need to know what's in it and we need to know what our next steps are to deal with those bad provisions that are contained within the bill. but i've been joined tonight on the floor by a gentleman that i've come to admire in my time in congress he has been a leader on this issue in a

committee on which we jointly serve, energy and commerce, and here on the house floor. john, did you have thoughts you wanted to share with us tonight? . >> i thank the gentleman for conducting this special hour and i want to talk about a couple of issues. health care reform. we need it and i know you do. we believe that while the current system provides very quality health care, it often denies people access. but i want to talk what's in the bill as well. the gentleman talked about this massive takeover. one of the things that stuns me more than anything else and i know you find this confusing is that the proponents of this bill say republicans are defending the health insurance companies in america. really? really? this bill says that we're going to enact a mandate, an vipped mandate compelling every

american to buy health insurance from the health insurance companies that are selling them health insurance now. huh? i find that confusing. there is an individual mandate that says if this bill passes and becomes law as the speaker would like, you, every single american, every american listening tonight must go out and buy health insurance from the very health insurance companies that are ripping us off right now. why? why in god's name would we want to force americans to buy health insurance from the same health insurance companies that are ripping us off right now? this is a massive subsidy to those health insurance companies. it's a law and would be the law of the land that says that you must, whether you want to or not, by a government-approved health insurance plan from one of the companies selling health insurance right now. if they were doing a great job

of selling health insurance right now, wouldn't the cost be affordable? wouldn't they be holding down costs? wouldn't they be giving us good service? wouldn't they not be cheating us? i have to tell you, i don't know any republican who thinks it's a great idea to compel people to buy health insurance from the same insurance companies that are selling us health insurance now. and yet, that's what the individual mandate in this bill does. i guess they like it because it has been applied in massachusetts. in massachusetts, they passed a mandate like this. they said every single person in massachusetts, by gosh, we're going to force you to buy a health insurance plan from some insurance company in massachusetts and that will fix the problem. huh? did it fix the problem, doctor? mr. burgess: not entirely, and what they found is, since you have to buy the insurance, the costs wept up.

mr. shadegg: wait, the costs went up? they forced everybody in massachusetts, like this bill would do, to buy a health insurance plan on the premise that the costs would go down. but in massachusetts, where they did it, the costs went up because -- mr. burgess: you have to buy it or you get a fine. mr. shadegg: ah. it is republicans who are opposing this bill who are pals of the health insurance industry? i don't think so. and the mandate did not go down but costs went up. the costs for the people in massachusetts before they enacted the mandate to after they enacted the mandate went up? mr. burgess: that's my understanding of the reports that have been done by heritage and others. if massachusetts wants to enact a mandate, they are a state and

if their residents say, we are happy with you, governor, state legislature, for enacting this mandate and re-elect them to office, that is all well and good. here we are talking about the 50 states and the various territories, a mandate applied across the board. this has never been done in this country before because there is a document called the constitution that says we shouldn't be doing this. mr. shadegg: wait, the gentleman is telling me that never before in federal law have we ordered people to buy a particular product? we don't do that in federal law as a routine mat sner mr. burgess: just as a commonet fact for being born and living in the united states, no. mr. shadegg: if you want to drive in some places, you have to buy ought oove insurance to -- auto insurance? mr. burgess: that is a state

mandate. that is not a federal mandate. mr. shadegg: this is the first federal mandate that says you must buy a product because the federal government is telling you must buy a product. mr. burgess: as you correctly point out in your very graphic demonstration, the strong arm of enforcement here is the already existing federal agency that collects our income taxes every year. mr. shadegg: you are referring to this. the i.r.s. is going to force you and i to buy health insurance from an approved health insurance company, federally approved health insurance. maybe you could answer the question that is positive on this graphic, why does the democrats' bill subsidize health insurance companies? i don't quite get that. why are they adamant that we subsidize america's health insurance companies, those companies that are ripping us off, overcharging us, don't pay

our claims, make the doctors turn in 46 copies of every forms and kick it back, can you tell me why the democrats want to subsidize america's health insurance plans to order every american to buy one of those plans, because i don't get it? mr. burgess: six groups met down at the white house. a great photo op. my a.m.a. was there, the hospital association was there. phrma was there, the people who make medical devices, the american health insurance plan and the international union, all gathered at the white house and the president came out and said that these groups have offered up $2 trillion in savings to the american people in order to get this health care bill done. so the america -- and i don't know i wasn't there. i can't get information on these

meetings. mr. shadegg: wait. wait. wait. wait. wait. wait. are you telling me these insurance companies went into the white house and struck a deal? and the deal says if you'll pass a bill forcing everyone in america to buy our product, we, the health insurance industry, will support your bill? that's a pretty good deal. could i take like, maybe some other company, a lumber company or auto company and say, if you strike a deal, we'll support a bill you want, you just have to force every american to buy our product? it seems to me the health insurance companies must have very good lobbyists tied very closely to the democrat party. because if i remember correctly, the health insurance industry wanted two things. they wanted a mandate. they wanted you and i to be forced to buy government-approved health insurance from these health

insurance companies and have the i.r.s. enforce it. they wanted it and got it. they did not want a so-called public plan to compete with those health insurance companies. the health plan said no. no. no. no. competition? no. we health insurance plans don't want to have to compete. we don't want to compete with the public plan or across state lines or compete for the business of individuals. we don't like that thing about competition. as i understand it, those health insurance plans get out of this bill a mandate that you and i have to buy their plan and no public plan to compete with them. that's good lobbying, i guess, if the democrats will carry their water and say, we're going to enact a law that every american must buy health insurance from these health insurance plans and by the way, those health insurance plans don't have to face any competition. they don't have to compete with a public plan.

they don't have to compete across state lines and don't have to compete for your business and my business because right now the tax code says it's tax-free. if we made poor united or poor aetna have to compete with each other for dr. burgess' business or john shadegg's business, they wouldn't like that. that might drive down costs or their profits down or the salary of their executives. they didn't want that. and in the democrats' bill, you know what? they don't have to. there is no competition across state lines. there is no competition under the tax code letting you and i buy health insurance on the same tax-free basis that our bosses can buy. those health insurance plans got good lobby ivities in the white house. is that the deal? mr. burgess: i don't know, the white house has been asked nicely and asked more forfully

and the chairman and ranking member did send correspondence to the white house asking for that information to be supplied. to date, we have gotten back a series of press releases and reprints off of web sites but no real information. it would be fascinating to know if it is part of that deal, maybe leave out the public option, by the way, we're go to go trash you every day during this process. get ready, we will villify your industry because they certainly have done a good job of doing that. the gentleman points out if an individual is able to buy a policy with the same breaks that a company gets and that individual is able to keep that insurance over time, a relationship with a health insurance company, what a novel

concept. i have had the same car insurance since i was 18 years old. i can't tell you how many insurance plans i have had. when i was in business, i was trying to find the better deal because that was the number one line item expense. so you were always looking to see if there wasn't a better deal somewhere. and as a consequence i frequently changed health insurance until i discovered the medical savings account and now health savings account. so kind of through the back door, i have now developed a longitudinal relationship with an insurance company and they send me emails and ask me to do certain things to keep myself healthy. why we didn't embrace that sort of model going into this, i frankly -- i frankly don't understand. mr. shadegg: one of the things that makes me so upset in this debate and you indicated that i have worked on health care

reform since 1995, it seems to me morally indefensible to say to the american people, if you work for a big, big, big employer, like you and i do, the federal government, or like, we'll say, general motors, or intel or not rolea or at&t, if you work for a big employer, you are a lucky gal or guy because your insurance is tax-free. your employer buys the health insurance and writes it off. he gives that insurance coverage to you and it's not income to you. so the tax on, we'll say a $5,000 insurance policy is zero, zip, zero, nothing, because you were lucky to go to work for a big employer. but the law in america, and i