mr. defazio: mr. speaker, i ask to have the reading suspended because i want to expedite things and i have listened to the debate on the previous motion to recommit. this will not delay the bill. in fact, if we adopt this motion by voice vote, we can move on to passage of the legislation, which i believe enjoys broad, bipartisan support. i know we all have tremendous pride of authorship in legislation, we write or move to the floor. and that's to be understood, but sometimes bills are not quite perfect. and i would look at this amendment, which narrows the scope of the bill, that is, it says basically, that we are opening up a new way for small businesses and other undertakings to offer their -- you know a share of stock in their business to the public in order to raise capital and grow and employ folks. and that's great. everybody here supports that. wer though, however, i think we should adopt one minor restriction to that, one that would narrow the scope of the bill and it's quite simple. it says t

mr. defazio, for five minutes. mr. defazio: eight days until the so-called supercommittee is to report. they're limping toward failure. although perhaps now they have found a way washington always loves to do things, let's kick the can down the road. let's pretend we did it. let's adopt some future tax measures in the next 12 months that will get us to their rather modest goal of $1.2 trillion of deficit reduction over 10 years. i tell you what, the do-nothing option is starting to look a lot better. that is something that congress is really good doing, nothing. what happens if we do nothing? well, first you get the sequestration. there's gnashing of teeth at that. congress will have discretion within the account and find those cuts which will be relatively modest over an eight, 10-year period. but then the better thing with the do-nothing option if congress can really do nothing and continue to do nothing for the rest of this session, then all the bush tax cuts goes away and that means $4 trillion of additional revenues with a little bit of shared sacrifice. it hits the people at the t

mr. defazio, who is a member of the transportation committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oregon is recognized for four minutes. mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman, and i particularly want to thank mr. goodlatte for his extraordinary leadership on this issue. we both supported virtually identical amendment in 1995. now, when i first came to congress i did not support a balanced budget amendment to the constitution. i said things similar to my good friend and colleague, mr. neal from massachusetts. it's a gimmick, we don't need it, people can come together, we can make these decisions. it didn't take me long in observing the congress to realize that there's an infinity capacity in this -- infinite capacity in this congress to kick the can down the road. the can is getting pretty darn heavy to kick down the road and it's going to land on the next generation with full force. $15 trillion of debt. for the first time since world war ii our, you know, our debt -- this year our deficit exceeds the gross domestic product. . we are going

mr. defazio, asked his colleagues to buck their leadership and vote for the balanced budget amendment. he said going against it is a strategic mistake, and i agree. miss party's leadership evidently disagrees. in a recent headline in "usa today" says it all. house democrats -- dems will block the balanced budget amendment to the constitution. . they will be on the wrong side of history. it's time for us to take a stand. let's stand on the side of our children and grandchildren and on the side of jefferson and reagan and with those who believe that safety and security of our country should come before this short-term insatiable appetite for ever increasing government spending. the time is now. let's support the balanced budget amendment and put an end to fiscal insanity that threatens this great country. thank you and with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess until 12:00 1 . >> the joint deficit reduction committee to, quote, go big in a solution reducing the debt and deficit. this runs about 15 minutes. >>

mr. defazio: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank him for his leadership on this issue over almost a couple decades. it's been a long struggle. i hope the time is here. you know, i was one of 73 democrats in 1995 to support a balanced budget amendment which was basically silenced on the issue of whether we would get there with additional revenues and reforms that would raise revenues or with spending cuts or a combination of both. ultimately, in the 1990's by a combination of revenue increases and reforms and spending cuts we did reach a balance in the year 2000 and actually paid down debt. and had we passed that amendment in 1995, you know, we wouldn't be looking at a $14 trillion-plus mountain of debt today, as the gentleman before me spoke, that's not the legacy i want to leave to our kids and grandkids and great grandkids given the magnitude of that debt. we have the responsibility to act. and anyone who is observing washington these days they can see it's hard, it's really hard for congress to come together and decide on issues that are extraordinarily important to our nation.

mr. chairman. it in a statement, but i do have questions about appropriate. i wanted to start to get anyone's opinion on congressman defazio's proposal on high frequency trading, which goes back to kind of thinking a little bit about the flash crash. i believe what he had in his most recent proposal is a three basis points see that discourages, if you will, the multitudinous high-speed trains for having very little impact on great other investors. and he put about that? >> mr. cook. >> thank you a senator. i am not familiar with the details of that, but i think the proposal or versions of it have been raised several times anything fair number of interesting issues that it raises. obviously there are concerns about the extent to which the traffic that is generated by high-frequency traders is that it's so interfering with the effective functioning of the markets and to some extent, some type of fee whether it is a message the, order cancellation fee, various versions this might take. that might be hopeful in addressing that. i think the challenges are first pick in the right metrics for when that would have been, when it woul

mr. chairman. it in a statement, but i do have questions about appropriate. i wanted to start to get anyone's opinion on congressman defazio's proposal on high frequency trading, which goes back to kind of thinking a little bit about the flash crash. i believe what he had in his most recent proposal is a three basis points see that discourages, if you will, the multitudinous high-speed trains for having very little impact on great other investors. and he put about that? >> mr. cook. >> thank you a senator. i am not familiar with the details of that, but i think the proposal or versions of it have been raised several times anything fair number of interesting issues that it raises. obviously there are concerns about the extent to which the traffic that is generated by high-frequency traders is that it's so interfering with the effective functioning of the markets and to some extent, some type of fee whether it is a message the, order cancellation fee, various versions this might take. that might be hopeful in addressing that. i think the challenges are first pick in the right metrics for when that would have been, when it woul