mr. stearns: i caution the gentleman from new jersey, listen carefully to my speech. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan. mr. upton: i yield a minute to the gentleman from kentucky, mr. whitfield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized for one minute. mr. wittman: i'm delighted we have the opportunity -- mr. whitfield: i'm delighted we have the opportunity to do this. i'm delighted because first of all when the bill came to the floor last year this bill affects every aspect of health care in america and we did not have the opportunity to offer one amendment on the floor. . in addition this bill takes $500 billion out of medicare which means less money to nursing homes, hospitals, and medicare beneficiaries, and the claim this would reduce the deficit by $138 billion was calculated by including 10 years of tax revenues under this bill but only six years of expenditures. then how can you claim that we are supporting insurance companies by repealing this bill when the insurance companies supported the bill and they supported th

mr. stearns very well. so i think that what you had come out of there was a pretty strong indication of what a baseline privacy bill will look like. and i think when you see a bill come out -- and i do think that bill will come out -- it will be a baseline approach in order to attract republican votes. and then there will also be elements of industry soft regulation, which, of course, the industry has been doing for many years now. >> if you would for just a second reflect on the loss of mr. boucher to the congress and to telecommunications policy. >> i was obviously disappointed. i thought that he was terrific. i thought his staff was good. again, i like his consensus approach. but i think that, again, if congressman rush comes in, i think he'll probably take lessons from mr. boucher's chairmanship and probably do the same thing in terms of seeking consensus. >> catherine mccullough, in the last congress or seems like the last two congresses, so much of the attention has been on the energy and commerce com

mr. stearns. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida is recognized for two minutes. mr. stearns: on behalf of myself and my constituents from the 6th congressional district of north central florida, we offer our thoughts and prayers to our colleague gabrielle giffords and her family and i join the american people in extending our condolences to the other victims of this terrible event. this is a heartbreaking loss. but i'm encouraged by the positive news of her doctors and commend those medical professionals in tucson for their dedication and outstanding work. we look forward to gabby coming back to the house floor and miss her warm demeanor and courageous qualities. in paying respect respect to her and others killed in this event, we must make it clear that we will not be deterred from meeting with the american people. the act of this individual should not alter the routine duties of our office. i have had 560 town hall meetings and i understand what it must be to remain available. and an attack on this institution and we must carry. i extend my best wishes to my colleag

mr. stearns and mr. shimkus to hold hearings and bring witnesses on both sides from texas, bring our friends from the e.p.a. both up here and dallas, come down, come up, and let's put the facts on the table and see what laws, if any, need to be changed. i'm already a co-sponsor of a bill that would make it explicit that co-2 is not a regulated pollute ant under the clean air act and should not be. i'm not saying that we may not need to issue a standard on co-2 if it is proven it is a harm to public health. but until that time, it should not be regulated under the clean air act. it was never intended to be and we think the e.p.a. is wrong to keep insisting it should be. i thank you, judge, and thank you, judge, for this special order and glad to participate. mr. carter: reclaiming my time. i thank you, mr. barton, for coming here to talk about this. you have been dedicating your life for these issues in congress. i always wonder, sometimes people back at home are saying, so what does this mean to me? i'm