Joe Barton

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I want to inquire of the Chair, with his yielding, I have 4 minutes; is that correct?

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), the ranking member of the Oversight Subcommittee of the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I want to yield 2 minutes to the ranking member of the Health Subcommittee, Mr. Deal of Georgia.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Before we recognize Chairman Dingell, I would ask unanimous consent that Mr. Lucas, the ranking member of the Agriculture Committee, control 10 minutes of my time.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Shimkus). (Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Chairman, we could use another 2 to 3 minutes, if you have it.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I yield 2 minutes to the former Republican Conference chairman and probably future Governor of Florida (Mr. Putnam).

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I'm the last speaker on my side in support of the bill, so I'm going to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, let me simply say that I fly American more than I fly Continental, but I wish I could--having heard the glowing accolades, I do fly Continental some, and I wish they would serve the D/FW area more so I could fly them. I'm very proud of my American Airlines employees and my Southwest employees, but I'm also proud of the Continental employees that we have, and we do sincerely commend Continental and their workers and management for being the great airline that it is, and we wish them 75 years of future success in addition to congratulating them on 75 years of their past success. With that, I yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I yield 3 minutes to another gentleman from Houston, Texas (Mr. Poe).

Mr. BARTON of Texas. May I inquire as to how much time I have remaining, Mr. Speaker? How much time do I have left?

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Whoa, a lot of time. Okay. I want to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Woodland, Texas (Mr. Brady).

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I would yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Houston, Texas (Mr. Culberson).

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have news for the American public. The system is working. The Congress is working. The Energy and Commerce Committee is working. The reason that the Speaker and the President can't get their health care bill through is that there is not consensus on it. I want to congratulate the other 22 Republicans on the Energy and Commerce Committee who are united against this bad piece of legislation. I want to also congratulate the 7 to 10 Blue Dog Democrats and conservative Democrats on the same committee. The reason we're not supportive of the President and the Speaker's plan is that it's bad for America. It doesn't solve the problem. It costs too much. It has got too much bureaucracy. The word ``shall'' is mentioned almost 2,000 times. It's a $1 trillion hit on the economy, and it doesn't solve the problem. We, the Republicans on the committee, have over 80 amendments that we wish to offer. Our Blue Dog friends have over 20. I asked the Speaker and Chairman Waxman to bring the bill up for markup. Let it be an open and transparent markup. If it takes us until September or October to get it done right, it's better to get it done right than to do it badly. The system is working.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to submit documentation consistent with the Republican Earmark Standards. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3293--Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: HRSA--Health Facilities and Services Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The University of Texas at Arlington Address of Receiving Entity: 701 South Nedderman Drive, 346 Davis Hall, Arlington, TX 76019 Description of Request: I have secured $650,000 in funding to be used for acquisition of equipment to support new multidisciplinary collaborative research and development activities in support of improving preventative in-home healthcare for the aging (Smart Care). It would also be used for construction and the purchase of capital equipment for the biointerface engineering project.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to submit documentation consistent with the Republican Earmark Standards. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: Transportation, Community & Systems Preservation or Surface Transportation Projects Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The City of Ennis Address of Receiving Entity: P.O. Box 220, Ennis, TX 75120 Description of Request: I have secured $500,000 in funding to be used for project design and construction of US HWY 287 from State HWY 34 to 1-45. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: Bus and Bus Facilities Legal Name of Receiving Entity: Fort Worth Transportation Authority (The T) Address of Receiving Entity: 1600 Lancaster Ave., Fort Worth, TX 76102 Description of Request: I have secured $750,000 in funding to be used to purchase 12 Compressed Natural Gas fueled coaches to replace the oldest vehicles in The T's fleet. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: FAA F&E Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The City of Arlington Address of Receiving Entity: 101 W. Abram, P.O. 90231, MS 01-0310, Arlington, TX 76004-0231 Description of Request: I have secured $637,000 in funding to be used for construction and installation of a MALSR (Medium Approach Lighting System) at the Arlington Municipal Airport to supplement and enhance the existing Instrument Landing System (ILS) for Runway 34.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to submit documentation consistent with the Republican Earmark Standards. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3293--Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: HRSA--Health Facilities and Services Legal Name of Receiving Entity: SafeHaven of Tarrant County Address of Receiving Entity: 815 Manhattan Boulevard, Suite 105, Fort Worth, TX 76120 Description of Request: I have secured $200,000 in funding to be used to support the direct cost of personnel implementing the Safety First program which includes the 24/7/365 toll-free hotline and SafeResponse initiative.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to submit documentation consistent with the Republican Earmark Standards. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3183--Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: Corps of Engineers--Construction Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The City of Arlington Address of Receiving Entity: 101 W. Abram, P.O. 90231, MS 01-0310, Arlington, TX 76004-0231 Description of Request: I have secured $1,500,000 in funding in H.R. 3183 in the Corps of Engineers--Construction account for The City of Arlington. The funding would be used for flood damage reduction, restoration of the floodplain and its riparian areas and the development of a linear park with passive recreational facilities. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3183--Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: Department of Energy--Fossil Energy R&D Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The University of Texas at Arlington Address of Receiving Entity: 701 South Nedderman Drive, 346 Davis Hall, Arlington, TX 76019 Description of Request: I have secured $1,000,000 in funding in H.R. 3183 in the Department of Energy--Fossil Energy R&D account for The University of Texas at Arlington. The funding would be used to develop technology that will allow the conversion of homeland natural resource hydrocarbons, such as coal, oil sands, crude, oil shale, biotars, agricultural wastes and industrial sludges, into more valuable forms of energy, such as clean, affordable gases, transportation fuels and heating oil. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3183--Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: Department of Energy--Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The University of Texas at Arlington Address of Receiving Entity: 701 South Nedderman Drive, 346 Davis Hall, Arlington, TX 76019 Description of Request: I have secured $500,000 in funding in H.R. 3183 in the Department of Energy--Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability account for The University of Texas at Arlington. The funding would be used to purchase capital equipment, construction, and for salaries. Requesting Member: Congressman Joe Barton Bill Number: H.R. 3183--Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill Account: Corps of Engineers--Investigations Legal Name of Receiving Entity: The City of Kennedale Address of Receiving Entity: 405 Municipal Dr., Kennedale, TX 76060 Description of Request: I have secured $500,000 in funding in H.R. 3183 in the Corps of Engineers--Investigations account for The City of Kennedale. The funding would be used for a study conducted by the Corps of Engineers to determine the engineering, economic, and environmental feasibility of constructing a flood control project within the Upper Trinity River Basin.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Madam Speaker, it is my honor today to highlight the career of Pope Barrow, Legislative Counsel of the United States House of Representatives, who retires after over 40 years of service to this body. In honoring Pope Barrow, a man who has spent his career making sense of our words and intent, I can best encapsulate the meaning and value of his service with Pope's own words: ``Our intended role has always been the same, which is the role of trying to create a body of legislation that is intelligible and coherent and administrable by agencies and that can be interpreted by the courts and give people clear guidance on what rules they have to live by in the Federal law. That's our goal. It's a simple one.'' And throughout his 40 years of service, Pope has achieved this goal time and time again. Pope joined the legislative counsel's office as a Law Assistant upon graduation from Harvard Law School in 1968, quickly rising to Assistant Counsel in 1969, and then to Deputy Legislative Counsel in 1993. In 1997, Speaker Newt Gingrich appointed Pope to be the head of the office responsible for the management of the House legislative counsels. This is a position he has continued under Speakers Hastert and Pelosi. During his tenure as Legislative Counsel, Pope has undertaken a significant program of modernization and improvements in the operations of the Office and has skillfully enlisted the help of all personnel in this endeavor. Pope has been involved in most major energy and environmental legislation considered by the Energy and Commerce Committee during his tenure with Legislative Counsel. Throughout my years with the Energy and Commerce Committee, Pope has worked on more bills and amendments for me than I can count. Highlighted pieces of legislation include the Barton/Clement amendment on nuclear relicensing which was included in the Energy Policy Act of 1992; the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990; and the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Under Pope's leadership, the House Legislative Counsel was responsible for all drafting throughout the EPACT 2005 conference. Pope is the consummate professional, once describing the work of the Legislative Counsel by explaining: ``We are impartial, like an umpire. You call it as you see it. You don't try to give one side an advantage over another side. You try to do as good a drafting job for the majority as you do for the minority and vice versa, and try to put as much thought and energy and work into each one.'' Pope has continued his excellent, impartial service to all regardless of which party controlled Congress. My staff has checked, and even though Pope descends from a family that has included two U.S. Representatives, two U.S. Senators, and one Governor--all from Georgia--and is cousins with current U.S. Representative John Barrow from Georgia's 12th District--Pope is responsible for more pieces of legislation becoming law than all of them combined. In addition to being the father of three, Isabel, Pope, and Rebecca, Pope is an avid whitewater enthusiast, kayaker, and sailor, who has explored whitewater rivers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, and Chile. In 1987, Pope received the River Conservationist of the Year Award. He is co-author of Rivers at Risk and the editor of Nationwide Whitewater Inventory. As an avid whitewater kayaker, Pope Barrow knows that a fork in the river is a choice between two courses, and with his retirement he is choosing his next adventure. On behalf of all of us who have benefited from Pope's excellent counsel, his dedication to the rule of law, and his enthusiasm for collaborating with Members and staff alike, I thank him for his more than 40 years of service and wish him the best of luck.

Mr. BARTON of Texas

Mr. BARTON of Texas. The comment ought to be ``show us the bill.''

Mr. BARTON of Texas. Apparently, if they do what they have been doing in the past, we won't get the product that is going to be marked up until Chairman Waxman introduces a manager's amendment in the nature of a substitute sometime Wednesday afternoon.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. He has to put something in play to actually start the markup. But if the past is a predictor of the future, whatever he puts in play will not be what is going to be marked up. It will just be a placeholder.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I thank the gentleman from Texas. I want to apologize to Dr. Fleming for coming ahead of him. I was watching the debate in my office, catching up with some paperwork. I was very impressed that Congressman Shadegg has apparently read the draft--or his staff has--so we have at least one Member. And I'm sure Dr. Price, Dr. Gingrey, Dr. Fleming, Mr. Gohmert and Dr. Broun have also read it. But I am the senior Republican on the committee of primary jurisdiction, the Energy and Commerce Committee; and as such, I communicate with the chairman of that committee, Congressman Waxman of California, and my chief of staff with his chief of staff. As you all know, we had scheduled opening statements next Monday. We were going to start the markup on Tuesday. At least until today we were led to believe that it would be a full and fair open markup. Well, we just got word about 30 minutes ago that apparently, as Congressman Shadegg has said, there is still no bill. As we are here on a Thursday evening, there is no bill to mark up. There is not going to be a bill tomorrow, apparently. There may be a bill over the weekend. There may be a bill on Monday, but there may not be. We had asked that there be a hearing once the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, scores whatever it is they are going to mark up, that we have a day of hearings, which is normal procedure. Well, apparently we're not going to get a hearing. We're going to get a closed-door briefing, and we're going to start opening statements on Tuesday of next week. Then we're going to start the markup. Assuming that there is a bill to mark up, we'll have a markup that begins on Wednesday, and they will conclude it by next Friday. So I just want the country and Members of Congress and those who are in their offices, like I was, listening to the debate to understand, the health care industry, which is 15 percent or 20 percent of our GDP, in which the preliminary scores on the draft and the bill in the Senate is somewhere between $1 and $2 trillion over 10 years, which is somewhere between $100 billion and $200 billion per year, which is 2 percent of GDP. A bill that's going to add 2 percent of GDP, which is not yet written, if we're really, really lucky next week, we may get 2 days of markup in the committee of primary jurisdiction. Now I want to put that in context. I've been in this body 25 years. I have seen major bills that were not half as important as this bill have weeks of hearings on the legislation once the legislation was out and weeks or months of markup. Former chairman of the committee, John Dingell, in the Clean Air Act in the 1990s marked that bill up in committee. He worked on it for several Congresses, but the final work product he marked up over I want to say a 6-month period. It is arrogance beyond explanation not just to the minority Members of this body, to the moderates and conservatives on the majority side, but to the American people that we can attempt to move a bill that affects 20 to 25 percent of our GDP, which adds 2 percent of our GDP cost per year for the next 10 years, not even have that out so that it can be studied today. When they get around to introducing it sometime next week, they are going to start marking it up on Wednesday and report it out on Friday. Now the reason I came over to ask time to speak is because right now I am in a debate with the administrator at the EPA, Administrator Jackson, in which back in April, they issued an endangerment finding on CO2 saying that CO2 is a harm to public health. It is a dangerous element, and therefore it has to be regulated to protect the public health. We have e-mails that show a reputable senior Ph.D., a doctor, a researcher within the EPA, prepared a report, as required by law, that stated that the science that they had based the endangerment findings on was faulty and out of date, and in all probability there really wasn't a danger. That report was not made a part of the official record. The e-mail says it wasn't because his direct supervisor says that the decision has been made at levels above you. We are going to go forward with this regardless of what the facts are. So here we have on climate change and cap-and-trade the facts be darned, we are going forward. And now we are coming to the next big issue in the Obama administration, and they are saying, the public be darned, we don't want anybody to know what is in the bill. We are going to make the majority vote for it no matter what. And we are going to do it in 2 days. Now most of you here are medically trained. You went to medical school for years. You had an intern program for several years. Most of you practiced in private practice for decades. You have got experience. You had your patients that trusted you because you were open and transparent and you had experience behind you. The majority that is running this body doesn't have enough trust in the population to tell them what is in their bill a week or two ahead of time so we can study it, prepare amendments, and have an open and fair markup process. I think that is outrageous. We don't know what is in the bill. Mr. Shadegg has done a pretty good job of going through the draft. And he knows that the draft is scary enough that we ought to have a long, fair markup on it. Most of that stuff will probably be in the final bill. But we don't know. So the reason I came over, Congressman Burgess, was to encourage you and all the other Members that are participating in this Special Order and the people that are watching it. They need to get on the phone tomorrow. We want openness. We want transparency. We want time to see what the bill is. We want to post it on official Web sites so that the public can understand it. We want to give Members on both sides of the aisle the opportunity to draft amendments. And we want a markup process in the committees of jurisdiction that those amendments can be made, they can be debated, and they can be voted on in public. And maybe, just maybe, the work product that comes from that will be worthy of being reported to the floor. But one thing I'm certain of, the bill that we don't have that has been drafted in secret is not worthy of becoming public law. I can say that sight unseen. In the Revolutionary War, ``one if by land, two if by sea, the British are coming,'' rationed health care is coming. No-doctor-choice is coming. Private insurance is going away if we let this--I'm trying to think of a polite way to describe what is about to happen. But it is a travesty of the process. It is a policy that will do much more harm than good to health care in America.

Mr. BARTON of Texas. I plan on talking to Chairman Waxman immediately in the morning and saying at a minimum we need a day to look at the bill once it is out. We need several days to prepare amendments. And then we need at least 1 week or 2 weeks to do markup. It is not just the minority Members, but there are a number of Members on the majority side that have substantive concerns and substantive amendments. This Congress can do good work. But it can't do good work in the dark with a handful of Members making deals in the back room and then forcing the majority to almost automatically rubber-stamp that product. What you're doing here is excellent work. I commend you and the other Members. But I strongly, strongly encourage people that if they believe in an open and fair process, we need to figure out a way to get this bill out there in public and give us enough time to study it before we go forward and try to mark it up.