Kevin Brady

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Yes, Madam Chairman, we were very respectful of the House rules on those issues. Clearly an intent of this discussion tonight is to have this study conducted, but we were very respectful of the House rules.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I have two young children, so the environment is very important to me, but I question the benefits of this bill and strongly oppose its devastating cost. This bill won't impact the natural cycle of the Earth's temperature. It will cost Texas families dearly in bigger utility bills, higher energy costs, and losing nearly 200,000 jobs, many of them in southeast Texas in our energy refining, paper, steel, and ag industries. And with China and India not likely to go along, this will have no environmental benefits at all. The protectionist trade measures added in secret at the 11th hour are so rigid, they undermine our ability to reach an international agreement on carbon emissions, which is the best way to protect American jobs here. And they are written so poorly, it will be difficult to defend the measure against trade challenges by our competitors. And I should point out, that WTO report referenced earlier today doesn't even deal with the border measures that are under consideration in this bill. Instead of rushing this 1,200-page bill through Congress with no time to read it, a better solution is for both parties to get serious about increasing cleaner-burning fuel, like nuclear and natural gas, accelerating research. That makes more sense, creates jobs and produces real environmental results without the devastating cost to families and businesses from cap and trade.

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information regarding earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2996-- Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010. Requesting Member: Congressman Kevin Brady, Texas 8th Congressional District Bill Number: H.R. 2996--Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project: Big Thicket National Preserve Account: National Park Service, Land Acquisition Requesting Entity: The Conservation Fund, Texas Office Address of Requesting Entity: 101 W 6th Street, Suite 601, Austin, TX The Big Thicket National Preserve is one of America's ecological treasures. It is an unusually shaped preserve whose boundaries include land once owned by major timber companies. This request enables the National Park Service to acquire critical land within the congressionally authorized boundary of the Big Thicket National Preserve to diversify the economic potential of southeast Texas through increased tourism opportunities. This project works only with voluntary, ``willing-seller'' landowners. The $5,000,000 included in this bill for this project combined with previous funding will allow the National Park Service to purchase over 2500 acres of land on 23 tracts acquired from willing sellers or by voluntary donation. When funded in full, this request represents the final year in a seven-year land acquisition program.

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, I was unable to be present for several votes on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 due to a personal situation I needed to attend to in Texas. Nevertheless, I would request that the record indicate that I would have voted ``yes'' on each of the bills considered in the House had I been present. Specifically, S. 407, the Veterans' Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009; H.R. 1016, the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009; H.R. 1211, the Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act; and H.R. 1172 are each common sense reforms that will improve the health and education benefits provided by the Veterans Administration. Our veterans and their families sacrifice so much on our behalf, it is important that Congress continue to do all it can to ensure that they receive the respect and support they deserve.

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information for publication in the Congressional Record regarding earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2847--Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010. Requesting Member: Congressman Kevin Brady, Texas 8th Congressional District Bill Number: H.R. 2847--Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project: Sam Houston State University Regional Crime Lab Account: Office of Justice Programs, Byrne Discretionary Grants Requesting Entity: Sam Houston State University Address of Requesting Entity: 1803 Avenue I, Huntsville, TX 77341 Law enforcement agencies in rural communities experience long waits and backlogs when requesting services from major cities like Houston. This request allows Sam Houston State University--one of the nation's foremost criminal justice universities--to use its expertise in forensic science to begin operations of the Regional Crime Laboratory started with funding I previously secured. This lab will provide important forensics services to local law enforcement such as identification of controlled substances, toxicology screening and finger print matching. The lab will be able to service communities in a 75-mile wide area. The $1,000,000 included in this bill for this project will be allocated to staff the SHSU Regional Crime Lab and make it operational for serving regional law enforcement agencies. Specific budget items include: capital outlays (54%); salaries and benefits for laboratory staff (37%); lab supplies (8%); and subcontracts for staff training (1%).

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill due to the last-minute addition of the Pakistan Afghanistan Recovery Opportunity Zone bill. While I commend Congressman Van Hollen for his hard work and his strong commitment to this very important legislation, I am concerned the bill fails to encourage significant investment in the Afghan and Pakistan regions under the new trade program. And I say that as someone who believes that trade can be a powerful tool to help developing countries lift themselves up out of poverty. Unfortunately, I believe this bill will discourage economic development and investment because it includes some dangerous eligibility criteria that will drive away investment and require each firm, including U.S. firms, there to meet labor standards that could exceed U.S. law in such a way that will create a dangerous precedent that could be applied to our own free-trade agreements, making U.S. labor laws vulnerable to challenge from foreign countries. And the scope of the eligible products in the bill, unfortunately, have been whittled down--I know there have been difficult negotiations to try and broaden that--and it imposes fees on certain Pakistan products in return for sales of others; again, sort of, I think, a tradeoff that has been difficult to swallow. I am concerned that this measure, despite its excellent intentions-- and again, very hard work from Congressman Van Hollen--will fall short of its objectives to bring economic stability to this very difficult region. I would point out, too, we are doing a lot to open up America to foreign countries. We've had six votes to open up America to foreign sales, but no votes to open up other countries to what we sell. It's not enough to buy American; we need to sell American products throughout the world. And in this economic recession, we have three pending trade agreements that would allow us to sell $11 billion of American products around the world to create jobs here in the United States that are being held up, not brought to a vote on the floor. We need to get our priorities right. As we help lift countries up, let's lift American jobs up as well.

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Mica, Chairman Oberstar, today I rise reluctantly in opposition to the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2009. I have several concerns about the bill that I believe undermine the international competitiveness of the American airline industry. Section 425(e) of this bill would sunset in 3 years the antitrust immunity for U.S. air carriers that participate in international alliances. This provision could threaten the viability of our U.S. airline industry and hurt customers. At a time when the economy is struggling and people are traveling less, it's not wise to further impair American carriers' ability to deliver the best possible service. Unfortunately, that's exactly what this provision does, and I hope it is removed before the bill is presented to the President. Alliances help better serve Americans traveling both at home and abroad, and allow airlines to pool resources to better deliver customer service. When airlines partner together, consumers have improved booking and connecting options, industry competition is increased, and lower fares are more accessible.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. If U.S. carriers lose these benefits because of a shortsighted sunsetting of immunity, American jobs will be at stake. The Air Transport Association estimates that we may lose as many as 15,000 U.S. airline jobs if this sunsetting occurs. With the economy as it is today, we cannot afford losing these good American jobs.

Mr. BRADY of Texas

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, I think the way you started this, and the issue is freedom, Thomas Jefferson said a government big enough to supply all your needs is big enough to take everything you have. It is important we keep that in mind as this country grows deeper, deeper, deeper into debt.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Thank you. I appreciate you leading this discussion tonight with the American public. I'm glad to join my other friends, conservative friends, who, frankly, are worried about what the first 100 days mean to our country. I didn't move to Washington. I live in Texas with my family and just commute to work each week to Washington. Continental has given me my 1 million miles flown card, which is a lot of keeping in touch. Sometimes you wonder, you know, the people up in Washington, they seem to be in a bubble. It's just so disconnected from the real world. I asked some of our Facebook friends what they thought of President Obama's first 100 days, sort of an out-of-Washington look at the Nation. Rachel, who is a Sam Houston State University alum, said she was really disappointed to see all of the spending on unnecessary programs that do not help the economy but, rather, put a further strain on it. Norma expressed her disappointment to the taxpayer-funded spending spree. She said, It's a disaster. She wrote, At the current spending rate, the deficit is going to be an anchor around not only our necks but our grandchildren's as well. Norma, you're right. Melody said if she were to grade this President, it would definitely be a flunking grade. In the debates, he promised to cut spending and reduce the size of the deficit. Ha. I am sickened by the wasteful spending. It is like watching a train wreck happen. I will come back in a minute and tell you a little more about my thoughts. But that's just an inkling of what real Americans think about this first 100 days.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. I agree exactly with what has been said today. And I can tell you from the Ways and Means perspective, from the tax perspective, the President isn't keeping that promise. We saw that right off the bat. The second bill he signed was an increase on a lot of low-income and middle class families to the children's insurance program. And the budget that was rushed through Congress today that I will bet not one Member who voted for it actually read this multi- trillion dollar budget--again, this first 100 days has been a rush to bad legislation--it includes tax increases of $1.5 trillion, the highest in American history. As the gentlemen from Louisiana and Texas and as you pointed out, in addition to the national energy tax, you're looking at increased taxes on professionals and small business people; increased taxes on independent, small energy companies, the ones that drill 90 percent of the wells here in America; so we're going to outsource our American energy jobs. The climate change national energy tax. Increased taxes on capital gains and dividends, a source of a lot of revenue for our seniors in America and a source of capital. New taxes on real estate partnerships. On U.S. companies headquartered here who are trying to sell their products around the world, we're actually going to penalize them for selling American-made products around the world. It is crazy the number of tax increases.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. The promise was: ``Under my plan no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase.'' That promise has already been broken. And the budget we passed today ensures that it will be broken even further. What everyone knows is with this spending, there's no free money. Someone is going to have to pay for this record deficit. It's going to be middle class families. It's going to be small business people. It's going to be people that make a whole lot less. And a good example, look at the stimulus bill. It started phasing out all of these benefits if you make $80,000 a year. That's what it started to do, including the Making Work Pay tax credit, that measly $1.10 in your paycheck. They start phasing it out at $80,000. That's who this White House believes is wealthy. We've already seen the model.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. I wanted to answer the question, what does this double quarters of 6 percent mean? What it means for average Americans is that America is going to go much deeper into debt and our kids are going to have a burden that they can barely carry. What's interesting is that the President's budget, the one that was rushed through the House again and Senate today, it based its assumptions and its huge deficits on a contraction this year, a shrinking of our economy, of 1 percent. They've used such rosy economic indicators.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. By 1.2 percent this year.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Six point one percent and on top of 6.3 percent last quarter.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, they're bad numbers. And I think that's why it was rushed through Congress so that people couldn't ask those questions. But the truth of the matter is the result of that, of cooking the books with rosy numbers that don't exist that no one agrees with, is that we will face close to a $2 trillion deficit just this year. There are trillion dollar deficits as far as the eye can see. So when Judge Carter said we may not see another balanced budget in our lifetime, that's no exaggeration. We may not see a balanced budget in our lifetime. Let me make one correction that I hear, I guess if you repeat something often enough people believe it, but you often hear up here Democrats who say President Clinton gave President Bush a surplus, and President Obama inherited a huge deficit. That's awfully misleading. The truth of the matter is that the surplus that was given to President Bush wasn't created by Democrats in Congress but by Republicans in Congress who sat down with President Clinton and said we are going to balance this budget. And I was here on a night like this night where we passed the balanced budget agreement. And guess who voted against it? Democrats. And then, when you talk about the deficit President Obama inherited, that didn't come----

Mr. BRADY of Texas. And congressional Democrats voted against the balanced budget agreement. So that's the first part of the equation. The second one is President Obama did inherit a big deficit, but he inherited it from congressional Democrats who held power for the last 2 years. They didn't even send President Bush a budget because they knew he would spend less. And so my point of that is that you can't take credit for a surplus you didn't create and avoid blame for a deficit you did. That's one of the big, I think, misperceptions, the big lies in Washington, D.C. I agree with other conservatives that Republicans, I think, got fired because we didn't control spending well enough, even though we whittled that deficit down, and we are learning from those mistakes. That deficit now is 10 times greater, and we are in a mess we may never recover from.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. There is so much truth in what you say. I was referring back to, again, one of our Facebook followers, Melody from my district in east Texas, that she wrote that if she were to grade our new President and Democrats in Congress, she said it would definitely be a flunking grade. It is like watching a train wreck happen. It's interesting. President Obama is very sincere when he says, I was elected to change the direction America could go, and he is very up front about it. I give him credit for that. But from my way of thinking, in the Eighth District of Texas, we believe he is wrong on spending. He is wrong on nationalizing so much of our free market. He is wrong on Guantanamo. He is wrong on the CIA memos. He is wrong on this new national security threat of our veterans and our pro- life and our States' rights people. I think just generally he is wrong in the belief that you can tax and spend and borrow our way back to prosperity. It won't work. I would say this. You always want to be helpful as a Member of Congress, so my advice to the President on this 100th day is, one, stand up to Nancy Pelosi and the Senate leaders in Congress. Be your own man and don't let them run the show as they have done for your first 100 days. Extend a hand to Republicans who have got some great ideas on how to lower taxes, how to help small businesses create jobs, how we really get out of this economy and we are willing to work with you. The final piece of advice is do less press conferences like tonight and more working meetings with Members of Congress who want to work across the aisle to solve these problems without going into a debt so staggering that we can never hope to get out. There are some great ideas up here, but so far for the first 100 days, it's been the congressional Democrats show. Really, it's time for the President to follow through on his promise to change the way we work in Washington.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Well, thank you, sir. Most people in my district know that I was raised in a small business. I was a Chamber of Commerce manager my whole life. So I ran a small business, made payroll, had to cut staff in the recession and work with other small businesses. So I know how hard it is for them these days. But there are three ideas Republicans came forward with, I think better ideas. In the stimulus, in that stimulus bill, billions and billions of dollars, there was more money to buy public art in America than to help small businesses survive.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. The line item for the National Endowment for the Arts was $50 million. The line item to help small businesses to buy new computers and equipment was smaller, $41 million. What we said as Republicans was, we said, look, let's create a 20 percent income tax reduction across-the-board for small businesses so they can keep more of their money, keep good workers on the payroll, maybe buy that new computer or piece of equipment, or just survive through this recession. We thought that was a better idea. On housing, the government has come up with this new $2 billion pool of money to buy foreclosed homes in your neighborhood and mine. The Republicans said wait a minute. Given a choice between having the government buy a home in our neighborhood or our neighbors buy that home, maintain it, keep it up and sell it once the market recovers, we created incentives that said, look, if you look around your neighborhood and community and you buy one of these distressed homes, foreclosed or someone who is in trouble, it is abandoned, we will treat it just like your own home. If you keep it up and maintain it, when you sell it, you can keep the profit. Now, who is going to keep better care of a home in your neighborhood? Uncle Sam, or one of your neighbors?

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Absolutely. Then on health care, they are looking at this big government-run health care system. Many Republicans, including me, are proposing this backpack, where for the first time workers get an option where they can choose a health care plan that is right for them, just like Members of Congress do. They can put it in a backpack and take it with them throughout their life, from business to business or to home to raise the kids, or if you are going to start your own small business. Basically you get the same tax breaks businesses get. But you have one that you choose. It is your doctor, your relationship, the hospitals you choose to go to.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. I'm glad you raised that. The President said this is the most honest budget ever presented to Congress.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. Almost $2 trillion just for this year.

Mr. BRADY of Texas. It is. Instead of government one-size-fits-all, why don't we give more freedom and more incentives for people to have a health care plan that fits their needs? We have great ideas. My colleagues here tonight I guarantee you could spend a lot of time with these new ideas. But we need a President who will be open. We need a Democrat Congress who will quit rushing bills through this Chamber and give a chance for those good ideas to come forward.