Marsha Blackburn

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. If the gentlemen will yield. As we wrap up our hour, I want to bring it right back to where we started, talking about the compassionate thing to do is to let the American taxpayer keep their paycheck, be certain that they have first right of refusal on that paycheck and not the Federal Government. I also want to encourage our constituents to talk to us and our colleagues, to talk to our constituents so that we are certain that everyone understands our goal as the majority party here in this House is to be certain that we preserve individual freedom, that we preserve hope and opportunity, and that we allow the American taxpayer to keep control of their paycheck. And that as stewards of the taxpayers' money, that we are good and accountable stewards.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas is so right when he talks about the compassion and what is the compassionate thing to do. Mr. Speaker, in 1994, the Republicans swept in here and took control of this body and have been working ever since to turn this ship around and turn that corner so that we look at how we handled the Federal purse, how we handle the priorities of the Federal Government, how we shift that focus and move it away from saying, let us give government the money, and then task government to go solve all the ills to say, we believe this is government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and we believe the people can solve these problems. They can do it. We know that most people feel when they see their taxes increase, when they see more of their money going to feed that bureaucracy, they know that their freedom has been cut. Mr. Speaker, I am joined this evening by Dr. Gingrey, who is a member of the Rules Committee and is going to have a few comments on the budget. Certainly, he is a gentleman who knows of compassion and how we should be working with and for our Federal man. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Georgia, and I appreciate so much that he calls our attention to some of the issues that are at hand. Mr. Speaker, for any of our colleagues who are looking for more information on the House budget, they can go to the Web site gop.gov, and pull down the House Budget Resolution fact sheet. Here is some interesting information on it, and it goes back to what Mr. Hensarling was talking about on the budget. It is a $2.7 trillion budget authority. One of the things that is so important in this is when you look at the discretionary, it is a 3.6 percent increase over what we had in fiscal year 2006. We did some interesting things here, and Chairman Nussle is to be commended for this. We have a $50 billion placeholder in here for our war effort cost. We have money for Katrina or for emergencies such as Katrina. Then we go in and we look at our discretionary spending, a near freeze in nonsecurity discretionary spending. A near freeze. Quite amazing, is not it, when you think about the growth that year after year after year took place. And I would encourage the individuals that are listening to this over TV tonight to call their legislators. Call us. Let us know what we think. We love to hear from you. We have another Budget Committee member, and leader who is with us tonight, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett), who is going to have a few things to say, and then we are going to invite some of our other colleagues in.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for his thoughts. He is such a thoughtful member of our Republican Conference, and a thoughtful and studious member of the Budget Committee, and the ideas that he brings forth are very important to us, because that is what we bring, ideas. How are we going to work through this process of reducing what the Federal Government spends? How are we going to work through the process of being certain that Federal agencies are called into accountability for how they spend your money? This is not the government's money. It is the taxpayers' money, and we need to remember that every single day. A gentleman who does a great job of reminding us that it is the taxpayers' money is the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McHenry), and at this time I yield to Mr. McHenry.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from North Carolina, and as he said, it is so important that we keep the attention on both sides of this ledger, that we hone that focus and just target it, what we are taking in and what we are spending. When we go back and we look at the 2003 tax cuts, we know that 91 million Americans saw a tax reduction of about $1,100. That is real money. We also know that when government takes more of that paycheck, that the individuals are not making choices, that the government is making choices, and that is where we see a decrease in our freedom. The gentleman is so correct. It is the debate of ideas and putting new ideas on the table that is so very important, and we are joined, as you mentioned, by the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Schmidt), who has a few thoughts to offer on the line item veto and some of the ideas that are being offered for our budget process, and I yield to the gentlewoman.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, and it is so true. We are to spend wisely, and this week, as we look at this year's budget, there are some things that you will hear us talking, some themes that will bear themselves out as we talk about this budget this week. As I said, you can go to the Budget Committee Web site, through house.gov or go to gop.gov, our colleagues can, and get more information on the budget. We are going to talk about strength and how we look at strength and security in this budget. We look at defense, homeland security, national security. We are going to talk about spending control, the issue that we have talked about tonight, how we work on waste, fraud and abuse, how we seek that savings and continue to seek that savings for the American people and how we continue to push for reform, so that government avails itself of every possible efficiency, every possible efficiency that is out there to be certain that the taxpayer is receiving the best buy for their dollar. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mrs. BLACKBURN. If the gentleman can yield for just a second.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. I want to yield to the gentleman from Texas, because I think it is important for us to bring the deficit back into this. We are allowing the taxpayer to keep more of their paycheck, and the tax reductions in 2001 and 2003 certainly have done that. The gentleman from Texas can talk for a moment about the deficit and how we are speeding along and reducing that deficit faster than we had originally thought that we were because of the growth in taxes and because of the changes we have made in budgeting.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, it is budget week here in the U.S. House of Representatives, and sometimes we hear people say, Oh, no, I just dread it when we get around to talking about this budget. And then we will hear others say, I love to just really tackle this budget issue. I love looking at where we spend our money. And I kind of appreciate that attitude because we are the stewards of the taxpayers' money and it is our responsibility to be a good steward and to be diligent in the work we are going to do as we work on this budget and decide what should the priorities of our government be? What should be our concerns? Where should we be looking for ways to achieve a savings? And over the past several months, actually over the past 3 years, we have come to the floor regularly to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse and find ways and point out ways and to continue to seek ways that we can achieve a savings for the American people. And from time to time over the past few years, we have talked about lots of different reports. Many different reports from different government agencies, from the General Accounting Office, from some of our friends who are in the media that have pointed out programs that maybe have outlived their usefulness, programs that are wasting money, programs that cannot achieve a clean audit. And some of our colleagues, we have worked on ways that we can go in and investigate and highlight and look at what this drain is on our tax dollars. And we have House committees, certainly the Government Reform Committee, that continue to hold hearings. Oversight and investigations from our Energy and Commerce Committee are certainly looking at ways to achieve a savings and find ways to review how our agencies are spending their money. We have clear data showing places where the Federal Government is bleeding funds. And the President's budget this year has included more than 100 programs that could and should be targeted, Mr. Speaker. So the target for spending reductions is clearly enormous. We have got 100 programs, 100, that we can look at through so many different agencies and so many different spots in the Federal Government. Now, certainly, out of 100 programs, we are going to be able to find a way to achieve a savings. One of the interesting things is no matter what part of this country that you are in and no matter whose district that you are in, whether it is a Democrat or a Republican, there is consensus among the American people that we have a problem. Government does not have a revenue problem; government has a spending problem. Government does not have a revenue problem; government has a priority problem. It is time that we begin to fine tune our focus and decide what the priority of government ought to be. The taxpayers pay far too much of their paycheck in taxes. They are tired of every time somebody comes up with a good idea, they say well let us just go raise the taxes. And, Mr. Speaker, I tell you what, if it were not for the leadership in this House, we would see those taxes going up. If our friends across the aisle had their way, they would be raising taxes, not cutting programs. That is not where we want to go. We know it is tough to eliminate waste. I often quote Ronald Reagan, who is pretty close to my favorite President ever, I will have to say that, but one of my favorite remarks he ever made was that when you look at Federal programs, there is nothing so close to eternal life on Earth as a Federal Government program. When you get the thing, it is just the dickens to get rid of it. It is so tough to get rid of it, Mr. Speaker. Sometimes in my townhall meetings in Tennessee, I will have constituents say, Why is it so tough to get rid of these programs? We see the waste. We know the waste is out there. Everybody knows these programs are wasting money. Why is it so difficult to call them into accountability? Why is it so difficult to get rid of these programs? And to that, Mr. Speaker, I will have to say if you listen to our colleagues from across the aisle this morning when they gave their 1 minute speeches, then you can see why it is so very difficult for us to downsize this government. Those colleagues across the aisle, Democratic Members, Member after Member, came to the floor this morning, as they do on many days, and they decried our efforts to make reductions in Federal spending. Mr. Speaker, we spend trillions of dollars to support all sorts of social spending programs; yet any reduction or even holding the line on spending, not increasing anything, just holding the line, all of a sudden it is called a ``draconian cut.'' It is amazing how it works. Most Americans do not get a massive salary increase every year. But we have colleagues that think if they are not giving every agency an increase every year, then they are getting a cut. It is the most incredible, most incredible, program that you have ever seen. If you do not get an increase, then you are getting a cut. It does not work that way in real life, only in the bureaucracy. We have to look at this and see that it happens year after year after year. You know, I don't think that asking the Federal Government to reduce its spending, I don't think asking bureaucrats to be accountable, I don't think asking agencies to be accountable and get clean audits and know where they are spending their money is evil. I don't think it is uncaring. But many of our colleagues across the aisle will come down here and demonize those of us who simply want the spending increases to stop. I have talked a lot about the Great Society government that was created over 40 years of Democratic control of Congress, and I will have to tell you, yes, indeed, they built an enormous monument, a monument of spending to their party's vision of what government ought to be; a vision in which government solved society's ills and took care of every problem by spending more money. Mr. Speaker, you and I know that that vision is a failure. We know it is an absolute failure. You don't solve problems, you don't solve problems, by throwing more money at them. Many times all you do is mask the problem. In the long run, you make it worse, because you are not addressing the causes of the problem. The moveon.orgs of the world, the Democratic leadership, they don't want to admit this. They want to protect and expand their monumental government, this huge bureaucracy in this town, huge bureaucracy. So many of my constituents get frustrated with it. They want us to break it apart; to send the money, send the power back to our States and back to our local governments. They want to keep their paychecks in their pocket. They don't want the Federal Government to have first right of refusal on it. They are a little bit confused many times, and understandably so, I think all of us are, of why the Democratic leadership wants to keep, why the liberal leadership wants to keep, a big, big, big bureaucracy in this town. But it is their party's creation. It is their legacy. I am joined by some colleagues tonight who are going to share some of their thoughts on the great ideas that we can bring to the table to look at how we are spending the Federal Government's money. This party and this leadership is the one that is keeping the attention on spending less and reducing the size of the Federal Government. Mr. Hensarling is joining us tonight. He is a member of the Budget Committee, and he has had the Family Budget Protection Act. Mr. Hensarling is going to open our conversation this evening and talk a little bit about the budget, the work that they have done in the Budget Committee, the process reforms that we are beginning to look at and move forward, and add to the discussion that we are going to have this week as we continue to work on our plan to yield savings for the American people and to reduce the size of the Federal Government. With that, I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, last year the Republicans did support the Deficit Reduction Act that reduced $39 billion in Federal spending, and yes, indeed, as we are hearing, this is budget week here on Capitol Hill. It is something that we are tasked to do. I know that a lot of the big spenders would still like to be getting rid of that Deficit Reduction Act that we passed last year. It was a good bill. We should be doing more like it, as my colleague from Texas said. Today, conservatives in the House are working to bring to the floor a budget that goes after the programs that show little results for the taxpayer dollars. We have got some great ideas on the table. I would like to see further across-the-board cuts. My colleague from Texas, Representative Conaway, has a bill that goes after eliminating a program if you are going to create a new one. Madam Speaker, we Republicans are bringing ideas and putting solutions on the table, and we are going to hear more about this as we go through the week. We are the party debating how to reduce spending at the Federal level. It is what America expects of us. It is what we are fighting to make happen.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, the issue is not hard to understand. The American people understand this issue and we are getting lots of calls into our offices. We have the immigration debate. As we talk about illegal immigration, as we discuss the problem of illegal entry into this country, we all know that you have to begin with the very first step. It has to be a priority and that priority is seal our borders. We all learned in kindergarten that the beginning is a very good place to start. As we have this debate on illegal immigration and illegal entry into this country, let's begin at the very beginning by sealing the borders to this great Nation.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia, and one of the things, as we talk about fairness, again, going back to the politics of division and the politics of personal destruction, I have got before me a list of some of the shady acts that were committed by 527s when it comes to people that were hired to be voter canvassers and the way that they filled out faulty registrations and absentee ballots. That is the type of activity that my constituents repeatedly tell me they feel like should not be a part of the electoral process, that individuals should be held accountable for that. One of the things that we have found is that many of these activities were carried out by 527 groups, and that is something that is causing our process to not function as it was set up. It is not fair to our voters. It destroys the ``one man, one vote'' principle, and I think that it is important that we address the activity. I am so pleased that our focus is on disclosure, transparency and fairness, and I look forward to working with the Members of this body next week to be certain that our focus stays on trusting integrity in our electoral process.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Thank you so much. I appreciate the gentleman from Georgia and his work on the issues and for continuing to work on the Truth Squad to get the message out, and the gentleman from Virginia, our chief deputy whip, Mr. Cantor, who has been leading on this and working with us to be certain that we educate our constituents on exactly what a 527 is. I love the poster that you have there. It is a PAC by another name. One of the problems with this, as we were just hearing from the gentleman from North Carolina and you reiterated, people do not know where the money is coming from. People do not know who is behind this group. And time and again in town hall meetings people will come before us and say, I got this call or I got this mailer. Who is this group? And then they find out that it is a group that nobody knows who is giving them the money. Nobody knows really what they are about. They are kind of a shadow organization. I think it is time and it is appropriate that we put the emphasis on three things, which is what our bill will do next week: disclosure so that we know where the money is coming from; transparency so that our constituents when they get a piece of mail, they know who it is by. When they get a mailer from our campaigns, it says that. When they see an ad from our campaigns, it tells them. And we know that they are aware of who they are receiving that from. And that type of transparency is needed in this system. The other thing is about fairness, and it is about fairness for the system because addressing these issues, disclosure, transparency, fairness, will enable our constituents to know that our focus is on being certain that they know that they can trust the electoral process, that they can trust that there is some truth in the material that they are getting with knowing where it is coming from, and that they know that we are working to be certain to restore the trust and integrity that they expect from this body and from the electoral system. This is something that we have needed to address. We have watched the process and the 527s kind of get out of control with the 2004 elections. And I appreciate what you said about it being the politics of division. All too often these groups focus on the politics of personal destruction. No one is well served. No one is well served when we travel that path. Our political process is to be about ideas and bringing forth ideas, in bringing forth issues that are focused on how we preserve freedom. How do we preserve hope and opportunity for future generations? How do we make certain that this Nation stays a free, a productive society? And being certain that we have an open and trustworthy process that is accountable is a way that we will do that. So I thank the gentleman from Georgia for bringing the issue to the floor today. I thank the gentleman from Virginia for his interest in the issue and for being a leader on the issue as we address the problem that the advent of 527s have caused in the political process.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, today we saw that Minority Leader Pelosi and the Democrats unveiled their plan for securing America. No big surprises. They slammed the President and demanded immediate withdrawal from the Middle East. And they called that immediate withdrawal ``redeployment'' to try and soften what is absolutely an awful policy. We have to remember that many of the House Democrats are on record voting against funding for the troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are also acting like we have shortchanged funding for first responders when we have spent millions upon millions that we have never before dedicated to emergency response at the local level. They claim we need to focus more on international cooperation, this in a world where some of the worst human rights abusers are routinely allowed to serve on the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Mr. Speaker, Republicans in this majority have been serious about national security. We work on the issue every day, all year, not just when an election is approaching.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, you know, as we have heard on this floor tonight, Americans are paying attention to the illegal immigration issue and all of us here have received call after call after call from our constituents. And, you know, they are not asking much. They simply want us to enforce our border security. And, Mr. Speaker, I agree with this. This is not some earth-shattering policy change, it is a matter of enforcing the laws that are on our books. Republicans passed legislation to strengthen the border late last year, and we did it with very little Democratic support. That has to change. An overwhelming majority of Americans believe the lawlessness and the disregard for our laws inherent in illegal immigration is damaging to our society and a serious, serious risk to our national security. We have watched some try to equate legal immigration and legal immigrants with those whose first act, their very first act coming into this country is breaking a law. It is breaking our law by running across the border. That is an insult to every individual who complied with our policies and followed the appropriate process to get here. For too long we have overlooked or even rewarded those who broke the law, and it is time for that to stop. It has to stop. I want to share with you something one of my constituents asked me in a meeting while we were on our break. He said ``Marsha, I hear that some of the people in Washington want to provide amnesty to those who are breaking our immigration laws, to those who are illegally entering our country.'' He said, if you are going to let people pick and choose and decide which laws they want to have amnesty from, then I want amnesty from the IRS. And he said that I have a friend who runs a small manufacturing plant, he wants to have amnesty from OSHA. You know, you cannot disagree with comments like that. Mr. Speaker, this debate is that simple. We are either going to be a nation of laws or we are not. Border security is a necessity. The Republican Party is the party pushing to strengthen those borders. Americans need to let those opposed to our efforts hear their voices. And I thank all of my constituents who are speaking out loud and clear on this issue.

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to claim the time of the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran).

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his leadership on this issue and for his leadership in continuing to bring the Truth Squad to the floor every evening, so we can talk about the issues that affect our constituents and the American people. Mr. Speaker, we have as a party and as a conference been talking about the security agenda for many months now, looking at energy security, moral security, retirement security, economic security for this great Nation. A big part of this security agenda is our national security and we continue to address this issue. We talk about the war on terror. We talk about protecting our Nation, and that is where the border security component comes in. In December, we passed a border security bill to address so many of these issues that are before us. And, of course, as typically happens and many times happens here, those of us in the House roll up our sleeves and get to work and we pass a bill. It crosses the Rotunda to the other side, to the other body, and maybe it languishes or does not move quite as quickly. But the Members of the House have taken action on this issue. It is indeed one that deserves our attention, and as we talk about border security, there is one component that I would like to highlight this evening, just one component as we talk about border security and the importance of keeping this border secure. When we talk about illegal immigration and illegal immigrants, I think it is imperative that we turn the focus to illegal entry. That is the action that an individual outside this country is choosing to commit--the act of illegally entering our country, and we need to keep our focus on that: Why would they choose to enter illegally? Why would they choose to circumvent our laws? Why would an individual choose to circumvent the rules? Why would they choose illegal entry? Mr. Speaker, I think that you and I would probably agree that we are going to work diligently to protect our homes from illegal entry, and I am going to work just as hard to protect this country from illegal entry as I am going to work to protect my home from illegal entry. I think it is important that we realize that individuals who decide they are going to illegally enter somewhere maybe come with a different agenda, but we have to recognize that they do not come as an invited guest. We have rules in place that individuals are supposed to follow, and those individuals that follow those rules are then invited and brought into the process of being able to seek citizenship, of working to attain that citizenship, to being able to be a part of the bounty and the richness that this country offers. We are a Nation of immigrants, but we are a Nation of laws, and it is important that we continue to recognize that, as we look at the debate, that we realize that entering this country illegally, that action is something that circumvents our laws. I thank the gentleman from Georgia for his leadership on the issue. I thank you for including me and allowing me to come to the floor and be a part of the Official Truth Squad and continue to put the focus on the issues that are important to my district in Tennessee and important to so many of our constituents.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, Roll Call reports that the Democrats are going to unveil an ``ambitious security plan'' tomorrow. Well, bless their hearts. If they have not noticed, those of us on this side of the aisle have been focused on the issue and passing security legislation for more than 5 years now. President Bush has made national security his priority mission. House Republicans have been talking about it for months. We have been working with our leadership on it. They consider national security priority number one, not a political tactic to trot out 7 months before an election. We passed the PATRIOT Act to target terrorists. The Democrats voted against it. We passed the REAL ID Act to make it harder for potential terrorists to use valid State-issued identification documents. They opposed that. We are pushing a border security bill to strengthen our border control, and Democrats in the Senate are threatening a filibuster. Mr. Speaker, Americans are going to see right through their last-ditch effort to look engaged on security.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority has carefully guarded the economic and national security of this great Nation. Our tax policies have helped create over 4.7 million new jobs in 30 months, and that is incredible progress. On the national security front, we are taking apart the al Qaeda network piece by piece. The PATRIOT Act, our call monitoring program, our aggressive action in the Middle East, each of these actions are making it more and more difficult for terrorists to operate on U.S. soil. Mr. Speaker, President Bush deserves a great deal of the credit for this tough stance on terrorism. The Senate Democrats are talking about censuring the President, though. They are opposed to his aggressive approach to fighting terrorism. But I hope that the Democrats in this body realize America wants us to do everything possible to defend our homes, our communities and this Nation, and that is what the President is doing.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, 10 days ago Democratic Senators were calling President Bush weak on national security. Now they are seeking to censure him for being too aggressive in going after terrorists. Well, they can't have it both ways. Congressional Democrats have no serious plan for national security. Maybe that is why they are doing this. They have a plan to use the security issue in their campaigns; they have a plan to try and kill strong anti-terrorism measures, like the PATRIOT Act; but they have no plan for securing our homeland. Instead of supporting the PATRIOT Act, instead of supporting the intelligence community's work to monitor phone calls that could yield information that will save American lives, Senate Democrats are going to push a motion to censure President Bush. If they are pushing this censure in order to distract from the fact they do not have a security plan, it is not working.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, as we come to the floor this morning, there is a common theme. It is all about America's security, from cell phones to ports to reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. Our goal is to keep America secure and put the focus on America's security agenda, our economic security. And tomorrow we will have new numbers out, and we know they are going to be strong for our unemployment rates, for our productivity growth, for new jobs creation. We are looking forward to those announcements. This body continues to focus on the moral security of this great Nation: our retirement security; our energy security; and, yes, our national security. And I congratulate the Members of this body and thank our leadership for reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act this week. Our focus: keep America secure so that future generations have the opportunity to live those big dreams that today they dream.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Madam Speaker, we are going to keep coming down here telling the story of America's economic progress, and it is a great story. This majority is working for America, and one of those ways is we have tremendously low unemployment. This economy has created millions of new jobs, and we are expecting growth this first quarter of somewhere higher than 4 percent. Those numbers are coming out Friday. We are looking forward to it. It is remarkable. It is almost as remarkable how little attention the mainstream media has given to this data, to this great economic news. Madam Speaker, I look forward to supporting legislation to make permanent the Bush tax relief package that has helped drive this growth. And I hope our colleagues across the aisle will start to get the message: higher taxes do not lead to more jobs.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, it's not every day that I get the opportunity to recognize someone who has dedicated so many years of service to our country. It's with thanks and appreciation that I ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing Gordon L. Zeine for his service as a member of the U.S. Navy, and for his work supporting our country's defense efforts in the years that followed. Gordon's 8 years in the Navy and his decades working on technology that has enhanced our security are wonderful achievements--achievements that will have a lasting impact on our country. It's an impressive thing to be able to say your work has made America safer. We're grateful for Gordon and his contributions to America, and we know he has certainly earned his retirement. We'll miss his tremendous knowledge and dedication nonetheless, but we will build on his work. We know his daughter, Tina, who joined the Navy and was the fourth generation to complete boot camp at Great Lakes, Illinois, is already building on her family's record of service. It's because of families like Gordon's that America is strong. Tennessee and America are proud of Gordon and we're thankful for his service. God Bless.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia for yielding and for his leadership and the energy that he is putting into being certain that we communicate the message from our Republican agenda. Thank you for this, and thank you and the freshman class for tackling this project and being certain that we are talking about the things that are happening in our economy and the good news that is there to share. A couple of points that I would like to make tonight as we are talking about the economy and the growth in the economy is Mr. Westmoreland was just talking about leaving more money with American families, with all of our constituents, with their families. That is what one of our goals is, to be certain that we take less from those paychecks, so that the family, when they sit down to work out their budget, they have more that they are working with. I think that it is an absolute travesty that the single largest item in a family's budget is taxes. How did we get to this, that the largest item a family is left with is taxes? More than food, housing, clothing, transportation and education, more than lessons for children. How did we get to the point that it is taxes? How wonderful that we could make decisions in 2003, we had the opportunity to vote to roll back some of those taxes so that we take less. It is time that we end the Federal Government having first right of refusal on your paycheck and let you and your family have that paycheck and make those decisions of what to do with those hard-earned dollars. When we talk about women's issues, all issues are women's issues. Economic issues are definitely women's issues. One of the things that I hear regularly, wherever I am in this great and wonderful land, is that wherever you have the fastest-growing sector of that town, of that county, of that area's economy, most likely it is going to be women-owned small businesses, and I think that is so exciting that that entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. One of the first issues that women will raise with me are taxes, the overburdensome nature of taxes, the cost of compliance for small businesses, how they would love to be growing that business, but with the taxes, with compliance costs, then they have less to spend in growing that business. So as we look at extending our tax reductions, as we look at being certain we do not raise taxes, that they do not go up, that we hold what we have in those tax reductions, it is so important that we realize that that benefits so many American women who are starting those businesses and are realizing the American dream and those gifts and opportunities and prosperities for their themselves and for their families.

Mrs. BLACKBURN

Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing the achievements of 2-time Olympic medalist and 11-time NCAA All-American Rochelle Stevens. A native Memphian, Rochelle has racked up accomplishments both on and off the track. She is a credit to our community, and her determination and commitment to helping others are an inspiration. For the past 15 years, The Rochelle Stevens Foundation has hosted an invitational track meet in Memphis that has funded scholarships and new shoes for athletes across the southeast. Rochelle has made a difference. She has inspired our community by her example and her spirit, and we know our state is a better place for her work. On February 24, 2006, Rochelle was elected to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in Nashville where she represents Memphis well. We wish Rochelle all the best and thank her for giving back so much to our community.