Charles Boustany

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I am now pleased to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts).

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 66) approving the renewal of import restrictions contained in the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act of 2003, as amended.

Mr. BOUSTANY. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. BOUSTANY. I am in full agreement. We need to move and pass this, and I think we'll get it passed. I must say to the gentleman from Washington, at least we have a trade bill on the floor. I hope there are many more to come. We're waiting for the President to send the three pending agreements to us so that we can move forward on these and embark on a very aggressive trade agenda.

Mr. BOUSTANY. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we had a very vigorous debate about the unsustainable debt that our country is facing, and we passed a bill, the Cut, Cap, and Balance bill. That bill is really the only one that's been on the table, House or Senate, so far. So we asked in the Senate, where's their proposal? We asked the White House, give us a proposal that the Congressional Budget Office can actually give us a score on, on how we're going to do this. We need legislative language to move forward on these things. We can't just base things on speeches, as has been said yesterday. Mr. Speaker, I believe this country is at a very pivotal point in its history. There's no question about it. We're at a pivotal point. We can decide, is the United States going to lead in the 21st century as it did in the 20th century and in the 19th century, or will we be swallowed in a sea of red ink, high unemployment and very sluggish growth? That is the basic fundamental problem we're faced with today. It's within our power in Congress to make policy decisions that will change this equation for the good or the bad for the American people. We have decisions to make, tough decisions. And it's time. It's time to make those decisions. Now yesterday we debated the unsustainable debt problem that this country is facing, a situation that is going to swallow up savings for every single American, currently, $46,000 for every man, woman, and child in this country; and it's rising. And that doesn't count the unfunded liabilities. So the debt is clearly a problem, and we have to set the country on a sustainable path with a credible plan to move us forward. But there's another side to the problem that's not being talked about enough, and it's the fact that we are not growing this economy. We are not growing private sector jobs. The previous speaker, my friend from Connecticut, talked about the plight of so many who are without jobs. We have to grow this economy if we're going to create jobs, and that means having a well-thought-out energy strategy for the United States. It means fundamental tax reform to put us on a very competitive footing, whether it's a small business or a large U.S. company, and it also means a very aggressive trade strategy for the United States. Now I want to talk about trade for a minute because it really does not get enough discussion here in this body. I got some very encouraging news just last week from the World Trade Center of New Orleans, in my home State. It released some quarterly trade figures. In the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, exports from Louisiana manufacturers and farmers grew by almost 50 percent compared to the previous period last year. This is incredible news because Louisiana is rapidly transforming its economy into a global trading economy that helps our farmers, helps our manufacturers. We sell to the world. We create private sector jobs that pay better than the average jobs around the United States. One out of five jobs in Louisiana is related to international trade where we export. This is critical. If we're going to grow this country and grow private sector jobs, we need a trade strategy in place to do this, to help it, to open markets overseas for our farmers, our manufacturers, our small businesses. We're seeing rapid growth in Asia and South America right now, all based on trade. Hundreds of trade agreements have been basically voted upon in these countries and implemented. Regional trade agreements. Here in the United States, it's been 4 years, and no activity. We have three pending agreements right now: Panama, Colombia, and South Korea. These will basically open markets in countries that are already having pretty much unfettered access into our market. These will create, by the President's own estimate, 250,000 jobs in this country. Those are direct jobs in the short term. That doesn't even speak to the number of jobs that will be created going forward. It is critically important that we move forward on this. There will be $13 billion in exports from these three agreements alone, exports. These are American companies, American farmers selling their goods overseas. This will stimulate growth in this economy and job creation. This is why we need to move forward on it. But there are other important aspects to this. These three agreements were negotiated in good faith. And so just like the full faith and credit of the United States is on the line with regard to dealing with our debt problem, our credibility internationally is on the line as to whether we're going to be a leader in this world or we're just going to sit back and shrink and see high unemployment and sluggish job growth and lost opportunities for our children and grandchildren. That's what's at stake with this. These three trade agreements need to be done now. The President could easily send these to Congress, and we can vote on them. That's what we need to do. That's a step forward to restore American competitiveness, to restore American credibility, and to restore American confidence. Come on, Mr. President, lead.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. I thank the gentleman for yielding time to me. Our country is at a pivotal point in its history. Economists would call this an inflection point. But for those of us who are not economists, it's a critical time; it's a pivotal time. We have to decide, are we going to compete in the 21st century and see this country prosper and lead in the 21st century? Or will we sink in a sea of red ink? That's what it's come down to. I think we need to move forward with a bold plan. We haven't seen anything from the President. He hasn't put anything on the table. We're coming forward with a plan that's credible. It lays out a path, a credible path to get us back to fiscal sanity. $46,000 for every man, woman, and child is what the debt stands at today, and that does not include the unfunded liabilities going to the future, which takes us well north of that figure. We have a lot of work to do. It's time for this Congress to get serious about its responsibility, its responsibility to bring fiscal sanity and fiscal balance back. We have a spending problem. There is clearly a spending problem. But if you look at the two fundamental problems facing the country, it's our unsustainable debt, but it's also the lack of economic growth to create private sector jobs. Now if we take the path that our friends want to take, they're going to raise taxes. They're going to raise taxes across the board. And what you're going to see is a worsening economic situation. We're not going to see the kind of job growth--in fact, we very well could go back into a recession with that type of plan. Our plan puts us on a sustainable path. Coupled with tax reform, coupled with an energy strategy which we have, and moving forward with an aggressive export-oriented trade policy, you will see a competitive America; you will see job growth in this country. But we have got to get spending under control. And today is the day we can cast that vote. Today is the day we can decide we're going to restore American competitiveness, we're going to restore American credibility, and we're going to restore American confidence.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, over 14 years in private practice in medicine, I had the great privilege to treat many, many Medicare patients, thousands of Medicare patients. I did open heart surgery, complex open heart surgery, lung cancer surgery, in times of great need, great difficulty for these seniors who had paid many years of their payroll taxes into the Medicare program with the hope and the recognition that this program would be there for them, for their health care needs in their later years. And I'll tell you, in the '90s, when I was in the midst, at the peak of my practice, it was not unusual, and in fact quite often patients would come into the emergency room with a very difficult situation, without a primary care physician because they had not had previous health problems. And then what would happen is we would have to do emergency heart surgery on them, and once they got through all of this and got through the hospital stay, we could not find a primary care physician to take them on, to treat their everyday problems with hypertension, high blood pressure, diabetes, gout and things of that nature. I would get on the phone time and time again and I would call family doctors and internal medicine physicians and plead with them, Why can't you take this one more patient into your practice? And it's because the reimbursement situation for Medicare was so bad even back then in the nineties that if a physician took on too many Medicare patients, they couldn't meet their costs. That situation has gotten much worse today, in 2011. I could tell you that I have grave concerns about the future of the Medicare program and what's going to happen. And I'm not speaking as a Member of Congress, I'm speaking as a physician, as somebody who cared for many, many patients, who valued that doctor-patient relationship. This situation whereby families who have a loved one on Medicare cannot find a primary care doctor, this is a very serious situation today and getting worse by the week. The bottom line is Medicare is in trouble. I saw this as a doctor, and I see it now as a Member of Congress. Just a couple of facts. Over 10,000 baby boomers are reaching retirement age every day, leaving fewer workers to support them. We have an aging population. This is putting tremendous cost pressure on this Medicare program. In fact, the Medicare program, according to the Medicare actuaries, the trust fund that provides the money for the hospital program, is going to be out of money by 2024, and now, in fact, starting last year, more money was being paid out than taken in to support this program. The Medicare actuary predicts that without changes to the current law, something that was basically not looked at when the health care law was passed, in fact, it was assumed that these certain cuts to physicians would occur in the law. In fact, what we know is that without any changes to the law, physician reimbursements will fall from 80 percent of private rates to 57 percent of private rates in 2012. What does that mean? That means that the situation for physician practices will get even worse, whereby they can't even meet the costs of their practice. Therefore, they're going to continue to limit their exposure to taking on new Medicare patients. That means access problems. That means Medicare patients cannot get access to physicians. We need real solutions to this. We need fact-based solutions. We need answers to the problem and not political rhetoric. So far, that's all we've seen, largely coming from the other side and from the White House on this. In fact, we're on a path to see the bankruptcy of this Medicare program if we don't act. Now let's take a step back and look at what happened in the health care bill. This health care bill, which passed without Republican support, cut over $500 billion from this Medicare program to expand coverage into a new entitlement, an extension of the Medicaid program. We're digging a deeper hole for ourselves without a way to pay for this. And now the plan calls for immediate 17 percent cuts in benefits for our current seniors. Current seniors, not people who are going to go on to Medicare in the future. Seniors who depend on this important program today. Another thing that's in this bill, and it's not well-known, is a new bureaucratic entity that was created. There were many that were created in the health care bill, but there's one that really bothers me as a physician. It's called the Independent Payment Advisory Board. Okay. It sounds kind of innocuous, but what does it do? It's a 15-person board arbitrarily chosen that will make life-and-death decisions about what things will be paid for under the Medicare program. Now, what is the recourse in all this? This is an arbitrary decision- making body, and you cannot dispute what this body is going to do. In fact, for Congress to override it, it would take three-fifths of the Senate to override it. This is going to damage the doctor-patient relationship. It's bad for Medicare patients. I could tell you that Republicans have an idea about how we're going to fix this. I can't get into it now, and I'll do it in a subsequent speech.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Maritime International, a company from South Louisiana, for being named winner of the 2011 Lantern Award, District 4. The Lantern Award is presented by Louisiana Economic Development to salute manufacturers from across the state for their outstanding contributions to the Louisiana economy and to their communities. Maritime International is owned by David Leblanc, John Deats and Donald Nassar and provides full service marine engineering and manufacturing. It serves many different clients including the U.S. Navy, oil companies, government agencies and port authorities. Maritime's goal is to offer clients effective and economical solutions for their mooring and berthing needs. Five engineering and sales offices are located in the U.S., China, the U.K., UAE and France. Maritime makes an effort to purchase items from Louisiana vendors and is very involved in the local community. The company provides support to community events and charitable needs including Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, St. Jude, UNICEF and many more. Maritime International has steadily grown and innovated since beginning in 1996 and is continuing to do so with new expansion jobs underway. It goes without saying that Maritime International is very deserving of the honor of being given the 2011 Lantern Award. The staff at Maritime International is innovative and effective in what they do. I wholeheartedly thank Maritime International for their service to Louisiana, and I congratulate the company on this award.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate Max Brake Controllers, a company from Cameron Parish, Louisiana, for being named winner of the 2011 Lantern Award, District 3. The Lantern Award is presented by Louisiana Economic Development to salute manufacturers from across the state for their outstanding contributions to the Louisiana economy and to their communities. Thomas McDaniel, his wife Debbie and company employees created Max Brake Controllers several years ago. McDaniel is also the owner of Mac's Classic Muscle Cars, a supplier of Max Brakes. Because of his experience in this field, McDaniel was able to play a key role in creating the Max Brake technology. Max Brake Company uses Louisiana parts as much as possible, with about half of the components bought locally including brass stock, electrical parts and hardware from local companies. Max Brake Controllers uses a braking system for trucks and big rigs to carry large loads. An electrical display presents hydraulic vehicle brake pressure and helps to control electric trailer brakes. The brake pressure is monitored by a pressure sensor in the vehicle master cylinder. McDaniel is a member of the Cameron Parish Police Jury. He is also an avid supporter of South Cameron High School and a member of the Volunteer Fire Department, Recreation Department and Water District. It goes without saying that Max Brake Controllers is very deserving of the honor of being given the 2011 Lantern Award. McDaniel and the other staff at Max Brake Controllers are innovative and effective in what they do, and I am honored to serve as their member of Congress. I wholeheartedly thank Max Brake Controllers for their service to the Cameron Parish and the state of Louisiana, and I congratulate the company on this award.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to cast my vote on rollcall 376. Had I cast my vote, I would have voted ``yea'' for rollcall 376. I am proud to support the intelligence community, as well as local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies in their efforts to protect our homeland and combat global terrorism.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I was unable to vote cast my vote on rollcall 374 and rollcall 375. Had I cast my vote, I would have voted ``nay'' for rollcall 374 and ``yea'' for rollcall 375. I am proud to support the men and women of the Armed Forces and I appreciate the work of my colleagues to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal year 2012 (H.R. 1540).

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, I have said many times on this floor and in meetings with constituents, this country does not have an energy strategy, and the only thing worse than not having an energy strategy is having bad energy policy. Yet the answer lies right here in our own backyard. We have the resources, but this administration continues to block access. Today we're voting on H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act. It is crucial to restoring our own capabilities to produce energy by moving forward with permit applications in a sensible amount of time. It's deplorable that businesses, like Leed Petroleum in Lafayette, Louisiana, with 22 employees, cannot get back to work and have no options unless we hold these regulators' feet to the fire and force them to do their jobs. These independent producers and service companies, the backbone of American energy production, deserve answers and real solutions. With oil and gas prices skyrocketing, there is no excuse for any delays to offshore energy production. The people of this country are tired of uncertainty. They are tired of dependence on foreign oil, and they're tired of record gas prices. The bottom line is we must begin the path toward a solid energy policy to get Americans back to work. There's no excuse for delay.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, this country has never had an energy strategy. And the only thing worse than not having an energy strategy is having an energy policy that is actually hurting our country, hurting American energy production and American workers, and making us more dependent on foreign oil. That is what the Obama administration is doing right now. Let's review the record. A moratorium on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, hurting American energy production. A budget proposal that offers $50 billion in new taxes on independent, small energy companies working throughout the United States. Also, tax policy that is going to hurt large U.S. companies trying to compete for limited reserves around the world to meet U.S. energy needs. And finally, an attack on horizontal drilling because we have now found large reserves of oil and gas in our shale formations, and this administration is looking to shut all of that down. And then they come forward because the price of oil, the price of oil at $105 a barrel today, they now want to open up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is supposed to be used in severe shortages. That is not an energy policy; that actually hurts our country. It is time to stop these wrong-headed policies that are hurting American energy production and hurting American workers.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Speaker, the time to act on this provision is now. Why? It's very, very simple. It's about jobs. It's about removing an onerous provision, a burdensome provision on small businesses that create jobs. If we wonder why we have a high unemployment rate, it is because of provisions like this. This 1099 provision was bad legislation from day one. The American people have made it clear they want this law repealed. The President thinks it's bad, Democrats think it's bad, Republicans think it's bad, even the Senate thinks it's bad. It has taken long enough to move on this. Let's do it. Let's get it done. Further delay is unacceptable. Look, if we don't repeal this now, businesses are going to assume more expenses. If we repeal it later, we continue to delay this. They will incur expenses that, once it is repealed, they wouldn't have had to incur from the beginning. I am already hearing from many, many Louisiana businesses right now that want to grow, want to hire; and they are worried about this. They are already spending money to prepare for this. That's why we need to take care of it now. We want to create jobs, repeal this provision now and let's move forward. The American people want to see action on this from this Congress, and they want to see it now. It's important now to do it. Americans are growing impatient. Small business owners are growing impatient. I ask that we repeal this provision today. Repeal it now.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. It's ridiculous. And these taxes are indiscriminate; they hit oil companies, those drilling for oil, but also natural gas. And there are many--even our friends on the other side of the aisle will admit that natural gas usage is a very important transition strategy as we look at our energy needs going into the future whether for transportation fuel, electricity generation. Those taxes proposed by the administration will put a lot of these gas companies out of business. And keep in mind, 97 percent of the natural gas used in this country is produced here in this country by these small companies. A given rig will employ 65 people on one rig. So, if a company that has--let's say they have to cut back 50 rigs. Do the math. You're talking 3,000-plus jobs.

Mr. BOUSTANY. That's exactly right.

Mr. BOUSTANY. We have basically shut down our production in the Gulf of Mexico, and it's a boneheaded policy to do that. But not only that, the administration in its budget proposal is now proposing nearly $50 billion in new taxes on small, independent oil- and gas-producing companies. Now that's going to put a lot of these guys out of business; they can't cash flow. And they do a lot of the work on the Continental Shelf in shallow water areas, and also our onshore production in oil and gas. And there's a distinction between oil and gas----

Mr. BOUSTANY. I thank my friend from Missouri for giving me time to speak here. As we talk about American competitiveness and growing jobs, private sector jobs in this country, coming off the heels of this recession where we still have high unemployment, there are two aspects to it: One is cutting back on government spending, as you've already suggested with the pie chart you have there. We have to get our debt under control. This is imperative because it's going to strangle private investment in the form of higher taxes on the American people. But the other side of this is the growth side of the equation, stimulating economic growth. And if you look at how to do that, we want economic growth in the private sector which will help spur job growth. The way we have to do that is we have to look at an energy strategy for the United States because so much of what we do depends on cheap, affordable energy to fuel our plants, our factories, transportation, you name it. So it's critical that we have an energy strategy for the country, which we don't have, and we never have had one. In fact, what you're seeing now, instead of the lack of an energy strategy, we're actually seeing energy proposals that are detrimental to the country that are being proposed by this administration. Let me list what's going on. First of all, the moratorium on drilling for American energy in the Gulf of Mexico has been in place since May. This is killing jobs back home in Louisiana, along the gulf coast, but it's also hurting our energy security in this country. As we lose these jobs--these are highly skilled workers, as they leave this industry and go find other jobs and move, you cannot turn that light switch back on and get that kind of skill back on these platforms. That's number one.

Mr. BOUSTANY. These are private-sector jobs. They're good-paying jobs, and they help promote U.S. energy security. It's critical. So what we have is an administration that is proposing policies counter to what American interests are with regard to our energy security, and I would submit to you it hurts our national security as well. And I'm really worried about the situation in the country of Oman, for instance. It's right across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran. That strait is very narrow. Forty percent of the world's oil crosses through that strait, and if it were to shut down because of unrest in Oman and Iranian mischief, we would see oil prices spike up to $400 a barrel, and we'll pay a lot at the pump. It will hurt our farmers. Rice farmers back home are trying to export rice and grow rice for domestic consumption. It will hurt our chemical manufacturing. And speaking of the natural gas piece----

Mr. BOUSTANY. Well, it is bizarre. And again, Americans want to compete. And we know, if given the opportunity to compete, we can win in the global economy. And we've got to have energy production in this country to allow our companies to compete. Now, let me point out something. One of the biggest areas of exports for the United States is chemicals, petrochemicals and other chemicals, fertilizer, that are produced here, manufactured here in the United States.

Mr. BOUSTANY. Natural gas and petroleum products. And if you shut down our natural gas production, then our companies, which have a price--on a basis of price, we can compete because we have cheap natural gas here in this country compared to around the world. Our companies are competitive.

Mr. BOUSTANY. Yes. We know we have the world's largest reserves in coal. We have potentially the largest reserves in the world in natural gas here in the United States. And some argue that the estimates of oil are vastly underestimated because of two things: one, the shale oil that's available that currently is off limits because of administration policy and environmental policies; and, secondly, on the east coast and west coast, Outer Continental Shelf area, we don't have accurate seismic information. So when they say we only have 3 percent of the world's reserves, that's an inaccurate figure. That's not been thoroughly looked at with modern seismic activity. But our companies that manufacture these chemicals and fertilizer have a competitive advantage because of the low price of natural gas in this country. If we tax it, as this administration is proposing, it will actually make us less competitive. Our exports will go down, and it will be counter to what the President wants to do by expanding exports. It makes no sense whatsoever.

Mr. BOUSTANY

Mr. BOUSTANY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word. Parliamentary Inquiry