Virginia Foxx

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Would the gentleman yield for just a moment?

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. A few days ago, the Labor Department released its monthly unemployment report. It was another month of bad news for unemployed Americans looking for work. In September, we lost 263,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rose to 9.8, a 26-year high. And, according to the Labor Department, the number of unemployed people now stands at 15.1 million. This is an American tragedy. There are millions of breadwinners desperate for an opportunity to get back to work. But for far too many, these opportunities seem inaccessible. And Washington doesn't seem to get it. Instead, it's business as usual here in Washington. Borrow and spend is Washington's prescription for our ailing economy. But Americans know that we cannot borrow and spend our way into prosperity. We've tried that already--and it didn't work. Nevertheless, my Democrat colleagues insisted that passing a stimulus bill that borrowed another trillion dollars would create jobs ``immediately'' and unemployment would not rise above 8 percent. The facts tell another, more discouraging story. More than 2.7 million jobs have been lost since the so-called stimulus was signed by President Obama. And the Labor Department keeps churning out these gloomy monthly unemployment reports. Today, there are about 12 million workers who would like to work full time but can't find a full-time job. U.S. auto sales plummeted in September and factory orders tumbled by the largest amount in 5 months. The American people know that a true economic recovery starts with tax relief for American families and small businesses and fiscal discipline in Washington. After all, if American families have to buckle down and trim their budgets, Washington should, too. We can't keep running $1.5 trillion deficits and expect economic growth as a result. House Republicans agree with the American people. Washington needs to rein in the runaway spending. For example, this week Congress is poised to pass an agriculture spending bill which includes a 14 percent increase in discretionary spending. There's plenty of good to be said about some of the spending in this bill, but its unrestrained increase in spending is emblematic of Washington's intractable, profligate habits. We can find a way to live within our means and create real incentives for employers to create jobs and get people back to work. How about using what remains of the stimulus money to create a jobs tax credit for employers who take risks and put Americans back to work? Such a tax credit could spur new job creation and help reinvigorate our battered economy. Plus, it keeps taxpayer money out of wasteful government programs and politicians' pet projects. Until we start to consider such real solutions to our jobs deficit, I will continue to oppose the Democrats' job-killing tax-and-spend policies and support real solutions to get the American people back to work.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, today I had the privilege to meet Darren Zhu, an exceptional student from North Carolina's Fifth Congressional District who is a freshman at Yale University. Darren is in Washington today to receive a prestigious scholarship from the Davidson Institute for Talent and Development. At the age of 17, he has already made impressive contributions to his community and in the fields of science and math. Darren is a resident of Winston-Salem and a 2009 graduate of the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, where he pursued his interests and developed his skills in math and science. After meeting him today, I understand why he was honored as a Davidson Fellow by the institute. The project that helped him win this scholarship award struck me as the sort of work you would find graduate students doing. In his research, he worked to develop more efficient data storage technology by exploring nanofabrication methods for spintronics, which are a type of powerful electronics. I'm told that his work has applications in the nanotech industry, especially in the field of nanolithography. The scholarship he won comes from the Davidson Institute. I would be remiss if I didn't highlight their program, the Davidson Fellows program that recognizes the accomplishment of gifted students like Darren. The Davidson Institute seeks to nurture and support extremely gifted young people through its many programs and scholarships. The Davidson Fellow Scholarship that Darren received recognizes students under the age of 18 for making significant contributions to society in either science, technology, mathematics, music, literature, philosophy, or any other graduate-level work considered outside the box. Since 2001, the institute has awarded $3.1 million in scholarships to 127 students. The institute also runs a public school in Nevada for profoundly gifted middle and high school students. In addition, the institute provides a wealth of resources for teachers and parents of highly gifted students. This organization is to be commended for its strong commitment to helping our Nation steward one of our most precious resources, our young people. I congratulate Darren Zhu for the amazing work that helped him win this important scholarship from the Davidson Institute. I look forward to hearing how he continues to develop his gifts as he pursues his college education.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, yesterday The Washington Post published an editorial about recent rumblings at the Federal Communications Commission. It seems that the FCC Chairman is concerned about ``breaks and cracks'' in the Internet that pose a threat to openness. His prescription for these apparent fissures: the heavy hand of the Federal Government. As a result, the FCC appears ready to hand down new regulations that will hinder Internet Service Providers' ability to manage their own networks. The rules would essentially regulate how ISPs manage network traffic. But this seems more like a solution in search of a problem. Or rather it's a solution that will create a problem by hamstringing network operators' ability to manage network congestion. The Post is right to question the FCC's proposal. Such overregulation will only hamper additional investment by Internet providers, which could negatively affect rural areas like much of the district I represent.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Next month, Alleghany County, a beautiful rural mountain county in northwest North Carolina, which I represent, will celebrate Bob Doughton Day and mark the beginning of the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Congressman Bob Doughton was an Alleghany County native from the town of Laurel Springs, who is fondly remembered for the instrumental role he played in the passage of Social Security and the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Congressman Doughton, who was sometimes known as ``Farmer Bob,'' served in the House of Representatives for 42 consecutive years, from 1911-1953. According to his congressional biography, Congressman Doughton was educated in the public schools of Laurel Springs and Sparta in Alleghany County. He began his career as a very successful Alleghany County farmer known for raising excellent cattle. He also worked as a banker and was the owner and president of the Deposit Savings and Loan Bank of North Wilkesboro until 1936. He launched his political career as a member of the State Board of Agriculture from 1903 to 1909. He was later elected to the North Carolina State Senate in 1908 and in 1909, and was finally elected as a Democrat to the 62nd Congress in 1910. For 6 years he chaired the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of Agriculture and then later he rose through the ranks to chair the powerful Ways and Means Committee for nine terms. He also served as chairman for the Joint Committee on Internal Revenue Taxation for two terms. He retired from Congress in 1952, and died about 2 years later at the age of 90, on October 1, 1954, in his hometown of Laurel Springs. He had a remarkable congressional career, chairing the Ways and Means Committee for 18 years through some of the must tumultuous years of the 20th century. In his final year in Congress he became the longest serving Member of the House, preceding Congressman Sam Rayburn as what is known as the dean of the House, in 1952. As we mark the 75th anniversary of the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is the most visited park of the National Park System, it is very appropriate today to stop and remember this influential North Carolina lawmaker whose vision helped create this beautiful scenic highway.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Correct. The Medicare Advantage Program. The Humana organization sent a letter out to the people who participate in that program, saying, We want you to be aware of what's happening in this health care debate. We'd like you to send back a card so we can send you information about what's happening. We do want you to know that the current bill under consideration--they don't name H.R. 3200, but we assume that is the bill they were talking about--will be cutting funding for this program. Well, that is absolutely true. Anyone who reads that bill will see that it's true.

Ms. FOXX. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I wanted to speak to what you started out talking about tonight, along with this comment. What are we to believe on all of these issues? There are lots of numbers being thrown around, lots of comments being made. First of all, let me give a statistic that I know of. Eighty-nine percent of those people that you talk about are happy with their health insurance.

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I would like to enter into the record of this discussion tonight the letter from Humana to its enrollees, the letter from CMS, and the CMS press release that was sent out related to that.

Ms. FOXX. Jobs lost, and that they believe that people in the Department of Education are going to absorb the program into the Department without adding any personnel. Now, that is beyond belief for anybody in this country I believe, to think that you add responsibilities to people who work in the Federal Government and they are not going to ask for additional personnel.

Ms. FOXX. It also is beyond credible when we know that there are 30,000 to 40,000 people in the private sector servicing the existing loans. It is incomprehensible to me.

Ms. FOXX. The complete takeover is not going to cost a dime.

Ms. FOXX. We have an estimate that between 30,000 and 40,000 jobs in the private sector will be lost as a result of that education bill, and that, again, makes the statement that Mr. Miller from California made so astounding, because it is like the statement that President Obama has made about the health care bill. Mr. Miller said this will not cost the citizens of this country one single dime.

Ms. FOXX. It will work that way if the Senate passes that bill, despite the fact that we kept saying over and over and over again, Department of Education has no business becoming a bank, and that's basically what they are doing.

Ms. FOXX. That's right, put more money into it. So what happened was only about 22 percent of the people getting loans were getting them from the Direct Loan Program. Actually, that is a higher percentage than it had been over the years. The other 78 percent were getting their money from banks, and then the money was guaranteed by the Federal Government. What Chairman Miller's bill did was say we are eliminating the private sector.

Ms. FOXX. Yes.

Ms. FOXX. I will give you a very brief synopsis of it. I handled the rule on the floor last week, so I was familiar with the bill. The Democrats have been trying to do this for a long time. We have had in the Federal Government two ways for students to be able to borrow money to go to college. One was called the Direct Loan Program. They would go directly to the Department of Education and borrow money, pay it back over a period of time. The second was something called the FFEL, and I can't remember exactly what those letters stand for, but students could borrow money from banks but the Federal Government would guarantee those loans. Back in the sixties when the Direct Loan Program was begun, right after it started, actually, it ran out of money and ran into all kinds of problems. Congress had to bail it out. That was long before my time, but it has constantly had problems.

Ms. FOXX. I wanted to see if you would help me with my memory on that. My memory is that when President Bush left office and President Obama came in, that the deficit was $259 billion, too big a deficit, but only $259 billion, compared to the $1 trillion which occurred almost immediately because of the stimulus package. The stimulus package created the $1 trillion deficit; is that your memory?

Ms. FOXX. If the gentleman would yield, I think another point that needs to be made is that the President has said on many occasions that when he took office he inherited a $1 trillion deficit.

Ms. FOXX. He said on the floor that we would go from the government having 22 percent of student loans, only 22 percent, to having all of them, and it wouldn't cost the government a dime. My point is these people keep promising programs and expanding programs and nothing is going to cost anything.

Ms. FOXX. Thank you very much, Congressman Akin, for leading this hour tonight and for all of the leadership that you have given, particularly this session, on bringing to the attention of the American public some of the things that need to be brought to their attention. I think you are certainly on the right track in talking about the fact that it is impossible to do what the President and Speaker Pelosi have been saying about expanding health care coverage, government-run health care coverage, to other people without it costing another dime. It reminds me of Congressman Miller saying last week, on another issue that I think you want to talk about in a little bit, on the government taking over the student loan program.

Ms. FOXX. Right. The ones who have health care coverage. But the point I wanted to make tonight is something that has just been coming out in the last day or two about what's happening in terms of informing the American public about what----

Ms. FOXX. That is absolutely true.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. I rise today to urge my colleagues to vote against the rule for the bill H.R. 324, the Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Act, a bill that has already failed when it was offered under suspension earlier this month. It disappoints me to have to come here and urge opposition to this rule for a bill offered by my colleague Congressman Grijalva. However, there are many reasons to oppose this bill coming to the floor. The bill failed by a vote of 249-145 just 2 weeks ago. It is a waste of our constituents' time to bring this bill forward again under a rule and take up legislative time to debate something that has already been voted down, especially since the bill did not go through the committee. I also learned yesterday in the Rules Committee that this bill was a part of S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, but it was taken out by the Senate, which is not a good omen for the bill when it goes to the Senate. When I was in North Carolina over the August recess, my constituents expressed many concerns with Congress in what's going on in Washington. The Democrats in charge are not allowing us to accomplish the work that our constituents elected us to do. Instead, this Congress is borrowing and spending money that we do not have at a rate our country has never seen. While our constituents at home are tightening their belts and struggling to find ways to put food on their kitchen tables, Congress is blindly writing checks for unnecessary measures that do nothing but increase the size of the Federal Government and put our country in debt to foreign nations. This bill authorizes another $15 million in taxpayer dollars to seize 3,325 square miles of land for control by the Federal Government, some of which is private property. The designation in this bill could lead to restrictive Federal zoning and land use planning that usurps private property rights and blocks necessary energy development. National Heritage Areas are comprised of both public and private lands and are administered by a central managing entity, which includes the Federal Government and Federal funds. The managing entity has the power to regulate zoning and place other restrictions across local government jurisdictions. This means Federal management plans can restrict our residential and commercial property owners to make use of their private property without any notice or warning. The National Park Service currently has billions of dollars in maintenance backlogs. Earlier this year, Congress passed S. 22, the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009. It created 10 new National Heritage Areas at a cost of $103.5 million. The Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area Act locks up even more land, infringes on more private property rights, and spends more taxpayer dollars to add yet another heritage area to a system already overburdened. Furthermore, the proposed 3,325-square-mile heritage area in Arizona is located in the most heavily trafficked drug and human trafficking area along the U.S. border. The U.S. Border Patrol already experiences major difficulties and obstacles patrolling Federal lands. Designating this heritage area along the border would add even more complications to their ability to prevent illegal drug trafficking and crossings. Creating more obstacles for the U.S. Border Patrol is detrimental to our ability to get illegal immigration and drug trafficking under control and represents irresponsible governing. Mr. Speaker, the U.S. national debt stands at $11.8 trillion and counting. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has predicted that huge deficits under the Obama administration's annual budget would force our Nation to borrow nearly $9.3 trillion over the next decade. This year's deficit alone is expected to soar past $1.8 trillion. We borrow 50 cents for every dollar we spend. The time to rein in Federal spending is long overdue. Voting down this rule will take one small step in harnessing the Federal Government's spending as well as the Federal Government's increasing control of private land. This Pelosi- controlled Congress seems intent on putting the government in control of every aspect of our lives--education, health care and private property. Again, Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule and on the bill. Having no further speakers, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. FOXX

Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, it's clear from town hall meetings held across the country that the American people are rejecting the Democrat plan for a government takeover of health care. The President and Democrats in Congress need to start over on their health care plan. House Republicans have a plan for reform that expands access to affordable health care and gives families the freedom to choose the health care that fits their needs. It's time for the President and Democrats in Congress to begin working with Republicans on real solutions to the challenges our country faces, including health care reform. According to economic modeling by the President's own chief economic adviser, the business tax increases alone will destroy up to 5.5 million jobs. An independent analysis by the nonpartisan Lewin Group found that as many as 114 million Americans could lose their current health insurance. The Democrats' health care plan also includes harmful cuts to Medicare Advantage, and according to the Congressional Budget Office, will raise seniors' Medicare prescription drug premiums by 20 percent over the next decade. Despite claims that reform will reduce health care costs, the Congressional Budget Office has said the Democrats' health care plan will actually increase government spending and increase our national debt. The last thing we need is a government takeover of health care.