Blake Farenthold

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I come here today about an hour and 20 minutes after we stood on the Capitol steps remembering the victims of the heinous attacks on September 11. Everybody remembers, if they're of age, where they were at that time. I was sitting in my office at One Shoreline Plaza in Corpus Christi. When that second plane hit the Twin Towers, I got a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I remember from when I was told my father died when I was a child. It was a devastating moment. But we cannot let our fear guide us. We've got to be strong, we've got to be vigilant, and we cannot let the terrorists win. Let's take a moment right now until I'm gaveled out of time to remember and pray for those victims and their families and go forward with our life and reflect how we can do what we need to do so the terrorists don't win.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to honor, today, a group of hometown heros from Corpus Christi, Texas, the Corpus Christi Universal Little League team. Universal made it to the Little League World Series this year in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, after they won the Southwest Regional Tournament. These young men showcased their talents on an international stage, defeating teams from Australia and Canada. They received a grand welcome back to Corpus Christi along Shoreline Boulevard with a parade, where my district director, Bob Haueter, presented them with a flag flown over the United States Capitol and a letter of congratulations from me. They are an inspiration to young men and women throughout Texas and America. This summer they saw and demonstrated that hard work pays off. It's a feeling I know they will carry with them for many years to come. Way to go, Universal.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Chairman, I want to address, too, what my colleague from Houston, Texas, just said. I love clean air, clean water, safe working places as much as she does; but we've got a government now that, instead of working with the people and with industry, is working against them. The trust in our government is at an all-time low. Scandal after scandal is plaguing the government. We have got to get people who are accountable in charge of those regulations, not unelected bureaucrats who are writing regulations that only in the history of the Review Act have been overturned one time. Ergonomic furniture was the only time that was able to work. What I want to talk about is the Constitution. The Constitution granted this body--the House of Representatives--and our colleagues across the Capitol, the Senate, the legislative power in this country to write laws and make rules that the American people must abide by. Now, for a variety of reasons, past Congresses have delegated this part. I mean, it makes sense. I don't know how many parts per billion of whatever substance in water is safe and what isn't. I don't know how many feet high a barrier needs to be to keep our workers safe. We've given this authority to our regulatory agencies. Yet, under this President in particular--and even under past Presidents--these agencies have seized that power and have written more and more burdensome regulations that go beyond the intent of this body. Before we burden the American people with expensive, burdensome and intrusive regulations, the American people have a right to have their elected officials vote on it. This is how we are starting to reclaim some of the power that past Congresses have given away and are bringing it back to where our Founding Fathers rightfully intended-- into the Halls of Congress. This is a rational way to do it. Washington works best under pressure. We give ourselves a deadline. If there is a bad rule that comes up under the REINS Act, we will get to it. We will approve it if it's good, and we will disapprove it if it's bad. That's our job. That's what we were sent here to do and, with our salaries, what we are paid to do.

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Thank you very much. Mr. Chairman, I just want to wrap up by saying that this really is a problem. Elected officials are not making the rules. There is no accountability, and it's going to be hard for us to do it. This is the first step in bringing the power back to the people and to their elected Representatives. The REINS Act is a commonsense way to hold government accountable and to start to rebuild that trust that the American people have lost in Washington, D.C. That is what is good for America, and I urge my colleagues to support the REINS Act.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the ranking member's support of this bill. This is not an anti-travel, anti-conference bill. This is a commonsense transparency and good government bill. It was designed to stop wasteful spending. You hear a lot of talk here around Washington, D.C., about we've got to stop the waste, fraud, and abuse. Well, we are doing that here today with H.R. 313. What we are doing is saying if there is a government conference, it needs to be for government purposes and real work needs to be done. We are not asking the taxpayers to foot the bill for a vacation for Federal employees. We don't need clowns, we don't need mind readers, we don't need a Star Trek video, we don't need pictures of agency representatives in a bathtub with a glass of wine. We need Federal employees conducting Federal business and doing what the taxpayers are paying them to do. Many of these conferences are great opportunities for training, great opportunities in the scientific community to move forward with advancements. But what we've got to do is make sure taxpayers' money is not wasted, that it is spent wisely. We need a culture in this government where Federal employees, each and every one of them, know it is not their money they're spending; it's the hardworking American taxpayers' money that they are spending. That's what we are doing here today. We are putting limits on the amount that can be spent. In certain cases, you can go over these limits, but we need to have someone held accountable for these conferences. So when you get into the big-dollar amounts, an agency head, somebody who is politically accountable, has to sign off for it, somebody who actually is thinking all the time about what is the public going to think about this. This is a great solution we've crafted in a bipartisan manner that doesn't end conferences, but promotes responsible conferences. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 313.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I'm troubled by the assertion that we don't treat our Federal employees right because we're asking them to do their job correctly and give their employers--we, the people, we, the taxpayers--the authority to make sure they're doing their job right when they call us by recording it, by giving us as taxpayers and as citizens the opportunity to avoid a he says-she says when a Federal agency, who has the power to fine us and get us through all kinds of trouble, calls us. We want to keep our evidence and we want to know. The gentleman on the other side of the aisle talks about not treating the employees the same as the private sector. There are very few large companies I don't call that the first thing I hear is: ``This call is going to be recorded for quality assurance purposes.'' Well, we're giving the employers of the Federal employees--the taxpayers--the power to record those calls for quality assurance purposes. Federal employees who are doing their job right, who are not intimidating taxpayers, have nothing to hide. We don't want to record their private conversations on their cell phones. We don't even want to get that metadata. We just want to record what the Federal employee is saying to us in the course and scope of his employ at our tax dollars' expense.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment, which does away with painful furloughs and which, in very many cases, may have been political in nature. I represent the Corpus Christi Army Depot at which civilian employees are actually Working Capital Fund employees. They are not funded by appropriations but are funded by the work that they do and are equally subjected to this when, in fact, they could be saving the government money by rebuilding helicopters for less cost than that of the original equipment manufacturers. We need to relieve all Federal employees from this burden, which, in my opinion, is politically motivated, and this is a good way to do it-- through this amendment.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because Americans deserve better. We deserve the American Dream that our parents and grandparents lived. We deserve a government that wants to help us succeed with a fair chance and a level playing field for everyone. We deserve a government that doesn't stifle innovation and success with crushing regulations. We need a government that doesn't decide who lives and who dies with a massive Federal health care bureaucracy. We deserve a government that is fair and honest and doesn't spy on us. We deserve a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, not one that targets people based on their political beliefs and snoops through our phone records and emails and is too big and powerful to be held accountable. Americans want a strong economy so they can have better lives for themselves and better lives for their families. My Republican colleagues and I will continue to push for solutions that strengthen economic growth, protect the freedoms and liberties that our forefathers fought for and those unalienable rights with which we are endowed by our Creator--life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. I recently met up with some future leaders of the district I represent who are members of the Flour Bluff High School Navy Junior ROTC. They won first place this year at the Texas State NJROTC competition and then went on to win the All Service Grand National Championship in Daytona, Florida. Before they won nationals, I went to their school to congratulate them on their regional win. I wished them good luck on their upcoming national competition. Their skill panned out, and they won. They said the other teams were really strong; but, once again, they won a national championship. This outstanding group of young men and women, led by Commander Armando Solis, who started the NJROTC unit at Flour Bluff High School in 1993, is a group of winners. At nationals, aside from the Grand National Championship, they won first place in armed dual demilitarized, armed commander, demilitarized inspection, and second place in unarmed guard. Congratulations to the young men and women of the NJROTC at Flour Bluff High School.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, last Thursday, May 9, 2013, a Taiwanese fishing vessel, the Guang Da Xing No. 28, was fired upon by a Philippine government vessel in waters 164 nautical miles southeast of Eluanbi, the southernmost part of Taiwan in waters considered by both Taiwan and the Philippines to be within Taiwan's 200 nautical-mile- from-shore Exclusive Economic Zone. The Taiwanese fishing boat was severely damaged and suffered engine failure, causing it to float adrift. Crew member Hong Shi-cheng, a Taiwanese national, was shot and killed. The Philippine government vessel sailed away without offering any assistance. A government vessel's shooting of an unarmed fishing boat is an act of violence, and is in violation of international law. Therefore, we call upon the Philippines to promptly and sincerely respond to the requests of the Taiwan government to apologize, punish the perpetrators, and provide proper compensation to the victim's family based on humanitarian grounds. It is imperative that these two close and longstanding allies of the United States work together for an immediate and peaceful resolution of this incident. The circumstances that have given rise to such an incident must be addressed so as to guarantee as much as possible that such an incident will never happen again. Ultimately, this means the negotiation of an agreement or treaty on marine fishing between Manila and Taipei. During this difficult time, we express our condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Hong.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of rhetoric today that sequestration is the problem. I would like to remind you that sequestration, that President Obama proposed, was the only solution we could agree on to the real problem: the fact that this government is spending close to $1.50 for every $1 that it brings in. That being said, sequestration came into effect, and we're now having to deal with it. It was our intent all along to find cuts. We couldn't get agreement from the other side to find the cuts. And now, even though sequestration is painful, it is working. We see in this bill that we're able to take the FAA, get the cuts that need to be made to their budget made without affecting flight delays and without furloughing people. It is my contention that this can happen all through the government and throughout all agencies. If these agencies and the President had come back to this Congress saying, ``We can do these cuts this way; let us do it,'' I imagine almost every one of those would have passed on unanimous consent. They certainly probably would have passed on suspension like this one. I urge my colleagues to take this first step to solve the problem with the FAA, and I look forward to working with other government agencies in the Obama administration to find the cuts we need and to spare the American people the pain that's intentionally being inflicted because some people don't want to cut a dime out of the American budget. You know, the American people know instinctively there's waste, fraud, and abuse in this government and that there are savings to be had. And we're going to find it, and we're going to try to do it in the best possible way.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Thank you very much. As I was listening to the gentlelady from South Dakota (Mrs. Noem), her stories about growing up around firearms and the quality time that she spent with her grandmother learning marksmanship and learning gun safety and learning about life in the outdoors really struck home with me. I remember growing up with my grandfather, driving around the ranch learning to shoot a .22, moving up and learning how to shoot a shotgun and learning how to do so safely. In Texas, gun control is hitting what you aim at, and that's part of growing up, with an understanding of firearm safety and marksmanship. It's part of many American's lives, just like it was a part of my life. I got a lot of letters as the debate about gun control was going through the Senate, as well, urging me to continue to stand up for the Second Amendment rights that our Founding Fathers realized was so important--the right to bear arms; the right that those in the Revolutionary War fought for. One of the letters came just this week from a student and a Boy Scout named Caleb. He said: Dear Representative Farenthold: I wanted to thank you for your beliefs on gun control in our State. I believe that we all have a right to bear arms and protect ourselves if we are in harm. And that really kind of sums up the feeling of a lot of folks in Texas and a lot of the farmers and ranchers that I represent. As Representative Noem was talking about, spending time shooting with her children, one of the things that I look back on in raising my daughters--they are now in college--and you look back and think, well, what should I have done? I should have spent more time outside with them. I should have spent more time passing on some of the things that I've learned. But there's still an opportunity. Morgan, my 24-year-old daughter, came to me just a couple of weekends ago when I was back home in Corpus Christi and said, ``Dad, can we take a concealed-carry class together this summer?'' So that's on the agenda for when I'm back in Texas is passing on the tradition of the safe and responsible use of firearms in my family. I'm looking forward to spending time with her in that concealed-carry class, and I hope it instills in her the same passion that I have for the sport of shooting. If this plays out well, we're going to spend time on the skeet range; we're going to spend some time out hunting. It's something that I'm really looking forward to. It's an important part of America. It's an important part of folks' family lives. The Second Amendment has got to be protected, and the traditions of safe firearms use in this country needs to continue for a myriad of reasons--just more reasons than I can list. I see you've got quite a few other people here who want to talk about their experiences with the Second Amendment and their beliefs, so I'm not going to eat up all the time. Thank you.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Madam Speaker, I rise today to point out that affordable American-made energy is the key to economic growth, economic development, and bringing this country out of the grips of the tough economic types that we're in. I'm blessed to represent south Texas. The district I represent covers some land that's part of the Eagle Ford Shale. There's a big oil and gas play going on there. You know, it's not just the oilmen that are doing well. It's the restaurateurs that are doing well. I've never seen so many brand-new white pickup trucks. Some of this Texas oil and gas money is helping out the folks in Detroit: General Motors, Dodge, Ford. Some of these guys are even buying the Toyota trucks made in San Antonio, Texas. It's an economic boom where we're actually struggling to find people to work. You can go to work in a fast-food restaurant for $15 because they're competing with the oil and gas industry. And you know what else is happening? The low-cost natural gas that's abundantly available, they're saying 100 years' supply in Texas is creating new factories for manufacturing. In Corpus Christi alone, we've got two different steel mills coming in and using that gas to fire their plant. We're looking at a new plastics facility coming in. And numerous other industries throughout the entire Texas coast, and even further inland, are realizing that affordable, American-made energy makes the United States competitive again. Even with the higher wages that we pay our employees in countries like China, with our low- cost energy, we can beat that. Natural gas in the United States, especially in south Texas, we're in the $4 range. If you were to buy that same natural gas and have it in Japan, it's $18. We've got a huge opportunity here. We've got a huge economic advantage. House Republicans, myself included, we support an all-of-the-above energy, and the technology is going to come. We're going to get the technology for wind. We're going to get the technology for solar. We're going to get the storage technology in batteries. All that stuff Chairman Smith was talking about that's going on with the Department of Energy and the Science and Technology Committee, those technologies are coming. But as we've seen with things like Solyndra and the tax credit that goes to wind farms, they're not economical today. We have low-cost fossil fuel that will bridge us until those technologies are ready for prime time and ready to go. We need to take advantage of it. We need to open up the infrastructure with things like the Keystone pipeline. We need to open up Federal land so we can charge a royalty to the oil and gas companies for producing that on Federal land. That will bring money into the Federal budget that we could use for a wide variety of things: lowering the deficit, repairing our decaying infrastructure needs. We need to be a country of ``yes'' to all-of-the-above energy, and it will solve our economic crisis, and we will have a better life for every single American.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that I may hereafter be considered to be the first sponsor of H.R. 313, a bill originally introduced by Mrs. Emerson of Missouri, for the purposes of adding cosponsors and requesting printings pursuant to clause 7 of rule XII.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I was sitting in the back of the House, listening to some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and I just had to rise to answer some of the things that they just said. The gentlewoman from Texas was talking about sequester and the effect that it would have on children. I'd like to remind the gentlewoman from Texas that the effect that the millions--or billions and trillions--of dollars of debt we are leaving on the backs of our children is going to have an equally negative effect. This sequester--we are accused of not doing anything on this side. We have passed two bills out of this House doing away with the sequester, but they have not been acted on by the President or the Senate. We have done our job. The President has asked for a balanced approach. He got his increase in revenue; it's now time to come up with some cuts. Sequester isn't the way to do it, but we cannot give up on getting rid of wasteful spending here in Washington.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Thank you, Congressman Poe. I'm honored today to stand up here to honor the bravery and commitment that Congressman Sam Johnson has shown his country. Sam lived through an experience that would bring even the toughest soldier to his knees. He was in the Air Force for 29 years and was a prisoner of war for 7 after his F4 plane was gunned down in North Vietnam. Now today, 40 years after he was released from captivity, we celebrate his freedom. He was beaten and tortured and kept in a small cell; yet he refused to give up or disclose any information to the enemy. The sacrifice and peril that Sam went through is on the heart of every young man or woman who commits himself to serve the Armed Forces. Sam and his family just suffered a tragic personal loss. I have no notes here; you can read about Sam and his accomplishments and his heroics on the Internet. Or better yet, buy the book. I want to talk for a minute about my experience in the slightly over 2 years that I have been in the House serving with Sam. There is nobody that has the respect of this Congress the way Sam Johnson does. I don't know a single person on either side of the aisle that doesn't appreciate Sam's service and sacrifice and hold him in the highest esteem. And that's saying something, when we're serving in a body that's constantly bickering, that has an 8 percent approval rating. But if all of us who serve were half the man that Sam Johnson is, we would have a 100 percent approval rating here in Congress. I'm honored to serve with Sam. I thank him for his service, though that seems just too little for what he has done and given up for this country. But I'm proud to call him a friend. God bless you, Sam. God bless Texas, and God bless the U.S.A.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Thank you very much. It's my pleasure to be up here even though it is a very solemn occasion. I didn't have the honor or privilege of knowing Chief Chris Kyle, but as I've heard my fellow Texans speak of him and as many Americans have gotten to know him through his book, it's just a true testament to the American soldier and to the traditions of our military that Chris, after heroic and valiant service to our country, came back, and instead of just fading, he continued to help his fellow servicemen. The tragedy associated with his death, one of helping another, is heart-wrenching, but it does call to mind that the greatest traditions and values of America are manifested through our service. He was doing just that when he was killed by a fellow veteran he was trying to help. We in this country and in Congress have worked hard to provide health care, including mental health care, for our veterans. We are growing and expanding that service through the VA now. Just last week, I toured a new VA facility in my hometown of Corpus Christi. It has a large area devoted just to treating some of the psychological problems that many of our veterans come home with after experiencing the horrors of war. It's something that we need to continue to do as a country, and it's something that we need to continue to do as Americans. Though the result of Chief Kyle's help was tragic, it doesn't diminish our responsibility and our duty to help our fellow Americans, especially our heroes who are suffering, and we can do that in a wide variety of ways. We're doing it, obviously, in Congress in the way Congress does things--we're enacting laws; we're appropriating money; we're doing programs--but helping on a very personal level is something that we need to continue to do, and that is a legacy of Chief Kyle's. I was reading a Dallas Morning News article this morning about the kind of funeral that he received. There were 200 Patriot Guard Riders accompanying the funeral procession from the memorial service that was held at Cowboy Stadium in Dallas, Texas, to his burial in a place of honor--in the Texas State Cemetery, right in the center of the cemetery. This is just indicative of how we as Texans and how we as Americans feel about our servicemen. They deserve our honor and respect, and I'm proud that Texas and America have turned out for Chris Kyle. I want to add my and my family's prayers to those of the rest of this Congress for Chris' wife and their children and for the entire Kyle family. We as a Nation have a profound sense of gratitude for our servicemen and -women, both active and retired, and it's our responsibility to care for them when they return home.

Mr. FARENTHOLD

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

Mr. FARENTHOLD

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (S. 2170) to amend the provisions of title 5, United States Code, which are commonly referred to as the ``Hatch Act'', to scale back the provision forbidding certain State and local employees from seeking elective office, clarify the application of certain provisions to the District of Columbia, and modify the penalties which may be imposed for certain violations under subchapter III of chapter 73 of that title.

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The adoption today of S. 2170 will mark an important step in the Oversight and Government Reform Committee's long-term effort to modernize the Hatch Act. At its best, the Hatch Act keeps partisan politics out of the workplace and prevents those in political power from abusing their authority to advance partisan political causes. At its worst, however, the Hatch Act causes the Federal Government to unnecessarily interfere with the rights of well-qualified candidates to run for local office. S. 2170 addresses these flaws by easing restrictions on State and local government employees and on employees of the District of Columbia Government who are covered by the Hatch Act. The bill also provides a greater range of penalties, in addition to termination, for those Federal employees who violate the law. S. 2170 will allow more individuals the right to run for public office without violating the Hatch Act. Under current law, State and local government employees may not run for partisan office if their jobs are connected to Federal funding. For example, in Pennsylvania, a K-9 officer was not allowed to run for a local school board because his partner, a black Labrador, was tied to funding from the Department of Homeland Security. In another case, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel advised an ambulance driver that he would violate the Hatch Act if he ran for county coroner because some of the patients he transported received Medicaid. In enforcing the Hatch Act, the Office of Special Counsel routinely advises deputy sheriffs they are ineligible to run for sheriff, and the number of local law enforcement Hatch Act cases has dramatically increased with the influx of Federal dollars to local police departments as a result of the attacks on September 11, 2001. The best candidates for local law enforcement and other positions are often disqualified from participating in local elections. The concern is especially acute in rural areas, where the pool of candidates for elective office is limited by the population. Congressman Latta has led the way in championing Hatch Act reform for State and local sheriffs. The National Sheriffs Association has noted that the current law ``severely limits the number of qualified candidates for sheriff.'' The OSC is required by law to intervene in State and local contests hundreds of times a year through formal investigations. The OSC also issues thousands of advisory opinions annually to potential State and local candidates. Approximately 45 percent of the OSC's overall Hatch Act case load, including more than 500 investigations over the past 2 years, involves State and local campaign cases. These cases do not involve any allegations of coercive or abusive political conduct. Investigating hundreds of State and local campaigns annually is a poor use of the OSC's limited budget, and it creates a burden on States and localities that must respond to these investigations. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel should be spending its limited resources on investigations of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government. It should not be spent interfering with State and local elections and disqualifying qualified candidates from seeking elective office. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, at this time I'd like to yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, Mr. Chaffetz of Utah, a member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers at this time, and continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. FARENTHOLD. Mr. Speaker, I'd like to take this one final opportunity to urge my colleagues to support the Hatch Act Modernization Act of 2012. We've heard from speakers on both sides of the aisle indicating some of the absurd results that we have seen as a result of this act, none more glaring than the officer whose canine partner, a Labrador named Haynes, was prohibited from running for office. With that, and all the other examples, I think it's clear we need to support passage of S. 2170. I see the chairman has asked for some time. If my colleague on the other side of the aisle doesn't object, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the chairman, Mr. Issa.