Jeb Hensarling

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I rise to enter into a colloquy with my colleague, Mr. Latham, the distinguished chairman of the subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Chairman, I know that you know that our Nation suffers from a spending-driven debt crisis and the only real remedy is to quit spending money that we don't have. But because the President would not work with us to enact meaningful, targeted spending discipline, his sequester has been enacted. Mr. Chairman, we are stewards of the taxpayers' dollars; and with the President's sequester in place, I believe that it's more critical than ever that our Nation's transportation funding be spent wisely, including funding for the FAA's Contract Tower Program because, Mr. Chairman, in Washington, it's not always how much money you spend that counts; it's how you spend the money. I would ask the distinguished chairman to work with me and other Members to ensure that this critical funding is allocated to the facilities that represent the greatest cost benefit to the taxpayer.

Mr. HENSARLING. I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, today I would like to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Lakewood 4th of July Parade. On July 4, 1964, the Lakewood 4th of July Parade consisted of two children riding their bikes down the sidewalk on a block of Lakewood Boulevard. From these humble beginnings, the parade has expanded to become an institution of the Lakewood neighborhood. For the past 50 years, the Lakewood 4th of July Parade has worked hard to promote a sense of community for its residents. While the parade has grown tremendously over the past five decades, it remains true to its purpose of having a parade for the benefit of kids of all ages. The Lakewood 4th of July Parade is truly helping make our community a better place to live. My wife, Melissa, and our two young children enjoy participating in the Lakewood 4th of July Parade. The annual event is important, not just to those who live on the neighboring streets, but to all who come to Lakewood to enjoy the patriotic festivities. On behalf of all Lakewood residents, I would like to congratulate the Lakewood 4th of July Parade organizers and volunteers on their tremendous accomplishments and thank them for their continued valuable service to our community and country.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Chairman, we have all heard the phrase ``American as apple pie,'' but it is shameful to think that every American pie has baked into it Soviet-style sugar. We have a Byzantine array of government production quotas, import quotas, mandatory target prices. And what does it do? It destroys three jobs for every one it creates and transfers millions of dollars from working Americans to 6,000 sugar growers. It is time for us to put ``American'' back into ``American as apple pie.'' Let's support the gentleman from Pennsylvania's amendment.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Madam Speaker, as humans and as a people, we have no greater responsibility than to care for the vulnerable--to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves and a defender of those who cannot fight for themselves. I, like all Americans, was disgusted to learn of the horrific and illegal abortion procedures performed by Kermit Gosnell. Gosnell preyed upon women who trusted him in their most vulnerable moments and systematically murdered children at their most helpless stage. We must protect women from these atrocious and unsafe abortions, and we must save children from these excruciating deaths. In the grand jury report on the Gosnell trial, a neonatal expert reported that the cutting of a baby's spinal cord during a late-term abortion causes them, `a tremendous amount of pain.' Furthermore, according to a report by fetal pain expert Dr. Kanwaljeet S. Anand, `the human fetus possesses the ability to experience pain from 20 weeks of gestation, if not earlier, and the pain perceived by a fetus is possibly more intense than that perceived by term newborns or older children.' By banning abortion after 20 weeks, today's bill will save the lives of innocent children from enduring the excruciatingly painful death of a late abortion.

Mr. HENSARLING

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, in order to close for the bipartisan majority, I will yield the remainder of our time to the author of the bill, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, how much time do we have?

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

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

Mr. HENSARLING. If I misquoted the gentlelady, I apologize, but I thought I had seen earlier quotes where the gentlelady posited that Dodd-Frank ended ``too big to fail.'' If I was incorrect, I apologize to the gentlelady, but I thought you had said that on more than one occasion.

Mr. HENSARLING. Will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. HENSARLING. I yield myself 15 seconds, Mr. Speaker, to say, one, if this is a disgrace, you need to inform almost two-thirds of your Members who voted for it in committee. Second of all, nothing in this amends Dodd-Frank. Third of all, you all tell us Dodd-Frank ended ``too big to fail,'' so the specter of bailout I simply do not understand. You need to make up your mind. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

Mr. HENSARLING. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. HENSARLING. At this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Crenshaw).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time remains on both sides.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer), chairman of the Housing and Insurance Subcommittee.

Mr. HENSARLING. I yield the gentleman an additional 45 seconds.

Mr. HENSARLING. I yield myself 30 seconds just to say to the gentlelady that she had the opportunity to offer her amendment in committee, and her amendment was defeated. Second of all, as she raises the specter of bailout, she has also said before that Dodd-Frank ended bailouts, so I don't know which it is. I would also say nothing in the bill changes the rulemaking authority of the CFTC or the SEC, and it delays nothing, but it was just 6 months ago that the ranking member sent a letter to the chairman of the CFTC: I request that you provide for phased-in compliance and appropriate short-term relief from relevant title VII provisions. So she, herself, was asking for a delay. I now yield 5 minutes to the chairman of the Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises, the author of this legislation, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the legislation before the House this afternoon, H.R. 1256, the Swap Jurisdiction Certainty Act, is a bipartisanship response to what many view to be, frankly, regulatory red tape overreach and the adverse consequences that it can have on the millions of our fellow countrymen who are either unemployed or underemployed--the impact that it could have on the competitiveness of our U.S. employers and job creators. Mr. Speaker, I need not tell anyone in this body that we regrettably continue to be in the middle of a nonrecovery recovery. If it weren't for the fact that so many people have actually left the job force--the working participation rate--our unemployment rate would be even higher. Many have just given up. We know that for many, even though America has, in the past, produced 3\1/2\ percent economic growth and is probably capable of 4 or 5 percent economic growth with the right economic policies, regrettably, we find ourselves mired in 1\1/2\ to 2 percent GDP growth, which means, Mr. Speaker, a lot of American dreams go unfulfilled and a lot of our constituents lay awake at night wondering how are they going to pay the bills. So, Mr. Speaker, jobs continue to be job number one, I believe, of the United States House of Representatives. But, regrettably, those who create jobs, those who employ our constituents, are drowning in a sea of red tape. There's been an over 50 percent increase in regulations under the Obama administration. We know that it is directly correlated to the lackluster economic growth that we see in the Nation today. I still vividly remember that one small business person in east Texas came up to me--he had a small cabinetry shop. Even though it was still profitable, he shut it down. He shut it down because of the red tape burden that crushed him and the jobs of 17 people who worked in east Texas. And he said, Congressman, it got to the point I just thought my Federal Government didn't want me to succeed. Mr. Speaker, we always have to be vigilant in ensuring that the red tape burden doesn't strangle the jobs and hopes and aspirations of the American people. So that brings us to H.R. 1256, the Swap Jurisdiction Certainty Act. Now, many of you who may be tuning in to this debate may not be quite familiar with the world of derivatives, but it's a way that many farmers, ranchers, manufacturers hedge risk in order to become successful companies and employ people and sell their goods and services at competitive prices. An outfit like John Deere will use a derivative. They may do an interest rate swap as they finance a tractor for some farmer in rural east Texas that I may represent. That derivative is directly linked to the cost and the availability of that tractor. What we are trying to do with H.R. 1256 is make sure that those who are trying to access derivatives, to hedge risk, to create and sustain jobs, don't automatically overnight have huge swaps of the global market pulled out from under them because, if they do, all of a sudden it could be that somebody can't finance that tractor anymore. Companies like Southwest Airlines that operate in my hometown of Dallas, Texas, they hedge their fuel cost; and if they can't access global markets, who knows about the success of their hedges. Then, all of a sudden, the price of a trip for grandparents to fly in from Kansas City to see their grandkids in Dallas, Texas, just became more prohibitive, it just became more expensive. An outfit like Coors, they'll hedge their aluminum cost through swaps, maybe their wheat costs through swaps. And I don't know about other Members, but I represent a lot of hardworking people in the Fifth District of Texas; and let me tell you, sometimes on a hot August afternoon after working, putting in 40 hours at the Pepsi bottling plant or maybe putting it in at some of the other factories that we may have in Mesquite, somebody might just want to go to the 7-Eleven and buy a six-pack. In America that ought to be their right. And the inability--the inability--to access global markets for swaps ultimately can actually inflate that cost. That's not something I care to deny to hardworking Americans who want that. This is a very simple and bipartisan bill. Mr. Speaker, this passed. We had a hearing in the Financial Services Committee and we had a markup in the Financial Services Committee. It passed with 100 percent of the Republican vote. It passed with almost two-thirds of the Democratic vote. You would think that we might be under the suspension calendar for this one, but in order to respect the wishes of the ranking member, we are having a more prolonged debate in addition to the one that we've already had in the committee. But, Mr. Speaker, ultimately, this bill will do two things. It will tell the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, You need to issue one joint rule when it comes really to American end users being able to access global markets, not one suggestion and one rule, two different rules--one rule. One rule. Let's take down a little complexity here. Mr. Speaker, after Dodd-Frank, we're about to celebrate its 3rd anniversary next month. After 3 years of deliberating, maybe it's time to actually come out with a rule and create a little certainty for the people at Coors and at Southwest Airlines and at all the other employers and John Deere. Maybe it's time to create a little certainty. So the bill says, Okay, let's get this done in 9 months. You've had almost 3 years. It's time to get it done. And last but not least, in order not to pull the rug out from under these people on day one, it says, Do you know what? The nine largest markets, we are going to have a presumption that their regimes are broadly equivalent to the U.S. and not immediately deny access. Now, at any given time, if the CFTC and SEC come to the conclusion that these regimes are not broadly equivalent, that somehow they present risk to our economy, with the stroke of a pen they can change that presumption. But not on day one, not on day one, Mr. Speaker. So, for the sake of economic growth, for the sake of jobs, to provide some certainty in a struggling economy, I would urge all--all--of my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation that was voice voted in the Ag Committee, voice voted, and had unanimous--unanimous--consent of all Republicans and almost two-thirds of the Democrats on the Financial Services Committee, urge all my colleagues to support H.R. 1256. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HENSARLING. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material for the Record on H.R. 1256, currently under consideration.