Jaime Herrera Beutler

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Thank you for that. I couldn't agree more. You know what we're talking about here is jobs, job creation. And the best way to do that is to explore for energy here, to develop our energy resources. And that's why I am pleased to be a part of this Congress. When I hear from folks back home, they say, ``Jamie, we sent you to D.C. for solutions.'' And that's precisely what this Congress has been about. With the gentleman you are going to hear from and others, I helped launch the House Energy Action Team, or HEAT is what we like to call it. It's an initiative with my House colleagues that we've started to bring forward energy solutions that put forward jobs for Americans. And I am a solutions-oriented person. Solutions are definitely what America needs right now. And I see this from the vantage point of my corner of this country in southwest Washington State. Here is a good example. Just a few weeks ago, I met with John Leber. He is the owner of Swanson Bark in Longview. And basically, his business moves material for the forest products industry, including biomass for energy producers. Now, the first problem we have encountered, and he has seen here with regard to some of these regulations, is we have very strict boiler MACT rules that are on hold. But if they are implemented, they would cost the forest products industry alone $5 billion to $7 billion to implement. And that's not hiring new people, that's not expanding their business, that's just costs of complying with Federal Government rules. And there is more. The second problem is thousands of manufacturing and industrial facilities across this country use incinerators that would be affected, meaning they are going to have to spend more money, not to hire more people or to grow their business, but to comply with Federal Government rules. Now, instead of stepping on the air hose of employers like John Leber, I cosponsored legislation and a solution that would allow the EPA to make the Boiler MACT rule more reasonable. Makes common sense; right? In turn, this would help the promising industry of biomass and the jobs that would come with it. Now, the gentleman from South Carolina very rightly pointed out the energy exploration solutions that we passed here off this House floor. This is just one solution that I think is going to help, and I want to add it to those four. We are working on that. HEAT members here tonight are joining together to call on the Senate. We have passed at least four bills that provide American energy solutions that will promote American energy jobs. The Senate needs to step up. I am going to share for you and reiterate some of those bills that we passed because they are very important. This is important to America's energy security and America's energy independence. The first one is the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011. This would have simply required the EPA to speed up its approvals for energy exploration in Alaska. That's it. Speed up your approvals. That's pretty simple. Developing and safely exploring for energy here would have produced a million barrels of oil per day, and it would create more than 54,000 American energy jobs. Now, not all of us like the gentleman from North Dakota have such low unemployment rates. I think it was quoted as about 3 percent. I would be doing backflips for 3 percent unemployment. In southwest Washington, we have had double-digit unemployment now for 3 years, 3-plus years, and it's horrible. So we need to get these things moving here in America and create those jobs, especially when it's within our reach to do. And one of the other solutions that we worked on as a team was reversing President Obama's offshore moratorium. This would contribute over 1.2 million new jobs for Americans who are hurting across this country; 800 million in revenue would have come in if the Senate would move this bill. Now, as we are talking about the deficit and deficit reductions and the debt ceiling--and I agree with what one of the Senators said. We don't need new taxes; we need new taxpayers. So getting more people to work, paying taxes is going to help us get out of the debt that this country is facing, and it's going to create more jobs. The third bill that we worked on and passed off of this House, one of the solutions that we have already pushed through this Chamber, is the Putting the Gulf Back to Work Act, and that bill simply reinforces safety measures through permitting inspections while increasing American energy. I hope you are sensing a theme here tonight: American energy solutions and American jobs. And the fourth one that we were pleased to get off this floor a few months ago was the Restarting the American Offshore Leasing Now Act. Now, this moves us forward with lease sales that were cancelled or postponed by this administration. Remember, I mentioned stepping on that air hose. Well, a lot of the rules that have come out this administration have stepped on the air hose for employers in our Nation, and it has got to stop. We need to increase America's energy supply. This would increase thousands of American jobs, and it's common sense. All of these commonsense solutions that increase American energy production make it cheaper for families to fill their car with gas, to heat their homes, and it would give relief to American employers. I am merely asking, and my colleagues here tonight, we are merely asking the Senate to imagine a future in the United States where energy is abundant and affordable and where we aren't riding the roller coaster of high gas prices that. Basically, those prices are set by other nations that don't like us very much. So I encourage our Senate colleagues to join us in passing and pursuing more solutions like these that the people of this country deserve.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. I yield to the gentleman from Georgia.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. We are working on making this amendment something that can be passed as a part of this bill, but I just want to speak in support of it and share part of the reason I am very honored to be working with the gentleman from Vermont on this. Basically, we are in Afghanistan right now helping to rebuild, or in many cases build from scratch, infrastructure. And when we leave that country--and I do hope it will be soon--we will leave that infrastructure behind. Power grids, water systems, trained law enforcement are the building blocks of a functioning society. We will spend or have spent hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars on improvements meant to better the lives of the people in Afghanistan. The reason I supported this amendment is we don't need to also be paying taxes to the Afghan Government for the privilege of rebuilding that country, and that's why I cosponsored the amendment. The Department of Defense funding should be focused on providing soldiers training in the field and on the front lines with the tools they need to protect themselves and defend our country. This amendment would uphold or, as it was offered, as we attempted, would uphold existing law and clarify existing agreements between the U.S. and Afghanistan, prohibiting Afghanistan from taxing U.S. subcontractors doing work in Afghanistan. So this ban on levying taxes would also apply to all subcontractors that may not have direct contracts with Afghanistan. In other words, if a company is working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, whether that company is a prime contractor or a subcontractor, that company should not be subject to taxes from the Afghan Government. It seems pretty simple. These are the contractors doing the work of rebuilding in Afghanistan, helping rebuild the infrastructure and hopefully allowing them to one day thrive independently. So common sense and financial prudence says the U.S. should not be subject to taxation for the rebuilding efforts it is paying for. That was what we were getting at with this amendment.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Very good. We will continue to work on this issue, and I thank you for hearing my point. I yield back the balance of my time. Amendment No. 4 Offered by Mr. Cole

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Madam Chair, we are in Afghanistan right now, helping to rebuild, or in many cases build from scratch, infrastructure. And when we leave that country, and I do hope we will be leaving soon, we will leave that infrastructure behind, power grids, water systems, trained law enforcement, the building blocks of a functioning society. We will spend billions of dollars on improvements meant to better the lives of the Afghan people. We don't need to also pay taxes to the Afghan Government for the privilege of building or rebuilding their country. And that's why I am happy to bring this amendment to the floor tonight for consideration. The Department of Defense should be focused on providing soldiers in training, in the field, and on the front lines with the tools they need to protect themselves and defend our country. This amendment would uphold existing law and clarify existing agreements between the U.S. and Afghanistan prohibiting Afghanistan from taxing U.S. contractors doing this rebuilding work in Afghanistan. Now, this ban on levying taxes would also apply to all subcontractors that may not have direct contracts with Afghanistan. In other words, if a company is working on a project funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, whether that company is a prime contractor or a subcontractor, that company should not be subject to taxes from the Afghani Government. These are the contractors doing rebuilding work in Afghanistan, helping rebuild the Afghanis' infrastructure, and hopefully allowing them to one day thrive independently. Common sense and financial prudence says that the U.S. should not be subject to taxation for the rebuilding efforts it is paying for. Hardworking Americans send their tax dollars to Washington so that soldiers on the front lines have the tools they need to protect themselves and our country, not fill the coffers of a foreign government. So I urge its adoption. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Thank you. I am excited to be here this evening to talk about something that our country has too few of--jobs. In my neck of the woods in southwest Washington State just about every county, save one, has double-digit unemployment, and we have had those disappointing numbers now for many months, almost 30-plus. So we are at a place right now where families are hurting. Moms who are paying the bills at night thinking about health care payments, thinking about getting the kids to school, how much it is going to cost to fill up the gas tank, what the cost of meeting the mortgage is going to be. These are the real challenges that middle America is facing right now, and that is why we are here. That is why we are fighting. That is why we want to rein in spending, because, as this chart actually shows, less government means lower unemployment. Less government spending means, if you look at this, and this is from 1980 to 2010, they have almost tracked equally, our unemployment numbers and the Federal Government spending or outlays. The red line is just that, it is government spending. The blue line is unemployment rate. It is very easy to see that when the Federal Government actually spends less and leaves that money in the pockets of that mom who is trying to make her mortgage payment, or that single dad who is attempting to get food on the table, put shoes on the kids, pay for the housing, pay for the transportation costs, it means that when we let them keep more of their hard-earned money, we actually improve the economy nationally. And that's what we need to do. When I travel southwest Washington, over the last few months I have had the opportunity to talk with many, many individuals, businesses, families. And there's really a common theme: Let us succeed. I believe in making it in America. I believe in having things manufactured here and doing things here in America. Quit relying on these other countries to produce things. But you know what has to happen? We have to create an environment that makes it easier for people to do business here in America. Let me give you a few names: Tom Cook, he owns Taco Bell franchises in my neck of the woods; Cliff McMillen, owner of Vancouver Pizza; Sherry Malfait, owner of Washougal Flowers. What do all these folks have in common? They're small business owners, number one. They're creating jobs in our community. Secondly, they're all facing government-initiated problems, whether it's higher gas prices because of this administration's refusal to explore for American energy here in the United States; whether it's a regulatory environment like the health care bill that the gentlelady from Alabama talked about. It's one of the number one issues I hear about from small employers. They are unsure what regulation, what shoe is going to drop next when it comes to this health care bill. These business owners are fighting to survive; and we need to make it easier for them to survive, which is why this House passed over four solutions for gas prices. We heard from small business owners and employers across America, and we responded. We have now passed no less than four bills that allow Americans to explore for American energy using American workers here in America. Four bills. We call on the Senate to step up and pass those bills so that we can create those jobs and we can bring gas prices down so these business owners that I've talked about can compete with businesses not just in the United States but globally. Talk about regulations? I think about Tidewater Barge, which is located on the Columbia River. The Columbia River is the fourth largest river system in the United States. It is right in my backyard. Tidewater Barge are barge operators. They move freight up and down the Columbia River. Every time I have the opportunity to talk to either those employees or the employer there, they just ask me what's going to happen next. What regulation are you going to send our way that's going to make it more difficult for us to compete. Health care is a big issue for them. They offer a tremendous health care plan to their employees--vision, dental, you name it. I got the chance to meet with those employees last summer. One of the things that they shared with me--in fact, I had a sweet lady come to me, middle- aged, worked for the company for a while, came to me in tears because she was so afraid of the cuts to Medicare that the Obama administration was putting forward. Over $500 billion. She knew what that meant for her mother and her mother's health care. She was terrified. So, on one hand, I have the employee saying this is impacting us individually, and then I have the owner saying, Look, this health care bill is going to cost my employees this tremendous health care plan. It's going to jeopardize it. Why are we making it harder for these businesses to operate? We should be making it easier for them to operate, not harder. That's part of what we're doing here. We're going to hold this administration--or anybody, really; it's not a Republican or Democrat issue--we're going to hold anybody's feet to the fire. If you work in the Federal Government and you're making it harder for businesses to survive, guess what, we have our eye on you. And we're going to work to advance policies off this House floor like the American energy bills I mentioned earlier. We've also put in place and are fighting to put in place a replacement bill for the disastrous health care bill that was passed last year. One of those things that I support and it's making it way through committee right now is purchase of health insurance across State lines. That would allow individuals who are right in one of the most costly insurance markets to purchase health insurance. You get on your computer, just like they do for auto insurance--everybody can think of the lizard or the caveman--get on your computer and choose a health care plan from any State in the Union. It has to be regulated by one of those States. Pick one that best meets your needs and your pocketbook. That will drive down costs immediately. And it's not going to grow government, and it's not going to cost taxpayers. These are commonsense solutions that get us where we need to go. They're going to grow jobs in America, and they're going to return and empower families and individuals and business owners, not the government. It's the right solution. I invite my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. You know, it's really interesting. There are two different philosophies competing here. One is government does it best, and the one you hear tonight is that the American people do it best. This last week in the Small Business Committee, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was there defending how slowly they have moved to make credit available to small business. When I think about small business owners--Steak Burger in Vancouver, you can get a great steak burger there, steak sandwich--you know, these are small businesses that are hiring young people, high schoolers, kids in college. And as they are trying to keep some of these part-time, minimum-wage kids in jobs, right, it's making it harder for them when the Treasury Secretary believes that raising taxes is how we meet the spending binge here. It's just ridiculous. It's two fundamentally different beliefs. We here on the House floor tonight believe that Americans can grow jobs and manage their own money much better than the Treasury Secretary or than Washington, D.C. It's just plain simple. So, thank you.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. As the youngest woman in the U.S. Congress, I'm proud to be here tonight joined by my colleagues from across the Nation. And I'm here tonight to politely decline the anti-woman label that some who must not have better things to do have pushed our way, because the women here in this Chamber, the Republican women on this side of the aisle, as you've heard, are incredibly diverse. They're cops, attorneys. They've served, they're moms, some of them have served in public office like myself. There's a tremendous group of problem- solvers here and that's what we need. We know that we need solutions, and the most important solution we can find right now has to do with bringing more jobs to folks at home, making sure that we have good, strong American jobs that will support our families. And as Congress looks for the job creation solutions that so many Americans are craving, I believe that we Republican women possess or bring a special skill to the table. One of my woman colleagues summed it up best when she said, women take technical problems and come up with creative solutions. We're simply better at looking at the issues from outside the box. I believe much of what she said, and I think that's one of the reasons that you see us here tonight fighting for the families back home, whether it's home in southwest Washington, where they've been out of work; where it's the mom who knows how much it costs to put gas in the tank, how much it costs for health care, for the education bills; who's worried about her older parents and making sure that they have access to health care; or thinking about her children and her grandchildren. It's these women in and throughout our Nation who have really borne the brunt of this economy. So it's very important that we're at the table here tonight pushing back on that label, because we do represent those American women; and the solutions that we're bringing and that we're fighting for are going to make it so that those women who have dreams to start their own business, to plan for retirement, who want to see less of their hard-earned dollars going into the gas tank, those are the women we're standing up for tonight, and the solutions that we're bringing forward are going to help them help their families, help our communities, and help our country. I recognize we have limited time here tonight, and I thank you for allowing me to share and stand up with these tremendous ladies.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Thank you. I appreciate my friend's work here on the floor. I just came back from a week in my home district in southwest Washington. It's a tremendous place. It's where I grew up. Some of my fondest memories are in and around southwest Washington, whether it was lakes or rivers or streams or working my first job at the Vancouver Mall. It's not even called the Vancouver Mall anymore. I had a lot of opportunities--a lot of opportunities that I am very worried the next generation of Washingtonians are not going to have. And let me tell you why. Our unemployment has been over double digits going on 3 years now. Let me read this to you because this is important. These aren't just empty numbers. These represent families and lives: Clark County, 10.2 percent; Cowlitz County; 11.9 percent; Lewis County, 13.2 percent; Pacific County, 12.5 percent; Wahkiakum, 11.8 percent; Skamania, 12.9 percent; and Thurston County is at 8 percent. Let me compare those numbers quickly. I'm not happy about 8 percent. I'm not happy about 13 percent. But there's a slight difference in the reason that the Thurston County numbers are lower than the other counties, and that's because that's where the State government is housed. So there are more government jobs, more public sector jobs in that area. But the rest of the district and even in Thurston County is based on small businesses. These are the hearts and souls of our economy. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, mom-and-pop shops. I got to tour Somarakis Vacuum Pumps. He is an engineer that started a small little company. Built it up. He's passing it on to his son. He's now expanded into two counties. He has a vision to grow and hire people. In fact, he has been able to stay afloat these last few years because a lot of the trade that he's done, he deals with other corporations and other countries across the world, which is one of the reasons he's been able to remain competitive. You know what he told me this last week when I was home and I was touring his new facility? He said, Jaime--I wish I could give you his Greek accent, but I can't--he said, Jaime, I'm a proud American. I built this company because I believe in the entrepreneurial spirit of America. I believe in this country. But you in Washington, D.C.--and he's speaking to the governing class here--are making it harder for me to function. You're making it harder for me to survive: the unpredictability, the high taxes, the new energy proposals, some of which the President has supported. He said, Jaime, if that cap-and-trade bill went into effect or if you increase my energy taxes through the EPA, I will be out of business. I will not be able to hire the next generation of engineers and pass this company on. And other small businesses around our whole region and around our Nation are saying the same thing: can you give us some predictability, quit raising our taxes, get the EPA off our backs. We all want to protect our way of life, but what's happening right now is small business owners, the job creators, are being squeezed. And why? I was reflecting on, it's true, neither the Senate nor the President has put forward a really strong governing jobs agenda this year. When we got to meet with the President a couple of weeks ago, he pointed to some of the bills that they passed last year, and some of the plans. If I reflect on the $700 billion-plus bailout or the $800 billion stimulus or the health care bill that was over a trillion dollars, one would think if we spent that kind of money, we would have the jobs to show for it. But where are the jobs? I just read you the unemployment numbers for southwest Washington State. They have actually not gone up in tremendous rise. So, clearly, borrowing and spending more has, at the very least, a negligible effect. We can do better. We have to do better. The way we do that--stop bailing out big corporations, banks, auto dealers. Right? Stop spending more money. Fast fact: I had some job creators in my office a couple of weeks ago, and they were asking for more investment. And I asked them about the stimulus--the $800 billion stimulus bill that the President and the Democrats here voted on and passed last year--how much that had actually stimulated job creation. You know what they told me? Less than 3 percent of that number actually went to build roads. Remember the shovel-ready hurrah that was talked about? We're passing this because we're going to build infrastructure. I'm one of those who believes infrastructure is important. Less than 3.5 percent was actually used to build roads. Where is the rest of that money? My goodness, we borrowed almost half of that. We're going to pass the interest and the debt on to the next generation, and yet we didn't even use it on what we said we were going to use it on. That tells me that we're spending too much, we're borrowing too much. It's time to cut back. Every family in southwest Washington and across this Nation has cut their own budget back in recent years. Every small business owner, job creators, they will tell you--I have several in my area who haven't even taken a paycheck in several years in order that they not lay anyone else off. And they're looking at us, saying, Why can't you live within your means? Well, guess what? We're going to. Not only are we going to make sensible cuts and reductions, we're also going to stimulate job growth. Energy was one of the things I mentioned. In the last couple of months we have passed off this House floor several bills that allow us to drill for energy here in America, using American entrepreneurialism, American innovation, and creating American jobs. I call on our Senate to pass those bills and the President to sign them into law. They're saying thousands and thousands of jobs could be created here in America if we simply take advantage of the resources in our backyards. That will do several things. It will drive down the cost of gas, which is going to hit every family and every small business here in the next several months. That's one immediate step we can take, in addition to cutting back overspending. That's a jobs production bill. We could also make sure that we allow for some predictability. With these Federal regulations that are coming out, small business owners call me regularly, and say, Good grief. I just barely get one rule under order, and you're sending me five new ones. I can't keep up. Here is the difference. Small businesses, small business owners, they can't just hire someone who is not being productive and just dedicate that person's time to going through Federal regulations. Maybe a big corporation could, one which can retain lots of lobbyists or lawyers; but at the True Value Hardware on Main Street in Ridgefield, both the owners actually work the store, so they can't just waste money to jump through government regulations and government hoops. It has got to stop. Last year, the EPA released 900 new regulations--900. Do you know what the EPA acting director for the water department told us on the Transportation Committee just 2 or 3 months ago? She basically said she didn't have to take into account any of those regulations and their impact on our economy. That wasn't her concern. I'm sorry. Since when does the government put forward regulations and rules and then say, ``We don't have any concern for what that's going to do to the economy''? That's why we're in the mess we're in now. We can change it. We can take some steps to bring oversight to these regulatory agencies. Man, they're just going crazy. We're going to work to streamline those, and we're going to do it now because House Republicans believe and understand that job creators and job growth occur in the private sector when individuals and entrepreneurs have the freedom to grow and to develop, not when they're hampered, not when their wrists are tied, not when they're told, You have to jump through these hoops just to sell your product or just to hire someone. It has got to stop, which is why we're putting forward and why House Republicans are proud to put forward bills that are either going to pull back some of these regulations or streamline them, reform them or allow for more American job growth here in the United States. So I appreciate that, and I look forward to hearing what my other colleagues have to say about this pro-growth agenda.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Will the gentleman yield?

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. I was thinking through your comments here. And the gentleman from Colorado was talking about the uncertainty in investment. Why would you invest when you saw someone just burning through cash? You know, there's another reason that people wouldn't invest, and I think of a company in my district, Longview Fibre. In southwest Washington, we have tremendous resources in our timber, sawmills, Holden paper companies, just tremendous renewable resources. And one of those energy sources that people have seemed to research is the ability to, through biomass, create energy. This is a green source of energy. Let's talk about what uncertainty can do to a business. So in the last couple of years, the EPA has signaled--and then pulled back and then signaled--that they're not going to count biomass as green. So a company takes considerable time, energy, effort, and resources to put in play a biomass facility. And then the EPA steps in and says, Oh, time out, it doesn't matter how much money you have invested, it doesn't matter how much time and resources you have invested, we don't think that is going to count--and puts everything on hold. Well, the EPA decided to stay its ruling for a little bit, meaning they're not really sure whether biomass is green or not. In an environment like that, what company would take the time and the energy and the resources to create a biomass facility? And for a moment there--let me explain. Biomass isn't chipping whole, new, old-growth trees--I guess that would be old trees. It's chips. It's the waste. It's the bark. It's actually fully using the resource of timber, right? It's properly managing that resource. But the EPA--actually, what I think it is is some bureaucrat in the central planning office somewhere here in Washington, D.C., has said, Ah, we don't understand that. We think you are going to cut all your trees down. We're just going to go ahead and tie your hands. It ties up resources, capital, and jobs. Longview Fibre is in Cowlitz County. Cowlitz County is upwards in double-digit unemployment. These are good-paying, family wage jobs. This uncertainty is killing us. You know, another thing you mentioned-- actually, I think it was the gentleman from Colorado who talked a little bit about business is not hiring and why. I'm a member of the Small Business Committee. And through testimony, I think it was about 2 weeks ago, we had a whole panel on--it had to do with health information technology. But interestingly, the Gallup organization was represented there, and they do nightly surveys. On some of the questions that they had asked, it showed small businesses, that small business owners were not hiring to capacity. In fact, there was about 40 percent more they could hire. So existing businesses could hire up to 40 percent more people if they weren't doing it. So, naturally, we asked ``Why?'' in the answer. Shoot, they didn't have the certainty to know whether or not they were going to have any kind of cash flow, or if they could make payroll if they did it. You know what was on the top of that list up there? Health care. Health care costs. Our small business owners continue to be targeted by government-run health care schemes. And that's what they are. Because if we want to talk health care, we can talk health care. We can talk compromise in health care because that's a passion of mine. But the schemes that were passed target, unfairly, these small businesses. Now some are getting waivers. Some are not getting waivers. Shoot, why in the world would you hire more employees if you didn't know whether you are going to be targeted or not targeted? That's uncertainty, and it's got to stop. It's time that we put people before politics. We think of the families who are at the pump, the moms who are trying to make ends meet, balance the checkbook, go get groceries, pick up the kids from school, make health care appointments. It's time we put them first, not agendas, not ideas. It's time we put people before politics, and that's exactly what we have been doing and that's what we are going to continue to fight for here on this House floor.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. And I couldn't agree more. I was just sitting here reflecting on the number of people who come up and talk to me in my district in southwest Washington about how hard it is to find work, how hard it is to find a good paying family-wage job. I mentioned timber resources. In our neck of the woods we traditionally have had just a booming timber economy, resource-based economy; and a lot of those operations have either shut down or moved elsewhere to be more competitive. We've got to allow job growth. I mean, it sounds simple. It really does. You know, the last time our country had the amount of spending that we see happening right now was actually in the lead up to World War II. And I've talked a lot about cutting and reducing government overspending and government growth. It needs to be done. In the last 3 years, the what we call discretionary spending, the money that has to be appropriated annually has increased by over 80 percent. Federal employment has increased by 10 percent in about that same time. So government spending has grown. And people are saying that the way to-- not ``people''--my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and the President are saying that the reason we have stagnant job opportunities is because we haven't spent enough. Well, I listed earlier the stimulus, the bailouts, the auto bailouts, the health care bill, all this spending that's taken place; and we're still where we are now. And people say, well, it happened during World War II; we spent a ton of money and then coming out of that we grew jobs. The difference, the big difference was coming out of World War II, the last time our debt to GDP ratio was near where it is now, the difference was, and the thing that saved us, was the immediate cuts. Right? We cut government spending back, but we grew jobs. We literally made things here in America. You know why? We had an environment that fostered job creation. We had an environment that cultivated entrepreneurs. We grew jobs here in America because we made things here. We produced things. Again, in southwest Washington we had a roaring timber industry that has all but shut down, and the sad thing is if you don't manage the health of a forest, it deteriorates. Some of these folks who are here in these bureaucratic offices in Washington, D.C. I swear have never stepped foot in a real forest. They think you just tie a big ribbon around it and don't let anybody in or out, and that's how we protect our environment. They're wrong. You see, they think that our environment and our economy are mutually exclusive. Man, that is such a low opinion of American researchers. That really must say that we don't think we can, our citizens, our people are intelligent enough to come up with new and innovative ways to both manage our timber and our timber economy and protect our environment. So what we have now is shut off stands of trees ripe for beetle infestation, disease or worse, fire as we enter the summer seasons with a lot of dry foliage and underbrush. You know, it sure would be great if the EPA would have allowed some of those companies I mentioned in my district to create their biomass facilities, because then we could create jobs because we'd have a biomass facility up and running. We would be taking the remnants of trees. We wouldn't be taking full trees, but chips and bark, and using those in the biomass facility so we are creating green energy. We're fully utilizing a renewable resource, and we're creating jobs. My goodness. That's a novel concept. We need to get there.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Mr. Speaker, decades of a spending party by both parties have led to the point where we are today. We're under crushing amounts of debt. Now we are borrowing about $58,000 per second--$58,000 per second. As some of my colleagues have shared, I'm going to read this as well. It's a quote for those who can't see it: ``Leadership means that `the buck stops here.' Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren. America has a debt problem. America deserves better.'' Senator Barack Obama in 2006. Now the President has asked those of us in this Chamber to vote to increase the debt limit without any structural spending reforms. Let me repeat that. He has now asked us to send a bill to him that has no structural spending reforms. We are borrowing $58,000 a second. Does that sound like a failure of leadership? I think it does. Here is what that's like. It's like an irresponsible teenager taking out a credit card in your name. They fill it out. The bill will come to you. You get that bill and you see that your irresponsible teenager has run up that credit card, and now the bill is coming due. You have a couple of choices. You could pay that credit card and let it be. That's what the President is asking us to do, pay the credit card and then walk away. I don't think very many parents would say okay to that. Or you could not pay the credit card. That's going to impact your credit. Or you could pay that credit card and then cut it up. Those are the choices before us. I would agree with the 2006 Senator Barack Obama when he said that the buck has to stop here. The buck does stop here, which is why House Republicans have put forward over $6 trillion worth of spending reform ideas. We actually don't need them to enact all $6 trillion of those. We could enact $2 trillion of those and avert a debt crisis. But the President and some of my friends on the other side of the aisle have said, no, no, no, that's irresponsible. Coming back to this quote, I would agree with the then-Senator Barack Obama that those bad choices are being shifted onto our children and our grandchildren, and the buck does have to stop here. Since 1964, Congress has voted to raise the debt limit, the debt ceiling, 74 times--74 times. I suggest to you that unless we require a cut-up of the credit card, unless we require structural spending reforms, 20 years from now--if our economy can subsist that long--our children are going to be asking why did no one do something about this? Because we are under crushing, crushing debt burdens. And it's going to impact jobs not just today. We're talking about our future and our children's ability to grow, prosper, and thrive. In an America where we had those opportunities, they are not going to have those same opportunities. I refuse to make it easier to allow our debt to get so crushing that economic recovery is permanently beyond our reach. It's time for a culture change in Washington, DC, and that starts with real spending cuts accompanying any debt limit negotiations.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Mr. Speaker, the rising cost of gas is quickly becoming the hottest topic in any meeting, and especially in my hometown and in my neck of the woods in southwest Washington State. I hosted a job creators forum about 1\1/2\ weeks ago, and one of the biggest issues I heard about was the rising cost of gas prices. One gentleman owns a pizza delivery operation. They make pizzas and deliver them. You can all imagine what rising gas prices do to a small business like this. They've had to let people go in the past, and they're certain to hire people again. One of his requests was: make this affordable. One of the ways we can do that is by supporting this bill, because we open up the opportunity to get more domestic energy. And that's the reality. I can't wait for the day when our country no longer is dependent on fossil fuels, when we don't need gasoline or we don't need to get it from countries that don't like us. I can't wait for that day. And I support those explorations of alternative energies. But the problem is we're not there yet. We are not there today. The reality is, every time gas goes up, we lose jobs, and in my neck of the woods, where we have double-digit unemployment, 13 percent, 14 percent going on 3 years, it is unacceptable that this Congress would sit on its hands and do nothing while the price of gas goes up. If we explore for energy here domestically and we do it now, we're going to bring relief today to those small business owners in our region. They're going to be able to hire more people. As we all go back to our districts next week, we know we're going to hear from moms and dads, we're going to hear from business owners about the high cost of gas. I invite my Democratic colleagues to join with us. Let's look our constituents in the eye and say: we supported legislation that will lower energy prices today to meet their needs.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to promote increased awareness about patient safety and a higher quality of health care in our country. According to the 1999 Institute of Medicine report, more than 98,000 patients die annually from medical errors that occur in the hospital. The HealthGrades analysis of patient safety published in 2009 stated that almost 100,000 preventable deaths occurred annually in Medicare patients from 2005 to 2007. Based on these findings, patient safety has not improved in almost a decade. All of us have either been patients or know someone who has been a patient, and we expect our loved ones to receive excellent patient care. Recently, I had the opportunity to meet with a nurse from Vancouver, Washington, who shared the touching story regarding the death of her father. Kristi Victoria Goodwin told me about her father Kenneth Edgar Anderson, who died from multiple preventable medical errors. Mr. Anderson, a 55 year old, went to his doctor after experiencing chest pains while riding his bicycle. The doctor ordered cardiac testing, but, unfortunately, Mr. Anderson was never notified that his cardiac tests were abnormal. Based on his cardiac tests, Mr. Anderson should have received a cardiology consult, further cardiac testing, and based on his autopsy results, he would have been a candidate for open heart surgery. Instead, almost three months after his cardiac workup was completed, Mr. Anderson died from sudden cardiac death while riding his bicycle. I ask my colleagues to join me in thanking Kristi for coming to D.C. to share this personal story to illustrate the importance of the issue of patient safety. I also ask that you join me in promoting patient safety and improving the quality of health care in this country.-

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Madam Speaker, today I come to the floor in support of this legislation because business owners in southwest Washington sent me here to clear the runway for them to start growing and hiring more people. In my district, I know a restaurant owner in Vancouver and a doctor who runs a small practice in Tumwater who simply don't have the resources to comply with the expanded 1099 mandate. I would rather have them focusing on opening a new franchise or offering services to patients--basically being successful entrepreneurs--than spending time reacting to the mountains of new paperwork they're going to owe the IRS. My entire region in southwest Washington has been suffering under double-digit unemployment for multiple years. In my district's largest county, Clark County, the jobless rate hovers between 13 and 14 percent--and that's reported, there are a lot of people who have stopped reporting. I know we're not unique. The entire country is depending on Congress to make job creation a serious priority. And by passing this bill today, we're showing the people of southwest Washington and across America that we're taking them very seriously. As I meet with small business owners in my district, they express two major sentiments to me over and over again: Fear and uncertainty. They're afraid and uncertain about what this government is going to do to them next. What I would like to do today is eliminate the uncertainty around this 1099 mandate. Small businesses from across my district continue to ask me for more predictability from their government when it comes to regulations and taxes. Instead of fear, increased bureaucracy or higher costs, I'm committed to providing them with that predictability. By voting to repeal the 1099 paperwork mandate today we do two things: First, we take an immediate step that will provide regulatory relief to the clinic in Tumwater and the restaurant in Vancouver. Second, we send a signal to America that Congress is changing the way it views small businesses. They aren't piggybanks, allowed to exist only to foot the bill on terribly ill-conceived and unaffordable government programs.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Today this new Congress lets small businesses know that we see them as the heart and soul of what makes this country great, as entrepreneurs that can grow and thrive and succeed as far as their hard work can take them. That's the job creation plan that has worked for this country for the last two centuries, and I'm confident it's the plan that will put folks in southwest Washington and across our country back to work.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Mr. Speaker, let me clear up something really quickly. The reason I'm rising in support of this resolution and the reason it is so important that we debate the job-killing costs of regulation is because we are at an all-time high in my neck of the woods for unemployment. We're at double-digit unemployment in southwest Washington, and we've been doing it just in about every single county in my district for weeks. The other side keeps saying, oh, my goodness, this is simple, this is kid's stuff. If this is kid's stuff, why are we dealing with it today at the beginning of this Congress? Why wasn't it dealt with last Congress? I'll tell you why, because we need to make changes. We need to tell these agencies back off small businesses, back off families, back off our cities. Operate within the law. Don't make your own laws. Last year, the EPA promulgated 928 new rules last year alone, 928 new rules. You know, when I have my construction workers who are out of work right now come to me and say we've got these storm water regulations and they're requiring us to go back into pre-Lewis and Clark days, we don't even know what that looks like. We've got these regulations handed down to us from the Feds and we can't hire new workers. We can't build new businesses. We can't even redevelop without cutting our arms off, when it comes to costs. It needs to change. I'm all for commonsense solution-oriented regulation. I want to protect our environment. I want to protect our way of life, but business and our economy are not mutually exclusive with our environment. We're simply saying, and we're taking the time today to say, that the EPA and other Federal agencies that have overstepped their bounds need to check themselves, or we're going to have this debate. So I invite my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. We want to create jobs. We want America to be working again. I have friends and family out of work in southwest Washington and they want to work; but then their small employer says, I'm sorry, I've got to put new money into this infrastructure piece to retrofit it to bring it up to speed with this new regulation, I can't hire you or I need to minimize your hours. So there is work to be done.

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER

Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this bill, and I hope this is only a first step in the pursuit of making quality, affordable health care available to all Americans. This year we have the chance to correct mistakes made by both parties. The ObamaCare bill passed by the other party last year was the wrong approach. It increases the debt and the deficit for future generations while doing nothing to decrease the inflationary curve of health care. It was the wrong approach. No party is perfect. The last time our party had the majority, while there were many on our side of the aisle who worked diligently to reform health care, the job was left undone. Getting this right is one of the reasons the people of southwest Washington sent me to Congress. Now, the good news is that solutions exist that can fix our health care system and bring costs down for middle-income families. Today, we hit ``reset'' on health care reform. I invite my Democratic colleagues to join me in advancing solutions that help small businesses and middle-income families--solutions like small business health plans, ending junk lawsuits that drive up the cost of everyone's care, the expanded use of health savings accounts, and the ability to purchase health care across State lines. These are patient-centered solutions that won't grow government, but are solutions that will make health care more affordable and more accessible to all Americans. I sincerely hope we vote today to seize this chance.