Bill Huizenga

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, especially my friend, Chairman Chaffetz, and my friend, Mr. Walberg, here from Michigan, as well as Ranking Member Cummings, for bringing this bipartisan, bicameral bill to the floor to save taxpayer dollars and create jobs. I often hear, like most of us do, from our constituents: Why can't Congress work together and get something done and eliminate wasteful spending and create jobs? Well, we have got it, folks. Here we go. With the Federal Vehicle Repair Cost Savings Act, I teamed up with Senator Gary Peters, also of Michigan. We are going to save literally millions of taxpayer dollars by reducing spending on Federal vehicle maintenance and create good manufacturing jobs. Our commonsense bill calls on Federal agencies to use remanufactured components to repair and maintain the Federal vehicle fleet when using those parts would lower costs, achieve higher safety standards, and maintain quality and performance. Remanufactured parts are less expensive than brand-new parts and have been returned to same-as-new condition. I know this from firsthand experience, owning a small sand and gravel operation where we oftentimes use remanufactured parts on our own trucks. The component may be an engine, may be a transmission, may be a drivetrain, may be a rear end or an alternator. Each of those repairs presents an opportunity to be more fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars. In 2013, a GAO report found that the Federal Government owns a fleet of approximately 588,000 vehicles. The cost of maintaining that fleet has ballooned to nearly $1 billion. While it is clear there needs to be a fleet of these Federal vehicles to have access to a reliable motor pool, it is important that these vehicles be maintained efficiently and effectively to ensure that those tax dollars--our precious tax dollars--are used in the most effective way possible. In addition to eliminating wasteful spending, this legislation serves as an important boost to good-paying jobs and remanufacturing suppliers. According to the Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association, remanufacturing of motor vehicle parts is responsible for over 30,000 full-time jobs across the United States. For example, in my district, Valley Truck Parts, headquartered in Wyoming, employs 250 Michiganders. In Kentwood, Michigan, North America Fuel Systems Remanufacturing employs more than 150 people. These companies, among so many others across Michigan and so many other States, demonstrate how remanufacturing supports good-paying middle class jobs in States like Michigan and Ohio and North Carolina and Pennsylvania and so many others. It is going to play an expanded role, I believe, in making this Federal Government even more efficient. I encourage my colleagues to join us in this effort to save millions of taxpayer dollars, support good jobs, and make the Federal Government run more efficiently.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Gary L. Easterling on his recent election to the Board of Directors at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions (NAFCU). Since 2007, Mr. Easterling has served as the President and CEO of United Federal Credit Union headquartered in St. Joseph, Michigan. Under his leadership, the credit union has seen its assets more than double. United Federal Credit Union has over $1.8 billion in assets, serves over 130,000 members, and employs more than 900 people. With more than 32 years of credit union experience, Mr. Easterling will be an incredible federal advocate for credit unions. Mr. Easterling served previously as CEO of Century Credit Union in Cleveland, Ohio, and with Wright Patt Credit Union in Fairborn, Ohio, where he held leadership roles in almost every functional area. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio, as well as a Master's in Business Administration from Indiana Wesleyan University in Marion, Indiana. He currently serves on NAFCU's Legislative Committee. Mr. Easterling's deep knowledge of legislative and regulatory issues facing credit unions will give him tremendous expertise on the NAFCU Board, especially as the country continues to recover from the financial crisis. I wish Mr. Easterling the best of luck in his new role on the NAFCU Board and I look forward to working with him in this capacity. I ask that my colleagues join me today in congratulating him on this special achievement.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I want to relay a little experience I had just today. I was speaking in front of a group of European Parliament members, a few European business folks; and this question was brought up about trying to harmonize our financial services laws and trying to make sure that we are all kind of on the same page. One of the members from a very liberal leftwing party was asking about Dodd-Frank and whether that is a path that they should pursue, and even she was dubious about that. Certainly, some of the other members from the European Parliament were seeing that this is a cautionary tale. They know that they have been down a tough spot in Europe because they have seen such a lack of growth and innovation, and they are seeing that same thing happen here in the United States.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. It seems to me that part of our problem here is not intentions, but it is ability to execute. What we have done is we have replaced the private sector. We have replaced the innovators, the people that are getting stuff done in our economy. We have replaced them with unelected bureaucrats who don't often know what the real world is like and how it operates. I think that has caused so many problems.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I know we have probably got about 3 or 4 minutes before a quick hour has gone by here, but I go back to my intention here and the question I have got for the chairman. Obviously, a lot of well-intentioned things. Were there some issues and problems, abuses? Absolutely. I was in the real estate industry myself, still am in construction. But the goal of having Dodd-Frank lift our economy, promote financial stability, end too big to fail, it certainly doesn't seem like that from the perspective that I am. And I think all the evidence is overwhelmingly that the answer is a resounding ``no'' on all counts. I would love to hear the chairman's thoughts on that evidence.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, you just hit on the word ``compromise.'' I think there are many of us that are looking to compromise. I was disturbed--and I am curious to hear the thoughts of my colleague from Arizona as well about this--when we were sitting in committee and had a witness in front of us who characterized the Dodd- Frank Act as a compromise bill, it struck me that I guess maybe he is right. It was a compromise between Senator Dodd and Congressman Frank at the time, both Democrats, who didn't bother to get any input from the Republicans. As you pointed out, Mr. Chairman, you actually had a bill. A compromise would have been to take parts of your bill and parts of their bills and marry them together. This isn't what happened, though, is it?

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. If the chairman will yield, I have got a question for you--because I have had an experience in my time. This is my third term here in Congress, and I have had a little bit of an experience that was bothersome to me. I want to know if this matches your expectations as well. You talked about this qualified mortgage. I have a piece of legislation called the Mortgage Choice Act, where rules that were written under the Dodd-Frank Act in an attempt to protect people from being gouged, I believe is actually doing the opposite. In fact, it is not just me. It was a bipartisan group that got together and put this piece of legislation together that last Congress passed this House in this Chamber unanimously. For the American people watching out there, yes, things actually pass unanimously here. You are not going to hear about that in the news a whole lot, but we actually can work together. Now, there is one disturbing thing, though. It passed the House unanimously, went over to the Senate, and there was one particular Senator who put the brakes on it. Not to name any names, but she didn't want any changes to her baby, the Dodd-Frank Act. We had to reintroduce the bill. As the chairman wells knows, we got it into committee again. Suddenly, it went from being unanimous to being a divisive issue. That was certainly not anything on our part because it was the exact same language, but people who had decided a year ago this was the exact way to go have decided, for political purposes, that it is now something that can't be touched, can't be altered, can't even be addressed, and I am sure the chairman has some thoughts as to whether that is working.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I have to disagree a little bit with you. We know that there is a tremendous amount of Dodd-Frank that we have seen play out, but this is something I am not sure everybody understands. They are still writing the rules; 5 years into it, we are still writing the rules. I don't think that was your intent at the time this was passed.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate your leadership on this and so many other issues. I am going to have a couple of questions for you in a minute because I, like my colleague and friend from Arizona, wasn't here when Dodd-Frank was created. I like to say I wasn't here for the creation; I just have to live with the echo effects of it. I have to figure out what it means in this post Dodd-Frank world. By the way, it has been mentioned tonight it was 2,300 pages. It sounds a little reminiscent to another bill that maybe they had to pass to find out what was in it. I think if it wasn't for ObamaCare--the Affordable Care Act--and that famous statement that was uttered about having to pass it to find out what is in it, this would be the poster child for that. This would be the poster child for Federal Government overreach. It was an agenda waiting for a crisis to come along.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Certainly, the gentleman from Arizona is not implying that they are not well intended.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I used to be a licensed Realtor, and I will never forget that time in the late nineties when I went to my first closing, where they slid a check, the closing agent slid a check across to the seller, as is expected. They are selling their home. Then they slid a check across to the buyer, and there was kind of a nervous laugh and a joke. ``Well, we know you are probably going need to buy some furniture.'' That was the first time I personally witnessed someone borrowing more than what the house was actually worth. It is those kinds of decisions and that lack of risk, that lack of accountability, I think, that brought us to some of the areas. I just wanted to relay that story of something that was just seared into my mind, and one I hope we never, ever repeat.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. I, too, thank my friend and colleague from Wisconsin for his leadership on this and so many others. Mr. Speaker, I just wish the American people could be here on this floor right now and feel the passion, the frustration--honestly, the anger. I especially want to address my female colleagues who have been here and have had the courage to come and take a stand. That isn't always done. I think it was especially hard a little earlier as we were doing 1- minutes seeing a colleague, watching a 1-minute address from an apologist of Planned Parenthood calling these horrors trumped up-- trumped up--disgusting, frankly. It is just amazing. This is one of the reasons why I voted, along with a number of my other colleagues, the vast majority of my colleagues on the Republican side, to defund Planned Parenthood. Forty-one percent of their total revenue is taxpayer dollars, $1.5 billion in 2011 to 2012. We must never forget that we are not just talking about numbers on a spreadsheet. We are talking about unborn children, not lab specimens. We are talking about human lives. We must continue to fight for every unborn child here just because of their intrinsic worth, not because of a spreadsheet or some sort of price list that Planned Parenthood or any other organization has put together. We must continue that fight, and especially when there are so many other options, that adoption option that is out there. When you see the work being done by crisis pregnancy centers like in my area, the Lakeshore Pregnancy Center, or the right-to-life organizations or any of those others that are out there in the trenches praying for, working for not just those children but, frankly, the parents that may be making a bad decision. We must continue to fight for the unborn here in Congress. I know I pledge to do that; I know so many of my other colleagues do, too. We must promote that culture of life and strong families in west Michigan, in this Nation, and around the world. I would just like to again thank my colleagues for calling attention to this horrific, horrific act that has been going on.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with my colleagues Reps. John Conyers, Candice Miller, John Moolenaar, Brenda Lawrence, Mike Bishop, Dan Benishek, Tim Walberg, David Trott, Debbie Dingell, Fred Upton, Dan Kildee, and Sander Levin, to congratulate Quicken Loans Inc. on its 30th year in business and recognize its pivotal role in revitalizing Detroit as well as its impact on Michigan's economy. Quicken Loans has helped more than 2 million American families achieve their dream of home ownership. Originally founded as Rock Financial in 1985 by Detroit native Dan Gilbert, Quicken Loans Inc. has grown to become America's largest online lender and the 2nd largest lender in the United States. From 2013-2014 alone, Quicken closed $140 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states. As the largest FHA lender, Quicken has helped lower income Americans borrow money for the purchase of a home that they would likely otherwise not have been able to afford. Quicken Loans' commitment to its customers is commendable, as Quicken has maintained the best loan quality score and lowest default rate among the largest 30 FHA lenders. Because of its commitment to its customers, Quicken Loans Inc. has been awarded the J.D. Power awards for Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Primary Mortgage Origination for five straight years, their award for Highest in Customer Satisfaction among home loan servicers in 2014, and their award for Customer Service Champion--making Quicken Loans Inc. one of only 40 companies in the United States to receive this prestigious award. Over the past 30 years, Quicken has taken civic engagement to a new level by establishing itself as a leader and innovator in community engagement by developing a culture that encourages its 12,000 team members to volunteer in communities surrounding Detroit, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; North Scottsdale, Arizona; San Diego, California, and Charlotte, North Carolina, where the team members work and live. Last year alone, Quicken Loans Inc. donated more than $16 million to local charities and its team members volunteered over 75,000 hours to charity work including: assisting local veterans, community development, and helping in the downtown revitalization process in Detroit. It's for reasons like these that Quicken has ranked in the Top 30 of FORTUNE Magazine's Best Places to Work in America for 12 years. The leadership of Quicken Loans Inc. in restoring Detroit cannot be understated. On December 3, 2013, the City of Detroit was declared bankrupt. Since that time, Quicken Loans Inc. founder and Chairman Dan Gilbert was named co-chair of the Blight Removal Task Force which continues to focus on the revitalization of Detroit through the removal of all blighted structures and lots within the city. Additionally, Mr. Gilbert serves as Vice Chairman of the M-1 RAIL initiative which began construction in July 2014. The 6.6 mile light rail system is designed to spur economic development and improve downtown and midtown Detroit's transportation infrastructure. As of midnight on December 11, 2014, Detroit successfully left Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. This transition would not have been possible without key players, one of which was Quicken Loans Inc., and their commitment to Michigan and the city of Detroit. Congratulations to Quicken Loans Inc. on your 30th anniversary and thank you for leading by example in communities here in Michigan and across the nation.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Kentucky, for bringing this important bill to the floor to empower States to protect consumers from higher electric rates and to ensure grid reliability. In fact, when I was in the State legislature back in Michigan, I served as the vice chair of our Energy and Technology Committee and spent a lot of time and work on grid reliability and cost issues. Under the clean power plan, the EPA would set mandatory carbon dioxide emission levels for each State and require that they submit State plans to meet their EPA-established ``goals.'' While I have many concerns about the proposed rule, I am offering this amendment to highlight how the EPA's approach to calculating emissions actually discourages the kind of emission reductions that it is intended to promote. Here is how. The EPA's compliance formula does not include a way to calculate the benefits of clean energy storage. Michigan is a prime example of the importance of energy storage via the Ludington Pumped Storage reservoir in west Michigan, in the Second District. Ludington Pumped Storage was the largest pumped storage hydroelectric facility in the world when it was constructed. I remember as a young man, my dad was in construction, and we would do Sunday drives an hour and a half north just to see progress on this. It is an 842-acre reservoir that is 2\1/2\ miles long and holds 27 billion gallons of water. In the last couple of years, it now includes a wind farm with 56 turbines that are generating an additional 100 megawatts. Ludington can generate up to 1,872 megawatts, which is enough electricity to serve a community of 1.4 million residential customers. Here is how the pump storage works. At night, when electric rates are low--and oftentimes the wind is blowing in west Michigan, and those turbines are going--Ludington's reversible turbines down at the lake level pump water up the 363-foot hill from Lake Michigan to the reservoir. Then, during the day, when electric demand is high, the reservoir releases water to flow downhill and it turns the turbines to make carbon-free electricity. And that is very, very helpful, obviously especially in the summertime when we have peak times. In fact, when I was in the State legislature, I was standing next to those turbines and they got the call that they needed peak electricity because a substation had gone down in southeast Michigan. Literally, within 10 minutes, those turbines were spinning and producing electricity and putting it back out on the grid, thereby saving a whole lot of expenses they were going to look at in needing to go out on the MISO system to purchase that electricity. In addition to it being carbon-free, there are no other emissions being pumped from the storage generation either. Ironically, the proposed rule would penalize States like Michigan and Virginia that have prudently invested in energy storage technology because the emissions and megawatt hours from plants used to charge the system are included in the EPA's equation. However, the megawatt hours discharged from the storage system are not. Thus, according to the EPA, a State's emissions intensity actually increases if they utilize clean energy storage. That is the exact opposite of what I hope is the EPA's goal of this rule. This amendment simply encourages the EPA to explicitly authorize States to include clean energy storage in their compliance plans. I encourage my colleagues to support this bipartisan amendment and the underlying bill so that States can best protect their residents from the significant economic and reliability impact the proposed rule could have. At this time, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), my colleague.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 893) to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint coins in commemoration of the centennial of Boys Town, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Fortenberry), the sponsor of this bill.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I, too, want to express my thanks to both Congressman Fortenberry and Congressman Ashford for their dedication and desire to highlight Boys Town and what an amazing thing that has happened out there and really the impact that it has had. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1698) to amend design and content requirements for certain gold and silver coins, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. 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.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 1698, the Bullion and Collectible Coin Production Efficiency and Cost Savings Act, a bipartisan bill which I introduced in March, along with the gentlewoman from New York, Representative Maloney. This simple piece of legislation would make minor changes to four existing coin programs. Each change saves money for the United States Mint, and it makes it easier to produce the coins or make the coins more attractive to investors and collectors. The changes include: first, making it less expensive to package gold investment coins; second, it allows the Mint to buy standard coinage silver for collectible coins instead of the more expensive custom alloy; third, it removes the requirement for an already completed study on the production of an investor coin made of palladium; and, fourth, it allows collector versions of the widely popular American eagle silver investment coin to bear an inscription noting that next year is the 30th anniversary of the first issuance of those coins. These small changes will have an impact on saving taxpayer dollars over the next few years. Mr. Speaker, I ask for immediate passage of H.R. 1698. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUIZENGA of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.