Bill Johnson

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 1, rule I, I demand a vote on agreeing to the Speaker's approval of the Journal.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, we're living in a dangerous world abroad, with challenging economic times at home, but America has been here before. On Tuesday, Americans witnessed the embarrassing and dangerous results of this administration's lack of a coherent foreign policy: Vladimir Putin filled the global leadership void. What happens next with Syria and that region is anyone's guess, but it's clear that America is not in the driver's seat. The President failed to convince me--and most of the American people--that military action in Syria is in our best interests. This debate was not conducted from a position of foreign policy strength because Syria was allowed to fester. Flawed attempts at coalition building failed. Iran is ever closer to a nuclear bomb. Iran funds terrorist organizations. Iran's influence in the region is significant. And a Middle Eastern arms race would likely follow, the results of which could be catastrophic. The world is looking to America for leadership. The American people are looking to this President for leadership. Mr. President, it's time for you to step up to the plate.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the legislation that the House is considering this week. The people of eastern and southeastern Ohio sent me to Congress to get the government off their backs, to allow them to create jobs and to earn a living and raise a family without government overreach and interference. Over the past 2\1/2\ years, the Republican-led House has done exactly that on a daily basis. However, some in Washington have not gotten the message. I'm proud to continue supporting legislation that stops government abuse like we've seen in the IRS, restrains a runaway Federal Government that doesn't seem to have any brakes, and that empowers the American people with greater opportunities to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The people of eastern and southeastern Ohio want a strong economy that will create a more secure future for them. The House Republican plan to stop government abuse lays the groundwork for more secure jobs and a more secure future with new jobs, more freedom, and expanded opportunities.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, Energy Vision 2020, it's an all- American, all-of-the-above energy vision that puts our Nation on the path to energy independence and security. How? We don't take anything off the table. We harvest and explore all of our energy options, not stifle them. We do this through real regulatory reform, cutting red tape, and empowering private market innovation. We work to keep our projects and technologies safe. If a venture is dangerous or environmentally unsafe, then say ``no.'' But the key is, ``no'' can't be the final answer. Regulatory agencies must become partners in progress with America's industries and businesses, striving to reach our full potential and finding the answers we need to get there. There will be opponents to progress. Environmental extremists will throw their tired rhetoric around with no basis in scientific fact. But we can't sit idly by, letting America remain dependent on foreign energy sources and letting other countries seize our businesses and innovation opportunities. Energy 2020 will get us focused. It's the next great horizon of American exceptionalism.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, last week, the President quietly decided to delay a major part of what many media pundits consider his crowning achievement: ObamaCare. The President is telling businesses that they will be given a year reprieve from complying with ObamaCare's onerous and costly employer mandate. The President is once again picking which laws his administration enforces and which ones he chooses not to. He's also picking winners and losers again. Employers will have another year to comply with the employer mandate, but President Obama has decided that individuals--the middle class--will not be given more time to comply with the individual mandate. Meanwhile, the economy continues to limp along with businesses, large and small, afraid to hire more workers because the cost of doing business continues to go up without a clear end in sight. High taxes, enormous tax burdens, and the specter of ObamaCare continue to hang over them like a storm cloud. For the good of our Nation, ObamaCare must be repealed and replaced.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Chairman, today, I rise in strong opposition to the amendment offered by my good friend from Texas. First and foremost, my opposition to this amendment is about national security. Since the 1940s, the United States has had a U.S.-owned and - operated uranium enrichment entity in place. This allows the U.S. to control its uranium stockpile, to be a signatory to nuclear weapons treaties, and make sure that we do not rely solely on foreign-owned companies for our uranium needs. This amendment would put this streak of nearly 70 years in jeopardy if it were to pass and would leave the U.S. without any domestic producer of enriched uranium. Some will say that we can rely on a foreign-owned company in New Mexico to supply our uranium needs. First, the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Department of State have made it clear that we will never be able to rely on a foreign-owned company for our nuclear weapon triggers, to fuel our nuclear military fleet, or for any other national security purpose, period, end of story. Even if we could rely on a foreign-owned company for these purposes, I have serious concerns about this company. This company in question is the former employer of AQ Khan, the man responsible for giving away nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran, and Pakistan. The company did not have the controls in place to safeguard their secrets. As we now know, Pandora's box was opened because of AQ Khan and the lack of oversight of this company. How can we now consider giving them sole control of our country's uranium enrichment process? This would put our national security at risk if we ever changed our laws to allow foreign-owned outsourcing of uranium enrichment. Furthermore, if this amendment passes, it will likely cost the taxpayers billions more in the long-run. The United States Enrichment Corporation is a publicly-owned corporation that has invested and will invest billions of private sector money into developing new and improved enrichment technology. If USEC is not able to finish their research program and goes belly up, the Federal Government will be forced to start a new enrichment program from scratch and spend hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars to start up its own uranium enrichment program. So we can either spend $40 million plus now and leverage billions of dollars of private investment, or we can be here a year from now appropriating billions of dollars more. I will take $40 million today over billions of dollars tomorrow any day. In addition, the taxpayer is protected from failure of this research program. The Department of Energy is both the owner of the intellectual property of the centrifuge machines and even of the machines themselves. DOE will be able to recoup any taxpayer money that goes into the project. But make no mistake: if this project is stopped, DOE will have to spend billions more of taxpayer money to get the project up to scale as opposed to billions of dollars coming from the private sector. Finally, this amendment, if passed, would be a jobs killer. The American Centrifuge Project currently employs over 1,000 people in multiple States. Furthermore, the project utilizes over 160 American supplier companies in at least 28 States. All of that would go away if this amendment were to pass. I would also like to remind my colleagues that a similar amendment was offered last year on the Energy and Water appropriations bill with my friend from Texas and the new Senator from Massachusetts, Ed Markey. It was easily defeated because of all of these very same reasons. Nothing has changed in the last year. I urge all of my colleagues to again defeat this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as many have heard me say on the floor of this Chamber many times before, we have a tremendous opportunity to revitalize America's economy through domestic energy production. We can create jobs, lower energy costs, and become energy independent. We simply need to seize that opportunity. And to do that, we need this administration and its Federal agencies to be partners in progress rather than roadblocks to prosperity. Job creation does not mean hiring more bureaucrats, and ``no'' should be the answer of last resort after all other avenues have failed. Two weeks ago, the Department of Energy approved one of many requested permits to export liquefied natural gas. Given that a recent study showed that exporting liquid natural gas can lead to over 200,000 U.S. jobs, it's time for the Department of Energy to approve the rest of the applications and let the market drive our success. Cut the red tape for job creators. And if we embrace a path to energy independence, one that allows the market to pick winners and losers rather than Washington, D.C., we'll get our economy going again.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I find it would be irresponsible if I didn't mention this. It sounds like the lightbulb has come on for my colleague from Maryland. He now says that we should replace the sequester. I only wish that that lightbulb had come on when the House passed under Republican leadership--twice--legislation in the 112th Congress to replace the sequester with responsible spending cuts. So it looks like here we are again. The recent admission by the IRS that it used its considerable authority and resources to target certain Americans because of their political affiliation should serve as an urgent warning to all Americans: the Federal Government is getting too large and has too much control. The simple truth is that when the government expands, personal liberty contracts. I found it both stunning and revealing when the former adviser to President Obama, David Axelrod, said this: Part of being President is there's so much beneath you that you can't know because the government is so vast. For a member of this President's inner circle to admit that the Federal Government is so massive that it is essentially not practical for the chief executive to hold it accountable or for the President to effectively manage it is simply stunning. It also begs the question, if it is no longer possible for the President of the United States to oversee all the Federal agencies assigned to him and to hold them accountable, then who is? Is anyone? As if the IRS scandal wasn't bad enough, there are other troubling stories that have arisen in the last few weeks. The Associated Press has said that the administration monitored hundreds of private phone calls between reporters. Is this really freedom of the press? Then we find that talking points given to the administration to tell the American people what happened on that fateful night in Benghazi were twisted, cut, turned, and edited to the point that the truth wound up on the cutting room floor in the White House, or at the State Department, or at the CIA, or at the Department of Defense. Actually, we don't even really know. But we're going to find out. But we do know one very troubling thing: the Federal Government, with the IRS leading the way, is about to become exponentially larger and more powerful because it's about to get into the health care business. ObamaCare will be fully implemented by next January. And, according to the Treasury Department's inspector general, the new health care law is the largest set of new tax law changes in 20 years. The IRS will be hiring more bureaucrats to make sure Americans comply with these new laws and to oversee the flood of new personal information the Federal Government will be collecting on the American people. For example, under ObamaCare, the Federal Government will require insurance companies to report to the IRS the name, the address, the identification number, and type of policy purchased by every customer. And, if that weren't enough, the IRS will also require insurance companies to detail whether or not individuals purchased ``government-approved health care'' to ensure compliance with ObamaCare's individual mandate. And, just yesterday, Lois Lerner, head of the IRS' Exempt Organizations Division, announced that she would be invoking the Fifth Amendment to protect herself from self-incrimination. The truth is that our Federal Government is too big, too intrusive, and it's seeping into every aspect of our lives. It's taking away personal freedoms and collecting personal data. It has shown it can be manipulated to punish fellow Americans for their political beliefs, all at the expense of the American taxpayer. And let me be clear: I'm not a no-regulation guy. We need commonsense regulations to ensure that our food is safe, our air and water are clean, our transportation system and infrastructure are sound, and that our financial transactions are secure, among other things. However, this administration has issued more than 10,000 regulations to date, including 106 major new regulations imposing $46 billion in additional costs that are being paid for by the American people. This means more rules, more bureaucrats, bigger government, and less freedom. Most troubling to me is that we were founded as a constitutional Republic, governed by the rule of law. But there are those in Washington who think we should be a Nation governed by the law of rules, where the President and his bureaucratic agencies make up the rules. This represents a fundamental break from our history and traditions dating back to our Founding Fathers. Our Founders placed their trust in the American people to elect their representatives to make the laws necessary to allow Americans to prosper. Mr. Speaker, I ask the American people to consider America's government is getting too big and too out of control. As members of the House, we serve at the pleasure of those we represent. The tens of thousands of bureaucrats implementing the more than 10,000 new regulations are accountable to no one, let alone the American people. Those that will be making health care decisions for the American people on the Independent Payment Advisory Board, IPAB, will never appear on a ballot. The American people will never be able to hire or fire those making medical decisions on their behalf. Is that fair? Is that democratic? Is that what America is all about? Mr. Speaker, this need not be a partisan issue. The American people deserve an effective, efficient Federal Government--a government that works for them and not the other way around. I fear that as the government continues to grow and Obamacare is fully implemented, the consequences of transferring so much power, national treasure, and control to the Federal Government will be felt widely, personally, and painfully. In the meantime, it is the duty of this Congress to vigorously oversee the Federal agencies, and root out those political appointees and bureaucrats who've abused their positions and violated the trust of the American people.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to announce legislation I introduced that will designate the post office in Marietta, Ohio, as the Lance Corporal Joshua C. Taylor Memorial Post Office Building. Lance Corporal Joshua Taylor is a true American hero who lost his life on March 18 in an explosion during a training exercise at the Hawthorne Army Depot in Nevada. From an early age, Josh had dreamed of serving his country and becoming a marine. He entered the Marine Corps upon graduating from Marietta High School in 2010. After basic training, Josh was stationed in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, and specialized in mortar weaponry. He honorably served tours of duty in Afghanistan and Kuwait. In addition to being a dedicated marine, Josh was an exceptional individual. He will be remembered for his gentle spirit, unfailing love, and his love for his family. Dedicating the Marietta Post Office for Josh Taylor serves as a small tribute to honor and remember the life of a remarkable young man and the sacrifice he made for America.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka on May 18, 2009. The last stages of the war were met with grave allegations of war crimes, including the Sri Lankan Government's treatment of Tamil civilians within no-fire zones--attacks that were a blatant violation of human rights. As a result of the ensuing international outrage, Sri Lanka established a commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the 26-year civil war. However, this commission had no accountability and yielded little explanation for the families, the victims, or the international community. We are left with the task of identifying what really happened during the last years of this terrible civil war and to hold accountable those who have committed war crimes. We also face the challenge of brokering peace in a country torn apart by civil war. I urge the Government of Sri Lanka to demonstrate commitment towards reconciliation and promote human rights, particularly before hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am, indeed, honored to join you and the rest of our colleagues here in sharing some thoughts on what the American people now should expect in the coming months and years from the administration's so-called historic achievement in health care reform. It's historic all right. This massive bill gives the government control over one-sixth of our economy and the authority to manipulate markets and to make individual health care decisions. So how did President Obama convince the American people to buy into this scheme? He looked the American people right in the TV camera lens, and he promised two things. He pledged that this law would cut costs for American families, and he promised that it would make health care more affordable. Now, I could stand up here and talk about all of the other economic dangers posed by the so-called Affordable Care Act, like the ever- mounting costs of implementation, the instability it causes in programs that seniors rely on, the fact that this bill contributes substantially to the insurmountable debt we are leaving to our children and our grandchildren, but that's not foremost in the minds of those individuals whom I represent along the Ohio River in eastern and southeastern Ohio. As the American people continue to search for good-paying jobs, families in my district are trying to figure out how to stretch their paychecks to cover another trip to the grocery store or to buy clothes for their kids or to purchase another tank of gas for the car. Now we're seeing reports that indicate most families will have to factor health care premium increases into their budgets as well--all because of the Affordable Care Act's policies, mandates, taxes, and fees. Now, does that sound affordable to anyone? It doesn't to me, and it doesn't to the people that I represent along the Ohio River. I am proud to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and I was recently given the opportunity to question Gary Cohen, the director of the office within HHS in charge of the implementation of the health care law. I asked him directly if premiums were going to go up or down for the American people. Remember, the President promised us lower costs. Mr. Cohen briefly toed the party line, saying, Absolutely, we'll see lower costs. But he went on largely throughout the questioning to repeatedly say, We'll simply have to wait and see. They don't know. That sounds oddly familiar to me. It reminds me of when the minority leader, the gentlewoman from California, tried to convince the American people that Congress needed to pass the Affordable Care Act in order to find out what was in it. We are now finding out what's in it, and it is a train wreck, as some have stated. Now, wouldn't the responsible thing have been to do the job correctly the first time? Let me clarify a few things. Let me cite some numbers brought to light by our investigation. Individual consumers in 90 percent of States will likely face premium increases. In my State of Ohio, men purchasing an individual policy would face increases ranging from 32 to 52 percent. Ohio employers purchasing small group market policies could see a projected premium increase of 28 percent. Nationwide, new businesses could see increases of 96 percent, while existing businesses would be burdened with 73 percent. And age and plan mandates forced on insurers could push premiums up as high as 413 percent in some cases. Now, do these numbers support the pledge made by the President that Americans would see lower costs, or do they highlight the dishonesty as a means of pushing a terrible law through Congress? Based on these facts, Mr. Speaker, it is hard to argue that the Affordable Health Care Act will ever become more affordable as long as that law is on the books. Hard evidence to support the looming premium rate shock should scare the administration as much as it scares the American people, American families, businesses, and health care providers throughout the Nation, particularly along the river where people are still struggling to make ends meet from day to day. I appreciate the time.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Absolutely.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Yeah, that was pretty much the case. I started to challenge him to a Monopoly game because that's funny money. That's a way of manipulating the numbers, and that's more of the dishonesty that's being perpetrated on the American people with this law.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Absolutely, I do.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Absolutely. Every time we asked Mr. Cohen who are premiums going to go down for, he avoided the question. He couldn't tell us that premiums were going to go down for anyone. We asked him, Are they going to go down for the young? Are they going to go down for the old? Are they going to go down for women? Are they going to go down for men? He had no answers. We'll have to wait and see. That's a far cry from the promise that the President made of lowering costs and making health care more affordable.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. It is very tough going.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, I rise today, along with several of my pro-life colleagues, to bring attention to the ongoing trial of Kermit Gosnell, an abortionist from Philadelphia. Gosnell is accused of murdering, in the third degree, a woman who died during an abortion at his clinic, and first degree murder of four infants who survived abortions and were born alive, only to have their spinal cords severed by a pair of scissors. In the words of the grand jury report: Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted babies: he killed them. He didn't call it that. He called it ``ensuring fetal demise.'' I'm horrified by the lack of respect this doctor has for human life, and I'm appalled by the minimal media coverage of the Gosnell trial. I'm hopeful that the disturbing images revealed by this trial will raise awareness of the gruesome practices of the abortion industry and help to prevent the tragic ending of human life that occurs every day at abortion clinics across this country.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. 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 subject of my Special Order.

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, it's good to be in the people's House this afternoon to talk about a topic that is of utmost concern to the American people--energy. What does it mean for America? We all put gas in our cars, we all heat and cool our homes, businesses across this country power their manufacturing processes. So what does energy mean for today and for the future of our country? I'm proud to be a member of the House Energy Action Team because we understand the critical role that domestic-energy production plays not only today, but in the future of our country. Let me give an example of why this is so important. I remember one of the very first memorable events that occurred in March of 2011 in my first term. We were addressed here in this Chamber by the Prime Minister of Australia. And in her remarks she commented, she said: ``I remember being a young girl, sitting on the floor of my living room, watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin land on the Moon.'' She went on to talk about how America and Australia had stood side by side, how America had actually stood in front of and protected Australia during some of the darkest days of World War II in the Pacific. At the end of her speech, she said, ``Back when I was a little girl and when I saw that Moon landing, I thought to myself, wow, those Americans can do anything.'' She wrapped up her comments by saying, ``Today, as Prime Minister of Australia, with a lot of experience under my belt, I still believe that Americans can do anything.'' When you stop and think about the Moon landing--and I know you're going to say, Well, what does that have to do with energy? I'm getting to that. President Kennedy gave us a vision of putting a man on the Moon in 10 years. We didn't make it in 10 years. We made it in less than 10 years. The reason that we did was that every fabric of our society bought into the idea--academic institutions, the scientific community. Industries cropped up overnight. Millions of jobs were created. Young people lined up to get into academic programs in which they could major in degrees that would prepare them for careers in space exploration. At the end of the day--actually, we're not at the end of the day-- we're still benefiting from the innovation and the technological advance that came out of that era. It was a time when America's imagination was captivated by what many thought was impossible and by what the rest of the world didn't really think we could do. You look at what has happened since we started that journey--at all of the technological innovations that have occurred: cell phones, flat-screen TVs, GPS, even arthroscopic surgery. We had to learn to perform medical procedures on space travelers in a way that was noninvasive, and medical experts began to think about ``how do we do that in outer space?'' So we learned how to dream, and that goal to put a man on the Moon captivated America's imagination. I want you to think for a second about what would happen if America once again embarked on a journey of that magnitude. I believe a journey to become energy independent and secure in America is just such a journey that we could embark on. A vision of energy independence and security would not only captivate the imagination of the American people but it would put America back to work at a time when our economy is in such desperate need of private-sector economic growth. Imagine what would happen if we had a national energy vision that sounded something like this: We're going to go after the vast volumes of oil and natural gas that we have. In many experts' opinions, we've got more of it than anyone else has in the world. We're going to expand our nuclear footprint because nuclear energy is one of the safest, most reliable forms of energy on the planet. We brought that to the world, and we know how to do it. We're going to continue to mine coal, and we're going to learn how to use it environmentally soundly because we've got enough coal to fuel our energy needs for generations yet to come. We're even going to embrace alternative forms of energy--biofuels, wind and solar. Now, they're not going to meet our heavy lifting energy needs for the foreseeable future, but there is a role that they play in our overall energy profile. We're going to back that up with action with the regulatory community and tell the regulators at the EPA and the Department of the Interior and at the Army Corps of Engineers: effective today, you start being partners in progress with America's energy industries. Rather than being the department of ``no,'' learn how to find a way forward. If a particular project or if a particular technology presents concerns, then let's address those concerns, but ``no'' should not be the final answer. We've learned through the lessons of putting a man on the Moon that, when Americans are allowed to dream, when they're allowed to innovate, when they're allowed to compete, there is nothing that we can't solve. Why is energy independence and security so important? First of all, it's important because of national security. Right now, today, we are beholden to some countries that don't like us very much for our energy resources. Why do we want to continue to do that when we have the resources right here at home to be able to solve that problem? In order to captivate the imagination of the American people, we've got to help the American people understand why this is so important to them. We talk about energy in terms of very important projects like the Keystone XL pipeline of which the President, himself, said that the environmental concerns were overexaggerated, so let's get the project approved. Yet we talk about it in technical terms--pipelines, hydraulic fracturing, oil rigs, nuclear reactors, uranium enrichment. What does all of that mean to American taxpayers--to working Americans who are just struggling day in and day out to make ends meet? Here is what it means: Take a manufacturing process, the manufacturing of cereal, Pop- Tarts--you name it, whatever our children consume today. When domestic energy costs are reduced, those manufacturing costs to produce those goods are also reduced. When the price of diesel fuel goes down and when the cost of the transportation to transport those goods from the manufacturers to the grocery stores goes down, those savings are passed on in the costs of the products to the consumers. When working mothers and single moms and single dads who are trying to make ends meet--who are trying to figure out how they're going to put kids through college, how they're going to buy the next pair of tennis shoes--are balancing the checkbooks and when they see that their energy costs to heat and to cool their homes are going down and that they're paying less to fill up their cars to go back and forth to work, that translates into economic confidence to do the kinds of things that we were able to do during that remarkable period of putting a man on the Moon. Today, we've got a lot of naysayers out there who simply don't understand how important this is, this idea of energy independence and security to the American people, and they're trying to frighten the American people. Hydraulic fracturing, my goodness. We've been doing hydraulic fracturing in America for over 60 years, over a million such operations. A former EPA administrator, herself, acknowledged there has not been a single incident in which hydraulic fracturing has contaminated the water table. Yet the EPA is working hard to try and insert itself into a process that many, many States are already doing and are already doing very well. Take, for example, the State of Ohio where I come from. Literally, my district sits on top of the Marcellus and the Utica shales, one of the world's largest reservoirs of oil and natural gas. The State of Ohio has been regulating the oil and gas industry since 1965. We're among those States that have done a lot of hydraulic fracturing, and yet again there is not one proven instance where that process has contaminated drinking water, yet you've got those that sit on the sidelines and try to frighten homeowners, try to frighten those people that live in Appalachian Ohio that their water is going to be contaminated. It's not. It's a proven process. And just over the last 5 years, we've developed technology called horizontal hydraulic fracturing, where we can go down a mile and then go out horizontally another mile, sometimes more, and have much more of that vital resource of oil and natural gas flowing to the surface, resources that are going to move America one step closer to energy independence and security. Mr. Speaker, we've got an opportunity to put America back in charge of our economic destiny and an energy vision that is a real all-of-the- above energy vision for this country. It's what America needs. At this time, I'd like to yield time to my colleague from South Carolina (Mr. Duncan).

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank my colleague from South Carolina, and at this time I yield to our chairman from Texas (Mr. Smith).

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, may I inquire how much time we have remaining?

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. Madam Speaker, at this time I would like to yield to my colleague from Virginia (Mr. Griffith).

Mr. JOHNSON of Ohio. I thank my colleague. I yield some time now to our colleague from Texas (Mr. Farenthold).