Donald Manzullo

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives, I am pleased to join with the President in helping to celebrate Small Business Week. We have several members of our Committee on Small Business here on the floor today, and I would recognize and yield to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Capito).

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, as we celebrate National Small Business Week, let's not forget the fastest growing, and most exciting segment of the small business community--those getting involved in international trade. According to the Commerce Department, between 1987 and 1997, the number of small business exporters tripled, going from 66,000 to 202,000. Small businesses now account for 31 percent of total merchandise export sales spread throughout every industrial classification. What is more surprising is that the fastest growth among small business exporters has been with companies employing fewer than 20 employees. These very small businesses represented 65 percent of all exporting companies In 1997. In fact, out of the 53 state Small Business Persons of the Year, 22 percent export goods and services representing 20 percent of sales. Additionally, 17 percent of the winners who currently do not export anticipate doing so within two years. Countries receiving exports include: nations of Great Britain, Canada, Mexico, Australia, Germany, China, Switzerland, Japan, Cyprus, Israel, Norway, France, Singapore, Russia, Argentina, Kazakhstan, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Greece, Indonesia, Italy, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and Venezuela. Despite these encouraging statistics, there is still more work that needs to be done. Even though the number of small business exporters tripled, they form less than one percent of all small businesses in the United States. Even among these cutting-edge firms, nearly two-thirds of small business exporters sold to just one foreign market in 1997. In fact, 76 percent of small business exporters sold less than $250,000 worth of goods abroad. In other words, these are ``casual'' exporters. The key is to encourage more small businesses to enter the trade arena and then to prod ``casual'' small business exporters into becoming more active. If we were able to move in this direction, it could boost our exports by several billion dollars. With the growth of the Internet economy, more small businesses are able to export overseas but sometimes face difficult obstacles in completing a sale. We need to insure that all our government agencies are up to the challenge so they can continue to help increase exports from the small business community. While most of the trade focus in the federal government for small business is on export promotion, the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) can continue to play a vital role in formulating trade policy beneficial to small business. With the President requesting Trade Promotion Authority to negotiate more trade agreements, Including the Free Trade in the Americas Agreement (FTAA), small business exporters need to be at the table. These trade talks could have positive benefits for small business exporters, primarily in the area of trade facilitation. Topics of discussion under this umbrella are streamlining trade dispute resolution procedures; reforming the documentation and filing procedures for patent and trademark protection; opening the public procurement process by foreign governments to small businesses; enhancing transparency in international tax, finance, customs procedures, and trade rules; and exploring means to internationalize the recognition of technical certification of professionals. How these issues get resolved will be of key interest to small business exporters. That's why I have introduced legislation to create an Assistant USTR for Small Business so that one person is primarily responsible for these tasks. In addition, the Assistant USTR for Small Business can play an outreach and advocacy role throughout the United States to solicit input from the small business community. Many small business exporters find our government bureaucracy very mystifying and complicated. Many times, small business exporters do not know who to ask a trade policy question. They get bounced or referred to one person after another. Having one person in charge who is empowered to go beyond the Washington Beltway to listen to small business may help alleviate this problem. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Small Business Export Enhancement Act of 2001.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, as Chairman of the Small Business Committee, I am pleased to join with the President in launching Small Business Week. Small businesses represent the most important sector of our economy. They comprise 99.7 percent of all the employers in the United States. They provide two-thirds of the initial job opportunities for Americans. And, they provided over $63 billion worth of goods and services to the federal government. One of my constituents, Ms. Rebecca Hillburst of Rockford, Illinois, will be honored this week as the Regional Subcontractor of the Year. She is the first in our region to receive this award. Ms. Hillburst's father started the Commercial Printing Company in Rockford in 1948. She assumed the helm of the company in 1989. The business performs customized and commercial printing jobs. Rebecca Hillburst and her four employees, George, Lars and Eleanor Hillburst and Darcie Powelson are symbolic of the small entrepreneurial enterprise that makes America great. I applaud their hard work and dedication.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of today's bill, the ``Death Tax Elimination Act'', H.R. 8. This bill would end one of the most burdensome taxes in the federal tax code-the death tax, by repealing estate and gift taxes over the next ten years. The death tax stifles growth, kills jobs, discourages savings, drains resources, and ruins small and family businesses and farms. In effect, the death tax punishes small entrepreneurs for their hard work. Millions of Americans spend a lifetime working and investing in a small business or family farm for their families and for their communities--only to have the IRS confiscate more than half of it away at their death. This is a terrible injustice. Unreasonably steep death taxes force families to sell or break up small ventures and farms or to liquidate assets. Two examples in my district alone include the Beuth and Hall families. Richard and Judy Beuth of Seward, Illinois almost lost the family farm three years ago when Richard's father died and the IRS hit them with a huge $185,000 death tax bill. Similarly, the Hall family in Ogle County had to sell equipment, sell part of their land, and take out huge loans to pay a whopping $2.7 million death tax bill they received shortly after their father died in 1996. Unambiguously, the death tax is hurting middle-class Americans. The great irony of this tax is that it encourages frivolous, selfish spending and discourages savings and investment. Over 80% of small businesses must spend costly resources to protect against the death tax so they can pass something on to their children. This hurts women-owned and minority-owned small businesses the hardest. According to the Center for the Study of Taxation, 70% of family businesses don't survive through the second generation and nearly 90% do not make it through the third. Worse, 9 out of 10 successors whose family business failed within three years of the death of the original owner said difficulty paying the death tax played a major role in that failure. It's time to end this immoral and counterproductive tax. I urge all my colleagues to support small business by supporting this common sense, bipartisan legislation.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Yes, I yield to the gentleman from California.

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 327, the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act. This bill represents an excellent start in reducing the paperwork burdens that are swamping millions of small businesses. If we can get them out from under this deluge, they can devote themselves to hiring workers, investing capital and moving the economy forward. Twenty years after the passage of the Paperwork Reduction Act, there is no evidence that the government has reduced the amount of paperwork on small businesses. The Federal Government requires the filing of more than 7,700 forms, resulting in nearly 66 million responses with a total burden of more than 7.5 billion man-hours. The Office of Management and Budget estimates that the annual cost of these paperwork burdens cost the American economy over $61.7 billion. This is a vast amount of paperwork. Do we know how much of this burden is imposed on small businesses? Do we know how much of this burden is imposed on particular classes of small businesses? Does the Office of Management and Budget know which forms apply to which businesses? If it does, has that agency considered whether the information is duplicated? This bill, H.R. 327, provides the answers to these questions. For example, convenience store owners that sell gasoline may have to prepare 46 different Federal forms. That is in addition to the basic forms for starting a business which are numerous, forms related to the sale and service of food, et cetera, et cetera. The forms and their associated instructions for the 46 different forms particularly associated with convenience stores total 250 pages of legal and regulatory prose. I got this information not from the Federal Government, which does not compile according to the function of the retailer or the wholesaler, but from a trade association. So if someone wants to start a convenience store that sells gasoline, he or she would have to go to seven different Federal agencies. That assumes that they even knew that they should be going to some of those agencies. The situation is simply intolerable. H.R. 327 corrects this problem. The bill requires the Office of Management and Budget to classify forms by business category, mandates that OMB put the information on the Internet in a user-friendly manner for small businesses, forces Federal agencies to create a single point of contact for small businesses to obtain information concerning paperwork requirements, and creates an interagency task force to consider ways to reduce and streamline the paperwork burdens now facing small businesses. As the chairman of the Committee on Small Business, I would like to thank the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) for moving H.R. 327. I look forward to working with the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) on improving the Paperwork Reduction Act to ensure that the Federal Government reduces paperwork burdens on America's small businesses. Mr. Chairman, the first thing the bill does is require that the OMB identify by North American Industrial Classification or other appropriate industry identification, the forms that every small business must fill out. In essence, a chart would be created that can be reviewed to determine the total number of forms that each agency imposes on each type of small business. OMB could then utilize this identification process to estimate the total burdens imposed on small businesses in each industrial classification. This is vital information that OMB does not yet estimate. OMB should be able to use this information in its internal management of approving existing and new information collection requests under the Paperwork Reduction Act. There seems to be some concern about using industrial classifications because small businesses do not know their industrial classification. First, any small business that contracts with the Federal Government must know its industrial classification because the Federal Government classifies contracts using the North American Industrial Classification. The Securities and Exchange Commission requires the use of the North American Industrial Classification in all of its filings. So there are many small businesses that already know there industrial classification. And I would expect that OMB would provide a website link to the North American Industrial Classification system so small business owners could actually check their classification. I also would expect that the agency would put the title of the industrial classification in the data it collects for ease of reference in any event. By itself, that single step would prove valuable to the Federal Government management of paperwork burdens and to the small business community. But H.R. 327, as amended, does more than that. It makes the information available to the small business community in a user-friendly manner. H.R. 327, as amended, requires the agencies to establish a single point of contact within each agency where small businesses can go to obtain information on the paperwork requirements associated with the agency. My colleagues are well aware that within a single Federal agency are numerous subagencies. I see no reason that a small business owner has to negotiate among this multitude in order to find out a simple question-- what forms do I need to fill out to comply with the law. The structure of Federal agencies has made this a game. If a small business owner guesses correctly, they might find out what forms they need to fill out; if they guess incorrectly, they might not find out. That is just plain stupid. H.R. 327 would correct that problem by appointing one person in each agency to act as a central point of contact for small businesses to obtain information on the paperwork requirements associated with its small business. Small businesses then would be able to obtain the appropriate forms from this point of contact. I also would expect that the point of contact would create a website where all of the agency's forms are located for easy downloading by small businesses. The bill also would establish an interagency task force to address ways to reduce burdens on small businesses. For example, the task force, armed with identification of all appropriate forms identified by industry, could begin to examine processes to improve interagency sharing information so that similar information would not have to be filed with multiple agencies. Or agencies might share knowledge about how to make forms more user-friendly and thereby reduce the time that small businesses expend in completing forms. Mr. Chairman, I would like to enter into a colloquy with the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose).

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Chairman, finally, I would like to clarify one point. The bill as introduced required that the information be organized by the North American Industrial Classification System. The amendment would modify that requirement by leaving it up to the discretion of OMB. Is it the opinion of the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose) that the best method of classifying the information remains the North American Industrial Classification System because that would enable small businesses to best identify the paperwork burdens associated with the particular businesses? Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose).

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose).

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California for clarifying that issue. I also note that the bill would require the Office of Management and Budget place the information on small business paperwork burdens on the Internet. I agree that this would make the information more accessible. However, I believe more can be done. I think that OMB should establish a link on its website to the agency point of contact established by the bill. Each agency's website then would have links to the relevant paperwork required for small business. I would like the opinion of the gentleman from California on this point. Mr. Chairman, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Ose).

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California for agreeing to engage in a colloquy. I think it is absolutely imperative on the task force created by the bill to obtain input from the small business community. Does the gentleman from California concur?

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to introduce--with my colleagues Dave Camp of Michigan and David Price of North Carolina--a bipartisan legislative approach to pollution prevention for an industry that is struggling to maintain its prosperity in the face of very limited options for environmentally friendly, but costly, cleaning technology. The legislation we introduced today, The Small Business Pollution Prevention Opportunity Act of 2001, offers a positive alternative for owners of cleaning establishments, workers handling potentially hazardous solvents, as well as dry cleaning consumers. Our public health, the business community and our environment are the eventual winners. To expedite the adoption of available and viable pollution prevention technologies by new and existing cleaners, we are proposing tax incentives. New and safer cleaning solvents, including but not limited to liquid carbon dioxide, water-based wet cleaning and even ozone, are available to the dry- and wet-cleaners. However, without a tax credit, these newer technologies are out of the financial reach for the tens of thousands of cleaning establishments across the country. Last Congress, I worked diligently trying to enact similar legislation, and I held a hearing on July 20, 2000 in the House Small Business Committee to explore tax incentives to help small business cleaners adopt safer technologies. After the hearing, I cosponsored the legislation, then offered by Representative Dave Camp. This year, as Chairman of the Small Business Committee, I was asked to take the lead on this important legislation. I am pleased that in addition to Representatives Camp and Price, many other representatives, including Rob Andrews, Tammy Baldwin, Richard Burr, Ron Paul, Mark Udall, John Shimkus, Diana DeGette, and Jerry Weller have joined us in supporting this important bill, that would provide cleaners with a 40-percent tax credit against the cost of pollution prevention cleaning equipment in empowerment zones, enterprise communities, or renewal communities and a 20-percent credit elsewhere. The 35,000 dry and wet cleaners in this nation are one of the largest independent small business segments in this country. Almost everyone relies on their services from one time or another, and these businesses are centrally located in our communities. Many of us, including myself, did not realize the hazardous and flammable nature of the solvents used to clean our garments. These chemicals can pollute our air and groundwater and, when this happens, it is costs millions of dollars to remediate the contaminated sites left behind. In fact, because of the liability attached to the expensive clean-up costs, many banks across the country are reluctant to make loans to cleaning businesses or unrelated businesses located nearby or in the same shopping center. Many of us have read about or seen contaminated sites that have affected the drinking water of unwary citizens and cost the government hundreds of thousands of dollars to clean it up. The U.S. Marines announced last November one of the worst cases of contaminated water supplies ever--caused potentially by a dry cleaner using percholoethylene (PERC)--that caused unknown diseases to afflict Marines and their families for over two decades. The television station in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that broke this sad story did a follow-up investigative report on the dry cleaning industry in Wisconsin and reported cause for concern. While the Camp Lejeune situation is reason enough for concern, we in the Congress need to help the military adopt environmentally-friendly cleaning processes and to help commercially available safe systems become more affordable and more accepted. The small business cleaners in this nation are seeking a path to continue performing a valuable service, making a reasonable profit, and maintaining the public health and safety. Those cleaners who want to switch to safer cleaning systems face financial hurdles and need our help. Their availability of financing for new equipment is limited and their cash flow is not sufficient to spend unwisely. That is why this tax credit is needed and must be enacted. I encourage my colleagues to join us in this win-win legislative effort where incentives are certain to change behavior faster and more efficiently than regulations, which seek to punish and shut down small businesses.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Committee on Small Business, I urge all of my colleagues to vote yes on H.R. 3. The vast majority of small businesses are sole proprietors, S corporations and partnerships, yet they pay individual taxes anywhere from 15 percent to as high as 39.6 percent. The National Federation of Independent Businesses surveyed some of its members. Two full volumes of responses came back, one of those from Fabiola Francisco in our Nation's capital, who is a small business owner earning $36,000 a year with two young sons. She mirrors thousands of small business entrepreneurs throughout the Nation. Most of the recipients or most of the people who responded to the NFIB survey said if their taxes are reduced, they would spend the money they save to obtain health benefits for their employees. This tax cut makes sense, because for the small business people, it allows them to keep more money from the Federal Government and to give that money to their hard-working employees.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, these OSHA regulations are very interesting. First of all, they do not apply to any Federal employees, and I would like to point out that one of the charts using the explanations here is that it is dangerous if you move your wrist more than 30 degrees 2 hours a day. This is an official chart here that points to people that move their wrists. Mr. Speaker, there are 281,000 restaurants in the United States. And I was raised in a restaurant business, and my brother, Frank, he still continues the family business. And this is how you wash dishes. You go like this. Sometimes it is 2 hours a day, sometimes 4 hours a day. It depends upon the extent of the business. If business is good, you have more dishes to wash. Here is the problem: If somebody washing dishes has a problem with their hand and they go to the small employer, such as my brother, Frankie, who has 13 tables in his restaurant, this is what Frankie has to do, he has to adopt a program that contains the following elements, hazardous information and reporting, management leadership and employee participation, job hazard analysis and control, training, MSD management and program evaluation. The standard provides the employer with several options for evaluating and controlling risk factors for jobs covered by the ergonomics program. This is washing dishes. How else can you wash dishes where you cannot move your hands? That is the absurdity of these ergonomic 9 pages of regulations and hundreds of pages of attempted clarifications of them. To all the restaurant owners, to all the small mom-and-pops that are trying to eke out a living and to my brother, Frankie, with 13 tables and 13 stools at his bar and a handful of employees, he is going to have to put a sign that says dish washing is hazardous to your health. How else can you wash dishes?

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, today I will introduce my bill, the Self- employed Health Insurance Fairness Act of 2001, to accelerate the health insurance deduction for the self-employed to 100 percent immediately. Remarkably, more than 44 million Americans are uninsured. Over 60 percent of the 44 million uninsured Americans have one thing in common: they are either self-employed or have a family member who is employed by a small business that cannot afford to provide health benefits to its employees. Among self-employed families, approximately 5 million Americans and their children or other dependents are uninsured. These families represent small businesses operating as sole proprietors, S corporations, limited liability companies, and partnerships--including the majority of farmers and ranchers. Congress should make health insurance more accessible and affordable to these working families by accelerating their health insurance deduction to 100 percent immediately. We have the opportunity this year to provide tax fairness and parity on the deductibility of health insurance for all employers. Larger businesses can deduct 100 percent of their health insurance costs. Under current law, the long-standing disparity between the self- employed and large employers does not end until the year 2003. Three more years is a long time to ask small business families with no health insurance to wait for simple tax fairness. For most of us, the prospect of having no health insurance coverage for ourselves and our children for even a few months is daunting--imagine three years. As critical as this bill is to eliminating the tax disparity between small and large businesses, the bill would also provide small businesses greater access to affordable health care; expand the ability of small employers to provide health insurance to their employees, and simply taxes for small businesses. Mr. Speaker, as Chairman of the Committee on Small Business, I am proud to offer this bipartisan bill together with our ranking Democrat Nydia M. Velazquez of New York, and Representatives Phil English of Pennsylvania and Karen L. Thurman of Florida of the Committee on Ways and Means. We urge its prompt passage in this Congress.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, as we reflect on the tragic attack on the U.S.S. Cole and those brave American service members who lost their lives while serving their country and protecting the freedoms we Americans all enjoy, I submit for the Record a poem written by one of my constituents, Kathy K. Mecklenburg of Rockford, IL. Kathy's simple poem captures the heartfelt sentiments of all Americans regarding the tragedy and heroism surrounding this event. It is my privilege to place it in the Congressional Record. The Cole Tribute This lone destroyer held no fame-- Now, history will enroll, And fate forever changed the lives Aboard the U.S.S. Cole. To Aden she sailed into port For loading vital petrol; But, terrorists had other plans To harm the U.S.S. Cole. She peacefully sat docked and still Before the dreadful, loud toll, Which blew a forty-foot long hole Inside the U.S.S. Cole. No time for general quarters sound-- The blind attack was brute cold, Our sailors had no time to fight To save the U.S.S. Cole. The terrorists had rammed her side And precious cargo they stole, For seventeen would lose their lives Aboard the U.S.S. Cole. And, now we grieve and wonder still For kindred, sacrificed souls, Whose lives served freedom's cause for all Those on the U.S.S. Cole. Now, God, please hear our simple prayer And draw these souls to Thy fold, As we salute these sailors brave Who served the U.S.S. Cole. --Kathy K. Mecklenburg, Rockford, Illinois, October 2000.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, Janet Lynn fascinated the nation several years ago, when, as a 14-year-old figure skater, she participated in the 1968 Olympics. Four years later, she won a Bronze Medal. Her faith and perseverance captured the Nation. She spoke during the Independence Day celebration in her home town of Rockford, IL, where the people named the ice arena after her. Her remarks on family, faith, and freedom are so compelling that I want her testimony to affect other Americans. I would like to submit the following remarks into the Congressional Record. Figure Skating; A Glimpse of Freedom (By Janet Lynn) I am honored to be asked to speak with you. What a privilege that the City of Rockford remembers me with such respect. I realized recently that the honor I feel is even stronger because I have been at home as a wife and mother longer than I was a skater. The fact that I am still remembered, yet alone having an ice rink named after me, is very humbling. I will try to reflect what is in my heart and tell you what it means to me. Speaking is not my favorite past time and preparing to speak is more difficult for me than you can imagine. You may not know this, but my parents introduced me to skating hoping it would help cure my extreme shyness and timidity around people. But I liked to skate because I could express myself without talking to anyone! Somehow I think the joke was on me when I find myself invited to speak. I grew up in Rockford from the age of 8. My memories of growing up here include my time at home, at the Wagon Wheel, at church and school, and my many opportunities to travel. It is here that foundations were built into my life. Skating was such an incredible vehicle to learn about many areas of life. I would like to share with you what I learned from the foundations of my skating, and relate them to the foundations of our nation; specifically, family, faith and freedom. Since this is the eve of our country's birthday in a new millenium, I thought this would be entirely appropriate. The ability to live in a free and civilized nation has become a great passion for me. Over the years, even the many years that I have been raising my family, I have given deep thought to our freedom; where it comes from and why it is important. The skills and priorities I have developed from my job as wife, mother of 5 sons, and homemaker have strengthened my belief in the power and importance of strong foundations. The foundations historically provided by family and faith were the inspiration for our nation's beginning. I strongly believe that in order to continue to enjoy freedom in a civilized nation, we must rebuild our foundations. God has placed in each and every human spirit the desire to be free. I think that skating is a very powerful metaphor of that hope of freedom. It is my belief that one of the things that makes skating so very popular is that it looks so free. The people who skate well seem to fly. There is great exhileration in watching skaters fly across the ice and then into the air with such beauty and grace! It touches something deep in the soul of many who watch. I can tell you that when I was skating well, it did indeed seem like I was soaring; and I felt very free to attempt anything I wanted to on the ice. It was so much fun to let God and beautiful music inspire my spirit on the ice, to the point that I could express what in my soul, without talking. That freedom that I had to skate was built upon foundations. I not only learned about freedom from learning to be free on the ice, but also from my experience of visiting nations that were not free. Perhaps my travels when I was young have given me a perspective of which many are unaware. I had the rare opportunity to visit nations that were not free at the time and to experience in a small way the oppression and fear of expression so many wonderful people had to live under. I have seen people so afraid of being caught socializing with people from other nations that they hid in a closet. I was sobered when suspicions were confirmed that some ``officials'' who closely monitored and traveled with my skating peers from unfree nations were actually secret police. On one occasion in an unfree nation we were assigned an interpreter for our entire stay with whom I innocently spoke to about God. He must have been immediately reassigned because we never saw him again. I didn't realize how serious that kind of conversation was in unfree nations. I have vivid memories of being a young lady who saw the Stars and Stripes with an emotional and grateful heart upon returning to the United States. I had a new awareness of what that flag meant and what it has meant to many millions who have sought the privilege to live under its freedom and protection. I remember wanting to kiss the ground of my country, the most free country on the face of the earth. Even at a young age I knew there was an important difference between what I experienced in nations that were not free, and the freedom I knew in our great nation. I have thought long and hard to determine what the difference is between freedom and a lack of freedom and I believe the difference is found in the substance of foundations. I learned about foundations from my skating. My brilliant coach, Miss Kohout, as I respectfully called her, constantly emphasized the foundational skills of my skating. How I executed a single jump was as important as how I executed a double or triple. I once had a three hour lesson on just one simple turn. Our challenging weekly Saturday night workout sessions mostly emphasized the foundations of skating. Plain stroking to music, as our muscles burned, was something I think we all dreaded. As Miss Kohout's students, we were especially challenged the day we had to stroke to music in rental hockey skates on very bad and chewed up ice. In the face of these challenges, our skills had to be strong and the technique proper. If the simple skills were not perfected, the advanced skills would become difficult, if not impossible and certainly much more dangerous. As with the techniques and skills of skating, I learned that in order to have civilized freedom, our country must remain on its solid foundations. In skating, mastering those foundations required 4-10 hours a day, six days a week, of training, teaching and practicing. The discipline of school figures was an essential part of my training. Only when the foundational skills were mastered did I have the freedom to use those skills to express myself without fear of getting hurt. The training in those foundations of my skating continued for all the years that I skated. If I started having trouble with a jump, spin, turn, or edge, it could always be traced back to the loss or incorrect execution of foundational skills. For 17 years I did not skate at all while I have tried to build and raise my family. When I began to skate again for physical fitness purposes, it became immediately clear that I had lost most of my freedom to express myself on the ice without fear of getting hurt. The foundations of my freedom on the ice were still somewhere in my memory, but I had to start reteaching myself and fighting with my body, which did not want to do those foundational skills in a way that gave me the freedom I once had. I could no longer enjoy the fun part of flying across the ice and doing jumps, spins, and footwork. To regain that freedom, I need to pay the price of rebuilding the foundations on the ice. When those foundations become second nature and I have the self-government of each muscle, then I will have earned the freedom to express myself without fear of getting hurt. With all my heart I believe that these thoughts about my skating are a metaphor to what is happening in our nation. Our nation's freedom cost a great price. It was built upon certain foundations including the natural family and personal faith in the God Almighty. Today we have altered, or ignored, or perhaps forgotten the foundations of our nation's freedom, and I believe we are in great danger of losing our freedom to express ourselves without fear, as I have lost my freedom to skate. There is a price to relearn the foundations of our freedom. But we can do it--and we must! I am concerned about the direction of our country. What kind of nation will my children, and yours, inherit? A lack of self control is omnipresent. Our culture seems to exist to satisfy the senses, and we have forgotten or deadened our souls. It is true that if we are not governed from within ourselves, that we will have to be controlled with excessive regulation or restrictions and force. If we relearn our self-government, there will be no need for excessive restrictions. Peter Marshall put it best: ``James Madison, chief architect of the Constitution of the United States, once explained the nature of the American Republic in these words: `We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God'.'' (This quote comes from ``The Glory of America'' by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.) I do not want the next generation to inherit a nation where children are killing children as we have seen this past year in shock and horror, and where mothers and fathers are neglecting, abandoning or killing their own children. I want my children to inherit a nation that is relearning and applying the foundations of self-government, civility, and freedom. This work is hard, especially because parents have a hard time finding healthy opportunities for their children's growth that are not influenced by our degrading culture. That is why it is so important to make available in Rockford wholesome activities like ice skating which preserve the innocence of childhood. I agree with William Bennett [as quoted in the Washington Times on October 12, 1999] as he spoke about ``The Leading Cultural Indicators''. He said, ``the last 3\1/2\ decades . . . have `fractured' many of the pillars American civilization stands on, and the nation remains `more violent and vulgar, coarse and cynical, rude and remorseless, deviant and depressed,' than the one we once inhabited''. He went on to say, ``America's `capacity for self-renewal is rare and real. We have relied on it in the The foundations of my skating were supported by the foundations of our free nation. This profoundly impacted my ability to learn to skate and share my skill with others. In the United States of America I was free to express on the ice, without fear, what God put in my soul. The foundations of our free nation are within reach of every person in this land. They include family, faith and the great gift of living in a free country. The important foundation of my family was essential as my skating developed and started to grow beyond anyone's expectations. I mentioned earlier that there is a price to learning and sustaining foundations. In my case my family often found themselves sacrificing for my success. They always did so with great grace, love and encouragement to me. It is hard to adequately express my thoughts and gratitude for the big and little things they did. I could not have accomplished what I did in skating without my father and mother, my brothers and sister, and my grandpa. They, all of them, gave me an honorable place to belong and a strong assurance that I was loved whether I won or lost (my worth did not come from skating). They taught me how to laugh at myself and they let me know I was a part of my natural family no matter what part of the world I was in, or how many hours I spent training. They gave me a perspective on life that went far beyond what I did on the ice. They are part of the reason that I know that what I have been doing as a homemaker is the most important job in the world. The natural family is committed to one another and draws lessons, knowledge, love and a place of belonging from one another. It is a part of the foundation of our freedom. We need mothers who are devoted to their children and who are willing to spend quantity time loving and teaching them right and wrong. They must be willing to forgo immediate personal fulfillment for long term family rewards. We need faithful fathers who work with all their might to take moral responsibility for their families and provide for them. Fathers and mothers need to grow in the ability to give strong, loving guidance. We need parents who are willing to make their children and homes a priority each day, providing them with security and safety; protecting the innocence of childhood. Though material wealth may have to be sacrificed, the wealth of spirit can hold the family foundation steady. Taking the time to learn, and then to teach our children the morals and virtues that sustain freedom only costs our time, effort, and a healthy balance of love and discipline. These foundations of our freedom are available to anyone. Faith, which is available to everyone, was another deep foundation of my skating. Even now, as I look back on my skating, it is continually apparent to me--even more than when I skated--that God had a plan for me to skate. I made that statement in an interview as a shy 14 year old girl right after I made the Olympic Team in 1968. The next day the headlines in the Rockford paper read something like: ``God has plan for Janet to Skate''. I have wondered if that sincere statement would make a headline today? I did not choose the circumstances that surrounded my ability to skate. Nor did I choose my ability, nor the love that I developed for skating. It had to be a Providential plan. My skating gave me so many incredible, enriching opportunities and joyful experiences for which I am deeply thankful. But in life, the bitter often comes with the sweet. There were hard parts: getting up early every day, being so cold so often, having muscles aches and being away from family. It was difficult to have motion sickness since age 8 and to travel very uncomfortably. I had an obstacle to overcome when I had strep throat during the 1968 Olympics and was not able to take medicine because of the drug testing, but I was determined to be in the Olympics. I ended up very sick and delerious with fever after the Olympics. It was hard skating on intense exhibition tours with what was thought to be severe bronchitis, though I wanted so much to skate and was not about to go home. The emotional lows that corresponded to the extreme emotional highs were a part of training and competition. I didn't enjoy developing exercise- induced asthma at the height of my career after suffering from strep throat, pneumonia and pleurisy. I felt crushed when I realized that the medical treatment for my exercise- induced asthma caused more of a negative reaction from my body than the condition itself. When I had come home from Ice Follies to get my condition fixed so I could skate, I had no idea my body would not respond as I wanted. One of my favorite posters says: ``When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.'' Through the joys and difficulties, Jesus Christ has been my stability. He has a plan for my life and it certainly included skating. The faith that my family introduced me to through regular church attendance has been what ultimately enabled me to focus on the good and persevere through the unpleasant things. My faith in Christ, knowing that the loving God can take even broken dreams and make something beautiful in His time, has been the hope of my life. This faith was a foundation of my skating. Let me tell you a story. A few weeks before I competed in the 1972 Olympics, I appeared on the cover of Newsweek Magazine as a Gold medal hopeful. My life to this point, including all the effort and sacrifice of my family and coach, as well as my personal dreams and ambitions for self, country and God, were wrapped up in this competition. I was devastated when I found myself in 4th place after the school figures with no possibility to win the gold medal. That day I argued with God as I lay weeping in my Olympic village apartment. Somehow, through my broken dreams, a thought came into my mind, that if I couldn't win, then all I could do was to finish the competition and decide to dedicate my free-skating to show God's love to all who watched. A medal no longer mattered. Somehow, God heard my cries and answered a girl's prayers in ways I could not have imagined. I fell on a flying sit spin, which I had never missed before, even in practice. Because of the way I had been trained, and the purpose that was in my heart, I was still smiling when I was sitting on the ice. That performance did earn me the bronze medal, but even more, that night I began an incredible relationship with the nation of Japan that has lasted 27 years. I was able to go back to Japan to talk about my faith soon after the Olympics. ``How could I keep smiling when I fell in the Olympics?'', is a question that has always been asked of me in Japan. Fifteen years after I spoke in Japan of my faith, I went back to Japan to skate. A young woman approached me and gave me a note. In the note she told me that when I had spoken of my faith 15 years earlier, she had wanted to take her own life. After hearing about the hope in Christ that I had when I fell in the Olympics, she decided to take that hope for her own and continue her life. That reward is one that is eternal; a reward that was given One of the foundations of our free nation is faith in this Almighty God, Who is bigger than ourselves, or any situation. He is the One Who put the yearning for freedom into the human spirit, and it is He Who directs us towards the loving path of discipline and self-control--or self-government--that allows us to live in that freedom. I had the gift of being born a free citizen in the United States of America. My success in skating was built upon the foundational element of being born in this country. I didn't have to flee my country to gain freedom of artistic expression, as some had to do during the era in which I skated. I didn't have to fear because I spoke to God. I had the opportunity to visit some nations which did not allow their people to believe in God or to express that publicly. As a young lady I was amazed, and even depressed, when I was taken on tours of old and beautiful churches which were empty, unused, and explained a way as only great architectural works. God had been shut out, unwelcome; even unspeakable. I was even more depressed when we were taken on an Easter Sunday tour of a place where a bloody revolution had been started. One of the results of that revolution was the expulsion of God from a people rich in heart. Because of that perspective, it disturbs me greatly to see instances in our nation become more and more frequent where people try to exclude God or create fear of talking about God in public. He has blessed this nation so richly. Why would anyone want to shut Him out? It is upon the principles of this God that this nation's foundation rests. One of those principles of God is charity. I believe perhaps our nation has been the most charitable nation in the history of the world, and I believe that is because of our foundation of faith and freedom. We have been able to choose how we will earn a living with honor and honesty. And we have been able to freely choose, according to our conscience, how to spend what we earn. I was not beholden to a government or its ideals that provided my training. My family did not believe that freedom was having everything provided. We all worked very hard and my family was very frugal. But at a point in my skating when I was going to have to quit, the charity of Mr. Walter Williamson as the sponsor of my skating allowed me to continue working to become the best I could be. This kind of charity one can never repay, nor did Mr. Williamson ever expect me to repay his charity to me, though I can pass on what I learned from it. He never exploited me or my name nor did he keep me beholden to him. His charity remained a quiet, unassuming foundation of my ability to learn to be free in my skating. In this great nation, hard work and charity have been the often unnamed foundation that has helped develop hopes and dreams. The freedom of our nation allowed my parents to choose a coach who valued discipline and hard work. And Miss Kohout, with incredible charity, freely chose to stop sending bills for lessons as my skating started to blossom. By God's grace I was the benefactor of the free and charitable spirit of my coach and sponsor. Besides the generosity of Mr. Williamson and Miss Kohout, there was a man and wife, who we had never met, who freely offered to pay for my skates. And some generous people in New York helped me with costumes, as well as street clothes and hair cuts, in order to present myself properly. Professional secretaries freely gave of their time and energy to help with my mail when it became too overwhelming, and my mom tells of her friends and neighbors who would each take a part of my costumes to bead. Friends, family and neighbors often traveled to my competitions for quiet moral support. My ballet teacher, Helen Olson, patiently worked with me for many years, though I had no flexibility and had no promise of dancing. There was a woman from Rockford who donated cowboy hats to go with my choreography to the music of Rodeo. An American soldier on leave in Davos, Switzerland volunteered to shovel snow from the ice a few hours a day so I could practice school figures while training for a World Championship, though the snow did not stop for three weeks. The stories of help and charity are endless--all made possible by freedom. The freedom to give and receive and to work hard and have the choice of how to use what we earn through our hard work-- this freedom, based on self-control and self-government, was a foundation of my skating. Without this freedom and charitable spirit I would not have had the opportunity to develop my skating talent for God and for all those that took part. Ultimately it was God Who gave me this freedom. It was His plan for my life. Family, faith and freedom--The three deep foundations that supported my skating. The foundational skills of skating allowed me to gain freedom to express the joy God put in my soul. And my desire to express God's love on the ice changed the destiny of one young woman in Japan. God's power and love is all about changed lives, and nations that are renewed, free and civilized. The foundations of these United States of America have, and can again allow the greatest nation on earth to continue to express what God has put into our national soul and spread that freedom for others to enjoy. As I learn again the foundations of my skating. I hope you will join me in learning again the foundations of family, faith, and freedom, starting in our own minds, hearts and homes. I want all of our children to inherit a nation where God is not shut out, a strong nation that is free and civilized. I hope we can rise above the desire to just do things that appeal to our senses, and rebuild a nation that fulfills the yearning of the soul. May God grant us the will to do so. To end, I would like to dedicate the ice arena that will carry my name, to all those who have sacrificed so I could learn to be free on the ice; to all those who have sacrificed so our nation can be free, and to God Who has given us the foundations in the Ten commandments and teaches us how to be free without fear of getting hurt. It is these unsung heros who deserve the honor, and God Who deserves the glory. Thank you for your kind attention as I have tried to share what the honor you have given me means to me.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Mr. Tracy Johnson of Freeport, Illinois, a town in the congressional district I am privileged to represent. Tracy is a modern-day hero who works tirelessly to prevent crime in northern Illinois. On September 29, 2000, Tracy joined seven other citizen crime fighters from around the country to receive the SBC Communications Award of Excellence in Crime Prevention. Nationally recognized comedian Joe Piscopo presented the award during the ``2000 National Conference on Preventing Crime'' in Washington, DC. This year's eight winners, selected from nominations across the country, have all made major impacts in their communities with their innovative crime prevention strategies. Tracy received this special honor because he helped spearhead the Coalition for a Safe Community, a comprehensive partnership of organizations and people planning and acting to prevent crime throughout Freeport; started an education and action crime prevention program for youth; and developed a job training and placement center for young mothers, among other activities. I wish to thank Tracy and the numerous individuals with whom he works for their tireless efforts to make our communities safer.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4944) to amend the Small Business Act to permit the sale of guaranteed loans made for export purposes before the loans have been fully disbursed to borrowers.

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4944 makes a technical correction to the Export Working Capital Guarantee Program of the Small Business Administration. The export working capital program provides a 90 percent guarantee for revolving capital needs covering up to $750,000 for small business exporters. However, this is a very underused program. Only 429 international trade loans were facilitated by this program in 1999. The problem is that the SBA would like to be able to sell these loans on the secondary market. However, secondary market sales of guaranteed loans are conducted infrequently. Current law requires that all 7(a) loans, including export working capital loans, must be fully disbursed to the borrower prior to becoming included in the secondary market sale. Export working capital loans are often approved, disbursed, and repaid so quickly that they miss the window of opportunity for inclusion in a secondary market sale. The purpose of the Export Working Capital Loan Improvement Act of 2000 is to exempt export working capital loans from the disbursement requirement under the SBA's 7(a) loan program. This change will allow export working capital loans to be sold to the secondary market. Passage of H.R. 4944 hopefully will free up more trade financing for small business exporters. The lack or the complexity of trade finance is a major barrier to small businesses. Last month, I participated in a forum in Rockford, Illinois, in the district I represent, a forum which was sponsored by the Office of International Trade at the SBA to encourage more local banks to become interested in trade finance. This is a difficult process, because even in this era of globalization, many bankers are still not quite sure how they can be repaid for international loans. H.R. 4944 will remove the uncertainty for small or international trade loans administered by the SBA. The bill will make trade finance a more attractive option for banks. Increasing the availability of export finance thus will encourage more small businesses to enter into the trade arena. Mr. Speaker, if my colleagues have seen the recent headlines about U.S. trade deficits hitting another record, we must be concerned, as I am, about our national export strategy. For the month of July, U.S. exports dropped 1.5 percent. While this bill is surely not a cure-all to this program, it is one small step we can take to encourage more lenders to offer trade finance to small business exporters. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support me and join me in voting for the Export Working Capital Loan Improvement Act of 2000. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I have no more speakers, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4944.

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, Shane and Penny Fox were married in 1997. Shane is a graphic designer for a charity, and Penny is a legal secretary. In 1997, their taxable income was $47,000. When they went to file their joint income tax return as required by law, they paid $8,691 in income taxes. But if they had remained single, they would have paid $7,055, so these two people with a combined income of less than $50,000 a year paid $1,636 just because they were married. I participated in that wedding ceremony. I read the Scripture where it says that God says that a marriage is a holy union. Yet, the official policy of the Federal government, of Congress and the administration, is to discourage marriage. It is to say, they should not get married. Marriage is not the right thing to do economically. That does not make sense. That is public policy being made in Washington that discourages people from getting married. What type of government penalizes people because they say, ``I do''? Did they realize when they said for ``better or worse'' it meant the Federal Government would come along and penalize them $150 a month just because they got married? The tax is immoral, and sometimes we have to eliminate taxes because they are immoral. Anytime we say marriage is wrong by the Federal Government, it is an immoral tax, and it has got to go. Do my colleagues know what? Under the Gore-Clinton plan of so-called marriage tax relief, because they bought a home, they would not qualify for their plan. It discourages homeownership. It is very, very simple. Marriage is good, it is a holy union, but not to the Federal Government, and certainly not to these two who have been penalized $1,607 just because they said ``I do.''

Mr. MANZULLO

Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, last year, U.S. Government statistics revealed the largest U.S. trade deficit figure ever, reaching $271 billion, a 65-percent increase over last year. This year's monthly trade numbers reveal that the United States will experience an even higher trade deficit than last year. What steps can be taken to reverse this trend? An overlooked issue in the trade deficit debate is the role that small business exporters play in our economy. According to the Commerce Department, between 1987 and 1997, the number of small business exporters tripled, going from 66,000 to 202,000. Small businesses now account for 31 percent of total merchandise export sales spread throughout every industrial classification. What is more surprising is that the fastest growth among small business exporters has been with companies employing fewer than 20 employees. These very small businesses represented 65 percent of all exporting companies in 1997. Despite these encouraging statistics, there is still more work that needs to be done. Even though the number of small business exporters tripled, they form less than one percent of all small businesses in the United States. Even among these cutting-edge firms, nearly two-thirds of small business exporters sold to just one foreign market in 1997. In fact, 76 percent of small business exporters sold less than $250,000 worth of goods abroad. In other words, these are ``casual'' exporters. The key is to encourage more small businesses to enter the trade arena and then to prod ``casual'' small business exporters into becoming more active. If we were able to move in this direction, it could boost our exports by several billion dollars. With the growth of the Internet economy, I am optimistic that we can move in this direction. However, we need to insure that all our government agencies are up to the challenge so they can help increase exports from the small business community. While most of the trade focus in the Federal Government for small business is on export promotion, the office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) can continue to play a vital role in formulating trade policy beneficial to small business. I saw this during the hearing my Small Business Exports Subcommittee held last May examining how Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) would help small business exporters. I heard first-hand from small business exporters how different aspects of the United States-China World Trade Organization (WTO) Accession Agreement, which was negotiated by USTR, would specifically benefit their company's prospects for growth. The next ``round'' of global trade talks could even have more positive benefits for small business exporters, primarily in the areas of trade facilitation. Topics of discussion under this umbrella are streamlining trade dispute resolution procedures; reforming the documentation and filing procedures for patent and trademark protection; opening the public procurement process by foreign governments to small businesses; enhancing transparency in international tax, finance, customs procedures, and trade rules; and exploring means to internationalize the recognition of technical certification of professionals. How these issues get resolved will be of key interest to small business exporters. In addition, this Assistant USTR for small business can play an outreach and advocacy role throughout the United States to solicit input from the small business community. Many small business exporters find our government bureaucracy very mystifying and complicated. Many times, small business exporters do not know who to ask a trade policy question. They get bounced or referred to one person after another. Having one person in charge who is empowered to go beyond the Washington Beltway to listen to small business may help alleviate this problem. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the Small Business Export Enhancement Act of 2000.