Patrick McHenry

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Today I rise in support of H.R. 384, the Homes for Heroes Act of 2013. This bill was introduced by my colleague from Texas, Congressman Al Green, who I had the pleasure of having serve alongside of me as the ranking member of the Oversight Investigation Subcommittee on the Financial Services Committee. This bill would establish the position of Special Assistant for Veterans Affairs within Housing and Urban Development to coordinate services provided to homeless veterans and to serve as HUD's liaison to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, State and local officials, and nonprofit service organizations. The position is currently in the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Special Needs. This transfer highlights the importance of addressing the housing needs of our veterans. H.R. 384 would also require HUD to submit a comprehensive annual report to Congress on the housing needs of homeless veterans and the steps undertaken by HUD to meet those needs. H.R. 384 is a version, in part, of the Homes for Heroes Act of 2011, 2009, and 2008, all of which passed this House with well over 400 votes each. As our service men and women continue to serve our country both here and abroad, the least we can do is ensure they have proper access to the services that are offered to them when they return. This bill represents a step in that direction, and I urge my colleagues to support this worthy endeavor. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous materials for the record on H.R. 384, as amended, currently under consideration.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. If the gentleman yields back his time, I will then close. As the majority party, we have the right to close.

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I would like to just simply close by saying that we should help small businesses. When we have congressional Members acknowledging pop culture, as I did in committee, there is always a debate about that. But as Beyonce once said, ``If you like it, you should have put a ring on it.'' Likewise, we should put a deadline on it. That's what this bill is all about. As I close, I will not quote Jay-Z, but I will say we should help small businesses. And I ask my colleagues for their support as I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. I thank my colleague. I appreciate his leadership both with the policy committee and on this very important issue. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor America's most beloved gospel singer. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, he holds the world record for singing in person to more people than anyone in human history, to a cumulative total of a live audience of 220 million people. Mr. Speaker, I am rising to recognize George Beverly Shea, who passed away 2 days ago at the age of 104. ``Bev,'' as he was affectionately known, began singing with Reverend Billy Graham in 1943. In the following years, he would travel to every State in the Union and to nearly every continent on the globe to spread the gospel. He was inducted to the Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame in February of 1996, and was also inducted into the inaugural class of the Conference of Southern Baptist Evangelists ``Hall of Faith'' in 2008. From a recent visit with him, I can tell you that such awards weren't the most important things to him in life. As I visited Bev, it was a beautiful day in the summer in the town of Montreat in western North Carolina. He lived right down the hill from Dr. Graham. He wanted to be close to his friend, and that's where he chose to live. But as I noticed his pictures of his grandchildren, behind those pictures of his family I noticed a Grammy Award. It was a Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award given to him in 2010. That was behind his family pictures. Very interesting, beautiful statement from a wonderful person. It was in the Wilshire Theatre back in 2010 when he was given that Lifetime Achievement Award, and he was with the likes of Dolly Parton and even the Ramones. So it showed that he thought family was most important. Despite his worldwide fame though, friends and residents of his town of Montreat knew him as a person who was deeply faithful to his Lord and Savior and showed many good deeds and great kindnesses throughout the community. He even had a tradition. Though he was known around the globe, he still took the time every year to sing ``Happy Birthday'' to the mayor of his small town of Montreat. What a special gentleman. What a special American. What a special Christian and man of faith. While friends and fans from around the world and Christians from around the world know him from his renditions of ``How Great Thou Art'' and the ``Wonder of It All,'' he will always be remembered by friends and family in Montreat--and beyond--as one of the most humble and gracious men that has ever been known. Bev Shea was 104, and leaves behind a wonderful blessing of a family. So with that, I thank my colleague for yielding and giving me the opportunity to recognize such a significant individual.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, on March 14, 2013, I was unavoidably absent from the House and missed rollcall votes 70, 71, and 72. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall votes 70, 71, and 72. On March 15, 2013, I was unavoidably absent from the House and missed rollcall votes 73, 74, and 75. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall votes 73 and 74, and I would have voted ``aye'' on rollcall vote 75.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committees on Oversight & Government Reform and House Administration be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 6634) to change the effective date for the Internet publication for certain financial disclosure forms, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, September 25, 2012.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I would say in closing that the Fair Credit Reporting Act should not be singled out for special treatment, nor should the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau be singled out for special treatment. We should not treat the CFPB rulemaking powers differently than any other Federal agency dealt with under this legislation before us. Let me also say to my colleagues that it's very important to note that law enforcement actions will continue. Bad actors can continue to be rooted out, regardless of this legislation. That power is still given to the CFPB and other law enforcing agencies across the government. Furthermore, consumers will continue to have access to their credit reports, and this amendment doesn't address a consumer's ability to get that credit report. Furthermore, let's create jobs by eliminating regulations that inhibit job growth. Let's roll back this uncertainty and give the American people a level of certainty and some expectation of the regulatory framework they have to work under. That's the way we help small businesses be able to take that risk, be able to get that access to credit so they can create jobs, and maybe even keep the doors open and the lights on. With that, I urge my colleagues to reject this amendment and pass the underlying bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition.

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would say to my colleagues that the Fair Credit Reporting Act should not be singled out for special treatment. This bill is about creating jobs; and the American people know, as we know, and as rational people looking at the process of regulation know, that higher regulation out of Washington means lower job growth. In particular, what this amendment would do is further constrict access to credit. Furthermore, this bill does not inhibit any individual from getting their free credit report or from having access to their credit report. What this bill prevents, however, is an agency like the CFPB, which is a very powerful agency with an unconfirmed director. The President went around the process that the Senate has outlined for Senate confirmation. It's a very controversial appointment. They've taken these powers, and they can write very costly and expensive rules. Those costly rules inhibit credit opportunity for Americans, if not done correctly. We've seen some actions already out of this agency that raise great concerns that it's going to be very costly to small banks and to small businesses. Let's avoid that. Let's reject this amendment. Let's create jobs by passing this bill. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I certainly appreciate my colleagues, Ms. McCollum and Mr. Kingston, and what they're trying to achieve, and I certainly support paring down the budget where it is appropriate and where it actually saves money. My colleague references some numbers that come from the Army. The Army is getting out of this type of sponsorship. The numbers that I want to give you are from the National Guard that intends to stay in this form of advertising for recruiting purposes and also for building goodwill among the American people. This sponsorship program that the National Guard has, in one form, one very specific form of sponsorship that they have, as well as a number of others, but this one form of sponsorship for NASCAR, the National Guard saw a nearly 300 percent return on their investment. Now, that comes from $68 million in media exposure. It comes from 5.5 million pieces of merchandise and apparel that has ``National Guard'' on it, which has a value of roughly $70 million. This is a huge return for the buck. This is why Fortune 500 companies actually advertise through NASCAR--not because it feels good, but because it delivers results. And the fact is that no matter the size of the military, you're going to still need recruits. And the fact remains, if we look at the example of 2005 where the Army didn't meet their recruiting goals, what we had to do is increase the budget for retention. So the fact of cutting one area of recruiting means that in a couple of years we'll have to actually pay more for retention in order to keep the same folks in the National Guard that we currently need. Furthermore, back to this one particular form of advertising, I think it's highly inappropriate for this Congress to get into the business of specifying how best the National Guard, or whatever branch, should spend their dollars on recruiting. The Appropriations Committee has done a yeoman's task of making sure that we scrub the Department of Defense budget from top to bottom. I think this is a very strong and good appropriations bill. It does have bipartisan support. But let's face it, when we start micromanaging advertising programs to try to recruit National Guard members, we've sort of slipped into the absurd. The National Guard, from the experience that they've had in NASCAR advertising in particular, they generated 54,000 leads. I wish my colleague had referenced that other than these other numbers that you referenced before, which I think are a good reason why the Army is not continuing with that program. They didn't design it appropriately, apparently. But the National Guard has got a huge bang for the buck and has actually gotten recruits because of this form of advertising. I would encourage my colleagues, if they voted ``no'' on the McCollum amendments last year--there were two different amendments that deal with this very same issue. If they voted ``no'' on those two amendments, they need to vote ``no'' again. Madam Chairman, I would say this again. If you voted ``no'' on those two amendments that are structurally the same, vote ``no'' again. I would encourage my colleagues to do that, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, the Master from Flint Hill, the Innovator of the Three-Finger Banjo Style--these are the names given to one of North Carolina and my congressional district's favorite sons. Mr. Speaker, the welcome sign for the city of Shelby in my district says: ``Welcome to Shelby, city of pleasant living, home of Earl Scruggs.'' Indeed, Shelby, Cleveland County, and all of North Carolina, and indeed the Nation, are mourning the loss of musical icon Earl Scruggs, who passed away last month at the age of 88. When you think of the word ``bluegrass,'' a few names come to mind: Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, and, of course, Earl Scruggs. Earl grew up on a farm in the Flint Hill community in Shelby and worked in the Lily cotton mill. That's until he was given the chance to play in Bill Monroe's band. That led him to quickly strike off on his legendary career with Lester Flatt. Together, Flatt and Scruggs defined bluegrass music in the 1950s and the 1960s, recording such classics as ``The Ballad of Jed Clampitt'' and ``Foggy Mountain Breakdown.'' Earl received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2003, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985, and received numerous Grammys, including the Lifetime Achievement Award. He also recorded with musicians as diverse as Johnny Cash, Sting, and even Elton John. Most importantly for his beloved hometown of Shelby, his legend will live on locally. Thanks to an overwhelming community effort for the past several years, work is now under way to turn the historic 105-year-old Cleveland County Courthouse into the Earl Scruggs Center. This effort will focus on music and stories and preserve the legacy of Earl Scruggs. Drawing on the region's rich history and music, the Scruggs Center will enlighten, educate, and celebrate the people, traditions, and values of Cleveland County and the region, for that matter, all the while honoring Earl Scruggs. Legendary comedian and accomplished banjo player Steve Martin summed up Earl's legacy best when he said, ``Before him, no one had ever played the banjo like he did. After him, everybody played the banjo like he did, or at least tried.'' Imitation is the kindest form of flattery, and, indeed, Earl Scruggs has many folks that try to emulate what he created. He will be missed.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. I thank the chairman for yielding. Our Nation is at a crossroads. This President wants to take more money from the private sector and continue the exponential growth of the Federal Government. We want to make sure that job creators are able to reinvest their hard-earned money back into their businesses to expand and grow the economy and get this job creation cycle going again. That's why we support a 20 percent tax cut for small businesses. The President, on the other hand, wants to raise taxes on small businesses and job creators. There are 22 million small businesses helped by this bill, and I think it's necessary that we pass this bill today. I urge my colleagues to support a 20 percent tax cut for small businesses so we can create jobs and make a more prosperous America.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Ms. Shari Brown for receiving the 2012 Toyota Teacher of the Year Award. This award, presented by the National Center for Family Literacy, annually recognizes an educator in a program that has a strong record of increasing meaningful parent engagement and family learning. Shari is a family literacy coordinator and instructor at Caldwell Community College serving Lenoir and other cities and towns in my congressional district. The program, which serves approximately 50 families each year and has another 30 on the waiting list, has a strong record of success. Children in the program tend to enter school six to eighteen months more advanced than average, and children for whom English is a second language enter kindergarten at the same, if not at a higher level, than their non-ESL peers, requiring no accommodations. Furthermore, adult students have a 94% persistence rate, and numerous ESL students move from the lowest levels of ESL to graduation with a GED and enter college. Shari will use the $20,000 grant that comes with the award to create a local community garden project where families will learn to grow, harvest and preserve their own food. Families will also participate in local farmer's markets, preparing nutritious meals utilizing the food they grow, supplemented with surplus commodities. Furthermore, they will study good nutrition and how to combat obesity in their family members. Lastly, families will have the opportunity to learn about culinary and horticultural career choices. Both of these industries have been identified as high-growth employment areas in Caldwell County, North Carolina. Shari's recognition through this award is to be commended. Ms. Brown works every day to help families become self-sufficient and better able to help their children learn and grow academically in school. Thank you to the National Center for Family Literacy for recognizing one of our great community assets in Caldwell County.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, my constituents in western North Carolina and my neighbors and I are really upset about what's happening at the price of gasoline at the pumps. What we see out of this administration and what we see out of some extreme environmentalists is an unwillingness to tap our natural resources to relieve the price at the pumps today. We've seen out of this administration Solyndra. We've seen scandal after scandal with this green energy policy lending coming out of the stimulus from a couple of years ago and out of liberal policies in Washington. What my constituents want to see is real exploration so that we can lower the price at the pumps. That's what we deserve, and that's an action that I ask this administration to take.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, today I want to talk about something that is very important, a great opportunity for this Congress to lift the red tape from Washington and allow the entrepreneurial spirit of America to take hold. We know that, 3 years into an economic recovery, America's labor and capital markets continue with unprecedented challenges. Entrepreneurship is at a 17-year low. Deeply troubling, as we know, is that 40 million jobs since 1980 have been created by small businesses or start-ups. What is interesting about this is that those are the folks that are likely to fail when you create a small business. But still, we have netted 40 million new jobs out of this one sector over the last 30 years. Fixing this mess that we've seen in this recent downturn won't happen overnight, and there is no silver bullet for fixing it; but we have to recognize that America has seen the world catch up, catch up to what once was the most vibrant capital market on the planet here in the United States. The world has caught up because they see what that does in terms of job creation. They have caught up in terms of regulation, and they allow capital to flow more easily in other jurisdictions around the world. We also know, according to the World Bank, that the Doing Business report found that the U.S. fell from third to 13th in the ease of starting new businesses. It's fallen that quickly just in the last 5 years. And because of Dodd-Frank, credit is less available and more costly than it was before. We have restricted the opportunity for businesses to get the lending that they need. At the same time, we haven't updated our securities regulations in the United States in 80 years. There has been no significant rewrite since the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. They put in place restrictions that were right at the time. You had this new technology called the telephone. You had folks hawking securities on street corners in New York, and so they wrote regulations at the time that were applicable to the time. We know that the Internet is a fully mature ecosystem now. We know that billions of dollars are transacted just on eBay alone. People have an online reputation with social networks that they can utilize. We want to take that power and actually allow businesses to use that power of the Internet and social networks. That's why I filed, and this House passed, the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act that provides those updates, so you can actually have crowdfunding. What is crowdfunding? crowdfunding is the best of microfinancing and crowdsourcing. You use a wide network of individuals and you can raise capital for your new business, your start-up, or your small business. We passed that and sent it to the Senate. The Senate didn't do anything, they didn't act, so we repackaged the bill and put it within the JOBS Act. This House passed it with an overwhelming majority of nearly 400 votes. We sent it to the Senate and the Senate changed a few small provisions and is sending it back this week. We hope to pass that bill this week and send it to the President's desk. What the legislation for crowdfunding does is remove that restriction on communicating, which the Securities Act of 1933 puts in place, and lifts the cap on investors that the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 provides for. So, crowdfunding is a great opportunity for small businesses to raise equity. Unfortunately, the Senate decided to amend a few small provisions within this crowdfunding act that we were able to pass here in the House, I believe a few misguided, ill-informed provisions: one, expanding liability provisions for issuances of crowdfunding securities, and, number 2, banning general solicitation, which means that a company can't put up on their Facebook or post on their Twitter account, they can't tweet the fact that they're trying to raise capital. I think those restrictions are flawed and misguided, and I would ask the Senate to come around to fixing these provisions. I think it's very important the House pass the JOBS Act this week so we can make capital formation more democratic, more in touch with the market as it is today. And so I ask my colleagues to vote for the JOBS Act, and I ask the President to sign this bill so that we can help capital formation in the United States and get people working again.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. I thank the chairman, and I appreciate the opportunity to address the crowdfunding section of this bill. One year ago, Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa sent a letter with 33 questions to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking them to justify outdated securities laws that restrict capital formation and stunted job growth. It was a letter that really challenged the Commission's complacency and asked them about these 80-year-old regulations that were modern at the time where the new invention was the telephone and asked them if they had ways to update them. One question specifically asked Chairman Schapiro if she had considered creating an exemption to enable everyday investors to invest, with reasonable limitations, in unregistered securities issued by start-ups. This is known as ``crowdfunding.'' At the time, I was only familiar with crowdfunding--which is a hybrid of microfinance and crowdsourcing--as a charitable method. It's done around the world, with billions of dollars of moneys raised. For example, a local brewery in my home State of North Carolina was able to raise $44,000 on a platform called Kickstarter. Now, that's done on the charitable side; but with crowdfunding, the success we see on the charitable side can be brought over on the investor side, on the equity side, of capital raising. We recognized the consequences of Dodd-Frank that limit the ability to get lending through traditional means and as a way to promote small business capital formation. Crowdfunding relieves part of that pressure. In September of last year, after countless meetings, conferences, congressional hearings, and bipartisan negotiation, I introduced the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act. The bill was simple and direct. It offered a means of capital formation that would forgo costly SEC and State registration if issuers and investors operated within reasonable limitations. Most importantly, the foundation of the legislation upheld investor protections by empowering regulators to prosecute those who participated in securities fraud or deceit. That is preserved. In the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, our focus was on market innovation and investor protection to attract both political parties and well-known market participants to the table. As a result of that bipartisan bill, we had over 400 Members on this floor vote for that bill, the President said he would sign that bill, and we sent it over to the Senate with thousands of market participants saying it was good. This year, that same language was included as a provision within this legislation, the JOBS Act. Regrettably, just before the House-passed version of the JOBS Act received an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor, a handful of Senators misunderstood the spirit and the promise of crowdfunding, resulting in last-minute changes to the bill. Our essential framework is preserved for crowdfunding. Rather than recognizing that crowdfunding could create new markets and opportunities for small businesses and start-ups, these misguided Senators simply saw crowdfunding as unregulated activities. This misperception caused them to design a crowdfunding title that is riddled with burdens on issuers, investors, and intermediaries and limits general solicitation and enhances SEC rulemaking authority. But, fortunately, as I said, the basic architecture of the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, crowdfunding, that bipartisan measure that we took through committee markup and House floor action, is preserved. Although I'm disappointed by the ill-conceived and burdensome changes within the crowdfunding title of this bill, I stand committed to working across the aisle to make sure that we fix this after the President signs it. That's what we intend to do. I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill and move forward.

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. I appreciate it. I've been working on legislation similar to this. If the gentleman would withdraw, I would be happy to work with him to find legislative language that could be acceptable to all sides, including to national security interests.

Mr. McHENRY. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. McHENRY

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I am prepared to close.

Mr. McHENRY. I have an amendment printed in the rule.

Mr. McHENRY. Madam Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This amendment is very simple. We know, and policymakers in Washington here know, that entrepreneurship is at a 17-year low in the United States. We also know that small businesses are the drivers of our economy. So what this amendment does is it enables investors to connect with start-ups. It takes away some red tape that is within securities regulations, and it allows incubators, forums, and online platforms which only connect accredited investors to start-ups to be exempt from SEC registration as a broker-dealer if they, number one, do not charge a commission or fee for their service; number two, do not handle the moneys of investors; and, number three, only permit accredited investors to use their platforms. This is a very narrow amendment, very specifically crafted. In fact, the President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in October of last year said in their report that the emergence of angel investors and networks have also played a crucial role in initial funding of companies, and that the council recommends that clarifying that experience and active seed in angel investors and their meeting venues should not be subject to the regulations that were designed to protect inexperienced investors. This amendment deals with that subject matter within the President's jobs council recommendations. I ask my colleagues to support this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.