Rob Portman

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, this afternoon, after a few days of great anticipation, the President laid out his version for long-term deficit reduction and dealing with our long-term debt. Now that we have heard from him, I am afraid we are left with more questions than answers. Let me be clear. I welcome the President to the debate. I think it is a positive sign. There is no more pressing issue for us to address than our dire fiscal situation and our economic challenges; both are intertwined. We are not going to be able to move the economy until we deal with our impending debt crisis, and we cannot deal with fiscal problems without growing the economy. There has been a lot of good discussion about the unique dangers we face if we don't address our massive deficits and our debt which has now accumulated to over $14 trillion. That amount, by the way, is equal to the entire size of the U.S. economy, making this the first time since World War II that we have had a debt of that level. It is also a lot different now than it was then. During World War II our debt was driven primarily by defense spending which would be quickly curtailed. We weren't looking at the incredible unfunded obligations, such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security that we have today. That is an unfunded obligation of over $100 trillion. So we are in uncharted territory, unprecedented times. It is harming our economy today and, of course, it will devastate it in the future if we don't take action. Economists tell us that with a debt of 90 percent of GDP we will typically lose 1 point of economic growth. Again, this year our gross debt is 100 percent of our GDP. By the way, a 1-percent reduction in our GDP in America means about 1 million jobs. So, already, with a gross debt of 100 percent of GDP, we have foregone jobs that we need in Ohio and around the country. This high indebtedness also comes with significant interest payments. Of course, even with interest rates being near zero today, the magnitude of the U.S. debt still requires a debt service this year of over $200 billion. By the way, under the President's budget that number increases to almost $1 trillion 10 years from now based on the CBO analysis. That is $1 trillion a year just in interest payments on the debt. What concerns me is that interest rates could well go up given this climate. A 1-percent increase in interest involves another $130 billion of interest payments. Think about that. Just a 1-percent increase in interest rates means another $130 billion in interest payments. Obviously, inflation would be causing additional damage to an already precarious budget situation, and that is another great risk that we face. Our current deficits are also increasingly financed by foreign holders of U.S. debt. At present, nearly half of U.S. publicly held debt is held by foreign investors. As U.S. deficits are increasingly foreign-financed, of course, our interest payments are leaving the country. It is estimated that in 2010 interest payments to foreign entities and foreign individuals amounted to over $140 billion. That is based on the new data from the Department of Commerce. It is not just about these high debt payments, it is the fact that a lot of it is going overseas. Our persistent deficits and pending debt crisis also introduces a lot of uncertainty into our economy. Some immediate evidence of this effect appears on the balance sheets of America's businesses, which shows $1.9 trillion in liquid holdings. That means money is sitting on the sidelines rather than being invested in jobs, plants, and equipment. Resolving the uncertainty surrounding future deficits will induce greater investment as companies can plan more effectively. We are already seeing these concerns manifest themselves in our economy today. Capital markets are responding as investors, such as PIMCO, the largest holder of U.S. Treasuries, is out altogether, telling us they no longer trust U.S. debt. What will happen if we don't address these challenges is even more daunting. According to the CBO, assuming the continuation of many current policies, debt held by the public as a share of our GDP is projected to reach an implausibly high 947 percent of GDP by 2084. Of course, that won't happen. The United States will face a debt crisis long before that, but that demonstrates the unsustainability of the current fiscal situation. No economic model could tell us what the economy would look like in the future because by then these models will essentially fall apart. Over time the accumulation of debt increases the cost of debt service, consuming a greater share of revenues, limiting budgetary resources for other priorities or for meeting unforeseen emergencies, such as a natural disaster or a war. As time progresses a fiscal crisis resulting from high indebtedness could occur rapidly as investors lose confidence in U.S. Treasuries. Absent immediate policy changes, the United States would have to pay higher yields on its own debt to roll over existing debt and avoid default. We are going to have to pay higher interest rates to attract investors to our country. In addition to the cost of an increase in interest expense, higher interest rates, of course, would be devastating for American families. Think about it. As interest rates go up, because Treasury rates go up, this means home mortgages go up. This means college loan payments go up. This means interest rates on car loans go up and on credit card activity and other loans. The economy is tough enough. We don't need higher interest rates, but that is upon us unless we act now. The magnitude of the debt crisis would escalate as higher interest costs require additional borrowing at high rates to continue to make interest payments, which would ultimately grind the economy to a halt as investors lose confidence in the ability of the United States to repay. The global impact of a U.S. debt crisis would be far reaching and truly unprecedented. We just went through a tough recession. We don't need to relive that. All things being equal, debt financing of current consumption necessarily imposes future obligations on subsequent generations either in the form of higher taxes or reduced consumption of government services. To avoid a debt crisis, any policy changes must begin sooner rather than later to minimize those effects that are, unfortunately, likely to happen even if we act. Given the threats and the crisis described, there is no doubt that America needs real leadership to address this fiscal threat. While we can debate some of the specifics in Congressman Ryan's budget, there is no doubt that the House Republican plan demonstrates necessary leadership on the severe fiscal challenges our country faces. This is in contrast to the plan President Obama sent to the Congress just 2 months ago. It not only rejects the serious recommendations from his own fiscal commission, but, unfortunately, as Erskine Bowles, the Democratic cochair of the President's Commission said: ``It goes nowhere near where they will have to go to resolve our fiscal nightmare.'' Unfortunately, the President's speech today provides no specifics as how to resolve that fiscal nightmare. More spending, more borrowing, and more taxes are not a prescription for spending constraint and economic growth. Since President Obama took office, we have seen trillions in new spending and record deficits. The February budget I talked about just locks that new spending in place, doing nothing to pull back from this dangerous spiral of debt. Let us be clear, this is not just a budget issue, it is an economic issue, and it is definitely a jobs issue. Not only will debt and deficit have a long- term impact on our children and grandchildren who will have to foot the bill for today's spending, but we are beginning to see this immediate impact on economic stability and job growth as the cost of our debt begins to crowd out private sector investment. We have to move quickly to substantially reduce the debt and deficit to strengthen our fiscal house and, in doing so, foster job creation in States such as mine-- Ohio--and around the country. The Commission's plan that the President rejected in December cuts deficits by about $4.1 trillion compared to the baseline of current policy over a 10-year period. It brings our deficits to 1.2 percent of our economy by 2020. Compare that to today, where we are at almost 10 percent of our economy. So it sets a standard--over $4 trillion in reductions in the deficit and an annual deficit that is 1.2 percent, which incidentally is where our budget deficit was about 4 years ago. Congressman Ryan's budget got there by bringing deficits down by about $4.2 trillion by 2021, as compared to a comparable baseline, to the Commission's report--so $4.1 trillion, $4.2 trillion--and the deficit is about 1.5 percent of GDP. The President's own budget, again submitted here to Congress about 2 months ago, is very different. His budget merely gets one-quarter of the way there--$1.1 trillion--and that assumes all the administration's claimed savings occur and it assumes, frankly, there is a higher rate of economic growth than the Congressional Budget Office thinks there will be, which actually wipes out the deficit savings the President claims. So we have very different visions, don't we? We have the fiscal commission on the one hand and the Ryan budget in the $4 trillion range and then a plan by the President that does not get us moving forward in terms of deficit reduction--in effect, doubles the debt in the next 10 years. Evidently, after seeing Republicans move forward last week and now this week in the House and after seeing how, on a bipartisan basis and around the country, people reacted to his budget, President Obama has realized he needs to move forward with a new proposal. In a sense, he is asking for a mulligan, and I think that is good. I think it is good he has acknowledged this problem is deeper and more serious than his budget proposal indicated, and we need to move forward together. Unfortunately, again, the President did not offer specifics today, unlike the Ryan budget, which takes some bold and courageous and tough steps but does offer specifics. The President chose instead to squander his opportunity to offer a real way forward on tackling our structural fiscal problems. He did talk about $4 trillion in deficit reduction-- and I appreciate that--but again did not offer a way to get there. The national commission he formed, and which reported in December, told the President there was a way to get there, and I hope the President will relook at his own Commission and other proposals, such as the Ryan proposal. As the President made clear, we have been debating just 12 percent of the budget. He is right about that. There is some defense spending that is involved, but for the most part it is a very small part of the budget. So what does his proposal do to address these additional challenges? I didn't hear anything today about serious proposals to address the entitlement programs, which are incredibly important programs but on an unsustainable footing. On Medicare, the President proposed delegating future unspecified savings to a government board--unelected and unaccountable. On Medicaid, the President seems to be delegating responsibility to the National Governors Association. On Social Security, the President told us today it doesn't contribute to our deficit, despite the fact the program is in cash deficit this year by $45 billion--$45 billion less in payroll taxes than the payments going out. The President proposed $4 trillion in deficit reduction. Yet he has shrunk, at this point, from the responsibility of telling us how he would achieve it, except that he would leave the challenge largely to others, while pursuing tax increases that I fear would harm the little recovery we see coming out of this deep recession. So I look forward to working with Members on both sides of the aisle and the President to address the serious challenges we have talked about today. I wish we had seen more specifics today, but I am encouraged to see that at least the President is engaging in the game. I welcome his involvement because it is too important for us not to have involvement from both sides of the aisle. Without White House leadership, we cannot move forward. As the President so often says, let's get focused not on the next election but on the next generation. I yield the floor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I rise today, as the Federal Government is on the verge of a government shutdown, in the hope that both sides will come together and pass a resolution which not only keeps the government functioning but also fully funds our troops for the remainder of the fiscal year and enables the troops to have the support they deserve. It is not sensible--it is not practical; it is not morally defensible--to send our troops to fight for us in Afghanistan and Iraq and now in Libya without giving them the resources they deserve. They should not have to worry about their loved ones back home, whether they will be able to meet their rent payments, make their mortgage payments, put food on their tables, while they are fighting for our country. I find it extraordinary that our President, the Commander in Chief, has issued a veto threat on the troop funding bill passed in the House yesterday and on the calendar in the Senate today. Looking at the Statement of Administration Policy, the President doesn't talk about concerns over the legislation, doesn't talk about concerns over the spending or the riders, he simply says: This bill is a distraction from the real work that would bring us closer to a reasonable compromise. I am not quite sure what that means except by not stating any objections to the legislation other than saying it is a distraction, it is not responsible for our troops and our military. To be honest, I am far less concerned that passing this bill will be a distraction to the Congress and to the President than I am concerned that not passing the bill will be a distraction to those troops who are putting their lives on the line for us overseas every day. As we all know, we should not be having this discussion. We are talking about funding for this fiscal year only because the Senate and the House of Representatives last year didn't get their work done. In fact, for the first time since 1974, when the Budget Act was made law, the Congress did not pass a budget in either House. That is why we are here. That is why the continuing resolutions are necessary, these so- called short-term measures. It is too bad, because Congress not getting their work done last year means we have to clean up the mess this year when we should be focused on a much bigger issue. My colleague just talked about some of his concerns about the spending reductions in H.R. 1. I remind us that not having gotten our work done last year, we are also facing the biggest deficit in the history of the country and a debt that is unprecedented, over $14 trillion. If we are truly worried about our kids and grandkids and the next generation, we have to focus on that. For today, what we are talking about is something very simple. It is just to pass a short-term measure to keep government in operation and to provide funding for the troops. I hope we can do that today. We are talking about actually a relatively small part of the bigger problem. Even adding up all of the spending reductions in H.R. 1, it is less than 2 percent of our Federal budget at a time when our Federal budget deficit is over 40 percent. So what we are debating today in the Senate and what is being negotiated behind closed doors in the Congress and at the White House is such a small part of the issue. But here we are. So what do we do to make things better, not make them worse? The short-term measure the House has already passed yesterday is unfortunately the only thing we can agree on today because, given the process of this place, the House and the Senate, it is the only option we have to move things forward. We need to send it to the President while we are working on longer term legislation. Again, it does provide for our troops, which is incredibly important to us at this time with three wars and so much concern and anxiety among the military. This measure would reduce nondefense discretionary budget authority by about $13 billion, again while funding the military fully for the rest of the year. Many of these reductions were included in the President's budget and are not particularly controversial. In terms of actual outlays, it reduces nondefense spending by $3.9 billion. In the context of our overall Federal budget, that is .1 percent. So we are talking about a .1-percent spending adjustment for the rest of the fiscal year. Yet we still can't seem to get together to fund our troops and keep the government open. Some call that .1 percent extreme. We just heard some of that. I don't think it is extreme. I think it is only a very small step we have to take, if we are truly concerned about the future for the next generation and concerned about our economy. If we don't get this record deficit and this debt that is growing out of control under control, it will continue to harm the economy today and our prospects for getting this economy back on track in the future. Let's allow these negotiations to continue. In the meantime, let's fund the troops and avoid the unnecessary disruption of a government shutdown. We can do that right now as a body by passing the legislation the House passed yesterday, send it to the President for signature, and take care of our fighting men and women for the rest of this year and keep the government from shutting down. I thank the Chair.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I appreciate being given the time to make a few remarks as a new Senator from Ohio. To be in the Senate, representing the people of Ohio, is a great honor and solemn responsibility, particularly at this critical time in our Nation's history. And it is actually not an honor I expected to have. After representing southern Ohio in the U.S. House for 12 years, and serving in the Bush administration, I returned home to Cincinnati, OH, 4 years ago. Although we had kept our home in Cincinnati, and raised our kids there, I had commuted for 15 years, and it was time to be home with three teenagers, my amazing wife Jane, and other family members including my dad, one of my true heroes. At that time, my predecessor, Senator George Voinovich, was serving with distinction here, and had said he intended to run for reelection. I was happy to be back in the private sector, involved in two small family businesses, practicing law, teaching at the Ohio State University and enjoying being a dad, including getting to coach my daughter's soccer teams. But I was also watching with apprehension the worsening economy and the way the administration and Congress were responding. When George Voinovich announced he would not seek reelection to the Senate, I made the decision to run because I was so concerned with the direction of my State and our country. I saw the bottom falling out of the Ohio economy. And I saw firsthand the pain that comes with layoffs and downsizing. Like others, I was frustrated that while Ohio small businesses and families were making the tough decisions to deal with a deepening recession, the Federal Government seemed immune, and out of touch. Instead of cutting expenses and figuring out how to do more with less, and focusing on private sector job growth, the Obama administration and Congress responded with a big government approach. Unfortunately, the $800 billion stimulus package had less to do with creating private sector jobs than growing the size and scope of government. And, in the midst of all this, I saw a new national health care bill working its way through the system that would substantially increase the Federal Government role and lock in place the unsustainable costs and inefficiency of our health care system, making health care even more expensive for families and small businesses and making it harder to deal with the exploding costs of health care in the Federal budget. And I saw record deficits building up to dangerous levels of debt that further threatened our economy. These issues, these deep concerns over jobs and the direction of our economy and fiscal crisis we face as a nation are my focus now in the Senate. And I am not alone. Whether Republican, Democrat, or Independent, I believe Ohioans understand that our State and our country are in trouble, and it is going to take real change and all of us working together across party lines to set things right. I believe the twin challenges of our time are how to revive the American economic miracle, and how to stop the reckless overspending by government that threatens to extinguish the American dream. And one affects the other. Without a growing economy and more jobs we cannot hope to reverse the dangerous trend of record deficits and deepening debt. And without getting our spending under control, we can not get our economy moving. It is not one or the other. These two goals are not inconsistent; in fact, they are reinforcing. With the fiscal time bomb on our doorstep and all the uncertainty it creates, we will never see the kind of strong recovery we hope for. We have to do both. In addition to taking steps to get our fiscal house in order, we revive the American economic miracle by moving aggressively to create the climate for job growth, for innovation, invention, and entrepreneurship. We need an environment that encourages risk-taking and private investment, which economists will tell you is the biggest challenge we face in this weak recovery. The current economic climate encouraged by Washington is one of uncertainty and apprehension. I have seen it all over Ohio. Last fall, I visited an independent trucking company, Wooster Trucking, based in Wayne County, OH. Paul Williams, the owner, pulled together a dozen or so local small business owners from the area for a roundtable discussion, one of the many I have had in the last couple years. Struggling in a tough economy, these small businesses all wondered the same thing: why has Washington made it harder on them to grow and create jobs, not easier? They talked about the threat of new EPA regulations that will drive up energy costs. Depending on their business, they were worried about other specific Federal regulations or mandates in trucking, manufacturing and banking that would drive up their compliance make them less competitive. They talked about the threat of higher income taxes coming, which creates uncertainty at a time when the opposite is needed to incentivize businesses to invest and grow. Like the vast majority of small businesses, most of those businesses around the table that day pay their taxes as individuals not corporations. The temporary extension of tax rates and capital gains and death taxes, with the very real possibility of higher taxes soon reduces their incentive to invest and create the jobs we need. Every single small business owner around the table talked about health care. All of them said the same thing. They said, since the health care bill passed, their health care costs are going up more, not less, and how that was increasing their cost of doing business and hurting their ability to create jobs. They talked about premium increases of 10 to 25 percent, eating away any profit and chance to expand even after cutting other expenses. At one of the 80 factory visits I have made in the past 2 years, Bruce Beeghley, an impressive small business entrepreneur in northeast Ohio, told me his orders were picking up but he was not hiring. He was paying overtime instead of hiring permanent workers for the long-term because of the embedded and increasing cost of health care. And our education system and Federal worker retraining system is failing us in Ohio: Around the State, high-tech companies have told me they cannot find the skilled workers they need. This is wrong: At a time of soaring unemployment, there is a skills gap in America. There are high-skilled, high-wage jobs available but our schools are not producing a sufficient supply of well-trained American workers. You cannot be out there talking to workers and management without seeing these issues. But I have heard it closer to home. In fact, I am the product of small family business. My dad, Bill Portman, who we lost at age 88 last year, was one of those small business risk takers. He took a big risk when I was a kid. At age 40, he left a job. He had a good job with a big company as a salesman. He had health care coverage and retirement benefits. He gave it all up to start his own business, Portman Equipment Company, with five other guys and my mom as bookkeeper. He could not get a loan and his family did not have the money and the bank would not lend him money, so he borrowed money from my mom's uncle. The company lost money over the first few years, but they kept it alive through hard work, ingenuity, and sacrifice. My brother took the reins later and took it to a new level. By the time my dad retired the company employed almost 300 people, 300 families. We all worked there, and when I was growing up, the discussion around the kitchen table was often about how government--taxes, rules, and regulations--affected Portman Equipment and other Ohio small businesses. My dad is among my heroes because of his hard work and sacrifice. Because with my mom they built something of value. I have seen it done, and I know the role government can play and should not play in helping to create jobs and opportunities. About a year ago, I asked my dad if he would take the same risk today. He said, ``I don't know, there's a lot of uncertainty out there . . . That is a word I hear a lot from small business owners all over Ohio. That is why a lot of job creators, or potential job creators are staying on the sidelines, and keeping their cash on the sidelines, and keeping their cash on the sidelines rather than investing in plant, equipment, and people. Leadership is needed to create a positive climate which spurs job growth, drives opportunity and restores the American dream. Leadership is needed to get a handle on our serious fiscal issues. Instead, we are debating at the margins. You will see it play out on the floor of the Senate this week. We are locked in a fierce partisan debate about less than 1 percent of Federal outlays, actual federal spending, for this fiscal year. And we are not even addressing the biggest and fastest growing part of the budget, which is the important, but, unsustainable, entitlement programs. In fact, as American families have tightened their belts over the past couple of years and businesses have had to do more with less, the Federal Government has taken the opposite path, spending more, growing bigger, and becoming more involved in our private economy and our lives. Over the past 2 years, Paul Williams at that trucking company in Wooster I told you about had to cut expenses to stay afloat. They had to sell some of their trucks and let folks go. Here in Washington during that same time, the U.S. Government, though going deeper into debt, borrowing more money, brought on more government employees, and grew in size. During these same 2 years, Washington spent 27 percent more in its so-called domestic discretionary spending that is being debated this week. And that does not count the stimulus bill and other one-time spending, which gave us staggering 80 percent increase in this type of spending in 2 short years. This historic failure to control spending, directly affects all of us because it affects our economy and the ability to create jobs. It pushes up interest rates, affecting car loans, mortgages, and student loans, and crowds out private investment, and leaves us with three bad choices, far higher taxes, even more borrowing, or both. This will surprise no one, but recently, a group of 47 respected business economists agreed that the greatest threat to our economy was our debt and deficits. Restoring fiscal restraint is critical to creating the certainty that employers and entrepreneurs need to create jobs across Ohio and our country. It is truly dangerous because left unchecked, these mounting debts are likely to lead to the kind of debt crisis we have seen in Greece and other countries. The government spending more than it takes in hurts our economy today and mortgages the future for our children and grandchildren. Think about this: every child born in America today automatically, through no fault of their own, inherits $45,000 in U.S. debt. People are looking for a better way. People are looking for leadership from Washington that takes on those challenges that Ohio's businesses and workers face. The status quo is not working. There is an urgency about this that the American people get, even while many in Washington seem to be in denial. We must rise to the challenge and work together across party lines to meet our economic and fiscal problems head-on by aggressively putting in place pro-growth measures and spending restraint, and we must do it now. We must think and act differently to compete and win in the global economy, regain America's place in the world and give working families the hope of a better tomorrow. We can no longer rest on our laurels, no longer afford the luxury of living with a substandard education system that does not produce young people with the 21st century skills they need to succeed. We cannot afford a bureaucratic regulatory regime and a hopelessly complicated Tax Code that favors social engineering over sound business decisions. We can no longer sit back while our dependence on imported oil charts our destiny rather than American technology and innovation. And we cannot compete and win if our health care system is so inefficient that its costs are double the rest of the developed world while outcomes are unsatisfactory, especially for those millions of American families without coverage. This is wrong for the small businesses at the roundtable I talked about earlier who are trying to provide health care and yet stay afloat. And it is wrong for working families whose rising costs are eating away at their opportunity to move up the ladder. To revive the American economic miracle, we need to revolutionize the way we think about all the major institutions of our economy. We need structural reform of our regulatory system, energy policy, tax code, worker retraining and education, health care delivery, our trade policy and legal system. And of course, we must fix our broken budgeting process that has us so deeply in debt. These challenges are not insurmountable. I know because we are Americans and we have done this before. We waged a World War that required more resources and sacrifices than anything we face today, and we have come out stronger. We survived a Civil War, a Great Depression, and a Cold War to emerge as the beacon of hope and opportunity for the rest of the world. There is a long line of distinguished Senators from Ohio who were part of these historic times, including Warren G. Harding and William Henry Harrison. One famous predecessor is John Glenn, an American hero who, along with his wife, Annie, I have been honored to know and work with over the years. And immediately follow Senator George Voinovich--one of the very finest public servants our State has ever known. Jane and I are grateful to George and Janet for their support and friendship, and for the extraordinary legacy they leave. And there is another former Ohio Senator whose desk I requested and speak from today: Robert A. Taft, a fellow Cincinnatian, who actually worked at the same law firm where I was a partner before being elected to Congress. Like me, he also served in the executive branch. Unlike me, he was first in his class in high school, college and law school and was said to have had ``the best mind in Washington.'' Democrats joked that ``he had the best mind in Washington until he made it up.'' He was a principled and effective Republican leader. In fact, when his peers commissioned a review of the top five U.S. Senators in history, he was selected to be among them. That is why he is one of only five Senators to have a portrait in the President's Room off the Senate floor. He was a featured ``Profile in Courage'' in John Kennedy's book; on his memorial across Constitution Avenue it is written that it ``stands as a tribute to the honesty, indomitable courage and high principles of free governments symbolized by his life.'' It is always dangerous to predict how a former Senator would react to today's predicaments. But I am confident that were Robert A. Taft among us today, he would rise in full-throated support of addressing the twin challenges we have talked about today. His honesty would force him to admit that our economic systems are not up to the global competition of the 21st century, his courage would force him to insist we address our budget woes, including entitlements, and his love of liberty would compel him to fight for solutions to our economic challenges that promote free markets and the power and dignity of the individual over the heavy hand of government. As we have discussed, there is a lot of hard work to do. In my role, I hope to be worthy of this great and temporary privilege. I will rely on my faith, my family, and the good people of Ohio. I will work constructively with my colleagues to achieve results, including working with the senior Senator from Ohio, Sherrod Brown, and others across the aisle. I will work every day to try to earn the confidence and trust the people of Ohio have placed in me. As we go forward together, may God bless Ohio and this great Nation and help guide us in our shared commitment to a better future. I yield the floor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take my Special Order at this time.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam Speaker, I want to start by thanking the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert), who just gave us a wonderful presentation. He is a dear friend. And as I am about to say, there are a number of people in this Chamber I am going to miss, and the gentleman from Texas is certainly one of them. Madam Speaker, last month I was asked by President Bush to join his Cabinet as the next United States Trade Representative. And tonight I am told that it is likely that the Senate will take up that nomination. If I am confirmed, I am told this will be my last opportunity to speak on the House floor. It is kind of awkward not having the confirmation fully completed, but I do not want to miss this opportunity to say a couple of things to my colleagues. First, I rise tonight with very mixed feelings. If confirmed, I am very much looking forward to the opportunity to serve our country on the important trade issues that we face. But this was not an easy decision. I am going to miss serving the people of the seven counties in southern Ohio's Second Congressional District. It has been the greatest honor of my life, and I will be forever grateful to the people of the second district for giving me the privilege to serve in this great House. I ran for Congress 12 years ago to try to make a positive difference in the lives of people and to take the commonsense values and the common sense of the people of southern Ohio to Washington, D.C. To do that, I needed the help of my constituents, who stretch from downtown Cincinnati about 150 miles east through beautiful rural Ohio, all the way to Portsmouth, Ohio. Over the years that has happened. So many people welcomed me into their homes, into their schools, their businesses, on their farms, into their hospitals, into their places of worship. Others have attended my town meetings, visited with me at parades, county fairs and festivals and invited me to speak at their meetings. I will miss these sessions, and I will miss the valuable input that I have received. The people of the second district have helped me get a better sense through these meetings of the needs and concerns of the small business owners, the parents, the teachers, the veterans, our seniors, our young people. Madam Speaker, one thing I am really going to miss is going into the classrooms and reading the children's book called ``House Mouse, Senate Mouse,'' which I would recommend to my colleagues if they do not know about it. It is a great way to try to explain to kids what we do here and the important work of our legislative branch. These experiences throughout the district have also made me more hopeful, Madam Speaker, about our future, as a region, but also as a country. I have met so many people and been so encouraged by the dedication of those people, who work hard every day to make our communities a better place to live and to work, and make our communities safer, stronger. In particular, I will be forever impressed by those who selflessly volunteer their time and their knowledge to help others. And, of course, all of us must be forever grateful to those men and women in uniform who serve us and who put their lives on the line every day for the people. Together, my constituents and I were able to achieve some great things for our people in the district and across the Nation. We successfully worked together on a wide variety of projects back home, ranging from providing needed funds for the construction of a world- class National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on the banks of the Ohio River, to saving and creating jobs at the Portsmouth Uranium Enrichment Plant in Piketon, an important part of our national energy strategy. As a member of the Committee on Ways and Means, I am the vice-chair of the Committee on the Budget and a member of leadership, I have also had the opportunity to play a role in some important accomplishments here in Congress; welfare reform, lowering tax rates to improve the economy, responding to the attacks of 9/11 and strengthening our military. I was also able to take some specific legislation that I authored across the finish line to be signed into law. Often my legislative partner in that was my friend from across the aisle, a good friend and a thoughtful legislator, Congress Ben Cardin of Maryland. Some of our legislative successes included laws to stop unfunded Federal mandates; the first comprehensive reform of the Internal Revenue Service in more than 50 years, including adding more than 50 new taxpayer rights; four new laws that have helped reduce substance abuse and its consequences through prevention and education; and, of course, three laws that today allow people to save more for their own retirement. All these accomplishments help people. I could not have done it without incredible staff, and I want to thank my dedicated staff, both past and present. I am so proud of them, so grateful for their professionalism, their skill, their commitment to and compassion for the people of Ohio's Second Congressional District. Without their expertise, their hard work, these accomplishments that I mentioned would not have been possible. And I want to thank those in the office of the House Clerk who are here tonight, late, and who are always here for us, those in the cloakroom, those in the Doorkeeper's Office, the Capitol police officers and so many others who have become my friends here and who serve us so well as Members and serve our country well. Madam Speaker, I am very proud of my time here in Congress, and I am proud to have served with a lot of great men and women who are here for the right reasons and who serve honorably. They are good public servants and many have become good friends. There are too many Members, both Republican and Democrat, for me to mention here tonight, but there is one Member I would like to single out, and that is Dennis Hastert, the Congressman from Illinois's Fourteenth Congressional District. He is known by a lot of different names. He is the Speaker to all of us, he is Coach to a lot of us, he is a loving father, grandfather and husband. But to me, Denny Hastert is a good friend and he has been a mentor. I will be forever grateful to him for the opportunities he has given me to serve in leadership and for the many things that he has taught me. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will wrap up tonight now with a plug for the Central American- Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, which I do feel strongly about, but with a few words about the most important people in my life. I would not be here today without the strong and constant support of my family. My inspiration for serving and for giving back to the community comes from my parents. I was blessed with two great parents, they have been tremendous role models, and I cannot put into words the gratitude I feel for them. I am also very fortunate to have the best partner I can imagine in my wife, Jane. She does a lot for our community and she is the best mother I can imagine. I could not be prouder of my three kids, Jed, Will and Sally for their many accomplishments. I himself also thankful for their willingness to allow me to serve, to have allowed me to serve here with my colleagues, to allow me to serve the people of Southern Ohio, and to have given their blessing to this new responsibility I will be undertaking, which will require me to travel more than I would like and to be away from them more than I would like. I mentioned at my announcement that my 10-year-old daughter Sally had to an admit to me that she had never heard of the U.S. Trade Representative, she joins a lot of other people in that, but she said it sounded like a really neat job. And it is. And it is a really important job. Trade affects every one of us. It affects our economic future in very fundamental ways. It also is fundamental to freedom and prosperity around the world. Fortunately for me, the trade issues are also important to the U.S. Congress, and the House and the Senate are actively involved in so many issues that will come across the desk of the U.S. Trade Representative. As a result, if I am confirmed tonight, I will have the opportunity to work very closely with Democrats and Republicans alike on both sides of the Capitol. This makes it a little easier, Madam Speaker, to leave the Congress. I want to thank you for allowing me to take the time tonight to express my mixed emotions as I contemplate leaving this, the People's House. Good night, and Godspeed.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Madam Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, earlier today, I was absent attending a meeting at the White House and missed the recorded votes on rollcall No. 136, on H.R. 902, the Presidential One Dollar Coin Act; rollcall No. 137, on H. Con. Res. 81, Expressing the sense of Congress regarding human rights in Cuba; rollcall No. 138, on Ordering the Previous Question on H. Res. 235, the rule for H. Res. 22, Expressing the sense of Congress regarding a Small Business Bill of Rights; and rollcall No. 139, on Ordering the Previous Question on H. Res. 236, the rule for H.R. 748, the Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on rollcall No. 136; ``yea'' on rollcall No. 137; ``yea'' rollcall No. 138; and ``yea'' on rollcall No. 139.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a dear friend and Brown County, Ohio constituent, John A. Ruthven, who will be honored on April 21, 2005 by the Cincinnati Museum Center in the regional recognition for his selection by President Bush to receive the 2004 National Medal of the Arts. The National Medal of the Arts is the highest award presented to an artist or patron in the United States, and John is the first wildlife artist to receive this prestigious award. I was honored to join John and his wife, Judy, and members of their family at the White House for the medal presentation by President Bush on November 17, 2004. One of our nation's most talented artists, John is an author, lecturer, naturalist, and internationally acknowledged master of wildlife art. His paintings have been shown at the White House; the Hermitage Museum in Russia; the Ohio State Capitol's Rotunda; and many other prestigious venues around the world. John will be honored by the Museum Center for his career in art and his many connections to the Museum Center. I am told that, over the years, he has used actual specimens from the research collections of the Museum Center and one of its predecessor museums, the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History, as models for his original paintings. A special exhibit of selected Ruthven works at the Museum Center will open to the public on April 23, 2005--Earth Day. In the exhibit, several of Audubon's prints, including the Carolina parakeet, Henslow's sparrow, and Passenger pigeon, will be displayed with John's paintings of the same subjects, and the actual specimens from the Museum Center's collection. Three days later--April 26, 2005--is the 220th anniversary of John James Audubon's birth. The coincidence of Audubon's birthday is underscored by the fact that Audubon, too, had many connections to the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History. He was the Museum's first employee, hired as a taxidermist and to create exhibits. Audubon supplemented his Museum income by drawing portraits, teaching art, and even opened his own art academy. While in Cincinnati, Audubon created five paintings of local birds that were among the first contributions to his acclaimed Birds of North America. There can be no doubt that John Ruthven is our Audubon, and a true American treasure. John has said, ``I believe art is as necessary to our heritage as the history books. Both record past and present in the effort to educate and enrich the lives of people today and in the near future. It is my desire, through my paintings, to record for later generations some of the beauty of nature that exists in my lifetime.'' John's wife, Judy, is also accomplished. She was project manager and co-chair of the Historic Georgetown Project to restore the Georgetown, Ohio courthouse square buildings. With John, she painstakingly restored the brick Brown County homestead of President Ulysses S. Grant, who grew up in picturesque Georgetown. Judy is a Grant scholar, and she spent a tremendous amount of energy to ensure that the building was historically accurate. The Ruthvens later donated the structure, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, to the State of Ohio. In addition, Judy has supported numerous other organizations, including the Ohio Humanities Council. All of us in Southern Ohio congratulate John on receiving the National Medal of the Arts, being honored by the Museum Center, and his life as an acclaimed artist, and we wish him luck in the many projects to come.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute the grand opening on May 20, 2005 of the extraordinary new Tri-State Warbird Museum in Clermont County, Ohio. The museum, based at the Clermont County Airport, will showcase the history of fighter planes in World War II and Vietnam. Housed in a new 20,000 square foot state of the art facility, the museum features an exhibit area for historic artifacts; a library of reference books; a classroom; a professional restoration shop for the preservation and restoration of original historic aircraft; and a storage area for specialized tools and parts. Historic aircraft are invaluable to understanding our nation's history, and examples of these planes are few in number and in danger of being lost forever. With the museum's painstaking preservation efforts, they will come to life for everyone to learn from and enjoy. Thanks to this museum, the importance of these airplanes to our enduring freedom and the sacrifice of those involved--from engineers to mechanics to the pilots--will never be lost. The Tri-State Warbird Museum's unique building has resulted from the hard work and expertise of man volunteers and supporters. In 2003, a group of volunteers, led by business leader David O' Maley, formed to preserve the memory of those who sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Museum President Paul Redlich, a pilot and professional technician with more than twenty years of historic aviation expertise, closed his business and moved his family to Cincinnati to run the museum. The facility also boasts two professional technicians committed to Warbird painstaking restoration and maintenance: Greg Muir and Nathan Dalrymple. The museum also boasts an advisory board composed of a broad group of area citizens who have unique talents and experience in aviation and history. Members of the advisory board include: Neil Armstrong; Howard Becker; Jim Bushman; Jack Brown; Joe Campanella; Mark Clark; Richard Cross; Tad Lawrence; Dr. Francis LeRoy; Phil Myers; Buck Niehoff; David O'Maley; Jim Orr; Scott Robertson; Hal Shevers; Dudley Taft; and Oliver Waddell. Of particular note is the extraordinary commitment of the advisory board members and the museum's capital campaign committee, which resulted in the museum's entire cost being funded by private donations. Mr. Speaker, all of us in Southern Ohio congratulate the many professionals and volunteers who have helped to make this wonderful new museum a reality.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, today I was absent at a previously scheduled commitment and missed the recorded votes on Roll Call Number 82, the Obey Amendment to H. Con. Res. 95; Roll Call Number 83, the Hensarling Amendment to H. Con. Res. 95; and Roll Call Number 84, on H. Con. Res. 32, expressing the grave concern of Congress regarding the occupation of the Republic of Lebanon by the Syrian Arab Republic. Had I been present, I would have voted ``No'' on Roll Call Number 82; ``No'' on Roll Call Number 83; and ``Yes'' on Roll Call Number 84.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. I promise I will not talk about trade. But I will talk about this budget. I want to start by saying this budget is not all the details. It is a blueprint. The authorizing committees, the appropriating committees, will fill out those details. But it is a blueprint that says something about who we are. And the three pillars in this budget, I think, reflect the principles and the priorities of this House. First, we believe that our country ought to be protected and strength is emphasized. That is our national security and our homeland security. Second is to be sure we have a strong economy. The tax relief has worked: 4.4 percent growth last year; 3 million jobs added to our economy in the last 21 months alone. The economy is strong and growing. We need to be sure that continues and that is why tax increases are not part of this budget. And, third, to be sure that we do as the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) says appropriately, keep our spending under control, we take responsible steps to restrain spending both in domestic discretionary and in the entitlement area. Those are the three pillars. By doing so, we reduce the deficit in half within 4 years. I commend the chairman for coming up with this budget. The process by which we got here also says something about who we are. I want to commend the ranking member from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) for his civility. I want to commend the members of the Committee on the Budget for the great debate that we had over the last month or so, I want to commend the Members on the floor who have had a great debate here, and I want to commend, finally, the chairman of the Committee on the Budget. The gentleman from Iowa has conducted himself in the Committee on the Budget and here on the floor through an open, honest process where people have had the opportunity to say their peace. He has done a great job in listening carefully to the concerns of so many of us in this conference and in the entire Congress to be sure we come up with a document that does indeed reflect the priorities, I believe, of our House, the strength of our country, the growth of our economy, and getting spending under control. I strongly urge my colleagues to support this budget which is, although just a blueprint, the appropriate statement of who we are and does indeed get us to the point where we are reducing our deficit, which is so important, but also funding the key priorities in our country. I urge a ``yes'' vote on the resolution.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Chairman, due to a previously scheduled commitment away from Capitol Hill, I was unavoidably detained and regretfully missed rollcall vote No. 75, the Markey Amendment. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the chairman of the Budget Committee for yielding me this time, and I am delighted to have the opportunity to talk about the importance of keeping the economy growing. And this budget certainly does that. But let me take a moment, if I could, and respond to some of the comments by the minority leader with regard to the Social Security system. First, to say the criticism that your budget, Mr. Chairman, does not include Social Security, is kind of an unusual one, given that as the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) knows, under the Budget Act of 1974, Social Security is off budget. And even if the Budget Committee, in all of its wisdom, decided we were going to reform Social Security, we would not have the ability to. You cannot do it in the budget. And, secondly, although we heard a lot of criticism about some of the President's ideas and some of the other ideas to indeed modernize and save Social Security, we did not hear even outlines of a plan on the other side. So it is kind of hard to put a budget together, even if you could under the Budget Act, when there is no plan. There is lot of denial about the problem we just heard. And there is a lot of criticism about those who would like to address the problem. I commend the President for addressing it. There can be no greater sense of leadership around this place, Washington, D.C., than someone who is willing to take on the third rail in American politics, Social Security. Traditionally, it has been one that politically is very tough, hard to take on, referring to that third electrified rail in the New York subway system. You grab it and you are electrified. The President is taking it on, as are Republicans, because it is the right thing to do. It is the right thing to do for our seniors, to be sure they have strong Social Security. And as the President said repeatedly, anybody who is age 55 or older will not have their benefits changed one bit. But more importantly, it is important for those succeeding generations. I have my 14-year-old son with me today. We want to be sure that his generation has an opportunity to have the same kind of peace of mind in retirement and the retirement security that we have all enjoyed. And quite frankly, the math does not lie. The Social Security system was funded in a way that does not permit us to continue to provide those benefits to future generations because of the fact that we have people living longer, because we have more people who are about to retire, my generation, the baby boom generation, and because therefore we will have fewer people working to pay in those benefits. We need to do something. We need to do it on a bipartisan basis. We need to put aside this notion that everything is off the table and criticism and denial and, instead, address the very real problem we have. And the very obvious solution is to do something sooner rather than later because the sooner we do it, the less impact it will be on our economy, on our budget, and on our young people. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) talked about the reckless tax cuts that have driven us into debt. Well, what have we seen over the last 4 years? It is not tax relief that drove us into debt. Over the last 4 years we have seen remarkable changes in our Nation's economic picture after having endured the bursting of the stock market bubble, the corporate scandals, a recession, the terrorist attacks and their aftermath and, of course, the uncertainties of an international war against terrorism, including our conflicts in Afghanistan and now in Iraq. These things have resulted in two things. Number one, because of the recession, less revenue. And of course that is the number one reason we find ourselves with a growing deficit over the last few years. And all the data supports that, from CBO, from OMB, all the nonpartisan actuaries looking at this issue. All those who analyze it say the same thing. When you have less revenue coming in, lower capital gains, lower corporate income tax, lower individual income tax because of recession, that is the number one reason. The second reason is increased spending. And, yes, this Congress has increased spending, and in a few areas as has been talked about earlier today, it was necessary. One, of course, is Homeland Security. Once again, this budget provides for substantial increases in our Homeland Security budget because we need it to protect our country against the terrorist threat. Second is with regard to defense. We inherited not only a recession over the last 4 years, but also a deficit in terms of our defense. We needed to rebuild defense. And again today we will vote on a budget, or this week on a budget, that will increase substantially our commitment to the defense of our country. So some spending has been increased, and some other areas as well. Tax relief is specifically focused on growing that economy, getting us out of that recession, moving us to a point where we have increased revenues coming in. And you know what? The strength and resilience with which our Nation has responded to the challenges I talked about earlier, the recession, the terrorist attack, the stock market bubble, the corporate scandals, has been incredible. And it has been because of the tax relief. The tax relief, as opposed to the less revenue from the recession, as opposed to the increased spending, the tax relief has actually enabled us to move out of a recession into economic times where we see good economic growth. We have acted together to address those deficits in our Homeland Security, our national security, and also put in place through tax relief the necessary incentives to grow our economy. Because of that, we are in a very different position today than we were 4 years ago. In fact, the general consensus of both public and private forecasters is that the US economy is in a sustained expansion growth period, with real solid GDP growth over the last year and going forward, real growth and payroll jobs, low unemployment and very low historical inflation. This chart shows the GDP growth. Starting in 2003 going up, real GDP growth has increased for 13 consecutive quarters. In 2004, our real growth was 4.4 percent. That makes us the envy of the developed world. It is the strongest growth we have had in 5 years and one of the strongest in 20 years. The Budget Committee recently heard from Chairman Alan Greenspan from the Federal Reserve who said the U.S. economy delivered a solid performance in 2004 and thus far activity appears to be expanding at a reasonably good pace. The Fed projects we will have real GDP growth this year of between 3\1/2\ and 4 percent, and again good growth in the proceeding year. This growth is because, again, the tax relief is beginning to work. This includes real business investment, increasing at a rate of 15 percent over the last year and a half. The best performance in real business investment and equipment over the past 7 years, shipments of nondefense capital goods, which is a key measure of private business investment, has rebounded very strongly. Homeownership has also increased dramatically. We are now seeing the best homeownership rates that we have seen in our country's history. Housing construction is at its best in 20 years. This shows a record high in homeownership, including among minorities. Unemployment is also a good story. If we look at what has happened since the tax relief was put in place, payroll employment has increased by 3 million jobs over the past 21 months. Just last week we saw job gains of 262,000 new jobs, more than a quarter million new jobs in February. Again, that is something that we should be proud of as a Congress, something we should be very pleased about. Significant improvement in jobs and labor markets has occurred and is expected to continue as new claims for unemployment insurance are at their lowest level in over 4 years. Even the stock market is rebounding. Despite all the problems we have gone through with the markets we talked about earlier, the Dow-Jones Industrial Average has been at its highest level in 4 years. The Dow has nearly tripled in value over the last 4 years. These are not just figures or abstractions; these mean real jobs for real people we represent. It means we have higher investment in plants, in business, and equipment. We have higher business income; we have higher wages, higher take-home salary. This is happening in America right now. We need to be sure that continues. Expanding job opportunities and solid income growth is what this budget is all about so every American who wants to work can work and find a job. That is what makes this a Nation of opportunity and prosperity. Today, because we have an improved economic picture, things are better; but we are not finished. We need this momentum to continue. We need to be sure we continue to see the kind of economic growth we have seen, and that means we need to continue the tax relief we passed in 2001, 2002, and 2003. The minority leader earlier talked about the reckless tax cuts that caused the deficit. We talked about what caused the deficit. Here is what has resulted from those reckless tax cuts: 3 million jobs in the last 21 months. There are a lot of factors in the economy; but the one we can control is the fiscal side, and that is our spending and our tax relief. What this budget does is it says we need to continue that tax relief. We are not going to increase taxes just now as our economy has finally gotten back on track, as the people we represent have finally seen the kind of opportunity we all want them to have. We are not talking about new taxes; we are talking about keeping the tax relief that was in place in 2001, 2002, and 2003 by this Congress, put in place by this Congress, so we can continue to have good economic growth. The speed and the strength of the economic recovery of the past several years has been due in large part to this tax relief. We cannot forget that as we look at this budget. We also need to keep spending under control. Earlier this month, Alan Greenspan told us that the notion of raising taxes in response to deficits ``posed significant risk to economic growth and the revenue base'' and that in his judgment we should aim to ``close the fiscal gap primarily, if not wholly, on the outlay side.'' That is what this budget does. It makes some tough choices in nondefense discretionary spending, some tough choices in terms of our entitlement growth. Our entitlement programs are growing well beyond inflation. As the gentleman from Iowa (Chairman Nussle) has laid out today, this budget calls for a lot of responsible ways for Congress to help itself to control spending, controlling discretionary growth, allocating discretionary spending to defense and homeland security priorities, as we talked about earlier, and calling for reconciled reductions in the amount of growth on the mandatory spending side. None of it is going to be easy. A lot of us here in Congress have gotten pretty comfortable in signing off on big spending increases and free-flowing new spending. But success at keeping taxes and spending down is critical to a strong economy and with it higher standards of living for our Nation's workers and our families. The gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi) talked about the good old days in the 1990s when we did have an opportunity to get the deficits down and get some surpluses. We did it very simply by keeping taxes under control and keeping spending under control. That is what this budget provides for, so we can reduce the deficit in half in 5 years and see that opportunity continue.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the gentleman from Florida's legislation that would make clear that property owners who participate in hazard mitigation projects will not be taxed on the mitigation assistance. This legislation is very important because it reverses a June 2004 IRS ruling which determined that Federal FEMA hazard mitigation assistance represented taxable income to participating individuals and businesses. I want to commend the gentleman from Florida for his legislation and for his leadership on this. I want to thank the gentleman from California (Mr. Thomas) also for ensuring its expeditious consideration today on the floor. This legislation is very important to Ohio. Passage of it will encourage our disaster impacted communities and our citizens to seek out mitigation assistance and limit damage to property and to people. Mitigation is absolutely crucial to ongoing disaster recovery efforts in my State of Ohio which in the past 18 months has had seven Federal disasters. In most cases mitigation assistance is used to elevate the homes to a better level of protection or move families out of harm's way. It is often the only hope for repetitive loss disaster victims. The intent is to prevent those homes from suffering future losses, protect the people and reduce the rate of Federal disaster response and recovery cost increases. Many of the people who have taken advantage of such assistance are people living in lower valued property in the flood plain who could not afford to move on their own. In Ohio, the hazard mitigation grants through FEMA are administered by the Ohio Emergency Management Agency. Currently in southwestern Ohio there is one project in the district I represent, the village of Fairfax, and there is one right near my district in the city of Fairfield. Through community support, both of these mitigation projects are in the process of removing people from repeated flooding areas and making homes more resilient to flooding. A total of 46 participants in these two projects include many families who will likely not have to suffer severe impact to their homes the next time it should flood, and it will flood again. They also, very importantly, would be unlikely to need any other Federal or State disaster assistance. The total cost of these projects is about $4.5 million. Taxing this investment into these communities and the lives of these homeowners like those in Fairfax will discourage future participation. If the IRS rule is allowed to stand, these communities will be hesitant to participate in mitigation because of that liability. This IRS policy undermines our Nation's efforts to lower the costs of future disasters through mitigation. It also discourages individuals who are affected by repeated disasters from removing themselves from harm or taking action to prevent repeated damage loss and property loss, the very actions we are trying to encourage as the Federal Government. Today we have an opportunity to correct this disincentive. Mr. Speaker, I strongly support H.R. 1134 and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin (Chairman Petri) and want to congratulate him for his patience and persistence and for getting H.R. 3 to the Floor, again. I rise today, Mr. Chairman, in very strong support of the transportation bill and special support for something within it, and that is called the drug impaired driving legislation. It is something that is very critical for our Nation's future, along with having more roads and bridges and infrastructure. It would probably surprise some of my colleagues to learn that for the most recent year for which we have data, almost 11 million Americans drove a car or a truck while under the influence of illegal drugs. Driving under the influence of illegal drugs, of course, caused thousands of accidents, fatalities, and property damage. Over the past decade, we have had a lot of success in getting at the problem of drunk driving. We successfully reduced the number of drunk drivers on the road by detecting and dealing with the issue. We have not done the same with regard to illegal drugs. The nation's users of illegal drugs have faced no similar effort. They continue to drive under the influence of drugs, including cocaine, methamphetamines, marijuana and other drugs that do impair your judgment and do create these accidents and fatalities. A more effective public policy for detection and prosecution will not only involve traffic safety and create a deterrent, but it will also get those drivers off the road. They are already violating our laws; we need to get them off the road and get them into treatment. The Drug Impaired Driving Research and Prevention Act is bipartisan legislation I introduced last year, along with the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Levin), the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Souder), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Costello), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. LaTourette), the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad), and the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Hobson). It provides critical guidance and assistance to the States as they begin to address drug impaired driving. It calls on the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to craft a model State drug impaired driving law. It also enhances the training of police officers and prosecutors to be able to detect, enforce and prosecute drug impaired driving laws. It also funds research to develop field tests to be able to identify drug impaired drivers, which is a critical part of this. This legislation, Mr. Chairman, will greatly improve traffic safety and will reduce traffic fatalities as we have seen with drunk driving laws. It is time to deal with these undetected dangers on our roads and highways before more danger occurs, before more damage occurs and before more lives are lost. I thank the gentleman from Alaska (Chairman Young) and the gentleman from Minnesota (Ranking Member Oberstar) for including it in this legislation, and I congratulate the gentleman from Wisconsin (Chairman Petri), the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), and others for bringing this legislation to the Floor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Tom and Mary Ellen Cody, friends and constituents who on April 30, 2005 will be named 2005 Cincinnatians of the Year by the Cincinnati Chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International. Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International is the central resource for information about type I juvenile diabetes, and raises funds to support research to find a cure for diabetes. Tom and Mary Ellen are being honored for their extraordinary service to the Cincinnati community. They have been active members since they moved to our area in 1982, when Tom joined Federated Department Stores, Inc. Currently, Tom is vice chair of Federated with responsibility for legal and human resources, internal audit, external affairs, and the company's philanthropic activities. Prior to joining Federated, Tom was with Pan American World Airways, Inc. He serves on the Boards of Trustees of Xavier University, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Life Center, and the National Conference for Community and Justice. In addition, he is a past chair of United Way of Cincinnati and the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce Board of Trustees. A native of New York City, Tom received a B.A. from Maryknoll College and a J.D. from St. John's University School of Law. Mary Ellen is a member of the boards of Dominican Community Services, 4Cs (Community Coordinated Child Care), Dress for Success Cincinnati, and Friends of the University of Cincinnati College--Conservatory of Music (CCM). She attended the College of Mount Saint Joseph. The Codys have 4 children: Thomas, Jr., Mark, Anne, and Amy, and 7 grandchildren. All of us in the greater Cincinnati area congratulate the Codys on their extraordinary community service, and on receiving this prestigious honor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks), and I thank the Members who have been out here this afternoon talking about this critical issue and recognizing this resolution. I represent the Maupin family in Clermont County, Ohio. Their son, Keith Matthew ``Matt'' Maupin, Army Specialist, was captured in Iraq in April of last year. We are approaching, therefore, the 1-year anniversary. I rise today to pay special honor to Matt Maupin and to all our brave servicemen and women who are putting their lives on the line for us again on the sands of Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere. Specialist Maupin has been missing, as I said, since April 9, 2004. His convoy came under attack. He was taken captive. He is still missing. He went to Iraq because he believed in the fight. He went to Iraq for the freedom of the Iraqi people and to make America and our world a safer place. He is truly an American hero. In our part of southern Ohio, there has been an outpouring of support for Matt; prayers, but also yellow ribbons have cropped up everywhere: on cars, on highway overpasses, and at places of business. His father is a veteran, Keith Maupin; his brother, Lance Corporal Micah Maupin, is a Marine stationed in Miramar, California, currently. Specialist Maupin comes from a family that strongly supports the military and strongly supports our military families. In fact, Matt's family has taken it upon themselves to establish a Yellow Ribbon Support Network to support families throughout our part of Ohio and, indeed, throughout our country who have their sons and daughters in harm's way. I again want to thank those who have brought this resolution to the floor today, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Franks) and others, for their strong support and those of our brave men and women who are missing in action. In the case of Matt Maupin, we remember the Army's ``Soldier's Creed,'' which states: ``. . . I always place the mission first. I will never accept defeat. I will never quit. I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life. . . . I am an American soldier.'' This is Specialist Matt Maupin. We take care of our soldiers. We leave no soldier behind.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor my friend, fellow Ohioan, and former colleague, Ambassador Tony Hall, upon overwhelming House passage of legislation to designate the building located at 200 West Second Street in Dayton, Ohio as the ``Tony Hall Federal Building and Courthouse.'' Currently United States Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Mr. Hall is well known to those of us from Ohio and in the House. But for those who are not familiar with his distinguished career, permit me to relate just a few of his many accomplishments. Prior to serving as Ambassador, Mr. Hall represented the people of the Third Congressional District of Ohio for nearly 24 years. During his service in Congress, he was a founding member and Chairman of the House Select Committee on Hunger and Chairman of the Democratic Caucus on Hunger. Ambassador Hall also founded and served as a steering committee member for the Congressional Friends of Human Rights Monitors. In Congress, Ambassador Hall wrote significant legislation supporting food aid, child survival, basic education, primary health care, microenterprise and development assistance programs for the world's poorest nations. He has made over one hundred trips to poverty stricken and war torn nations in his efforts to observe first hand the important work of these programs. His tireless advocacy for hunger relief and humanitarian programs around the world resulted in his being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times. He has also received the UNICEF 1995 Children's Legislative Advocate Award; the U.S. AID Presidential End Hunger Award; the 1993 Oxfam America Partners Award; and the NCAA Silver Anniversary Award. A graduate of Denison University, Ambassador Hall was a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand. He and his wife, Janet, have two children. The naming of the federal building and courthouse in Dayton is a fitting tribute to Ambassador Hall's work for the people of Ohio and around the world. I join my colleagues in congratulating him on receiving this important honor.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Chairman, on rollcall No. 10 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' Amendment No. 3 Offered by Mr. Crowley

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor William C. Portman II, my father, who will be formally honored on February 24, 2005 as a Great Living Cincinnatian by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Recipients of this prestigious annual honor are chosen on the basis of professional achievement; leadership; vision; and community service. Past honorees include such Greater Cincinnati leaders as Neil Armstrong, Albert Sabin and Charles Scripps. Although my father has always been an extraordinary role model for me, he has also been a role model for so many others in our community. Throughout his lifetime, he has led, trained and motivated people with integrity and by example. Dad was born in the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood of Cincinnati, and graduated from Walnut Hills High School in 1941. He received a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Dartmouth College in 1946, after interrupting his studies to serve as a lieutenant in World War II. After the war, he went on to earn an M.B.A. from Dartmouth's Amos Tuck School of Business Administration in 1947. He began his career in Cincinnati with Procter & Gamble's chemical division, and then joined the Clark Equipment Company as sales manager. He enjoyed the material handling business, and in 1960, he decided to strike out on his own and start his own business. Along with my late mother, Joan, as bookkeeper, the Portman Equipment Company began modestly, with two salespeople and two mechanics. The company was started with borrowed funds, and it took a few years to turn a profit. Today, the company employs over 400 people, handles multiple lines and services, and is one of the largest material handling distributors in the United States. Dad would tell you that's because he hired outstanding people, which is true, but it is also because he is a good leader and a hardworking entrepreneur. He was the first equipment dealer in the country to recognize the importance of operator safety and mechanic education. In 1972, Dad initiated a training operation, now called the ``Learning Center,'' which offers twenty industry courses, has instructed over 80,000 students worldwide, and is the largest regional training site for Caterpillar and Mitsubishi forklifts. Portman Equipment Company, now run by my brother, William C. ``Wym'' Portman III, is now one of the country's largest Cat Lift Truck distributors, and was listed as one of Cincinnati's top 100 privately held firms twelve times. Dad always recognized the importance of giving back through community service. In 1975, he became the first small businessperson to chair the Greater Cincinnati United Way campaign. He was the first chair to visit all 105 agencies that received United Way funding, and fundraising set a new record. He has served on the boards of United Way; Community Chest & Council; the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce; and the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. He has held leadership positions with the Cincinnati Business Committee; the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland's Small Business Advisory Council; the Hamilton County Regional Airport Authority; and chaired the Chamber's first Leadership Cincinnati class, which is one of the country's most prestigious leadership development programs. In all his business and community endeavors, he was strongly supported by my mother, Joan, who herself was an accomplished civic leader. Among her accomplishments, she was named a Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year in 1979, and was the recipient of the Jacob E. Davis Volunteer of the Year Award of the Greater Cincinnati Foundation. Our family, including my wife, Jane; brother, Wym; sister-in-law, Jan; sister, Ginna; brother-in-law Allan; and Dad's nine grandchildren; are proud of all of Dad's accomplishments, and congratulate him on being named a Great Living Cincinnatian.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor J. Mack Swigert, a friend and constituent, who will be formally honored as a Great Living Cincinnatian on February 24, 2005 by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. The recipients of this prestigious annual award, presented since 1967, are selected on the basis of professional achievement; leadership; vision; and community service. Past honorees include Neil Armstrong; Dr. Albert B. Sabin; and Charles Scripps. Mr. Swigert is well known for his work on the historic National Labor-Management Relations Act of 1947, better known as the Taft- Hartley Act, which is still the critical center of America's labor law. At the time, Mr. Swigert was a young associate attorney representing employers at the Cincinnati firm of Taft, Stettinius and Hollister. He was asked by U.S. Senator Robert Taft to draft some suggested amendments to the Wagner Act, the 1935 law protecting the bargaining rights of unions. While he believed that the Wagner Act had generally good features, Mr. Swigert felt some key changes were needed. Eventually these important amendments were passed over President Truman's veto. Although Mr. Swigert credits Senator Taft's political acumen with getting the changes passed, the law's endurance today is truly Mr. Swigert's legacy. Ironically, Mr. Swigert never intended to become a lawyer. Born in Illinois and raised in Iowa, he graduated from Harvard. He met his late wife, Alice, in 1930 while visiting his parents in Tennessee, and she encouraged him to attend law school. Following a brief stint with a Chicago law firm, in 1936 he was asked by Charles Taft to work in the labor department at Taft, Stettinius and Hollister, one of Greater Cincinnati's largest and most distinguished law firms. He was named partner in 1948, and in 1979 was named managing partner and chairman of the Executive Committee. He still retains the title ``Of Counsel'' with the firm. In Cincinnati, Mr. Swigert has held leadership posts with the Queen City Club; Cincinnati Country Club; Queen City Optimists Club; Cincinnati Tennis Club; Recess Club; and Harvard Law Club. In 2004, the Cincinnati Bar Foundation presented him with its Lifetime Achievement in Law award. Mr. Swigert has two living children, David and Sally, and five grandchildren. All of us in Greater Cincinnati congratulate Mr. Swigert on being named a Great Living Cincinnatian.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Richard W. Vilter, M.D., a leader in our medical community, who will be formally honored as a Great Living Cincinnatian on February 24, 2005 by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Recipients of this prestigious annual award are chosen on the basis of professional achievement, leadership, vision, and community service. Past honorees include Neil Armstrong, Dr. Albert Sabin, and Charles Scripps. A native Cincinnatian, Dr. Vilter has said that not only did he want to follow in the footsteps of his father, Dr. William F. Vilter, he never considered doing anything else. After graduating from Hughes High School in 1929, he earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Harvard. Dr. Vilter promised to join his father in practice when he returned to Cincinnati, but, tragically, his father died of leukemia before he could do so. Dr. Vilter has said this is what led him to pursue his distinguished career in blood diseases. After graduating from medical school in 1937, Dr. Vilter earned an internship at Cincinnati General Hospital specializing in internal medicine. In 1940, he was named senior resident, and later became chief medical resident. He went on to hold many leadership positions at Cincinnati General, including founding director of the Division of Hematology and Assistant Director of the Department of Internal Medicine. In 1956, he became the Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor Professor of Medicine and director of the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati, positions he held until 1978. He still serves as the Gordon and Helen Hughes Taylor Professor Emeritus of Medicine, continuing his teaching and consulting work. Dr. Vilter has also spread his practice of medicine internationally, acting as a consultant for the United Nations' World Health Organization, traveling for the Pan American Sanitary Bureau, and serving as chair of the National Advisory Committee's Malnutrition Research Center in Thailand. Dr. Vilter has held leadership positions with many organizations, including the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine's Medical Heritage Library Board; the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine; American Society of Clinical Nutrition, where he was the first president; the American Clinical and Climitalogical Association; and the Cincinnati Society of Internal Medicine. He received the American College of Physicians Ohio Chapter's Laureate Award in 2002; the American Medical Association's Joseph Goldberger Award for outstanding contributions in the field of nutrition; the National March of Dimes Foundation's Dan Tehan Humanitarian Award; the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine's Daniel Drake Award for major and lasting contributions to the College; and the University of Cincinnati Excellence Award. In August, 2003, Dr. Vilter lost his beloved wife of 70 years, Sue. He lost his son, Richard Jr., in 1990. All of us in Cincinnati congratulate Dr. Vilter on being named a Great Living Cincinnatian.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Donald A. Spencer, Sr., an educator, real estate broker, community activist, musician and composer, who will be formally honored as a Great Living Cincinnatian on February 24, 2005 by the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce. Recipients of this prestigious annual award are chosen on the basis of professional achievement; leadership; vision; and community service. Past honorees have included Neil Armstrong; Dr. Albert Sabin and Charles Scripps--and Mr. Spencer's energetic wife of 64 years, Marian, a former vice mayor of Cincinnati and longtime community activist. In fact, Mr. Spencer is the first recipient of the award to be married to a Great Living Cincinnatian. Born in Cincinnati, Mr. Spencer graduated from Walnut Hills High School and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Cincinnati before embarking upon an eighteen year teaching career at Douglas Elementary and Stowe and Bloom Junior High Schools. He enjoyed teaching, but became interested in selling real estate in 1944 after he and Marian purchased their first home. He opened a real estate office while he continued teaching for six years. Eventually, Donald A. Spencer and Associates grew to 23 employees in two offices, and flourished for thirty years. In 1986, Mr. Spencer was the first African American member of the Cincinnati Board of Realtors, and served on its statewide legislative committee. Later, he was named President of the Cincinnati Association of Real Estate Brokers, and was active with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers. Mr. Spencer has remained active in education. He co-chaired the Cincinnati Public Schools' successful 2001 school levy campaign, and in 2003, he co-chaired the Cincinnatians Active in the Support of Education, which helped pass a $485 million school levy to build 35 new schools and renovate the remaining ones. A lifetime member of the NAACP, Mr. Spencer has also served on the boards of Ohio University; Family Housing Developers; Friends of Cincinnati Parks; Walnut Hills High School Foundation; and Ohio Valley Goodwill. Among his many awards are the Ohio University Board of Trustees' Founders Citation and the Cincinnati Charter Committee's Charles P. Taft Civic Gumption Award. The Spencers have two sons and two grandsons. All of us in Cincinnati congratulate Donald Spencer on being named a Great Living Cincinnatian.

Mr. PORTMAN

Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. Speaker, Americans turned out in record numbers and their votes have been counted. President Bush won with more votes than any other Presidential candidate in the history of our great country. In Ohio, in fact, the votes were counted and then recounted, and President Bush won by over 118,000 votes in my State. No election is ever perfect. They never are. But there is absolutely no credible basis to question the outcome of the election. That is what is going on here today. I heard my friend from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) say, this is about the right for every vote to be counted. No one on this side of the aisle will disagree with that. We could not agree more. That is why we have HAVA. That is why we are going to refine it further. That is why we need to continue our work, as many speakers on our side of the aisle have said, to be sure that every vote is indeed counted. But that is not what this objection is about. This objection from the other side of the aisle, and I am going to quote one of my colleagues who said, it is about ``massive and widespread voter irregularities in the State of Ohio.'' Not so. I also read in the challenge lots of irresponsible conspiracy theories about what happened in Ohio. I was there. It did not happen. I also heard today from the other side of the aisle that no one has answered any of these questions. That is wrong. One of the concerns that has been raised time and time again, most commonly raised, is that in Warren County, a district that I represent and a city that I represent, that somehow there was not a fair election because people were locked out. Yes, the media was locked out in the Warren County board of elections. It happened. But here is Jeff Ruppert, a lawyer for the Kerry-Edwards campaign who was inside and saw nothing unusual: ``It was as clear and open as it could possibly be,'' he said. Other witnesses included, of course, the Democratic members of the election board and several Democrats who were hired to help count the votes. As has been said time and time again in Ohio, we have got a pretty good system. It is totally bipartisan, two Democrats, two Republicans, every single board in every county of our 88 counties in our great State. This is not the time, ladies and gentlemen, to obstruct the will of the American people. It is time to get our work done. It is time to govern, not to object. Let us be clear. This is not Americans forcing their will on the American people. This is the views of Ohioans that have been clearly expressed. Every objective observer agrees. In fact, every newspaper in the State of Ohio agrees. Every editorial page agrees. We have heard some quotes today. Here is one I love from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It says: ``The 176 Democrats who sit on Ohio's 88 county election boards pondered their jurisdictions' results, accepted their subordinates' good work, and are now turning their energies toward the future. Are they all dupes in some Machiavellian Republican scheme? Or do they simply have a firmer grasp of reality than that displayed by a handful of unrelenting zealots still ranting in the January rain 8 weeks after the election?'' Maybe we should look at some other States. Again in Ohio, President Bush won by over 118,000 votes. John Kerry won New Hampshire, but by 9,200 votes. John Kerry won Minnesota, but by only 98,000 votes. John Kerry won Wisconsin, but by only 11,300 votes. I want to thank my Republican colleagues today for not raising objections to those results in those States. We need to move on. I hope what we will do today, Mr. Speaker, is that we will vote overwhelmingly, Republicans and Democrats alike, just as the other body has just voted. I am told the vote was 74-1 to turn down the objection in the United States Senate. I hope we will come together as Democrats and Republicans today to vote down this objection, not to continue this cynical political ploy to try to somehow delegitimize the Presidency of the United States and his election, but rather to move forward and get on to the very important work that we have before us today. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my colleague, the gentleman from Cincinnati, Ohio (Mr. Chabot).