Tom Reed

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, I would just like to remind my colleague on the other side of the aisle that when you get a credit card bill that you can no longer afford, you do pay it, but you cut it up, and you stop the spending so you don't exacerbate the problem. With that, I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Gingrey).

Mr. REED. I'd just like to remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle that last time we took a vote on this issue back on the Budget Control Act in August was a much different time than today. Since August, we've been waiting for a plan from the other side to deal with our national debt. We've been waiting for a plan from the White House to deal with our national debt. Nothing has occurred. So, Madam Speaker, there is no repudiation of our vote from August. This is consistent with what the American people are telling us, that we have to get our act together in Washington. I join my colleagues on the other side. My hand is open to work hand in hand to deal with these problems once and for all. I'm willing to sacrifice my political life to do what needs to be done for the American people. I just hope my friends and colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join in that same sentiment. Let's put politics aside. Let's deal with the substance of the day. Let's deal with this underlying national crisis that is represented in our national debt. You have many friends over here that are looking to reach out hand to hand, join arm in arm to deal with this problem and deal with the economy of our Nation once and for all. I just ask you to jump and join us rather than fight us. With that, I'm happy to yield to my colleague from Arizona (Mr. Flake) for 2 minutes.

Mr. REED. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo).

Mr. REED. I yield the gentleman another 30 seconds.

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, I am happy to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul). (Mr. PAUL asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, what I would like to say is that time has passed since we passed the Balanced Budget Control Act. There has been no action on the debt. We have seen nothing out of the White House as to a plan to deal with this national crisis. And my colleague on the other side, I will remind, that I am a conferee on that conference committee to deal with the payroll tax rates, to deal with unemployment, and to deal with the doc fix. We were here at the end of December. I was here over the New Year's break, Thursday, Friday, working on it. We are ready to do the work. And I'm glad to hear my colleague on the other side of the aisle say that now the House Democrats are here to do the work. We do need the Senate to join into that conversation, and my hope is that they will join into that conversation very soon. But we are capable men and women in this Chamber, Madam Speaker. I am confident that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We will deal with the issue of the payroll tax rate. We will deal with the issue of the unemployment. We will deal with the issue of the doc fix. But we will not take our eye off of what is becoming one of the fundamental issues of our generation, and that is our national debt. And that's what this resolution speaks to and will constantly remind all of us that we need to be diligent on this issue to get it taken care of once and for all. And with that, I would like to yield 3 minutes to my colleague from Colorado (Mr. Lamborn).

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, I rise today as the proud primary sponsor of the subject resolution that is before the desk. Madam Speaker, I'd like to start my conversation with a few numbers: $15.2 trillion. That is the size of our national debt. We as a Nation are borrowing at the rate of $58,000 per second. That is approximately $45,000 for each man, woman, and child in America. This type of debt is not sustainable. Madam Speaker, this resolution is offered today to send a message to the Nation and to the world that this Chamber is going to lead and not hide. We are going to deal with the issue of the national debt once and for all because it is time. The path that we are on is not sustainable. It is a path of bankruptcy, it is a path that will destroy the American Dream if we do not stand up to the plate and lead us out of this fiscal nightmare that we now find ourselves in. Now, many people in this town and in this Chamber and in the Chamber on the other side of the Capitol probably would like this issue to go away until after the election. The problem is, is that the issue will not go away. And even though if we don't want to deal with it politically, we need to deal with it substantively. And my resolution that is before this Chamber will send a message that the constant borrowing on the backs of our children and our grandchildren must come to an end. I quote the words of our own President when he was Senator in the U.S. Senate. The path that we are on is similar to the words he echoed and stated in the U.S. Senate Chamber when he said this constant borrowing, this national debt is a complete failure of leadership in the White House. We need to lead, and that is what we are going to do. So I ask for support on this resolution from all of my colleagues, to stand with us, make the hard decisions, deal with this issue to stop this insanity that is truly a threat to our very Nation. And also, it is a threat to any economic recovery that our Nation hopes to enjoy in the short term, because if we do not get the debt under control, small business America, our entrepreneurs, the people that are going to put Americans back to work will not have the confidence or the certainty to invest in the American market that is going to lead to real jobs and to deal with the problem of our unemployment once and for all. So with that, Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 515 and as the designee of the majority leader, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, I send to the desk a privileged concurrent resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, it's not a $1,000 payroll tax reduction, just as was quoted by my colleague who just spoke. The Senate bill is 2 months. It is $160. So let's be clear and honest with the American people. What we're talking about here in the House of Representatives on our side of the aisle today is that we want to do our work. Yes, we want to be with our families for Christmas and we want to be home ringing in the new year with our family and friends. But you know what, the American people deserve better. We are willing to stay here and do the work, not do Band-Aid type of policy. Tax policy on a 2-month basis, are you kidding me? That is ridiculous. We need long-term solutions to our problems in America. We need to put the political bickering aside. Two months is not a solution. It's dodging responsibility in the Senate. And so where I'm at today is I support the underlying bill that we stand and rise to support today, and it is a vote. We will have a vote to reject the Senate's position with its amendments and its Band-Aid policy, and we will send a clear message to the American people that we in the House of Representatives are about finding solutions long term-- 1, 2 years at a minimum--and we're willing to do the work. I call on the Senate to come back to D.C. and finish the job. Hardworking taxpayers of America deserve no less than for us to honor our oath and our responsibility to govern through solutions, not political games.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. I rise in support of this rule and the underlying legislation. Why? Because enough is enough. The arrogance of this place is outstanding. It's unbelievable. You have to look at what we're talking about from the eyes of our constituents and the people back home. Two months of certainty for people when it comes to their payroll, to their paychecks? Two months for how our doctors are going to get paid for caring for our sick and our old? That's ridiculous. I will tell my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, there's a new dawn that has emerged in this Chamber. We are no longer going to run from our responsibility to govern. We are going to do it in the open, we are going to do it honestly, and we're going to do it in a way that provides certainty to these problems, because God knows we can no longer afford Band-Aids. We need real solutions, long-term solutions. I plead with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us and reach a resolution to bring certainty for a longer period of time than 2 months.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend Time Warner Cable for its dedication to keeping citizens informed about what is going on in Washington. The better informed our citizens are, the better it is for our democracy. As our founding father Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1789, ``Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government.'' At a time when news coverage budgets are being cut, I applaud Time Warner cable for expanding their presence in Washington, DC with the opening of a new bureau. I have always been a champion for transparency in government. News coverage is one of the ways that sunlight is shined into government operation. This increased presence will lead to a more informed citizenry, and I congratulate Time Warner Cable for making this investment in democracy.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for H.R. 3630, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2011. First and foremost, I was glad to hear my colleague on the other side of the aisle recognize that lowering taxes, be them payroll taxes, income taxes, or whatever taxes you want to refer to, lowering taxes is a job creation policy initiative that should be supported by both sides of the aisle. Now, I'm concerned about the payroll tax cut that is continued in this payroll tax bill today because these are the revenue sources for Social Security. But I have come to the conclusion that allowing all Americans to keep more money in their pocket, rather than allowing it to come to Washington, D.C. and to fuel the beast that has been created here in Washington and that is causing the national debt crisis that we now face and the out-of-control spending of Washington, I believe allowing Americans to keep more money in their pocket is a better policy position to take once and for all. And so I support the extension of the payroll tax rate where it is at. This is not the time, in this economic climate, to take money out of hardworking American families and small businesses and their financial resources that they have to work on as they go forward putting people back to work. So I support the extension of the payroll tax cut. But I would have to be very sensitive and clear with all Americans that this type of tax policy must be offset by a reduction in the spending that is the root cause of the crisis that we now face in Washington, D.C., so we must offset these tax cuts, and we will do and have done that in this bill. I also am glad to see that our unemployment reform measures that are set forth in this bill have the opportunity to go into law. Right now we are at 99 weeks of unemployment. The President, in his own proposal, says we need to reduce those weeks of unemployment by 20 weeks. We, in this bill, want to go further, and we'll reduce the number of weeks to 59. Why? Not because we're cold hearted, not because we're mean spirited, but we are being open and honest with the American people and saying that there is a cost to this indefinite unemployment extension policy that is coming from the other side of the aisle. What we have to do is realize that we have to live within our means once and for all. And so, what this does is it lowers those numbers of weeks, it puts in commonsense reforms by making it a requirement that people are looking for a job. It gives the States the flexibility to implement drug testing and drug screening to make sure that the workforce of America has the ability to go back to work when those jobs are available. I have been back in my district, and we do town halls all the time. And what I've heard from small business owners across our district is that one of the main reasons that they cannot hire individuals is because they simply cannot pass a drug test. This commonsense reform that's contained in this bill will allow us to develop the workforce of America in a stronger and a better fashion so that people can be put back to work once and for all. The other issue in this bill that I've been supportive of is the doc fix. Now, our health providers in America are being faced with major cuts, be it through ObamaCare, the Health Insurance Care Act, the Affordable Care Act, whatever you may call it. We're also seeing it in the possible sequestration that we're going to face next year. But what we're doing in this bill is we're giving some certainty to our providers that over the next 2 years they'll know what their reimbursement rates will be. That is critical to the future of our health care industry, and therefore we support it. But we cannot be satisfied with this temporary solution. We must come up with a permanent fix to the doc fix so 2 years from now we are not right back in the situation we find ourselves today. The final point that has caused me to support this bill as vigorously as I will today is that it is a jobs bill. The Keystone pipeline piece of legislation that is attached to this is being used as a political football. The President has said we can't wait to put people back to work. Well, in this bill with a stroke of a pen, the President will be able to put 20,000 families back to work with one signature--his signature. To me, that's what we should be doing in this Chamber. That's why I ask my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate and recognize Alfred University, a major educational institution in my district which is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year. Their official commemoration and activities were held the week of December 5, 2011. I am honored to have the privilege of representing such a fine university that provides an excellent education to its 2000 undergraduate and 300 graduate students. Alfred University was founded on December 5, 1836 by a group of Seventh Day Baptists who moved to the foothills of the Allegheny Mountains. The University is named for the ninth-century ruler of southern England, Alfred the Great, whose devotion to learning and literature is a legacy that the institution upholds to this day. Alfred's commitment to academics is nationally known, with the Inamori School of Engineering consistently ranked top in the country for its Masters of Science degrees. Additionally, students at Alfred can choose between over 40 undergraduate majors to study. As an alum, I can personally attest to the excellence of this institution and its world class academics. Please join me in congratulating Alfred University in reaching this incredible milestone as it celebrates its 175th Anniversary.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. I thank the gentleman for yielding and for taking the leadership role and putting this hour together, and joining my fellow freshman Members on the floor of the House to talk about the number one issue of the day, and that is our economy. That is jobs. I come down here tonight to join my colleagues and to tell the American people that we here in the House of Representatives are going to be open and honest and will push forward an agenda that relies on the private sector being that primary engine that creates the economic environment so that people--hardworking Americans, hardworking taxpayers--have the opportunity to take care of their children for generations to come by having a good, solid job. I'm looking at the vote tally from tonight's two votes that we took just moments ago that added to the forgotten 15, the last two of the tardy 22. And look at the numbers on passage of each bill. It was 407- 17, and it was 413-11. That is almost an unbelievable percentage of bipartisan support in the House of Representatives for two bills that are going to create a stronger private sector America so that we can put people back to work. And yet we continue to engage in partisan politics in the Senate, and we don't even allow these bills to have a vote on the floor of the Senate, at least to be debated in an open and honest debate, an argument about their merits to be heard by all Americans just like we do here in the House of Representatives on the floor of the House. It's interesting. I listen to the President as he goes around and he's promoting his Jobs Act bill, and I would say that I clearly have an impression that the President is concerned about his job. But is he really concerned about your job? Because he's spending an inordinate amount of time going around this country rather than coming here to Washington and working with us in the House and working with the Members in his own party in the Senate to say, Take up with these bills and have an honest debate. Send them over. If they strengthen the private sector of America--like essentially all of our colleagues here in the House agreed tonight would do by passing and supporting these bills with the numbers that we see--have that debate in the Senate and move forward. We're going to stand, and we're going to continue to work for the hardworking taxpayers here in the House of Representatives. I know my colleagues share in that sentiment because that's what we came to Washington to do. We came to Washington as freshmen Members of Congress not to engage in politics, not to engage in partisan debates, but to talk about fundamental policy issues that are going to move us forward as a Nation, so that we can have the great experience that we've all enjoyed and the opportunities that we've all enjoyed, so that all of our fellow Americans can give that opportunity not only to themselves but to their kids, to their brothers, their sisters, so everybody in this Nation can enjoy that opportunity.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I'm proud to join him and my other colleague from Wisconsin tonight to talk about jobs and what we are doing here in this Chamber on that issue. I listen many times to my colleagues from the other side of the aisle, and they say we haven't put forth a jobs bill, as if there's some simple fix that we here in Washington, some bureaucrat sitting in a cubicle over at the White House is going to come up with a plan that's going to cure this economy with a magic wave of the wand here in the U.S. House or in Washington, D.C. I join my colleague in his sentiments that I'd rather be listening to the people on the front line. I'd rather be listening to the people that are in the position to really create those jobs, because I believe in a private sector-based economy. I believe it's going to be the private sector that is going to be the primary engine of pulling us out of this economic crisis that we now find ourselves--not the public sector, not more spending out of Washington, D.C. But rather, what we need to do in this House is come together to create an environment so that the private sector can be competitive in this world economy and this world market, and it can really lead us to a better condition tomorrow so that generations of families, of American families, will have the opportunities that generations of families before us so enjoyed. I've gone out and I've also had those town halls, and I've talked to people on the front line. And really, it boils down to some simple philosophies. We run our office here in the New York 29th Congressional District like a business. I come at this from a business perspective. Having started four businesses on my own, I've always had a business plan, and I've always had accountability metrics built into those plans. So we put forth a mission statement. We developed themes, we developed goals, and we put metrics to those themes and goals to make sure that we accomplish them. And the primary theme that we have adopted in our office is to create economic opportunity through the private sector. How do you do that? We have adopted four main goals that we work on each day. We tackle this debt in a credible way, as my colleague from Arkansas has indicated, because it has so many indirect implications to our private-sector economy, be it in the financing world and be it in just the uncertainty of the U.S. markets. And we really have got to get a credible plan put together so that we can bring back that confidence in the American market that our job creators, the people that are going to invest in the American market, feel comfortable putting that capital at play.

Mr. REED. Just to conclude on this point. Now is not the time for our President to divide this country. We have had bipartisan support on these bills here in the House. I know it hasn't been reported on by the press. But that's the fact. Now, what we need to do now rather than divide the country--when I hear comments from our President talking about how he has to break up the American Jobs Act that he submitted so that we Republicans can understand it. That's not productive conversation. We understand the jobs bill. I think my colleagues on the other side of the aisle understand it, too, and that's demonstrated by the fact that there's only one sponsor of that proposed piece of legislation from the President. No other individual in this Chamber cosponsored that legislation. I think that speaks volumes. They understand that's not good sound policy. So now is not the time to try to divide the country with scare tactics, class warfare, trying to go after and paint the top 2 percent as the reason why we're in this situation. This is not the time to try to say, ``Oh, China is the bad guy.'' Of course it's not the policies coming out of Washington and the overregulations and the noncompetitive Tax Code or the lack of a vision for a comprehensive energy policy. Or doing the responsible thing with coming up with a credible plan to deal with the debt. No. We have to divide this country is the rhetoric that I'm hearing on the campaign trail during this Presidential election from our President. I disagree with that. We're here as a freshman class to really change the culture of Washington, and I think we are. We're making progress. But we've got a lot more work to do. Let us never forget that the Forgotten 16 bills that are now on the Senate floor were done with bipartisan support. And we'll continue to work at it because I don't believe the American people are stupid. They will see through all of the rhetoric because the American people are like me. They are sick and tired of politics as usual out of Washington. That's why we ran. That's why I'm sure my colleagues who joined me today would join in the sentiment that we ran, we left our families and our businesses, to come down here and once and for all stand up for what's right. And what is right is a strong private sector America, an America of principle based on capitalism, based on individualism, individual accountability, and responsibility. Those are the themes that we promote and that we stand here and will fight for, because if we can get those themes implemented into strong, long-term policy, America not only will survive, it will prosper for generations to come. That's my promise to you here tonight. I again thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. REED. I appreciate my colleague from Arkansas, my great friend, for yielding to me. Just to add a comment. When my colleague from Wisconsin spoke and my colleague just mentioned when we talk about the Forgotten 15, now 16, we've got to be clear to the American public that those bills that came out of this House had bipartisan support. There are colleagues from the other side of the aisle that have seen the wisdom in the sound policy that's represented by those bills, and they've joined us and supported those bills going over to the Senate. Yet Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader, has blocked, in my opinion, those bills from coming to the floor. It's time now for the Senate to act. At least bring them up and debate the issue.

Mr. REED. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. REED. I appreciate that. And what a great comment. That's exactly what I'm trying to articulate. I join my colleague and associate myself with those words, that we need a true plan that will solve this problem. And the $14.8 trillion in debt is such a huge problem that it's not going to be solved overnight. But we have the vision, and we have the plan. We're going to bring that certainty and confidence back to the American market. The second point on our four-point theme in our office that we operate under is going after our Tax Code in a way that is going to make it competitive in this world economy. That means going from page 1 to the 70,000th page of the IRS code and streamlining it and doing comprehensive tax reform in such a way that simplifies it and makes it so that we are competing on the same field as competitors around the world. The third point of our plan is to focus on a comprehensive, domestic- oriented energy policy right here, going after not only the fossil fuels in our backyard but not taking our eye off the long-term vision of the alternatives and renewables; looking at the commonsense solutions of going after our natural gas supplies, our oils and our shale formations and our tight sands formations around America but at the same time focusing on the alternatives and renewables, because we know those fossil fuels are a limited source. But not only because of the national security implications that so many people in America know so well, but also looking at it from the perspective of making a competitive private sector arena in which our manufacturers and industry can compete again here right with operations in America. Because if you put those supplies in motion, you can create low-cost utility rates for 30, 40, maybe even 70, years is what the projections I've read in the reports and talking to people on the front line have articulated to me. So those decreased utility costs make our market that much more competitive when we're dealing with a world market that we now find ourselves in. The last point that we always stress in our office is going after this regulatory burden that my colleague from Arkansas spoke about earlier. It's about not living in a world where there would be no regulations, but where there will be reasonable regulations, regulations based on a cost-benefit approach, a business approach, recognizing that with every regulation there's a cost. We're trying to achieve a benefit, but we've got to be reasonable to make sure that those costs don't outweigh those benefits. And so we've adopted that type of framework of operation in our office, and we've found some great success. One last point I'll make before yielding back to my colleague from Arkansas is one of the stories that really resonated with me as I went through some of these town hall meetings--and we've done, I don't know, 30 or 40 of them now at this point in time--is I heard this story in August, and I'll call him Dr. Bill. He was a physician, and he had a small practice back in the 29th Congressional District. He was talking about how he wanted to invest and expand his practice. And he went over to the bank to get the financing to build the little addition--he was going to put maybe three people, new people to work. And I listened to his story, and he was talking about the uncertainty that my colleague from Arkansas is talking about. And I want to put a face to it because Dr. Bill, as he told me, whenever he would go to the bank historically, he would go in and he would give his financial projections as to what his practice was going to do. A lot of times he would have to footnote because we have a lot of issues here in Washington with temporary policies that have been done more for politics than for true policy. And what I'm talking about is we're dealing with things like the SGR, the physicians reimbursement under Medicare and the doc fix that always comes in. Typically what happens, America, if you haven't been aware of it, there's a fix, a Band-Aid that's put on it each year. And what he was able to do is he was able to always go to his bank and say, you know, I know the law says that I'm going to take a 30 percent cut, for example, this year in my reimbursements under Medicare, but we all know that Congress is going to get around and eventually fix it by putting another Band-Aid on it. So then he projects out a 2 percent increase in his reimbursements for his practice. Well, he went to the bank. He went to the bank and he said, okay, here are my financials again. I want to do this expansion. And you know what the bank told him? The bank said, you know what, we don't know what's going on out of Washington, D.C. You've been dealing with the issues in your physician practice under ObamaCare, the Health Insurance Reform Act--whatever you want to call it--we're dealing--this is the bank talking to him--under the new Dodd-Frank bill that came into existence. Those regulations are uncertain to us. We don't know what they're going to require. And the bank told him, we're not going to accept that footnote anymore. You've got to project out what your revenues are under what the law says, and that's a 30 percent cut in your revenue. And when he went back and he did the numbers, obviously, with the 30 percent cut to his revenues, he couldn't get the financing; the bank had to say no. So that's the real story from the front lines that we have to come to terms with down here in Washington. Our decisions, our policies have ramifications. And if we can just have some commonsense points and deal with people like Dr. Bill in a way that says we're going to adopt policy for the long term, not the short term. We're going to get away from the politics or the tax politics and get into tax policy. We're going to get into the substance of these issues and adopt certain rules and regulations and legislation that's going to go on for 5, 10, 20 years so at least people know what the rules are. I think if we do that, we're going to go a long way to improving the private economy of America. We're going to work day in and day out. I know my colleagues share a lot of these sentiments; and I'm just here to join them, to really focus on what has to be the priority issue, and that's putting people back to work. That is what we're doing here in the House. We're not looking for the political headline of a jobs bill. We're here to talk about jobs policy and leading this country out of the recession it finds itself in through strong policy rather than politics. With that, I thank my colleague from Arkansas for yielding.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of all three free trade agreements we will be voting on this evening. This is a great day. We are talking about, with the passage of these free trade agreements, approximately 250,000 new jobs across America. Those are new jobs that will put families back to work. They'll put roofs over their heads, put food on their tables, and allow them to enjoy the American Dream. I rise in particular in regards to the U.S.-Panama agreement. Some of my colleagues, Madam Speaker, have argued that free trade has forced a lot of our manufacturing and industrial jobs to go overseas. Well, one of the facts of the circumstances can be illustrated by what's going on with U.S.-Panama. Right now our goods, as they go into Panama, face up to a 260 percent tariff at its borders. Yet the imports coming from Panama to America, because of the Caribbean Basin Initiative and the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act, come to us duty free. That is an uneven playing field. What these free trade agreements do, in my humble opinion, is even the playing field so that American workers can compete on an equal and level playing field. And if that is the case, I'm confident that the American worker and American families will always win in that competition. So I strongly support these trade agreements. It's amazing to me that it has taken 5 years to get these agreements to this Chamber; but rather than point fingers at who caused what and what the reasons for those delays were, I always will look to the future. And what these agreements will represent is a step in the right direction of getting America back in a position where it competes in the world market and once again rises up and says we are the strongest, we are the best, and we will create 250,000 new jobs.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I rise today in strong support of the three pending agreements before this great body. This is a great day. This is a great day for America in the sense that we have before us an opportunity to create 250,000 jobs. That's the administration's own number. That is the number that has been verified, and I am a supporter of that number in creating jobs for Americans across this entire Nation. Now, when I came here as a freshman Member of Congress, there was a big question about the freshman class's thoughts about free trade. And I was proud to be part of an effort that got 67 out of 87 freshman Republican Members to sign a letter to the administration to say that we support free and fair trade. Because when it's free and when it's fair, the American workers will outcompete anyone in the world. And that is exactly what these agreements will do. In particular, with the U.S.-Korea relationship, not only will we be strengthening a strategic relationship, we will be creating hundreds of thousands of jobs. With that, I support this bill.

Mr. REED

Mr. REED. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas for yielding and for setting up this leadership hour for us to have this important conversation. I would say to all of my colleagues, it doesn't take a whiz kid to figure out that we're on the wrong path in America. So how are we going to change it? I come to this Chamber always in an optimistic manner. I come to this Chamber with the energy and the commitment to make America better. And we're going to change that by changing the culture of Washington, D.C. I'm proud to be part of this freshman class: 87 House Republicans, 13, approximately, new Democratic faces on the other side of the aisle. So how are we going to change from that new class, develop a new breed of elected official that puts country and policy over politics? I can tell you that my colleagues that I have spent a tremendous amount of time with in the freshman class have always taken the approach that it is policy over politics, and I am pleased to be joined on the floor here today with a colleague, a Democratic colleague, joining us, a bunch of House Republican freshman Members, a fellow freshman Member from the Democratic side, who has had the courage to stand up and publicly stand with us to talk about what is the critical issue of this Congress, and that is creating an environment where the economy improves and people can be put back to work. It's about creating an environment that creates jobs. My colleague from Michigan, who I have developed a friendship with, is down here to join us to offer his ideas. Although we may not agree 100 percent on all of the ideas that he brings to the table, I still respect the man and I respect many of his ideas. And I respect that there are going to be areas where we will find common ground, that we can come together and move the ball forward so America will see its best and brightest days again ahead of us. One of the common grounds that I know that's coming down the pipeline next week is the free-trade agreements. There's vast bipartisan support for those free-trade agreements which would equate up to 250,000 new jobs essentially immediately within the next 12 months. That type of economic opportunity is what we should be focusing on and on which we focus on here in the House as a freshman class, pushing forward policies and agendas that put the country first rather than our reelection efforts and our political ambitions ahead of country and policy. One of the other things that we have to change in Washington, D.C., and I know my colleagues on both sides here today are firmly committed to, we have to look at this from a long-term comprehensive point of view. When you've got the Senate that hasn't passed a budget in 888 days, any businessman in America will tell you that how you run an operation, you at least have to have a vision, you have to have a strategy; and in government that document that sets the vision and the policy and the guiding principles of how we should operate is a budget. It's a fundamental thing that we do. So, again, the Senate needs to join us, lock arms with this freshman class and say we're going to put country and policy over politics, and jump. That's why I have so much respect for my colleague from Michigan coming down and joining us here today, and if my colleague from Arkansas will yield him time to offer his insights into this debate. But, again, it's a commonsense approach to governing: do the job, lay forth the vision in a budget, work together to find common ground, and create an environment in America where people can go back to work and take care of their families for generations to come. It's only through that type of commonsense approach that I believe that we will move this ball down the field the way that it needs to, and I'm proud to join my colleagues.

Mr. REED. I thank the gentleman from Arkansas. And I simply wanted to end this conversation with, as I get ready to leave and as our colleague from Kansas has joined us--I think the gentlelady from Alabama said it best. We came here as a new breed of elected official, part of this freshman class. We are not here to compromise our principles, but we're here to govern responsibly.