Reid Ribble

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss our Nation's broken budget process and ways we can begin to fix it. The government shutdown is caused by the broken budget process. Funding our government with continuing resolutions is caused by a broken budget process. If we fix this, we could get away from this type of management of the taxpayer dollars. Every year, Congress is required by law to pass a budget resolution. Every year, it is required to pass 12 appropriation bills by October 1, the start of the fiscal year. Yet, since 2001, Congress has managed to enact only 8.3 percent of our required appropriation bills on time. In the past 8 election years, Congress has failed to pass a budget resolution a full 75 percent of the time. The Washington Post recently did an article about this process. It showed that this broken process allows Federal departments and agencies to develop a use-it-or-lose-it mentality. A full 20 percent of all Federal spending and contracting happens in the last month of the fiscal year. Look at how it spikes. It is not just one time. It did it in 2010, 2011, and 2012. The spending happens in the last month of the year and, in particular, the very last week of the year. This is true about contracting, as well. There were 156,000 contracts, 154,000 contracts, 149,000 contracts all done in the last few weeks of each budget year. This use-it-or-lose-it mentality is costing the taxpayers millions of dollars. We must begin to fix this broken process, and that is why I have introduced the Biennial Budgeting and Enhanced Oversight Act of 2013. Overnight, it would cut this in half. A biennial budgeting system, like the one my legislation creates, allows Congress to set budget and spending priorities in the first year and then do real oversight in the second year. This will allow Congress to better understand how the Federal Government is spending taxpayer money and be better equipped to make spending decisions in the future. This biennial budgeting process has strong bipartisan support with 110 cosponsors so far. They range from the most progressive Member of Congress to the most conservative, painting a broad picture of support from Members of Congress and the Americans that they represent. Here is a list of groups within Congress that have multiple Members supporting the legislation: the House Budget Committee, the Republican Study Committee, the Tuesday Group, the Blue Dog Democrats, the New Democratic Coalition, the Progressive Caucus, a broad cross-section of the Congress and the people that they are here to represent. Not only that, every President since Ronald Reagan has supported biennial budgeting. Here is a quote from Jack Lew, the former OMB Director and White House Chief of Staff, our Nation's current Secretary of the Treasury: The 2-year system is a good idea. The 1-year budget process gives both the administration and Congress little time to focus on implementing the programs. It is time that we begin to address the serious nature of not managing the taxpayer dollars in following the requirements of the law. We need to fix this broken process this year. It is time to do it. Mr. Speaker, if the past few months have taught us anything, it is that our current budget process isn't working. It is time to create a system that will help us budget responsibly, foster greater certainty in the U.S. economy, and save taxpayer dollars. We can do it in bipartisan fashion. I urge all Members of Congress to cosponsor H.R. 1869 today and help us govern again.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the birthday of Beatrice Schaumberg Murphy who is turning 100 years old today. When Beatrice was born in 1913, Woodrow Wilson was President and her life has spanned sixteen presidencies. She married Frank Murphy on October 28, 1934, and I'm told they celebrated more than 60 wonderful years together. Their marriage produced four sons, Franklin, Marvin, Jerome and David. Beatrice assumed the role of mother, homemaker and involved herself with the family dairy farm. She is also proud of her role as grandma having been blessed with 15 grandchildren and 28 great grandchildren. Beatrice contributes her excellent quality of life at her age to ``being positive, looking forward to things, being satisfied with what I have; which is good family and friends''. Beatrice also says, ``The ability to make friends is pretty important when you're my age. Many of my old friends aren't around anymore, so I have to keep making new ones!'' That is an outlook on life I hope we can all embrace. It is my honor to recognize this amazing woman on her 100th birthday. Beatrice, Happy Birthday!

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I am the youngest son of six sons, all children of an ordained Baptist minister. I have five older brothers, four who are still alive today. Three of them have responded to the call of ministry and are pastors. One of my own sons, Clint, is also a pastor. It's impossible to separate my faith heritage from my daily life. My brother, Dale Ribble, who is our guest chaplain today, is exactly the same. From my earliest childhood memories, Dale was destined for ministry. As a child, I observed him countless times reaching out to people around him, both young and old, with a spirit of compassion and concern. He has a gift given to him by God for this purpose. The work that churches do in our communities change and affect lives for the positive. They reach out to the poor, the sick, and the hungry, improving the lives of whom they touch and enriching our communities. I've watched Dale do these things his entire life. I'm proud of his work and thank him for being with us today.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Thank you, Chairman Petri. I also want to thank the ranking member, Mr. Rahall, for working with us. We advanced this bill through committee, and it passed our committee by voice vote. Mr. Speaker, the bill is very simple. Chairman Petri mentioned it maintains the status quo on a single highway in Wisconsin that is being changed from a U.S. highway to a U.S. interstate. Highway 41, from Green Bay, Wisconsin, to Milwaukee, is slated to become an interstate next year. To do that without any disruption to safety, it's important that we grandfather the current weight limits that are currently on the road, and this bill does exactly that. It ensures that any trucks that drive on the road today will be able to drive on the road after the conversion. Without this bill, shippers would simply have two options, and neither would be good for safety. One option would be to move these trucks onto side roads, which, in Wisconsin, are often rural or through small towns that are not suited for truck traffic. The other option would be to put more trucks on the highway in order to comply with the lower weight limits. Neither option is good for safety, and neither option is good for Wisconsin. As Chairman Petri mentioned, it is supported by the Wisconsin State Patrol; it is supported by the Governor of Wisconsin; it is supported by the Wisconsin State Assembly, including the majority and ranking members; it is supported by the Wisconsin State Senate; and it is supported by the Wisconsin DOT. As the ranking member mentioned, this is not a precedent-setting piece of legislation. In fact, it has happened in other parts of the country. I am in support of this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. RIBBLE. This is a terrific event. It's one that every Member of Congress should support, and I encourage the adoption of it. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. H. Con. Res. 44 would authorize the use of the Capitol Grounds for the District of Columbia's Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run that will be held on September 27, 2013. I would first like to thank Ranking Member Norton, of the Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management, for introducing this resolution, as well as to thank Chairman Barletta of the subcommittee for cosponsoring it. As in years past, the torch run will be launched from the West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol and will continue through the Capitol Grounds as part of the journey to the annual D.C. Special Olympics Summer Games. The Special Olympics is an international organization dedicated to enriching the lives of children and adults with disabilities through athletics and competition. The Law Enforcement Torch Run began in 1981 when the police chief of Wichita, Kansas, saw an urgent need to raise funds for and to increase awareness of the Special Olympics. The Torch Run was then quickly adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Today, the Torch Run is the largest grassroots effort that raises funds and awareness for the Special Olympics program. The event in D.C. is one of many law enforcement torch runs throughout the country and across 40 nations. I support the passage of this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on House Concurrent Resolution 44.

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 44) authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the District of Columbia Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the chairman. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the legislation today. I'll tell you that I've often told folks back in Wisconsin that working in the House of Representatives is sometimes like living in an alternate universe. For the last hour and a half here we've been debating what is not rather than debating what is. Maybe we should debate what is, and that is what is in this bill. This bill, for the first time, eliminates direct payments to rich farmers. I think that sounds like a pretty good idea. It eliminates it by $14 billion. We remove subsidies to people who no longer farm, and I think that sounds like a pretty good idea. For Wisconsin, America's dairy land, we fix our Nation's dairy policy. That sounds like a pretty good idea as well. We fix forestry problems and improve timber harvest. We stop the brain drain that has been going on in our national forests. It improves the fruit and vegetable production in the Midwest. Finally, it minimizes reforms and improves important regulatory problems that have put burdens on producers. These are all of the really great things that are in the bill, and I think we ought to focus on what is there rather than on what is not. Let's worry about what is there today and worry about what is not tomorrow.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 100th anniversary of Pierce Manufacturing, located in Appleton, Wisconsin. Pierce Manufacturing is a subsidiary of Oshkosh Corporation, and builds fire and rescue apparatuses. Over the past 100 years, this company has grown from its modest beginnings as Pierce Auto Body Works, Inc. focused on building truck bodies for the Ford Model T to become a world-class manufacturer of quality fire and rescue vehicles. In the aftermath of 9/11, Pierce Manufacturing donated one of its rescue vehicles to the Fire Department of New York City. According to reports, no ceremony was held to mark the occasion. The workers and leadership at Pierce Manufacturing simply ``felt compelled to help.'' As Congressman, I am incredibly proud of the highly skilled workers in Appleton and Weyauwega that play a vital role in designing, building and maintaining these custom fire and rescue vehicles. Again, I congratulate Pierce Manufacturing on its 100th anniversary, and encourage all residents in Northeast Wisconsin to celebrate this company's wonderful history on Saturday, July 13th, 2013.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Divine Temple Church of God in Christ, located in Green Bay, Wisconsin. This historically significant structure, designed by architect George Rockwell for the Christ Episcopal Church, was built in the famous Gothic Revival-style. The site has now been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The church and its members are planning to celebrate this milestone on Friday, June 28th, 2013. The cornerstone of this church was put in place in 1898, and the structure that stands today was completed one year later. Throughout its long history in downtown Green Bay, this church has served the spiritual needs of the community, and offered congregants a safe place to worship. I congratulate Pastor L.C. Green for his efforts to pursue this designation, and commend the congregation of Divine Temple Church of God in Christ for volunteering their time to preserving this wonderful structure. There is a quote from Romans 15:7 on the church website that reads: ``Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God.'' May this church continue to receive those seeking spiritual refreshment in the years to come. Again, congratulations to Divine Temple Church of God in Christ for receiving this special recognition.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the comments from Mr. Valadao, my colleague from California, earlier when he said that they didn't have enough consumers to buy their milk. Well, we've got the opposite problem in Wisconsin. People want Wisconsin milk, and they want Wisconsin cheese. And it shows the geographical difficulty with this problem and with this underlying bill. Mr. Goodlatte seeks to correct those geographical differences by taking the most controversial piece of it out, and I stand here in support of doing that. You know, our Founders kind of instructed us and said, if you can find agreement in this Chamber, do those things; but if you can't find agreement--and we can't find agreement here--don't do those things. And so what Mr. Goodlatte is trying to do is go to the place where we have the most and most broad agreement, leaving the margin insurance element in place for farmers, but stripping out the supply management element where some regions of the country would be damaged by it. I support the Goodlatte amendment because it's the right type of reform for all Wisconsans and all of this country's dairy producers and processors, not one or the other, but both.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Lucas for yielding. SNAP is an incredibly important program in the United States. I don't think there's anybody that I've met on my side of the aisle or on theirs--and I particularly appreciate Mr. McGovern's position on the fact that we need to make sure that hungry children in this country get food to eat. We want them to have good, healthy meals. On behalf of the taxpayer, however, the data doesn't support that we continue to increase funding for SNAP. In fact, if you follow the red line here, that's unemployment in America. You see during the recession unemployment went up, as did SNAP spending. It was almost exactly at the same ratio. And as the economy began to recover and unemployment went down, as did poverty go down, SNAP funding continued to go up. In fact, from 2008 to 2011, SNAP funding went up 119 percent while poverty went up only 16 percent. Between 2010 and 2011, poverty actually went down while SNAP spending went up. It's not just an either/or, Mr. Chairman, that we can either provide food for the poor or charge the taxpayer money. We need to do both. But as fiduciaries of the taxpayers' dollars, we must do it reasonably. We don't want any child to go without food, but we recognize that the economy has begun to recover since 2009, where we were spending only $53 billion on SNAP. ``Only'' is the appropriate word. Today we're going to be spending $82 billion on SNAP. Unemployment went from 10.2 percent in 2009 down to 7.6 percent today. Under this basis, I wonder at what point could we ever have SNAP go down. Here's the reality. We keep talking about $20 billion. In fact, next year, with a $2 billion cut annually, we won't even roll SNAP back effectively 1 year.

Mr. RIBBLE

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of my special order.

Mr. RIBBLE. Mr. Speaker, I'm proud and honored to lead this discussion on the House floor this evening. I organized this special order to show the American people that there are Members of Congress who can have a civilized conversation and who actually want to solve problems. Everyone here tonight is a member of the organization No Labels. As you can see, we're all wearing orange pins as a symbol of our solidarity. These problem-solver pins represent a lot about who we are and who we want to be as legislators. Instead of wasting time fighting, we're committed to fixing what's broken here in Washington. Being identified as either a Republican or Democrat says a lot about each of our values and our ideologies, but it's not the sum total of who we are. I am proud to be a Republican and have a conservative voting record, and that supports my beliefs. But just because there's an R or D after someone's name should not automatically make them enemies. It's possible to find ways to work together, and all of us are here tonight as proof of that. I recently introduced a biennial budgeting bill that has both Democrat and Republican cosponsors. This is just one of many examples that show that both sides of the aisle can get behind legislation that will help better our economy. Unfortunately, Congress has come to a point where problems are not getting solved because too many are yelling and not enough are listening. I was taught that the best way to attack a problem is putting all possible solutions on the table and having a conversation about the pros and cons of each. Nowadays in Washington, the meaning of solution has become a euphemism for undercutting the other party. Sound bites have replaced conversations, which has made attacking others easier and more widespread. It seems like every time you turn on the television or open a newspaper, there's some headline about Republicans and Democrats spewing vitriol at each other, or playing another round of the never- ending blame game. This type of behavior and unwillingness to work on solving problems must end in order for our country to move forward, and that's why we're all here tonight, to show that Washington doesn't have to function this way. All of us came to Congress because we wanted to do our part to make our country better and to help our constituents back home. And coming together on the House floor is a small way to reaffirm our dedication to the American people and let them know that we'll work for their best interest. This evening you'll hear from both Democrats and Republicans who are committed to problem-solving. I'm proud to say that these people are not just my colleagues but they're my friends. And while we don't see eye to eye on everything, we have all made it a point to put a stop to the spiteful tone that has become the norm here in Washington, and to actually have a real conversation with one another. And tonight the American people watching get to be a part of that. With that, I'd like to yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Young).

Mr. RIBBLE. I appreciate the gentleman's comments. Thank you for being here tonight. I now yield to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Murphy).

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the gentleman for his comments. I now yield to a very good friend of mine, the gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Kurt Schrader.

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the gentleman. When I first came here it was interesting how few places there were where both parties could get together and talk about issues. It just didn't really exist. And those of us that have decided to get together and talk, we've never asked anyone to lay down their own personal beliefs or ideologies, but we did ask for them to stand up and defend them and to speak about them and to encourage others and to, most importantly, listen to each other and to try to learn why we believe what we believe. I'd like to now yield to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Coffman).

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the gentleman. I would now like to yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Maloney).

Mr. RIBBLE. That's encouraging to all of us. I appreciate your comments. I now yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bentivolio).

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the gentleman for your comments. I now yield to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Matheson).

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the gentleman. I would like to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fitzpatrick).

Mr. RIBBLE. Indeed, there's no time to waste. I yield to the gentlelady from Illinois (Mrs. Bustos).

Mr. RIBBLE. I thank the gentlelady. I'd like to yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent).