Todd Rokita

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Madam Chair, I rise tonight to also talk a little bit about the size and the scope and the number of employees that this Federal Government has. Earlier tonight, I talked about the State from which I come, Indiana--a AAA bond rating, not raising taxes on anybody, and a budget that year after year has been in the black. As Secretary of State for Indiana for the last 8 years, I had operated a bureaucracy, and I know a little bit about them. What we had in Indiana, at least in the Secretary of State's office, was a pretty darned good one. We had no more employees in the Indiana Secretary of State's office than we did in the early '80s, and we were running on a 1987 budget, unadjusted for inflation. I can tell by the reaction of some of the Members here in the House tonight that it's one of derision. It's one of scoffing. It can be done. The States know how to do it. Let's look to them. In contrast to Indiana, what do we see here at the Federal level? We see 155,000 more bureaucrats than just a few years ago, an 80-plus- percent increase in the size and scope of this Federal Government, Madam Chairman--and that's just the personnel. We can have cuts in each of these departments. Every bureaucrat we don't hire after one retires will cause a 10 percent decrease in the Federal workforce over just a few years. That's responsible governing, especially when you're talking about a $14 trillion debt--$1 trillion year after year deficits. As the previous Republican speaker pointed out, my friend Todd Young, it's just getting worse. The red menace is upon us, and it's the red ink produced in this Federal Government, right here from the well of this House, to begin with. The Ryan proposal that came out of the Budget Committee addresses this in a responsible manner. The smaller we make this Federal Government, the more the private sector grows. It's correlational. It's definitional. I urge my colleagues to pass this budget proposal, the Ryan proposal.

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and congratulate an important member of Indiana's Morgan County Sheriff's Department. Captain Brian Ringer served the Morgan County Sheriff's Department with distinction, integrity, and dedication. He consistently demonstrated the highest standards of outstanding leadership and public service. Captain Ringer has been a trusted member of the Morgan County Sheriff's Department for over 29 years and has played a central role in securing and protecting the citizens of Morgan County. He left the Department on January 20 of this year to begin work as a fulltime instructor with the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and will continue his dedication to public service. I am proud to honor Captain Brian Ringer in recognition of his accomplishments, exemplary leadership, and outstanding contributions to the Morgan County Sheriff's Department.

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Madam Speaker, I rise as a cosponsor of this bill, and urge my colleagues to support it. I've worked tirelessly with my colleagues to pass a continuing resolution that saves taxpayers money and keeps the government running, while the other body, as we continue to hear, has done nothing but complain. Are they blind? Are they deaf? Do they not see, do they not hear what the rest of the people in this country see and here in terms of this country's financial crisis, in terms of this country's debt, in terms of what we're doing to our children and grandchildren by continuing to do nothing? Madam Speaker, we've waited 41 days for them to send us a funding bill, and we've got nothing. At least the Members who will be voting for this bill, who will be voting in favor of this bill, are showing leadership, are showing the American people that we care about the future of this country and that we do care about jobs. Show me one country on this globe that can grow its economy, that can grow jobs while having the boot of government on the neck of its people, on the neck of its businesses all the time. And just like the overregulation we do right now through the Federal Government, that debt boot, that debt burden is doing the same thing to job creation. This is a jobs bill. Get government out of the way and watch this country lead the world again.

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank the gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, for yielding me the time. The highest honor and privilege of my professional career so far has, with all due respect, not been in this Chamber but was the 8 years that I served as Indiana's secretary of State. I have run a government agency. We run it on 1987 dollars, unadjusted for inflation. The secretary of State's office in Indiana right now spends no more money than it did in 1987--again, unadjusted for inflation. We had no more employees than we did in 1982. From that experience, I can say the worst thing you can do for government efficiency, if you really are interested in serving the people, is to have your employees distracted by anything else but the people's business. The scope of this problem at the Federal level I find absolutely stunning. According to the Office of Policy Management, in 2008 the Federal workers were paid 2.9 million hours spent on union business. Let me say that again. We pay, as American taxpayers, for 2.9 million hours of union negotiations. That means we have spent $120 million for people to negotiate for a different or better job, not for them to even do their actual job. Certain union representatives at the FAA are allowed to spend 80 hours each pay period doing union business, not the work of the people of this Nation. Last time I checked, that's 2-weeks' worth of work the entire pay period. So a union representative could spend each year being paid by the taxpayers and only working on union business. How is that fair to the American taxpayers, Mr. Chairman, who are footing this bill? This must stop. In case the Members here haven't heard, this country is broke. We are borrowing money at a record pace and assigning the bill to our children and grandchildren, Mr. Chairman. We simply cannot continue to waste taxpayer dollars on work that benefits only a chosen few. Please support this amendment, I urge my colleagues. Put money back into the pockets of American families, and let union negotiators work on their own time.

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall 193, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Thank you, Madam Chair. I rise in support of the Pence amendment. The time has come to end Federal funding of abortion. This is one of the worst misappropriations of funds in our Federal budget and it is unacceptable to most of the people--Republican, Democrat, liberal or conservative--in this country. Many taxpayers, including me, are sickened that their hard-earned tax dollars are put toward funding the nearly 1.3 million abortions in America every year. The minority party's demagoguery and demagoging language about some kind of war on women is nothing but laughable. Plenty of family planning services outside of Planned Parenthood exist to help families seeking direction, care and counsel. Those actively sound places and services deserve a portion of funds to continue their much needed and well-respected services. But our nation's largest provider of abortions isn't one of them. Under title X, Federal funds go directly to Planned Parenthood where the money ultimately funds abortion and this is one of the worst stipulations in current law. Again and again, Planned Parenthood has proven itself corrupt and misleading. No American who is against abortion should be required to help pay for it. And no American can seriously argue that the Federal Government isn't paying for abortion right now, when Planned Parenthood receives at least $360 million from the taxpayers each year while simultaneously performing more than 324,000 abortions. Regarding the gentleman from New York's charge that we should be using a bill of attainder and challenging us to say otherwise, I take that challenge, as a person licensed to practice law in Indiana and licensed to practice before the United States Supreme Court. I would say that the bill of attainder, this amendment is not that. The people of the Fourth District of the State of Indiana and their Representative have the right to produce an amendment to stop taxpayer funding of abortions, and we are doing that here tonight. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROKITA. Madam Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support this amendment. This so- called ``gainful employment'' regulation is another example of this big Federal Government run amok. Today, Hoosiers in Indiana, and all Americans, are free to choose from accredited colleges and pick the one that they believe fits their needs. These are accredited colleges. No one has accused them of unfairly serving the poor--no one rightfully has--or anyone else. They are accredited. They are licensed. The Federal Government gets involved in student loans and grants already, more so, I would say, than I and others would like it to. But at least, Mr. Chairman, we still let individuals make their own decisions on where to go to school. The new rule makes a mockery of our American tradition of free choice, replacing it with a bizarre program where the Federal Government decides what job you should seek and what school you can attend. Let me walk you through it. Under this rule, the Obama administration has proposed a plan that, number one, creates a matrix that examines the student loan debt to future income of a prospective student; then, it compares that ratio to the student loan repayment rates of graduates of the same program; and, number three, and finally, it decides if the student can have access to the loans they would need to attend the school or program of their choice. So for those of us listening, watching at home, what this means is, if you are contemplating going to school so that you can economically better yourself, or because you otherwise want to enrich your life, you just can't go to the college or school of your choosing if you need a government loan. Instead, a nameless, faceless bureaucracy using some bizarre arbitrary formula gets to decide whether or not you have chosen a field of study that will pay enough to justify the investment, in the mind of that particular bureaucrat. Unbelievable. The government and the Obama administration are now micromanaging this part of our lives, too. Talk about central planning, Mr. Chairman. To make matters worse, this new program will disproportionately hurt Hoosiers and other Americans who are least able to do anything about it: Working Americans who need new training and new skills to move forward in the workforce. This was what this Congress should be about. If this regulation becomes reality, it will immediately prevent 400,000 people from developing new skills to benefit the workforce. By 2020, nearly 5.4 million students will be denied the higher education program of their choice. In a global economy, we cannot compete without an educated and flexible workforce. This amendment will allow Americans the choice they deserve and the educational flexibility our Nation needs. I urge a ``yes'' vote. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROKITA. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. Madam Speaker, on rollcall 19, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. ROKITA

Mr. ROKITA. I thank the gentleman from Minnesota for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of freedom for every American and against the expansion of government. The people of Indiana sent me to Washington, D.C. with very specific instructions: Get the government out of our lives. Therefore, I will be voting yes on H.R. 2. Every honest person in this debate knows that this law doesn't solve the problems in our health care system. Its solution, to destroy the best health care system in the world and replace it with even more inefficiencies, government controls, loss of personal freedom and trillions in new costs to the taxpayers, will fail. And let's not forget that there are programs already in place that are supposed to do many of the things the President has talked about his law doing. We should start with reforming those. Also, health savings accounts, insurance across State lines, covering preexisting conditions, and even subsidizing the poor's purchase of a private policy should all be implemented. Health care is not a right, and if we are not careful, the feel-good, empty promises made in this law will bankrupt our country and leave our grandkids to pay for it.