Rob Woodall

Mr. WOODALL

Mr. WOODALL. If I could get some time from my friend from New York, I would love to yield to agree with you. I wanted to tell you how much I believe we're headed on the same track. But let me talk about this continuing resolution because that's really why we're here, despite the fact that folks bring up where we are in the President's jobs bill. This is about getting disaster relief to families that need it. And we could have gotten it done yesterday-- and should have gotten it done yesterday. And even though I'm new at this process, I actually thought we had an agreement to get it done yesterday. I thought we had an agreement because it was the right thing to do to get it done yesterday. Now, only folks who are more privy than I know why that agreement came unglued and why it was we didn't get it done, but we're back here tonight and we have that opportunity. Please, please, let's get it done for those folks who need it. The time for games has long since passed.

Mr. WOODALL. I will vote for any reduction in corporate rates that the President proposes.

Mr. WOODALL. I thank my chairman for yielding and I appreciate the time because, as we talk about the President's jobs bill, I was here, too, when the President came to present his ideas, and it kind of excited me. Because, as I looked at where the President began on some of these jobs issues and I looked at what has been proposed in this House already on these jobs issues, I realized exactly how much progress we were able to make. I think about the President's proposal to eliminate oil company subsidies, a proposal that I support. In fact, I have a bill that not just eliminates oil company subsidies, but all industrial subsidies so that we can let the free market drive that train and create those jobs anew. I think about the President's proposal to curtail the payroll tax and I think, we already have a proposal that not only curtails the payroll tax to the small degree the President recommends, but actually, since it's the largest tax that 80 percent of American taxpayers pay, eliminate it entirely.

Mr. WOODALL. I'm limited to only 2 minutes. If my friend from New York would like to yield me time, I would be happy to yield that back. But I just want to say, as my friend from the Ways and Means Committee knows, not only do we have that proposal introduced here-- it's H.R. 25, the Fair Tax. We've had hearings on it in the Ways and Means Committee. So I say to my friend from New Jersey, we are moving forward on those agendas. But let me just talk about why we're here tonight.

Mr. WOODALL. If he wants to reduce the highest corporate tax rate in the world, I am a huge supporter of that.

Mr. WOODALL. I do not believe the Federal Government should be involved in education.

Mr. WOODALL. I absolutely do, and with State and local funds we're doing that today. I hope we'll continue to do that.

Mr. WOODALL. I thank my friend for yielding.

Mr. WOODALL. The tax proposal I'm familiar with is his $1.5 trillion tax increase. Is there a different----

Mr. WOODALL. That's a let's vote on it one idea at a time, not just his ideas, but all of our ideas.

Mr. WOODALL. I actually don't like those kind of long, complicated bills, I would say to my friend. But should we vote on his ideas, one idea at a time--I say that regularly. Had we voted on the President's health care bill one idea at a time, America would have loved 80 percent of it.

Mr. WOODALL

Mr. WOODALL. Reclaiming my time, as I'm not the chairman of the committee, I will quote the chairman of the committee, who tells us that not only can we use this offset here today, but there remains not millions, but billions of dollars in the account to be used for this purpose; dollars that were appropriated, Mr. Speaker, in 2008, 3 years ago. They remain unspent, but we leave them there just in case. Just in case. And what I would say to my friend is, if we can just get around to doing this process right again, and I have great hope that we can, if we can get back to doing the process right, we'll have this discussion not on a $1.043 trillion continuing resolution, and not even on a half- trillion dollar continuing resolution, but on the Energy and Water appropriations bill. We'll be able to get back to it, and I have that great wish for this House, Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOODALL. Reclaiming my time from my friend, you're absolutely right that this bill does not define where those $1.043 trillion go, and I take issue with that too. I go back to what you called rhetoric, the 10 minutes that we spent at the beginning where we went through line by line to talk about, golly, the work I'm so proud of that you and I have done together, the individual appropriations bills that you and I have worked through together, doing what was supposed to be done in this House. That was the time to do these things, one by one, and, golly, we did. We did.

Mr. WOODALL. I would be happy to yield to my friend.

Mr. WOODALL. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I think one thing that unites us as Republicans and Democrats, and actually unites us as Americans, is when we face adversity, we say: Can we do better? Can we do better? You know, it's one thing to muddle through, but it's something else to learn from that experience and come back the next time and do better. Now, I'm proud to be here as part of a freshman class, Mr. Speaker; 89 new Republican freshmen, 10 new Democratic freshmen. Ninety-nine Members of this House are brand new this year; 99 Members of this House. And so we look back. We look back on profligate spending where even though American families are asked to prioritize their spending each and every day, for some reason the Congress didn't. Even though small businesses are asked to prioritize their spending every day, for some reason Congress didn't. What this new Congress has done, Mr. Speaker, this 112th Congress has done, is to say: Can we do better? And the answer is yes. Why are the American people so cynical about Congress, Mr. Speaker? Why are our approval ratings in the tank? It was less than 2 months ago, less than 2 months ago we agreed that for next year we should spend $1.43 trillion. And we're already talking about that we've got that number wrong and we want to spend more. Folks, we have to make those priority decisions. Thirty times, Mr. Speaker, thirty times in the last 10 years we came up with emergency spending. Thirty times, Mr. Speaker. Let me just ask you, the Defense Iraq-Afghanistan supplemental in 2004, is anybody surprised that it took more money in those places than we had budgeted? Anybody think that's a surprise? I'm not surprised by that, Mr. Speaker. I wasn't here, but I'm not surprised. What I wish we could have done was budgeted better for that. Did we know in 2004 that it was going to take more money? Of course we did. But what did we do? We gamed that system. What is this Appropriations Committee doing? What is this Appropriations Committee doing? They're saying that they know tragedy is going to befall Americans. They don't know what; they don't know when; but they know that it's going to happen. And so they're going to budget for it. Why? Because we tell Americans day after day after day that programs that they count on might not be there tomorrow. Why? Because we're broke. We tell Americans every day something that they might want to do, something they thought might be available, it might not be available. Why? Because we're broke. But I agree with my friends on the Democratic side of the aisle, when folks are facing disaster, they don't want to have to ask that question. When folks are facing personal tragedy, they don't want to have to ask that question: Will there be money there? Will there be help there? No, in our communities, we know the help is going to be there. We know our neighbors are going to be there for us, and we know our families will be there for us. And for the first time in a long time, Mr. Speaker, we now know that the American Congress is going to be there, too, because we are changing business as usual. We asked the question: Can we do better? And the Speaker and the committee chairmen said, Yes. Yes, we can. I encourage support for the rule, and I encourage a vote on the underlying resolution.

Mr. WOODALL. I say to my friend to from New York, I have no more speakers and am prepared to close.

Mr. WOODALL. I yield 1 minute to the chairman of the committee, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers).

Mr. WOODALL. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I am proud that we have been able to have a conversation with one another and yield that time throughout the day. In order to continue that, I yield 1 minute to the chairman, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers).

Mr. WOODALL. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOODALL. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds just to say that we have the distinguished Appropriations chairman here on the floor, who has said, not only have we doubled the President's request here, but there is a commitment to making the dollars available to everyone who is in need in these disasters. That's the kind of commitment this Nation has always made to its citizens. That's the kind of commitment that this bill continues to make to America's citizens. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOODALL. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. WOODALL. I thank you, Mr. Speaker. Because I hope where my friend was going to go was an acknowledgment that this process has provided twice the amount of disaster funding that the President requested, twice that amount in FY11, plus it forward-funds FY12. Mr. Speaker, again, I am proud that we are trying to grapple with these issues. There is not a person on the floor of this House that is saying ``no'' to Americans in distress. What folks are saying is ``yes'' to making sure that when those distresses come again, we budgeted for it. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to my friend, the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers).