What the last generation did for us. Thank goodness i have a friend on the other side saying that. He pointed out, to whom much is given to, much is required. We have been given much, we have been blessed more than any nation in the world. We have more freedoms than solomons israel could have dreamed of, more individual assets that any nation in history. We have been given much and as a result, this generation has ecome so selfcentered, so selfindulgent, so obese, that we want to engeorge ourselves at the expense of future generations. Now let me just say, i havent decided what im going to do about the ryan budget. Im still going through it. And paul ryan and i have had some very severe disagreements during my nineplus years here, but i know this, he does not want to hurt future generations. He wants to do for the next generation what the last generation did for us. And we will not we cannot do that if we are spending money so generations that to follow us will be paying the debt and the interest on those debts without getting a dime of the benefits that we engorged ourselves with in this generation. So it is time to be responsible. Something i disagree with my colleague, when he said basically the ryan bill destroys medicare as we know it, i dont know if i like what paul ryan has been able to do about medicare. I would have handled it differently. Its one of the things im struggling with, but what he is trying to do is what democrats should have done for 40 years before the republicans took office or at least i guess well, no, for 40 years, they had the majority before the 1994 election, and they put us on a course to destroying Social Security. And in the 1960s, after medicare was passed, we have been on a course to bankrupt medicare, so our grandchildren and greatgrandchildren will not having anything for themselves because we spend it on ourselves. I dont know if it was the best way to do it, but i know what he is trying to do. He is trying to make sure we protect our seniors and we make sure that we can have future generations have some of the same protection. And from what i was reading he is trying to do that. Some changes will come, Social Security from what im reading, but not anybody 56 and older. Im still making up my mind on the bill, but i know what paul ryan was trying to do. He was trying to do an honorable thing for future generations, just like my colleague said he felt we should be doing. Ell, i want to get another topic today that have been on the minds and hearts of people all over the country this week fort hood, texas, had a mass shooting. First one was back in a cafeteria and that caused texas to rise up and pass a concealed carry permit law, as driven by a woman whose parents were killed there, because she had had to put her gun in the glove come partment and couldnt take it in and could have saved her parents if we had a concealed carry permit in place at the time of that shooting. And i have had people ask, as i know my friend from georgia has, what have you guys in Congress Done since the last shooting at fort hood to protect our soldiers . What has the commander in chief done to protect the military members under his command . We saw in afghanistan under this commander in chief that in half the time he had twice as many fatalities, even more than that in injuries of our military members in afghanistan at the time of the bush administration, about twice as many fatalities. We have seen what happened there. But what about right here . Well, after the first fort hood shooting, as an outrage to every military member and everybody who understands everything about the military, when this commander in chief allowed the incident to be called workplace violence, when clearly hassan, according to all the witnesses, stood up, made the universal cry that a radical islammist terrorist makes, claiming in essence that hes going to kill innocent people on behalf of a god who likes people like him to kill innocent people, just as they think theres a god that liked planes being flown into buildings to kill innocent thousands men, women and children. Thats a god i dont know and i know thats a god i will never meet. But i want to talk about what we should be doing for our soldiers. Ive got a bill that legislative counsel is working on right now and will be filing it early next week. We anticipate calling it the the save our soldiers bill. S. O. S. They have been crying s. O. S. , its just that nobody in their highest chain of command has listened. Congress is listening and we are going to get something done if there are enough people down the hall in the senate who worry about their election next november, that they will actually take this bill up and do something to protect our soldiers, other than lip service. Lip service doesnt really protect you against an incoming round. And at this point, i would like to recognize my dear friend from South Carolina, mr. Duncan for such time as he may use. Mr. Duncan there was a tragedy this week at fort hood, texas and the people of South Carolina stand with the people in texas sm the president s former chief of staff and now the mayor of chicago, Rahm Emmanuel said, never let a crisis go to waste. Thats what we are seeing going on today with harry reid to use the recent fort hood tragedy to pursue his agenda of control. He said this week that the recent shooting should renew discussion about gun control and went on to talk about background checks and Mental Health issues. Mr. Speaker, these comments have nothing to do with the facts at hand. However, harry reid wants to use this as a way to restrict americans Second Amendment rights. I dont agree with his motives, but i do agree with his suggestion that we need to revive a discussion on the Second Amendment. It should reawaken our discussions about americans constaugs kneel afffirmed rights to keep and bear arms to defend ourselves, to defend our families, to defend our property and ultimately to defend this great nation. With regard to our military, the gentleman from texas and i had a conversation earlier, i fully understand when you join the military, you give up some rights. You give up the right to speak unless you are spoken to. You give up the right to assemble peacefully. You assemble on the parade ground. You dont have a right to trial by jury. We set the jury of a Court Martial for the military. I get that. But yet, we trust these soldiers with both hightech and lowtech Weapons Systems that they use to defend this great nation but we turn around and create these gunfree zones on their bases, which have resulted in two incidents, gunfree zones which have resulted in two incidents at fort hood, two incidents of the killing of unarmed and lawabiding citizens. And ill mention as the gentleman from texas did, that we have the president who wants to call this an episode of workplace violence, well, nothing could be further from the truth. Islammist n was an jihadist intent of doing arm in the war against america that we see waging all over the world like places like afghanistan and iraq. The folks that were wounded there and the soldiers that were killed at fort hood, they deserve the medals that they have earned and call it for what it was, it was an episode of terrorism in the original fort hood shooting, and requires, i believe, that those victims receive the medals and thats something i renew the call on. I raise this issue about the tragedy just this week and the gunfree zones to my constituents via twitter and facebook and this is some of the things they had to say. One said our own soldiers without guns shot down on our own base. A ban on guns gives the criminals free targets. Criminals do not obey the laws. Steve says, the victims at fort hood are not dangerous. Ken said, we dont need more gun laws but fewer gunfree zones. I agree with him on that. Its time for america to wake up. The only law breakers in fort hood, texas, in both of these events, were the killers themselves who took a firearm into a gunfree zone. M reminded of an old adage that says when seconds count, the police are just minutes away. Think about that, america. Time to let our soldiers defend themselves and let lawabiding americans defend themselves and reassert our Second Amendment rights in this country. I appreciate the gentleman with s. O. S. Law. Look forward to cosponsoring that and lets let allow lawabiding americans, sailors, soldiers, marines, airmen to defend themselves. Put on the beach when someone needs to be rescued, guess what, the folks need to be rescued by having the ability to defend themselves. I thank the gentleman from texas for giving me time to talk about this important issue, may god bless him and may god bless the republic of texas and the United States of america. I yield back. Mr. Gohmert the gentleman from South Carolina has made clear why im such a big fan of his. Its so ironic though, and yes, i know, i was in the army and im not trying to by naming it the save our soldiers bill, it is generically speaking, inclusive of our soldiers, sailors, marines, coast guard, everyone in our uniform military. Thats who it pertains to. But we wanted a title that people would remember and think of all of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, coast guard, people that are protecting us. But the greatest irony still comes back to this. We have military members who are. Alified to fire tank weapons we got military members i think the largest i fired in the howitzer. 105 we have rocketpropeled grenades. All kinds of things that our litary or are able to utilize. We got airmen who operate airplanes that drop thousands and thousands of pounds of bombs nd yet for too long, Political Correctness has said, but even ough they may fire 105 howitzers or modern weapons we have, tanks, drop thousands of thousands of bombs, we cant trust them to carry a little pistol. ,. They may be on a ship, they may fire rounds that are bigger than i am, but, gee, we might not better trust them with a pistol. And what weve seen over and over in the tragedies here in , the norm is es for a criminal who wants to shoot and hurt and kill people to go to a gunfree area. Thats why the shooter at the theater in colorado could have gone to much closer theaters. But those theaters did not restrict the right to have weapons in them. So, they probably would have had someone who could have pulled a gun very quickly and ended the rampage. From the reports of what happened this week at fort hood female he hero, military member, pulled her weapon, he took his own life rather than risk ending up in a wheelchair or worse. He wasnt going to take chances on firing at anyone else once someone had a weapon leveled on him. ve lost enough lives in gunfree zones. Its time to allow the the biding lawabiding, qualified to protect themselves, to save our military. And i hope that our leadership will allow the bill to be brought to the floor here because i know good and well if we bring it to the floor here, im hope to open to amendments, suggestions. We get a bill like that passed here, then the pressure will be on the senate. And, yes, i know senator reid preblingts his democratic members all protects his democratic members all he can. If theres a bill that his members would get defeated for voting against, then he just doesnt bring it to the floor for a vote. Protecting his members from having to cast a vote for a bill thats a good bill or against a bill that would get them defeated because it was a good bill. He just keeps it from going to the floor. Weve seen that in so many of the bills weve passed from the house, that would have an immediate helpful effect on our economy it would have an immediate economy. It would have an immediate helpful effect on our government. And for heavens sake, i know the Mainstream Media will never get this right, even our own speaker didnt understand what happened that day apparently. Of ast fall our house representatives, a majority at least, believed that obamacare was very detrimental to this nation, to its economy, to its to peoples health. And so what did we do . We did what we believed and we voted to completely defund obamacare. Thats what we believed, that was the vote we did first. But understanding that in washington you have to have two ouses pass a bill, we passed a compromise measure that simply said, look, obviously obamacare is not ready for primetime. Youve had going on four years to get ready and its not ready for primetime so we are offering you a gift, democrats in the senate, and democrats in the house. Were offering a gift. Our compromise is this, we pass the bill, it said lets suspend obamacare for a year, clearly its not ready, many people will be hurt, that was an incredible gift of a compromise to the Senate Democrats and the House Democrats and even to the president himself. But our democratic friends down the hall had bought into the mainstream conventional wisdom that if the democrats could cause a shutdown, the Mainstream Media would protect them by blaming republicans and then that would help them win the majority in the house in the next election. So harry reid refused to even bring that gift, that republicans that gift that republicans in the house offered to the Senate Democrats, the president and House Democrats. He wouldnt accept it. I bet there are times that there are democrats in the house and senate that really wish they had accepted our offer of compromise and said, ok, all right, we dont want to do it, but ok, well suspend obamacare for a year. There are some in our party that felt like, gosh, if we send it for a year suspend it for a year, who knows what will happen in a year from now, maybe were better off letting america find out how bad it is, so then we can get it repealed outright. But we knew the suffering that would ensue once that bill could icked in and how we want people to suffer like we knew they would once obamacare kicked in . But harry reid wouldnt bring that to the floor. And so i didnt think it was wise when theyve rejected a clear offer of compromise down the hall, by refusing to even bring it to the floor for a vote, we funded everything harry reid wanted, we just had a oneyear suspension on obamacare. So then we came back and said, ok, the president has unconstitutionally signed an executive order that put off the businessman date for a year , so well offer what was an incredible compromise, we will agree to postpone the individual mandate in a legal manner, not unconstitutional, but a legal manner, and well go ahead and put in writing that the businessman date would be suspended for a year business mandate would be suspended for a year and that would protect the president s order. And harry reid wouldnt bring it to the floor for a vote. He knew good and well if he brought either one of our compromised bills to the floor compromise bills to the floor that there would be democrats that would either have to vote for the bill or for sure lose their senate seat come november. Democrats in the senate, that is. So he protected them and didnt allow that to come to the floor and his members seemed quite happy to just sit back and let harry reid try to protect them by not allowing them to vote. Then at 1 10 a. M. On october 1, when it was clear to us here in he house that harry reid was not going to even accept a gift of a oneyear suspension or the following compromise, offer, gift of a year suspension of the individual mandate and the year suspension of the business mandate, then we did what was almost unthinkable, bid against ourselves for the third time. We voted to approve conferees , and these are people who would have reached an agreement if the senate had bothered to even appoint conferees or negotiators. And it was understood here, if harry reid will go ahead and appoint senate conferees, they can start immediately and before even anybody is required to be at work at 8 00 a. M. , we could probably have a deal get it passed and people will have never known there was a shutdown for eight hours. But harry reid was so determined to follow through on what was the mainstream conventional wisdom, harry, if you just cause a shutdown the republicans will be blamed. They didnt even know the speaker would accept the blame because he didnt know what we d that day, but theyll be assessed the blame by the Mainstream Media and then you can get the majority back. So he forced a shutdown, actually tried to do that a few years ago and our leadership on the republican side capitulated at 10 30 the night the shutdown was going to begin, at 12 00 midnight, probably if the truth be known the democratic leader, harry reid, may have hoped that he would have a shutdown at midnight that night because he consistently said its my way or nothing, my way or nothing, no compromise whatsoever. And of course our leadership came back and said, well, we actually cut 26 billion and it turned out we did no such thing. But anyway, we came so close to a shutdown that night, but some of us still have enough faith in the American People that we believe a majority will ferret out the truth, come to the truth, regardless of what the Mainstream Media says, regardless of what anybody on television who gets a thrill up their leg when they see certain democrats, no matter what they say, they will eventually, the majority of the American People will eventually come to the truth. And that will save our nation. So, clearly there are areas in which we agree, as my democrat friend indicated when he said, lets do for the next generation what the last generation did for us. Thats all i want to try to do. Lets give our children and grandchildren a nation where they have the freedoms that we have enjoyed, where they have the privacy that we used to joy, where they dont have 20 trillion of debt from the prior generation, because the prior generation was so selfish , so selfcentered that they didnt even care to clean up the waste, fraud and abuse in the government. I read an article that talked in terms of a massive amount of fraud just at the state department. Here was an article, april 4, today, from the fiscal times. The state department has no idea what happened to 6 billion used to pay its contractors. In a special management alert made public thursday, the state departments Inspector General warned, quote, significant financial risk and a lack of internal control at the department has led to billions, thats with a b, billions of unaccounted dollars over the last six years. By the way, ker, thats while this president was in office. The unaccountability is dramatic. Future generations will have to pay for the waste, fraud and abuse that not only will we not clean up, but we borrowed money and our children and grandchildren in our children and grandchildrens name to lavish on massive, wasteful, fraudulent government, abusive government, because we couldnt control ourselves. Theres going to be a price to of for the irresponsibility this government in the decades ahead. When, if we do not get this country turned around and back on a responsible track, then there will be books written out the rise and fall of the United States of america and our generation will be blamed and the line of my democratic friend will be forefront in that book, that this generation refused to do for the next generation what was done for us. Mr. Speaker, i have hope, thats why im still here, thats why im running again. I have hope that were going to get back on track. That we will be able to rein in the government, that at some point harry reid will be willing to bring bills to the floor that we have sent down there, duly passed by a majority here in the house, that do things like get the economy going, that allow businesses to start hiring again without worry about just irresponsibility and overregulation. We need to be providing privacy for americans that began deteriorating in prior administrations before this, but that this administration has taken to an alltime with regard to individual privacy information taken away and held on to by the government. People want to know, gee, just what does the government have that would be invasive of our privacy . Well, for one thing, we now know the n. S. A. Has logs of every makes. T every american thats outrageous and unnecessary. And we cant go into classified briefings, but mr. Speaker, i stand here to tell you that even though there are some in our intelligence that have said, gee, if we had not gathered every log of every phone call ever made, we may not have stopped the subway bombing like we did. And from the evidence that we know from the public arena, it was clear, sure to me as a former prosecutor, and chief judge, for an officer of the law, federal, state or local, to go before a judge and swear this information and get a warrant from the judge and go after an individual who was about to try and set off a bomb. Looked like to me thats what is available in public. There was plenty of information for a judge to allow to sign a warrant. Not only are they getting every log of every phone call made, were not quite sure even now whether some say that they could pull the actual discussion of the conversation or whether they couldnt, but we also know that under obamacare, the federal overnment gets every record of everyones most personal and private health information. And for so long in this body i have heard my friends on this side of the aisle complain about, we dont want government in the bedroom and then without a single republican vote, they passed the obamacare bill, that not only put the government in your bedroom, but in your bathroom, kitchen, living room, garage, its with your realtor, its everywhere you can imagine. The governments there. Thats what the Health Care Law and the others the democrats have passed while they were in the majority. If its not enough that the federal government and we have to give credit for general electric. They have the contract to gather this information. So its not this government but cronies of this administration and private business who also has this information, but any way, the governments got your most private secrets, health carewise and no everybody youre calling. There is information in the public press that says they can come through every email you send and we find out one of the bills that the democrat majority in the house and Senate Passed was involving the Consumer Finance credit protection. That group has apparently decided that in order to protect us, they need to gather everybodys credit card and debit card information just so they can protect us. So there we go. The federal government got all your medical information. Got all of your credit card, debit card information, purchases, loans, all those kind of things. You got regulators, federal regulators going into banks checking on your loans, things like that. I mean, is there anything left in the way of privacy that this federal government has not got dy coopted to and access to without a warrant . I was very serious and the judges i knew were very serious about making sure there was probable cause, because thats the constitutional requirement. You have to have probable cause before you get a warrant. And there were times when law officers would come to me in my judges chambers or at the bench or at my home at 2 00, 3 00 a. M. , and i would read the affidavit and the officer was would swear to the information. And if it wasnt adequate, i, along with other judges i know, would say, im sorry, probable cause is not here. There are not enough facts provided to justify going after somebodys private property or private information. I cant sign the warrant. And there were times people, officers would say, give us another chance, a little more time, we see your point. Well be back and come back later and then you say, ok, this is probable cause. Certainly this raises probable cause. Sometimes they wouldnt be able to get it. But that was the constitutional standard by which law officers and courts are supposed to live. And now in the name of a little security, we have to stand there i cant even count the number of times i had to stand there with my arms open and be groped by federal agents, sometimes you could tell they got a little bit of a grudge, and we have given that away because we want security. Ok, we want health care, so lets the government know every one of our most intimate, private secrets in our health care records. And we want to make sure that some bank doesnt take advantage of us, heaven forbid the investment banks take any more advantage of us. Man. The investment banks brought us to the brink of ruin. And by the way, for those who dont know, mr. Speaker, wall street executives and their spouses donate four to one to democrats. People think that republicans have all the rich people on their side. People are finding out its middle class and poor people in america are coming to the conclusion, wait a minute. We have one party that keeps us dependent on the government for the little crumbs it throws out. We have another party over here that wants us to be president of the company, president of the country. They want us to have the best education possible. They want us to be able to speak the language of this country that gets you to be president of the country or the corporation, or the business english. And gee, they want us to have a job. They dont us to have to beg the government all the time. They want us to be able to have independence and have our own money and make our own decision. Maybe as a poor person, i would be better off supporting the republican party. I taught a combined sociology class at Texas College not that long ago. Texas college started as an africanamerican college and still prominently africanamerica can. They had some good ideas about how we straighten up welfare and how we get more people independent, how we get our government on track. Those are folks that had some good ideas. And those are some things they proposed, like a work requirement. Well, that was put on when republicans took the majority back in january of 1995 and then this president stripped that out, i would say unconstitutionally and did it with an executive order and changed the law that was signed into law by bill clinton and ended up being one of his most proud accomplishments, because what we saw after the requirement for work for welfare for the first time in 30 years, single moms income, when adjusted for inflation, started going up. It had been flat lined for about 30 years since aid to dependent children, since welfare started, ngle moms income had been flatlined for 30 years. And once the gingrichled publican administration took hold, single moms had more takehome money, more freedom, more autonomy away from the government where they didnt have to be dependent on the government. They could make their own decisions without some law being passed by congress to send them another crumb. It gave them money more than they ever had and gave them independence. Its what the people i know want for women, for africanamericans, for everyone in america, for hispanic americans, for anyone, its what we want for americans. And one of the things that meant , much to me on 9 12 of 2001 as we stood out there, hundreds, maybe thousands of people in our town of tyler and i knew it was going on in longview and all over east texas. People came out to the town square and they prayed together. And they were not about to let any court no court would have had the nerve to tell america on 9 12, you have no right to pray in public. They wouldnt have had the right to say that on 9 12, 2001. So we were praying together as citizens out there. We sang hymns. We sang Amazing Grace and God Bless America. Hat is go God Bless America . We held hands as people sang this. People did this all over america on 9 12, 2001. And as i looked around among all those people, my american iends, there was not a hyphenated in the group. We had all origins, races, i mean all kinds of groups represented, but we were americans. There were no euro, africanamerican, asianamericans, irishamericans. There were americans and we stood together, we sang together, we prayed together. And there was no mess out there. We were together, one people. As that great speech given by senator obama pointed out, there shouldnt be a red america, blue america, black america, white america, there ought to be one america. But we have gotten into the politics of division. Thats why the senate refused to take up our repeated efforts that compromise to avoid shutting down the government. The politics of division. Thats why the world war ii memorial was barricaded and massive men and women hours were utilized to try and keep veterans out of the memorial, the marines, world war ii memorial. I couldnt believe they had the nerve to put up a barrier to the Martin Luther king junior memorial. And i opened up with my streets my friend from mississippi, opened up the barriers there at the world war ii memorial. I clipped the crime scene tape. I moved one barricade and he moved the other. The world war ii vets came in. Steve king and i, few others went out to the marine memorial and we opened up that memorial. E checked out their other days to make sure that that was accessible. And one day, it turned out there was a bus of world war ii veterans that had come out there. There was a big plastic barricade shaped like the concrete barricades. This was plastic and it was filled with water. A wooden barricade there, and that bus of world war ii veterans, many of them that had that in the phillipines, had been to the top of the mountain and seen that flag be planted up there, their bus ran over that barricade. I was so proud of them. Ran up there and i got up there they were already out there enjoying the memorial, these that that saw that flag was planted there, now enjoying the memorial. And we came back by, we were going to stop at the reverend Martin Luther king junior memorial. They had barricades up there. And i were so proud, there were a slew of americans, most of them were africanamericans. They climbed right over and went into that wonderful memorial. And i didnt even have to stop to open that up. They had already taken care of it. Thats the politics of division. We need to be back to being americans, not hyphenated, not republican americans, democrat americans, not tea party americans. I mean, for heavens sake, the tea party, all it means and all it is is a group who have been taxed enough already, theyre tired of the waste, fraud and abuse in government. They want a responsible government so that we can do as my democratic friend said just a while ago that he wanted for us, to do for the next generation what the last generation thats all the tea party wants. Theyre not racist. They got all races in the meetings i go to. They just want us to be responsible and do for the next generation what the last one id for us. So, mr. Speaker, i hope that well be able to bring save our soldiers to the floor. I know back three years ago when i was concerned that our military was going to be used as a pawn to try to get people to vote for a bad continuing resolution, under threat that, gee, if you dont vote for this bad continuing resolution our military members wont be paid, so shame on you. Well, i was furious that our military members had to even have it cross their mind that they might not get paid. So i filed a bill that would ensure that if there were a government shutdown, that our military members pay would be treated like Social Security is. I know there are a lot of fear mongering about that. But if theres a shutdown the law is and continues to be and was three years ago that its basically on automatic pilot. If theres a shutdown, then the Social Security checks continue to go out, someones entitled to more so Social Security during the shutdown, they dont get the increase until after the shutdowns over and then they would get it. But thats what the bill would do for the military. And i am grateful, even though our speaker did not let that bill come to the floor, i was grateful that so many millions of americans came onto some website set up for that purpose to say, put our military pay on automatic pilot just like Social Security is, so if theres a shutdown people that had their lives in harms way dont have to worry about their loved ones getting paid. Nd even last fall we saw military members whose families , when they were dying in harms way for us, this administration wasnt even going to let them get paid. It was really outrageous. We even passed a bill last fall to make sure that finally the military wouldnt have to worry about it and the Defense Department and this administration interpreted it in such a way to inflict as much harm on survivors of our military heroes as this administration could. It was wrong. But they did it. Its the politics of division. Its going to be important, mr. Speaker, that we let people know who the real heroes are for this country. Heroes would include those who are willing to lay down their lives for others. Greater love is no more than this, that a man lay down his life for friends. Thats men, women, anyone willing to lay down their lives. Not to kill innocent people, but to save lives. Thats what weve always attributed it as a hero here in america. And yet we find out that i didnt know until i read an article by my friend, andy carthy, about this on the president s website. But whitehouse. Gov regularly profiles young leftwing radicals it calls champions of change. Im quoting from the article of andrew mccarthy. Its dated today. Now in the space of just a few days, two of the president s champions have made the news. One is linda sarsour, described by the white house, as, quote, a community activist, unquote, who specializes in, quote, community organizing, unquote, and immigrants Rights Advocacy and who conducts training nationally on the importance of Civic Engagement in the arab and Muslim American community. Evidently Civic Engagement need not be civil engagement. Ms. Sarsour has joined her voice to that of care, thats the council on American Islamic relations, that two federal courts have declared is a Front Organization for the muslim brotherhood. Which has appropriately been declared as a terrorist organization by egypt and others are doing looking at doing the same, including even great britain. But not here. No. We take our lead from whatever care says in this administration. But this socalled champion of change, according to the white house website, has reacted to the widely viewed and acclaimed film honor diaries, a film about the brutalization and statisticic inquality faced by omen systematic inequality faced by women in the muslim society. This is what she says. How many times do we have to tell white women that we do not need to be saved by them . Is there code language i need to use to get through . As mr. Mccarthy notes, he said, id note that the executive producer of honor diaries is the heroic somali human rights activist ayan hirsi ali. It features several courageous muslim women, including pakistaniborn ahmed, a medical doctor who has an important column about the film and the campaign to suppress it at n. R. O. Today. It also points to bonnie ewin as a champion of change, as so named by the white house, and matt boyle has a column that says, an amnesty advocate that president Obamas White House publicly promoted as part of its champions of change series has now been indicted in federal court on charges of fraud. And it goes on down part of it reads, the second count indictment count alleges that u. N. Violated a federal Immigration Law that prohibits bringing illegal aliens into the United States and harboring them, alleging she did so, quote, for the purpose of commercial advantage and private financial gain. So, apparently a champion of change is someone who is probable cause to believe is ngaged in human trafficking. Mr. Speaker, this country has to reawaken. If were going to do for the next generation what the last generation did for us, we have got to stop the indebtedness that is growing every second of every day and we keep adding to the debt and the interest that mounts on top of that. We have got to get more responsible in protecting privacy and not allowing this administration to further go into peoples bedrooms and bathrooms and credit card records and phone calls and emails. We have got to stop the insanity or not only will the next generation rise up and not call us blessed, they will curse our names. Im here because i have hope were going to turn things around. Weve just got to keep fighting. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from iowa, mr. King, is recognized for 30 minutes. Mr. King thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, its my privilege to be recognized to address you here on the floor of the United States house of representatives. We are constantly confronted with agendas and issues that, some are good for the country, some are bad for the country. Thats why we debate here in this congress. And id like to think that anything that passes off the floor of the house of representatives enjoys the full support of at least a majority of the members of the house of representatives. Id like to think thats also the case with the senate. Id like to think that when we disagree we come together in conference and we produce a conference report that can achieve and enjoy the majority support of the house and the senate of the conference report and go on its way to the president s desk where its either signed into law or vetoed and back to the chamber of origin, as the constitution directs. There also are tactics and maneuvers that go on in this congress. D this more than two centuries of the structure of this great deliberative body halls developed a system within our Committee Process to define Jurisdiction Committee by committee. More committees have been created over the years. Some committees have been abolished over the years. But its designed to function so that this constitutional republic, which is guaranteed in our constitution, by the way, it brings the best judgment of the people in america through their elected representatives, 435 house districts, and the 100 senators from the 50 states, the good ideas that come from our neighborhoods need to go into the eyes and ears of their member of congress and we need to bring it here and bring those best ideas forward and compete, put those ideas together in a competitive fashion so that as we sit down and first we draft a bill, that bill gets assigned to the committee of jurisdiction where the people have accumulated expertise on the topic are seated, there will be hearings for them to get better informed about the bill in question itself, and then in the subcommittee, a markup of the base bill that allows every member of the subcommittee to offer an amendment, any series of amendments that are germane, to the topic and the subject of the bill, which is assigned to the committee because of the jurisdiction of the committee and then as sub and then the subcommittee acts, in which case the bill goes to the full committee for a similar process to the broader committee, it if if it comes out of that committee improved in theory, and actually improved in practice most of the time, then that bill goes on the calendar here to the floor where in which case its subjected to the amendments that might come from all of the other members, the members that are on the committee of jurisdiction and the members who are not on the committee of jurisdiction. When this congress is set up to function accurately, when we are defending and protecting and respecting the jurisdiction of the various committees, we get the best product. Because we have the people on the committees that have, at least in theory, the most knowledge about the topic that comes before the committee. Some have years and years of expertise accumulated. Some not quite as long, but they might bring that interest from their private life into the committee as well. I get very concerned when i see, when i see a bill come to the floor that didnt go through the Committee Process, that didnt have a legitimate hearing process, that didnt go through subcommittee or the full committee and comes to this floor because someone decided that it was so urgent that we act on a subject that we didnt have time to go through regular order. That concerns me a lot. I get concerned when theres an expectation that we will have a full debate here on the floor on a bill and its brought to the floor and voice voted on a weekend, going into a weekend, without the knowledge of most of the members of congress. I get concerned about regular order. Ive had my conversations with our leadership regarding that. Im not yet satisfied that this is the last time. Came to the floor to address a different kind of regular order, a kind of regular order is this. If we have committees that are not committees of jurisdiction of a subject or a topic and that subject or topic outside their jurisdiction has slipped into a mustpass piece of legislation from another committee, now they have usurped jurisdiction of the committee that actually has that jurisdiction and placed the topic into a subject matter that must pass and the people who have allowed that to happen on their watch, at least in theory, dont possess the expertise that exists within the committee of jurisdiction. All this technical explanation of what goes on here in this congress boils down to this, mr. Speaker. And i want to speak specifically to this issue. There is a bill that is floating around this congress that is referred to as the enlist act. And i cant read for you the name of this bill because its about as accurate as the Affordable Care act to naming obamacare, but its one that grants amnesty to people who have come into the United States unlawfully present in the United States, many of them committed the crime of unlawful entry. A good number of others have overstayed a visa or come into a Visa Waiver Program but end up being unlawful here in america and might sign up for the liberty, and if they do that, they are defrauding the department of defense. We dont recruit people in our military who are unlufflely present. They have to have a green card at a minimum, citizenship better. One might presume we are having trouble recruiting people coming into the military, and therefore we should bring in mere sen areas to step into the uniform and take the oath and go out and defend the liberty of americans. That actually happens, but when it happens, its a violation of the law. And if they take that oath of office, illegal aliens into our military have to misrepresent themselves in order to be accepted into the military. So thats fraud. It might well be document fraud. And this bill called the enlist act would reward them for doing so, for defrauding the department of dens and putting on the uniform and at least in theory defending america. They take an oath to preserve, defend and protect the United States. They may mean or may not mean it. It was a dishonest act on their part so why would we accept their oath to defend the constitution, to have more value than their word when they gave when they misrepresented themselves. This enlist bill rewards people by giving them a green card. And the only qualifications you need is, you are unlawfully here in the United States, you enter into the military and misrepresent yourself to do that, because we arent taking them in if you unlawfully misrepresent yourselves and have to assert they were in the United States since before december 31 of 2011 and they have to assert that they were brought into this country or came into this country by the time they were 15 years old. They might be in their 0s when they sign up for the military, who knows. But that has to be the assertions. And then if they are in the military at the time, then they have to be either honorably discharged or on the path to Honorable Discharge and will have a path to citizenship. I think this is a misguided bill. I think its misguided to think we need to reward people for breaking the law. Misguided to believe that americans wont sign up in our military. We are shrinking, not expanding. We have highquality americans to join up in all of our branches of service. The recruiters would like to do a little more and thats always been the case. But this is not an expanding department of Defense Budget but a shrinking department of Defense Budget. Not expanding numbers but shrinking numbers that are there. But that, mr. Speaker, that isnt so much the point as it is, whats right and whats wrong, whats justice, whats equity and whats not. I understand there are people that have sympathy and they say this pulls on our heartstrings, we ought to give them a path to citizenship. I understand that, but the advocates for this enlist act, do they understand, reward for law breakers. These arent just only someone who came across the border illegally or someone who overstayed their visa, but misrepresented themselves to get into the United States military and we would trust them with perhaps military secrets and the security of americans and american installations around the world. Its not that i dont trust them, i just dont believe we should be rewarding people that have already been proven they broke the law. They have taken an oath to the constitution and not on a path to citizenship, if they are here unlawfully, they violated the law. I think its wrong, mr. Speaker, and i look at some of the press has come out on this, the tactic and effort that seems to be that they think they can slip a provision into the National Defense authorization bill that a provision in there that would egalize people who are illegally in the United States military and reward them for their trouble. There are many countries in the world you are a lot better off in the United States marine corps than you would be say down on the streets of many cities in the countries of the world. Thats true. This would put out the advertisement, this bill, this enlist, badly named enlist act, put out the advertisement that says, sneak into the military and that will be the fastest path and the benefits that come from american citizenship. Citizenship must be precious and not handed out like candy in a parade and we dont throw them ut like tootsie rolls or whatever in our parade. It must be precious. The rule of law is precious. It is the center core, the rule of law. We cant grant amnesty to people because our hearts tell us we have sympathy for individuals. I have sympathy for individuals. N fact, if im ever declared a liberalist is how i deal with some people individually because i see something in their eyes and their voice and the way they carry themselves, something in the way i see them conduct themselves that convinces me that this is a good person. And i want to invest in them, whether its my capital, my time, my trust or recommendations that others do the same. I would actually do that on occasion because i have faith in an individual. But when you set policy, policy for the United States of america because your heart tells you, have sympathy for some people that you know, keep in mind there are always hundreds of thousands, millions of people that are impacted by that decision and you have to say, i trust every one of those people the same way i trust the individual or the individuals that i know that bring this sympathy from my heart. We arent charged with having sympathy here and setting Foreign Policy or setting our National Policy because of the sympathies of our heart. We are charged with providing justice and equity and that is laid out in the constitution. And to me, its a clear charge. When i take an oath to preserve, defend and protect this constitution, i mean it. And that is the supreme law of the land this constitution and foundation for the rest of the laws. Congress passes the law that says we arent going to bring people into our military that are unlawfully present in the United States. And when i hear from, lets say, other members, in particular, an individual member that says, steve king is dead wrong on this issue, mr. Speaker, i take issue with that. Im right with the rule of law, im right with current law. The policy is right because otherwise you fill our military up that people may or will likely have foreign interests. Its not to the interest of the United States to replace on our troops, people who are american citizens or people on a path to citizenship, replace them with people who came into the United States illegally. How poor would we be as a people, how empty our soul as a people if we say, well, thats another job that americans wont do, they dont want to put on a uniform, so we have to reward Illegal Immigrants if they apply to us and let them in the military and well give them a path to citizenship. Thats what this enlist bill does and does damage to the rule of law. Its a misguided, however good the hearts are the people that advocate for this. Mr. Speaker, i would say, i think this is an important debate. It doesnt belong on the Defense Authorization bill. This bill doesnt belong in the defense committee. The Armed Services committee. This debate belongs, if its going to take place at all, in the committee of jurisdiction, the immigration subcommittee of the house Judiciary Committee, where it ought to have, if it deserves any debate at all, it ought to have witnesses that agree with people like me. I have seen these hearings come out before, even in our Judiciary Committee, where someone gets the idea where we ought to grant a path to citizen inspectship to millions of people who are unlawfully here and there were four witnesses, no questions, another round of four witnesses. Now the chair and the Ranking Member get to ask questions, 90 minutes after the beginning of the hearing, the first voice of dissent might be heard. Thats not a very Good Committee in my opinion, but at least it was in the committee of jurisdiction. And i would like to expect that the subcommittee chairman of the Immigration Committee would defend the jurisdiction of his committee. Reject the idea that they sneak this bill into the Defense Authorization bill. And i would like to see that the chairman of the full committee defend the jurisdiction of the committee, as he did so effectively last year and denied this end run that they are attempting to run this poorly named, enlist act, around an end run of the Judiciary Committee and slip it into a mustpass legislation that would come here on to the floor. Our country will be stronger. The security of the country will be at least as strong and the heart of our strong will be at least as strong. We can have sympathy for people without turning them into americans and our defense will be stronger because we have more american citizens step up and qualify. Across this country, you go to work, whether you punch the time clock or salary, whatever it might be and you walk into that workplace and you are there on a production line making an american car, lets call it a ford and on your right hand someone is working here illegally. Left hand, someone fits that same category. Do the workers that are standing there, do they realize there are two good, wellpaying jobs, but someone else who is unlawfully in the United States have stepped into their sted and taken that goodpaying job, that job that pays taxes that continue to the benefits of people that arent working. If you look on your right and you look on your left and you see somebody who is working there and say i enjoy working with him and efficient, probably its true. Whats it doing to america, whats it doing to the rule of law to reward people that break the law while this congress borrows money every year, 42 cents off of every dollar we spend from places like china, saudi arabia and with the bonds that are out there, about half of our debt to the American People that are so far willing to reinvest, what does that do, to fund the 80 different welfare programs that are there and we have a population of some 316 million americans, 101. 4 million of those 316 million are of working age, simply not in the work force and some of the biggest reasons are right there in that list of the 80 different meanstested welfare programs. What should we do in this congress, mr. Speaker . We should do this. We should have policies that increase the average individual annual productivity of our people. Each one of us should get out of bed and go forward to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product that day. That means, we are committed an hour, eight hours or 24 hours, you are contributing to the g. D. P. And will increase your income and pay your share of the taxes and when you make that contribution, you are helping pull the load. If you are sitting and one of those people that have taken this safety net and turned into it a hammock for yourself and you are riding here when you should be contributing off of someone elses labor, thats wrong. We need more americans going to work and higher percentage of americans working. There is no work that americans wont do, including putting on a uniform, being trained up in a. I. T. Or wherever you might be assigned to go and defend our country. Its been done with honor, with dignity and gloriously by americans since before there was an america and it needs to be so for the duration of this republic. Mr. Speaker, i would say furthermore the idea that jobs americans wont do and i thought, what would be the toughest, dirtiest, nastiest, most dangerous job that americans are ever asked to do . When i think of this i think i bet i know somebody thats an authority on that and that would be one of the gentlemen that served in the marine corps. The dirtiest, nastiest, most dangerous job that we ask americans to do, how about rooting terrorists out of fallujah . What does that pay . How do we get americans to do that if we cant get americans to cut meat or pick tomatoes or whatever that might be, how do we get them to do that . I went back and ran the numbers on that. So a marine in the streets of fallujah in the line of fire, if you figured them in a 40hour week instead of a 70, 80 or 90, at 40 hours they were getting paid 8. 90 an hour. If a marine will go in the line of fire for god and country for 8. 90, i bet we can find americans for 20 an hour to go out there and cut meat and 20 an hour that will go out and pick lettuce as the gentleman from arizona used to talk about during his president ial campaign. So heres my point, mr. Speaker. I think this enlist act is misguided. Itch think the press that spilled out on it has illuminated a maneuver to try to circumvent the icks tent of the Judiciary Committee. I re extent of the Judiciary Committee. I think those that have a heart that tells them i want to pass some legislation because i have sympathy for individuals that i know who will make good americans, i understand that. I have some sympathy for individuals i know that will make good americans, too, but im not about to usurp and undermine the rule of law because im not here i didnt run for office telling my constituents, my hearts going to overrule my head. My hearts going to overrule Human History and Human Experience and the constitution. We should know better. We are here to be analytical, to lead and not let the emotions drive up. As a matter of fact, mr. Speaker, i remember a display at the National Archives as i was waiting some years ago to be able to walk up there, where the declaration of independence is on display and there i see they had they had the display of the greeks who had they had demagogues in their community. They had pure democracy. They found out they would get the demagogues and storm off in a direction that was bad for the city of greece and they couldnt control the overheated rhetoric of the very persuasionive demagogues so they had a system to blackball them and if men of voting age blacked a black ball into the pottery that was a voting one and disregarded a white one in the nonvoting one, then they would banish that demagogue from the state for seven years. That was emotionalism. Our Founding Fathers understood we didnt want to form a democracy here. We created a constitutional republic. Its guaranteed in our constitution and its done so because it charges each of us have a cool head. I owe my constituents, as everyone here does, my best effort and my best judgment. That includes listen to my constituents, all of them. But it includes also step back, take a look at it from 10,000 feet, analyze the policy, understand my oath to the constitution and the supreme law of the land and act accordingly for the longterm best interest of the United States of america. This enlist act is not in the longterm best interest of the United States of america. Its not in the best interest of america that we circumvent the jurisdiction of the committees. Thats not thats not either in the best interest of america. What is in the best interest is we preserve, protect and defend the constitution, and the rule of law and recognize that this immigration debate is driven by emotion on their side, the amnesty people are driven by emotion and there are others that stand here and say, were going to protect the rule of law. So heres what i would submit, mr. Speaker. If theyre successful in passing a gang of eights bill in the house, ifer in successful in eroding the rule of if theyre successful in eroding the rule of law and pass the dream act that also erodes the rule of law, anything that rewards people for breaking the law is a continuation of the amnesty act that was signed by Ronald Reagan in 1986. Were debating the results of the signature on that bill today because it left it was passed this way. It said were going to legalize a Million People who are here illegally because we dont know what to do and then the promises were going promise well enforce the law and there will not be any more amnesty and that was the 1986 amnesty law and reagan promised that. We never got the enforcement. The one million became three millionplus. The enforcement didnt come but the implied promise of amnesty exists and thats what theyre pushing on. If any amnesty is passed now, that perpetuates the promise that there will be another amnesty which turns up the huge electoral magnet which draws people to come into america the promise theyll receive citizenship, path to citizenship, some kind of amnesty. We have to restore the rule of law, the respect for the rule of law and if theres a provision that is an amnesty provision that passes, then that promise exists in perpetuity that there will be another one which means we will not be able to restore the rule of law in this country, at least with regard to immigration. Again, i dont know that i can say ever, but i can say never again would we see the rule of law with regard to immigration within the duration of this republic. Not as long as i shall live or as long as we shall live. Not until death do us part but until the death of this republic we will not be able to restore the rule of law, at least with regard to immigration and the argument goes to the next and the next and the next, mr. Speaker. And so this is a critically important issue. I am happy to debate this with the colleagues from my conference and any state where they would like to take this up, be it california, be it colorado, be it anyplace else around the country. This debate is one thats important. We need more American People our hearts e that cannot overrule our heads, we cannot allow the rule of law to be torn apart because we have sympathy for certain people. Lets have sympathy for americans first. Lets understand that america can be defended by americans and if people want to come and join and defend and help protect america, get in line the right way, because the advocates for this kind of legislation, well, they go to the back of the line except this bill isnt the back of the line. Its we create a new line and youre in the front of it. Theyre not going to allow them to go to the back of the line. They dont believe it. Theyll say theres work americans wont do. Defending america. How is it marines will step in the line of fire for 8. 09 an hour . How is it that we have americans in every job in the bureau of labor statistics website . Americans are doing work in this country. They just need to be paid what the work is worth. And the wages are being suppressed by elitists who are making millions of dollars off of the cheap labor that is subsidized by the taxpayers who are backfilling and funding these households with the 80 different means test welfare programs and were borrowing the money from china to do it. So lets have that discussion. Tell me how to get this budget back to balance . How do you do it when youre rewarding people for not working . What kind of country do you want . I think the advocates for this bill that i suppose actually want the same kind of country i want. I dont think they see what theyre doing to erode the progress that we need to be making. I think that when they declare that im dead wrong, the real result is if they get their way, there will be more americans that are eventually actually dead because theres not a day that goes by in this country that there isnt at least one american citizen that dies at the hands of someone whos unlawfully present in the United States, whether it is an act of homicide or its an act of willful manslaughter, whether its an o. W. I. In the streets of america, hardly anybody has gone through the last 10 years and doesnt at least show that up in their local newspaper if it doesnt show up in their neighborhood. And so steve kings not dead wrong. Lets keep more americans alive, and if i need to go to those states and have those debates, thats what i will do. But i call upon our committee chairs, especially, to defend the jurisdiction of our committee and if youre chairing a subcommittee or a committee in the United States house of representatives that happens to be the Judiciary Committee, the rule of law and the constitution are eventual. I also expect and call upon those who have that special charge to renew their vigorous defense of the rule of law, the jurisdiction of the committee and the supreme law of the land, the constitution. And with that, mr. Speaker, id yield back whatever balance i may have. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. For what purpose does the gentleman seek recognition . Mr. King mr. Speaker, i move the house do now adjourn. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly, the house stands adjourned until noon monday next for morning hour debate. Testified that the taxpayers who fight back are told sue us. Sue us and prove that we are wrong. They are hit with unnecessary bills heavy enough to cause a hernia. You dont likeif it, sue us. This is not hearsay a rumor. Quote from anct irs season. The irs will tell you during this month, cspan is these two present our winning entries in this documentary competition. This is cspans annual competition to encourage middle and High School Students to think critically about issues of stop students were asked to create documentary based on the question, what is the most important issue the u. S. Has accomplished . Ben wolman is one of our winners. He based his documentary on nasa funding. I was strolling on the moon one day of december month may a paradise nasas proposed budget for fiscal year 2015 is the lowest it has been 2007. It is. 44 of the annual budget. Assays the huge asset to the united dates. States. It bars technological innovation. The organizations impact on our country is unjustly downplayed due to its meager funding. Are making nasa benefit us over and over again. The byproducts of that investment, whether it is in the , itcal area or hospitals came about from a nasa program. Surprises. New enterprises. That is done with nasa itself. I go to schools and i described to students my connection to nasa and technology. I described the car accident that i had. He airbag saved my life it was nasa technology. Nasa is encountering some new competition. It raises the question of whether private enterprise detracts from governmental Space Organization of stop space x a newa leading role in establishment of private businesses. The private companies are doing a great job. There are things that are done with nasa and their pioneering work, a lot of the sciences came from nasa. The funding is coming from the government. Industries do seem to be worthwhile. Nasa has a central role in operations. There is one major flaw. Money. Some things will never be profitable. Private companies are doing things that are profitable. Morecan do things efficiently than any governmental organization. There are a lot of things that will not pay off in terms of aching money. We make a profit by sending two rovers to mars. You will not make a profit on a multibilliondollar mission to the moon. There may not be profit, but studies show that for every one dollar given to the organization, the American People receive 714 dollars back spinoff technologies that increase employment. Angeles, all 10,000 Aerospace Engineers are employed there companies that work with nasa. They work on various projects. Nasacreasing funding for has an increased benefit for southern california. It will help Los Angeles County generally. Im standing in front of a business that has applied nasa with systems on projects like the hubble site does hubble space telescope. Boeing has long worked to nasa. They have been a private contractor for the international a station. The organization has had a much more personal impact on people. Nasa has inspired me. I credit it with giving me a fascination and science. I played games on their website and watch the shuttle launches. I had the privilege of watching gpl for annual open house. It was cut due to sequestration. Funding thestate of price kid of experiences that could impact their lives and future careers. United states won the race to put people in the mid, be cold war is over. Arguments about but nick and your regard. Gargarink and yuri scared the United States and now theyre gone. What is the function of space . We have it in our dna to explore. It is our destiny and our mission. Too often, that gets lost. Enhancing man cost knowledge about outer space is extraordinarily important as to what it does for the state of knowledge and the enticement of young people. The pursuit of new frontiers. We need to increase the nasa budget rx oration four x oration. For exploration. What we learn out there ultimately tells us about our planet and what we need to survive on earth. If you cut your research budget, you cut your future. Those are the future industries and technologies. If you do not maintain that, whether it is space or not, you do so at your own peril. You will value that activity. We are invested in the future. Those are the foundations of tomorrow. Without it, we should slide back to the cave. Reach extends beyond partisan boundaries. It has long inspired americans and people around the globe. Are notic achievements the accomplishment of one country, but of the entire human race. Other countries are ramping up their space programs. Congress must realize that giving nasa funding is a worse on stability to the u. S. And the world. The worlds richest country should lead the way. It should explore the unknown. To watch all of the winning videos and to learn more about our competition, go to cspan. Org. Tell us what you think about this issue. You can post your comments on our feast of phase page. The Unemployment Rate for march remained at. 7 . The economy added jobs. Said thatgton posts people join the labor force. A strong showing is roughly on par with hiring during the second half of last year. Hows leaders reacted to the numbers. John boehner said also this, from Nancy Pelosis office. He give members a breakdown of the latest data. Senator Amy Klobuchar cochaired the hearing. We will call the joint Economic Committee to order. Vice chairman will be charged is not here yet. Chairman brady went to dallas to friends funeral of his and the husband of the former senator kay bailey hutchinson. He asked the to preside at this hearing this morning. I was hoping we would have the minnesota mafia starting off the hearing. Nonfarm payrolls increased. It is positive news. It is not enough. I agree with Janet Yellens recent assessment of our economy. Monday she said, theres been steady progress, but there is no doubt that the economy and the job market are not back to normal health. By several measures, the recovery is far below the average. Heres at the joint Economic Committee, we refer to that as the growth cap. Growth hasreal gdp accumulated 9 Percentage Points below the average recovery. Are 5 Percentage Points below recovery. Disposable income of a family of four grew by 13,000 less than it did in average recovery. Our economy is underperforming. We should be doing better than five consecutive years of below aerage of stop there were number of statistics indicating that are labor market is weaker than the official Unemployment Rate would suggest. More than 7 Million People are working parttime, even though they would prefer fulltime jobs. The falling Unemployment Rate has not sparked a significant increase. Are up byge earnings less than one percent since the recession ended. 36 of the unemployed have been unemployed six months or longer. The than one third of unemployed in this country have been on white for six months or longer. The Labor Force Participation rate has fallen to 63. 2 . Only half of this decline can be attributable to democratic factors. Some may blame the housing bubble for this persistent weakness. The collapse of the housing bubble has some lingering effects, but it is not the main factor. What is unique about this recovery is the combination of the economic all of these that the president has pursued. Federal spending declined as a percent of the. Morerivate sector created than 37 million jobs. Under president obama, federal spending reached a high of 24. 4 . It remains above its postwar average. President kennedy and president reagan passed tax cuts. Ais committee has shown correlation between new business investment. President obama increase taxes on successful small businesses. There was a balanced approach taken toward these issues. They have produced pursued an aggressive agenda. President s reagan, kennedy, and clinton have pursued International Trade agreements. The administration has not fully engaged in this issue. There has been bipartisan support in the past. There is bipartisan support in congress for trade agreements today. President kennedy, reagan, and clinton did not burden people with the cost of retirement programs. President obama has pushed forward the Affordable Care act. It has increased uncertainty and raised taxes by nearly a half trillion dollars. The medical industry is important to her home state. Millions of americans have lost access to doctors. The economic policies that America Needs now are well known. Graduate s, a gradual decline in pricing. Balance regulation and trade liberalization. It is the best way to strengthen our economy. It is time the Administration Work together with republicans and democrats. With that, i look forward to your testimony. Thank you very much. Sorry i was a few minutes late. I was in a dentists chair. How much more fun to be here with all of you. It is great to be here. Representative paulson is chairing the meeting. It is good to see you again. I would like to welcome the assistant commissioner for the office of Current Employment analysis. I am pleased we are having this hearing on the adulation. I think we know that these hearings give us an opportunity to dig deeper into the numbers. 192,000ssed a gain of nonfarm gains. There are all of these job gains in the private sector. That is what we like to hear. Recent Economic News has been encouraging. The economy has grown for 11 straight quarters. The 2. 6 growth over the course of 2013 exceed the gains of 2011 and 2012. Manufacturing, the engine of innovation, it generates 90 of all patents. It has rebounded. Exporting has been another bright spot. Experts are growing. All of this is good news. We have a lot of room to go. We have accomplished much. The private sector has added jobs. 2009, werst half of shed more jobs in this country. We were at the rate of 700,000 per month. We shed more jobs in one month than people in vermont. Later, we have recorded 49 straight months of private sector job growth. We have now regained all of the private sector jobs that were lost during the recession. This is the month that we finally got to where we were. We are going to expand from there. The number of unemployed workers for job openings has decreased. In january. To 2. 6 it approaches prerecession levels of roughly two unemployed workers for every job opening. The Unemployment Rate is at 6. 7 of stop it is down nearly a full percentage i. The Unemployment Rate is better. 4. 8 in the state of minnesota. We know the recovery has not reached everyone. Americans haven been out of work. Job keyword periods of have mess joblessness negative effects. I hope the house will pass unemployment insurance. It will help people like linda and her husband from minnesota who lost their jobs and are both over 55. They need some support if they continue to look for work. Linda wrote me, Encouraging Congress to extend unemployment. I feel it be people who are jobless are being forgotten. We have to approach this issue from all sides. There are openings in some parts of the country. We need to make sure that workers are trained to do those jobs. That is a major part of this. The second part of it is to continually increase our exports. We must get more kids to go into math and science. Engineering and technology. Next immigration reform. It would be very helpful to the economy. There will be a decrease in the debt. Billion in 10 years according to the cbo. One of the things i will ask you is about the unemployment with veterans. We have made some improvement. Our focus is on longterm policies that create jobs in the short term. I am very much looking forward to hearing about the numbers today. I want to get some analysis from all of you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oshen erica grio is the fourth director. She has been a visiting assistant professor of economics at columbia university. She earned a phd in economics from harvard university. She earned a bachelor degree in economics from the university of wisconsin madison. I was a mathematics major as well. Welcome back to the committee. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss Employment Data that we release. Employees yroll employment rose at unemployment 6. 7 ,as unchanged at employment increased in professional services, health care, and mining and logging. Incorporating the revisions for january and february, we can increase employment by 37,000, monthly job gains have averaged 170,000. Ousand averagedt growth 183,000. All of the growth occurred in the private sector. It has now exceeded its Employment Level in december 2007. That is when the most recent recession began. This is a milestone. The private sector lost 8. 8 million jobs due to downturn. It has now gained 8. 9 million jobs since the Employment Level of 2010. Government employment is down since the recession began. Total nonfarm employment remains below its december 2007 peak. In march, implement in professional Business Services rose. It was in line with the prior 12 month average. Within the industry, temporary Health Services added 29,000 jobs. Health care employment rose by 19,000. There were gains in ambulatory services. In the prior 12 months, job growth and health care average 17,000 per month. Most of the growth was occurring in ambulatory care. Led byand logging rose gains in some for activities for mining. Employment in food and services and drinking places continue to trend up in march. This industry has added 300,000 jobs. Employment continued to trend up construction in march. It is up by 151,000. Employment and other major industries, including manufacturing, wholesale trade, and retail trade changed little. Average Hourly Earnings for all employees on private payrolls edged lower by one cent. They rose by nine cents in february. Average Hourly Earnings have risen by 21 . 2. 1 . S in comparison this is in comparison to previous gains. In march, the average work week for all employment increased to 34. 5 hours. The offsetting a decline over the prior three months. Turning now to our survey of households, the on and rate at 6. 7 was unchanged in march. The number of unemployed persons remained at 10. 5 million. The number of unemployed persons who were jobless are 27 or more was little changed. These individuals accounted for 35. 8 of the unemployed. Both the civilian labor force and the total employment increased in march. The Labor Force Participation rate and the employment population rate changed little. Who were neither working nor looking for work in march, two point 2 2. 2 million were classified. This was little changed. The number of discouraged workers who believe that no jobs were available for them edged down over the year. In march. 698,000 rose. Mary, employment the Unemployment Rate was unchanged. I will be gladnd to answer your questions. Thank you. Let me start. Janet yellen mentioned earlier this week when she gave a speech , she listed signs of weakness in the u. S. Labor market. She indicated that conditions were worse than the Unemployment Rate would suggest. Chairwoman yellen specifically mentioned increases in the labor of compensation and average little more than 2 per year. There is a large number of parttime workers. More than 7 million want fulltime work. Explain why the Unemployment Rate does not convey the same extent of weakness as these other labor market indicators . The Employment Situation contains the release that we release today. It contains over 1000 numbers. Differentm give you a perspective on what is going on in the labor market. There is no one number that will of what is thets largest market in the country. Important for educated users like yourselves to look at many different measures. That is what janet yellen has done. Some part of the answer to the question lies in not only what the numbers have been doing, but how they are compared to what is normal for the economy. That is all the preface. We have had a lot of improvement lately. Since the recession was over, we have not made we have not fully returned to prerecession levels. Example, the number of people who are parttime for economic reasons i have had their hours cut has cut down dramatically since the recession began. Than still much higher prerecession levels. Of under measure utilization of labor in the economy. That continues to be high. The Unemployment Rate is still much higher than its prerecession levels. Do you have thoughts on why this indicators might be week . Well, i guess we are we are more about counting the way things are. We are measuring current conditions. We are not dividing. Market isat the labor large and complex. What happens when you have this big decline in aggregate demand is that this underutilization of labor goes into many different ways. It goes into people working fewer hours. It works into people being unemployed. Spreads throughout the labor market and it takes a while for all of these different parts of the labor market to return. Maybe you could explain the linkage that exist between private investment and Economic Growth on the one hand, and then you have labor demands and employment. We know that we have had theas been a lot of biggest kidney recession immediately was a big increase in job destruction. We had a huge number of layoffs of workers. At the same time, we had a knowing higher a slow hiring rate. Normalnt returned to has been the job creation rates. Those have not been high enough to sort all of the slack that has remained in the labor market. Is it fair to say that the slower Economic Growth is the root cause of the problems . The Unemployment Rate has been declining because more people are disengaged from the labor market . Going to be Labor Force Participation, the estimates are about half of the kind of the Participation Rate is due to demographic factors. Would not be associated with the slowdown. Half of the remaining part, and this is what we have done largely at the federal reserve. About halfheir are of the remaining part due to changing behavior of various ,emographic groups, for example young people enrolling in college. Women no longer increase their Labor Force Participation. The remaining quarter seem to be associated with a downturn in the economy. There is an assumption that as the economy improves, that part will generally go away. Decline in a slower Labor Force Participation. It is not that much of a decline by these estimates. Thank you, commissioner. Thank you very much. Welcome. How therelked about have been some improvements over the last few months. We have looked at our weekly and monthly report. They have been affected somewhat by the cold weather. Impactt have a negative as i look at 10 more inches of snow for minnesota . Yes. We see some evidence that is consistent with the weather and had an impact on the last few months. In hours. Ly we recovered most of the decline in hours that we have seen. That is the clearest part. The impact on job creation is harder. I think it had a very temporary effect. The recession was topline younger workers. We know that. They have faced high levels of unemployment. Older workers have faced what is the Unemployment Rate old . Workers20 to 24 years it declined over the year in march, to 12. 2 and of those people in that age range, 31 were employed. You may not have this right to, but what it was previous the recession, the year before the recession, that age group . Much lower. See if i got it. We will get it. It clearly has to be a focus. Older