Spencer Bachus

I am not retiring as much as I am not seeking reelection.

Our population overall, when you go to the 1940's, we were at 24,000, and in 1980, our population was 26,400.

I plan to do that because I have looked at this just this week and talked to two different Senators.

It just amazes me. Let me give another statistic that is hard to believe.

I think a lot of the problems that the Bureau of Prisons is experiencing is a failure of the Congress to respond to reforming our sentencing laws.

Once you start, once you put it out there, it is almost impossible to end it.

It is almost impossible when you have a government-sponsored entity for it not to subsidize someone else's mortgage with your tax dollar.

How can you justify asking me to pay somebody else's mortgage? I struggle to pay my mortgage.

I cannot support the bill.

Well, of course, I think that would almost argue for a streamlined process because many times we do have an environmental impact and then there are court appeals and things are tied up for 10 years or 8 years and then we are told we have…

Well, the moral is, is that we are going to shut down American jobs, American companies. It will be produced in Mexico and China. And it will increase mercury in our air in the United States.

Actually, the agency, it was only a tremendous outcry by people that said you didn't consider this.

They are. You are absolutely right. And I can tell you well aware.

But the cost was so prohibitive that even the EPA said it would shut a third of our production down.

Tammy Duckworth has proposed legislation to be able to waive that.

I think Members on both sides of the aisle were shocked at Marathon Steel.

Small businesses are the source for almost half of our workforce, and while I am concerned about many economic factors, it is also my view that government regulations have a disproportionate impact on small businesses.

Most economic experts will agree that small businesses and small business trade drive and shape our economy and our ability to provide employment for American workers.

The Honorable Spencer Bachus, a Representative in Congress from the State of Alabama, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.

I do want to say, as the chairman knows, the Judiciary Committee, as well as the Small Business Committee, has been looking at the effect of regulations on small businesses, and we've heard several horror stories. I welcome and applaud the…

I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: At the end of title XII, add the following new section: SEC. 12317. IMPROVED DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE…

I thank the chairman. The chairman and I have had several small businesses in Alabama-- marble businesses, granite businesses, stone businesses--that have contacted me and have told me that this discretionary permission to request a…

I have advocated for a comprehensive approach because I don't think we ought to have two classes of long-term residents.

I am not saying this legislation would have solved that, but I am saying that if more people had been at the table and more time and thought had been taken, we could have avoided what was a debacle.

But I do want to say I am not trying to simplify it. I am not trying to say that that was the sole reason, but it obviously was a contributing factor.