I am excited to rise today to support National Mom and Pop Business Owners Day. This celebration honors the husband and wife business owner teams whose work helps drive the economy and fuel job growth. Married couples who work together to…

Every American's share of the deficit is over $27,000 of our over-$8 trillion of national debt; and as you now know, we are raising the debt ceiling so we can bring that up to $9 trillion. And it was really frightening to these kids.

It has been a big issue for constituents of all ages. We initially focused pretty much on seniors in the suburban districts that I represent because they have very much been a target; so what was done was we tried to introduce the…

Across the country, not just in Florida, but I think homeland security is a big issue across the board. I hear it in my town hall meetings and in the forums I had in my district as well.

It was a number that reached out and grabbed you. Out of 12,000 total, only 200-plus were women.

It was so inspiring to hear you talk about how it affected you and how it affected all of us, regardless of all our ages, all these women Members of Congress who were so inspired by Sandra Day O'Connor and her leadership, her…

Even with all that progress, I know it sometimes is shocking to some of those high school and middle school students that we do civics classes with. I know you do as I do, and I will say to them just out of curiosity, What percentage of…

I have some of those figures in the meantime, while you get the chart. It is actually, four lenders currently hold a total of $2.174 trillion of our public debt. Compare this to only 23 billion in foreign holdings in 1993. The top 10…

I think you have another chart, if I am correct, that talks about what that means in terms of our spending priorities and that while we are spending so much on interest--you do have it--it essentially shows that we are spending more on…

Well, that is why PAYGO is an important thing, because it creates an environment that forces those kind of tough decisions and forces a more honest dialogue with the public about what is affordable and what is not. Absolutely.

Very much so. I mean, what PAYGO really did is, it forced tougher decisions. It forced a greater degree of transparency and honesty with the public because it forced us to say, if we are going to spend more on a particular program, where…

I mentioned it on the floor briefly that I had been with some kids several weeks back. More recently I mentioned to my colleague we were talking about Internet safety. I am the parent of teenagers, my daughters are 13 and 15, so the issue…

That is absolutely true. When I talk to the seventh graders and the middle schoolers and I say to them, Well, what would happen if your parents spend more money than they have? And they said, We will get debt. And I said, Then what would…

Well it is interesting how these seventh graders demonstrated greater fiscal sense than this Congress has been able to demonstrate, because we talked to them about debt and how essentially what we have been doing, to your point, to put it…

That we inform families how to protect themselves and their communities. So I know we are not the only ones doing forums. I know many communities and schools on their own are beginning to roll out those kinds of educational awareness…

Exactly. It is so fun to be here with you because this is my first time joining you in your 30-something colloquy, because at 44 I am a little outside of the age span, so I appreciate you inviting me today. But it is fun for us to be able…

You remind me again of being back in the classroom with these kids and talking about that Preamble to the Constitution which talks also about the decisions we make for ourselves and our posterity and how they even understood that the…

I think I am going to yield back the balance of my time, if that is okay. But I want to thank you, my colleagues, for letting me join you during this 30-something hour, my first time joining you even though you let an older Member join you.

I rise today to commend our Armed Forces medical personnel who provide outstanding care to our servicemembers wounded in battle. During a trip to Iraq last fall, I visited our theater hospital at Balad Air Force Base and witnessed these…

It is so true. And essentially what they were saying and what we talked about is much like if I were to go get a credit card in my children's name and go out and spend money on things for myself and my husband but say to my kids, my…

more than 5 months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans and the gulf coast, many small business owners are still struggling with no relief in sight. Businesses are strained from a lack of customers, employees, infrastructure…

reauthorizing the Perkins Act gives Congress the opportunity to restate our belief in vocational and technical education, a partnership between academics, the business community, and our constituents for more than 40 years. As a graduate…

on rollcall No. 112, I cast a vote of ``yea'' which should have been ``nay.'' It is my wish to correct this matter for the record. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.'' ____________________