I wish to rise and say just a few words to honor the remarkable life and note the passing of a constituent of mine and an accomplished small business man from central Illinois, a businessman named Mel Feldman. I had the privilege of…

Like many in Illinois' 17th District, I'm disappointed that the Supreme Court decided to uphold the President's health care reform law. The Court ruled what we all knew from the beginning, but the President wouldn't acknowledge, the law's…

Thank you, Mr. Camp. I appreciate your hard work on this. Unemployment is the largest problem we face today, so why would anyone want to punish innovation by forcing more taxes on American medical device companies. That is exactly what the…

I believe in the concept of allowing our veterans to receive medical care closer to home. I remember taking care of my dad during the last few months of his life and driving him back and forth from Iowa City hospitals several hours at a…

I'd like to thank Chairman Buck McKeon for his hard work and dedication to getting this put together, and all of the staff members. I rise today in support of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. This bill shows our…

I want to thank Congresswoman Roby for holding this important leadership hour. I rise today to speak on some important issues facing our military as well as some provisions within the National Defense Authorization Act. Here is the bottom…

A few months ago I had the opportunity to visit the Children's Advocacy Center in my hometown of Rock Island, Illinois. The work that they do there to help children and their families that are victims of crimes is truly amazing, and I am…

Thank you, Chairman Lucas. I rise in support of H.R. 3336, the Small Business Credit Availability Act. Madam Speaker, I've only been in Congress for a little over a year, but I have found the House Committee on Agriculture to be very…

I thank Leader Cantor for giving me the opportunity to be here today and speak in favor of the Small Business Tax Cut Act. As Illinoisans filed their tax returns, folks in my district felt the pinch of the tax increases imposed on them by…

It is our responsibility as a Nation to take care of them when they return.

I truly believe that you can tell a lot about the country by the way they treat their veterans.

I truly believe you can tell a lot about a country by the way it treats its veterans.

We also must keep in mind the fact that we will have a new group of veterans entering into the VA system with needs that are different from the past veterans group.

At a time when rural populations are looking for new ways to grow our communities, our voice must be stronger than ever.

When small businesses compete for government contracts, the government saves billions of dollars, and thousands of private sector jobs are created through these investments. However, the process of contracting can be needlessly…

As we all know, Mr. Speaker, last week was the March for Life here in Washington. Now, as a father of 10, life is a big issue in my house. It's a big issue in other homes and businesses throughout the United States. Thousands of Americans…

Regardless of whether or not you believe Congress should be getting a pension, I hope that we can all agree that Members of Congress who do elect to receive the pension benefits should not be able to do so before their constituents can…

When I ran for office, I made a contract with the people of the 17th District of Illinois, and one of the elements of this contract was to reject the congressional pension.

I have talked to many of my constituents about this issue and am hard pressed to recall one person that believes Congress should receive a pension.

I thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for inviting me to participate today. The best thing about having the opportunity to represent the residents of Illinois' 17th District is the ability to just listen to their concerns and then…

I would like to thank the gentleman from Virginia for giving me the time today. We continue to hear a common thread: Let's raise taxes on our job creators with no solution to our spending problems. I rise today as the people's House…

Today we have an opportunity to take action and promote certainty in both our economy and the markets by passing H.R. 2560, the Cut, Cap, and Balance Act of 2012. Moody's and Standard & Poor's have warned the United States that our AAA…

I come before the floor of the House this morning to talk about the top issue of the Illinois 17th Congressional District, and that is the debt limit. The debt limit has been raised 51 times since 1978. Mr. Geithner has indicated that…

I would like to thank the gentlelady from Alabama for giving me the opportunity to speak here tonight. As a small businessman and a new Member of Congress, I believe that the people did not send us here to raise the debt limit without a…