On the recordDecember 2, 2014
Mr. Speaker, here we are just a few days short of the end of the 113th Congress, and this Congress has yet to take up the big questions facing the American people. We are 10 days away from a budget deadline, and there is still talk among some on the other side of using the sanctity of the budget--the economy of this country--as a tool to fight against actions taken by this President that the Congress, itself, is unwilling to take up. Rather than taking up unemployment insurance, for example, despite the fact that we have seen a significant reduction in unemployment across the country--in my home State, unemployment is still above 7 percent--we haven't taken that up. Instead of taking up the jobs program, like our Make It In America agenda, which would reenergize our manufacturing sector, we have set that aside and haven't taken it up. Instead of taking up the very subject that has driven some to threaten to shut down government--comprehensive immigration reform--we haven't even seen a bill come to the floor of the House--not the Senate bill, not another bill--that even the Republicans, themselves, could put together. While we talk a good game about being willing to take on these big questions, when it comes time to put something on the floor for us to legislate, to vote on, we see no action at all. ____________________





