Mr. Speaker, the committee totally agrees with the concerns of the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Ehlers). What we did in this bill is we increased the authorization of NIST from $2.5 million up to $8 million; but we will work with NIST, we…

I am going to talk for 5 minutes on the challenge that faces this Congress and America in terms of the growing debt and the growing unfunded liabilities. "Unfunded liabilities" means the promises that government has made, but it needs…

I would like to commend the Bush administration, and Robert Zelnick, our trade ambassador, for holding the line and not giving away things just for the sake of more world trade that eventually might have hurt our manufacturing business and…

in 5 minutes I am going to give a short tutorial on the bleak future of Social Security. A proposal that I just introduced, H.R. 3055 tries to make sure that we keep Social Security solvent. Social Security is one of the most successful…

since I came to Congress in 1993, I have been very concerned about the future of Social Security. Because when I was chairman of the Senate Taxation Committee in the State of Michigan, it was brought to my attention that Social Security…

It has been 43 years that we have had this embargo with Cuba. It has not worked. It seems to me we should do one of two things: we should either make the pain greater for the Cuban people, as we so with the embargo, or we should make some…

I rise to address another serious security problem. It is retirement security. Let me read a quote from 1994: ``Failing to take prompt action on Social Security will burden our children and our grandchildren with benefit cuts and crippling…

I will do a Special Order tonight on Social Security, that we need to deal with Social Security. And maybe it should be made clear to everybody what the motion to instruct does is in effect saying that those individuals that do not pay…

tonight, while we discuss issues, there are two global forces proceeding on a collision course. The first is the aging of society. This does not mean that each one of us is getting older, which is true, but rather that the elderly…

The challenges of Social Security are real, and as short a time ago as 5 years to 6 years, it was considered very unpopular to discuss any changes in the Social Security system. Certainly the fact that we have an aging population and a…

Social Security. I am disappointed that there are only about 22 people that have ever sponsored legislation to help solve the Social Security problem, probably one of the greater challenges that we have faced in this country as far as…

last Friday the Congressional Budget Office came out with their new economic outlook, and I am somewhat ashamed as a Republican that it does not look very good in terms of what Republicans and Democrats have done in the last several years…

Supplemental appropriation bills are too often used to fund expenses that can, on average, be predicted. They allow politicians to keep the annual appropriation budgets at a level that is less objectionable to fiscal conservatives. In…

I am going to present sort of a tutorial on Social Security, and if my audience listens up, if they can stick with me for the next 25 or 30 minutes, they might know as much about Social Security as a lot of individuals in Washington, which…

This amendment sends a signal to the government of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu that it must abide by its contracts with American and other foreign investors. Five American energy companies built state-of-the-art energy plants in Tamil…

just a very important point, I think bovine spongiform encephalitis, BSE, has never been found in the United States. We have the most strict meat inspection in the world, and if we pass this resolution the danger is that we complicate the…

I want to talk tonight a little bit about the importance of a college education and some of the laws that this Congress has passed to encourage better savings for education. Some of the concerns that we need to consider is the fact that…

I am not sure I have a whole 2 minutes, but the Blue Dogs are probably not average for your conference, for your caucus. You are probably more conservative than the average of the total Democrats in the House. Probably this group is about…

on the prescription drug program that we are about to vote on this week, I am not an expert on health care or prescriptions; but I have observed over the years what happens when government takes over some of these programs. The big change…

Adding prescription drugs to Medicare is one of the most unfair burdens that Congress and the President have placed on future generations in a long, long time. I have 10 grandkids and now, for a Medicare program that is already broke…

let me just say that as a farmer, the value of farmland has increased dramatically. That means an average 500-acre farm in many of the Midwest areas is now worth more than the $3 million allowed in this substitute. That means that a farm…

I rise today to praise a community working together to accomplish an important goal. In an unprecedented effort, the members of the AUC, Michigan's heavy construction association, came together to renovate a unique historic site that we…

This an important discussion. Maybe it would be reasonable, Mr. Speaker, to start out trying to explain what is biotechnology? Gregor Mendel discovered dominant and recessive traits in plants in the mid 19th century. He started taking two…

I include for the Record a summary of a report we wrote on biotechnology in the Committee on Science called ``Seeds of Opportunity.'' The total report is available at: www.house.gov/nicksmith/opportunity.pdf. The report referred to is as…

next Thursday, June 12, the subcommittee I chair on research will hold a hearing on biotechnology, the potential and the safety. I am a farmer in Michigan, and this is the first year that I have used the so-called roundup ready soybeans to…