The new House majority leader, John Boehner of Ohio. He defeated the apparent front runner Roy Blunt of Missouri by a vote of 122 to 109.

I congratulate Catholic Schools all across America for their contribution to our country and pay particular attention today to a group right here in Washington, DC, the City Center Consortium that represents 13 Catholic Schools here in the…

Elections are divisive activities in our communities, in our States, and in our country. After an election, and after the divisiveness, there needs to be a period of healing to bring our communities, our States, and our Nation back…

Mr. Speaker, over the last 4 years that I have had the pleasure of chairing the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I think we have come an awful long way in terms of transforming the Federal role in education and trying to help all…

I rise in support of the YMCA Retirement Fund Act, a bill sponsored by Mr. English. Strengthening employee pension plans has been a longstanding priority of mine, and I'm pleased to support this common sense reform that will strengthen…

Mr. Speaker, each year millions of Americans, young and old, participate in higher education programs at this Nation's colleges and universities. Higher education has become more important than ever, with a changing marketplace and…

I rise as Chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee to add my voice to my distinguished California colleagues in paying tribute to the Festival of Children Foundation. I believe the exceptional contributions and services of the…

Based on the gentleman's explanation of his amendment, prohibiting the Secretary from enforcing the new regulations, we have, in effect, if the gentleman's amendment were to pass, no regulations protecting the overtime rights of American…

Mr. Chairman, I hope all of my colleagues heard the short debate over the intent of this regulation. The fact of the matter is if the Obey amendment passes, no American worker who makes over $23,600 will be entitled to overtime pay. This…

Mr. Chairman, Members should understand that the new rules that went into effect on August 23, in my opinion, will guarantee more overtime for more American workers than the rules that were in effect prior to that. It is because we…

Mr. Speaker, the economic news over the last 8 months has been very encouraging. Republicans and President Bush have focused on creating jobs and opportunity, helping working Americans by providing tax relief, improving worker training and…

Mr. Speaker, we probably would not be here today if the other body would actually go to conference on the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act. But I think all of us realize that they have been unwilling to go to conference, and…

I rise in support of H.R. 4409, the Teacher Training Enhancement Act, and I would like to thank the gentleman from Georgia for his leadership on this issue. The bill before us complements the No Child Left Behind Act and will help to…

Tomorrow, we will consider a bill that is integral to helping return more Americans to work, the Worker Reemployment Accounts Act. As President Bush has said, one American without a job is one too many. This legislation provides a unique…

Mr. Speaker the fourth bill we will debate today in this series of votes is another narrowly crafted bill that addresses a specific problem that we found in the OSHA law. In short, we strongly believe that small businesses that face…

Mr. Speaker, today we will debate four important bills that make modest reforms to the Occupational Safety and Health Act. These measures ensure that small business owners who make good-faith efforts to comply with health and safety laws…

the bigger proponent of protecting workers' rights are employers, because American employers understand that the single greatest asset they have are the men and women who work for them each and every day.

I think the gentleman realizes that here in Washington we do two things every day: We do public policy which represents the work we are bringing to the floor today; and, unfortunately, we also do politics. This being a presidential…

Mr. Speaker, the most pressing crisis we face in health care today is the number of Americans who lack basic health insurance benefits. It is a problem that can be illustrated by just a few numbers, so let us look at the facts. The number…

I think what we see here at the central issue of this debate is a basic distrust of the private sector. Now, two-thirds of the American people get their health insurance through their employer. We have an employer-based system in America…

We do not claim that the underlying bill is going to cover all of the uninsured and eliminate that problem, but we do think it is a giant step forward in helping the uninsured get access to high-quality health insurance at affordable…

I have great respect for my two committee colleagues, the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Kind) and the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), and their thoughtful approach to bringing their substitute to the floor. As the gentleman from…

Mr. Speaker, the pension security measure that we have before us is of great urgency for American workers and their employers, and that is because the 30-year Treasury bond that is used to calculate the contributions and obligations for…

when H.R. 3108 was brought to the floor, it was brought to the floor and developed in total agreement between myself, the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller) and the gentleman from…

This is a short-term, 2-year temporary effort to help with the Nation's ailing pension system. There is not an issue that is in the bill that any of the conferees disagreed with. We all want more, but the gentleman himself said that the…