I rise today to talk about rural America. Sometimes I think it is the forgotten part of America. Having lived my entire life there, I think it is the heart and soul of America. In my view, it is the part of this country where basic values…

But in my view, Bill Goodling is a class act. Bill Goodling exemplifies what all Members of Congress ought to be. First, he came here with experiences in a multitude of fields. I think we are always served best by people who have succeeded…

Rural America does not go very far without it. We do not accomplish very much agriculture without it.

I am not minimizing the importance of agriculture, because it is vital, what do we do in rural America. We farm. We mine. We drill for oil. We cut timber. We manufacture, all under attack, in my view, through the regulatory process of this…

If we are not mining it from our own lands, we will be buying it from some foreign country.

it is hard to hear any speech given that they do not talk about urban sprawl today. But one of the greatest causes of urban sprawl has been the slow methodical destruction of rural America. The economies, whether it is agriculture, whether…

Mr. Chairman, there has never been a time when this country should be ready for alternatives. There has never been a time when we should be working together to solve our energy problems in this country and start moving away from a 60…

here we go again. Another effort to back-door the Kyoto treaty. The Knollenberg language that is in this bill is appropriate. It has been put into law year after year, and it says that we are not allowed to implement and spend billions of…

I rise to make sure today that everybody in this body understands a serious problem for a family in State College, Pennsylvania; and a problem for, I think, the security of this country. On my left is Edmond and Cheri Pope. They are a…

I guess the question I would ask is why would any bright representative of our government agree to such a horribly flawed concept as the Kyoto Treaty? This is an agreement negotiated by our Vice President who would force American…

I think it is an indictment of the Clinton-Gore administration with a complete lack of energy policy and an inappropriate management of research dollars. Yes, I think it is an indictment of the last 5 years previous to that of this…

Mr. Chairman, does the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Peterson) really believe it is necessary for the taxpayers of the United States to socialize and/or subsidize our oil industry, which is immensely profitable, is price gouging…

it was interesting to hear the gentleman's comments about producers turn their wells right back on. That shows the gentleman does not understand the oil industry.

With $60 oil, people are not going to be able to afford to go on vacation, people will not get out to have recreation, people will not be running motorboats, people will not be having vehicles out there driving. I want to tell my…

I guess a year or two ago, we heard the demagogues say that the capital gains tax did not need to be cut; that it was going to cost necessary revenues for this country to run off. It was going to cause all kinds of economic chaos. What…

I urge the founders of this legislation to join in this amendment. Let us look at the history of PILT. Everybody says they are for PILT. PILT has never been fully funded. Why do we have PILT? We take hundreds of millions of acres out of…

E-commerce is a vital building block in America's future. We are being told that the changes in the next decade will quickly overshadow the changes of the 1990s. Think about that. We are going to overshadow this progress that we have made…

When this legislation was passed, special education is a mandate that every child receives the same kind of education, the same quality of education. Some people with serious problems are a lot more expensive to educate than those who do…

It is certainly a good day for rural America. I want to congratulate the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Emerson) and the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Mrs. Clayton) for reviving the Rural Caucus. I do not know what happened that it…

the President has agreed to double the standard deduction, but he is not going to double it for 10 years. It is going to take 10 years so one is going to get a little bit more next year and a little bit more the next year. Even though that…

I rise to support the Doolittle substitute. Thirteen States do not have limits, and I do not think you can name them because they do not stand out as States loaded with public corruption. Thirteen States do not limit campaign financing. We…

This is one of the most needed pieces of legislation in the economics of this country. At a time when we are at an all-time high economically, when our economy is growing faster than it has ever grown, we end up with the highest number of…

yes, it is April 15, and Americans will pay more in taxes than they have ever paid before this year. In fact, they will pay $1.815 trillion. Is that not enough government? Can we not fund defense, Medicaid and Social Security with $1.815…

I am pleased to stand in the House today and support this legislation. I want to commend the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling), the gentleman from California (Mr. Martinez), the…

the country of Iceland recently made the news with two separate announcements, one instructive and the other intriguing. First, Iceland announced it will not sign, it will not sign, the U.N.'s questionable Kyoto climate treaty because it…