What we need is an ability to keep watch on critical materials, anticipate problems and create policies that head off rather than respond to a crisis.

The Obama Administration deserves credit for quick and effective steps to establish an interagency planning and coordination process.

I think it is a very important piece of legislation for, certainly, the national defense and the economy of our country. I ask: What would happen to our national defense if we could no longer build a jet engine, vehicle batteries or…

Today is a great day for small businesses in the United States. The small Business Lending Act we are voting on today will give $12 billion in tax relief to small businesses and increase access to capital through community banks. These $12…

Laura was a healthy 41-year-old woman when she spent 5 weeks working at Ground Zero in the months following 9/11. Now she has an incurable cancer and two tumors. She has had numerous cancerous lesions removed from her mouth and her…

Most people understand that we have a real tangible need for the safety nets of Social Security and Medicare. The hard lessons of history compelled us to create protections for our seniors who have given us a lifetime of hard work and…

Last week I attended the Big Butler Fair in Butler County and the Grange Fair in Mercer County in western Pennsylvania, and what was the number one question my constituents asked? "What are you doing about the deficit?" I visited senior…

And what I find most exciting about this recovery that we are in is that we are making things again. And it's already been talked about tonight. But we are making things in America again. For the 11th consecutive month, the manufacturing…

One of the great things about my part of Pennsylvania, and I really think Pennsylvania in general--I have to be a bit biased here--but we have a great ethic and we have people with great skills. We have been a manufacturing-based economy…

It is with a heavy heart that I rise today to honor the lives of two fallen heroes from western Pennsylvania. Sergeant First Class Robert Fike of Conneautville, and Staff Sergeant Bryan Hoover of Lyndora, Pennsylvania, made the ultimate…

I would like to thank Congressman Dingell for hosting this special hour this evening where we can pay tribute to an outstanding leader, businessman and champion of organized labor, Mr. Ron Gettelfinger. I came to Congress with the promise…

You talked about other people weighing in with some of these surveys, and I just wanted to mention a few things that have been in the news just in the last week. We have Melanie Holmes, the vice president of Manpower, Incorporated, who…

Each month the numbers come in, and the signs are clear: Our economy is growing in the United States. Consumers agree. Consumer confidence rose to the highest level in more than 2 years this month. I believe our economy is on the rebound…

Well, thank you. I thank the gentleman from New York, a fellow freshman who has been a good friend of mine since I came to this House. I also want to thank Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz for bringing us all together tonight. It is…

Today, checks will go in the mail to 189,000 seniors across Pennsylvania, including thousands in my district in Western Pennsylvania. This will help them pay for prescription drugs. These $250 checks are on the way to seniors who fell…

When I was sworn into office in January of last year, our economy was on the verge of collapse. Thanks to decisive action in Congress, our economy is turning around. We have created half a million jobs so far in 2010. Our country is on…

I just want to quote from Business Week, April 8, 2010. This is a quote by Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Economy.com. ``When you take it all together, the response to the recession was massive, unprecedented, and ultimately…

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I thank the Congresswoman, my friend from Florida, for bringing us together tonight to talk about just the very positive signs that we're seeing in our economy, the positive signs that have really…

My amendment to the IMPROVE Acquisition Act of 2010 will help cut wasteful spending and ensure that taxpayer funds used for our national defense are spent responsibly and efficiently. The agencies charged with our defense have a…

I actually spent a lot of time with my dairy farmers and actually many of my different members of the agriculture community. And they are struggling, they are struggling. They are struggling to get the loans that they need. They've had a…

It is with a very heavy heart today that I rise to offer House Resolution 1246 expressing sympathy to the people of Poland in the aftermath of the tragic plane crash that killed the country's President, First Lady, and 94 others on April…

Tax Day is tomorrow, and thanks to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act middle class families in western Pennsylvania and throughout the country are seeing big tax returns this year. The Recovery Act provided tax cuts for 99 percent…

The new health care reform legislation will strengthen Medicare for the 118,000 beneficiaries in my district and for 45 million individuals across this country. Seniors in Medicare will receive free preventative care under this new reform…

It is a great freshman class. We have leaders in the great freshman class who will take us to that future and to the future that those students are looking forward to. I want to thank you all and all of my freshman colleagues who have…