Joe Barton

I rise in respectful and regretful opposition to the continuing resolution. The primary reason that the Energy and Commerce Committee has time on the floor is because of the inclusion of the Food Safety Act in the continuing resolution…

If we could have a conference between the House conferees and the Senate conferees on the food safety bill, we could come to some reasonable compromises where we could recommend a vote for the food safety bill as a stand-alone bill. That…

I too rise in support of the Holden amendment. It is not as good as our motion to recommit from back in May, it is not as good as the Barton amendment that was offered to the Rules Committee, but it is strangely similar. So if flattery is…

I am sorry, Madam Speaker, that we have to be here today to spend money that the taxpayers don't have, that Congress can't afford, for an economic stimulus program that doesn't work. The provision that is in the jurisdiction of the Energy…

What we have here is a failure to communicate. My friends on the Democratic side are talking about things to help the economy. My friends and myself on the Republican side are pointing out that this is money that we don't have. There is no…

Republicans support helping the first responders and the victims of the World Trade Center attack. We support it at the President's request. We support it as an authorized program. We support it at paying existing Medicare rates. And…

And finally, last but not least, in the amended bill that was sent to the Rules Committee yesterday, Mr. Speaker, they have changed the spending profile. Under the bill before us this evening, the program, while it is a guaranteed…

There have been those on the other side of the aisle who, from time to time, have spoken of the lack of generosity, of the stinginess, and of the coldheartedness of the Republicans, but the seventh inning last night should put that to rest…

So in the spirit of the moment, we cannot say that Chairwoman Slaughter ran a closed rule out on us. It was an open rule. It was a fair competition. Luckily, for both sides, the real winners were, as you said it, the Boys and Girls Club of…

I want the record to be absolutely clear that I think BP is responsible for this accident.

I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong is subject to some sort of political pressure that is -- again, in my words, amounts to a shakedown.

Mr. Speaker, I do rise in support of H.R. 5026, the Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense Act, better known as the GRID Act. This is an example of legislation that has come to the floor after a 47-0 bipartisan vote in the Energy and…

The GRID Act would shield both our bulk power system and the infrastructure serving critical defense facilities. The legislation authorizes the President to address imminent grid security threats through the Federal Energy Regulatory…

We do oppose the manager's amendment, Madam Chair. It is a good-faith attempt to try to perfect some of the anomalies within it. It's fairly long-winded. It's fairly complicated, because when the government starts to intervene in the…

I will say before I list some of my concerns that there was a lot of input asked for and received by Republicans both in the committee and outside of the committee. This is not a terribly bad bill, but it has one fatal flaw: It is not paid…

I yield myself the final 30 seconds. Madam Chair, only my friend from Massachusetts could filibuster in a 5-minute time-limited debate. Those last comments, as far as I could tell and to the extent they were substantive, were absolutely…

The first thing that the motion to recommit would do would be to sunset the legislation if it has a negative effect on the Federal budget deficit. It would change the rebate mechanism in the pending bill so that the money would go to the…

This amendment is fairly straightforward. It would strike section 111(g), which provides that funds repaid by eligible participants may be used to provide loans to additional participants under the Home Star Energy Efficiency Loan Program…

The bill before us today is not a bad piece of legislation. Mr. Ehlers, for example, of Michigan is one of the Republican cosponsors of it. Mr. Welch of Vermont has sought assistance across the aisle. Mr. Markey, Mr. Waxman, the full…

What we are saying is that once they've borrowed the funds, once they've been spent in the proper fashion, and hopefully once they've been repaid, the repaid funds will go towards deficit reduction. Since this is an authorization bill, and…

The substantive parts of the motion to recommit are pretty straightforward. It would sunset the legislation if there is a negative net effect on the Federal budget deficit. That is the Latta language that we have already spoken to. It…

I simply want to say this is a $12 million advertising campaign for free government money or loans at very low interest rates. Bees don't need directions to find where the flowers are that they're going to pollinate to get the honey and to…

Well, my esteemed colleague from Massachusetts is at least talking about my amendment now. That's progress. He used the term ``black hole.'' I'm sure he knows, since scientists at MIT in his home State have investigated black holes…

The First Amendment gives the American people the right to petition the Congress for redress of grievances and to express freedom of speech. Several weeks ago, the chairman of the committee that I serve as a ranking member on, Energy and…

I think it's time for us to take a deep breath, take a timeout and go home and listen, Mr. Speaker. So I asked the Rules Committee this evening to not move this package tonight, but let us go home for the next 2 weeks and then come back…