Madam Speaker, I thank the Ways and Means Committee for their excellent work on the trade agreements and, most importantly, on Trade Adjustment Assistance; and I agree with the comments of my colleague from Wisconsin about why this program…

They need training. That's the other critical piece of these trade agreements that I want to emphasize. For the first time--not the first time, actually we did it in Peru-- thanks, actually, to the leadership of the gentleman from Michigan…

I agree with the chairman, that the cuts that we are facing in our Department of Defense budget do place national security issues at risk.

We need to make decisions. We need to put everything on the table and make a comprehensive decision for how to get the deficit under control long-term.

The U.S. military is the modern era's pillar of American strength and values.

Unless you want to cut entitlements by somewhere around a third, you have got to put revenue on the table.

I think the importance of our national security needs is an argument for doing that.

I hope our witnesses today can help us understand the lessons we learned 10 years ago and give us recommendations about how we might avoid repeating the same mistakes.

It is imperative that we focus our fiscal restraint on the driver of the debt instead of the protector of our prosperity.

Mr. Speaker, this afternoon, Thursday, October 6, 2011, I was unable to be present for part of a series of recorded votes. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall vote No. 765 (on the motion to table the appeal of the…

I did not support the debt ceiling agreement in large part because all of the cuts were lumped on to the non-entitlement portion of the budget.