Promoting New Manufacturing Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Louisiana is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit because I strongly support American manufacturing, and that is what our bill is about. It is about getting Americans back to work.

Our friends on the other side of the aisle want to talk about protecting seniors. The biggest threat we hear about seniors right now is the President's health care law that cut hundreds of billions of dollars out of the Medicare program.

Why don't you work with us to repeal that law and replace it with reforms that actually strengthen Medicare and help seniors? That would be a really good place to start.

Now, let's talk about jobs, Mr. Speaker, because that is the focus of this bill, and this is a bipartisan piece of legislation. What we are trying to do is actually support some of the things the President himself has talked about.

The President said that he wants to cut red tape. Do you know what this bill does, Mr. Speaker? It cuts red tape.

The President says he wants to be the most transparent President ever. We would actually like to help him fulfill that promise. In our bill, we actually require transparency from the EPA to actually start proving what they are saying that they want to do with actual science.

If you look at what has been holding back our economy, so many States will tell you, when they are trying to issue permits, it is agencies like the EPA that are holding back their ability to create jobs and issue permits that would result in higher air quality standards.

Ironically, the motion to recommit that they are bringing forward would actually make it harder to implement higher air quality standards.

We have had testimony in committee, Mr. Speaker, from companies that have told us that they are right now delayed by years, in some cases, in the permitting process to build new or better plants to create thousands of jobs in America because the EPA will come up with rules and guidelines; yet they won't even show States or industry groups how they can achieve this in the real world.

There is this parallel universe, Mr. Speaker. You have got the EPA coming out time and time again with rules and regulations that cannot be implemented in the real world, and then you have got people that are trying to create jobs in America saying, ``The biggest thing holding us back from creating good American jobs is these crazy radical rules coming out by the EPA and other agencies like it.''

Mr. Speaker, we have got a choice to make, here in this Chamber and across this country. The President says he wants to create jobs; yet he comes out with rules with those agencies like the EPA that are the biggest impediment to us creating jobs in America.

The President says he wants to be transparent, and yet he refuses to be transparent, and a bill, like our bill here today, says he has to be transparent. Show us how you are expediting the permitting process. He talks about that. It is time to walk the walk.

He says he actually wants to remove that red tape. Well, do you know what, Mr. Speaker? In our bill, we hold the President to his promise by removing that red tape.

We ask ourselves today: Do we want to get our economy moving again? I say ``yes.'' Do we want to cut the red tape the President promises but doesn't deliver? I say, ``Yes. Let's cut that red tape.''

Do we want to get our economy moving again? I say, ``Let's create those jobs, get our economy moving again, and get these radical agencies that are slowing down job growth in our country out of the way.''

Let's vote down this motion to recommit, pass the underlying bipartisan bill, and get the economy moving again.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

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