Report on Resolution Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1029, EPA Science Advisory Board Reform Act of 2015, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 1030, Secret Science Reform Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, the next Blue Dog Coalition member who will speak is one of our newest members. He hails from the great State of Nebraska, and we are honored to have him as one of our newest members of the Blue Dog Coalition. He is Brad Ashford from Nebraska's Second District. A lot of agriculture and a lot of good people Congressman Brad Ashford has the opportunity to represent, and we appreciate the fact that he is here.

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Mr. COSTA. During your visit, on a bipartisan basis, in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Jordan, you were visiting some of the most challenging hotspots in the world today, and I suspect you got an opportunity to visit and see American men and women serving abroad and the heroic and difficult jobs that they are doing and the great sacrifices of their families. I suspect you had an opportunity to tell them that in Washington we are trying to do all we can to support them.

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Mr. COSTA. Well, I have made that trip several times, and we can never say thank you enough to the American men and women who serve in our Nation's military.

I would just ask you, every week, I know you go back to your district and the good people in Nebraska--and that good water you are drinking there, bring more of it here to Washington because I think, if we can drink some more of that water, it certainly wouldn't hurt us here in our Nation's Capital.

I want to thank the gentleman from Nebraska for his good words.

As I prepare to close, I want to thank my fellow Blue Dog colleagues for coming down to the well of the House of Representatives this afternoon to talk about the common interests that we as Blue Dog Coalition members have, the efforts that we are making to reach across the aisle, the efforts that we are making to work with the No Labels group, as well as others, on a call to service to repair the engagement of civic dialogue, understanding that, frankly, if we tone down our rhetoric and we have a better understanding of how the different congressional districts that we all represent are, we can find the common threads, the common bonds to bring together solutions that we can agree upon for all of America. After all, we all believe that is what we have been sent here for, I believe, in one way or another.

Another effort that the Blue Dog Coalition is engaged in with No Labels and others is congressional reform. Clearly, many Americans, when they look at Washington and they see the news of the evening, they think: Jeez, there must be something broke there. It ain't working right. It's not working the way we read in our textbooks.

We are trying to restore efforts in congressional form in terms of regular order, in terms of our budget process and producing all 11 budget bills every year and go to a conference as we are supposed to do. We haven't done that in 12 years in Congress, whether it is the Democrats in the majority or the Republicans in the majority, so there is a lot of fixing. Obviously, finger-pointing doesn't fix the problem.

In addition to that, we have electoral reform. I think we all know that last year, last November, we had the lowest recorded turnout in America since 1942. What does that tell you? What does that tell you when the majority of Americans, regardless of whether they are registered as Republicans or Democrats, identify themselves as Independents?

It tells you that America is looking toward people in Washington to provide the leadership to solve problems. They don't expect us to solve all of them--they are not unrealistic--but they would like us to prioritize on getting a budget on time, getting our fiscal house in order, on trying to fix a broken immigration system, produce a 5-year transportation bill, improve government accountability, and transparency. That is what they would like us to work on.

As I said when I began earlier this afternoon, I am Congressman Jim Costa. I represent the 16th Congressional District in California, including all of Merced County, half of the flat land of Madera County--a lot of agriculture in both Merced and Madera Counties--and Fresno County. Fresno is, of course, my home.

The wonderful people that are part of the San Joaquin Valley that I have had the honor and privilege to represent over the years are what all Americans are like. They are some of the best and brightest. They are tenacious. They are hard working. They represent the story of America.

What is that story? Immigrants past, immigrants present--people come in from all over the world, striving to have a better life, a better opportunity for themselves and for their families.

That is why we are working to solve the water problems in the San Joaquin Valley--because, if we can solve the water problems in California and in the West, with the planet clicking 7 billion people last year and soon to have 9 billion people by the middle of this century, our solutions to water problems in California can be a template to solving water problems around the world because where water flows, food grows.

Clearly, we know that that is a daunting challenge, just like our energy problems are--but guess what. We are making progress on our energy problems. When I first came to Congress 10 years ago, we imported over 60 percent of our energy needs. Today, we import a little over 40 percent.

If we continue on the current path, in the next 10 years, we will be importing around 20 percent or less by using all the energy tools in our energy toolbox, just as we must use all the water tools in our water toolbox.

There is a lot to do. I would like to thank my colleagues in the Blue Dog Coalition for their time today, and their continued efforts over the year. Clearly, we have a lot of work to do together, and we want to reach out to work with everybody in the House of Representatives, the people's House.

The Blue Dog Coalition is ready and willing to work with everyone. We look forward to creating bridges, not cul de sacs, working with our colleagues on both sides of the aisle to advance commonsense policies that are physically sound, that benefit our entire Nation.

You could also call the Blue Dog Coalition the commonsense caucus because we reject the notion of gridlock in Washington. It is embarrassing; it is inexcusable.

Every day, when we put politics ahead of policy, we put our Nation at risk, and we stand to lose. Therefore, Congress must come together to address the critical issues as I said before: tax reform, immigration reform, and ways to further our Nation's economic recovery.

There is no problem in America, if we work together, that we cannot solve. We are here to represent and advocate for our constituents.

Please, for those of you who enjoyed the comments made by my fellow Blue Dog Coalition members this afternoon, you can go to www.bluedogÐ.schrader.house.gov for more information.

The Blue Dog Coalition will continue to work to make a difference by advocating for sound legislation and working together with our colleagues on a bipartisan basis. That is what I have always done.

Today, as with my Blue Dog Coalition partners, we have the honor and the privilege to represent our constituents from throughout the land; and I would ask that my colleagues continue to make that effort because I think, at the end of the day, that is what all Americans want us to do.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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