Concrete Masonry Products Research, Education, and Promotion Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I am pleased to join my colleagues in support of H.R. 985, the Concrete Masonry Product Research, Education, and Promotion Act, which establishes a checkoff program to promote concrete masonry products.
The bill on the floor today is itself the product of good, bipartisan work in the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee and the full Energy and Commerce Committee.
During markup, we adopted changes to make sure the checkoff program runs efficiently, transparently, and accountably. We took into account feedback from the Government Accountability Office based on our experience with previous checkoff programs.
We made the program fair for small manufacturers by giving each manufacturer a single vote on the board instead of giving most of the influence to the largest manufacturers. We added a study to explore the feasibility of checkoff programs for other building materials. We have now also ensured that this bill will be budget neutral.
Thanks to the bipartisan work of the committee to strengthen this legislation, we were able to advance the bill by voice vote in subcommittee and full committee, and I look forward to passing it on the House floor today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the author for explaining so clearly what I was not able to explain; that what this bill does is it makes the program fairer for small manufacturers. Each one of them has a single vote on the board instead of giving most of the influence to the largest manufacturers. So that was an important change.
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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to thank the bill sponsors, Representative Guthrie and Representative Castor, for working with us to improve this legislation.
I am proud to serve as the ranking Democrat on the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee, which Mr. Burgess is the chair of. I also want to thank Chairman Upton and Ranking Member Pallone on the full committee and Chairman Burgess who serves with me, as I said, on the Commerce, Manufacturing, and Trade Subcommittee.
This bill is the product of productive negotiations and it reflects the hard work of Members and staff to advance legislation through bipartisan cooperation.
I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 985.
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