The State of Our Congress

Floor Speech

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to be able to stand here today with my colleague from Pennsylvania (Mr. Marino) and Mr. Wenstrup from Ohio, behind me, in order to talk a little bit about not only the state of our country but of our Congress. When we came here 3 years ago, we were on a mission to get America back to work. We have watched now over the last 3 years. And some of the criticism that comes about all the time is, You know, you guys just aren't getting anything done. I hear people talk about not getting anything done, about being a do-nothing Congress, about not really pushing the agenda forward, about us not being able to get America back to work.

Well, today, Mr. Marino, our colleagues, and I are going to be here in the position of myth-busters. This myth that somehow the House of Representatives--and I think the key to this is that there are actually two Chambers to this Congress. There is a House of Representatives and there is a Senate. In the House of Representatives, we have done incredible work over the last 3 years. We are talking about 220 House-passed bills that are stuck in the do-nothing Senate. And of those 220 bills, 30-plus of those bills are about job creation. They are about getting America back to work. They are about giving people confidence in the future that they can look forward and begin to plan their lives.

Now, we can't do it alone. And while we get criticism from the administration and as we look down the hall to the Senate, we start to wonder ourselves, what would it take to get America engaged in this process? What would it take to get our American citizens aware of what is actually going on in the Capitol? Why is it that we are stuck here? Why can't we move forward?

So today's exercise--for the next 60 minutes, Mr. Marino, myself, and our other colleagues are going to have an opportunity to speak to the people of the United States to make sure that we expose this myth that this is a do-nothing Congress. No, no, no, no. This is not a do-nothing Congress. This is a Congress that has worked very hard. This is a Congress that has done monumental work to get our fellow Americans back to work.

The problem is, when you walk it down the halls and into the Senate, it gets lost. It gets tabled. It doesn't get amended. It doesn't get discussed. It doesn't get debated. In fact, it doesn't do anything. It just collects dust.

So I welcome this opportunity to speak not just to this House but also to the people of America. And at this time, I would like my colleague and my good friend in Congress, Mr. Marino from Pennsylvania, to also weigh in on this.

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. Thank you, Mr. Marino.

We all have similar experiences. I know you do, BRAD, when you are back home; and, TOM, I know you do when you are back home. It really doesn't matter where we are. A lot of times it is coming out of Mass on Sunday morning, and sometimes it is just being down at the K-Mart or the Walmart, or maybe I am up in Erie and I am out near Presque Isle, or I could be in Grove City or I could be in Slippery Rock, and people come up to me all the time and say: Do you know what? You all need to get busy. And they talk about: We don't want to hear any more about the battles between Republicans and Democrats. Quite frankly, we are tired of hearing it because, if you can't work together, you can't get things done. And then the question that comes up is: Can't you just compromise once in a while to get something done? And then you have got to scratch your head and say: Yes, but, do you know what? We are doing an awful lot right now, but you are just not hearing it.

The reason that comes about, and we all know this, is because the biggest megaphone in the country right now is at the White House.

Now, BRAD, you and I sat here, and, Tom, you and I sat here during the State of the Union. The President made a very chilling statement. He said:

America can't wait, and I can't wait. And if this Congress won't act the way I want it to do, I will go around them, and I will get it done.

Half of this side of the House stood up and cheered that, cheered up their forfeiture of their duty of the oath that they took when they came into office.

Now, I stand here today as a representative of Pennsylvania's Third District. That does not mean that I only represent Republicans that live in the Third District of Pennsylvania. That does not mean that I am only concerned with the concerns of Republicans in the Third District of Pennsylvania. That does not mean that I represent anything else but every single person--every citizen--that resides within that district.

So the things we are talking about today are not Republican issues, and they are not Democrat issues. These are American issues. We are talking about American jobs. We are talking about getting back to work. We are talking about coming here, taking an oath of office, and then fulfilling that oath to the people who sent us.

Now, I know that you go through the same thing. I have many people that approach me and say: Do you know what, MIKE? I didn't vote for you. And I say to them: Well, do you know what? I didn't know that until right now, but I will forget about it, believe me. And they will say: Well, this is an issue I have, and these are some things that concern me, and I just want to know where are you all going and what is it that you are trying to do? And why can't you get America back to work? Because you all said when you ran for office that we have got to get this Nation back on track and we have got to get America moving in the right direction. We have got to get America being America again.

We know that oftentimes in our life we look at all the problems we have, and the answer to everything right now is these things need fixing. Now, how do you do that? You can only do it with a very dynamic and robust economy. So when I hear the conversation that takes place either in our Chamber or the Senate Chamber and you start to say to yourself, it is nice to have that conversation, it is nice to have that little talk, and it is nice to have that debate, but do you know what? You haven't created any jobs. Because without a dynamic and robust economy, it is all just idle chatter. It is just politicians getting up, speaking and hoping that somehow they hit a chord with some constituents somewhere that says, boy, she is speaking for me or he is speaking for me.

We speak for everybody, not just the towns we come from or the townships we come from or the counties we come from or the States we come from, but this entire country.

So when we look at what is going on now and people say: yes, you say that is going on, but you know what, there is no proof.

Here is what I would ask our friends to do because the President says this all the time. He says: you know what, pick up your phone or pick up your pen, and that is what I am going to do, and I am going to get things done; I am going to use my executive powers, which are vast and enormous, to do what I want to do, despite what Congress may say, despite especially what those characters in the House of Representatives are pushing down your throat because that is just not what I want you to hear.

Well, my message to the American people is: you all have phones, and you all have pens, and you all have the ability, because of the country we live in, to speak out on anything, any time, anywhere you want; no place else in the world can we do that.

As an example today, as my colleagues and I are doing--because, as I said earlier, it is time to do some mythbusting, it is time to call a halt to this idle chatter about what America really needs.

We know what America really needs. America needs to get back to work, and this Congress needs to get out of the job creators' way. We need to get the heavy regulatory boot of the government off the throat of our job creators, and we need to let them breathe again.

We need to let them look to the future with some certainty and know that you can go ahead and plan. You can go ahead and make a strategy. You can go ahead and look to the future with a great degree of success waiting for you.

Now, opportunity is there for everybody. There is equal opportunity. There is no question about that. We know there is not equal outcome. My goodness, that is just not the case.

We do know that hardworking Americans throughout our history have done things that are absolutely incredible, and they have done it because of a government that lets people be free. It gives them liberty to go on and do what they need to do and when they want to do it and the ways that they want to do it.

There is no place else in the world, so the question comes down to: Why now? Why now have we hit such a logjam? Why is it that we can't get a law to get America back to work?

The answer is quite simple. Mr. Marino has talked about it. Mr. Wenstrup has talked about it. My goodness, there is another election coming, and if it truly comes down to we can't get these things done because of another election coming, then we can never get anything done because there are elections every year.

Now, if Mr. Reid can say to his people in the Senate and if he can look to this country and if he can go on TV and tell people these things you are hearing about the health care law are all lies, these things have been conjured up by people who don't really exist, the stories that they are spreading are lies, there is not a shred of evidence that would support what they have said--now, he stands in front of the American people and says that you are all liars and that we are not going to tolerate that type of behavior.

Then he goes behind his desk at the Senate and said: all of those pieces of legislation, those 220 House-passed bills, put them on the table because we are not going to talk about them. We are not going to debate them. We are not going to amend them. And you know why we are not? Because there is an election coming.

Right now, there are a third of the Senate Members up for election. That is their rotation--a third, a third, and a third. Every couple of years, there is a third reelected, or new Senators come in.

He has placed the reelection above the redirection of this country. The reelection of his Senate is more important to him than the redirection of this country. That is absolutely unforgivable.

So I would just ask our friends, as they listen--and this is a message to America, not so much to the House of Representatives or to the Senate because we are pretty much ignored, but let me just say this: for those of you who are at home and listening to this, there are several things you can do.

I said about picking up your phone or picking up your pen. How about this, just getting on your computer. Go to www.speaker.gov/jobs. You can also go to majorityleader.gov/bill-tracker.

What will these two sites give you? They will give you everything we are talking about. It is all there. You don't have to come to Washington to see us. You don't have to send away for a book.

You don't have to do anything except go online and pick up this information. You can sit at home and see what it is this House of Representatives has passed; and then you, too, can sit, as myself, Mr. Marino, and Mr. Wenstrup do every day, and ask: What is it that we are waiting for?

The answer is leadership; quite simply, it is leadership. America, right now, is hunting for champions. They are hunting for people who will rise up and take control of this situation, and this idea that, somehow, somewhere, some knight in shining armor has to come riding in on a white charger to get us there is baloney because, every election, it comes right out your hometown.

It comes right out of your churches, and it comes right out of the folks you work with every day and have grown up with and have lived life with. That is who is here. That is who is here. It is so unique; it is the only place in the world that you can do it.

I just tell you, because of the social media, you can go as an individual in your home. You don't have to get in your car and drive anywhere. You don't have to waste any money on gas. You don't have to worry about sitting in traffic.

Just sit at home and go to those two sites, www.speaker.gov/jobs or majorityleader.gov/bill-tracker. You can find out everything we are talking about.

Mr. Wenstrup, you did talk about the Keystone pipeline, and we ask ourselves all the time: What is the holdup on the Keystone pipeline?

One person, one person; and if you don't know where that person is, let me give you a clue: he lives in a white house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This is not a tough place to find.

Pick up the phone and call him. Tell him: Mr. President, let's get back to work; Mr. President, let's make America energy independent; Mr. President, let's quit worrying about the next election, and let's get this country back in the right direction.

We can do it as a people. We can do it together. We must do it. It is not just a responsibility. It is our obligation, not just for the future, but to all those from the past.

So I would just tell you, my friends, there is so much going on right now, and I really would like my two colleagues, let's all join, and we can have a colloquy right now between the three of us and talk back and forth because I think it is important for the people of America to understand.

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I thank Mr. Marino.

I think, Mr. Speaker, as we draw to the end of time, I think it is time for us now to take a look at the world and our place in the world. Geopolitically, we know we have been hurt lately because America has decided to follow something called ``leading from behind.'' I have absolutely no idea what that possibly could mean.

But I hear constantly about the next great emerging economy. You sit back and say, well, who could it possibly be? Well, let me tell you who it is, and it doesn't take much guesswork. It is us. It is the U.S.

Now, why do I say that? Because right now we are uniquely positioned in history at this moment in time to be the greatest economy the world has ever seen. Why? Because we have been blessed by our Creator with abundant, accessible, and affordable fossil fuels. These can be extracted safely, and that creates thousands of jobs. This can lower our cost per energy unit far below anyplace else in the world and allows us, in fact, to let our wages rise because our cost of producing goes down as far as energy is concerned.

What else we have, if you look just to the north of the district I serve, the Great Lake system is there. Lake Erie is there. Also what is there is one-fifth of the world's freshwater. Also, if you were to look at our land, our tillable soil, the production per acre that our people in agriculture are able to achieve.

So I would ask you then, at this point in time, at this point in history, if we know that really what we need to do is to have a robust and dynamic economy, what would be holding us back? It certainly is not our cost of energy, because we are blessed with energy everywhere. It has been placed there by the Good Lord for us to use. Through new technology we are able to extract it. We are able to heat and cool our homes, to light our homes, to run our factories, to light our streets at night, to do almost anything we want to do at a rate that is lower than anyplace in the world.

In fact, we are at a point right now we don't have to rely on anybody else on this globe other than ourselves. We can be energy independent. We have drinking water that the rest of the world would love to have. And we have the ability to produce, as you know, Mr. Speaker, because of where you come from in California, the ability to produce food for a population that doesn't need to go starving, it doesn't need to look to the rest of the world for help, because we can create it right here, right now, for every single American.

The question becomes then: Why are we where we are at right now? Why do we have the lowest labor participation rate we have had in 35 years? My goodness, when you look at all the assets, when you can look at everything that we have, when you can look at the opportunities we have, when you can look at everything, being there and being within our grasp without too far of a reach to get there, the question becomes: What is holding us up? What is holding us back? What is keeping us from achieving that destiny that we have been granted by the Lord? What is keeping us from that?

Look, I would just say this. There are many, many millions of Americans that are out of work. All you have to do is go out of this Chamber and go down the hall and I can show you a lot of Americans that actually have a job that aren't working. I can show you a Senate that continues to sit on all these jobs bills, on all this legislation that would get America back to work.

I am so sick and tired of hearing about, well, you know, if the House would just do something. I will tell you something; I would suggest this: the President would

wear out his fingers on that phone calling Harry Reid; in fact, his left arm would probably go numb from signing all the legislation that could be sitting on his desk right now.

What is holding it up? What is the roadblock? What is keeping us from that pathway to prosperity? Do you know what it is? It is a do-nothing Senate. It is a Senate that sits back and calls the American people liars. It is a Senate that sits back and distorts the facts. It is a Senate that puts out, every day, myths about a House of Representatives not working. It is a Senate that had to go under the gun to pass a budget and say: Do you know what? Here is the deal. You don't pass a budget, we don't pay you.

Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? You have to threaten them that you are going to cut their pay if they don't pass a budget. Oh, Good Lord. I would like to see us do that in our schools. I would like to see us do that in our homes. I would like to see us do that in our factories and in our businesses in the private sector.

When we have to pass a bill to make them pass a budget, is that where we have reached? Have we reached the depths? Is that how low we have become?

It is a great honor and a privilege to serve in this House. It is a great honor to come before the people and to go home and say: We are working hard for you. We are going to do the best we can do.

But do you know what? It requires a little help. It requires a little help. This system, this system where there are two Chambers, it requires us being able to get things through the House, which we have done. 220 House-passed bills are stuck in a do-nothing Senate right now. It requires some teamwork now. It requires us to truly be the ``united'' States and not the ``divided'' States of America. It requires us to be a body that works for the American people and not for a political party. It requires us to work on an agenda that puts America back to work and does not worry about the next election that is coming up and worries about the new direction this country needs to go in.

It is a responsibility to take advantage of all those assets the Lord has given us; and it is time for the United States to now become the next great emerging economy, one that will be heralded all over the world, one that the rest of the world is looking to and scratching their head and says: My goodness, you have got everything. What is it that you are waiting for?

And the answer, again, is leadership. That leadership has got to take place, and it has got to take place soon.

We will continue to do our job in the House of Representatives. We will continue to push bills forward. We will continue to debate and amend bills. We will continue to pass bills, and we will walk them down the hall to the Senate. But after that, the Senate has to pick these bills up. It has to debate them. It has to amend them. It has to vote on them, and it has to send them down to the White House for the President's final signature.

If we are truly going to get America back to work, then let's get to work. My colleagues in the House have already heard that clarion call and they have done their job. I am just going to yell it down the hallway as we walk out of here tonight: Hey, you all need to get to work because America is waiting for you to lead. Then the phone should be ringing off the hook in Mr. Reid's office and at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as America says it is time to get up off your seat and get the job done.

It is time to quit talking the talk. It is time to walk the walk. It is time to actually do what we know we can do and take advantage of every single asset the Lord has provided for us.

I would just say, Mr. Speaker, in closing, thank you so much for allowing us to be here.

Mr. Marino, always a pleasure to be with you, sir. As we go back to Pennsylvania, we will continue to fight those fights.

Mr. Wenstrup is gone and also Mr. Lamborn is gone, but it is good to have colleagues to join us.

I would just tell you this. If there is nobody that sits in this House of Representatives that doesn't want to see America do well, it is just time to get back to work.

Mr. Speaker, how much time do we have remaining?

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Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania. I will take this brief opportunity to thank my colleagues Mr. Marino and Mr. Wenstrup for being here and Mr. Lamborn for being here and for your indulgence and for the American people's.

We have often said--and we have shared these moments together many times--that we have not just a responsibility but an obligation not just to ourselves and to our current generation but to all of those who came before us for all of the sacrifices that they made--for the 1.6 million men and women in uniform who gave their lives that we could have this moment today and those into the future. We have a responsibility to guarantee to them that we made a conscious decision to make sure that their future would be as secure as the one that we were given.

In having said all of that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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