Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2578, Conservation and Economic Growth Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friend, and it's so good to see her energy and enthusiasm back on this floor with us today. We welcome her.

286 days ago, the President of the United States came to this Chamber and addressed the number one problem that I hear about from my constituents, which is jobs for the American people.

I know that this bill raises very serious and important issues, and I applaud its authors and sponsors for bringing it to the House floor, but I think it's the wrong bill on the wrong day.

The President said that we should cut taxes for small businesses if they hire people. But we haven't taken a vote on that proposal, and we're not going to take one today.

The President said that we should put construction workers back to work building bridges and roads and our electric infrastructure, our intellectual infrastructure, but we're not voting on that proposal today.

The President said that firefighters and police officers and teachers who have been taken off the job should be put back on the job so they can spend money in the stores and the restaurants, but we're not voting on that proposal today, and we haven't voted it on it on any of the 286 days since the President proposed it.

Instead, we have the proposal in front of us that, again, is very serious, raises a lot of issues. But I suspect if most of us went back to our district today and said, ``What would you rather have us do, vote on three simple, clear ideas up or down on whether to create jobs for the American people or vote on this?'' I think they'd want us voting on the jobs bill.

Now, we have a version of that jobs bill that we have a chance to get on the floor, and that is Mr. Bishop's proposal that says the following: If you do business in the United States of America, if you sell your products to the American consumer, then your call center ought to be in the United States of America.

How many of our constituents, Madam Speaker, are tired of placing a call to a call center and you don't know where it is, the person at the other end of the phone doesn't know what you're saying and doesn't understand what you're asking about. Should we be using American tax dollars to reward companies that outsource call center jobs? I think the answer is no.

This would be one simple and clear idea that we ought to put on this floor so the Members have a chance, by voting ``no'' on the previous question, to say, Let's take a vote on the proposition that you can't use American taxpayers' dollars to outsource American jobs in call centers. And then maybe some day, after 286 days, we'll finally get around to the President's idea to create jobs in small businesses in this country.

Vote ``no'' on the previous question, ``no'' on the rule.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source