Letter to The Honorable Barack H. Obama, President of the United States

Letter

Dear Mr. President,

Jobs. More than any other issue facing the United States of America today, it all comes down to jobs and the people who entrusted is with the awesome responsibility to govern expect us to foster an environment that grows our economy. As you said after the July jobs numbers were releases this past Friday, "When Congress returns in September, I want to move quickly on things that can create more jobs, right now." The House of Representatives has many ideas that we believe will do just that. In seven months the House of Representatives, despite unproductive and disingenuous claims to the contrary, has passed several jobs bills and we urge bipartisan cooperation to immediately advance these efforts.

Domestic energy production is a bipartisan problem in need of a bipartisan solution. The House has passed at least five bills aimed at lowering gas prices, developing energy here at home and creating jobs. H.R. 1230, the Restarting American Offshore Leasing Now Act, H.R. 1229, the Putting the Gulf of Mexico Back to work Act, H.R. 1231, Reversing your Offshore Moratorium Act, all introduced by Congressman Doc Hastings, H.R. 2021, the Jobs and Energy Permitting Act of 2011 introduced by Congressman Cory Gardner, and H.R. 1938, the North American-Made Energy Security Act, introduces by Congressman Lee Terry, would achieve these goals and create jobs. Unfortunately, these jobs bills are stuck in the United States Senate.

Ninety-five percent of the world's consumers live outside of the United States. Your Administration has promoted Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Panama and Columbia as a way to open up markets for US goods and create jobs. However, you have yet to send these agreements to Congress for approval. These agreements will support jobs and increase exports of American-made goods by billions of dollars. Congress has been waiting for many months on these agreements and stands ready to act.

Bipartisan cooperation is possible. Earlier this year, the House and Senate worked with you and together we repealed the onerous 1099 tax provision from your health care law. Section 9006 of your 2,400 page health care law would have forced small businesses, the backbone of our economy, to file a tax form with the IRS and any vendor or contractor to which the business paid $600 or more for goods or equipments during the year. Together we made this change and as a result our job creators will not be buried in paperwork.

While we worked together to address over regulation in the form of the 1099 tax provision, our small businesses and farmers still face numerous roadblocks to job creation. H.R. 872, the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act by Congressman Bob Gibbs would cut down on redundant permitting requirements and astronomical fines targeting our farmers who are true stewards of our land. H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act by Congressman Fred Upton would prevent energy taxes through regulation at a time when gas prices are high and working families are struggling. H.J. Res 37, by Congressman Greg Walden would address over-regulation by the Federal Communications Commission that only stifles innovation. H.R. 2018, the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act introduced by Congressman Mica and H.R. 1315, the Consumer Financial Protection and Soundness Improvement Act by Congressman Sean Duffy, also cut down on growing government regulation that is clouding our economic environment with uncertainty. Unfortunately, these bills are stuck in the United States Senate.

Reforming the patent system is another bipartisan approach at helping create jobs. While there are different approaches to attacking the backlog at the Patent Office and protecting our inventors, both the House and Senate have acted on their respective versions of the American Invents Act, which must now be resolved at conference. There are also other pieces of legislation currently climbing their way through the legislative process, including efforts to promote and strengthen public-private partnerships and strategies to regain our standing as a leader in manufacturing. No jobs bill should be off the table.

Finally, the House passed budget would cut $4.4 trillion over ten years and help us start to get out of our paralyzing national debt. This budget framework calls for closing loopholes while simplifying our costly and complicated tax code. America spends $163 billion and 6 billion hours per year navigating our tax system, and by getting rid of loopholes we can start to broaden the tax base. The House has voted to end these loopholes. While the House budget was voted down in the Senate 40-57, the Path to Prosperity remains the only budget plan offered by you, the House, or the Senate, which has not passed in more than 800 days, to receive any actual votes of support.

Just this past week, the Senate inexplicably sat on the House-passed Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization while government workers were furloughed for two weeks, before literally taking one-minute to pass the bill that the House had originally sent them. We hope that the Senate passing bills that the House advances to them to create jobs or put people back to work becomes a pattern.

Here are our ideas. Like them or dislike them, these are legislative efforts to create jobs in America. We would be happy to discuss any plan for jobs that you or Majority Leader Harry Reid may have. The bottom line is that we do not care under whose watch jobs are created, we just need jobs and we need them in a hurry. In many cases, the ball is in either the Senate's or your court, but we all need to upgrade our efforts together. There is a job creating environment to be had here and we hope to work together to achieve this for the good of the country.

Sincerely,

Bobby Schilling
Steve Stivers
Reid Ribble
Bob Gibbs
Bill Flores
Jeff Landry
Lou Barletta
Tom Reed