Small businesses and their workers are hit the hardest by the burdens and regulations in our overly complex tax code.  Tax compliance costs are 65 percent higher for small businesses than big business, costing them $19 billion per year.  We need small businesses doing what they do best – creating jobs and growing our local economies – not buried under mounds of paperwork.… Read more

The tax burden small businesses, farmers, ranchers and their workers face is far too high.  Every dollar Washington takes from small businesses is a dollar they do not have to invest in equipment, start a new production line, hire a new employee or provide more in wages and benefits.  Businesses aren’t growing and hardworking Americans are seeing stagnant wages and fewer work… Read more

Our current tax code is broken, and it is hurting families and hurting our ability to create good-paying jobs in this country.  Last week, we learned that the economy grew 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2014.  One-tenth of a percent growth is unacceptable.  Hardworking families and small businesses are struggling in this economy, wages are flat and businesses aren’t… Read more

Today I rise in support of restoring Americans’ work hours, so they can see bigger paychecks and more opportunities.   ObamaCare places an unprecedented government regulation on workers, changing the definition of full-time work from 40 hours per week to 30 hours.  As a direct result, Americans across the country are having their hours cut at work and seeing smaller… Read more

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly support H.R. 4015, the “SGR Repeal and Provider Payment Modernization Act,” as amended.   The Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce and Senate Finance Committees have worked in a bipartisan manner to develop permanent physician payment fix repeal.  Years of hearings, discussion drafts and ongoing dialogues with stakeholders have resulted in… Read more

I rise today in support of H.R. 4118, the Simple Fairness Act, which would give Americans some much-needed relief from the added costs of ObamaCare. I don’t need to remind the American people about the failed launch of the health care law.  But, a failed website is the least of Americans’ health care concerns.  Millions of Americans, including over 200,000… Read more

I rise today in support of H.R. 3865, the “Stop Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act of 2014,” to stop the IRS and Treasury from restricting free speech activities of social welfare organizations that have been in place for over 50 years. Last May, we learned that the IRS targeted conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status.  For over nine months, Committee… Read more

The last time I stood on the floor to talk about a “clean” debt limit increase, I did so to prove that we could do better.  It was an effort to implore my Democrat colleagues in the House and Senate to heed the warnings of the President’s own Fiscal Commission, which clearly noted how our economy and hardworking taxpayers would suffer under the mountain of debt Washington was racking… Read more

I rise today in support of H.R. 3362, the Exchange Information Disclosure Act.  There is widespread agreement that the ObamaCare rollout was a failure.  Most of us believe the Administration’s lack of transparency and truthfulness with Congress and the American people caused many of the problems.   Since the beginning of the rollout, I have pressed the Administration to… Read more

I want thank the Chairman of the Human Resources Subcommittee for  yielding and for his support of this very important issue.  I rise in support of this legislation, which is designed to encourage the adoption of more children from foster care, among other purposes.   I have spent much of my professional career promoting adoption of children by loving parents, because… Read more