Date: 2011-06-13
Speaker: HERRERA BEUTLER (republican)
Chamber: H

I was thinking through your comments here. And the gentleman from Colorado was talking about the uncertainty in investment. Why would you invest when you saw someone just burning through cash? You know. theres another reason that people wouldnt invest. and I think of a company in my district. Longview Fibre. In southwest Washington. we have tremendous resources in our timber. sawmills. Holden paper companies. just tremendous renewable resources. And one of those energy sources that people have seemed to research is the ability to. through biomass. create energy. This is a green source of energy. Lets talk about what uncertainty can do to a business. So in the last couple of years. the EPA has signaledand then pulled back and then signaledthat theyre not going to count biomass as green. So a company takes considerable time. energy. effort. and resources to put in play a biomass facility. And then the EPA steps in and says. Oh. time out. it doesnt matter how much money you have invested. it doesnt matter how much time and resources you have invested. we dont think that is going to countand puts everything on hold. Well. the EPA decided to stay its ruling for a little bit. meaning theyre not really sure whether biomass is green or not. In an environment like that. what company would take the time and the energy and the resources to create a biomass facility? And for a moment therelet me explain. Biomass isnt chipping whole. new. oldgrowth treesI guess that would be old trees. Its chips. Its the waste. Its the bark. Its actually fully using the resource of timber. right? Its properly managing that resource. But the EPAactually. what I think it is is some bureaucrat in the central planning office somewhere here in Washington. D.C.. has said. Ah. we dont understand that. We think you are going to cut all your trees down. Were just going to go ahead and tie your hands. It ties up resources. capital. and jobs. Longview Fibre is in Cowlitz County. Cowlitz County is upwards in doubledigit unemployment. These are goodpaying. family wage jobs. This uncertainty is killing us. You know. another thing you mentionedactually. I think it was the gentleman from Colorado who talked a little bit about business is not hiring and why. Im a member of the Small Business Committee. And through testimony. I think it was about 2 weeks ago. we had a whole panel onit had to do with health information technology. But interestingly. the Gallup organization was represented there. and they do nightly surveys. On some of the questions that they had asked. it showed small businesses. that small business owners were not hiring to capacity. In fact. there was about 40 percent more they could hire. So existing businesses could hire up to 40 percent more people if they werent doing it. So. naturally. we asked "Why?" in the answer. Shoot. they didnt have the certainty to know whether or not they were going to have any kind of cash flow. or if they could make payroll if they did it. You know what was on the top of that list up there? Health care. Health care costs. Our small business owners continue to be targeted by governmentrun health care schemes. And thats what they are. Because if we want to talk health care. we can talk health care. We can talk compromise in health care because thats a passion of mine. But the schemes that were passed target. unfairly. these small businesses. Now some are getting waivers. Some are not getting waivers. Shoot. why in the world would you hire more employees if you didnt know whether you are going to be targeted or not targeted? Thats uncertainty. and its got to stop. Its time that we put people before politics. We think of the families who are at the pump. the moms who are trying to make ends meet. balance the checkbook. go get groceries. pick up the kids from school. make health care appointments. Its time we put them first. not agendas. not ideas. Its time we put people before politics. and thats exactly what we have been doing and thats what we are going to continue to fight for here on this House floor.