Washington, D.C.--Representative Tom McClintock, CA-04, has been appointed Chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee in the 112th Congress.  McClintock served as Ranking Member of the subcommittee in the previous Congress, earning a reputation as a strong advocate for developing the nation’s natural resources.

“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Tom McClintock as the Chairman of the Water and Power Subcommittee,” said in-coming House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings.   “As Ranking Member he fought to restore abundance as the principal objective of federal water and power policy and to protect jobs by factoring people back into the water supply equation.  I look forward to his leadership in advancing these policies in the 112th Congress.”

“The Water and Power Subcommittee can shape policy that is of critical importance to the people of the 4th Congressional District,” McClintock said.  “By returning to time-tested priorities of water storage, flood protection and hydroelectric generation we can strengthen our economy, create conditions for permanent and productive jobs and protect the environment. Restoring these policies will be a major focus of the subcommittee.”

About the House Water and Power Subcommittee

As the authorizing Subcommittee for the Bureau of Reclamation and the federal power marketing administrations, the Subcommittee on Water and Power is involved in all aspects of shaping federal policies for water and power resources management.  Jurisdiction includes Bureau of Reclamation multi-purpose dams, which provide irrigated waters, hydropower, flood control, recreation and fish and wildlife benefits.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  December 22, 2010.  Full Text.
 

M. Speaker:

This lame duck session is rapidly descending into farce.  I believe this House is now in danger of becoming a caricature of everything the American people rejected in November: incompetence, arrogance, and a complete detachment from reality. 

Nearly two months ago, the American people said very clearly they don’t want this Congress legislating for them any longer.  And instead of graciously and humbly accepting the public’s verdict, the Democratic leaders seem intent to thumb their noses at the American people.

Perhaps the most bitter indictment of a malingering legislative body was delivered by Cromwell to the Rump Parliament.  His words seem appropriate now to this Rump Congress:  

“You have sat here too long for any good you have been doing.  It is not fit that you should sit here any longer.  You shall now give way to better men.  Now depart and go, I say, in the name of God, Go.”

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House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  December 21, 2010.  Full Text.
 

House Chamber, Washington, D.C. December 21, 2010.  Mr. Speaker:

  On November 2nd, the American people spoke loudly and clearly: stop the spending.

Instead of graciously bowing to the public will, the Left has embarked on a frantic lame-duck spending spree with a majority already turned out of office by the voters.

First, they exacted another $136 billion in spending as the price to prevent a devastating tax increase on New Year’s Day.

They tried – unsuccessfully -- to cram through a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill packed with more than 6,000 earmarks. 

They are now pressing to continue spending at a rate even faster than 2010.

You could say they’re partying like irresponsible teenagers, but even irresponsible teenagers have enough sense to stop trashing the house AFTER the parents have phoned to say they’re on their way home.

Mr. Speaker, the parents will be here in 15 days, and I have news for you – the party’s over.  Go home.
 

Washington, D.C. -- Congressman Tom McClintock, CA-04, has been appointed to serve on the House Budget Committee and the Natural Resources Committee for the upcoming 112th Congress. 

McClintock will begin his second term on the Natural Resources Committee where he served as ranking member of the Water and Power sub-committee during the 111th Congress.  “The Natural Resources Committee is absolutely vital to the economy of the 4th Congressional District, and I am delighted to have been re-appointed,” McClintock said.  During the last session, McClintock was an outspoken advocate of restoring abundance of water and power as a central objective of federal policy and vowed to continue that work in the upcoming session.

In addition, McClintock will leave the House Education and Labor Committee to take on new responsibilities on the Budget Committee, which will play a prominent role under Chairman Paul Ryan in bringing federal spending under control.  McClintock was a prominent voice for many years in the California legislature warning that the state was on an unsustainable fiscal path.  During those years he introduced hundreds of specific budget reforms, including tax, spending and borrowing limitations; contracting out of state services; pension, welfare and education reform and bureaucratic streamlining. 

“I am deeply gratified by this appointment,” McClintock said.  “The nation’s fiscal crisis is one of the most serious threats our government has ever faced, and the opportunity to assist in setting things right is truly the most exciting assignment I have ever had.” 

 
About the House Budget Committee

As the first panel to examine the President’s annual budget message, the Budget Committee’s chief responsibility is to draft a concurrent resolution that reconciles spending details with the overall comprehensive budget package. The committee is required to draft a budget resolution, agreed to by April 15 of each year, which establishes total targets in five budget areas: authority; outlays; revenues; surplus or deficit; and public debt. The resolution also sets budget authority and outlay targets for each of the 21 spending categories.  Finally, the committee prepares guidelines in the annual budget resolution for cutting programs to meet spending targets.

About the House Natural Resources Committee

The House Natural Resources Committee considers legislation about American energy production, mineral lands and mining, fisheries and wildlife, public lands, Native Americans, irrigation and reclamation, and oceanography.
 

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  December 16, 2010.  Full Text. 

House Chamber, Washington, D.C. December 16, 2010. M. Speaker: I commend the Senate for passing the tax relief measure yesterday, and I hope that the House passes it today.

According to the CBO, this bill comprises $136 billion in additional spending and $721 billion in tax relief. That means fifteen percent of this bill is spending – the other 85 percent is tax relief:

· No across the board increase in income tax rates next year.

· No AMT biting deeper into middle class families.

· A Death Tax that’s a third less of what it would otherwise have been -- threatening far fewer family farms and family businesses with extinction.

If this relief fails, when the ball drops at Time Square on New Year’s Eve, Americans will have just been walloped by a tax tsunami the likes of which we haven’t seen since Smoot-Hawley.

Families and small businesses will be spending the New Year struggling to pay thousands of dollars of new taxes. A family making $50,000 will see at least $3,000 more taken from its paychecks. A small businessperson whose shop makes $300,000 will have to cut another $8,400 – perhaps the difference between a part time and a full time job for an employee.

From the Left we’re told that we should raise taxes on the very rich who make over $200,000 because they don’t pay their fair share.

According to the IRS, those folks earn 36 percent of all income; they pay 49 percent of all income taxes.

A lot of them aren’t people at all -- half of the income earned by small businesses will be hit by these tax increases. These are the job generators that we’re depending upon to end the nightmare of unemployment for millions of American families. To confiscate billions of dollars more from them and expect more jobs to come of it is simply insane.

Some of my fellow Conservatives object to the 15 percent of this bill that spends money we don’t have. I agree.

But that damage can be corrected through offsetting spending reductions next year. The new Republican House majority can do so without the Senate or the President – simply by refusing to appropriate funds – and it’s committed to doing so.

But it cannot rescind the taxes next year without the Senate and the President, who have made their opposition to just such a clean bill abundantly clear.

And even if such a retro-active bill could be passed by Spring, these families and businesses won’t get their tax overpayments refunded to them until they file their returns a year later.

Massive tax increases under Hoover turned the recession of 1929 into the depression of the 1930’s. Let that not be the epitaph of this Congress.

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  December 14, 2010.  Full Text.

December 10, 2010. 

Part 2, Part 3

House Chamber, Washington, D.C.  December 14, 2010.

  M. Speaker:

In the aftermath of the attack of September 11th, a young man from Roseville, California answered his country’s call to duty and volunteered to take the war against radical Islam from our shores to theirs.  His name was Sean Anthony Silva.
 
This nation survives today – and Americans remain safe today -- because of the idealism, patriotism, heroism and sacrifice of young Americans like Sean Silva who volunteer to defend us.  Today, they are all that stand between the tyranny and terrorism that have arisen in the Middle East and enlightened civilization. 

We defend principles like liberty and justice in this chamber every day with our words.  Men like Sean Silva defend them with their lives.

And on the night of October 9, 2003, Sean Silva defended them with his. 
To understand the character of this young man, you need to understand what led up to that night.

Sean was a young person who saw his country attacked and instinctively rose to defend her.  He saw his countrymen threatened and instinctively rose to shield them. 

When Sean told his parents, Richard and Donna, that he wanted to enlist, they were concerned.  His mother worried that Sean would be dispatched to the Middle East within weeks of boot camp.  Sean’s reply was simple: “Mom, I’m ready.”

He wanted to be an Army Scout: always leading, always in motion, always protecting the path of his comrades.  Sgt. Timothy Sloan of the Army’s Roseville, CA recruiting office remembered that Sean “wanted to be out doing things…he didn’t want to be sitting behind a desk.” Ultimately, he was assigned to the Second Armored Calvary Regiment based in Fort Polk, Louisiana.  And from there, he shipped out to Iraq.

The night of October 9, 2003, he had already returned from one treacherous patrol and was scheduled for another the next day.  A night patrol was unexpectedly ordered, and Sean volunteered to go right back out into the deadly streets of Sadr City, even though it wasn’t his turn.  His commander reminded him that he had already done much more than duty required and Sean simply smiled and said: “I just want to learn to do my job.”

A few hours later, Sean’s patrol was ambushed and in the fierce fighting that followed, he gave what Lincoln called “the last full measure of devotion.” 

At Normandy, the Chapel bears a tribute to those who (quote) “endured all, and gave all, that justice among nations might prevail and that mankind might enjoy freedom and inherit peace.”  At the age of 23, Sean Silva did exactly that.

Sean would have turned 30 this year.  No doubt he would be married with children now, with a promising career, getting ready for the holidays with his friends and family. 

Instead, his chair remains empty at the family table, and friends still leave messages for Sean at the “Fallen Heroes” web site.  There’s one in particular that stands out.  It comes from a little girl  in Fort Jackson, South Carolina, whose father survived that terrible night.  It reads simply,

"Thank you Silva for protecting my daddy.  He is here today because of direct actions that you have done. Thank you soo much.”

Sadr City is no longer besieged.  Its streets now bustle with commerce and enterprise – and young people look forward to raising their own families and starting on their own careers.  They do so solely because of the sacrifice made by men like Sean Silva.

That sacrifice is ongoing for Sean’s family every single day. I met Sean’s father at a Memorial Day event this year. He speaks of his son’s death as if it were yesterday.  Time does not heal the wounds borne by our Gold Star Families.  For them, every day is the day that the casualty officer came to call.

We owe it to those families to honor what Lincoln called “the cherished memory of the loved and the lost.”  We owe it to these fallen heroes, as Shakespeare said, to see that their “story shall the good man teach his son.”  And we owe it to ourselves, our children and our nation to remember how precious is the freedom and peace that their sacrifice has purchased.