i thank the gentlewoman for bringing her perspective to the debate and for celebrating , allowing us to celebrate with the good people of forsythe county , north carolina , as they welcome 700 new jobs to their area . 
how exciting that is , and how exciting for us that we have a program like the workforce development programs that are very successful , that assist in retraining folks . 
i know in my 7th congressional district in tennessee , we have seen tremendous success with the workforce development program . 
as a matter of fact , we have a program in montgomery county , tennessee , that is really attuned to the needs of our veterans and to our military spouses and our military retirees . 
and they are going to be honored later this week for their excellent work that they are doing for jobs retraining , helping people focus on the importance of developing and having that career . 
jobs and education , they go hand in hand . 
they are very important components of our economic competitiveness , just as tax reform , just as tort reform and the other things that we have discussed this evening . 
mr. speaker , at this time i would like to recognize a member of the freshman class , new to us , but with a tremendous amount of experience in his home state of texas where he has been a part of the business community , has served as a judge , and is a skilled legislator . 
the gentleman from texas ( mr. gohmert ) xz4006510 is going to speak with us for a few moments about some of the things that are happening in texas as in the process with our economic competitiveness issues . 
