mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from louisiana ( mr. boustany ) xz4006360 for his leadership on the floor today and his help in these very important issues of making america more competitive tomorrow . 
mr. speaker , you know , when i listened to the debate today , i find that there are areas both republicans and democrats can agree on . 
and there are ways that we can work together to make a more solid economy in the future so that we can retain our number one status in the future instead of falling into a second or third-rate economy . 
the danger is out there . 
we heard talk from the gentleman from ohio ( mr. kucinich ) xz4002270 that it is all because of nafta . 
that we have lost all jobs to nafta . 
yet we have more jobs than ever before in the history of our nation . 
we have heard that we do not spend enough money on r & amp ; d , that the tax credits are not permanent . 
we need your help in making them permanent . 
we need to make these tax credits permanent . 
there are eight issues that we have confined the problems that we are facing tomorrow in , and these eight issues are health care , security , bureaucratic red tape termination , lifelong learning , energy self-sufficiency and security , spurring innovation , trade fairness and opportunity , tax relief and simplification , and ending lawsuit abuse . 
today we are going to take a giant step forward in dealing with regulation . 
the gentleman from georgia ( mr. norwood ) xz4002960 is going to lead the effort to reform osha . 
and let me just tell you a little bit about why it is important that we take on these agencies and try to change the environment . 
in the past we have had this adversarial relationship between the government and the private sector . 
there are fines , there are citations , there are unnanounced intrusions into companies . 
employers are unable to deal with this without high expenses , without high cost , without hiring individuals to take care and track what the increasing regulation burden is . 
today we are going to start with osha , and we are going to deal with that today . 
we are going to try to create an environment where we work together . 
you know , we could work together . 
in fact this happened in wichita , kansas , where osha targeted sedgwick county , and said we are going to go to the homebuilders and we are going to make it a safe place . 
they stood off . 
they took pictures . 
they fined , they created citations , and the housing industry shut down . 
we got the wichita builders association together with osha and we said , why do we not work together ? 
why do you not come in on an announced basis , make a list of the violations , let the company have time to make the safe environment at the work area , and then come back and see how they are doing ? 
well , they did that . 
the housing industry went back to work . 
and they created a safe work environment by working together , working together instead of against each other in an adversarial relationship . 
that is what we are talking about in changing the environment in america so that we can create and keep jobs in the future , working together and not against each other . 
now , this environment here on the floor of the house is an adversarial environment . 
but yet we can work together . 
that is what we are advocating here , the government working with private sector to make more jobs in the future . 
