Hardworking taxpayers across Southwest Ohio have made it clear that their top concern is job creation; it's my top concern as well. With unemployment approaching 13 percent in some areas of the Third Congressional District, we need to be undertaking a robust effort to provide incentives for job creation. That's why I remain disappointed that not only has the Senate failed to pass a budget in over 900 days, but has also allowed 14 key bills to languish as Ohioans remain unemployed. This includes bills which would reduce the tax burden on contractors and would decrease regulations on agribusiness.

Current law requires that government at all levels withhold 3 percent of payments to government contractors in order to ensure proper tax payments. H.R. 674, of which I am a cosponsor, would repeal the 3 percent withholding rule requirement. This is an up-front tax on all employers who do business with the government. Many of the contractors who work on government projects operate on profit margins of less than that 3 percent withholding requirement. If the withholding requirement is not repealed, contractors would be faced with the choice of working at a loss and having to eliminate jobs or raising prices and ultimately increasing costs to the taxpayer. This is an area where both Republicans and Democrats agree we need action, and the bill passed the full House by a vote of 405-16. Yet, the bill sits in the Senate awaiting action.

One of the sectors of our economy being hit hardest by the passage of massive regulations by federal agencies and without the consent of Congress is agribusiness. These additional legislative restrictions run counter to what our founders intended when they drafted the Constitution. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in particular, has passed on an unprecedented number of regulations to our farming community. In response to this, I have cosponsored H.R. 910, the Energy Tax Prevention Act of 2011. This legislation, which has passed the House and awaits Senate consideration, limits the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in respect to climate change. This also comes in response to the Clean Air Act, which includes planned restrictions on vehicle emissions of greenhouse gases, to be implemented in 2012 and 2017.

The time to act on creating jobs is now. No longer can Southwest Ohio wait for the Senate to act. These commonsense bills, along with 12 others await and deserve full debate and consideration.