Public service has always been at the center of Steny Hoyer’s professional life. He won a seat in the Maryland Senate at the age of 27; at 35, he was elected the youngest Senate President in Maryland’s history. On a day when Rep. Hoyer had to defuse some growing tensions with defense contractors, the House Majority Leader carved out a few minutes to visit with TheBAYNET.com and talk on Baynet Radio.

Hoyer, as Majority Leader, is charged with managing the House Floor as well as scheduling legislation to be considered on the Floor. He plays a key role in helping House Democrats determine their legislative agenda and political strategy and delivering the Democratic message both in Washington and nationally.

He was elected House Majority Leader by his Democratic colleagues in 2006, and re-elected in 2008. His service as Majority Leader makes him history’s highest-ranking Member of Congress from Maryland. Now serving his fifteenth term in Congress representing the Fifth Congressional District of Maryland, he is also the longest-serving Member of the U.S. House of Representatives in state history.

During his time with TBN and on BNR, Hoyer discussed a number of issues and his thoughts about past accomplishments and what he intends to focus on in the coming Congress.

The most pressing area of concern for Hoyer is the economy. “It was a major accomplishment to get the economy stabilized working with both Pres. Bush and Pres. Obama, but in the coming Congress, we have to move beyond financial stability, and work to get the economy growing again,” said Hoyer. “We lost eight million jobs and we need to work to get people employed.”

Hoyer stated that he is continuing the fight to address the nation’s deep deficits and debt, and to put our country on a path to a balanced budget. “I believe that it is immoral to expect future generations to pay for what this generation buys,” said Hoyer. During the recovery efforts he introduced and successfully helped enact into law pay-as-you-go – or ‘PAYGO’ – “This is a proven tool for fighting debt that helped create budget surpluses in the 1990s,” said Hoyer.

He explained that under this law, Congress must offset all new policies reducing revenues or expanding entitlements, so that they add nothing to our deficit.  “In short, like families across the country, Congress must make the tough choices to determine our real priorities.”

Hoyer understands that small businesses are the backbone of the nation’s economy and supported legislation to give tax credits to small businesses who hire new employees and to restore the flow of credit to small businesses. He also worked to extend the important Research and Development tax credit and to help stop corporations from sending American jobs overseas.

Hoyer also feels that an issue important to the local economy and jobs will be the completion of the third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs. Once that is complete, he feels that for National Security reasons, the Thomas Johnson Bridge will be upgraded. “It is important and serves a major defense establishment and the power plant.”

When the subject turned to the environment, the Congressman stated that he “fully supports environmental standards that keep our land, air and water clean. While in the House, I have supported every major environmental bill to fund the clean up the Chesapeake Bay and the Patuxent, Potomac, Anacostia, and St. Mary’s Rivers.” He has worked tirelessly to help in efforts to replenish the oyste