[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 1, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H1406-H1428]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS AMENDMENTS, 2011
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I
call up House Resolution 115 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 115
Resolved, That upon the adoption of this resolution it
shall be in order to consider in the House the joint
resolution (H.J. Res. 44) making further continuing
appropriations for fiscal year 2011, and for other purposes.
All points of order against consideration of the joint
resolution are waived. The joint resolution shall be
considered as read. All points of order against provisions in
the joint resolution are waived. The previous question shall
be considered as ordered on the joint resolution to final
passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of
debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and
ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations;
and (2) one motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia is recognized for
1 hour.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the
customary 30 minutes to my friend from Colorado (Mr. Polis), pending
which time I yield myself such time as I may consume.
During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the
purpose of debate only.
General Leave
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Georgia?
There was no objection.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 115 provides a closed rule
for consideration of H.J. Res. 44. This bill would fund the government
through March 18 and reduce federal spending by $4 billion over the
remainder of the fiscal year. The measure cuts $2.7 billion in earmarks
from Energy and Water, Labor-HHS, Transportation-HUD, Homeland
Security, and Legislative Branch appropriations, but most importantly,
this measure averts a government shutdown and allows the Senate time to
continue to consider H.R. 1, the bill that we successfully passed in
this Chamber just 1 week ago.
Mr. Speaker, on that bill, we had roughly 50 hours of debate from
both sides of the aisle, debate that ran late into the night that
allowed the House to work its will for the first time in a long time.
And the end result was that continuing resolution, H.R. 1, that now
sits idly in the Senate.
This resolution today, this rule today, which I urge Members to
strongly support, will allow for the 2-week extension of Federal
funding to allow the
[[Page H1407]]
Senate time to seriously consider this bill, again, H.R. 1, the first
bill in a long time on which the House has had a chance to work its
will.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, in 4 days, the Federal Government will run out of money.
We must ask ourselves, how did we get into this dire situation where we
are 4 days away from critical Federal services being closed and our
Federal Government being unable to meet its obligations.
Today we are racing the clock to avoid this shutdown in large part
because we have squandered the past 2 weeks debating H.R. 1, a
ridiculous spending bill that contained some cuts so extreme it had no
realistic chance of ever being passed into law and left other areas of
the budget that both sides have generally agreed need to be cut
untouched. H.R. 1 also had every bit of social legislation from the
Republican majority, including gutting the ability of EPA to protect
our air and our water and defunding Planned Parenthood and family
planning, so that it had a threat of a Presidential veto and faces no
realistic prospects of passage in the Senate.
So rather than working with Democrats in the House and Senate to
craft a real long-term CR that would preserve the gains of our economy
and invest in our future, Republicans have squandered the past few
weeks to pass their out-of-touch and unrealistic spending bill that
would prove devastating to our economy, our safety, our health, and,
yes, our values.
Their draconian spending bill would destroy 700,000 jobs, according
to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's and former adviser to Senator
John McCain. And as Goldman Sachs said, their long-term CR would
``stall the economic recovery and reduce U.S. economic growth.'' In
fact, just this morning more than 300 economists from across the
country warned against the massive GOP spending bill, stating that,
``as economists, we believe it is shortsighted to make budget cuts that
eliminate necessary investments in our human capital, our
infrastructure, and the next generation of scientific and technological
advances. These cuts threaten our economy's long-term economic
competitiveness.''
Mr. Speaker, today's continuing resolution meets our shared goal of
preventing a Federal Government shutdown, but at what cost? And for how
long? We are committed to reducing the deficit beginning with an
aggressive attack on waste, fraud, and abuse. Every Member in this body
owes it to our constituents to responsibly cut spending and balance the
budget without sacrificing jobs or weakening our economy.
Time and time again, the Republican leadership has told us that they
want to proceed in an open and transparent fashion, and yet here we are
again, facing another closed rule, shutting down amendments from both
sides and stifling the legislative process and good cost-cutting ideas
from both sides of the aisle. In fact, yesterday in the Rules
Committee, my colleagues took a party-line vote to block an amendment
from the top ranking member on the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Dicks.
Mr. Dicks' amendment would have cut more funds than the Republican bill
and, at the same time, restored funds for education programs.
In the spirit of the urgent need for cost-cutting and balancing the
deficit, I think this body should consider ideas from both sides of the
table and allow a rule that allows for discussion of the Dicks
amendment and other ideas to cut costs even further than this CR
allows.
This CR may succeed in keeping the government open from March 5
through March 18, which I think we all agree is necessary. But we also
all know that 2 weeks is not nearly enough time to negotiate a long-
term solution to the enormous spending challenges we face, especially
when the Constitution guarantees the President 10 of those days to
decide whether to sign or veto the bill.
The other side had discussed, at the end of last session, the need to
have stability with regard to what kind of taxes people and businesses
can expect over time. And at the end of last session, we passed a bill
that set predictability for 2 years so people and businesses know what
their taxes will be. Well, the other side of that coin is we need
predictability and stability around appropriations and the general
activities of government. It is stifling to the economy and stifling to
job creation for people to be uncertain as to whether the largest
enterprise in our country, the Federal Government, will or won't be
solvent in 4 days' time.
This is my third year in Congress and already the fourth time I've
managed a rule on a short-term CR. The shortened timeline set out by
this CR sets the stage for a devastating shutdown crisis every 2 weeks
that will bring legislating to a standstill, impede hopes of long-term
economic growth, and create enormous overhang on the markets because of
this great uncertainty that is of our own creation.
{time} 1240
We are also undermining, through this CR, Mr. Speaker, investments in
our own future. Take the cuts to literacy programs, for example.
Building an excellent public education system that ensures that each
and every child has an opportunity to succeed is the most important
investment we can make in our Nation's future and developing our human
capital which helps keep America competitive. This is an investment
that I have spent much of my life to support and achieve--on the State
Board of Education, as a founder of a charter school, and now here in
Congress.
What we see now, however, from the proposed short-term CR is the
elimination of the Striving Readers Fund, which supports literacy for
students from preschool through 12th grade. With American students'
reading scores stagnating for the past 30 years, this proposal makes no
sense.
Striving Readers is the only targeted Federal literacy funding for
preschool through 12th grade. And particularly at a time of State and
local budgets cuts, these resources are more important than ever.
Now, we can agree that Striving Readers should be improved. In fact,
I am working, along with Congressman Yarmuth, to provide the LEARN Act,
which would ensure that teachers and students have innovative
strategies and data-backed tools to improve reading and writing. The
administration's proposal would build on the progress of the Striving
Readers program.
President Obama said in his State of the Union address: It's not just
about how we cut, but what we cut. Republicans have mistakenly claimed
that the administration also wants to eliminate Striving Readers, but
they neglect to mention that the administration's 2012 budget proposes
instead to revise, improve Striving Readers. The goal is not to reduce
and eliminate Federal support for literacy; it is to consolidate and
make more efficient Federal support for literacy, to strengthen
literacy performance expectations, scale up innovative methods of
teaching reading, writing, and language arts.
In fact, nearly all States, 44, have applied for the first $10
million in the Striving Readers allocation that was available and have
developed State literacy plans as a result. My home State of Colorado
has been awarded $150,000 for these important projects.
Literacy is the foundation of learning. It is the gateway to other
content areas that are increasingly important in the global society,
like science and math. Destroying the foundation of literacy is cutting
off our Nation's own legs. Education is an investment in our future. By
pulling the rug out from under our schools and children, Republicans
seem willing to sacrifice our future prospects as a Nation. Education
is how America can reclaim our edge in job creation, bring jobs back to
our shores, become better business leaders, and provide a livable wage
for working families.
We all agree that cuts must be made. But as the Romans said, caveat
emptor, may the buyer beware. By agreeing to cuts in repeated short-
term CRs, we run the risk of opening the door to a spending agenda that
arbitrarily kills jobs, hurts our communities, completely undermines
education reform, and we do nothing to promote the stability of the
Federal Government that markets require to allow businesses to thrive
and grow.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume
to
[[Page H1408]]
say to my friend, I could not agree with him more. We must ask
ourselves: How did we get here? How did we get here? I have been on the
job for 60 days, but the fiscal year began back on October 1 of 2010.
How did we get here?
We got here because the work of the people's House didn't get done
last year, and I regret that. Candidly, I'm not sure how. I hear so
many folks talk about the partisanship in the Congress and the
partisanship in Washington, DC, and people can't get things done
because of the partisanship. But, of course, last year Democrats
controlled the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. And yet we still
sit here today without a budget, without the appropriations that the
speaker knows we need for the government to continue its operations.
How did we get here? I don't know. But I know this: Nobody elected me
in November to come up here and point the finger of blame. They elected
me to work with my friend to clean up this mess. Irrespective of how we
got here, we have to move forward.
I have to say, because I was at home for the past week with my
constituents working through these very same issues we are talking
about today, the question I got over and over and over again is: Rob,
that is a great start, but let's do more. That's a great start, but
let's do more.
You know, getting started is what is hard. It is hard to get started.
Over and over again we have heard our friends on both sides of the
aisle say: You know, this program, it can be fixed. It can be fixed.
I wonder if we will have a day here where we can start from a blank
sheet, just a blank sheet, and say: What is it that is worth borrowing
from our children for? What is it that is worth increasing our
children's credit card balance for? What is it that is worth mortgaging
our children's future for?
Let me just say to my friend, because I know he has a great passion
for education, and it is a passion I very much respect, I have the
great fortune of coming from the part of the world called Gwinnett
County, Georgia. And Gwinnett County was the recipient of the Broad
Prize for the single best urban education school district in America.
We made it as a finalist 2 years ago, but last year we won. And we won
in spite of Federal Government intervention--not because of it, in
spite of it. We won because, as a community, we got together back in
1996 and said there is a better way. What can we do to enable our
children to succeed better?
We were doing standardized testing in Gwinnett County before
standardized testing was in vogue because we knew we had to have a way
to measure. We knew we had to have a way to sort out what works and
what doesn't. Well, folks, we need some of that standardized testing
here on Capitol Hill: What works and what doesn't?
And there are a lot of things that aren't working. Not only do we
need to get the bad out of the budget, we've got to decide that we're
going to choose between good and good, between good and good because
every school group I spoke to over our district workweek is a school
group from whose future we are borrowing, whose future we are
mortgaging over and over and over again.
It has to be said that the House worked its will in an unprecedented
fashion, an unprecedented fashion. Mr. Speaker, I don't say that
lightly. I mean never, never before in modern times has the House
worked its will on a continuing appropriations bill the way it did last
week. Again, I don't care whose fault it is. I don't care why we
couldn't get it done last October. I don't care why we couldn't get it
done in November. I don't care why we couldn't get it done in December.
What I care about is we have an opportunity to get it done, and we did
that last week.
The House worked its will, and we had some winners and we had some
losers. I voted for a number of amendments that failed. I didn't get
everything that I wanted in that bill. I know my friend from Colorado
didn't get everything he wanted in that bill, but the House worked its
will, Mr. Speaker, with unprecedented openness, and H.R. 1 was the
result.
Well, I asked my staff to call over to the Senate before I came down
here. I wanted to find out exactly how much debate the Senate had been
putting in on H.R. 1. Of course, we debated it for almost 50 hours. We
went through the night on a couple of nights. We wanted to make sure
that the entire House had an opportunity to be involved. My staff tells
me, Mr. Speaker, not a moment. Not a moment.
I hear the sense of urgency from my friend from Colorado that we have
to take action; this is no way to run a government. I think he is
right. I think cleaning up this mess means passing a single continuing
resolution that gets us through to the end of the fiscal year. For
Pete's sake, the Appropriations Committee is already taking testimony
to try to get us into the 2012 budget cycle. This is leftover work that
simply didn't get done last Congress. Not one second has been spent on
the Senate side, Mr. Speaker, from what my staff tells me. Not one
second has been spent considering a bill on which the entire United
States House of Representatives worked its will; a bill that was the
only open process that this House has seen on a continuing resolution;
a bill that allowed Members from both sides of the aisle to come down
here to the House floor and represent their constituents back home by
doing exactly what my friend from Colorado is suggesting--trying to
make good cuts, trying to make those things, present those things on
the House floor that make the most sense to folks back home.
Well, Mr. Speaker, we are where we are. No one wants the Senate to
act expeditiously on the work of the people's House more than I do. But
given that not one moment has been dedicated to that, we have to come
down here and fund the government one more time. It is the responsible
thing to do. It is the responsible thing to do.
The better thing to do would be to act on H.R. 1, which the House
passed last week with the support of Members in this body. But now, we
have to come down here and extend for 2 weeks to give us time to finish
those negotiations with the Senate side. And if that is not enough
time, I suspect we will be back down here again. My friend from
Colorado and I will be back down here in this well doing this same
thing.
But it is no way to run the government, Mr. Speaker. It is no way to
run the government. This is just what we have to do while we wait on
the Senate to take up that bill on which the House worked its will last
week.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. I yield myself 30 seconds.
The gentleman from Georgia said let us do more to save money, and yet
this rule shuts down the process and doesn't allow amendments from the
minority, including one by Mr. Dicks that saved over $1 billion and
would have reduced the deficit by over $500 million. And yet again,
through this closed rule, we are unable to do more, thanks to this
restrictive rule by the Republican majority.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ellison).
Mr. ELLISON. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule and the
underlying bill, House Joint Resolution 44.
This bill is just another part of the reckless Republican no-jobs
agenda. Instead of focusing on creating jobs, Republicans are trying to
cut nearly 1 million jobs across the country. Republicans have been in
control of the House for now more than 2 months. They have been in
control of the House for now more than 2 months, and they have failed
to bring up a single bill to create a single job.
{time} 1250
I mean, they haven't done just a poor job. They haven't done
anything. This bill is just a mini-version of a larger Republican drive
that America soundly rejected a week ago. I am absolutely against
starting down a series of short-term cuts, of short-term CRs, that
result in a bleed of the American middle class. This is death by 1,000
cuts--a slow bleed.
As Speaker Boehner stated earlier this week before the National
Religious Broadcasters convention, ``If they won't eat the whole loaf
at one time,'' he said of the Democrats, ``we'll make them eat it one
slice at a time.''
This is what this short-term CR is all about, one slice at a time,
with the goal of shoving a whole loaf down the throats of the American
people. The American people don't want the Republican layoffs. They
want jobs.
Let's be clear. The bill before us today is just one more fight in
this battle to keep American jobs. It's the
[[Page H1409]]
same job cuts that Republicans passed a week ago. This is just a 2-week
version of it. The Republicans' reckless ``so be it'' attitude on
spending destroys jobs that threaten America's economy. You don't have
to take my word for it. All you have to do is read the report released
by the chief economist at Moody's, Mark Zandi, if you want to know
about the Republicans' ``no jobs agenda'' CR, which would cut 700,000
jobs by year's end if they make us eat one slice at a time and which
would reduce economic growth.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. POLIS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. ELLISON. Let me quote economist Mark Zandi directly: ``While
long-term government spending restraint is vital and laying out a
credible path toward that restraint very desirable, too much cutting
too soon would be counterproductive.''
The economy is adding about 100,000 to 150,000 jobs a month; but
until that number reaches about 200,000 on a monthly basis, ``imposing
additional government spending cuts before this has happened would be
taking an unnecessary chance with the recovery.''
Mr. WOODALL. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, to put these cuts in perspective, because, again, we
have to get started somewhere, there is not going to be a speaker who
stands up here today who doesn't speak out in favor of fiscal
restraint. The questions are: When do we start? How much do we do?
Compare the bill that's before us today, which is the continuing
resolution to fund the government for 2 weeks and is adding about $4
billion in cuts, to the bill we passed last week, which had $100
billion of cuts in it. Now put that $100 billion of cuts in
perspective.
Let's take the average American family who has to go out and buy
groceries. That family has a 31-day grocery bill. Knowing that you've
got to go out and buy 31 days' worth of groceries, what we're asking of
the American people is to cut 1 day out. We're going to tell you now
that we're going to cut 1 day out, and we need you to stretch your 30-
days' worth of groceries into 31.
Mr. Speaker, that doesn't seem that draconian. In fact, it doesn't
seem draconian at all. It seems like what American families are doing
over and over and over again in the recession that we've been battling.
When we talk about these jobs numbers, these are the same jobs
numbers about which folks said, If only you'll put your children in
debt to the tune of another $1.5 trillion, we'll get unemployment down
under 8 percent. It's the same economist who said, Well, it didn't work
the first year, but what if we do it the second year? If we put you in
debt to the tune of $1.6 trillion, in addition to the 1.5, in addition
to the 1.3 the year before, then we're going to get unemployment back
down under 8 percent.
Those jobs didn't materialize because the Federal Government can't
create jobs. We can destroy jobs--we can and we do--but we can't create
jobs. Our young entrepreneurs create those jobs. The business owners in
our communities create those jobs. We destroy jobs, but we cannot
create jobs. That is what this continuing resolution is a recognition
of, Mr. Speaker: that the government can absolutely get out of the way.
We're not going to hear today about the numbers of jobs that will be
lost if the EPA continues to classify carbon dioxide as a pollutant and
hamstrings the American economy in a way that no other economy on this
planet is hamstrung. We're not going to hear those jobs numbers. H.R. 1
would solve that, and we have to get started somewhere.
Mr. Speaker, I take no pride of authorship. I'm just a participant in
H.R. 1 as it passed the House, as the House worked its will, as
Democratic amendments passed and as Republican amendments passed. I
wish we'd been governing the right way and that this had been done back
on October 1. We passed that continuing resolution, and it's unclear to
me why there was no open process there. We passed the second one in
December and then the third one in December.
Again, the openness that this House has seen in this 112th Congress
is absolutely unprecedented.
Now, I know my friend from Colorado is a strong supporter of CBO and
of the work that CBO does. I couldn't agree with him more. Then when
Mr. Dicks came before the committee last night with an amendment that
would cut even more, as someone who believes we need to cut more, I was
incredibly enthusiastic about that. My understanding was that CBO
hadn't had a chance to score that amendment, that there was no scoring
to be had, and so we couldn't tell whether or not this was going to cut
or whether or not this was going to add or how the spend rates were
going to sort themselves out, because it came at the very last minute.
Yet what didn't come at the last minute was the opportunity for the
minority to offer a substitute. The Speaker reached out to the minority
to say if you were interested in offering the same continuing
resolution that you had offered before, which was going to freeze
funding--and we've heard that a lot. Let's just freeze things. We don't
want to cut anything, and we don't want to be draconian--the majority
would have absolutely made that in order.
Again, the House could work its will, but my understanding is that
that offer was turned down and that folks were not interested in
offering that substitute. I would have been a proud ``no'' vote on that
substitute, but I still believe, as the gentleman from Colorado said,
openness in the process yields a better result.
This brings me full circle, Mr. Speaker, to H.R. 1, which is the
single continuing resolution that has had more openness in the process
than any other continuing resolution this House has ever considered. It
led to the best process, and it led to the best outcome. This is the
bill that sits in the United States Senate today, that could be acted
on today, that would fund the government and provide the certainty that
we need today through the end of the fiscal year, which is on September
30.
So when we're talking about certainty, and I absolutely believe that
our economy needs certainty, it is the government that's creating the
uncertainty. We are creating the uncertainty. We have historically
created the uncertainty. We have an opportunity with H.R. 1 to
eliminate that uncertainty for the rest of the fiscal year and to get
back to doing what this House always should have been doing, which is
considering appropriations bills under regular order.
Candidly, I hope my friends on the Democratic side of the aisle are
throwing down that gauntlet today. I hope they're saying, You know,
Rob, it's not easy to lead. It's not easy to move bills through regular
order.
I want that opportunity to try. I want an opportunity to do it the
right way. If we can move H.R. 1 through the Senate and onto the
President's desk, we can then come together with the same kind of open
process that we began 2 weeks ago to consider all of the appropriations
bills and to make the priorities that this House chooses to make
priorities, not the last Congress, not two Congresses ago, not
President Obama in his first year, not President Bush in his last
term--but this House today, together. What are our priorities?
As soon as we move this continuing resolution behind us, Mr. Speaker,
we can begin to focus on those priorities, which is where the true work
of the House is intended to be.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Pallone).
Mr. PALLONE. I like the gentleman from Georgia. He's a nice guy. But
I have to say that his story about what actually happened here is not
exactly accurate.
Mr. Speaker, the fact of the matter is when the Democrats were in
charge in the last Congress, we did have an omnibus appropriations
bill, but it was the Senate Republicans who refused to provide the
votes, because, as you know, you need a supermajority in the Senate.
Then he talked about how he was glad to be home last week. I was glad
to be home last week too, and I got a lot of input, but we should have
been working here and not moving up so perilously close to these
deadlines where the government could actually
[[Page H1410]]
shut down. My fear is that we're just going to be kicking the can down
the road every 2 weeks, every 2 weeks, facing another possible
government shutdown. As the gentleman from Colorado said, that creates
economic uncertainty and is not good for the economy.
{time} 1300
Now, I just wanted to comment on the gentleman from Georgia. I was
glad that I finally heard him use the word ``jobs'' and talk about jobs
because that's the problem here. This H.R. 1 that he talks about we
know is going to destroy jobs--various accounts, 700,000, 800,000 jobs
that will be destroyed or will be eliminated, not just because the
government isn't paying for the jobs, but because it doesn't invest in
the future.
If you listened to what President Obama said in his State of the
Union address, he said that the government has a role. The gentleman
from Georgia says the government should get out of the way. Well, I
don't agree with that. We need to make wise investments in our future,
in our education programs--which this cuts--in our research and
development for the future, in infrastructure so that we can have roads
and highways and mass transit so that commerce can continue and we can
grow the economy.
That is what's wrong with H.R. 1 and this larger bill that the
Republicans have put forward. And, of course, the Senate can't take up
the bill the way it is because they know it will destroy jobs and
cripple the economy.
So what I ask of my Republican colleagues is go out there, sit down
with the Senate Democrats, sit down with the House Democrats. Don't
just say take it or leave this bill that we know has such draconian
cuts and doesn't do anything to invest in America's future. We can't
continue down this road. We've got to work together.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I associate myself with the gentleman from New Jersey's comments. We
absolutely have to work together. It's a great source of pride for me
that I've only been on the job 60 days and we've already seen more
working together than this House has allowed in the past 4 years
combined. Understand that. Understand that as we're working on this
appropriations bill, as we're working through this appropriations
process, that 2 weeks ago you saw more openness and working together in
this Chamber--right here, right here in the people's House--more
working together than you had seen in the previous 4 years combined.
Can we do more? I say to the gentleman from New Jersey, I think we
can, and I look forward to being a partner and making that happen. But
to say that what is sitting on the desk in the Senate is the product of
take-it-or-leave-it legislating could not be further from the truth.
It's the furthest from take-it-or-leave-it legislating that the House
has seen in 4 years. Arguably, it's the furthest thing from take-it-or-
leave-it legislating that the House has seen on continuing
appropriations bills in modern time.
So when we talk about where we are and where we're going, we have to
ask that question of, why are we characterizing this as a process
that's broken? Why are we characterizing H.R. 1 as something that
doesn't work? Why isn't H.R. 1 the very best, the very best, given the
makeup of this House, given our collective intellect and wisdom? Why
isn't H.R. 1 the very best that we can do? Because when the process is
open and everyone gets to participate, it ought to bring out our very
best.
And I'll say to the gentleman from New Jersey, he has some of the
lowest gas prices in the country. I enjoy traveling through his great
State. Every time I go through, not only do I get full-service
gasoline, I get it for the best prices in the country.
Gas prices are up 25 cents a gallon in Gwinnett County, where I come
from; 25 cents a gallon in the past 10 days. We have economic crises in
this country; we have economic challenges in this country; but spending
more government resources is not the answer. We have about a $15
trillion economy. Even with a $3.5 trillion Federal budget, the Federal
player is small, small--8.5 cents of every dollar in education in
Georgia comes from the Federal Government. The rest comes from exactly
where you expect it to come from, local communities and State
governments. We have to get the government out of the way.
And if you're worried about uncertainty, as I am, if you share our
concern about uncertainty, then let's pass H.R. 1. Let's be done. Let's
be done with this 2 weeks, 4 weeks, 6 weeks, 12 weeks. Let's get us
through the end of the year. Let's finish the job that we should have
gotten done last year. Let's put it behind us, and let's start that new
open process again. And it's one that I look forward to joining my
colleagues in.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds to respond.
H.R. 1 cannot be looked at as a serious budget document. Now, it's
not about the cuts--$61 billion, $70 billion, we can come to a number
that we can agree. And by the way, you can't come to a serious number
without making sure that defense is also on the table. But what we have
with H.R. 1 is a bill that loads up every piece of the far-right social
agenda in one bill, from restricting a woman's right to choose, to
preventing government from protecting the air we breathe and the water
we drink. So if we want to have a discussion about a serious budget
document and serious cuts, that's one thing. If we want to have a far-
right dream list, that's another.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr.
Dicks), the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.
Mr. DICKS. Mr. Speaker, the CR disproportionately cuts education,
especially literacy efforts. David Brooks, not known as a left-wing
journalist, writes in the New York Times column today: ``If you look
across the country, you see education financing getting sliced often in
the most thoughtless and destructive ways. In Washington, the
Republicans who designed the cuts for this fiscal year seem to have
done no serious policy evaluation.''
Last night, I asked the Rules Committee to make in order an amendment
restoring education cuts. The amendment cut $1 billion from the Census
in money that wasn't needed, applying most of that to offset education
spending, and the remainder went to further reducing the deficit below
the levels in the CR before us. The Rules Committee chose not to make
that amendment in order, and therefore I oppose the rule.
But to talk to the gentleman, I spent 8 years on the staff of the
other body, and this is my 35th year in the House of Representatives.
Nobody ever gets everything they want: This is a process where the
House passes a bill, it goes to the Senate, and then we have a
conference committee or the Senate sends the bill back to us. Both
sides meet and work out their differences. There is give and take,
there is compromise, and that is the way this process works.
And I also want to say to the gentleman, and to your side, remember
it was the Democratic Congress and the House Senate and Mr. Obama
signing the $41 billion cut from the Obama FY11 budget. It was the
Democrats that did it. We had one Republican vote. And I just want to
remind you, that was done in December in a lame duck session, which
turned out to be a very effective lame duck session; and in that bill
we made cuts across the board in all these areas.
So I want to make it clear we are also for deficit reduction, but
what I am concerned about--and I know the gentleman is very sincere, I
can tell that, I know you believe in every word that you are saying--
but the biggest problem with that is what the effect will be on our
economy. Mark Zandi of Moody's says, it will cost us 400,000 jobs in
2011, 700,000 jobs in 2012. Goldman Sachs, who I don't normally quote,
they say that this could cut 1.5 to 2 percent of gross domestic
product. That could mean the loss of 2.4 million jobs over the next 2
years. That's not what you want to do.
You're trying to reduce the deficit, and the way you reduce the
deficit is put people back to work. You get them back to work, and they
pay their taxes in and the deficit comes down, the unemployment rate
comes down. If you do the wrong thing and make draconian cuts at the
same time that the States are cutting $125 billion from their budgets,
the impact of those two things--$61 billion and the $125 billion--could
have a very devastating effect on the economy and hurt a lot of
[[Page H1411]]
programs needlessly because it's going to be counterproductive. I just
hope that you think about that.
There isn't any economic theory that I've ever heard of called ``cut
and grow.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. POLIS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. DICKS. So, again, it was the Democratic Congress that cut the $41
billion. And every reputable economist says what you did in H.R. 1 is
going to have a negative effect on the economy. And so I hope you all
think carefully about what you're about to do.
Again, it takes compromise. You've got to work with the other body to
come up with a reasonable solution here, or we're going to have
problems with a government shutdown. And you can say whatever you want,
but we don't need the government shutting down when we're in two wars,
a war in Afghanistan and a war in Iraq, and a global war on terror. We
don't need to shut the government down.
{time} 1310
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 30 seconds only to say
that's why we're here today, as the gentleman knows, so that there is
no government shutdown. And I could not be more proud that we're here
taking that responsibility exactly as seriously as it is.
It's very difficult to have a conversation about jobs when we have
carbon regs coming down the pipe that will destroy jobs and we have
financial regulations coming down the pipe that will destroy jobs and
we have health care regs coming down the pipe that will destroy jobs
over and over again. My folks are saying ``enough.''
With that, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from
California (Mr. Dreier), the chairman of the Rules Committee, the
gentleman that I give credit to for giving us the most open process on
a continuing resolution that we've seen in modern times.
Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. WOODALL. I yield to the gentleman from Washington.
Mr. DICKS. That was a good process. I appreciate what you all did in
having an open rule. I applaud Chairman Rogers and Chairman Dreier.
That is the right thing to do. It was appreciated on both sides of the
aisle.
Mr. WOODALL. And we could not have done it without your support.
Mr. DICKS. I did my best to help.
(Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, let me just say, I was going to begin by
saying that both my colleagues, Mr. Rogers and Mr. Dicks, did an
absolutely phenomenal job at taking on the responsibility that is
thrust on them when we have an open amendment process.
The people who go through the greatest challenge are those who have
to defend the bill and be here for hours and hours and hours. And as we
all know, we had 162 amendments considered on the House floor during
those days that led up to before adjournment week before last. And we
worked into the morning on every occasion. That means after midnight. I
mean, I guess we adjourned at 2 or 3 on some of those days. I was sound
asleep then, I have to admit. But you guys were working very, very
hard, Mr. Speaker. And I want to thank them.
And I was pleased that those in the minority did recognize that doing
what we did was unprecedented. Never before has a continuing resolution
been considered under the process that we've had. At best, it's been a
structured rule, which is what we had two decades ago, and both
political parties had had usually a closed rule for the consideration
of continuing resolutions up to that point. So I do believe that we
have come together with, as Mr. Woodall has said, a package that
included amendments from both sides of the aisle as we proceed with
this.
Now, I was tickled also to hear my friend talk about the fact that
$41 billion in cuts were made under Democratic leadership. The fact
that both sides of the aisle are now talking about and bragging about
ways to cut spending is, I think, a very encouraging sign, because that
is the message. That's the message that Mr. Woodall was just offering.
The constant expansion of government is, in fact, counterproductive in
our quest to create jobs and get the economy moving.
Now, we had this exchange last night in the Rules Committee--
yesterday afternoon in the Rules Committee, Mr. Speaker, in which we
were talking about Mark Zandi and the Goldman Sachs projections as far
as bringing about spending reductions.
And I brought to the fore one of the most brilliant economists I
know, John Taylor, who is at the Hoover Institution of Stanford
University, former undersecretary of the Treasury for International
Affairs, a very good personal friend of mine. His son used to work in
our office. He's serving in the United States Marine Corps. And I've
got to say, Mr. Speaker, that John Taylor, in responding to the Zandi
quote, made it very clear that the notion of not bringing about
spending reductions would in fact exacerbate the economic challenges
that we have. And the bottom line is: The best way for us to get our
economy growing is to ensure that people can keep more of their hard-
earned money and to restrict the kind of control that the Federal
Government has continued to thrust on individuals.
I'd be happy to yield to my friend if he would like to share one of
those quotes.
Mr. DICKS. Let me just make a brief comment.
And I do applaud the gentleman from California as chairman of the
Rules Committee for giving, for working out that modified open rule.
Just let me, on the point about Mr. Taylor at Stanford, Stanford's a
very good school. My son graduated from it, and I'm quite proud of
that.
A letter signed by 300 of America's leading economists makes the
argument that cutting investments this quickly will undermine growth.
Among the original signers from Stanford alone: Kenneth Arrow, Martin
Carnoy, Paul David, Mordecai Kurz, Roger Noll, and Gavin Wright.
Mr. DREIER. Mr. Speaker, if I could reclaim my time, I would say to
my friend I think what we've just shown is that the proverbial
economists say on one hand, on the other hand.
The fact is not every economist agrees on this notion, but a
statement has been made. And, in fact, my friend made it upstairs, and
that is, he said when he was quoting Mark Zandi, that everyone,
basically every economist--and that is what I inferred from the
statement--came to this conclusion. And my point in actually
referencing Professor Taylor is that there is disagreement on it.
I happen to come down on the side, personally, of Mr. Taylor. I think
it's important for us, just because we want to all encourage individual
initiative and responsibility, to do everything that we can to reduce
the size and scope and reach of government--and that's what the goal of
H.R. 1 is--so that we can get the economy growing. And I believe that
more incentives by reducing that tax and regulatory burden will create
jobs, because we do share that goal. I mean, I'm convinced that
everyone wants to do that.
But this notion, I mean I've heard commentators saying that somehow
that Republicans in saying that we might see a reduction in the number
of Federal Government jobs, that we're not for job creation. We want
people to have good, long-term jobs in the private sector, and that's
our goal here.
This rule is a standard rule. I should say at the outset that we
wanted to have this not a closed rule but a modified closed rule. And I
know my friend was concerned that his amendment that he testified on
behalf of in the Rules Committee wasn't made in order. But I will tell
you that we did, from the very beginning, say to the minority leader,
Ms. Pelosi, that she, when having introduced on February 18 her
substitute proposal that basically kept spending at 2010 levels, that
we would have made that in order and it would have made it a modified
closed rule that we had offered, so we did do that.
We are where we are. Ensuring that we don't go through a government
shutdown is something that Chairman Rogers and I know Mr. Dicks and all
of us in leadership positions, rank-and-file Members alike, want to
avoid, and that's why we've got this 2-week package that's before us. I
hope the Senate will act so that we can do that, and then do what we
all want to make sure
[[Page H1412]]
happens, and that is have a negotiated agreement that will get to where
we need to be.
So I thank my friend for his management of this rule just as he
managed the last open rule.
Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. DREIER. And before I yield back, I guess I should yield to the
ranking member.
Mr. DICKS. I just want to say one brief word.
I applaud these modified open rules. And on the regular bills on
appropriations, we hope--Mr. Rogers and I have been in contact, we're
going to get these bills done in a timely way. And we want open rules,
and we want to be able to have these unanimous consent agreements after
the bills have been on the floor for a while in order to narrow the
amendments and then to get these things done in a timely fashion. And I
think that it's going to take the cooperation of all of the Members to
be able to do that.
Mr. DREIER. If I could reclaim my time, I will say the gentleman is
absolutely right, Mr. Speaker. We want to have something that we
haven't had in the last couple of years, and that is an open amendment
process when it comes to the regular appropriations bills. And Mr.
Rogers and I have been discussing that at length and will continue to.
And I believe that the best way to deal with this is for not
leadership but for the floor managers to come together and work out an
agreement on that.
Mr. POLIS. I yield myself 30 seconds to respond.
I join the gentleman from Washington in praising the gentleman from
California, the chair of the Rules Committee, with regard to the
modified open process that this body was able to undertake.
But again, with regard to this particular bill before us, what the
gentleman from California said is that the Democrats would be allowed
to offer an amendment that would spend more but not allowed to offer a
substitute amendment that would spend less. The Democrats, in fact,
don't have a desire to offer forward a substitute amendment that spends
more. We do have a desire to offer a substitute amendment that Mr.
Dicks came forward that does spend less. The rule doesn't allow for
that.
With that, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Andrews).
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker and ladies and gentlemen of the House, let's
take the next 2 weeks to try to work together to do the right thing for
the American people.
{time} 1320
I believe that the right thing for the American people is to come up
with a budget plan that sensibly reduces spending but does not put
American jobs at risk. What do I mean by this? What do we mean by this?
Let me give you an example.
I think that a policy that says that oil companies, which made $77
billion in profit last year alone, can drill on federally owned
property that's offshore and not pay anything in royalties to the
American taxpayer is wasteful, and we should stop it. I think
provisions that say that there are tax loopholes for companies that
outsource jobs out of our country are wasteful, and we should stop
them. Let's get rid of those things from our budget.
But let's not follow the reckless plan of the majority that says in
education, let's cut funding for 10,000 reading tutors and math
coaches. In education, let's cut funding for 7,000 teachers of autistic
children, children with a learning disability. In border security,
let's cut funding that's used to pay the people who board ships and
inspect containers that come into this country to make sure they don't
have dirty bombs in them. In public safety, let's not cut funding that
will lay off police officers and firefighters in towns around our
country. In health care, let's not cancel hundreds, if not thousands of
research grants, where our best researchers are working on cures for
cancer, or dementia, or diabetes. These are reckless cuts.
The problem with the Republican plan is not just that it disrupts the
United States Government; the problem with the Republican plan is it
disrupts the United States economy. And this is why the leading
economist for John McCain's Presidential campaign of 2 years ago says
this plan the Republicans are offering will cost 700,000 jobs. That's
why the largest investment bank in the country, in a nonpolitical way,
says that this Republican plan will cut in half the economic growth the
country is counting on for this year.
Let's not disrupt jobs in this country. Let's cut wasteful spending.
Let's go after corporate welfare, not special education. Let's go after
oil company giveaways, not Head Start. Let's get back to the business
of debating job creation in the private sector in our country, not
defunding Planned Parenthood.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. POLIS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. ANDREWS. There are 15 million unemployed Americans as we meet
here this afternoon. Let us resolve in the next 2 weeks to put their
interests first, to sensibly reduce spending where we can, to invest in
education and health care where we must, and get on with the people's
business.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds just to invite my
friend from New Jersey to join me on H.R. 25, the Fair Tax Act. Not
only will it create jobs in this country, it's the only bill in
Congress that will eliminate every single corporate piece of welfare,
loophole, tax exception, credit, so on and so on, because none of them
need a nickel of it.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. I yield 20 seconds to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Andrews).
Mr. ANDREWS. I would ask the gentleman what the sales tax rate would
be on his fair tax proposal on American families for buying something?
Mr. WOODALL. Given that it eliminates the payroll tax, which is the
largest tax 80 percent of American families pay----
Mr. ANDREWS. What is the sales tax rate?
Mr. WOODALL. Twenty-three percent.
Mr. ANDREWS. Twenty-three percent on every purchase.
Mr. WOODALL. Less than what you're paying now.
Mr. POLIS. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms.
Richardson).
(Ms. RICHARDSON asked and was given permission to revise and extend
her remarks.)
Ms. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the
rule on this continuing resolution that the Republicans have brought
forward. Why? Number one, it's for 14 days. Can you imagine one of the
most powerful economies in this country and we are talking about doing
kind of in a pause mode for 14 days? That's not very responsible.
But let's get to the specifics of why I am opposed to this. This CR
would slash $340 million for construction jobs for projects of the Army
Corps. Now, I just heard the previous speaker talk about private jobs.
Are we prepared to say that this government, we don't think there
should be any Federal Government jobs? So are you to tell me that in my
district, where I have two ports, the largest ports in the Nation, that
we don't need to do dredging, that we can just have ships run afoul? I
mean, how are we going to continue our economy?
I support cuts. If you check my record, you will see that I have
supported many of the initiatives that have been brought forward. But
they need to be thoughtful, and they need to make sense. A few others
that concern me greatly: A slash of $20 million to the Department of
Homeland Security. What are we thinking here? Haven't we learned
anything from Hurricane Katrina or 9/11? That we would suggest a cut,
$103 million of FEMA State and local programs that would provide grants
to avoid disasters and how we prepare for them. Cut $129 million from
higher education.
I would ask, what is this 14 days about? We have talked about that we
are prepared, everyone's going to come here and make these cuts. Well,
let's have a real civil discussion, and let's build upon last week, but
let's not do it
[[Page H1413]]
on the backs of the American people. There is waste that can be
addressed. And I look forward to supporting those initiatives. But this
14-day pause button is the wrong way, and I am opposed to it.
Mr. WOODALL. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Georgia (Mr. Johnson).
Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this
rule and to this bill. This CR is further proof that the majority does
not care about the unemployment crisis. This really is a question of
our morality as a Nation.
Are we going to eat a loaf of bread that is spotted with the mold of
conservatism and so-called fiscal responsibility, or are we going to
bring to our children a loaf of bread that is healthy, whole wheat, and
good for America? This bill represents a loaf of bread. And I might
point out the Speaker yesterday or a few days ago said something about,
well, if they don't want to eat the whole loaf of bread at one time,
then I am going to make them eat it one slice at a time. Well, every
slice is speckled with mold of this old-fashioned, old way of thinking
that got us into this problem that we are in now.
What we have done is given the keys to the car that they drove into
the ditch back to them, and now we are forced to eat bread in that car,
moldy bread in that car that is going nowhere but down.
Mark Zandi said 700,000 jobs would be lost if we do it the way that
these Republicans who cannot drive, if we allow them to do that. And I
am simply looking ahead for my children and for my grandchildren and my
great-grandchildren. I cannot in good faith go along with this.
Mr. WOODALL. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. POLIS. I would like to inquire if the other side has any
remaining speakers.
Mr. WOODALL. I am the final speaker.
Mr. POLIS. I yield myself as much time as remains.
Mr. Speaker, we all share the goal of reducing the deficit. But if we
are serious about deficit reduction, we need to look at defense as one
of the line items. I am a member of the Spending Cuts and Deficit
Reduction Working Group, and I have worked with my colleagues to
identify more than $70 billion in savings that could be used for
deficit reduction.
If Republicans truly claim to be committed to deficit reduction, then
why, as they cut millions from programs like Even Start and LEAP, do
they spare defense spending? The short term CR carries forward the 2010
defense budget, but the policies, priorities, and levels proposed for
2010 no longer apply. Our current military expenditures support bloated
troop levels and bases across Europe that quite frankly, Mr. Speaker,
are relics of a bygone era. Rather than fighting the demons of the
past, we need to focus on the very real threats of the present and
future.
{time} 1330
Who are we fighting? The Nazis, the Soviets, the French? It's time
for us to rethink our defense spending. It's clear that the current
strategy is one that we cannot afford.
The expenditures in Afghanistan are $100 billion. It's been estimated
that there is only, at most, 100 al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan.
That's a spending level of $1 billion per al Qaeda operative in
Afghanistan. Most of al Qaeda's operations have moved across the border
to Pakistan, and they have also gained a foothold in Yemen. Meanwhile,
we are bogged down in a costly war with no clear end game.
Let's get serious about balancing the budget. Let's find savings in
every agency, including the Department of Defense. Until we get serious
about controlling defense spending, the largest component of the
discretionary budget, we will never achieve our goals of reducing the
deficit.
This CR claims to only cut earmarks, but in reality we are playing a
shell game. This continuing resolution states that earmarks have no
legal effect, which means that agencies have not been funding these
programs. It means the Department of Homeland Security, for example,
will have $264 million less to prepare and respond to threats and
disasters and protect our ports.
Two weeks ago, Mr. Speaker, Members from both sides of the aisle
proposed amendments to enact even more cuts. My friend from New York
(Mr. Nadler) proposed cutting funding to Afghanistan so that we could
have a responsible withdrawal, saving $90 billion. My friend from
Arizona (Mr. Flake) proposed a very reasonable cut to the Department of
Defense's operation and maintenance budget so that we could get rid of
funding for unneeded boards and commissions.
I have also heard from many of my Republican friends that we want to
go back to 2008 levels. Well, my colleagues from California, Mr. Stark
and Ms. Lee, proposed to do just that with the defense budget. Let's
get real on deficit reduction and lead the way with real cuts that
actually balance the budget.
The President is proposing real change for public education through
funding for the Investing in Innovation and Early Learning Challenge
funds. We see none of these solutions in the proposed CR. As we look to
agree on a budget for the rest of the fiscal year, it's critical that
we have meaningful resources for our public schools, particularly at a
time when they are under increasing budget pressure from districts and
State cutbacks. Education of our children in their youngest years is a
research-proven return on investment.
We have no second or third chance with kids. They are only young
once. By ending literacy support for our children and restricting
proven school improvements in repeated short-term CRs, we run the risk
of opening the door to a spending agenda that eliminates jobs.
Mr. Speaker, it is critical that we give the markets and businesses
the predictability that they need with regard to the ongoing operations
of government. A 2-week continuing resolution simply fails to do that.
We will be back before this body, again, to do it again regardless of
the outcome today. But I hope, Mr. Speaker, that we can work across the
aisle to put together a real long-term solution to keep the Federal
Government open.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Georgia has 3\3/4\
minutes remaining.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, we are here today for one reason and one
reason only, and that's to provide ample time for the Senate to
consider H.R. 1, to keep the doors of the Federal Government open, to
keep important services being dispensed, to keep the government of
America on track for 2 more weeks while the Senate takes time.
I will associate myself with the gentleman from Colorado when he says
we can't always get what we want. I sadly haven't gotten what I wanted
so far, and I am prepared to get even less of what I want going
forward. But I don't mind telling you I don't know how we are going to
get to what any of us want if folks don't even start considering the
bill.
This was our very best shot. It was our very best work product.
Whether you love it or whether you hate it, it was the most openly
produced work product in continuing resolution history. And there it
sits, and there it sits, almost 10 days now with no advancement
whatsoever.
Mr. Speaker, I hope these 2 weeks are enough. I recognize the caution
that my friend from Colorado suggests that we may be back here one more
time doing this again. I hope this is the last time that we will be
here.
But I know this: I know we can't continue to mortgage our children's
future while we wait. I know we can't fiddle while Rome burns. So we
have passed, we have presented this continuing resolution with cuts
there to prevent our children's future from continuing to be mortgaged.
As I spoke with school groups across the district last week--and I
share my friend from Colorado's passion for education--I asked them to
turn on C-SPAN this week, because I said it doesn't matter who stands
up, whether they stand up on the left or the right, or whether they
speak from the well or from the leadership table, they will tell you
that the reason they are there
[[Page H1414]]
today is for you, is for you, the children. It's for your future that
they are there on the floor of that House.
I believe that. I believe that in everyone's heart they are here to
make sure that tomorrow's generation does better than today's
generation. I would just say, Mr. Speaker, that if there are
schoolchildren out there watching today, perhaps they will pick up the
phone and they will give us a call and let us know exactly which one of
us is on the right track, because I know it's all about them that we do
what we do.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the
previous question on the resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on ordering the previous
question.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Mr. WOODALL. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, the Chair
will reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on
the question of adoption of the resolution.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 241,
nays 179, not voting 12, as follows:
[Roll No. 151]
YEAS--241
Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Amash
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (NH)
Benishek
Berg
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Bono Mack
Boren
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Canseco
Cantor
Capito
Cardoza
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Costa
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Dold
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Emerson
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Hall
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Kelly
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kissell
Kline
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Lankford
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lewis (CA)
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marino
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meehan
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Myrick
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paul
Paulsen
Pearce
Pence
Peterson
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Quayle
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rigell
Rivera
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (FL)
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Webster
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NAYS--179
Ackerman
Andrews
Baca
Baldwin
Barrow
Bass (CA)
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Chandler
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costello
Courtney
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeLauro
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gonzalez
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Higgins
Himes
Hinchey
Hirono
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kildee
Kind
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lujan
Lynch
Maloney
Markey
Matheson
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
Meeks
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Murphy (CT)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Pingree (ME)
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Richmond
Ross (AR)
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell
Sherman
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--12
Bonner
Castor (FL)
DeGette
Diaz-Balart
Fattah
Giffords
Hanna
Hinojosa
Huelskamp
Lewis (GA)
Marchant
Young (FL)
{time} 1359
Messrs. BRADY of Pennsylvania, THOMPSON of Mississippi, RAHALL, DAVIS
of Illinois, and PASCRELL changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the previous question was ordered.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 251,
nays 170, not voting 11, as follows:
[Roll No. 152]
YEAS--251
Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Amash
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (NH)
Benishek
Berg
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Bono Mack
Boren
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Canseco
Cantor
Capito
Cardoza
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Emerson
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Hall
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Himes
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Kelly
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kissell
Kline
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Lankford
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lewis (CA)
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McNerney
Meehan
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mulvaney
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (PA)
Myrick
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Palazzo
Paul
Paulsen
Pearce
Pence
Peters
Peterson
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Quayle
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rigell
Rivera
[[Page H1415]]
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (AR)
Ross (FL)
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Webster
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NAYS--170
Ackerman
Andrews
Baca
Baldwin
Barrow
Bass (CA)
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Chandler
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Costello
Courtney
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeLauro
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gonzalez
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Higgins
Hinchey
Hirono
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kildee
Kind
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lujan
Lynch
Maloney
Markey
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
Meeks
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Olver
Owens
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Pingree (ME)
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Richmond
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell
Sherman
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--11
Bonner
Castor (FL)
Connolly (VA)
DeGette
Fattah
Giffords
Hanna
Hinojosa
Lewis (GA)
Marchant
Young (FL)
{time} 1405
Ms. WATERS changed her vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the rule, I call
up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 44) making further continuing
appropriations for fiscal year 2011, and for other purposes, and ask
for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
The text of the joint resolution is as follows:
H.J. Res. 44
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011 (Public Law 111-242) is
further amended--
(1) by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and
inserting ``March 18, 2011''; and
(2) by adding after section 166, as added by the Continuing
Appropriations Amendments, 2011 (section 1 of Public Law 111-
322), the following new sections:
``Sec. 167. The amounts described in paragraphs (1) and
(2) of section 114 of this Act are designated as being for
contingency operations directly related to the global war on
terrorism pursuant to section 3(c)(2) of H. Res. 5 (112th
Congress) and as an emergency requirement pursuant to section
403(a) of S. Con. Res. 13 (111th Congress), the concurrent
resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010.
``Sec. 168. Any language specifying an earmark in an
appropriations Act for fiscal year 2010, or in a committee
report or joint explanatory statement accompanying such an
Act, shall have no legal effect with respect to funds
appropriated by this Act. For purposes of this section, the
term `earmark' means a congressional earmark or
congressionally directed spending item, as defined in clause
9(e) of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives
and paragraph 5(a) of rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the
Senate.
``Sec. 169. The first and third paragraphs under the
heading `Rural Development Programs--Rural Utilities
Service--Distance Learning, Telemedicine, and Broadband
Program' in Public Law 111-80 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 170. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Corps of Engineers-Civil--Investigations' at a
rate for operations of $104,000,000.
``Sec. 171. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Corps of Engineers-Civil--Construction' at a
rate for operations of $1,690,000,000: Provided, That all of
the provisos under such heading in Public Law 111-85 shall
not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 172. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Corps of Engineers-Civil--Mississippi River and
Tributaries' at a rate for operations of $260,000,000:
Provided, That the proviso under such heading in Public Law
111-85 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 173. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Corps of Engineers-Civil--Operation and
Maintenance' at a rate for operations of $2,361,000,000.
``Sec. 174. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of the Interior--Bureau of
Reclamation--Water and Related Resources' at a rate for
operations of $913,580,000: Provided, That the fifth proviso
(regarding the San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund) and
seventh proviso (regarding the Milk River Project) under such
heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 175. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Energy Programs--Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy' at a rate for operations of
$1,950,370,000: Provided, That all of the provisos under such
heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 176. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Energy Programs--
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability' at a rate for
operations of $158,910,000: Provided, That all of the
provisos under such heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not
apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 177. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Energy Programs--Nuclear
Energy' at a rate for operations of $784,140,000: Provided,
That the proviso under such heading in Public Law 111-85
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 178. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Energy Programs--Fossil
Energy Research and Development' at a rate for operations of
$635,530,000: Provided, That the second proviso under such
heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 179. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Energy Programs--Science'
at a rate for operations of $4,826,820,000: Provided, That
all of the provisos under such heading in Public Law 111-85
shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 180. The last proviso under the heading `Department
of Energy--Atomic Energy Defense Activities--National Nuclear
Security Administration--Weapons Activities' in Public Law
111-85 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 181. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Atomic Energy Defense
Activities--National Nuclear Security Administration--Defense
Nuclear Nonproliferation' at a rate for operations of
$2,136,460,000: Provided, That the proviso under such heading
in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds appropriated by
this Act.
``Sec. 182. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Atomic Energy Defense
Activities--National Nuclear Security Administration--Office
of the Administrator' at a rate for operations of
$407,750,000: Provided, That the last proviso under such
heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 183. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Environmental and Other
Defense Activities--Defense Environmental Cleanup' at a rate
for operations of $5,209,031,000, of which $33,700,000 shall
be transferred to the `Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and
Decommissioning Fund': Provided, That the proviso under such
heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 184. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Energy--Environmental and Other
Defense Activities--Other Defense Activities' at a rate for
operations of $844,470,000: Provided, That the proviso under
such heading in Public Law 111-85 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 185. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Independent Agencies--Election Assistance
Commission--Election Reform Programs' at a rate for
operations of $0.
``Sec. 186. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Office of the
Under Secretary for Management' at a rate for operations of
$253,190,000.
``Sec. 187. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of
[[Page H1416]]
Homeland Security--U.S. Customs and Border Protection--
Salaries and Expenses' at a rate for operations of
$8,063,913,000.
``Sec. 188. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--U.S. Customs
and Border Protection--Construction and Facilities
Management' at a rate for operations of $276,370,000.
``Sec. 189. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Transportation
Security Administration--Aviation Security' at a rate for
operations of $5,212,790,000: Provided, That the amounts
included under such heading in Public Law 111-83 shall be
applied to funds appropriated by this Act as follows: by
substituting `$5,212,790,000' for `$5,214,040,000'; by
substituting `$4,356,826,000' for `$4,358,076,000'; by
substituting `$1,115,156,000' for `$1,116,406,000'; by
substituting $777,050,000 for $778,300,000; and by
substituting `$3,112,790,000' for `$3,114,040,000'.
``Sec. 190. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Coast Guard--
Operating Expenses' at a rate for operations of
$6,801,791,000: Provided, That section 157 of this Act shall
be applied by substituting `$17,880,000' for `$21,880,000',
and without regard to `and ``Coast Guard, Alteration of
Bridges'' '.
``Sec. 191. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Coast Guard--
Acquisition, Construction, and Improvements' at a rate for
operations of $1,519,980,000.
``Sec. 192. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Coast Guard--
Alteration of Bridges' at a rate for operations of $0.
``Sec. 193. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--National
Protection and Programs Directorate--Infrastructure
Protection and Information Security' at a rate for operations
of $879,816,000.
``Sec. 194. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Office of
Health Affairs' at a rate for operations of $134,250,000.
``Sec. 195. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Federal
Emergency Management Agency--State and Local Programs' at a
rate for operations of $2,912,558,000: Provided, That the
amounts included under such heading in Public Law 111-83
shall be applied to funds appropriated by this Act as
follows: in paragraph (12), by substituting `$12,554,000' for
`$60,000,000' and by substituting `$0' for each subsequent
amount in such paragraph; in paragraph (13), by substituting
`$212,500,000' for `$267,200,000'; in paragraph (13)(A), by
substituting `$114,000,000' for `$164,500,000'; in paragraph
(13)(B), by substituting `$0' for `$1,700,000'; and in
paragraph (13)(C), by substituting `$0' for `$3,000,000':
Provided further, That 4.5 percent of the amount provided for
`Federal Emergency Management Agency--State and Local
Programs' by this Act shall be transferred to `Federal
Emergency Management Agency--Management and Administration'
for program administration.
``Sec. 196. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Federal
Emergency Management Agency--National Predisaster Mitigation
Fund' at a rate for operations of $75,364,000.
``Sec. 197. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Homeland Security--Science and
Technology--Research, Development, Acquisition, and
Operations' at a rate for operations of $821,906,000.
``Sec. 198. Sections 541 and 545 of Public Law 111-83 (123
Stat. 2176) shall have no force or effect.
``Sec. 199. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Smithsonian Institution--Legacy Fund' at a rate
for operations of $0.
``Sec. 200. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Labor--Employment and Training
Administration--Training and Employment Services' at a rate
for operations of $3,779,641,000, of which $340,154,000 shall
be for national activities described in paragraph (3) under
such heading in division D of Public Law 111-117: Provided,
That the amounts included for national activities under such
heading in division D of Public Law 111-117 shall be applied
to funds appropriated by this Act as follows: by substituting
`$44,561,000' for `$93,450,000' and by substituting `$0' for
`$48,889,000'.
``Sec. 201. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Labor--Mine Safety and Health
Administration--Salaries and Expenses' at a rate for
operations of $355,843,000: Provided, That the amounts
included under such heading in division D of Public Law 111-
117 shall be applied to funds appropriated by this Act by
substituting `$0' for `$1,450,000'.
``Sec. 202. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Labor--Departmental Management'
at a rate for operations of $314,827,000: Provided, That the
amounts included under such heading in division D of Public
Law 111-117 shall be applied to funds appropriated by this
Act by substituting `$0' for `$40,000,000'.
``Sec. 203. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--Health
Resources and Services Administration--Health Resources and
Services' at a rate for operations of $7,076,520,000:
Provided, That the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twenty-second
provisos under such heading in division D of Public Law 111-
117 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 204. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention--Disease Control,
Research, and Training' at a rate for operations of
$6,369,767,000: Provided, That the amount included before the
first proviso under such heading in division D of Public Law
111-117 shall be applied to funds appropriated by this Act by
substituting `$0' for `$20,620,000'.
``Sec. 205. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration--
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services' at a rate for
operations of $3,417,106,000: Provided, That the amount
included before the first proviso under such heading in
division D of Public Law 111-117 shall be applied to funds
appropriated by this Act by substituting `$0' for
`$14,518,000'.
``Sec. 206. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
transferred from the Federal Hospital Insurance Trust Fund
and the Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Fund
for `Department of Health and Human Services--Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services--Program Management' at a rate
for operations of $3,467,142,000: Provided, That the sixth
proviso under such heading in division D of Public Law 111-
117 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 207. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--
Administration for Children and Families--Payments to States
for the Child Care and Development Block Grant' at a rate for
operations of $2,126,081,000: Provided, That the amount
included in the first proviso under such heading in division
D of Public Law 111-117 shall be applied to funds
appropriated by this Act by substituting `$0' for
`$1,000,000'.
``Sec. 208. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--
Administration for Children and Families--Children and
Families Services Programs' at a rate for operations of
$9,293,747,000: Provided, That the fifteenth proviso under
such heading in division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not
apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 209. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--
Administration on Aging, Aging Services Programs' at a rate
for operations of $1,510,323,000: Provided, That the first
proviso under such heading in division D of Public Law 111-
117 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 210. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Health and Human Services--Office
of the Secretary--General Departmental Management' at a rate
for operations of $491,727,000: Provided, That the seventh
proviso under such heading in division D of Public Law 111-
117 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 211. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Education for the
Disadvantaged' at a rate for operations of $15,598,212,000,
of which $4,638,056,000 shall become available on July 1,
2011, and remain available through September 30, 2012:
Provided, That the tenth, eleventh and twelfth provisos under
such heading in division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not
apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 212. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--School Improvement
Programs' at a rate for operations of $5,223,444,000, of
which $3,358,993,000 shall become available on July 1, 2011,
and remain available through September 30, 2012: Provided,
That of such amounts, no funds shall be available for
activities authorized under part Z of title VIII of the
Higher Education Act of 1965: Provided further, That the
second, third, and thirteenth provisos under such heading in
division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 213. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Innovation and
Improvement' at a rate for operations of $1,160,480,000, of
which no funds shall be available for activities authorized
under subpart 5 of part A of title II, section 1504 of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (`ESEA'), or
part F of title VIII of the Higher Education Act of 1965, and
$499,222,000 shall be for part D of title V of the ESEA:
Provided, That the first, fourth, and fifth provisos under
such heading in division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not
apply to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 214. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Safe Schools and
Citizenship Education' at a rate for operations of
$361,398,000, of which, notwithstanding section 2343(b) of
the ESEA, $2,578,000 is for the continuation costs of awards
made on a competitive basis under section 2345 of the ESEA:
Provided, That the third proviso under such heading in
division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 215. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Special Education' at
a rate for operations of $12,564,953,000, of which
$3,726,354,000 shall become available on July 1, 2011, and
remain available through September 30, 2012: Provided, That
the first and
[[Page H1417]]
second provisos under such heading in division D of Public
Law 111-117 shall not apply to funds appropriated by this
Act.
``Sec. 216. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Rehabilitation
Services and Disability Research' at a rate for operations of
$3,501,766,000: Provided, That the second proviso under such
heading in division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 217. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Career, Technical, and
Adult Education' at a rate for operations of $1,928,447,000,
of which $1,137,447,000 shall become available on July 1,
2011, and remain available through September 30, 2012 and no
funds shall be available for activities authorized under
subpart 4 of part D of title V of the ESEA: Provided, That
the seventh and eighth provisos under such heading in
division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not apply to funds
appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 218. Notwithstanding sections 101 and 164, amounts
are provided for `Department of Education--Student Financial
Assistance' at a rate for operations of $24,899,957,000, of
which $23,162,000,000 shall be available to carry out subpart
1 of part A of title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965
and no funds shall be available for activities authorized
under subpart 4 of part A of title IV of such Act: Provided,
That the maximum Pell Grant for which a student shall be
eligible during award year 2011-2012 shall be $4,860.
``Sec. 219. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Education--Higher Education' at a
rate for operations of $2,126,935,000, of which no funds
shall be available for activities authorized under section
1543 of the Higher Education Amendments of 1992 or section
117 of the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act
of 2006: Provided, That the thirteenth proviso under such
heading in division D of Public Law 111-117 shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 220. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Institute of Museum and Library Services--
Office of Museum and Library Services: Grants and
Administration' at a rate for operations of $265,869,000:
Provided, That the amounts included under such heading in
division D of Public Law 111-117 shall be applied to funds
appropriated by this Act by substituting `$0' for
`$16,382,000'.
``Sec. 221. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Library of Congress--Salaries and Expenses' at
a rate for operations of $445,951,000, of which $0 shall be
for the operations described in the seventh proviso under
this heading in Public Law 111-68.
``Sec. 222. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Transportation--Federal Highway
Administration--Surface Transportation Priorities' at a rate
for operations of $0.
``Sec. 223. Notwithstanding section 101, no funds are
provided for activities described in section 122 of title I
of division A of Public Law 111-117.
``Sec. 224. Notwithstanding section 101, section 186 of
title I of division A of Public Law 111-117 shall not apply
to funds appropriated by this Act.
``Sec. 225. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Transportation--Federal Railroad
Administration--Rail Line Relocation and Improvement Program'
at a rate for operations of $10,012,800.
``Sec. 226. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are
provided for `Department of Housing and Urban Development--
Community Planning and Development--Community Development
Fund' at a rate for operations of $4,255,068,480, of which $0
shall be for grants for the Economic Development Initiative
(EDI), and $0 shall be for neighborhood initiatives:
Provided, That the second and third paragraphs under such
heading in title II of division A of Public Law 111-117 shall
not apply to funds appropriated by this Act.''.
This joint resolution may be cited as the ``Further
Continuing Appropriations Amendments, 2011''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Miller of Michigan). Pursuant to House
Resolution 115, the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) and the
gentleman from Washington (Mr. Dicks) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
I rise today in support of H.J. Res. 44, the fiscal year 2011 Further
Continuing Appropriations resolution.
This temporary CR is an extra special effort by the majority
Republicans to avoid a government shutdown that could otherwise occur
on March 4, when the current funding resolution expires. This temporary
CR contains funding to allow all government agencies and programs to
continue at the current rate of spending for the next 2 weeks until
March 18, 2011, while reducing spending by $4 billion through several
spending cuts and program terminations. These cuts reflect this
Republican majority's continued commitment to significantly reduce
spending, to rein in the Nation's exploding deficits and debt, and to
help our economy continue on the road to recovery.
Madam Speaker, a government shutdown would halt critical and
necessary services and programs that Americans across the country rely
on, and it is not what our constituents expect or demand.
{time} 1410
I would have greatly preferred that the Senate act on the hard-fought
and thoughtfully crafted funding legislation that the House passed
almost 2 weeks ago which saves the taxpayers $100 billion compared to
the President's request, but it's clear that the Senate needs more
time. So this short-term CR will provide an additional 2 weeks by
cutting spending to show our continued resolve to get our Nation's
fiscal house in order.
The bill before us terminates eight programs for a savings of about
$1.24 billion. These eight programs were all targeted for elimination
in the President's budget request and have also been part of proposed
cuts in the past in the House and the Senate by Members of both
parties. These eight programs include: Election Assistance Grants, the
Broadband Direct Loan Subsidy, the Smithsonian Institution Legacy Fund,
the Striving Readers program, the LEAP program, Even Start, Smaller
Learning Communities, and a one-time highway funding addition.
In addition, the bill also eliminates more than $2.7 billion in
funding previously reserved for earmarks, eliminations that the House,
the Senate, and the White House have all called for this year. The
earmark funding cuts in this legislation come from Energy and Water;
Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services; legislative
branch; and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development program
accounts.
This legislation will represent the second of many appropriations
bills this year that will significantly reduce spending, continuing a
pattern of cuts that will help put our Nation's budget back in balance
and stop the dangerous spiral of unsustainable deficits and debt.
It is my hope that this CR can be passed quickly and that the
President will sign it before the March 4 deadline. This legislation
should garner broad support today, given the short timeframe for action
and given the fact that these spending cuts have received previous
bipartisan support by Members of the House and Senate as well as the
White House.
Madam Speaker, we're now 5 months into the current fiscal year and
it's critically important that we complete this budget process so that
we can turn our attention quickly to passing funding bills for fiscal
year 2012. It is high time we start looking forward instead of
constantly looking back to clean up past mistakes and inaction. We must
move forward quickly in regular order, passing bills on time in an open
and transparent fashion to avoid these budget uncertainties in the
future.
Madam Speaker, this is one more step that we have to take to get our
fiscal house in order. While this isn't a perfect or an easy process,
it is essential that we pass this bill, avoid a government shutdown,
and continue to work on a long-term solution to complete this long
overdue funding process. Our constituents expect and deserve no less.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. DICKS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, today we will consider a short-term
continuing resolution that will allow the essential functions of our
government to continue beyond March 4, the date on which the current
continuing resolution will expire.
With no final agreement on the spending levels for the current fiscal
year, this measure is necessary in order to avoid a government
shutdown, something I believe we should all want to do. I think that 2
weeks is not enough time to reach an agreement on H.R. 1 with the other
body, and I'm afraid we're going to be back here doing this again.
Now, when the House approved H.R. 1 earlier this month, despite the
overwhelming opposition of the Democratic
[[Page H1418]]
Caucus, it was clear to me that gaining agreement on a compromised
version of a full-year continuing resolution would be very difficult,
at least before the expiration of the current CR. We opposed H.R. 1
because we believe it would have the effect of slamming on the fiscal
brakes too abruptly, resulting in higher unemployment and threatening
our Nation's economic recovery.
There is no dispute that cutting Federal spending too deeply and too
quickly before the economy has fully recovered risks slowing growth and
losing jobs. Moody's estimates that H.R. 1 would reduce real growth in
2011 by 0.5 percent, meaning 400,000 fewer jobs in 2011 and 700,000
fewer jobs by the end of 2012. The Economic Policy Institute projected
job losses near 800,000. Goldman Sachs predicts that H.R. 1 would slow
economic growth by about 1.5 to 2 percentage points, which translates
into the American economy losing up to 2.4 million jobs.
So the recovery of our economy and the reduction of unemployment
should be our paramount concern at this time.
I said during the debate on H.R. 1 earlier this month, and I will
repeat today, that I believe the approach to deficit reduction that has
been adopted by the Republican majority here in the House is far too
narrow and too focused on the smallest segment of spending in the
budget. It is a risky strategy based on the specious concept of cut and
grow, which of course has no basis in sound economic theory.
So where does this leave us? We are now 6 months into the current
fiscal year, FY11, and hearings with regard to the fiscal year 2012
budget have begun in both the Budget Committee and the Appropriations
Committee.
H.R. 1 is clearly not acceptable to the other body, nor would it be
acceptable to the President, whose signature is necessary before any
funding bill can become law. What the President has already proposed
for the coming year--a budget freeze at last year's level--remains, in
my judgment, the best and most effective way to reduce the deficit and
to support recovery in major sectors of our economy. In fact, we have
already adopted a freeze at FY10 levels in the continuing resolution
that we are currently operating under.
Democrats approved the CR in December with only one Republican vote,
which represents a reduction of $41 billion from the levels sought by
the President in his FY 2011 budget request. This is a significant
reduction in the deficit, and a significant part of that came from
defense. I want to repeat this. The $41 billion cut from the Obama FY11
budget was passed in a CR by the Democratic House and Democratic Senate
and signed into law by the Democratic President with only one
Republican vote.
We are now on the verge of an expiring CR, and we are considering
another version that extends the time to resolve the differences by
only 2 weeks.
I take the chairman at his word that neither he nor his leadership is
interested in shutting down the operation of the Federal Government by
declaring a stalemate in these appropriations deliberations. I will
concede that it is disconcerting to me and others on our side to read
the Speaker's comments this week that would seem to imply that there is
a strategy of passing shorter term appropriation bills, with further
and further and further cuts 2 weeks at a time.
{time} 1420
We were concerned by his statement that seemed to indicate a plan for
a piecemeal approach to future spending cuts. He said, ``If they won't
eat the whole loaf at one time, we'll make them eat it one slice at a
time.''
I believe we need to set aside these political machinations and get
serious about finishing up work on the fiscal year 2011 budget. I will
be the first to admit that it is because the Democrats didn't pass our
bills last year that we're here working on this. So we have
responsibility, too, and that's one of the reasons why we were so eager
to engage Chairman Rogers in trying to get this open rule, to work
through the amendments, get a unanimous consent agreement--to help move
this process forward because I personally feel we have some
responsibility here.
And I think it is obvious that we are going to need more than the 2
weeks to get from here to there.
Now, I appreciate the desire of the gentleman from Kentucky to
encourage the Members of his caucus to enter into serious negotiations
with the other body with the hope of completing work by March 18.
But in a conference--I've been in conferences for 34 years as a
Member and 8 years before that as a staffer--nobody gets everything
they want. It's a process of compromise. You work out the differences
between the two positions.
So I'm proud of the fact that we start with a cut of $41 billion that
was enacted by the Democratic Congress in December during a very
successful lame duck session.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield myself 30 seconds.
The gentleman, who is my friend, mentioned the economists and their
opinion of H.R. 1, the budget-cutting bill we passed a couple of weeks
ago.
The best source that I think of, right off, is Ben Bernanke, Chairman
of the Federal Reserve, who has said H.R. 1 would have no negligible
harmful impact on the economy. And if the Chairman of the Federal
Reserve says that, I tend to believe him.
Now I yield 3 minutes to the chairman of the Energy and Water
Subcommittee on our committee, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Frelinghuysen).
Mr. FRELINGHUYSEN. I rise in support of this continuing resolution.
It's a reasonable and a thoughtful path forward to avoid a potential
government shutdown.
Madam Speaker, the American people have made two things perfectly
clear: First, they want their government to stay up and running; and,
secondly, they want us to cut spending. We need to do both.
Like many of us, I would have greatly preferred that the Senate act
on H.R. 1, the 7-month continuing resolution that we debated for over
90 hours that included, indeed, the largest spending reductions in the
history of any Congress.
Ten days ago, this committee and this House took the President's
budget and cut it by over $100 billion, terminating dozens of
government programs in the process. And in a city where President
Reagan once said ``A government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal
life we'll ever see on this Earth,'' that's quite an accomplishment.
Madam Speaker, the resolution we have before us today is a simple
stopgap measure to provide more time for negotiations to develop a
funding bill for the rest of the current fiscal year. It's temporary
and it must pass to keep the government open beyond Friday.
This bill contains $4 billion in savings including just under a
billion from programs under the jurisdiction of my committee, Energy
and Water Development. These savings are found purely from eliminating
earmarks inserted by Congress in the fiscal year 2010 bill.
As with other spending reductions in this temporary bill, the
committee has taken great pains to include only savings that both
parties and both Chambers support. Both the House and Senate have sworn
off earmarks for fiscal year 2011, so these reductions should not be
controversial.
My colleagues, we must move this resolution. We need it to provide
time to continue negotiations to complete the important work that
should have been done by the last Congress--which passed no
appropriations bills.
Madam Speaker, I repeat: The American people have made it clear. They
want their government to stay open for business. They also want us to
cut spending. Let's do it. Let's move ahead. This resolution needs to
be passed.
Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from
Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), who is also the ranking Democratic member on
Health and Human Services.
Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentleman.
Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to this 14-day continuing
resolution. The House majority is threatening to close down the
government. This is brinkmanship. Their desire to engage in
brinkmanship damages our economy and creates uncertainty for businesses
and families.
Make no mistake, the proposed budget cuts will cost jobs, 700,000
jobs by the end of 2012, according to economist Mark Zandi, who, in
fact, was the chief
[[Page H1419]]
economist for Senator John McCain in his Presidential bid.
Let me be clear. I am very supportive of the removal of earmarks in
this resolution. They should be cut. We understand the need for deficit
reduction. The question is where do we start?
Our first priority should be to go after waste and special interest
spending: $40 billion to the oil industry which we are providing today,
$40 billion. What about the almost $8 billion to multinational
corporations who take their jobs overseas? And, yes, what about the $8
billion in agricultural subsidies?
It is too bad that cutting these special interest subsidies is not
the priority of the majority's resolution. Instead, this budget makes
deep and reckless cuts in the areas that most impact middle class and
working families.
Of the $4 billion in immediate cuts put forward by this 14-day
resolution, $1.4 billion comes out of Education, Health and Human
Services, and out of training programs. And, yes, almost a billion
dollars, a quarter of the cuts, comes out of education. Education
should be one of the last places we look to cut the budget, not the
first.
Yes, these cuts could be achieved by eliminating four programs
proposed for termination by the President, as well as eliminating
funding associated with earmarks last year. But these are not the
President's proposals. While he would cut some education programs, he
would then reinvest those savings in other education programs
considered more effective. This resolution just wipes out the funding.
This resolution severely cuts efforts to reduce illiteracy, which is
a serious national problem for economic, as well as human, reasons. The
largest program targeted, Striving Readers, represents a consolidation
and reorganization of literacy programs that was just launched in 2010.
Why would the Republican majority think it is responsible to strip away
funding to improve literacy in this country before it even has a chance
to work?
I'm particularly concerned and disappointed by the elimination of
Even Start. Even Start is about breaking the cycle of poverty and
illiteracy by improving educational opportunities for families. I do
not agree with the President's assessment that it should be terminated,
and I do not support its elimination in this resolution. This is an
effective and a critical program that should be allowed to continue.
I'm not the only one concerned by the consequences of this reckless
budget. Three hundred leading economists have signed a letter to the
President noting how these spending cuts will diminish our economic
competitiveness. Goldman Sachs reported to its investors that the
Republican budget will slash economic growth by 2 percent of our
economic growth. That would send the unemployment numbers back over 10
percent.
Americans want us to craft a budget for the remainder of the year
that creates jobs, reduces the deficit, and strengthens the economy.
{time} 1430
Do we start with slashing special interests and waste like the $40
billion that we are providing in subsidies to the oil companies? And
last time any of us looked, they were doing pretty well. They don't
need any subsidies. Or do we start by cutting the things that help the
middle class, which help our businesses, and working families with
children and with seniors?
This resolution increases unemployment. It will hurt our economic
recovery. And I urge my colleagues to oppose this reckless resolution.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the
Agriculture Subcommittee on Appropriations, the gentleman from Georgia
(Mr. Kingston).
Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the chairman for the time.
Madam Speaker, I want to make three very important points right off
the bat:
Number one, our debt is almost at 95 percent of the GDP. It's the
highest debt we have ever had in history. Last year alone the deficit
was $1.5 trillion. We are borrowing 40 cents for every $1 that we
spend. Now, if you and I were doing that in our households or our
business was doing it or anybody else, you would say, okay, we've got
to change our spending habits. But somehow there are those in Congress
who think that we can continue to defy the laws of gravity. We have got
to get our house in order.
Number two, why are we here? We are here because the Democrats last
year did not pass a budget, did not pass appropriation bills, and did
not complete their work on fiscal year 2011. That's what we're doing.
We are trying to clean up the mess that was left to us. And in doing
that, we are mindful of our financial situation and trying to reduce
some of the spending.
Number three, let me say this. This bill was passed with an open
rule. Indeed, I believe we had 127 votes on different amendments.
Democrats and Republicans offered a myriad of amendments. Now, for
those who are complaining on the floor today that they don't like these
cuts, why didn't they offer their amendments on the floor a couple of
weeks ago? That would have been the way to do this. Now, the chairman
and the Speaker have committed to have open rules throughout this
process this year, and so there will be a lot of opportunities to go
after some of these programs. And some of the ones that are mentioned,
I think I will support those cuts. But I just want to emphasize that
everyone has had a bite of this apple.
Finally, let me just say this, Madam Speaker. The Zandi report comes
from an economist, a political economist we might say, who was the same
person who told us the stimulus bill would work, the stimulus bill
would keep us from going to 8 percent unemployment. We reached 10
percent. I don't think we need to listen to any more of his advice.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield the gentleman an additional 30
seconds.
Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the chairman.
I just want to say that I don't think that Mr. Zandi has any more
credibility. We have already spent $800 billion on his advice that the
stimulus program would work, and it did not work.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. KINGSTON. I yield to the gentleman from Kentucky.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Is the gentleman aware that Ben Bernanke, the
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, now says that H.R. 1 would have no
harmful effect on the economy?
Mr. KINGSTON. I have heard that. And I understand there is something
like 150 other economists who have signed a letter to that effect that
was led by John Taylor, who is an economist as well.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. And that cutting spending and reducing the
deficit will give confidence to the business community to hire people
and put people to work.
Mr. KINGSTON. I thank the chairman.
Mr. DICKS. I yield 3 minutes to the gentlelady from Texas (Ms.
Jackson Lee), one of our distinguished Members.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Let me thank the ranking member of the
Appropriations Committee and let me thank the chairperson. I sometimes
have a slip of tongue, Mr. Dicks, and call you ``chairman,'' but I
thank you very much for this opportunity.
I want to just try to give a procedural class here today. The
procedural class is that this document is a placeholder. I would
hesitate to call it a fake document, but that is what it is.
As I left my constituency, the last words I heard were, ``Don't you
all shut down the government.'' And I am glad that Mr. Dicks worked
hard to submit his amendment in the Rules Committee. It's unfortunate
that the wise men and women didn't have a majority. The Republicans
would not yield to a thoughtful amendment by Mr. Dicks.
But this is a 2-week document. We know how old, and what--many of us
have seen a 2-week-old baby. That's what this is: a 2-week document so
we can do the right thing.
It needs to be very clear that before we left in the 110th Congress,
Democrats had already cut $41 billion. Now, many say we didn't have a
budget. We had a budget, but we had no compromise, no reconciliation,
no fairness, no concern about the American people.
Now we have spent 3 months, March 1, doing nothing, and not one bill
creates a job. Goldman Sachs, I know that
[[Page H1420]]
there is a critique on Goldman Sachs, but you can't discount the
independent, objective assessment of them saying that in the CR that
was passed a week ago 700,000 to 800,000 jobs would be lost.
Mark Zandi was the economist and adviser to John McCain. I am not
sure what politics he has, but he is not in a political office today.
And he provides us with an independent assessment that the CR that we
voted on, which the Senate would not agree to, would cost us 800,000
jobs. This document will go nowhere.
Unfortunately, the $4 billion that is cut out of here, and a litany
of other unfortunate cuts, is only temporary. I want to live to fight
another day. We all want to be able to respond to the needs of this
country in deficit reduction and a fair budget. But we could have had a
clean CR, and we would have reasonably sat down and made right
decisions.
Most economists have said that cutting the government in the middle
of a budget year is ineffective. The bipartisan fiscal commission said:
Project to 2012 and 2013; don't cut 2011.
It's important for the American people to know this is in the midst
of your budget year. So Pell Grants for students who are in college
right now, who have already gotten an amount rendered to them,
operating on maybe a $1,000 grant to finish out in May, what we're
doing is cutting them in the midst.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. DICKS. I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. That's what was voted on a week ago. What
we're doing now is to recognize that people who govern are responsible
for making sure the doors of this government stay open.
I care about homeland security as a member of the Homeland Security
Committee. I care about the DEA task force fighting drug cartels. I
care about children getting education, health care, the environment.
So let me just say this. We're doing this because we believe in the
American people, but don't you for a moment think that this document is
worth anything. We've got to get to business and fight for the American
people and preserve education. That's what Democrats stand for, and
that's what we'll fight for.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, the
gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt).
Mr. ADERHOLT. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for yielding this time to me.
Madam Speaker, as has been pointed out, 2 weeks ago this Chamber
voted emphatically to cut spending and to right-size our government.
This CR that's before us today is a necessary stopgap that will keep
the government operating until we can finalize an agreement on those
spending cuts that was contained in H.R. 1.
The homeland security sections of the CR before us today strikes the
right balance between funding priority programs that are essential to
our Nation's security and, at the same time, keeping our discretionary
spending in check. This CR cuts over $264 million in earmarks from the
Department of Homeland Security's budget, while at the same time
sustaining the current staffing levels of our frontline operating
agencies like Border Patrol, CBP, ICE, and the Coast Guard, proof that
we can cut spending and fund these functions of government that are
truly vital.
As I said 2 weeks ago on this floor, the Department of Homeland
Security is not immune from fiscal discipline, and no program or agency
is beyond the belt-tightening that our government so desperately needs.
{time} 1440
By implementing these cuts, we are not choosing between homeland
security and fiscal responsibility. Both are serious national security
issues that must be dealt with immediately. Through a series of prudent
choices, this CR achieves both.
Madam Speaker, this CR is a reasonable first step in addressing our
government's fiscal crisis. There is absolutely no reason why the
President or our colleagues in the Senate cannot support these overdue
spending cuts. The American people are demanding no less.
Mr. DICKS. I yield myself 1 minute.
You know, as I have said here today, everyone is in favor of doing
deficit reduction. We want to do it in a way that won't hurt the
economy. What I am concerned about is that if we have this large cut
and then the States and local governments cut $125 billion at the same
time, we will have about $185 billion of cuts, and that is going to
cause a decline in economic growth.
I mean, it is basic economics. The way you get the deficit down is
get people back to work, get people jobs, get them back to work. When
the economy is as fragile as it is, it's a question of timing.
What the commission members said is don't do it in 2011; do it in
2012 and 2013 and then deal with the entire budget, deal with the
entitlements, deal with the taxes, do the whole thing. Do the budget
agreement that we all know we have to do, and that's going to take
bipartisanship. That's going to take both parties, the President and
the Senate and the House.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. DICKS. I yield myself 1 additional minute.
We are going to have to get together and work out an agreement and
come out together and support it in order to get this through. This is
what we did with Bob Dole and Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan.
So, this can be done, but we have to have everything on the table.
Again, I worry about the 2 week Continuing Resolution. I think that's a
bit ambitious.
Again, I want to point out to my colleagues that it was the
Democratic House and Senate and President who passed the bill, the CR
that cut $41 billion from Obama's FY 2011 request, $41 billion.
So I want to make sure you all don't forget that. I am going to try
to continue to remind you of that fact.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
chairman of the Labor-HHS subcommittee on appropriations, the gentleman
from Montana (Mr. Rehberg).
Mr. REHBERG. Thank you, Chairman Rogers.
Madam Speaker, I rise to express my deep frustration with this
extension. Here we go again, debating another continuing resolution. I
am starting to feel like Bill Murray in ``Groundhog Day.'' In that
movie, the main character wakes up every morning to relive the same day
again and again. He never moves forward because he is stuck on
Groundhog Day.
Last year, Republicans in the House put the country on notice that we
would try to reduce spending by $100 billion this year. The Senate
knew, and the American people knew, and they gave us a substantial
majority in the House.
We worked responsibly and openly on a continuing resolution to meet
that goal. After considering scores of amendments and engaging in long
days of thoughtful debate, we succeeded. In response, the Senate
majority leader summarily dismissed our good-faith efforts and recessed
the Senate for a week.
Despite giving us an unprecedented 3 years of trillion-dollar
deficits, the majority leader dismissed our efforts to reduce spending
less than 2 percent from the total fiscal 2011 budget.
In the interest of continuing our work on behalf of the American
taxpayer and finding some common ground, Republicans are offering this
2-week extension, another continuing resolution made necessary only
because the Democrat leadership refused to adopt a budget last year. It
is like Groundhog Day all over again.
During this short extension we propose to save $4 billion--too much
for Senator Reid. He suggests a freeze on spending for 30 days while he
contemplates our proposal. The national debt will increase another $136
billion during that time.
This is part of a big stall. Keep stalling. Keep implementing
unaffordable health care entitlement programs. Keep threatening, keep
spending, all the while ignoring the will of the people.
But the growing $14.5 trillion national debt is dragging our country
into economic ruin, and a looming
[[Page H1421]]
health care law with $2.5 trillion in new spending, when fully
implemented, is about to bury us. And make no mistake, I am not happy
that funding for the implementation of health care law continues in
this continuing resolution.
At some point soon, before it is too late, the majority leader and
his Democrat colleagues need to meaningfully address our spending
problem. Unfortunately, all indications are that our good-faith effort
to find common ground with this 2-week extension will not bring the
Senate to the table to negotiate.
The President and the Senate majority hold the balance of power in
Washington D.C., but they stand against the majority of Americans.
I will support this measure, but I have been pushed to my limit.
``Groundhog Day'' may have been an entertaining movie, but it shouldn't
be the basis for a system of government. It's time for the Senate to
get to work.
Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Washington has 13 minutes
remaining and the gentleman from Kentucky has 15\1/2\ minutes
remaining.
Mr. DICKS. I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Andrews).
(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. ANDREWS. I thank my friend for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I hope that we are beginning to usher in in the next 2
weeks a season of compromise on this very important question before the
country. I hope and I am confident that Chairman Rogers and Mr. Dicks
are capable of striking a very sound compromise for the people of our
country.
Here is where we are. When the fiscal year began on October 1, there
were a series of resolutions that said let's live under the budget that
spent what last year spent, and we have lived under that budget until
this time. That budget saves $41 billion below what the administration
asked for last February.
The majority, about 10 days ago, passed a bill that said it wants to
spend $100 billion less than what was proposed by the administration
last February. Now, logical people would say that we are very well on
the way to a sensible compromise.
We are on track to save $41 billion below what was requested. The
majority wishes to spend $100 billion less than that.
I am certain that talented legislators like the chairman, like Mr.
Dicks, left to their own devices and leadership, can find a way to have
us strike a middle ground for the rest of the fiscal year. I am hoping
that this is the last one of these temporary extensions we have so that
those who rely upon the continuing funding of government departments--
vendors, employees, and institutions--will be able to do so.
I think it's fertile for a good compromise, and I certainly hope the
House reaches it.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Austria).
Mr. AUSTRIA. I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of this short-term continuing
resolution, which must be passed this week to avoid a shutdown of many
important programs and services.
Our first priority today is job growth. That's why we are putting
into place policies that will stop the runaway spending here in
Washington and help bring more certainty to our financial and business
markets to grow our economy and create long-term sustainable jobs.
Last week, I had the opportunity to visit the largest single site
employer in the State of Ohio, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and I
was told that if the government shuts down that thousands of people may
be asked not to come to work. If we don't pass this short-term CR, this
is one place that would surely suffer from a shutdown, which is
responsible for numerous national defense programs that depend on
continued funding.
Without funding, programs like this across the country will not get
off the ground in a timely manner, may incur programmatic delays and
costs, jeopardize the national defense programs they support, and put
thousands of jobs, including small businesses, on the line. We must do
the responsible thing and pass this short-term resolution, which will
buy us time to find a long-term solution to our budget crisis.
Madam Speaker, people across America, and especially in Ohio, have
spoken very clearly that Washington needs to cut spending.
{time} 1450
Nobody said these cuts were going to be easy, but they are absolutely
essential to help put our country back on a fiscally sustainable path
that will create jobs and strengthen our economy for future
generations.
With the leadership of Chairman Rogers, this House has already passed
a CR to help protect national defense, but in addition to that made
more than $100 billion in cuts; and when we pass this short-term CR, we
will have passed another $4 billion in cuts. It's time for the Senate
to do their job and pass a CR. I urge my colleagues to join me in
supporting this short-term CR and show that we're listening to the
American people by passing a CR that includes substantive cuts and will
put us on a fiscally sustainable path forward.
Mr. DICKS. I yield 1 minute to the distinguished Democratic leader
and former Speaker, the gentlelady from California, Nancy Pelosi.
Ms. PELOSI. I thank the gentleman for yielding time and for
presenting the Dicks substitute, which was not allowed to come to the
floor, but nonetheless I salute him for his leadership in that regard.
Madam Speaker, Members of Congress agree, I think, on two things
today: that we must move this process forward so that government does
not shut down, and that we must reduce the deficit. As we do that, we
must create jobs and strengthen the middle class. That is someplace
where we may have some separation, because as the distinguished ranking
member, Mr. Dicks, has said earlier, in December of 2010, congressional
Democrats and the President of the United States cut spending by $41
billion--$41 billion. On that day in December, only one Republican
voted for those cuts--only one.
February, 2 months later, Republicans passed a spending bill that
does not create jobs but, in fact, has been said to destroy 700,000
jobs. That's approximately 100,000 jobs a week since we passed our
``cut it'' bill.
February 2011, Republicans passed the same spending bill that reduces
U.S. economic growth by 1\1/2\ to 2 percent. Now some have questioned,
Is it really as much as 700,000 jobs? Is it really as much as 1\1/2\ to
2 percent? But no one questions whether there will be job loss or
whether there will be a slowing down of our economic growth among
serious economists.
We are going in the wrong direction. How fast may be the question.
But we are going in the wrong direction. That is why it's very
important for us to proceed with great care and great caution here
because, again, we have the opportunity to create jobs, to strengthen
the middle class, and to do so in a way that is fiscally sound.
When I hear our colleagues talk about the deficit and the immorality
of a big deficit--and I completely agree that we owe it to our children
and our grandchildren not to leave them a debt--but all this talk about
deficit is what we have, as Democrats, taken the lead on for decades.
Do you remember--because many of you were here at the time--that when
President Clinton became President he inherited an enormous debt? He
instituted pay-as-you-go, we had an economic agreement that was passed
in the Congress, and the deficit began to reduce to a path of $5.6
trillion in surplus. Another President Bush took office; pay-as-you-go
went out the window; and, again, the turnaround into growing deficits.
So for all of this talk about the immorality of deficits, where were
you when those deficits were instituted in the late eighties? Some of
you were here. In the 2000s, many of you were here. And, again, we have
to take our country on a path of deficit reduction. Many of you were
here when the tax cuts for the high end were implemented, creating no
jobs, except increasing our deficit, sending the bill to our children
and the credit to the Chinese Government.
[[Page H1422]]
How about when we did the prescription drug bill, giving away the
store to the pharmaceutical industry and the price tag to our children
by increasing the deficit? How about two wars, unpaid-for wars? God
knows we will do anything to protect and defend our people. And I would
hope that everybody subscribes to that. Why would we have tax cuts for
people at the highest end? Why wouldn't they pay their fair share of
protecting the American people and American interests and their
interest wherever they may exist in the world?
And so we had in the 8 years of President Bush's administration a
complete reversal, an $11 trillion swing, $5.6 trillion in surplus to
nearly $5 trillion in debt.
And now people are saying it is an immorality to have national debt
and to have these deficits. We thoroughly agree. And that's why, once
again, we must take our country down a path of deficit reduction, but
to do so in a way that is job creating and strengthening of the middle
class.
As I said, in December 2010 Democrats cut $41 billion in spending.
Only one Republican voted for that. February 2011, Republicans passed a
spending bill that could destroy 700,000 jobs and reduce and slow down
our GDP, our gross domestic product, by 1.5 to 2 percent. If you want
to say it's going to slow down less than that, it's still going in the
wrong direction.
I commented on Mr. Dicks' proposal because in the bill that we have
before us, we have a situation where the Republicans have stripped the
bill of important initiatives to the education of our children. In
fact, President Obama made some of those cuts, too; but he didn't do it
in a way that hurt the children.
What we debate today undermines our future by stripping support for
some pressing educational challenges without redirecting those critical
resources to meet the educational needs of our children. What Mr. Dicks
proposed would have reversed that. He would have eliminated those
educational programs in a way, as did the President, in the context of
a comprehensive budget that also redirected funds to other initiatives
addressing these needs.
If we do not, as a Congress, understand that education is essential,
is key to all of our success--key to all of our success--then, frankly,
the American people are way ahead of us on that. That's why I asked
when we debated the bill before the break to see a quarter of a million
children thrown off Head Start and many teachers fired alongside that,
is that a smart cut? Sure, we have to tighten our belt. But let's do
it, again, in a very smart way.
I just want to know where everybody was in the days when this deficit
grew in the 8 years of the Bush administration. That's why we're in the
situation we are in today. That's why we must, again, make some very
difficult decisions.
So what is before us today is for the short term. It is saying, let's
just keep the government open 2 weeks so we use that time to do the
right thing and so we use that time to have a reality check--a reality
check--on how we got these deficits in the first place. Tax cuts at the
highest end do not create jobs but increase the deficit and are not the
appropriate path to deficit reduction. Cutting education and therefore
the innovation that goes with it and the strength of our children and
affecting our economy is not the way to do it.
Many people here have met much experience on the way to do it, and
they sit on both sides of the aisle. So let's get through this today,
recognizing the challenge that we have, understanding that this bill
before us is not a good one, but it's not final.
{time} 1500
And when we come together, we need to meet the three criteria: Does
it create jobs? Does it strengthen the middle class? Does it reduce the
deficit? Because all of those who say that it is immoral for us to grow
the deficit and pass those bills on to our children and grandchildren
are right. I just don't want them to ignore the fact that we got here a
certain way, and please do not ask us to go down that path again with
the sanctimonious attitude that it is a morality for us to do exactly
the same thing again, ignoring again the tremendous, tremendous
suffering of the American people and their need for jobs, ignoring the
aspirations of our children and their need for education by making the
cuts that are in here without them rechanneling to a better place.
This is as serious a debate that we can have in the Congress of the
United States because it affects our children and their future, because
the deficits have gotten so far out of hand.
I am very proud of the fact that 30 years ago--in 1982, 29 years
ago--when Democrats gathered in Philadelphia for a midterm conference,
pay-as-you-go was placed on the agenda, passed as a resolution, and
became part of the Democratic platform. Fiscal responsibility is a part
of who we are. Our Blue Dog Coalition has had this as their mantra: pay
as you go. Do not add to the deficit. If we all share that view, we
should all be able to come together because the numbers will add up or
they will not add up, and the bill for sure will be sent to our
children and grandchildren.
Some of you have children; some of you have children and
grandchildren. Would you ever dream of sending them a bill for a
personal expense? If you were to leave them anything, would you leave
them a bill? We cannot leave the children of America with any bills for
any fiscal deficit either. It wouldn't be the right thing to do. But in
order for us to do the right thing, it is time for a serious reality
check, and that is the opportunity Mr. Dicks was giving us today. The
Rules Committee rejected that. I hope that in the weeks ahead,
depending on what happens here today, we can move on with it so we can
spend whatever time it takes to do it right. Nothing less is at stake
than the economic security of our country, the well-being of our
children, the well-being of our children and the confidence that the
American people have in what we are sent here to do for them.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to
point out to the body that over the last 2 years, the Congress went on
a spending spree and increased spending by 84 percent in just 2 years.
You ran the deficit up; the annual deficit, now two in a row, trillion-
dollar-plus deficits per year, record breaking. We have never had that
before. You ran the debt up to where now we are bouncing against the
ceiling and the Congress will be called upon to increase the debt
ceiling.
There were no appropriations bills passed last year at all. Thus
that's why we are here today. So let's talk about the spending spree
that we're trying to slow down and stop, Madam Speaker, with this bill.
I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Graves), a
member of our committee.
Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the chairman
clarifying some things we just heard because I was at a loss thinking I
was going to need much more than 3 minutes to rewrite some of what we
just heard there and correct the historical account of the last several
years.
We've heard the lamenting and wailing today from the other side of
the aisle. It is amazing to hear about why we are here? Why are we in
this position today?
We are hearing government shutdown from the Democrats. You're not
hearing that from the Republicans. You're hearing no, we have to cut
spending and reduce the size of government. But we hear we're at the
brink, we're about to shut down government, and we have to wonder: Why
are we here?
Well, the chairman brought it up so eloquently just a minute ago.
When they were in the leadership last year, and it wasn't that long
ago, 1 year ago, they had the opportunity. They had the opportunity to
pass their own budget. They didn't do it.
So instead, they passed a CR. The CR went for 4 or 5 weeks. It wasn't
enough. Let's do another one because again, they couldn't pass a
budget. They passed another CR for 2 more weeks. Again, it wasn't quite
enough. So let's go 3 days because we don't know now to pass a budget
nor have an appropriations meeting. And then, yet again, let's pass
another one for just over 2 months. That is why we are here today. That
is why the Republicans are stepping up and leading. That is why the
Republicans passed a CR a few weeks ago cutting a hundred billion
dollars.
[[Page H1423]]
But yet again the Democrats, they do not want to step up and lead at
this time in our Nation.
So here we are again, the chairman of appropriations and the
Republicans have stepped up and said it is time to lead. So $2 billion
a week in cuts, yes, that is what we are proposing. Should it be more?
Sure it should be more.
To those who have said we were cutting the wrong programs, I assure
you, you'll have your chance to cut those programs because, again, we
will be cutting more.
So this measure, hopefully it will pass both Chambers, and we will
avert the government shutdown. And the question is then: What happens
next? The American people want to know that.
Well, I want the American people to know this: that there are more
spending cuts on the way. Now, some of my colleagues on the other side
will say, we don't need to cut spending. In fact, we have heard that.
We've heard that they want to freeze spending instead, which is akin to
tying a brick to the accelerator of this vehicle that is going off the
cliff when we need to take our foot off that accelerator. Again, it is
the status quo that we hear from the other side.
We heard a minute ago from the leader of the Democrats, the former
Speaker, and her quote was: They took the lead in deficits.
Oh, is she so right. In fact, they have led 3 straight years of
deficit spending, consecutive years, trillion-dollar deficits, and now
a $14 trillion debt. What leadership that is.
The status quo is unacceptable. The American people deserve so much
more. So today, let's stop that threat of a government shutdown, and
let's save the taxpayers $4 billion. Let's come back and let's save
them billions upon billions more. But let's get ready because deeper
spending cuts are necessary. And as we saw from that Government
Accountability report, duplicative programs exist.
Madam Speaker, it is time to eliminate some of those programs,
continue eliminating portions of this government, and get this fiscal
house back on track.
Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished
gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the Democratic whip and former
majority leader, who will help correct the record.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I have now heard and watched on television and I have been on the
floor with two members from Georgia, both of whom are brand new to this
body who were talking about the history. Well, I want to tell my friend
from Georgia a little bit of history. I have been here 30 years. I have
served some 20 of those years under Republican Presidents. Every one of
them has run a deficit of $100 billion or more. In fact, during that
cumulative period of 30 years, notwithstanding the Obama
administration, and I will discuss that in a second, Mr. Reagan, Mr.
Bush I, and Mr. Bush II ran deficits of over $6 trillion that they
signed the bills to spend. Over $6 trillion. Bill Clinton was President
for 8 years. The last 4 years, we didn't raise the debt at all, unlike
every one of the Republican administrations, where we raised it on a
regular basis. Not at all during the last administration, the last 4
years of Mr. Clinton's administration, and he ran--the only President
in your lifetime, and very frankly mine, and I may be twice as old as
you are--a $62.9 billion surplus. Look it up. No argument.
But let me say something. Irrespective of who is responsible, we are
responsible for fixing it. Republicans and Democrats. The American
people know that we have a crisis confronting us. They know there is no
option other than to deal with this realistically. I would call
everybody's attention in this body--Republican, Democrat, liberal,
conservatives--to an article written by David Brooks today in The New
York Times. Read it. Read it. David Brooks is a conservative columnist
of the New York Times. We all ought to read this and take it to heart.
I called it to my caucus' attention this morning.
Our deep debt is a serious danger to our economy, to our future, and
our children's opportunities. The American people want us to bring the
debt down. They said so very loudly. And I doubt there is a Member who
disagrees.
{time} 1510
Democrats believe that spending cuts are part of the solution. Let
there be no mistake. We need to cut spending, but we also believe that
those cuts must be smart and targeted, not pegged to an arbitrary
number.
One of your staffers, when you put the Pledge to America, came forth
with a figure of $100 billion. That's a nice round figure; $100 billion
sounds good. It's good PR. It's good spin--$100 billion. Read David
Brooks. No analysis was given to that figure. No hearings were held on
that figure. Nobody could testify on the cuts that were proposed to
reach that figure.
We have to cut the spending. We can do without some spending, not the
vital investments, however, that are helping to grow our economy, that
are helping our private sector innovate and creating the jobs of the
future.
During the Clinton administration, I will tell my young friend from
Georgia there were 22 million new jobs. During the Bush administration,
we lost 8 million jobs. A 30 million job turnaround. That's why there
was so much spending of which Mr. Rogers spoke. And $700 billion of
that, of course, was asked for by the Bush Presidency, Secretary
Paulson and Mr. Bernanke, so that we didn't fall into a depression for
the first time since Herbert Hoover. This President has been trying to
bring us out and, frankly, is succeeding.
Unfortunately, Republicans passed a spending bill full of
shortsighted and indiscriminate cuts. Do we need cuts? Yes. Do we need
shortsighted and indiscriminate cuts? No. Just over a week ago, you
would cut billions in energy and medical research, kick 200,000
children out of Head Start, make college more expensive, and stop 21st-
century infrastructure projects in 40 States. That's what Mr. Zandi is
talking about. That's what Goldman Sachs is talking about. Cuts like
these could cripple America's competitiveness and job growth.
According to Moody's Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi, who
advised Senator McCain's Presidential campaign, Republicans' cuts would
cost America a total of 700,000 jobs. The Economic Policy Institute
puts it at 800,000.
Rather than such job-destroying policies, both of us, both parties,
need to come together and reason together. Frankly, the American public
doesn't care who works with whom. They just want it to work. This is no
way to fund the largest enterprise in the world--on 14-day cycles. The
gentleman criticized us for doing it, and we should have been
criticized.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. DICKS. I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Mr. HOYER. Let me tell my friend what he didn't mention: One of the
reasons we did it was that we couldn't get 60 votes in the United
States Senate in order to move a bill forward.
Keeping our government running is vital to our economy. None of us
should want to shut down the government. It is also vital to the
millions who rely on government every day. The sooner we can agree on a
long-term package of smart cuts, not reckless, arbitrary, job-
destroying cuts, the sooner we can stop funding the government in
disruptive 2-week increments. The gentleman was correct that we ought
not to do that. We need to pass a 7-month funding so that government
and all who rely on the government, who work for the government, and
who have contracts with the government can rely on some certainty.
You've talked a lot about certainty on your side of the aisle. You're
absolutely right, we need certainty. The business community needs
certainty. Individuals need certainty, and the government needs
certainty.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has again expired.
Mr. DICKS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. HOYER. Rather than passing 2-week continuing resolutions, I urge
Republicans and Democrats to work together on a long-term solution--in
this case, ``long term'' is 7 months--to reduce spending, to try to
balance our budget, and to try to bring rationality to this process. We
cannot, my friends on the Republican side of the aisle and
[[Page H1424]]
the Democratic side of the aisle, continue to look at 15 percent of the
budget and expect us to get to where we need to be from where we now
are.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, may I inquire of the time
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Kentucky has 9\1/2\
minutes remaining, and the gentleman from Washington has 4 minutes
remaining.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a brand-
new member of the committee, the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Yoder).
Mr. YODER. Madam Speaker, we can debate today who is at fault for the
crisis we are in; but I think we have an agreement, which is, with
record spending, deficits and accumulated debt, coupled with 20 months
straight of 9 percent unemployment, it is time for us to get serious
about the crushing effect of a runaway debt on this economy.
As Speaker Boehner said, ``Just like a bankrupt business can't create
jobs, a bankrupt country can't create jobs.''
Small business owners, individuals and families now find themselves
at the mercy of this debt that we as a government have recklessly
accumulated. It's not Democrats or Republicans. It's those families and
individuals and business owners who are the real casualties of this
government spending spree. So now we must choose a pathway. We are at a
crossroads: reasonable spending reductions and keeping the government
open or heading towards devastating tax increases and crushing
deficits.
The tax increases that would be needed to actually alleviate these
bloated deficits would wipe out individuals, families and businesses.
According to the CRS, current income tax rates would need to double
across the board to close the expected deficits of this administration.
You can't create jobs under these devastating taxes. We must reduce
spending.
We have a choice as the American people. We can choose prosperity; we
can choose lower taxes; and we can choose reduced debt. Or we can go
other the other direction and choose record-breaking deficits, historic
taxes and devastation all across this country.
Madam Speaker, we have a choice to make today, and it is my hope the
Members of this body will choose to keep the government open, will
choose to begin making modest reductions, and will pass this necessary
resolution to begin the pathway towards prosperity again in this
country.
Mr. DICKS. I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the
gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Hurt).
Mr. HURT. I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, last November, the people I represent in Virginia's
Fifth District sent an urgent message that America must make a bold
departure from the status quo and put a stop to the out-of-control
spending that has come to define Washington over the past 2 years. No
longer can we continue on the path of unchecked, reckless spending that
has crippled our economy and has left us with a massive $14 trillion in
debt, $1.6 trillion in deficit spending, and an unacceptably high
unemployment rate.
Last year, the 111th Congress completely failed in its fundamental
responsibility to adopt a budget for the American people. Remarkably,
they have punted that responsibility and have kept the Federal
Government operating over the last 5 months by adopting continuing
resolutions.
Fortunately, the new 112th Congress has accepted this responsibility
to clean up the mess of the last Congress. Indeed, the House of
Representatives, Republicans and Democrats, worked late into the night
last week to get a proposal to the Senate that recognizes the critical
need to adopt a budget while cutting a historic $100 billion in
spending for the rest of this fiscal year.
After 5 months of failed leadership by Senate Democrats, we now find
they need more time. This is truly unbelievable. Over the past week,
back home in the Fifth District, I was reminded again and again by my
constituents that now is the time for leadership, not for excuses.
While the House takes up another resolution today that will continue
to temporarily fund the government while keeping our commitment to the
people to cut an additional $4 billion in spending, it is critical that
the Senate join us to produce a responsible funding resolution that
makes the cuts necessary to get our fiscal house in order. For the sake
of the next generation of Americans, we must act, and we must act now
to secure our future.
Mr. DICKS. I yield 2 minutes to the ranking member and former
chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee,
the gentleman from Virginia, Jim Moran.
Mr. MORAN. Madam Speaker, so many of our brand-new colleagues seem to
have run on the thesis that government can't be the solution to any of
your problems, rather that ``it'' is the problem, that it can't be
counted upon to help people, that it can't even be counted upon to
invest in America's long-term interests. It seems as though, now that
they've been elected, they're doing everything they can to prove
themselves to be right.
This is no way to run a government. A 2-week CR?
Now, we don't have any great problem with the components of this CR
except for the fact that it's 2 weeks.
{time} 1520
It should be a 7-month CR. In fact, we should really tackle the
appropriations bills themselves. But if it's a 7-month CR, it shouldn't
be a dump truck of legislation that includes in it virtually every
controversial issue that this Congress has dealt with over the last 20,
30 years.
My good friend from Kentucky, the chairman of the committee, will
recall that quaint phrase that we would deploy in committee, that this
amendment is not in order because it constitutes legislating on an
appropriations bill. Well, we legislated everything. This bill has more
poison pills in it than Rasputin's medicine cabinet. Everything is
thrown in here, and it was thrown in in the middle of the night. You
know, bills that we had considered carefully in committee that had come
to the floor, that they were debated carefully and then resolved, and
yet sometimes in a 10-minute debate those bills were dispensed with.
That's not the way an appropriations bill should be brought to the
floor. It ought to be a clean, continuing resolution if we're going to
do a CR.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. DICKS. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. MORAN. The fact is we know we can do this. We can get a good
appropriation bill. We can make surgical cuts and we can agree on those
surgical cuts. But let's not try to put together a dump truck that
includes in it every possible controversial issue that we know we can't
resolve. That's not in the long-term best interest of the American
people, and, in fact, it ought to be an embarrassment to our
appropriations process.
So I would hope that we would vote against this continuing resolution
simply because it's only a 2-week CR. We can do better.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I wish they had done better
last year and passed one appropriations bill.
General Leave
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that
all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend
their remarks and include extraneous material on H.J. Res. 44, and that
I may include tabular material on the same.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the
chairman of the MilCon and VA Subcommittee on Appropriations, the
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson).
Mr. CULBERSON. Madam Speaker, I first would like to yield to my
colleague from Georgia (Mr. Graves).
Mr. GRAVES of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I have to take a moment here
to, I guess, comment back on the distinguished whip's comments a minute
ago.
It's great that he pointed out his knowledge of history and his years
of experience here, and he's right about a few things. He talked about
the years
[[Page H1425]]
of Bill Clinton and the spending cuts and the deficit reduction and
debt reduction, all those kinds of things. He's absolutely right. But
he didn't tell you the rest of the story, and that is the Republicans
took the majority in 1995 and were part of that process, in leading
through the legislative process not through the executive process.
And then he talked about George Bush and the 8 million job losses.
And if you look back, if you look at the rest of the story on that
again, that starts in about 2006 and 2007 and 2008. And if we think
about who was in charge at the time, yes, it was the distinguished
whip, who was the leader at the time, and the former Speaker. So they
were right. They were right about history, but they weren't telling the
whole story, and that is that the Republicans were leading during those
difficult times and providing the spending cuts when necessary.
To the gentleman a minute ago who said government is not the
solution, you're absolutely right. And to finish that quote from Ronald
Reagan, more so, it is the problem.
Mr. CULBERSON. Reclaiming my time, Madam Speaker, I think it's
important to remember that the people of America spoke decisively in
the November election. It was as clear a referendum on the direction
that President Obama and Speaker Pelosi were taking the Nation as we
could have, and the Nation decisively rejected the agenda that Speaker
Pelosi and President Obama were promoting.
The spending that Chairman Rogers spoke about was out of control over
these last several years. I know in the time I served under President
Bush I voted against about $2.6 trillion of new spending under
President Bush. And in just the last 2 years, under President Obama and
Speaker Pelosi, my staff calculates I've had to vote against about $7.6
trillion in spending under President Obama. I know that the level of
spending under President Bush was higher than it should have been, but
it has absolutely gone vertical under President Obama.
The country decisively rejected the direction that President Obama
was taking the Nation. The country elected this new majority to cut
spending, to repeal ObamaCare, and to put the Nation back on track
towards a balanced budget, and that's what this appropriations bill
does. In this 2-week period, we're doing our best at every opportunity,
on every occasion. Chairman Rogers and all of us are working to cut
spending and to get the Federal Government out of our pockets, off our
backs, and out of our lives.
Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. CULBERSON. I am happy to yield to the distinguished gentleman
from Washington.
Mr. DICKS. I was just glad to hear the litany of these things that
you voted against. Are you still for those Civil War battlefields?
Mr. CULBERSON. Reclaiming my time, there are a few core functions the
government has to do, and I'll tell you that national defense, for
example, we've protected the Pentagon and national security. We've
protected the investments in medical and scientific research and in law
enforcement. And you will find on every bill that we present we're
going to work to cut spending in every possible way.
Mr. DICKS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I think this has been a very spirited debate in the best traditions
of the House. I want to point out a few facts to again correct the
Record.
First of all, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act probably
brought down the unemployment rate from 12 or 13 percent to 9.5
percent. We would have a 12.5 percent unemployment rate today if it
weren't for the American Recovery Act.
The only deficit that has been cut around here was the $41 billion
that was done by the Democrats and enacted in December and passed to
March 4.
Now, again, we did not get our work done. Mr. Rogers and I are going
to get the work done. But again, gentlemen and ladies, it's the
economy. You've got to put people back to work. And if the net impact
of what you do, the cuts you make are to throw people out of work, to
cause the economy to stumble and stop the recovery and increase
unemployment, then the deficit will go up.
The only way you get this better is to drive down unemployment, get
people working, get businesses producing, get the revenues coming in.
That will do it. But what the best economists in this country say is
your medicine is not going to cure the patient. It could well harm the
patient and cause things to get worse, not better. So that's why some
people believe it's a timing issue.
And yet, again, I want you to know, we will work together in these
next 2 weeks. We've got to get this thing resolved.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. May I inquire as to how much time is
remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Kentucky has 3 minutes
remaining.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of
my time.
Let's be clear what it is we're voting on here today. This is a
short-term, 2-week CR. It cuts $4 billion, a little over $4 billion in
spending that both parties have agreed to in the past, both bodies in
the House and Senate have agreed to in the past, and agreed to by the
White House.
So what are we talking about here? This is a 2-week extension. It's
about as clean as you can make it. And, oh, by the way, speaking about
that bill we passed 2 weeks ago, H.R. 1, that cuts $61 billion off of
current spending, Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, said
as late as today that that bill will have no harmful effect on the
economy. I don't know that there's a bigger, better source on the
economy than the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, and he says no
problem.
Now, what the Democrats want to do, Madam Speaker--this is pretty
simple--they want to freeze spending. They want to freeze spending at
the biggest bloated level we've ever had.
{time} 1530
They increased spending 84 percent over the last 2 years. Now they
want to freeze and they'll go no higher. Well, it's bloated. We want to
take it back down to where it's reasonable, where we can live with it.
So we don't want another $1.7 trillion-a-year deficit like they've had
the last year and, before that, something approaching that.
So I ask Members to vote for this short-term CR, to give us time to
work with the other body on H.R. 1 to find out what their position is,
about which we have no idea at this moment. They haven't acted. And so
to avert a closedown of the government, which is what we're after here,
we want to give the Senate time to look at H.R. 1 and tell us what
their position is so we can have a conversation about it. And, frankly,
2 weeks is plenty of time, plenty of time in the House. I know the
Senate works a bit more slowly, but 2 weeks should be plenty.
So, Madam Speaker, I urge Members to vote for this reasonable, fair,
budget-cutting extension of the time to shut down the government. Vote
``yes'' and keep the government operating.
Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, today's legislation proposes to extend
Federal Government operations for an additional two weeks while cutting
roughly $4 billion in spending from FY 2011, if the proposed cuts are
ultimately extended for the rest of the fiscal year.
Democrats understand the need to get serious about our deficits and
debt, but we also understand the difference between making smart,
deliberate cuts to spending while maintaining targeted investments that
create jobs, grow our economy and strengthen our international
competitiveness. In that regard, I am especially disappointed that the
majority did not make in order an amendment offered by ranking Member
Dicks, which would have restored some of the education cuts in today's
bill by finding the necessary savings in unused Census funds. It seems
to me those are the kinds of distinctions, priorities and choices this
body should be able and willing to make.
Furthermore, based on our experience with H.R. 1, I am concerned that
the majority is ignoring the explicit advice of two fiscal commissions
and a growing chorus of bipartisan commentators warning that we must
not in the guise of fiscal discipline cut so indiscriminately, so fast
that we sabotage job creation and weaken our ongoing economic recovery.
Madam Speaker, sooner rather than later, we need to come to a final
agreement on federal spending for the rest of FY 2011. That agreement
should chart a credible course towards long term fiscal sustainability
while
[[Page H1426]]
making the kinds of investments that will allow us to win the future in
the 21st century.
Ms. JACKSON LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support for
H.J. Res. 44, the Continuing Resolution (CR) to make further continuing
appropriations for Fiscal Year 2011 to keep our Federal Government open
through March 18, 2011.
Though I have serious reservations about this CR offered by my
Republican colleagues, I absolutely refuse to let our Federal
Government close on my watch. Allowing the Federal Government to close
while this nation continues to recover from its economic downturn does
no good for anyone. Closure of the Federal Government at this juncture
would deal a crushing blow to the people all over the United States who
are looking to Congress to do its part in bringing about much-needed
economic relief and to get this country back on course.
Moreover, states all around this nation are in the midst of
recovering from their own economic crises. The closure of the federal
government would deal them a crushing blow. Worse still, it would only
serve to increase the hardship and suffering visited upon the citizens
of those states. We must remember that these citizens are also our
constituents and we must not let unfettered zeal to make spending cuts
blind us to the point where we allow cuts to the funding necessary for
economic recovery.
This insufficient, fake CR contains many horrible cuts to important
programs. It unjustly heaves a heavy weight upon the backs of the
American people who should not be made to bear this burden. These cuts
include but are not limited to:
Critical Education Funding at All Levels from Head Start to Higher
Education
Health and Human Services Funding
Energy Funding
Critical Transportation Funding
Military and Veteran's Affairs Funding
Science and Technology and NASA Funding
However, this is only a two-week CR and the critical funding it cuts
can be recouped and restored. I look forward to fighting hard over the
next two weeks to restore this crucial funding. The cuts contained in
this CR squarely impact the people and programs we need to support the
most in order to bring about job creation and sustained economic
growth. I am committed to doing all that I can to restore these funds
while making fiscally responsible, well deliberated appropriations for
funding the Federal Government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2011. I
urge my colleagues to join me in this commitment.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 115, the joint resolution is considered
read and the previous question is ordered.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint
resolution.
The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third
time, and was read the third time.
Motion to Recommit
Mr. KEATING. Madam Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the joint
resolution?
Mr. KEATING. I am opposed in its current form.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to
recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Keating moves to recommit the joint resolution H. J.
Res. 44 to the Committee on Appropriations with instructions
to report the same back to the House forthwith with the
following amendments:
Page 18, line 21, strike the quotation marks and final
period.
Page 18, after line 21, insert the following:
``Sec. 227. For the period beginning on the date of the
enactment of the Further Continuing Appropriations
Amendments, 2011 and ending on the date specified in section
106(3) of this Act, no major integrated oil company (as
defined in section 167(h)(5)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986) shall be eligible for any tax benefit or relief
under the following provisions of such Code to the extent
attributable to such period:
``(1) Section 43.
``(2) Section 45I.
``(3) Section 469 with respect to working interests in oil
and gas property.
``(4) Sections 613 and 613A, with respect to percentage
depletion for oil and gas.
``(5) Section 199 with respect to income derived from the
production of oil and gas.
For purposes of this section, the amount of any tax benefit
or relief for any taxable year shall be treated as
attributable to the period described in the preceding
sentence in the same ratio that the portion of such period
which is part of such taxable year bears to the entire
taxable year.''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Massachusetts is recognized for 5 minutes in support of his motion.
Mr. KEATING. Madam Speaker, I rise to offer this motion to recommit
which I believe will greatly improve our fiscal health and ensure that
we're responsible to all taxpayer dollars and the taxpayers of this
great Nation.
We all agree--all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike--that cuts
in wasteful spending are vital to our country's future. The decision
that stands before us is whether we should adopt reckless cuts to some
of our most important programs or not: education cuts, cuts to college
scholarships, reading teachers, Head Start.
As a D.A. for the last decade, I know the effects of cuts to police
officers and firefighters, and I know what they mean to our public
safety. Reckless cuts: cuts to border protection, cuts to the hubs of
cybersecurity research so that we can better protect ourselves in our
infrastructure, cuts in cancer research and other life-saving ventures
of the National Institute of Health.
It's worth repeating that Moody's chief economic expert, Mark Zandi,
the former adviser to the McCain for President campaign, just this week
estimated that the reckless Republican cuts will cost our country
700,000 jobs. Investment groups estimate that the reckless cuts will
cut the economy by a growth this year of almost one-half.
Our alternative? Our alternative is an alternative of sensible
spending cuts. In this motion, we're offering such a sensible spending
cut.
Let's stop sending taxpayers' money to the most profitable companies
in the world. The time is now to stop subsidizing the largest oil
companies. I think it shocks every American taxpayer to know that
they're required to fork out over $40 billion in subsidies over the
next decade to the most economically profitable of companies--
especially as oil soars to a hundred dollars per barrel. My
constituents in Plymouth, Massachusetts, are paying almost $3.50 per
gallon and have had enough. Even ex-Shell CEO John Hofmeister says
enough is enough. He said, ``With high oil prices, such subsidies are
not necessary.''
So let's put a stop to this welfare program for Big Oil right now.
Cuts to police, cuts to fire, cuts to cancer research, cuts to border
security, cuts to reading teachers--or oil subsidies to the most
profitable of companies.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this motion to recommit.
I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the
gentleman's motion to recommit.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. If I understand the gentleman's motion
correctly, it would, for a 2-week period, attempt to change the Tax
Code to single out resource companies and increase their costs of doing
business. This misguided policy can only lead to higher energy prices,
continued reliance on foreign oil, and economic hardship that hampers
job creation.
At a time when gasoline is currently approaching $4 a gallon around
the country and when our resources are being threatened by the
instability in the Middle East, we should be encouraging domestic
energy production--not cutting it down.
We're talking about a 2-week continuing resolution to keep the
government running past Friday, reduce spending, and avoid a government
shutdown. This is neither the time nor the place to inject an unrelated
job-crushing, controversial rider to the CR that will absolutely hinder
its chance of passing in the Senate before this Friday when the current
CR expires.
I urge defeat of this ill-advised motion.
I now yield to the gentleman from Idaho (Mr. Simpson), chairman of
the Interior Subcommittee Appropriations.
Mr. SIMPSON. I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, if this wasn't such a serious subject that we're
discussing here, the Federal budget and how we're going to fund it for
the next 2 weeks, it would almost be funny.
Almost every Member of the Democratic Party that has stood up and
talked about this CR has said something like this--even the sponsor of
this motion said something along these lines: Democrats know we have to
reduce spending. Democrats want to reduce spending. Yet the very first
time
[[Page H1427]]
they have a chance to vote to reduce spending, reductions that the
administration agrees with in its 2012 budget and eliminating earmarks,
the Democrats vote ``no''? It's strange but true.
In fact, instead of cutting spending, they propose to increase
revenue. Or increase taxes.
In this fragile economy with energy prices rising, we should be
encouraging more energy and gas development and production in the
United States. We need more supply, not less supply. This would reduce
the supply.
Oil prices are rising again; and with the wave of unrest in the
Middle East and North Africa, there are fears that we could soon see a
return to $4 or $5 gas in the United States this summer.
{time} 1540
The moratorium put in place following the Deepwater Horizon accident
was lifted last fall by the administration; but the administration has
issued just one deepwater permit in the gulf, and that was issued just
yesterday. The Federal judge called this de facto deepwater drilling
moratorium unreasonable, unacceptable, and unjustifiable.
The public will have no patience for more delays, more excuses, and
higher taxes if gas prices continue to rise, especially when we have
untapped resources here in the United States not being utilized. We
need to be encouraging more production in this country, not
discouraging production in this country.
Oil and gas from Federal lands, both onshore and offshore, provide an
important energy source and domestic jobs and billions of dollars of
revenue to the United States. This is a job-killing proposal. This is
an issue that needs to be addressed carefully and in great detail. A
rush to impose new taxes and fees through a motion to recommit is hasty
and unwise. We ought to let the committees of jurisdiction address this
issue. I strongly, in the strongest terms, encourage my colleagues to
vote against this ill-conceived motion to recommit.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is
ordered on the motion to recommit.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Mr. KEATING. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule
XX, this 15-minute vote on the motion to recommit will be followed by
5-minute votes on passage of the joint resolution, if ordered; and
approval of the Journal, if ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 176,
nays 249, not voting 7, as follows:
[Roll No. 153]
YEAS--176
Ackerman
Andrews
Baca
Baldwin
Bass (CA)
Becerra
Berkley
Berman
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer
Boswell
Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)
Brown (FL)
Butterfield
Capps
Capuano
Carnahan
Carney
Carson (IN)
Chu
Cicilline
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly (VA)
Conyers
Cooper
Costello
Courtney
Critz
Crowley
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
DeFazio
DeGette
DeLauro
Deutch
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Edwards
Ellison
Engel
Eshoo
Farr
Fattah
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Green, Al
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Heinrich
Higgins
Himes
Hinchey
Hirono
Holden
Holt
Honda
Hoyer
Inslee
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson Lee (TX)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Keating
Kildee
Kind
Kissell
Kucinich
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee (CA)
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lujan
Lynch
Maloney
Markey
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McIntyre
McNerney
Meeks
Michaud
Miller (NC)
Miller, George
Moore
Moran
Murphy (CT)
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Olver
Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor (AZ)
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Pingree (ME)
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Rahall
Rangel
Reyes
Richardson
Richmond
Rothman (NJ)
Roybal-Allard
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schrader
Schwartz
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell
Sherman
Shuler
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (WA)
Speier
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko
Towns
Tsongas
Van Hollen
Velazquez
Visclosky
Walz (MN)
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch
Wilson (FL)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
NAYS--249
Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Amash
Austria
Bachmann
Bachus
Barletta
Barrow
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (NH)
Benishek
Berg
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boren
Boustany
Brady (TX)
Brooks
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Canseco
Cantor
Cardoza
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chandler
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Costa
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Cuellar
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Dold
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Emerson
Farenthold
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gohmert
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Green, Gene
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Hall
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Issa
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jones
Jordan
Kelly
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kline
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Lankford
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Lewis (CA)
LoBiondo
Long
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Manzullo
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meehan
Mica
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary
Mulvaney
Murphy (PA)
Myrick
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Owens
Palazzo
Paul
Paulsen
Pearce
Pence
Peterson
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Quayle
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Ribble
Rigell
Rivera
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (AR)
Ross (FL)
Royce
Runyan
Ryan (WI)
Scalise
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Southerland
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Terry
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Turner
Upton
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Webster
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NOT VOTING--7
Capito
Castor (FL)
Giffords
Hanna
Hinojosa
Marchant
Young (FL)
{time} 1605
Ms. HERRERA BEUTLER, Messrs. GRAVES of Georgia, CHANDLER, and SMITH
of Nebraska changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Messrs. CLARKE of Michigan, CARNEY, LEWIS of Georgia, SCHIFF,
TIERNEY, and Ms. KAPTUR changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to recommit was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint
resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the ayes appeared to have it.
Recorded Vote
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. This will be a 5-minute vote.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 335,
noes 91, not voting 6, as follows:
[Roll No. 154]
AYES--335
Ackerman
Adams
Aderholt
Akin
Alexander
Altmire
Austria
Baca
Bachus
[[Page H1428]]
Barletta
Barrow
Bartlett
Barton (TX)
Bass (NH)
Benishek
Berg
Berkley
Biggert
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boren
Boswell
Boustany
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brooks
Broun (GA)
Buchanan
Bucshon
Buerkle
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Calvert
Camp
Campbell
Canseco
Cantor
Capito
Capps
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carney
Carter
Cassidy
Chabot
Chaffetz
Chandler
Cicilline
Coble
Coffman (CO)
Cole
Conaway
Connolly (VA)
Cooper
Costa
Costello
Courtney
Cravaack
Crawford
Crenshaw
Critz
Crowley
Cuellar
Culberson
Davis (CA)
Davis (KY)
DeFazio
DeGette
Denham
Dent
DesJarlais
Deutch
Diaz-Balart
Dicks
Dingell
Doggett
Dold
Donnelly (IN)
Doyle
Dreier
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Ellmers
Emerson
Engel
Eshoo
Farenthold
Fattah
Fincher
Fitzpatrick
Flake
Fleischmann
Fleming
Flores
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen
Gallegly
Gardner
Garrett
Gerlach
Gibbs
Gibson
Gingrey (GA)
Gonzalez
Goodlatte
Gosar
Gowdy
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (MO)
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Griffin (AR)
Griffith (VA)
Grimm
Guinta
Guthrie
Hall
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hastings (WA)
Hayworth
Heck
Heinrich
Heller
Hensarling
Herger
Herrera Beutler
Higgins
Himes
Holden
Holt
Hoyer
Huelskamp
Huizenga (MI)
Hultgren
Hunter
Hurt
Inslee
Israel
Issa
Jackson Lee (TX)
Jenkins
Johnson (IL)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Keating
Kelly
Kildee
Kind
King (NY)
Kingston
Kinzinger (IL)
Kissell
Kline
Labrador
Lamborn
Lance
Landry
Langevin
Lankford
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Loebsack
Long
Lowey
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
Lujan
Lummis
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack
Maloney
Manzullo
Marino
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)
McCaul
McClintock
McCotter
McHenry
McIntyre
McKeon
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
Meehan
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Moran
Mulvaney
Murphy (CT)
Murphy (PA)
Myrick
Neugebauer
Noem
Nugent
Nunes
Nunnelee
Olson
Owens
Palazzo
Pastor (AZ)
Paulsen
Pearce
Pence
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Petri
Pingree (ME)
Pitts
Platts
Poe (TX)
Polis
Pompeo
Posey
Price (GA)
Price (NC)
Quayle
Quigley
Rahall
Reed
Rehberg
Reichert
Renacci
Reyes
Ribble
Rigell
Rivera
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross (AR)
Ross (FL)
Rothman (NJ)
Royce
Runyan
Ruppersberger
Ryan (WI)
Sarbanes
Scalise
Schiff
Schilling
Schmidt
Schock
Schrader
Schwartz
Schweikert
Scott (SC)
Scott (VA)
Scott, Austin
Scott, David
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Sewell
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Slaughter
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Southerland
Speier
Stearns
Stivers
Stutzman
Sullivan
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tipton
Tsongas
Turner
Upton
Van Hollen
Walberg
Walden
Walsh (IL)
Walz (MN)
Webster
Weiner
Welch
West
Westmoreland
Whitfield
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Wolf
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Young (AK)
Young (IN)
NOES--91
Amash
Andrews
Bachmann
Baldwin
Bass (CA)
Becerra
Berman
Brown (FL)
Capuano
Carson (IN)
Chu
Clarke (MI)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Conyers
Cummings
Davis (IL)
DeLauro
Edwards
Ellison
Farr
Filner
Frank (MA)
Fudge
Garamendi
Gohmert
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hanabusa
Hastings (FL)
Hinchey
Hirono
Honda
Jackson (IL)
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Jones
Kaptur
King (IA)
Kucinich
Lee (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lofgren, Zoe
Lynch
Markey
Matsui
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
McNerney
Meeks
Miller, George
Moore
Nadler
Napolitano
Neal
Olver
Pallone
Pascrell
Paul
Payne
Pelosi
Rangel
Richardson
Richmond
Roybal-Allard
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Schakowsky
Serrano
Stark
Sutton
Thompson (MS)
Tierney
Tonko
Towns
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watt
Waxman
Wilson (FL)
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--6
Castor (FL)
Giffords
Hanna
Hinojosa
Marchant
Young (FL)
{time} 1614
Ms. WATERS changed her vote from ``aye'' to ``no.''
Mr. COSTELLO changed his vote from ``no'' to ``aye.''
So the joint resolution was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________