[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 79 (Thursday, June 6, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H3225-H3228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM
(Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute.)
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, before yielding to my friend for next week's
schedule, I would like to join, I know, with all of our colleagues in
wishing him a happy birthday. It is the majority leader's birthday
today, and because I don't want him to retaliate, I'm not going to
mention which birthday it is, but I want to congratulate him and wish
him the very best. We'll have a birthday colloquy today.
I thank him for his leadership, and I yield to him to explain our
schedule for the week to come.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, my friend from
Maryland, for those kind birthday wishes.
Yes, it is my 50th birthday. I've been saying all day that my wife,
Diana, and I are empty nesters now, so it's about time I'm 50. But I do
thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I would tell the gentleman that I'll
be glad to take him up on a kinder and gentler colloquy for the
birthday.
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet in pro forma session at 3
p.m., and no votes are expected. On Tuesday, the House will meet at
noon for morning hour and at 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes
will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House
will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and at noon for legislative
business. On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative
business. Last votes of the week are expected no later than 3 p.m.
[[Page H3226]]
{time} 1120
Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a few bills under suspension of
the rules, a complete list of which will be announced by the close of
business tomorrow. In addition, the House will consider H.R. 1910, the
National Defense Authorization Act. Chairman Buck McKeon and his
committee once again will bring a bipartisan bill to the floor to
ensure that our men and women in the armed services have the tools and
resources necessary to protect the freedoms that all of us enjoy here
at home.
Again, Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
We have started the appropriations process. We did two bills this
week. They were relatively bipartisan in nature.
I regret, of course, the adoption of the King amendment, which we
thought was a very bad policy. It precluded us from voting for a bill
that we otherwise would have voted for and that we failed to reach
bipartisan agreement. I think there were some on your side who did not
want the King amendment offered which precludes any discretion for
prosecutors, which I think is bad as general policy and certainly bad
as it relates to the DREAMers.
I would hope that as we move forward on the appropriation bills, that
we would be able to do those as we did the Military Construction,
Veteran Affairs, and Related Agencies bill on which we passed on an
almost overwhelming vote on both sides of the aisle.
One of the problems, Mr. Leader, is going to be the amount of dollars
that have been made available to the nine remaining bills--perhaps
Agriculture--so the eight remaining bills after we do MilCon and
Homeland Security, which essentially were done at the agreed-upon
levels of the Budget Control Act, similar to what the Senate is marking
their bills to. I'm not sure what the defense number is going to be,
but our fear and concern is that these bills will be marked so that
substantial dollars that would otherwise have been available to other
subcommittees will not be available because, in effect, we front-loaded
spending on the first three bills.
The Ryan budget, as the gentleman knows, is almost $100 billion less
than the agreement of August 2011 on how much dollars would be
available for priorities on the discretionary side of our budget.
Can the gentleman give me any information with reference to whether
or not we may still be going to a budget conference where we perhaps
could reach elimination of the sequester and a new number that could be
agreed upon between the Senate and the House, as we always have to do?
Whether there's a budget or not, we have to agree on the numbers. We
are about $100 billion apart, and that has to be overcome if we're
going to pass bills.
Can the gentleman give me any thoughts on whether or not we're going
to go to conference? There is nothing on the schedule for a motion to
go to conference or appointment of conferees.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I understand his
concerns.
I think all of us have concerns about the way spending reductions are
implemented under sequester. As the gentleman knows, we in the majority
have continued to try and advocate. We've put proposals forward to
accomplish the spending reductions and reforms in a smarter way. I
think both of us, Mr. Speaker, would agree there are much smarter ways
for that to happen.
Unfortunately, it is the law. In fact, again, the House has posited
its formula for better reductions in spending. The White House and
Senate refused to go along. So sequester is the law. As the gentleman
knows, 302(b)s are set according to the post-sequester numbers, and
that is our intention, Mr. Speaker, to abide by the law with the
sequester in place.
I would respond to the gentleman's inquiry about budget conference,
and the gentleman knows, as I've said before, Chairman Ryan stands
ready to work with Senator Murray on drawing an outline and structure
for the way a conference would proceed. Unfortunately, there can be
even no discussion on that point because there is an insistence on the
part of the Senate and the White House that any budget conference
discussion include a discussion of tax increases. We have said
repeatedly that we can't be raising taxes every other month, every 6
months in this town. There was a significant increase in taxes, an
impact on working Americans this year because of the fiscal cliff. We
remain committed to addressing the problems of the budget, but will not
do so while there is an insistence that a prerequisite is raising
taxes.
Mr. HOYER. In other words, I think the gentleman is saying there is
not going to be a conference because there is disagreement on what the
result of that conference will be? Is that what I'm hearing you say?
I yield to the gentleman.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I will respond to the gentleman that we
would like to have agreement that we can begin discussions of a
fiscally sane path to balancing our budget.
As the gentleman knows, Mr. Speaker, our conference has made its
stand saying we want to balance the budget, we want to promote spending
reductions and reforms that get us there in 10 years. In that vein, we
would like to see that it's not punishing the American taxpayer the way
that we get there, as far as the budgeteers are concerned here in
Washington, that it's from growing our economy and from reforming the
kinds of things that are necessary to take care of those unfunded
liabilities at the Federal level.
Mr. HOYER. I would say that we have indicated on a number of
occasions that we would love to see some growing-the-economy
legislation on the floor, jobs bills on the floor, bills that the
administration and Republicans and economists on both sides say would
grow the economy. We haven't seen those, and we're concerned about
that.
First of all, let me make the observation that we don't believe the
first three bills that you're bringing out--you've brought out two
defense bills--are being brought out at the Ryan-budget levels. In
fact, they're being brought out substantially above the Ryan-budget
levels, if, in fact, you perceived equal distribution under 302(b) of
the allocations of discretionary money.
We don't share your view that the two bills we voted on--the two
bills we voted on, frankly, have been at the Senate level, essentially,
which is why they were relatively bipartisan. Not only was it at the
Senate level, but it was at the level we agreed to in 2011, and August
of 2011 would, in fact, be the discretionary number for fiscal year
2014.
There's not anything on the schedule with reference to the debt
limit. As the gentleman knows, the debt limit was extended until May
19. That is now 3 weeks past, and we have not dealt with the debt
limit.
Can the gentleman tell me whether there is any plan to deal with the
debt limit extension, which the gentleman and I agree must be done if
we're not going to destabilize the economy and grow the economy?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. CANTOR. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
To his first point about jobs bills, Mr. Speaker, we have remained
committed in the House, as the majority, to doing all we can to help
every American in terms of a brighter future, and that is a path to a
better job, better career.
We brought forward the SKILLS Act, something that is a bipartisan
commitment and should have been a lot more so on this floor in trying
to streamline workforce training programs to help those who are
unemployed.
We want to help the unemployed get into a job. The Federal workforce
training program is a mess. There are 50 programs. It is very difficult
for unemployed people to get the training and skills they need to get a
job. Unfortunately, that wasn't met with a lot of bipartisan reception.
Secondly, we just voted on the Keystone XL pipeline bill, a known
proposal to create tens of thousands of jobs, much less contribute to
America's energy security and independence, as well as competitiveness,
which means more jobs and more capital flowing into America.
[[Page H3227]]
We also passed, without any bipartisan support, the Working Families
Flexibility Act, looking to those struggling moms and dads who are
working, the fact that 50 percent of our workforce comes from dual-
income households, many of them with kids.
{time} 1130
The Working Families Flexibility Act, it addressed the very struggles
that working families have in trying to make their life work. We
couldn't get bipartisan support on that. And then I would say to the
gentleman, we remain committed to making the future brighter through
offering more opportunity to all people.
Our solutions, that come from conservatives in the House majority, we
believe our solutions can work for everyone. The gentleman knows--he
and I have met on his Make It In America agenda--there are things that
we have in common, but, unfortunately, we can't see a way to having
bipartisan votes. So I remain committed to working with the gentleman
on his agenda, and I know the spirit in which he approaches his
obligations to his constituents and his caucus, and know that we
hopefully can get back on track towards that end.
Now, towards the question, secondly, about budget levels and writing
the bills, I would say to the gentleman that we have drafted the
appropriations bills, marked them up, along with his caucus, and I
would say that they reflect our priorities. Obviously, our priorities
are going to differ from the Members on his side. The trick is to try
and see where we can work towards a commonality.
And lastly, to the debt limit, yes, we remain very concerned about
that. Hopefully, we can all work together and come up with a way that
we can adopt a plan that will manage down the debt and deficit and
allow us to reach a balance in the Federal level within 10 years,
enacting the necessary reforms to the programs that we know are
disproportionately causing the deficit without disproportionately
continuing to hit the discretionary side, when we know the mandatory
side provides most of the impetus for growth.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his comments.
I would say that he mentioned two bills with reference to jobs--the
SKILLS Act. Unfortunately, the SKILLS Act suffered from the same thing
that the Homeland Security Act just today suffered from, as the
gentleman knows. Contrary to what we could have done on a bipartisan
basis in the SKILLS Act, diversity, a small number was inserted into
that bill, reducing diversity visas to this country, which was highly
offensive to many, many Americans who saw that as a direct attack on
their ability to get family members to come to this country,
particularly from Africa and the Caribbean. It was well known on your
side that if that was put in, it was going to undermine our ability to
have a bipartisan agreement.
The same thing occurred with Homeland Security. The gentleman knew
full well that the inclusion of the King amendment, which we felt was a
very negative amendment and put Dreamers in particular at risk, but
whether or not that was the case, it undermines very, very
substantially--excuse me, I was incorrect. Staff corrects me, it was
the STEM bill that I was talking about. You did not mention that bill.
But the point is the same: in moving ahead on a bipartisan fashion, the
committee did come out with a bipartisan bill on Homeland Security,
you're absolutely correct. And Mr. Price, the ranking member, was
prepared to vote for that. He was going to urge the caucus to vote for
it, and we were going to vote for it until, with very few exceptions,
your caucus, your side of the aisle, voted overwhelmingly to put in a
piece, an amendment, which you knew would undermine the bipartisanship
that had been arrived at by the committee. That's unfortunate.
The gentleman, ironically from our perspective, I tell my friend with
great respect, we think that the Family Flexibility Act was the Family
Income Reduction Act. We think what it said to an awful lot of working
people: you're not going to get paid overtime. If your colleague will
work for free and get comp time at some point in time that the employer
decides, we're not going to pay overtime. So you're right, we
respectfully disagree. As I said, we think that was the Family Income
Reduction Act. Families are already struggling. Middle-income families'
income has been stuck in the mud, and we think that exacerbated it
further. And, very frankly, as the gentleman knows, that was a bill
that was offered some years ago with very substantial opposition and
didn't become law, as this one is not going to become law.
But in any event, let me close with this question. There are three
bills which are being marked up. Maybe Ag was marked up or is going to
be marked up soon. Does the gentleman expect that all 12 appropriations
bills will be brought to the floor? He talks about priorities. Our
priorities are different, although ironically, the gentleman has
expressed in his memos and in his agenda that he has announced a desire
to focus research on biomedical research to keep Americans healthier,
children and others. Ironically, the 302(b) that he talked about
earlier suggests, to be exact, a 26.5 percent cut in the bill that
funds NIH. That's going to result in a very substantial reduction in
basic biomedical research at NIH, and the leaders at NIH have made that
very clear that not only that bill but the present sequester is
undermining their ability to conduct biomedical research. I know the
gentleman feels strongly about that, as I do. Let me ask him: Do you
think that bill will be brought to the floor? It was not brought even
to the full committee last year, much less to the floor. Therefore, no
one had the opportunity to have a vote on those priorities. Can the
gentleman tell me whether he thinks those nine remaining bills will be
brought to the floor?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. CANTOR. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, it is our intent to continue to work
through the appropriations process and bring all the bills to the
floor, that's correct.
I would say furthermore to the gentleman, as far as the impact of the
sequester and 302(b)s on a specific bill versus a piece of that bill,
meaning the NIH research piece, as the gentleman knows, legislating,
especially in times of fiscal stress, is about prioritizing.
The gentleman correctly states that I'm very much in favor of making
a priority out of Federal research and development. I'm convinced that
basic research is needed to allow us to continue to advance the
breakthroughs in science that not only help heal people and cure
disease, but ultimately can help us bring down health care costs, which
is the number one issue that's aggravating our deficit.
So I'm glad to hear the gentleman shares that priority. I know he
does. But it doesn't mean necessarily that because we are going to
commit ourselves to balancing this budget that we cannot share that
priority. I hope the gentleman can share with us the import of that
priority and support what it is that we're trying to do in the area of
research, making sure that we can reduce other lesser priorities in
spending.
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. I look forward to seeing the Labor-
Health bill on the floor and seeing how he comes to those priorities
because I think it is very important.
Before I close--and I think he has left the floor--but I do want to
mention that today is the day on which John Dingell of Michigan becomes
the longest-serving Member of Congress in the history of the Congress,
since 1789. He is one of the great legislators with whom many of us
have served, and I know that next week we will be having an opportunity
on the floor to have all Members, or many Members, participate in
recognizing his service.
My staff tells me maybe we're going to do it tomorrow and not next
week, but most Members will be here next week, and I expect that
they'll be saying something at that time as well.
{time} 1140
I know the majority leader joins me in congratulating our colleague
and our friend, John Dingell, on his extraordinary service to not only
the Congress of the United States, but to the American people.
Mr. CANTOR. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Virginia.
Mr. CANTOR. I would just join the gentleman, Mr. Speaker, in
congratulating Mr. Dingell for an incredible,
[[Page H3228]]
first of all, milestone, and know he will continue in that service to
the people of the great State of Michigan.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
____________________