[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 141 (Thursday, October 10, 2013)]
[House]
[Pages H6466-H6471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 BORDER SECURITY AND ENFORCEMENT CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS RESOLUTION, 
                                  2014

  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 371, I call up 
the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 79) making continuing appropriations 
for certain components of the Department of Homeland Security for 
fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate 
consideration.
  The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Bishop of Utah). Pursuant to House 
Resolution 371, the joint resolution is considered read.
  The text of the joint resolution is as follows:

                              H.J. Res. 79

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That the 
     following sums are hereby appropriated, out of any money in 
     the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and out of 
     applicable corporate or other revenues, receipts, and funds, 
     for certain components of the Department of Homeland Security 
     for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, namely:
       Sec. 101. (a) Such amounts as may be necessary, at a rate 
     for operations as provided in the Department of Homeland 
     Security Appropriations Act, 2013 (division D of Public Law 
     113-6) and under the authority and conditions provided in 
     such Act, for continuing projects or activities that are not 
     otherwise specifically provided for in this joint resolution 
     or in the Pay Our Military Act of September 30, 2013, that 
     were conducted in fiscal year 2013, and for which 
     appropriations, funds, or other authority were made available 
     by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 
     2013 (division D of Public Law 113-6) under the headings 
     ``Security, Enforcement, and Investigations--U.S. Customs and 
     Border Protection'', ``Security, Enforcement, and 
     Investigations--U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement'', 
     ``Security, Enforcement, and Investigations--Coast Guard'', 
     ``Protection, Preparedness, Response, and Recovery--National 
     Protection and Programs Directorate--Office of Biometric 
     Identity Management'', and ``Research and Development, 
     Training, and Services--United States Citizenship and 
     Immigration Services''.
       (b) The rate for operations provided by subsection (a) for 
     each account shall be calculated to reflect the full amount 
     of any reduction required in fiscal year 2013 pursuant to--
       (1) any provision of division G of the Consolidated and 
     Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (Public Law 113-
     6), including section 3004; and
       (2) the Presidential sequestration order dated March 1, 
     2013, except as attributable to budget authority made 
     available by the Disaster Relief Appropriations Act, 2013 
     (Public Law 113-2).
       Sec. 102.  Appropriations made by section 101 shall be 
     available to the extent and in the manner that would be 
     provided by the pertinent appropriations Act.
       Sec. 103.  Unless otherwise provided for in this joint 
     resolution or in the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal 
     year 2014, appropriations and funds made available and 
     authority granted pursuant to this joint resolution shall be 
     available until whichever of the following first occurs: (1) 
     the enactment into law of an appropriation for any project or 
     activity provided for in this joint resolution; (2) the 
     enactment into law of the applicable appropriations Act for 
     fiscal year 2014 without any provision for such project or 
     activity; or (3) December 15, 2013.
       Sec. 104.  Expenditures made pursuant to this joint 
     resolution shall be charged to the applicable appropriation, 
     fund, or authorization whenever a bill in which such 
     applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization is contained 
     is enacted into law.
       Sec. 105.  This joint resolution shall be implemented so 
     that only the most limited funding action of that permitted 
     in the joint resolution shall be taken in order to provide 
     for continuation of projects and activities.
       Sec. 106.  Amounts made available under section 101 for 
     civilian personnel compensation and benefits in each 
     department and agency may be apportioned up to the rate for 
     operations necessary to avoid furloughs within such 
     department or agency, consistent with the applicable 
     appropriations Act for fiscal year 2013, except that such 
     authority provided under this section shall not be used until 
     after the department or agency has taken all necessary 
     actions to reduce or defer non-personnel-related 
     administrative expenses.
       Sec. 107.  It is the sense of Congress that this joint 
     resolution may also be referred to as the ``Border Safety & 
     Security Act''.
        This joint resolution may be cited as the ``Border 
     Security and Enforcement Continuing Appropriations 
     Resolution, 2014''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The joint resolution shall be debatable for 
40 minutes, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking 
minority member of the Committee on Appropriations.
  The gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter) and the gentleman from North 
Carolina (Mr. Price) each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.

                              {time}  1245


                             General Leave

  Mr. CARTER. Mr. 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. 79, and that I may include 
tabular material on the same.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may 
consume.
  I rise to present the House with a bill that sustains our critical 
border security and enforcement operations within the Department of 
Homeland Security.
  Right now, at this very moment, there are brave men and women 
patrolling our borders, manning our ports of entry, and conducting 
border enforcement, drug interdiction and investigative missions, but 
they are not being paid.

[[Page H6467]]

  Right now, at this very moment, border security and enforcement 
operations are being conducted but with minimal essential personnel.
  Right now, at this very moment, the National Targeting Center, at 
which Customs and Border Protection officers check traveler watch lists 
and ensure that dangerous criminals and cargo never reach American 
soil, is operating, but its personnel are not being paid.
  Right now, at this very moment, the E-Verify system is not operating, 
making it impossible for employers to check the lawful immigration 
status of potential employees.
  So this bill before us provides for continuing appropriations to 
ensure that frontline agents along our borders receive their pay and 
that certain components of DHS can carry out their border security and 
enforcement missions at full strength.
  Let me remind my colleagues that our border is not secure. In fact, 
our border is constantly under siege from smugglers and traffickers 
alike, and it is our duty to ensure that sufficient resources are 
provided to carry out the necessary security, enforcement and 
interdiction efforts. That is precisely what this bill does.
  This bill ensures that Border Patrol can fully conduct its operations 
from San Diego to Brownsville and all along our northern border as 
well. This bill ensures that ICE can fully conduct its investigations. 
This bill ensures that the Coast Guard can fully conduct interdiction 
in both the source and transit zones and off the coasts of California, 
Texas, Florida, and all maritime approaches to the United States. This 
bill ensures that our immigration verification and biometric identity 
systems are up and running. This bill also takes steps to turn on our 
E-Verify system.
  Mr. Speaker, all of us are aware that the government is shut down 
despite the numerous attempts to move forward. We have repeatedly 
offered versions of continuing resolutions to sustain the government's 
operations, but to no avail. Furthermore, we have offered to negotiate, 
to convene a conference and work out the differences in a professional 
and orderly manner, but such offers have been refused out of hand.
  This bill is yet another offer to the other side of the aisle to at 
least fund vital components of the government. We have a duty to ensure 
our borders and coastlines are safe and secure and that our laws are 
being enforced. This bill does this without increasing the rate of 
spending and in a manner entirely consistent with the text of the 
noncontroversial H.J. Res. 59. In short, the bill before us is about 
getting our priorities right.
  It is my hope that the passage of this bill will not only support our 
border security and frontline agencies but will also lead to the 
reopening of the entire Federal Government.
  In closing, I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to lower 
their partisan blinders, to come to the table and work out the current 
impasse so that we can get on with the business of fixing our Nation's 
budgetary mess.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as 
I may consume.
  Have we had enough yet?
  The American people are fed up with partisan games and procedural 
gimmicks. They see right through them, and they are demanding that we 
come together and get the government back to work today.
  If the Speaker of the House is so sure that the votes for a clean 
funding bill are not there, he should call the vote to prove it to the 
American people. But he won't do that, because everyone in this Chamber 
knows that the Senate-passed continuing resolution would clear this 
House in a heartbeat and end this Tea Party-fueled dream of government 
collapse.
  Today, the majority has decided that the government function they 
want to give political cover to is border security. Border security, 
obviously, was not very high on their list. We have had to wait 10 days 
before they have gotten around to it.
  Of course, the question remains: Why didn't they think more about 
border security or cancer research or the national parks or women's and 
children's nutrition when they were shutting the government down in the 
first place last Monday? Ten days late and billions of dollars short, 
you might say.
  As someone who has worked for years in a bipartisan spirit to secure 
our Nation's border, I certainly appreciate that border security is one 
of the most sensitive and dangerous areas of the budget with which to 
play partisan political games. But I have to ask: What about the many 
other critical homeland security functions that this bill wouldn't do 
anything to fix, including protecting our Nation from cyber attacks, 
for example, or keeping our aviation and mass transit systems safe or 
funding the Secret Service or developing the next generation of 
explosive detection technology?
  We cannot continue to pick winners and losers by providing temporary 
funding for government services, operations and personnel. This 
piecemeal approach to governing is failing our constituents and is 
failing our economy. The only solution is to reopen the entire Federal 
Government by calling up the clean funding bill passed by the Senate.
  Mr. Speaker, last week, we were told by Republican leaders not to 
worry. Furloughed employees should stand by, they said, while the House 
votes to open the government one news cycle at a time. Americans' 
livelihoods can't wait for another news cycle. We are tired of waiting. 
We are tired of this charade.
  Let's dispense with this political theater. Let's get back to our 
basic job description: to keep the government open, to pay the 
country's bills, and to negotiate a comprehensive budget plan that 
lifts sequestration, revives our economy, and secures our fiscal 
future. The first step is a clean continuing resolution. Let's do that 
today.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), the chairman of the 
Appropriations Committee.
  Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding, and I rise 
in support of his bill.
  Mr. Speaker, this is around the 15th time that we have been trying to 
engage the other body in conversation about how we can reopen the 
government. They just simply refuse to talk about anything. We have 
sent over CRs. We have sent over amendments. We have sent over bills. 
This is the 11th of the many appropriations bills--CRs--at the 
sequester level that we are going to send to the Senate, and they just 
simply refuse to talk. I have never seen such a show of negligence and 
attendance to public duties.
  Normally, the time-honored tradition in the Congress--since the 
founding of this great country--is that, when the House passes a 
measure and when the Senate passes a measure and they differ, we 
appoint conferees: the Senate picks out some Members, the House picks 
out some Members, and we send them off to the back room to work out the 
differences and to bring the bills back. That is the way it has 
operated for all of these years. Yet the Senate just simply refuses to 
talk anything about how to reopen the government.
  This bill will help protect our homeland from terrorists, drug 
traffickers, smugglers, other criminals, and it facilitates legal 
immigration and ongoing investigations. Right now, our frontline 
operations are operating at a bare minimum. The men and women who are 
at work to protect our borders and our ports of entry are working 
without pay, and employers cannot guarantee the lawful immigration 
status of their prospective employees.
  To reinstate these critical functions, H.J. Res. 79 provides funding 
for border security efforts at the current annual rate of $18.8 
billion. This includes funding for the Customs and Border Patrol, 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Coast Guard, Citizenship and 
Immigration Services, and the Office of Biometric Identity Management.
  These are functions of the Federal Government that are critical to 
our safety and well-being. They should not have to suffer the effects 
of this shutdown, but if we pass this bill today and if the Senate 
passes it and if the President signs it into law, it will stop any 
further adverse effects from befalling our border security while we 
work toward reopening the entire Federal Government.

[[Page H6468]]

  Piece by piece, the Republican House has been working toward 
reopening the government over the past week. We have done this all with 
no help--no input--from the Senate. The only thing we have heard from 
the Senate is a resounding ``no''--``no'' to working with us on a task 
force or on a committee to reopen the Federal Government and ``no'' to 
talking with us about our concerns over the multitude of fiscal crises 
we face. Despite this, the House has passed 15 bills over the past week 
to fund the government. This is on top of the continuing resolutions we 
put forward prior to the end of the fiscal year and the regular 
appropriations bills the House passed. Imagine what we could do if the 
Senate would come to the table and work with us. We could solve the 
problem.
  There is no question about it that we are never going to be able to 
get out of this mess if we don't come together, have a real, adult 
conversation, listen to each other earnestly, and negotiate in good 
faith. This crisis can't be solved by one party alone or by one body of 
the Congress alone. This bill is an effort to keep the ball moving 
toward our goal of ending the entire government shutdown.
  The Senate has asked for a clean CR to achieve that end. The funding 
in this bill is clean and in line with the spending from the last 
fiscal year. It is essentially what I put forward in my initial, clean 
CR. So I hope, with that in mind, the House and the Senate will pass 
this bill in short order.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the 
gentlelady from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), the ranking member of the 
Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee of the Homeland Security 
authorizing committee.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Let me thank the distinguished ranking member, and 
let me thank the chairman of this committee. Let me ask again for the 
hardworking employees of the Federal Government and for the hardworking 
employees of the Department of Homeland Security to stop being locked 
out.
  Mr. Speaker, as my ranking member indicated, I am the ranking member 
on the Border and Maritime Security Subcommittee. This piecemeal 
approach does not comprehensively address the question of the needs of 
homeland security.
  Frankly, I am in support of the work of Customs and Border 
Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Citizenship and 
Immigration Services, and the Coast Guard. You will find, probably, no 
greater supporter on these issues, but we need to be able to pass 
legislation such as H.R. 1417, comprehensively, to address all of the 
border aspects of this Nation. This is a gamble. This is throwing the 
dice. This is seeing whether or not we can get this piece and that 
piece, but it doesn't comprehensively deal with the entrances and 
exits. It doesn't comprehensively deal with comprehensive immigration 
reform.
  My message is to have a clean CR, to open the government, to protect 
our homeland security employees, and to protect the homeland.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.J. Res. 79, the 
``Border Safety and Security Act.''
  As Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Committee's Subcommittee 
on Border and Maritime Security, I strongly support the missions of 
Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 
Citizenship and Immigration Services, and the Coast Guard.
  You will find no greater advocate in Congress for the men and women 
of the Department of Homeland Security who work on the frontlines every 
day.
  That is why I am greatly troubled that the Republican Majority 
continues to take a piecemeal approach to funding our vital homeland 
security agencies, activities, and personnel.
  They know this bill has no chance of becoming law, but are putting on 
a piece of political theater today to pander to a fringe element within 
their party.
  We must not gamble with our Nation's security by picking winners and 
losers at DHS.
  Instead, this House needs to do its job and provide appropriations 
for the entire Department of Homeland Security, so that all of our 
Federal border, immigration, and homeland resources are operational.
  I call on the Republican Leadership to allow reasonable Members on 
both sides of the aisle to approve a Clean CR so that we can get DHS, 
and our entire government, working as it should be for the American 
people.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. McCaul), the chairman of the authorizing 
Committee on Homeland Security.
  Mr. McCAUL. I want to thank my colleague and good friend from Texas, 
the chairman, who knows the border, perhaps, better than any other 
Member in this body.
  We are all here, Mr. Speaker, to try and work through our differences 
over government funding. I hope that no one in this Chamber truly 
believes that we should play politics with the security of our borders, 
our last line of defense.

                              {time}  1300

  Yet right now, as we debate this important funding bill, our agents 
at the Department of Homeland Security--the Border Patrol, CBP, and 
ICE--are not fully funded, which diminishes their ability to secure our 
Nation's borders and puts American security and lives at risk.
  What kind of message would it send to our constituents all over this 
great country if we threw up our hands and said that providing for the 
common defense under the Constitution is no longer a priority? Yet that 
is exactly the debate we are having today.
  As the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, I will not stand 
by and let politics get the best of us. Our brave men and women on the 
border in my home State risk their lives daily. Just a few weeks ago, I 
visited with Border Patrol agents, border sheriffs, and ranchers in the 
Rio Grande sector in south Texas, which has seen a 55 percent increase 
in illegal border crossings. This is not just an immigration issue, Mr. 
Speaker; it is a national security issue. Our border agents on the 
front line must be fully funded.
  I urge my colleagues to support the Border Safety and Security Act.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal-Allard), an outstanding member 
of our Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee.
  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the 
latest in a long line of disingenuous bills that won't bring us closer 
to ending the dangerous and reckless Republican shutdown.
  This bill represents an irresponsible approach to the serious 
challenge of defending the homeland in an increasingly dangerous world. 
This bill purports to protect the public; yet, it leaves critical 
functions of the Department of Homeland Security unfunded.
  For example, there is no money for TSA to keep the flying public 
safe; there is no money for the Office of Intelligence and Analysis to 
identify terror plots that endanger American lives; and there is no 
money for the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office to guard the homeland 
against smuggled weapons of mass destruction.
  Clearly, Republican obstructionism is undermining our American 
democracy and threatening our American national security.
  Mr. Speaker, the Boehner shutdown and Republican gamesmanship are 
hurting American families and endangering the American public. Let's 
defeat this bill, vote, pass a clean budget, and get all our government 
working to serve and defend all the American people and our American 
way of life.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from Michigan, Candice Miller, vice chairman of the House 
Committee on Homeland Security and the chairperson of the Subcommittee 
on Border and Maritime Security and a member of the great class of 
2002.
  Mrs. MILLER of Michigan. I certainly thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in very strong support of the bill that we 
are debating here, the Border Safety and Security Act.
  As vice chair of the House Homeland Security Committee and chair of 
the Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security, I, along with so many 
others, have worked to ensure that Congress gives the agents and the 
officers in the field the tools and the direction that they need to 
keep drugs and terrorists and others who would do us harm from entering 
our country. That is what this legislation is about today.
  Much of the controversy surrounding the government shutdown has 
actually focused on ObamaCare. But, Mr. Speaker, there is nothing, 
absolutely zero, in

[[Page H6469]]

the bill that we are talking about right now that has anything to do 
with ObamaCare.
  The only thing that is in this bill and that we are discussing today 
is whether or not we will help provide the funds to ensure that we can 
protect our Nation's borders and pay the men and women of the U.S. 
Border Patrol, the Customs and Border Protection, and also the 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
  I know many of our friends on the other side of the aisle will once 
again oppose this legislation because they say they need an entire 
government funding bill or they won't accept anything else, yet I would 
note that they are calling Republicans ``absolutists.''
  I also know that there are many on the other side of the aisle that 
will support this bill and will help us pass this, again, with a very 
strong bipartisan majority. I simply hope that the leaders of the 
Senate will look at the strong bipartisan support of this bill and take 
it up. Border security, Mr. Speaker, cannot be a casualty of our 
inability to compromise. The agencies that are responsible for 
protecting this country must be fully funded.
  I urge the House to support this bill today, to pass this bill today, 
and I certainly urge the Senate and the White House to join us in 
supporting the men and women across the Nation charged with protecting 
our border.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I am glad to yield 2 
minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the ranking 
member of the full authorizing Committee on Homeland Security.
  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. I thank Ranking Member Price for 
yielding me time.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express strong opposition to H.J. Res. 
79, the Border Safety and Security Act.
  This is the second time in 2 weeks that I have come to the House 
floor to discuss cherry-picked funding at the Department of Homeland 
Security. Neither last week's measure nor the one before us today 
stands a snowball's chance of ever being enacted into law. Even if they 
did, Congress still would not have done its job to fully fund the 
important homeland and non-homeland security activities carried out by 
the Department of Homeland Security.
  As ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am troubled 
that the Republican majority is not only picking winners and losers 
within the Federal Government, but also within the Department of 
Homeland Security.
  This country faces real threats every day--from natural disasters, to 
accidents with catastrophic results, to terrorism. The people we 
represent deserve real action, not petty posturing. For today's 
installment of the ``mini-CR'' show, the majority is shining the 
spotlight on ICE agents, Border Patrol agents, Customs and Border 
Protection officers, and Coast Guard personnel. Americans see through 
this hollow attempt at using patriotic Americans serving in the front 
lines of Homeland Security as pawns.
  If the majority is serious about ensuring that our patchwork of 
Federal border, immigration, and homeland resources are operational, 
they would reopen the entire Department of Homeland Security. This 
majority is not serious about taking real action. They want to score 
political points with a fringe element in their party.
  I call upon like-minded colleagues on both sides of the aisle to 
stand with me and approve a clean CR.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 
seconds.

  Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. With every passing day, more injury is 
done to our economy and our standing in the world. The once 
unthinkable--a default on U.S. debt--is looking more and more possible.
  We must stand together and inject some rationality here and bring an 
end to this long national tantrum that has been orchestrated by 50 of 
the most radical Members of the majority.
  Mr. Speaker, the majority must let this House consider and pass a 
clean CR so that we can get this government up and working again.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson), my colleague, the chairman of the 
Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee of the 
Appropriations Committee and a hardworking member of our subcommittee.
  Mr. CULBERSON. Thank you, Chairman Carter.
  Mr. Speaker, the question we are about to vote on is very simple: Do 
you support--yes or no--fully funding our law enforcement officers on 
the border and our Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers?
  This is not complicated. It is not anything more complicated than we 
are, as the majority in the House, seeking to find areas of agreement. 
Common sense and common courtesy and any negotiations require that you 
find areas of agreement that are absolutely essential, set those aside, 
and move on to the issues where you may have some disagreement.
  This is not complicated. Yes or no, do you support fully funding our 
Border Patrol agents and our Immigrations and Customs Enforcement 
agents? That is the only issue before us.
  We have, as a Congress, already fully funded our military. We made 
sure that our men and women in uniform were paid. We have already, in 
this House, set aside funds to make sure that our veterans are paid. We 
passed legislation to ensure that they receive all the benefits that 
they have earned by their service to the country.
  Any negotiation--anyone, anywhere in the country--if you have a 
disagreement, you find areas where you can agree that are very 
important and you get those behind you, and then you get to those areas 
where there are disagreements.
  There are fundamental important differences that are a core principle 
to us as constitutional conservatives. We do not want to participate in 
bankrupting the United States of America. We do not want to participate 
in socializing the greatest health care system the Nation has ever and 
the world has ever created. We will not idly stand by and allow our 
children and grandchildren to inherit such a crushing level of debt and 
taxation that they cannot afford and their quality of life will be 
diminished. These are matters of core principle to us.
  Our right to be left alone as Americans is, I think, one of our most 
important. Certainly, Texans feel that way. But, first and foremost, we 
believe in law enforcement. We believe in supporting our military, and 
we urge our colleagues to vote with us today to enforce the law.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), ranking member of the full 
Appropriations Committee.
  Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the reckless 
Republican shutdown.
  While the men and women who secure our border risk their lives, their 
paychecks are in jeopardy. I am very glad, Mr. Speaker, that the 
majority is talking about border security, particularly after they have 
frozen salaries for the Border Patrol for the past 3 years.
  Yes, we should fund border security. I have been a strong advocate 
for funding border security. But we cannot adequately protect our 
homeland by funding one agency at a time. We also must fund the Secret 
Service, the TSA, and cybersecurity, none of which, Mr. Speaker, is 
included in this bill.
  Mr. Speaker, the claim that Democrats aren't negotiating is 
absolutely false. The Senate adopted the most important part of the 
House bill--the funding level--and the President supported it even 
though Democrats want greater investments to support economic growth. 
The only thing Democrats say ``no'' to are irresponsible efforts to put 
health care decisions back in the hands of insurance companies, which 
has nothing to do with keeping the government open.
  That is democracy. That is negotiation. We have done more than meet 
in the middle, but the Republicans now say ``no'' to their own bill.
  We could end the shutdown today if the majority would only support a 
reasonable solution to allow a vote on the Republican-written, Senate-
passed bill.
  Vote ``no'' and demand a House vote to immediately end the reckless 
Republican shutdown.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, could I inquire as to how 
much time remains on each side?

[[Page H6470]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from North Carolina has 10 
minutes remaining. The gentleman from Texas has 5\1/2\ minutes 
remaining.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), another fine colleague from the 
Appropriations Committee.

                              {time}  1315

  Mr. FARR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Price for yielding.
  I was sitting in my office listening to this, and I realized that 
what our sessions are about are telling the American people some of the 
truth some of the time. The truth of the matter is that this is all 
about the fact that an extreme division of the Republican Party doesn't 
like the Affordable Care Act, which was signed into law 3\1/2\ years 
ago, and so they are using the appropriations process to shut down 
Congress.
  We keep saying you don't need to do this. It has been a law for 3\1/
2\ years; and guess what, in those 3\1/2\ years we have passed 17 CRs; 
17 CRs have been passed since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. And 
guess what, Republicans voted for almost every one of them. So what is 
the difference now?
  This is just craziness. Our whole country is being put at risk 
because they won't do what we have done every year because they don't 
like the Affordable Care Act. Now if you don't like something, use a 
law-making process called an authorization. When you don't like 
something, you take a different bill and fix it. You can say, well, we 
don't like it; we don't even want to fix it. I use the argument that 
the Democrats didn't like Medicare part D because of the way it was 
being done. We voted against it, but we never shut down government. We 
got around to saying, yes, it is the law; let's fix it. When you pass a 
big law, there are always some things you need to fix. We can fix 
things, but this is not the process to do it, shutting down government. 
And the idea of bringing you whatever you like today, we are just going 
to vote on one thing, one part of government. Now we are onto just one 
piece. You know we are never going to get around to all of the pieces 
because they don't like all of government. So they hold these votes.
  This is ridiculous. This is putting the country, the world, and lots 
of people at risk. We could just pass a keep-the-government-open bill, 
which we have done 17 times since 2010, 17 times without this rancor, 
without this division.
  Come on. Don't give us part of the truth some of the time.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire if my colleague has any more 
speakers.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I am prepared to close.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, our Republican colleagues 
today have spoken accurately of the time-honored tradition of passing a 
budget in this Congress and then passing appropriations bills, one 
hopes on budget and on time, in an orderly fashion, conforming to the 
agreed-upon budget resolution.
  Now, for a while this year, we thought we were on the same page with 
regard to agreeing on a budget going forward. In fact, colleagues will 
remember that Republicans badgered the Senate in past years for not 
having passed a budget. This year, the Senate passed a budget. The 
Senate worked hard and passed a credible budget; we looked forward to a 
more normal process being resumed.
  But we were soon disabused of that, because the Republican leadership 
of this House steadfastly refused to go to conference to work out a 
common budget with the Senate which, of course, is the normal process.
  We have been urging that the House go to conference for months. Why 
did they refuse? We have thought a lot about that. One possible reason 
is that no comprehensive budget plan could possibly pass their 
conference, given the Tea Party influence in that conference these 
days. That is the explanation that is suggested, I have to say, by the 
failure of Speaker Boehner's ``Plan B'': remember that, back in 
December? They left President Obama's budget overture on the table, 
never taking him up on that comprehensive offer.
  But then after a while, our Republican friends warmed up to the idea 
of stalling on this, and we gradually realized: They are running out 
the clock! The Republicans are running out the clock. Why are they 
doing that? Maybe they are looking for a crisis atmosphere, letting the 
government shut down, running up against the possibility of default. In 
a crisis atmosphere, maybe they think they can extract more. Maybe they 
can extract more, by demanding a ransom, a political ransom. the 
Affordable Care Act, whatever. Because now with the clock run out, you 
are talking not just about negotiating a budget; you are talking about 
demanding a ransom merely to keep the government open; demanding a 
ransom merely to pay the country's bills, basic constitutional 
responsibilities which this body should meet without any threat of 
extortion.
  Meanwhile, of course, they understand the public doesn't like this. 
So we have the spectacle today of yet another bill seeking political 
cover, to fund piecemeal a function of government which has been in the 
news and which people value.
  Well, this charade has to end. Yes, we need to get back to the normal 
budget process in this country. The first step is to pass a clean 
funding bill to reopen the government, and the votes are here in this 
body to do that this afternoon. We also must lift the threat of 
defaulting on the Nation's debt.
  And then, sure enough, let's get on with the negotiating of a 
comprehensive budget agreement, a budget agreement along the lines of 
the budget plans of 1990 and 1993. These budget plans helped produce a 
robust economy, and eventually produced 4 years of budget surpluses. We 
paid off $400 billion of the national debt in those years. Those were 
comprehensive agreements, to be sure. They were politically tough. They 
did include revenues. They included all categories of spending. They 
were painful votes for many in this body, but I continue to think they 
were among the best votes I ever cast. That is where we need to go. We 
all know that.
  The question is, can we find the political will to get there? Let's 
muster that political will. We have had enough of the ransom demands. 
Let's reopen the government, let's lift the debt ceiling, and let's get 
on with serious negotiations, the kind of budget negotiations we should 
have been having all year.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. CARTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, if anyone has been watching what has gone on in this 
House for the last couple of weeks and this week, it reminds me of the 
movie ``Groundhog Day.'' The alarm rings, and we stand up and we do the 
same thing and we hear the same arguments consistently. I mean, you 
could have just heard this argument, and that is the argument that has 
been made throughout the entire almost-2 weeks now. So maybe it is time 
to talk about something that is called regular order in this House of 
Representatives.
  We have something called the appropriations process. We divide up the 
funding of the government into 12 sections, and we have classification 
of those sections and each subcommittee presents a bill to the 
committee for the funding of a certain Department. In our case, Mr. 
Price and I deal with Homeland Security. That bill is then brought to 
the floor and passed by the floor after it passes out of regular 
committee, and then it is sent to our colleagues in the Senate on the 
other side of this great building. At that point in time, normal 
procedure would be for them to deal with the appropriations process on 
their side.
  So I can't speak for all of government, but I certainly can speak for 
Homeland Security, and Mr. Price, I don't think, would dispute this: we 
passed our bill out of the House. So we don't even need to be here 
today, and we shouldn't even have needed to be here last week when we 
were here because, quite frankly, we have given a bill to deal with the 
problems of financing and supporting those people who defend our 
borders and all of the other things that we take care of in Homeland, 
and it has been sitting on the desk of Mr. Harry Reid in the Senate 
since June of this year, a long time before this so-called crisis 
arose. We could have it completely passed and signed by the President 
if the Senate

[[Page H6471]]

had just done regular order. But they haven't.
  So as it relates to the issues we discuss here today, the reason 
these issues even come up is that the Democrat-controlled Senate has 
not done their job, and they have not dealt with the appropriations 
process.
  Today, as last week, we are dealing with an important portion of this 
process. It is so important that the very security of our Nation 
depends upon a secure border. The great debate that has gone on for 3 
or 4 years, recent years as we look at the overall immigration crisis, 
is: What about the security of our borders?
  We have spent billions of dollars making it as secure as we can, and 
we will continue to secure those borders. All we think we should do is 
pay the people that are doing the job now and get the border secure. 
This is important to the future of our Nation.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.J. Res 
79, a bill which claims to fund border security, but in reality is just 
a continuation of the piecemeal approach to funding government 
operations being used by the House Republican leadership to create 
political cover for their continued refusal to hold a vote to 
immediately reopen the entire government.
  I support funding border security and appreciate greatly the 
dedicated men and women who work to keep our borders secure, but I do 
not support this bill because, in the end, it does more harm than good.
  I believe the proper way to fund border security is for Congress to 
fulfill its responsibility to pass regular appropriations bills. The 
House passed a full year funding bill for the Department of Homeland 
Security in June that would provide $40.1 billion more for DHS than the 
bill before us today.
  Using a cherry-picking approach to fund selected programs within an 
agency neglects other important programs within that same agency. In 
this case, supporting H.J. Res 79 funds border security at the expense 
of other Homeland Security-related functions like the Secret Service, 
the Army Corps of Engineers, the Transportation Security Administration 
and the Office of Disaster Assistance at the Small Business 
Administration.
  The fact is that by taking up the Senate's clean continuing 
resolution and sending it to the President for his signature tonight, 
we can fund border security, DHS and all the other important programs 
and services of the government. That is why I call on my colleagues to 
bring up the Senate CR so we can end this shut down and get all our 
federal workers back on the job.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
  Pursuant to House Resolution 371, 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.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further 
consideration of House Joint Resolution 79 is postponed.

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