[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 152 (Friday, December 12, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1837-E1838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     INSULAR AREAS AND FREELY ASSOCIATED STATES ENERGY DEVELOPMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. DAVID W. JOLLY

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 9, 2014

  Mr. JOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this important 
appropriations measure to keep our government funded and open, but I 
also rise to encourage my colleagues on our side of the aisle and 
address many of the concerns I have heard.
  In July of this year, this House, our side of the aisle, passed a 
border security bill focused on protecting our borders from illegal 
entries, building facilities at the border to hold illegal entrants at 
the point of crossing, increasing the amount of immigration law judges 
and tele-courtrooms that allow undocumented individuals to be 
adjudicated close to the border instead of being provided travel to 
courts around the nation, and authorizing our National Guard to respond 
to the spike in illegal border crossings.
  This House passed that measure. The Senate refused to consider it. 
The President would not sign it.
  Last week, this House, our side of the aisle, passed legislation 
declaring null and void the President's recent Executive Order granting 
temporary amnesty to millions who have broken our laws. I was proud to 
be a cosponsor of that legislation.
  This House passed that measure. The Senate refused to consider it. 
The President would not sign it.
  After the President's Executive Order, dozens of us, including 
myself, sent a letter asking the leadership of the House Appropriations 
Committee to attach a provision to this bill declaring that none of the 
funds provided to the Administration may be used to implement the 
President's amnesty order. But the Senate refuses to consider it. The 
President will not sign it.
  The numbers today are simply not on our side. And our only remaining 
recourse is to shut down the government--a tactic that I cannot 
support, that I said I would not support when I was elected, and I 
intend to keep my word. This is a tactic that I believe is terribly 
wrong for our country, for our economy and for private sector jobs 
throughout the country.
  And so today we should say to the American people, ``The President, 
the Senate, they must own their legacy. And this House must own ours.''
  So what is our legacy today on this side of this aisle? It is a 
legacy of fighting for Constitutional principles, adherence to the rule 
of law and separation of powers ordained by our founders, and it is a 
legacy that today includes a good appropriations bill that is right for 
the country, and frankly, right for conservatives.
  The bill we pass today:
  1. Prohibits any funding for the president's Race to the Top 
Education program, better known throughout the country as Common Core;
  2. Slashes the budget of the Internal Revenue Service and prohibits 
the agency from targeting non-profit groups based on political or 
ideological affiliations;
  3. Reins in the Environmental Protection Agency's plans to reach 
further into our local communities with regulations opposed by mayors, 
homeowners, businesses, and agriculture interests;
  4. Maintains critical pro-life protections preventing tax dollars 
from being used for abortion related services;
  5. Cuts Obamacare's Independent Payment Advisory Board which uses 
price controls to impact available care to patients;
  6. Prohibits the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to prisons here 
in the United States; and,
  7. It prohibits Department of Justice programs like Fast & Furious.
  And most importantly, this bill represents a continued dramatic 
rollback of our federal budget. This bill spends approximately $1.1 
trillion on federal activities, down from approximately $1.4 trillion 
just five years ago. This budget is lower than we have seen in years 
and represents a historic downturn in spending--all at the hands of 
Republicans in Congress. Recall that the President submitted his budget 
proposal at the beginning of this year and it was resoundingly rejected 
by both the House and the Senate, including rejection by many members 
of his own party. This is our budget now, and it is a budget we should 
support.
  This budget prioritizes the right programs for federal spending. It 
funds our men and women in uniform with the tools and technology they 
need to safely combat threats around the globe. It provides increased 
funding to the Veterans Affairs Administration to decrease wait times 
for benefit applicants. It wisely invests in targeted medical research 
to address Alzheimer's, cancer, and pediatric sub-specialties.
  Finally, and let's be very clear here, this legislation allows us to 
combat the President's Executive Order on amnesty from a much stronger 
position in a matter of weeks.
  We don't have the votes today in the Senate to overturn the 
President's amnesty order. That is the reality. There is no means to 
get a measure even to the President's desk for him to veto. We simply 
don't have the votes in the Democrat-controlled chamber on the other 
side of this Capitol. It would be short-sighted for us to convince 
ourselves otherwise and proceed listlessly down a path to what would 
only lead to a government shutdown--a shutdown that would break the 
faith of the American people who have entrusted us with the 
responsibility to govern.
  But we will, beginning January 6. In mere weeks, we will have a 
Senate controlled by conservatives who can join with this body, this 
side of the aisle, and continue our legacy of fighting for 
Constitutional convictions over Constitutional compromise.
  Let us today embrace these critically important incremental 
conservative successes in this appropriations bill--successes that 
reflect our view of government--and let us then return to this body in 
only a few weeks with our new Senate colleagues to continue the fight 
on behalf of the American people. We can then lay on the President's 
desk legislation that challenges his Executive Order and asks him to 
defend what we all believe is an intellectually dishonest 
interpretation of his authority under Article II of the Constitution.
  Colleagues, I urge your support.

[[Page E1838]]



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