[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 30 (Thursday, February 25, 2016)]
[House]
[Page H900]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                              {time}  1045
        FREE HOUSTON METRO HOT LANE ACCESS FOR DISABLED VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, this morning I spent some time, and 
last evening, communicating with leaders of my transit system, Houston 
METRO, that has received numerous awards; and I applaud them for 
working very hard, sometimes against odds, to provide mobility for the 
great citizens of the Houston, Harris County, metroplex area.
  I had a particular beef, or a particular issue, that we have been 
working on since last November, and that is to give disabled veterans 
in this very vast territory of Texas the ability to ride on what we 
call the HOT lanes for free.
  My premise is simple. When we ask our men and women in the United 
States to put the uniform on, we ask, with no qualifications, meaning 
no restraints, that they are expected to defend the United States to 
the utmost. In the course of that, some fall in battle, lose their 
lives, or are veterans who ultimately come to their demise by their age 
and illnesses. Therefore, I think it is enormously important that, when 
they make a request that helps them in their mobility, whether it is to 
doctors' offices and family or going back to school, there should be no 
barriers, no restraints.
  So today my METRO board is meeting, and I made contact again, as I 
did this past week, with the committee, late into the night, to say 
that there should be no delay, no barrier in allowing those lanes to be 
used for free by disabled vets.
  I want this in the Record because I will pursue and persist, even to 
the extent that an emergency board meeting will need to be called. 
There just simply is no reason to delay. November, December, January, 
February, and near March, there is no reason to delay.
  I am waiting for the decision, and I will look forward to the 
Disabled Veterans of America and others reaching out to my office so 
that together, collectively, we can make sure that not only does this 
happen in Houston, Texas, but that it be a policy across America.
  We should find a way to be able to assist those who have willingly, 
without any hesitancy, and unselfishly, put on the uniform.


              Respect for the Three Branches of Government

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to turn the attention of my 
colleagues to another issue of justice, and that is the fair existence 
of and respect for the three branches of government.
  This involves vets and nurses and schools and school teachers and 
families across America. It is a process that the Congress goes through 
every year. We call it the budgeting process; and it is an act of 
Congress and the administration, we hope, working together.
  That is the time that the Congress works on the plan for the American 
people; and it is, of course, the time when the President works on the 
plan for the American people. It includes reports like this, an 
economic report of the President. It includes the budget, which is the 
roadmap for the American people.
  Let me be very clear. We are all elected; but there is one person--in 
this instance, one man--that has been elected by all of the people, and 
he has submitted a budget.
  I would not ever imagine in my tenure in Congress that we would have 
this Congress overlook a 41-year tradition for the American people, on 
their behalf, whether you are for it or against it: the right of the 
representative of the President, in this instance, Shaun Donovan, the 
President's Budget Director, to make his presentation before the United 
States Congress.
  If I were not standing on this floor, Mr. Speaker, I might simply 
break down and cry, because I love this institution. I love the 
constitutional processes documented in the Constitution of the three 
separate branches of government. We have often disagreed, but we have 
and should never disrespect.
  G. William Hoagland, who was the Republican staff director at the 
Senate Budget Committee for much of the 1980s and 1990s, now senior 
vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, could not recall a 
year, since the Martin budget process took effect in the 1970s, when a 
President's Budget Director was not invited to testify, Republican or 
Democrat.
  While the last budget of an outgoing President is usually 
aspirational and sets a tone for what he or she hopes will be followed 
up by, it is not and has not been a time to not see the President's 
budget. The President's budget is good for education and job creation 
and national security, and it does not cut, as the Republican budget 
does, Mr. Speaker, 46 percent in education.
  Where is our collegiality?
  Shame on us. Let the President's man speak on the budget.

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