[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 95 (Friday, June 8, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H5001-H5004]
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, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the
majority leader the schedule for the week to come.
I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the majority
leader.
(Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his
remarks.)
Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, on Monday, no votes are expected in the House. 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 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.
Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next
week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business
today. All of these bills will be focusing on one thing: fighting our
Nation's opioid epidemic.
America has the greatest mission statement in the world: form a more
perfect Union. This is our task here.
I am encouraged by all of the good things I am seeing around the
country. We have 6.7 million jobs open. We have just created our
millionth job since the tax cut has been passed. Unemployment is tying
a 50-year low. In fact, Mr. Speaker, in the last 49 years, there has
only been 7 months where unemployment has been below 4 percent, and two
of those months were April and May that we just went through.
Americans' net worth has increased to $100 trillion. That is $7
trillion since the election, the highest we have ever seen. We also
just passed last night, Mr. Speaker, the largest rescission package in
the history of Congress.
But I also know that it is our responsibility to work every day to
make our Nation even stronger. So, Mr. Speaker, we are in the middle of
the deadliest drug crisis in history. For the first time, drug
overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the
age of 50. 174 of our friends and family, our neighbors, are lost every
day to substance abuse. Simply put, we need all hands on deck to attack
this crisis.
That is why we will bring over 60 bills from eight different
committees to the floor in the coming weeks to combat this crisis and
save lives. This includes:
H.R. 5788, the Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act,
sponsored by Representative Mike Bishop. This bill will close
loopholes in international shipping to stop the flow of synthetic
opioids;
Next, H.R. 5735, the THRIVE Act, sponsored by Representative Andy
Barr, which would establish a pilot program for evidence-based
transitional housing nonprofits that have experience in recovery and
skills training;
H.R. 2851, the Stop Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic
Analogues Act, sponsored by Representative John Katko. This bill will
enable law enforcement to more swiftly respond to synthetic drugs and
keep our communities safe.
Along with numerous other bills, passing these will truly help us
form a more perfect Union.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my friend across the
aisle. We are no strangers to droughts in California, but a 44-year
championship drought is quite something. So congrats to my friend's
beloved Washington Capitals on finally winning Lord Stanley's cup. It
was a fun series to watch. It was a well-deserved victory for your team
and for all of the fans of this region.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for the information he has
given us, and I certainly thank him for his comments at the close of
his initial statement on the colloquy.
We are all ecstatic, as I am sure the gentleman can understand, that
after 44 years--and I might say I was an initial season ticket holder
to the Washington Capitals, who started their career at the Capital
Center in Prince George's County under the ownership and tutelage of
Abe Pollin, an extraordinary member of our community who died, and then
now under Ted Leonsis' leadership, and, of course, Alex Ovechkin's
extraordinary accomplishments of his own, being named the most valuable
player.
And I might say, as I know the gentleman would join me in saying, the
Las Vegas team had an extraordinary accomplishment themselves, being
the first expansion team ever to make it to the finals in the National
Championship.
So, it was a wonderful night for those of us who live in the
Washington National Capital area, and we thank the gentleman for his
observation.
Let me say as well, that we share the gentleman's happiness that the
economy is doing well. It is doing well. What he did not observe, but
we are happy about, is that President Obama, under his leadership, took
this economy from the worst economy that the gentleman and I have
experienced in our lifetimes to one of the best.
Now, it was not the best, because the best economy was under Bill
Clinton in the late 1990s in terms of almost every indication. But it
is certainly positive information, as the gentleman has pointed out, of
where the economy is now.
So we all welcome that. We are hopeful, of course, that we will build
on that.
The gentleman mentions there are over 6 million jobs available. One
of the challenges, as the gentleman knows, is that we don't have the
skill sets matching the jobs, and that is why they are vacant. That is
why they are unable to fill them. We need to, I think, focus on that.
We need to focus on investing in our infrastructure.
But as was mentioned on the floor yesterday in terms of a couple of
the bills Tim Ryan, in particular, mentioned, there are still 4 in 10
adults who can't pay a $400 bill if it came present. So we have work to
do, and hopefully we can do that together.
But it certainly is good news that unemployment is down and the
economy is moving along, continuing in the path that, from our
perspective, was set by President Obama, and that President Trump,
unlike President Obama, inherited a thriving, robust, growing economy.
So I am pleased that we have gone to that place.
Now, I know the gentleman indicated that a number of opioid-related
bills will be on the floor next week. I talked to the chairman of the
committee yesterday, the gentleman from Oregon, and most of those are
bipartisan bills. I hope all of them will end up, as they come to the
floor, as bipartisan bills.
The addiction crisis, of course, requires that we invest in a
comprehensive, long-term approach to expanding access to substance
abuse treatment. I hope we can tackle this issue in a meaningful and
bipartisan way. But I do want to address a number of other upcoming
items for this work period, starting with the farm bill.
As the gentleman knows, last month, the farm bill failed on the House
floor, and we have until June 22 to reconsider. My question is: Does
the gentleman expect that we will see a farm bill on the floor by June
22?
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
The answer to the question is yes.
I believe the farm bill is incredibly important for so many reasons.
The food and agriculture industry drive more than 43 million jobs, over
a quarter of all American jobs.
And it is what you talked about earlier. Yes, the economy is moving
so well after the tax cut: more than 3 million new jobs, more than 1
million just since the tax cut bill went through, we recently reached.
[[Page H5002]]
And the other challenge we now find ourselves in, and it is an
interesting challenge we haven't found ourselves in in quite some time:
there are 6.7 million jobs out there, but only 6.3 million people
looking for them. It has been the reverse for quite some time, and we
are actually in a stronger position, so we need to have job training.
The uniqueness of this farm bill, it provides those able bodies who
do not have underage children, that we are going to give them the
training to help them get into the workforce. So it is just more good
news, and our intention is to pass that this month; and as soon as it
is scheduled, I will inform all Members.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his observation.
He talks about work. We are requiring those to work to work in order
to get government benefits. What is controversial about that?
Democrats support work. We want to see people working. We oppose,
however, your SNAP proposal because it is antiwork. You are taking a
work requirement that is working and replacing it with one that won't
work.
This is not about putting people to work. It is about pretending that
you care about work as cover for taking assistance away from struggling
families.
As a result of this bill, there will be fewer working--I know the
majority leader wants to hear this particular piece of information.
As a result of this bill as it is currently written, there will be
fewer working SNAP beneficiaries, not more, and millions more people
going hungry. That is the working poor who are getting nutritional
assistance for themselves and their families. There will be less of
them under your bill.
I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY. Well, I thank my friend for yielding, and this is just
a clear example of the difference in philosophical opinion.
{time} 1200
We had this same debate when it came to the tax bill--that it was
going to be Armageddon; if people got bonuses, it would be crumbs; and
that we would be in a really worse position than we are.
Well, as we found out, Mr. Speaker, that is totally untrue. The
economy is stronger. Again, in the last 49 years there has only been 7
months in the history of America where unemployment was below 4
percent. Two of those seven months are April and May of this year. We
just hit 1 million new jobs, based upon that tax cut. More so since the
election. Household wealth has increased by $7 trillion just since the
election.
Now, this is the philosophical difference. Currently, two-thirds of
able-bodied adults report no earned income at all. Why?
Because the SNAP program is letting them down. Not a single child or
family who currently qualifies will be cut off. Our proposal only
applies to those age 18 to 59. It exempts pregnant women, individuals
who are mentally or physically disabled, and the primary caregivers of
a child under the age of 6. What we do is give them the job training to
get back into the workforce.
Because of that, according to the Foundation for Government
Accountability, 83 percent of Americans support work requirements for
SNAP. That includes 71 percent of Democrats. Unfortunately, when that
bill came to the floor, every Democrat said no.
Mr. Speaker, that was the same thing that happened when we gave the
American public tax cuts and created new jobs and the lowest
unemployment--unemployment claims gives you the best projection of
unemployment--in 44 years. Forty-four years, Mr. Speaker.
Do you know another statistic that just came out?
Small businesses are the greatest creators of new jobs. Since 1974
they have always surveyed them and they asked them this question: Is
now a good time to expand?
Mr. Speaker, remember what a small business is. They don't have a
great amount of capital. It is at its highest level since they took
this poll.
So I don't mind having a philosophical difference of agreement,
because there is a contrast between us. There is a contrast in
philosophy. One believes it would be Armageddon if you let people keep
more of what they earn. The facts don't pan out. Thankfully, we were
successful, Mr. Speaker. The American people can keep more.
The other thing that happened, Mr. Speaker, is that 48 out of 50
States have a lower electrical bill. Also, in one company, 1.2 million
of their employees have longer maternity leave.
The sad part is, I wish I could have sat here and said: As America,
making it a more perfect Union, this whole body voted for it.
Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, one side had to carry the load.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is ecstatic about recent
statistics. I think that he has, of course, warrant to be.
Let me read to the gentleman statistics over a 68-year period where
Democrats have had the Presidency and Republicans have had the
Presidency on and off. The gentleman's words are almost exactly the
same words I heard in 2001 and 2003 when we were told and the country
was told, if we adopted those tax bills that the gentleman is so very
proud of--which is plunging our country $1.8 trillion into additional
debt, which he and his party wrung their hands about so repeatedly--and
that the CBO says is a result of what I believe to be the most fiscally
irresponsible Congress in which I have served.
Let me repeat that. I have served in 18 Congresses. I believe this
past Congress to be, this Congress that we are in, the most fiscally
irresponsible Congress in which I have served.
Yes, we have a philosophical difference. You gave 83 percent of your
tax revenues to the richest people in America. CBO says that; I don't
say that. And 17 percent to all the rest; i.e., some 300 million-plus
Americans.
Yes, we have a philosophical difference. We would have suggested that
the mix be a little fairer to those in the middle and the bottom of the
economic growth. But, no, you chose to give your benefits to the
wealthiest in America. Not surprising. It is trickle-down economics one
more time.
In 2001 and 2003, what happened? You did the tax cuts.
And what happened 6 years later? The country was plunged into the
deepest recession you, Mr. Majority Leader, or me have ever experienced
in our life. As a matter of fact, you have to be over 90 years of age
to have experienced a deeper recession than was brought on by the Bush
economic policies in the last decade, a depth of recession which the
Obama policies brought us out of faster than any other nation in the
world.
Those are the statistics. Faster than any other nation. The stock
market--we are all about the stock market. The stock market went up
almost 300 percent under Barack Obama. Now, when you get to 300
percent, we will about how well you have done. We will see what your
trade policies that the President is imposing on the country do to
employers and to employees and to consumers. We will see.
But let me tell you what has happened over the last 68 years under
Democratic Presidents and under Republican Presidents. The gentleman
wants to know about history. Under Republican Presidents over the 36
years that your party enjoyed control of the Presidency, the GDP grew
by an average of 2.5 percent. Under Democrats for 32 years, by 4.1
percent.
Now, what did that 1.6 percent difference mean?
What it meant was, under Republican Presidents over the last 68
years, 35 million jobs were created. The gentleman talks about jobs.
Under Democratic Presidents--4 less years, 32 years--there were 64.960
million jobs created.
Now, I hope, unlike your past performance, that the job growth
continues, that the stock market increase continues, but that has not
been the history. We will see.
So I hope that when you deal with the farm bill, notwithstanding your
statistics, that you bring a bipartisan bill. Very frankly, the farm
bill has historically been a farm bill. But what you did was passed a
tax bill giving the rich 83 percent of its benefits. And in the farm
bill you were taking nutritional assistance away from families and
children. That is why you couldn't pass it, among other reasons. It was
not bipartisan, as it was two Congresses ago when we reauthorized this.
You tried to cut the SNAP program by $40 billion.
The gentleman well knows the Senate is not pursuing your policies
either
[[Page H5003]]
on the Republican side or the Democratic side.
You are missing a lot of good information.
The fact of the matter is, you know your farm bill is not going to
pass the Senate.
Mr. Leader, on the farm bill I would urge you to come together with
us. I don't know that there is a more bipartisan member of this
Congress than Collin Peterson, the ranking Democratic on the
Agriculture Committee. Very frankly, the chairman was not interested in
a bipartisan bill. I don't know whether it was by direction or his own
view.
But let us come to a bipartisan agreement on this farm bill and pass
it over to the Senate so that you can do something, not just talk about
how you are reducing nutritional assistance to people that rely on it
for their food every day.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I would be upset, too, if I voted against every economic bill brought
to this floor that had the opportunity to grow America--and the
statistics prove it.
It is not me saying it. It is The New York Times. To be frank, Mr.
Speaker, I don't think they have ever said many nice things about
Republicans. But this is what they said about the economics of today:
``We ran out of words to describe how good the job numbers are. The
economy is in a sweet spot, with steady growth and broad improvement in
the labor market.'' That is The New York Times.
I don't have a problem if you are upset by the fact that the economy
is exactly what we said would happen if we got the economic changes we
desired. Just as when we looked at deregulation, we will continue to
make this move forward.
Now, Mr. Speaker, I have heard many times on the other side of the
aisle in these colloquies: Work with us. Work with us on CHIP.
But, Mr. Speaker, they are being directed by people higher up not to
work with us in the committee, just as they said not to work with us on
the farm bill, when we were working together the whole time. But we
kept the things they wanted inside that bill.
Just as we voted on this floor a little earlier today, there was a
message that went out from the leader on the other side to not vote at
all. So they held their votes until it passed, and 23 brave, courageous
individuals on the other side broke from the letter that the leadership
asked them not to vote for.
What was it about?
It was about VA and veterans.
I think you have got to stop playing politics.
Just last night on this floor, Mr. Speaker, I heard from my dear
friend who was very concerned because there was an agreement and the
trust was going to be broken. Even though at the end of the day he
couldn't vote for that agreement and trust that we worked so hard
together on in an omni, that if we did anything in a rescission package
to cut funding that the taxpayers would want us to do, that he couldn't
deal with the omni.
So I took him at his word. He said: You had 1, 2, 3 years in these
committees. They just sat there in these programs.
There is a program in there that has $4.7 billion parked by the Obama
administration to help fund electric cars. What was the one automotive
company that went bankrupt and took the money as well? Fisker. That is
$4.7 billion. Nothing has been done on that since 2011.
So I took him at his word. We worked with the administration. We
brought the largest rescission package here, because, yes, we want to
take care of this debt. We think it is the responsibility of everybody
here. But, no, those words rang hollow that day. There wasn't a vote
for that, but we were able to pass it anyway.
I look right here at the Economic Cycle Research Institute in October
2016. It is their numbers. There was a 2 percent average growth under
Obama versus 2.7 under Bush. In terms of average pace of GDP growth,
Obama's was the slowest expansion on record. The numbers prove
otherwise on what you say, but the most important thing it proves is
that people are working. People care about the security of their job.
People care about the security and safety of the country.
I feel very thankful that next week our President will be sitting
down with the leader of North Korea with the hopes that we can make
this world more secure.
We are building the security of jobs. We are building the security of
the world. I would firmly believe: Let the American public judge
whether they are better off today than they were a few short years ago.
I don't need numbers to show it. I can just see every statistic, the
jobs, the people, and I am proud of that fact.
I ask, Mr. Speaker, the other side to follow through. I have heard
time and again: I would never shut the government down; we wouldn't go
that political. But when the day came, they did.
Politics and the election are over. Let's put people before politics.
Let's make sure this country is secure economically and secure with
safety around the world. And that is exactly what we are doing here.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I hear the words of the majority leader. He
and his party, without exception, opposed President Obama's programs.
Without exception.
We became the majority in 2007, and we worked with President Bush on
a number of things, including a very substantiation environmental bill
signed by President Bush, and other bills as well.
He mentions about the rescission package. Mr. Speaker, if you will
recall, when we had this debate some weeks ago, he said everything in
this rescission bill is what we don't need.
Guess what, Mr. Speaker? Ebola money was rescinded in that bill some
weeks ago, but not in this bill. He changed it because, very frankly,
Mr. Speaker, they found out, oops, we need the Ebola money. So they
took it out of this bill.
We think you need the CHIP money. We think we need the CHIP money to
make sure that if there is a happening or an occurrence that occurs,
the CHIP money is needed either directly or indirectly to make sure
that children, in fact, are taken care of.
{time} 1215
Who has said that? Mr. Tom Cole has said that. We have used that
money effectively and appropriately.
So, Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that if the Ebola money--which
I was assured was not needed--that cut was restored by our Republican
friends, Mr. Speaker, because they found out, yes, it is needed.
Now, in terms of wasting time, 65 votes over the last Congress to
repeal the Affordable Care Act--65--with a full and unquestioned
knowledge that none of those votes would result in something happening
for our country in the United States Senate. They weren't going to vote
for that. They knew that. So we spent a lot of time on that.
Let me also say: The gentleman says let's get about our business. Let
me ask the gentleman: Does he expect a bill on the DACA protectees, the
Dreamers, to come on the floor next week?
Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend.
Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I said it before, and I will say it again: Republicans are committed
to solving this issue for good, not passing a bill and patting
ourselves on the back, but for dealing with this issue in a meaningful
way that is beneficial to hardworking Americans.
As you know, my door is always open. You have been there many times.
I am committed to bringing all Members to the table and working
together to solve this problem.
In fact, Mr. Speaker, I need to go to a meeting dealing with this
subject. I am late to it right now. But we will continue to work to
solve this problem.
Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I would only say, I
appreciate his comments. But, Mr. Speaker, I have heard them a long
time, many, many times: We are going to solve this issue.
Mr. Ryan came to the floor and said: We are going to solve this
issue. You vote for this caps bill, and we will get an immigration bill
on the floor that will solve this issue.
That was some 2\1/2\ months ago. It is not solved yet, Mr. Speaker. I
hope the
[[Page H5004]]
leader does, in fact, bring a bill to the floor quickly.
In fact, the suggestion that had been made by many Members of his
party and mine to bring four options to the floor seems absolutely
consistent with the Speaker's pledge to take the tough issues head-on;
and that is, bring the Democratic bill that is cosponsored by one of
the senior Republicans, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, to the floor; bring the
Goodlatte bill, which has been reported out of the Republican Judiciary
Committee, to the floor; bring a bill cosponsored by Mr. Hurd and Mr.
Aguilar to the floor.
Then what we provide, Mr. Leader, is that the Speaker can bring a
bill to the floor of his choosing. What could be fairer than that to
let the people's House speak on this critically important issue? So I
would hope the gentleman would facilitate that coming to the floor.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, let me say that this is the most closed Congress
in history. He talks about coming to his office, and I have. We have
worked constructively and positively together, and I have great respect
for the majority leader. I know he is very close to President Trump,
and he has talked about his working with President Trump to move
forward.
Let us hope that the talks with Korea bear fruit. We have had a lot
of talks with the Koreans. They have made a lot of pledges, and they
haven't followed them. We will see what happens. We are hoping for the
best.
In coming to your office, we have had some discussions. We have had
discussions about DACA. But, very frankly, when we come to this floor,
this is the most closed Congress, Mr. Leader, in recent history, if not
history. We have had 85 closed rules. Zero, not a single open rule have
we considered.
Over 2,000 germane amendments have been blocked by the Rules
Committee. Mr. Speaker, that is amendments that are in order, and they
have been blocked. In fact, 194 Republicans--Republicans--have been
refused the opportunity to move forward on their amendments.
Now, I know that the leader's schedule is such that we can conclude
this debate. I have other things to say. But I am hopeful that,
frankly, whatever we bring to the floor, bring it on a rule that
provides for full consideration, bring it that reflects facing the
tough issues, bring it so the House can work its will on these bills,
including the farm bill, including an immigration bill that protects
the Dreamers, and including other legislation so critical to this
country. Let the House work its will through the amendatory process.
Mr. Speaker, unless the gentleman wants to say something, I yield
back the balance of my time.
____________________