[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 148 (Thursday, September 6, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7894-H7896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   MOTION TO INSTRUCT CONFEREES ON H.R. 6147, INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, 
  FINANCIAL SERVICES, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019

  Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, pursuant to clause 1 of rule XXII and by 
direction of the Committee on Appropriations, I have a motion at the 
desk.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Calvert moves that the House take from the Speaker's 
     table the bill, H.R. 6147, with the Senate amendment thereto, 
     disagree to the Senate amendment, and request a conference 
     with the Senate thereon.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from California is recognized 
for 1 hour.
  Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, this is a necessary step to continue to 
move the fiscal year 2019 appropriations process forward under regular 
order.
  On July 19, the House passed H.R. 6147 by a vote of 217-199, which 
includes the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies and the 
Financial Services and General Government bills.
  The Senate has now sent H.R. 6147 back to the House with the 
Agriculture

[[Page H7895]]

and Transportation bills added to the package. With the appointment of 
these conferees, the House and the Senate may begin to resolve 
differences, with the goal of passing H.R. 6147 before the end of the 
fiscal year.
  As such, I strongly support this motion.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the 
previous question on the motion.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The motion was agreed to.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I have a motion to instruct conferees at 
the desk.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Ms. McCollum moves that the managers on the part of the 
     House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two 
     Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 6147 be 
     instructed to agree to section 114 of division A of the 
     matter proposed to be added by the Senate amendment.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII, the 
gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum) and the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Calvert) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Minnesota.


                             General Leave

  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Minnesota?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, this motion would instruct conferees to use a 
provision from the Senate Interior Appropriations bill that guarantees 
full funding for the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program. The Payment in 
Lieu of Taxes program--or PILT, as I will refer to it from now on--
provides Federal payments to local governments to help offset the loss 
of property taxes due to nontransferable Federal lands within their 
boundaries.
  Since local governments cannot tax Federal lands, PILT payments help 
defray the cost for maintaining vital community services, such as 
police and fire protection and construction of schools and roads in 
many cases. It also provides much-needed search and rescue operations.
  To date, including fiscal year 2018 payments, approximately $8.5 
billion in payments have been made to local units of government. These 
payments are a vital lifeline for communities across this country.
  Originally, PILT was part of the discretionary appropriations 
process; but often, Congress failed to provide enough funding for our 
counties and they ended up being shortchanged. To stop this from 
happening and to correct the problem, the program was made mandatory. 
However, Congress has failed to authorize the PILT program, so we are 
back to funding PILT through the Interior Appropriations bill.
  Funding PILT through the discretionary appropriations process creates 
uncertainty and unpredictability for local governments across this 
country. Why? Because the amount available to be appropriated for PILT 
is constrained by the 302(b) allocation provided in the Interior, 
Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. And with less than a 1 
percent funding increase for 2018 and 2019, it just goes to show that 
the Interior allocation cannot continue to keep pace with the rising 
cost of PILT.
  At the same time, we need to meet other important obligations in the 
Interior bill, such as providing healthcare for Native Americans and 
Alaskan Natives, addressing the backlog of deferred maintenance on 
Federal lands, and maintaining our national parks, only to name a few.
  In the past 25 years, PILT has grown from $103 million to $553 
million in fiscal year '18. The estimate for this year is again going 
to exceed $500 million.
  I agree with our local units of government; PILT should be funded as 
a permanent mandatory program. But with the reauthorizers not having 
completed their work, the next best thing we can do is to pass this 
motion to guarantee full funding for our counties.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to pass this commonsense motion, 
and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Madam Speaker, I rise in reluctant opposition to the motion to 
instruct conferees. The House and Senate, both Democrats and 
Republicans, have been working together to complete work on as many 
appropriations bills as possible as quickly as possible. We face a 
looming deadline of September 30. We are making great progress.
  The conferees recognize the importance of the four bills included in 
this conference package: Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies; 
Financial Services and General Government; Agriculture, Rural 
Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies; and 
Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies. These programs 
support economic growth, the preservation and promotion of our natural 
resources and agricultural products, and critical law enforcement 
functions.
  As chairman of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies 
Subcommittee, I am determined to complete this legislation, a 
commitment I know my friends on the other side of the aisle and on the 
other side of the Capitol also share.
  As we are doing with the two other conference committees, both of 
which I am serving on, we are negotiating in good faith and working to 
ensure that the agencies and departments under these bills are 
adequately funded.
  The House and Senate are returning to regular order, and this is 
great news for the American people. We should let the process work as 
intended.
  Given this, this motion to instruct is unnecessary. I am sure it is 
going to be one of the items we will be discussing over the next few 
days. We should not risk any delays to completing the final conference 
report for these four bills, particularly given the deadline and 
limited number of legislative days ahead.
  Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this motion to instruct 
conferees, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Madam Speaker, I appreciate the chairman's reluctance in opposing 
this because the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program is a nonpartisan 
issue and it is something that the Interior, Environment, and Related 
Agencies Subcommittee has been struggling with over our allocations, 
and it is something, as I bring up, that the Senate has in their bill, 
something which I think is a good idea and should be discussed. I look 
forward to further discussions on this, as well as with the other 
conference committee the chairman and I serve on, Madam Speaker.
  But we have a precedent for using this provision. In fact, it a 
fiscal year 2018 enacted bill. This provision would simply ensure that 
100 percent of the PILT payments will be made even if the cost exceeds 
the cost of the Interior Department's original estimate.
  So this is a backstop. This is a guarantee. We still need the 
authorizers to do their work, but this is to make sure that we don't 
shortchange any of the other important programs that we fund in the 
Interior bill. So in my opinion, this is a commonsense issue, and I 
would urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on that.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for his comments and look forward 
to going to conference and completing our goal together.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
  Without objection, the previous question is ordered on the motion to 
instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the noes appeared to have it.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 187, 
nays 218, not voting 24, as follows:

[[Page H7896]]

  


                             [Roll No. 388]

                               YEAS--187

     Adams
     Aguilar
     Barragan
     Bass
     Beatty
     Bera
     Beyer
     Bishop (GA)
     Blumenauer
     Blunt Rochester
     Bonamici
     Boyle, Brendan F.
     Brady (PA)
     Brown (MD)
     Brownley (CA)
     Bustos
     Butterfield
     Carbajal
     Cardenas
     Carson (IN)
     Cartwright
     Castor (FL)
     Castro (TX)
     Chu, Judy
     Cicilline
     Clark (MA)
     Clarke (NY)
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Cohen
     Connolly
     Cooper
     Correa
     Costa
     Courtney
     Crist
     Crowley
     Cuellar
     Cummings
     Davis (CA)
     Davis, Danny
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delaney
     DeLauro
     DelBene
     Demings
     DeSaulnier
     Deutch
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Donovan
     Doyle, Michael F.
     Duncan (TN)
     Engel
     Espaillat
     Esty (CT)
     Evans
     Foster
     Frankel (FL)
     Fudge
     Gabbard
     Gallego
     Garamendi
     Gohmert
     Gomez
     Gonzalez (TX)
     Gottheimer
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Hanabusa
     Hastings
     Heck
     Higgins (NY)
     Himes
     Hoyer
     Jackson Lee
     Jayapal
     Jeffries
     Johnson (GA)
     Johnson, E. B.
     Jones
     Kaptur
     Keating
     Kelly (IL)
     Kennedy
     Khanna
     Kihuen
     Kildee
     Kilmer
     Kind
     Krishnamoorthi
     Kuster (NH)
     Lamb
     Langevin
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Lawrence
     Lawson (FL)
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis (GA)
     Lieu, Ted
     Lipinski
     Loebsack
     Lofgren
     Lowenthal
     Lowey
     Lujan Grisham, M.
     Lujan, Ben Ray
     Lynch
     Maloney, Carolyn B.
     Matsui
     McCollum
     McGovern
     McNerney
     Meeks
     Meng
     Moore
     Moulton
     Murphy (FL)
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Nolan
     Norcross
     O'Halleran
     O'Rourke
     Pallone
     Panetta
     Pascrell
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Perlmutter
     Peters
     Peterson
     Pingree
     Pocan
     Polis
     Price (NC)
     Quigley
     Raskin
     Rice (NY)
     Richmond
     Rogers (AL)
     Rosen
     Roybal-Allard
     Ruiz
     Ruppersberger
     Rush
     Sanchez
     Sarbanes
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schneider
     Schrader
     Scott (VA)
     Scott, David
     Serrano
     Sewell (AL)
     Shea-Porter
     Sherman
     Sinema
     Sires
     Smith (WA)
     Soto
     Suozzi
     Swalwell (CA)
     Takano
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Tonko
     Torres
     Tsongas
     Vargas
     Veasey
     Vela
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Wasserman Schultz
     Waters, Maxine
     Watson Coleman
     Welch
     Wilson (FL)
     Yarmuth

                               NAYS--218

     Abraham
     Aderholt
     Allen
     Amash
     Amodei
     Arrington
     Babin
     Bacon
     Balderson
     Banks (IN)
     Barletta
     Barr
     Barton
     Bergman
     Biggs
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (MI)
     Bishop (UT)
     Black
     Blum
     Bost
     Brady (TX)
     Brat
     Brooks (AL)
     Brooks (IN)
     Buchanan
     Buck
     Bucshon
     Budd
     Burgess
     Byrne
     Calvert
     Carter (GA)
     Carter (TX)
     Chabot
     Cheney
     Cloud
     Coffman
     Cole
     Collins (GA)
     Collins (NY)
     Comer
     Comstock
     Conaway
     Cook
     Costello (PA)
     Cramer
     Crawford
     Culberson
     Curbelo (FL)
     Curtis
     Davidson
     Davis, Rodney
     Denham
     DesJarlais
     Diaz-Balart
     Duffy
     Duncan (SC)
     Dunn
     Emmer
     Estes (KS)
     Faso
     Ferguson
     Fitzpatrick
     Fleischmann
     Flores
     Fortenberry
     Foxx
     Frelinghuysen
     Gaetz
     Gallagher
     Garrett
     Gibbs
     Goodlatte
     Gosar
     Gowdy
     Granger
     Graves (GA)
     Graves (LA)
     Graves (MO)
     Griffith
     Grothman
     Guthrie
     Handel
     Harper
     Harris
     Hartzler
     Hensarling
     Herrera Beutler
     Hice, Jody B.
     Higgins (LA)
     Hill
     Holding
     Hollingsworth
     Hudson
     Huizenga
     Hultgren
     Hunter
     Hurd
     Jenkins (KS)
     Johnson (LA)
     Johnson (OH)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jordan
     Joyce (OH)
     Katko
     Kelly (MS)
     Kelly (PA)
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kinzinger
     Knight
     Kustoff (TN)
     Labrador
     LaHood
     LaMalfa
     Lamborn
     Lance
     Latta
     Lesko
     Lewis (MN)
     LoBiondo
     Long
     Loudermilk
     Love
     Lucas
     Luetkemeyer
     MacArthur
     Marchant
     Marino
     Marshall
     Massie
     Mast
     McCarthy
     McCaul
     McClintock
     McHenry
     McKinley
     McMorris Rodgers
     McSally
     Meadows
     Messer
     Mitchell
     Moolenaar
     Mooney (WV)
     Mullin
     Newhouse
     Norman
     Nunes
     Olson
     Palmer
     Pearce
     Perry
     Pittenger
     Poe (TX)
     Poliquin
     Posey
     Ratcliffe
     Reed
     Reichert
     Renacci
     Rice (SC)
     Roby
     Roe (TN)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rohrabacher
     Rokita
     Rooney, Francis
     Roskam
     Ross
     Rothfus
     Rouzer
     Rutherford
     Sanford
     Scalise
     Schweikert
     Scott, Austin
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shimkus
     Simpson
     Smith (MO)
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Smucker
     Stefanik
     Stewart
     Stivers
     Taylor
     Tenney
     Thompson (PA)
     Thornberry
     Tipton
     Trott
     Turner
     Upton
     Valadao
     Wagner
     Walberg
     Walden
     Walker
     Walorski
     Walters, Mimi
     Weber (TX)
     Webster (FL)
     Wenstrup
     Westerman
     Williams
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman
     Womack
     Woodall
     Yoder
     Yoho
     Young (AK)
     Young (IA)
     Zeldin

                             NOT VOTING--24

     Blackburn
     Capuano
     DeSantis
     Ellison
     Eshoo
     Gianforte
     Huffman
     Issa
     Jenkins (WV)
     Maloney, Sean
     McEachin
     Neal
     Noem
     Palazzo
     Paulsen
     Rooney, Thomas J.
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Royce (CA)
     Russell
     Ryan (OH)
     Shuster
     Speier
     Titus
     Walz

                              {time}  1528

  Mrs. COMSTOCK, Messrs. LEWIS of Minnesota, HUNTER, TURNER, GRIFFITH, 
Ms. GRANGER, Messrs. DENHAM, ROKITA, COLLINS of Georgia, BOST, DUFFY, 
and STEWART changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Messrs. CROWLEY and DONOVAN changed their vote from ``nay'' to 
``yea.''
  So the motion to instruct was rejected.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
  Stated against:
  Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been 
present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 388.

                          ____________________