[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 99 (Thursday, June 13, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H4670-H4673]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. SCALISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the 
majority leader the schedule for next week.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the 
House majority leader.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Scalise, the Republican whip, 
for yielding.
  On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for morning-hour debate, 
and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 
p.m.
  Members are being advised that debate on amendments to H.R. 2740 will 
begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
  On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
morning-hour debate and 12 p.m. for legislative business.
  Members are reminded that when the House is considering appropriation 
bills, votes will occur after 7 p.m.
  On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. 
Last votes on Friday may occur between 2 and 3 p.m.
  We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The 
complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of 
business tomorrow.
  The House will continue consideration of H.R. 2740, the Departments 
of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related 
Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020.
  The House will also begin consideration of H.R. 3055, which is the 
Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and 
Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, 
Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development 
Appropriations Act.
  This will be the second minibus that will be coming to the floor over 
this work period. It is my intention, Mr. Speaker, to pass all 12 
appropriation bills in this work period.
  This package is yet another step toward the House doing its work to 
avoid another shutdown, which has such a negative effect on the Nation 
and a negative effect on the morale of those who work for the American 
people in the Federal Government.
  Hopefully, it will result in an agreement between the House and the 
Senate, and a signature of the President, which will preclude a repeat 
of the shutdown.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I know we have been starting and going 
through the appropriations process. I would like to ask the majority 
leader about the conversation we have been having for weeks and weeks, 
going back to May 1, when the President submitted a supplemental 
emergency spending bill to address this serious humanitarian crisis at 
our southern border.
  We have had this conversation multiple times in the colloquy. I 
continued to ask the majority leader when we are going to see a bill on 
this House floor to address this serious crisis. Each week, we have not 
been given an actual timeline. In fact, as the majority leader just 
went over the schedule, there is still no mention of a supplemental 
bill to deal with this crisis.
  I know we have been seeing multiple attempts by Members from our 
party. I would hope that there are some from the gentleman's party that 
have recognized that we have to deal with this. We can't keep putting 
it off.
  If the gentleman would look at The New York Times just this week, the 
headline is: ``When Will Congress Get Serious About the Suffering at 
the Border?''
  I want to read a couple of statements from it because it contains 
some things that we have been saying that are just not getting enough 
coverage across the country. More and more now, we are seeing how 
serious this is. This is about to come to a head, not in months, not in 
years, but in days.
  We are talking about young children who are right now in the custody 
of the Department of Homeland Security, many of whom are coming over 
with health diseases, serious diseases, who they are able to turn over 
right now to Health and Human Services to care for their needs.
  They are about to completely run out of money. This isn't a new 
development. They have been saying this over and over for weeks.
  The Presidential supplemental request came out on May 1. On May 3, at 
our colloquy, I inquired of the majority leader: When will this happen? 
We never got a timeline. On May 10 in our colloquy, I asked the 
majority leader: When will Congress address this? Still no timeline. 
Just last week, I brought it up again.
  I want to read what The New York Times said in their description of 
how serious this is, they said: ``It's time to cut the squabbling and 
pass an emergency relief package.''
  Here is a comment from John Sanders, who is the Acting Commissioner 
of Customs and Border Protection, ``We are in a full-blown emergency, 
and I cannot say this stronger: The system is broken.''
  Just in this fiscal year, HHS has taken charge of nearly 41,000 
unaccompanied children. On average, every single day, over 200 young 
children are referred to HHS for medical needs.
  HHS is about to run out of money in a matter of days, and Congress 
has still not taken action.
  There is a letter that I will be happy to enter in the Record.
         U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and U.S. 
           Department of Homeland Security.
       Dear Member of Congress: We continue to experience a 
     humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border of 
     the United States, and the situation becomes more dire each 
     day. On May 1, 2019, the Administration requested $4.5 
     billion in emergency appropriations for the Department of 
     Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland 
     Security (DHS), the Department of Defense, and the Department 
     of Justice to address the immediate humanitarian crisis at 
     our southern border. We write today to ask that you 
     appropriate this funding as soon as possible.
       We cannot stress enough the urgency of immediate passage of 
     emergency supplemental funding. This funding will provide 
     resources that our Departments need to respond to the current 
     crisis, enable us to protect the life and safety of 
     unaccompanied alien children (UAC), and help us to continue 
     providing the full range of services to the children in our 
     custody.
       While Congress has been considering the request, the 
     average daily number of UAC in U.S. Customs and Border 
     Protection (CBP) custody has grown from nearly 870 on May 1 
     to more than 2,300 today. This is because the number of 
     arriving children greatly exceeds existing HHS capacity. As 
     of June 10, 1,900 processed UAC were in CBP custody awaiting 
     placement in HHS care. However, HHS had fewer than 700 open 
     beds in which to place them. HHS has significantly increased 
     the rates at which we are discharging children to sponsors, 
     but UAC are waiting too long in CBP facilities that are not 
     designed to care for children.
       This is a direct result of the unprecedented number of 
     arriving children. As of June 10, DHS has referred over 
     52,000 UAC to HHS this fiscal year (FY), an increase of over 
     60 percent from FY 2018. Preliminary information shows nearly 
     10,000 referrals in May--one of the highest monthly totals in 
     the history of the program. If these numbers continue, this 
     fiscal year HHS will care for the largest number of UAC in 
     the program's history. HHS continues to operate near 
     capacity, despite placing UAC with sponsors at historically 
     high rates. HHS is working diligently to expand its bed 
     capacity to ensure that it can keep pace, and based on the 
     anticipated growth, HHS expects its need for additional bed 
     capacity to continue.
       On May 17, the Administration notified Congress of an 
     anticipated deficiency in HHS's Office of Refugee 
     Resettlement's (ORR) UAC program, as required by law. Absent 
     an emergency appropriation, HHS anticipates running out of 
     funding as soon as this month. The Anti-Deficiency Act, which 
     is a criminal statute, requires HHS to take actions to 
     minimize the deficiency and only to fund operations that are 
     essential for the safety of human life and protection of 
     property--similar to those activities allowed during a 
     government shutdown. In the last few weeks, because of 
     rapidly depleting funds caused by the border surge, ORR was 
     required by law to scale back or discontinue awards, and had 
     to instruct grantees that new awards cannot be used for UAC 
     activities that are not directly necessary for the protection 
     of life and property, including education services, legal 
     services, and recreation. This was done solely to ensure full 
     compliance with the Anti-Deficiency Act and stretch existing 
     funds as far as possible for the life and safety of children.

[[Page H4671]]

       ORR would not have had to take these actions to preserve 
     essential operations if requested supplemental funding had 
     been provided. lf Congress acts quickly to provide the 
     requested supplemental funding to address the border surge, 
     ORR will be able to restore these services. Until such 
     funding is provided, ORR will only be able to pay for 
     essential services to protect life and safety.
       It is unprecedented for a critical child welfare program to 
     run out of funding, and ORR is in close contact with grantees 
     about expected impacts. Once the UAC program is entirely out 
     of funding, grantees will have to care for children with no 
     federal reimbursement until an emergency appropriation is 
     enacted. It is unclear if grantees would be operationally 
     able to continue caring for UAC, as many are small nonprofit 
     organizations. This funding lapse could also negatively 
     impact grantees' willingness to care for UAC over the longer 
     term and ORR's immediate ability to add new child care 
     facilities to address the overflow of children in DHS border 
     facilities that were not designed for children. Our valued 
     federal employees in ORR who care for children and place them 
     with sponsors would be required to work without pay.
       It is not only the UAC program that will be impacted. On 
     May 16, HHS notified Congress that the Anti-Deficiency Act 
     requires HHS to reallocate up to $167 million from Refugee 
     Support Services (RSS), Victims of Trafficking, and Survivors 
     of Torture to the UAC program if activities do not meet the 
     criteria in 31 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(b)(l)(B). Last week, HHS 
     informed the state refugee coordinators and refugee 
     resettlement grantees in 49 states and the District of 
     Columbia that ORR was withholding third quarter funding for 
     those programs. The RSS program addresses barriers to 
     employment for refugees such as: social adjustment, 
     interpretation and translation, day care for children, and 
     citizenship and naturalization. Again, this was not a 
     decision that ORR wanted to make, or took lightly. HHS's hand 
     was forced by the current funding situation and the law. HHS 
     must ensure that it is fully compliant with the 
     AntiDeficiency Act and that HHS stretch its existing funds as 
     far as possible to protect the life and safety of children 
     who are presently, or should be, in HHS care.
       While the primary concern of both of our Departments is the 
     safety of children in our care, DHS faces changing dynamics 
     at the border that continue to stress its ability to respond. 
     For example:
       More groups are illegally entering the United States, and 
     they are getting larger.
       On May 29, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents apprehended 
     over 1,000 migrants illegally crossing from Mexico as one 
     group, overtaxing border operations. Over 400 migrants were 
     apprehended within five minutes only two weeks before.
       The number of migrants has escalated. with more vulnerable 
     populations arriving.
       In May 2019, an average of more than 4,650 people daily 
     illegally crossed into the United States or arrived at ports 
     of entry without proper documentation. In May 2017, the daily 
     average was under 650 illegal crossings per day.
       May 2019 experienced more than 144,000 total enforcements 
     on the southern border, a 32 percent increase over the 
     previous month and the highest monthly total since March 
     2006. This follows two months exceeding 100,000--sustained 
     levels not seen in over 12 years.
       As of June 10, 2019, more than 17,000 people are in CBP 
     custody, including over 2,500 UAC.
       The USBP apprehended nearly 85,000 individuals in family 
     units in May 2019 along the Southwest border. An additional 
     4,100 individuals in a family unit were deemed inadmissible 
     at Southwest border ports of entry. The vast majority of 
     these individuals have been released into the country due to 
     a lack of space and authority to detain them. By comparison, 
     in all of FY 2012, USBP apprehended just over 11,000 
     individuals in a family unit.
       Border Patrol agents are spending more than 50 percent of 
     their time caring for families and children, providing 
     medical assistance, driving buses, and acting as food service 
     workers instead of performing law enforcement duties.
       Border Patrol agents are making on average 70 trips to 
     hospitals every day to urgently get care to these 
     individuals, further diminishing their ability to perform 
     their official duties.
       The Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, and 
     other CBP facilities have experienced outbreaks of flu which 
     has required standing up separate quarantine facilities to 
     reduce the risk of further exposing children and other 
     vulnerable populations to infectious disease. While agents 
     are providing the best care possible, these groups need more 
     appropriate care, and they need it now.
       If DHS does not receive additional funding, it will be 
     forced to take drastic measures in August that will impact 
     other critical programs that support DHS missions throughout 
     the country. All DHS components, including the Transportation 
     Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management 
     Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, 
     the Coast Guard, and portions of CBP supporting legal trade 
     and travel will be required to redirect manpower and funding 
     to support measures to address the crisis.
       In addition to the supplemental, it is clear that we need 
     bipartisan legislation to address the causes of this crisis. 
     We urge Congress to take swift action to provide the 
     necessary funding to address the severe humanitarian and 
     operational impacts of this crisis and to enact reforms to 
     the root causes of these problems so that they do not persist 
     into the future.
       Thank you for your most immediate attention to this matter. 
     A copy of this response will also be sent to your state's 
     executive leadership.
           Sincerely,
     Alex M. Azar II,
       Secretary, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
     Kevin McAleenan,
       Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I know the majority leader received this 
letter, as has the Speaker, from the Secretary of HHS and the Secretary 
of Homeland Security earlier this week, saying: ``We cannot stress 
enough the urgency of immediate passage of emergency supplemental 
funding. This funding will provide resources that our Departments need 
to respond to the current crisis, enable us to protect the life and 
safety of unaccompanied alien children, and help us to continue 
providing the full range of services to the children in our custody.''
  They are trying to take care of health and life needs. This is life 
and death we are talking about.
  In a matter of days, they will run out of money. This has been going 
on for weeks and weeks, and Congress hasn't taken action.
  I would ask the majority leader if we can get a commitment that this 
House will take up this legislation that has been sent weeks ago. The 
majority has had time to review it and hasn't addressed this serious 
problem. When are we going to see action from the House?
  I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
  First of all, I think there is broad agreement that there is, indeed, 
an emergency, that we need to act, and we need to act as quickly as 
possible.
  As the gentleman probably knows because it was reported in the press, 
we had a leadership meeting with the appropriators yesterday, urging 
the swiftest action possible.
  I will tell my friend, to put this in context, the gentleman 
indicates the system is broken. I would agree with that. I think 
everybody agrees with it. The Senate tried to fix it in 2013. We have 
urged for the last 6 years for a bill to be put on the floor on 
comprehensive immigration reform. While it may not have totally solved 
this issue, it certainly would have addressed this issue.
  Notwithstanding that historical perspective and context, it is clear 
that there is an emergency and that we need to respond. I would hope 
that my friend would say that we would respond in the sense of the 
emergency that exists. I think both sides believe that we ought to 
deploy emergency resources to deal with the emergency.
  If we can limit it to that, I suggest to my friend, we will have a 
lot better opportunity to get a consensus. Now, what I am saying is, I 
frankly think the administration conflates border enforcement and some 
of the things it wants to do on enforcement and humanitarian relief.
  If we can pass a bill that is limited to humanitarian relief, I hope 
that we could pass it as soon as possible, meaning next week. I will 
tell the gentleman that Ms. Roybal-Allard has been working very hard to 
reach a consensus not only within her committee but reach a consensus 
with those who have a particular focus on it. The Congressional 
Hispanic Caucus, as you know, is very concerned about the humanitarian 
situation at the border, as we all are.
  The New York Times editorial, which I brought to the attention of my 
Members, and they had already seen it, I think The New York Times' 
premise is correct. We need to act. We need to act quickly. We are 
working toward that end.
  I would hope that we could move as early as next week. I can't 
promise that, but I am hopeful that we can reach a consensus.
  It would be nice if we could reach a consensus between the House and 
the Senate. I know the Senate talked about acting next week. We will 
see what they do.

[[Page H4672]]

  I guarantee that this week, over the weekend, or the beginning of 
next week, Ms. Roybal-Allard and others are working to get a bill 
together that we believe could get a majority of the House and a 
majority of the Senate and the signature of the President because we 
need to act. The gentleman is absolutely correct.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I would reiterate the urgency of acting 
next week, not trying to act next week.

                              {time}  1400

  I don't have an opportunity to do this often, so I will quote The New 
York Times again because it is not something I am normally used to 
doing. But to quote them: ``It's time to cut the squabbling and pass an 
emergency relief package.''
  I know there might be differences over some of the details. There is 
no wall funding in the request for the President.
  The big battles that we had last year, this year, I am sure, will 
continue on how we can actually secure the border. I would hope we, 
over the next few months as we debate the appropriations bills, keep 
coming to an agreement on how to secure America's southern border.
  The magnitude of this problem can't be overstated. Just in the last 
month, over 144,000 people came across illegally that we apprehended. 
Those are just the ones we know about. This is 3 months in a row now we 
have had more than 100,000 people coming across illegally. The average 
is over 3,000 people per day.
  And when we look at the amount of young children who are coming 
across sick, again, more than 200 children every single day are being 
referred to HHS for healthcare needs. That is the crisis that we want 
to address today.
  This isn't the bigger debate on wall funding, and so I hope we can 
separate those two, but recognize the President's request did not 
include a dime for wall funding for this humanitarian crisis. I would 
hope we would treat it in an isolated way, as it was submitted.
  I would just refer to the gentleman when Barack Obama was President 
and we were in the majority. While we had differences with President 
Obama, including on immigration, he sent out a request in 2014. His 
request was for $3.7 billion for an additional border supplemental to 
address the crisis at the border.
  We still had a crisis back then. We have a worse crisis today. But 
when President Obama submitted that request for $3.7 billion, we didn't 
squabble over it. I am sure we might have had some disagreements, but 
in less than a month, we, this Republican House, passed the full amount 
that Barack Obama requested when he was President and sent it back out 
of the House. That was quick action. I am just urging we have the same 
kind of quick action.
  We can disagree on the wall funding. Again, this isn't that 
disagreement. This is a request from the President that was made in May 
and that is literally coming to a head in days, where HHS has told all 
of us--nobody is disputing it--HHS completely runs out of money and has 
no ability to take, safely, any more children who are being sent to 
them.
  And they are coming over at more than 200 kids a day not who are 
coming across illegally, but as Homeland Security receives them, over 
200 a day have serious enough health needs that they are sending them 
to DHS or HHS. HHS has told us clearly that they will run out of money 
in a matter of days. I hope it is in a matter of days that we take up 
the request.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments, and I understand 
the deep concern. We have deep concern on this side of the aisle about 
the administration's attitude, for instance, when they take children 
from their parents and send them to far-off places and don't keep 
sufficient records to reunite those children.
  So, yes, we share the concern about the humanitarian crisis, but we 
are also concerned that the administration that has done some of the 
things that it has done and that has made it much more difficult for 
people to pursue asylum to which they may be entitled under American 
law, we want to make sure that, in fact, we are dealing with 
humanitarian issues that the gentleman raises and not issues that seem 
to be related by this administration.
  We have cause for concern and we have cause for caution, but I am 
hopeful, as I said, that we can get this done, because I don't disagree 
with the gentleman, and The New York Times and we don't disagree.
  There is a very serious challenge at the border to make sure that 
people are safe, kept in places where they are warm and out of the 
elements and where they can be treated in a way that Americans would 
want to treat others and would want to be treated themselves. So I am 
hopeful that we will get this done sooner rather than later.
  But Mr. Obama asked for that supplemental. The other thing he asked 
for for many, many years was let's get a comprehensive immigration bill 
passed. In my view, had that been put on the floor, it would have had a 
majority of votes in the House. It was never put on the floor for 
years--not months and not days, for years. That is part of the 
solution. Irrespective of that, we need to act as soon as possible, 
hopefully, within the week.
  Much work is being done on this to resolve the concerns of those who 
have some of the most knowledge, and that is members of our Hispanic 
Caucus who live on the border, who interface on the border and who see, 
every day, the consequences of what is happening. They want to make 
sure that, yes, there is humanitarian assistance and people are treated 
humanely, safely, and with respect. But they don't want that money used 
to treat other people who are in this country in an arbitrary and 
capricious way.
  So I want to join the gentleman, Mr. Speaker, and assure him that I 
share his concern. We are urging everybody to work as hard as they 
possibly can to get to an agreement, and I am hopeful that we can do 
that in the very, very near future. I am told leaving here without 
doing that would not be acceptable.
  Mr. SCALISE. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I know when we talk 
about the broader immigration problem, President Trump has been very 
clear that he wants to work with Congress to solve the problem, the 
bigger problem, not just a wall, but full border security and closing 
those loopholes.
  In fact, Mexican officials have even pointed out that America's 
broken asylum law is one of the biggest magnets that is drawing people 
through their southern border, up to our southern border, and into our 
country. They even acknowledge it. We need to fix that. We need to work 
together as a Congress to fix that problem.

  President Trump offered to solve the DACA problem. He still hasn't 
found a willing partner. We need to keep working at that.
  We have just had testimony in a committee earlier this week where it 
was pointed out that, as people come over, unfortunately, they abuse 
children over and over again because young children are a ticket into 
the country much quicker than other illegal means, and so they abuse 
these children over and over again. It is one of the many reasons why 
we need to solve that problem.
  But when they get that asylum ticket, then they are sent into the 
interior of the country and are told to come back and see us in years, 
sometimes, for their court date. Ninety percent of those people who get 
that court date don't show up. We don't know where they are. That is 
how broken the asylum law is. We need to fix that.
  Again, that is not this request. We can have that debate another day. 
We need to have that debate another day.
  When my friend's party was in the majority last time, when Barack 
Obama took office and when Speaker Pelosi was first Speaker and there 
was a supermajority in the Senate on the Democratic side, there was 
never an attempt to bring a bill through Congress to solve the 
immigration problem. I would like to see us come together and do that. 
We need to do it. But today, we need to solve the immediate crisis. We 
will have that broader debate later. Hopefully, by next week we can get 
that done.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to place in historical context, again, this House

[[Page H4673]]

passed a DREAM Act, and we sent it to the Senate and the Senate didn't 
pass it. So this House, when we were in the majority, did do that, but 
we couldn't get 60 votes in the Senate. We know that problem. It so 
happens we were in the majority, but we couldn't get 60 votes for that 
at that point in time.
  We could go on a long time about pointing fingers at who has done 
what and when, but the fact of the matter is we have some people in 
real distress. We have some Federal employees who have a responsibility 
who are being greatly challenged. We need to address that, and I am 
urging that we do that as quickly as we possibly can.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, hopefully, we can continue that work 
through the weekend and get that done next week. I know there is other 
work the House is getting ready to take up on the appropriations bills.
  On one final note, as we approach Father's Day on Sunday, I would 
also like to wish the gentleman from Maryland a happy birthday 
tomorrow. So, hopefully, the gentleman has some fun events planned this 
weekend, maybe go eat some Maryland crabs. If my friend is really 
lucky, we will give him some gulf crabs from the Gulf of Mexico. I 
won't sing ``Happy Birthday'' to the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman.
  Mr. HOYER. We are about to deliver a chit, if you will, for a dinner 
for four at one of the famous crab houses here in Washington as the 
result of Louisiana's not treating the University of Maryland nearly as 
thoughtfully as they could have, and I lost that bet. But I appreciate 
my friend's wish for a happy birthday.
  God has been very good to me, and I am looking forward to celebrating 
that birthday. My daughters were a little premature. We celebrated it 
last Saturday, too, so we are going to have a number of celebrations on 
this birthday, and then hopefully everybody will forget it, including 
me.
  Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I will be happy to give the gentleman a 
review of the restaurant. I am sure it will be really good.
  I wish the gentleman well, and I wish all fathers a happy Father's 
Day this weekend.
  I look forward to seeing the gentleman back in a few days, and with 
that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________