[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 3 (Tuesday, January 7, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H8-H10]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      IMPORTANT ISSUES OF THE DAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 3, 2019, the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, obviously, it is a new year, and we 
return to Washington with an agenda that is completely full and, in 
many, many ways, a tragic and an extremely dangerous agenda out ahead 
of us.
  Last December, this House undertook the issue of how to deal with the 
issue of a President who was not paying attention to his oath of 
office, and so we passed an impeachment resolution. That issue is now 
over in the Senate and in their hands. I could spend some time talking 
about that.
  Then, last Friday, another issue occurred, and I will spend more time 
talking about that a little later.
  But what I came to the floor tonight for is to talk about what our 
Democratic Caucus, our leadership, and the 230-plus members of our 
Caucus have been working on diligently over the last year for the 
people, a series of legislative initiatives that address the 
fundamental concerns that America has, that Americans talk about, as we 
like to say, at their breakfast table or dinner table: the concerns 
about their family's education, about their job, about their 
retirement, and, as I learned yesterday from my neighbor, a rancher, 
about the extraordinary cost of health insurance.
  I come to the floor tonight for that purpose, but I am going to delay 
my discussion of that and ask the chairman of the Education and Labor 
Committee,  Bobby Scott, to talk about the extraordinary work that his 
committee has done on the issue of education and for the working men 
and women of America.
  Mr. Speaker, I know the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott) 
represents one of the largest military districts in the Nation, and I 
know that the thoughts of his constituents are on our minds. I also 
know that it is time for America to recognize the work that he has done 
on the Education and Labor Committee.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott).

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from 
California for yielding, and, yes, we have a lot of military 
installations in the Hampton Roads area, and we are very concerned 
about the present situation in the Middle East.
  We want to talk about what is going on in the Committee on Education 
and Labor, and I just want to share a few things that we have been 
doing over the last year.
  Comments have been made of what Congress is or is not doing. Well, we 
have been protecting the income of hardworking Americans by the House 
passing the Raise the Wage Act, which will gradually increase the 
Federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 an hour by 2025, giving 33 
million workers a raise and lifting over a million people out of 
poverty.
  We haven't had an increase in the minimum wage for over a decade. The 
last minimum wage was over 10 years ago, and inflation has eroded the 
value of that minimum wage so much to the point where one study 
concluded that a full-time, 40-hours-a-week, minimum-wage worker cannot 
afford a modest two-bedroom apartment in any county in the United 
States.
  We are not talking about San Francisco or Manhattan. Not a single 
county in the United States can a full-time minimum-wage worker afford 
a modest two-bedroom apartment. So we voted in the House to increase 
the minimum wage.
  The Paycheck Fairness Act addresses pay inequity by holding companies 
accountable for gender-based wage disparities and protecting a worker's 
right to challenge systemic pay discrimination. We passed that bill.
  The Rehabilitation for Multiemployer Pensions Act, or Butch Lewis 
Act, will prevent the imminent collapse of our multiemployer pension 
system, saving over 1 million hardworking Americans their pension, 
while protecting those benefits and the taxpayer's dollars.
  We also passed the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and 
Social Service Workers Act to prevent violence and the injuries that 
occur because of that.
  In addition, the committee has reported the PRO Act, the Protecting 
the Right to Organize Act, which will enable workers to negotiate for 
better wages and better working conditions.
  We also passed the legislation to help in the area of children's 
access to quality education and a safe learning environment.
  We passed in the committee the Rebuild America's Schools Act which 
will invest $100 billion to repair our public schools' crumbling 
digital and physical infrastructure and will create 1.9 million jobs.
  We passed two important civil rights bills in the area of education: 
the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act and Strength in Diversity Act, 
which will empower students, parents, and communities to challenge 
discriminatory education policies and increase school diversity.
  The committee passed the College Affordability Act, which will 
comprehensively overhaul our higher education system so that students 
will be able to achieve a college degree without incurring crushing 
debt.
  We also passed legislation to protect children from school shootings.
  In the area of healthcare, the House has passed legislation to 
protect consumers from junk health plans by trying to overturn the 
Trump administration's short-term, limited duration insurance rule, as 
well as passing the Lower Drug Costs Now Act which will reduce out-of-
pocket costs for customers, lower prescription drug prices, and 
increase transparency.
  We passed legislation that will protect children from child abuse, 
the Stronger Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.
  We protected seniors by passing legislation, the Protecting Older 
Workers Against Discrimination Act.
  All of those bills have passed the House. None have been taken up by 
the Senate, and so we need to make sure that the hard work of our 
committee is rewarded by the passage of those bills in the Senate.
  But as I have said, our committee has been busy. All of the 
committees have been busy doing the people's work. We are doing the 
people's agenda, and I thank the gentleman for the opportunity to do a 
little bragging about what we have done.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman can use the word ``brag,'' 
but I would recommend that it is not bragging. It is simply a fact; not 
an alternate fact, but it is a fact that the gentleman's committee and 
this House--now under Democratic control--has passed well over 250 
bills that are for the people.
  The work that the Committee of Education and Labor has done for the 
working men and women of this Nation is an extraordinary example of 
what can be done when we focus on legislation that is for the people.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the 
opportunity to mention these bills for the people. The people will be 
much better off if we can get a little cooperation down the hall and 
improve education, improve healthcare, and improve working conditions.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman did mention the grim 
reaper, I don't think by name, but, clearly, the Senate leader intends 
to delay legislation that would be in the interest of the American 
people: higher wages, better healthcare, better insurance products, 
jobs, making it in America, all of the things that I know the gentleman 
and his committee have worked so hard on.

[[Page H9]]

  So I thank the gentleman for that, and I look forward to the days 
ahead when I know that the gentleman has an additional agenda of 
legislation that he is going to be putting on the floor of the House.
  Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, we are continuing to work.
  Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I am sure the gentleman will. I thank the 
gentleman very much.
  Mr. Speaker, I am really torn. I want to continue discussing the 
legislation that is out there, but I really stand in front of this 
Chamber--which at the moment is empty--with a very, very heavy heart 
and extraordinary concern.

  I am looking at where we are as a nation this evening, and I am going 
to really ponder tomorrow what fate may behold our men and women in the 
military.
  A couple of hours ago the inevitable happened. I think I was a 
freshman in high school and my science teacher was trying to give me 
some of the principles of physics. He was talking about for every 
action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
  He was showing various examples of that and, of course, I was then 
playing football and I could really understand. I hit somebody, and 
they would hit me back; or I would push somebody and they would push 
back. I would like to think that I was more than equal.
  Last Friday, our President took an action and launched missiles at 
the highest commander of the Iranian military and killed him, along 
with one of the major, if not the major commander of the militia units 
in Iraq.
  That attack took place just outside the Baghdad International 
Airport. That was an action, presumably, to prevent some future action 
that might be taken by the Iranians and by their leader or directed by 
their leader, Soleimani.
  My high school science teacher could not have been more correct. For 
every action, there is a reaction. And we will undoubtedly engage in a 
debate here on the floor and in the Congress and across the United 
States about whether the first action taken by the President to take 
out the leader of Iran's Revolutionary Guard was an appropriate action.
  I think not, for a variety of reasons. And then we will also debate 
whether the Iranian reaction to that action which occurred a couple of 
hours ago was appropriate.
  I am quite sure that our military on the base in Iraq at Al Asad 
views the Iranian action as a very serious threat. We don't yet know 
the results of the bombardment of missiles, but we can assume that 
there was certainly destruction of buildings or airfields and we pray 
that there was no destruction of life.
  But perhaps we may find that prayer unanswered. Where do we go from 
here? Where do we go from here? We are not on the verge of war. In a 
very, very unfortunate, tragic sense, we are in a war and some would 
claim that war is now 40 years old and started way back with the 
embassy in Tehran being occupied, and we could say that is correct.
  This is different. I am on the Armed Services Committee, and I have 
had the briefings and I know, as do our generals and our intelligence 
community, the capabilities of the Iranian military. Furthermore, we 
know the capabilities of their proxies, the various military units that 
they have set up, or quasi-military units that they have set up: the 
militias, Yemen, Houthis, Hezbollah, and others.
  It is really a moment this evening for us to hold our anger, which is 
a normal and natural thing that certainly I, and I am sure every one of 
my colleagues possesses: anger at the attack on our military base.
  I suppose we should also think that perhaps Iran should hold its 
anger, although they certainly expressed it in the streets, in the 
funeral ceremonies, and in the launching of ballistic missiles at an 
American air base.
  We should hold our anger. We should say: Where does this go from 
here? What is the next tit for tat? Unfortunately, I don't believe our 
President thought about the next move, about the equal and opposite 
reaction when he ordered the launching of the missiles that took out a 
very dangerous, bad, bad person.
  I don't think he thought about the next order, nor do I think he 
thought about the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth order. Where does it 
go from there?
  But we have a chance this evening and tomorrow, and in the days 
ahead, to stop and think about the next event, the next tit for tat. 
What does it mean now for those of us in Congress, 435--I guess 434 
since one of our colleagues resigned today--and the Senate--undoubtedly 
occupied with impeachment?
  It is time for us to reach into our desk drawer and pull out the 
Constitution of the United States and read Article I, and for the 
American people to do the same. When we read that, we will find that 
only Congress can declare war; not the President, not the Secretary of 
State, not the Secretary of Defense, and not a general, but only 
Congress.

                              {time}  1945

  Maybe we could argue that it is already starting, in which case, 
stop, come to Congress, Mr. President, and tell us why you must, why we 
must, why America must, and why our military must pursue the next tit 
for tat. Stop and tell us where it leads. Tell us how you think it 
might end.
  I know that our Secretary of Defense says that we are not going to 
start a war but that we will end it. Okay, then you come here. You come 
to the floor of this House as Roosevelt did and as others have done, 
and you tell us why we should have a war with Iran. Tell us how you 
intend to pursue that war and at what cost in human lives and the 
treasury of this Nation.
  Then, let us ponder your wisdom or lack of wisdom. Let us ponder--no, 
not ``let us.'' This is not a matter of the President letting us. This 
is a matter of the Congress of the United States asserting its 
constitutional obligation.
  At this moment and on this day, when it is easy to argue that America 
has been attacked, on this day, stop, come to us, Mr. President, and 
tell us why you want to pursue a war with Iran. Tell us what equipment 
you will need. Tell us the number of troops that will be dispatched.
  Then it is our responsibility--535 of us--to say that, yes, we will 
go to war with Iran, or, no, we will not.
  This is a critical moment. This is a moment when I am thinking about 
that science teacher who said that for every action, there is an equal 
and opposite reaction. We have seen an action and a reaction. Yes, we 
attacked Iran by taking out their top general, and, yes, they attacked 
us by launching their missiles into our airbase and quite possibly 
harming our military personnel and others.
  Now stop. Come here, Mr. President. Stand before us. Stand before the 
American people, and tell us why, how, and what it will cost to pursue 
this.
  That is his responsibility. Then it is our responsibility on behalf 
of the American people and people beyond this Nation to say that, yes, 
we will pursue a war, or, no, we will not.
  Keep in mind, Mr. President, that the existing authorizations to use 
force do not apply to this situation, not the authorization to use 
force that was established for al-Qaida and Afghanistan, not the 
authorization to use force to go after Saddam Hussein in Iraq. No. 
Those don't apply.
  This is different. This is demonstrably different. This requires the 
President to come to the Congress and explain why we should conduct a 
war with Iran.
  It is not to say we cannot protect ourselves. But the next action by 
our military likely would be far more an action of protection but, 
rather, an action in response to what happened a couple of hours ago.
  I would have loved and would have desired not to be here at this 
moment, talking about this issue but, rather, following what Mr. Scott 
had said about what has been done this last year for the American 
people, about the efforts that we have made to bring down healthcare 
costs, to provide pharmaceuticals that people can afford, and to 
guarantee that Americans do not lose their right to health insurance, 
as the President and our Republican colleagues are attempting and have 
attempted to do for the last 10 years.
  I would love to have spent this evening talking about that. I would 
have loved to talk about the education programs that Mr. Scott has 
already brought to our attention and to talk about raising the minimum 
wage. But that is not where I am tonight.
  My thoughts are with those military personnel, the airmen, many of 
whom

[[Page H10]]

are from my district and probably at the bases there in the Middle 
East. My thoughts are with them and their families. I pray that all are 
safe.
  And I pray that tonight or tomorrow morning a tweet says: ``I, the 
President of the United States, will come to Congress and explain why 
we should or should not pursue a war with Iran.''
  It is a good time for all of us to pray. It is a good time for all of 
us to take a deep breath and realize the path that we are on and where 
it might lead.
  I am deeply, deeply disturbed by what has happened. I am willing to 
take up my responsibility here, and I anxiously await what the 
President of the United States of America has to say as he stands here 
in the Congress and explains to a joint session of the Senate and the 
House why we should pursue a war with Iran. That is his responsibility, 
and then it is our responsibility--elected by the people of America--to 
go to war or not to go to war. We shall see.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their 
remarks to the Chair.

                          ____________________