[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 28 (Tuesday, February 11, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H1039-H1044]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              REPUBLICAN STUDY COMMITTEE'S GEAR TASK FORCE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. McBath). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2019, the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Gianforte) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to hold 
this Special Order on the Republican Study Committee's GEAR Task Force.
  I thank   Mike Johnson, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, 
for his leadership to make this task force possible.
  We started GEAR, which stands for Government Efficiency, 
Accountability, and Reform, to develop a playbook of commonsense, 
nonpartisan solutions for improving our government. We came up with 
more than 100 improvements. They are all recorded in our report, which 
is now available, and I am excited to yield to my colleagues to talk 
about them here today.
  We will start with my good friend from North Dakota, Representative 
Kelly Armstrong, who was a member of the task force and really led our 
efforts to find these areas where we could reform.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from North Dakota (Mr. 
Armstrong).
  Mr. ARMSTRONG. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Johnson and 
Congressman Gianforte for their efforts to make our Federal Government 
more efficient and accountable with these commonsense reforms.
  The Republican Study Committee's GEAR Task Force report is a 
solutions-based plan to reduce the government's size and inefficiency.
  Anyone who has dealt with the Federal Government knows the 
frustration that the bureaucratic process can bring. Unnecessary 
government delays to infrastructure projects have a particularly 
damaging effect on economic growth and job creation.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the Republican Study Committee for including 
my bill, H.R. 3671, the Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act, in the 
report. This bipartisan bill will streamline and modernize the Federal 
infrastructure permitting process.
  The Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act will build on the reforms 
that were included in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act 
of 2015, otherwise known as FAST-41.
  My bill would make permanent the FAST-41 provisions and enact 
additional reforms, such as a 2-year deadline for the permitting 
process.
  FAST-41 ensures coordination among several Federal agencies to 
streamline the permitting process for the largest infrastructure 
projects.
  The Federal Permitting Reform and Jobs Act would expand these types 
of projects that would qualify for this streamlined process: simply 
put, more projects completed in a shorter period of time at a reduced 
cost.
  This is a win for jobs; this is a win for infrastructure 
improvements; this is a win for reforming the Federal bureaucracy and 
providing Americans with a more efficient and effective government.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Armstrong for his work. 
Permitting is an area where we can really make advances to make the 
process more deterministic so we can get projects on the ground going. 
I thank the gentleman for his leadership there.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan's Seventh 
District, Representative Tim Walberg,

[[Page H1040]]

and I want to recognize him for his work on the Taxpayers Right-to-Know 
effort. I thank the gentleman for his leadership.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg).
  Mr. WALBERG. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Madam Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Johnson, Task Force 
Chairman Gianforte, and my colleagues at RSC for their leadership on 
this task force and putting together a document that has answers if we 
are willing to accept them and move them forward. Moving them forward 
will make an impact for the better of this country and its taxpayers.
  Making government more efficient and accountable to the people is 
something we all should be able to rally behind. It shouldn't be a 
partisan issue. After all, we are a government of, by, and for the 
people.
  We are here today to talk about a series of commonsense solutions 
that will return power to the folks back home. I am proud that one of 
them is my bill, H.R. 3830, the Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act, which 
unanimously passed the House last week and now is over in the Senate. 
It is a pretty simple bill.
  American taxpayers deserve to know where, when, why, and how the 
government is spending their hard-earned dollars, and they deserve to 
have those dollars spent in an efficient, smart manner.
  My bipartisan legislation requires Federal agencies to supply online 
accounting of their program activities in an easily searchable 
inventory so that Americans can keep tabs on where and how their tax 
dollars are being spent. All of the information provided for the 
inventory will be updated regularly to provide for a more realtime 
accounting of Federal programs and dollars.
  The Taxpayers Right-to-Know Act will help cut down on waste, fraud, 
and abuse in the Federal Government by allowing policymakers to better 
identify areas where any programs duplicate and put a stop to it.
  Congress needs to do more to lighten the load for the next 
generation. We need to streamline efficiencies, increase effectiveness, 
institute more transparency, and provide better accounting across the 
Federal Government.
  Madam Speaker, I applaud the GEAR Task Force for highlighting these 
proposals and working to make our government better serve the people we 
represent.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his 
leadership on this.
  Taxpayers do have a right to know, and hopefully as that bill moves 
to the President's desk, it will actually happen.
  At this time, I welcome the gentleman from Texas' 27th Congressional 
District, Representative Michael Cloud, here today. He was a member of 
the GEAR Task Force and really brought a number of ideas to the table, 
and he is here today to reflect on a number of those.

  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Cloud).
  Mr. CLOUD. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I 
thank him for his work and leadership on this task force. It has been a 
worthwhile project, to say the least.
  Madam Speaker, with over $23 trillion in national debt and annual 
deficits at $1 trillion, it is obvious that Washington has a spending 
problem. We must do something to rein in this problem that we are 
leaving for our children, and we must do it soon.
  Every day, taxpayer dollars are wasted on unnecessary expenses. For 
example, as part of the ``use it or lose it'' last-minute spending 
sprees of 2018, Federal agencies spent over $4 million on lobster tails 
and crabs, $673,000 on golf carts, $308,000 on alcohol, and $53,000 on 
china tableware.
  Another example is that, despite the efforts to address the issue, 
the Federal Government makes over $800 million in payments to people 
who are no longer on this Earth.
  And, finally, right now, there are duplicative programs, including 91 
Federal programs that train healthcare workers and more than 40 
workforce development programs. Some of these may be good, but 
consolidating them might be a great idea.
  We owe it to the American people to do better with their hard-earned 
tax dollars, and we owe it to future generations not to borrow against 
their future.
  On the Government Efficiency, Accountability, and Reform Task Force, 
our aim is to make Washington take real steps toward returning the 
government to its proper constitutional boundaries.
  The recommendations compiled today are not flashy. They won't lead in 
the nightly news; they won't dominate your social media feeds; but they 
are important, and it is incumbent upon us to look past the 15-second 
sound bites and get serious about the business of governing.
  Here are just a handful of solutions:
  We could sell unused Federal office space;
  We can consolidate duplicative programs and agencies;
  We can identify programs that are not working and eliminate them.
  The President's budget has an entire chapter on highlighting our 
government's wasteful spending and some of the efforts his 
administration is making to eliminate it.
  All of America understands that we need to balance our budget, but no 
administration, Republican or Democrat, can do it without that 
commitment from Congress.
  We are elected and given very specific authority under the 
Constitution to control how taxpayer dollars are spent. We must roll up 
our sleeves and do everything we can to rein in this Washington 
spending machine.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his 
leadership here in highlighting some of these wasteful programs. 
Clearly, we can do better, and I thank him for bringing them forward.
  At this time, I will yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona's Eighth 
Congressional District, Representative Debbie Lesko. She has brought to 
us some of the reforms related to improving our immigration system, and 
I look forward to her sharing that with us.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko).
  Mrs. LESKO. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, my friend, Mr. 
Gianforte, for giving me the opportunity to speak about this bill.
  I am from Arizona, so border security has been for years and still is 
the number one issue that people in Arizona care about. They welcome 
legal immigrants, but they also want to make sure that Arizona and our 
Nation are secure and that illegal drug trafficking is mitigated.
  We used to see mostly single male adults crossing our border, and 
they would evade the Border Patrol officers; but, recently, however, 
thousands and thousands of illegal migrants are coming from Central 
America, and they are being coached by the cartels, who charge them 
$5,000 to $8,000 a person. They are saying: Let's go up there and turn 
yourselves in to the Border Patrol officers, because there is a 
loophole, and just claim asylum.
  And they know that, once they are in, they are in the United States 
and they can stay.

                              {time}  1500

  Instead of running away from Border Patrol, they turn themselves in, 
claiming asylum, so our immigration courts are overloaded and 
legitimate asylum claims languish amidst frivolous claims.
  This backlog is severe. It is a nonpartisan challenge facing our 
immigration courts. A recent report stated that backlog cases in 
immigration courts exceeded 1 million claims.
  This backlog has rapidly increased over the last decade, and as the 
backlog increases, so do wait times. Sometimes, it takes years for 
these cases to proceed through the courts.
  We currently have approximately 400 immigration judges. That is about 
2,500 cases per judge. This backlog strains housing facilities and 
prevents judges from granting asylum to legitimate asylum seekers and 
from swiftly removing those who have frivolous claims and are abusing 
the loopholes in our laws.
  This is a big national security and humanitarian crisis. We need 
efficiency in the Federal Government, especially when it comes to 
immigration.
  That is why I introduced H.R. 3859 to help reduce the immigration 
court backlog and help legitimate asylum seekers.

[[Page H1041]]

  This bill provides an additional 100 immigration judges to reduce the 
asylum backlog. Adding more judges will allow these cases to be 
adjudicated faster and help reduce the backlog.
  I thank the task force chairman,   Greg Gianforte, and the Republican 
Study Committee chairman,   Mike Johnson, for their hard work to 
increase efficiency and accountability in our government, especially 
when it comes to immigration.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman, especially for 
bringing attention to this issue of immigration. It is top of mind for 
so many Americans, and having the judges necessary to pursue these 
cases to final outcome is so important.
  I yield to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Allen), from the 12th 
Congressional District, a task force member who helped bring forward 
many of the ideas that are in this collection of commonsense government 
efficiency ideas just published recently.
  Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Montana, the 
chairman of this committee. It was a real privilege to serve on this 
committee.
  Over the years, the size of the Federal Government has ballooned. 
While it excels in some ways, like keeping our Nation safe, oftentimes, 
it does not serve the American people well, and that keeps my 
constituent services office very busy back in the district.
  As a small business owner, I know how important it is to run 
effective and efficient operations. If you don't serve your customers 
well, you won't stay in business. But because the Federal Government is 
largely unaccountable, the only people who suffer from government 
inefficiency are the people it is intended to serve: the American 
people.
  For far too long, we have let the executive branch seize authority 
and empower unelected bureaucrats. I am proud to serve on the 
Republican Study Committee's Government Efficiency, Accountability, and 
Reform Task Force, whose goal is to develop reforms to improve the 
Federal Government in order to better serve American families.
  Prior to my service here in Congress, I served as the Georgia co-
chair for the Fix the Debt committee, which was a nationwide bipartisan 
effort to identify ways that we could balance our budget.
  Our new report here in the GEAR Task Force highlights strategies to 
streamline government practices and remove waste, much like the Fix the 
Debt committee identified.
  For example, we all know that Washington has a spending problem. If 
something isn't working, many of my colleagues would prefer just to 
throw more money at the problem. But when has that worked? We need 
serious government reform.
  In my business, we emphasize the importance of streamlining processes 
so we can maximize every dollar. We have a 5-year lookback procedure 
where we look at every dollar we spend to make sure that we are using 
every dollar in an efficient manner so that those who invest--in this 
case, the American taxpayers--get the most bang for their buck.
  Also, in our business, we have a balance sheet, an income statement, 
where we can actually run ratios that we can compare and see how we are 
doing against our peers.
  I mentioned that to someone on the Budget Committee and they said: I 
don't think we have seen that in the Federal Government.
  I come from the business community, and I came to Washington because 
we have to get down to business. I have identified, again, working on 
this task force, on the Budget Committee, and on the RSC, so many areas 
where, frankly, we can be much more efficient at spending every dollar.
  Every taxpayer should be treated like a shareholder. They should know 
exactly where and how their money is being spent.
  That is why I have a big problem with the appropriations process here 
in Congress. Yes, we kind of go through the motions here on the House 
floor, but we bog down, and it becomes a four-corner deal where 
leadership on both sides decides: Okay, these are the caps, and this is 
how we are going to spend the money.
  The appropriators appropriate to that number, and then we are given a 
1,200-page spending bill 24 hours before we have to vote on it. That is 
ridiculous.
  I have emphasized to my leadership that I will not vote on a bill 
like that again, that we should stand right here through the 
appropriations process and show the American people every place we are 
spending a dollar.
  The GEAR report lays the groundwork for this type of reform. Our 
report highlights specific ways we can make government more efficient 
and accountable to the people, including improving metrics to better 
inform decisionmaking, utilizing excess Federal office 
space, leveraging duplicative government contracts, consolidating data 
centers, reducing security clearance processing delays, and much more.

  These solutions are common sense, and they should garner bipartisan 
support. I encourage my colleagues who have not yet read the report to 
do so. We have highlighted over 100 ways we can improve government and 
better serve the American people.
  We must change the status quo. That is why I came to Washington.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia. I 
particularly appreciate his business experience here in the House and 
his participation on this task force.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. 
Timmons), from the Fourth Congressional District. He has also been a 
task force member, and his fingerprints are on this report.
  Mr. TIMMONS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Montana for 
yielding.
  A decade ago, Congress passed a law directing the executive branch to 
inform them within 2 years of how many Federal programs existed within 
the Federal Government. We are still waiting for that answer today.
  Since 2010, I think we can all agree that the size of the Federal 
Government has grown exponentially and has overreached in places it 
should not. This unchecked scope of power and inefficient bureaucracy 
affects every aspect of our lives and is a threat to our well-being and 
to the foundation of our Republic.
  The Government Efficiency, Accountability, and Reform Task Force, or 
GEAR, of the Republican Study Committee has worked over the last year 
on ways to rein in wasteful and unnecessary government overreach and 
spending, make the Federal Government more transparent and accountable, 
and get back to the basics of the legislative branch, to be a 
government that works for the American people.
  Today, I would like to speak to the reform aspect of the task force. 
In order to promote and advance efficiency within the Federal 
Government, government practices must be reformed.
  All Americans want a government that is efficient and that delivers 
results. One of the ways that we can reform the Federal Government is 
to address our cybersecurity shortcomings.
  Every day, hackers, criminals, terrorists, and foreign countries seek 
to exploit our cybersecurity systems. Earlier this year, a group of 
Iranian-affiliated hackers infiltrated a U.S. Government website, wrote 
pro-Iranian messages, and wrote a message about Iranian cyber 
capabilities.
  The threat landscape is constantly changing, and the cybersecurity 
needs are evolving along with it. The government must continue to 
reform and update its cyber practices to best defend against 
adversaries.
  The GAO has made over 3,000 recommendations since 2010 regarding the 
U.S. Government's cybersecurity policies. As of GAO's last full survey 
of these concerns in 2017, only 448 recommendations have been 
implemented. This is unacceptable, and it puts our Nation at 
unnecessary risk.
  I am pleased that the Trump administration has made cybersecurity a 
priority, recognizing that protecting cyberspace is key to our national 
security and economic ability. Congress should utilize its oversight 
authority to support cybersecurity initiatives, including requiring 
that the outstanding GAO recommendations be implemented.
  While I touched briefly on one of the many important ways the Federal 
Government can work toward reform, there are many crucial steps that 
Congress can take to ensure it is continuing to work for the people and 
not the other way around.

[[Page H1042]]

  The work of the GEAR Task Force is important, and I hope that every 
Member will take some time to read through the report. We all made a 
promise to our constituents to come to Washington to work for them and 
prioritize their needs.
  This report is not meant to be Republican or Democratic. This report 
is something that all Members of Congress, regardless of party, should 
be able to get behind. It is a blueprint for good government, the kind 
of governing that was intended by our Founding Fathers.
  Let's work together to make Congress and the Federal Government, as a 
whole, work for the people. We can start by enacting necessary reforms 
to make the government more efficient and accountable.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from South 
Carolina for his leadership on the GEAR Task Force.
  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
LaMalfa), from the First Congressional District, for his thoughts on 
government efficiency and reform.
  Mr. LaMALFA. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Montana (Mr. 
Gianforte) for his leadership on this.
  It is really a commonsense issue, isn't it? Government efficiency, 
accountability, and reform is something that all Americans can get 
behind because, let's remember for just a moment, who pays for all of 
this? Who pays to keep the lights on here, all of these buildings in 
Washington, D.C., all of the people working in them, all of them out in 
the districts, all of them out there in the forests, what have you? It 
is the American taxpayer.
  What is the American taxpayer faced with? Trying to take care of 
their own business, their home, their family, their mortgage, car 
payments, saving for college, whatever their priorities are, maybe 
going on a vacation once in a while, saving up so they can have a week 
or two off.
  What is it that we are doing with their money in Washington, D.C., or 
my home State of California in Sacramento? How are we respecting what 
they earn? How are we respecting that by the priorities we are putting 
on spending what they earn?
  And it isn't a contribution, like sometimes it is talked about. I 
love to hear the talk around here: the contributions you make, and the 
investments we are going to make. No, tax dollars are not voluntary. 
They are taken from you per a formula.

  So, how are we treating them? That is an important charge to me.
  This is a big place, and there are a lot of Members, and there is a 
lot of government, after 230-plus years of layers. So getting back to 
just a little more efficiency, I think, tells those hardworking folks 
that there is somebody in Washington, D.C., like this GEAR committee, 
like these folks, who are trying to somehow work toward balancing the 
budget someday.
  The President's budget that he is talking about, he is going to take 
a lot of hits for that right now. At least he is putting the concept 
out there that is trying to work toward balance instead of deficit 
spending. We will be consumed one day by the service on the debt if 
interest rates go wild. It will eclipse our spending.
  Let me just break it down, in my couple of minutes here, on a couple 
of things that I think are important about this more locally, more for 
the Western States that myself, Mr. Gianforte, and others share.
  The RSC plan lays out more than 100 solutions for GEAR reform, 
including modernizing NEPA and the Endangered Species Act, especially 
important in my State, as well as the West.

                              {time}  1515

  NEPA is Big Government at its best. It has been manipulated into 
something that is a monster and that it should never have been as far 
as protecting the environment. It is often the largest hindrance on 
forest management, water management, water storage, and for simple 
power line clearing projects; like are so desperately needed in my 
district since the town of Paradise burned a little over a year ago, 
and we are trying to rebuild. There are more towns I could name in the 
district that that same catastrophe could happen to because of 
overcrowded forests, and in some cases proximity to power lines.
  According to this report, the NEPA review can take nearly 6 years on 
average to get a NEPA report.
  We are talking about forestry, Madam Speaker.
  How long does it take to study replacing a simple culvert in a Forest 
Service road?
  Why does that even need a study?
  If you built the thing to begin with, just replace it. No. We have 
got to study it to death. We have to study and get permits to clear 
trees around power lines that might be hazardous, a leaning tree or a 
dead tree.
  Now, thankfully, we got bipartisan legislation, me and Mr. Schrader 
from Oregon, to help speed that process up, and we are going to work on 
another bill to speed it up even more so we can do a simple, basic, 
commonsense thing like that.
  Californians don't have a lot of time to wait for the government to 
do the forest management on its lands and infrastructure overhauls 
needed to protect them from wildfires and droughts. Indeed, when the 
Pacific Gas & Electric Company says that it might be up to 10 years 
before we can get out of this power shutoff situation that we are 
facing because of other issues that they are battling through with 
green power mandates and getting permission to do the lines.
  Ten years of power shutoffs for my constituents?
  Are you kidding me?
  We need to narrow that down to almost nothing, because we can't have 
another year like that.
  So I applaud the Trump administration for recently proposing reforms 
to NEPA, but we should not have had to wait 40 years for the executive 
branch to act. This executive branch is doing so.
  Congress should be in the business of addressing inefficiency in 
government, having much more oversight, like GEAR, like my colleagues 
are all working on here as well, including ending the cumulative 
effects and indirect impact statements required by NEPA.
  The Endangered Species Act also poses a unique set of problems to 
California, specifically with critical habitat designations.
  Take the valley elderberry longhorn beetle. Fish and Wildlife 
recommended, I think about 15 years ago, to finally delist that. Here 
we still are waiting to delist that and all the habitat issues with 
elderberry plants that inhibit the ability to fix flood control 
projects and to fix levees, because you have to plant back 15 to 1 for 
every elderberry bush you might disturb because it is possible critical 
habitat, even if you have never seen an elderberry beetle land there.
  The Shasta Dam project would raise the dam 18 feet and supply about 
650,000 more acre-feet of water for Californians, whether it is for 
agriculture, people, habitat or whatever--18 more feet. That is a lot 
of water to an existing dam. It has been halted due to a lawsuit 
calling for the protection of the Shasta salamander. The 3-inch long 
salamander makes its home on the banks of Lake Shasta which has been 
designated as a critical habitat.
  Now, when there is a lot of rain coming into Lake Shasta, the fastest 
the lake can rise is about one-quarter inch per hour during heavy rain. 
So all the salamander has to do is be able to move at one-quarter inch 
per hour to stay ahead of the lake level.
  Where is the sense here?
  Eighteen feet above an already existing lake which the salamander 
already thinks is pretty cool to live next to.
  Critical habitats unnecessarily delay critical infrastructure 
projects like the Shasta Dam, and their designation standards need to 
be reformed for whatever habitat is.
  The RSC GEAR report has done an excellent job at addressing these 
necessary changes, including reforms to NEPA and the ESA. I sincerely 
hope Congress--both sides of the aisle--will take these suggestions and 
hold bureaucracy more accountable to the American people who pay for 
all this.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California 
for his remarks.
  I agree we have seen the impacts of an overly lengthy NEPA process 
that just ties projects in knots, and the weaponization of the 
Endangered Species Act has allowed it to drift away from its original 
intent of protecting species. So I appreciate the gentleman's 
leadership on this.

[[Page H1043]]

  Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the 21st District of 
Texas (Mr. Roy) for his thoughts on government efficiency and reform 
and also his leadership on national emergency reform.
  Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Montana for his 
leadership on this and my colleagues who have been working together on 
this important effort.
  Madam Speaker, things like government efficiency, accountability, and 
reform are things you would think we would all be able to get behind. I 
am certainly of the belief that the American people who are watching--
even if it is just a handful in their living rooms--are a lot more than 
are watching here in the Chamber.
  I am also interested, when you look at the C-SPAN cameras, if you pan 
back, nobody is here to talk about what I am about to talk about. Yet 
we saw last week a Senate Chamber with 100 Senators sitting there 
debating what?
  They were debating failed Articles of Impeachment.
  Here we are trying to figure out how to make our government 
accountable, make it efficient, and make it effective. Reclaiming power 
from elected bureaucrats, reforming government practices to curb 
inefficiency and waste, and reemphasizing and rewarding innovation is 
something I think all Americans could get behind.

  But I would like to talk about something that I think is critically 
important, which is restoring Article I and restoring the primacy of 
this body and the Senate in governing our Nation.
  We shouldn't be looking to the executive branch, no matter who is in 
power, to be making decisions that should be reserved to the Members of 
this body and the Senate.
  Congress ceded some of our power in 1976 with the passage of the 
National Emergencies Act, which pulled together a number of different 
powers contained in the 130 different statutes at the time giving the 
President unilateral authority to declare emergencies.
  Madam Speaker, there are currently 33 emergencies in effect, some of 
them dating back to the Carter administration. Now, think about that. 
It is an emergency. It is an emergency, and it dates back to the Carter 
administration. This is no way to govern.
  I learned this how?
  Well, last spring when we were having a robust debate about securing 
the border of the United States--by the way, a sovereign nation should 
not need to have a debate about ensuring that our border is secure when 
you have 900,000 individuals being apprehended on our southern border 
last fiscal year alone, 900,000--600,000 of whom were caught and 
released into our country. The President of the United States is 
working to secure our border, to put up physical barriers, to build a 
wall, and to build a fence which is desperately needed. And it is 
working where it is being implemented.
  The President is right to do so. He is right that there is an 
emergency at our southern border, and he is right that the Members of 
this body led by Democrats refuse to acknowledge the crisis at our 
southern border. He was right to defend our southern border.
  But the question that popped into my head is: All right, we have an 
emergency. Now what?
  This body, Article I, should do its job. It is incumbent upon 
Congress to act. We shouldn't allow an emergency to be declared and 
then operate our policies under it, even if I agree with the policy, 
and I do. I do agree with the policy of what the President is doing.
  So I implore my Democrat colleagues, who are not in the Chamber, to 
come have a debate about restoring Article I and about all of the 
different issues that may occur.
  I introduced H.R. 1755 which is the companion legislation to that 
which was offered by my friend, Senator Mike Lee of Utah, in the U.S. 
Senate, and that bill would take a President's emergency declaration 
and terminate it after 30 days unless Congress affirmatively authorizes 
an extension. The bill would also terminate the emergency declaration 
after 1 year unless a new resolution of approval is enacted. It 
requires the President to report to Congress on how the President is 
exercising emergency powers.
  Senator Lee's bill has been passed out of committee, but we have had 
nary a debate here in the body about restoring Article I. We have had a 
lot of speeches and a lot of complaints about the President of the 
United States and a lot of complaints about what is happening at our 
border, but not one serious debate about restoring Article I.
  Let's do it. Let's come together right now and let's stand up as a 
body in Congress and say: Do you know what? If there is an emergency, 
great, Mr. President, go act in the emergency; but 30 days later we can 
agree it is time for Congress to decide how money is going to be 
appropriated and how we are going to enforce and implement the laws 
that we think are important for this body.
  This is critical to government reform. This is critical to making 
sure we are making government more efficient and more accountable. This 
body is the body, this House is the people's House and most responsive 
to the American people.
  I would beg, literally, my Democratic colleagues to engage in debate, 
as we sit here in an empty Chamber, about the kinds of things that I 
know the American people would love for us to debate.
  Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Montana for yielding to me 
and for organizing this activity.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas, 
particularly for reminding us of the need to rebalance and reclaim our 
Article I authority from the runaway bureaucracy that we have here in 
Washington.
  Madam Speaker, we started the Government Efficiency Accountability 
and Reform Task Force for one simple reason: only 17 percent of 
Americans today say they can trust the government in Washington. We 
have to get the government working for the people again.
  Madam Speaker, I was in Billings, Montana, and a gentleman who has 
been drilling natural gas wells for 30 years told me a story. He said 
30 years ago when he wanted a permit to drill a well, he would go into 
the field with a clipboard, a single piece of paper, and a ballpoint 
pen. He would fill out that application. The government official would 
review it in the field and say: That will be all right.
  Today, Madam Speaker, that same form is 48 pages long, requires an 
engineer and a lawyer to fill it out, tens of thousands of dollars, and 
months to process.
  Clearly, we can do better.
  Our three branches of government have drifted from their original 
purpose to cultivating a culture of waste. That is why we have produced 
this playbook of 100 commonsense, nonpartisan solutions for efficiency, 
accountability, and reform of our Federal Government.
  Over this last year, the Republican Study Committee GEAR Task Force 
has been meeting with outside experts and the administration and 
internally to produce a playbook of commonsense solutions for 
efficiency, accountability, and reform of our Federal Government.
  I want to thank the task force members, the chairman of the RSC,   
Mike Johnson; Barry Loudermilk; Doug Collins; Bruce Westerman; Rick 
Allen;   John Curtis;   Michael Cloud; Kelly Armstrong; William 
Timmons; and Denver Riggleman for their engagement and their leadership 
in pulling together this playbook through which we hope to run these 
commonsense ideas.

  The report is broken into three sections. The first section refers to 
the comments made by my colleague who just finished on the Article I 
power in the Constitution to restore the people's control over an 
unchecked bureaucracy by returning the constitutional balance between 
the branches of government.
  Our Founding Fathers never anticipated the size of the bureaucracy we 
have today. That is why we need provisions like the REINS Act, so that 
the statutes passed in this House get reflected in rules consistent 
with our intent.
  The second section of the report has to do with government practices 
to streamline Federal programs and operations to promote efficiency and 
eliminate waste.
  Madam Speaker, in 2015 the Social Security Administration told us we 
had sent benefit checks to over 6 million Americans who were over the 
age

[[Page H1044]]

of 112. Now, either they are drinking some special elixir of life or 
they are not with us anymore. That is why I have introduced a piece of 
legislation titled stop paying dead people. I think that would be a 
good reform. It would save American taxpayers and make sure the 
benefits are there for those who do need Social Security.
  The third section of the report is on personnel, to transition 
government personnel accountability and compensation toward more of a 
merit-based system. I operated a number of businesses in the private 
sector, and there are many HR practices in the Federal Government which 
are very different than they are in the private sector, things like 
merit-based pay, the way we do performance reviews, and making sure we 
have market-based pay for our good, dedicated Federal workers. Those 
are contained in the third section.
  In total, there are over 100 commonsense ideas in this report that we 
will run as plays here in the House to make the government start 
working for the people again.
  I appreciate the opportunity for the Members of the task force and 
others who have engaged on this issue to come today and share their 
commonsense ideas. I look forward to partnering to put these ideas into 
practice to get government working for the people again.
  Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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