[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 162 (Monday, September 20, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H4546-H4550]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1945
                      BUILDING AMERICA BACK BETTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Newman). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 4, 2021, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) 
is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I am delighted to be representing the 
Congressional Black Caucus as the Special Order chair.
  I want to thank our chairwoman, Joyce Beatty, for her leadership on 
ensuring that the message of the Congressional Black Caucus--Our Power, 
Our Message--is reflected on the floor of this House and to the 
American people, to our constituents, the millions and millions of 
Americans that the 57 members of the Congressional Black Caucus 
represent.


                             General Leave

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their 
remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this Special 
Order.

[[Page H4547]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from Texas?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, it is clear that we will be dealing 
with Build Back Better for the time of this week and into next week, so 
the Congressional Black Caucus will come very briefly this week to 
discuss and let our constituents and Americans know that any distorted 
representation of the $3.5 trillion, as not being able to afford it or 
that it is too extensive, is really a misrepresentation.
  First of all, we support, as the Congressional Black Caucus, Build 
Back Better enthusiastically. It is a $3.5 trillion package over 10 
years for a country that is nearing 350 million people, a country that 
has not seen infrastructure investment, climate investment, investment 
to deal with electric cars, investment to deal with the new economy, 
the care economy--we have not seen this for decades, or at least we 
have not seen this as we have moved into the 21st century.
  The Build Back Better plan makes the transformative investments that 
we need to continue our growing economy, lower costs for working 
families, and position the United States as a global leader in the 
innovation and jobs of the future.
  The $3.5 trillion gross investment will build on the successes of the 
American Rescue Plan and set our Nation on a path of fiscal 
responsibility and broadly shared prosperity for generations to come.
  Almost 4 years ago, in 2017, the Houston area and most of the 
Southern region, all the way to Florida, including some of our 
Commonwealths, experienced Hurricane Harvey.
  This is my district, where the water looked like an extended ocean--
$155 billion worth of damage, so much damage that we are continuing to 
work with it. Why? Because we did not have the infrastructure. We did 
not have the bayous that were constructed in a way that would hold the 
water. So much damage, so much loss, so much pain.
  So a combination of the INVEST Act and Build Back Better is a must. 
They must walk hand-in-hand. One without the other does not answer the 
call of the American people. It does not reflect the Lincolnesque 
attitude that we all are in this together.
  Let me read a quote from President Lincoln, who reminds us so much 
whenever we speak of the idea of what America is. Abraham Lincoln, in 
1862, as he was seeing the divide coming into this Nation, offered 
these words: ``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the 
stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must 
rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and 
act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our 
country.''
  As we move forward with Build Back Better and the INVEST Act, the 
$3.5 trillion and the $1 trillion, there is no time to isolate 
ourselves as one or I or me. This is a time when we stand with America 
as we, working to ensure that this magnificent contribution to the 
infrastructure--to some of the worst infrastructure problems, from dams 
to highways to the electric grid--can also stand alongside childcare 
and the care economy.
  For example, in the State of Texas, this bill would help the local 
economy. It would send more than $400 million in Texas to support the 
expansion of an electric vehicle charging network, with up to $2.5 
billion more available through grants.
  Texas would also receive $3 billion to improve pipes and the delivery 
of clean drinking water so needed in our State, in urban and rural 
communities.
  And Texas would benefit from the bill's $3.5 billion investment in 
weatherizing energy grids across the country. Millions of Texans who 
sat shivering in their dark living rooms during the last winter's 
freeze will undoubtedly welcome that improvement. We lost over 150 
people in that short span in February when we saw temperatures in Texas 
that we had never imagined. People literally froze in their beds. One 
comes to mind that is so emotional: An 11-year-old boy froze in his bed 
in February 2021.
  Critically, the bill would provide at least $100 million for 
broadband access in a State where 14 percent of households don't have 
an internet subscription, and 4 percent of Texans have no broadband 
infrastructure at all.
  My view is that we cannot simply go for one versus the other. Let me 
just tell you about the Build Back Better $3.5 trillion bill.
  It will provide childcare to help our workforce and contribute to the 
economy where that is needed. Therefore, the plan supports families in 
need of childcare, providing access to safe, reliable, high-quality 
childcare, delivered by well-trained childcare providers.
  As it relates to education, we will be productive and having our 
children have high-quality education. That is why this plan makes 
necessary investments to increase quality education by 4 years for all 
students at no cost to hardworking parents. The plan will provide 2 
years of free pre-K and 2 years of free community college. We are 
investing in people.

  In regard to healthcare, too many Americans are forced to choose 
between medical care and putting food on the table. The plan expands 
access to quality, affordable healthcare by strengthening the Medicare, 
Medicaid, and Affordable Care marketplace programs that millions of 
Americans rely on. But now more could be added, in addition to 
providing dental, hearing, and vision benefits. That is when we go it 
together. Not I's and me's, but we, us together.
  Paid leave that can help us get on our feet when we are having issues 
with family and healthcare.
  Tackling the climate crisis. We have seen the ravages of hurricanes. 
We have seen Hurricane Ida--devastation that is unspeakable, 
electricity that people do not have, a million people without 
electricity. The climate crisis and climate change are here. It is 
crucial that we begin to invest in a plan that empowers comprehensive 
action to build an equitable, clean energy economy with historic 
investments to transform and modernize the electricity sector. It is 
imperative that we do that.
  We must take a moment to pause and to recognize that any positive 
steps on climate will be because of us, because of the most powerful 
lawmaking body in the Nation, taking a moment to pause and 
realistically confronting it, providing the research dollars, working 
with universities, such as the University of Houston Energy Institute 
and Texas Southern University, looking at ways to provide the best 
approach to a green approach and climate response as well as providing 
the necessary research on new kinds of energy. That is what we need to 
do.
  Just for a moment, may I step back to the point about healthcare. We 
know it all too well in Houston. We were the poster child in Texas for 
the most uninsured persons when the Affordable Care Act was 
implemented. Six million people, 25 percent of the State of Texas, were 
uninsured. We still do not have access to healthcare as we should.
  Then to add this horrific burden and insult to the women of Texas, to 
write the most heinous bill that would, in fact, disallow a woman's 
access to healthcare, this horrible bill that would have a bounty 
hunter that would seek to follow you in the midst of you getting good 
healthcare. I think this is clearly an unfortunate set of circumstances 
that we should correct.
  Healthcare, your own personal decision with your provider, your 
faith, and your family, choices that no one wants to make, yet this 
State law was put in place to create a vigilante community to attack 
women and those that might help them provide access to healthcare. That 
is what it is, access to healthcare, a decision that no one offers to 
make lightly. But here we are, a vigilante being enticed by $10,000--
gossip, spying, standing outside dorm rooms, watching Uber cars, 
standing in front of doctors' offices, standing in front of 
organizations like Planned Parenthood that deal with healthcare for 
women, and just plain providing a sense of intimidation and fear.
  That brings me to the legislation that we hope that we will see 
passing, H.R. 5226, Preventing Vigilante Stalking that Stops Women's 
Access to Healthcare and Abortion Rights Act of 2021. I hope my 
colleagues will join me in a simple bill that simply says you don't 
have the right to stalk a woman who is seeking healthcare. It may be 
that she is going for a mammogram. You don't know. But by creating this

[[Page H4548]]

atmosphere of money being given to a whole industry of people, ne'er-
do-wells and others, some with good intentions in their mind but 
seeking to make profit on someone else's pain, that is unacceptable. I 
hope my colleagues will join me in that legislation.
  Healthcare is a right, and we should give that to families, to women, 
to men, to children, and to seniors. That is what building America back 
better will do.
  Affordable housing, helping homeless persons, tax cuts for families 
and workers, I am so grateful. And I want everybody to know how 
Democrats worked so hard for the child tax credit--excuse me, let me 
correct that--the child tax cut. In fact, as I hear it, my 
constituents, your constituents, their constituents, are receiving 
those child tax cuts right now. Many people are making ends meet, 
helping their children get into school.
  That is what Democrats do, and that is what this bill is going to 
do--research, development, and innovation on good, forward-thinking 
infrastructure.
  Working with HBCUs, helping them be historically relevant but also 
helping them to be stronger in terms of their infrastructure. I support 
that and thank one of our colleagues, Congresswoman Alma Adams, who has 
been a leader on making sure our HBCUs are front and center, are 
surviving. These are our historic colleges founded in the 1800s.

                              {time}  2000

  Immigration, of course, is a very important issue, and I might say, 
another issue that we worked on in the Judiciary Committee with our 
allotment of $107 billion, and that is, of course, community violence 
intervention. We put in $2.5 billion on community violence 
intervention. And that of course was $107 billion, $107.5 billion in 
Judiciary. Part of that, of course, was to deal with the issue of 
community violence intervention.
  So you can see there is no time to waste. There is no time to delay. 
There is only time to work hard on getting this legislation passed. We 
must do it as an INVEST Act, we must do it as a budget reconciliation, 
or the Build Back Better Act of 2021, the better name. We must do it 
together.
  The Congressional Black Caucus stands to be able to say, ``No more 
Hurricane Harveys,'' but more, work with communities, rebuilding 
streets, historic preservation, and making a difference. That is what 
historic infrastructure investment can do, and that is what we in the 
Congressional Black Caucus stand for.
  I look forward to us continuing our discussion. Madam Speaker, I take 
the opportunity at this point in the name of unity, reconciliation, a 
new pathway for transformational government, passing of the INVEST Act, 
passing of the Build Back Better Act, and making sure that we have 
voting rights, that we give women the right to choose, that we pass 
H.R. 40, the commission to study slavery and develop reparation 
proposals. A long agenda. I know that we can do this in the spirit of 
unity.
  Madam Speaker, on behalf of the Congressional Black Caucus, I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, 
on Homeland Security, and on the Budget, and the Congressional Black 
Caucus, I am pleased to co-anchor this Congressional Black Caucus 
Special Order with my colleague, the distinguished gentleman from New 
York, Congressman Ritchie Torres.
  I thank the Chair of the CBC, Congresswoman Beatty of Ohio, for 
organizing this Special Order to discuss the reasons why the CBC strong 
supports the Build Back Better Agenda conceived and advanced by 
President Biden and House Democrats to support visionary and 
transformative investments in the health, well-being, and financial 
security of America's workers and families.
  Over the next hour, several of our colleagues will share their 
perspectives on why it is essential that we ``go big'' in building back 
better to our nation and all of its people have the opportunities and 
resources to compete and win in the changing global economy of the 21st 
century.
  Madam Speaker, it is often said that the federal budget is an 
expression of the nation's values and the investments made to Build 
America Back Better are a clear declaration of congressional Democrats' 
commitment to ensuring that our government, our economy, and our 
systems work For The People.
  Madam Speaker, these long-overdue investments in America's future 
will be felt in every corner of the country and across every sector of 
American life, building on the success of the American Rescue Plan, 
accommodating historic infrastructure investments in the legislative 
pipeline, and addressing longstanding deficits in our communities by 
ending an era of chronic underinvestment so we can emerge from our 
current crises a stronger, more equitable nation.
  Should our friends across the aisle join us in this endeavor, it 
would send a powerful signal to the American people if our colleagues 
across the aisle would join us in this effort because nothing would 
better show them that their elected representatives can set 
partisanship aside and put America first.
  And that bipartisan achievement would portend success for similar 
initiatives in the area of strengthening the infrastructure of 
democracy in which every American has a vital interest, national and 
homeland security, and criminal justice and immigration reform.
  I would urge my Republican colleagues to heed the words of Republican 
Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia who said colorfully several 
months ago:

       At this point in time in this nation, we need to go big. We 
     need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows and 
     count the cows and just move. And move forward and move right 
     now.

  The same sentiment was expressed more eloquently by Abraham Lincoln 
in 1862 when he memorably wrote:

       The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy 
     present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we 
     must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must 
     think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and 
     then we shall save our country.

  Madam Speaker, the bipartisan action we took in February 2021 when we 
passed the American Rescue Plan was a giant step in the right 
direction, but it was a targeted response to the immediate and urgent 
public health and economic crises; it was not a long-term solution to 
many of the pressing challenges facing our nation that have built up 
over decades of disinvestment in our nation and its people in every 
region and sector of the country.
  We simply can no longer afford the costs of neglect and inaction; the 
time to act is now.
  The Build Back Better Plan makes the transformative investments that 
we need to continue growing our economy, lower costs for working 
families, and position the United States as a global leader in 
innovation and the jobs of the future.
  This $3.5 trillion gross investment will build on the successes of 
the American Rescue Plan and set our nation on a path of fiscal 
responsibility and broadly shared prosperity for generations to come.
  The Build Back Better Plan will provide resources to improve our 
education, health, and child care systems, invest in clean energy and 
sustainability, address the housing crisis, and more; all while setting 
America up to compete and win in the decades ahead.
  The Build Back Better Plan is paid for by ensuring that the wealthy 
and big corporations are paying their fair share and Americans making 
less than $400,000 a year will not see their taxes increase by a penny.
  Let me repeat that: No American making less than $400,000 a year will 
not see their taxes increase by a penny.
  In sum, Madam Speaker, the investments made by the Build Back Better 
Plan will expand opportunity for all and build an economy powered by 
shared prosperity and inclusive growth.
  No one is better prepared or more experienced to lead the American 
renaissance that will be produced by the investments made by the Build 
Back Better Plan than President Biden, the architect of the American 
Rescue Plan and who as Vice-President during the Obama Administration 
oversaw the implementation of the Recovery Act, which saved millions of 
jobs and rescued our economy from the Great Recession the nation 
inherited from a previous Republican administration.
  And let us not forget that President Obama also placed his confidence 
in his vice-president to oversee the rescue of the automotive industry, 
which he did so well that the American car industry fully recovered its 
status as the world leader.
  Madam Speaker, let me briefly highlight some of the key investments 
made by the Build Back Better Plan:


                               EDUCATION

  The Plan will provide two years of free pre-K and two years of free 
community college to ensure every student has the tools, resources, and 
opportunity to succeed in life.
  It will also invest in our teachers and institutions that serve 
minority students and provide funding to give school buildings long-
overdue infrastructure updates.
  Children lead happier, healthier, and more productive lives when they 
have had access to high-quality education and that is why the

[[Page H4549]]

Build Back Better Plan makes necessary investments to increase quality 
education by four years for all students at no cost to hardworking 
families.


                              HEALTH CARE

  The Build Back Better Plan expands access to quality, affordable 
health care by strengthening the Medicare, Medicaid, and Affordable 
Care Act (ACA) Marketplace programs that millions of Americans already 
rely on.
  It includes a major new expansion of Medicare benefits, adding a 
dental, hearing, and vision benefit to the program for the very first 
time.
  It strengthens the ACA by extending the enhanced Marketplace 
subsidies that were included in the American Rescue Plan.
  It also provides an affordable coverage option for the more than two 
million Americans living in states that have not expanded Medicaid 
under the ACA and do not earn enough to qualify for Marketplace 
subsidies.
  The Build Back Better Plan's investment in home- and community-based 
services will increase access to critical services and create new and 
better-paying jobs for care providers.
  When the Build Back Better Plan is fully implemented soon gone will 
be the terrible old days when too many Americans are forced to choose 
between medical care and putting food on the table or affording other 
necessities.


                               CHILD CARE

  The Build Back Better Plan supports families in need of child care by 
providing access to safe, reliable, and high-quality care delivered by 
a well-trained child care workforce.
  This is important because our nation is strongest when everyone can 
join the workforce and contribute to the economy.
  That is why this investment is vital to so many millions of--
especially women--who are often forced to choose between working to 
support their family or caring for their family.


                               PAID LEAVE

  Madam Speaker, the United States is the richest nation in the world 
but one of the few modern democracies that lacks a paid leave program.
  The Build Back Better Plan remedies this shameful failing by creating 
a national, comprehensive paid family and medical leave program, 
providing direct support to workers and families.
  This crucial investment will allow workers to take the time they need 
to bond with a new child, care for their own serious illness, or care 
for a seriously ill loved one without risking needed income or 
employment.


                           AFFORDABLE HOUSING

  In the area of housing, the Build Back Better Plan makes investments 
to ensure that Americans have access to safe and affordable housing by 
providing resources to increase housing vouchers and funding for tribal 
housing.
  It also supports investments in programs that will help address our 
nation's housing crisis by increasing the supply of affordable homes 
for those in need and investing in historically underserved communities 
and those that have been previously left behind.


                        TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE

  The Build Back Better Plan will spur and empower comprehensive action 
to build an equitable clean energy economy with historic investments to 
transform and modernize the electricity sector, lower energy costs for 
Americans, improve air quality and public health, create good-paying 
jobs, and strengthen U.S. competitiveness--all while putting our 
country on the pathway to 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035.
  The Build Back Better Plan extends and expands clean energy tax 
credits and supports clean electricity performance payments so 
utilities can accelerate progress toward a clean electric grid at no 
added cost to consumers.
  The Build Back Better Plan invests in clean energy, efficiency, 
electrification, and climate justice through grants, consumer rebates, 
and federal procurement of clean power and sustainable materials, and 
by incentivizing private sector development and investment.
  Another exciting aspect of the Build Back Better Plan, Madam Speaker, 
is that it will drive economic opportunities, environmental 
conservation, and climate resilience--especially in underserved and 
disadvantaged communities--including through a new Civilian Climate 
Corps.


          RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND INNOVATION INFRASTRUCTURE

  Madam Speaker, advances in science, technology, and manufacturing are 
creating the industries and jobs of the future, and we must ensure that 
they are created here.
  That is why the Build Back Better Plan invests in America's ingenuity 
and competitiveness by revitalizing state-of-the-art laboratory 
facilities and research across the nation, including at historically 
black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other minority-serving 
institutions (MSIs), through new regional innovation hubs, and through 
federal science agencies.
  The Build Back Better Plan will reinvigorate U.S. manufacturing by 
supporting supply chain resilience and modernization, Manufacturing USA 
institutes, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, and facilities and 
research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, all of 
which will strengthen America's competitiveness in the global economy.


                              IMMIGRATION

  Madam Speaker, as virtually every respected study has concluded, 
providing a pathway to lawful permanent resident (LPR) status for 
Dreamers, recipients of Temporary Protected Status (TPS), farmworkers, 
and essential workers will be a boon for our economy.
  This Plan allows for investments to provide a pathway to LPR status 
for these immigrant communities.
  Madam Speaker, immigrants eligible for such protection are an 
integral part of Texas's social fabric.
  Texas is home to 386,300 immigrants who are eligible for protection, 
112,000 of whom reside in Harris County.
  These individuals live with 845,300 family members and among those 
family members, 178,700 are U.S.-born citizen children.
  These persons in Texas who are eligible for protection under the bill 
arrived in the United States at the average age of 8 and on average 
have lived in the United States since 1996.
  They own 43,500 homes in Texas and pay $340,500,000 in annual 
mortgage payments and contribute $2,234,800,000 in federal taxes and 
$1,265,200,000 in state and local taxes each year.
  Annually, these households generate $10,519,000,000 in spending power 
in Texas and help power the national economy.


                   TAX CUTS FOR FAMILIES AND WORKERS

  The expansion of the Child Tax Credit (CTC) enacted in the American 
Rescue Plan has already benefitted nearly 66 million children, put 
money in the pockets of millions of hard-working parents and guardians, 
and is expected to help cut child poverty by more than half.
  The Build Back Better Plan not only extends this meaningful tax cut, 
but it also extends the expanded Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and 
the expanded Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, which help families 
make ends meet and put food on the table, reduce child poverty, and 
lessen the burden on hard-working Americans so they can provide a 
better future for America's children.


                   REINING IN PRESCRIPTION DRUG COSTS

  The Build Back Better Plan also achieves savings from following 
through on President Biden's call to give Medicare the power to 
negotiate lower prescription drug prices, saving money for patients as 
well as the federal government.
  Madam Speaker, we have before us a once in a century opportunity to 
make gigantic progress in making ours a more perfect union, and to do 
it in a single bound with enactment of the Build Back Better Plan, the 
most transformative legislation passed by this Congress since the Great 
Society and the New Deal.
  Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I'd like to thank Chairwoman 
Beatty and the Congressional Black Caucus for hosting this Special 
Order Hour on our priorities in the budget reconciliation and 
infrastructure negotiation processes, and thank Congresswoman Jackson 
Lee and Congressman Torres for facilitating it.
  First, let me be very clear: I am certainly no fan of the 
partisanship and complexity associated with the reconciliation process. 
In an ideal world, in a perfect situation, this process would be 
defined by bipartisan agreements and give-and-take, and would be 
negotiated in a gradual, more transparent manner. But we do not live in 
an ideal world, nor is this a perfect situation. Right now, as we stand 
here today, millions of Americans are suffering, our infrastructure is 
crumbling, and our planet is quite literally on fire.
  Now, Madam Speaker, I have served in this body for nearly 30 years--
but I find myself struggling to recall a time when the cost of inaction 
was as high and as dangerous as it is in this moment. That's why the 
Black Caucus, under the leadership of Chairwoman Beatty, has fought to 
include vital provisions in the Build Back Better Act that would 
transform our economy and infrastructure, provide relief from Americans 
still reeling from the effects of COVID-19, and form a blueprint for a 
more equitable, just society.
  It's why I, as a Senior Member of the House Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee, voted to pass the portion of the Build Back 
Better Act dealing with investments in our nation's transportation and 
infrastructure systems. The most salient, underlying themes contained 
in the bill include investments in a race equitable transportation 
system, climate resiliency, transit programs targeted to residents in 
disadvantaged communities, resources for railroads, port infrastructure 
and supply chain resilience, and our water infrastructure, to name a 
few.
  It's why I, as Chair of the House Science, Space, and Technology 
Committee, presided

[[Page H4550]]

over a markup of the portion of the Build Back Better Act dealing with 
the issues and agencies under our jurisdiction. We targeted giving our 
nation's scientists and engineers 21st century facilities to conduct 
research by investing billions of dollars into research infrastructure 
at the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Institute 
of Standards and Technology, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 
Administration. These vital investments will also lead to good, high-
paying jobs. We also invested billions of dollars into our innovation 
pipeline at our premier research agencies to power our research and 
development and our advanced manufacturing programs. This includes 
significant investments in minority-serving institutions and diversity 
programs at NSF and DOE. Finally, we funded billions of dollars to 
better understand and respond to the climate crisis. Included in this 
is vital funding to improve our understanding of climate-associated 
natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires.
  Madam Speaker, I would urge all of my colleagues--Republican and 
Democrat, progressive and conservative, and everyone in between--to 
support these critical, much-needed investments in our constituents, in 
our districts, and in our country as a whole.

                          ____________________