[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 93 (Wednesday, May 31, 2023)]
[House]
[Pages H2671-H2680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 3746, FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT OF 
                                  2023

  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call 
up House Resolution 456 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 456

       Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be 
     in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 3746) to 
     provide for a responsible increase to the debt ceiling. All 
     points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. 
     The amendment printed in the report of the Committee on Rules 
     accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted. 
     The bill, as amended, shall be considered as read. All points 
     of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are 
     waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered 
     on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment 
     thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: 
     (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the 
     chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways 
     and Means or their respective designees; and (2) one motion 
     to recommit.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Oklahoma is recognized 
for 1 hour.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the 
customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
McGovern), my very good friend, the ranking member of the Rules 
Committee, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the 
purpose of debate only.


                             General Leave

  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
insert extraneous material on House Resolution 456.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Oklahoma?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Rules Committee met and reported 
out a rule, House Resolution 456, providing for consideration of H.R. 
3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, under a closed rule. It provides 1 
hour of general debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and 
ranking member of the Committee on Ways and Means, and it provides for 
one motion to recommit.
  I rise today in support of the rule and the underlying legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, today's legislation has been a long time coming. An 
agreement like the one we are considering today could and should have 
been in place much earlier. Instead, President Biden dithered and 
refused to negotiate with House Republicans, pushing us right up to the 
very brink of a catastrophic default.
  From day one, Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans tried to get 
President Biden and congressional Democrats to come to the negotiating 
table, but for months they refused. Over and over again, President 
Biden refused to meet with Speaker McCarthy to discuss the debt limit 
and the budget. He insisted, over and over again, that it was his way 
or the highway, and he told us over and over again that the only thing 
he would accept was a clean debt ceiling increase. It was that or 
nothing.
  Of course, it is easy to understand why President Biden wouldn't want 
to talk about cutting spending. Just look at the spending record he has 
amassed. Since he took office, President Biden and congressional 
Democrats have increased the 10-year spending trajectory by $10 
trillion. They did this by passing a partisan reconciliation bill that 
spent $1.9 trillion, and then by passing another partisan 
reconciliation bill that added up to another $600 billion in new 
spending. President Biden himself issued executive orders that added 
$1.5 trillion in spending, including his reckless and unconstitutional 
$400 billion plan to cancel student loan debt.
  When you lay it out like that, it is easy to see how we have reached 
the statutory debt ceiling so quickly, and it is easy to see why 
President Biden and congressional Democrats wouldn't want any barriers 
to spending more and more money. They want the gravy train to keep 
flowing and the spending to keep increasing, which will ultimately lead 
the Nation further and further into debt.
  However, House Republicans disagreed, and last month we acted. We 
passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, a bill that responsibly lifts the 
debt ceiling and changes the trajectory of future spending downward. We 
agreed that the United States cannot, should not, and will not default 
on our national debt, but we also put forward clear, commonsense, and 
responsible savings that will bring reckless spending under control.
  What did Democrats do? Nothing; not a thing. Not a single Democrat in 
the House voted to lift the debt ceiling. Not a single House Democrat 
voted to save trillions of dollars over the next 10 years. Our friends 
in the Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats, refused to take up 
the Limit, Save, Grow Act; and to this day, the Senate has refused to 
pass any bill lifting the debt limit. Not one.
  However, House Republicans have. For all the posturing on the other 
side of the aisle, I would remind everyone that House Republicans are 
the only ones who have taken concrete action to avoid default. 
President Biden's refusal to negotiate for so long was what brought us 
so close to the brink of a catastrophic default in the first place.
  Having said all that, today we are bringing a bill to the floor that 
will resolve this crisis. This bill is the result

[[Page H2672]]

of negotiations between President Biden and House Republicans. It is 
not a perfect bill, but it does represent a compromise between the 
administration and Congress that is necessary in a divided government. 
Nobody got everything they wanted, but the end result is a truly 
historic bill.
  Consider what the bill does, Mr. Speaker. It responsibly lifts the 
debt ceiling through January 1, 2025. In exchange, it also puts in 
place a series of fiscal reforms that will save taxpayers money. For 
the first time in history, we are pairing a debt ceiling increase with 
a year-over-year decrease in spending. We will be spending less in 
fiscal year 2024 than we are in fiscal year 2023, something that has 
never happened before in conjunction with a debt ceiling increase. We 
accomplish that goal while preserving funding for our national defense 
and ensuring our veterans get the care they need and deserve.
  We have also clawed back $28 billion in unspent COVID pandemic relief 
dollars that are no longer needed, the largest rescission in history. 
We have cut $1.4 billion that President Biden and congressional 
Democrats want to give to the IRS for new agents. We will cap future 
spending at just 1 percent growth per year for the next 6 years. We 
accomplish all of this without including any new taxes or new 
government programs, rejecting President Biden's demands to charge 
hardworking Americans another $5 trillion in taxes.
  However, that is not all this bill does. It includes real policy 
victories, Mr. Speaker, that will improve the lives of everyday 
Americans. The bill includes the first major reforms to work 
requirements for SNAP and TANF, ensuring that we can help lift people 
on these programs out of poverty and into the workforce. The bill also 
includes major permitting reform provisions, reducing approval time for 
essential infrastructure and energy projects.

  None of this would have happened but for President Biden's decision 
to come to the table and negotiate. Additionally, none of this would 
have happened but for House Republicans doing the responsible thing and 
insisting on fiscal reforms. Together, we are doing something good for 
the Nation. We are avoiding a devastating default on the national debt, 
and we are enacting needed fiscal reform to put us on a more 
sustainable spending path.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentleman from Oklahoma, the 
distinguished chairman, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, with less than a week from default, we have been rushed 
back to Washington because Republicans decided they wanted to waste 
months playing games with the debt limit.
  They said if Democrats and President Biden didn't give House 
Republicans everything they wanted, they were prepared to push the 
entire economy off a cliff, causing catastrophic, lasting, irreparable 
damage to America.
  Even though the GOP voted three times to prevent default when Donald 
Trump was President, even though 97 percent of the debt was accumulated 
before President Biden took office and over a quarter of the debt was 
accumulated under Donald Trump, even though Republicans had no problem 
adding trillions to the debt with their giveaways to Big Oil and to 
Wall Street CEOs and lavish tax cuts for the very rich, now they choose 
to play Russian roulette with our economy.

                              {time}  1445

  Frankly, we should not be here. We should have taken care of this 
months ago, but once again, Republicans are demonstrating that they 
cannot govern.
  Let's rewind to the end of 2017. The last time Republicans held the 
majority, they left our government with the longest shutdown in 
American history.
  Here we are today, dealing with a totally manufactured crisis that 
jeopardizes the full faith and credit of the United States.
  Both then and now, Democrats have had to be the adults in the room to 
come in and clean up Republicans' self-made mess. Every time 
Republicans are in charge, Mr. Speaker, they screw things up.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank President Biden, Shalanda Young, Steve 
Ricchetti, Louisa Terrell, Ashley Jones, Alicia Molt-West, and the 
White House team, as well as Leader Jeffries and his staff, for their 
leadership throughout these negotiations. I am sure it wasn't easy 
working with our Republican colleagues. I saw reports that White House 
staff was holed up in a stuffy room late at night and early in the 
morning, arguing for hours on end with Republicans.
  All I can say as a longstanding member of the Rules Committee: 
Welcome to the club.
  Mr. Speaker, because of their efforts, this bill is a lot less awful 
than it could have been.
  That said, I have some very real, very serious reservations about 
this bill. There are better ways to deal with our deficit than to 
further burden our Nation's most vulnerable.
  We can make sure the wealthy and well connected pay their fair share.
  Let's close the tax loopholes that millionaires and billionaires and 
corporations exploit. This bill does the opposite. It cuts IRS funding 
that would have kept big corporations and the top 1 percent in check. 
We have some of the wealthiest corporations on the entire planet, and 
they pay little to no taxes. They should at least pay the rate their 
lowest paying workers pay.
  What about the military budget? ``60 Minutes'' covered a story a 
couple of weekends ago where a former Pentagon official talked about 
the insane price gouging taking place at the Pentagon. He told us that 
the Pentagon overpays for almost everything--in one example, the 
Pentagon paid $10,000 for a $300 oil switch--but we are hearing from 
the Republicans that we can't find any savings in the bloated Pentagon 
budget.
  Really? Instead, they say, let's continue to take from the most 
vulnerable in our country. Give me a break.
  I know my Republican friends claim that investing less in military 
expenditures would somehow undercut our national security. Yes, we want 
a defense budget that ensures we are second to none, but to put 
everything in perspective here, we spend more on our national defense 
than the next 10 countries combined, including China and Russia. 
Defense spending accounts for nearly half of discretionary spending.
  Our national security is so much more than bullets and bombs. It is 
healthcare. It is education and food. It is a clean environment. It is 
good jobs and safe neighborhoods. It includes adequate support for our 
veterans, our seniors, and for our children--all the things that 
strengthen our communities.
  Honestly, Mr. Speaker, thank God for Joe Biden. He secured expanded 
food benefits for some of the most vulnerable individuals, like 
veterans, kids emerging from the foster care system, and the unhoused.
  It is clear the President entered these negotiations trying to 
protect as many people as possible from the GOP's war on the poor, but 
at the end of the day, we should not be making tradeoffs between which 
vulnerable population gets to eat.
  I have a hard time understanding why we are kicking up to 700,000 
older adults off of SNAP. It is just cruel. Food and hunger should not 
be a partisan issue. It is a human issue, but Republicans don't care 
who they hurt.
  We have over 30 million people in this country who do not know where 
their next meal will come from. The current SNAP benefit, on average, 
is $6 per person per day. That is $2 per meal. The majority of people 
on SNAP who can work do work, and we also know that work requirements 
do not work.
  In a February 2021 report titled: ``The Effects of Changing SNAP Work 
Requirement on the Health and Employment Outcomes of Able-Bodied Adults 
without Dependents,'' exactly what we are talking about here today, it 
was reported that losing SNAP made people less healthy and had no 
significant change in employment status. Again, work requirements do 
not work.
  By the way, if my Republican colleagues don't believe me, they could 
have held a hearing. They could have held a hearing in the Agriculture 
Committee or in the Nutrition, Foreign Agriculture, and Horticulture 
Subcommittee.
  They didn't hold a single hearing on this issue, not one. They have 
no clue

[[Page H2673]]

who this will adversely impact, and I don't even think they care. You 
would think that we want to go into this knowing exactly how this 
legislation would affect our constituents, but they didn't even have 
time for a hearing.
  Here is the kicker, Mr. Speaker. You are going to love this. Many of 
the people in this Chamber who are trying to take food away from 
struggling Americans are the same people who had their PPP loans 
forgiven. Some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle received 
hundreds of thousands of dollars--some, millions--in taxpayer dollars 
that were used to forgive some of their loans.
  They had no problem with that. They just shrugged that off, but they 
say we cannot afford to help make sure that families can put food on 
their tables. It is ridiculous.
  I also have issues with the antienvironmental language in the deal. 
The bill slashes key NEPA protections, approves the Mountain Valley 
Pipeline, and doesn't include transmission reform.
  Look, we all knew there would have to be compromise. No side was 
going to get everything they wanted out of this deal, but Republicans 
have used this manufactured crisis to force policy changes that are so 
unpopular that they could not possibly get them through regular order.

  For some on the far, far right--and there are a lot of them over 
there--this bill isn't mean enough. Let that sink in, everybody.
  By weaponizing the debt ceiling, Republicans are establishing a 
precedent that will haunt us forever, that one party can use the full 
faith and credit of the United States as a hostage to pass their widely 
unpopular ideas that they could not get done through the normal 
legislative process. It is a lousy, lousy way to govern.
  Mr. Speaker, let me conclude by saying that in this Republican-led 
Congress, it has become unfashionable to worry about the poor and the 
vulnerable, to believe in the principle that we should bring everyone 
along, that we must meet the needs of the many, not just of the few.
  Mr. Speaker, our goal should be to elevate people, not demean them. 
The policies being advocated and forced upon us by my Republican 
friends do not reflect my values. It is sad that, for them, solving 
problems and uplifting all people apparently is not their mission.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would quickly respond to my friend's statement about the origins of 
the national debt.
  Let me remind him that much of this debt was accumulated in just the 
last 2 years as a consequence of President Biden and congressional 
Democrats' reckless spending spree.
  Consider this: In the spring of 2021, congressional Democrats, 
without a single Republican vote, pushed through a $1.9 trillion 
partisan spending bill.
  Last year, they enacted another partisan spending bill, without a 
single Republican vote, with $600 billion in new spending, partly 
offset by budget gimmicks and higher taxes.
  President Biden himself put forward the unconstitutional and illegal 
student debt cancellation, which, if allowed to stand, would add 
another $400 billion to the national debt. This is on top of all 
regular Federal spending and emergency spending for the COVID-19 
pandemic.
  As for the military budget, my friends call it bloated. Frankly, I 
think we should be spending more, but I will remind him we are giving 
the President what he asked for. If this budget is bloated for the 
Pentagon, they can ask the White House about it because it is the 
budget that they proposed.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), 
my very good friend and a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.
  Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), 
the chairman, for giving me time, despite the fact that I voted against 
the rule in the Rules Committee.
  I respect that. I respect it immensely so that we can have a full and 
open debate here on the floor of the House.
  Mr. Speaker, I listened to the gentleman from Massachusetts wax on, 
talking about governing. I would say to the gentleman that we don't 
govern; we represent. That is what we are supposed to do, anyway, 
represent the people of this country fed up with a government that is 
now 40 percent bigger since the beginning of COVID, a government 
barreling toward $36 trillion of debt, and an absolute devastating 
burden on the future of this country, on our children and our 
grandchildren, who are not going to be able to afford homes, not be 
able to go to school, not be able to afford food, groceries.
  Talk about food programs, I don't hear a whole hell of a lot about 
what we are doing to devastate American families with rampant inflation 
because we keep spending money we don't have.
  To my colleagues on this side of the aisle, my beef isn't that I 
don't understand the struggle with the negotiators against that kind of 
reasoning. My beef is that you cut a deal that shouldn't have been cut.
  The fact is, at best, we have a 2-year spending freeze that is full 
of loopholes and gimmicks that would allow for increased funding for 
the Federal bureaucracy in order to receive a $4 trillion increase in 
the debt by January 1, 2025.
  Mr. Speaker, we have permitting reform, which might have some good 
elements in it. The problem is, you have the Biden administration 
saying it will ``accelerate implementation of the historic clean energy 
and environmental justice investments in the Inflation Reduction Act,'' 
the very policies destroying the American way of life and making them 
unable to afford energy and afford their food.
  We have watered-down work requirements that the CBO just said will 
actually increase the cost of SNAP by $2 billion, a supposed 1 percent 
automatic top-line reduction in spending at the end of the year that 
will actually make a Christmas omnibus more likely, and a 2 percent cut 
to Biden's $80 billion IRS expansion.
  Administrative paygo, I am told, we are not going to do the REINS 
Act. We are not going to restrain the regulatory state. We are going to 
do a waivable administrative paygo.
  Great. We will pass a bill next week. Yay us. It will die in the 
Senate.
  Why aren't we using this leverage--a complete punt to SCOTUS on the 
Biden administration's unfair, half-trillion-dollar student loan 
bailout; billions in COVID dollars left untouched to fund things like 
vaccines and COVID-19 testing; and the loss of one of our biggest 
leverage points to force Biden to actually secure the southern border.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the rule and 
to oppose this legislation.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a report by The 
Balance titled: ``President Trump's Impact on the National Debt.''

                   [From the balance, Jan. 26, 2022]

             President Trump's Impact on the National Debt

                          (By Kimberly Amadeo)

       The national debt increased by almost 36% during Trump's 
     tenure.
       Republican candidate Donald Trump promised during the 2016 
     presidential campaign that he would eliminate the nation's 
     debt in eight years.
       Instead, his budget estimates showed that he would actually 
     add at least $8.3 trillion, increasing the U.S. debt to $28.5 
     trillion by 2025. But the national debt reached that figure 
     much sooner. The national debt stood at $19.9 trillion when 
     President Trump took office in January 2017, and it reached a 
     high of $27 trillion in October 2020.
       The national debt reached another high of $28 trillion less 
     than two months after President Trump left office. In 
     December 2021, Congress then increased the debt limit by $2.5 
     trillion, to almost $31.4 trillion, as debt rose again under 
     President Joe Biden.


                  How Did the National Debt Increase?

       At first it seemed that Trump was lowering the debt. It 
     fell $102 billion in the first six months after he took 
     office. The debt was $19.9 trillion on Jan. 20, the day Trump 
     was inaugurated. It was $19.8 trillion on July 30, thanks to 
     the federal debt ceiling.
       Trump signed a bill increasing the debt ceiling on Sept. 8, 
     2017. The debt exceeded $20 trillion for the first time in 
     U.S. history later that day. Trump signed a bill on Feb. 9, 
     2018, suspending the debt ceiling until March 1, 2019. The 
     total national debt was at $22 trillion by February 2019. 
     Trump again suspended the debt ceiling in July 2019 until 
     after the 2020 presidential election.
       The debt hit a record $27 trillion on Oct. 1, 2020 before 
     reaching further peaks in 2021 that caused Congress to act 
     again to raise the debt limit in December.
       Trump oversaw the fastest increase in the debt of any 
     president, almost 36% from 2017 to 2020.

[[Page H2674]]

  



             Did President Trump Reduce the National Debt?

       Trump promised two strategies to reduce U.S. debt before 
     taking office: He would increase growth by 4% to 6%, and he 
     would eliminate wasteful federal spending


                           Increasing Growth

       Trump promised while on the campaign trail to grow the 
     economy by 4% to 6% annually to increase tax revenues. Once 
     in office, he lowered his growth estimates to between 2% and 
     3%. These more realistic projections are within the 2% to 3% 
     healthy growth rate.
       President Trump also promised to achieve between 2% and 4% 
     growth with tax cuts. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut the 
     corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% beginning in 2018. The top 
     individual income tax rate dropped to 37%. The TCJA doubled 
     the standard deduction and eliminated personal exemptions. 
     The corporate cuts are permanent, but the individual changes 
     expire at the end of 2025.
       According to the Laffer curve, tax cuts only stimulate the 
     economy enough to make up for lost revenue when the rates are 
     above 50%. It worked during the Reagan administration because 
     the highest tax rate was 70% at that time.


                 Eliminating Wasteful Federal Spending

       Trump's second strategy was to eliminate waste and 
     redundancy in federal spending. He demonstrated this cost-
     consciousness during his campaign when he used his Twitter 
     account and rallies instead of expensive television ads.
       Trump was right that there is waste in federal spending. 
     The problem isn't finding it. The problem is in cutting it. 
     Each program has a constituency that lobbies Congress. 
     Eliminating these benefits may lose voters and contributors. 
     Congressional representatives may agree to cut spending in 
     someone else's district, but they resist doing so on their 
     own.
       More than two-thirds of government spending goes to 
     mandatory obligations made by previous acts of Congress. 
     Social Security benefits cost $1.2 trillion in Fiscal Year 
     2021. Medicare cost $722 billion, and Medicaid cost $448 
     billion. The interest on the debt was $378 billion.
       Military spending must also be cut to lower the debt 
     because it's such a large portion of the budget. But Trump 
     increased military spending in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 to $933 
     billion. That includes three components:
       $636 billion base budget for the Department of Defense
       $69 billion in overseas contingency operations for DoD to 
     fight the Islamic State group
       $229 billion to fund the other agencies that protect our 
     nation, including the Department of Veterans Affairs ($105 
     billion), Homeland Security ($50 billion), the State 
     Department ($44 billion), the National Nuclear Security 
     Administration in the Department of Energy ($20 billion), and 
     the FBI and Cybersecurity for the eDepartment of Justice ($10 
     billion)
       Only $595 billion was left to pay for everything else 
     budgeted for FY 2021 after mandatory and military spending. 
     That includes agencies that process Social Security and other 
     benefits. It also includes the necessary functions performed 
     by the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue 
     Service. We'd have to eliminate it all to make a dent in the 
     $966 billion deficit.
       You can't reduce the deficit or debt without major cuts to 
     defense and mandated benefits programs. Cutting waste isn't 
     enough.


      Did Trump's Business Debt Affect His Approach to U.S. Debt?

       Trump said in an interview with CNBC during his 2016 
     campaign that he would ``borrow, knowing that if the economy 
     crashed, you could make a deal.'' But sovereign debt is 
     different from personal debt. It can't be handled the same 
     way.
       A 2016 Fortune magazine analysis revealed Trump's business 
     was $1.11 billion in debt. That includes $846 million owed on 
     five properties. These include Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, 
     and 1290 Avenue of the Americas in New York. It also includes 
     the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C., and 555 California 
     Street in San Francisco. But the income generated by these 
     properties easily pays their annual interest payment. Trump's 
     debt is reasonable in the business world.
       The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio was 129% at the end of 2020. 
     That's the $27.8 trillion U.S. debt as of December 2020, 
     divided by the $21.5 trillion nominal GDP at the end of the 
     second quarter this year.
       The World Bank compares countries based on their total 
     debt-to-gross domestic product ratio. It considers a country 
     to be in trouble if that ratio is greater than 77%.
       The high U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio didn't discourage 
     investors. America is one of the safest economies in the 
     world and its currency is the world's reserve currency. 
     Investors purchase U.S. Treasurys in a flight to safety even 
     during a U.S. economic crisis. That's one reason why interest 
     rates plunged to historical lows in March 2020 after the 
     coronavirus outbreak. Those falling interest rates meant that 
     America's debt could increase, but interest payments remain 
     stable.
       The U.S. also has a massive fixed pension expense and 
     health insurance costs. A business can renege on these 
     benefits, ask for bankruptcy, and weather the resulting 
     lawsuits, but a president and Congress can't cut back those 
     costs without losing their jobs at the next election. As 
     such, Trump's experience in handling business debt did not 
     transfer to managing the U.S. debt.


                   How the National Debt Affects You

       The national debt doesn't affect you directly until it 
     reaches the tipping point. It slows economic growth once the 
     debt-to-GDP ratio exceeds 77% for an extended period of time. 
     Every percentage point of debt above this level costs the 
     country 0.017 percentage points in economic growth, according 
     to a World Bank analysis.
       The first sign of trouble is when interest rates start to 
     rise significantly. Investors need a higher return to offset 
     the greater perceived risk. They start to doubt that the debt 
     can be paid off.
       The second sign is that the U.S. dollar loses value. You 
     will notice that as inflation rises, imported goods cost 
     more. Gas and grocery prices rise. Travel to other countries 
     also becomes much more expensive.
       The cost of providing benefits and paying the interest on 
     the debt will skyrocket as interest rates and inflation rise. 
     That leaves less money for other services. The government 
     will be forced to cut services or raise taxes at that point. 
     This will further slow economic growth. Continued deficit 
     spending will no longer work at that point.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, talk about spending. The national debt 
increased by almost 36 percent from 2017 to 2020 during Trump's tenure.
  I wish the gentleman from Texas was on the floor screaming then as he 
is now. He has no problem with spending trillions of dollars on tax 
cuts for rich people and taxpayer subsidies for Big Oil companies, but 
when it comes to providing people the basics to be able to put food on 
the table, he has a problem. We just don't share the same values.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Ruiz).
  Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. This bill is not about fiscal 
responsibility. It is about the extreme GOP pushing their extreme 
agenda.
  Extreme Republicans demanded to cut veterans' healthcare; to zero out 
the toxic exposures fund for sick, burn-pit-exposed veterans; to end 
protections for our environment and allow polluters to expose workers 
and communities to toxic chemicals for corporate profits; to cut 
Medicare, childcare, and education; and to repeal efforts to make our 
air and water cleaner, especially in vulnerable communities.
  If they didn't get their way, they held hostage the American economy 
and threatened to send America into default, raising costs for 
families, cutting 1 million jobs for workers, and devastating seniors' 
retirements.
  Mr. Speaker, today, under this Republican-manufactured extreme 
crisis, we will take up the bipartisan budget agreement to prevent a 
Republican catastrophic default.
  President Biden, in this bill, made sure veterans got the care that 
they needed by funding the toxic exposures fund for burn pit veterans 
and keeping in place the key provisions of the Inflation Reduction 
Act's environmental and clean energy protections to stop polluters from 
harming people. He was able to protect Medicaid, with no changes to 
Medicaid, and maintain healthcare access for millions of families 
across the country. He preserved funding for clean energy programs to 
clean up our air.

                              {time}  1500

  Look, if extreme Republicans were serious about fiscal 
responsibility, they would have accepted President Biden's budget that 
would have reduced the deficit by $3 trillion. Instead, this bill only 
reduces it by $1.5 trillion. Nevertheless, today I will vote for the 
bipartisan agreement.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for 
the purpose of a response.
  I remind my friend from California that we actually filed a veterans' 
bill that increased veteran spending, so that canard is just simply not 
the case. We, from the very beginning, were going to take care of 
veterans, and we filed legislation to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Burgess), my very good friend, my classmate, and the distinguished vice 
chairman of the Rules Committee.
  Mr. BURGESS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak in support of the 
rule and the underlying legislation. Included within the rule measure 
is H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act. Fortunately, the Fiscal 
Responsibility Act makes worthwhile reforms that will safeguard 
America's fiscal solvency.
  Mr. Speaker, 100 days, that is how long President Biden flirted with 
economic calamity because he was too

[[Page H2675]]

stubborn to come to terms with the new political reality. The American 
people did not send a Republican majority to continue business as 
usual.
  Mr. Speaker, the typical business as usual is where elected lawmakers 
come together in a lameduck session and knock the bottom out of the 
country's finances.
  Well, no more, Mr. Speaker.
  With the passage of this legislation, Republicans are putting America 
back on a sound fiscal footing by reducing nondiscretionary funding, 
reforming entitlement programs, and adding requirements that Congress 
pass its 12 appropriations bills on time. That is a massive change from 
the status quo.
  Credit our fellow Rules Committee member,   Thomas Massie, for the 
concept of including this in the debt limit bill, because if the 
appropriators cannot pass all 12 of their appropriations bills by 
September 30, it automatically goes to a continuing resolution with a 1 
percent reduction. That is the first time that that has ever happened. 
So we have budget enforcement, in fact, without blowing up the 
filibuster over in the Senate, and we all know what that could lead to.
  While no one can say that they got everything they wanted in this 
bill, and candidly, I don't think the permitting reforms are nearly 
enough. The NEPA reform included in this bill is an important first 
step, but there is no question that we will need to do much more.
  The full faith and credit of the United States is preserved with this 
legislative product. Bear this in mind: If the United States were to 
default on its debt, there actually is another country, the People's 
Republic of China, who would like to be the reserve currency of the 
world. We will not give them that chance when we pass this bill.
  I commend Patrick McHenry and Garret Graves for their hard work in 
bringing us this vital piece of legislation. I commend the Speaker for 
bringing it to a vote on the floor today after 72 hours for Members to 
read and understand the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support the rule and the underlying 
legislation.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished 
gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez), a member of the 
Rules Committee.
  Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, we are where we are at today, at 
the precipice of ruin, because extreme Republicans chose to hold 
Americans hostage by refusing to pay America's bills. Their chaos 
created fear and stress as Americans worried about a catastrophic 
recession.
  Extreme Republicans' ransom demand was the default on America act, a 
proposal which targeted rural communities, Head Start, veterans' 
healthcare, and more, with 22 percent tax cuts--all to pay for the 
Trump tax cuts for the wealthiest CEOs that added $2 trillion to the 
deficit.
  Rather than making the wealthiest pay their fair share, extreme 
Republicans wanted to balance the budget on American's growling, hungry 
stomachs.
  Democrats proposed amendments to the default on America act to 
protect programs like rural development and veterans' healthcare 
programs. Republicans rejected every amendment.
  So we went to our communities. We told them the truth about what the 
Republicans' default on America act would do. Americans listened, and 
they spoke out against the Republicans' plan.
  When Democrats and President Biden's team went into the room to 
negotiate with Republicans, the voices of veterans, seniors, and 
working Americans went in, too.
  Now, we have H.R. 3746. The bill does save us from economic 
catastrophe. It rejects the most extreme and cruel proposals contained 
in the Republicans' default on America act. It allows advanced 
appropriations for the Indian Health Service, and protects clean energy 
tax credits and healthcare for veterans.
  Is it perfect? Absolutely not.
  I do not support many of the changes to our environmental laws and 
our social safety net programs.
  Let's talk fiscal responsibility for a moment. President Trump 
increased the debt by $8 trillion. In contrast, President Biden reduced 
the deficit in his first 2 years alone by $1.7 trillion, while creating 
12 million jobs, bringing manufacturing back, and making the largest 
investments to address the climate crisis ever.
  The bill today reduces the deficit by only $1.5 trillion. If we had 
merely passed the President's budget, we would have decreased the 
deficit by $3 trillion, without creating the fear and economic 
insecurity that extreme MAGA Republicans have forced Americans to 
endure.
  Let me repeat this point: This crisis didn't have to happen. 
Everything in this bill could have been negotiated through the 
normal process without a debt crisis. Indeed, that is how it has almost 
always been done, except for in 2011 when the Republicans did this 
before. The American people need to tell the Republicans: No more 
hostage taking.

  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from 
Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler), my very good friend, a distinguished 
member of both the Appropriations and the Rules Committee.
  Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman of the Rules 
Committee for being generous in yielding me this time.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this rule and in support of 
the underlying legislation.
  Today, the House is taking historic steps to address our Nation's 
out-of-control debt. This House Republican win rescinds $28 billion in 
unobligated COVID funds. It cuts over $2 trillion in government 
spending. It reins in the executive branch, and it rejects the 
President's extreme $5 trillion in proposed tax increases.
  Further, this legislation will help lift Americans out of poverty and 
grow our economy by cutting red tape and streamlining energy and 
infrastructure projects.
  H.R. 3746 also includes an important provision championed by House 
Republicans, and that is to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline. MVP 
is near completion, but the last 14 miles--there are just 14 miles 
left--are being held up by extreme radical, far-left judges.
  When completed, this pipeline will help reduce costs for hardworking 
Americans in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. It will 
simultaneously help the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West 
Virginia with thousands of construction jobs and millions of dollars in 
royalty payments, just in Pennsylvania alone. It will be $150 million a 
year in royalty payments just to Pennsylvania alone, and it will lead 
to direct investment in rural communities.
  Mr. Speaker, I support the rule and the underlying legislation. I 
urge my colleagues to do the same.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2 minutes to the 
very distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot of argument about who is 
responsible for why we are here.
  Mr. Roy, the gentleman from Texas, as I was coming in, spoke about 
keeping leverage.
  Now, what do you keep leverage for? You keep it so you can make 
something that you want to happen happen.
  The Speaker of this House has said default is not an option. The 
leader of the Democratic Party in this House has said default is not an 
option. But that wasn't good enough that we agreed.
  It was, as the gentleman from Texas said, our Republican friends that 
wanted to keep leverage. They wanted to accomplish, essentially, in the 
appropriation bill, what they couldn't either accomplish or pass in the 
Appropriations Committee here because of their extraordinarily 
devastating bill that they offered and passed, which some of them are 
going to have to answer for in the next election.
  What today is about is whether we are going to hurt 330 million 
Americans; whether we are going to hurt the global economy. That is 
what this is about.
  From my perspective, there is only one answer: to pass a bill that, 
in fact, does not have America welch on its debts or, alternatively, to 
defeat a bill which will devastate our economy and be catastrophic 
globally. That is why we are here.

[[Page H2676]]

  Mr. Speaker, I urge every Member to think of those 330 million 
Americans, all of whom will be hurt if we fail to do our duty.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from New York (Mr. Molinaro), my very good friend.
  Mr. MOLINARO. Mr. Speaker, I have only been here for 5 months, but I 
already have been blamed for things I have and have not done, for 
actions we did or didn't take.
  We are here now. We are here now at a moment where Americans, by 
design or default, have given us a bipartisan government, and the House 
Republicans delivered on a promise to hold up the Federal Government 
for accountability and we have an agreement. That agreement will move 
this Nation forward.
  I will speak very specifically about one component. I, Mr. Speaker, 
grew up on food stamps. My mother, diagnosed with depression, would not 
have survived without that assistance. She was encouraged and worked 
hard and got on her feet and ultimately achieved independence.
  For the last 12 years, I have administered a social service agency in 
the State of New York.
  The Fiscal Responsibility Act takes important action, not to punish 
our most vulnerable at all. In fact, takes real steps to ensure those 
most vulnerable among us are protected and served and have access to 
the support that they deserve and, by the way, find their way to work.
  This bill holds States like New York and others accountable. It holds 
them accountable for waiving restrictions, expanding access, not to 
help the most vulnerable, but to bloat and to grow and to increase 
State government.
  Because of action States have taken, the most vulnerable are left to 
fend for themselves, demoralized, dehumanized, and feeling worthless, 
while States like New York increase their infrastructure, their 
government, and leverage Federal taxpayer dollars, not to benefit those 
who need the help the most, but to benefit State government.
  This bill starts a very important step of holding States accountable 
and assisting those who are most vulnerable among us.
  Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues not only to support the rule, but 
to support the underlying bill. We have an opportunity here to make a 
measurable difference in the lives of those who struggle the most, and 
this is an effort to ensure that happens.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would just remind the gentleman that 
under the new standards in this bill, 700,000 older Americans, 
vulnerable Americans, will lose their food benefits. If that is his 
idea of protecting the vulnerable, we don't want your help.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. 
Cohen).

                              {time}  1515

  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, before us today, we have a difficult vote. 
Like many of my Democratic colleagues, I would have preferred to vote 
on a clean debt ceiling bill. I signed a discharge petition, along with 
all of my Democratic colleagues to bring a debt ceiling bill to the 
House floor, but we couldn't get just five Republicans to join us to 
force that vote.
  That is why we are here today because not just five Republicans could 
do that. I don't like the language in the bill to bypass environmental 
reviews and approve the Mountain Valley Pipeline. There are pipelines 
that have leaked and there are pipelines that have leaked.
  I joined Representatives McClellan, Beyer, and others in the Virginia 
delegation in support of an amendment offered to remove that language, 
but it wasn't allowed to be voted upon. I don't like the permitting 
reform that strips NEPA of its authorities.
  Instead of rolling back regulations, we should be adequately funding 
the agency so that staff can help projects be built in a timely and 
responsible manner. I don't like that tax cuts for the wealthiest 
Americans are protected. The Trump tax scam, which was not funded, 
raised the debt by $2 trillion, and not an effort was made to put more 
duty and responsibility on those individuals.
  I sponsored a bill to make billionaires pay their fair share. They 
should. Despite all the things we don't like about this bill, including 
the addition of work requirements for SNAP recipients in their 50s, as 
Members of Congress, we have tough decisions to make and ultimately do 
what is best for our constituents and our country.
  In my district, in particular, we have to protect the progress we 
have made in the last 2 years that is providing a boost to Memphis; for 
instance, in healthcare and energy savings we have secured for seniors 
and others throughout the district under the Inflation Reduction Act 
and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
  These investments are funding improvements and smart development in 
my district now, but Republicans have tried to defund them. We need to 
protect Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, but the Republican 
majority was trying to take away those benefits from over 20 million 
Americans.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Rogers of Alabama). The time of the 
gentleman has expired.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentleman from Tennessee.
  Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, we protected Social Security, Medicaid, and 
Medicare in these bills. We needed a clean debt ceiling. We didn't get 
it. The fact is, the Republicans brought us to this brink because they 
wanted to extract political damage on President Biden, and if the 
American people were there as collateral damage, so be it.
  When Trump was President, they approved every extension of the debt 
relief, and yet when Biden is here, no. This is extortion, but we have 
to deal with it. It is for the benefit of our country and the world's 
economy, and I will vote ``yes.''
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I am going to say my good friend, Mr. 
Cole--because he is my good friend--Mr. Cole had the facts very much 
incorrect.
  The President of the United States was protecting the American 
people, protecting their future, and being, in essence, the great 
protector, while my friends on the other side of the aisle were passing 
legislation that was taking away H.R. 1, 30 million medical 
appointments for veterans, and throwing millions of Americans off of 
Medicaid. That is why the President was trying to get a clean debt 
ceiling, so we could come back as a House, Democrats working to get a 
fair budget bill.
  That did not happen as he waited over and over again to see whether 
or not the Republicans would do what was done in the last 
administration and raise the debt ceiling not for debt, but to pay 
America's bills.
  Now, this picture depicts the Speaker Emeritus and Good Hope Baptist 
Church with the children in daycare. Under the leadership of my 
friends, without the work that we are doing now to pay our bills, 
nondiscretionary funding, which takes care of Head Starts and 
childcare, would have been literally thrown out and families would be 
standing in line looking for an empty chair for their child to go in so 
they could go to work. In actuality, that is what Democrats did to 
ensure that did not happen.
  Today, we stand on this floor to say that we will not allow the 
cruelty of default. We will not allow hostage taking. We will stand for 
the American people. We will ensure that the expansion of veterans and 
homeless persons and children in foster care that are now able to get 
SNAP, that is because we continue to fight, even though we could not 
get the Republicans to come to the table for 4 or 5 months.
  I offered amendments to provide an increase or provision for those 
students who are still in their families' homes.
   Mr. Speaker, I am here today to speak on the Rule offered here today 
in consideration of H.R. 3746, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023.
  It is important to highlight and discuss how we got here and what is 
at stake with this critical and momentous measure.
  I know I am not alone in the disappointment at what steps have been 
taken to hold our nation's economy hostage and put American lives at 
risk.
  It is shameful that, while we have a bipartisan agreement here today, 
we have taken painful compromises to get here.

[[Page H2677]]

  And although arduous efforts on both sides of the aisle allowed for 
us to move forward with this agreement, and some critical protections 
for the American people have been preserved--it must be stated that 
this agreement is not one that entirely reflects what we in Congress 
should be united on--namely, our most basic and fundamental truths that 
hold us together as a democracy.
  We are a nation that upholds the ability for all to prosper, as well 
as one that upholds the ability for all Americans to be protected and 
cared for in our times of greatest need.
  It is important to understand that the foundations of a society do 
not extend only to its political and economic system; they must extend 
to its social and moral system as well.
  Taking all of these in balance there is no other comparable 
governmental system that has raised the standard of living of millions 
of people, created vast new wealth and resources, or inspired so many 
beneficial innovations and technologies.
  Governmental structures providing for protections and safety nets for 
all Americans is what makes us all successful as a nation united.
  Creating and preserving such structure is the critical investment in 
our government, our nation, our security, and our development and 
growth for current and future generations to benefit from.
  Yet, instead of investing in America, many of my Republican 
colleagues would rather focus on holding our economy hostage to advance 
unpopular and dangerous priorities.
  Holding our nation's debt ceiling as collateral to inflict painful 
cuts that will impact the lives of millions of Americans and knowing 
that breaching the debt limit would provoke unprecedented economic 
damage and instability in the U.S. and around the world is a sad state 
that we have found ourselves in.
  Yes, it is evident that my Republican colleagues will not prioritize 
the wellbeing, safety, health, and prosperity of the American people 
when looking at what we have had to give up in this bill.
  While much is unknown about the devastating impact this bill will 
have, we do know that some immediate changes will inevitably cause harm 
to many American families, children and vulnerable individuals.
  That is why I offered several amendments during the Rules Committee 
that will make additional exemptions and elimination of 
disqualifications for several additional special populations in which 
we must protect and continue to support when they are in their most 
desperate and fragile times of need.
  Ensuring that we are not taking critical resources and money for food 
away from children and families living in poverty is not only the right 
thing to do, but also the economically smart thing to do.
  The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is the nation's 
most important and effective anti-hunger program.
  Any changes in SNAP will have an incredible impact on millions of 
Americans and Texans.
  As of 2020, there were 18.66 million households relying on SNAP and 
7.11 million SNAP households with children.
  Texas holds the second highest number of households using the SNAP 
program in 2023 at 1,167,720, making up 11.5 percent of Texas 
households.
  As of April 2023, there were 284,794 SNAP cases and 6l5,463 eligible 
individuals in Harris County, my district's biggest county.
  This included 92,214 individuals aged less than 5 and 228,5l9 
individuals between the ages of 5-17.
  My first amendment for H.R. 3746, listed on the Rules Committee 
roster as Amendment #56, would have added a provision to extend 
exemption regarding current work requirement exemptions in the Food and 
Nutrition Act for a parent or person responsible for dependent child up 
to age 24 in SNAP household.
  In Texas, 79 percent of SNAP participants are families with children. 
That's more than the national rate of 69 percent of SNAP participants 
across the country being families with children.
  Further, the SNAP participation rate in Texas for working poor people 
is 72 percent which is also more than the national rate of 4l percent 
of SNAP participants nationwide being in working families.
  We need to understand that parents continue to support children 
beyond the age of adolescence impacting financial resources for 
families well into a child's early twenties.
  Across the country there 5.134 million, and 528,000 in Texas aged 18-
24 in poverty as of 2021.
  Nearly 1 in 3 parents (31 percent) have made a significant financial 
sacrifice to help their adult children financially.
  Over two-thirds (68 percent) of parents of adult children have made 
or are currently making a financial sacrifice to help their kids 
financially.
  Parents say they sacrificed retirement savings (43 percent), 
emergency savings (51 percent), paying down their own debt (49 percent) 
or reaching a financial milestone (55 percent).
  Over 40 percent of American children rely primarily on their mothers' 
earnings for financial support in cross-sectional surveys.
  In July 2022, half of adults ages 18 to 29 were living with one or 
both of their parents.
  Significantly higher than the share who were living with their 
parents in 2010 (44 percent on average that year) or 2000 (38 percent 
on average).
  What this means is that we need to understand that support for 
families with dependent children under the age of 24 and who are living 
in poverty need to be protected and extended the grace of an exemption 
in this bill.
  My second amendment for H.R. 3746, listed on the Rules Committee 
roster as Amendment #59, would have extended the former foster care 
exemption to all individuals 24 or younger under state custody and 
aging out of critical support services.
  More than 23,000 children will age out of the US foster care system 
every year.
  Every year in Texas, more than 1,200 young adults age out of the 
foster care system without being adopted.
  Less than half of Texas foster care alumni (46.9 percent) were 
currently employed at least ten hours per week.
  Only half of alumni (51.6 percent) reported having a household income 
that was greater than the poverty line.
  By 24 years old, 50 percent of former foster kids had been ``couch 
surfing'' since leaving care.
  One in ten interviewed alumni (11.1 percent) was currently 
incarcerated; nearly seven in ten males (68.0 percent) had been 
arrested since leaving care, 55.2 percent had been convicted of a 
crime, and 62.3 percent had spent at least one night incarcerated.
  Over 90 percent of foster youth who move more than four times will 
end up in juvenile justice.
  Many youth in the juvenile and criminal justice system are not deemed 
to be indigent but have also had contact with the foster care system 
and have been removed from their homes even if they have not been 
formerly adjudicated as a foster child.
  Far too often children in state custody are taken from their homes 
for significant periods of times during their adolescence and at a time 
when they are most vulnerable to recidivating upon their return to 
their homes due to gaps and lack of resources to help them get jobs, 
education, mental health care, substance abuse and housing.
  It is important that we continue to provide necessary resources for 
all children and youth aging out of state custody where they have been 
removed from their homes during critical times of development and 
growth--and often are left to survive on their own and/or cannot return 
to their homes upon their release.
  We need to do more to support youth aging out of state custody.
  Despite no Democratic common-sense amendments being accepted at this 
posture, we have no choice but to continue to move forward and still 
try to make a better way for our nation. And to stop a devastating 
default where all Americans would suffer.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired. The 
gentlewoman is no longer recognized.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green).
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a testimony, the 
genesis of which is, I believe that President Biden did the best that 
he could in developing this legislation. I support him. I thank him for 
what he has done. I believe that Leader Jeffries did an outstanding job 
in making it perspicuously clear that default was not an option, but 
here is the essence of my testimony: I had the preeminent privilege of 
serving in Congress in 2008 September, I believe it was, when we had 
the downturn in the economy and there was a clarion call for help to do 
what was called bail out the banks.
  I was adamantly, totally, completely opposed to bailing out the banks 
because I thought it was not the thing to do, given that the banks did 
not ask for our help in getting into the position that they were in.
  I stood in the rear of this Chamber, and I could see the votes as 
they were being tallied. I could also see the stock market reacting to 
the votes as they were being tallied. The stock market went down as the 
bill went down--777 points, a 7 percent drop in the stock market.
  My constituents had told me not to vote for that bill, and I 
concurred with them. The next day my constituents called, Why didn't 
you vote for that

[[Page H2678]]

bill? Why did you let the market go down?
  I learned a lesson: Votes like this are votes of conscience, and you 
have to vote your conscience knowing what the consequences are.
  Mr. Speaker, I will vote for this bill because I understand the 
consequences of the market tanking. I was here, and I saw it. I 
understand we have to take care of our people.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas for his remarks. I actually 
voted for that bill in 2008 twice, and I am glad that he is here today. 
The reality is the bill we are dealing with--it is hard to tell by 
listening to the debate--is a compromise between House Republicans and 
the President of the United States.
  In that compromise, nobody got everything they wanted. We certainly 
didn't get everything we wanted, but I think we are acting together, as 
my friend from Texas suggested, to try and make sure that we don't 
default; that we don't have a day like we had in 2008. That, at least, 
is something we can agree on together and celebrate together, and we 
will continue to try to work together.
  However, the preeminent problem we have is my friends on the other 
side think we can spend forever. President Obama never introduced a 
budget that balanced--ever--not in 10 years, 20, or 100.
  Frankly, President Biden has never introduced a budget that comes 
into balance at any point. You can't sustain that indefinitely. This 
effort is to both, one, to responsibly raise our debt ceiling, but to 
begin to address the underlying spending problem.
  I wish we could have done more in that regard, but I am glad we got 
done what we did, and we will continue to work at this.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the last time I checked, the Republican 
Conference hasn't provided us with a budget.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. 
Landsman).
  Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to encourage my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to support tonight's vote, a vote on the 
Bipartisan Budget Act.
  There are three aspects of this bill, a bill that will avoid default 
and a bill that protects Social Security and Medicare that I hope my 
colleagues and fellow citizens take into account. One, we can't keep 
doing this. The brinkmanship around this question of default and paying 
our bills has to end. It is a terrible process.
  Folks have been calling our offices. They are worried about their 
Social Security checks. They are worried about their healthcare. They 
are worried about whether or not the economy will crash. We cannot keep 
normalizing this behavior.
  Two, the bill does represent the fact that Congress is divided. The 
President negotiated with Speaker McCarthy, and even though a majority 
of Americans want Congress to balance this budget by fixing the tax 
code, the majority has said----
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the 
gentleman from Ohio.
  Mr. LANDSMAN. Mr. Speaker, the majority has said that is off the 
table. What I needed to see from this bill was that no veterans would 
lose their benefits and folks would continue to receive Social Security 
checks and no child would lose access to food through the SNAP program.
  This bill does that, so I am voting ``yes.'' We need more bipartisan, 
pragmatic leaders to stand up and pass this bill tonight and to 
continue to work on behalf of the American people.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, just to quickly make a point to my friend, the 
Democratic Congress didn't produce a budget in 4 years--4 years while 
they were in the majority, not out of Budget Committee, let alone 
across the floor of the House. So Democrats left things in quite a mess 
and it is going to take a while to fix it, but we are working on a 
budget. I hope we get one.
  The reality is, though, the country has allowed itself, primarily 
under Democratic leadership, to get so deeply in debt, it is pretty 
tough to write a budget that gets us out of debt in any reasonable 
time.
  This bill is, at least, a step in the right direction. We would have 
liked to have taken a bigger step. We weren't able to do that given the 
fact that we have a Democratic Senate and a Democratic President, both 
of whom seem to think they can spend endlessly, recklessly, and without 
end indefinitely.
  That is not going to happen. Sooner or later that reckoning will 
come. This is an effort to forestall that and buy some time. I am glad 
we worked together. I am glad the President came to the negotiating 
table, despite wasting months saying he wasn't going to. I am glad we 
made the minimal progress that we did.
  Let's not kid ourselves. This is the first step in the right 
direction, and it is not as big a step as anybody on my side of the 
aisle would have liked to take.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, if we want to talk about messes, let me 
just remind everybody that the last time my Republican friends were in 
charge, they left us with the longest government shutdown in U.S. 
history.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida 
(Ms. Wasserman Schultz).
  Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the 
bipartisan budget agreement and thank President Biden and his team, 
particularly OMB Director Shalanda Young, for putting people over 
politics, defending our values, and protecting the full faith and 
credit of the United States.
  My colleagues across the aisle were prepared to force a disastrous 
default and crash the economy into the side of a cliff, but Democrats 
will always put people over politics and our economy's durability over 
default.
  My friend from Oklahoma knows well that Republicans' VA 
appropriations bill zeroed out guaranteed funding for our toxic-exposed 
veterans in fiscal year 2025. It is in the bill in black and white. It 
is why they were afraid to vote on it and pulled the bill from 
consideration.
  Democrats protected toxic-exposed veterans' healthcare, expanded SNAP 
benefits to more food insecure people, and stopped Republicans' 
dangerous budget cuts in the default on America act.
  Yesterday, CBO officially scored the bill and found that 
participation rates in SNAP will increase because of this compromise. 
President Biden negotiated a deal that gets us through the short-term 
and puts us in a good position to work through the appropriations 
process.
  As an appropriator, I look forward to working with my colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to efficiently finish this year's budget.
  Furthermore, I will remind my friend from Oklahoma that under the 
Trump administration, Republicans blew a hole in the deficit with a 
$1.5 trillion tax cut package that was unpaid for, so that is on them.
  Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote in favor of the 
underlying legislation.

                              {time}  1530

  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  To my good friend from Florida, what unbalanced the budget was COVID. 
We all know that. We worked, actually, together on that. That is what 
spent billions of dollars in a relatively short period of time.
  Quite frankly, in terms of where we are today, my friends have never 
submitted a budget that comes into balance. President Obama didn't. The 
last President to do that who was a Democrat was President Clinton. We 
disagreed over how to get to balance, but he actually submitted budgets 
that came to balance in 10 years. President Obama didn't do that. 
President Biden hasn't done that.
  Until you return to the Clinton era, where we actually did believe in 
balanced budgets but disagreed on how to get there, I think we are 
going to have a hard time getting on top of our fiscal problem.

[[Page H2679]]

  On this bill, we do agree that we don't like every part of it. We 
would have liked to have done more. My friends would have liked to have 
spent more. The reality is it does move us in the right direction.
  I am happy for the bipartisanship, but I do note it took us a long 
time.
  I also note, for my Democratic friends, remember, so far, to this 
point, the only people who voted to raise the debt ceiling are on this 
side of the aisle. My friends have not yet provided a single vote to 
raise the debt ceiling. The body they control, the United States 
Senate, has not presented a bill, let alone moved one across the floor. 
We did.
  My friends didn't like that bill. We sat down and negotiated and came 
to something different, but at least we voted to raise the debt 
ceiling. My friends who are concerned about it have neither presented a 
plan to deal with it nor have voted to act upon the problem.
  I am hopeful today that many of them will actually join us in that 
effort because the President of the United States has come to the 
negotiating table, and we will move forward together.
  Rest assured, we are not moving forward as fast as we should; we are 
not going as far as we should; and we have had to bring you to this 
point kicking and screaming every step of the way.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  The gentleman is absolutely right that COVID did add to the deficit, 
but he neglected to mention the multitrillion-dollar tax cut for the 
rich that was unpaid for.
  Mr. Speaker, I think there is a difference between Democrats and 
Republicans. I think that Democrats have proven that we can govern and 
that Republicans have proven they cannot.
  We have seen the great things that government is capable of doing.
  In the last Congress, with Democrats in charge of the House, we 
invested to rebuild our neglected infrastructure: airports, roads, 
bridges, and ports in all of our communities. We will see the benefits 
of that infrastructure bill for years and years to come. We brought 
manufacturing back to the United States. We passed the CHIPS and 
Science Act to drive innovation and create good-paying jobs. We made 
the largest investment in climate, protecting our water and our air. We 
strengthened our supply chains and set up new programs to support 
minority businesses. We lifted a record number of kids out of poverty 
in this country. We ensured that our veterans get the healthcare they 
earned.
  It is possible for us to deliver for the American people, though I 
haven't seen much of it this year. Instead, Republicans spent a week in 
January trying to elect a Speaker. Republicans spent the last 5 months 
trying to destroy everything that we built over the last 2 years. They 
have only enacted three laws in 5 months, and those laws don't do much.
  The bill we are debating today may become their fourth law. It will 
be their biggest legislative accomplishment of the year. Think about 
that. The biggest accomplishment will be ending a crisis that they 
created.
  We have wasted time going back and forth on how to pay our bills. The 
fact that we have had to bend and contort ourselves to get this done, 
to prevent our economy from falling off a cliff because Republicans 
wanted to play games, is unconscionable and doesn't bode well for the 
future.
  Finally, let me say, I plead with my colleagues on the Republican 
side to stop this assault against the poor. Every concession in this 
bill, every demand that Republicans made in this bill, hurts somebody. 
It hurts the most vulnerable in our country. Going after SNAP for older 
people, a measly $6 a day benefit, shame on you for doing that.
  We are here to help people. We are here to uplift people. We are not 
here to demean people. We are not here to try to punish people.
  Quite frankly, the narrative that the Republicans have been utilizing 
in this whole debate doesn't reflect the reality. Talk to the people in 
your district who are struggling. Let them tell you how difficult it is 
to make ends meet and how maddening it is to not know whether you can 
put food on the table.
  We can do so much better, but you have to stop this assault against 
the poor, against the vulnerable in this country.
  We need to do better, and I urge all my colleagues, as we move 
forward in the coming months, to keep that in mind. We are here to 
bring everybody forward, not just a select few. We are here to 
represent everybody, not just the rich and powerful and well-connected 
and people who give to our campaigns.
  Again, the contrast here is that we have Members of Congress who 
accepted government-subsidized loan forgiveness for PPP who are the 
ones out here demanding that we nickel and dime programs like SNAP and 
TANF. It is disgusting, quite frankly, that we are even having this 
debate. We should be able to do so much better.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for 
closing.
  My friend ticked through the impressive list of accomplishments in 
the last Congress. He forgot to mention Democrats also added $10 
trillion to the projected debt the United States will have to deal with 
over the next 10 years.
  Mr. Speaker, $10 trillion is a lot of money, but worse than the money 
was the inflation that they unleashed by their reckless spending. If 
you care about Americans, you don't push up the price of gasoline, home 
heating, and interest rates on any purchase they make and what they pay 
at the grocery store.
  My friends managed to unleash the worst bout of inflation in 40 
years. I look around this Chamber, and I am probably the only guy on 
the floor, Mr. Speaker, who can actually remember that. This was an 
unprecedented disaster that they unleashed on the country.
  Everything in the bill that we fought for, the things that are there 
and the things that aren't there, were to lower the excess spending and 
to try to tame inflation. My friends act as if it doesn't exist.
  I guarantee you, just go to the grocery store and ask any American 
who hasn't gotten a 15 or 20 percent raise what their life has been 
like in the last 2 years.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge all my colleagues to support this 
resolution. With today's bill, we are putting forward commonsense 
reforms that will save taxpayers money while also preventing an 
economic crisis.
  The reforms included in this bill are historic: the first year-over-
year cut in spending in a debt ceiling bill; the large rescission of 
appropriated but unspent funds in history; the first real reforms to 
requirements for SNAP and TANF, which will help lift people out of 
poverty; and real reforms to the permitting process, which will 
streamline major infrastructure and energy projects and cut the red 
tape that is holding them back.
  Those are reforms, by the way, that my friends did not support. Those 
were things that were put in the bill by Republicans and negotiated 
for. Sadly, they weren't willing to work with us on those, and it was 
only the threat of the debt ceiling that actually brought them to the 
table.
  It is the responsible thing to do to pass this legislation. In the 
end, the American people will be better off for it.
  I do want to be clear on something, Mr. Speaker. This is not the end 
of House Republicans' fight for necessary fiscal reforms. We have more 
than $31 trillion in debt. Programs like Medicare and Social Security, 
which are the bedrock of our safety net, are growing in an 
unsustainable manner.
  For too long, this Congress has seen fit to just allow mandatory 
programs to eat up more and more of our budget. Indeed, the President 
himself refused to talk about those programs. Mandatory programs are 
now more than two-thirds of what we spend in any given year. Without 
real reforms to those programs, we will have no chance to right the 
fiscal imbalance the country finds itself in.
  Republicans are committed to preserving America's status as the 
greatest Nation in the world. To do that, we must get serious about the 
national debt. At the end of the day, the journey

[[Page H2680]]

of a thousand miles begins with a single step. This bill, Mr. Speaker, 
is that first step.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the 
previous question on the resolution.
  The previous question was ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on adoption of the 
resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on adoption of the resolution will be followed by a 5-
minute vote on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 
382.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 241, 
nays 187, not voting 7, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 241]

                               YEAS--241

     Aderholt
     Alford
     Allen
     Amodei
     Armstrong
     Arrington
     Babin
     Bacon
     Baird
     Balderson
     Banks
     Barr
     Bean (FL)
     Bentz
     Bergman
     Bice
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (GA)
     Bost
     Buchanan
     Bucshon
     Burgess
     Calvert
     Cammack
     Caraveo
     Carbajal
     Carey
     Carl
     Carter (GA)
     Carter (TX)
     Case
     Chavez-DeRemer
     Ciscomani
     Cole
     Collins
     Comer
     Correa
     Costa
     Courtney
     Crawford
     Crenshaw
     Cuellar
     Curtis
     D'Esposito
     Davids (KS)
     Davidson
     Davis (NC)
     De La Cruz
     Diaz-Balart
     Donalds
     Duarte
     Duncan
     Dunn (FL)
     Edwards
     Ellzey
     Emmer
     Estes
     Ezell
     Fallon
     Feenstra
     Ferguson
     Finstad
     Fischbach
     Fitzgerald
     Fitzpatrick
     Fleischmann
     Flood
     Foster
     Foxx
     Franklin, C. Scott
     Fry
     Fulcher
     Gallagher
     Gallego
     Garbarino
     Garcia, Mike
     Gimenez
     Gonzalez, Vicente
     Gooden (TX)
     Gottheimer
     Granger
     Graves (LA)
     Graves (MO)
     Green (TN)
     Greene (GA)
     Grothman
     Guest
     Guthrie
     Hageman
     Harder (CA)
     Hern
     Hill
     Himes
     Hinson
     Horsford
     Houchin
     Hoyer
     Hudson
     Huizenga
     Hunt
     Issa
     Jackson Lee
     James
     Johnson (LA)
     Johnson (OH)
     Johnson (SD)
     Jordan
     Joyce (OH)
     Joyce (PA)
     Kean (NJ)
     Keating
     Kelly (MS)
     Kelly (PA)
     Kiggans (VA)
     Kildee
     Kiley
     Kim (CA)
     Kustoff
     LaHood
     LaLota
     LaMalfa
     Lamborn
     Landsman
     Langworthy
     Latta
     LaTurner
     Lawler
     Lee (FL)
     Lee (NV)
     Lesko
     Letlow
     Loudermilk
     Lucas
     Luetkemeyer
     Luttrell
     Mace
     Malliotakis
     Mann
     Manning
     Massie
     Mast
     McCarthy
     McCaul
     McClain
     McClintock
     McCormick
     McHenry
     Meeks
     Meuser
     Mfume
     Miller (OH)
     Miller (WV)
     Miller-Meeks
     Mills
     Molinaro
     Moolenaar
     Moore (UT)
     Moran
     Morelle
     Moskowitz
     Moulton
     Mrvan
     Murphy
     Nehls
     Newhouse
     Nickel
     Norcross
     Nunn (IA)
     Obernolte
     Ogles
     Owens
     Palmer
     Panetta
     Pappas
     Pascrell
     Peltola
     Pence
     Peters
     Pettersen
     Pfluger
     Phillips
     Quigley
     Reschenthaler
     Rodgers (WA)
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rose
     Rouzer
     Rutherford
     Ryan
     Salazar
     Santos
     Scalise
     Schneider
     Scholten
     Schweikert
     Scott, Austin
     Sessions
     Sherrill
     Simpson
     Slotkin
     Smith (MO)
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smucker
     Sorensen
     Soto
     Spanberger
     Stanton
     Stauber
     Steel
     Stefanik
     Steil
     Steube
     Stevens
     Stewart
     Strong
     Sykes
     Tenney
     Thompson (PA)
     Timmons
     Turner
     Valadao
     Van Drew
     Van Duyne
     Van Orden
     Vasquez
     Wagner
     Walberg
     Waltz
     Weber (TX)
     Webster (FL)
     Wenstrup
     Westerman
     Williams (NY)
     Williams (TX)
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman
     Womack
     Yakym
     Zinke

                               NAYS--187

     Adams
     Aguilar
     Allred
     Auchincloss
     Balint
     Barragan
     Beatty
     Bera
     Beyer
     Biggs
     Bishop (NC)
     Blumenauer
     Blunt Rochester
     Boebert
     Bonamici
     Bowman
     Boyle (PA)
     Brecheen
     Brown
     Brownley
     Buck
     Budzinski
     Burchett
     Burlison
     Bush
     Cardenas
     Carson
     Carter (LA)
     Cartwright
     Casar
     Casten
     Castor (FL)
     Castro (TX)
     Cherfilus-McCormick
     Chu
     Cicilline
     Clark (MA)
     Clarke (NY)
     Cleaver
     Cline
     Cloud
     Clyburn
     Clyde
     Cohen
     Connolly
     Crane
     Crockett
     Crow
     Davis (IL)
     Dean (PA)
     DeGette
     DeLauro
     DelBene
     Deluzio
     DeSaulnier
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Escobar
     Eshoo
     Espaillat
     Evans
     Fletcher
     Foushee
     Frankel, Lois
     Frost
     Gaetz
     Garamendi
     Garcia (IL)
     Garcia (TX)
     Garcia, Robert
     Golden (ME)
     Goldman (NY)
     Gomez
     Good (VA)
     Gosar
     Green, Al (TX)
     Griffith
     Grijalva
     Harris
     Harshbarger
     Hayes
     Higgins (LA)
     Higgins (NY)
     Hoyle (OR)
     Huffman
     Ivey
     Jackson (IL)
     Jackson (NC)
     Jacobs
     Jayapal
     Jeffries
     Johnson (GA)
     Kamlager-Dove
     Kaptur
     Kelly (IL)
     Khanna
     Kilmer
     Kim (NJ)
     Krishnamoorthi
     Kuster
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Lee (CA)
     Lee (PA)
     Leger Fernandez
     Levin
     Lieu
     Lofgren
     Luna
     Lynch
     Magaziner
     Matsui
     McBath
     McClellan
     McCollum
     McGarvey
     McGovern
     Menendez
     Meng
     Miller (IL)
     Moore (AL)
     Moore (WI)
     Mullin
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal
     Neguse
     Norman
     Ocasio-Cortez
     Omar
     Pallone
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Perez
     Perry
     Pingree
     Pocan
     Porter
     Posey
     Pressley
     Ramirez
     Raskin
     Rosendale
     Roy
     Ruiz
     Ruppersberger
     Salinas
     Sanchez
     Sarbanes
     Scanlon
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schrier
     Scott (VA)
     Scott, David
     Self
     Sewell
     Sherman
     Smith (WA)
     Spartz
     Stansbury
     Strickland
     Swalwell
     Takano
     Thanedar
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Tiffany
     Titus
     Tlaib
     Tokuda
     Tonko
     Torres (CA)
     Torres (NY)
     Trahan
     Trone
     Underwood
     Vargas
     Veasey
     Velazquez
     Wasserman Schultz
     Waters
     Watson Coleman
     Wexton
     Wild
     Williams (GA)
     Wilson (FL)

                             NOT VOTING--7

     Craig
     DesJarlais
     Gonzales, Tony
     Houlahan
     Jackson (TX)
     Mooney
     Ross

                              {time}  1625

  Mr. NEAL changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Ms. STEVENS, Messrs. BISHOP of Georgia, MORELLE, Mses. SCHOLTEN, 
MANNING, Messrs. MEEKS, QUIGLEY, HIMES, STANTON, GALLEGO, MOULTON, 
PASCRELL, SORENSEN, RYAN, Ms. JACKSON LEE, Messrs. CORREA, MFUME, 
FOSTER, MRVAN, and KEATING changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
  So the resolution was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________