[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9589]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          UNFINISHED BUSINESS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind my colleagues in 
the House of two very important words for the American people: 
unfinished business. The American people, by their voices that we hear 
as we go back to our district, challenge us in unfinished business.
  Two days ago, I stood with mothers that demand action in my district, 
to stand with their children, their babies in strollers--these mothers 
who love America, who are patriots--to stand alongside of the mourning 
families of Sandy Hook and to read the names of the 26 who died more 
than 6 months ago, to ask for the passage of universal background 
checks; and to ask the question why the Armed Citizens Project needed 
to arm citizens in Houston. We know that the area that they are arming 
is an area where they felt intimidated--not by their government to take 
over, but because of crime.
  I look forward to meeting with those citizens to be able to address 
the issue of crime in their neighborhood. But we stood against the kind 
of arming citizens as a response to gun violence. I have no qualms of 
standing against that and working with my neighbors to ensure the 
safety of their neighborhoods, but to move forward on sensible gun 
legislation to prevent gun violence--unfinished business.
  And then the question of the National Security Agency and the phone 
calls and numbers of our American citizens.

                              {time}  1050

  We in Congress must be challenged to rein that in and balance it with 
the need for national security, which I promote and support as a member 
of the Homeland Security Committee.
  I will be introducing legislation to assess the use of outside 
contractors--70 percent of Federal dollars going to that in the 
intelligence community--and reduce those numbers by 2014; establish 
more openness on the FISA court, but making sure that we don't 
interfere with operations and operatives that are making our country 
secure. And to be able to say to Mr. Snowden, I won't call you a name, 
but I know what you did in certain instances is wrong, and you must 
stand up under the laws of this Nation.
  Then to be able to say that, today, as we go forward on the farm 
bill, to be able to ask the question: Why are we taking $20 billion 
away from the supplemental nutrition program, from seniors, from young 
children, from babies, when this is a lifeline for those in the United 
States military who are on food stamps?
  I also want to say to my community that we need to get ready to 
enroll in health care, which is going to be a major step in making 
America healthy.
  To the small business community, this is going to help you provide 
your employees--your one employee, your two employees--health care. 
That is unfinished business.
  Then I want to thank the U.S. Postal Service--the letter carriers, 
the people who put our mail through--who help small businesses. We've 
got to fix this problem with the U.S. Postal Service, make sure that 
they're stable, financially able. The rural post offices, let's not 
close any more. This is the infrastructure of America. It's a job 
creator.
  And then to our students, many of them who have graduated, we have 
got to fix the problem of the increasing, or the major increase, in 
student loan interest rates that are going to burden our parents and 
students, 6.8 percent by July 1. Congress can do better. We need to be 
able to join in the legislation that I've signed on to, to be able to 
keep that interest rate at 3.4 percent. Unfinished business, Mr. 
Speaker.
  The American people want jobs. They don't want sequestration. They 
want the right kind of comprehensive immigration reform that has 
reasoned border security but not to criminalize those students who 
wanted to do nothing else but to go into the United States military, 
called ``DREAM children,'' who wanted to be able to serve the Nation, 
who wanted to work and give back to this country. Let us not go down 
that pathway. Let's have the kind of value-based comprehensive 
immigration reform and border security legislation that was passed out 
of the Homeland Security Committee, of which I was proud to be an 
original cosponsor, coming out of the Subcommittee on Border and 
Maritime Security. Unfinished business.
  Guns. Preventing gun violence.
  Reining in the issue of intelligence, balancing it with civil 
liberties, putting back in the supplemental nutrition some $20 billion, 
making sure that Americans are enrolled in health care under the 
Affordable Care Act, supporting the Postal Service. And, Mr. Speaker, 
finally, supporting our students. Unfinished business. It's time to get 
to work creating jobs in America.

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