[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15480-15483]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H. CON. RES. 79, DIRECTING THE CLERK OF 
 THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES TO MAKE CORRECTIONS IN THE ENROLLMENT OF 
 H.R. 719, AND PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF THE SENATE AMENDMENT TO 
THE HOUSE AMENDMENT TO THE SENATE AMENDMENT TO H.R. 719, TSA OFFICE OF 
                 INSPECTION ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015

  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call 
up House Resolution 448 and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:

                              H. Res. 448

       Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be 
     in order to consider in the House the concurrent resolution 
     (H. Con. Res. 79) directing the Clerk of the House of 
     Representatives to make corrections in the enrollment of H.R. 
     719. All points of order against consideration of the 
     concurrent resolution are waived. The concurrent resolution 
     shall be considered as read. All points of order against 
     provisions in the concurrent resolution are waived. The 
     previous question shall be considered as ordered on the 
     concurrent resolution to adoption without intervening motion 
     or demand for division of the question except 20 minutes of 
     debate equally divided and controlled by the Majority Leader 
     and the Minority Leader or their respective designees.
       Sec. 2.  Upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in 
     order to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 719) to 
     require the Transportation Security Administration to conform 
     to existing Federal law and regulations regarding criminal 
     investigator positions, and for other purposes, with the 
     Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate 
     amendment thereto, and to consider in the House, without 
     intervention of any point of order, a motion offered by the 
     chair of the Committee on Appropriations or his designee that 
     the House concur in the Senate amendment to the House 
     amendment to the Senate amendment. The Senate amendment and 
     the motion shall be considered as read. The motion shall be 
     debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the 
     chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on 
     Appropriations. The previous question shall be considered as 
     ordered on the motion to adoption without intervening motion.

  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 gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Slaughter), 
my good friend, 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 have 
5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Oklahoma?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, earlier today the Committee on Rules met and 
reported a rule for consideration for both H. Con. Res. 79, directing 
the Clerk of the House of Representatives to make corrections in the 
enrollment of H.R. 719, and H.R. 719, the Continuing Appropriations Act 
2016.
  The rule provides for consideration of H. Con. Res. 79 under a closed 
rule with 20 minutes of debate equally divided and controlled by the 
majority leader and his designee and the minority leader or her 
designee. In addition, the rule makes in order a motion offered by the 
chair of the Committee on Appropriations that the House concur in the 
Senate amendment to H.R. 719, with 60 minutes equally divided and 
controlled by the chair and the ranking member of the Committee on 
Appropriations.
  Mr. Speaker, first, this resolution allows for consideration of H. 
Con. Res. 79, which directs the Clerk of the House to include the text 
of the Defund Planned Parenthood Act of 2015 in the enrollment of H.R. 
719. This would allow the House to again state its position in 
opposition to the funding of Planned Parenthood as it has already done 
by passage of both H.R. 3495 and H.R. 3134. In addition, Mr. Speaker, 
the rule provides for consideration of the short-term continuing 
resolution.
  As a member of the Committee on Appropriations, I am always 
disappointed when we are forced to consider continuing resolutions, 
especially given the work this House has done in the appropriations 
process this year.

                              {time}  1415

  For the first time since 2009, the House Appropriations Committee was 
able to complete all 12 appropriations bills, and complete them before 
the August recess. Unfortunately, just as in years past, Senate 
Democrats prevented consideration of any appropriations bills on the 
floor of that body. This leads us to the unfortunate situation of 
having to put forward a short-term CR to fund the government through 
December 11.
  This continuing resolution is simple. Most programs will continue 
being funded at their FY15 levels; however, it does adjust certain 
spending levels for critical needs, such as providing $700 million for 
wildfire suppression activities in the West, and it extends several 
programs that would otherwise lapse, like the collection of recreation 
fees for public lands. In addition, it maintains the moratorium on 
State and local jurisdictions' taxation of the Internet.
  I hope that in the weeks and months ahead the House, the Senate, and 
the President can come to an agreement on a path forward which ensures 
we are not in this same place in December.
  Some of my colleagues have stated publicly that they cannot support 
this CR because it provides funding for Planned Parenthood. I want to 
assure my colleagues that no funding for Planned Parenthood is included 
in this legislation.
  First, a majority of Planned Parenthood funding, about 90 percent, 
comes through Medicaid and is not subject to appropriations. Of the 
remaining 10 percent, the largest portion, roughly $28 million, is 
funded through title X. These grant programs are competed for every 
year and are awarded in April, long past the length of this continuing 
resolution.
  While I share the same disgust over the evidence seen in the 
atrocious videos that are so widely known, I want to assure my 
colleagues that no additional funds are provided for this organization 
in this bill.
  I am encouraged by the hard work of Chairman Rogers, Ranking Member 
Lowey, and, of course, the Speaker, whose leadership has made all this 
possible.
  One of the preeminent responsibilities we are tasked with as Members 
of Congress is to ensure that the government continues to function. 
While a continuing resolution is not the ideal vehicle, the alternative 
of a government shutdown is not what we have all been sent to 
Washington to do.

[[Page 15481]]

  I urge support of the rule and the underlying legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume, and I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time.
  Mr. Speaker, when the House shut down in 2013, I happened to be on 
the floor at midnight. Why, at this moment, eludes me. But I remember 
when the clock struck midnight that I made the comment that the great 
government of the United States of America was closed.
  That 16-day exercise took $24 billion out of this economy at a time 
when we were struggling, really, to get our economy back on track. That 
money mostly came from mom-and-pop stores that were in Federal 
buildings or in the national parks. The inconvenience to Federal 
employees was enormous. They did get paid, but they were worried to 
death whether they would be able to meet their mortgage payments or to 
meet the college tuition payments. And yet so many people were 
dispossessed, practically. Veterans came to Washington to visit their 
memorials, only to find them closed.
  I certainly concur with Mr. Cole. We do not want to see that again. 
It was foolish then; it would be doubly foolish now. We are now on the 
edge of what we are going to do because we couldn't get anything done.
  I am obsessed today by what occurred last night on television. I want 
to explain it to you, because I have said on this floor so many times--
mostly during the 54 times we voted to defund health care--that what 
was going on here was a gigantic hoax.
  I said just this morning at the Rules Committee that what we do has 
only a passing resemblance to what we are supposed to do. And I want to 
read a quote from what was said last night on Fox News by 
Representative McCarthy, who is the presumptive new Speaker of the 
House. He said:

       What you are going to see is a conservative Speaker, that 
     takes a conservative Congress, that puts a strategy in place 
     to fight and win. And let me give you one example.
       Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? 
     But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select 
     committee. What are her numbers today? Her numbers are 
     dropping. No one would have known any of that happened had we 
     not fought and made that happen.

  Sean Hannity responds:

       I agree. I'll give you credit for that.

  I tell you what that means, Mr. Speaker. It means that this was used 
as a hoax. We concerned ourselves with that, and now we are going to 
see another one of these special committees. The Benghazi Committee has 
already spent $4.5 million, on top of all the money that was spent in 
committees, to point out that there was nothing wrong in Benghazi.
  And, once again, I was on the floor of the House for the rule talking 
about setting up special committees for Benghazi, when I got a call 
from the mother of one of the former Navy SEALs who had died in that 
awful attack saying that her son had been a Navy SEAL, he knew his 
risks, and would we please stop bringing this up over and over again.
  We heard basically the same thing from the Ambassador's family, who 
said that he knew the language. He liked to be out with the people. He 
could not be confined behind a wall.
  So what are we doing here today? More hoax? More money wasted? 
Perhaps.
  I told the chairman of the Rules Committee this morning that we would 
be happy to give them the rule for the CR. We want a clean CR. We were 
pleased as all get out when the Senate sent us a clean CR. But no, we 
are not going to do that. We are going to pretend, as part of the CR 
rule, that we are going to defund Planned Parenthood, which Mr. Cole 
just pointed out has no money allocated to it directly in the Federal 
budget.
  So what we are going to defund is I don't know what. HHS? Who knows. 
Maybe we will find out, maybe we won't. But they are doing this hoax 
again simply to fool some of the people on their side who obviously 
know about it because it has been in every paper and on everybody's 
lips that I have talked to that we were going to have to probably do 
that. But putting that on the rule this morning meant that we cannot 
support it. Perhaps you have the votes to do it by hoaxing people, but 
I don't know.
  We do know that that most conservative wing has harangued its 
leadership enough to add that vote on the bill even though, as I point 
out, we were very willing to give the votes on our side.
  Now, the Senate had 78 majority votes to keep the Senate open and 
Congress moving, but we will not do that because we want to try to 
restrict a woman's access to health care. We do it all the time. We 
have already had 14 votes. We did two or three this week.
  What in the world is it that makes this majority want to take health 
care away from people--54 times to kill health care, 14 times to kill 
choice, which is constitutionally protected, I must add.
  So across the country, our constituents must be thoroughly surprised 
at what really is going on here. A lot of money is getting spent. It 
takes $24 million a week to run the House of Representatives. And think 
of the Benghazi Committees. If you recall, at both Armed Services and 
Intelligence, their Republican chairs--and bless them for it--said 
there is nothing there.
  But we find out last night that the whole purpose of all of it was 
never to do anything except to cause eternal grief to the families of 
the four people who lost their lives and to destroy a Presidential 
candidate. Could the Congress really stoop that low? I certainly hope 
not. The facts belie my hope.
  So we will be back here in December, December 11, actually, when I 
suspect we will go through the same thing: Are we going to shut down 
the government or are we going to try to do our job? We do the same 
thing. We will have to put some things in to fool some people all the 
time so that they will think they are voting for something entirely 
different. Frankly, I am not going to try to explain why this is 
happening, because the people that it is meant to appease obviously 
know we are appeasing them. And it won't last, but it sure is 
expensive.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I want to, first, point out a couple of areas where my friend and I 
do disagree. We certainly disagree about the value of the Benghazi 
Committee. Frankly, I think it has been conducted professionally and 
seriously by Mr. Gowdy. I think we have already learned some things we 
wouldn't have known, including the fact that the former Secretary of 
State had a private server over which only she had access and control, 
a very unusual arrangement. So I will just let the committee continue 
its work and see where we end up at the end of the day.
  I want to disagree with my friend, with all due respect, on Planned 
Parenthood. That is just an area where we have a difference of opinion. 
I don't think it is appropriate that they receive Federal funds. There 
are plenty of other ways. We provide $3.5 billion to thousands of 
public healthcare centers and community healthcare centers around the 
United States. Those provide all these same services. That is 
appropriate, and we should do that.
  But I also want to agree with my friend. I agree very much with her 
sentiments on a government shutdown. She is precisely right, in my 
view, about what happened in the last government shutdown. It should 
not have occurred. This is a sincere effort to make sure that doesn't 
occur now. The Appropriations Committee is certainly doing everything 
in its power to do that.
  Obviously, we need the administration, the Senate, and the House 
leadership to sit down and give us a framework. We are trying to buy 
them that time. I think we are doing it in a very responsible way.
  So, while my friend and I may have some disagreements in some areas, 
on the functioning of the government we have absolutely no disagreement 
whatsoever. I am pleased to be here working with her in those areas, 
and I am hopeful that the President, the Speaker, the

[[Page 15482]]

majority leader, and the respective minority leaders can indeed come to 
a larger agreement that would allow a normal appropriations process to 
take place. First, an omnibus bill this year, and, hopefully, next 
year, an actual complete appropriations process such as we haven't seen 
around here in many, many, many years.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  Mr. Speaker, we find ourselves in a precarious time. At midnight 
tonight, the Government of the United States will close yet once again. 
Mr. Cole and I certainly have strong agreement on that, and I am happy 
for that. He is a true gentleman and a scholar here in Congress. But I 
continue to say that it saddens me greatly, because all of us who were 
wanting to vote for a clean CR, because of this rule, we will not have 
an opportunity to do that.
  I call for a ``no'' vote on the rule.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
  I want to thank my friend again for also emphasizing the areas where 
we agree, which is on the maintenance of the government. And while we 
may have a difference over the rule, I would hope that my friend and 
many of her colleagues on the CR that has been agreed to would look on 
that favorably and would be able to support the CR, itself, as opposed 
to the rule.
  Mr. Speaker, passage of the CR is critical to prevent a government 
shutdown and to demonstrate to the American people that Congress can 
actually govern. The CR abides within the budget caps and does not 
provide any additional funding for Planned Parenthood, as some have 
claimed. In addition, the rule provides for consideration of an 
enrollment correction bill that would again make the position of the 
House clear in opposition to any additional funding for Planned 
Parenthood.
  I want to encourage my colleagues to support this rule and the 
underlying legislation. And, frankly, I want to encourage those who are 
now engaged in negotiations to arrive at a framework where the 
appropriations process can actually go forward, where we can sit down 
and seriously consider in a bipartisan way how best to fund the 
government in the coming year, and where, hopefully, we can get an 
agreement large enough that we can have a normal appropriations process 
next year where we actually bring bills individually to this floor, as 
we did 6 times, but actually do it for the full 12 that would be in 
order. That is my hope. That is what I am going to be working toward. I 
know my friend will be working in the same direction.
  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 the resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 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 pass S. 2082.
  The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 239, 
nays 187, not voting 8, as follows:

                             [Roll No. 525]

                               YEAS--239

     Abraham
     Aderholt
     Allen
     Amash
     Amodei
     Babin
     Barletta
     Barr
     Barton
     Benishek
     Bilirakis
     Bishop (MI)
     Bishop (UT)
     Black
     Blackburn
     Blum
     Bost
     Boustany
     Brat
     Bridenstine
     Brooks (AL)
     Brooks (IN)
     Buchanan
     Buck
     Bucshon
     Burgess
     Byrne
     Calvert
     Carter (GA)
     Carter (TX)
     Chabot
     Chaffetz
     Clawson (FL)
     Coffman
     Cole
     Collins (GA)
     Collins (NY)
     Comstock
     Conaway
     Cook
     Costello (PA)
     Cramer
     Crawford
     Crenshaw
     Curbelo (FL)
     Davis, Rodney
     Denham
     Dent
     DeSantis
     DesJarlais
     Diaz-Balart
     Dold
     Donovan
     Duffy
     Duncan (SC)
     Duncan (TN)
     Ellmers (NC)
     Emmer (MN)
     Farenthold
     Fincher
     Fitzpatrick
     Fleischmann
     Fleming
     Flores
     Forbes
     Fortenberry
     Foxx
     Franks (AZ)
     Frelinghuysen
     Garrett
     Gibbs
     Gibson
     Gohmert
     Goodlatte
     Gosar
     Gowdy
     Granger
     Graves (GA)
     Graves (LA)
     Graves (MO)
     Griffith
     Grothman
     Guinta
     Guthrie
     Hanna
     Hardy
     Harper
     Harris
     Hartzler
     Heck (NV)
     Hensarling
     Herrera Beutler
     Hice, Jody B.
     Hill
     Holding
     Huizenga (MI)
     Hultgren
     Hunter
     Hurd (TX)
     Hurt (VA)
     Issa
     Jenkins (KS)
     Jenkins (WV)
     Johnson (OH)
     Johnson, Sam
     Jolly
     Jordan
     Joyce
     Katko
     Kelly (MS)
     Kelly (PA)
     King (IA)
     King (NY)
     Kinzinger (IL)
     Kline
     Knight
     Labrador
     LaHood
     LaMalfa
     Lamborn
     Lance
     Latta
     LoBiondo
     Long
     Loudermilk
     Love
     Lucas
     Luetkemeyer
     Lummis
     MacArthur
     Marchant
     Marino
     McCarthy
     McCaul
     McClintock
     McHenry
     McKinley
     McMorris Rodgers
     McSally
     Meadows
     Meehan
     Messer
     Mica
     Miller (FL)
     Miller (MI)
     Moolenaar
     Mooney (WV)
     Mullin
     Mulvaney
     Murphy (PA)
     Neugebauer
     Newhouse
     Noem
     Nugent
     Nunes
     Olson
     Palazzo
     Palmer
     Paulsen
     Pearce
     Perry
     Pittenger
     Pitts
     Poe (TX)
     Poliquin
     Pompeo
     Posey
     Price, Tom
     Ratcliffe
     Reed
     Renacci
     Ribble
     Rice (SC)
     Rigell
     Roby
     Roe (TN)
     Rogers (AL)
     Rogers (KY)
     Rohrabacher
     Rokita
     Rooney (FL)
     Ros-Lehtinen
     Roskam
     Ross
     Rothfus
     Rouzer
     Royce
     Russell
     Ryan (WI)
     Salmon
     Sanford
     Scalise
     Schweikert
     Scott, Austin
     Sensenbrenner
     Sessions
     Shimkus
     Shuster
     Simpson
     Smith (MO)
     Smith (NE)
     Smith (NJ)
     Smith (TX)
     Stefanik
     Stewart
     Stivers
     Stutzman
     Thompson (PA)
     Thornberry
     Tiberi
     Tipton
     Trott
     Turner
     Upton
     Valadao
     Wagner
     Walberg
     Walden
     Walker
     Walorski
     Walters, Mimi
     Weber (TX)
     Webster (FL)
     Wenstrup
     Westerman
     Westmoreland
     Whitfield
     Williams
     Wilson (SC)
     Wittman
     Womack
     Woodall
     Yoder
     Yoho
     Young (AK)
     Young (IA)
     Young (IN)
     Zeldin
     Zinke

                               NAYS--187

     Adams
     Aguilar
     Ashford
     Bass
     Beatty
     Becerra
     Bera
     Beyer
     Bishop (GA)
     Blumenauer
     Bonamici
     Boyle, Brendan F.
     Brady (PA)
     Brown (FL)
     Brownley (CA)
     Bustos
     Butterfield
     Capps
     Capuano
     Cardenas
     Carney
     Carson (IN)
     Cartwright
     Castor (FL)
     Castro (TX)
     Chu, Judy
     Cicilline
     Clark (MA)
     Clarke (NY)
     Clay
     Cleaver
     Clyburn
     Cohen
     Connolly
     Conyers
     Cooper
     Costa
     Courtney
     Crowley
     Cuellar
     Cummings
     Davis (CA)
     Davis, Danny
     DeFazio
     DeGette
     Delaney
     DeLauro
     DelBene
     DeSaulnier
     Deutch
     Dingell
     Doggett
     Doyle, Michael F.
     Duckworth
     Edwards
     Ellison
     Engel
     Eshoo
     Esty
     Farr
     Fattah
     Foster
     Frankel (FL)
     Fudge
     Gabbard
     Gallego
     Garamendi
     Graham
     Grayson
     Green, Al
     Green, Gene
     Grijalva
     Gutierrez
     Hahn
     Hastings
     Heck (WA)
     Higgins
     Himes
     Hinojosa
     Honda
     Hoyer
     Huelskamp
     Huffman
     Israel
     Jackson Lee
     Jeffries
     Johnson, E. B.
     Jones
     Kaptur
     Keating
     Kennedy
     Kildee
     Kilmer
     Kind
     Kirkpatrick
     Kuster
     Langevin
     Larsen (WA)
     Larson (CT)
     Lawrence
     Lee
     Levin
     Lewis
     Lieu, Ted
     Lipinski
     Loebsack
     Lofgren
     Lowenthal
     Lowey
     Lujan Grisham (NM)
     Lujan, Ben Ray (NM)
     Lynch
     Maloney, Carolyn
     Maloney, Sean
     Massie
     Matsui
     McCollum
     McDermott
     McGovern
     McNerney
     Meng
     Moore
     Moulton
     Murphy (FL)
     Nadler
     Napolitano
     Neal
     Nolan
     Norcross
     O'Rourke
     Pallone
     Pascrell
     Payne
     Pelosi
     Perlmutter
     Peters
     Peterson
     Pingree
     Pocan
     Polis
     Price (NC)
     Quigley
     Rangel
     Rice (NY)
     Richmond
     Roybal-Allard
     Ruiz
     Ruppersberger
     Rush
     Sanchez, Linda T.
     Sanchez, Loretta
     Sarbanes
     Schakowsky
     Schiff
     Schrader
     Scott (VA)
     Scott, David
     Serrano
     Sewell (AL)
     Sherman
     Sinema
     Sires
     Slaughter
     Smith (WA)
     Speier
     Swalwell (CA)
     Takai
     Takano
     Thompson (CA)
     Thompson (MS)
     Titus
     Tonko
     Torres
     Tsongas
     Van Hollen
     Vargas
     Veasey
     Vela
     Velazquez
     Visclosky
     Walz
     Wasserman Schultz
     Waters, Maxine
     Watson Coleman
     Welch
     Wilson (FL)
     Yarmuth

                             NOT VOTING--8

     Brady (TX)
     Culberson
     Hudson
     Johnson (GA)
     Kelly (IL)
     Meeks
     Reichert
     Ryan (OH)

                              {time}  1500

  Mr. SARBANES changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
  Mrs. GRANGER and Mr. WENSTRUP changed their vote from ``nay'' to 
``yea.''
  So the resolution was agreed to.
  The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

[[Page 15483]]

  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

                          ____________________