[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16485-16487]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, Mr. McCarthy, the 
majority leader, for purposes of telling us what the schedule will be 
for next week.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Before I get into next week's schedule, I do want to thank the 
gentleman for joining me in the Second Congressional Hackathon.
  Today's Hackathon is an opportunity to bring people together to 
envision a modernized Congress. Even as we speak, the congressional 
community, open government advocates, and code developers from the 
technology sector are gathered to explore how we can leverage 
technology to improve how Congress works for the American people. It is 
a good reminder that, even as we may disagree on many policy issues, we 
can work together to improve this institution.
  I want to thank the gentleman's staff as well as the Clerk's office 
for their work on today's Hackathon.
  Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the House will meet at noon for morning-hour 
and 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 
p.m. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for 
morning-hour and noon for legislative business. On Thursday, the House 
will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. Last votes of the week 
are expected no later than 3 p.m. On Friday, no votes are expected in 
the House.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next 
week, including a necessary short-term extension of the authorities 
under the highway trust fund. A complete list of suspensions will be 
announced by close of business today.
  In addition, the House will consider H.R. 1090, the Retail Investor 
Protection Act, sponsored by Representative Ann Wagner. This bill 
provides relief from the Department of Labor's proposed rule to 
redefine ``fiduciary.'' Once finalized, the Department's rule will shut 
out millions of low- and middle-income investors from getting 
retirement savings advice. Instead, our bill will ensure coordination 
between the Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission to 
determine whether it is even necessary to establish a uniform standard.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, the House will also need to consider 
legislation relating to the Nation's debt limit.
  I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information, and I want to 
join him. He and I both had the opportunity to speak to participants in 
the Hackathon that is going on as we speak. Mr. Cantor and I were 
cooperative in this effort as well, and Mr. McCarthy and I have 
continued this tradition. Like Mr. McCarthy, I believe this will be of 
great assistance in moving us forward with technology to make our 
institution more transparent, the people's business more available to 
them, and that we will benefit from this in this institution.
  In addition to that, of course, we believe it will have ramifications 
beyond this institution as they brainstorm and come together on how 
technology can be used better in our democracy both in terms of our 
government and politics, but also in terms of our economy and growth of 
jobs.
  So I thank the gentleman and his staff.
  I want to mention my own staffer, Steve Dwyer, who is one of the real 
talents in my office and, in my opinion, within the House staff, 
Republican and Democrat, working together on behalf of the better use 
of technology.
  So I thank my friend for his observation.
  Mr. Speaker, this week we have had two bills that we have spent 
significant time on that purported to deal both with debt and with 
deficit reduction, neither of which I think anybody in this House, 
Republican or Democrat, would place much of a bet on becoming law. They 
were message bills. We now dealt with legislation to repeal the 
Affordable Care Act for the 61st time, and we dealt with a bill to 
close down Planned Parenthood, which clearly is not going to happen. 
Indeed, it should not happen. Ninety-seven percent of what they do is 
providing health care to women who need healthcare services.
  So we passed, also, a bill that the gentleman, the majority leader, 
points out we need to do something to extend the debt limit. He is 
right on that. We do need to do it. But we spent a period of time on a 
bill called debt prioritization. I call that a charade, Mr. Speaker. I 
believed it was a charade. I believe that once you don't pay one of 
your bills, you have defaulted. Whether or not you prioritize and pay 
10 bills that you owe first, get those paid, if you don't pay the other 
10, it is default. But we do need to pass a debt limit extension. We 
need to pass a clean debt limit extension. We will run out of time on 
November 3.
  Mr. Speaker, my friend, the majority leader, was just talking to Mr. 
Ryan, who possibly will be the next Speaker of this institution. Mr. 
Ryan said, when asked a question in 2011, shortly after the Republicans 
took charge of this House--to be specific, on January 6, 2011--will the 
debt limit be raised? Does it have to be raised? Mr. Ryan answered yes.
  Even more compellingly, Mr. Hensarling, one of the most conservative 
Members of this body, said that not raising the debt is not an option. 
He went on to say: What I do think is, yes, it would be catastrophic to 
have the Nation default upon its debt.
  Hensarling said that to The Hill on April 10, 2011.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe if we bring a clean bill to this floor Tuesday 
or Wednesday of next week, almost every Democrat will vote for it. Why? 
Because we agree with Jeb Hensarling not to do so would be 
catastrophic. It would also be irresponsible and malfeasance.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the majority leader, who has said that we need to 
do it, we must do it, can the majority leader tell us when that bill 
will be brought to the floor?
  I yield to my friend.

                              {time}  1215

  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

[[Page 16486]]

  It is one thing to pass the debt limit; it is another thing not to 
deal with the problem and not find a solution. That is why, in this 
House, we are very proud of the fact, when Republicans took the 
majority, we had always offered a budget that balances. We passed one. 
The balances were outraising new taxes within the decade. 
Unfortunately, the White House has never found a way to do that.
  As the gentleman mentioned, the Secretary has moved the date from 
reaching the debt limit up to November 3. As I mentioned in the 
schedule, the House is expected to address this issue next week. There 
are bipartisan discussions that are ongoing, and I will keep Members 
abreast and advise them as soon as a path forward is determined.
  I am hopeful that we stop kicking the can down the road. In our own 
budgets that balance, we know the debt limit will have to be raised. 
That is why you quote our Members saying that. We also acknowledge that 
it has to be solved. That is why we put a balanced budget up to pay for 
it going forward. That is why I am hopeful, in these bipartisan 
discussions, that we start the down payment where we don't have to 
worry about raising the debt limit, that we are actually paying off the 
debt and not leaving this to our children and grandchildren.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, that is a nice theory, nice rhetoric. We 
don't have an agreement on a number of things the gentleman says. What 
we do have agreement on, I presume, is that the gentleman, the majority 
leader from California, wants to see a solvent nation, a nation that 
pays its bills, a nation that does not create a lack of confidence in 
our own country and around the world, a nation that does not take 
hostage either its government by shutting it down or take hostage its 
creditworthiness by bringing us to the brink, time after time after 
time, on whether or not we are going to do something that Mr. 
Hensarling and Mr. Ryan and Mr. Boehner--I didn't quote him, but I have 
got a quote here from Mr. Boehner--said that if we don't do, it will 
have extraordinarily adverse effects on America and on every American. 
And the answer that I heard, Mr. Speaker, is an answer that, if you 
don't do something we want you to do, we may not extend the debt limit.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I would ask the majority leader, is that his 
position?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I hear a lot of things on the floor, but I have never heard the 
things that you just said about me on this floor spoken.
  Mr. HOYER. What is that?
  Mr. McCARTHY. That I would hold anything hostage.
  Mr. HOYER. No, I didn't refer to you----
  Mr. McCARTHY. So what you heard from me--and let me say my own words 
once again, and I will be very clear about it. I said we will deal with 
this next week. I also said we are having bipartisan discussions. I 
also said, if you want to know the confidence of the world around us 
with how America deals with it, don't avoid the issue. Don't leave this 
debt for a future generation.
  It is hard for me to believe that the entire other side of this aisle 
wouldn't want to do something about the debt. It is hard for me to 
believe that we want to continue just to build it up, that somehow that 
is a positive experience.
  So don't play one against the other. Why don't we come together, find 
a way to raise it, but find a way that we don't continue to add to it. 
Because I will tell you, as I go across the country, it is not 
Republicans or Democrats who say that. It is all Americans who say that 
because they have to deal with that in their own house.
  I am not going to say you said something different than the words you 
used, and the only thing I would ask is that you do the same for me.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the majority leader's 
admonition, but the government was shut down because we wouldn't repeal 
the Affordable Care Act. In other words, the government was taken 
hostage because we wouldn't repeal the Affordable Care Act. We came 
very close, with 167 Republicans to do so, to shutting down the 
Department of Homeland Security. Now, Mr. McCarthy voted to keep it 
open, Speaker Boehner voted to keep it open, and Mr. Scalise voted to 
keep it open. But only 72 colleagues of theirs on the Republican side 
joined them.
  So I do not refer to Mr. McCarthy personally, but the strategy seems 
to be that we won't do something that everybody in this body ought to 
believe needs to be done, and that is to ensure that America remains a 
creditworthy nation, unless we do something that, frankly, I don't 
think, Mr. Speaker, my Republican colleagues have pursued too 
diligently; because over the last Congresses that they have been in 
charge, they put bills on this floor that have cut revenues by over 
half a trillion dollars without paying for it. Presumably my children, 
my grandchildren, and my great-grandchildren will have to pay that 
debt.
  So this is not about tradeoffs. This is about making sure that our 
Nation remains solvent, responsible, and creditworthy. And, indeed, 
because the rest of the world relies on the value and stability of the 
dollar to value its products, its currency, it will affect the whole 
world.
  So I am pleased to hear that the majority tells me that it needs to 
be on the floor. But I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, I have been, for 
2\1/2\ months, urging us to do what the majority leader now says we 
need to do: get to an agreement.
  They passed a budget; he is correct. It implemented sequester. They 
didn't follow it. And 102 Republicans have said they won't vote for a 
CR that follows the sequester because they want to increase defense, 
because they think sequester will hurt defense if it is followed. And, 
in fact, when the bill came to the floor, they didn't follow their 
sequester. They used OCO, which, by the way, does not score, but it is 
real money and exacerbates the deficit.
  So when you are talking about alternatives, the alternative is not 
just about whether we invest in our national security by investing in 
defense. We need to do that, and I, for 35 years, have been a strong 
supporter of that. I also believe that we need to invest in our 
highways if we are going to do another temporary, because we have not, 
in 90 days, been able to come to grips. The gentleman talks about 
coming to grips with alternatives. We are going to do another short-
term highway extension bill. Why? Because the majority party hasn't 
figured out how to pay for it.
  And the debt limit may be on the floor, but what I hear, Mr. Speaker, 
is it may be on the floor if something else happens. Well, I hope 
something else happens. I hope we get a longer term funding agreement. 
But very frankly, Mr. Speaker, we have got six appropriation bills that 
haven't even been brought to this floor, and there is no constraint on 
the Republicans bringing it to the floor. They are in charge, Mr. 
Speaker. But half of the appropriation bills that were the 
responsibility of this House to pass have not been brought to the 
floor.
  And, Mr. Speaker, they say, well, the Senate hasn't been passing 
them. Well, we are not in charge of the Senate. We are responsible for 
actions on this floor. And one of our responsibilities, Mr. Speaker, is 
to pass a debt limit extension.
  And I understand, Mr. Speaker, that the majority leader said that 
there aren't 30 votes or 40 votes on each side of the aisle to pass a 
clean debt limit extension. Mr. Speaker, I find that incredibly hard to 
believe because, as Mr. Hensarling said, if we don't do that, it will 
have a catastrophic consequence on the country and on the international 
community.
  I hope, Mr. Speaker, that the leader is right, that we bring a bill 
to the floor unrelated to disagreements. Some legitimate, most 
legitimate differences we have between us, we will have to work them 
out. But in that process, we ought not to put the credit of the United 
States at risk. We ought not to put individual American consumers at 
risk of having their interest rate raised because we couldn't pass a 
debt limit extension. We ought to act responsibly, Mr. Speaker.

[[Page 16487]]

  I hope the leader is right. I hope this bill comes to the floor. I 
hope it is clean, so that it will not be weighted down by political 
controversies that are so self-evidently existing in this body for all 
the American people.
  We have got a Speaker who is resigning, couldn't fill the 
Speakership. You may now fill it maybe next week, maybe as early as 
next week, but this body has not been functioning effectively. Let us 
not risk the credit of the United States and international stability. 
Let's bring a clean debt limit extension to this floor, and, hopefully, 
all of us will vote for a solvent nation.
  There is no deal on that. I presume that every Member of this body 
wants a solvent nation. Let us hope, Mr. Speaker, that we summon our 
responsibility and our duty to this country and our constituents to get 
that done.
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  $154,161--$154,161--that is the responsibility of every single 
American based upon the debt that we have right now of $18 trillion. My 
friend on the other side of the aisle thinks it is un-American that we 
do anything about that, that the only road we should follow is just 
raise it and keep adding to it, that somehow that will build confidence 
in this country, somehow that will give more opportunity to future 
generations, by bringing a debt limit bill to the floor that raises the 
debt limit but starts changing the trajectory of where it is going is 
wrong.
  That is what is wrong with Congress because, I will tell you, I don't 
hear that anywhere across America. I don't have my phones lighting up, 
saying: ``Just keep raising the debt and do nothing about it.'' It is 
the complete opposite. And I don't think the gentleman gets any 
different calls than I do.
  My words were the House is expected to address this issue next week. 
Now, we play politics with a lot of stuff in here, but I am tired of 
that. I could play any amount of games that you want to play. I can sit 
here and I can quote Harry Reid on the other side of the aisle, and 
Schumer, a good deal, to make sure no appropriation bill went through 
and then blame the Republicans. They talk to the White House, and it is 
all in the papers. It is a whole strategy. They have a title for it. It 
is the ``Summer of Destruction.''
  But do you know what, count me out of that. Put me in the column that 
I want to start talking about the ways we find solutions. I will be the 
first one who comes to the table and tells you I know I am not going to 
get everything I want.
  I want to lay one goal out for you. I want a debt limit that gets 
raised but does something about the debt, and I don't think that is 
wrong, and I don't think I am causing problems. I think I am giving 
more opportunity.
  I don't want to be in the category that sits and lays blame on 
everybody else. I haven't been here very long; but the short term I am 
here, I want to make a difference. I am not going to blame others for 
the past, but the one thing I can do is change the future. So put me in 
that column, and I will be at any table that other people across the 
aisle want to be with me.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, it is hard to answer that presentation 
because, in my view, it conflates two issues.
  I have been on this floor willing to deal with the other side on a 
regular basis to bring down our debt and to apply discipline. Part of 
applying discipline is paying for what you buy. And the gentleman is 
right; we had PAYGO. But when the Republican side of the aisle took 
over, they negated that; and they negated it specifically for tax cuts 
because, I suppose, they believe they will pay for themselves.

                              {time}  1230

  I have been here for a longer time than Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Speaker. In 
1981, they did that, and we increased the deficit under Mr. Reagan by 
189 percent. We could have dealt with it then. Then we had a commission 
that was called Simpson-Bowles, which tried to deal with what the 
gentleman is talking about, and all three Republican Members from the 
House of Representatives voted ``no'' on it. Why? Because it asked us 
to pay for what we bought.
  So, Mr. Speaker, talking about A when you need to do B is a way of 
not dealing with B. Do we need to deal with the debt? We absolutely do, 
and the bills that are supposed to do that, as I just indicated, have 
not been brought to the floor. They represented sequester. The 
gentleman, apparently, is for sequester. I am not for sequester, 
although the gentleman would say, ``Oh. Well, it is your party which 
instituted sequester,'' which is not right.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to do a debt limit extension, and we need to 
reduce the debt of this country. It will be hard to do the latter. It 
ought to be easy to do the former. It will require courage to do the 
latter; but when Mr. Camp, the former chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee, brought a tax reform bill to the table, it was dismissed out 
of hand by his Republican colleagues in the last Congress. Why? Because 
he paid for it. Dismissed out of hand. Never brought to this floor.
  Mr. Speaker, in conclusion, I am just very hopeful that, in fact, we 
will do the only responsible thing we can do at this late date. 
Remember, Mr. Speaker, for 2\1/2\ months, I have been asking that we 
have a way forward. The Republican Party, Mr. Speaker, has been 
somewhat distracted. I understand that. Hopefully, we will get a way 
forward and a responsible way forward; but we only have 5 days to do 
this debt limit, and let us not take an action which is catastrophic, 
which is what Jeb Hensarling said it would be if we don't adopt it.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________