[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16549]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




      A BIPARTISAN MAJORITY--A NEW PRECEDENT FOR SOLVING PROBLEMS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, for the first time in over a dozen 
years, an unusual legislative procedure--a discharge petition--has been 
successfully mounted in the House. This is an extraordinary effort to 
allow the House to work its will--a mechanism that was part of a 
package of reform, dating back over a century, to deal with the iron 
rule of Speaker Joe Cannon. The subject of the petition, the Ex-Im 
Bank, was almost as obscure as the procedure that brought it to the 
House.
  This is an agency that for over 70 years has provided financing for 
transactions similar to which all of our competitor nations provide 
their exporting companies. In this case, American companies will have 
the credit tools that will enable them to cost-effectively engage in 
international transactions that other private institutions won't 
finance because of political or commercial risks.
  Even if providing this service meant a modest exposure to the 
taxpayer, which might occasionally cost money, it was probably worth it 
to have the businesses support good-paying American jobs and to be able 
to compete with foreign companies.
  Yes, it would be worth it. It is not just a low-risk proposition. The 
Ex-Im Bank is a service that has made billions of dollars for the 
United States Treasury. It turns a profit--about $2 million in the last 
2 fiscal years.
  This is interesting--a service that all of our competitor nations 
provide their companies. It hasn't cost the taxpayers any money. In 
fact, it makes money for the Treasury. Why was it allowed to expire?
  This is another example of where a minority of the House, for 
ideological reasons, decided they were going to take over the process. 
In this case, they were going to kill the Ex-Im Bank. They did so over 
the objections of the administration, of the business community, of 
many Members of Congress, of people in organized labor.
  It was hard to maintain decorum during last night's debate when the 
chair of the committee complained that, somehow, by approving the 
discharge petition and the procedural motions that followed, we were 
stifling the will of the House. I smiled as people lamented that they 
would not be able to offer amendments. Members came to the floor, 
saying they had amendments they wished they could offer and now they 
were being shut out.
  How ironic.
  His committee had no intention of allowing the House to participate 
in the give-and-take of legislation he was lamenting was slipping away. 
His committee didn't allow this proposal to come to the floor. The 
committee did not amend and refine the Ex-Im Bank. The committee killed 
it by having the authorization expire without giving the whole House a 
chance to be part of that decision.
  Now the people who were caught on the wrong side of the majority of 
the House, with a losing argument and a minority position, were 
suddenly concerned that the House was being shut out. They had been 
shutting out the House for the last 2 years. They had denied efforts at 
reform. Only when their hand was forced did they somehow resort to the 
most specious of arguments. This is like, as they say, the person who 
kills his parents and then pleads for mercy from the court because he 
is an orphan.
  There is no reform because they didn't want reform. They were the 
ones who shut the House out. Now, because of the courageous action by a 
bipartisan group, led by our Republican colleagues--eloquently and 
bravely--the House will no longer be shut out. American business will 
be stronger; and the House has demonstrated that there sometimes will 
be opportunities for a bipartisan majority to have its interests 
represented.
  We can only hope that this sets a precedent for how we solve other 
problems, from raising the debt ceiling, to dealing with budgets, to 
rebuilding and renewing America. Involve the entire House--solutions 
are possible--and America will be better served.

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