[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 14542-14543]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                          PERSONAL EXPLANATION

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. LUCILLE ROYBAL-ALLARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 14, 2017

  Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Mr. Speaker, on September 14, I was unavoidably 
detained off the House floor and was not present for Roll Call 528, the 
vote on final passage of H.R. 3354. Had I been present, I would have 
voted ``No.'' As our nation comes together to help those affected by 
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, I am saddened that members of Congress were 
not given the opportunity to come together to provide all of the people 
of our country the support they need to meet the many challenges they 
face and to invest in their future. This eight bill spending package 
was considered under a restrictive process that severely limited the 
ability of members to influence the bill. I could not in good 
conscience vote for this bill because it is based on the devastating 
House Republican budget, meaning that it underfunds and makes 
significant cuts to many of my constituents' key priorities such as job 
training, education, fixing our crumbling infrastructure, economic 
development, Pell Grants, housing affordability, after-school programs, 
and law enforcement. It attacks women's health by cutting family 
planning and Teen Pregnancy Prevention Grants

[[Page 14543]]

and defunding Planned Parenthood, and it includes many poison pill 
policy riders that will undermine the Affordable Care Act, undo many 
important Dodd-Frank Wall Street reforms, and prevent the EPA from 
keeping our air and water clean. As the Ranking Member of the Homeland 
Security Subcommittee, I find it inexplicable that as we work to 
recover from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and see new storms on the 
horizon, the bill slashes funding for programs that build resilience 
and can be used for prevention and recovery and it weakens efforts to 
understand and address climate change, a driving factor of more 
frequent and severe storms. I repeatedly tried to shift funding in the 
bill for immigration enforcement activities to more pressing homeland 
security needs, but I was rebuffed on party line votes. Instead of this 
short-sighted bill that would be disastrous for all Americans, I call 
on Republicans to join Democrats to enact spending bills that grow the 
economy, create jobs, and truly keep our nation secure.

                          ____________________