[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15206-15209]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1145
                          LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM

  (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the majority leader for the 
purpose of giving us the schedule for the week to come.
  Mr. Speaker, before I yield, however, to the majority leader, I want 
to join all of our colleagues in saying how very grateful we are and 
pleased we are with the return of the majority whip, Steve Scalise. All 
of us who sat here and heard Steve, our friend and colleague, give his 
reaction not only to the hateful, vicious action that took place as he 
was practicing for the charity baseball game where Republicans and 
Democrats come together to raise funds for young people and people who 
need help, and they do so together in a spirit of good will and common 
purpose, I think Steve Scalise, our majority whip, spoke movingly, and 
I am sure all Members were impressed with his courage and with his 
comments about that which is important.
  He talked about his prayers having been answered and the prayers of 
literally millions of people around this country. And in talking about 
some of the world leaders who called him and expressed their concern, 
because they knew, as he said and as Leader Pelosi said: An attack on 
Steve Scalise was an attack on us all, and it was an attack on our 
democracy and an attack on peacefully resolving differences, no matter 
how strongly they may be held--a lesson for all of us.
  I want to congratulate and thank Jennifer, his extraordinary wife, 
who shouldered a responsibility and a burden that she did not expect 
and, as Steve said, did it with great courage and great grace. His 
children, Madison and Harrison, and their entire family, I know, were 
responsible for Steve being able to be back here with us, and so we 
thank them.
  He is back with us today, and we look forward to him being a 
vigorous, as he was and is, part of the deliberations of this House and 
of reaching decisions in a positive, constructive way.
  Steve and I have a difference of opinion on whose crabs are better. 
We had a crab dinner not too long ago, my staff and his staff, and he 
brought some crabs up from Louisiana, I brought some crabs from 
Maryland, and it was a split decision as to which were the best. It 
will not surprise you who was for which crab.
  Today, we are filled with joy to see him back on the floor and on the 
road to full recovery.
  We also continue to be grateful for the recovery of U.S. Capitol 
Police Officers Crystal Griner and David Bailey. I want to join Steve, 
and I know all of our Members, as we rose and clapped to show our 
respect and our appreciation for those in the Capitol Police.
  Some of us are privileged to, as Steve pointed out, have a detail, 
and they become family. We are so impressed with their commitment, 
their talent, the extraordinary training that they have received and 
display every day; and, of course, Crystal Griner and David Bailey 
responded and, in responding, were injured themselves. They put their 
lives at risk for not only Steve Scalise but for all the Members who 
were on the field at that point in time.
  I want to join Steve, and I know all of our colleagues and the 
majority leader, in expressing appreciation and great respect for those 
who serve us in the Capitol Police.
  I say to my friend, the majority whip--he has left the floor now--we 
are glad to have you back. I wrote him a note this morning saying 
whatever I could do to help him, I was available to do that. I am sure 
he took it that that did not mean I necessarily would vote the way he 
wants me to vote, nor did I think he would vote necessarily the way I 
wanted him to vote, but we will continue in this great institution we 
call the House of Representatives, but, as Steve called it and I call 
it and so many of us call it, the people's House.
  Every 2 years, they send us back here to try to make policy to make 
their lives better and our country stronger, and, more than the public 
knows, we work together to accomplish that objective. They see the 
confrontations, but they don't always see the cooperation.
  Now, at this time, Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from 
California (Mr. McCarthy), the majority leader, my friend--we cooperate 
more than people will see from time to time, I want to thank him for 
that--for the purpose of inquiring of the schedule for the week to 
come.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, before I give the schedule, I do want to say today was a 
day that was very good to see our dear friend, Steve Scalise, make it 
back.
  As the gentleman said, an attack on him was an attack on the entire 
institution. I was there that day in the hospital, my wife and I, and 
waiting for Jennifer to arrive, and Steve, going through those 
surgeries. The number of times we would go back to visit, he is the 
strongest man I have ever known. I thought his speech today was 
fantastic.
  It is from the heart that he first would seek God's guidance. The 
strength of Jennifer--I watched Madison and Harrison spend their entire 
summer in that hospital for their father, and for him to be able to 
walk back here as soon as he did and the excitement in his face when he 
was able to cast that vote, I know Steve is going to continue to get 
stronger as he goes, and he thanks everybody for the help they 
provided.
  We should not forget the spirit that this floor had today. We should 
take that spirit into the days forward and continue it. We can 
disagree, but it takes an unbelievable terrible situation, at times, to 
remind us of the human spirit we have for one another, and I want to 
make sure, even for myself, that I remember those moments in times of 
the most heated debates.
  So with that, 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.
  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.
  And on Friday, no votes are expected in the House.
  Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next 
week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business 
tomorrow.
  Now, in addition, the House will consider H.R. 36, the Pain-Capable 
Unborn Child Protection Act, also, as I like to call it, ``Micah's 
Law.''
  Mr. Speaker, I spent some time on Tuesday with a young boy named 
Micah. Micah gave me this bracelet, ``Miracles for Micah,'' and I wear 
it because Micah was born premature at 20 weeks. If you look at a 
picture of Micah, he was the size of a bag of M&Ms. Today, he is happy, 
he is healthy, he is 5 years old, and no one would know the difference.
  Mr. Speaker, all life is a miracle, and we have an obligation here to 
speak for those who cannot speak for themselves.
  I look forward to the House passing this compassionate bill next week 
that will protect the lives of countless others just like Micah.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, the House will take up the FY18 budget 
resolution. Our Republican budget balances within 10 years, provides 
for a strong national defense, eliminates burdensome regulations, and 
cracks down on waste, fraud, and abuse. Passing this budget will also 
enable tax reform, which is the key to economic growth and seeing that 
Americans take home more of their hard-earned dollars.
  I thank Chairman Black and the entire Budget Committee--and 
especially you, Mr. Speaker--for their hard work on this bill.

[[Page 15207]]


  Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for the information on the schedule 
to come.
  I want to speak to two things that are not on the schedule, Mr. 
Leader, but I know that both of us are focused on this and realize that 
we need to move and we need to move quickly.
  First of all, I want to speak of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. 
The leader and I, Mr. Speaker, were scheduled to try to go to Key West 
and to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands this weekend. I am not sure 
that that is going to be able to happen, given some of the logistics on 
the ground, but whether that happens or not, Mr. Speaker, I know the 
leader and I are going to work very hard on this.
  There is a humanitarian crisis that has confronted Puerto Rico and 
the Virgin Islands. Key West, at least you can drive to Key West still, 
and we can get relief to Key West and to Florida and to victims of 
Harvey. Obviously, our fellow Americans who are residents of two 
islands, or actually more than two islands, but that comprise Puerto 
Rico and the Virgin Islands, are in life-threatening distress.
  I talked today to Dr. Price, the Secretary of Health and Human 
Services, about the availability of dialysis on the island. There are 
people who have already died because they were not able to get to 
dialysis centers, and those centers don't have all the electricity they 
need, so there is a humanitarian crisis, as I pointed out, Mr. Speaker, 
and I know the leader appreciates this.
  Mr. Leader, I know we don't have anything on the floor with reference 
to additional resources that might be and are necessary to meet this 
humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, but I would 
urge the majority leader, as I have done and I think he has done, to be 
in contact with the administration, be in contact with FEMA.
  In particular, I was pleased to see that General Kim has now been 
appointed, as General Honore was for New Orleans and Katrina, to 
coordinate activities. We have extraordinary resources in the Armed 
Forces of the United States, and I would urge the President, as 
Commander in Chief, and the Department of Defense to allocate every 
resource necessary to get the American people who live in Puerto Rico 
and the Virgin Islands to a point where communications, the 
availability of food, the availability of water, the availability of 
medical services are up and running, hopefully, full bore by the end of 
this weekend. This is a crisis.
  And I know the majority leader shares that view, and if he wants to 
make a comment on that, I yield to the gentleman from California.
  Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him for his 
interest, and it is true, the gentleman and I were hopefully trying to 
go down to Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and Key West to look at 
some of the damage, and, right now, the Coast Guard tells us, with the 
rescue attempts that are ongoing, that we probably would be taking some 
equipment away from doing that work, and we do not want to do any of 
that. We will be able to go a little later when the time is right.
  We will continue to work with the administration. When you think what 
this country has gone through with Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, I do 
want to give thanks to the work of the administration. I have seen some 
coordination like I have not seen in the past.
  We know these are islands. The damage of the two hurricanes they have 
to go through, I have been keeping in constant contact, and just 
speaking with FEMA just recently, they are currently coordinating and 
establishing seven temporary hospitals. That was one of my concerns 
with dialysis and others, but there is so much more to do to be able to 
move through, and I will work with the gentleman, as we have in the 
past, to make sure whatever they need will be able to get there.

                              {time}  1200

  And I do want to thank Congressman Carlos Curbelo for his amendment 
to the bill that we just voted on, adding a little more resources there 
to make sure, knowing the tax code of Puerto Rico is a little different 
than the one we had voted on as we go through, to give them greater 
assistance, and the Virgin Islands.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments.
  Clearly, this is not a partisan issue when an American or a group of 
Americans or a large number--in this case, over 3.5 million people, all 
of them at dire risk. We want to act together, we want to act quickly, 
and we do not want to fail to deploy any resource that is necessary to 
help our fellow Americans.
  Secondly, Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring up an act, which 
although not the crisis that Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, in 
particular, confront us with, as did Harvey and Irma in Texas and in 
Florida, but, Mr. Speaker, I notice that the Dream Act is not a part of 
next week's schedule.
  The leader and I have discussed the Dream Act, along with Speaker 
Ryan. I know that the President has said, if we pass the Dream Act, he 
has said publicly that he would sign the Dream Act. He is obviously 
concerned with security at the borders. We share that concern about 
security at the borders. But this is an item that, now, one-sixth of 
the time that was available has run, and we have 5 months left to go.
  I will tell the majority leader that I am very hopeful. I know the 
majority leader and the Speaker have formed some task forces to look at 
this issue, but I am very hopeful, Mr. Speaker--and I ask the majority 
leader to perhaps comment on this--that before the end of this work 
period--there are another 14 days left after this week in this work 
period--that we might be able to bring the Dream Act to the floor.
  A discharge petition has been filed. I would hope that the discharge 
petition not be necessary for either the rule or for the Dream Act 
itself. The discharge petition on the Dream Act itself will be mature 
as of October 5, and I expect a discharge petition to be filed on that, 
as well. But I am hopeful, Mr. Speaker, that that will not be 
necessary.
  Given the fact that the President has said that he thinks DACA was 
issued beyond the authority of President Obama, we disagree with that 
conclusion. But whether that conclusion is correct or not, the 
President observed that we need to fix this legislatively.
  So my question to the majority leader is: How soon does he believe 
that we could address this issue in regular order?
  We continue to pursue a discharge petition, as we did, frankly, for 
the Ex-Im Bank, which, when it was called to the floor, had over 300 
votes in favor of it, including the majority of the majority party 
voted for that bill.
  We believe, Mr. Speaker, strongly, that if the Dream Act is brought 
to the floor, which over 8 in 10 Americans agree with, frankly, we 
believe large numbers on both sides of the aisle agree that these young 
people are not to be sent home.
  Lastly, let me just quote Senator Orrin Hatch, who is a senior Member 
in the United States Senate and the chairman of the Finance Committee. 
He said: ``I've urged the President not to rescind DACA. . . .''
  He did, and gave us 6 months to solve this, legislatively.
  Senator Hatch observed that if DACA were rescinded, it would be ``an 
action that would further complicate a system in serious need of a 
permanent, legislative solution.''
  He was referring then, Mr. Speaker, to a comprehensive immigration 
reform.
  ``Like the President, I've long advocated for tougher enforcement of 
our existing immigration laws. But we also need a workable, permanent 
solution for individuals who entered our country unlawfully as children 
through no fault of their own and who have built their lives here. That 
solution must come from Congress.''
  And I agree that that decision must come from Congress.
  Rush Limbaugh said--and I don't usually agree with statements that 
Mr. Limbaugh makes: ``Nobody's gonna win anything by deporting a bunch 
of kids that we let in, whoever did, Obama,

[[Page 15208]]

whatever. If we can get the strict enforcement of existing immigration 
law . . . then the DREAMer thing may be an acceptable payoff,'' he went 
on to say.
  I don't think this is a payoff. This is responding. And that is why 
the overwhelming majority of the American people support the Dream Act. 
As I say, over 8 out of 10 Americans.
  So I ask the majority--and I know that was a relatively long 
statement. This is a critical issue, however, as I have expressed in 
private to the majority leader, because we have but 5 months left to 
go.
  Hopefully, we could do this in this work period to allay the fears 
that these young people have, who are making such a positive 
contribution to America, to their communities, and to their families. 
So I am hopeful that we could resolve this issue as soon as possible.
  I yield to my friend, the majority leader.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding.
  I first want to applaud Speaker Ryan for forming a working group on 
this important issue. The gentleman and I have met numerous times on 
this, and I have talked to the President about it, as well. He has been 
very clear, and I agree with the President's position, courts have 
shown that the past was unconstitutional, and that just means the House 
has to do their job and the Senate. The one thing I would hate to 
happen here is that we only do the job halfway, and then we have this 
problem come back to us.
  The President has asked us about border security, as well. I believe 
we can find a solution here, together. I look forward to working with 
Mr. Hoyer.
  The President has challenged this Congress to find a solution, and I 
believe we can. We are going to work to make sure we get it done. I 
would like to do it sooner than the timeframe the President has given 
us.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I welcome the majority leader's thought that 
he wants to do it sooner rather than later. I will support him, of 
course, in that effort.
  I would say on his comment, Mr. Speaker, with reference to a 
comprehensive solution, we are for a comprehensive solution. We would 
like to see that because that is the only way we will stop this from 
coming back.
  The Senate passed a comprehensive immigration bill 3 years ago. We 
have not seen that on the floor as of yet. Again, we think that that 
would have a substantial vote and, perhaps, I think, a majority vote. I 
am not as confident of that as I am with the Dream Act, which I think 
clearly would enjoy the majority of the House's support.
  But I am glad that he wants to move this quickly. We will work with 
him to get that, I would hope, as I said, by the end of the work 
period, to allay the great fears and anxiety.
  Very frankly, we have had some young people thinking of going back to 
a land they do not know, a language they do not necessarily speak, and 
a culture they have, as adults, never been exposed to and don't know.
  This, for all intents and purposes, in anything other than having the 
paper that says so, is their country. They have gone to school here, 
they work here, and they have been positive citizens here. And, 
hopefully--as the President said, he loved these children--we could 
relieve their fears and, in effect, redeem the American Dream for them.
  There are other issues, obviously, with which we have to deal, and I 
would urge the majority leader, as well, at some point in time, to make 
a path forward for comprehensive immigration reform, because it is a 
system we all agree is broken and needs to be fixed and is part of the 
problem.
  Two more issues, Mr. Speaker. The majority leader mentioned the 
budget would be coming to the floor. This is the 2018 budget. This is 
obviously late, but, nevertheless, it is being brought to the floor, 
and we will be able to consider it.
  Can the gentleman tell me: Will this include reconciliation 
instructions and, if so, what those reconciliation instructions will 
deal with?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I expect reconciliation in this budget. I leave it up to the Rules 
Committee and the Budget Committee when they produce it, but on this 
floor, I believe there will be reconciliation.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Leader, will it assume the repeal of the ACA in fiscal 
year '17 or fiscal year '18, either one of those years, which clearly 
has not seemed possible at this point in time?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding.
  If the question is have I given up on repealing ObamaCare, the answer 
is no.
  So, yes, this is the budget for the rest of the year. We know the 
harm that ObamaCare has brought to many Americans. The lack of 
insurance, when you look at the number of counties, 40 percent of all 
of the counties in America only have one provider, some have none. We 
watched premiums go up.
  We want a healthcare system where people have choice, that, actually, 
the price is lower and the quality is better. That is something I will 
never give up on, so, yes.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the majority leader for that 
observation.
  Obviously, we disagree, as he knows, on the success or failure of the 
ACA. As a matter of fact, every health organization in America, every 
major health organization in America opposed the repeal, a bill that 
came to the floor.
  Senator McCain, I thought, gave a very powerful exhortation to all of 
us when he said, on July 25, we ought to do this in a bipartisan way.
  We found, now, three efforts to repeal by the majority party, who 
control all three--the Senate, the House, and the Presidency--an 
inability to do that.
  Mr. Speaker, I believe--and I would hope the majority leader would 
pursue efforts, and we would do the same on our side. We believe the 
ACA has been working.
  We believe that 20-plus million more people are insured under the ACA 
than were insured before the ACA.
  We believe people with preexisting conditions were able to get 
insurance. We believe seniors saved substantial money in purchasing 
prescription drugs as a result of that.
  We believe that people did not have--we know they did not have the 
specter of being canceled because their expenses in any one year were 
above a limit and that their lifetime limits would not be imposed when 
they get a serious critical illness.
  So we think it worked.
  The majority has tried to repeal it. They have not succeeded at this 
point in time, but they have created, Mr. Speaker, great anxiety and 
uncertainty in the marketplace.
  And to the extent, for instance, that premiums have risen in our 
State, the head of Blue Cross/Blue Shield, the largest insurer in our 
State, said the reason for at least 50 percent was the uncertainty that 
had been created by the administration and by the debates that have 
occurred in this House and the proposals that have occurred in this 
House, which have undermined the market.
  I talked to him the other day, and he said, in fact, if there were 
stability, he believes rates would come down significantly because 
insurance companies, providers, would have an opportunity to have a 
stable environment in which they could assess the cost of health 
insurance.
  Did the majority leader want to say anything?
  I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, the only thing I want to say, and I know we have debated 
this many times--we can always put an endorsement somewhere and we can 
always go back and forth, but I will just tell you for my own 
district--I don't know why anybody would ever say they are making a 
decision based on something when our bill carries it out another 2 
years even, so I don't believe that to be true.
  But I know what is true. Currently, 30 percent of the people who are 
on the exchange in my district just had somebody pull out; and they had 
that health

[[Page 15209]]

insurance, Anthem, so now they don't. They have to go find something 
else. They had doctors who they loved, and they were promised that they 
were going to be able to keep them. Well, they couldn't.
  I just look at numbers; and I take Republican, Democrat, I take 
whatever name is across from it. Almost twice as many people pay the 
penalty or take a waiver as actually make a payment for ObamaCare.

                              {time}  1215

  So, yes, this will continue not because you and I have a 
disagreement, but because people are hurting, premiums are going up, 
deductibles are going up, and people are losing their providers. And 
the providers are not leaving because it is staying the same way for 
another 2 years, they are leaving because it is staying there.
  So, yes, I look forward to continuing this conversation because we 
cannot allow this harm to continue to go through this country.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Mr. Speaker, we could go on, I presume, all day, and our friends who 
want to do a 1-minute or a Special Order would not be happy with us, 
and they are maybe not happy now, but the fact of the matter is that 
this is a critically important issue to our country. When he talks 
about providers, the providers said they didn't like any of these 
bills.
  We have had three opportunities: one that was offered but not put on 
the floor; then one that came to the floor and passed this House and 
then went to the Senate, and the majority of the Senate has not agreed 
with any of the three alternatives; plus the alternative that Senator 
Graham brought forward along with the Senator from Louisiana.
  The majority in the Senate has not agreed, and, Mr. Speaker, what 
that has done is provided the insurance industry, providers, doctors, 
medical authorities with total lack of confidence on what is going to 
happen tomorrow. Nobody in business believes that you can have proper 
pricing if you do not know the context in which you are pricing your 
product. So, yes, there has been a disruption.
  What we ought to do, as Senator McCain said, is come together and 
make sure a system works. We believe the ACA is working--not working as 
well as it should right now, it is not working as much for the small 
market or people on the exchanges as it should. It can.
  Almost every medical provider and the majority of the American people 
over these last 8 months has changed from not liking the ACA and not 
thinking it is good for them, to where the majority of the American 
people now support it, and 7 out of 10-plus want the ACA fixed, not 
repealed.
  So in that context, it seems to me it is both good politics and good 
policy for us to come together and to create a system that works for 
the American people. We believe that is by fixing the ACA, and to that 
extent, we reflect the majority of the American people.
  Secondly, Mr. Speaker, the last issue I want to bring up are two 
items that were not included in the FAA bill, but which are important 
programs. One is the Perkins Loan Program for students. We know that 
the cost of education has skyrocketed and that we need to extend that 
act. That bill, by the way, Mr. Speaker, has 226 cosponsors, so it is 
not as if there is not a majority of the House that already supports 
that extension.
  The second thing that needs to be done: we need to deal with a 
comprehensive health system in our communities, the Community Health 
Centers. We need to deal with the teaching hospitals. We need to deal 
with the disproportionate share of hospitals.
  So there are many things that we did not include in the bill that we 
passed today that need to be addressed and need to be addressed 
immediately. They are not on the schedule for next week.
  Can my friend give me some idea when we might consider those, which, 
of course, expire on September 30?
  So September 30 will come and go before we start next week's 
schedule.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  You raised a couple issues there. When it comes to teaching 
hospitals, that was in the bill you just voted against twice this week 
on the floor. So that has been taken care of.
  When you are talking about SCHIP and the extension of that, Chairman 
Walden actually postponed a markup not because he wanted to, but 
because it was requested by the Democrats. So he postponed the markup 
this week in continuing bipartisan negotiations.
  This is something I would like to get done. I know Chairman Walden 
has now scheduled a markup for next week, so I am very hopeful that we 
will get this done very soon. I am a big supporter of SCHIP and a lot 
of the work that they do and what it moves forward for our healthcare 
in the future, especially for the health clinics out there. So I look 
forward to working with you.
  Mr. HOYER. I appreciate that.
  You mentioned SCHIP. Can you refer to the Perkins Loan Program? Does 
the gentleman know whether that is also moving forward?
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
  I apologize. You did mention the Perkins Act. I do not have that 
scheduled at the current time, but I will keep you abreast when I do.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that SCHIP is on the committee's 
agenda for next week. Hopefully, that can be brought to the floor 
before we leave in this work period, perhaps just before or just after 
the Dream Act is brought to the floor.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend, the majority leader.
  Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, it is our understanding that today could 
be the very last time that Margarida Curtis provides a message to us on 
this floor.
  We would like to thank Margarida Curtis. From a very grateful nation, 
thank you for your service. Many times the American people see your 
voice, but also the power of what you bring back and forth to make this 
democracy work. We want to thank you for your service, and we wish you 
all the happiness in retirement.
  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.
  Margarida Curtis has been a longtime employee of the United States 
Senate and, as a result, an employee of the people of the United 
States.
  Margarida, you have always done your work with great ability and 
clarity. We very much appreciate your service to the Senate, but also 
to this House, to the Congress itself, and to the American people. They 
are grateful for all you have done. God speed.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________