[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[House]
[Page 3371]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            WE NEED A BUDGET THAT SERVES THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

  (Ms. JACKSON LEE asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, as we begin the process that comes as a 
responsibility of this House, and that is, overseeing the President's 
budget and designing a budget to serve the American people, I am 
raising the question of the baffling budget that seems to be emerging 
from the White House.
  The plus-up and elimination of sequester on the defense spending may 
be worth considering. I, frankly, believe we should remove the 
sequester on discretionary spending. But what is being proposed is that 
the plus-up of $54 billion will be taken out of the needs, the hearts, 
and minds of the American people.
  The EPA will be gutted, so there will be no staff to oversee clean 
water and clean air, of which so many counties and cities, like Flint 
and my own community of Harris County, are in desperate need of.
  What will happen to housing for senior citizens and young families?
  Gutted because the Department of Housing and Urban Development will 
see a drastic cut. Or Health and Human Services that helps to sponsor 
federally qualified health clinics and the complete elimination of the 
Affordable Care Act, which will bust the budget. Medicaid, civil 
rights, and the prevention of hate crimes; the Justice Department 
gutted and, as well, as Attorney General Sessions has already done, not 
preventing voter fraud or voter discrimination.
  Mr. Speaker, we need a budget that serves the American people. That 
is the kind of budget that I will be looking to support.

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