[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 146 (Tuesday, September 4, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H7803-H7806]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
MOTION TO INSTRUCT CONFEREES ON H.R. 6157, DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2019
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1 of rule XXII and by
direction of the Committee on Appropriations, I have a motion at the
desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Cole moves that the House take from the Speaker's table
the bill, H.R. 6157, with the Senate amendment thereto,
disagree to the Senate amendment, and request a conference
with the Senate thereon.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Oklahoma is recognized
for 1 hour.
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, this is a necessary step to continue to move
the fiscal year 2019 appropriations process forward under regular
order.
On June 28, the House passed H.R. 6157, the FY 2019 Defense
Appropriations bill by a vote of 359-49. The Senate took up that bill
and added the Labor-HHS Appropriations bill and has now sent H.R. 6157
back to the House.
With the appointment of these conferees, the House and the Senate may
begin to resolve the differences with the goal of passing H.R. 6157
before the end of the fiscal year. As such, I strongly support this
motion.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the
previous question on the motion.
The previous question was ordered.
The motion was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to instruct at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Ms. DeLauro moves that the managers on the part of the
House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two
Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 6157 be
instructed to agree to division B (relating to appropriations
for Labor, Education, and Health and Human services) of the
matter proposed to be added by the Senate amendment.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII, the
gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) and the gentleman from
Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Connecticut.
General Leave
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentlewoman from Connecticut?
There was no objection.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, we have unfortunate circumstances. We do not have a bill
that the majority has brought up for consideration, the Labor-HHS
appropriations bill, as I believe it is our duty. I will remind
everyone that this bill was twice delayed in the markup for Labor-HHS,
so we are trying to make the best of a bad situation.
Meanwhile, the Senate has passed a Labor-HHS-Education bill. The
Senate bill is not perfect. In fact, there is much to improve, but it
provides a foundation for conference negotiations between the House and
the Senate.
The House bill, unfortunately, despite an increase of $18 billion in
nondefense spending, the House Labor-HHS-Education bill is held to
level funding. Out of a total increase of $18 billion, the Labor-HHS-
Education bill should receive an increase of about $5.5 billion, and
yet we received a zero increase, and Chairman Cole has heard me say
this over and over and over again.
This allocation means that the House bill includes no new investments
in the Child Care and Development Block Grant, nor new funding to help
students afford a postsecondary education. The House bill also
eliminates funding for family planning and teen pregnancy prevention
programs, as well as health and safety grants. It even cuts funding for
community health centers by $100 million, and the list goes on.
In addition, the House Labor-HHS-Education bill is loaded with
ideological poison pill riders, including riders to block funding for
the Affordable Care Act, block funding for family planning, block
funding for Planned Parenthood clinics, and it adds new riders to
protect Monsanto and to allow religious discrimination in child welfare
services.
However, there is one crucially important issue that is addressed in
the House bill that must be included in the final conference report.
That is the President's manufactured crisis at the border. I speak, of
course, of family separation, which has inflicted terrible trauma on
children, their parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, and uncles.
The administration's policy of separating families is child abuse.
Experts have sounded the alarm on the lasting damage that we are doing
to these children. Parents are the buffer. With them, the children can
endure incredibly stressful circumstances. Without them, the children
are at risk of lasting mental and physical damage, and they are
suffering these wounds at our hands.
Now, months and months later, approximately 500 children who were
separated from their families remain in HHS custody. For most of these
children, their parents were deported, and HHS has been unable to
reunify these families, and unfathomably, may never be able to reunify
them.
The administration has tried to pass off responsibility of reunifying
these families to third parties like nonprofits. It is unconscionable.
In the House bill, Democrats advanced the first congressional action to
address this manufactured crisis. The full committee, I might add, on a
bipartisan basis, adopted 12 amendments. These amendments must be
retained in the final conference report.
These amendments, to discuss them very briefly, did a number of
things. They expressed the sense of Congress that families should not
be separated and that families should be reunited immediately. They
required HHS to provide Congress a plan for swift reunification, to
provide regular reporting, and to ensure the agency and its partners
are upholding the highest standards with regards to care and privacy.
[[Page H7804]]
Family separation is not the only crucial element of the conference
committees. Student safety must also be paramount, and thus, it is also
important to address the issue of guns in our schools.
Arming teachers is not the answer to school shootings, and it is
outrageous that Secretary DeVos would even consider using taxpayer
dollars on such a dangerous proposal.
If the Trump administration actually wants to keep students safe, it
should allow the Federal Commission on School Safety to consider the
role guns play in school violence, support funding for gun violence
prevention research at the CDC, and fully fund the Student Support and
Academic Enrichment Program to provide more mental health services and
bullying prevention programs in our schools.
The Secretary has said she has no intention of weighing in on whether
funds can be used or cannot be used to arm teachers. However, she
should say that this money is not there for guns in the classrooms.
In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, we must make the best of a bad situation.
Republicans are not operating under regular order and abdicating our
responsibility as the House of Representatives. Yet, as we proceed, we
need to ensure that we advance the best policy under the circumstances.
I believe that we should have had the House Labor-HHS bill come before
the floor of the House.
I urge my colleagues on the conference committee to keep these
priorities in mind as they work toward a final bill. The American
people deserve nothing less. They are already getting too little. Let
us not forget that our obligation and duty is to give people a better
chance at a better life.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
{time} 1815
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to instruct
conferees. As the House and Senate come together to find a path forward
on funding the Federal Government, we will, no doubt, be faced with
tough choices and fierce disagreements. But we agree that these two
bills, funding the Department of Defense and funding the Departments of
Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, are two of the most
important bills that we handle and, frankly, the two largest as well.
They deserve thorough consideration and fair discussion amongst the
conferees.
We are all committed to getting this done and getting this done
right. As we are currently doing with our first package of
appropriations bills, this conference committee will negotiate fairly
and respectfully to reach a final agreement on funding these critical
Defense and Labor-HHS programs.
I want to remind the body that, of course, we have done this before.
We have begun in different places, and, to my friend's credit, we have
worked together, have found common ground three times in a row, and
have been able to support the final bill. It certainly would be my hope
that we are able to do that again.
So I just want people in the conference committee to feel free to
bring up any topics that they think are important, and that we have a
free and full discussion, and, hopefully, work ourselves to a
resolution.
I urge my colleagues to reject the motion to instruct conferees, and
I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from
New York (Mrs. Lowey), the ranking member of the Committee on
Appropriations.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion to instruct
conferees to reject the right-wing House Labor-HHS-Education
appropriations bill and, instead, support the Senate's bipartisan
compromise.
The Labor-HHS-Education bill funds some of the most important
priorities for our country. It helps meet the needs of Americans at
every stage of their lives. With this legislation, Congress funds
childcare programs, Head Start, Pell Grants, job training, community
health centers, NIH research, Social Security, Meals on Wheels. Yet,
instead of robustly supporting these priorities, House Republicans have
shortchanged all of these critical endeavors.
Despite an $18 billion overall increase in the budget cap for
nondefense discretionary spending, the House's fiscal year 2019 Labor-
HHS-Education appropriations bill does not include a single dime of
additional funding.
House Republicans have found $5 billion to pay for President Trump's
wasteful border wall, yet they apparently cannot allocate anything to
strengthen America's schools; help families afford college; ensure
workplace safety; or expand quality, affordable healthcare.
In fact, the policy provisions in the bill directly attack many of
these priorities. Their riders sabotage the Affordable Care Act,
threatening the health of tens of millions of Americans with
preexisting conditions, and increasing costs for American families.
This Republican bill undermines women's healthcare by eliminating
Title X family planning, prohibits millions of women from choosing
Planned Parenthood as their preferred healthcare provider, and attacks
the dignity of LGBT families.
The American people, my friends, deserve better than this partisan
bill. The Senate has done good work, bipartisan work, to provide
additional resources for the Labor-HHS-Education bill, while avoiding
the kinds of right-wing riders that make the House bill completely
unacceptable.
I urge my colleagues to vote for this motion. Reject House
Republicans' misplaced priorities and extreme attacks on American
families.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from
Virginia (Mr. Scott), the ranking member of the Committee on Education
and the Workforce.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the motion
to instruct, but also to call for the inclusion of one specific
improvement to the Labor-HHS appropriations bill that makes it clear
that taxpayer money cannot be spent to arm teachers.
Two weeks ago, news reports revealed the Department of Education was
considering allowing States to use Federal education funding to
purchase firearms and firearms training for teachers. The Department
has since confirmed those reports.
Last week, I was joined by 172 Members of the House to call on
Secretary DeVos to issue formal guidance prohibiting the use of
taxpayer money to put guns in classrooms. In response, the Secretary
said she has no intention of taking any action on this issue.
In refusing to act, the Secretary is setting a new and dangerous
policy. That is, the Secretary is allowing funding provided under Title
IV-A of the Every Student Succeeds Act to be used to arm teachers. This
move by the Secretary is unprecedented, as Federal funding has never
been allowed for this purpose.
Secretary DeVos has pointed the finger at Congress and expressly
called on us to clarify our intent, but congressional intent is already
clear. Under the law, the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant
Program authorized under Title IV-A affords local leaders the
flexibility to tailor investments to meet local needs. It was designed
to support a wide range of programs to help schools create a better
learning environment by expanding students' access to important
services like mental healthcare, art, and STEM classes, and new
technology that better prepares students for the future.
However, when writing and enacting the law, Congress never
contemplated such flexibility allowing the purchase of firearms. In
fact, Congress denounced the presence of firearms in schools in a
section in ESEA that promotes programs that foster ``the creation and
maintenance of a school environment free of weapons.''
Mr. Speaker, Congress' opposition to taxpayer-funded guns in schools
was reiterated in the STOP School Violence Act, which the House passed
last March in the aftermath of the Parkland, Florida, shooting. This
legislation, which passed 407-10, explicitly prohibits the program
funds from being used for the purchase of firearms or firearms
training. Even the Department of Homeland Security under Secretary
Nielsen has acted through executive authority to prohibit grant funds
specifically intended for school security from being used to purchase
guns.
Secretary DeVos has both the authority and the responsibility to
follow legal precedent, congressional intent,
[[Page H7805]]
as well as common sense about gun violence by prohibiting taxpayer-
funded guns in schools. But seeing as the Secretary is shirking that
responsibility, Congress must take immediate action to protect students
and teachers from a policy that will recklessly endanger students and
teachers.
The final version of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill must make
clear that no taxpayer money can be used to arm teachers. This has not
been a partisan issue in the past and should not be a partisan issue
today.
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close if my friend is
prepared to close.
Ms. DeLAURO. It is my understanding, Mr. Speaker, that the gentleman
needs to yield back, and then I close.
Mr. COLE. Correct.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
I want to begin by thanking my friends. They always bring interesting
points to the floor, particularly the ranking member of the full
committee, but also my friend Mr. Scott. I just want to assure them
that, when we sit down to bargain, we will bargain in good faith, and
all these things will--and I think appropriately should be--on the
table and open for a fair discussion.
I do point out to the body that, frankly, when we have done this
before, we have been able to find common ground and been able to arrive
at a final solution that had substantial bipartisan support for the
last 3 years. I am confident that we can do that again this year and,
frankly, it is very much my hope that we can do it before the end of
the fiscal year.
I think that is important that the domestic programs that we fund in
the Labor-HHS bill, which my friend, the ranking member of the
subcommittee, so ably advances and defends, that we do that without
having a continuing resolution, something that interrupts the progress.
That is even more important in the area of defense, that we avoid a
continuing resolution.
So I think there will be considerable goodwill on both sides and a
considerable effort to come together in common ground.
Having said that, I continue to oppose instructions to the committee
because the conferees have proven before they can work together to
produce a product. It is my hope that we will be able to do that.
So I urge the body to reject the effort to instruct the conferees,
and I invite my friends, as I know they will, to sit down in good faith
to work with us to arrive at a bill that both sides of the rotunda and
both parties can support in substantial numbers.
I look forward to that process with my good friend the ranking member
from Connecticut and, obviously, with my good friend the full committee
ranking member as well. I have every confidence that, working together
in good faith, as we have in the past, we will get to a place that we
both can be pleased with, if not perfectly satisfied with.
Mr. Speaker, I urge rejection of the instruction, and I yield back
the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
In closing, let me again urge the House conferees to look at the
Senate Labor-HHS bill as a base for improvement, and I mean seriously
to improve it.
I ask them again to please pay close attention to the priorities that
we have outlined here today. The work of the Labor-HHS bill has always
reflected our priorities as a Nation, helping to provide services that
meet our most basic needs, our health, our children's education, and
the scientific research that uncovers the cures of tomorrow. These are
challenges that only the Federal Government has the ability, the
capacity, and the resources to help us meet.
The central problem of the House bill is that it fails to meet that
threshold. The American people are tired of Congress spending trillions
in tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans while telling families and
working people that we simply do not have the resources to invest in
things that impact their daily lives. We can make those investments,
but only if we make them a priority.
I want to say to the chairman of the subcommittee, to Mr. Cole, that
we have been able to bargain in good faith over the last several years,
and that ought to be our goal in this effort, so that we can meet the
mission of what this Labor-HHS bill has at its core. It is about the
people of this country and meeting their needs.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Barton). All time for debate has
expired.
Without objection, the previous question is ordered.
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that
the noes appeared to have it.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, this 15-
minute vote on the motion to instruct will be followed by a 5-minute
vote on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 6439.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 171,
nays 221, not voting 36, as follows:
[Roll No. 380]
YEAS--171
Adams
Barragan
Bass
Beatty
Bera
Beyer
Bishop (GA)
Blumenauer
Blunt Rochester
Bonamici
Boyle, Brendan F.
Brown (MD)
Brownley (CA)
Bustos
Butterfield
Carbajal
Cardenas
Carson (IN)
Cartwright
Castro (TX)
Chu, Judy
Cicilline
Clark (MA)
Clarke (NY)
Clay
Cleaver
Clyburn
Cohen
Connolly
Cooper
Correa
Costa
Courtney
Crist
Crowley
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (CA)
Davis, Danny
DeFazio
DeGette
Delaney
DeLauro
DelBene
Demings
DeSaulnier
Deutch
Dingell
Doggett
Doyle, Michael F.
Engel
Espaillat
Esty (CT)
Evans
Foster
Frankel (FL)
Fudge
Gabbard
Garamendi
Gomez
Gonzalez (TX)
Gottheimer
Green, Al
Green, Gene
Hanabusa
Hastings
Heck
Higgins (NY)
Himes
Hoyer
Huffman
Jackson Lee
Jayapal
Jeffries
Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.
Kaptur
Kelly (IL)
Khanna
Kihuen
Kildee
Kilmer
Kind
Krishnamoorthi
Kuster (NH)
Lamb
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lawrence
Lawson (FL)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (GA)
Lieu, Ted
Lipinski
Loebsack
Lofgren
Lowenthal
Lowey
Lujan Grisham, M.
Lujan, Ben Ray
Lynch
Maloney, Carolyn B.
Matsui
McCollum
McEachin
McGovern
Meeks
Meng
Moore
Moulton
Murphy (FL)
Nadler
Napolitano
Nolan
Norcross
O'Halleran
Pallone
Panetta
Pascrell
Payne
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peters
Peterson
Pingree
Pocan
Polis
Price (NC)
Quigley
Raskin
Rice (NY)
Richmond
Rosen
Roybal-Allard
Ruiz
Ruppersberger
Ryan (OH)
Sanchez
Sarbanes
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schneider
Schrader
Scott (VA)
Scott, David
Serrano
Sewell (AL)
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Sinema
Sires
Smith (WA)
Soto
Suozzi
Takano
Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)
Tonko
Torres
Vargas
Veasey
Vela
Velazquez
Visclosky
Wasserman Schultz
Waters, Maxine
Watson Coleman
Welch
Yarmuth
NAYS--221
Abraham
Aderholt
Allen
Amash
Amodei
Arrington
Babin
Bacon
Banks (IN)
Barletta
Barr
Barton
Bergman
Biggs
Bilirakis
Bishop (MI)
Bishop (UT)
Black
Blum
Bost
Brady (TX)
Brat
Brooks (AL)
Brooks (IN)
Buchanan
Buck
Bucshon
Budd
Burgess
Byrne
Calvert
Carter (GA)
Carter (TX)
Chabot
Cheney
Cloud
Coffman
Cole
Collins (GA)
Collins (NY)
Comer
Comstock
Conaway
Cook
Costello (PA)
Cramer
Crawford
Curbelo (FL)
Curtis
Davidson
Davis, Rodney
Denham
DesJarlais
Diaz-Balart
Donovan
Duffy
Duncan (SC)
Duncan (TN)
Dunn
Emmer
Estes (KS)
Faso
Ferguson
Fitzpatrick
Fleischmann
Flores
Fortenberry
Foxx
Frelinghuysen
Gaetz
Gallagher
Garrett
Gianforte
Gibbs
Gohmert
Goodlatte
Granger
Graves (GA)
Graves (LA)
Graves (MO)
Griffith
Grothman
Guthrie
Handel
Harper
Harris
Hartzler
Hensarling
Herrera Beutler
Hice, Jody B.
Higgins (LA)
Hill
Holding
Hollingsworth
Hudson
Huizenga
Hultgren
Hurd
Issa
Jenkins (KS)
Johnson (LA)
Johnson (OH)
Johnson, Sam
Jordan
Joyce (OH)
Katko
Kelly (MS)
Kelly (PA)
King (IA)
King (NY)
Kinzinger
Knight
Kustoff (TN)
Labrador
LaHood
LaMalfa
Lamborn
Lance
Latta
Lesko
Lewis (MN)
LoBiondo
Long
Loudermilk
Love
Lucas
Luetkemeyer
MacArthur
Marchant
[[Page H7806]]
Marino
Marshall
Massie
Mast
McCarthy
McCaul
McClintock
McHenry
McKinley
McMorris Rodgers
McSally
Meadows
Messer
Mitchell
Moolenaar
Mooney (WV)
Mullin
Newhouse
Noem
Norman
Nunes
Olson
Palmer
Paulsen
Pearce
Perry
Pittenger
Poliquin
Posey
Ratcliffe
Reed
Reichert
Renacci
Rice (SC)
Roby
Roe (TN)
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Rooney, Francis
Ros-Lehtinen
Roskam
Ross
Rothfus
Rouzer
Royce (CA)
Russell
Rutherford
Sanford
Scalise
Schweikert
Scott, Austin
Sensenbrenner
Sessions
Shimkus
Shuster
Simpson
Smith (MO)
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)
Smucker
Stefanik
Stewart
Stivers
Taylor
Tenney
Thompson (PA)
Thornberry
Trott
Turner
Upton
Valadao
Wagner
Walberg
Walden
Walker
Walorski
Walters, Mimi
Weber (TX)
Webster (FL)
Wenstrup
Westerman
Williams
Wilson (SC)
Wittman
Womack
Woodall
Yoder
Yoho
Young (AK)
Young (IA)
Zeldin
NOT VOTING--36
Aguilar
Blackburn
Brady (PA)
Capuano
Castor (FL)
Culberson
DeSantis
Ellison
Eshoo
Gallego
Gosar
Gowdy
Grijalva
Gutierrez
Hunter
Jenkins (WV)
Jones
Keating
Kennedy
Maloney, Sean
McNerney
Neal
O'Rourke
Palazzo
Poe (TX)
Rohrabacher
Rokita
Rooney, Thomas J.
Rush
Speier
Swalwell (CA)
Tipton
Titus
Tsongas
Walz
Wilson (FL)
{time} 1853
Messrs. COLLINS of New York, BYRNE, GUTHRIE, COLLINS of Georgia,
MULLIN, HUDSON, NEWHOUSE, ABRAHAM, Mrs. BLACK, Messrs. ALLEN,
LUETKEMEYER, WESTERMAN, MEADOWS, SESSIONS, KING of New York, SCALISE,
SMITH of New Jersey, MARCHANT, and LOUDERMILK changed their vote from
``yea'' to ``nay.''
Ms. LEE changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to instruct was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________