[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 95 (Friday, June 8, 2018)] [House] [Pages H5001-H5004] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM (Mr. HOYER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute.) Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for the week to come. I yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), the majority leader. (Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, no votes are expected in the House. On Tuesday, the House will meet at noon for morning hour and at 2 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning hour and noon for legislative business. On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. Last votes of the week are expected no later than 3 p.m. Mr. Speaker, the House will consider a number of suspensions next week, a complete list of which will be announced by close of business today. All of these bills will be focusing on one thing: fighting our Nation's opioid epidemic. America has the greatest mission statement in the world: form a more perfect Union. This is our task here. I am encouraged by all of the good things I am seeing around the country. We have 6.7 million jobs open. We have just created our millionth job since the tax cut has been passed. Unemployment is tying a 50-year low. In fact, Mr. Speaker, in the last 49 years, there has only been 7 months where unemployment has been below 4 percent, and two of those months were April and May that we just went through. Americans' net worth has increased to $100 trillion. That is $7 trillion since the election, the highest we have ever seen. We also just passed last night, Mr. Speaker, the largest rescission package in the history of Congress. But I also know that it is our responsibility to work every day to make our Nation even stronger. So, Mr. Speaker, we are in the middle of the deadliest drug crisis in history. For the first time, drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under the age of 50. 174 of our friends and family, our neighbors, are lost every day to substance abuse. Simply put, we need all hands on deck to attack this crisis. That is why we will bring over 60 bills from eight different committees to the floor in the coming weeks to combat this crisis and save lives. This includes: H.R. 5788, the Securing the International Mail Against Opioids Act, sponsored by Representative Mike Bishop. This bill will close loopholes in international shipping to stop the flow of synthetic opioids; Next, H.R. 5735, the THRIVE Act, sponsored by Representative Andy Barr, which would establish a pilot program for evidence-based transitional housing nonprofits that have experience in recovery and skills training; H.R. 2851, the Stop Importation and Trafficking of Synthetic Analogues Act, sponsored by Representative John Katko. This bill will enable law enforcement to more swiftly respond to synthetic drugs and keep our communities safe. Along with numerous other bills, passing these will truly help us form a more perfect Union. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, I want to congratulate my friend across the aisle. We are no strangers to droughts in California, but a 44-year championship drought is quite something. So congrats to my friend's beloved Washington Capitals on finally winning Lord Stanley's cup. It was a fun series to watch. It was a well-deserved victory for your team and for all of the fans of this region. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for the information he has given us, and I certainly thank him for his comments at the close of his initial statement on the colloquy. We are all ecstatic, as I am sure the gentleman can understand, that after 44 years--and I might say I was an initial season ticket holder to the Washington Capitals, who started their career at the Capital Center in Prince George's County under the ownership and tutelage of Abe Pollin, an extraordinary member of our community who died, and then now under Ted Leonsis' leadership, and, of course, Alex Ovechkin's extraordinary accomplishments of his own, being named the most valuable player. And I might say, as I know the gentleman would join me in saying, the Las Vegas team had an extraordinary accomplishment themselves, being the first expansion team ever to make it to the finals in the National Championship. So, it was a wonderful night for those of us who live in the Washington National Capital area, and we thank the gentleman for his observation. Let me say as well, that we share the gentleman's happiness that the economy is doing well. It is doing well. What he did not observe, but we are happy about, is that President Obama, under his leadership, took this economy from the worst economy that the gentleman and I have experienced in our lifetimes to one of the best. Now, it was not the best, because the best economy was under Bill Clinton in the late 1990s in terms of almost every indication. But it is certainly positive information, as the gentleman has pointed out, of where the economy is now. So we all welcome that. We are hopeful, of course, that we will build on that. The gentleman mentions there are over 6 million jobs available. One of the challenges, as the gentleman knows, is that we don't have the skill sets matching the jobs, and that is why they are vacant. That is why they are unable to fill them. We need to, I think, focus on that. We need to focus on investing in our infrastructure. But as was mentioned on the floor yesterday in terms of a couple of the bills Tim Ryan, in particular, mentioned, there are still 4 in 10 adults who can't pay a $400 bill if it came present. So we have work to do, and hopefully we can do that together. But it certainly is good news that unemployment is down and the economy is moving along, continuing in the path that, from our perspective, was set by President Obama, and that President Trump, unlike President Obama, inherited a thriving, robust, growing economy. So I am pleased that we have gone to that place. Now, I know the gentleman indicated that a number of opioid-related bills will be on the floor next week. I talked to the chairman of the committee yesterday, the gentleman from Oregon, and most of those are bipartisan bills. I hope all of them will end up, as they come to the floor, as bipartisan bills. The addiction crisis, of course, requires that we invest in a comprehensive, long-term approach to expanding access to substance abuse treatment. I hope we can tackle this issue in a meaningful and bipartisan way. But I do want to address a number of other upcoming items for this work period, starting with the farm bill. As the gentleman knows, last month, the farm bill failed on the House floor, and we have until June 22 to reconsider. My question is: Does the gentleman expect that we will see a farm bill on the floor by June 22? I yield to my friend. Mr. McCARTHY. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The answer to the question is yes. I believe the farm bill is incredibly important for so many reasons. The food and agriculture industry drive more than 43 million jobs, over a quarter of all American jobs. And it is what you talked about earlier. Yes, the economy is moving so well after the tax cut: more than 3 million new jobs, more than 1 million just since the tax cut bill went through, we recently reached. [[Page H5002]] And the other challenge we now find ourselves in, and it is an interesting challenge we haven't found ourselves in in quite some time: there are 6.7 million jobs out there, but only 6.3 million people looking for them. It has been the reverse for quite some time, and we are actually in a stronger position, so we need to have job training. The uniqueness of this farm bill, it provides those able bodies who do not have underage children, that we are going to give them the training to help them get into the workforce. So it is just more good news, and our intention is to pass that this month; and as soon as it is scheduled, I will inform all Members. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his observation. He talks about work. We are requiring those to work to work in order to get government benefits. What is controversial about that? Democrats support work. We want to see people working. We oppose, however, your SNAP proposal because it is antiwork. You are taking a work requirement that is working and replacing it with one that won't work. This is not about putting people to work. It is about pretending that you care about work as cover for taking assistance away from struggling families. As a result of this bill, there will be fewer working--I know the majority leader wants to hear this particular piece of information. As a result of this bill as it is currently written, there will be fewer working SNAP beneficiaries, not more, and millions more people going hungry. That is the working poor who are getting nutritional assistance for themselves and their families. There will be less of them under your bill. I yield to my friend. Mr. McCARTHY. Well, I thank my friend for yielding, and this is just a clear example of the difference in philosophical opinion. {time} 1200 We had this same debate when it came to the tax bill--that it was going to be Armageddon; if people got bonuses, it would be crumbs; and that we would be in a really worse position than we are. Well, as we found out, Mr. Speaker, that is totally untrue. The economy is stronger. Again, in the last 49 years there has only been 7 months in the history of America where unemployment was below 4 percent. Two of those seven months are April and May of this year. We just hit 1 million new jobs, based upon that tax cut. More so since the election. Household wealth has increased by $7 trillion just since the election. Now, this is the philosophical difference. Currently, two-thirds of able-bodied adults report no earned income at all. Why? Because the SNAP program is letting them down. Not a single child or family who currently qualifies will be cut off. Our proposal only applies to those age 18 to 59. It exempts pregnant women, individuals who are mentally or physically disabled, and the primary caregivers of a child under the age of 6. What we do is give them the job training to get back into the workforce. Because of that, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability, 83 percent of Americans support work requirements for SNAP. That includes 71 percent of Democrats. Unfortunately, when that bill came to the floor, every Democrat said no. Mr. Speaker, that was the same thing that happened when we gave the American public tax cuts and created new jobs and the lowest unemployment--unemployment claims gives you the best projection of unemployment--in 44 years. Forty-four years, Mr. Speaker. Do you know another statistic that just came out? Small businesses are the greatest creators of new jobs. Since 1974 they have always surveyed them and they asked them this question: Is now a good time to expand? Mr. Speaker, remember what a small business is. They don't have a great amount of capital. It is at its highest level since they took this poll. So I don't mind having a philosophical difference of agreement, because there is a contrast between us. There is a contrast in philosophy. One believes it would be Armageddon if you let people keep more of what they earn. The facts don't pan out. Thankfully, we were successful, Mr. Speaker. The American people can keep more. The other thing that happened, Mr. Speaker, is that 48 out of 50 States have a lower electrical bill. Also, in one company, 1.2 million of their employees have longer maternity leave. The sad part is, I wish I could have sat here and said: As America, making it a more perfect Union, this whole body voted for it. Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, one side had to carry the load. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is ecstatic about recent statistics. I think that he has, of course, warrant to be. Let me read to the gentleman statistics over a 68-year period where Democrats have had the Presidency and Republicans have had the Presidency on and off. The gentleman's words are almost exactly the same words I heard in 2001 and 2003 when we were told and the country was told, if we adopted those tax bills that the gentleman is so very proud of--which is plunging our country $1.8 trillion into additional debt, which he and his party wrung their hands about so repeatedly--and that the CBO says is a result of what I believe to be the most fiscally irresponsible Congress in which I have served. Let me repeat that. I have served in 18 Congresses. I believe this past Congress to be, this Congress that we are in, the most fiscally irresponsible Congress in which I have served. Yes, we have a philosophical difference. You gave 83 percent of your tax revenues to the richest people in America. CBO says that; I don't say that. And 17 percent to all the rest; i.e., some 300 million-plus Americans. Yes, we have a philosophical difference. We would have suggested that the mix be a little fairer to those in the middle and the bottom of the economic growth. But, no, you chose to give your benefits to the wealthiest in America. Not surprising. It is trickle-down economics one more time. In 2001 and 2003, what happened? You did the tax cuts. And what happened 6 years later? The country was plunged into the deepest recession you, Mr. Majority Leader, or me have ever experienced in our life. As a matter of fact, you have to be over 90 years of age to have experienced a deeper recession than was brought on by the Bush economic policies in the last decade, a depth of recession which the Obama policies brought us out of faster than any other nation in the world. Those are the statistics. Faster than any other nation. The stock market--we are all about the stock market. The stock market went up almost 300 percent under Barack Obama. Now, when you get to 300 percent, we will about how well you have done. We will see what your trade policies that the President is imposing on the country do to employers and to employees and to consumers. We will see. But let me tell you what has happened over the last 68 years under Democratic Presidents and under Republican Presidents. The gentleman wants to know about history. Under Republican Presidents over the 36 years that your party enjoyed control of the Presidency, the GDP grew by an average of 2.5 percent. Under Democrats for 32 years, by 4.1 percent. Now, what did that 1.6 percent difference mean? What it meant was, under Republican Presidents over the last 68 years, 35 million jobs were created. The gentleman talks about jobs. Under Democratic Presidents--4 less years, 32 years--there were 64.960 million jobs created. Now, I hope, unlike your past performance, that the job growth continues, that the stock market increase continues, but that has not been the history. We will see. So I hope that when you deal with the farm bill, notwithstanding your statistics, that you bring a bipartisan bill. Very frankly, the farm bill has historically been a farm bill. But what you did was passed a tax bill giving the rich 83 percent of its benefits. And in the farm bill you were taking nutritional assistance away from families and children. That is why you couldn't pass it, among other reasons. It was not bipartisan, as it was two Congresses ago when we reauthorized this. You tried to cut the SNAP program by $40 billion. The gentleman well knows the Senate is not pursuing your policies either [[Page H5003]] on the Republican side or the Democratic side. You are missing a lot of good information. The fact of the matter is, you know your farm bill is not going to pass the Senate. Mr. Leader, on the farm bill I would urge you to come together with us. I don't know that there is a more bipartisan member of this Congress than Collin Peterson, the ranking Democratic on the Agriculture Committee. Very frankly, the chairman was not interested in a bipartisan bill. I don't know whether it was by direction or his own view. But let us come to a bipartisan agreement on this farm bill and pass it over to the Senate so that you can do something, not just talk about how you are reducing nutritional assistance to people that rely on it for their food every day. Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend. Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I would be upset, too, if I voted against every economic bill brought to this floor that had the opportunity to grow America--and the statistics prove it. It is not me saying it. It is The New York Times. To be frank, Mr. Speaker, I don't think they have ever said many nice things about Republicans. But this is what they said about the economics of today: ``We ran out of words to describe how good the job numbers are. The economy is in a sweet spot, with steady growth and broad improvement in the labor market.'' That is The New York Times. I don't have a problem if you are upset by the fact that the economy is exactly what we said would happen if we got the economic changes we desired. Just as when we looked at deregulation, we will continue to make this move forward. Now, Mr. Speaker, I have heard many times on the other side of the aisle in these colloquies: Work with us. Work with us on CHIP. But, Mr. Speaker, they are being directed by people higher up not to work with us in the committee, just as they said not to work with us on the farm bill, when we were working together the whole time. But we kept the things they wanted inside that bill. Just as we voted on this floor a little earlier today, there was a message that went out from the leader on the other side to not vote at all. So they held their votes until it passed, and 23 brave, courageous individuals on the other side broke from the letter that the leadership asked them not to vote for. What was it about? It was about VA and veterans. I think you have got to stop playing politics. Just last night on this floor, Mr. Speaker, I heard from my dear friend who was very concerned because there was an agreement and the trust was going to be broken. Even though at the end of the day he couldn't vote for that agreement and trust that we worked so hard together on in an omni, that if we did anything in a rescission package to cut funding that the taxpayers would want us to do, that he couldn't deal with the omni. So I took him at his word. He said: You had 1, 2, 3 years in these committees. They just sat there in these programs. There is a program in there that has $4.7 billion parked by the Obama administration to help fund electric cars. What was the one automotive company that went bankrupt and took the money as well? Fisker. That is $4.7 billion. Nothing has been done on that since 2011. So I took him at his word. We worked with the administration. We brought the largest rescission package here, because, yes, we want to take care of this debt. We think it is the responsibility of everybody here. But, no, those words rang hollow that day. There wasn't a vote for that, but we were able to pass it anyway. I look right here at the Economic Cycle Research Institute in October 2016. It is their numbers. There was a 2 percent average growth under Obama versus 2.7 under Bush. In terms of average pace of GDP growth, Obama's was the slowest expansion on record. The numbers prove otherwise on what you say, but the most important thing it proves is that people are working. People care about the security of their job. People care about the security and safety of the country. I feel very thankful that next week our President will be sitting down with the leader of North Korea with the hopes that we can make this world more secure. We are building the security of jobs. We are building the security of the world. I would firmly believe: Let the American public judge whether they are better off today than they were a few short years ago. I don't need numbers to show it. I can just see every statistic, the jobs, the people, and I am proud of that fact. I ask, Mr. Speaker, the other side to follow through. I have heard time and again: I would never shut the government down; we wouldn't go that political. But when the day came, they did. Politics and the election are over. Let's put people before politics. Let's make sure this country is secure economically and secure with safety around the world. And that is exactly what we are doing here. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I hear the words of the majority leader. He and his party, without exception, opposed President Obama's programs. Without exception. We became the majority in 2007, and we worked with President Bush on a number of things, including a very substantiation environmental bill signed by President Bush, and other bills as well. He mentions about the rescission package. Mr. Speaker, if you will recall, when we had this debate some weeks ago, he said everything in this rescission bill is what we don't need. Guess what, Mr. Speaker? Ebola money was rescinded in that bill some weeks ago, but not in this bill. He changed it because, very frankly, Mr. Speaker, they found out, oops, we need the Ebola money. So they took it out of this bill. We think you need the CHIP money. We think we need the CHIP money to make sure that if there is a happening or an occurrence that occurs, the CHIP money is needed either directly or indirectly to make sure that children, in fact, are taken care of. {time} 1215 Who has said that? Mr. Tom Cole has said that. We have used that money effectively and appropriately. So, Mr. Speaker, it is hard to believe that if the Ebola money--which I was assured was not needed--that cut was restored by our Republican friends, Mr. Speaker, because they found out, yes, it is needed. Now, in terms of wasting time, 65 votes over the last Congress to repeal the Affordable Care Act--65--with a full and unquestioned knowledge that none of those votes would result in something happening for our country in the United States Senate. They weren't going to vote for that. They knew that. So we spent a lot of time on that. Let me also say: The gentleman says let's get about our business. Let me ask the gentleman: Does he expect a bill on the DACA protectees, the Dreamers, to come on the floor next week? Mr. Speaker, I yield to my friend. Mr. McCARTHY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I said it before, and I will say it again: Republicans are committed to solving this issue for good, not passing a bill and patting ourselves on the back, but for dealing with this issue in a meaningful way that is beneficial to hardworking Americans. As you know, my door is always open. You have been there many times. I am committed to bringing all Members to the table and working together to solve this problem. In fact, Mr. Speaker, I need to go to a meeting dealing with this subject. I am late to it right now. But we will continue to work to solve this problem. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I would only say, I appreciate his comments. But, Mr. Speaker, I have heard them a long time, many, many times: We are going to solve this issue. Mr. Ryan came to the floor and said: We are going to solve this issue. You vote for this caps bill, and we will get an immigration bill on the floor that will solve this issue. That was some 2\1/2\ months ago. It is not solved yet, Mr. Speaker. I hope the [[Page H5004]] leader does, in fact, bring a bill to the floor quickly. In fact, the suggestion that had been made by many Members of his party and mine to bring four options to the floor seems absolutely consistent with the Speaker's pledge to take the tough issues head-on; and that is, bring the Democratic bill that is cosponsored by one of the senior Republicans, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, to the floor; bring the Goodlatte bill, which has been reported out of the Republican Judiciary Committee, to the floor; bring a bill cosponsored by Mr. Hurd and Mr. Aguilar to the floor. Then what we provide, Mr. Leader, is that the Speaker can bring a bill to the floor of his choosing. What could be fairer than that to let the people's House speak on this critically important issue? So I would hope the gentleman would facilitate that coming to the floor. Lastly, Mr. Speaker, let me say that this is the most closed Congress in history. He talks about coming to his office, and I have. We have worked constructively and positively together, and I have great respect for the majority leader. I know he is very close to President Trump, and he has talked about his working with President Trump to move forward. Let us hope that the talks with Korea bear fruit. We have had a lot of talks with the Koreans. They have made a lot of pledges, and they haven't followed them. We will see what happens. We are hoping for the best. In coming to your office, we have had some discussions. We have had discussions about DACA. But, very frankly, when we come to this floor, this is the most closed Congress, Mr. Leader, in recent history, if not history. We have had 85 closed rules. Zero, not a single open rule have we considered. Over 2,000 germane amendments have been blocked by the Rules Committee. Mr. Speaker, that is amendments that are in order, and they have been blocked. In fact, 194 Republicans--Republicans--have been refused the opportunity to move forward on their amendments. Now, I know that the leader's schedule is such that we can conclude this debate. I have other things to say. But I am hopeful that, frankly, whatever we bring to the floor, bring it on a rule that provides for full consideration, bring it that reflects facing the tough issues, bring it so the House can work its will on these bills, including the farm bill, including an immigration bill that protects the Dreamers, and including other legislation so critical to this country. Let the House work its will through the amendatory process. Mr. Speaker, unless the gentleman wants to say something, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________