Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013

I want to commend the chairman for his work on this and in so many vital areas of the issue of health care on our committee, and I want to thank him for the time and the opportunity to bring this bill forward.

Mr. Speaker, the Republicans' goal in health care is to make certain that we have the highest quality health care in the world. That's our desire. We simply want it to be patient-centered health care, not government-centered health care. We believe that patients and families and doctors ought to be making medical decisions, not Washington, D.C. So this bill, H.R. 2009, grows out of the IRS's activities that have come to light in this country over the past number of months. As the chairman mentioned, we've been doing a lot of oversight hearings in our committee.

The American people have drawn a conclusion about the IRS at this point, and that conclusion is that it cannot be trusted now. The chairman mentioned that the IRS has targeted groups that have come to the IRS asking for a tax-exempt status. It has targeted groups for their political ideology. The IRS has leaked donor information to those groups, and many of us believe--and I think it will come out--that the IRS has, in fact, targeted donors to those groups for audits to those individual Americans.

Mr. Speaker, this is chilling activity from the Internal Revenue Service, so the American people have lost their faith and trust in the Internal Revenue Service. That's why this bill is so important.

This is a very simple piece of legislation--two pages, in fact. All it says, simply, is what the American people believe, and that is that the IRS should not be charged and have the authority to either implement or enforce the Affordable Care Act. I want to commend over 140 Members from this House of Representatives for being cosponsors, and we have hundreds of citizen cosponsors from across the country.

Some say that this isn't necessary, that it is not going to accomplish anything, that there is no reason the IRS would want that information anyway. The fact of the matter is that that's exactly what they said about what they did for the tax-exempt groups. They said, Well, it wasn't necessary for them to get that information about political ideology or beliefs or prayers that prayer groups were offering. That wasn't necessary either.

So, if that were not necessary, Mr. Speaker, how can the American people have faith and confidence that the IRS won't do something that also is unnecessary, and that is to engage in implementing themselves into that trusted relationship between patients and physicians?

Then another piece of evidence, Mr. Speaker, I would suggest is the individual who's running the IRS division that is charged with the enforcement of the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Speaker, that individual is Sarah Hall Ingram. You don't have to look too far back in her biography to recognize that she was the individual who was, in fact, in charge of the tax exempt group in the IRS at the time when the challenges to the IRS had been focused.

Mr. Speaker, the overwhelming percent of the American people understand and appreciate that the IRS should not be involved in the health care of this Nation. We believe patients and families and doctors ought to be making medical decisions, not Washington, D.C., and certainly not the Internal Revenue Service.

I reserve the balance of my time

Mr. Speaker, I insert into the Record a letter from The Seniors Coalition in support of H.R. 2009.

The Seniors Coalition,

Washington, DC, July 30, 2013.

Hon. Dr. Tom Price,

Cannon House Office Building,

Washington, DC.

Dear Congressman Price: I am writing to you today on behalf

of the over four million members and supporters of The

Seniors Coalition in support of your bill H.R. 2009, ``The

Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act.'' The Seniors

Coalition was originally founded as a public advocacy group

fighting to repeal the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act.

Since 1990, TSC has grown rapidly and expanded its advocacy

to include any issue that concerns America's senior citizens.

Today the Coalition is one of the largest grassroots advocacy

organizations in Washington, D.C. in terms of number of

supporters nationwide. TSC currently has over four million

supporters representing every state in the union.

The Obama Administration, including the IRS, has betrayed

the trust of the American people. Allowing the IRS to enforce

ObamaCare is opening up the door to more abuse, more

targeting and more harassment of American citizens. The vast

majority of the American people do not support ObamaCare, and

President Obama is ignoring the will of the people.

That is why The Seniors Coalition is writing today to fully

support H.R. 2009. Clearly, the IRS has proven itself either

unwilling or unable to prudently and impartially enforce the

law, and we certainly cannot trust them with our health care.

Thank you for all your hard work Dr. Price, and please

don't hesitate to contact me directly if there is anything

that The Seniors Coalition and its over four million members

and supporters in all 50 states can do to assist you in your

effort to de-fund/repeal ObamaCare.

Sincerely,

Sean Ferritor,

Executive Director.

I'm now pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter).

Mr. Speaker, I now insert into the Record a letter from the group Let Freedom Ring that endorses H.R. 2009.

Let Freedom Ring,

July, 2013.

Dear Friend: You have no doubt heard by now that senior

members of the United States Internal Revenue Service were

involved in a politically-motivated effort to blunt the

impact of the tea party movement and other organizations not

in sync with President Barack Obama's agenda for America.

We don't yet know all the facts but we do know that some

groups had their applications for non-profit status ``slow

walked'' through the process, existing groups were subjected

to comprehensive audits, many were loaded down with intrusive

and inappropriate questions about the prayers of their

members and other activities, and that tax returns of major

donors and conservative operatives were audited.

Things are so bad that one senior IRS official who appears

to have been involved ``took the fifth'' before a

congressional investigating committee.

If that were not enough, some of the same people that look

to have been involved in the effort to politically harass

potential opponents of the president's agenda have now been

put in charge of expansion of the IRS's role in monitoring

individual and corporate compliance with Obamacare.

Our good friend Dr. Tom Price, who represents Georgia's 6th

Congressional District, is taking the bull by the horns--but

he needs our help. He has introduced a bill--H.R. 2009--that

would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from implementing

or enforcing any provisions of the president's health care

law.

Congress needs to act--now--and they need pressure from you

to do so. They need to get behind Dr. Price's bill before the

IRS can do even more damage. Will you please take a moment to

write to your member of Congress and your two Senators and

urge them to support Dr. Price's legislation? Tell them to

cut off funding for the expansion of the IRS for Obamacare

unless and until the American people have all the answers

about how President Obama and his subordinates politicized

the IRS to harass their political opponents.

The whole business is suspicious, especially since the IRS

has for the last three years been denying to Congress that

any such activity or any activity like it was occurring.

Congress is now asking questions and the Obama Administration

has become evasive--despite a report by the IRS's own

inspector general that the agency had committed wrongdoing.

The IRS can no longer be trusted to behave in a non-

partisan manner. It should not be given extra authority until

it can prove once again that it will not abuse the public

trust.

Thank you for all you do on behalf of freedom.

Sincerely,

Colin Hanna,

President.

I'm pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to a Member from the great State of Michigan, Dr. Benishek, and a fellow physician.

Mr. Speaker, I now insert into the Record a letter from the group Americans for Prosperity which endorses H.R. 2009.

Americans for Prosperity,

Arlington, VA, July 15, 2013.

Dear Representative Price: On behalf of more than two

million Americans for Prosperity activists in all 50 states,

I applaud you for introducing the Keep the IRS Off Your

Health Care Act (H.R. 2009), which would prohibit the

Internal Revenue Service from implementing the President's

health care law.

The health care law grants the IRS an alarming expansion of

new power, essentially granting the agency the authority to

oversee every American's health insurance decisions. The IRS

will be responsible for enforcing the health insurance

mandates on individuals and employers, collecting the 21 new

taxes created in the law, and cross-referencing individuals'

health insurance exchange applications with IRS records.

AFP is deeply concerned that all Americans will now be

asked to turn over the private health insurance information

about their children and families to a disgraced organization

that has admitted to abusing its power and processing

applications in a biased, political manner. How can the

American people trust that the IRS won't also target American

citizens who disagree with the President when enforcing the

health care law?

Your legislation also affirms the common-sense principle

that control over health care decisions should remain between

American families and their doctors, not Washington

bureaucrats like the IRS. Americans for Prosperity is proud

to support H.R. 2009, your legislation to prohibit the IRS

from enforcing provisions of the health care law. I urge your

colleagues to support its passage, and I look forward to

working with you in the future.

Sincerely,

Christine Harbin Hanson,

Policy Analyst, Americans for Prosperity.

Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson), a gentleman who's a member of the Appropriations Committee, a fellow who has led on this issue for his entire career.

Mr. Speaker, I insert into the Record a letter of support for H.R. 2009 from the organization Restore America's Voice.

Restore America's Voice

Foundation,

Houston, TX, July 12, 2013.

Dear Representative Price: Our more than two million

supporters are grateful for your efforts to strip the IRS of

any authority over the Affordable Care Act as embodied in

H.R. 2009 which you have introduced. Our organization fully

endorses this legislation.

We note with discomfort that this agency seems not only

beyond the control of those tasked with oversight but

willfully resists full disclosure of questionable practices

and abusive methods in Congressional testimony. We have

concluded, based on the evidence at hand, that this agency is

being cynically used for political purposes to frustrate and

intimidate law-abiding citizens who disagree with

Administration policies.

This distortion of the proper role and functioning of the

IRS makes turning over responsibility for the Affordable Care

Act subsidies, penalties and, significantly, access to

private insurance and medical records, a frightening

prospect. We are therefore in complete agreement with the

purpose of H.R. 2009 and fully support passage as the only

responsible and prudent course of action.

Thank you for leadership and hard work in developing this

legislation and for representing the best interests of not

only your constituents but the American people.

Respectfully and gratefully yours,

Ken Hoagland,

Chairman.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), the majority leader of the House of Representatives.

I include for the Record a letter endorsing and supporting H.R. 2009 from the group FreedomWorks.

FreedomWorks,

Washington, DC,

Dear FreedomWorks Member: As one of our millions of

FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to contact your

representative and urge him or her to co-sponsor H.R. 2009,

the ``Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act''. Introduced by

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), this bill would stop the Internal

Revenue Service or any other Treasury department from

enforcing any part of ObamaCare.

Currently, the IRS will be the most crucial department for

actually enacting and enforcing ObamaCare. The premium

subsidies that are supposed to help individuals purchase

health insurance through the exchanges are actually tax

credits, distributed by the IRS. And most significantly, the

IRS is responsible for administering the ``tax'' upon

individuals who refuse to purchase a government-approved

insurance plan--the individual mandate.

More ominously, ObamaCare requires the IRS to collect a

vast amount of sensitive information about the kind of

insurance coverage you have, and will store this information

in a massive new database.

ObamaCare's supporters, of course, claim that the IRS would

never share the medical information they collect, and that

the agency would only collect the exact data necessary to

determine eligibility for premium subsidies. And yet, a

lawsuit filed in California alleges that the IRS illegally

seized the medical records of 10 million individuals in that

state.

Having the same organization that is both targeting

political opponents and stealing people's medical records in

charge of people's health care seems like a recipe for

disaster. Rep. Price's bill would stop the IRS in its tracks,

completely erasing their role in ObamaCare.

I urge you to contact your representative and urge him or

her to co-sponsor H.R. 2009, the Keep the IRS Off Your Health

Care Act today.

Sincerely,

Matt Kibbe,

President and CEO,

FreedomWorks.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Paulsen), a fellow member of the Ways and Means Committee.

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining on each side?

Mr. Speaker, I'm pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Bridenstine), a freshman Member.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my friend from Wisconsin. His chastising us for voting to repeal or change portions of the Affordable Care Act is curious, in light of the fact that the gentleman, himself, I believe, supported one of our efforts just 2 weeks ago on delaying the employer mandate. But hope springs eternal that he'll be able to support our efforts in this endeavor on

Mr. Speaker, I will insert a letter in support of H.R. 2009 from the Americans for Tax Reform into the Record.

I reserve the balance of my time.

[From Americans for Tax Reform, June 20, 2013]

ATR Supports H.R. 2009, the ``Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of

2013''

(By Ryan Ellis)

ATR supports H.R. 2009, the ``Keep the IRS Off Your Health

Care Act of 2013,'' sponsored by Cong. Tom Price (R-Ga.)

ATR is pleased to announce its support for H.R.. 2009, the

``Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care Act of 2013.'' The bill

is sponsored by medical doctor and Congressman Tom Price (R-

Ga.) We would urge all Congressmen to co-sponsor and support

the bill.

GAO has reported that there are 47 new powers the IRS has

acquired under the Obamacare law. We here at ATR have pointed

out time and again the 20 new or higher taxes that are

contained in Obamacare. With a new scandal coming out of the

IRS seemingly every day, the last thing that agency should be

doing is snooping into the personal health care lives of over

300 million Americans.

Yet that's just what the IRS is about to do. They will be

the agency tasked with implementing the individual mandate

and the employer mandate. They will force all of us to

disclose our personal health identification information to

them when we file our 1040s every April. They will be talking

to our insurance companies and the Department of Health and

Human Services about our health insurance packages.

This is outrageous. The IRS should have nothing to do with

our health care. Passage of H.R.. 2009 would ensure that the

agency which gave us Star Trek videos and Tea Party

harassment keeps its hands off our health care.

Mr. Speaker, I will include into the Record a letter endorsing H.R. 2009 from a group of six taxpayer advocate organizations.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

August 2, 2013.

Hon. Tom Price,

Cannon House Office Building,

Washington, DC.

Dear Representative Price, We the undersigned groups,

representing millions of Americans, strongly support your

legislation, H.R. 2009, the Keep the IRS Off Your Health Care

Act of 2013. This bill would prohibit the U.S. Treasury

Department from enforcing any provision of the Affordable

Care Act (aka Obamacare), ensuring that the Internal Revenue

Service (IRS) would be removed from implementing or enforcing

any component of Obamacare.

The last several months have proven to be an eye opening

experience for those who are concerned with the growing power

of the federal government, especially the IRS. Repeated and

systemic encroachment into the lives of American citizens by

targeting the very thing they cherish the most, the freedom

of speech, is a cause of great concern among many people from

all sides of the political spectrum. It is imperative to take

steps to ensure we rein in the power of an organization that

has proven to be incapable of handling the authority they

have right now with the responsibility and dignity the

American people expect. New developments on the unnerving

offenses have been uncovered on a regular basis for the last

few months and it is time to make certain that the IRS is

unable to extend these offenses into the lives of citizens

when it comes to their health care.

This legislation makes explicitly clear that the neither

the Treasury Department, nor ``any delegate'' shall have the

power to enforce any provision or amendment from Obamacare at

anytime going forward as the Administration moves to

implement the law. It is paramount that this legislation

passes, with overwhelming support, as it is clear that the

American people have no desire to have the IRS involved in

the decisions they and their families are making when it

comes to their health care. We have already seen the

consequences of the President's health care law on premiums

and job creation and it would be catastrophic to allow the

IRS to contribute to the chaos, considering their recent

record of abuses and mismanagement.

The American people deserve to be trusted with their own

decision making when it comes to their lives, including their

health care choices. The last thing anyone wants is to have

an agency they are already afraid of to be granted more.

We thank you for offering this commonsense language and we

urge all members of Congress to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 2009.

Sincerely,

David Williams,

President, Taxpayers Protection Alliance.

Grover Norquist,

President, Americans for Tax Reform.

Jeff Mazzella,

President, Center for Individual Freedom.

Carrie Lukas,

Managing Director, Independent Women's Forum.

Seton Motley,

President, Less Government.

Pete Sepp,

Executive Vice President, National Taxpayers Union.

Mr. Speaker, I would tell the gentleman that I have other speakers that may be coming, but at this point, I have no other speakers on the floor. I am prepared to close at any point.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I will submit a letter from 22 organizations from around the country endorsing H.R. 2009, and I reserve the balance of my time.

August 1, 2013.

Dear Congressmen: We, the undersigned organizations and

free market leaders write in united support of House efforts

this week to get the IRS out of Obamacare.

The House will consider a measure on Friday sponsored by

Congressman Tom Price (R-Ga.) to remove the IRS from any role

in the implementation of the Obamacare law.

It's a basic belief of most Americans that patients,

families, and doctors--not IRS bureaucrats--should be making

health care decisions. While this has always been the case,

its importance has been heightened in recent months by the

uncovered political targeting by the IRS of Tea Party and

other free market groups. The IRS should not be anywhere near

people's medical decisions until this black cloud of

political scandal has been lifted.

Unfortunately, the GAO reports that the IRS has no fewer

than 47 powers to implement Obamacare. That's 47 too many.

Allowing the IRS to enforce Obamacare is opening up the door

to more abuse, more targeting, and more harassment of

American citizens. The myriad of new taxes the IRS will

impose under the guise of health care reform will destroy

jobs, stifle economic growth, and impede medical innovation

in this country.

With Obamacare coming fully online in 2014, now is the time

to stop the IRS from becoming a full partner in our families'

healthcare decisions. House efforts to prevent this from

happening are welcome and all Members of Congress should

support these efforts.

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist, Americans for Tax Reform; Dean Clancy,

Freedom Works; Al Cardenas, American Conservative

Union; Amy Kremer, Tea Party Express; Jenny Beth

Martin, Tea Party Patriots; Heather Higgins,

Independent Womens' Voice; Steven J. Duffield,

Crossroads GPS; Brandon Arnold, National Taxpayers

Union; Colin Hanna, Let Freedom Ring; Jim Martin, 60

Plus Association; Grace-Marie Turner, Galen Institute;

Phil Kerpen, American Commitment; Penny Nance,

Concerned Women for America; Ken Hoagland, Restore

America's Voice; John Tate, Campaign for Liberty; Peter

Ferrara, National Center for Policy Analysis; Ari

Winkour, Harbour League; Gregory T. Angelo, Log Cabin

Republicans; Mark Schiller, MD, Doctor-Patient Medical

Association; Betsy McCaughey, Ph.D, author of Beating

Obamacare; Brian Baker, Ending Spending; David Wallace,

Restore America's Mission.

(Signatures are for information purposes only).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Again, it's important for folks to appreciate that the Republican goal in health care is to make certain that every single American has the highest quality health care. We simply believe it ought to be patient-centered health care. And my friends on the other side of the aisle talk about patient-centered health care, but what they support is health care with Washington making decisions. We believe patients and families and doctors ought to be making medical decisions.

Now, what have we heard in opposition to this piece of legislation today? We've heard that Republicans have no plan. Well, on the contrary, Mr. Speaker, we have multiple pieces of legislation. I, in fact, have H.R. 2300, which is a patient-centered bill that makes certain that everybody has affordable coverage; that they are able to have the financial feasibility to purchase the coverage that they want, not that the government forces them to buy. And portability is solved. You don't lose your insurance if you change your job or you lose your job. We solve the whole challenge of preexisting illnesses and injuries, but in a patient-centered way, not a way that the government forces you to purchase what they want you to purchase. And it would provide insurance for every single American.

Second, we've heard this isn't a responsible piece of legislation. Mr. Speaker, let me suggest that the American people think this is a responsible piece of legislation, where over 80 percent don't think the IRS ought to have a thing to do with their health care.

We've heard that this bill isn't going anywhere at all. Why do it? It's a futile attempt. Well, I'll remind my colleagues of seven pieces of legislation--bills passed in this House, bills passed by the United States Senate, and signed into law by President Obama--that either repealed or defunded portions of his own health care law.

H.R. 4 repealed the small business paperwork mandate; H.R. 1473 cut $2.2 billion from the ``stealth public plan'' and froze the IRS budget; H.R. 674 saved taxpayers $13 billion by adjusting eligibility for ObamaCare programs; H.R. 2055 made more reductions to the Independent Payment Advisory Board and the IRS; H.R. 3630 slashed billions of dollars from ObamaCare slush funds; H.R. 4348 saved another $670 million from the boondoggle, ``the Louisiana Purchase,'' that was included in the original bill; and H.R. 8 repealed the unsustainable CLASS programs.

All of those repealed or changed portions of the Affordable Care Act signed into law by the President of the United States.

We've heard heart-wrenching stories from our friends on the other side about health challenges and illnesses. And, yes, Mr. Speaker, there are real challenges out there. As a physician, I can attest to that, having spent over 20 years taking care of patients. But the American people don't want Washington deciding what kind of health care they must have or can't have. We need patients and families and doctors making those medical decisions.

And then there's the preposterous assertion from the other side that Republicans don't like affordable care, quality care, accessible care. Nonsense, Mr. Speaker. Nonsense. What we want is the highest quality of care that respects the principles of affordability and accessibility and quality and choices and responsiveness and innovation. We simply want patients and families and doctors to be in charge of health care, not Washington, D.C., and not the IRS.

I urge support of H.R. 2009, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order against the motion to recommit.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 322, I call up the bill (H.R. 2879) to provide limitations on bonuses for Federal employees during sequestration, to provide for investigative leave requirements for members of the Senior Executive Service, to establish certain procedures for conducting in-person or telephonic interactions by Executive branch employees with individuals, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 2879 and include extraneous materials thereon.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 2879, the Stop Government Abuse Act, combines three bills that were each voice voted out of my committee. They are H.R. 1541, the Common Sense in Compensation Act; H.R. 2579, the Government Employee Accountability Act; and H.R. 2711, the Citizen Empowerment Act.

The Common Sense in Compensation title of this bill brings common sense to the policies of governing employee bonuses while still providing agencies flexibility to recognize outstanding performance.

Madam Speaker, 75 percent of senior executives will receive bonuses of at least $6,000 while more than 650,000 defense employees are in the midst of 11 furlough days. This sends the wrong message to our Federal workforce. The men and women of the Federal workforce work hard--all of them.

Some of them do exceptional work, and bonuses are not only an incentive but a recognition. But these bonuses come on top of annual salaries ranging from $119,554 to over $179,000. Going in the range of $30,000 or more sends a message to many of our Federal workforce--in fact, Madam Speaker, most of our Federal workforce--that people at the top get even more.

Following the President's decision to impose a 2-year pay freeze, the administration issued a memo limiting the amount available to pay bonuses for fiscal years 2011 and 2012. Moreover, this past February, the administration issued a memo limiting bonuses to those legally required. In June, the administration suspended rank awards for senior leaders. H.R. 1541 builds on the President's initiatives.

The Government Employee Accountability title of the bill helps ensure Senior Executive Service employees are held accountable for their actions while maintaining due process rights. From Jeff Neely at GSA to Lois Lerner at the IRS, the Oversight and Government Reform Committee has uncovered numerous examples of high-ranking government officials engaging in behavior that certainly seems to be contrary to the principles of public service.

When people come before Congress and cannot even answer questions as to what they have done in their official capacity by ``taking the Fifth'' and find themselves fully paid for not working, it sends the wrong message to the vast majority of Federal workers. In some cases, these employees could face civil or criminal penalties.

In the private sector, these behaviors would be grounds for serious disciplinary action and, likely, termination. But in the Federal bureaucracy, that isn't what happened. Only in Washington could these employees be not terminated but, instead, placed on administrative leave with full pay, full benefits, and accruing additional retirement.

This bill provides agencies with additional tools to use when senior managers behave badly. It does not require these tools be used, but it makes them available. A similar version of this bill was passed by the House by a vote of 402-2 in the last Congress.

The final title of the bill before us today consists of the text of House Resolution 2711, the Citizen Empowerment Act, as reported from my committee. This legislation protects individual citizens from harassment, intimidation, and inappropriate behavior by a few Federal officials representing agencies such as the IRS, EPA, and the SEC.

Unfortunately, these few bad actors at agencies have, from time to time, threatened, intimidated, coerced, lied, or violated the public trust. And yet, in 12 out of our 50 States, citizens are not empowered to unilaterally record these conversations for their own protection. In 38 States, they may. We simply seek, in this bill, to harmonize across the government a predictability. When intimidation and wrong behavior happens, we need to make sure that there is a simple solution that every American can avail themselves of.

This bill ensures individuals have a right to record in-person meetings and telephone calls with Federal employees, including regulatory officials engaged in enforcement activities that can lead to the imposition of fines and penalties. In essence, what this bill does is provide consistency on behalf of the Federal employees acting in their official capacity. I want to make that very clear, Madam Speaker.

Federal employees today don't have an easy answer. In some States--38 of them--they can be recorded; in one State, they may be recorded; and in 11 States, they are likely not to be recorded because, in fact, it requires their advance permission. Uniformity across the Federal workforce is a good thing. We believe that it also will tell every member to treat people the same, whether they live in a State where they may be recorded or not.

I encourage all Members to support these three bills and remind all that these passed on a voice vote out of our committee and were not considered controversial in the previous Congress.

I reserve the balance of my time.

This is probably Groundhog Day, because these were the same statements made yesterday by the ranking member from Maryland, who implied that somehow what happens in 38 States would be draconian if it happened in 12 more.

I yield 5 minutes to the gentlelady from Kansas (Ms. Jenkins).

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).

Madam Speaker, the gentleman is entitled to his opinion, but not his facts.

In the bill itself, which I read yesterday, it says:

An employee removed under this section shall be notified of

the reasons for such removal within 30 days.

I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly).

Madam Speaker, I wonder if the gentleman from Virginia would have kept this person on for how long--weeks, months, more than a year? This individual received a bonus after more than a year.

When this bill came through our committee, the amendment to say ``in all cases 30 days'' could have been offered; it wasn't. This came through in regular order of the committee. The language was published. There was every opportunity.

When the gentleman from Virginia said ``redrafted,'' with all due respect, not a word was changed in any of these three bills from the time it left our committee until today when it's being considered.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Bentivolio).

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

At this time, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, the distinguished minority whip presumes to tell me about the private sector and how much people make. The problem is that I came from the private sector. I know the difference between management and labor, and I know the difference between people who elect to be the top-paid management of entities and who typically serve at will in the private sector. Those of the Senior Executive Service are, in fact, people who choose to get additional pay for these special responsibilities, and they know what they're doing when they get into it. We are proud of most of them, the vast majority of them.

The fact is that Mr. Hoyer has people who serve at will. He fires them without notice if he chooses to. Yet he cannot understand the fact by that picture I held up--I won't hold it up again; it's reprehensible even though it has been well seen--that that man continued to work and get a bonus during the 10 months in which the GSA Administrator knew wrongdoing had occurred on his watch. It wasn't until he decided to retire--to be honest, my understanding is with criminal allegations-- that he even left and stopped getting his pay, and, today, he enjoys a very comfortable retirement.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 15 seconds to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Meadows).

Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Then I will close at this time and yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, controversy comes in all forms. Sometimes it's legitimate; sometimes there are differences that are unresolved; sometimes, though, you find yourself befuddled.

These three bills passed on a voice vote. It didn't mean that they would have been authored by any of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle or that they loved them. It meant that they were given a full opportunity to evaluate these, to offer amendments, to have up-or-down votes on them. Many of the suggestions they made were taken into account on many of the bills marked up during that long day. Many of the things being brought up here today simply were not brought up, and it's not because they didn't know about this.

When you have a version of this bill that's almost identical to that passed on December 19 of last year by a vote of 402-2, that means that you have people that today are vehemently opposed to provisions that they already voted for. I repeat, they're vehemently opposed to provisions they already voted for. I don't have the names of the two people that voted ``no.'' They certainly have a right to express why they voted ``no'' last December.

I can tell you that when you have to only terminate 4/100 of 1 percent of the workforce, if you do it at all, the head of the agency has to determine that the employee has done something seriously wrong in regards to negligence of duty or misappropriation of funds or malfeasance. They have to determine that the employee did it knowingly, and they have to consider it necessary and advisable to protect this enterprise.

On top of that, the employee does have to be told why they're being terminated. I think that's important, because the ranking member and I heard from a woman in a hearing who left me feeling absolutely shocked. She's been on leave without pay, and to this day, an investigation that is ongoing, months into it, she's never been told why she's on leave without pay. To be honest, she's a member of the Senior Executive Service.

Maybe she would fall under this bill. But in order to fall under this bill, some things would have to happen. First of all, the head of the agency would have to make a decision of wrongdoing, and it would be held by that decision being reasonable after the fact. They'd have to have told her why she's being removed, and she would already have had an opportunity in front of the Merit Systems Protection Board and the U.S. Court of Appeals, known as the Fed circuit. She already would have had all this due process, except months go by and she doesn't know and she's on administrative leave.

The fact is this is a tool. They don't have to use it. If they use it, they have to make sure that it's only for serious violations: neglect of duty, misappropriation of funds, or malfeasance. These are very serious. An extremely small part, highly compensated, respected people, and a few bad actors for neglect of duty, misappropriation of funds, or malfeasance can be removed. They still have their rights. We knew this was constitutional. To be honest, the complaint we seemed to have in committee for hours was something that I want to share with you, Mr. Speaker.

Members of my committee, when talking about the idea that only one- third without special exception of employees in any agency could receive bonuses rather than the 75 or 80 percent you heard about here today, they said, But this is their right. They've negotiated that. You're interfering with their contracts.

Mr. Speaker, the U.S. Government does not allow negotiation in collective bargaining or otherwise for wages. We have a standard scale. Bonuses were created for only one purpose, and that was, in fact, to reward good behavior as an incentive.

These bills are well thought out and are only controversial today because the minority wants to make them controversial to create a controversy.

I urge support, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2879 and to the failure of this House to address the issues of real concern to the American people and the people of my district.

Congress has been in session now for more than 200 days, and yet we have not passed a single bill to create a single job. The government must be funded by October, yet House Republicans have refused to appoint conferees to resolve a budget resolution after repeatedly calling for regular order.

After bringing to the floor a farm bill that gutted the SNAP program on which tens of millions of hungry Americans depend, including 17 million children, the majority brought a T-HUD appropriations measure that would have gutted the Community Development Block Grant program, the HOME

program, Amtrak, and the effort to modernize our Nation's air traffic control system. It became clear this week, however, that the majority did not have the votes to pass it.

We could be working today to end the damaging cuts imposed by the Ryan budget, which the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee called ``unrealistic and ill-conceived.'' That's the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Instead of working on any of these issues, we're wasting the last days remaining before a 5-week recess on a measure that threatens to impede our Nation's law enforcement efforts and continues senseless attacks on our Nation's civil servants.

H.R. 2879, the bill before us now, was thrown together last night from the ruins of three bills the majority did not have the votes to pass yesterday. The Rules Committee had to call an emergency meeting last night to push this bill through, and no amendments are being allowed.

So what would this legislation do? First and foremost, it would undermine our Nation's law enforcement activities. In fact, this bill should more appropriately be called the ``Ignoring the Concerns of Law Enforcement Act.'' It would allow individuals to record telephone calls and in-person conversations with Federal employees, including Federal law enforcement agents, without their knowledge. The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association have all written letters opposing these provisions.

The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association wrote:

This legislation puts law enforcement activities at risk

and does a disservice to the brave men and women who are

asked to put their lives on the line to protect us from

terrorists and criminals.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association wrote:

This proposal risks undermining criminal investigations by

reducing the willingness of individuals to cooperate with law

enforcement, and would result in the creation of recordings

of law enforcement conversations that could jeopardize

sensitive and important criminal and counterterrorism

investigations.

This morning, after listening to the debate we had here on this floor yesterday, and after this bill was filed last night, the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys sent a letter to every Member of the House, opposing the bill. Their letter states:

Section 301 of H.R. 2879 will undermine Federal civil

enforcement activities and criminal prosecutions during the

investigative, pretrial, trial, and enforcement phases of

litigation involving the interests of the United States.

The fact is that we have held no hearings on this legislation before we marked it up in committee last week. We had no testimony from law enforcement officials about their concerns with the bill. Instead, the House Republicans rushed it to the floor without adequate consideration. In fact, in their rush to bring this bill to the floor, committee Republicans apparently did not even contact key law enforcement agencies to make sure this bill would not harm ongoing investigations.

This morning, I directed my staff to contact the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, including its operational components, the Secret Service and Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials from all of these entities have now reported that they have significant operational concerns with the bill.

Does that matter to the supporters of this bill? Don't you think it makes sense to hear from key stakeholders before changing Federal law in this extreme way?

The bill also would interfere with existing State laws prescribing the conditions under which conversations can be recorded. Thirty-six years ago, my home State of Maryland enacted a law that made it a felony to record a private conversation unless every party to the conversation consents to the recording or another exception applies. Maryland statute requires actual consent, not forced or assumed consent. The bill negates these protections--and the protections of 11 other States--by deeming Federal employees, including all law enforcement personnel, to have consented to the recording of their official conversations just by coming to work.

The bill has several other troubling provisions. It would remove due process protections from members of our Senior Executive Service by giving politically appointed agency heads broad discretion to fire these employees without providing advance notice, without conducting a proper investigation, and without giving employees an opportunity to respond to accusations against them.

Under this bill, employees could be fired and then forced to prove their innocence to seek reinstatement. This turns on its head the most basic protection guaranteed to all Americans by our Constitution: the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

I urge Members to reject this senseless, ill-considered legislation that will impede law enforcement activities and eliminate constitutional protections for civil servants. I urge Members to vote ``no'' on H.R. 2879, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlelady from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Lynch), a member of our committee.

I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time both sides have remaining?

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

The Supreme Court Loudermill case, which Mr. Lynch cited, says that the employee must be given notice before they are fired and an opportunity to respond. This bill, basically you're fired and then you appeal trying to get your job back, so you don't really truly have notice.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Madam Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).

Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time we have remaining.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from California (Ms. Speier).

I yield the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Danny Davis), a member of the committee.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

Mr. Speaker, how much time is remaining?

I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, as I've listened to all of these arguments, I cannot help but think about the many employees whom we see every day--the hardworking employees who give their blood, sweat, and tears to keep our country together.

When we talk about our senior executives, I will remind this body of something that Mr. Hoyer talked about and, that is, under current law, senior executives may be disciplined for misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or of the failure to accept reassignment or transfer. There is a current statutory list of reasons for which actions may be taken against senior executives that covers a broad variety of situations, and they are adequate to deal with the problems that we are addressing today.

Senior executives suspected of criminal activity may already be removed or placed on indefinite suspension without pay. We need to focus on improving agency implementation rather than passing legislation that would deprive employees of their due process.

I know Mr. Moran is right. There has been a relentless attack on Federal employees. The fact is that they're in their third year of pay freezes. They've been asked to pay more for their pensions and get less. We constantly hear negative comments about them, still folks say, We love them; we appreciate them. They are often the ones that aren't seen, unnoticed, unappreciated, and unapplauded.

We have a bill here that takes away something very fundamental, and that is their due process rights. A lot of people may think about due process and say, Oh, it's no big deal. Later, we'll take a little bit of due process here and take a little bit there. It is that due process that is the basic foundation of our Constitution and of our democracy. What we're talking about here is making sure that employees are afforded that due process.

So you get somebody who says, Okay. Fine. Fire them, and then let them appeal to get their job back. That's not how it's supposed to work. They're to be given some type of notice and given an opportunity to simply address whatever the accusations are. A lot of times we may look at folks and say we don't like what they allegedly did, but the fact is that we still have that little document--which, to me, is a big document--that we must adhere to.

Mr. Speaker, I would urge all Members of the Congress to vote against this bill and give us a chance to come back, perhaps, and make the appropriate amendments so that it will be one that is suitable for the Congress to vote on.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I want to thank, first of all, you for your very kind remarks, but also for moving this legislation very swiftly through the full committee, along with Eliot Engel's full support, and the chairwoman emeritus, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you for your steadfast support for human rights, now presiding over this session.

And, Mr. Chairman, I do want to thank you for being a champion on behalf of the dissidents, the bloggers, the religious dissidents, political and religious in Vietnam, who suffer daily beatings at the hands of an increasingly absurd and worsening dictatorship.

Vietnam is in a race to the bottom with some of the dictatorships around the world, including Cuba, including China, Somalia, and other places where people's human rights are systematically trashed by the regimes.

I do rise to ask, respectfully, that Members support the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013. The purpose of this bipartisan legislation is simple: to send a clear, strong, and compelling message to the increasingly repressive communist regime in power in Vietnam that says that the United States is serious about combating human rights abuse in Vietnam.

Underscoring the worsening situation in Vietnam, John Sifton of Human Rights Watch testified at a June 4 hearing that I chaired, and he noted that ``in the first few months of 2013, more people have been convicted in political trials as in the whole of the last year.'' And that has only gotten worse as each week passes in Vietnam.

Reporters Without Borders have put out their numbers, and there's at least 35 netizens, bloggers, journalists who write online who have been incarcerated by this dictatorship.

I'll never forget, on one particular trip to Vietnam, I met with Dr. Pham Son; I met with his wife. He was in prison. And what was his crime? He went on U.S. Embassy Hanoi, took an essay entitled, ``What is Democracy?'' translated it, and rebroadcast, resent it out online, and for that he got a multi-year sentence in jail.

I met with his wife, who lived in great fear that they would go after her as well. And certainly, when I had dinner with her one night, sitting as far away as Chairman Royce, at the next table at a hotel were three bully boys from the--three thugs from the secret police of Vietnam, very, very visibly standing up and taking pictures to let us know that they were watching. Of course, I took their picture as well. But that's the kind of intimidation campaign this wonderful wife of a dissident was experiencing.

Boat People at the SOS suggest that there are well over 625 political prisoners and religious prisoners, as we meet here tonight, who are suffering. And of course that number often goes up. One might be let out, two more incarcerated by this dictatorship.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 1897 is designed to promote the development of freedom of democracy in Vietnam. The bill will bring much-needed scrutiny to a seriously deteriorating situation. It stipulates that the United States can increase nonhumanitarian assistance to Vietnam above the 2012 levels only if the President is able to certify that the Government of Vietnam has made substantial progress in establishing a democracy and promoting human rights, including respecting religious freedom and the release of political prisoners and religious prisoners, repealing and revising laws that criminalize peaceful dissent, respecting human rights of members of all ethnic groups--there's an enormous amount of racism in Vietnam, particularly directed at people who happen to be Montagnard, and others--taking all appropriate steps, including the prosecution of government officials to end government complicity in that nefarious practice called human trafficking. There are also very clear benchmarks articulated in the legislation.

Madam Speaker, in the last 4 months alone, on April 11 and June 4, I've held two more congressional hearings on this deteriorating situation. We heard stories about individuals and groups who are being persecuted in a variety of ways. Their testimony confirmed that religious, political, and ethnic persecution has worsened, and that there is complicity by leadership, by the people who are in the Government of Vietnam, in human trafficking.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, in 2013, in their report, noted:

The Government of Vietnam continues to expand control over

all religious activities, severely restricting independent

religious practice and to repress individuals and religious

groups it views as challenging their authority.

The Commission says very candidly that Vietnam ought to be a country of particular concern--a CPC designation--pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Unfortunately, that was removed by President Bush--a misguided move on his part--in 2006, when it was thought that the bilateral trade agreement and the

permanent normal trading relations might lead to a matriculation from a dictatorship to a democracy. Things actually have gotten worse since this government got this trade benefit. Rights have suffered and people--real casualties--have endured unspeakable hardships.

Mr. Speaker, on several human rights trips to Vietnam, I have met, as has Chairman Royce and other Members--and I know when you meet these people you are forever moved--courageous leaders who struggle, sacrifice and endure numbing hardships, including torture, to promote fundamental human rights in their beloved country. Many of these remarkable individuals hale from virtually every denomination of faith, whether it be Christian, Falun Gong, or Buddhists, and suffer, again, horrifically because of their faith.

I met with the Venerable Thich Quang Do, under pagoda arrest--a great Buddhist leader who has been relegated to his pagoda. He couldn't step one foot outside of that pagoda without the secret police rushing in. He told me if he took one step out with me to say good-bye, there would be an onslaught of these bully boys who would push and shove or mistreat him.

I met with Father Ly when he was under house arrest before being re- arrested. He was a great democracy activist who was being so callously mistreated by this dictatorship. And he is only one of many.

It is not just the religious leaders in particular or individuals who are victimized by the government. Entire communities are also targeted by the regime. Mr. Tien Tran testified at our April 11 meeting and told my subcommittee of the brutality experienced by the Con Dau Catholic Parish, which has been repressed like you can't believe, Mr. Speaker. Individuals have been beaten to a pulp. Some have died. And they have confiscated their property. So they're kleptomaniacs as well.

Also, at the April 11 meeting we heard from the sister of a Vietnamese woman who was forced to work in a brothel in Russia with 14 other Vietnamese women. When there was an effort made by the Russian Government to liberate those women, it was the Embassy of Vietnam in Moscow that tipped off the traffickers--because they were complicit with them--to ensure that these women were not liberated but continued to be hurt by the traffickers. There was another one dealing with women who were trafficked to Jordan. Those officials of the Vietnamese Government were complicit in that as well.

Again, that's only the tip of the iceberg of this terrible complicity with heinous crimes against women.

I think the State Department report on trafficking was a good one, but they made a gross exception when it came to Vietnam, and actually improved their grade, when the information even in the narrative about Vietnam and the TIP report would have suggested otherwise.

I'm the prime author of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and worked to create those minimum standards. It's appalling that Vietnam is not where it ought to be, a Tier 3 country, an egregious violator subject to sanctions.

This will be the fourth time, if this bill passes, Mr. Speaker, that we've been able to get the Vietnam Human Rights Act passed. In 2004, 2007, and last year, 2012, iterations of this bill have gotten over to the Senate, only to die through holds and other very non-democratic means of suppressing the will of the Senate in working on this bill. I hope that changes.

We have seen a deterioration, as my colleagues and I have all pointed out tonight, in the human rights situation in Vietnam. It is time to stand with the oppressed people who are yearning to be free in Vietnam and to stand up against this dictatorship. It's time to meet with them, talk with them, and talk to President Sang, who was here last week to meet with President Obama, and lay down very specific benchmarks on simple respect for the fundamental liberties of people in Vietnam who just yearn to be free and to experience their God-given rights.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1897) to promote freedom and democracy in Vietnam.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

This bill, which we rise in support of, H.R. 1897, is the Vietnam Human Rights Act of 2013, and it is authored by the chairman of the Africa, Global Human Rights, and Health Subcommittee, Mr. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

And I thought I would just take a moment and, as a prelude, talk about the efforts that Mr. Smith has put in over the years, not just to the issue of human rights but, in particular, identifying those most at risk, identifying those who are held captive in prison, and taking the personal effort to go and try to visit them in these horrible conditions which they find themselves in.

I remember him saying to me once, Can you imagine what it is like for someone who's a prisoner, a prisoner because he attempts to speak out for some modicum of free speech, or for religious liberty, and he finds himself there in confinement, not knowing, when they open that door, when they come for you, what they might do to you next, not knowing what type of torture might be applied?

It takes a strong constitution for a Member of this House, year after year after year, to continue to go to bat for those who are held in captivity, those who are subject to show trials and then disappear. And part of his efforts have been to pass this particular legislation because he's concerned with the magnitude of what is happening in Vietnam, but also what he has seen with his own eyes with respect to some of those victims.

Over the years, the Foreign Affairs Committee has held many hearings on this subject, and if these hearings have had one consistent theme, it's the deterioration of human rights. And I think this is the thing we really find most regrettable: that at a time when we hoped that Vietnam might change its policies, it actually has regressed.

And we've heard from the witnesses of the use of the government by government agents, by militias--some call them thugs--who use everything from electric batons to metal prods to beat those who are demonstrating in Vietnam and who are in the process of speaking up for religious liberty or speaking up for the rights of free speech.

And now it's gotten to the point that any young person who dares to blog those words, ``freedom of speech,'' those words, ``democracy,'' anyone who publishes material promoting democracy or criticizing totalitarian rule, faces so many years in jail. It is so disproportionate, it is so ridiculous to put a young person in jail for 6 or 7 years because they blog on democracy.

But the thing that I think Chris Smith and I and others here, Eliot Engel, find so objectionable is the physical abuse that they are subject to in confinement.

So, as we say, religious freedom is also under attack with freedom of speech. Residents of Con Dau, Da Nang, have suffered severe violence. I've seen some of the photographs of the consequences of these beatings with batons and electric rods during a May assault at the hands, again, of Vietnamese Government officials. And again, this was because the parishioners attempted to protect their historic Catholic cemetery from seizure by the government.

We have over 350 Montagnard Christians who remain in prison for their beliefs, and other religious groups.

When I was in Vietnam, I talked to the leader of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, the venerable Thich Quang Do, who was under house arrest, and Le Quang Liem, another. He was the leader of the Hoa Hao Buddhists at the time. He has subsequently, in a protest, been beaten so badly I don't think he can carry on a conversation today.

The Cao Dai Buddhists face severe persecution from the government, the communist government there.

So what brings us here tonight is that Vietnam has actually taken steps backwards. As we heard from the witnesses who testified before our committee, in the first 6 weeks of this year, 40 dissidents have been convicted in show trials, more than all of last year. That's how bad things are deteriorating.

And that means that the communist government is not only eclipsing their past bad performance, but, paradoxically, the government is also actively pursuing a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. That is why we need to

take this step and why passage of the Vietnam Human Rights Act is so important and why we've got to use what leverage we have. And part of that leverage is nonhumanitarian U.S. assistance to Vietnam. And we do that unless the Vietnamese Government improves its respect for human rights to meet specified requirements.

Let's send a message to that regime that the status quo is unacceptable. This bill does that. I strongly urge its passage.

And once again, I strongly commend and thank its author for his perseverance on this issue.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations, and the author of this bill.

In closing, I, again, want to thank my colleague, Mr. Smith from New Jersey, for his dedication to human rights in Vietnam, and for human rights in general, and for not only his work on this bill but, again, the time and energy that he has put into attempting to intervene on behalf of those who have been subject to these beatings that he has cited, to this maltreatment, to these long prison terms.

Last week, we had President Sang of Vietnam visiting Washington for the first official visit, I think, since 2007. While we've been assured that human rights were on the agenda during these meetings with the President and with the State Department, we did all we could to make certain that this time they were on the agenda. But I think the Vietnamese people need more than talk. And that is why we need to pass this legislation. It's a sign to all Vietnamese people that the U.S. is committed to the cause of human rights, but it is also leverage that can be used to guarantee some measure of attention from the regime.

This is Congress's chance to speak to those Vietnamese people who are yearning for freedom. It's our chance to do so by vocally supporting a human rights agenda in Vietnam. We've got to get this back on the agenda.

I strongly urge my colleagues to support this important bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.