Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, nearly ten years ago Senator

Ted Kennedy and I introduced a bill called the Working Families Flexibility Act.

The bill before us today has the same name and its supporters may try to claim it fixes the same problems we were trying to fix, but, Mr. Speaker this is not Senator Kennedy's bill and in fact it bears little resemblance to the bill he and I worked on and that Sen. Bob Casey and I have reintroduced this week.

Let me be clear, the bill before us today creates zero new rights for workers. Zero.

In fact, under this bill working families would have even less flexibility than they do now to care for a child or sick family member.

This GOP bill allows employers to withhold desperately needed overtime pay for months at a time.

It lets bosses hold back overtime earnings, and only pay them out when employees request the money they have earned.

And even if employees do ask, which is ridiculous since it is money that they earned and should not have to ask their bosses if they can get paid for work they already did--bosses are given a month to write that overtime check.

And if it wasn't clear enough that this bill is not about helping working families, this bill puts all decisions about when employees can use flex time in the hands of their bosses.

Want to take an extra week off in the summer when kids are out of school? Too bad, that doesn't fit with your boss' plans.

Even if you work hard for six months to build up that extra comp time, your employer can still deny that request.

We should be ashamed that the U.S. stands out in the world as a country that requires the least family-friendly benefits for workers. How can we call ourselves a country dedicated to family values when we don't support working families?

The real value of the minimum wage has severely eroded, and the new administration has blocked a badly needed update to our overtime protections.

We have no mandated paid parental leave. No paid sick days. No fair, predictable scheduling. No flexible work arrangements.

And American families are paying dearly for our inaction.

So let's not call this bill the Working Families Flexibility Act.

That's an insult to millions of working families across the country and it's an insult to the late-Senator Ted Kennedy who did so much for the working families of this Nation.

I urge my colleagues to oppose.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to introduce the Overseas Americans Financial Access Act on behalf of the estimated 6-8 million American citizens living and working abroad. This bill would amend the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) to address the unintended consequences it imposes on American citizens overseas that make it more difficult to access basic banking products and services in their country of residence.

As co-chair of the Americans Abroad Caucus, for years I have heard reports from constituents overseas detailing how FATCA's expensive and duplicative reporting requirements have led foreign financial institutions to deny basic banking services to American citizens. Some Foreign Financial Institutions have simply closed accounts or refused to open new ones for U.S. citizens in order to minimize their exposure to FATCA reporting requirements, withholding fees and potential penalties. This practice leaves law-abiding American citizens without access to everyday financial tools such as mortgages, bank accounts, insurance policies and pension funds--all of which are critical services regardless of place of residence.

While I recognize the difficult job of the Treasury Department to make sure American money around the world remains compliant with the U.S. tax code, the current FATCA reporting procedures subject ordinary Americans to the same scrutiny as criminal tax evaders and money launderers. Revision of these reporting policies is necessary to ensure that Americans remain competitive in international business and continue to contribute to economies here in the U.S. and around the world. Unfortunately, some have resorted to renouncing their American citizenship in response. It is now time to act and provide relief.

The IRS Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) has recognized this problem and on April 13, 2015, issued a recommendation that the IRS exclude from FATCA reporting financial accounts maintained by a financial institution in the country in which the U.S. citizen is a bona fide resident. To date, no action has been taken to institute such a policy to alleviate the burden on overseas Americans as a result of FATCA. That is why I am proud to introduce the Overseas Americans Financial Access Act which would implement TAS's recommendation and exempt Americans from FATCA reporting if their accounts are held in the same country where they are a bona fide resident.

As Members of Congress, it is our duty to represent our constituents' best interests whether they live in the United States or overseas. I urge my colleagues to support this bill so that we may fulfill this duty and grant our overseas constituents the relief they need.

Mr. Speaker, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 80 million Americans are at risk of serious vision loss--a number expected to increase as the baby boomer generation ages. Along with my colleague Rep. Gus Bilirakis, I am proud to reintroduce legislation to support Americans with limited or impaired vision.

For some, reading a book or crossing the street is difficult even with glasses or contact lenses due to blurriness or distortion. Doctors can prescribe magnifiers and other special devices, but their current exclusion from Medicare coverage greatly restricts access to these devices. While there are a wide variety of options to help people with low vision, currently, there is an exclusion from Medicare coverage for devices that include a lens to aid vision or provide magnification of images for impaired vision. Coverage of these devices will greatly enhance the ability of older Americans to age independently and enjoy everyday activities.

To understand the impact of covering these devices for America's seniors, we are reintroducing the Medicare Demonstration of Coverage for Low Vision Devices Act of 2017. This legislation would create a five-year national demonstration project administered by the Department of Health and Human Services to evaluate the economic impact of allowing reimbursement for certain low vision devices under the Social Security Act. Coverage of such devices could help Medicare beneficiaries with low vision lead healthy, safe, and independent lives.

I urge my colleagues to join us by supporting this legislation that will make a significant change to improve the quality of life for the visually impaired.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for her leadership on this bill and in so many other areas. I also thank Chairmen Hensarling and Huizenga; and, of course, my good friend and colleague from the great State of New York, Nydia Velazquez, the champion for small businesses; and Mr. McHenry, who has spent a great deal of his time focusing on job creation and access to capital for small businesses.

This bill passed in the last Congress under suspension with overwhelming bipartisan support. This bill is intended to make it easier for startup companies to raise money from sophisticated investors by allowing sophisticated angel investors to pool their money into a single venture capital fund, which allows them to leverage their resources and make investments more effectively.

The bill does this by increasing the number of investors who can invest in venture capital funds that are exempt from SEC oversight.

Under current law, a fund can be exempt from SEC oversight if it has fewer than 100 investors and its securities are not offered publicly. This is the exemption that the majority of venture capital funds currently rely on.

Venture capital funds are long-term investors that provide much- needed equity capital to startups and other small companies. The fact that venture capital funds are subject to the same limitation on the number of investors they can have as other private funds, like hedge funds and private equity funds, has limited the growth of venture capital funds.

Specifically, it has limited the ability of angel investors--all of whom are sophisticated, accredited investors--to coordinate their investments by grouping together into a single venture capital fund in order to invest in a promising startup company.

This bill will accommodate these types of angel investors who want to coordinate their investments by increasing the number of accredited investors they can have before they are required to register with the SEC--from 100 investors to 250 investors.

The bill is also narrowly tailored to avoid raising investor protection concerns. It only raises the investor threshold to 250 for venture capital funds that meet the SEC's rigorous five-part definition of a venture capital fund.

Finally, the bill is limited to funds that have less than $10 million in capital invested. So we are only providing relief to relatively small venture capital funds that do not pose a huge risk to the capital markets.

This bill is the product of genuine hard work and bipartisan compromise. Again, I thank Mr. McHenry for his leadership, along with Ms. Velazquez, Ranking Member Waters, and Chairman Hensarling for their hard work on this bill.

I urge my colleagues to join me--and I believe the majority in this body--in supporting this important bill to provide easier and better access to capital for small businesses.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to make a sincere suggestion to our Republican colleagues who are working hard to come up with a replacement for the replacement plan on health care that didn't fly.

Let's fix the Affordable Care Act and work together in a bipartisan way. I have always said: the best legislation is always bipartisan. Drop your plans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Stop undermining this law, and work with Democrats to make the law work better.

That is what the majority of Americans want us to do. Millions of people now have health insurance, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. Insurance companies can no longer refuse to insure people with preexisting conditions, and essential health benefits like maternity care and mental health care are now provided.

We know that no law is perfect. We acknowledge that. So let's do our job and do what the American public want us to do: join together in a bipartisan way to make the Affordable Care Act work better.

Mr. Speaker, think all the way back to New Year's Day--94 days ago--and contemplate for just a moment the fact that if a full-time working woman were to take all of the money she made between way back then and today, and she added that to what she had made working all of last year, well, she just now would have an amount equal to what a typical man made just last year. Well, welcome to Equal Pay Day.

The exact size of the gender pay gap can vary. It tends to be smaller when you are younger, worse when you are older, and worse still if you are a woman of color. Even where you choose to live can make a difference.

My thanks to the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee, where I sit as the ranking member, for producing a new report that updates all these numbers, as well as State-by-State numbers on the gender wage gap.

I encourage all my colleagues to take a look at this report to see just how your State is doing. The best news I read all day was that New York State is number one. That was good news.

Mr. Speaker, the consensus for this Friday's Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report is that it will show the economy added about 178,000 new private sector jobs in March. That is a good number, though not as good as the March numbers in recent years.

As The New York Times put it: ``Growth in the first 3 months of the Trump administration is looking much the way it did'' in the growth under President Obama.

But because of the current administration's inaction on vital economic issues, like infrastructure spending, right now about one in three market experts now think that a near-term stock market correction may be in the cards.

Instead of doing the things we need to do to rev up the economy, this body has been spending time trying to make it harder for women to access contraceptives, gutting our right to privacy on the internet, and trying to take health care away from millions of Americans. That is no way, Mr. Speaker, to create jobs.

How about we do what the President said he wanted to do? Let's make the investments that we need now that will stimulate the creation of good jobs--good-paying jobs for Americans. That should be job number one for this Congress.

Mr. Speaker, today I am proud to reintroduce legislation to authorize the use of federal funds for long overdue research on firearm safety and gun violence.

For too long, Congress has failed to address the public health crisis caused by gun violence. On average, there are 32,000 deaths and 76,000 injuries from gun violence each year in the United States. Gun deaths now outpace traffic fatalities in our country. It is time to address the epidemic of gun violence and prevent future incidents. Public health research will help identify effective solutions we can implement in order to save lives.

The bill I introduce today, with companion legislation introduced by Sen. Ed Markey, would authorize $10 million in annual funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) through Fiscal Year 2023. This funding will allow the CDC to implement the research agenda outlined in a 2013 report issued by the Institutes of Medicine that identified areas in need of study to better understand the underlying causes of gun violence and develop strategies for prevention.

We have more gun-related deaths than any other developed country, yet we have put prohibitions in place that prevent us from obtaining comprehensive, scientific information about the causes and characteristics of gun violence. This public health crisis cannot be ignored any longer. This legislation addresses the epidemic of gun violence and identifies the best strategies to prevent future incidents.

I'm proud this bill has gained the support of leading groups on gun violence prevention, like Everytown for Gun Safety, and the public health community--including the American Medical Association (AMA). The AMA said ``gun violence in the United States is a public health crisis requiring a comprehensive public health response and solution.'' I could not agree more.

I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this important legislation that can save lives.

Mr. Speaker, as we conclude Women's History Month, I am pleased to introduce the Smithsonian Women's History Museum Act along with Rep. Ed Royce and 128 bipartisan cosponsors.

In November 2016, a bipartisan commission that was created through a bill I authored submitted its recommendations to Congress about establishing a women's history museum in our nation's capital. The Commission unanimously said in its report that the U.S. needs and deserves such a museum to properly tell our whole history. In fact, in the entire country, there is no comprehensive museum solely devoted to women's history. Women make up half the population, but are only depicted in about 10 percent of history book material, about 5 percent of national monuments and a fraction of the hundreds of statues on Capitol grounds. By not telling or preserving the stories of women who shaped our country, we are in danger of losing them completely. And that would be a great loss to us all.

This bill has been decades in the making and it is based on the excellent American Museum of Women's History Congressional Commission final report, which was the result of 18 months of thorough study. The bill would establish a Smithsonian museum dedicated to women's history prominently located on the National Mall. It calls for the Smithsonian Board of Regents to designate a site for the museum within six months of enactment, and the cost of construction would be raised privately. The museum will be governed by a 25-member Advisory Council appointed by the Board of Regents.

I am honored that so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle have joined me in this historic effort because honoring women's history should not be a partisan issue. All Americans--men and women of all ages--deserve to learn and be inspired by the stories of the women who contributed to our country's history.

I am always struck by the story of Sybil Ludington. Everyone has heard of Paul Revere's ride, but few know that Ludington, the daughter of a colonel in the Continental Army, was just a 16 year old girl when she rode through the night an even greater distance than Revere to warn her father's troops about the approaching British forces.

I have worked on this issue for many years and believe that establishing a women's history museum on the National Mall is long overdue. I hope that all of my colleagues will join me in this important effort to create an enduring tribute to women's history for generations to come.

Mr. Speaker, this week is National Small Business Week, a time each year for our nation to recognize and celebrate the critical contributions of America's entrepreneurs and small business owners.

I am pleased to support our nation's small businesses by introducing the Investing in America's Small Businesses Act of 2017. This important legislation allows Community Development Financial Institutions, known as CDFIs, to extend affordable credit to more small businesses in underserved communities through microloans. These small loans, under $50,000, give businesses working capital, help them invest in new equipment or supplies, and have no pre-payment penalties.

I'm proud that the Investing in America's Small Businesses Act has gained the endorsements of the CDFI Coalition, the Opportunity Finance Network and the National Federation of Community Development Credit Unions, the national voices for these community-based institutions.

The bill provides grants for CDFIs to establish loan-loss reserve funds for microloans, which will help CDFIs leverage private investment to expand small business lending in underserved communities.

Small businesses are critical engines of economic development and job creation. In underserved communities, however, small businesses with low-income and minority owners often have limited access to affordable credit they need to meet everyday demands or expand their operations. According to a study commissioned by the U.S. Small Business Administration in 2013, ``the major constraint limiting the growth, expansion, and wealth creation of small firms--especially women- and minority-owned businesses--is inadequate capital.''

Community Development Financial Institutions serve exactly these communities--with great success and economic benefit. In fact, a 2014 report by the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia found that despite serving predominately low-income markets, CDFI banks and credit unions had virtually the same level of performance as mainstream financial institutions. Despite this demonstrated success, CDFIs often lack the capital to meet the needs of many promising small businesses.

In FY 2016 the total funding from applications to the CDFI Fund was four times greater than the resources available. Private sector investments are not enough to address the significant need for small business credit in underserved communities. CDFIs need access to capital now more than ever. Research shows that minority and low income-owned businesses typically encounter higher borrowing costs, receive smaller loans and see their loan applications rejected more often. The CDFI Fund is well-placed to provide struggling small businesses and entrepreneurs in underserved communities access to affordable credit through microloans.

Let's give small businesses in underserved areas the tools they need to create jobs and develop their communities. I am pleased to introduce this bill, and urge my colleagues to join in support.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to reintroduce the Firearm Risk Protection Act, innovative legislation to promote safe gun ownership I first introduced in 2013.

Too often, our communities are left looking for answers after horrific tragedies inflicted with dangerous firearms. Every day, 48 children and teens die from gun violence, and too often because of preventable accidents.

A requirement to carry liability insurance is a market-based solution that would hold gun owners responsible for the risk their firearms present, and create incentives for responsible gun safety practices.

The Firearm Risk Protection Act would harness the power of insurance markets to allow professional actuaries to determine the risk presented by each gun and gun owner. Just as with car insurance, higher-risk owners or firearms would face higher premiums, while responsible owners could qualify for reduced rates.

As gun violence continues to claim lives across the country, Congress should look for new ways to promote gun safety and prevent future tragedies. I hope my colleagues will join me to support this forward- thinking legislation.

Mr. Speaker, this merciless bill, ironically called a healthcare bill, would be disastrous for this country's health, and especially harmful to the people in my home State of New York.

It will not expand access to health care, as promised. It will, instead, rip away healthcare insurance from 24 million people, including 2.7 million in New York City, people who already have health care. And it will not make premiums more affordable, as promised. It will, instead, raise premiums across this Nation. Premiums in New York would go up an estimated $1,000 next year alone.

It cuts all Federal funding for a year for Planned Parenthood clinics, which serve women in need across this country. And to make an already bad bill even worse, this bill cuts nearly $5 billion in funding for New York's hospitals that serve some of our most vulnerable people.

Voting for this bill is voting to cause sure and certain harm to millions of Americans. I urge a ``no'' vote.

Mr. Speaker, the GOP's awful, irresponsible healthcare bill will impose an age tax on older Americans, it will raise your premiums, and it will be absolutely disastrous to our Nation's hospitals.

In my district in New York, our hospitals serve millions of people every day, and their budgets are already stretched. The GOP healthcare bill will rip away health insurance for over 24 million Americans, forcing more people to get care in high-cost emergency rooms while, at the same time, cutting billions in Federal funding hospitals need to survive.

New York's hospitals will lose over $1 billion in 2018 alone. With uncompensated care already skyrocketing, the 27 New York hospitals that are already on a financial distress watch list tell me they may not even be able to survive. That is why the Greater New York Hospital Association, the Healthcare Association of New York State, and other New York health groups are urging all of us to vote ``no'' on this terrible GOP bill.

Mr. Speaker, today I join with millions around the globe to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. The United States of America would not be the country we are today without the enormous contributions of millions of Irish immigrants and their descendants.

From serving in every war our country has ever faced and leading our country at every level of government, Irish Americans have done it all. Today, more than 33 million Irish Americans claim Irish ancestry.

Tragically, our country didn't always welcome the Irish. During the late 19th and 20th centuries, Irish arriving on our shores were met with contempt, disdain, and with signs that read, ``Irish need not apply.'' But they persisted, and our country is all the better for it.

So, today, St. Patrick's Day, I thank you and say thank you to all the Irish men and women who helped shape the great country we are today.

Thank you, and happy St. Patrick's Day.

Mr. Speaker, today the House Budget Committee passed the Republican healthcare plan.

We all know by now that the recent CBO analysis has some very bad news for millions of Americans, but it has some especially bad news for women. The GOP plan makes Planned Parenthood ineligible for any reimbursement from Medicaid or Medicare for one entire year. More than half of Planned Parenthood facilities are in rural or medically underserved areas. Even in my district in New York, women are lined up outside the building and down the block, often waiting for Planned Parenthood services.

Yet, the CBO says that if the GOP plan becomes law, more than 15 percent of low-income women in our country will be without any access to health care--no cancer screenings and no tests and treatments for STDs. Women's lives and well-being should have greater value than this, but they just don't seem to count in the cruel math of this merciless law.