Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, it is just wrong. It is wrong that we have 2.8 million hardworking Americans who have lost their jobs and are looking every day for their next job.

They stand to lose everything that they have worked for, and this Congress has within its power the ability to act to save them from losing decades of hard work, losing their house, losing their car, losing the roof over their head; but this Congress fails to bring up a bill that has passed the Senate, that the President would sign, that would extend unemployment benefits to 2.8 million Americans who work hard every day.

There is one reason that this Congress has failed to act, and it is because the Speaker and the Republican leadership will not bring this bill to the floor.

This bill would not increase the deficit. It is paid for, but it would end the misery and the suffering of so many hardworking people who get up every day, wondering if today is the day that the foreclosure notice will come, if today is the day that the car will be repossessed.

We are all Americans. We have always stood together. We have always helped one another when times are tough. For 2.8 million people, times are tough.

Congress needs to act. I call on this House to bring up H.R. 4415. Let's do this now.

Madam Chairman, I thank my good friend for yielding.

Madam Chairman, I would like to address two amendments that I offered that are included in the en bloc amendment, one that deals with expanding financial resources and tools for servicemembers and one that funds an independent study to improve wounded warrior care.

For too long, unscrupulous lenders have targeted servicemembers on military bases with financial products that could have long-term negative impacts on their family's financial security. Inadequate financial understanding or literacy training on some of these financial products can lead to financial difficulty for servicemembers. Many servicemembers often require security clearances to perform their duties, and financial difficulties and the loss of a clearance can have an enormous impact on military combat readiness.

This first amendment that I offer would allocate $10 million to expand financial literacy resources for incoming and transitioning servicemembers to ensure that they are not unfairly targeted by predatory lenders.

The other amendment that is included is an important one to fund an independent study to improve wounded warrior care. While the DOD is still confronting significant challenges and issues regarding its care and transition of wounded warriors, and while improvements have been made, it is obvious that wounded warriors are still failing to receive the care that they need and that they deserve. Caring for these individuals who have served honorably should--and I know always will be--one of our most solemn duties.

For this reason, a review, a comprehensive review, an independent and comprehensive review and study of this type should be awarded to an entity that is free of any current obligation; 20 percent of its revenues in the last several years should not have come from contracts from the DOD or the VA, ensuring independence. It is really important that we take a close look at how we are providing services to these servicemembers, and this independent study would do so.

Mr. Speaker, I ask the House of Representatives to join me in recognizing Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States Commander-in-Chief William A. Thien as he visits the State of Michigan and our Fifth Congressional District on Monday, May 12, 2014.

William A. ``Bill'' Thien was elected Commander-in-Chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on July 24, 2013, at the VFW's 114th National Convention, held in Louisville, KY.

Having served in the U.S. Navy from 1969-1974 as well as five years in the Indiana National Guard, Commander Thien holds decorations that include the Vietnam Service Medal with 3 stars, Vietnam Campaign Medal with 1960 Bar, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal (Korea), National Defense Service Medal and several from the National Guard.

He joined the VFW in 1971 at Post 3281 in New Albany, IN, where he maintains his Gold Legacy Life Membership. He has served the VFW in many leadership positions including All American Post Commander, All State District Commander and All American State Commander. He has also held positions on numerous National committees, including Vice Chairman of Citizenship Education and Community Service and as Chairman of National Scholarship and Recognition.

Now retired, Commander Thien is a member of the American Legion, Veterans of Vietnam War Post 1, National Rifle Association, Patriot Guard Riders, Military Order of the Cootie Pup Tent 51 and VFW National Home.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud Commander William Thien for his strong leadership and unwavering commitment to our country.

Mr. Speaker, it has been 1 month since the Senate acted in a bipartisan fashion to pass emergency unemployment extension.

Just hours after the Senate acted, I introduced a bill, H.R. 4415, the same language passed by the Senate. It is fully paid for, would not increase the deficit, unlike the hundreds of billions of dollars in permanent tax breaks that the Republican leadership intends to bring to the floor this week.

A month later, we still have no vote scheduled for extending unemployment insurance for millions of Americans--no vote, despite the fact that over 150 Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, have cosponsored H.R. 4415; no vote, despite the fact that 2.6 million Americans have already lost this important benefit and 2.8 million will have lost that benefit by the end of the month, almost 3 million Americans; no vote, with 72,000 individuals, hardworking Americans, every week at risk of losing their unemployment insurance if we don't act.

Helping jobless Americans who are actively looking for work is not only the right thing to do, but we have done this before. We have done this under Democratic administrations and Republican administrations. It is not a handout. It is simply a lifeline to help those folks who have lost their job stay above ground, above water, before they get their next job.

This should not be a partisan issue; yet, yesterday, the Republican leadership said no to letting some of these jobless Americans testify at a Capitol Hill hearing. We were locked out of the room that we had requested.

2.8 million jobless Americans, they may be invisible to the House Republican leadership, but they will not be silenced.

While they were locked out of the hearing room at the Rayburn House Office Building, I and other Members joined these unemployed Americans yesterday, went to the steps of the Capitol, and listened to them as they told their stories. This is their Capitol; it is not ours. It belongs to them, and their voices deserve to be heard.

I also asked hardworking Americans who are unemployed to tweet and email me their stories. My newsfeed and inbox was flooded with stories of people just trying to get by, struggling to pay their rent, struggling to feed their families as they continue to be denied a vote in the House of Representatives to renew unemployment insurance.

They have continued to be denied their voice in the House of Representatives, and this is the people's House. So what I would like to do with my remaining time is just tell a few of the stories that have come in. Lynette B. says:

We just received our foreclosure letter on our home. I am

49 years old, and this is certainly not where I see myself at

this age. I am educated, and I have been applying to no less

than three jobs per day, only to not get a reply to most of

them, or else I am overqualified.

Jennifer S., this is Jennifer and her family:

I never thought I would be in this position, unemployed and

worrying about feeding my two growing boys, 14 and 9. I have

had to go to food pantries to keep food on the table. I am

behind in my car payment and the utilities since my

unemployment benefits stopped December 28.

Laura B. writes:

I need the extension, so I can afford to keep the Internet

on to look for jobs and afford the gas to go to interviews.

It's very hard out there, and there are so many unemployed

people looking for each job, that the chances are slim.

Angela M. writes:

Please help with UI. I have lost almost everything, sold my

car, pawned my wedding rings, selling furniture to keep a

rented roof over my kids' heads.

Elaine G. writes:

I live with my 27-year-old daughter and sleep on an air

mattress. I have no phone. I complete job applications now

and ask employers to contact me through email. I expect, any

day, that my car will be repossessed, as soon as the finance

company is able to locate the car.

Carol C. writes:

Come June 1, I will have to leave my apartment. My car,

phone, Internet will be gone.

I have no money for essentials like good toilet paper and

soap. How does somebody find a job?

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to raise these voices. These are real Americans. They are real stories.

Some of the questions we face in this Congress are complicated. This one is simple. Take up H.R. 4415, and we can take away the pain that so many Americans--almost 3 million Americans--are facing.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Massachusetts for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that we can immediately bring up H.R. 4415, which would restore unemployment benefits to 2.8 million Americans, people who have lost their job and are simply trying to find their next job and want to prevent their families from losing everything they have worked for in that period.

I heard the gentleman on the other side say that folks on this side are trying to change the subject to something else. You have got almost 3 million Americans who stand to lose everything they have worked for, everything that they have built over their lifetime, and this Congress has the power to act. We could do it today. The Senate passed an unemployment extension. The President will sign it.

On the other side, we heard that we don't want to take up UI because it is not paid for. So, we have a bill that the Senate passed in a bipartisan fashion that is paid for. It does not increase the deficit. You have got the bill you want. You have got the bill you asked for. It would save almost 3 million people from losing everything they have fought for.

Do we bring that to the floor? No vote on unemployment extension. We can talk about everything else, we can bring political messaging bills to the floor, but for the 2.8 million people who are losing everything, no vote for them, not in the House of Representatives today.

For the 72,000 people every week that are losing their unemployment benefits--hardworking Americans--some on the other side say they want to be unemployed. Yesterday, we had a group of unemployed citizens. We intended to have a hearing. We couldn't get a room. The Republican leadership wouldn't allow it. We went to the steps of the Capitol, and we heard these stories.

I suggest we take a look at the people in your own district, in your own districts back home who are unemployed, trying to find their next job, have lost their unemployment benefits, and look them in the face and tell them that the political messaging bills that are coming to this House are more important than preserving the life that these people have worked hard to create for themselves and their kids.

Some of the issues that we deal with in this House are really complex questions. Some of them are not so complicated. This is one that is simple: 2.8 million people could be helped only if this Congress will act.

Set aside this nonsense. Bring up H.R. 4415, and let's get back to the business of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, today there are 2 million Americans that stand to lose everything they have worked for, through no fault of their own--2 million Americans that are working Americans that get up every day and work hard to find their next job. They are America's unemployed who have lost their extended unemployment benefits. They stand to lose everything.

Rather than taking up H.R. 4415, which I introduced right after the Senate acted on a bipartisan basis to deal with this problem of the unemployed in our country, to make sure that that unemployment compensation is there for them when they need it, rather than take that up, the House Budget Committee has sent to this floor for its consideration a budget that would slash essential programs to provide a safety net for those hardworking Americans who stand to lose everything in order to fund tax cuts--big tax cuts--for America's wealthiest people. That is policy that we just can't tolerate. Rather than taking up the needs of those 2 million, we have taken on the challenge of trying to provide more tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

If this had happened because of a storm, we would act overnight. We need to take up H.R. 4415 right away.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

I think we can agree at least on the rhetoric that the best thing we can do to balance our budget in the long-term is to grow the economy, but it is pretty clear we have a different vision as to how that will actually happen.

We believe that a Tax Code that is fair, that equally distributes the obligation to all Americans, is one of the ways we get there. We don't believe that simply cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans and passing the obligation on to working people is the way to do it.

We believe that we grow the economy by investing in infrastructure so that we can grow jobs and deliver products across the country and across the planet. We don't think we get there by cutting infrastructure and continuing to challenge our businesses.

We believe we grow the economy by investing in the skills of our workforce so that they can become more productive, not by cutting those necessary programs.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday night, I introduced legislation to provide an extension of emergency unemployment benefits that would extend the important safety net of unemployment benefits, unemployment insurance to over 2 million Americans who lost their benefits on December 28 and thereafter as a result of the failure of this body to act to protect those benefits.

Many of us, particularly on the Democratic side--and I know some on the other side as well because they have expressed it--would have preferred that we had dealt with this question as we were dealing with the budget issues and the budget question that we faced at the end of last year, but we did not, so we are left now with the fact that we have some unfinished business.

On Monday evening, in a bipartisan fashion, the U.S. Senate enacted similar legislation. In fact, the bill that I introduced on Monday night was the precise language enacted on a bipartisan basis by the U.S. Senate.

Two million Americans are living right now with the fear of losing their homes, losing their cars, having their families split up because they don't have that basic need being met of a roof over a head and food on the table between their last jobs and their next jobs.

For typical workers in America, when they lose their jobs, it takes an average of 37 weeks. I know, in my home State, it is probably longer before they find their next opportunities. In Michigan, once one loses one's job, one has got 20 weeks of unemployment insurance. What happens to one after that is what we are dealing with today.

The fact that people go from one week to the next not knowing if they are going to be able to keep their families together and keep roofs over their heads is something that this Congress can do something about if it chooses to.

I know there are Members of the Republican Conference who are anxious to see this enacted because several put together a letter to the Speaker, asking that this issue be brought up immediately, and that is what I hope my colleagues will do--bring extended unemployment compensation, unemployment insurance to the floor, so that we can protect those workers who are trying to get from their last jobs to their next jobs without starting a cycle of poverty that could last generations.

There are some who say we don't need this because, number one, workers who are on unemployment don't want to work. I suppose there may be an exception or a myth that we could conjure up about an individual who is receiving unemployment compensation who doesn't want to work, but for those of you who believe that, come to my district or, better yet, go to your home district.

Talk to people in the unemployment lines and ask them if they would trade their situations today for meaningful work. I assure you that the vast majority, if not all of the people in that situation, would trade, in a minute, their situations for a real job with a decent wage.

There are some also who say that we shouldn't do this because it is not an emergency, that these are supposed to be emergency benefits. As far as I can see, it is not only an emergency here in Washington, but if you are about to lose your house or if you are about to lose your car or if you don't have enough food on the table to feed your kids, for you, it is an emergency.

We represent those folks, and we ought to be thinking about them, and we ought to take this up.

So why is it that we need to do this in the first place? I think the Republicans and Democrats could agree that the economy is not growing at a rate to put all Americans back to work. We will acknowledge that. We will stipulate that, while there has been growth and while there has been private sector job creation, it is not enough.

We will probably disagree on the reasons behind that, but we can agree that the current economy is not enough to put these folks back to work. We should help them, but we should also do the things that it will take to get America back to work again.

Unfortunately, what we will deal with in the next couple of days is a budget that undermines economic growth, that undermines the kind of investments in the skills of our workforce by cutting job training, by cutting Pell grants, by cutting early childhood education--programs like Head Start--that actually change the trajectory for those individuals, that make them more capable and more able to get into the workforce in this competitive economy that we are in.

Rather than investing in our people, what this proposed Ryan budget would do is to cut those essential programs and not contribute to economic growth.

It also would cut important investments in infrastructure. Democrats and Republicans alike agree that we need to rebuild our infrastructure--our roads, our bridges, our rail systems, and our ports.

This budget takes us in the wrong direction.

Mr. Speaker, I hope that the Congress can come together around this question and realize that if, in the short term, we are going to deal with the crisis that families are facing, we will pass an unemployment extension, and, in the long term, we take the kind of steps that we need to rebuild our economy.

The budget proposed by Mr. Ryan that will be coming to the floor will take us in the wrong direction.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I join him in urging my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that we can immediately bring up H.R. 4415, which is identical to a bill that passed on a bipartisan basis by the Senate just last night.

It would extend emergency unemployment benefits to the 2 million Americans who have lost those benefits since Congress failed to act late last year.

I also will note that I read today a report that seven of my Republican House colleagues have written the Speaker urging him to bring this legislation up immediately as well. So we have bipartisan support for this effort to restore necessary benefits to individuals who have lost their job.

It takes an average of 37 weeks for someone who loses their job in this country to find their next opportunity. Yet, in my State, after 20 weeks, you are cut off of unemployment.

So while today is a beautiful spring day outside, and all across the country people are breathing in the optimism that comes with spring, for 2 million Americans, they look at this a different way. They go outside today and wonder if today is the day that the foreclosure notice will come, if today is the day that the eviction will be tacked on to their front door, if they will go outside and today will be the day that the car has been repossessed or that there won't be enough food to feed their family.

These are real-life Americans who are facing this struggle. We have it in our power to do something about it.

H.R. 4415, like the Senate action, is fully paid for. Despite the fact that, in the past, on a bipartisan basis, we have approved an unemployment insurance extension without it being paid for, this is paid for. It will not increase the deficit but will decrease the suffering of millions of American people who go every day trying to find their next job.

I have heard some on the other side say, well, we shouldn't do this because it is not an emergency. Well, if you are about to lose your house, or about to lose your apartment, or about to lose your car, or don't have enough food to feed your children, let me tell you, for them, maybe not for all of you, but for them it is an emergency, and this Congress can act, and it should act immediately.

Parliamentary Inquiries

Thank you to my friend from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for yielding, and for his leadership.

He is exactly right. What this budget fails to do is address the fundamental questions that we have to address.

As a new member of the Budget Committee, during the most recent budget markup, I offered an amendment. A couple of dozen of our amendments were heard and dismissed rather quickly.

I offered an amendment that would deal with that question of shared sacrifice, an amendment that would have simply said that if you make more than $1 million in this country, you should pay your fair share, applying the so-called Buffett Rule that basically says, if you are doing well, you should at least pay the same rate that another member of your staff would pay.

As Mr. Buffett pointed out, his secretary pays a higher rate. This would have required a 30 percent rate to apply to those folks making $1 million.

What was interesting to me was what I was told by the other side, that this amendment was because people in the working middle class, people who go to work every day, are jealous of those who have done well in the United States.

Let me assure you, this has nothing do with jealousy; it has everything to do with fairness. The only thing we ask is that if we are all going to pitch in to adopt a balanced budget and invest in growing our economy, we should all pitch in and not have a tax system that benefits the wealthiest, and has the rest of us not only have to pay more than our fair share, but not receive the important investments that will grow our economy.

So what this budget doesn't do is require we all pay a fair share. Neither does it extend unemployment insurance to those who are just trying to get from their last job to their next job without losing their house and their car and having their family split up.

It doesn't raise the minimum wage so that those who go to work every day won't live in poverty. It doesn't address the fundamental question facing us, and that is immigration reform, which would have a significant effect on growing our economy. People on the left and the right agree with that.

No, this statement of our collective values fails to address that fundamental question.

But what it does do is cut basic education. It would kick 170,000 kids out of Head Start, changing the trajectory of their lives forever; cuts $89 billion out of education, $35 billion alone out of Title I. Cuts higher education, which is an investment in our future, which we know pays dividends downstream. Cuts infrastructure.

Cuts infrastructure, which we have to address. If our companies, if our manufacturers are going to be competitive, we are going to have to make those sorts of investment.

This budget does none of those things. All it does is protect those who

continue to be sheltered by a system that allows for this kind of inequality in this country and doesn't address the fundamental questions facing us.

I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I hope that my colleagues will join me in opposing this budget.

Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Speaker, we are at that time of the year when we are dealing with another set of budget decisions. A budget is supposed to be a demonstration of this Congress' and our Nation's values and priorities, a plan that helps lift people up and ensure that everyone, if you play by the rules, has got a fair shot at success.

But budgets require tough choices.

The Ryan budget, which passed out of committee yesterday, unfortunately chooses to make things more difficult for hardworking middle class Americans in order to subsidize big tax breaks to big oil companies, to multinational corporations, and to the wealthiest Americans.

Yesterday, I introduced a very simple amendment to the Ryan budget in the Budget Committee, one that would simply say this: if you make more than $1 million, which is a very small percentage--97 percent of small business owners make less than that--you pay your fair share. Warren Buffett famously observed that he pays a lower tax rate than his own secretary. My amendment would have said, if you make over $1 million, you pay at least 30 percent. Unfortunately, that amendment failed on a party-line vote.

I hope we have an opportunity to offer that amendment here on the floor, and I urge my colleagues, if they have the chance to do so, to support that.

Madam Speaker, as I have mentioned a few times when I have come to the floor in the last 14 months now, I am a member of the freshman class, elected in 2012. I am proud of that fact. I am proud of it for several reasons, but one of the things that is significant about this class, particularly on our side of the aisle here as Democrats, is that it is the most diverse group of individuals ever elected to the United States Congress in a single class. In fact, its diversity is such that it is made up of a majority of minorities, women, and LGBT members--a majority minority class. Its diversity gives us tremendous strength. As I sit with my colleagues, it is amazing to me the vast perspectives that we bring, and I think it has brought to us much better opportunity and a much better ability to see the needs of this country and to address them.

It is the diversity of this Congress, and especially of this Congress elected in 2012, that is its principal strength. I say that because it is my view that it is the diversity of our Nation that is our greatest strength. What makes America exceptional is its diversity, and that diversity is the result of a culture and of values that have been welcoming to people from all corners of the world to come here and make the U.S. home--to build businesses, to bring their families, to invest in community--and to be a part of something that we have never seen before on the

face of the planet, which is a nation of immigrants.

For far too long, however, the need to reform our obsolete immigration system has been a low priority for the House leadership. It has been, essentially, on the back burner. Americans have said loud and clear that they want Congress to act on comprehensive immigration reform, and it doesn't seem to matter whom we talk to. For people on the left and the right, across the different regions of this country, the need for immigration reform is increasingly clear, not just because it reflects our values, but because many see it as in our vital economic interest that we reform our obsolete immigration policies and return to the values that made this country so great. It is that welcoming value, that value that says: Come here. Be a part of this Nation. Help grow it. Help build it, and help contribute to its productivity.

Last year, when immigration reform was, obviously, coming before us because so many Members were expressing the need for it, we heard the Speaker say that the Senate should act first and that he would await Senate action before bringing comprehensive immigration reform to the floor of the House of Representatives. Last year, the Senate acted. The Senate acted in a bipartisan fashion by a vote of 68-32 and passed comprehensive immigration reform. It was not a perfect piece of legislation--none of them are--but they passed comprehensive immigration reform, which is something that people in this country have been asking for for a long time.

But nothing. Nothing was brought to the House. In fact, while we had immigration reform ready to go--we have a bipartisan bill here in the House of Representatives--silence from the leadership on the Republican side.

Then earlier this year, in January, the Speaker said that, once he had been able to present to his Conference the principles by which the Republican Conference would pursue comprehensive immigration reform, we would be able to then turn to this question and move forward on what the American people have been asking for for a long time. That was in January. Next week, it is April, and the House and the American people still wait.

There is overwhelming support for comprehensive immigration reform. It comes from labor. It comes from our business community. It comes from the agriculture community. It is so rare that we have an issue like this that is number one fundamental to who we are as Americans, and it is so rare that we have an issue that unites the people who very often on this very floor have their differences manifest in the debates of Congress. Now we have an issue that is consistent with our history, that is consistent with our values, and that is supported by big and small businesses, by agriculture interests, by organized labor, by Democrats and Republicans.

It is long overdue. It is time for us to get about the business of the American people and to take immigration reform up now.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to talk about a critical Federal program that helps seniors and low-income families in Michigan and across the country with their utility bills.

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, LIHEAP, provides short-term assistance to help households with their heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer. In Michigan, more than 600,000 households received LIHEAP assistance last year. Nationally, LIHEAP serves 6.7 million people.

These mostly one-time payments provide a financial bridge to ensure that vulnerable populations do not have to choose between paying their energy bills and affording the other necessities of life, like food and medicine.

Today is National LIHEAP Action Day, and constituents, businesses, and nonprofit organizations are all in town to ask Congress to provide adequate funding so residents across the country are able to continue accessing this vital program. Please welcome them into your offices, and please support the critical LIHEAP program.

With this year being one of the coldest winters in decades, many agencies are struggling with record numbers of people seeking assistance. LIHEAP benefits have already been cut; it is not time to cut them again.

Mr. Speaker, for far too long, comprehensive immigration reform has been a low priority for the Speaker and for the Republican leadership. Americans have spoken loud and clear. They want comprehensive immigration reform.

Just last year, as the Senate was considering comprehensive reform, the Speaker implied that the House would take it up after the Senate did. The Senate acted in a bipartisan fashion and passed comprehensive reform on a vote of 68-32.

Then we were told that the House would take up comprehensive immigration reform after the Speaker brought to his conference his immigration reform principles. That happened at the end of January; yet nothing--nothing has been brought to the floor.

If there is not a reason for us to do this on the basis of the policy, which I think is clear, it is consistent with our national interest and our national values to institute comprehensive immigration reform.

I just would direct Members of the other side to take a look at the bipartisan CBO report that was published that shows that comprehensive immigration reform would reduce our national deficit by $900 billion.

It is the right policy, it is good economics, and we should bring it up right away.