Floor Statements

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I want to begin by acknowledging the extraordinary leadership of Chairman Wolf, who, as I was recounting earlier, I remember as a young law student arriving in Washington, and hearing about his work.

So much of his work has been longstanding. I particularly want to acknowledge his work on gang violence and gang violence reduction. I know this will be his last appropriations bill, so I thank him for his many years of service to our country.

I also want to thank and recognize our ranking member, Congressman Fattah, for his great work.

I rise today to offer an amendment that will invest in making our communities safe from gangs and gun violence.

This amendment restores $8.5 million in funding for the Violent Gang and Gun Crime Reduction Program, also known as Project Safe Neighborhoods. It provides the same level of funding that was provided for this critical program in fiscal year 2014.

Project Safe Neighborhoods is a proven, effective program for intervening in communities in order to enhance public safety and combat gang violence.

Today, this competitive grant program invests in partnerships led by U.S. attorneys and allows local and State law enforcement, community leaders, and prosecutors to collaborate together on efforts to fight gang crime and reduce gun violence--and to do it in a strategically thoughtful way and to bring resources to this important work.

Project Safe Neighborhoods provides communities across the country with the resources they need to coordinate effectively and to prevent violence. Most importantly, this program employs a multifaceted approach to address the ongoing problem of gang and gun violence. Many communities use this funding for both prevention and enforcement efforts.

Stakeholders have used fund from Project Safe Neighborhoods to scale up efforts related to prosecuting and investigating gang activity. They have also used these resources to engage at-risk populations with innovative outreach and intervention strategies.

The positive results of this initiative have been very well documented. A 2009 National Institute of Justice evaluation demonstrated that communities receiving Project Safe Neighborhoods funding saw a four times greater decline in crime than those in cities that did not receive funding.

When I was mayor of Providence, I saw firsthand the importance of this approach to prevent and stop gang crime and gun violence.

Together, we targeted gangs by both prosecuting criminals and also dispatching street outreach workers through community leaders like the Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence. These street workers could successfully convince our young people to end the cycle of violence. This is a program that has a proven record of saving lives by preventing gun violence and proactively working in the community to prevent violence.

Importantly, this has always been a bipartisan experience. I know my colleagues, many of whom are former prosecutors, community activists, and local and State-elected officials, have seen the tremendous benefit of Project Safe Neighborhoods.

In fiscal year 2013, 16 communities from Nebraska and Tennessee to Rhode Island and Maine received funding. Since its inception in 2001, dozens of other communities have also relied on funding from Project Safe Neighborhoods to make communities safer and to reduce gun violence.

So I am asking my colleagues to support this proven program. This is literally about saving the lives of young people in this country. I urge my colleagues to support the critical investments in this very collaborative public safety approach led by our U.S. attorneys and to support funding for Project

Safe Neighborhoods. The safety of our communities and our ability to help reduce gun violence and gang violence depends on it.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Madam Chair, I thank and acknowledge the work of Chairman Wolf and our Ranking Member Fattah for their exhaustive work on this appropriations bill.

Madam Chair, in an effort to drive innovation and regional collaboration, the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010 established a Regional Innovation Program within the Economic Development Administration. This program is intended to encourage and support the development of regional innovation strategies, including regional innovation clusters and science and research parks.

For the past few years, the President has consistently requested $25 million to fund the Regional Innovation Strategies Program. The program was provided $10 million in funding in the fiscal year 2014 omnibus appropriations bill passed by this Chamber a few months ago.

Funding for the Regional Innovation Program supports the Economic Development Agency's interagency effort to build regional innovation clusters, including the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge and the Make It In America challenge. This program helps to ensure we build a cohesive, competitive economy by aggregating existing investments and technical assistance from multiple Federal agencies to develop a network of interconnected firms and institutions. Together, this network and other regional stakeholders can use this funding to accelerate job growth, spur business formation and expansion, encourage innovation, invest in workforce training, and support small business development.

For example, the i6 Challenge grants funded within the Regional Innovation Program have already helped universities and research centers across the country invest in efforts to scale up groundbreaking ideas. This means providing these innovators with the necessary resources to accelerate commercialization and to attract venture capital for the most promising technologies. To compete in the 21st century and win, America must invest in scaling up promising technology and innovative ideas.

In the long-term, these ideas will help ensure our Nation remains at the cutting edge. Importantly, investing now will help jump-start our competitive advantage in terms of producing emerging technologies and supporting advanced manufacturing. Through the Regional Innovation Program, local leaders are empowered to maximize existing assets and are provided resources to ensure that historically underrepresented communities, including those hardest hit by unemployment and economic decline, are able to participate in and benefit from a growth in a regional cluster.

The Regional Innovation Program has traditionally garnered support from both Republicans and Democrats. It is a truly bipartisan, evidence-based method for creating jobs.

My amendment is simple and straightforward. It would not create a new program or new authorization. It does not increase or decrease funding for a single account in the appropriations bill. Instead, this amendment simply serves to include the Regional Innovation Program within the bill and to bring focus to this vitally important job- creating initiative as this appropriations process moves forward.

In addition, the Regional Innovation Program has consistently been specifically supported and cited with a separate line item in previous Senate CJS Appropriations Committee reports.

To close, I strongly believe we must recognize that innovation is critically important to America's ability to compete in the 21st century global economy. Supporting the development of regional innovation clusters strengthens our capacity to create and retain new jobs and sustain our economic recovery. The Regional Innovation Program will help Federal, State, and local entities leverage existing resources, spur regional collaboration, and support economic recovery and job creation in high-growth industries.

I recognize, after conferring with Chairman Wolf, that there is a point of order that has been raised on this.

Madam Chair, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw this amendment and look forward to working with the chairman and the committee to see that this program is both reauthorized and funded.

Mr. Speaker, after more than a decade of war, the loss of 2,178 American heroes, thousands seriously injured, and the expenditure of nearly $2 trillion, we must end our military presence in Afghanistan now, safely bring our troops home, and begin to focus on the urgent challenges we face here in America.

A sustainable, long-term peace can only be accomplished when the people of Afghanistan assume responsibility for their own security.

Yesterday, our colleague Jim McGovern offered an amendment that directed the President to rapidly accelerate the transition of U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan to the Afghan government by December, and would have required congressional approval if the President sought to keep U.S. military forces in Afghanistan after that. Unfortunately, we were denied the right to have a debate and vote on this amendment.

We owe the brave men and women in uniform a clear plan to bring them home safely and soon and to end this war now.

After more than 12 years of war and the killing of Osama bin Laden, it is time to end the war in Afghanistan and instead focus our attention on creating jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure, providing care for our veterans, and focusing on the serious fiscal challenges facing our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, tomorrow, I will introduce the 21st Century Buy America Act with Senator Chris Murphy, to modernize decades-old Buy American standards and help create new manufacturing jobs in the United States.

Congress should make sure that American taxpayer dollars are used to buy goods manufactured here at home, not overseas, whenever we can.

Our bill will strengthen existing Buy America standards and make a number of important changes to support our domestic manufacturing base. For example, it will make manufacturers of items in short supply here at home eligible for resources to help them compete against foreign manufacturers for U.S. government contracts.

In addition, this bill increases transparency requirements for agencies that provide waivers, and it increases the domestic content percentage requirement so that, to qualify as American-made, you have to prove that a majority of the materials are actually made right here in America.

Most importantly, this legislation will help grow our manufacturing sector and create new jobs by providing an increased demand for American-made products by the Federal Government.

It is time to bring manufacturing back to America and to support existing manufacturing, and the United States Government should lead by example.

Mr. Speaker, last week, I unveiled the ``Faces of the Unemployed,'' an effort to help put a human face on the unemployment crisis.

Yesterday, out-of-work Americans from all over the country came to Congress to tell their story, and they were shut out of the Capitol Building. They were not allowed to share their experiences inside the building that belongs to them and in front of the people they sent to Congress.

Mr. Speaker, you may have stopped them from sharing their stories inside the Capitol yesterday, but with the ``Faces of the Unemployed,'' their faces and stories will be in the Halls of Congress every single day until you bring this bill to the floor for a vote.

There are 2.5 million Americans without this safety net today, and that number could reach nearly 5 million if Congress does not act to extend unemployment benefits before the end of this year. These are real Americans, many of whom have worked their whole lives until recently and now can't afford basic necessities. They spent all their savings. Some have become homeless, and others are on the verge of losing everything.

Every one of these people deserves a vote, Mr. Speaker. I urge you to bring the Senate bill to the floor for an immediate vote so that we can extend unemployment benefits and help millions of Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and I thank the gentlelady for her passionate support of the State of Israel. It has been an honor to serve with you on the Foreign Affairs Committee and to be an active member of the Jewish Caucus here in the House.

I rise today to celebrate 66 years of independence by the State of Israel and 66 years of lasting friendship between our two nations.

On May 14, 1948, under the leadership of future Israeli Prime Minister David-Ben Gurion, Jewish leaders established the State of Israel. At that time, President Harry Truman recognized the new state and sent a strong message to countries throughout the Middle East and the world that Israel would not face its future challenges alone.

Since that time, Israel has thrived and become a strong democracy. Today, our two nations remain closely aligned as a result of our shared values and common interests. During these 66 years Israel has overcome many difficult challenges and the continued existence of a Jewish state is a testament to the will and strength of the people of Israel.

As we reflect on the achievements of this great country, we must also remember its modern beginnings. Israel was established as a safe haven for the Jewish people who survived centuries of persecution and oppression.

Today, the people of Israel continue to face many threats to their way of life and to their country. There are those who believe violence is the solution to resolving their differences with the State of Israel.

But to promote security throughout this region, what the Middle East really needs is stability and peace. I want to take a moment to commend our President, President Obama, and Secretary of State John Kerry for their commitment to securing a lasting peace and their work toward achieving that goal.

On the 66th anniversary of the establishment of Israel, we strongly affirm our commitment to Israel as both a friend and ally, and double down on our efforts to bring peace to this region of the world. As President Truman so eloquently noted: Israel has ``a glorious future before it, not just as another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.''

I know we have all had the opportunity to visit Israel and to see firsthand the success of this democracy and the prosperity of this country surviving and thriving in a very difficult neighborhood. It has been a great honor to be here in Congress and to continue to support the relationship between our two great countries, but to really honor the success of 66 years of independence of a country that shares our values, that continues to be an example to the world of a great democracy.

Mr. Speaker, this year marks the 50th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy's arrival to America. As a spiritual teacher, poet, artist and composer, Sri Chinmoy used his many talents to make the world a more peaceful place to live.

Sri Chinmoy was born in the village of Shakpura, Chittagong, in Bangladesh, which was at the time called East Bengal. In 1964, Sri Chinmoy first traveled to the U.S. and later embarked on a fifty-state American lecture

tour to promote his powerful message of peace, cooperation, and respect for all. His first stop was Rhode Island's Brown University. His message of peace resonated with Rhode Islanders because he sought what so many people seek--a peaceful world for himself and others.

His quiet and selfless work has served as an important example to all those who work toward peace and harmony. A few years ago, I was proud to help dedicate a statue portraying Sri Chinmoy in Roger Williams Park to celebrate the World Harmony Run, founded by Sri Chinmoy, which seeks to strengthen international ties and promote friendship. Providence is among the many cities in America and across the world that recognize the peaceful principles taught by Sri Chinmoy. In fact, there are over 100 countries that participate in the World Harmony Run.

On the 50th anniversary of Sri Chinmoy's arrival to America, it is important that we remember his message and renew our commitment to make the world a more peaceful place. His leadership is sorely missed, but his spirit and message live on. As he so aptly described: ``we are all seekers, and our goal is the same: to achieve inner peace, light, and joy, to become inseparably one with our Source, and to lead lives full of true satisfaction.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 184 I was at a funeral in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``no.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to show you and my colleagues the faces of the Americans that are hurting by refusing to renew unemployment benefits.

Just 3 days after Christmas, this House leadership left these people out in the cold and made it more difficult for them to provide for their family, to buy food, to pay their mortgages or pay their rent. It has been 4 months since the House Republican leaders turned their backs on millions of unemployed Americans, and the situation grows more dire for these individuals and their families with each passing day.

For far too long, this Congress has described the long-term unemployed in numbers, figures, and statistics only. Well, today I hope that will begin to change and that the Speaker and other Republicans leaders will understand what is happening to real people because of their refusal to extend unemployment benefits.

I am launching something called the ``Faces of the Unemployed'' to show my colleagues on the other side of the aisle just who they are hurting. This poster board will be outside my office, and I will be adding people to it as they share their stories. It will force my Republican colleagues to look into their eyes as they pass them in the hallway and to understand that these individuals should not be invisible.

Mr. Speaker, I want you and all of my colleagues to look at these faces and explain to your colleagues and to America why you won't allow a vote that will help them put food on their table, pay their rent, and provide for their families.

These are real people, Mr. Speaker, who have been left behind and forgotten about by this body. It is disgraceful that, while the Republican budget spends billions of dollars abroad and protects special interest tax loopholes that encourage companies to ship American jobs overseas, this body can't provide immediate relief to the long-term unemployed who are still recovering from the Great Recession.

In the end, this debate is about more than dollars and cents. It is about the families who continue to lose unemployment benefits with each passing day that the House fails to act. It is about the more than 200,000 veterans and more than a million children who have been affected by this loss of benefits.

It is about my constituents, Michael from Riverside, Rhode Island, who is about to lose his electricity and gas because he can't pay his bills and, in his own words, has ``nowhere to turn.''

It is about Paula from Bristol, who has always worked since she was 15 years old and says she is ``being made to feel like a thief.''

It is about Lillian from North Providence, who said she would ``rather be working'' but can't find a job.

These stories are not unique to Rhode Island. This is happening to people in every part of our country: Nevada, Illinois, California, Kentucky, and Mississippi, to name a few. These people aren't Republicans or Democrats. They are hardworking Americans who can't find work and need our help.

It is time to put aside our differences and come together to provide immediate relief to these struggling families. In tough times, Congress has a

longstanding history of extending these benefits, as we saw during the Bush administration. I urge Speaker Boehner to look at the faces of these unemployed Americans and hear their stories so we can work together to solve this problem as we have in the past.

These photos and stories will be posted outside my office--and I hope many of my colleagues will do the same--to serve as a reminder that this is about the individuals and the families who are hurting every day because we have not extended this critical lifeline. I hope this will put a face on the real stories of the people who are hurting and it will cause the Speaker to bring a bill to the floor that will extend unemployment so we can answer the call and be sure that we are doing everything we can to help those most in need.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about the most important issue facing our country. Guess what? It has nothing to do with repealing ObamaCare. It is about jobs.

Instead of bringing the American Jobs Act to the floor, an act which would create nearly 2 million new jobs, my Republican colleagues remain obsessed with trying to repeal ObamaCare.

This may be the only job in America at which you can try to do something more than 50 times and still have a job. It is time to move on and pass a bill that will help to create jobs.

In my home State of Rhode Island and across the country, unemployment rates remain unacceptably high. It is time to stop rehashing old political battles and to move on to the issues that will help grow our economy and get people back to work.

The American Jobs Act will boost consumer demand and hiring by cutting taxes for struggling families and small businesses, and it will invest in infrastructure and education. It is fully paid for.

Why would my colleagues on the other side oppose a bill that independent analysts, including Moody's Analytics, say would create up to 1.9 million new jobs?

Madam Speaker, it is time to take up this legislation to get our economy back on track and to help Americans get back to work.

I thank the ranking member for his extraordinary leadership and for developing a budget proposal that actually reflects our Nation's values and priorities.

Mr. Chairman, this Republican budget, offered by my colleague from Wisconsin, is another attempt to impose a

failed economic theory on the American people. This budget would damage economic growth in the short term and it disinvests in our future in the long term. It is absolutely the wrong course.

Millions of Americans continue to struggle to find work. Congress should be investing in priorities that will create jobs, priorities like education, rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and investing in advanced manufacturing and innovation that will help set the platform for a 21st century economy.

The Ryan Republican budget does exactly the opposite. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, compared to current law, the Ryan Republican budget would stifle our economic growth, reducing gross national product per capita by about 0.5 percent in each of the next 3 years.

Let that sink in. If you are searching for work or struggling to get by in this difficult economy, the message from this budget is clear: it is about to get a whole lot worse.

What could possibly be their rationale?

To my colleagues who say we need to make this sacrifice in the short term so we can experience long-term economic gains, they have it backwards. We need to invest in the short term to have long-term economic prosperity.

How does a budget that freezes Pell grants and slashes funding for higher education by approximately $260 billion grow our economy in the long term?

Our Nation's infrastructure is the backbone of our economy and is essential to move goods and services in the short and long term. So how does a budget that cuts investments in transportation by $52 billion next year alone help our economy?

How can you say a budget that singles out for elimination bipartisan programs like the Manufacturing Extension Partnership will boost our economy in the long term, a program that leverages Federal funding to provide small- and medium-sized manufacturers the capacity to grow, innovate, and prepare for a 21st century focus on advanced manufacturing? The answer is you can't.

Let's be clear: this budget cuts from today and disinvests from tomorrow. And for what purpose? To pay for another round of tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans, amounting to about $4 trillion in the next 10 years. But it is okay, they claim, because the benefits will trickle down to the middle class. This budget goes after Medicare, Medicaid, and nutrition programs for hungry children, all to pay for another round of tax cuts for the wealthy. This is immoral. And we know, from past experience, it is the wrong strategy for our economy.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to reject this budget because it will hurt jobs and inflict unnecessary pain on working families and our economy.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 149, 150, 151, had I been present, I would have voted ``yes.''

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, the most important issue confronting our Nation today is the jobs crisis, something my constituents and I know all too well as my home State of Rhode Island continues to be plagued with the highest unemployment rate in the Nation, currently 9 percent.

While most Members would agree that the best way to address this jobs crisis is to pass legislation that gets

our economy growing more quickly, we clearly have different ideas on how best to achieve such growth. But we will have that important conversation in great detail next week as the House is scheduled to consider the Republican budget authored by Chairman Ryan and the substantive alternatives on the floor.

Today, however, we have before the House a bill that modifies the budget process. Specifically, this bill changes the rules that our independent umpire, the Congressional Budget Office, uses to determine the costs of implementing major pieces of legislation, defined as those impacting gross domestic product by more than approximately $40 billion.

While your new rules would supplement--not replace--existing scoring rules, let's be clear, the macroeconomic impact analysis, or dynamic scoring process, that is called for under the bill is something my colleagues and I on this side of the aisle view with great apprehension and serious concern, as it relies upon much more uncertain and subjective analytical principles, procedures, and assumptions than what the Congressional Budget Office currently utilizes for scoring the costs of legislation.

So while my colleagues across the aisle pursue what they believe is an ideal set of scoring rules, I rise today with a proposal to give a more targeted and specific picture of the impact pending legislation will have on jobs in our communities.

The amendment I offer does not change your desired dynamic scoring analysis; it merely requires production of a separate estimate, using CBO's existing analytical principles and procedures, of the number of jobs that will be created, sustained, or lost, including regional- and State-level estimates when practicable, for the same proposals my colleagues wish to score using their preferred set of rules.

Keep in mind, this is not a partisan proposal. This amendment is derived from legislation, the Jobs Score Act, which I introduced along with Senator Manchin, and has received balanced, bipartisan support in both Chambers.

So I urge my colleagues to support my amendment and help ensure that Members of Congress are fully prepared to conduct their due diligence and have the most complete understanding possible of how the major bills considered in Congress impact jobs in our communities.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Well, I thank my colleague for his kind words, but I think he is actually missing the point.

The dynamic scoring, in fact, does allow you to assess the employment impact, and, obviously, we think it does that through a tainted lens because such analysis will be subjective and uncertain, and we have made the arguments about dynamic scoring. But it doesn't impact that at all. That remains in the bill.

This simply adds a provision that would require an analysis be done under the traditional methods that the CBO uses. It will ensure that CBO conducts the same kind of analysis of jobs impact when using the static method currently used by CBO. And we can and should do both.

The fact of the matter is this is an opportunity to be sure that we have as much information as possible about the impact of actions that we take on job creation, on the ability to sustain or cost jobs. In fact, providing this amendment will only ensure that that analysis happens in both places.

You have recognized in the underlying bill that jobs impact matters-- we agree--but let's not limit that information. Let's be sure there is a jobs impact both in the static analysis that is done by CBO as well as in your new provision for dynamic scoring. Let's have an assessment in both of those side by side. It will provide a full picture of the potential range of likely employment effects in our communities. We certainly have a responsibility to understand that and to deal with as much information as we can about the impact on jobs.

There is no more urgent issue, and we have heard lots of conversations this morning about how important it is that we have good data, good information. This simply supplements that. Let's make sure that jobs analysis happens in both places at the CBO.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues in Congress in condemning attacks on the Syrian Armenian population in Kessab by extremist fighters connected to al-Qaeda. On March 21, al-Qaeda affiliated terrorists out of Turkey attacked the peaceful Christian- Armenian community in a town that has served as a place of refuge for those trying desperately to escape the bloodshed of the past three years. This brutal assault is yet another consequence of the increasingly dangerous violence in Syria that leaves innocent civilians with no choice but to again flee as they have already done from their homes in Aleppo.

This war and the escalating brutality in the past months have put far too many innocent civilians at risk and I am deeply troubled that recent events including mass exoduses and violent strikes upon the peaceful Armenian communities hark back to the early days of the Armenian Genocide under Ottoman rule nearly 100 years ago. No innocent civilian in any part of the world should be targeted because of their ancestry, ethnicity or religion, and I want to work with my colleagues to find a way to bring an end to such brutal attacks and the increasingly violent civil war ravaging the region that has left over 100,000 dead and forced over 2 million to flee their homes and communities. I will work with my colleagues on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to help find a diplomatic solution to this crisis and ensure that Armenians of Kessab and Aleppo can return to their peaceful lives.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Building Futures, a Providence-based work training program that prepares Rhode Islanders for careers in the construction industry. This program has made a real difference in the lives of 145 Rhode Islanders by placing them in registered apprenticeships as bricklayers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and other construction trade apprenticeships. This success is due, in large part, to its dedicated and talented staff, led by director and founder Andrew Cortes.

I was pleased to stand with Andrew as mayor of Providence in 2007 to help launch Building Futures, which has become a national model for work training programs, and recently to be with him and many others to celebrate their success at Building Futures and to hear directly from so many who have benefited from this program who are now holding good- paying jobs in my State.

Addressing the skills gap is one of Rhode Island's and our Nation's most pressing challenges. We know that too many people are searching for good-paying jobs, but too often, even though they are hardworking, they lack the particular skills they need for the jobs that are available.

Building Futures is helping to restore opportunity by bridging the skills gap and strengthening Rhode Island's workforce. Today, I am proud to salute their efforts and congratulate them on a job well done.