Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this legislation.

We are at this point because of President Trump's recklessness and House Republicans' refusal to govern responsibly. We are already nearly 3 months behind schedule on completing the fiscal year 2019 appropriations bills.

Mr. Speaker, Democrats would prefer to get our work done instead of kicking the can down the road. However, it appears that the only thing that seemed possible for us to accomplish before adjourning for the holidays was to pass the CR until February 8 that the Senate passed unanimously last night.

However, after another Twitter tantrum, House Republicans are once again catering to Trump's worst impulses with this terrible bill. This bill wastes billions of taxpayer dollars, fails to fully address the urgent needs of disaster victims, and will fail in the Senate. It is a waste of time for us to consider it.

Our country faces many pressing needs, and there is simply no reason to waste $5.7 billion on President Trump's immoral, unnecessary, irresponsible wall.

Mr. Speaker, $5.7 billion would completely rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base, rebase the F-22s and F-35s, and completely rebuild all damaged Marine Corps facilities in North Carolina with money to spare. These are facilities and equipment that were wiped out by Hurricane Michael.

The disaster supplemental funds in this bill are designed to be a sweetener but aren't even enough to give us a toothache.

Democrats have always been willing to negotiate how best to secure our border, but we will not support the President's boondoggle vanity project that Mexico was supposed to pay for. Likewise, we strongly support a comprehensive disaster supplemental, but this bill completely fails to address mitigation and resilience efforts that will prevent future disasters.

We are now less than 36 hours from another Trump government shutdown. Democrats were prepared to bail out Republicans once again by providing the votes to pass a clean CR, yet they can't take ``yes'' for an answer.

No wonder voters have said they have had enough. This is no time for political games. It is time to go home for the holidays.

Mr. Speaker, it is a great honor to stand today in solidarity with my sister, ``mi hermana,'' Ileana Ros- Lehtinen, in calling for what is long overdue: statehood for Puerto Rico.

The residents of Puerto Rico, more than 3 million strong, have been U.S. citizens for more than 100 years, yet they continue to be denied equal rights, including voting representation in this body.

This inequality has consequences. As we saw so vividly in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico has faced injustices that no U.S. State would have to endure.

The Puerto Rican people have demonstrated their preference for statehood repeatedly, and they should be given a chance to cast a straightforward vote whose results will be respected: yes or no on statehood.

My departing colleague from south Florida will be greatly missed in this cause, and in so many others, but I know she will continue the fight as a private citizen. I will fight twice as hard in her absence to ensure equality for Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans once and for all.

I will miss you, friend. ``Te voy a extranar, amiga.''

Mr. Speaker, it is my privilege to recognize the tremendous and meaningful work of Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida.

Mr. Simon is retiring this year following a distinguished career defending civil rights and civil liberties that lasted longer than that of any other ACLU leader in the country. Prior to his appointment as executive director of the Florida affiliate in 1997, Mr. Simon led the fight to defend civil rights and civil liberties in Michigan, where he served as ACLU director for 23 years.

His 21 years at the ACLU of Florida make him the longest serving ACLU director in the country, and his cumulative 44-year career as a State director is the longest in the ACLU's 98-year history.

As a student at City College of New York in 1965, Mr. Simon joined fellow student leaders to travel to Selma, Alabama, to march for voting rights alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This experience started a decades-long career fighting for the rights guaranteed to all Americans under the United States Constitution.

In his time as executive director at the ACLU of Florida, Mr. Simon oversaw landmark work defending the rights of LGBTQ Floridians, protecting immigrants, reforming our criminal justice system, protecting free speech, preserving women's health, and strengthening the right to vote. The rights that Floridians enjoy would not be the same without the tireless work of this champion of liberty.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to call Howard Simon my dear friend, and I join my fellow Floridians in thanking him for his thoughtful and compassionate work to safeguard our civil liberties and for helping to make the United States a more perfect union for us all.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

I, too, join my colleagues in commending Ranking Member Lowey and Chairman Frelinghuysen for their stewardship of the appropriations process in the House. We are moving in the right direction. We have partial regular order, and, hopefully, with every passing fiscal year, it will get better and better. But, truly, it is an accomplishment.

I also want to commend Subcommittee Chairwoman Granger and Ranking Member Visclosky for producing a Defense Appropriations bill that provides the resources necessary for our armed services to perform the critical role of securing our Nation.

Additionally, I thank Subcommittee Ranking Member DeLauro and Chairman Cole, my dear friends, for their hard work on the Labor-Health and Human Services-Education funding bill.

The bill before us funds both the assets our armed services need and invests in our servicemembers. It provides for a much-needed 2.6 percent increase in military pay.

The bill also includes over $1.4 billion for congressionally directed medical research programs, including $130 million for breast cancer research, a personal issue to me.

I am proud to say this bill retains my language protecting access to lifesaving mammograms, particularly for women between 40 and 50 years old, and provides $5 million for my ongoing initiative, the Breast Cancer Education and Awareness Requires Learning Young Act, or the EARLY Act, which will continue to help increase the quality and quantity of life for young women with breast cancer.

The bill increases funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by $125 million and funds programs that fight the spread of the Zika virus, as well as combats the use of tobacco.

It also provides vital funding that will benefit seniors, and it includes $5 million to help Holocaust survivors and their families.

Mr. Speaker, I represent one of the largest Holocaust survivor populations in the United States, and with every passing day, they are getting extremely elderly, and we are losing more and more of them each and every day. Honoring them and allowing them to live with dignity in the last years of their lives is critical.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this bill will help us shine a light on an inhumane family separation policy perpetrated by this administration. This legislation--and I very much appreciate this--includes my amendment to allow Members of Congress immediate access to immigration detention centers. We must remain committed to seeking justice for families that have been needlessly torn apart at our borders.

The administration, actually, repeatedly stopped Members of Congress from being able to immediately access these detention centers to conduct our proper oversight role, and this amendment, when it is signed into law by the President, will allow us to conduct that oversight as a coequal branch of our government.

Mr. Speaker, more importantly, before yielding back, I just want to take a moment to thank Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen. It has really been an honor to serve with this gentleman, in the truest sense of the word. He has done a remarkable job serving his constituents. It has been fun being a member of the Appropriations Committee both while he was a chairman, a ranking member, and now the chairman of the full committee. We will miss him, and I know his constituents will miss his service.

Mr. Speaker, I urge Members to support this appropriations bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the House amendment to S. 2497, the Ileana Ros-Lehtinen United States- Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018.

This bill would enshrine in law the 2016 U.S. Memorandum of Understanding that the Obama Administration reached with Israel.

This landmark agreement provides for historic levels of security cooperation with and assistance to Israel. Enacting this legislation would send an unmistakable message to Israel's enemies that the American commitment to Israel's security is ironclad.

Israel continually faces threats from all sides, and we have the responsibility to be sure that Israelis have everything they need in order to defend her citizens.

Whether it's missiles, tunnels, arson kites, or potential border breaches from Hamas in Gaza, rockets from Hezbollah in Lebanon, drones from Iranian forces in Syria, or whatever other lethal attempt may be devised, Israel must be ready to combat whatever comes her way.

Mr. Speaker, Israel's security is nonnegotiable. With enemies committed to the country's destruction throughout the entirety of its 70-year existence, Israel's qualitative military edge is absolutely necessary, and I am pleased that this bill ensures that this edge will be maintained.

Even amidst persistent security threats, Israel has been a remarkable leader in technological and humanitarian endeavors. This legislation, by enhancing U.S.-Israeli cooperation in space exploration and international development, will strengthen both of our countries and many other parts of the world.

Mr. Speaker, as we work on a bipartisan basis to ensure that the U.S.-Israel relationship remains strong far into the future, I can think of no more fitting namesake for this bill than my friend and colleague, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

Israel has a true friend and supporter in Ileana, and as she departs at the end of this Congress, we will all be well served to follow her example of working across the aisle to ensure that American support for Israel remains unbreakable.

To that end, I proudly urge the passage of the Ileana Ros-Lehtinen United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2018.

Mr. Speaker, as we approach National Community Health Center Week, August 12 through 18, it is my privilege to recognize the tremendous and meaningful work of Broward Community & Family Health Centers, Inc., a Federally Qualified Community Health Center located in Broward County and Florida's 23rd Congressional District.

Broward Community & Family Health Centers is a non-profit, community- owned and operated health provider serving uninsured and medically underserved people.

Community health centers have become an essential provider for comprehensive, high-quality preventive health care for all patients, regardless of their ability to pay. They have become the core primary care destination for millions in our country--especially for minorities and our most vulnerable populations.

Under the leadership of my dear friend CEO Rosalyn Frazier, Broward Community & Family Health Centers expand access to quality health care for all people and contain health care costs by fostering prevention and integrating the delivery of primary care with aggressive outreach, patient education, translation, and other enabling services.

Broward Community & Family Health Centers has made great strides in the Florida health care system by maintaining high standards of accountability, demonstrating cost effectiveness and efficiency in the delivery of care, and empowering communities to address unmet health needs and reduce health disparities, preventable deaths, costly disabilities, and communicable diseases.

I applaud the important contributions of Broward Community & Family Health Centers in safeguarding health and improving the quality of life for people in Broward County, and I look forward to continuing to help Rosalyn Frazier and her team serve our community for many years to come.

Mr. Speaker I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I want to add my voice to commend Congresswoman Wagner, Congressman Engel, and Congressman Crowley for working in a bipartisan fashion to put together this important legislation.

This legislation firmly establishes that official United States policy is to prevent genocide and other criminal atrocities, and makes certain that it is treated as a core national security interest by supporting the programs that can help avert the deaths of innocents around our globe.

Representing one of the largest populations of holocaust survivors in the Nation is one of my greatest privileges as a Member of Congress. To honor these survivors, and to honor the 6 million Jews who did not survive, we must do everything in our power to prevent another atrocity like the one they experienced.

When we commemorate the Holocaust, we make a sacred promise to ourselves and to all of our neighbors by saying and committing to ``Never again.'' This legislation puts real weight behind those words.

From the brutal lessons we have learned from crimes against humanity that span continents and centuries, we must forge a brighter future.

Jewish tradition compels us to perform tzedakah--acts of justice--and we are driven by tikkun olam--repairing the world. We have a responsibility to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves, to make the world a better place.

But these values are not unique to Jews or to Judaism. They are values we all strive to share.

Our Nation has the unique capability to prevent these tragedies before they unfold.

Elie Wiesel, who I was privileged to know, the rightful namesake of this legislation, wrote, ``We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.''

When this bill becomes law, we can take comfort in knowing the United States of America is taking sides, is not neutral, and is not silent in the face of inhumanity. When we are faced with bigotry and hate, with war crimes and crimes against humanity, with ethnic cleansing and genocide, the United States must always remain a beacon of hope for justice, freedom, and peace. With this bill, we do just that.

Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment even though I am not opposed.

Madam Chair, I commend Ranking Member McCollum and Chairman Calvert for their hard work on the Interior Appropriations bill, and also Ranking Member Quigley and Chairman Graves for their work on the Financial Services Appropriations bill. But, unfortunately, I cannot support this misguided appropriations package.

The bill before us today fails to fund critical domestic programs that safeguard our air and water or to adequately secure our elections.

Last year, after an unprecedented attack on a democracy, we came to a bipartisan consensus on the need for funding election security and included $380 million in the Consolidated Appropriations Act. This year, the majority zeroed out the account for election security assistance.

Given the indictments handed down by Special Counsel Mueller last week and the disgraceful performance by the President of the United States in Helsinki yesterday, I cannot think of a more important account to fund than one for election security.

If the President of the United States is unwilling to stand up to Putin and defend our democracy, it is incumbent upon us as Members of a coequal branch of government to do so.

This bill fails the American people in so many crucial ways, but if it fails to protect our elections, we risk eroding the vital accountability that undergirds our democracy.

Madam Chair, we are at a critical juncture in our Nation's history. Will America continue our leadership in the world as a beacon of democracy and integrity, or will we cower and bow to Russia and refuse to protect our election systems from their proven desire to interfere with our elections? Sadly, the bill before us fails to provide the resources necessary to meet that moment.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose this appropriations package but not the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Chair, I yield the balance of my time to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chair, I commend Ranking Member Visclosky and Chairwoman Granger for producing a bill that provides the resources necessary for our armed services to perform the critical role of securing our Nation.

The bill funds both the assets our armed services need and invests in servicemembers, providing for a 2.6 percent increase in military pay.

I thank my colleague, the chairwoman from Texas, for including in the committee report language addressing the metastatic cancer task force report on research related to metastatic cancer. I look forward to working with the chairwoman and ranking member to ensure that DOD not only considers the recommendations from the task force, but expeditiously implements them to ensure that we are making progress in reducing the estimated 90 percent of cancer deaths that are due to the direct or indirect effects of metastasis. I thank the chairwoman for her commitment to doing that.

Mr. Chairman, I also want to point out that I filed an amendment to this bill that would prevent agencies from stopping Members of Congress from visiting facilities housing foreign national minors.

Last week, Senator Nelson and I were denied access, after first being told we would be admitted, to a temporary shelter housing foreign national minors in Homestead, Florida. Allowing Congress to conduct our appropriate oversight role without restriction is absolutely essential to us being able to make sure we can be good stewards of the people's resources.

Regardless of party affiliation, as Members of Congress, we should all agree that it is not only our right, but our duty to conduct oversight of the administration on our terms and on our timeline.

I urge the Republican majority to make my amendment in order so that we can do just that.

Mr. Chair, I urge Members to support this well-crafted Defense Appropriations bill.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this Republican-only compromise immigration bill. The only thing that is compromised in this legislation is America's source of strength as a nation of immigrants.

This bill guts asylum protections for those fleeing danger and dashes the hopes of legal immigrants seeking to reunite with family members. It continues this Presidential Ponzi scheme of forcing taxpayers to buy an expensive but useless border wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for.

As a mother and, frankly, as a human being, this bill makes my stomach turn. Despite Republican crocodile tears, this bill doesn't put an end to the Trump administration's child abuse, and our innocent Dreamers would be forced to navigate a confusing path to citizenship that could take 20 years.

Just like with taxes and healthcare, Republicans just refuse to reach across the aisle to address our Nation's challenges. The President put children on our borders in fenced cages, and Americans were revolted. With this bill, Republicans in Congress are about to put Lady Liberty in a fenced cage, which would be equally revolting.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I am thrilled to be able to join my sisters on Team Congress for the 10th annual Congressional Women's Softball Game tonight. Many of you know that our game started in 2009, after our former colleague, Congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson, and I came together and hatched a plan that--unlike the men, whom we love and respect and cheer on in the baseball game--women, being the more collegial sex, would come together and play on a bipartisan team against the common enemy: the press corps.

Those of you who were here will remember that we lost our minds in the first year and actually thought that we might be able to take on our political staff at the DNC, the RNC, the NRCC, the DCCC, and other assorted alphabet political organizations, and it didn't go so well. So the next year, we thought better of it and came together to take on the press corps.

Through those years, we have had a hearty record where the Members have won three of the nine contests that we have engaged in. But most importantly, we have always played for the Young Survival Coalition to raise awareness and put a spotlight on the millions of young women who are under 40 years old who are diagnosed with breast cancer every year.

Many of you know that I am a breast cancer survivor now of 10 years. I am very thrilled to be able to stand in front of you. Back then, I told you that I was so fearful of not being able to see the special events in my children's lives: their bar and bat mitzvahs, their high school graduations. I have been to all three of their bar and bat mitzvahs, two high school graduations, and one more to go in a few years.

We want to make sure that young women all across this country pay attention to their breast health and know what is normal for them so they know when something feels different.

I am proud to tell you that, this year, we will have reached a milestone where we have raised $1.4 million for the Young Survival Coalition.

So, my sisters, come out and join us tonight at the Watkins Recreation Center, 420 Twelfth Street SE, at 7 p.m.

Mr. Speaker, President Trump's cruel attempt to sabotage affordable healthcare access for more than 130 million Americans is inhumane and, mark my words, deadly.

If Trump has his way, anyone who has survived or lives with cancer, asthma, diabetes, mental health issues, or virtually any other medical conditions that you can think of, and many that you can't, will risk losing their health coverage. That is because the President is bent on dismantling the Affordable Care Act, which protects Americans with preexisting conditions.

Before the ACA, insurance companies refused coverage or charged people more with these commonplace maladies. They even charged women more just for being women.

I am a woman, and I also beat breast cancer. And it sickens me to think of the anxiety and pain this President is causing my sister survivors right now with this threat. It is absurd, it is discriminatory, and it is, frankly, monstrous.

Every time it appears that the reckless disregard for people's lives shown by this administration and their Republican enablers in Congress couldn't possibly get any worse, they find a new low.

Mr. Speaker, there are too many real problems facing Americans today. This President and his party need to stop creating deadly new ones.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, in 2017, the VTP program transported a total of 557,331 veterans, of which 103,704 were disabled veterans.

The VTP office is the authoritative source for all veteran-related travel initiatives. Its core mission is to assist in the improvements of access to care and assist veterans in overcoming transportation barriers to accessing VHA services.

VTS has established a network of transportation options for veterans through joint efforts with VA's Office of Rural Health and veterans service organizations.

This is a valuable program that has clearly been recognized and highlighted by the gentleman from California, that helps veterans who are visually impaired, elderly, or immobilized due to disease or disability, and particularly those living in remote and rural areas, to get to their medical appointments.

At a time with the VA where we are struggling to make sure both in terms of time that veterans have to wait to get an appointment and the difficulty in getting through a long distance to get that service, this is an important amendment.

Mr. Chair, I appreciate the gentleman from California's contribution and I strongly support it.

Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I support the efforts by the gentleman from Massachusetts to combat opioid abuse, which really has been a scourge in every region of this country and has left almost no region in this Nation untouched.

The rates of prescription opioid misuse and overdose continue to increase sharply, and prescription opioids are now a leading cause of death in the United States. In fact, Mr. Chairman, we are about to reach the third year in a row that life expectancy in the United States will have gone down. That is the first time that has happened since all the way back to World War I, and it can be directly attributed to opioid abuse and the resulting deaths that has caused.

So I agree with my friend from Massachusetts that the VA should have a toolkit similar to the mental health toolkit and that it could save lives. I support the amendment.

Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. Chairman, pain management education for the prescription of opioids in the VA could help with opioid abuse; that is clear. The VA already has guidelines regarding the management of opioid therapy for chronic pain and provides clear and comprehensive, evidence-based recommendations incorporating current information and practices for practitioners throughout the DOD and the VA healthcare systems.

Mr. Chairman, these guidelines are provided to minimize harm and increase patient safety in patients who require opioid therapy, but these guidelines only work if the prescriber is adequately trained. And that is why the gentleman from Massachusetts' amendment would be so helpful, because we all know that the key to making sure that we can reach people and maximize the effectiveness of the program is to ensure that the appropriate and significant training is done so that we can achieve those goals. So I support this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition, even though I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, the gentlewoman from Texas has identified a very important issue, one that was brought to my attention in sharp relief by my own hospital association just yesterday.

In Florida, we are now the third-largest State in the Union, and the hospitals in my home State are owed at least $134 million in payments that have not been paid by the VA.

I mean, I don't care how big your operation is, that is a tremendous amount of money, and prompt payment is a critical issue because we need to make sure that the resources that are appropriated to our healthcare system and the revenue that we need generated to contribute to our economy and the care that we need provided is done so promptly.

What we don't want to have happen is healthcare providers deciding not to provide services outside the VA to VA patients. And my discussion with them yesterday was that there are healthcare providers in our State that are starting to decide not to take VA patients anymore, and that would be a travesty.

The gentlewoman is absolutely correct. Waiting 2 or 3 years for payment--that is the kind of length of time we are talking about here-- can have a devastating impact, particularly on small business.

It is not a new issue at the VA. For example, former Secretary David Shulkin started rapid response teams whose goal was to settle the most substantial outstanding bills as quickly as possible.

Mr. Chairman, the issue of prompt payments must be addressed as more veterans seek services outside of the VA. It is a tremendous problem, and I am really pleased that the gentlewoman has brought it to our attention, raised the issue, because we need to know the full scope of VA delinquent payments. So I support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition, even though I am not in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, you just can't make this stuff up. The committee members have been to the D.C. VA Medical Center, and they put on a nice show when I first became ranking member. They leave a good impression. But the documented issues at the D.C. VA Medical Center are well known, and I want to just walk our colleagues through a few of them because this is how egregious it is. The gentleman's suggestion through this amendment to make sure that the IG takes a very close look at what is going on at this medical center is critical.

The D.C. VA Medical Center was found to have paid exorbitant amounts for supplies and equipment, including $300 per speculum, which could have been purchased for $122 each, and $900 each for a special needle that was available for $250. In one case, the medical center rented in- home hospital beds for three patients for 3 years at a total cost of $877,000. The medical center could have bought the three beds for $21,000.

A review of 124 veteran patient records found problems with supplies or instruments in 74 of the cases between 2014 and 2017.

One surgery was canceled after the patient was already under anesthesia because a retractor was unavailable because it had not been sterilized since its previous use a week earlier.

A surgeon had to improvise when a tool used to prepare a skin graft was broken and the graft failed. A surgical staff member had to run to a private sector hospital across the street to borrow mesh to repair a hernia midprocedure.

Investigators received more than 1,300 boxes of unsecured records from two warehouses, the hospital basement, and a large trash dumpster in April 2017. Of those records, 81 percent contained confidential patient information, including medical scans and records dating back to the 1970s. This facility is failing the veterans in the Metro D.C. area who deserve better.

This is an important amendment, and making sure that the VA takes care of its patients and is not negligent or derelict in its duties at every single place that those veterans are serviced is critical.

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

Mr. Chair, the gentleman deserves credit for bringing this to the House's attention. The outrage at this medical center speaks for itself, and I look forward to making sure that the IG has the resources that are needed to be able to get to the bottom to help fix this problem.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition, although I do not oppose the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, the committee opposed the Department's tentative decision last fall to convert almost a billion dollars of funding for homeless programs from special purpose funding to general purpose funding.

This action would have been a fundamental change to the manner in which medical care funding is allocated to the field, and I support giving more local flexibility to Veterans Integrated Service Networks and medical center directors.

However, I strongly support transparency when it comes to changing the levels that Congress sets for VA programs.

We are the appropriations institution. We are the ones that make those decisions. The proposed realignment by VA would have potentially risked funding for essential programs such as the Supportive Services for Veteran Families Program.

Thankfully, after numerous discussions with the committee and public outrage, the Department decided not to move forward with its proposal in FY18. We fully expect for the VA to comply with the levels that we set for programs; and if the levels need to be adjusted, then the VA must consult with Congress before making changes.

I thank the gentleman from California for his amendment, and I believe it sends a strong message to the Department that it must respect congressional priorities.

I urge all Members to support the gentleman's amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chair, I do oppose this amendment. I, like many Members, have concerns and share the gentleman's concerns about another round of BRAC. I realize that this is a complex issue for all Members of Congress, especially those with military facilities in their district.

I know that previous rounds of BRAC have ended up being far more expensive and expansive than we were initially led to believe. However, I have concerns about maintaining the infrastructure that the Department of Defense doesn't need. For example, the estimate of excess capacity for the Army is 22 percent. The Air Force's estimate of excess capacity is roughly 30 percent.

I can tell you that, since I became the ranking member of this subcommittee, when I have traveled around the world, almost to a person, when we have spoken to a leader on a military base, they raise the issue of needing to go through another round of BRAC. Both the Army and the Air Force are strong supporters of another BRAC round.

While this amendment has no real effect, it does send a message that Congress is unwilling to tackle a tough issue. This amendment is an abdication of our duties as Members of this House to ensure taxpayer resources are being used in a wise and fiscally responsible way. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment and have a serious conversation about another BRAC round.

While I am not suggesting that we support another BRAC round, we should not be tying our hands by taking it off the table.

Mr. Chair, I urge Members to oppose the amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, just to reiterate, we shouldn't be taking any method that gives us an opportunity to be fiscally responsible and save money off the table.

Our friends on the other side of the aisle consistently talk a good game about being fiscally responsible, blow holes in the deficit by passing massive tax scam legislation of a $1.5 trillion deficit expansion, and include amendments like this one that prevent the military, who have asked repeatedly to be able to at least engage in a discussion about another BRAC round, to save millions of dollars and close facilities that are no longer needed. Yet, the last several years, the majority has refused to make the tough decisions and at least have a discussion about this.

It is not responsible. Certainly not fiscally responsible. Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to oppose the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chair, as the designee of Ranking Member Lowey, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. Chairman, I want to thank the chairman of the full committee and our ranking member, Mrs. Lowey, for the incredible work that they have done to get us to this point.

While in the minority we have had some concerns about the process, the opportunity to work closely side by side with our colleagues, the opportunity that I had to work with Chairman Dent and looking forward to working with Chairman Carter, is really an example of how we should be working together throughout the entire legislative process.

I want to thank our staff for doing a remarkable job on this work product, and I look forward to continuing to conference.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 3 today, particularly because it is incredibly deceptive. The Trump-GOP rescissions measure manages to have Republicans bundle their most damaging and misguided budget priorities into one badly flawed bill.

For starters, the deception includes the ludicrous notion that all the money that is being repealed and pulled back wouldn't be used otherwise.

This bill eliminates billions of dollars in funding for children's health insurance, which will prevent Congress from making smart, compassionate reinvestments in biomedical research and other child and maternal community health programs, which we could do if this bill were not here on the floor being forced down our throats.

What is worse is this bill cuts job creation funds while millions of families in rural and distressed communities struggle to make ends meet.

But this reckless rescission stunt doesn't stop there. It includes additional cuts to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and cuts badly needed funds for rural water programs.

Just to prove that no sector is spared, it also cuts transportation improvements in rural Appalachia and national and community service programs, as well as funding for energy efficiency and advanced technology loan programs that we know are surefire job creators. Neglecting these health, energy, and job needs is a policy failure on all fronts.

This rescissions bill ignores families struggling to put food on the table tonight. It neglects to make smart reinvestments that would benefit workers and taxpayers in the coming months and years ahead. And it shamelessly pretends to put this Nation's fiscal house in order, while still leaving future generations saddled with crushing debt.

It is rich that Republicans are suggesting that they are protectors of our deficit when they pushed through into law a tax scam bill that added more than $1.5 trillion to our annual deficits and that gives massive handouts to corporations and the wealthy.

Budgets are a financial expression of our values, and this Trump rescissions bill just confirms that Republicans care more about the wealthiest among us while the rest of America must fend for itself.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I also thank Chairman Frelinghuysen and former Chairman Dent for their hard work on the bill.

Mr. Chair, I recognize Chairman Carter for taking up the reins on this bill. It is not an easy, carefree situation to come in and take over after a bill has been completely written and then have to manage it. But I am confident, given the track record that I have seen Chairman Carter have, that it is going to be an absolute pleasure to work with him, as it has been all throughout my tenure on the Appropriations Committee.

As you all know, the MILCON-VA bill has a strong reputation for common ground and bipartisanship. Chairman Dent set a cooperative tone and was inclusive throughout the process before his retirement.

The MILCON portion of the bill is up by $241 million over last year's enacted level. In my opinion, the fiscal year 2019 request adequately provides funding for both the Active and Reserve components.

One item that I want to point out in the MILCON portion of the bill is new funding for enhancing security and safety. The bill includes $150 million for enhancing much-needed force protection and safety concerns at military installations. Too often, we had situations where these projects were deferred for big-ticket items and then never made it into the request.

For the Department of Veterans Affairs, title 2 is $3.9 billion over, for a 5 percent increase above the fiscal year 2018 enacted level.

Mr. Chairman, I am also pleased the bill rejects the administration's proposal to combine the Medical Services and Community Care accounts into one enormous account, which was a bipartisan agreement. Maintaining the old structure of two accounts offers us the most transparency for the committee to both monitor and control spending in these two areas.

Mr. Chairman, while the Military Construction-Veterans Affairs division makes many important investments, it does fall far short in averting the multibillion-dollar funding shortfall at the VA in both the Choice and Community Care programs.

The majority has acknowledged this fact because included in the rule was a self-executing amendment that added $1.1 billion to the Community Care account to address a discretionary shortfall caused by the VA MISSION Act, which the Democrats had repeatedly since the introduction and passage of the MISSION Act warned the majority about.

Even with this additional $1.1 billion, the bill fails to address the $1.6 billion shortfall in traditional Community Care due to increased requirements. And it does nothing to address the long-term stability of the Veterans Community Care program, which CBO now estimates will need an additional $1 billion for fiscal year 2019 and at least $47 billion from fiscal year 2020 to fiscal year 2023.

This future shortfall--make no mistake, you can take this to the bank, mark my words--if we don't deal with this, will ultimately force the VA to begin cannibalizing other critical VA priorities.

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Lowey submitted an amendment to the Rules Committee that would have addressed this issue, as did Mr. Walz in the VA authorizing process, that would have preserved the Bipartisan Budget Act deal and prevented cuts to VA programs.

It also would have held nondefense discretionary caps for VA negotiated under the Bipartisan Budget Act harmless when funding for the Veterans Choice Program is transferred from mandatory to discretionary accounts.

Another concern I have is that, despite calls to return to regular order, as many of my colleagues have discussed here today, we are instead taking up, completely unnecessarily--because we have plenty of time to do this--three bills at once. This year especially, the process should have been better.

The bipartisan budget agreement enacted in February provided us relief from unworkable discretionary spending caps by giving this committee a bipartisan top-line number for fiscal year 2018 and fiscal year 2019. Yet here we are, for the second straight year, doing another minibus. This is extremely disappointing, and it is nowhere close to regular order.

Mr. Chairman, if we want to return to regular order, we have to know the full 302(b) picture at the beginning of this process, not five bills in to when we have marked up over a third of the bills that we consider every year. We have to return to considering bills one at a time and under an open process that allows each Member of this body to have reasonable input.

Mr. Chairman, we cannot continue to govern in this fashion. We must stop listening to the most extreme voices, because it is clear that passing any appropriations bill at the end of the day that will be signed into law is going to require a bipartisan majority of both houses, which this minibus will not get, in my estimation.

As a result of this irresponsible posture, I am incredibly disappointed that I will be voting against the minibus and look forward to working towards an appropriations product that both parties have actually worked on together and can support.