Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, today is a somber occasion. On this 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's tragic decision in Roe v. Wade, our hearts ache for the 56 million unborn lives that have been lost due to this shameful practice of abortion.

But, today, there is hope because we have an opportunity to make a difference by passing the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. This commonsense, compassionate legislation will protect Americans' conscience rights by ensuring that their hard-earned tax dollars are not used to fund the destruction of a human life.

As a mother, a grandmother, and a nurse for over 40 years, this measure is especially meaningful to me. During my years in the health care industry, I saw the joy in young parents' eyes when they met their newborn children for the very first time; I held the hands of grieving spouses and children as they said their final good-byes to loved ones; and, sadly, I witnessed a young woman lose her life due to the effects of a botched abortion.

These experiences informed my view that all life is a precious gift from God, and I pray that, in time, this truth will be reflected in our Nation's laws; but, until then, can't we at least do this much?

I urge a ``yes'' vote on the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion, and I thank the sponsor for his work on this deeply important legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 4 p.m. on Friday, January 16, 2015, and, further, when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet on Tuesday, January 20, 2015, when it shall convene at noon for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business.

Mr. Speaker, last year, I promised my constituents that, in the new year, we would bring the fight on illegal immigration and act to restore the separation of powers that was upended by President Obama's lawless overreach, and I meant it. That is why I proudly voted for the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act and the attached amendments.

This bill is simple. It fully funds--yes, it fully funds--the DHS while ensuring that no dollars are made available for the President's executive amnesty.

I am especially pleased that this measure contained key provisions of my bill, the Immigration Compliance Enforcement Act, which will defund the Obama administration's ``public advocate'' to lobby on behalf of illegal immigrants.

Mr. Speaker, we still have three coequal branches of government, and when the President oversteps his bounds, we are compelled to respond.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that Representative Adam Smith be removed as a cosponsor of H.R. 217. He was inadvertently added through a clerical error and did not intend to cosponsor the legislation.

Section 3:

``Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.''

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Hire More Heroes Act. In my home State of Tennessee, we have over 525,000 veterans who have served our country in both war and peace--veterans, people like my son, Steve, and my husband, Dave.

But today, too many of these Americans are struggling to find work. In fact, the unemployment rate among post-September 11 veterans is chronically higher than the national unemployment rate. I believe that we can do better. After all, our veterans have sacrificed for our country. Congress should, at the very least, make certain that Washington does not stand between them and access to a steady job.

The Hire More Heroes Act will help accomplish this by exempting veterans who already have health insurance from being counted as full- time workers under ObamaCare's employer mandate, meaning that business owners can hire veterans without fear of being slapped with an ObamaCare penalty. That is why this body passed the legislation by an overwhelming vote of 406-1 last year. Unfortunately, our efforts were stonewalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate. But today, we have an opportunity to start anew.

I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Hire More Heroes Act, and I thank the gentleman from Illinois for his work on this critical measure.

Mr. Speaker, on Tuesday, President Obama came to Nashville to defend his unconstitutional immigration overreaches, but Tennesseans aren't buying it.

I asked my constituents what questions they would ask the President during his visit to the Volunteer State, and the response was overwhelming. Penny in Springfield asked, ``Why has he chosen to ignore the voice of the people on the immigration issue?''

Janice in Gordonsville asked, ``What does he say to the legal immigrants who obeyed the law to become citizens?''

And Kimberly in White House simply says, ``I want to know why our laws are no longer valid.''

My constituents said it best. We are a Nation of laws, and this lawless immigration overreach must not stand.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, for many today, the heinous acts of the Nazi party in the World War II era are a story relegated to the history books and museums. But the fact is some of these war criminals are still alive, and they are even getting a monthly check from Uncle Sam.

An Associated Press investigation found that dozens of Nazi suspects have collected Social Security benefits due to a loophole in our laws. And the cost to the taxpayers has reportedly reached into the millions.

Seniors in my district already have concerns about the future of Social Security. The last thing that they want to see is their government using scarce taxpayer dollars for this purpose. That is why I was proud to cosponsor Congressman Sam Johnson's No Social Security for Nazis Act, legislation to cut off benefits to anyone stripped of their U.S. citizenship related to their participation in Nazi crimes.

No act of Congress could ever make right the atrocities of the Holocaust or bring justice to its 6 million victims. But ending the flow of the payments to those human rights violators would sure be a step in the right direction.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for his good work on this issue and this bipartisan measure and look forward to voting in support.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the disturbing remarks that have recently surfaced from one of the key architects of ObamaCare.

It is no secret that the ObamaCare was built on broken promise after broken promise. Millions of Americans' insurance plans have been canceled; they have lost access to their doctors and hospitals; and instead of reducing premiums by $2,500, like the President promised, premiums are skyrocketing across our Nation. And now we have seen one of the key designers of the Affordable Care Act candidly discuss the smoke and mirrors that went into getting this disastrous law passed in the first place.

Indeed, Mr. Gruber bragged about the lack of transparency involved in the process of passing this 2,000-page bill, even gaming the bill language so that it could not be scored properly by the Congressional Budget Office. Mr. Gruber refers to the ``stupidity of the American voter'' as a necessary component to getting ObamaCare passed and signed into law. This is outrageous. On behalf of my constituents in Tennessee's Sixth District and Americans across this country, I reject this assertion from one of ObamaCare's key architects.

The American people are much wiser than this. After all, at no point in time has ObamaCare been popular with the public. Before it was even passed, the American people did everything they could to stop it, even electing a Republican senator in the blue State of Massachusetts to be the deciding vote against it. But the Democrat majority maneuvered their way around the will of the people, passing it anyway. And despite the underhanded efforts of this law's designer, it was still unpopular with the American voters when it passed. The law has remained unpopular to this day, and dozens upon dozens of Democrat lawmakers who were responsible for its passage have lost their jobs since its passage.

American voters aren't stupid, as ObamaCare's designer says. To the contrary, they have repeatedly raised their objections to this government takeover of our health care system. In fact, a majority of Americans still say they wish ObamaCare had never passed. And that is why as recently as last week they sent majorities in both Chambers of Congress to Washington to dismantle this maliciously conceived boondoggle.

Mr. Speaker, ObamaCare is arguably the worst piece of legislation to be passed in a generation. The law is such a mess that it may collapse under a review by the Supreme Court next year. The American people get this even if the law's designers do not. That is why they continue to send my colleagues and I to Washington to fight to protect them from this disastrous law.

Mr. Speaker, standing in this hallowed chamber of democracy where laws are debated, amended, and passed, one must stand in awe of our courageous forefathers who created this institution. In fact, 227 years ago when our Constitution was created and signed by 39 brave men, it created the first government of its kind, a government of the people, for the people, and by the people.

These men, well aware of the consequences of all-powerful European monarchies, created a democratic system of three coequal branches of government each with its own unique role. The brilliance that these men instilled in this document is still alive and well to this day as we watch each branch of the government perform its role, keeping checks and balances on the others to make sure that the will of the people is obeyed.

Mr. Speaker, this Constitution Day, let us give thanks to these wise and brave men who birthed our constitutional republic and our Nation.

Mr. Speaker, this September 29 marks the 115th birthday of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. It is a day that will be celebrated at VFW posts and in communities around the country, and it is a day that deserves our recognition here in Congress as well.

As a member of our local VFW Ladies Auxiliary and the proud wife of a Vietnam veteran and a VFW member, I have seen firsthand how our VFW makes good on its promise every day to honor the dead by helping the living.

Each year, the nearly 2 million VFW and Auxiliary members contribute more than 8.6 million hours of volunteerism in their communities. These are men and women who have already sacrificed for their country by traveling into harm's way to defend our freedoms or waiting anxiously for our loved ones to return home from combat, yet they continue to serve wherever they see a need.

At our VFW post in Hendersonville, for example, members maintain a food pantry for disadvantaged veterans, and they started an Operation Spearhead to specifically serve the families of those called to serve in the war on terror.

Perhaps most importantly, the VFW has always risen above partisanship

and politics to maintain a strong, steady voice on behalf of our heroes since its founding in 1899.

On this upcoming Veterans of Foreign Wars Day, may we pause to honor the many contributions of this organization and be reminded to pray for those who continue serving around the world.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to, first of all, thank my colleagues on the Ways and Means Committee for all their help and their hard work on moving this bill forward. I would also like to thank Chairman Camp for his leadership and for his dedication in helping American taxpayers and families, which is really what this bill is about.

Coming from two hardworking parents with no more than a ninth grade education between them, attending college was little more than just a dream for me growing up. Yet, with my parents' support and some hard work, I was able to be the first of my family to attend college and go on to graduate with a degree in nursing. This has allowed me to spend over 40 years working as a nurse in the health care industry.

Just as this dream was for me, pursuing higher education is a dream for millions of children and their parents across this great Nation. It is a well known fact that the cost of education is climbing and that, for far too many, the ability to save and pay for college without ending up under a mountain of debt is simply out of reach.

Today's broken Tax Code does little to ease that financial burden or to even provide a sense of security that education will be a reality in the future. That is why, under Chairman Camp's leadership, I worked across the aisle with my colleague, Danny Davis, as the chair and cochair of the Ways and Means Committee's Education Tax Reform Working Group last year.

Over the course of our 7-month bipartisan working group meetings, frustration with the Tax Code was a common theme of what we heard. For instance,

there are currently 15 different tax benefits related to education. Four of those are designed to help individuals save prior to becoming a student, nine are available for while the student is in school, and two exist for when the student has completed his or her education.

It was overwhelming when we had tax experts explain it, so it was not difficult to imagine how parents trying to navigate these 90 pages of IRS instructions would simply toss up their hands and say, ``I give up.''

That is why the work that Mr. Davis and I did during the time together on this Education Tax Reform Working Group didn't end when we delivered our report to our colleagues. Instead, our desire to provide at least some relief from that frustration led the two of us to work to see how we could clean up the Code and help families struggling to finance education costs.

That process led us to introduce H.R. 3393, the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act. Now, this legislation consolidates four existing education provisions--the Hope credit, the American opportunity tax credit, the lifetime learning credit, and the tuition deduction--into a single, modernized and strengthened AOTC.

Streamlining the number of education provisions and retooling those that are most effective allows us to simplify the Code and reduce some of the confusion that exists today. As a result, students can spend less time figuring out how to finance the cost of education and more time developing the skills they need to succeed in our knowledge-based economy.

Mr. Speaker, I think we all can agree that it ought to be easier for any family to plan, save, and invest in education. Everyone in this Chamber can agree that we should do everything that we can to help American children attain higher education and achieve their dream.

So I am proud that, as the chairman has already referenced, the American Association of Community Colleges, the Association of Community College Trustees, the National Association of College Stores, and the United States Student Association--the United States Student Association--have announced their support for this bill.

Now I ask for my colleagues in the House to join me in supporting this commonsense measure to help American students and families.

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

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

I do want to say that this was an incredible experience for me to be able to work with such a fine gentleman as Mr. Davis.

We began this process with the chairman giving us an opportunity to take a look at this very complicated group of tax provisions in our code. What we found, with the Joint Committee on Taxation helping us, as I referenced in my opening remarks, there are 90 different pages, no less the fact that there are provisions that step on top of one another, and we actually asked the Joint Committee on Taxation, to help simplify this, to do a diagram for us, just a flowchart.

What we found was, they came back and said this is so complicated that we can't even do a flowchart that would make sense. So we set out asking various groups to come and talk to us. These went all of the way from the very conservative, the very progressive side, think tanks, universities, colleges, those who represented the 529 provision, and to just come and let us know about what they thought about what was currently in the code.

We heard consistently over and over again, it didn't matter where they were on the spectrum, we heard this is so complicated that people are not even using it because they can't figure out. As a matter of fact, there is a GAO study that indicated that 1.5 million tax filers who qualify for either the tuition and fee deduction of the lifetime learning credit in 2009 did not even claim the credit or the deduction because of its complication.

So it was my honor to work with my esteemed colleague in going to work to say: What can we do to simplify this so that we can make sure that people who really need this assistance are going to get that assistance that is there in the code but they can't even figure it out?

So after about 7 months, hammering back and forth about what we felt would best fit the needs of the students of this country and help to get them a start in college, to get them going, to be sure that they would have that opportunity to use those tax credits, we came up with this product. We then rolled it out with a press conference, and I am very proud to say that this was an effort of bipartisanship, one that I think if we could do more of that here in Congress, we would be accomplishing a lot. So it really is my honor to stand here today with my colleague who we worked so well together on this.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Camp), the esteemed chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.

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

What I would like to do is read from a letter that we received in support of

this legislation from the American Association of Community Colleges and the Association of Community College Trustees.

I am just going to lift a couple of paragraphs out of here that I think address some of the responses from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. I am only going to read three pieces, although there are more.

This is why they say that they believe this benefits college students. I want to read the one that says it ``makes AOTC Permanent: Currently set to expire at the end of 2017, the AOTC is the most important source of support for college students in the Tax Code. H.R. 3393 makes the benefit permanent and ensures that it will remain in place for students and families.''

The chairman referenced that just a few moments ago.

Another paragraph: ``Creates better alignment with the Pell grant: Currently, an estimated 1 million college students with unmet financial need do not receive any benefit from the AOTC due to its poor coordination with the Pell grant program. The vast majority of these students attend low-cost institutions, particularly community colleges.''

This bill remedies this situation.

Then the last piece: ``Indexes the AOTC to inflation: H.R. 3393 recognizes that college prices are not static and adjusts the AOTC for inflation starting in 2018.''

So I believe that that speaks to those pieces that we said are so important in this reform.

Now, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Washington (Mrs. McMorris Rodgers), the leader of our conference.

I am ready to close.

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

Mr. Speaker, I could say a lot of things, but I don't think there is any better way for me to conclude than for me to read a letter that I will submit for the Record from a student who actually sent this to me today.

I do want to read it, but I think you will see after I read it that the emphasis here is that we are helping those

who need help the most by what we are doing with the simplification of this particular part of the Code.

For the sake of the identity of the person, I am going to use the name Nancy.

Let me read this to you:

Dear Congresswoman Black, my name is Nancy, and I attend

Atlanta Technical College. The additional $500 in refunds in

your bill for students like me will be extremely beneficial.

I am the mother of five, full-time worker, and student.

Although I intend to continue my higher education once I

graduate from the Atlanta Technical College, I have found out

my Pell grant will expire next semester. I now find myself in

the position of taking out loans for future semesters to make

sure my tuition and books are paid for.

I plan to use my taxes to help with this dilemma. The

additional $500 may not seem like it would cover a lot, but

in my case, it will cover at least one three-credit class or

at least three of my textbooks. I would love the opportunity

to have an option of using these moneys that are outright

mine than to put myself in debt more by taking out a full

amount of any loan.

My only hope is that you take this letter into

consideration, for there are many others out there in my

predicament.

Dear Congresswoman Black, My name is Nancy and I attend

Atlanta Technical College. The additional $500 in refunds in

your bill for students like me would be extremely beneficial.

I am a mother of 5, full time worker and student. Although

I intend to continue my higher education once I graduate from

Atlanta Technical College, I have found out my Pell grant

will expire next semester. I now find myself in the position

of taking out loans for future semesters to make sure my

tuition and books are paid for.

I plan to use my taxes to help with this dilemma. The

additional $500 may not seem like it would cover a lot, but

in my case, it will cover at least one 3 credit class or at

least 3 of my textbooks. I would love the opportunity to have

an option of using monies that are out right mine, than to

put myself in debt more by taking out the full amount of any

loan.

My only hope is that you take this letter into

consideration, for there are many others out here in my

predicament.

I think there is no better way than to end with something that comes from the heart of a student who is working so hard. She has five children and is a full-time worker and student. Because of the refundability of this tax provision, if it were placed into law, you can see how it would really help those who we are trying to help the very most.

So I would urge my colleagues, for the sake of helping our students, especially those who are at the lower and middle income, to support H.R. 3393, the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank the chairman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government reports that as many as 17,500 people are trafficked into our country annually. With the rise of the Internet, the number of sex trafficking incidents in particular has exploded. We must do what we can to combat this rising epidemic by identifying best practices in combating trafficking, so that others can duplicate these successful models.

I am proud that in my home State of Tennessee, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has developed a card that would identify an algorithm of how law enforcement would interview those who potentially have been sex-trafficked, as well as on the back of the card, those kinds of resources that can be used to help those who are in this situation.

Systems like this must be identified, studied, and duplicated to combat trafficking, and I am proud to support this bill from Congresswoman Noem, which would help to make this very important work successful.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a friend and exemplary member of our community, Judge Tom Gray.

Judge Gray has led a distinguished career in Sumner County, Tennessee, serving as a judge since 1982 and as a chancellor of the 18th judicial district since 1986. As he will soon step aside from his career in public service to spend more time with his family, I wanted to take this opportunity to highlight just a few of the reasons Judge Gray has been so important to our community.

Mr. Speaker, Tom Gray is a Tennessean through and through. He graduated from Central High School in Shelbyville, received his bachelor's and master's degrees from George Peabody College, and received his law degree from the Nashville YMCA Law School.

During his exemplary career in the Tennessee legal community, Judge Gray served as treasurer and secretary of the Tennessee Judicial Conference. He has served on committees to improve education and domestic relations, as well as to improve work between the bench and the bar. He has hosted student groups at the courthouse and has spoken to local civic clubs and churches.

As a proud Sumner County resident, he has served as the president of the Gallatin Rotary Club. His long resume of community activities includes work with the Sumner County Historical Society, the Rosemont Society, Habitat for Humanity, as well as the Sumner County Museum.

Judge Gray is a proud member of the Hendersonville United Methodist Church and a proud husband, father, and grandfather.

Mr. Speaker, my friends and I in Sumner County wish all the best to our friend Tom as he retires from the bench. I look forward to watching Judge Gray begin the next chapter of his life. It is my honor to speak on his behalf here today.

Mr. Speaker, our crisis at the southern border is a direct result of the President's executive actions that have sent a message to children and families across Central America that if they cross our porous border they will be allowed to stay. In fact, the administration estimates approximately 65,000 unaccompanied alien children will cross our border this year alone.

This is a humanitarian crisis of this administration's own creation and a stark reminder of the President's failings when it comes to securing our border. An unsecure border presents many dangers to our national security, and the recent and dramatic rise in unaccompanied alien children along our southern border indicates an alarming ease at which our border is being crossed illegally.

Potentially worse than that, despite the administration's apparent surprise by this recent surge in border crossings by these children, on January 19 of this year, the Department of Homeland Security posted a request for information on the Federal Business Opportunities Web site seeking contractors to provide ``escort services'' for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The posting specifically calls for a contractor who can transport unaccompanied alien children that have been apprehended by law enforcement in the U.S. to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The solicitation from January states that ``there will be approximately 65,000 unaccompanied alien children in total.''

The online posting suggests that DHS was expecting a significant increase in the number of unaccompanied alien children that it would need to transport this year.

Furthermore, the 65,000 number closely corresponds with the administration's new estimate that 60,000 unaccompanied children will come into the country illegally this year.

This leads to the obvious question of how it was that ICE or DHS was able to project such a rise in border crossing by children this year.

Because of this, I have sent a letter to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson and Acting Director of ICE, Thomas Winkowski, demanding information as to how their agencies may have anticipated the recent and dramatic rise in the number of unaccompanied alien children that are crossing the southern border into the United States illegally.

Mr. Speaker, this unprecedented humanitarian crisis at our border must be resolved, and I fear that promises of even more unilateral executive actions from this President will only make the problem he has created even worse.

We must get to the bottom of how this crisis happened, how it can be prevented from happening again, and how we can finally secure our Nation's problem of securing our porous borders.