Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I voted to reject the Republican's short-term, piece-meal funding bills for some, but not all, of the federal government. While this effort has a superficial appeal, it is being used to prop up a terribly flawed policy that ignores the wide array of services that the federal government provides to families, to our children, to the environment, and to businesses across the country.

The Congress should instead take up a clean CR to fund our government, rather than holding it hostage to healthcare laws enacted three years ago and now going into effect--freeing families from insidious practices such as lifetime limits on health insurance coverage, providing coverage for individuals with pre-existing conditions, expanding coverage for children, and ensuring that all insurance policies cover basic, critical services.

I urge my colleagues to pass a clean funding bill and reject this cynical ploy.

Mr. Speaker, one of the cornerstones of my lifetime of public service has been to work on bipartisanship. I have a long record of working with Republican Governors and Senators back home in Oregon. Here in Congress, every major initiative I've advanced has been working to engage bipartisan sponsors and finding ways that bring people together rather than divide them.

But here in Congress, under the Republican leadership, I must say, it has been difficult, if not impossible. For example, there's been a claim that Republicans want to repeal and replace ObamaCare. They've never indicated a hint of how they would replace the Affordable Care Act and protect its most important provisions. They cannot say how they would produce a health care plan that would eliminate the stark specter of medical bankruptcy, which, under the Affordable Care Act, Americans no longer have to fear. They have no plan to protect families from being denied health insurance because of preexisting conditions and eliminate the pernicious lifetime limits which penalize families in the most desperate and tragic of circumstances.

Now we're in the middle of their manufactured crisis of a government shutdown, and they risk a meltdown of the global economy by threatening America will not pay its bills on the national debt.

There are three simple steps my Republican friends could take to prove they're serious and not cynical:

First of all, Republicans campaigned the breadth of this country against the ACA, but they have included in their budget over a half trillion dollars in savings under the act and all of the revenues from the taxes. If they are serious and not cynical, they will remove that money from their budget and show what other services they would cut or taxes they would raise to make up for it.

If they are serious and not cynical, they would bring their own spending bills to the floor for their members' vote. Remember, we still have pending the Transportation-HUD spending bill. On July 30, they just stopped in the middle of deliberations because they figured out that the bill was so bad that their own members wouldn't even vote for it.

If they are serious and not cynical about their spending plan, they ought to allow their members to vote on their own spending bills, see if there's any more support today than there was 3 months ago. Then bring the Interior spending bill to the floor, which has been in committee limbo. The showstopper will be Labor, Health, and Human Services. If they're serious and not cynical, they will have recorded votes to show the American public what they really believe in.

Last night, I was stunned that the final stunt in their ``let's-make- a-deal, made-for-TV semireality show'' was to demand a conference committee be appointed. They want a conference committee on a bill that has already been law for 3 years that the American health care industry and local government have spent billions of dollars to be ready to implement, which goes into effect today.

If you're serious about working on a cooperative basis and negotiating differences and want to have a conference committee, why don't you appoint a conference committee on the budget? The Senate and the House have both approved budgets, and the Republicans have refused to appoint conferees so that people can work together to resolve these differences. That is a pending item right now. It's ready to go.

It's interesting. We had a jaw-dropping moment in the Budget Committee last week when my friend, Chairman Paul Ryan, said the reason they would not appoint conferees is because there might be too many motions to instruct. My goodness, the House might express its will and not be tightly controlled?

We're in the midst of a manufactured government shutdown crisis with a looming disaster if they throw a tantrum that would prevent Americans from paying their bills. Republicans can prove that they are serious and not cynical by not using the health care reform savings to fund their budget, bringing their own spending bills to the

floor and allowing them to be voted on, and then having a conference committee not on a law that is 3 years old, but on a pending item between the House and the Senate: the budget. Sooner or later, the system ought to be allowed to work.

Mr. Speaker, as we approach the government shutdown Republicans manufactured by sending a proposal to the Senate they know is unacceptable and is not workable, there is an opportunity for Republican colleagues to show that they are serious and not cynical:

They could eliminate from their budget the savings of a half trillion dollars that ObamaCare would generate;

If they are serious and not cynical, they could bring their own spending bills to the floor. Remember, they abruptly stopped working on the spending bills last summer as they figured out that the T-HUD bill was so bad that their own Members wouldn't vote for it;

If they are truly serious about working in a cooperative fashion and negotiating out differences, then the Republicans should allow a conference committee to be appointed to work out the differences between the House and the Senate Budgets.

If you are serious about working together to solve problems, why don't you work together to solve problems?

Mr. Speaker, we are here in the Capitol awaiting a decision by the Republicans in the House about the next step to deal with the fiscal crisis they have created.

It is not really that complicated. The Monday deadline approaches to continue the operation of the Federal Government with a shutdown looming because the Republicans have refused to work on a bipartisan basis to resolve the funding issues.

The centerpiece of their rhetoric has been objection to the Affordable Care Act and their childish insistence that a program that has been approved by Congress, President Obama reelected defending it, and validated by the Supreme Court, that somehow this bell can be un- rung.

Billions have already been spent, hundreds of thousands of people are working to make the reform operational, and it seems to be working. Better prescription drug benefits for senior citizens are putting more money in their pockets. Children under the age of 26 have been able to stay on their parents' policies.

Beginning Tuesday, enrollment starts for the exchanges, and on January 1 it goes live with better health insurance. People can't be refused insurance for preexisting conditions. There will be no lifetime limits on benefits. Health insurance will be more affordable with subsidies for millions, and there will be more competition for all. These provisions are overwhelmingly supported by the American public.

The health insurance program will save billions of dollars for the Federal Government, reducing the deficit. That's the judgment of the CBO. In fact, isn't it ironic that having campaigned against these health care savings and losing, Paul Ryan and the Republicans include those very savings in their budget?

My Republican friends are paralyzed in part because they've adopted a draconian budget that actually requires savings in the very health plan they want to defund. They claim to want to reduce government spending; yet they have refused to allow the House to vote on the spending bills their budget calls for.

We have been waiting for 2 months to finish the transportation and housing spending bill. They got halfway through it on the floor of the House, and they realized that their own Members wouldn't vote for it because it was so awful, and they stopped. They didn't even bother to bring the Interior spending bill to the floor.

If their budgets are so bad that their own Members won't vote for them, they shouldn't throw a tantrum, threaten to shut down the government, or destabilize the global economy by playing games with the debt ceiling. If they're afraid to have their own Members vote on their spending bills, shouldn't they allow a conference committee between the House and the Senate to resolve budget differences? That's how the system is supposed to work.

They whine the President won't negotiate with them. How is the President supposed to deal with people who are unwilling to face up to the consequences of their own irresponsible budgets or refuse to allow Congress to

work the process to establish a consensus budget by having a conference committee? How are Democrats supposed to deal with the Republicans as they up the ante, seeking to damage the American people by cutting off vital services in a shutdown? How do you deal with Republicans who are willing to default on paying America's debt, breaking our moral and legal obligations, and risking not just America's, but the world's, economy?

Earth to my Republican friends: America pays its bills. Always has, always will. It is the height of hypocrisy to blame this on the President, the Affordable Care Act, or the Democrats.

We wait breathlessly to see if the Republicans can agree to have anything to be voted on today; but the American people should insist that if my Republican friends are serious, they should bring their own budgets to the floor, allow the process to work to have a conference committee between the House and the Senate to reconcile our differences. Then we can act like grownups, not children throwing tantrums, and we wouldn't need to threaten the global economy over the debt ceiling.

Mr. Speaker, it is interesting listening to the parade of horribles recounted on the floor of the House today; but as a practical matter, in States like mine, in Oregon, people are going to get better coverage at lower costs--and California, New York, and Colorado, where people are actually working to implement the law rather than sabotage it.

But this is a smokescreen. Obscuring the fact that when my Republican friends talk, for example, about spending in debt, they are actually afraid to allow the House of Representatives to vote on their own spending bill because their own Members won't vote for it. That is why it has been 2 months and we have never finished deliberation on the Transportation bill. They pulled the Interior bill all together. They even refused to allow to have a conference committee formed to reconcile the differences between the House and the Senate.

It is a sad chapter when the fractured Republicans stand around when Americans deserve better. There is no reason the Senate could not have its bill before us today and the House Republican leadership bring us back into session. Instead, we are going to stall and stumble all we can up to the brink.

Mr. Speaker, the backbone of American communities are small, successful, family-owned enterprises. In Portland this month we are honoring the 90th anniversary of Parker family's United Finance Company and the 40th anniversary of Richard H. Parker's involvement with the family business.

The Parker family and their business have been an anchor in Portland's eastside for almost a century. It has been my pleasure to work with Rick Parker, Jr., for virtually his entire time with the company, which coincides with my time serving in public office.

His family and employees have been part of the revitalization of Portland's central-eastside district. He was one of the key members of the central-eastside industrial council which helped form a private- public partnership with the city to protect and enhance this vital sector of our local economy.

Most recently, it was my honor to work with him as a leader with Portland's streetcar renaissance and the successful project that brought it to the eastside of the Willamette River. Whether it's dealing with issues of public policy, public investment, or civic and charitable promotion, he and his family have played a vital role in Portland's vibrancy and the renaissance of Portland's near eastside.

I extend my congratulations to him, the family business United Finance Company, and am secure in the knowledge that his son, Richard Parker III, is continuing the tradition of family stewardship and community involvement.

Congratulations and we all look forward to celebrating the centennial in October 2023.

Mr. Speaker, in 2007, I introduced the first legislation to help the Iraqi and Afghan nationals that helped Americans in those countries to get them to safety in the United States. These are the people who were interpreters, guides, and drivers--people who performed countless tasks without which our military, diplomatic, and redevelopment efforts would have been impossible. There was an implicit promise that, as they risked their lives to help us, we would work to protect them when the American presence was scaled down. Thousands of these people are now threatened on a daily basis by people with very long memories.

It would seem as though this shouldn't be an impossible task. After all, these are people who risked their lives to protect and serve Americans. If they had wanted to harm us, they had countless opportunities to lead people down the wrong path, attack, assault, and mislead; but, by all accounts, thousands of these people performed critical tasks faithfully, if not flawlessly.

What has not been flawless is how the State Department and Homeland Security have managed the Special Immigrant Visa program we fought so hard to establish. It takes incredible effort to fight bureaucracy, delays, and the procedural hurdles, which too often end in frustration. Approvals have been just a trickle, and there is no sign of improvement. Instead, the program could disappear.

The authorization for the Iraqi Immigrant Visa expires in 4 days. And this is a country that is on the verge of collapse. Violence is on the upswing and these people have been left twisting. Many have been forced into hiding. Others, along with their families, have not just been threatened, but killed.

We have been unable to get anything on the continuing resolution to keep the program alive. Frankly, given the state of play in Congress right now, the continuing resolution doesn't look like a very stable basis for hope.

There is a possible solution: a unanimous consent provision that will extend the program, at no additional budget cost, which will keep the pipeline open to accept visas until we can get back to meeting our moral obligation.

It should be a simple matter to pass the House. There is overwhelming bipartisan support that is led in the most articulate and forceful way by new Members in both parties, like Tulsi Gabbard and Adam Kinzinger, who are themselves veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. This bipartisan group of recent veterans has seen the invaluable service and sacrifices of these people, and they feel a deep commitment to their safety. Sadly, not everybody in Congress feels that commitment, that moral obligation. The House Judiciary Committee leadership has been passive, if not outright opposed.

There's no guarantee that there will be a continuing resolution. In fact, the odds are getting a little more remote by the day. If this program shuts down for even a few hours, it will set back progress because of the cumbersome, convoluted nature of the program and security checks. People will be forced back to square one for approval, with their lives in great peril.

I would hope the House Republican leadership does not allow one or two people to veto meeting our moral obligation that has such broad bipartisan support. It will be to the shame of this body if we can't come together and protect the people we counted on in battle--and who are now counting on us.

This sad story is documented in Kirk Johnson's recent book, ``To Be a Friend is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind.'' The title really says it all: ``To Be a Friend is Fatal: The Fight to Save the Iraqis America Left Behind.''

So far, we have failed them. I hope the House will rise to the occasion before it's too late.

Mr. Speaker, for the past 5 years, I have been working to try and help keep the promise we made to Iraqis and Afghans who helped our soldiers in those battles that we will protect them as we leave. Because they helped America, their lives are in great peril to people who have long memories and who hate America.

The Special Immigrant Visa program that would allow them to come to the United States is a mess. It doesn't work very well. It's slow and convoluted. But now it's going to expire in 5 days.

We have a no-cost solution to at least allow the program to continue to limp along; but the House Judiciary Committee, despite broad bipartisan support for this no-cost, simple solution, has refused so far to be able to move it forward.

Every Member of the House should insist that we keep our obligation to these people who helped our soldiers and be able to protect them and their families. It's our moral obligation. I strongly urge each Member to make their views known.

Mr. Chair, this bill is deeply disappointing. It takes an issue on which there are areas of agreement and rather than working to fulfill those opportunities, it puts forth legislation that is deeply harmful both to the process and the policy. I strongly support providing long-term fiscal stability for counties who have relied on federal timber revenues. This is an important issue for many counties in Oregon. I appreciate that this legislation provides another year of funding for these counties through the county payments program.

The rest of this legislation, however, is concerning enough that I am forced to vote against it. It removes valuable protections for our forests and watersheds and puts in place artificial logging requirements that fail to account for local needs, ecological and geographic characteristics, or realistic, long-term timber management goals. The bill also places more communities at risk from fire or erosion danger by opening up areas for development and logging that put people closer to high risk wildfire zones and decrease the ecosystem's ability to handle flooding.

Congress should help provide long term fiscal stability to counties that are largely made up of federal lands. That is something we can all agree on. However, I would hope that we could do so in a way that maintains the basic environmental safeguards we depend on to keep our forests and our watersheds healthy, that preserves the investments we have made in outdoor recreation opportunities, and that helps our communities be safe, healthy, and economically secure.

Madam Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's courtesy, as I appreciate, actually, the hard work of the Appropriations Committee that has been placed in an impossible situation.

We still have pending the T-HUD bill. If people were serious about cutting government spending and enforcing the Republican budget, we would be having appropriations bills on the floor, and we would be dealing with them. We are not because the Appropriations Committee was given an impossible challenge. They were given funding levels that the House--the House--the House--will never approve, that Republicans in the House will never approve.

We are sitting here with ObamaCare as sort of a side show. It is going forward. Everybody in this Chamber knows that the President wouldn't sign a repeal bill, which would not go through the Senate anyway. That train has left the station.

I heard my friend from Indiana talk about real things. The Appropriations Committee, if they were given real spending limits and time on the floor and regular order--these are accomplished distinguished people who care about the integrity of government--they could work it out.

The quickest way to do it is if the Republican leadership would allow a conference committee on the budget. This is what has handcuffed the Appropriations Committee, they are operating under this unrealistic, ideological document that won't pass the House. If the Republican leadership would appoint conferees, we could work with the Senate that has passed its budget and get down and work out something that is agreeable. Then we won't have this fool's errand, we won't have the hard work of the Appropriations Committee and their staff off into the netherworld, and we could get down to cases.

It doesn't have to be this hard. Let regular order work; stop the side show.

Mr. Speaker, as the House Republicans prepare to shut down the government and threaten the global economy with debt ceiling blackmail, it's ironic that they refuse to allow their Members to vote on their own spending bills. They even refused to allow a conference committee with the Senate to resolve the budget impasse. I suppose it should be no surprise that their denial extends to climate change and the future of the planet, but Americans don't have that luxury.

Between this summer's wildfires in the West, last year's drought, Superstorm Sandy, and the recent horrific flooding in Colorado, Americans are seeing the impact of climate change. Tuesday, Matt Russell, a fifth-generation Iowa farmer, gave a quick history of what climate change looks like in Iowa.

In 2008, they suffered a 500-year flood. In 2010, there was another series of 100-year floods. The next year, the Missouri River wiped out thousands of acres of farm land, some of which will never be farmed again. In 2012 was the catastrophic drought. In half a decade, Iowa saw the worst flooding and the worst drought in over a century of record- keeping.

This is what climate change will look like, and it will get worse and more extreme, which is exactly what's happening this year. On May 4, there was a foot of heavy wet snow, the most snow ever recorded in Iowa in May. Then it began raining, the most rain ever recorded in the month of May in Iowa. Then it was drought. Last month was the driest August on record, even drier than last year's epic drought. And in between, July was one of the coldest, on record with temperatures in the thirties. Now they're experiencing one of the hottest Septembers on record. The hottest days in 2013 came after Labor Day, multiple days of over 100-degree temperatures. This is what climate change means: the wrong weather at the wrong time.

Their joke is that February came in May, along with all the rain for the summer; and September came in July and July came in September, and now they wonder what month is going to show up in October. But it's not a joke for the people who are trying to farm. It's not a joke for the taxpayers who are picking up the cost of crop insurance, which totaled almost $2 billion last year.

Farmers in Iowa and elsewhere are working to be part of the solution, but what they can't afford is for Congress to continue wasting time with debate, ignoring science, and spending billions of dollars on disaster relief. They want us to spend money upfront, not just to save money in the long run, but the lives and, indeed, the environment for all of our families to enjoy.

Listening to America's farmers or just looking out of the window and paying close attention to the news tells Americans all they need to know. The science is real, and the time for action is now. Farmers, small business, utilities, insurance companies, universities, colleges, we all should insist that Congress stop playing games with the budget, threatening the global economy with debt ceiling blackmail and the future of the planet.

Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose this misguided attempt to cut almost $40 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. I do not believe that depriving between 4 and 6 million Americans, and 105,000 Oregonians, of access to food will change an individual's motivation to find work. It's particularly ridiculous as work requirements already exist; this bill simply takes away a state's ability to allow for flexibility when there are no jobs or work- training programs available. I also find it ironic that this Congress has refused to apply the same means testing principles it requires for the nutrition program to the crop insurance program, which subsidizes wealthy farmers without regard to their financial need.

I oppose this legislation and it saddens me to see it on the House floor today.

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the recognition of the signing of our Constitution, which has been described as a document created by geniuses for a government that could be run by idiots. It looks pretty idiotic around here today to have been driven into a fiscal cul-de-sac, risking a government shutdown or default on the national debt. We can help the Republicans out of the cul-de-sac they've driven into.

First, just allow the House to vote on a continuing resolution. Second, if you want to cut the budget, bring your House budget bills to the floor. You pulled them back, and you wouldn't even allow a vote on them. Third, if your own budget is too onerous that your own Members don't want to vote on it, allow a conference committee to be formed with the Senate and create a budget that's more realistic. But one thing should be off limits--wrecking the global economy by defaulting on the national debt, which is money we've borrowed for money that has already been spent.

Every small business, church, union, rotary club, contractor, home builder, and bank should tell the Republicans: don't play games with the national debt.

Mr. Speaker, the League of American Bicyclists has a long and storied history. Over 120 years ago, the League was in the forefront of introducing cycling to America. It was the leader of the good roads movement as the cycling craze swept the country, producing a demand for more and better quality roads. Over a century later, America is in the midst of a new cycling renaissance.

For the last 10 years Andy Clarke has been at the helm of the League of American Bicyclists helping promote cycling coast-to-coast and in every state. There is no one who has done more than Andy to lift our vision and our spirits. I will be forever grateful that the United States has given him a green card, not just for his accent, but for his global vision of the power of cycling to help rebuild and revitalize our communities.

Andy understands the need to deal with all of the cycling community: young and old, recreational bicyclists, cycling tourists, the hardcore mountain biker, the weekend road cyclists, the commuter, and everybody in between.

Andy has been part of an effort to bring together the wide range of cycling interests which includes local government, people in the cycling community, and the businesses who benefit from cycling customers.

Cycling is not just the most efficient form of urban transportation ever designed, it is the key to fitness for our families, freedom for our children, and the easiest, quickest, and most inexpensive way to increase road capacity.

Andy, thank you for understanding these principles, for organizing the cycling community, and for providing vision, good humor, and leadership as we all navigate the tremendous opportunities that cycling presents for all Americans.

Madam Speaker, in less than 3 weeks, the Special Immigrant Visa program expires. This is something we created to help bring people who served Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan as interpreters, guides, drivers, people who helped our soldiers, who put their lives at risk, to be able to escape to safety. Unfortunately there are people with long memories who are there seeking revenge against those who have helped us.

But sadly, this project has been hampered by what can only be charitably described as ``bureaucratic ineptitude.'' The State Department can't even tell us how many thousands of people are in the backlog. Chairman Rogers just this week told me that an interpreter for one of his heroes is trying to seek refuge in the United States.

The program will expire September 30. If we can't help the State Department fix it, we can at least extend it in the continuing resolution so that we've got a chance for these people who gave so much for Americans to be able to get the refuge that they deserve.