Floor Statements

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question so that we may immediately consider H.R. 3370, the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act.

Mr. Speaker, communities in my home State say, We cannot wait for relief from steep flood insurance rate increases. Rhode Island families have told me that they are facing flood insurance rates upwards of $35,000, and they are scared of losing their homes. If these rates fully go into effect, in many cases, families are going to be paying more for flood insurance than they are for their mortgage. Unless we act, we could potentially see whole middle class neighborhoods wiped out because they will drown not because of a flood but because they will drown under the weight of the cost of flood insurance. This is simply unconscionable.

Implementing a delay in rate increases, Mr. Speaker, will give FEMA time to complete an affordability study and develop recommendations to help homeowners afford their premiums. Without it, thousands of middle class homeowners will continue to suffer from the uncertainty of not knowing whether the cost of flood insurance will make homeownership unaffordable.

This legislation passed the Senate Thursday with a strong bipartisan vote. The House companion has 182 bipartisan cosponsors. I urge my colleagues to support consideration of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act to provide immediate relief for our families and our communities.

Mr. Speaker, my Rhode Island communities have been battered. They have been battered by the financial crisis and a slowly recovering economy, and they have been battered by Mother Nature, from the floods of 2010 to Superstorm Sandy in 2012. Now, as we finally emerge from the worst economy since the Great Depression, our citizens who managed to hold on to their homes through economic hardship and uncertainty are facing yet another challenge--sharp rate increases to their flood insurance policies.

We need to pass the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act today, and send it on to the President for his signature. Our communities cannot wait any longer for relief from steep rate increases. Rhode Island families have told me they are facing flood insurance rates upwards of $35,000, and they are scared of losing their homes. This is simply unconscionable.

This legislation passed the Senate last Thursday with a strong bipartisan vote of 67-32; 182 bipartisan Members in the House are cosponsors of the House companion legislation. There is no reason for the Republican House Leadership to deny us a vote on this critical relief.

Implementing a delay in rate increases will give FEMA the time it needs to complete an affordability study and develop recommendations to assist homeowners who cannot afford their premiums. Without it, thousands of our middle-class homeowners will continue to suffer from the uncertainty of not knowing whether the cost of flood insurance will make homeownership unaffordable.

I urge my colleagues to support consideration of the Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act, and provide immediate relief for our families and communities.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in reluctant opposition to the Farm Bill. While there is much to commend in this compromise, I cannot in good conscience vote for a bill that cuts $8.6 billion from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

I applaud all my colleagues on the Agriculture Committee for their hard work and long hours spent putting this agreement together. Today's bill makes a number of much-needed changes to our nation's agricultural policy. It finally ends the practice of direct payments to farmers in favor of real crop insurance, a laudable achievement that the Agriculture Committee has been working towards for over a decade. The bill expands support for organic foods, local farm-to-table programs, and farmers' market nutrition, all of which I have strongly supported and will continue to champion.

This agreement also maintains important animal welfare provisions. In particular, I am thankful for Congressman Schrader's leadership in working to strip the King Amendment, which would have invalidated hundreds of state animal welfare laws, from the conference report. I am also pleased that the committee chose to include animal fighting restrictions that will help to forever end this abhorrent practice by making it a federal crime to attend an animal fighting event.

Unfortunately, beyond these important reforms, a full third of the savings in this bill comes from cuts to SNAP, formerly known as food stamps. SNAP helps millions of Americans living in poverty put food on the table, including nearly 200,000 in Rhode Island. Eighty percent of the households receiving SNAP earn below the federal poverty level, making it a vital form of assistance for countless working families. Today's bill will have a disproportionate effect on low-income seniors, working poor families with children, and individuals with disabilities. And for those who are currently struggling to find work, many of whom have just seen their emergency unemployment benefits expire due to the inaction of this Congress, the loss of SNAP assistance could be a crippling blow. Rhode Island has the highest unemployment rate in the nation; I will not vote to make life more difficult for thousands of our families.

Last year, I joined several of my colleagues in taking the SNAP Challenge, a commitment to living on no more than $4.50 per day in food costs. Every member of Congress should experience what it's like to subsist on this paltry amount to better understand the impacts of the decisions we make on the lives of our constituents. Sadly, as we observe the 50th Anniversary of the War on Poverty, the SNAP cuts in today's bill seem to be part of a war on the poor. This is only one element of a worrying trend from the House majority that would lead us toward a world where the rich take care of themselves and the poor fight for the scraps. I hope that my colleagues step back from this misguided policy before it is too late.

Although I am unable to vote for these cuts to food assistance, I will continue to work with my colleagues to promote sensible agricultural policies that promote healthy eating, sustainable farming practices, and ample food for every American.

Mr. Speaker, I join my colleague, Congressman ``GT'' Thompson from Pennsylvania, as cochairs of the bipartisan Career and Technical Education Caucus in commending House appropriators and my colleagues for the increase in Perkins Act funding for career and technical education funding.

This funding is vitally important for training the next generation of workers who will enter the career and technical education fields. These are good-paying jobs. At a time where Rhode Island--my home State--has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, this funding for career and technical education could not come at a more critical time.

It is frustrating to see so many people out of work. Yet when you talk to businesses around our State and around the country, one of the main things that they found a real challenge is finding the people with the right skills to do the jobs that are available right now.

So by focusing on these areas of career and technical education, whether it be in IT or woodworking or culinary or engineering, these are vitally important jobs in our communities, in our country, and they are going to do a lot to get people back to work.

I want to thank my colleagues for their support of Perkins Act funding and career and technical education programs.

I, again, thank my colleague, Congressman ``GT'' Thompson of Pennsylvania, for the bipartisan effort that he and I have put into this vitally important area.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this omnibus appropriations bill, which will restore some of the economic certainty we need to boost growth and job creation. While neither side got everything they wanted, this bipartisan agreement on government funding for 2014 shows what can be accomplished when Democrats and Republicans sit down and negotiate in good faith. This agreement will eliminate the economic instability of stop-gap governing, and it will provide critical relief from some of the most devastating impacts of sequestration on American families and our economy.

This legislation includes essential investments in our infrastructure, while providing certainty to our state and local governments, our schools, and our civil servants who keep our water clean, our food safe and our commerce flowing. I am particularly pleased to note that it contains $75 million in fisheries disaster assistance, which will provide urgently needed relief to our local fishermen that comprise an important part of Rhode Island's economy.

The budget deal we reached last December was a breakthrough in a difficult fiscal and political environment. As with any compromise, there are elements I opposed, but I am heartened to now see that agreement translated into positive developments like a $52 million increase in funding for Career and Technical Education (CTE), delivering a much-needed boost to skills training programs nationwide. It also restores full funding to Head Start, and expands Early Head Start by $500 million. Early childhood is arguably the most impressionable and important time in a child's mental development, and these investments will pay dividends many times over as these children grow and thrive.

Although I'm encouraged that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) received a $1 billion increase, this funding alone will neither reverse the damage incurred by sequestration, nor will it provide our biomedical research enterprises the investments they need to properly advance lifesaving treatments and technologies. If we want to continue leading in scientific and economic innovation, we must invest in the research and development that drives it. Today's bill is a partial victory, but there is still much work to be done.

Despite some notable shortcomings, this legislation removes a significant portion of the cloud of uncertainty that has hovered over the Department of Defense and the national security community. In an important first step, it reverses a cut to the cost-of-living adjustment for disabled military retiree pensions originally included in last year's budget agreement. It is my hope that we can continue working together to restore the benefits for all of our military retirees who have served with honor and distinction.

The bill also contains robust support for cybersecurity programs and for crucial submarine programs, including the procurement of two of the peerless Virginia-class attack submarines in FY14; the development of the Virginia Payload Module, key to maintaining our undersea strike capability after the retirement of our SSGN fleet; and the Ohio Replacement Program, the linchpin of our future national deterrent.

However, I am very concerned that the measure significantly reduces funding for defense research and development. The R&D work of today results in the game-changing technologies that enable us to meet the challenges of the future, and diminishing such efforts is troublingly short-sighted. We must protect these critical investments in future legislation.

Today, we will vote to take an important step towards restoring fiscal order; however, it is not the only step to securing economic stability for all Americans. In particular, it is unconscionable that we have yet to extend long-term unemployment benefits for those forced out of work in a struggling economy. Despite the progress made since the depths of the recession, there are still 1.3 million fewer jobs today than six years ago. In fact, thousands of Rhode Islanders have been looking for work for more than six months, and they deserve our continued support and a safety net as they continue their search.

Keeping sequestration in place through fiscal year 2014 could have cost up to an estimated 1.6 million jobs, and I am pleased that we have been able to avoid some of its most destructive impacts. Moreover, I applaud this move back to a reliable, consistent budget process, and I hope today's vote will serve as a fresh opportunity to refocus on priorities like job creation, medical research, national security, infrastructure investment, and education.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall vote No. 2, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in strong support of the House amendment to H.R. 3304, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2014.

This legislation represents the best path forward for the work that we must do in order to support our men and women in uniform and our national security, and I applaud Chairman McKeon and Ranking Member Smith for their efforts to ensure that it is enacted.

I am pleased that the bill continues the strong support of the Virginia-class submarine, Ohio Replacement Program, and the Virginia Payload Module, all of which are critical to our future capabilities. I am also pleased that this measure improves on several key aspects of the House-passed defense authorization, including a number of initiatives designed to confront sexual assault in our military, policies making progress towards the administration's goal of closing the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, and improved provisions relating to the nuclear weapons enterprise and missile defense.

I have been proud to work closely in particular with Chairman Mac Thornberry on the numerous provisions under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Intelligence Emerging Threats and Capabilities, where I am proud to serve as ranking member. We have prioritized resources for our Special Operations Forces and our cybersecurity efforts, as well as investments in advanced technology and research and development.

While more clearly must be done by both DOD and the whole of government to address the challenges our Nation faces in cyberspace, there are many positive steps as well in this legislation, including incentivizing new cybersecurity standards, ensuring U.S. Cyber Command has proper authorities and personnel, and coordinating cybersecurity efforts with related disciplines.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman McKeon and Ranking Member Smith and their tireless committee staff for their efforts, and I urge my colleagues to support swift passage of this crucial legislation.

Mr. Speaker, many of my colleagues have highlighted the challenges of implementing the Affordable Care Act at the Federal level. While these must be addressed, I would like to take a minute to highlight the successes we have seen at the State level in Rhode Island. Although a majority of States opted not to operate an exchange of their own, Rhode Island chose to be a leader in creating a State- driven, integrated marketplace to provide quality, affordable health insurance for its citizens.

On October 1, Health Source RI, the Ocean State's online portal and health insurance marketplace, opened for business. It has successfully enrolled over 5,000 residents to date without many of the issues plaguing the Federal Web site. Of course, we are still at the beginning stages of this process, and efforts are under way to improve and expand the successful rollout with many of our State partners.

This has been a highly collaborative effort, and I look forward to continuing our work together so that individuals, families, and small businesses can shop for insurance that meets their needs based on transparent, competitive pricing and robust coverage.

Mr. Speaker, I, too, want to join my colleagues in offering condolences on the passing of the gentleman from Missouri, Ike Skelton. He was a wonderful Member, a mentor, and a dear friend. And let me say how much he will sadly be missed. He is in our thoughts and prayers, as is his family, in this difficult time.

Mr. Speaker, as cochair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus, today I rise to commend the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security, the National Cybersecurity Alliance, the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center, and other organizations working to improve cybersecurity in the United States on the 10th anniversary of National Cybersecurity Awareness Month.

Throughout October, these organizations and public and private sector partners have worked tirelessly to create events and initiatives across the country to educate Americans about cybersecurity and increase the resiliency of our Nation's cyber-infrastructure.

Cyberspace today is inextricably linked to every aspect of our daily lives; and efforts such as these are crucial to creating a safe, secure, and resilient cyber-environment. I hope my colleagues will join me in congratulating all who have made Cybersecurity Awareness Month a success.

Mr. Chair, maintaining and investing in our national water infrastructure is an important responsibility of Congress. Critical to our coastal and inland communities alike, these resources keep our national transportation networks running and our economy growing. The Water Resources Development Act protects our neighborhoods from floods, provides for environmental restoration and protection, and helps keep commerce moving, all while ensuring community engagement, access, and transparency in project decision making. Regrettably, the bill before us erodes many of the safeguards designed to protect the very lives and communities impacted by these projects. Despite the enormous benefits of passing a water resources bill into law, we should not do so at the cost of decades-old protections for our states, cities and towns. If we weaken the laws that require us to evaluate the full range of options for projects and alternatives, we may undermine the success of future projects, endangering their fiscal soundness and environmental stewardship.

In Rhode Island, the Army Corps of Engineers has worked diligently to protect our coastlines, stem shoreline erosion, institute flood protections and improve inland navigation. Over the past 50 years, most of the navigation work on Rhode Island's waterways has been constructed by the Army Corps. Since the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), these projects rightfully went through rigorous review and solicited comments from affected communities, businesses and governments.

For more than four decades laws like NEPA have contributed to cleaner water, cleaner air, and a safer and healthier environment. Their authors recognized that healthy communities beget healthy economies, passing these bills into law with strong bipartisan support. In fact, Congress has been a greater hindrance to the advancement of Army Corps projects than environmental review. While the last WRDA bill passed by Congress in 2007 authorized the construction of projects costing more than $22 billion, Congress appropriated just $1.5 billion for the Corps' construction budget last year.

The NEPA process informs federal decisions and provides a critical check to communities on federal planning. In many cases, NEPA offers the only opportunity for the public to have a say in federal actions that may have profound impacts on their health, safety, livelihood, and wellbeing. It has saved money, time, vital resources, historical sites, endangered species, and public lands, while ensuring public disclosure and engagement.

I hope my colleagues will join me in working to prevent any degradation of the NEPA process going forward. Without such action, we are set on a path to undermine public input

into the federal decision-making process, increase taxpayer costs, and harm the environment.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, the Flores amendment is, quite frankly, an affront to states' rights. By preventing the Army Corps of Engineers from coordinating ocean and coastal planning with Federal and State partners, it will inhibit the ability of States like Rhode Island, my home State, from managing resources in a way that fits their needs and priorities.

We have long recognized that our ocean resources do not adhere to State boundaries. Accordingly, their management must be regionally based. In the Northeast, our Regional Ocean Council has allowed our States to pool resources and our businesses to have a voice in decision-making. The Flores amendment may inhibit regional efforts, including ongoing Hurricane Sandy recovery and restoration planning to protect against future storm damage.

Put simply, it is an attempt to impose restrictions and requirements on coastal States and districts that will prevent our counties, cities, along with State Governors, from working collaboratively with their Federal partners on projects critical to coastal economies.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

In 2010, maritime economic activities supported 2.7 million jobs and $258 billion in GDP. These resources are too important to our economies not to be managed with the best science practices available.

I strongly urge my colleagues to protect the rights of States to manage their own resources and to vote ``no'' on this misguided amendment.

Mr. Chair, on rollcall vote No. 556, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

(By unanimous consent, Mr. Cook was allowed to speak out of order.)

Moment of Silence in Honor of Sacrifice of Servicemembers of First

Battalion, Eighth Marines killed in Beirut

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, the clean CR, and go to conference on a budget so that we can end this Republican government shutdown. It is the right thing to do.

Madam Speaker, we are now in the fourth day of a manufactured government shutdown; and despite repeated calls to end this manufactured crisis, House Republicans have yet to allow a simple majority vote on a Senate-passed bill that would pass this House on a bipartisan basis and that the President could sign today to bring operations back on line. Instead, Republican leaders have begun cherry- picking services to fund during the shutdown to mitigate the political fallout from the untenable position in which they have put our country.

Don't you think the American people see through that?

It's nice to see my Republican colleagues finally acknowledge that the government does, in fact, provide many critical services worthy of our support. These piecemeal bills are not serious attempts to reopen our government. They would not help the 800,000 dedicated public servants who have been involuntarily furloughed; they would not help my constituents applying for Social Security disability benefits; they will do nothing for small business owners who are cut off from SBA- backed loans; and they certainly don't address the women depending on rape crisis or domestic violence centers, which will lose their funding after today.

What these bills would do is merely prolong a disastrous, manufactured situation. I urge my colleagues to bring up a straightforward funding measure to get our constituents, our economy, and this Congress back to work.

Mr. Speaker, this shutdown is already affecting millions of Americans, and the bills before us today represent a recognition of that fact. What they most certainly do not represent is a solution.

A small group of radical Tea Party Republicans has forced this shutdown on my constituents, on hundreds of thousands of federal employees and their families, on the businesses who depend upon them as customers, and on countless visitors to our nation's most treasured sites. Now, these same Republicans are being faced with the real-world consequences of their actions: World War II veterans blocked from visiting the memorial built in their honor. Communities losing millions of dollars in tourism activity each day. Our nation's capital at risk of suspending basic municipal services.

These are all devastating impacts, and they are among the many reasons my Democratic colleagues and I have worked so hard to prevent a shutdown. But these piecemeal bills are not a serious or honest attempt to reopen our government. They are merely an attempt to put a Band-aid over some of the most visible and unpopular fallout from the shutdown, while doing absolutely nothing to get us closer to a real solution.

These bills would not help the 800,000 dedicated public servants who have been furloughed, leaving them with mortgages, student loans, car payments and no paycheck. In Rhode Island, these furloughed employees include hundreds of civilians at Naval Station Newport, airline safety inspectors from the FAA, civilian technicians from the Rhode Island National Guard, and staff at the U.S. Attorney's office, the IRS and the EPA.

These bills would not help my constituents who are trying to apply for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. They would not help the dozens of children with cancer who have been turned away from clinical trials at NIH. They would not help the millions of mothers who cannot afford baby formula without assistance from the WIC nutrition program. They would not help the small business owners who can no longer receive loans from the SBA. They would not help the thousands of children whose Head Start classes will be canceled as early as this week.

What these bills would do is merely prolong a disastrous situation. There is no doubt that the District of Columbia, our National Park system and most certainly our veterans are worthy of our attention and support. But what the Republicans are doing is using them all as pawns in a dangerous political game that leaves everyone else to fend for themselves.

I want to make sure the American people know that Democrats have offered repeatedly to support a clean Continuing Resolution which funds the government until November 15 at the rate the Republicans proposed-- a rate which is lower than many of us would like but that we are willing to accept in order to achieve compromise and end this stalemate. This CR will allow us to completely reopen government and get back to work on the longer-term fiscal issues that demand our attention. And this CR has already been passed by the Senate and sits waiting in the House, if only the Republican Leadership would agree to allow us to vote on it.

Mr. Speaker, all Americans are impacted by this shutdown, and all Americans deserve our support to end it. A piecemeal approach is not the answer. Let us vote on a clean CR and get our constituents, our economy and this Congress back to work.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, the clean CR, and go to conference on a budget so that we end this Republican government shutdown that is slowing the economic growth and threatening to derail our economy at a time when we can least afford it.

Mr. Speaker, I am extremely proud to report that HealthSource RI officially opened for business today, allowing individuals, families and small businesses across the Ocean State to begin enrolling in their health insurance plan of choice. While a majority of states opted not to operate a health insurance exchange of their own, Rhode Island chose to be a leader in creating a state- driven, integrated marketplace that will provide quality, affordable health insurance coverage for its citizens.

We have come a long way since passage of the Affordable Care Act, and it has been no small task to reach this critical juncture. I would like to commend the leadership, vision and collaboration of Lieutenant Governor Elizabeth Roberts, former Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher Koller, current Health Insurance Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Hittner, HealthSource RI Director Christine Ferguson, and countless others who have worked tirelessly under the auspices of Governor Chafee. I would also like to thank our health care partners throughout the community who have contributed their resources and expertise to this endeavor.

While many challenges remain in our mission to increase access to health insurance coverage for thousands across the state, it is one worthy of our best efforts. HealthSource RI will allow individuals and small businesses to shop for insurance based on transparent, competitive pricing. The online tools make it easy-to-use, and their staff is ready to field questions and concerns from Rhode Islanders who are shopping for health insurance. All Americans deserve high-quality health care, and the state exchanges will enable them to tap into those services.