Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on H.R. 3799.

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

Mr. Chair, we are here today considering this legislation because we have listened to the American people and are taking action on their behalf.

The Ways and Means Committee has traveled over 5,000 miles to hear directly from working Americans about the impact today's economy has had on them and their communities. Whether it be in a lumber mill in West Virginia or a cattle ranch in Oklahoma, workers, families, farmers, and small businesses have told us the same thing: They need relief from the Biden economy.

The legislation before us today will help make life a little bit easier on small businesses. It allows them to provide more options to their employees when it comes to health insurance benefits.

The CHOICE Arrangement Act gives small businesses more flexibility to provide health insurance benefits to current and future workers. Introduced by Representative Hern, this legislation codifies a Trump administration rule allowing small businesses to reimburse employees for buying their own health insurance on the individual market.

Washington should not stand in the way of workers getting the healthcare coverage that is best for them and their families. Just as important, workers should be able to take their insurance plan with them if they leave their current job. This bill gives small businesses the opportunity, if they so choose, to shed the administrative burden of managing traditional insurance coverage. At the same time, it gives workers more options for their own healthcare and makes the coverage portable.

Also included in the underlying bill is a provision from Representative Tenney that ensures small businesses are made aware of the flexible, tax-advantaged insurance coverage options available to them and their employees. We have heard that 70 percent of small businesses are not aware of the various health insurance options out there, such as CHOICE arrangements, qualified small employer health reimbursement arrangements, or the small business healthcare tax credit. This bill would make sure small businesses are notified about the availability and tax benefits of these options so businesses can make more informed decisions about how to support their employees' healthcare choices.

This legislation also includes important provisions to increase access to stop-loss insurance and expand association health plans, which will create more choices for American small businesses to offer health benefits to their workers at lower costs.

Mom-and-pop stores did not set out to be paper pushers and benefit managers, and we should not force them into that role. I urge my colleagues to support this bill to help small businesses support their workforce and let them focus on what they do best: serving their customers and employees.

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

Mr. Chair, all CHOICE Arrangement Act plans must cover preexisting conditions, cap out-of-pocket expenses, and cover key health benefits.

CHOICE arrangements do not allow employers to discriminate against any group of employees. They require equal contributions to all employees with the same employment status, and only adjust contribution amount for age and family size, to make the record straight.

I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Hern), the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Oklahoma.

Mr. Chairman, the CHOICE Arrangement Act will expand coverage for more types of workers by allowing employers to offer a CHOICE Arrangement to different groups of employees who may not have been offered health insurance previously, such as part-time or seasonal workers.

Under this policy, nearly 1 million workers will have health insurance coverage for the very first time.

Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney), who is an author of a piece of this legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

Mr. Chair, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Chairman, when Democrats expanded ObamaCare subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, those billions of dollars flow directly to large health insurers. CHOICE arrangements, however, allows small businesses--small businesses--to reimburse their own employees directly for them to shop and purchase their own health insurance. This is how Washington should be empowering small businesses, not bailing out large health insurers.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Mrs. Chavez-DeRemer).

Mr. Chairman, I remind the body that Build Back Better was never signed into law because neither the Democrats in the Senate nor the White House would even support it.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser).

Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman from Texas has no further speakers, I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Congress has an opportunity to help small businesses by making it easier for those who choose to provide health insurance for their employees.

This bill is the best of both worlds for small businesses and workers. It relieves many small businesses of the burden of administering a complex health insurance plan by allowing them to instead offer meaningful financial support to employees so that they can buy their own insurance. It takes some of the guessing game out of offering coverage by making sure small businesses are informed of the various options they have. It gives workers the freedom to choose the best possible coverage for themselves and their families.

By passing this legislation, we will allow small businesses to get back to the basics, helping their customers, taking care of their employees, and serving their communities.

I want to address the misleading claims we have heard from our Democrat colleagues. At our markup, one of my Democrat colleagues called the health plan options under this bill junk plans. That is unequivocally false. These funds can only be used to purchase plans that cover preexisting conditions. Regardless of what you hear on the other side, this covers plans with preexisting conditions. It covers plans that cap out-of-pocket expenses and guarantees coverage during open enrollment.

They also claim that we are opening a backdoor for businesses to discriminate in the health benefits offered to their employees. CHOICE arrangements provide the opposite of discrimination. They provide equal contributions to all employees with the same employment status, only adjusting for age and family size.

In fact, many businesses today don't offer health benefits to any of their part-time employees. Through CHOICE arrangements, these employees may be seeing their first offer of meaningful health benefits.

Today, we are taking another step forward to cut the bureaucratic red tape holding back small businesses. We should make it easier, not harder, to give America's workers, families, farmers, and small businesses access to flexible healthcare options.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow for legislative business.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3801) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to streamline and improve the employer reporting process relating to health insurance coverage and to protect dependent privacy, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

I appreciate the opportunity to say a few words about the Employer Reporting Improvement Act before us today, introduced by my good friends, Ways and Means colleagues, Representatives Adrian Smith and Mike Thompson. This is a straightforward and effective bipartisan solution to provide small businesses with relief from cumbersome Affordable Care Act reporting requirements.

Under current law, every year, to determine compliance with ACA requirements, employers have to report to the IRS information about the health insurance coverage they have provided for their employees.

As part of that process, employers are required to submit their employee and their spouse or dependents' personal tax identification numbers or Social Security numbers. However, here is the catch: If, during this process, the employer unknowingly submits incorrect information, or if the IRS believes that an employee is wrongfully claiming a premium tax credit, the employer faces a significant financial penalty.

Making matters worse, the window of opportunity that employer has to appeal is short, while the statute of limitations on that violation is limitless.

On average, the IRS takes anywhere between 18 to 24 months, 2 years, to crunch the numbers on all this data they receive. That means the small business is left in limbo waiting to hear whether the government will find them in violation of the law.

The bill before us today gives employers flexibility about what personal information they have to provide on behalf of their employees and their families. It extends the appeal window for any potential violation and establishes a statute of limitations so those small businesses, who have limited resources to begin with, can navigate these waters with less of a burden.

I thank my colleagues on both sides of this aisle for supporting this measure to provide relief to our small business job creators.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Smith), one of the sponsors of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the remainder of my time.

America's small businesses have had it pretty tough these past few years. They are asking that Congress do its part to bring a measure of relief.

The Employer Reporting Improvement Act is one step we can easily take to shrink the burden Washington imposes on them and their employees.

The mom-and-pop shops that line America's Main Streets should not have to operate under fear that Washington is going to come after them for a clerical error. When they are faced with a potential penalty, they ought to have the time to make their case. It is a simple matter of fairness.

This measure has strong bipartisan support. It sailed out of the Ways and Means Committee on a vote of 37-0.

I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3797) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide an alternative manner of furnishing certain health insurance coverage statements to individuals, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

If you visit any Main Street in America, you will see that small businesses are struggling. Today's cost of living crisis has made everything from supplies to labor more expensive for mom-and-pop stores all across America.

Not only are small businesses struggling because of high prices, but Washington mandates are forcing small businesses to waste precious time processing paperwork instead of serving their workers and customers.

Right now, small businesses are forced to send millions of Americans paper copies of health insurance reporting forms every year, when the vast majority of individuals don't use this form.

Every taxpayer knows this form I am talking about. While it is known as a Form 1095-C, it is one that you get in the mail and have absolutely no idea what to do with. It looks like this, and you put it in the pile with your other tax forms and then realize when it comes time to file your taxes, you don't actually even need it.

In fact, only 1.4 percent of American workers and their families may need to use this form. The Paperwork Burden Reduction Act is a bipartisan bill, introduced by Representative Panetta and myself, that will put an end to this wasteful practice.

This bill saves small business owners time and money by relieving them of mailing outdated paperwork that only exists because Congress mandates it.

This mandate doesn't even make sense anymore. The origins of this paperwork were to prove compliance with the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act, a mandate whose enforcement was zeroed out years ago.

Not only will small businesses have more time to focus on running a business, but this bill also recognizes how Americans actually file taxes. Now more than ever, Americans fill out their tax returns online. There is no reason that American workers should not be able to access this health insurance tax form online, as well.

I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for supporting this measure that will eliminate needless paperwork for working Americans and small business job creators.

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

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, back home in our districts, we have heard from workers and small business owners about the struggles they face in today's economy. Today, with this legislation before us, we finally have a chance to give them a bit of a break.

The Paperwork Burden Reduction Act will get rid of a Washington mandate that requires small businesses to waste time mailing unnecessary paperwork instead of serving their employees and customers. Not only will it save small business owners time, but it will also help them modernize their operations by letting workers access their health insurance tax forms online.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and help us deliver relief to workers and small business owners across America.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4004) to approve and implement the Agreement between the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States regarding Trade between the United States of America and Taiwan, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, Congress is sending a bipartisan message to President Biden today that we will not sit idly by as the administration ignores our constitutional role in developing U.S. trade policy.

The relationship between the United States and Taiwan is vital to U.S. interests in the Indo-Pacific. This initial trade agreement negotiated by the Biden administration is a good step. It builds on successful provisions that were included in the USMCA that was negotiated by President Trump, and it shows the world that the Chinese Communist Party will not intimidate the United States from deepening our relationship with Taiwan.

While Congress supports the early agreement that came from these negotiations, we will not stand by passively as the Biden administration, or any administration, attempts to bind the United States in a trade agreement without approval from Congress. Congress must be in the driver's seat on trade policy, not a passenger along for the ride.

Trade impacts every American. When done right, trade can boost small businesses, help American workers, and open up new markets for American farmers. Bad trade policy, on the other hand, can kill American jobs and give other nations unfair advantages over U.S. manufacturers, workers, and agriculture.

Every American deserves a voice in the outcome of these negotiations that impact their lives so much, which is why Congress, as their voice in Washington, must be involved in the development and approval of these agreements.

The Taiwan trade bill before us today restores congressional authority on

trade policy. It celebrates this agreement, but it also makes it clear that it cannot take effect unless this legislation is signed into law. It forces the administration to consult with Congress in a meaningful way moving forward, something that has not occurred to date. It requires any future agreements with Taiwan to be subject to a vote in Congress.

Without a vote on trade agreements, Congress can be ignored. This will ensure trade agreements are in the best interest of American workers, families, farmers, and small businesses. This bill has broad bipartisan support in both the House and in the Senate. Democrats and Republicans agree that U.S. trade policy must come through Congress, and the President will no longer be allowed to sidestep our constitutional authority.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to stand up for the voice of the American people and vote to pass this bill. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers, and I am prepared to close. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

The legislation before us today is an important first step in pushing back against executive overreach on trade. It also reinforces our support for a stronger relationship with our close partner, Taiwan.

I appreciate that my colleagues across the aisle agree that protecting Congress' constitutional powers is vital and that allowing any administration to continue unchecked would only dilute the voices of millions of Americans in Washington and embolden the executive branch to step on more of our Article I powers.

I am especially appreciative of the strong partnership in this effort of Ranking Member Neal in the House and Senators Wyden and Crapo in the Senate.

U.S. trade policy must first and foremost protect American workers, farmers, families, and small businesses. We have a duty today to ensure the American people maintain a say in what those policies look like.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members of the House to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Licking Wildcats Baseball Team on becoming the Missouri Class 3 State champions.

On June 1, 2023, the Licking Wildcats Baseball Team made it to the championship game for the first time since 1994, and for the first time since 1989 they brought home the championship. It is clear from the scale of celebrations that followed the victory, which included an impromptu parade with an escort from the Sheriff's Department immediately following the game, and their appointment as the grand marshal for the Rodeo Parade, that the effects of this victory rippled through their community.

The Class 3 State Champions, Derek Mendenhall, Karson Walker, Cole McCloy, Keyton Rinne, Cole Wallace, Malachi Antle, Kannon Buckner, Garrett Gorman, Brently Morris, Silas Antle, Kale Cook. Logan Gorman, Austin Stephens, Jordan Ritz, Rusty Buckner, Keyton Cook, and Kellar Davis, led by Assistant Coaches Cole Roark and Chris Harris and Head Coach Harv Antle, deserve to be praised for all the hard work and dedication that led to their state championship Victory.

This achievement is a testament to the excellent leadership of the coaching staff and the skill, drive, and passion of all the players on the team.

It is my great pleasure to honor the Licking Wildcats Baseball Team for their momentous state victory.

Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Trade of the Committee on Ways and Means, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the veto message of H.J. Res. 39.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of overriding President Biden's veto of H.J. Res. 39, a Congressional Review Act resolution disapproving of the rule submitted by the Department of Commerce relating to Procedures Covering Suspension of Liquidation, Duties, and Estimated Duties in accord with Presidential Proclamation 10414.

Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago, the Ways and Means Committee held a hearing at the Port of Staten Island in New York to listen to working Americans who are on the front lines of the impact of our trade policies.

Witnesses highlighted for the committee the troubling reality that the Chinese Communist Party continues to engage in a wide range of unfair trade practices that rip off American workers, farmers, and businesses.

Today's resolution highlights one of the most prolific of these unfair practices--massive subsidies for the CCP's favored industries.

Today's resolution is focused on the solar industry, but make no mistake, the CCP's industrial policy impacts all sectors of the American economy.

The United States has had tariffs in place since 2012--during the Obama administration--to provide a level playing field for American manufacturers who face unfair competition from unfairly priced and subsidized solar products coming out of China.

Now, President Biden's own Commerce Department has found that Chinese companies are shipping products through four Southeast Asian countries--Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam--to avoid paying these same tariffs.

China has set up a solar panel export scheme that cheats American workers and consumers. Instead of standing up for American manufacturers and workers, the White House rewarded China for exploiting them by issuing a proclamation that allows the CCP to continue to avoid paying the tariffs they owe for an additional 2 years.

The sad truth is the solar panel industry in China is historically one of the most prolific users of forced labor.

This body stood together not too long ago to pass the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act. We should do the same thing now when it comes to actually standing firm against products and industries which have a proven track record of using such terrible practices.

Republicans and Democrats in this Chamber and in the Senate came together to block implementation of the White House proclamation on solar panels just a few weeks ago.

In doing, so we also sent a message to President Xi: We will not allow China to abuse our trade policies and hurt American workers.

Unfortunately, President Biden doubled down on his misguided decision and vetoed our efforts. America must stand up to China and stand up for our workers.

Small businesses and U.S. manufacturers already have to deal with inflation, rising interest rates, and a worker shortage.

The least Washington can do is level the playing field for American workers competing against Chinese state-subsidized companies.

China's unfair trade practices have left behind a trail of shuttered factories, lost jobs, and stolen intellectual property all across America.

When we voted to roll back the White House's misguided decision on solar panel tariffs, Congress spoke with a bipartisan voice in both Chambers. I hope today we can do the same.

I urge my colleagues to once again support this effort to turn out the lights on China's economic exploitation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from West Virginia (Mrs. Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that the overall U.S. trade remedy system is retrospective.

Final duties are always calculated after a product enters the United States upon completion of an investigation or review.

We have hundreds of anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders in place to level the playing field for American producers. In all these cases, the final duties have been calculated at the end of the investigation.

What is unusual about the solar circumvention case was the action by the Biden administration to encourage importation of these products despite the

fact that China is trading them unfairly.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Posey).

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

Mr. Speaker, this veto override supports American workers and manufacturers in the solar sector, but it also helps protect American workers in every sector that face unfair competition from China or any other country.

Our trade laws are designed to level the playing field so that American workers can compete and win. We have hundreds of trade remedy orders in place to do exactly that for many American industries.

These laws aren't worth the paper they are written on unless they are enforced. Overriding this veto is an important way for Congress to show that we will insist on strong trade enforcement for American workers, farmers, and manufacturers of any product that faces unfair competition from China or any other country.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis).

Mr. Speaker, there are few times that I would have yielded time to the gentleman from Michigan, but I would have for that opportunity to finish.

Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues on the other side of the aisle know well, the Chinese Communist Party has an egregious human rights record. There is a clear connection between these human rights abuses and the CCP's solar industry.

Mr. Speaker, I call attention to the full and complete testimony of Nury Turkel, a Uyghur human rights lawyer and chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which was held before the Committee on Ways and Means during a field hearing in Staten Island, New York, on May 9, 2023, titled: ``Trade in America: Securing Supply Chains and Protecting the American Worker--Staten Island. The testimony can be found on the Ways and Means Committee website.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Turkel's testimony highlights the ongoing human rights abuses and religious persecution being perpetrated against Uyghurs by the Chinese Communist Party.

I am disappointed that President Biden vetoed this important resolution. This is unacceptable. We must step up to hold China accountable for its human rights abuses.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

For years, China has been engaged in a long list of unfair trade practices. It is these practices that are harming American workers. They cost communities their jobs and create an unfair playing field.

We are here today to end the misguided reward that the White House gave China for one of those unfair practices: shipping solar products through four Southeast Asian nations to dodge paying U.S. tariffs.

That is simply what we are talking about here. That is it. That is how you protect American workers.

It is not allowing the Chinese, the CCP, to have a competitive advantage over our manufacturers and over our American workers. But if it is for solar panels, wait, it is okay for the Chinese to subsidize that. It is okay for American workers to lose their jobs unfairly because we don't want to put a tariff on the CCP.

It is extremely important that even the Department of Commerce, President Biden's Department of Commerce, is the one that suggested there should be tariffs on these four countries because they are the ones that identified these four countries being misused by the CCP.

That is what we are trying to do, is to follow Biden's Department of Commerce. Unfortunately, Biden himself is not even following his own Department of Commerce because he is more on the side of his special interest groups instead of the American workers who are losing their jobs because this resolution, his veto, basically allows more Chinese solar panels in without tariffs, and they are not doing anything about it.

That is why, in a bipartisan measure, both in the House and in the Senate, we voted to reverse President Biden, including the Finance Committee chair over on the other side, a Democrat, who voted to reverse the President's proposal.

The problem is we don't have enough Democrats that will join us. We have just a few, but I am thankful for the few who want to stand up to the CCP.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to salute an extraordinary educator. Clint Johnston has spent 31 years in public education. He retires at the end of this school year as Superintendent of the Jefferson R-VII district. Clint began his career in Scott County Missouri, teaching science, coaching baseball, and driving buses. He ends it in Jefferson County Missouri overseeing four schools, 160 faculty and staff, and 1,123 students in Pre-K through 12th grade.

Mr. Johnston takes an interest in his students, celebrating their achievements and helping them overcome their challenges. He encourages and inspires his faculty and staff to provide an exemplary education to the students in their care. He is, most certainly, the

biggest cheerleader for his Jefferson County Blue Jays.

It has been my great privilege to nominate students from Jefferson R- VII who have achieved their dreams of attending U.S. Service academies. No one is prouder of their accomplishments than Superintendent Johnston.

As he retires from education, he begins a new chapter that his wife Joy says will include some travel and some time at his family farm. To paraphrase a line from his favorite movie, ``Forrest Gump,'' ``retirement is like a box of chocolates--you never know what you're gonna get.''

On behalf of the thousands of children and their families whose lives he touched, I am proud to congratulate retiring Jefferson R-VII Superintendent Clint Johnston of Festus, Missouri today before the United States House of Representatives.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Mr. Edgar ``Bee'' Ernest Wilhelms, Jr. of Reynolds County, Missouri. Edgar Ernest Wilhelms, Jr. was born in Exchange, Missouri on September 12, 1925, to Edgar and Wessie Wilhelms. On May 15, 1943, Bee was united in marriage to Lucille Haywood. On December 3rd of that year, he was inducted into the U.S. Army where he served until January 7, 1946. During his time in the Army, Corporal Wilhelms, Jr. served in the European Theater of Operations, was assigned to the Headquarters Battery of the 758th Field Artillery Battalion and participated in three major campaigns: The Rhineland Campaign including the Battle of Hurtgen Forest; the Ardennes Campaign including the Battle of the Bulge, and the Central Europe Campaign. His awards included the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two service bars and three campaign stars, the Army Good Conduct Medal, WWII Victory Ribbon, WWII Army Occupation Medal with Germany Bar, and the Rifle Sharpshooter device.

Mr. Wilhelms was a loving husband, father, friend, and a proud lifelong member of the VFW Post 6660. Mr. Wilhelms departed this life just short of his 98th birthday on May 10, 2023. He was the last remaining World War II veteran in Reynolds County, Missouri.

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 383, I call up the bill (H.R. 1163) to provide incentives for States to recover fraudulently paid Federal and State unemployment compensation, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, this crucial legislation will finally protect taxpayers and victims of fraud against the largest theft of tax dollars in American history.

Americans are suffering under a cost-of-living crisis fueled by Democrats' reckless spending. It has brought us to the brink of recession and spurred the highest increase in interest rates in 16 years.

It must be infuriating for folks to also see that it is not just the American Dream that is being stolen from them but their identities and their tax dollars.

Criminal organizations and foreign fraudsters exploited the pandemic to steal hundreds of billions in payments intended to keep workers afloat amidst government lockdowns, and the victims need our help.

How much has been stolen? The Department of Labor inspector general told the Ways and Means Committee that taxpayers may be on the hook for at least $191 billion in improper payments, and that is just the lower estimate. Outside experts estimate up to $400 billion of improper payments.

While working Americans were trying to piece their lives back together during the pandemic, Democrats did nothing to fight fraud. When Democrats held the majority on Ways and Means, they ignored, blocked, and shot down commonsense safeguards and refused to hold even one hearing on this fraud.

That inaction made it clear that their soft-on-crime agenda does not just apply to carjackings and looting department stores. It applies to defrauding the Federal Government, as well.

During his State of the Union, President Biden said the watchdogs are back. He rolled out the position of chief pandemic prosecutor at the Department of Justice. Since then, even as we have discovered more instances of fraud, the Biden administration official responsible for prosecuting it has resigned, and the position sits vacant for months.

That is not accountability. We couldn't afford inaction for the last 2 years, and we can afford it even less today.

These are stolen tax dollars, which makes every person in America a victim of this fraud. Today's vote is an important step toward ending suffering and delivering accountability.

The Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act gives States the tools they need to go after fraudsters and shores up vulnerabilities by improving identity verification and modernizing State UI systems.

It allows States to retain 25 percent of fraudulent Federal funds recovered. This is a real incentive for States to pursue what can be costly investigations and prosecutions because now they can use recovered funds to improve UI program integrity and fraud prevention. These dollars can go toward hiring investigators and prosecutors to go after criminals to recover fraud payments. This will also give States the resources to modernize systems and technology to better verify identity and income for unemployment and deter, detect, and prevent improper payments.

This legislation also allows States to keep 5 percent of UI overpayments recouped in the future to continue to improve benefit delivery and eligibility verification. This includes matching State lists against databases, which will help reduce payments to deceased and incarcerated individuals.

Many of these reform ideas are bipartisan and very long overdue. Some are supported by the Department of Labor inspector general and were even included in past budget requests from President Trump and President Obama. Even Biden has included several of the ideas in the Protecting Taxpayers and Victims of Unemployment Fraud Act in his most recent budget request.

I am hopeful House Democrats will join here to also protect taxpayers and support this bill.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), chairman of the Work and Welfare Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).

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

My colleagues on the other side have noted their objection to this bill's rescission of unobligated COVID funds sitting unused at the Department of Labor. They claim these funds are important in combating UI fraud, but the reality couldn't be further from the truth.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a February letter from the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

Department of Labor

& Industrial Relations,

Jefferson City, MO, February 6, 2023.

Hon. Jason Smith,

Chair, House Ways and Means Committee, Washington, DC.

Dear Chairman Smith: Thank you for the opportunity to share

the Missouri Department of Labor & Industrial Relations,

Division of Employment Security's experience in administering

and combatting fraud in the unemployment insurance (UI) and

federal CARES Act programs throughout the duration of the

COVID-19 pandemic.

Missouri's Governor declared a state of emergency on March

13, 2020, and Missouri entered into an agreement with the

United States Department of Labor (USDOL) to administer the

federal CARES Act program on March 28, 2020. In a span of

only three weeks, Missouri realized an increase of over 3000%

in unemployment insurance claims. In addition to the historic

increase in workload, the combination of state and new

federal programs expanding eligibility and dramatically

increasing monetary benefits, rapidly evolving federal

guidance, rampant media coverage, and misinformation made for

an extremely challenging environment for program

administration.

Federal programs, such as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

(PUA), initially only required self-attestation to qualify

and allowed individuals to backdate their PUA claims, lacked

the checks and balances inherent within the state's regular

Unemployment Insurance program that are a key component of

program integrity. Additionally, eligibility for a single

dollar of benefit under any unemployment program

automatically qualified the individual to receive a

substantial supplemental Federal Pandemic Unemployment

Compensation (FPUC) payment, inviting and incentivizing

individuals and bad actors to attempt to collect benefits to

which they were not entitled. Constantly changing guidance

for the CARES Act programs added to the burden by creating

additional workloads, complexity and confusion. For example,

PUA guidance from the USDOL was amended four times in a

period of less than 6 months, and much of the amended

guidance applied retroactively to the beginning of the

pandemic assistance period for claims already processed.

Fortunately, in 2016 Missouri replaced its legacy mainframe

system with a modernized unemployment insurance application.

Prior to the pandemic, Missouri had existing identity

verification and fraud detection tools in place. This gave

Missouri the ability to address the CARES Act program

implementation challenges and successfully identify potential

threats and prevent both small and large-scale fraud attacks

that plagued some states, with nationwide estimates of

potential fraud overpayments exceeding $45 billion according

to the USDOL--Office of Inspector General (OIG). However, in

response to unprecedented fraud attacks, Missouri

continuously reviewed and modified its fraud detection tools

and methods. As a result, funding administered by the USDOL

for improved program integrity was mostly leveraged for the

provision of additional staffing resources to address the

increased volume of work and support enhancement of the

existing technologies.

More recent funding opportunities, such as the Equity and

Tiger Teams grants, provide limited flexibility to address

program integrity and ongoing fraud prevention strategies.

The Equity Grant is focused on improving recipiency and

equitable access to the UI program. The Tiger Teams grant

identifies three focus areas to be addressed, ``equity and

access, backlogs and timeliness, and integrity.'' Bad actors

are constantly striving to find new innovative ways to

defraud benefit programs and avoid detection. As such,

Missouri must continue to innovate and invest in fraud

prevention strategies and tools that prevent our states and

our citizens from becoming the next victims. The existing

use, at the federal level, of the Resource Justification

Model for funding UI administration and one-time grant

opportunities, fall short in meeting this need. Therefore,

prioritization should be given to consistent funding that not

only permits states to implement proven strategies and tools

to combat fraud but also provides states the ability to

support and maintain these solutions into the future.

Missouri will continue to place UI program integrity as a

critical priority. I appreciate this opportunity to share

Missouri's experience with the challenges we faced

administering the federal programs throughout the pandemic.

Sincerely,

Anna S. Hui,

Department Director.

In it, my State's workforce directory notes their experience with tiger teams.

It says: ``More recent funding opportunities, such as the equity and tiger team grants, provide limited flexibility to address program integrity and ongoing fraud prevention strategies.''

This doesn't sound like a glowing review.

I welcome Democrats to share any information that they have that the Department of Labor's efforts have helped us recover dollars for American taxpayers.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kansas.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Steel).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Carey).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Murphy).

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Malliotakis).

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

Democrats are falsely claiming that this bill claws back relief funds from Americans who received an overpayment through no fault of their own.

The language in this bill is crystal clear. It is focused on recovering overpayments due to fraud. That means intent on the part of the individual. Existing law already protects individuals who receive overpayments through administrative error or otherwise. In fact, section 2401 of the CARES Act allows States to waive overpayments on a case-by-case basis if the payment would be contrary to equity and good conscience.

This bill also explicitly states in section 2(a)(2) and section 2(a)(3) that ``the State agency may retain 25 percent of any amount recovered from overpayments of pandemic emergency unemployment compensation''--this is the one you need to understand--``that were determined to be made due to fraud.'' Not overpayment. Due to fraud.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Yakym).

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

Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

The only way that this bill punishes American families are American families who are fraudsters, American families who intentionally create and commit fraud. Give me a break.

After years of inaction when Democrats held the majority, taxpayers have lost anywhere from $191 billion upward to $400 billion in fraud, and their identities have been stolen.

Democrats ignored it. They blocked it, and they shot down commonsense safeguards. Guess what? They refused to hold even one hearing on fraud.

American workers, families, and small businesses are already dealing with a cost-of-living crisis, and they deserve better. That is why they elected a Republican majority on the promise of a government that is accountable.

Today's bill delivers on that accountability with commonsense reforms that empower the States to make things right. With this vote, we will end the greatest theft of taxpayer dollars in American history.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the right thing and vote in favor of this bill and against fraud.

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

Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 327, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 39) disapproving the rule submitted by the Department of Commerce relating to ``Procedures Covering Suspension of Liquidation, Duties and Estimated Duties in Accord With Presidential Proclamation 10414'', and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and submit extraneous material on the resolution under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, today, we take a bipartisan step toward holding China accountable for its trade abuses.

These trade abuses are well known to all of us in this Chamber. Most recently, this past December, President Biden's Department of Commerce found that China is circumventing tariffs on imports into the U.S. by shipping solar products through, not one country, not two countries, not even three countries, but in fact, four countries in Southeast Asia.

These tariffs were put in place by President Obama since 2012 to provide a level playing field for American manufacturers who were facing unfair competition in the U.S. market from solar products that China was subsidizing and selling at unfairly low prices. By circumventing these tariffs by shipping its products through Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, China has set up a solar panel export scheme that cheats American workers and consumers.

So we know there is wrongdoing going on. We know China is cheating. That is precisely why Members from both parties were stunned and disappointed when the White House made the misguided decision to halt for 2 years additional tariffs on Chinese solar products being sent through these four countries.

At a time when China has a dominant position in solar production, despite longstanding American innovation in this sector, should we really be telling the world that there will be less accountability for unfair trade practices?

The answer is not just no. Mr. Speaker, it is absolutely no.

But the President's proclamation to halt any new countervailing duties and tariffs does just that. What is worse, it establishes a lesser standard of accountability for China than the rest of the world.

The legislation before us today, H.J. Res. 39, Congressional Review Act legislation on solar tariffs, will stop President Biden's proclamation that has given a free pass for 2 years to unfair solar imports from China that circumvent our trade laws.

The United States must maintain crucial protections for American workers and our economy as a whole. We cannot surrender to China or any other country and put American workers at a disadvantage.

This resolution has bipartisan support. I thank Representative Posey for leading this initiative, and Committee on Ways and Means members Dan Kildee of Michigan, Greg Murphy of North Carolina, Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, Nicole Malliotakis of New York, and Claudia Tenney of New York. The fact that Democrats and Republicans on our committee are original cosponsors of this resolution shows just how bipartisan the issue is.

We have to confront the Chinese Communist Party's bad behavior. We have to hold it accountable.

Mr. Speaker, I urge votes in favor of this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I also want to highlight another member of the House Committee on Ways and Means that is a cosponsor and a supporter of this resolution, Ms. Terri Sewell from Alabama.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from the Auxin Solar founder and CEO thanking Speaker McCarthy and House Republicans for bringing this resolution to the House floor. Auxin is a small California company with 37 full-time employees that filed a petition last year asking the Department of Commerce to investigate whether Chinese firms were circumventing existing tariffs. Auxin strongly supports this resolution so that the company and its workers can get relief from unfair Chinese competition and end what it calls the get- out-of-jail-free card that President Biden gave to duty evaders.

Auxin Solar,

San Jose, CA, April 27, 2023.

Hon. Kevin McCarthy,

Speaker, House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Speaker: I'm writing to you on behalf of myself,

my business partner Sherry Tai, the 37 full-time employees of

Auxin Solar, and our families to thank you for bringing to

the floor for a vote H.J. Res.39, the Congressional Review

Act resolution.

By just bringing this resolution to the floor for a vote,

you are sending a strong signal that the United States

Congress will stand up against the Chinese Communist Party

and their unfair trade practices on behalf of American

manufacturers and our workers. More importantly, when we see

Congress vote on this resolution, you will be giving me and

Sherry the strength to continue our fight against unfairly

traded solar imports and the confidence to continue to

reinvest our personal finances into making Auxin Solar a

leader in U.S. solar manufacturing.

Sherry and I co-founded Auxin Solar in 2008 and, since that

time, we have been providing high-paying jobs to our

employees in Silicon Valley, California. In 2008, we

forecasted that solar cells and solar modules would

eventually become commodity products that could compete on a

cost basis with traditional energy sources. That has come

true. Solar deployment is reaching year-over-year all-time

highs because of the cost parity with traditional energy

sources. With our low overhead, competitive costs, and high

employee retention rates, we should have been printing money

in a growing demand environment. But what we didn't forecast

when we started Auxin Solar was the anticompetitive behavior

of China and the success that China would have in dominating

the solar supply chain.

In the early 2010s, China was so far behind the United

States in solar technology and know-how. To catch up, CCP

agents stole our intellectual property. Then the CCP used

draconian duties to effectively prohibit U.S. polysilicon

companies from selling into the Chinese market. When the U.S.

imposed duties to offset predatory pricing in solar, China

used its industrial policies to assist major Chinese CCP-

connected solar companies in their move out of China to

circumvent U.S. trade laws. It took just ten years but now,

China dominates the entire solar supply chain. They use

forced labor practices to mine polysilicon. They use coal-

fired energy to power ingot and wafer-making. And they use

Southeast Asia as screw-driver operations to circumvent trade

laws.

In the face of predatory Chinese pricing in the United

States, and when our domestic competitors closed, Auxin

continued to operate. Sadly, what we've learned in the last

five years is that the trade remedy laws are not designed for

medium-sized enterprises like Auxin. Take for example what

happened during the initial solar safeguard. Although demand

continued to grow with duties in place in 2018, major energy

companies complained and lobbied to attain an exclusion for

bifacial panels. Bifacial panels are solar modules that

generate electricity using both sides of the panel. Since

2016--well before the safeguard even started--Auxin Solar was

one of the only companies to produce bifacial panels in

America. Our bifacial panels were used in major utility-scale

projects in Lumberton, New Jersey and by Georgia Power at the

Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. They were also

used in Columbus, Ohio on the largest ever commercial rooftop

solar array ever installed. Since an exclusion for bifacial

panels was granted, bifacial panel pricing premiums collapsed

and bifacials quickly became the majority of imports. In

fact, just to avoid duties, companies will go so far as to

put bifacial panels on residential homes even though only one

side of the panel is used. This is done simply to avoid

duties and has the direct result of undermining Auxin's

business.

The same thing happened again when Auxin tried to stand up

and combat the surge in panels from Southeast Asia, which

consist almost entirely of Chinese content. Had these exact

same panels come directly from China, they would have been

subject to duties put in place by the U.S. International

Trade Commission. Although others in the domestic industry

wanted this circumvention loophole closed, we were the only

ones willing to publicly put our name on a filing. We were

immediately subjected to online harassment, cyber intrusion,

and attempted physical break-ins to our facility. Our stellar

Google reviews, which we use to pitch to potential employees,

became single star reviews accompanied by hateful language. A

website called ``ExposeAuxin.com'' was created to spread lies

and disinformation about us.

Against it all, we continued to have faith that the

Commerce Department's quasi-judicial process would work to

instill price discipline in the market and close the duty

evasion loophole. But President Biden mistakenly intervened

in our circumvention case because of a loud misinformation

campaign lead by Chinese special interests. The resulting

tariff-free holiday for all imports from Southeast Asia is

bad policy because it acts as a ``get out of jail free'' card

to duty evaders and sends a signal to law-abiding importers

that it doesn't pay to follow the law and pay a fair price

for a solar panel.

Today at Auxin Solar, we're operating at a fraction of our

capacity utilization because of the concerted effort to

silence us and scare us into withdrawing our trade fight. Our

ability to raise capital, hire new employees for expansion,

and secure new sales opportunities continue to be hampered.

Sherry and I are first generation immigrants. We are a

minority- and woman-owned medium sized business. When

politicians talk about how Washington should work better for

middleclass Americans, the ``tariff holiday'' does not do

that. Instead, it provides a windfall for Wall Street and

doesn't give a fighting chance to American workers to compete

against Chinese solar.

On broad policy, we must counteract the Chinese dominance

of the solar supply chain for our energy security. We should

be asking ourselves whether we want the Chinese Communist

Party to control our electricity grid. We should be asking

ourselves if the Chinese Communist Party will stifle our

ability to meet our carbon-neutral goals by imposing

export restraints on key technology or halting sales of solar

to the U.S. And we should be asking if we are okay with

meeting our carbon objectives on the back of forced labor,

from massive expansions in coal-fired power plants, and from

intellectual property theft. I've been in the solar business

for 15 years and solar deployment is good for business. But

there are bigger issues here than quarterly profits and

investor returns. This is why I strongly support your

creation of the bipartisan Select Committee on the Chinese

Communist Party, which should continue to shed light on these

issues for the American people to understand.

At Auxin Solar we've withstood Chinese predatory behavior

for 15 years. I refuse to let the Chinese prevail and put

Auxin Solar out of business. Right now we're in the midst of

a major capacity expansion at Auxin Solar funded by me,

Sherry, and our families. Once we have our expansion online,

we would be pleased to welcome you to visit so that we can

thank you in person for bringing H.J. Res. 39 to the floor

for an up-or-down vote.

Sincerely,

Mamun Rashid, CEO.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Murphy).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Posey), the original sponsor of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article from Politico called ``Trio of Democratic senators back resolution to undue Biden's solar tariff pause.''

[From POLITICO PRO, Apr. 26, 2023]

Trio of Democratic Senators Back Resolution To Undo Biden's Solar

Tariff Pause

(By Kelsey Tamborrino)

Three Democratic senators said Wednesday they'd vote to

rescind President Joe Biden's two-year pause on new solar

import tariffs from four Southeast Asian countries--raising

the stakes on the measure that is set to force Democrats to

weigh both trade and climate considerations.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced Wednesday that he'd

sign on to the resolution, marking another rebuke of the

Biden

administration's energy agenda from the West Virginia

Democrat. Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)

separately also said Wednesday they'd support the measure

should it get a vote on the Senate floor.

The House is poised to vote this week on the measure, which

Biden has promised to veto should it reach his desk.

The resolution would undo the president's 24-month pause on

new import tariffs on solar cells and modules from Malaysia,

Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam following the start of a

Commerce Department probe that roiled the solar industry.

Commerce released initial results in December that found

companies were circumventing tariffs on Chinese solar

equipment by routing them through the four nations. A final

determination is expected next month.

Lawmakers, led by Reps. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) and Bill Posey

(R-Fla.) in the House and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) in the Senate,

introduced a resolution to rescind the rule enacting Biden's

two-year moratorium.

Manchin said Wednesday he would join the Senate resolution

as a co-sponsor, Scott's office and a Manchin spokesperson

confirmed.

While the Congressional Review Act resolution has

bipartisan support in the House, it so far had only

Republican cosponsors in the Senate.

``The United States relies on foreign nations, like China,

for far too many of our energy needs, and failing to enforce

our existing trade laws undermines the goals of the

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act to

onshore our energy supply chains, including solar,'' Manchin

said in a statement. ``I cannot fathom why the Administration

and Congress would consider extending that reliance any

longer and am proud to join this CRA to rescind the rule.''

Manchin on Wednesday also joined all 49 Republicans in

support of a separate CRA resolution that would overturn

EPA's recent rule limiting emissions of nitrogen oxides.

Wyden, the chair of the Finance Committee, told reporters

that he too would vote in favor of the solar resolution,

should it come to a vote on the floor.

``I have told the administration that over the 10-year

period, when I was writing the clean energy bill, it was

always about manufacturing. Red, white and blue. Got to get

the jobs here.'' he said. ``So I'm going to be supporting the

manufacturing proposal.''

Brown shortly after released a statement that he was in

favor of the resolution.

``My whole career--I don't care what presidents think about

this--I've taken on presidents of both parties, starting with

Clinton on [North American Free Trade Agreement]. And when

they're wrong on trade, it costs American jobs, and this is

the right decision,'' he said in an interview.

The solar tariff resolution is expected to put Democrats in

a tricky position, given supporters' argument that the

resolution is meant to enforce U.S. trade laws and combat

Chinese influence, while those opposing it argue it will

undercut solar energy progress.

Brown and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania previously called

on the president to terminate the two-year suspension, and

Casey told POLITICO last month that he was inclined to

support the resolution should it come to the floor.

Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who has previously

voted to undo another Biden rule, told POLITICO he has not

yet made a decision on the solar resolution.

The resolution advanced out of the House Ways and Means

Committee last week with Democratic support and is poised for

a floor vote later this week in the House.

Mr. Speaker, this article notes that three Democratic Senators, including the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Wyden, Senator Manchin from West Virginia, and Senator Brown from Ohio, have publicly supported rescinding President Biden's action to pause tariffs on Chinese solar panels, even before the CRA has even passed the House.

Mr. Speaker, I understand that at least one more Democratic Senator has also expressed support. I thank my Democratic colleagues in the House and in the Senate for joining me in standing up for American workers by supporting consistent enforcement of our trade laws against China's unfair trade practices.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta).

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a statement from the Uyghur Human Rights Project in support of H.J. Res. 39.

Uyghur Human Rights Project,

April 18, 2023.

To the Members of the Committee: I write in strong support

of H.J. Res. 39. This bipartisan bill would repeal the Biden

Administration's Solar Emergency Declaration, a harmful rule

issued in June 2022 that protects Chinese solar manufacturers

that the Department of Commerce has determined are illegally

avoiding U.S. tariffs.

As you know, both the President Biden and President Trump

administrations have determined that the government of the

People's Republic of China (PRC) is committing genocide and

crimes against humanity against the Uyghurs and other Turkic

peoples, including state-imposed forced labor, mass forced

sterilization, and mass enforced disappearance and arbitrary

detention. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner

for Human Rights (OHCHR) found in its authoritative August

31, 2022 report (the ``Bachelet Report'') that the PRC is

responsible for ``serious human rights violations'' that

``may constitute crimes against humanity.''

In response to the Uyghur human-rights crisis, the U.S.

government has taken action to ban products made with forced

labor from China, including solar equipment, among 100+

human-rights sanctions including export bans, investment

bans, visa bans, and Global Magnitsky targeted human rights

OFAC SDN designations. Under the Uyghur Forced Labor

Prevention Act, which came into force on June 21, 2022, no

products are exempt from the ``rebuttable presumption'' that

all products mined, grown, or manufactured in the Uyghur

Region are banned under Section 307 of the U.S. Tariff Act.

The law is applicable regardless of the needs of particular

industries or the scarcity of alternative supplies.

No economic or environmental imperative can justify profits

from the genocidal state-imposed forced labor of Uyghurs.

The reality is that the Chinese polysilicon and solar-

component industries are highly dependent on mining and

manufacturing in the Uyghur homeland, using central

government subsidies and incentives, and under the auspices

of the government of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

In our view, it is clear that an increase in solar imports

from Chinese solar manufacturers--regardless of whether these

imports are from China or Chinese controlled factories in

Southeast Asia--directly supports the Chinese solar

industry's use of Uyghur forced labor. According to

government data, imports of solar cells and modules from

Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam have risen 69

percent since 2019.

It is unconscionable to believe that the U.S. should build

a clean-energy future that

relies on products made under the combination of dirty coal

plants and China's genocidal forced-labor inputs. As the AFL-

CIO pointed out in a major statement in October 2021, the

``solar industry and its entire value chain, should exemplify

how the United States meets the climate, equity and economic

challenges of the 21st century.'' It's a false choice to

think we can achieve climate goals by abandoning our core

values.

As H.J. Res. 39 comes before the Ways and Means Committee,

we urge you to support this bipartisan, common-sense measure.

It is indefensible to allow Chinese solar manufacturers that

profit from Uyghur forced labor to be exempted from

compliance with U.S. trade law.

Louisa Greve,

Director of Global Advocacy.

Mr. Speaker, the statement highlights the close connection between the CCP solar industry and the ongoing human rights abuses and forced labor being perpetrated against the Uyghurs. This is bipartisan consensus that these practices are unacceptable and must be stopped.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a press release from President Biden's Department of Commerce that states the Department determined in December 2022, after a thorough investigation, that Chinese solar companies are circumventing U.S. tariffs on solar products.

[From U.S. Department of Commerce, Dec. 2, 2022]

Department of Commerce Issues Preliminary Determination of

Circumvention Inquiries of Solar Cells and Modules Produced in China

(Office of Public Affairs)

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced its

prelimiary determinations in the circumvention inquiries of

solar cells and modules from the People's Republic of China

(PRC). Commerce examined a complaint alleging that eight

solar companies that manufacture solar cells and modules are

manufactured the components in the PRC, then sending those

cells and modules to Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and/or

Vietnam for minor processing before being exported to the

United States. Such actions amount to an effort to evade the

existing antidumping duty (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD)

orders on solar cells and modules from the PRC. Today's

preliminary determination underscores Commerce's commitment

to holding the PRC accountable for its trade distorting

actions, which undermine American industries.

Under U.S. law, Commerce may conduct a circumvention

inquiry when evidence suggests that merchandise subject to an

existing AD/CVD order is completed or assembled in third

countries from parts and components imported from the country

subject to the order. AD/CVD orders are designed to provide

relief to the U.S. domestic industries when they are facing

unfair competition. Circumvention of these duties threatens

to undermine American industries, workers, and businesses.

After a thorough, transparent, and data-driven

investigation of eight companies across the four countries,

Commerce preliminarily found that four of the eight companies

being investigated are attempting to bypass U.S. duties by

doing minor processing in one of the Southeast Asian

countries before shipping to the United States.

The preliminary findings are as follows:

Third Country, Company, Finding:

Cambodia: BYD Hong Kong, Circumventing; New East Solar, Not

Circumventing.

Malaysia: Hanwha, Not Circumventing; Jinko, Not

Circumventing.

Thailand: Canadian Solar, Circumventing; Trina,

Circumventing.

Vietnam: Boviet, Not Circumventing; Vina Solar,

Circumventing.

Further, some companies in Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam

did not respond to Commerce's request for information in this

investigation, and consistent with longstanding practice,

will be found to be circumventing.

Because Commerce preliminarily found that circumvention was

occurring through each of the four Southeast Asian countries,

Commerce is making a ``country-wide'' circumvention finding,

which simply designates the country as one through which

solar cells and modules are being circumvented from the PRC.

This does not constitute a ban on imports from those

countries. Companies in these countries will be permitted to

certify that they are not circumventing the AD/CVD orders, in

which case the circumvention findings will not apply. With

regard to the companies under investigation that were not

circumventing the AD/CVD duties, no action will be taken as

long as their production process and supply chain do not

change.

These findings are preliminary, and as a next step,

Commerce will conduct in-person audits in the coming months

to verify the information that was the basis of its finding.

Furthermore, all parties will have an opportunity to comment

on Commerce's finding, which Commerce will fully consider

before issuing its final determination, which is currently

scheduled for May 1, 2023.

Independent of Commerce's final determination, the

Presidential Proclamation issued on June 6, 2022, provides

that duties will not be collected on any solar module and

cell imports from these four countries until June 2024, as

long as the imports are consumed in the U.S. market within

six months of the termination of the President's

Proclamation. This provides U.S. solar importers with

sufficient time to adjust supply chains and ensure that

sourcing isn't occurring from companies found to be violating

U.S. law. Solar cells made in one of the four Southeast Asian

countries, even if made from wafers from China, that are then

exported to a non-inquiry country and further assembled into

modules or other products there, are not subject to

Commerce's preliminary circumvention findings.

Mr. Speaker, the evidence is clear. Chinese companies have set up shop in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam to get around U.S. tariffs that were put in place in 2012 by President Obama, yet the Biden administration is turning a blind eye on American workers and American manufacturers by waiving additional tariffs while it acknowledges cheating by Chinese companies.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, my grandfather always told me that actions speak louder than words. We have heard a lot of words about people standing up to China. This resolution will give every Member in this body the opportunity to stand up to China, and this is the way to do it.

Mr. Speaker, I am so thankful that we have Democratic Senators-- including my counterpart, Senator Wyden--on the other side of the aisle who are willing to do the right thing for the American worker and to do what President Obama did in 2012 to make sure that the solar industry works for America and does not become beholden to China.

Today, the U.S. Congress has the opportunity to send a direct message to China, and really any country that thinks about violating trade policies or attempts to cheat American workers, that the U.S. will not tolerate such behavior. I appreciate the fact that this can be a bipartisan message.

The White House made a very misguided decision when it chose to lift additional tariffs from China for 2 years. That action, in my view, sends the wrong message to the world, particularly when we know, based on findings by the President's own Commerce Department, that China is cheating American workers and consumers by circumventing tariffs right now.

We have the opportunity today to act on bipartisan legislation that will turn out the lights on that decision and hold China accountable.

To be clear, U.S. purchasers of fairly traded solar products will not pay a single penny of additional tariffs if this resolution is enacted. This is about protecting American workers and American jobs and holding China accountable.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for introducing this resolution and fighting to protect American workers and American jobs.

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

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

Mr. Speaker, today's fiscal crisis threatens all Americans. We are here today to debate legislation that accomplishes so much of what the American people want. Specifically, it begins to get Washington's spending habits under control. It starts to slow the flow of special interest handouts to the wealthy and well-connected, and it throws much-needed water on the fire of inflation burning through the wallets of American families.

Unlike the Inflation Reduction Act, the Limit, Save, Grow Act under consideration today actually does what it says it is going to do. It puts real limits on future spending, so that we begin to turn the ship back in a more fiscally sound direction.

It saves taxpayer dollars by clawing back unobligated pandemic spending, a sensible solution given the fact that the President himself has declared the pandemic over.

It saves taxpayer dollars by ending welfare for the wealthy and loopholes for big corporations in the Inflation Reduction Act. Ninety percent of these special interest green tax breaks go to companies with over 1 billion in sales. Financial institutions alone pocket three times as much as any other industry, and these tax dollars are being funneled to China, enriching the Chinese Communist Party and allowing it to dominate critical mineral supply chains.

I know my friends on the other side share in frustration in how that law has ended up so different than what they thought they were voting for.

In this bill, we propose proworker, pro-small business policies like work requirements in our welfare programs that will not only support a more vibrant economy, but also help more Americans realize the dignity of work. This plan will also take the target off the backs of low- and middle-income taxpayers under threat from a supercharged army of 87,000 at the IRS.

The Biden administration brags about the $400 billion in revenues they plan to bring in by unleashing the new agents. To do that, audit rates will have to go up on low- and middle-income Americans. In fact, under the so-called historical audit rate the administration says it will adhere to, we will see a million--a million new audits with 650,000 of them falling on folks who make $75,000 or less.

I find it curious to hear my Democrat colleagues and the President say they will not negotiate on spending when it comes to the debt ceiling, while at the same time complaining there is no plan over which to negotiate.

Well, here you go. Republicans have a plan. It is time for the President to negotiate overspending reforms as part of addressing the debt ceiling just as we have done many times before. In fact, just as the President himself has done many times before as a Senator and as Vice President.

Eleven of the previous debt ceiling increases going back decades have included fiscal reforms. President Biden voted for such agreements as a Senator, and he negotiated them as a Vice President. The President's current position of refusing to discuss commonsense spending restraints when it comes to the debt ceiling is a reckless abandonment of past precedent and in his own history.

Under one-party Democratic rule, we got $10 trillion in new spending. The consequences have been very real. Since President Biden took office, we have seen a spike in prices by 14.9 percent. Real wages have declined by 3.5 percent and interest rates have increased more in the past year than in the prior 15 years combined.

The American people are demanding something to be done about all of this. Let's pass this legislation and put the interests of workers, families, farmers, and small businesses first and foremost. Let's do as Congress has done before and address the debt ceiling with policies that also address the Washington spending habits that got us here.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Bost), the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard a lot of comments just recently about tax provisions that helped the wealthy, the well- off, and the well-connected. Let's point out the Democrats' tax policies that we are ripping out from the roots are helping the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record analyses from the Joint Committee on Taxation, showing that big corporations with more than $1 billion in sales receive over 90 percent of all special interest electricity subsidies, and that financial institutions receive three times more benefits from these tax credits than any other industry where the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected benefit.

Congress of the United States

Joint Committee on Taxation,

Washington, DC, March 31, 2023.

From: Robert Harvey.

Subject: Distribution Data.

This memorandum is in response to your request of March 28,

2023, for data on the distribution of claims for certain

energy credits by the gross receipts of the taxpayer. Below

we report the tentative claims for credit under Code section

45, the credit for electricity produced from certain

renewable resources, and the tentative claims for credit

under section 48, the energy investment credit, by C

corporations for the 2019 tax year and 2020 tax year. The

amounts reported are the tentative claims for credit before

any limitation that the taxpayer might face and before any

audit adjustment that might occur. For each of section 45 and

section 48 we report the dollars of credit claimed

categorized by gross receipts reported on line 1c of Form

1120, U.S. Corporation Income Tax Return.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler).

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Moore).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Smucker).

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record this JCT analysis from 2022, suggesting that the total costs of the special interest tax credits for the rich in the Inflation Reduction Act would be $271 billion.

Mr. Speaker, I also include in the Record yesterday's CBO score, which shows that the cost has more than doubled to $570 billion, and it is growing every day. The wealthy and politically connected corporations will receive hundreds of billions of dollars more than advertised.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Tenney).

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record an article detailing how Ford is using a loophole in the IRA to partner with CATL, a major Chinese battery company, on a project intended to harvest EV battery tax credits. Chinese companies are lining up to cash in on Democrats' green corporate welfare that we are rescinding in this bill.

[From Forbes, Feb. 13, 2023]

Ford To Build $3.5 Billion Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery Plant in

Michigan Using CATL Technology

(By Sam Abuelsamid, Senior Contributor)

Ford plans to build a $3.5 billion factory in Marshall,

Michigan, which will produce 35 gigawatt-hours of lithium

iron phosphate (LFP) cells annually for electric vehicles

starting in 2026. The move comes after the automaker said it

would use LFP batteries in the Mustang Mach-E from mid-2023

and F-150 Lightning from early 2024. However, those batteries

will be sourced from CATL in China, the leading cell

manufacturer in the world and one of the leaders in LFP

production. Ford will license CATL technology but it will own

the new factory and operate it, rather than creating a joint

venture.

While Ford will start using CATL LFP batteries later this

year, shipping them from China won't help the company reach

its sustainability goals. Batteries are heavy and bulky and

the emissions associated with shipping them halfway around

the world will significantly cut into the gains from

eliminating the tailpipe from these vehicles. Those vehicles

also will not qualify for any clean vehicle tax credits.

This is why Ford and other OEMs are moving so aggressively

to localize battery production to wherever vehicles are built

and sold. Ford previously announced a joint venture with

Korea's SK ON for three cell plants in Kentucky and Tennessee

that are already well under construction. Those plants will

produce nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) cells.

Nickel-rich cell chemistries such as NMC (also referred to

as NCM), nickel-manganese-cobalt aluminum (NMCA, which GM

uses for its Ultium cells), nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA,

which Tesla uses) have a higher energy density than LFP.

However, Nickel and cobalt are much more expensive than iron

and phosphorus and also more volatile. When there is an

internal short circuit in a nickel-rich cell, it is much more

likely to experience thermal runaway. LFP cells are

inherently more stable and are nearly impossible to

experience thermal runaway or fires.

Despite LFP having a lower energy density than nickel-rich

cells, much of that can be offset by adopting cell-to-pack or

structural battery pack designs rather than the modular

designs that are typical today. In addition to lower cost,

LFP cells have much longer charge cycle lifetimes. A typical

nickel cell can do between 500 and 1,000 charge cycles before

it loses enough capacity to be no longer useful in a vehicle.

LFP cells can withstand thousands of cycles and some

manufacturers, including CATL, have claimed EVs with LFP can

go 1 million miles.

The added stability of LFP cells means they can better

withstand charging to l00% without degrading. Nickel-rich

cells typically have to leave unused buffers to prevent

overcharging. Thus some of the energy density disadvantages

can be safely recovered.

The decision to structure the new operation as a wholly

owned subsidiary of Ford rather than a joint venture is

likely driven in part by the content requirements in the

Inflation Reduction Act. Since China is a foreign entity of

concern, batteries and materials from that country do not

qualify for clean vehicle credits. Thus the Mach-E and

Lightning with Chinese-sourced batteries won't be eligible.

Limiting the equity stake of CATL in this deal and only

licensing some technology along with local sourcing of most

materials will probably enable Ford to claim its cells meet

the domestic content requirements.

``This is how we look at the recipe to create one of the

lowest cost, U.S.-produced batteries when this plant comes

online in 2026 and this helps us contribute to Ford's goal of

an 8% Model E EBIT in 2026,'' said Lisa Drake, Ford VP of EV

industrialization. ``It strengthens our domestic supply chain

and helps us ramp production, getting more EVs to more

customers sooner.''

As with the Mach-E and Lightning, the new LFP batteries

will likely be used mainly in standard range and lower cost

EVs and many of the commercial vehicles Ford sells. Most of

those commercial vehicles, such as Transit vans used for

everything from last-mile deliveries to plumbers and

electricians, rarely go outside of a limited geographical

area and don't need more than 100 miles of range. With more

availability of domestic LFP batteries, future electric

versions of vehicles like the compact Maverick pickup and

Escape crossover are likely at prices that more consumers can

afford.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. James).

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

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

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a March 8, 2021, Politico article titled: ``Biden's welfare flip-flop,'' which points out that President Biden was once an ardent supporter of commonsense welfare reforms, including work requirements.

[From POLITICO, March 8, 2021]

West Wing Playbook--Biden's Welfare Flip-Flop

(By Alex Thompson and Theodoric Meyer with help from Allie Bice)

Joe Biden, the young senator, would be surprised at Joe

Biden, the elderly president.

When he first ran for president in 1988, 44-year-old Biden

was one of the Democrats challenging what he called ``liberal

orthodoxy'' on issues like welfare.

``Our handouts are not enough,'' Biden said at Princeton

University in a May 1987 speech meant to beef up his policy

profile ahead of a June campaign launch. ``Government subsidy

is not the ultimate answer to the problems of the poor.''

In November 1988, he penned a column in his local Newark

Post: ``We are all too familiar with the stories of welfare

mothers driving luxury cars and leading lifestyles that

mirror the rich and famous,'' he wrote, parroting Republican

critiques of the program. ``Whether they are exaggerated or

not, these stories underlie a broad social concern that the

welfare system has broken down--that it only parcels out

welfare checks and does nothing to help the poor find

productive jobs.''

In 1996, Biden was one of 24 Democratic senators who voted

for the welfare reform bill that President Bill Clinton

signed, but which progressives and much of Clinton's Cabinet

opposed. ``The culture of welfare must be replaced with the

culture of work,'' Biden said on the Senate floor. Bruce

Reed, who's now Biden's deputy chief of staff, was an

architect of the legislation. He helped coin Clinton's pledge

to ``end welfare as we know it.''

And yet, the first piece of major legislation Biden is

poised to sign as president represents the largest expansion

of the welfare state in decades. It even undoes some of the

reforms Biden, the senator, helped enact.

The 1996 bill, for instance, imposed time limits and work

requirements on money sent to parents to support their

children. Biden's American Rescue Plan would at least

temporarily resume sending money directly to impoverished

parents without any strings attached--and some Democrats are

already pushing to make the aid permanent.

The bill would also send poor and middle-class parents

checks of up to $300 per child each month--a provision that

the Biden team believes could dramatically cut child poverty.

The legislation won't recreate the welfare system that

Biden voted to reform in 1996. Instead, it will expand the

existing child tax credit for poor and middle-class families

alike. The credit starts phasing out at $75,000 a year for

single parents and $150,000 a year for married couples.

Part of Biden's evolution on welfare spending is tied to

the pandemic and the massive economic hole that it has

caused. But another part of it reflects the evolution the

Democratic Party has undergone in recent years.

Once fearful of race-baiting rhetoric on supposedly lazy

``welfare queens,'' the party now is largely unapologetic

about spending money to strengthen the social safety net.

``One of the side effects of the pandemic has been to

change the profile of poverty in America,'' said Robert

Reich, Clinton's Labor secretary who clashed with people like

Reed over the welfare reform measure. ``It's no longer just

`them,' people of color, people who conservatives accuse of

taking handouts. It marks a huge shift in public policy from

quite punitive welfare to giving needy families money.''

White House spokesperson Michael Gwin emailed a statement

saying, ``As a Senator, Joe Biden worked to make welfare

reform more progressive by supporting childcare and

maintaining funding for children's health and safety, and as

President, Joe Biden is meeting the unique crises we face by

giving children and families a financial lifeline, reopening

schools safely, and securing the resources we need to defeat

the virus.''

Reed declined to comment.

Donald Trump, during his presidency, seemed to usher in a

Republicanism that was more comfortable with spending more

money on things past Republicans would have bashed as

handouts. But so far Republicans in the Biden era are making

a different calculation. They unanimously voted against the

plan and are betting that the pandemic hasn't changed

perceptions around welfare programs so completely.

On the Senate floor last Friday, Sen. Mitch McConnell

blasted the welfare provisions in the package for paying

``people a bonus not to go back to work when we'll be trying

to rebuild our economy.''

He added that: ``There's an effort to create a brand-new,

sprawling cash welfare program--not the one-time checks, but

constant payments--that ignore the pro-work lessons of

bipartisan welfare reform and which the White House has

already stated they want to make permanent.''

Biden was one of 24 Democrat Senators who voted for the 1996 welfare reform bill that President Bill Clinton signed.

That bill imposed time limits and work requirements for welfare recipients. In fact, Biden's Deputy Chief of Staff was a key architect of the 1996 welfare reform bill and helped coin Clinton's pledge to end welfare as we know it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a New York Times article titled: ``Poverty, Plunging,'' from September 14, 2022.

[From the New York Times, Sept. 14, 2022]

Poverty, Plunging: Child Poverty in the U.S. Has Fallen by More Than

Half Since the Early 1990s

(By David Leonhardt)

When President Bill Clinton signed a bipartisan bill

tightening the rules around welfare eligibility in 1996--and

making many benefits conditional on work--critics on the

political left predicted terrible effects.

A few members of the Clinton administration quit in

protest. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan warned of

devastating increases in child poverty. The New Republic

proclaimed, ``Wages will go down, families will fracture and

millions of children will be made more miserable than ever.''

A quarter-century later, these predictions look very wrong.

As my colleague Jason DeParle wrote this week:

``A comprehensive new analysis shows that child poverty has

fallen 59 percent since 1993, with need receding on nearly

every front. Child poverty has fallen in every state, and it

has fallen by about the same degree among children who are

white, Black, Hispanic and Asian, living with one parent or

two, and in native or immigrant households''

How did this happen? The 1996 welfare law turned out to be

a case study of different political ideologies combining to

produce a result that was better than either side would

likely have produced on its own.

Some conservative critiques of the old welfare contained an

important insight, Jason told me. Poor single mothers (the

main beneficiaries of welfare) were better able to find and

hold jobs than many liberals expected. Over the past few

decades, increased employment among single mothers has been

one reason for the decline in child poverty, according to the

study, which was done by Child Trends, a research group.

But the biggest cause was an expansion of government aid.

And progressives were the main force behind this expansion.

With welfare less generous, Democrats (sometimes in alliance

with Republicans) pushed for policies to help low-income

workers, such as expansions of the earned-income tax credit

and food stamps. Increases in state-level minimum wages also

played a role.

``I don't know where I'd be right now if I didn't have that

help,'' said Stacy Tallman, a mother of three and a waitress

in Marlinton, W. Va., referring to Medicaid, tax credits and

food stamps.

After welfare reform, the focus of the government's anti-

poverty efforts shifted from

people who weren't working to people who were--and, thanks

partly to the generosity of the new programs, child poverty

plummeted. The size of the decline, Dana Thomson, a co-author

of the study, said, ``is unequaled in the history of poverty

measurement.''

Dolores Acevedo-Garcia of Brandeis University pointed out

that 12 million additional children would be poor today if

the poverty rate were still as high as it was in the 1990s.

The reasons to cheer this development are both immediate and

longer term: Children who spend even modest amounts of time

in poverty earn less money and are less healthy as adults on

average, research has shown.

Hiding in plain sight

I am guessing that many readers are surprised to hear about

the big drop in child poverty since the 1990s. I'll confess

that I was and I have been covering economics for much of the

past two decades. As Jason told me, ``It is odd that such a

big decline in child poverty has gone almost completely

unnoticed.''

In part, the lack of attention stems from a theme I've

mentioned before in this newsletter: bad-news bias.

Journalists and academic experts are often more comfortable

reporting negative developments than positive ones. We worry

that we come off as blase or Pollyannaish when we report good

news.

The poverty statistics add to the confusion because there

are so many different versions. The measure that the Census

Bureau calls ``official'' does not include government aid,

which is bizarre, as Dylan Matthews of Vox has noted. And

every measure has limitations. The one that Jason used in his

story overestimates the impact of the earned-income tax

credit and underestimates the impact of the food stamps, for

technical reasons. (Neither alters the basic conclusion, as

Robert Greenstein, a longtime progressive policy adviser,

says.)

Still, I understand why many people are reluctant to focus

on the poverty decline. The U.S. has not solved poverty. More

than 20 million Americans are poor today, and many others

above the poverty line also struggle to afford a decent life.

As successful as President Biden has been in passing many

parts of his agenda, Congress failed to pass several of his

anti-poverty proposals. Those measures would have expanded

access to child care and increased the child tax credit,

among other things.

Despite these caveats, the decline in poverty deserves to

be a major news story. For one thing, it's legitimately

surprising: Even Jason--who has spent more time writing about

American poverty than almost any other journalist--

acknowledges that welfare reform did less damage than he

expected, in part because of the subsequent expansions of

aid.

At a time of deep cynicism about government, the drop in

poverty is an example of Washington succeeding at something

big. ``The decline in child poverty is very, very

impressive,'' Greenstein said, ``and it is overwhelmingly due

to the increased effectiveness of government programs,''

Mr. Speaker, this article found that child poverty in the U.S. has fallen by more than half, 59 percent, since the early 1990s. When President Clinton signed the 1996 welfare reform bill implementing time limits and work requirements, the far left predicted terrible effects. Twenty-five years later, these predictions have been proven wrong.

The simple fact is work requirements worked. Caseloads dropped, and families moved into the workforce and left the cycle of dependency.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York.

Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from New York.

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

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, we have heard the other side numerous times today say that we need to just pick up and pass a blank-check debt limit increase.

The United States Senate, which is controlled by the Democrats, couldn't even pass what President Biden and the

House Democrats have been suggesting on this floor. If they could, they would have already passed it. Even Democrat Senators on the other side of the building said they will not support an absolute blank-check debt limit because they are concerned about the fiscal state of America.

Today, the contrast could not be clearer.

On the one hand, we have President Biden and Washington Democrats who have proposed zero solutions for getting America's fiscal house in order or addressing the inflation crisis. For months, they have delayed and denied real discussions while they fought to preserve special interest tax breaks for big banks, corporations, and the Chinese Communist Party.

On the other hand, Republicans stand with working families. We have an actual plan that will rein in runaway spending to fight inflation. It will save taxpayer dollars by canceling handouts to the wealthy and big corporations, and it will grow the economy.

The American people are sick and tired of business as usual in Washington. With today's vote, we are sending a message to the President: It is time to stop your reckless behavior and negotiate and stand up and talk with Congress and deliver for the American people. The American people are demanding it.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Nebraska for yielding.

House Republicans made a promise to the American people to fight for working-class families. And we made a promise that our first order of business under a new Republican majority would be to repeal the $80 billion Democrats gave the IRS to hire 87,000 new agents to target American working-class families.

We are delivering on that promise today.

This bill rescinds the IRS funds in the Inflation Reduction Act--a law that does nothing to combat inflation but everything to empower an agency that has targeted Americans. They have leaked taxpayer information, and under the Biden administration, they threatened to snoop into the bank accounts of millions of middle-class families.

We know this because President Biden wrote such a proposal into his first budget as part of his agenda to expand the power of the IRS and shovel billions more to this troubled agency.

At that time, we asked the Joint Committee on Taxation how many Americans might be subject to such a scheme to spy into their bank accounts. The JCT said that up to 134 million taxpayers could be targeted.

So much for just going after the millionaires and the billionaires that our Democrat colleagues like to talk about.

While the Biden administration--including Treasury Secretary Yellen-- has tried to dismiss concerns over how middle-class Americans would be targeted by the IRS, under the Democrats' $80 billion infusion of cash, the Congressional Budget Office has affirmed undoubtedly families making less than $400,000 per year would be subjected to increased enforcement and, yes, audits by the IRS.

But of course this would be the case when you realize that more than half of the $80 billion Democrats gave the IRS is earmarked for enforcement.

The IRS does not need a raise. It needs a reckoning. And what starts today with rescinding this $80 billion continues through rigorous IRS oversight that Democrats ignored under their one-party rule.

Taxpayers deserve true oversight for an agency that leaked the tax returns of thousands of American taxpayers at the same time the White House was calling for tax increases on those individuals. We are talking about an agency with a history of targeting conservatives with woefully underperforming customer service and whose own commissioner under Obama called this $80 billion more than three times the amount of money the agency actually needed.

House Republicans are ready to provide oversight and accountability, and that starts today with ending this $80 billion pay raise.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mineral Area College of Park Hills, Missouri as it celebrates 100 years since its founding to offer advanced education after high school.

It began as Flat River Junior College, the third public junior college in Missouri with classes for 38 students on September 5, 1922. In 1965, voters in six public school districts approved the founding of Mineral Area College as successor to Flat River Junior College and in 1970, the campus was established where it is today just off U.S. Highway 67.

Since its founding, the college has educated more than 18,000 students, offering 2-year degrees in a variety of areas including nursing, business, technology and the arts. Welding training and an HVAC program are the most recent additions with an Industry and Technology Center set to house career and technical programs beginning next fall.

The college has been competitive in athletics, impressive in the arts and always evolving to offer its students an education that prepares them for a bright future.

It is my great pleasure to celebrate the founding of Flat River Junior College 100 years ago and to acknowledge the continued treasure it is as Mineral Area College today before the U.S. House of Representatives.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor Mary Hostetter of Kimmswick, Missouri, founder of the Blue Owl Restaurant & Bakery, who is retiring after 40 years.

Mary started the business in her home and then opened The Blue Owl in August of 1985. Since then, she has established The Blue Owl as a place for a hearty meal, a warm welcome, and a delicious dessert. No visit to Jefferson County is complete without a trip to The Blue Owl.

Through her TV appearances and articles in magazines and newspapers, the world has learned of Mary, and she has surely become an Ambassador of Good Eating. Her Mile High Levee Pie pays tribute to Kimmswick's triumph in the 1993 flood and is evidence of her strong commitment to her community and her customers. It's just one of the dishes for which she is famous.

Mary is indeed a treasure whose passion for food and service lives on in her daughter, Kim Byerly, who, with her husband Dan will continue Mary's legacy of excellence at The Blue Owl.

As she trades her blue apron for a wonderful retirement, it is my great pleasure to honor Mary Hostetter today before the United States House of Representatives.