Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman with whom I have the privilege of serving on the Rules Committee for his distinguished leadership of that committee and for yielding me the time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to applaud the work of the Appropriations Committee in finally upholding our obligation to invest in gun violence prevention.

The legislation before us this week would increase funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives by over 9 percent. That additional funding will enable ATF to train more agents and hire more inspectors to fulfill the agency's mission of keeping illegal firearms out of criminal hands.

More than 30 percent of guns identified in a crime have been stolen, yet ATF has long been denied the resources to properly inspect Federally licensed firearms dealers and respond to the flow of illegal guns onto our streets.

This funding and the additional personnel it can provide will help ATF reach its inspection goals and enforce our existing gun laws, making communities across the Nation safer.

Madam Speaker, I thank the committee for their hard work, and I urge my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the University of Rochester Medical Center, which has just been awarded a $3.75 million grant for their Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program.

This significant award recognizes their world-class medical and educational expertise, while helping to cement their position as a leader in the geriatrics field.

Investments like this are essential to strengthening health outcomes and ensuring a high quality of life for our loved ones as they age. The grant will support the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center, helping to fund specific education and training for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. It will support the broader goal of creating a comprehensive age-friendly health system and work toward making Rochester and the Finger Lakes region a dementia-friendly community.

I am so grateful to the University of Rochester for their continued dedication and commitment to supporting the needs of older adults. I congratulate them on receiving this exciting grant award and look forward to continuing our work together to provide high-quality care to everyone who calls our community home.

Madam Speaker, we mark the beginning of Gun Violence Awareness Month clouded in tragedy and heartbreak as our Nation yet again mourns the loss of innocent life and confronts another act of senseless gun violence.

As a Nation, we grieve with the Virginia Beach community. We must now ask ourselves how many more lives will be allowed to be lost before we finally say enough is enough? How many children, how many neighbors, how many colleagues and friends must we lose before we finally take action to make commonsense gun reform a reality?

``Run, hide, and fight'' should no longer be a phrase our children must learn along with their ABCs. Each day that passes without universal background checks, without a ban on military-style assault weapons, without safe storage and red flag laws, we risk the loss of more innocent life.

This Gun Violence Awareness Month should serve as a wake-up call to all Americans. What are we waiting for? The time to act is now.

Madam Speaker, as States like Alabama move forward implementing medieval laws that seek to imprison doctors and punish women for their personal healthcare decisions, I want to make one thing absolutely clear: I will always stand up and defend a woman's fundamental right to choose.

These near-total bans on abortion are not only unconstitutional, but they also endanger the lives of countless women who will be forced to turn to unsafe procedures.

In 1930, illegal abortion was listed as the official cause of death for almost 2,700 women, nearly 20 percent of maternal deaths recorded that year.

We have come too far in the fight for women's equality to retreat to an era when women lacked the basic right to autonomy over their own bodies.

My district of Rochester, New York, is the proud home of Susan B. Anthony. Today, we commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, but the fight for women's rights is far from over.

We must remain resolute in our commitment to protecting and upholding Roe v. Wade. We must support critical

healthcare programs like Planned Parenthood. We must ensure that every single woman across America has the right to make her own decisions.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer an amendment intended to detail the full harm done to our Nation by the White House's sabotage of the Affordable Care Act.

Last summer, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced a 70 percent cut, $26 million to the navigators program that provides in-person assistance to people who wish to sign up for insurance through the Affordable Care Act. In just 2 years, funding for this program has plummeted from $62.5 million to just $10 million.

The President also cut digital TV and radio advertising by 90 percent, reducing investment from $100,000,000 to $10 million. The failure to use Federal funding for these activities leaves it to the States to fill in the gaps and puts on them the burden for the continued success of State and Federal exchanges.

My amendment directs the U.S. Government Accountability Office to conduct a study of these cuts to detail how reduced funding has harmed enrollment across the Nation and the resulting costs to our Nation's families.

Funding for ACA outreach is essential to ensuring that Americans know their options and their healthcare benefits. Without public messaging campaigns, many people have been left confused about the open enrollment process, when they can begin signing up for coverage, and the deadline for enrolling before the new year.

As we approach planning for the 2020 enrollment season, we need to fully understand the results of the cuts to outreach and advertising that were put in place in recent years. That is what my amendment seeks to do.

I want to thank my colleague Congresswoman Wexton for joining me in these efforts, and I ask my colleagues to support this amendment.

I thank the chair and the ranking member for their work, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield the remainder of my time to the gentlewoman from Virginia (Ms. Wexton), my colleague.

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

Madam Speaker, across our Nation, we face an epidemic. In schools, in churches, on our streets, Americans are dying from gun violence.

We have a moral responsibility to do everything in our power to prevent more people from suffering the loss of a loved one to the scourge of illegal guns. That is why I have introduced the Gun Theft Prevention Act.

Last year, more than 500 gun shops were burglarized nationwide, releasing thousands of deadly weapons onto our streets and into the hands of criminals. In my district, a single gun shop was broken into twice in the same week, seven times in the span of a decade.

Yet licensed gun dealers are not required to take even the most basic precautions, like locking their doors at night, to prevent these dangerous weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

My bill requires gun shops to meet minimum security requirements, like locked cabinets and video surveillance, creates strong enforcement mechanisms, requires reporting of stolen guns, and authorizes 650 new ATF inspectors.

This is commonsense legislation that will save lives, and I will work tirelessly to ensure its passage.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to urge that any long-term infrastructure agreement reached between Congress and the President must invest in the resiliency of coastal communities.

Lake Ontario is already over 11 inches higher than average, and as rain falls and water levels continue to climb, my community and others like it are bracing for yet another season of devastating flooding.

We must take proactive steps to adjust to changing weather patterns, the impacts of Plan 2014, and improve our community's ability to withstand, recover, and adapt to weather-related events.

The Army Corps of Engineers will soon be conducting a study to develop a coastal resiliency plan, and it is imperative that any long- term infrastructure agreement include significant investments in these findings.

I look forward to working with my colleagues towards a comprehensive infrastructure package that makes these investments a reality and better protects my district and the Great Lakes coastline.

``After it was reported that Cohen intended to cooperate with the government, however, the President accused Cohen of `making up stories in order to get himself out of an unrelated jam (taxicabs maybe?),' called Cohen a `rat,' and on multiple occasions publicly suggested that Cohen's family members had committed crimes. The evidence concerning this sequence of events could support an inference that the President used inducements in the form of positive messages in an effort to get Cohen not to cooperate, and then turned to attacks and intimidation to deter the provision of information or undermine Cohen's credibility once Cohen began cooperating.'' Volume II, page 154.

``Congress can permissibly criminalize certain obstructive conduct by the President, such as suborning perjury, intimidating witnesses, or fabricating evidence, because those prohibitions raise no separation of powers questions. . . . The Constitution does not authorize the President to engage in such conduct, and those actions would transgress the President's duty to `take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' ''

Volume II, page 170.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today because our Nation is facing a crisis. Each day, 20 veterans take their own lives. That is over 7,000 veterans a year, more than the number of U.S. soldiers we lost in the entire Iraq war.

We have a moral responsibility to do more to protect those who have so courageously put their lives on the line to defend our country.

Recently, it was revealed that the Veterans Administration spent only $1.5 million of its $6.2 million budget toward suicide prevention media outreach in fiscal year 2018.

That is why I have introduced legislation called the Reach Every Veteran in Crisis Act, to ensure those resources are used effectively and efficiently to provide veterans with the support services they need and so richly deserve.

It is my hope that this legislation will help our veterans during their time of need and, hopefully, save the lives of our Nation's heroes.

I encourage any veteran who is facing crisis or anyone who is concerned about a loved one to call the Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800- 273-8255.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 294 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall), my friend, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 294, providing for consideration of H.R. 2021, the Investing for the People Act, under a structured rule. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on the Budget. The rule makes in order three amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 1644, the Save the Internet Act. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The rule makes in order 12 amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes.

Additionally, the rule deems as passed House Resolution 293, which will immediately put in place an enforceable top-line discretionary spending level so that the Appropriations Committee can begin its work.

Finally, the rule provides standard recess instructions through April 26.

Mr. Speaker, the Investing for the People Act is a 2-year budget bill that will raise the defense sequestration caps for defense and nondefense discretionary spending for fiscal year 2020 and 2021.

I believe my colleagues from both sides of the aisle fully understand the devastating effects of sequestration. Across-the-board, mandatory cuts to every Federal program are not a successful path to fiscal responsibility.

Without taking action to lift the caps established by the Budget Control Act, nondefense discretionary funding will be cut by $54 billion. Such drastic cuts threaten public health, the environment, access to education, job training, and lifesaving social services like food and housing assistance.

Cuts to nondefense discretionary funding would also impact our national security. Nearly one-third of investments in this area fund veterans' programs, homeland security initiatives, diplomatic operations, foreign aid, and Justice Department activities.

If an agreement on lifting the cap is not reached, defense programs also stand to lose $71 billion. In a dangerous world, those cuts would be, in my view, harmful to national and global security.

Only a few months ago, the American people felt the harsh effects of a government shutdown. It is time to come together to take decisive action to avoid another blow to essential Federal programs that help hardworking Americans in every State. This legislation ensures working families will be able to rely on continued Federal funding for the programs that keep them safe, support their jobs, and invest in their children.

In fiscal year 2020, defense spending would be capped at $664 billion, with nondefense discretionary spending capped at $631 billion.

The Investing for the People Act would also provide up to $8 billion, annually, for nondefense overseas contingency operations, OCO, activities that do not count against the spending caps, while limiting OCO designation of defense spending in 2020 and 2021 to no more than the fiscal year 2019 level of $69 billion dollars.

In his budget, President Trump proposed continued spending on defense measures but massive cuts to domestic programs like public health research, infrastructure investment, and support for low-income families.

Even as our Nation draws down from our overseas war operations, domestic spending remains at a historic low as a percentage of our economy. H.R. 2021 provides a pathway for improving the lives of Americans in every community and renews our commitment to spending to meet the needs of our communities and invest in our economy.

In addition to protecting Americans from spending cuts, the House will be considering protections for a product all of us here today rely upon to do our jobs and live our lives, just like millions of Americans: the internet. This rule also provides for consideration of essential protections for American consumers who use the internet.

The Save the Internet Act would reinstate the Open Internet Order of 2015 that classifies broadband internet services as common carriers that are prohibited from preferentially treating or discriminating against groups of persons.

An overwhelming 86 percent of Americans opposed the FCC's rollback of net neutrality protections. All this legislation does, Mr. Speaker, is restore those protections.

Fair and reliable internet access is absolutely essential to millions of working families and small business owners. Practices like blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization harm the ability of every American to experience the internet in the same way, regardless of provider or how much money you pay.

The Save the Internet Act includes enhanced transparency protections and enacts specific rules against throttling, blocking, and other violations of net neutrality. The FCC would be empowered to investigate consumer and business complaints and impose necessary fines against internet service providers for violations of the Communications Act.

The bill also provides pathways to internet access for every American, especially those in rural communities who are being left behind by modern, high-speed internet infrastructure.

The Save the Internet Act would once again allow the FCC to fund rural broadband through the Connect America Fund.

Additionally, this legislation revives the Lifeline program, created under the Reagan administration to subsidize phone service for low- income families. Under this legislation, the FCC would again have authorization to use the Lifeline program to expand access to broadband for low-income Americans, especially seniors, students, veterans, and disabled Americans.

In response to concerns raised by our Republican colleagues, the Save the Internet Act also ensures that the FCC has the power to protect access to the internet but does not have authority to make decisions over internet content or the power to impose taxes and fees for internet access.

This legislation forbears the FCC from applying more than 700 regulations under the Communications Act that are unnecessary to protecting an open internet, such as rate setting.

Internet service providers have long claimed that they were hamstrung by net neutrality protections and that strong consumer protections were preventing them from investing in higher speeds and advanced broadband infrastructure.

In reality, ISPs actually increased speeds and invested huge amounts in improving their broadband during the time when net neutrality protections were enforced by the FCC. Moreover, many of the largest providers have failed to keep their promise of increased investing after the Trump FCC repealed those protections, with investments actually shrinking in recent years.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this rule and for both pieces of legislation underlying it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me just make a few brief comments, and I always appreciate the passion that Mr. Woodall, my distinguished friend and colleague, brings to this discussion.

I do want to say what this is. First of all, the rule before the House has both a resolution, which I talked about, which is really the safety net, it establishes the $1.295 trillion for discretionary spending and, in addition, allows us to do IRS enforcement--$400 million is in the resolution--and the census 2020, which is upcoming and which will take thousands and thousands of people to conduct the census in the way that the Framers identified it to be.

It also has a budget bill. And I do want to just mention just a few points that relate to what Mr. Woodall said.

The major components of the budget are in the budget bill. It provides a top line for discretionary spending, provides allocations to the authorizing committees, provides a revenue floor, enforces all these 302 allocations, and sets new caps for discretionary spending, gives allocations to authorizing committees, all of these things which will match the CBO's baseline, I might add, and enforcement through regular Budget Act points of order.

So this does have a budget bill. What we do with the resolution, however, is critically important because it makes sure that we begin this process.

I think the thing that we all want to avoid in the greatest possible way is a shutdown. We saw that happen, and 2018 made history.

Although the House, the Senate, and the White House were all controlled by the same party, we ended Congress for the first time in U.S. history in a government shutdown, an inglorious end to the 115th Congress.

We need to do anything we can. This starts that process, creates a safety net, and jump-starts the budget process. So this is a completely appropriate and, in my view, mandatory way to start this process. And I will perhaps, if I get a moment or two, talk about the budget that the President submitted to us.

I also want to just mention for a moment, if I can, the comments raised by my colleague relative to the net neutrality bill. This, under the current rule, has enormous exposure to consumers and businesses. It does not impede innovation, what we are attempting to do. In fact, in my view, it will spur innovation, and it provides predictably for all users, consumers and businesses alike.

I do note that the rule that we reported out last night ensures that we do everything we can to reaffirm that commitment to fair access.

The rule made in order 12 amendments, both from Democrats and Republicans. It is a structured rule. Some of those amendments I agree with, some of those I disagree with, but every single one is worthy of debate on the floor. I am very proud, and I want to also congratulate the chair of our committee, Mr. McGovern, for making sure that we have amendments from both sides to discuss on this floor.

I do want to just mention a couple of them. Several amendments aim to strengthen access to broadband internet in rural and underserved communities. Mr. Brindisi, for instance, has an amendment which we will take up which requires the GAO to produce a report about the ways the U.S. government can promote the deployment of broadband to rural communities.

Representative Wexton has an amendment requiring the FCC to submit to Congress a plan on how the Commission would address problems in collecting data on deployment of broadband. By fixing these problems, we can have a better understanding of those communities that are served by broadband and ensure every community has access.

We have an amendment by Representative Waters asking the Comptroller General to submit a report on how net neutrality helps ethnic and racial minorities and how those rules will help disadvantaged groups, rural populations, individuals with disabilities, and the elderly. Without that full information, we cannot ensure that everyone is receiving the same treatment.

We have an amendment from Representative Davids directing GAO to

submit a report examining the FCC's efforts to assess competition. Colleagues are worried about how net neutrality rules will impact competition, but they have no data to back up their claims, so let's collect the data we need. Good policy is always backed by good evidence.

We also made in order an amendment by Representative McAdams which would affirm that ISPs can still block unlawful content, such as child pornography. Some content has no place on the internet, nor anywhere in our homes, and we want to make sure that ISPs block this, as they should, and that nothing in the bill will prevent them from doing so.

There are several other amendments made by Democrats that will be on the floor. I won't go into them any further. But I do want to acknowledge, also, that we have amendments in order submitted by Republican colleagues as well.

Mr. Latta submitted an amendment requiring the FCC to share the list of 700 rules that will be permanently forborne once this bill becomes law, which makes sense to me. We had this conversation in rules yesterday, to ask the question what those 700 rules are. The FCC has determined them to be unnecessary and burdensome.

Let's look at them and see what they are. Let's see the list. Let's show the American people that the government was not regulating for the sake of regulating and that, when those regulations are no longer appropriate, we will remove them.

Finally, my colleagues on the Rules Committee made Representative Burgess' amendment in order. It directs the GAO to initiate a study to examine the virtuous cycle of the internet ecosystem and the effect of net neutrality on that ecosystem--again, an amendment which was made in order to make sure that we have bipartisan discussion here on the floor.

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

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

I appreciate my good friend, the gentleman from Oklahoma's comments.

Those on the other side may say this is messy, but do you know what is messier? Another government shutdown.

We just endured, earlier this year, a 35-day government shutdown, the longest shutdown in our history. In this committee, we are committed to doing everything in our power to prevent that from happening again.

We want to make sure we can move forward with appropriations legislation, and this provision is a safety net to assure that process can begin. Whenever a budget bill comes up, whenever we begin that appropriations process, we will have a path forward.

My good friend raised the question of the President. I have to admit I am new here, haven't been here very long. I have been involved in the budget process in the State of New York for many years.

Frankly, watching the budget and looking at the budget submitted by the President, I would be embarrassed. I think it is no wonder that my friends on the other side of the aisle didn't submit, as an amendment, the President's budget.

The President's budget is devastating. I look to how it would devastate the people in my home State of New York: repeals the Affordable Care Act, eliminates health insurance for 2.2 million New Yorkers, abolishes protections for people with preexisting conditions, substantially increases premiums for older Americans.

If the budget that Donald Trump submitted became law, a 60-year-old living in New York making $25,000 a year could see their healthcare premiums increase by up to $5,000 annually, from $1,600 to $6,300 in 2020, a quarter of their income.

It cuts funding for New York's Medicaid program by $159 billion over the next 10 years. Nationally, the Trump budget proposes to cut Medicaid by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, 36 percent in 2029 alone.

College would be more expensive for 179,000 New Yorkers by completely eliminating the Direct Subsidized Loan Program and taking away grants for 108,000 students by abolishing the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant program. At a time when people need to have knowledge more than at any other time in human history to safeguard their economic future and those of their families, to cut college programs is reprehensible.

But I don't care just about New Yorkers, Mr. Speaker. My friend from Georgia, I have a brother who lives in Georgia. His children live in Georgia. I care a great deal about the people in Georgia as well.

The Trump budget:

Eliminates after-school programs for 41,000 Georgia students by zeroing out the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program;

Takes away high-quality childcare and early education for 4,200 low- income Georgia children by cutting Head

Start by 17 percent in the final year of this budget;

Eliminates nutrition assistance for up to 395,000 Georgians, 90 percent of whom live in households with at least one child, elderly person, or a person with a disability, by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $220 billion, nationally, over 10 years;

Takes the food out of the mouths of 4,000 pregnant women, new moms, babies, and toddlers in Georgia by cutting the Women, Infants and Children program by 13 percent in the final year of this budget.

I could go on and on, Mr. Speaker, but I will spare my colleagues a long dissertation on the Trump budget, other than recognize that this House is moving forward. We are beginning this process. We have established a safety net.

This is what Americans want. They don't want another shutdown. And we are going to do everything in our power--together, I hope, in a bipartisan way--to make sure that we continue to move forward in the years to come.

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

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

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

I do note for my friend, Mr. Burgess, whom I serve on the Rules Committee with, that we, in an effort to enhance bipartisanship, made his amendment in order. I believe it is the first amendment in order, and I certainly expect that it will get broad consideration on both sides of the aisle.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from over 120 businesses and startups urging Congress to support net neutrality. This letter says: ``Passing H.R. 1644 will provide certainty for businesses and startups and would ensure critical consumer protections for all internet users.''

Hon. Nancy Pelosi,

Speaker, House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Hon. Kevin McCarthy,

Republican Leader, House of Representatives,

Washington, DC.

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy: We are writing in

support of H.R. 1644, the Save the Internet Act, to fully

restore the strong net neutrality protections for Internet

users that were adopted through the FCC's 2015 Open Internet

Order but later repealed.

Net neutrality is fundamental to guaranteeing that every

American has unencumbered access to the Internet. This access

is also essential to a competitive, free market for the

technology economy to thrive as well as entrepreneurship in

this country. The benefits of these protections are not

confined to technology companies and startups. Main Street

businesses across numerous sectors increasingly rely on

unfettered Internet access to run their operations and to

reach customers.

Net neutrality has been critical to the Internet's

explosive growth, creating an open platform on which

companies large and small can grow. We urge members of

Congress to stand on the side of consumers and Internet users

to quickly pass a clean, unamended version of H.R. 1644. This

bill would restore strong rules prohibiting blocking,

throttling, and paid-prioritization while reinstating ex-ante

enforcement and oversight by the FCC to prevent net

neutrality-related harms from happening in the first place.

Passing H.R. 1644 will provide certainty for businesses and

startups and would ensure critical consumer protections for

all Internet users.

Sincerely,

1Huddle, Ad Hoc Labs (dba Burner), Adaptive Energy,

AlleyWatch, Applemon, Attentive, Inc, BetaDefense, Binary

Formations, LLC, Bitly, Bloomers Island, Blue Ocean

Technology, Bluebell Advisors, Inc/Gilbane Advisor, BusBot

Incorporated, CapSen Robotics, Chartbeat, CitiQuants

Corporation, Cogent Communications, Cole House LLC, Concourse

Markets, Contextly.

Creative Action Network (CAN), CredSimple, D3FY.COM,

Darling, Inc., DART Technologies, Digital4Startups Inc., DLT

Education, EarnedCard, Educreations, Elucd, Etsy, Inc, Expa,

Fan Guru, Filament, FinToolbox (Screener.co), FluentStream,

Founder Academy, Foursquare, Friends, G. A. Hensley Company

Inc.

General Assembly Space, Inc., GitHub, Inc., Globig Inc.,

goTenna, Grey Horse Communications, Gust, Gusto, Haute Huab,

High Fidelity hobbyDB, HOGARU, Hoola Hoop LLC, InnovateEDU,

Inwage LLC, JOOR, JustFix.nyc, Karavan App, Karma+, Laconia

Capital Group, Launch Pad.

Loxo, LR, Makeo Company LLC, Mapbox, Market Mic LLC,

Martech, Mavatar Technology Inc., Medium, Meta, LLC,

MetaProp.vc, Minibar Delivery, Mozilla Corporation, Music to,

Neighborland, Neta Collab, Netsyms Technologies, Onfido,

Onfleet, Inc., Outdoor Project, Patreon, Inc.

Postmates, Promogogo, Rainmakers, Reddit, Inc., Rentify,

Rex Ag Labs, Routific, Sandwich.Net, LLC, Shotwell Labs,

Inc., Shutterstock, Inc, Simply Made Apps, SlidesUp, Snaps

Media Inc., Spoonful, SpotHero, Starsky Robotics, Stealth

Communications, Stripe, Stylaquin, Svaha LLC, Tampa Bay Wave.

Tenpin, textile.io, Tinybeans USA Ltd, Tostie Productions,

LLC, Troops.ai, TrueAbility, Tunesync, Twitter, Uncork

Capital, Venrock, Via, Vimeo, Inc., WayUp, Wellthy, White

Lioness Coaching, Women 2.0, WorkHound, Yapp, You

Got Listings, Inc, Zyper.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the sentiments of the gentleman. We certainly agree.

The House has passed disaster relief. We await Senate conferees, so we can move that process forward. But what strikes me is how troubling it is to have this conversation.

The reality is that the President of the United States has chosen which Americans to provide aid to. The island of Puerto Rico, American citizens, has suffered disasters, calamities, as a result of Hurricane Maria, yet the President shows no indication that he understands the plight of the people on Puerto Rico. That is why it is necessary for the House and Senate to come together to provide relief, because the President, frankly, has chosen not to do it.

We welcome the comments by the gentleman. We look forward to the Senate establishing members of a conference committee, so we can work out differences that we may have and move this forward. We continue to hope for that day and hope that the President will gain some enlightenment about how we help and protect all American citizens.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I would just reiterate what I said earlier, which is that all Americans need help in times of disaster.

Despite the fact that some would try to ignore the fact that climate change exists and has created natural disasters that we could not have predicted years ago, the fact is that those disasters continue to happen.

All Americans--I don't care whether you live in New York or Alabama, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands--all Americans need help.

One of the first bills we passed under a structured rule in this Congress was to provide that relief, yet it sits in the Senate because they seek to choose which Americans get benefited by the Federal Government's relief efforts and which do not.

We are going to stand firmly in the corner of all Americans getting the support from the Federal Government that they deserve. We are not going to pick and choose.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly hope that my colleagues here across the aisle are going to march across to the other Chamber and insist to the United States Senate that it takes up that bill, that we establish a conference committee, and that we send this to the White House.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate the passion that Mr. Woodall brings to conversations, both here on the floor as well as in the two committees on which we are privileged to serve. I thank him for that and thank him for his concerns about how we move forward.

I believe this is moving forward. Today, we are moving forward. We set the tone of how we move forward. We establish our discretionary amount. We end the sequestration caps. We begin to move forward, and I think that is what we want to do.

It is fascinating. I note that Mr. Woodall, in his comments, mentioned you can't get all 435 Members to agree. I certainly understand that, and I appreciate it. We couldn't get one Member to offer the President's budget as an amendment.

The truth is that there is a failure of leadership here. This is a process that is new to me, but I certainly expected that the President would provide greater leadership on how to move forward. We have seen none from the White House, which I find troubling and I find puts us at a considerable disadvantage.

We need to move forward, nonetheless, Mr. Speaker, and that is what we are doing today.

I do know that, for me, the amount of discretionary investments we make will say a great deal about where we are going as a country and what our priorities are.

I think we need to make greater investments in education and in public health, highways and transit, veterans healthcare, agricultural research, workplace safety, K-12 education support, national parks, housing assistance and mortgage insurance, small business assistance, Head Start, food safety, scientific research and space exploration--God knows, as a percentage of GDP, we need to continue to invest dramatically in those--embassy security, Pell grants for higher education students, hazardous waste cleanup, waterway maintenance for commerce and recreation, weather forecasting, hurricane-proofing communities, forest and wildlife habitat management, conservation resources, patents and trademarks, consumer protections, and aviation safety.

The list goes on and on for the kind of investments we need to make to continue to make sure that America leads in the 21st century. That is what this does today. That is what this rule will do. That is what the resolution budget process starts today.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for their words of support for H.R. 2021, the Investing for the People Act. I especially thank Chairman Yarmuth and Ranking Member Womack for their work on our Nation's budget.

I also thank Chairman Pallone and Ranking Member Walden and all those who have worked on H.R. 1644, the Save the Internet Act.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question.

Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would like to also add my condolences to the Senator's family.

I remember, as a young boy growing up interested in politics, that I was always struck by his thoughtfulness, the demeanor in which he held himself in an era where we were in full-contact politics all the time. Senator Hollings was an extraordinary American and a great patriot, and I join with my colleagues in offering condolences to the family and remembering his extraordinary legacy.

Mr. Speaker, more than 4 million women in the United States experience physical violence by a domestic partner every single day. This staggering statistic underscores the great importance of the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization.

This critical legislation, which I am proud to cosponsor, provides the support and protections that victims of sexual assault and domestic violence need and deserve.

In my community, we have many organizations, like the Willow Domestic Violence Center, that provide lifesaving services to women in need and rely on funding authorized by the Violence Against Women Act to operate.

I am especially pleased that this reauthorization includes vital provisions to keep guns out of the hands of those accused of stalking or dating violence.

I look forward to the passage of this important legislation and will continue working with my colleagues in the House to advance policies that support and empower women and ensure a safer community for all people.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi) for his eloquence and his leadership on this critically important issue.

I rise to express my strong opposition to the Trump administration's efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and pull the rug out from millions of Americans who rely on the ACA for essential health coverage.

Quality, affordable healthcare should be a right for every American, and we should make it easier, not harder, for individuals and families to get the insurance they deserve.

The House majority made a promise to always offer protections for individuals with preexisting conditions and fight back against those who seek to dismantle their fundamental protections.

That is why I am proud to cosponsor a resolution to reverse the administration's cruel attempts to sabotage care for Americans in need, and I thank Mr. Garamendi for his leadership with House Resolution 1884.

We will not allow people with preexisting conditions to go back to the days where they were denied coverage when they needed it the most. And I might also say, parenthetically--and I appreciate very much the gentleman from California's leadership as the superintendent of insurance in the State of the California--I had the privilege of working on legislation in New York back in the early nineties as a new member that introduced community rating in the State of New York and offered protections for preexisting conditions.

Subsequent to that, I had an opportunity to serve as the chair of the Insurance Committee in the New York State Assembly.

In that role, I was responsible for helping to implement the Affordable Care Act in the State of New York.

Many of the protections in the Affordable Care Act were already part of New York law. I am very, very proud of that; and continued to work on that as majority leader of the State Assembly.

But the protections which we, I think, rely on in New York are not available to all Americans, and to those plans which we are not able, as a state, to regulate, self-regulated plans and other plans protected by ERISA, don't have those protections.

So I think it is critically important as we continue to move forward that we work tirelessly. And I will work with my colleagues to protect and expand the Affordable Care Act, to lower costs and ensure hardworking families everywhere in America have healthcare that they can rely on.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend from California.

You know you understand how it is for many of us who are blessed to have either employer-offered health insurance or are in a situation where you don't think as much about the costs or the issues that involve health insurance. But what you find from talking to people, as many people are not as privileged as I might be, and really faced critical decisions about whether they could have medicine to treat chronic illnesses or had to make the decision between that and rent.

Or for people who had--as I have said on this floor before, I, unfortunately, lost my daughter to cancer, breast cancer, about a year and-a-half ago.

Lauren had good health insurance, but during her illness, I often thought about men and women in her circumstance, what challenges they would face, even if they are able to defeat the illness, whether or not those preexisting conditions would cause their insurance premiums to be so high and so unattainable that the idea of having quality, affordable healthcare would simply not be within their reach.

This affects millions of Americans. Whether it is women who plan on beginning a family, starting a family; whether it is the elderly who have chronic conditions--you mentioned hypertension; or whether you have diabetes, there are a whole host of conditions. Most Americans have some form of preexisting condition.

For us to allow the underwriting to be done with those preexisting conditions in mind would simply put healthcare out of the reach of most Americans, quality, affordable healthcare. That is why I think this is so important.

I might also add that the Department of Justice is charged with defending the laws duly enacted by this Congress and by the President of the United States. That is the job of the Department of Justice. I find it reprehensible that this Department of Justice under this administration would take the view that they will join in a lawsuit against a law fully enacted that is the law of the land of the United States and seek to overturn it. It is virtually without precedent.

What is so troubling about it is that this will leave millions of Americans without coverage and without health insurance at a time when we should be doing everything we can to ensure that more Americans have access to quality, affordable care.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the National Technical Institute for the Deaf on celebrating 50 years of providing an outstanding education for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. The National Technical Institute for the Deaf, or NTID, is one of the nine colleges at Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. With almost 9,000 alumni and a 94 percent average employment rate over the past five years for its deaf and hard-of-hearing graduates, NTID continues to open doors and break down barriers for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

For decades, the deaf community advocated for a technical university, and in 1965, that dream became a reality. After legislation was introduced in April that year, the National Technical Institute of the Deaf was established by Congress via Public Law 89-36 and signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson on June 8, 1965. Three years later, in September 1968, 70 deaf young men and women arrived at the Rochester Institute of Technology, or RIT, campus to become the charter class of NTID students.

And here we are, 50 years after that charter class was facing the completion of its first year of academic instruction, and NTID is still excelling at its primary mission. ``. . . to provide deaf and hard-of- hearing students with outstanding state-of-the-art technical and professional education programs, complemented by a strong arts and sciences curriculum, to prepare them to live and work in the mainstream of a rapidly changing global community and enhance their lifelong learning.''

We know NTID has succeeded because NTID students persist and graduate at rates favorable to national rates for two- and four-year colleges and because they are, on average, employed at higher rates and earn more over their lifetimes than deaf peers who do not attend NTID.

Over the past 50 years, NTID has also surpassed expectations for its secondary mission, by establishing one of the country's oldest and most prestigious American Sign Language interpreter training programs, improving the education of deaf children and youth by preparing future educators, and conducting research and outreach that benefit deaf people worldwide.

Serving as the U.S. Representative for Monroe County is a source of great pride for me, a pride that comes from knowing the role that Rochester has played and continues to play in changing the world for the better. NTID has helped make Rochester the diverse, innovative and determined community it is today. We are so fortunate to have this national treasure as part of RIT and part of Rochester. I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating NTID on 50 years of excellence

Madam Speaker, in honor of the final week of Women's History Month, I am proud to join a group of bipartisan colleagues in introducing the National Women's Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act.

As the National Women's Hall of Fame celebrates its 50th anniversary, this will help ensure the financial viability and longevity of this iconic historical landmark for years to come.

I am especially pleased that our very own Louise Slaughter will be inducted into the hall of fame this year: a fitting tribute for one of the most inspiring women I have had the privilege of knowing.

Louise will take her place alongside some of our Nation's trailblazers in the city that forever altered the course of women's rights in our Nation.

I am delighted that this legislation will help ensure that Louise, and so many other remarkable women in the hall of fame, will continue to inspire generations to come.

Madam Speaker, I look forward to diligently working toward its passage, and I encourage my colleagues to support this important bill.