Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the House Republican Conference, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to extend my congratulations to University of Wyoming professor Dr. John Tanaka on his retirement.

Dr. Tanaka has dedicated his life to researching range and land management practices that improve and restore lands and ranches throughout the West. Dr. Tanaka has received multiple state and federal research grants and has made major contributions to improving sustainable range management practices. After nearly 40 years of dedication to range management and rangeland science, Dr. Tanaka will be retiring and will have the opportunity to relax and enjoy all that Wyoming has to offer.

The University of Wyoming and the many ranchers and landowners who have benefitted from his pioneering research are incredibly grateful for Dr. Tanaka's years of service. Again, Madam Speaker, I would like to extend my congratulations to Dr. Tanaka on his long career and his retirement.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to extend my congratulations to Johnson County Sheriff Steve Kozisek on his retirement.

Sheriff Kozisek retired after 46 years of dedicated service for the people of Wyoming. After serving his country in the U.S. Army, Sheriff Kozisek began his distinguished career as a police officer in his hometown of Newcastle, Wyoming. Having served as Johnson County Sheriff for 16 years, Sheriff Kozisek has decided to lay down his badge and his gun and pursue a quiet retirement spending time with his wife and grandchildren.

The people of Johnson County are incredibly proud of Sheriff Kozisek and grateful for his decades of service. Again, Madam Speaker, I wish to extend my sincere congratulations to Sheriff Kozisek on his retirement and I thank him for his dedication to service and helping others. It is men and women like Sheriff Kozisek that make the state of Wyoming great.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Republican Conference, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the House Republican Conference, I send to the desk a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to extend my congratulations to the City of Green River for the 150th Anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Green River and the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The City of Green River, Sweetwater County Historical Museum, and the Green River Chamber of Commerce continue to proudly honor this great town's history and achievements, including Thomas Moran's famous ``First Sketch in the West.''

Additionally, the Transcontinental Railroad played a pivotal role in not only the development of Green River but Wyoming as a whole. On May 10, 1869, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific Railroads were connected, creating the Transcontinental Railroad. The railroad brought great change to Wyoming and our nation alike. It opened new doors to economic opportunity, new trade markets, and even helped create the Wyoming Territory. In Governor John A. Campbell's inaugural address to the Wyoming Territorial Legislature, he said, ``For the first time in the history of our country, the organization of a territorial government was rendered necessary by the building of a railroad.'' The Transcontinental Railroad was a historic achievement that continues to benefit the economy of our State to this day.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend my congratulations to the City of Green River for the 150th Anniversary of the incorporation of the City of Green River and recognize the historic significance of the arrival of the Transcontinental Railroad in Wyoming.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to extend my congratulations to Dale Steenbergen for receiving the Chamber Director of the Year Award from the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce.

The Wyoming Chamber of Commerce annual award recognizes directors that have had an outstanding impact and made significant contributions to the community. His selection for this award is a sign of his dedication to our community and his support of F.E. Warren Air Force Base, and I thank him for all he does.

Again, Mr. Speaker, I would like to extend my congratulations to Dale Steenbergen for receiving the Chamber Director of the Year Award from the Wyoming Chamber of Commerce. I wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1049 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. Speaker, during consideration of this resolution all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Torres), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume.

General Leave

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of House Resolution 1049, which provides a structured rule for consideration of H.R. 4606, the Ensuring Small Scale LNG Certainty and Access Act, and a structured rule for H.R. 1635, the Empowering Students Through Enhanced Financial Counseling Act. These bipartisan bills provide commonsense changes that will strengthen our economy by removing unnecessary regulatory burdens and improving financial counseling for our students.

Student loan debt in our country hit a record high of $1.5 trillion in the first quarter of this year, Mr. Speaker. Furthermore, both the number and size of student loans are increasing, while the repayment rates are decreasing. Students are not receiving the proper counseling when they enroll in Federal aid programs. This has the potential to cost them immense amounts of money.

Right now, schools are only required to provide entry and exit financial counseling to students who receive Federal loans. Often, the counseling offered does not give students a realistic understanding of their anticipated finances and income during their studies and after graduation, or information about other Federal aid programs they could turn to before a private loan.

By enhancing the financial counseling offered and expanding it to students who receive Pell grants and to the parents of students who take out Federal loans to pay for their children's education, students will better be able to manage their finances and maximize their opportunities, saving themselves and the taxpayers money every single year.

Mr. Speaker, we provide over $120 billion of Federal student aid every year, without providing adequate education and support about how to use those funds. This must change. With this bill, we will begin to give our students the tools and resources necessary to ensure they put themselves in the best financial position for the future. H.R. 1635 does just that.

Additionally, the rule we are considering today makes in order several bipartisan amendments that are aimed at making this good bill even better.

The rule that we are debating this afternoon, Mr. Speaker, also provides for consideration of H.R. 4606, the Ensuring Small Scale LNG Certainty and Access Act. This rule makes in order two Democrat amendments to this bipartisan bill which also will help strengthen our economy and create more American jobs.

Mr. Speaker, as you know, the United States is now the world's leading producer of oil and natural gas. And my home State of Wyoming ranks sixth in production of crude oil, and eighth in natural gas production. However, despite the important and even monumental efforts by the Trump administration so far, uncertainty and burdensome regulations still stifle operations and further growth.

Currently, the Natural Gas Act does not specify an amount threshold for the Department of Energy's lengthy regulatory process for the exportation of liquefied natural gas. This means that producers wanting to export a small amount of gas are forced to go through the same process as major producers.

By providing greater regulatory certainty and a clear timetable for the

process of exporting small amounts of LNG, we will better enable exporters to move forward with capital-intensive projects that create American jobs.

We also are able, Mr. Speaker, through this bill, to preserve existing environmental laws and ensure that small-scale export facilities receive the proper review.

Wyoming's petroleum industry directly employs over 7,000 people, with an annual payroll of over $668 million, contributing over $900 million to our economy.

The small scale LNG export market is a growing sector of our economy with immense potential that can further expand the economic benefits the petroleum industry yields to my State and to the Nation. This bill will open up markets where large-scale exports are simply not economical and help jump-start growth in this important industry.

H.R. 4606 places small-scale exports on a level playing field with exports to free trade agreement nations. Many of our neighboring countries are forced to rely on unstable or unfriendly nations for their energy needs because the regulations we currently place on our small-scale LNG exporters makes exporting to these nations uneconomical.

Mr. Speaker, by reducing these regulations, U.S. LNG exports can play an important role in rebuilding parts of the Caribbean devastated by hurricanes in 2017, as well as provide a stable source of energy. It will also prevent our neighbors from having to turn, potentially, to our adversaries to meet their energy needs.

Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of an energy boom that is revitalizing our economy. It is also putting us in a position where we can greatly assist our neighbor countries by providing them a stable source of energy and offering support in the event of a natural disaster.

The current unnecessary and overly burdensome regulations on small LNG exporters prevent us from taking full advantage of this unprecedented growth in our energy production and industry. H.R. 4606 allows us to address this issue and to provide an additional boost to our economy.

Mr. Speaker, the bills that will be considered under this rule are bipartisan bills that will help strengthen our economy and support our students. Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this rule that will allow consideration of H.R. 4606 and H.R. 1635, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Rules Committee, Mrs. Torres, for her comments today.

I think that Mrs. Torres and I both agree that Congress needs to ensure that we are playing our constitutional role, and that is why I find it particularly surprising that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to further empower the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which is a completely unaccountable and, I would argue, unconstitutional agency.

In fact, statutorily, Mr. Speaker, with the regulation of student loans under the Higher Education Act, Congress has charged the Department of

Education with this obligation and responsibility, not the CFPB, and that is where we think it should belong. We don't think that the answer to congressional oversight and to increasing congressional oversight is to give further power to a completely unaccountable Federal agency.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Higgins).

Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson).

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

Mr. Speaker, I again would like to thank my colleague from the Rules Committee for her work and her participation in this debate.

I hope that the minority leader of the United States Senate, Mr. Schumer, might have been listening to her arguments just now, and I would just recall for our colleagues that it was the Democrats in the Senate, led by Mr. Schumer, who shut the government down earlier this year, not the Republicans.

Mr. Speaker, it was the Democrats in the House and the Senate who walked away from the negotiations on the budget deal that we finally were able to strike, but not before they refused to show up for at least one meeting at the White House.

So it is the case that the Republicans are in control of this body. It is the case that we have a majority in the Senate. As my colleague knows, we don't have 60 votes in the Senate, and so Mr. Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate are able to gum up the works pretty extensively.

But as for us in the House, we have, Mr. Speaker, been successful in passing all 12 appropriations bills. We have been successful in passing the necessary appropriations bills without the help of the Democrats in order to make sure that we are providing the funds that we need to keep the government open and keep the government functioning.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to participate in a good-faith manner, particularly in the coming weeks as we deal with the Defense Appropriations bill once again on this floor, and just remind them how important it is that we make sure that our men and women in uniform receive the funds that they deserve.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank both the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Johnson) and my colleague from Kentucky (Mr. Guthrie) for their important and hard work on these bills. We must continue to roll back the regulatory burdens that make doing business in our country so difficult.

We also have to give our students the tools they need to maximize their opportunities for success and to understand the financial liabilities that they are undertaking when they receive these student loans. We don't want them to have a future that is diminished by the burden of unnecessary debt that they can't repay once they graduate.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the rule and passage of the underlying bills.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1009) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the lack of timely and predictable funding unnecessarily undermines the mission of the United States Special Operations Command and jeopardizes the security of the United States.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hudson) to discuss his resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I welcome my colleague from California's support for this resolution.

As my colleague knows very well, we have done far more in this body, and, as he mentioned, we have done far more in this body than these resolutions of support. These resolutions of support are crucially important, but we have, in this House, completed our work. We have completed our work on the Defense Appropriations bill.

Last year, the Senate also completed its work, and we were able to take the very first crucially important steps to begin to rebuild our military with the $700 billion we were able to appropriate for fiscal year 2018.

We have also done our work for this fiscal year, and we will be in a position, hopefully in the next day or so, to be able to pass the National Defense Authorization Act as well for fiscal year 2019.

So we in this House understand how crucially important it is that we get the work done, that we pass this legislation. We need the Senate to do the same.

We also, I think, need to recognize we have fundamental disagreements and disputes about the impact of the tax cuts we passed. In fact, on this side of the aisle, we believe that allowing Americans to keep more of their money is really the secret to getting the kind of economic growth we need to fundamentally deal with the deficit, that the answer is not to raise people's taxes to have more money coming into the Treasury. We need to actually let people keep more of what they have got. We need to let people invest more of their own money.

We have seen jobs come back, and we have seen economic growth come back. We have seen people at all income levels able to keep more money, and they see the difference in their paychecks.

So we are very proud of that, and we do not believe that we should ever be in a situation where we think that somehow we have to choose expensive domestic spending if we want to fund the military.

I agree with my colleague's views on sequestration. Sequestration was extremely damaging. The Budget Control Act is damaging, and we ought to be in a position where we are repealing that as well.

So I am pleased that there will be support for this resolution on behalf of our Special Operations Forces.

Mr. Speaker, I also want to thank very much my friend and colleague from North Carolina for introducing this important bill highlighting the crucial role our special operators play.

Mr. Speaker, they, more than any other segment of our forces, operate in secret and undertake missions that keep us safe and that serve to protect and defend us. We will not ever know most of the stories of the service that they carry out for all of us.

They really are the watchmen on the walls of freedom. They stand guard for all of us day and night, undertaking missions that are incredibly complex, incredibly dangerous. And too often, they pay the ultimate sacrifice, but they are willing to do that for our freedom.

It is crucially important, Mr. Speaker, that we don't in this House and in this Congress continue to force them and all of our men and women in uniform to pay the price for our dysfunction, and that is a price that comes with funding delays and uncertainty.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1010) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the United States Air Force faces significant readiness challenges due to insufficient personnel levels, a shrinking and depleted aircraft fleet, and maintenance deferrals, all of which are affected by budgetary uncertainty and impede the Air Force's ability to meet ongoing and unexpected national security threats, putting United States national security at risk.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), my friend and colleague, to discuss his resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I just want to insert some facts into the debate about the tax cuts. According to CBO estimates, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is going to result in an increase in GDP of $1.7 trillion. We are going to see 900,000 new jobs. Wages will increase by $1.2 trillion. Investments will increase by $600 billion. The tax cuts that we passed in this House--and my colleague is right, none of the Democrats voted for it. In fact, the minority leader has said that

she thinks we ought to reverse those tax cuts, which would be devastating to the economy.

We lived through the stagnation of the Obama years, and we passed a tax cuts bill that fundamentally changed the trajectory of this economy. We have seen 1.3 million jobs added. We have minority unemployment at the lowest rates, I believe, in history.

So the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is working, and it is helping to bring jobs back. I am really pleased that we are looking at ways that we can make those cuts permanent, that we can make sure that we are helping the middle class, and that we are helping small businesses across this country on a permanent basis.

We can spend all of the time my colleague from California would like debating the tax cuts, debating the impact on our economy, but the facts are clear, that those tax cuts, despite the politics and the rhetoric, have had the kind of impact that, frankly, we knew they would have.

So I am really proud of what we have done with respect to the tax cuts, and now we need to make sure that we fund the military. If we don't fund the military, it doesn't matter much what else we do if we don't provide for the security of this Nation.

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

Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell).

Mr. Speaker, in closing, I want to thank my colleague from Oklahoma for his remarks. I also want to thank my colleague from Texas for this important resolution.

I am honored, Mr. Speaker, to represent F.E. Warren Air Force Base, located in Cheyenne. The missileers of the Mighty Ninety Missile Wing are responsible for maintaining, protecting, and manning ICBMs that are deployed throughout Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado. These missiles remain on alert 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. They are one of our most important deterrents against attack from our adversaries.

But these Minuteman 3 missiles, Mr. Speaker, were developed in the 1960s and deployed in the 1970s. We have made modernization and modifications since then, but we desperately need additional modernization to these ICBMs and to our force in general to keep pace with adversaries like the Russians who have made significant investments in their ICBM force. We cannot do that, Mr. Speaker, without predictable and reliable funding that is required to complete such a complicated and complex multiyear project.

The ICBM replacement program, known as the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, is slated to receive the necessary increased funding in fiscal year 2019 so that we can accelerate that program. But for these resources to be effective, Mr. Speaker, we must make sure we get the additional funding to the Air Force on time.

As my colleague from Texas talked about, Mr. Speaker, the Air Force faces readiness and modernization challenges, and the ICBM replacement is just one of those.

Once again, Mr. Speaker, we have to stop allowing our dysfunction and we have got to stop allowing the demands, frankly, by some on the other side of the aisle to hold our defense funding hostage. We have got to stop allowing those political debates to put our men and women in uniform at greater risk and, frankly, the long-term national security of this Nation at risk.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1007) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that not fully resourcing the United States Army in a timely manner erodes the Army's ability to maintain readiness and poses risk to the Army's ability to conduct military operations.

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

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Russell), who is my colleague from the Armed Services Committee, to discuss his resolution.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, Mr. Garamendi from California, for his support of these resolutions and for his time focusing on them today on the floor.

I also want to thank my colleague from Oklahoma. There is no stronger supporter of our men and women in uniform that I know of in this body than Mr. Russell from Oklahoma. He understands, I would say, more than most because of his own service that what we do in this body and what we do on this floor has a direct impact on the levels of risk, on the safety, and on the effectiveness of our men and women in uniform.

Mr. Speaker, this resolution highlights the damage that we have seen to the readiness of the United States Army over 9 years of continuing resolutions, sequestration, and overall budget dysfunction.

I want to echo the remarks of my colleague from Oklahoma. Let's change that. Let's make this a new start. Let's make this the year that we don't hold military funding hostage and we pass a clean Defense Appropriations bill. We have done it here in the House. We know they can do it in the Senate. We need to get the bill, take it up, and pass it.

All these other arguments and discussions are important. They are important for the future of the Nation. They are important for our economy. But we should not force our men and women in uniform to have to wait, to have stand by and watch, not knowing whether we are going to be able to pass the bills that they need for the funding they need to continue to keep us all safe.

We did our job for fiscal year 2018, although we were too slow, but we have now appropriated the $700 billion for that fiscal year. Let's do it this year on time, with sufficient funding, and with a level of accountability, and also making sure that our men and women in uniform know that those funds are coming to them.

It is going to take us more than a single year to get ourselves out of the crisis we face, Mr. Speaker. We have made a good start. But I think we should all come together, both sides of the aisle and, frankly, on both sides of Capitol Hill, to say: Look, this is an issue on which we are going to agree.

The security of the Nation is an issue that ought to cross party lines. The support that we are seeing for this resolution and for all the resolutions we have done for our services demonstrates that. Let's make this the year that we do it differently and we do it right, Mr. Speaker.

With that, I thank everyone who has participated in this effort. I thank Chairman Thornberry and Chairman Granger for their important efforts.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 995) expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Nation now faces a more complex and grave set of threats than at any time since the end of World War II, and that the lack of full, on-time funding related to defense activities puts servicemen and servicewomen at risk, harms national security, and aids the adversaries of the United States.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my resolution, H. Res. 995, which expresses this House's commitment to providing the full, on-time funding our men and women in uniform need to defend our Nation.

This week and next, Mr. Speaker, we will be spending time on this floor discussing the devastating impacts nine

consecutive continuing resolutions have had on our military's readiness and on our ability to deter and defend against our adversaries. Despite the fact that this House has consistently, and normally in a bipartisan fashion, completed our work on time, we have repeatedly seen partisan politics, particularly in the Senate, prevent the Congress from delivering a funding bill to the President's desk on time. In fact, since Republicans took control of the House in 2011, the House has never failed to pass a Defense Appropriations bill on time.

Just a few weeks ago, we passed H.R. 6157, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2019, with an overwhelmingly bipartisan 359-49 vote.

Today's resolution, Mr. Speaker, expresses the sense of this House that failing to provide full, on-time, stable funding increases the risk to our servicemembers and aids our adversaries. The resolution expresses our commitment to ending the funding uncertainty our military faces and urges the Senate to similarly complete its work so we can provide the on-time funding our armed services require.

Mr. Speaker, we must stop forcing our men and women in uniform and their families to pay the price for our dysfunction.

Today, Mr. Speaker, we will consider three resolutions.

H. Res. 995, which I have introduced, acknowledges the unprecedented global threat environment we face and the negative impact these continuing resolutions have had on our military's ability to confront this environment and deter and, if necessary, defeat our enemies.

We will also consider H. Res. 994, offered by my colleague and fellow member of the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Gallagher from Wisconsin. Mr. Gallagher is a marine with two deployments to Al Anbar province in Iraq. His resolution details the negative impact of CRs and funding instability on the readiness of the U.S Marine Corps.

Finally, Mr. Speaker, we will consider H. Res. 998, offered by Mr. Wittman of Virginia, chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee of the House Armed Services Committee. Mr. Wittman's resolution lays out the damage that the CRs and unpredictable funding have done to the United States Navy.

Next week, Mr. Speaker, we will consider resolutions addressing the impact of unstable funding on the United States Air Force and the United States Army.

We know, Mr. Speaker, that not every Member of this body is on one of the defense-related committees, but we also know that every Member of this body is committed to the security of our Nation. I take the opportunity today, along with my colleagues, to lay out in detail the threats we face and the impacts our actions in this House can have on our military's ability to keep us safe.

Reflecting on the challenges facing our Armed Forces, Secretary Mattis put it this way: ``As hard as the last 16 years have been on our military, no enemy in the field has done more to harm the readiness of the U.S. military than the combined impact of the Budget Control Act's defense spending cuts, worsened by us operating 9 out of the last 10 years under continuing resolutions.''

Secretary Mattis went on to explain the consequences of Congress' failure to provide reliable, on-time, sufficient funding: ``Ships will not receive the required maintenance to put to sea; the ships already at sea will be extended outside of port; aircraft will remain on the ground, their pilots not at the sharpest edge; and eventually ammunition, training, and manpower will not be sufficient to deter war.'' Not sufficient to defer war, Mr. Speaker.

No experience, Mr. Speaker, has had a greater impact on me during my time as a Member of this body than having the Secretary of Defense testify in front of us as members of the Armed Services Committee and say that congressional abrogation of our constitutional duty to fund our military is putting our servicemembers at greater risk.

While our military has suffered under this burden of continuing resolutions and dangerous policies of our previous administration, our adversaries have been making steady gains. Never before in recent history have we seen the gap between our capabilities and those of our adversaries widen at such a breathtaking pace--and not in our favor, Mr. Speaker.

China is pursuing an aggressive strategy to overtake our military and economic advantage globally. They are developing technologies that are specifically targeted to diminish our ability to project our force. They are developing weapons systems against which we may not be able to defend.

They have utilized deficiencies in our current CFIUS process to attempt to acquire critical U.S. technology. Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE have made significant efforts to embed themselves in the United States, putting our telecommunications networks and, potentially, our defense supply chain at risk.

Militarily, economically, in cyberspace, in space, on land, in air, and at sea, the Chinese have made clear their objective is to achieve global preeminence, which means they must attempt to displace us.

The Russians continue to modernize their nuclear arsenal, as they violate their commitments to us under the INF Treaty. They, too, are developing advanced and threatening weapons systems and attempting to exercise their hegemonic ambitions across Europe. They have violated the borders and sovereignty of their neighbors. In the words of the National Defense Strategy, they are making efforts ``to shatter the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and use emerging technologies to discredit and subvert democratic processes in Georgia, Crimea, and eastern Ukraine.'' They have attempted to subvert our own democratic processes, as we saw in last week's indictment of 12 members of the GRU, Russian military intelligence.

We have seen in Russia and China a return to great power competition, and 8 years of Obama-era policies facilitated these developments. At the same time, we continue to face significant threats from rogue regimes like Iran and North Korea.

The Iranians benefited tremendously from the payments they received from the Obama administration, over $1.5 billion, when they entered into the Obama nuclear deal. This deal paved the way for a nuclear- armed Iran with no real verification provisions, no complete disclosure of their past activity, no cessation of their enrichment activity, and it lifted restrictions on their ballistic missile program.

President Trump was right to withdraw from this disastrous deal, but we are still living with the consequences of an emboldened Iran, enriched with U.S. taxpayer dollars and a pathway to a nuclear weapon. Their support for terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah has grown, while they continue to pose an existential threat to the State of Israel.

The North Koreans, similarly, continue to pose a serious threat, Mr. Speaker, with an arsenal of nuclear weapons, an ongoing ballistic missile program, and continued pursuit of biological and chemical weapons.

Despite recent success on the battlefield against ISIS, radical Islamic terrorism continues to pose a threat to our Nation. We have got troops deployed today, Mr. Speaker, around the globe in the fight against terrorism.

As we face all of these threats, we are also living through an era of increasingly rapid technological development. The very nature of warfare is changing. The ability and the agility required to successfully respond to these threats requires funding sufficiency and certainty.

Mr. Speaker, that certainty simply cannot be provided through continuous continuing resolutions. In the face of all these threats, Mr. Speaker, we in this body must resolve not to add to the risk our troops are facing. We must resolve to fulfill our constitutional duty and provide sufficient, on-time, reliable funding.

It took many years for the readiness, manpower, and training crises we face to develop. We in this House and in the Senate must be part of the solution today and for many days and years into the future.

In closing, Mr. Speaker, I would like to read something that the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral John Richardson, said before the House Armed

Services Committee last year in a hearing about the damage of continuing resolutions:

``I have a hard time believing,'' he said, ``that I am sitting before you now to discuss the potential that we might take steps to make our sailors' missions more difficult, to give our adversaries more advantage. . . . `'

Think about that, Mr. Speaker. That is what this debate is about. That is what this resolution is about. Insufficient, unreliable funding gives our adversaries an advantage. We must not be part of that any longer. We must resolve to get our work done on time, in the House and in the Senate, and to fulfill our constitutional obligation.

We must, in this Congress, Mr. Speaker, be worthy of the sacrifices our men and women in uniform make for us every day.

Mr. Speaker, I urge the adoption of this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and just want to say I enjoy very much the opportunity to serve with my colleague, Mr. Smith, on the Armed Services Committee, and I appreciate his support for this important resolution.

We disagree on several points. I know that Mr. Smith knows that the defense budget is not what is driving the debt in this country. I don't disagree that we need a fiscal policy and that we have got to address our fiscal concerns, but it is also the case that we have the votes, that we have the ability, as we have done in this House and as they could do in the Senate.

We saw, in the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Defense Appropriations bill passed out 30-1. So it is a bipartisan bill that we ought to pass. We passed it across this floor. We ought to pass it across the Senate floor. We ought to get it to the President's desk so that he can sign it, instead of being in a situation where we are holding it hostage to a whole range of other issues and concerns.

Mr. Smith and I do have big disagreements. You know, to talk about somehow that the tax cuts are impacting the Defense budget ignores the history of the fact that the Defense budget was being strangled when Barack Obama was in office. And as far as I know, nobody is accusing President Obama of cutting taxes too much.

So the challenge that our military is facing and the challenge of reliable sufficient funding isn't directly tied to tax policy. I think what we have got to do is decouple these things.

If we don't get the funding for the military right, as Mr. Smith said--you know, Secretary Mattis has said we can afford survival. Another way to say that is if we don't get this right, nothing else we do will matter. And the situation is so serious and so significant that if we let ourselves one more time go down the path of holding this funding hostage to other concerns and other issues, basically holding our men and women in uniform hostage, I would submit that we are not doing our job, and we are not fulfilling our constitutional obligation.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Byrne), my colleague from the Rules Committee and from the Armed Services Committee.

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

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

Mr. Speaker, again, I appreciate very much my colleague's support for this important resolution. I look forward to having his support as we go forward on these resolutions that lay out very clearly how important it is to fund our men and women in uniform.

He and I have very serious and significant disagreements over tax policy. I believe--I know that the private sector is the engine of growth in this economy; that tax cuts, in fact, generate economic growth, and economic growth generates revenue; that if you really want to deal with the debt in this Nation, then you have got to generate additional revenue.

The way to do that is not by taxing people more. It is by letting people keep more of what they earn so they in fact can reinvest so we can see the kind of economic growth we need.

But I would say my colleague's focus on that issue today points out the problem that we have been facing. We face a number of critically important challenges in this body and in the United States Senate, but we have got to ensure that we don't hold our men and women in uniform hostage while we deal with those other issues.

We are, today, not at a time when we have got an international environment that is one in which we can feel safe in our predominance, in which we can feel safe in our ability to continue to project our power. We are in one where the threat to us is growing, and it is significant.

When you have got servicemen and -women, when you have got service chiefs, when you have got the Secretary of Defense telling us things like: our adversaries have weapons systems we might not be able to defend against, that policies and budget processes and votes that are undertaken in this body are increasing the risk to our men and women in uniform, those are things we have got to pay attention to. And I would say we have an obligation to pay attention to those things that is higher than any other obligation that we have.

We have to commit, Mr. Speaker, to fulfilling that constitutional obligation to providing full and on time funding for our troops.

And, Mr. Speaker, I would like to close today with something that General Dunford said in his testimony before the House Armed Services Committee earlier this year. He said: ``The Joint Force must continue to receive sufficient, sustained, and predictable funding for the foreseeable future to restore our competitive advantage and ensure we never send our sons and daughters into a fair fight.''

Every single time we have to deploy our forces, Mr. Speaker, we must ensure that they have everything they need to prevail.

Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the resolution. I urge a continued focus on completing the Defense funding process on time and getting the bill to the President's desk.

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