Floor Statements

Madam Chair, I rise today to oppose H.R. 803, a fatally flawed and highly partisan bill that would weaken our Nation's current public workforce training and adult education system at a time when millions of Americans continue to struggle to find good, family- sustaining jobs in our Nation's economy.

Simply put, H.R. 803 would take our Nation in the wrong direction, making it more difficult for individuals with barriers to employment to receive the education and training services they need to get back on track.

The SKILLS Act repeals and consolidates 35 WIA programs that provide invaluable training to adults, youth, veterans, farm workers, dislocated workers, and many others.

This fatally flawed bill eliminates the priority of service delivery for low-income adults and out-of-school youth, despite the high levels of unemployment rates for youth of color and low-skilled workers.

This fatally flawed legislation strikes State and local board representation for unions, community colleges, and community-based organizations, moving away from some of the key tenets of WIA. It was set up so that 51 percent of the seats on that board of directors would be represented for the business community and 49 percent for those who are not the employers and businesses, but those that I mentioned. That type of diversity is very necessary, such as collaboration, inclusion, strategic partnerships that work to improve people's lives.

Finally, this fatally flawed bill freezes program funding authorization for fiscal years 2014-2020. I must underscore that job training and unemployment services for WIA have already been cut 50 percent since 2011.

How can Congress freeze funding for WIA the next 6 years when we have millions of men and women year after year who need training? How can WIA boards do their job if the inflation costs and the increase of operating costs like utilities, wages, insurance of properties and for health insurance continue to increase?

For these reasons, it is no surprise that at least 50 organizations strongly oppose or have concerns about this misguided legislation, including the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the National League of Cities, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Skills Coalition, the Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities, Easter Seals, the AFL-CIO, the National Coalition for Literacy, National Youth Employment. They go on and on.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against H.R. 803.

I rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas, Sheila Jackson Lee.

I yield an additional 20 seconds to the gentlelady.

We oppose the amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of the Tierney, Hinojosa, and Miller amendment in the nature of a substitute because the Congress has a responsibility to modernize our Nation's public workforce training and adult educational system.

Putting America back to work must be a top priority for Congress and the Nation. This Tierney-Hinojosa-Miller amendment would bolster the role of community colleges in job training by authorizing President Obama's $8 billion Community College to Career Fund. It would develop a 21st century system for adult education literacy and workplace services. It would engage our Nation's youth through multiple pathways to success. It would create competitive employment services and opportunities for individuals with disabilities. And yes, it would improve accountability and transparency through performance measures and reporting.

Importantly, the Democratic substitute bill would strengthen rather than eliminate the priority for low skilled and low-income adults under

Mr. Speaker, while I recognize that this Republican budget is just a political document that will never become law, I am still disappointed at what a cynical, cruel, and dishonest document it is. It is cynical because it repeals the protections and benefits of the Affordable Care Act while keeping in place all of the cost savings in order to pay for another tax cut for millionaires. It's cruel because it would gut Medicaid, a program designed to protect our most vulnerable seniors from sickness and death, by over $800 billion. This budget would slash Pell Grants for students, food assistance for needy families, and the Head Start school program for children.

Most of all, it's simply a dishonest document. My Republican friends claim that their budget will cut taxes and balance the budget. They say they will pay for all of it with trillions of dollars in savings from closing tax loopholes, but the budget conveniently refuses to name any of them.

Mr. Speaker, we should reject this budget and its displaced priorities. I urge my colleagues to support the Democratic alternative, which presents a balanced way to bringing down our deficit that doesn't leave our seniors at risk.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 57, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Madam Speaker, I regret that I was unavoidably detained in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall vote 54 and ``aye'' on rollcall vote 55.

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 43, had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise to strongly oppose H.R. 6429, the Republican STEM proposal before the House today under suspension of the rules.

As the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce and vice chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Asian American Caucus in strongly opposing this Republican STEM proposal, misguided legislation that would curtail legal immigration to the United States.

As a proud cosponsor of this bill, I support this legislation because it would allow advanced STEM graduates to remain in the United States and contribute to our Nation's scientific discovery and technological innovation, increasing our Nation's global competitiveness. This bill reduces backlogs for STEM-degree recipients by attracting and retaining critical talent and creating a new EB-6 green card category for persons with advanced degrees in STEM from research universities in the United States.

I must underscore that this bill does not eliminate or weaken our immigration programs to increase STEM visas. This bill targets only the best and the brightest foreign students. Unlike the Republican proposal, this legislation, H.R. 6412, does not allow foreign graduates of for-profit colleges to receive STEM visas, including degrees earned by mail or over the Internet.

In closing, I urge my colleagues to strengthen our Nation's global competitiveness.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to strongly oppose H.R. 6429, the Republican STEM proposal, before the House today under suspension of the rules.

As Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training and Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), I urge my colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, to join me and members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus in strongly opposing the Republican STEM proposal, misguided legislation that would curtail legal immigration to the United States.

Instead, I encourage my colleagues in this chamber to support H.R. 6412, ``The Attracting the Best and the Brightest Act of 2012'' sponsored by Representative Zoe Lofgren.

As a proud cosponsor of this bill, I support this legislation because it would allow advanced STEM graduates to remain in the United States and contribute to our Nation's scientific discovery and technological innovation, increasing our Nation's global competitiveness.

This bill reduces backlogs for STEM ``degree recipients by attracting and retaining critical talent and creating a new ``EB-6 green card category for persons with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from research universities in the United States.

I must underscore that this bill does not eliminate or weaken other immigration programs to increase STEM visas. While H.R. 6412 provides the same number of STEM visas (50,000) as the Republican proposal, it does so without eliminating the long-standing Diversity Visa program, which ensures diversity among new immigrants and provides one of the few legal pathways to enter the United States.

This bill targets only the best and the brightest foreign students, and requires that these individuals have an advanced degree from an accredited public or nonprofit university classified by the National Science Foundation as a research institution or as otherwise excelling in STEM instruction.

Unlike the Republican proposal, this legislation H.R. 6412 does not allow foreign graduates of ``for-profit colleges'' to receive STEM visas, including degrees earned by mail or over the internet.

H.R. 6412 includes a provision which provides wage protections for U.S. workers and requires that the offered wage to the STEM graduate meets or exceeds the actual wage paid to U.S. workers with similar levels of experience.

The Republican proposal does not include this provision and does not adequately ensure that American workers are protected.

In closing, I urge my colleagues to strengthen our Nation's global competitiveness by opposing the misguided Republican STEM proposal and cosponsoring H.R. 6412, ``The Attracting the Best and Brightest Act of 2012.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2446, ``The RESPA Home Warranty Clarification Act.'' The Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act of 1974, or RESPA, was crafted by Congress to only cover those services necessary for closing the transaction of buying a home. A recent interpretive rule issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development broke this precedent by bringing home warranties under RESPA. This bipartisan act clarifies that home warranties fall outside the scope of RESPA because they are unnecessary for closing.

This bill was passed out of the Financial Services Committee on voice vote, and I am proud that the Committee also passed an amendment that I offered, which adds even more transparency to the bill.

This amended bill would require the real estate broker who recommends the purchase of a home warranty to a homebuyer to disclose that he or she may receive compensation for the recommendation; that the homebuyer is not required to purchase a home warranty contract; and that the homebuyer can purchase a home warranty contract from a provider not recommended by the real estate broker.

This is is essential information for the homebuyer to make an informed choice when deciding whether to purchase a home warranty and I am proud to have added this disclosure requirement to H.R. 2446. This bill makes clear that the term ``settlement service'' in RESPA does not include home warranties, something Congress never intended.

Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the Amendment offered by my esteemed colleague from Florida, Mr. Posey (#25). His Amendment would ensure that the rule recently approved by the Internal Revenue Service requiring that interest payments on foreign deposits be reported to the IRS would not move forward. This is extremely important to the region which I represent, deep South Texas. Our community banks and local economies benefit from investments and deposits from non- residents, and would be harmed by the serious loss of capital caused by these depositors fleeing our communities. Many of these depositors have chosen to bank in the United States because of the stability of our financial institution system. If this ruling goes into effect, and these deposits evaporate, the capacity of these banks to invest in the local economies diminishes.

A Mercatus Center 2004 study of a similar rule projected that $88 billion of capital would exit United States banks if the rule were to take effect. At a time of extreme economic fragility, we need this capital to stay on our shores. Additionally, many foreign depositors have chosen to bank in the United States for security reasons; their home countries may be politically unstable, and they fear that personal financial information released by the United States may fall into the wrong hands, making them a target.

Lastly, the Internal Revenue Service has exceeded its authority. Foreigners do not pay taxes on interest earned on deposits, so there is no reason for these deposits to be reported to the IRS. Congress intended to attract capital to the United States by allowing these deposits to go interest-free; to force these depositors to report will run contrary to this original intent.

I urge all my colleagues to support this Amendment that will prevent much-needed capital from fleeing the American economy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this legislation that would take away health insurance for over 30 million Americans, force seniors to pay more for their prescription drugs, and add billions to our deficit.

In my great State of Texas, we have the highest uninsured rate in the country, a disgraceful 25 percent. One of those uninsured was a little boy named Houston Tracy from Crowley, Texas. Houston was born with a heart defect just days before the passage of the Affordable Care Act and was deemed uninsurable from birth for a preexisting condition. His case drew national attention, and eventually his private insurance company backed down under pressure. Today, under the Affordable Care Act, no child will suffer the indignity baby Houston met. Insurers can't deny children the coverage over a medical need. These are the protections that Republicans want to take away from us today.

Just yesterday, a Republican Member of Congress said that if she had her way, she would rather spend every day voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. So rather than working to pass legislation to put Americans back to work or stop the outsourcing and offshoring of American jobs, Republicans would rather spend every day doing nothing but scoring political points by voting to take away health insurance for the millions of Americans while offering no solution for people like little Houston Tracy and the thousands of other children like him who would be left at the mercy of the insurance companies.

This is a cruel bill. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Republican bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the world's largest privately supported not-for-profit organization, which now serves 1,800 communities in 41 countries and territories. The United Way is an organization created by a diverse group of leaders in 1887 in Denver, CO, with a goal of creating opportunities for a better life in their communities. Today, the United Way raises nearly $5 billion dollars annually with a mission to ``improve lives by mobilizing the caring power of communities around the world to advance the common good.'' In 2008, the United Way set in motion three specific goals of improving education, promoting healthy lives, and helping people achieve financial stability.

Crisis response after the tsunami struck South Asia in 2004 and a youth-led program to rebuild the Gulf Coast after the hurricanes in 2006 are just a few examples of how the organization has been committed to people in need both in the United States and internationally.

Within the fifteenth district of Texas, the United Way has served more than 200,000 people and funded more than 100 programs in two counties. These programs vary from women's programs to Boy Scouts, and include community projects such as the purchase of school supplies to low income children. I hope that you will take a moment with me today, on the official United Way founder's day, to recognize and remember the great contribution the United Way has made to our community in the last 125 years.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the underlying bill, the Conference Report to H.R. 4348, legislation that will keep student loans affordable for more than 7 million students: 4.5 million of whom are women, 1.5 million of whom are African- American, and nearly one million of whom are Latino.

This legislation will prevent interest rates on need-based student loans from doubling on July 1st, from 3.4 to 6.8 percent and provide much-needed relief to students and families.

This will save students an average of $1,000 over the life of their loan. In my home state of Texas, approximately 461,533 borrowers will benefit from this congressional action.

As you know, student debt is skyrocketing, with the average borrower graduating with loan debt of $25,000. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, total outstanding student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion late last year.

As Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training, I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill and to work in a bipartisan manner to reaffirm Congress' strong commitment to accessibility and affordability in higher education.

Together, we must address the rising cost of higher education and the ever-increasing amount of debt that students are being burdened with.

Young people in our communities must know that Congress is working hard to ensure that they have a bright future and access to an affordable, high-quality education--one that prepares them to lead healthy and prosperous lives.

With that, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote for this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong opposition to H.R. 4970, the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act, which shifts the power into the hands of the abuser and moves away from longstanding bipartisanship on this issue.

In my view, a vote for H.R. 4970 is clearly an attack on the Violence Against Women Act, and I am deeply concerned that the manager's amendment to H.R. 4970 weakens current law and rolls back protections in the VAWA self-petition process, empowering abusers and harming battered immigrant spouses.

The manager's amendment rolls back U visa protections, denying protection to immigrant victims of serious crime and stripping police and prosecutors of a critical law enforcement tool. The manager's amendment fails to include provisions from the bipartisan Senate-passed bill to protect Native American women and includes language that may lead to further abuse. The manager's amendment fails, again, to include provisions of the bipartisan Senate-passed bill to protect LGBT victims from discrimination, and it weakens nondiscrimination employment protections.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote against H.R. 4970 and to work together in a bipartisan manner in order to improve and reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act.

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 257, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Thank you, Congressman Scott.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the National Flood Insurance Program, and I urge support on both sides of the aisle for the 30-day extension today, H.R. 5740.

I would like to thank my friend, Congresswoman Maxine Waters from California, and my esteemed colleague, Congresswoman Judy Biggert of Illinois, for their work on this bill and on H.R. 1309, which I proudly cosponsored. Ideally, we should be increasing certainty for homeowners by reauthorizing the program for 5 years, as effected by H.R. 1309, which passed the House last July with over 400 votes. Now it waits for Senate action. I respectfully urge our counterparts in the Senate to pass a longer-term authorization.

Since 2008, the National Flood Insurance Program has operated on several short-term extensions, which only increase uncertainty in the housing market. As hurricane season approaches, Congress needs to act with all diligence to provide stability for the housing market and to give peace of mind to homeowners.

Mr. Speaker, on May 15, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to create the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Today, exactly 150 years later, Lincoln would be proud of how the USDA touches almost every aspect of our daily lives. The USDA not only protects and strengthens our rich agricultural tradition, but it also supports nutrition programs, promotes and develops rural housing, utilities and businesses, food safety, animal health, natural resource conservation, reduces our dependence on foreign oil and much, much more. Because of the USDA, rural communities have affordable electricity and broadband; poor children are able to eat a nutritious meal every day through the School Lunch Programs, and we lead the world in agriculture exports.

My district in South Texas has benefited greatly from the work of the USDA. From providing assistance to rural farmers, to biotechnology research that works to develop drought resistant crops, to developing and upgrading our aging water treatment systems, the USDA is a vital partner in keeping south Texas moving forward. That is why I am honored to extend my thanks and congratulations to Secretary Vilsack and the thousands of people at the USDA for their tireless service.