Floor Statements

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4555, the DHS Interagency Counterterrorism Task Force Act of 2017.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4555 authorizes DHS personnel to participate in overseas interagency counterterrorism task forces. Since the attacks of September 11 and the demise of central al-Qaida, there has been an upsurge in the number of foreign terrorist organizations. The terrorist threat picture demands that DHS work to ``push our borders out'' and deal with terrorist threats overseas. As such, it is important that DHS deploy DHS personnel overseas to engage in counterterrorism information sharing with international partners.

Our close partnerships with countries around the world, especially in Europe, are essential to preventing returning foreign fighters from attacking the U.S. homeland. However, we remain concerned that terrorist organizations, in particular, ISIS, al-Qaida, and their affiliates, continue to plot attacks against the U.S. homeland and our interests abroad.

Authorizing the participation of DHS personnel in overseas interagency counterterrorism task forces will facilitate better counterterrorism information sharing, which will help protect the homeland and U.S. interests abroad. As such, I support this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, in closing, H.R. 4555 authorizes the participation of DHS personnel in overseas interagency counterterrorism task forces. This measure seeks to help safeguard our homeland by fostering DHS overseas partnerships and facilitating counterterrorism information sharing.

I want to thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Rutherford) for sponsoring this legislation and for working with me on my amendment, which added reporting language on the activities authorized by this measure.

This is an important step forward and, again, I might emphasize, the work that is being done between the ranking member, Mr. Thompson, and the full committee chair, Mr. McCaul, in bringing our committee together in producing a myriad of constructive legislation all geared to our task, because, when all is said and done, we are the Homeland Security Committee within the Homeland Security Department, created in the aftermath of the most heinous, horrific tragedy in the history of the United States of recent recollection that was not an incident of war.

Therefore, I think the American people, and I know the American people are owed our diligence and are owed our commitment and are owed our studiousness. I am very pleased to say that, on this committee, the production of legislation that comes to the floor, all is geared to securing the homeland.

Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 4555.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4555, the ``DHS Interagency Counterterrorism Task Force Act of 2017.''

H.R. 4555 authorizes DHS personnel to participate in overseas interagency counterterrorism task forces.

Since the attacks of September 11th and the demise of central al Qaeda, there has been an upsurge in the number of foreign terrorist organizations.

The terrorist threat picture demands that DHS work to ``push our borders out'' and deal with terrorist threats overseas.

As such, it is important that DHS deploy DHS personnel overseas to engage in counter-terrorism information sharing with international partners.

Our close partnerships with countries around the world, especially in Europe, are essential to preventing returning foreign fighters from attacking the U.S. homeland.

However, we remain concerned that terrorist organizations, in particular ISIS, al Qaeda, and their affiliates, continue to plot attacks against the U.S. homeland and our interests abroad.

Authorizing the participation of DHS personnel in overseas interagency counterterrorism task forces will facilitate better counterterrorism information sharing, which will help protect the homeland and U.S. interests abroad.

I thank the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Rutherford, for sponsoring this legislation and for working with me on my amendment which added reporting language on the activities authorized by this measure.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge passage of H.R. 4555.

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

Mr. Speaker, let me thank both gentlemen from California for their leadership and for their very important work on a very important crisis fight for human rights and freedom.

Just yesterday I rose to the floor of the House to recount my experience over the weekend joining the Iranian-American community in Houston on a busy corner at Post Oak and Westheimer. We joined together as Americans to begin to articulate that there is no divide when it comes to the freedom of speech, freedom for all to have access to protests and democracy.

So today I rise to support H. Res. 676, and I rise to speak in horror of the 1,000 Iranians that have been arrested and almost two dozen killed. We mourn their loss. We recognize that it has to be all of us, our allies included, that must stand and join in the language of this resolution, and it is, of course, to ensure that sanctions are pointedly targeted at those who want to oppress the protesters.

Interestingly enough, the protesters are now from rural and the middle class. The questions of the economy are very much a part of it, that Iranians are not able to live and to be able to have economic opportunity. Their young people have no growth. So this is far reaching, which is, of course, surprising to the regime.

They were hoping to quash this. They have no answers. And the answers should be a concerted, committed, and dedicated group of allies, including the United States, leading in efforts to support these protesters.

So I rise today to join in standing with the people of Iran in their legitimate and peaceful protest. I ask that the regime be condemned, and I ask that the communications, Mr. Speaker, be allowed to continue and that our companies don't reject----

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

I believe it is so important that the communication--the work that we are getting ready to do here in the United States, to provide communications technology, needs to go forward. We must include in our petition--meaning our petition as Members of Congress--that our companies do not deny or quash the rights of Iranians to communicate with each other for peace, freedom, and democracy.

Our message to the regime is: it is time to open the doors of freedom in Iran. Iranian Americans, Americans, the United States Congress, and, of course, all of our government stand for peace, freedom, dignity, and democracy for the people of Iran.

Mr. Speaker, I have often come to this floor to remind my colleagues of the devastation that the people of Texas have experienced with Hurricane Harvey. I certainly don't intend to ignore our other friends in the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Florida, and California who have experienced their own devastation, along with Louisiana.

But I am excited today, Mr. Speaker, because I am introducing a bill that celebrates the history of Texas. H.R. 4745 is the emancipation national historic trail. Many people know that the Emancipation Proclamation was not heard in Texas but for 2 years later in 1865.

This emancipation national historic trail recounts the journey of many of those individuals: freed slaves going from the Osterman Building and Reedy Chapel in Galveston, Texas; along Texas State Highway 3, Interstate Highway 45 North, Freedmen's Town, and Emancipation Park in Houston, Texas; following the migration route of newly freed slaves and other persons of African descent; from the major 19th century seaport of Galveston.

It is a collaboration with people from both parties throughout the community. It is one of unity, Mr. Speaker. It is one where we are coming together.

I look forward to passing this legislation with my colleagues-- Republicans and Democrats--because it is a celebration of the history of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, freedom is not partisan.

Yesterday, on the corner of Post Oak and Westheimer in Houston, Texas, I stood with Iranian Americans, linking arms with them as they protested and petitioned for a free and democratic Iran. I told them that the cries of hunger and economic needs, and the cries of young people who wanted freedom in Iran were my cries, and that we believed in democracy, freedom, and peace, and that we would not leave them alone.

So, again, I say to them: We stand not as Democrats and Republicans, but as Americans, wanting for a free government that allows the people's voices

to be heard, and that despotic governments have no place in a society that relishes and thirsts after freedom.

I want to thank the law enforcement officers who stood by in the cold--yes, the cold in Houston--and allowed for a peaceful protest in this time of honoring them a national law enforcement commemoration. Again, I want to thank them, for they go to places where they are needed and they allow democracy to reign. I will say democracy will reign in Iran, and Iranian Americans are not alone in their quest for freedom, democracy, and peace.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Congressman Evans for the mighty leadership that he has given and for the service that he gives to his constituents in Philadelphia. I accept his challenge, and I accept the challenge of my chairman, Cedric Richmond, who told a story that hopefully will be an inspiration and a guide for all of those who believe that they are not yet mature enough to serve, to give, to offer to the beloved community that Dr. King so aptly speaks of.

What can I say about John Lewis, whose moral guidance, but whose bloody brow, was never bowed. I thank Congressman Lewis not only for the straight talk but the loving talk. To my colleagues who are here, I know that each will have a moment, so allow me to take just a moment to be able to offer my tribute and commemoration of Dr. King's life. What a powerful year we face in 2018, and I am so grateful to have left 2017.

I believe that this gives a fresh look to America. I looked at the movie ``Remember the Titans,'' and maybe you saw that with Denzel Washington, and it reflected a racial conflict with football players just outside of Washington in Virginia. It is a moving story of how when you get young people together, we can break the chains of racism and differences. It brought tears to my eyes, because in 2017, we went that journey again, and I was hoping that we would come in this year, the commemoration year, to accept Dr. King's challenge of a beloved community.

I salute my community of Houston. Some say there was no civil rights movement, and I beg to differ with them. Dr. King came one time, and the clergy gathered, most of them gathered, those who were afraid; we know that most were not. They were all ready to have a big rally, and wouldn't you know it, a bomb threat. But our Houstonians were ready to march and to be out front in spite of the fear of a bomb.

I believe that every community that Dr. King was either invited to or that he went to, there were people of courage who were willing to stand up and embrace freedom in the face of devastating potential disaster.

So let me just say that my greatest claim for this legacy is my fight as a

younger person to be part of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. It will be my greatest honor to have been able to work for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, to walk in that office on Auburn, that I believe may not be to meet Ralph David Abernathy because it was after the death of Dr. King, to know James Orange, and to know the brother that walked with the wooden leg, and to know Andy in a way that they were still engaged in Dr. King's work.

I am reminded of the message that he has given to us. And as Chairman Richmond said, he was young, and he asked the question: ``Life's most persistent and nagging question is''--he said--``what are you doing for others?'' And I think we as members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the adjunct of the foundation that works for young people, we have no doubt in what we are doing for others.

But Dr. King gave us the words: ``I would like somebody to mention''--as he talked about his death on February 4, 1968, this is what we should be doing in 2018. We should be talking about what we are doing in commemoration. ``I would like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others.'' And he said: ``I want you to say on that day''--that I might have lost my life--``that I did try in my life . . . to love and serve humanity.''

So as I close, I want to remind those of us who have not yet made our journey to something that brought us closer to Dr. King that this body, this group of Republicans and Democrats, this administration, we need to unshackle ourselves. This question of race needs to be thrown under the bus of the beloved community. And we need to be able to dream like Dr. King did and say--but he learned to use his imagination when he saw this separation and his dreams to see right through those ``White Only'' signs--to see the reality that all men and women, regardless of our place of origin, their gender, or their creed, are created equal. What a visionary.

And so I close with his braveness in two points: his answer to the question about who are we as a nation and what this citizenship should mean. And he simply turned us back to the Declaration of Independence and said that we simply should have citizens who can live out the words written in the Declaration of Independence that have a place in this Nation's Bill of Rights. We simply want to be like others.

And he took this courage to his death, for at the end of his life, he was not ashamed to go to Riverside Church and stand against the Vietnam war while others looked aghast, afraid. Why are you stepping out of your box? Dr. King said: I believe in the beloved community, a dreamer with works and actions.

And so I close in that faithful journey that he made that we will be commemorating all converging in Memphis, Tennessee, and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees who were forged and born in the shadow of two sanitation workers who were killed in the line of their duty, and Dr. King felt compelled to be there.

When do we feel compelled: on the tax bill, on CHIP, on fully qualified healthcare, on affirmative action? When are we taking this, in essence, to the mat? Because that is what Dr. King did. He took it to the mat. And he went to the mat in the face of violence, and he told us, in his last words, that he had been to the mountaintop. He had seen the promised land. And he did not know if he would get there someday, but he knew that we as a people would pine away to that pathway.

I thank the gentleman for yielding to me.

Mr. Speaker, next Monday, January 15, the nation observes for the 33rd time the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday.

Each year this day is set aside for Americans to celebrate the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America.

The Martin Luther King Holiday reminds us that nothing is impossible when we are guided by the better angels of our nature.

Dr. King's inspiring words filled a great void in our nation, and answered our collective longing to become a country that truly lived by its noblest principles.

Yet, Dr. King knew that it was not enough just to talk the talk; he knew that he had to walk the walk for his words to be credible.

And so we commemorate on this holiday the man of action, who put his life on the line for freedom and justice every day.

We honor the courage of a man who endured harassment, threats and beatings, and even bombings.

We commemorate the man who went to jail 29 times to achieve freedom for others, and who knew he would pay the ultimate price for his leadership, but kept on marching and protesting and organizing anyway.

Dr. King once said that we all have to decide whether we ``will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness.

``Life's most persistent and nagging question,'' he said, is ``what are you doing for others?''

And when Dr. King talked about the end of his mortal life in one of his last sermons, on February 4, 1968 in the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, even then he lifted up the value of service as the hallmark of a full life:

I'd like somebody to mention on that day Martin Luther

King, Jr. tried to give his life serving others,'' he said.

``I want you to say on that day, that I did try in my life .

. . to love and serve humanity.

We should also remember that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was, above all, a person who was always willing to speak truth to power.

There is perhaps no better example of Dr. King's moral integrity and consistency than his criticism of the Vietnam War being waged by the Johnson Administration, an administration that was otherwise a friend and champion of civil and human rights.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15, 1929.

Martin's youth was spent in our country's Deep South, then run by Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.

For young African-Americans, it was an environment even more dangerous than the one they face today.

A young Martin managed to find a dream, one that he pieced together from his readings--in the Bible, and literature, and just about any other book he could get his hands on.

And not only did those books help him educate himself, but they also allowed him to work through the destructive and traumatic experiences of blatant discrimination, and the discriminatory abuse inflicted on himself, his family, and his people.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that we celebrate here today could have turned out to be just another African-American who would have had to learn to be happy with what he had, and what he was allowed.

But he learned to use his imagination and his dreams to see right through those ``White Only'' signs--to see the reality that all men, and women, regardless of their place of origin, their gender, or their creed, are created equal.

Through his studies, Dr. King learned that training his mind and broadening his intellect effectively shielded him from the demoralizing effects of segregation and discrimination.

Dr. King was a dreamer and his dreams were a tool through which he was able to lift his mind beyond the reality of his segregated society, and into a realm where it was possible that white and black, red and brown, and all others live and work alongside each other and prosper.

But the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was not an idle daydreamer.

He shared his visions through speeches that motivated others to join in his nonviolent effort to lift themselves from poverty and isolation by creating a new America where equal justice and institutions were facts of life.

In the Declaration of Independence in 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote, ``We hold these truths to be self evident, that all Men are Created Equal.''

At that time and for centuries to come, African-Americans were historically, culturally, and legally excluded from inclusion in that declaration.

Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King's ``I Have a Dream'' Speech, delivered 54 years ago, on August 28, 1963, was a clarion call to each citizen of this great nation that we still hear today.

His request was simply and eloquently conveyed--he asked America to allow its citizens to live out the words written in its Declaration of Independence and to have a place in this nation's Bill of Rights.

The 196os were a time of great crisis and conflict.

The dreams of the people of this country were filled with troubling images that arose like lava from the nightmares of violence and the crises they had to face, both domestically and internationally.

It was the decade of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the assassinations of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Malcolm X, Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy, and the man we honor here today.

Dr. Martin Luther King's dream helped us turn the corner on civil rights.

It started when Dr. King led the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with 4, Rosa Parks and others,

which lasted for 381 days, and ended when the United States Supreme Court outlawed racial segregation on all public transportation.

But the dream did not die there.

It continued started with a peaceful march for suffrage that started in Selma, Alabama on March 7, 1965--a march that ended with violence at the hands of law enforcement officers as the marchers crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Dr. King used several nonviolent tactics to protest against Jim Crow Laws in the South and he organized and led demonstrations for desegregation, labor and voting rights.

On April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, he spoke out against the Vietnam War, when he saw the devastation that his nation was causing abroad and the effect that it had on the American men and women sent overseas.

When the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was stolen from us, he was a very young 39 years old.

People remember that Dr. King died in Memphis, but few can remember why he was there.

On that fateful day in 1968 Dr. King came to Memphis to support a strike by the city's sanitation workers.

The garbage men there had recently formed a chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees to demand better wages and working conditions.

But the city refused to recognize their union, and when the 1,300 employees walked off their jobs the police broke up the rally with mace and Billy clubs.

It was then that union leaders invited Dr. King to Memphis.

Despite the danger he might face entering such a volatile situation, it was an invitation he could not refuse.

Not because he longed for danger, but because the labor movement was intertwined with the civil rights movement for which he had given up so many years of his life.

The death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., will never overshadow his life.

That is his legacy as a dreamer and a man of action.

It is a legacy of hope, tempered with peace.

It is a legacy not quite yet fulfilled.

I hope that Dr. King's vision of equality under the law is never lost to us, who in the present, toil in times of unevenness in our equality.

For without that vision--without that dream--we can never continue to improve on the human condition.

For those who have already forgotten, or whose vision is already clouded with the fog of complacency, I would like to recite the immortal words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the

sons of former slaves and the sons of former shareholders

will be able to sit down together at the table of

brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the State of Mississippi,

a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering

with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an

oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day

live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color

of their skin, but for the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with its

vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping

with words of interposition and nullification--one day right

there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be

able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as

sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted,

every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough place

will be made plain and the crooked places will be made

straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and

all flesh shall see it together.

Dr. King's dream did not stop at racial equality, his ultimate dream was one of human equality and dignity.

There is no doubt that Dr. King wished and worked for freedom and justice for every individual in America.

He was in midst of planning the 1968 Poor People's Campaign for Jobs and Justice when he struck down by the dark deed of an assassin on April 4, 1968.

It is for us, the living, to continue that fight today and forever, in the great spirit that inspired the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Mr. Speaker, this has been a painful season for so many of us, from California to Texas to Florida, Louisiana, to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and so I am still here begging my colleagues for those who are begging in Texas.

Right now, my local officials are letting my constituents from Kashmere Gardens share in the public view how desperate they are for housing money. So this CR and this emergency supplemental should be separated. But the CR, on the other hand, should be funding CHIP completely. And DACA, the DREAMers, should be protected completely.

I introduced a bill when Hurricane Harvey came for $164 billion. That is where we should be, and I know that because of the sacrifice and loss and devastation. But also, a DREAMer lost his life trying to rescue my constituents, so, you see, we have a situation that should be corrected across the board. Fix the DREAMers, but provide for the hurricane victims.

I will say that we are going to keep on pushing beyond the $81 billion. I am glad the $1 billion that I pushed for for small businesses is in this bill.

Mr. Speaker, we have 300,000 homes underwater. Puerto Rico has no lights in homes; U.S. Virgin Islands, none, no homes. Key West still needs debris picked up.

What my constituents are saying is, because the lights are out, we are forgotten; because DREAMers don't have rights, they are forgotten.

So I am not going to stand here and ignore our children, 9 million of them who need CHIP, or our DREAMers. But I am also going to say that, whatever is in this for us, which is not a lot, I am going to keep pushing and fighting for my constituents. And the money that we are getting, get it to us now--now.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the Rule, and H.R. 4667, one of the two underlying bills made in order.

H.R. 4667 provides $81 billion in aid to respond to the damage caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the wildfires in California.

I thank the Speaker and Rules Committee Chairman Sessions for acting favorably upon my request to bring this emergency disaster supplemental to the floor for debate and vote as a stand-alone measure.

Ever since the widespread and catastrophic destruction of Hurricane Harvey, I have been working closely with the Texas Governor and the Hurricane Harvey Taskforce to secure the help necessary for the region to rebuild.

I have witnessed firsthand the pain of storm-weary Houstonians who lost their homes, their belongings, and in many cases their jobs.

They are struggling and hurting.

So this is personal to me.

The amount of funding provided in the disaster relief package is very disappointing because it is not nearly sufficient to ameliorate the suffering still being experienced by the people of the communities in the areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Congress has had more than three months to develop an aid package that is commensurate to the challenge faced by the affected states and territories in rebuilding their devastated communities.

Much of this time has been squandered by the Republican congressional leadership's all-consuming focus on ramming through the Republican Tax Scam legislation that gives 83 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent, raises taxes on working and middle-class families, takes away health insurance from 13 million Americans, explodes the deficit by $1.5 trillion and the national debt by $1.7 trillion, and will be paid for by 5.4 trillion in cuts to vital programs Americans depend on, including an imminent $25 billion reduction in Medicare funding.

Mr. Speaker, on September 6, 2017, ten days after Hurricane Harvey struck and joined by 44 of our colleagues, I introduced H.R. 3686, the ``Hurricane Harvey Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2017,'' which provides $174 billion in disaster relief for the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey, the worst superstorm ever to strike the mainland United States.

The $174 billion in funding provided by H.R. 3686 represents a comprehensive response commensurate to the challenge; specifically, my legislation provides relief in the following amounts:

1. Housing and Community Development Fund: $50 billion

2. FEMA Disaster Relief Fund: $35 billion

3. Army Corps of Engineers--Construction: $15 billion

4. Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies: $13 billion

5. Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program: $33 billion

6. Small Business Disaster Loans Program: $2 billion

7. Emergency Conservation Activities: $650 million

8. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: $321 million

9. National Aeronautics and Space Administration: $50 million

10. Legal Services Corporation: $10 million

11. Army National Guard: $10 million

12. Army Corps of Engineers--Civil Investigations: $150 million

13. Coast Guard: $450 million

14. National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund: $800 million

15. EPA Environmental Programs and Management: $2.5 billion

16. EPA Hazardous Substance Superfund: $7 million

17. Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund: $15 million

18. State and Tribal Assistance Grants: $600 million

19. Employment and Training Services: $100 million

20. Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund: $2.5 billion

21. Airport and Airway Trust Fund: $90 million

22. Federal-Aid Highways Emergency Relief Program: $6.5 billion

And that is just for Texas and the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey; the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma in Florida, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands was nearly as great in dollar terms and equal in the level of misery and suffering inflicted on the residents.

Mr. Speaker, on September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, along the southeastern coast, near the small town of Yabucoa.

The devastation wrought on that beautiful Caribbean oasis and its 3.5 million inhabitants, our fellow citizens of the United States, is unimaginable, except perhaps to those of us who have lived through and survived similar natural disasters, like Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina.

At least 48 people have died as a result of the storm as rescue and recovery operations proceed, a number likely to rise, especially with so many elderly, sick, and very young persons at risk.

Much of Puerto Rico's population is still without potable drinking water and large swaths of the population still lack electrical power.

Hurricane Maria destroyed 80 percent of Puerto Rico's agricultural industry, including banana, plantain and coffee crops, which translates into lost income of approximately $780 million.

On August 30, 2017, Hurricane Irma struck, inflicting horrific damage on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John, the Caribbean nations of Barbuda, St. Maarten, Cuba, and Anguilla, before making landfall in the Florida Keys.

In Florida alone, 6.4 million people were told to evacuate to safety, leading to days of jammed highways and frantic searches for gasoline amid one of the nation's largest ever emergency evacuations.

At least 124 persons are known to have lost their lives in Hurricane Irma, more than

200,000 Floridians took refuge in shelters, and nearly 6.5 million homes and businesses were without power.

Mr. Speaker, we do not yet know the full extent of the damage and devastation suffered by our fellows Americans in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

But what we do know is that the costs of recovery and reconstruction will be extensive, best estimates place the cost in the range of $50- $100 billion.

This puts in perspective the inadequacy of the amount of disaster relief provided under H.R. 4667 and why more, much more, must be done.

Mr. Speaker, right now, at this very moment, approximately 300,000 Texans--in Port Arthur, in Port Aransas, in Houston and Harris County-- remain homeless or are living in substandard homes with blue tarp roofs and infected with mold.

Today, residents of the Cashmere Gardens community are meeting with local government officials to highlight their plight and those of other residents in the northeastern part of Houston.

They are angry and frustrated and anxious, and who can blame them?

Mr. Speaker, this is personal to them; and it is personal to me.

That is why right now my highest priority is to ensure that funding that has been made available expeditiously gets in the hands of local governments so that relief can deliver the resources and services so desperately needed.

And I will be working with the Texas General Land Office and HUD Secretary Carson to relieve the emergency housing crisis in my congressional district and state.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to commend the bipartisan leadership of both Chambers, and my colleagues in the Texas congressional delegation for their diligence and commitment in bringing this package to the floor for debate and vote.

I thank Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey, and Speaker Ryan and Democratic Leader Pelosi, and their Senate counterparts for the work that has been done thus far and for their assistance in the work that lies ahead.

I also thank Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey, and T- HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Diaz-Balart, and Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for including in the legislation before us the following beneficial measures that I requested, including:

1. Authority to establish and implement a $1 billion pilot program to provide small business disaster recovery grants, modeled on H.R. 3930, the ``Hurricane Harvey Small Business Recovery Grants Act,'' legislation I introduced on October 3, 2017 and co-sponsored by 16 of our colleagues.

2. $75 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Investigations account, which is to be used in areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and can be used to finance the $3 million Houston-Area Watershed Assessment Study I have worked to secure and previously approved by the House.

3. The bill also includes helpful legislative language to ensure that in awarding CDBG-Disaster Relief funds to states, the Secretary of HUD should to the maximum extent practicable award grants to units of local government and public housing authorities that have the financial and administrative capacity to manage a grant awarded under the program.

Let me describe briefly some of the major provisions contained in the Disaster Relief Supplemental:

1. FEMA Disaster Relief Fund: $27.5 billion to provide critical funding to assist the ongoing federal disaster response. Allows up to $4 billion to be provided for Community Disaster Loans (CDLs).

2. Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR): $26.1 billion for housing and infrastructure needs, $13.56 billion for grants to states, tribes, and territories for unmet housing needs and business losses.

3. $12.5 billion for mitigation efforts to help communities protect against future disasters.

4. This funding can provide for housing elevation, buyouts in the flood plain, water/sewer infrastructure enhancements, public infrastructure hardening (e.g. stormproofing public buildings).

5. Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief: $1.4 billion to address all current damages to federal highways caused by designated disasters.

6. $12.11 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to repair existing damages by natural disasters and for studies and projects to reduce the risk of future natural disasters, $75 million to expedite studies to help mitigate future disaster damage.

7. 2.9 billion to help displaced students get back to school. Funding can be used for both public and private schools.

8. $3.8 billion for agriculture assistance.

9. $1.66 billion for Small Business Administration Disaster Loans to assist small businesses and homeowners repair or replace real estate, personal property, machinery and equipment, and inventory and business assets.

Mr. Speaker, there is much more work to be done in my city of Houston, and across the areas affected by the terrible, awesome storm that will be forever known simply as Hurricane Harvey, and by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

That is why I am disappointed that only $81 billion is being provided at this time.

That is why it must be emphasized and understood that this can only be understood as a partial response because much more funding will be needed to provide our fellow Americans in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands the help and support they need to restore their communities to their previous greatness.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of S. 1766, the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act of 2017. This bipartisan legislation passed the Senate on October 23, 2017.

I am glad that this House is moving this legislation, because it is about children. It is about the scourge that children, women, and others find themselves victims of--sexual assault.

S. 1766 will reauthorize the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 through the year 2022, by amending the language in section 2(c)(4) of 34 U.S.C. 40701(c)(4).

Furthermore, this legislation also amends other sections of the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act of 2004 by ensuring that role of forensic nurses pertains to both adult and pediatric care.

The SAFER Act also amends this statute by making a provision after ``elder abuse'' for the need of nurse examiners, particularly where there is the need for pediatric sexual assault nurse examiners, including such nurse examiners working in the multidisciplinary setting, in responding to abuse of both children and adolescents.

Finally, this legislation will sunset through 2023 by amending the SAFER Act. The SAFER Act is a critical program, administered by the U.S. Department of Justice, that allows:

Local law enforcement programs to obtain funding for programs to reduce the rape kit backlog in communities across the country;

Victims of sexual assault get justice more quickly than in the past;

Thirty-five percent of funds available under the Debbie Smith Act for grants to local law enforcement agencies to focus more resources on rape kit testing;

Five to seven percent of the Debbie Smith Act funding to be used by local jurisdictions to conduct 1-year audits of untested sexual assault evidence to identify serious areas of backlog; and

Forensic testing to be done by both pediatric and adult sexual assault nurse examiners.

This is a very important measure that will address the large volume of cases that fester due to the excessive backlog in our processing of rape kits.

According to the National Institute of Justice, a multidisciplinary, victim-centered approach and standardized, efficient evidence processing in sexual assault cases are the focus of its new report.

The report, ``National Best Practices for Sexual Assault Kits,'' outlines 35 suggestions for laboratories and law enforcement to improve their sexual assault investigations, tackling issues such as evidence collection, storage, and maintenance; backlog tracking and processing; victim advocacy and notification; and sensitivity to trauma in sexual assault victims.

A working group--consisting of victims and victim advocates, sexual assault nurse examiners and medical examiners, forensic laboratories, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and members of the judiciary-- developed the suggestions over a 2-year period following the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting Act of 2013, the SAFER Act, a component of the Violence Against Women Act. We will soon reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, and we will be happy to have this expansion included in this.

A victim-centered approach is the focus on the needs and the concerns of a victim to ensure the passionate and sensitive delivery of services in a nonjudgmental manner. A trauma-informed approach considers the impact of trauma and victim safety considerations.

Mr. Speaker, my colleague from Texas, Congressman Poe, and my colleague from New York, Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney, have worked on a number of these issues, and also Senator Cornyn, because this is a very important step. I remember the days, in our respective jurisdictions, that we had a mounting backlog of rape kits. Do you know what that means, Mr. Speaker? Women and children do not get either their day in court or do not get justice.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that this is a timely and very important legislative initiative.

Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support the legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, to my good friend from Texas, I am just a measure above your lost voice. I am suffering from somewhat of the same thing, but I have a little bit of a voice, so I can say thank you, again, for your very hard work on this legislation as a former judge in Harris County on the criminal bench. I know you saw injustices because rape kits had not been processed.

I believe, as the chair and co-chair of the Congressional Children's Caucus and the ranking member on the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, that we went through this as well. I was very pleased that the Justice Department understood the importance of grants to help our local law enforcement, but, more importantly, that the Judiciary Committee understood the importance of this legislation to really move forward to process kits.

Can you imagine, Mr. Speaker, children having a backlog of kits that have been subjected to sexual assault--the most dastardly act and violence--not only against adults, but against children, like 3-month- olds, or toddlers, by sick people who sexually assault them.

So the development and implementation of policies and procedures by the National Institutes of Health leads to more timely submission of evidence to forensic laboratories, enhances communications and investigative procedures, promotes better informed prosecutorial decisionmaking, and, as my friend said, it helps the accused and the accuser. These approaches are the most important because they get victim participation.

Victims of sexual assault require justice that is swift, thorough, and expedient so they may begin to heal and attempt to put the pieces of their lives back together. They deserve the best efforts of law enforcement to help them along the way.

When Houston was trying to rebuild its rape testing structure, we utilized the FBI. And I want to take a moment to thank the FBI for its deep abiding integrity and honesty and how it comes to the rescue of so many jurisdictions, local law enforcement. Let us be very clear on how important it is to maintain the integrity and the respect for the FBI, as opposed to demeaning the FBI. Today, on the floor of the House, I want to thank them for their service.

So this legislation would reauthorize the SAFER Act, provide funding to conduct 1-year audits of untested sexual assault evidence, and ensure that law enforcement agencies across the country are trained and armed with the skills and tools they require to stand against sexual assault and stand for those individuals who might be victimized.

The SAFER Act would also ensure that forensic nurses are eligible for training under the program. These professionals are indispensable. Our citizens deserve to be protected and remain free from harm. Our children, women, and men, who are sexually assaulted, deserve to be protected, but their cases must move expeditiously.

Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important legislation, as we continue to stand for victims and against the viciousness of sexual crimes of any kind, protect them, and bring the perpetrators to justice. I ask for a ``yes'' vote for this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 1766, the ``Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting'' or the (SAFER) Act of 2017.''

This bipartisan legislation passed the Senate October 23, 2017.

S. 1766 will reauthorize the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000 through the year 2022, by amending the language in section 2(c)(4) of the (34 U.S.C. 40701(c)(4)).

Furthermore, this legislation also amends Section 304(c)(2) of the DNA Sexual Assault Justice Act of 2004 (34 U.S.C. 40723(c)(2)) by ensuring that role of forensic nurses pertains to both adult and pediatric care.

The SAFER Act also amends this statute by making a provision after ``elder abuse'' for the need of nurse examiners, particularly, where there is the need for pediatric sexual assault nurse examiners, including such nurse examiners working in the multidisciplinary setting, in responding to abuse of both children and adolescents''.

Finally, this legislation will sunset through 2023 by amending Section 1006 of the SAFER Act of 2013 (34 U.S.C. 40701 note).

The SAFER Act is a critical program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice that allows:

Local law enforcement programs to obtain funding for programs to reduce the rape kit backlog in communities across the country.

Victims of sexual assault get justice more quickly than in the past.

35% of funds available under the Debbie Smith Act for grants to local law enforcement agencies to focus more resources on rape kit testing.

5%-7% of the Debbie Smith Act funding to be used by local jurisdictions to conduct one-year audits of untested sexual assault evidence to identify serious areas of backlog.

Forensic testing to be done by both pediatric and adult sexual assault nurse examiners.

This is a very important measure that will address the large volume of cases that fester due to the excessive back log in our processing of rape kits.

According to the National Institute of Justice, a multidisciplinary, victim-centered approach and standardized, efficient evidence processing in sexual assault cases are the focus of its new report.

The report, National Best Practices for Sexual Assault Kits, outlines 35 suggestions for laboratories and law enforcement to improve their sexual assault investigations, tackling issues such as evidence collection, storage and maintenance; backlog tracking & processing; victim advocacy and notification; and sensitivity to trauma in sexual assault victims.

A working group--consisting of victims and victim advocates, sexual assault nurse examiners and medical examiners, forensic laboratories, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors and members of the judiciary-- developed the suggestions over a two-year period following the Sexual Assault Forensic Evidence Reporting (SAFER) Act of 2013, a component of the Violence Against Women Act.

A victim centered approach is the focus on the needs and concerns of a victim to ensure the compassionate and sensitive delivery of services in a nonjudgmental manner. A trauma-informed approach considers the impact of trauma and victim safety considerations.

Utilizing both approaches in the development and implementation of policies and procedures leads to more timely submission of evidence to forensic laboratories, enhances communications and investigative procedures, promotes better informed prosecutorial decision-making, and ultimately may reduce re-traumatization of victims by the criminal justice system.

In fact, these approaches are more likely to increase victim participation and thereby, support more complete investigations, increasing the overall likelihood of successful prosecutions.''

For these reasons, I support this bill.

Victims of sexual assault require justice that is swift, thorough, and expedient, so that they may begin to heal and attempt to put the pieces of their lives back together. They deserve the best efforts of law enforcement to help them along the way.

This legislation would reauthorize the SAFER Act, provide funding to conduct one-year audits of untested sexual assault evidence, and ensure that law enforcement agencies across the country are trained and armed with the skills and tools they require to stand against sexual assault, and stand for those individuals who might be victimized.

The SAFER Act would also ensure that forensic nurses are eligible for training under the program. These professionals perform indispensable functions within the investigation of sexual abuse cases. They also provide specialized care and attention to children, youth, and the elderly, who are sexually abused. This legislation would help local authorities make certain that state and local forensic nurses are fully capable of providing such an important service to child victims.

Our citizens deserve to be protected and remain free from harm. We have a responsibility to do all that we can during those unfortunate times where one of them might be victimized.

Accordingly, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this important legislation as we continue to stand for victims and against sexual crimes of any kind.

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

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentlewoman from New York; I want to thank the chairman; but I do want to take a moment and particularly thank the gentlewoman from New York for the kindness that she showed the first victims of this horrific hurricane season.

I remember coming back to Congress in the immediacy of Hurricane Harvey. Many don't know, but I left my home in a firetruck--not out of desperation, but to go where my constituents were--and spent the rest of the time with 14,000 homeless evacuees in a shelter that had been set up immediately with concern about the city of Houston.

We had meetings starting at 6 a.m. In the evening, as the waters started moving in different communities and different communities became flooded, we

could see evacuees carrying their only belongings--pillows, just a paper bag--flooding into the George R. Brown Convention Center.

This is serious for me.

I remember seeing elderly persons being evacuated after the Addicks Reservoir, Barker Reservoir was released and family members standing on what was now the shore waiting for those loved ones. I know the family and went to the funerals of the six family members who died in Greens Bayou in my congressional district.

I introduced a bill, H.R. 3686, which the gentlewoman from New York was quite interested in. It was for $174 billion. If we had that amount now, I would be more than happy to share that with Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

We don't have that. And I am extremely disappointed that we have $81 billion, not because of the lack of the hard work of those who worked on the Appropriations Committee, because I know they wanted to do more, but there were other distractions--like a $1.4 trillion tax cut.

I want to thank my Texas colleagues. We worked together, and I truly appreciate that and will thank them for it.

Today, I indicated that I have constituents who are down testifying in Houston about their devastation, so I want to make this point. First of all, I fought very hard for a $1 billion grant program for small businesses. I want to tell my constituents it is in, and I want to tell the State of Texas they have to put that in their application that they want to give small businesses grants and not loans.

There is $12 billion in CDBG programs. I want to make sure that the State works with us to ensure that the elderly, the people who have no resources, families that have no resources have their homes rebuilt or they have their homes fixed.

I want to make sure that the watershed study comes under section title IV, that the Army Corps is listening, that the watershed program that I have passed in two sessions to study the bayous, as to why Greens Bayou and Buffalo Bayou and White Oak Bayou and Halls Bayou flood, and why people lose their lives. I want that watershed done, and the Army Corps of Engineers, I hope, will listen.

There is a lot of work left to be done. We have got to get more money. And I am glad that Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are in, but you can count on me, Texas, and count on me, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Florida. We will fight into the new year to ensure that we get more funding. But these items have to be considered. We fought hard for them.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on H.R. 4667, ``Making Further Supplemental Appropriations for Fiscal Year 2017.''

H.R. 4667, provides $81 billion in aid to respond to the damage caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and the wildfires in California.

I thank the Speaker and Rules Committee Chairman Sessions for acting favorably upon my request to bring this emergency disaster supplemental to the floor for debate and vote as a stand-alone measure.

But the fact remains that the amount of funding provided in the disaster relief package is very disappointing because it is not nearly sufficient to ameliorate the suffering still being experienced by the people of the communities in the areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Congress has had more than three months to develop an aid package that it is commensurate to the challenge faced by the affected states and territories in rebuilding their devastated communities.

Much of this time has been squandered by the Republican congressional leadership all-consuming focus on ramming through the Republican Tax Scam legislation that gives 83 percent of its benefits to the top 1 percent, raises taxes on working and middle-class families, takes away health insurance from 13 million Americans, explodes the deficit by $1.5 trillion and the national debt by $1.7 trillion, and will be paid for by 5.4 trillion in cuts to vital programs Americans depend on, including an imminent $25 billion reduction in Medicare funding.

Mr. Speaker, on September 6, 2017, ten days after Hurricane Harvey struck and joined by 44 of our colleagues, I introduced H.R. 3686, the ``Hurricane Harvey Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2017,'' which provides $174 billion in disaster relief for the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey, the worst superstorm ever to strike the mainland United States.

The $174 billion in funding provided by H.R. 3686 represents a comprehensive response commensurate to the challenge; specifically my legislation provides relief in the following amounts:

1. Housing and Community Development Fund: $50 billion

2. FEMA Disaster Relief Fund: $35 billion

3. Army Corps of Engineers--Construction: $15 billion

4. Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies: $13 billion

5. Public Transportation Emergency Relief Program: $33 billion

6. Small Business Disaster Loans Program: $2 billion

7. Emergency Conservation Activities: $650 million

8. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: $321 million

9. National Aeronautics and Space Administration: $50 million

10. Legal Services Corporation: $10 million

11. Army National Guard: $10 million

12. Army Corps of Engineers--Civil Investigations: $150 million

13. Coast Guard: $450 million

14. National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund: $800 million

15. EPA Environmental Programs and Management: $2.5 billion

16. EPA Hazardous Substance Superfund: $7 million

17. Leaking Underground Storage Tank Fund: $15 million

18. State and Tribal Assistance Grants: $600 million

19. Employment and Training Services: $100 million

20. Public Health and Social Services Emergency Fund: $2.5 billion

21. Airport and Airway Trust Fund: $90 million

22. Federal-Aid Highways Emergency Relief Program: $6.5 billion

And that is just for Texas and the areas affected by Hurricane Harvey; the damage wrought by Hurricane Irma in Florida, and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands was nearly as great in dollar terms and equal in the level of misery and suffering inflicted on the residents.

Mr. Speaker, on September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico, along the southeastern coast, near the small town of Yabucoa.

The devastation wrought on that beautiful Caribbean oasis and its 3.5 million inhabitants, our fellow citizens of the United States, is unimaginable, except perhaps to those of us who have lived through and survived similar natural disasters, like Hurricanes Harvey and Katrina.

At least 48 people have died as a result of the storm as rescue and recovery operations proceed, a number likely to rise, especially with so many elderly, sick, and very young persons at risk.

Much of Puerto Rico's population is still without potable drinking water and large swaths of the population still lack electrical power.

Hurricane Maria destroyed 80 percent of Puerto Rico's agricultural industry, including banana, plantain and coffee crops, which translates into lost income of approximately $780 million.

On August 30, 2017, Hurricane Irma struck, inflicting horrific damage on the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John, the Caribbean nations of Barbuda, St. Maarten, Cuba, and Anguilla, before making landfall in the Florida Keys.

In Florida alone, 6.4 million people told to evacuate to safety, leading to days of jammed highways and frantic searches for gasoline amid one of the nation's largest ever emergency evacuations.

At least 124 persons are known to have lost their lives in Hurricane Irma, more than 200,000 Floridians took refuge in shelters, and nearly 6.5 million homes and businesses were without power.

Mr. Speaker, we do not yet know the full extent of the damage and devastation suffered by our fellows Americans in Florida, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico in the wake of Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

But what we do know is that the costs of recovery and reconstruction will be extensive, best estimates place the cost in the range of $50- $100 billion.

This puts in perspective the inadequacy of the amount of disaster relief provided under H.R. 4667 and why more, much more, must be done.

Mr. Speaker, right now, at this very moment, approximately 300,000 Texans--in Port Arthur, in Port Aransas, in Houston and Harris County-- remain homeless or are living in substandard homes with blue tarp roofs and infected with mold.

Today, residents of the Cashmere Gardens community are meeting with local government officials to highlight their plight and those of other residents in the northeastern part of Houston.

They are angry and frustrated and anxious, and who can blame them?

Mr. Speaker, this is personal to them; and it is personal to me.

That is why right now my highest priority is to ensure that funding that has been made available expeditiously gets in the hands of local governments so that relief can be deliver the resources and services so desperately needed.

And I will be working with the Texas General Land Office and HUD Secretary Carson to relieve the emergency housing crisis in my congressional district and state.

Mr. Speaker, I wish to commend the bipartisan leadership of both chambers, and my colleagues in the Texas congressional delegation for their diligence and commitment in bringing this package to the floor for debate and vote.

I thank Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey, and Speaker Ryan and Democratic Leader Pelosi, and their Senate counterparts for the work that has been done thus far and for their assistance in the work that lies ahead.

I also thank Chairman Frelinghuysen and Ranking Member Lowey, and T- HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Diaz-Balart, and Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee Chair Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for including in the legislation before us the following beneficial measures that I requested, including:

1. Authority to establish an implement a $1 billion pilot program to provides small business disaster recovery grants, modeled on H.R. 3930, the ``Hurricane Harvey Small Business Recovery Grants Act,'' legislation I introduced on October 3, 2017 and co-sponsored by 16 of our colleagues.

2. $75 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Investigations account, which is to be used in areas affected by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and can be used to finance the $3 million Houston-Area Watershed Assessment Study I have worked to secure and previously approved by the House.

3. The bill also includes helpful legislative language to ensure that in awarding CDBG-Disaster Relief funds to states, the Secretary of HUD should to the maximum extent practicable award grants to units of local government and public housing authorities that have the financial and administrative capacity to manage a grant awarded under the program.

Let me describe briefly some of the major provisions contained in the Disaster Relief Supplemental:

1. FEMA Disaster Relief Fund: $27.5 billion to provide critical funding to assist the ongoing federal disaster response. allows up to $4 billion to be provided for Community Disaster Loans (CDLs).

2. Community Development Block Grants Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR): $26.1 billion for housing and infrastructure needs. $13.56 billion for grants to states, tribes, and territories for unmet housing needs and business losses.

3. $12.5 billion for mitigation efforts to help communities protect against future disasters.

4. This funding can provide for housing elevation, buyouts in the flood plain, water/sewer infrastructure enhancements, public infrastructure hardening (e.g. storm proofing public buildings).

5. Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief: $1.4 billion to address all current damages to federal highways caused by designated disasters

6. $12.11 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to repair existing damages by natural disasters and for studies and projects to reduce the risk of future natural disasters, $75 million to expedite studies to help mitigate future disaster damage.

7. 2.9 billion to help displaced students get back to school. funding can be used for both public and private schools

8. $3.8 billion for agriculture assistance.

9. $1.66 billion for Small Business Administration Disaster Loans to assist small businesses and homeowners repair or replace real estate, personal property, machinery and equipment, and inventory and business assets.

Mr. Speaker, there is much more work to be done in my city of Houston, and across the areas affected by the terrible, awesome storm that will be forever known simply as Hurricane Harvey, and by Hurricanes Irma and Maria.

That is why I am disappointed that only $81 billion is being provided at this time.

That is why it must be emphasized and understood that this can only be understood as a partial response because much more funding will be needed to provide our fellow Americans in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands the help and support they need to restore their communities to their previous greatness.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak about H.R. 1370, ``Department of Homeland Security Blue Campaign Authorization Act of 2017'' [Further Continuing Resolution].

This resolution is an imperfect vehicle for appropriations for FY 2018, because it does not reflect an effort to include bipartisan solutions to remaining Democratic priorities.

H.R. 1370 not only fails to address remaining unsolved issues, but it also fails to fund the government through the end of FY 2018.

Republicans have not consulted Democrats on anything that is included in this year-end legislation, accordingly the majority should not expect Democrats to vote on a bill that does not include the following priorities:

A bipartisan, long-term reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP):

CHIP, which provides health coverage to 9 million children, expired nearly three months ago.

Republicans have only put forward legislation that cuts other critical health programs, an unacceptable trade-off.

States have already begun taking steps to shut down their CHIP programs, and I will not vote for a Continuing Resolution (CR) that prevents children from obtaining health coverage.

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program:

According to a report by the Center for American Progress, 122 DREAMers are losing their protection every single day that Congress fails to act.

Disaster aid:

My district--Houston, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands are short-changed in the supplemental proposed by the majority.

Among other glaring omissions, the Republican supplemental fails to include funding for their Medicaid programs, which are facing unprecedented demands following these ruinous hurricanes.

An agreement to lift the Budget Control Act (BCA) spending caps:

In the three months since a CR was passed in September, Republicans have not worked on a budget agreement that ensures Congress can adequately fund defense and nondefense priorities and adhere to the principle of parity between defense and non-defense spending.

H.R. 1370 would provide $4.5 billion in emergency funding for the Department of Defense, as requested by the Trump administration on November 6.

Most of that money is allocated for missile defense programs primarily targeting North Korea, an area that President Trump has failed to approach diplomatically and instead, has resorted to inflammatory threats, tweets, and other non-presidential approaches typical of this administration.

In contrast, H.R. 1370 would provide a mere four-week extension of current funding for domestic needs.

This continuing resolution would force both parties to revisit the domestic programs in January.

Mr. Speaker, I will not accept this scheme and I highlight the importance of parity between defense and domestic programs in order to provide adequate funds for veterans' health, a pension bailout, opioid- fighting programs, and medical research.

Another major concern of this bill includes the unrevised extension of government surveillance powers; Congress has yet to agree on a proper revision of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Section 702 of FISA was intended to be revised this month; however, the majority has failed to address that issue, adding one more unresolved priority to the list of neglected legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that we have again been placed in the position of having to fund the government through the device of a continuing resolution rather than through the normal appropriations process of considering and voting on separate spending bills usually reported by the Committee on Appropriations.

The reason for this last minute resolution is due to the Republican leadership being solely focused on cutting taxes on the wealthy rather than coming up with a plan to keep the government open and serving its citizens.

Republicans control the House, Senate, and the White House--they should have the votes to pass a CR on their own if they refuse to compromise with Democrats.

The government shutdown of 2013, which was manufactured by the Republican majority lasted 16 days and cost taxpayers $24 billion.

The enormous harm and disruption of the lives of federal employees and the people they serve, however, was irreparable.

As I stated, Mr. Speaker, this Continuing Resolution is not perfect and it only funds the government until January 19, 2018.

As seasoned Members of Congress, we have been in this challenging position before.

But working together in a spirit of goodwill, bipartisanship, and realism, I believe we can reach a long-term agreement that will avert a shutdown of government operations and the disruption a shutdown causes to the lives of millions of Americans who depend upon federal programs to do their jobs, educate their kids, care for their parents, and contribute to their communities.

Our constituents look to the Congress and the President to make responsible choices and decisions to keep the nation safe, the economy prosperous, and to make necessary and prudent investments in education, healthcare and research, transportation and infrastructure, economic development, science, the arts and humanities, and the environment.

This is, after all, just another way of saying that the American people expect their leaders in Washington be guided by the Constitution's Preamble and pursue policies and provide the resources that will:

establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for

the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure

the blessings of liberty.

The funding priorities that have been floated by the Trump Administration fail this essential test of leadership because they are irresponsible, impracticable, unrealistic, and, in many respects, insensitive or indifferent to the deleterious impact they will have on the lives of real people living in the real world.

They do not command majority support in the Congress or of the public.

To win such support, I believe that it is essential that any subsequent continuing resolution or omnibus appropriations bill achieves the following goals and objectives:

``To establish justice'' and ``To promote the general welfare'':

1. Full funding for the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights so that they have funds needed to enforce laws protecting civil rights, voting rights, and prosecuting hate crimes.

2. Fully funds community development block grants and low income housing programs in urban and rural communities.

3. Fully funds the Legal Services Corporation so that working and low-income persons who lack an army of lobbyists to represent them in Washington will at least have the assistance of counsel to defend their legal rights in courts of law.

4. Fully funds programs providing food assistance to housebound seniors, such as Meals on Wheels.

5. Fully funds programs that provide students from low and moderate- income families access to affordable access to higher education and provides students with special needs the support needed to receive the free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE) guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA Act).

6. Fully funds before and after school programs and other student enrichment programs that help students succeed.

7. Fully funds programs that make federal housing safer through energy efficient heating and cooling systems.

8. Preserves tax credit programs that help revitalize low income communities.

9. Fully funds the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy programs developing the next generation of clean energy and transportation technologies.

``Provide for the common defense'':

1. Provides robust funding for the Department of State and USAID to advance national security interests in places like Iraq and Afghanistan and to end violent conflicts in trouble spots which could threaten the security interests of the United States.

2. Provides adequate funding for United Nations peacekeeping missions throughout the world and distribution of food aid to people in developing and famine stricken countries, such as South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, and Nigeria.

``To ensure domestic tranquility'':

1. Fully funds cost-sharing reduction subsidies, or CSRs, to compensate insurers for reducing deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums for low-income customers on the Affordable Care Act exchanges.

2. Protects the adequacy, solvency, and integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, which provide health sustaining support for 70 million Americans.

3. Fully funds the National Institutes of Health research programs so that patient access to lifesaving treatments is not delayed.

4. Does not convert funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention into block grants which would hindering the nation's ability to respond swiftly and effectively to public health crises like Ebola, Zika, and HIV/AIDS.

Mr. Speaker, I believe that if all members of the House and Senate work together, we can reach agreement on an appropriate budget framework that that invests in the American

people, preserves our national security, and keeps faith with the values that have served our nation well and made the United States the leading nation on earth.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from California for yielding.

It is certainly my pleasure to be on the side of the gentlewoman from California. Every time we have got in these fights to attack Dodd- Frank, she has been on the right side of the issue.

So let me clearly, though my voice is a little raspy, speak on behalf of those, as my colleagues have spoken about, of us who certainly have a degree of education and receive those long statements where there are big fights and the print is so small.

I will tell you that the proxy advisers are representing not us, but those vulnerable pensioners who put everything they have ever had in that pot, and those advisers give those public pension funds the counsel and advice that is necessary.

First of all, this bill is entirely impractical. Pension plans and other institutional investors often hold shares in thousands of public companies. The bill will require proxy advisory firms, who provide voting recommendations to these shareholders, to provide the management with more than 4,000 public companies with the opportunity to present detailed comments on the firm's draft recommendations before paying shareholders receive a final report.

It also wants to burden them with all kinds of extra trinkets that they have to give information about, an unprecedented right to weigh in by the corporations on voting recommendations, executive compensation, nondiscrimination policies. Again, the proxy advisers work with the public pension funds.

Who are they?

They are the coal miners and the bus drivers. They are, in fact, those teachers, firemen, and policemen. They are Americans who depend upon their pensions.

Mr. Speaker, the reason that I wanted to stand on this floor today is, just a few minutes ago, we again voted for this catastrophic tax bill. I wanted to tie this to, as I heard my good friend from Texas, jumping up and celebrating. I assume they will run to the White House when this bill is passed in one way or the other.

Let me describe to you what I believe is the scenario on the tax bill. We all like cliffhanger movies. Cliffhanger movies always get the family together to be able to tell the story or to sit in the movie and look at the cliffhanger because it is always the heroes that win on a cliffhanger. You are waiting for the hero to launch down and save everyone.

Here is the Republican cliffhanger: it is this tax bill, and the cliffhanger is you are going up a mountain. As you go up the mountain, here are the Republicans and this tax bill that is going to take away millions of dollars from Medicaid.

They are throwing over the cliff the Medicaid recipients, people with dementia. My good friend who has ALS, who is in a wheelchair, thrown over the cliff. They are throwing over teachers. They are throwing over individuals who are believing them that they are going to get jobs, but they are getting no jobs. They are throwing over families, working class families, 86 million of them--throwing them over the cliff.

It is not a good ending. It is a tragic ending, and they are standing one by one by one and throwing them over this cliff with this phony tax bill. They are not going to be able to do what is right for those who are truly in need. The benefits for those who are working Americans is temporary, and those of corporations is forever.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening to celebrate the life of a dear friend, the Honorable Peter Brown, former council member at large for the city of Houston. Tomorrow he will be memorialized in Houston, Texas.

It saddens me that I will not be able to join him and his family and the many, many Houstonians and friends who will come to honor him. The reason is because Peter Brown was Houston's chief champion. He loved Houston. He loved to talk about mobility in Houston. Even before most Houstonians understood the value of the light rail system, Peter Brown was on the forefront.

He was an architect, and he understood beauty and planning. He had a humorous and wonderful touch, but he also was serious and stern when it came to planning and the environment. Peter Brown wanted to see Houston as it is and as it continues to be a world class city. Before we spoke of greenery and all the things that make a city great, the parks, green space, Peter Brown was doing so.

Peter Brown was also a dear friend to me, my family, and so many others. He lost his battle just about 10 days ago to a terrible and vicious disease. But as I visited Peter, I can assure you that on the occasions I went to see him, he was always thinking about others and thinking about the city, thinking about our State and the Nation, always sharing, but fighting his fight.

To his family and his children and to the people who love him, I just simply want to say: tonight and tomorrow we honor a great American, a friend to us all.

He may be from Houston, Texas, but if you got a chance to know him, you would love him, too.

Mr. Speaker, I ask for a moment of silence in honor of the Honorable Peter Brown.

Mr. Speaker, a bill that is done in the dark of night, in the midst of a crisis like the lack of Perkins funding for our students, the lack of funding for CHIP and for healthcare for millions of Americans--yet our friends on the other side go without shame in passing the GOP tax scam bill.

In the Houston Chronicle, they aptly put winners and losers, and they aptly put at the top of the winners The Trump Organization. This is a Christmas gift for the Trump family--no one else--with huge cuts to the uninsured, to commuters, and to homeowners in high-tax States. This is not a fair distribution of funds, and it certainly is going to impact those who are still suffering from hurricanes all over the Nation.

So I ask the question: Why the rush? Why the rush to give tax cuts to the top 1 percent, and increasing taxes on millions of middle class Americans, to pay for a permanent tax?

The American people have it right: a permanent tax cut for the rich. This is the worst catastrophic bill that has ever been passed by the Members of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives. It is a shame.

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Budget Committee, I rise in strong and unyielding opposition to the rule and the Conference Report to H.R. 1, the so-called ``Tax Cut and Jobs Act,'' which more accurately should be called the ``Republican Tax Scam Act.''

There are four reasons why I oppose this cruel and immoral $1.7 trillion tax giveaway to wealthy corporations:

1. The GOP tax scam raises taxes on tens of millions of middle class households and distributes the largest tax cuts to those in the top 1 percent causing $1.7 trillion to be added to the debt;

2. It eliminates or reduces tax benefits that directly benefit the middle class at every stage of life;

3. It results in 13 million fewer Americans with health insurance coverage; and

4. And it adds over $2 trillion dollars to deficit spending, which triggers statutory PAYGO's automatic spending cuts to mandatory programs such as Medicare, which along would see a $25 billion cut.

Instead of doing tax reform the Republicans have found new ways for the wealthy who use tax accountants and lawyers to further game the tax payer system by adding new loop holes that are only for the corporations and the wealthy.

Corporations receive a 14 percentage point reduction in their statutory tax rate, from 35 percent to 21 percent, the largest one-time rate reduction in U.S. history.

Republicans designed this tax scam to benefit the wealthiest in our country and now they are working as hard as possible to make sure Americans are too busy looking the other way to notice.

I have to tell them that it is too late, the American public sees what you are doing and they are not going to have any of it.

The Republican Tax Scam doubles the dollar amount at which the estate tax, currently affecting only the wealthiest 2 in 100 families.

It lifts the level at which the alternative minimum tax (AMT) would kick in, while dropping the top tax rate from the current 39.6 percent to 37 percent.

Mr. Speaker, where are the promises made to working Americans to give them a break.

Americans are not fooled; they know trickle-down economics has never worked, and they see right through this phony tax plan and recognize it for the scam that it is.

What people may not understand is they will not have to wait until 2027 to see the pain and misery that this tax cut will cause.

Congress has established mechanisms in rules that require pay-fors when budget deficit spending reaching astronomical levels, like what we have in this bill's wholesale giveaway of taxpayer money to Corporations and the wealth--it is called PAYGO.

The PAYGO compels new spending or tax changes not to add to the federal debt.

PAYGO requires that new spending must either be ``budget neutral'' or offset with cuts to existing programs.

So the Tax cut that corporations will be getting today, will cost the American workers dearly in next year when the Budget Committee must draft a budget that will have to slash domestic programs to pay for these cuts.

Mr. Speaker, as you may know, my constituents and others in Texas are still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, the worst storm ever to make landfall in the continental United States.

Two weeks ago, nearly 8,000 of them took time out of their busy schedules to join me in a tele-town hall to discuss the tax scheme that has been rushed to the floor for a vote by the Republican leadership in the hope of passing it before the American people learn its insidious details.

My constituents understand and let me know that they believe it is important that the United States has a tax system that is fair, balanced, smart, and provides the resources and opportunities to allow all Americans to reach their potential.

And by margins exceeding 90 percent, they reject:

1. Any cuts to Medicare or Medicaid to finance tax cuts for wealthy corporations and the top 1 percent;

2. Eliminating the mortgage interest deduction;

3. Eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes;

4. Eliminating existing deductions for student loan interest or making taxable college endowment funds or college fellowships expenses.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents, and Americans across the country, oppose this unfair Republican tax giveaway because nearly half of the $1.7 trillion tax cut goes to just the top one percent.

In fact, the average annual tax cut for the top one-tenth of one percent is $320,000; for the top one percent it is $62,000, and for those earning $1 million a year it is $68,000.

Nearly 25 percent of the tax cut goes to households in just the top one-tenth of one percent, who make at least $5 million a year (2027).

While super-wealthy corporations and individuals are reaping windfalls, millions of middle-class and working families will see their taxes go up:

1. 13 million households face a tax increase next year.

2. 45 million households face a tax increase in 2027.

3. 29 million households (21 percent) earning less than $l00,000 a year see a tax increase.

On average, families earning up to $86,000 annually would see a $794 increase in their tax liability, a significant burden on families struggling to afford child care and balance their checkbook.

It is shocking, but not surprising, that under this Republican tax scam, the total value of tax cuts for just the top one percent is more than the entire tax cut for the lower 95 percent of earners.

Put another way, those earning more than $912,000 a year will get more in tax cuts than 180 million households combined.

The core of this Republican tax scheme is a massive tax cut from 35 percent 20 percent corporations, but that is not the only way that the wealthy are rewarded.

The massive tax cuts for corporations are permanent but temporary for working and middle-class families.

Another immoral aspect of this terrible tax scam is that it abandons families that face natural disasters or high medical costs by repealing deductions for casualty losses and medical expenses.

Mr. Speaker, in what universe does it make any sense to eliminate, as this bill would, a deduction for:

1. teachers who purchase supplies for their classroom;

2. moving expenses to take a new job and taxes employer-provided moving expenses; or

3. Dependent care assistance, making it harder for families to afford day care, nursery school, or care for aging parents?

This Republican tax scam jeopardizes American innovation and competitiveness by eliminating the deduction for student loan interest, which affects 12 million borrowers, and cuts total education assistance by more than $64 billion.

Under the extraordinary leadership of President Obama and the determined efforts of ordinary Americans, we pulled our way out from under the worst of the foreclosure crisis when the housing bubble burst in 2007.

Inexplicably, Republicans are now championing a tax scheme that will make the homes of average Americans less valuable because deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes are much less valuable than under current law.

A tax plan that reduces home values, as this one does, puts pressure on states and towns to collect revenues they depend on to fund schools, roads, and vital public resources.

Mr. Speaker, an estimated 2.8 million Texas households deduct state and local taxes with an average deduction of $7,823 in 2015.

But this is not the end of the bad news that will be delivered were this tax scam to become law, not by a long shot.

The proposed elimination of the personal exemption will harm millions of Texans by taking away the $4,050 deduction for each taxpayer and claimed dependent; in 2015, roughly 9.3 million dependent exemptions were claimed in the Lone Star State.

Equally terrible is that this Republican tax scam drastically reduces the Earned Income Tax Credit, which encourages work for 2.7 million low-income individuals in Texas, helping them make ends meet with an average credit of $2,689.

The EITC and the Child Tax Credit lift about 1.2 million Texans, including 663,000 children, out of poverty each year.

So to achieve their goal of giving more and more to the haves and the ``have mores,'' our Republican friends are willing to betray seniors, children, the most vulnerable and needy, and working and middle-class families.

The $5.4 trillion cuts in program investments that will be required to pay for this tax giveaway to wealthy corporations and individuals will fall most heavily on low-income families, students struggling to afford college, seniors, and persons with disabilities.

America will not be made great by financing a $1.7 trillion tax cut for the rich by stealing $1.8 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid, abandoning seniors and families in need, depriving students of realizing a dream to attend college without drowning in debt, or disinvesting in the working families.

America will not be positioned to compete and win in the global, interconnected, and digital economy by slashing funding for scientific research, the arts and humanities, job retraining, and clean energy just to pay for a tax cut to corporations and individuals who do not even need it.

Mr. Speaker, the tax scheme presented here by Republicans is not a plan but a scam that represents a betrayal of our values as a nation.

This tax scam is not a revenue policy adapted for the real world that real Americans live in but a fantasy resting on the monstrous belief that the wealthy have too little money and that poor, working, and middle-class families have too much.

Our Republican friends continue to cling to the fantasy belief that their tax cuts for the rich will pay for themselves despite all precedent to the contrary and evidence that their tax scheme is projected by experts to lose between $3 trillion and $7 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, in evaluating the merits of a taxing system, it is not enough to subject it only to the test of fiscal responsibility.

To keep faith with the nation's past, to be fair to the nation's present, and to safeguard the nation's future, the plan must also pass a ``moral test.''

The Republican tax bill fails both of these standards.

I strongly oppose the Conference Report to H.R. 1, the ``Republican Tax Scam Act,'' and urge all Members to join me in voting against this reckless, cruel, and heartless proposal that will do nothing to improve the lives or well-being of middle and working class families, and the poor and vulnerable `caught in the tentacles of circumstance.'

Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Budget Committee, I rise in strong and unyielding opposition to the Conference Report for H.R. 1, the so-called ``Tax Cut and Jobs Act,'' which more accurately should be called the ``Republican Tax Scam Act.''

With this Conference Report House and Senate Republicans have pulled off a near-impossible feat: they have taken a bad bill and made it worse, much worse.

I oppose this cruel and immoral $1.7 trillion tax giveaway to wealthy corporations and the top one percent because it raises taxes on poor, working, and middle class families; explodes the deficit by adding an additional $2.2 trillion over ten years; and will require an estimated $5.4 trillion cut in funding for the programs ordinary Americans depend on for health security, educational opportunity, and economic progress.

Mr. Speaker, Americans are not fooled; they know trickle-down economics has never worked, and they see right through this phony tax plan and recognize it for the scam that it is.

That is why Americans reject this Republican tax giveaway by an overwhelming 2:1 margin.

Here are just a few of the myriad reasons why this Republican Tax Scam is by far the most unpopular tax measure ever considered by the Congress:

1. Raises taxes on 86 million middle class families;

2. Gives 83 percent of the tax cuts to the wealthiest 1 percent and explodes deficit by $1.7 trillion;

3. Gives new tax breaks to corporations shipping American jobs overseas which will eliminate jobs and drive down American wages and salaries.

4. The $1.5 trillion deficit that will be created by the GOP Tax Scam will be used by the Republicans to justify devastating cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.

This Republican tax plan is even more toxic to my constituents in the Eighteenth Congressional District of Texas.

Mr. Speaker, as you may know, my constituents and others in Texas are still struggling to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, the worst storm ever to make landfall in the continental United States.

And by margins exceeding 90 percent, they reject:

1. Any cuts to Medicare or Medicaid to finance tax cuts for wealthy corporations and the top 1 percent;

2. Eliminating the mortgage interest deduction;

3. Eliminating the deductibility of state and local taxes;

4. Eliminating existing deductions for student loan interest or making taxable college endowment funds or college fellowships expenses.

Mr. Speaker, my constituents, and Americans across the country, oppose this unfair Republican tax giveaway because nearly half of the $1.7 trillion tax cut goes to just the top one percent.

In fact, the average annual tax cut for the top one-tenth of one percent is $320,000; for the top one percent it is $62,000, and for those earning $1 million a year it is $68,000.

Nearly 25 percent of the tax cut goes to households in just the top one-tenth of one percent, who make at least $5 million a year (2027).

While super-wealthy corporations and individuals are reaping windfalls, millions of middle-class and working families will see their taxes go up:

1. 13 million households face a tax increase next year.

2. 45 million households face a tax increase in 2027.

3. 29 million households (21 percent) earning less than $100,000 a year see a tax increase.

On average, families earning up to $86,000 annually would see a $794 increase in their tax liability, a significant burden on families struggling to afford child care and balance their checkbook.

It is shocking, but not surprising, that under this Republican tax scam, the total value of tax cuts for just the top one percent is more than the entire tax cut for the lower 95 percent of earners.

Put another way, those earning more than $912,000 a year will get more in tax cuts than 180 million households combined.

The core of this Republican tax scheme is a massive tax cut from 35 percent to 20 percent for corporations, but that is not the only way that the wealthy are rewarded.

The massive tax cuts for corporations are permanent but temporary for working and middle-class families.

Another immoral aspect of this terrible tax scam is that it abandons families that face natural disasters or high medical costs by repealing deductions for casualty losses and medical expenses.

Mr. Speaker, in what universe does it make any sense to eliminate, as this bill would, a deduction for:

1. teachers who purchase supplies for their classroom;

2. moving expenses to take a new job and taxes employer-provided moving expenses; or

3. dependent care assistance, making it harder for families to afford day care, nursery school, or care for aging parents?

This Republican tax scam jeopardizes American innovation and competitiveness by eliminating the deduction for student loan interest, which affects 12 million borrowers, and cuts total education assistance by more than $64 billion.

Under the extraordinary leadership of President Obama and the determined efforts of ordinary Americans, we pulled our way out from under the worst of the foreclosure crisis when the housing bubble burst in 2007.

Inexplicably, Republicans are now championing a tax scheme that will make the homes of average Americans less valuable because deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes are much less valuable than under current law.

A tax plan that reduces home values, as this one does, puts pressure on states and towns to collect revenues they depend on to fund schools, roads, and vital public resources.

Mr. Speaker, an estimated 2.8 million Texas households deduct state and local taxes with an average deduction of $7,823 in 2015.

But this is not the end of the bad news that will be delivered were this tax scam to become law, not by a long shot.

The proposed elimination of the personal exemption will harm millions of Texans by taking away the $4,050 deduction for each taxpayer and claimed dependent; in 2015, roughly 9.3 million dependent exemptions were claimed in the Lone Star State.

Equally terrible is that this Republican tax scam drastically reduces the Earned Income Tax Credit, which encourages work for 2.7 million low-income individuals in Texas, helping them make ends meet with an average credit of $2,689.

The EITC and the Child Tax Credit lift about 1.2 million Texans, including 663,000 children, out of poverty each year.

So to achieve their goal of giving more and more to the haves and the ``have mores,'' our Republican friends are willing to betray seniors, children, the most vulnerable and needy, and working and middle-class families.

The $5.4 trillion cuts in program investments that will be required to pay for this tax giveaway to wealthy corporations and individuals will fall most heavily on low-income families, -students struggling to afford college, seniors, and persons with disabilities.

America will not be made great by financing a $1.7 trillion tax cut for the rich by stealing $1.8 trillion from Medicare and Medicaid, abandoning seniors and families in need, depriving students of realizing a dream to attend college without drowning in debt, or disinvesting in the working families.

America will not be positioned to compete and win in the global, interconnected, and digital economy by slashing funding for scientific research, the arts and humanities, job retraining, and clean energy just to pay for a tax cut to corporations and individuals who do not even need it.

Mr. Speaker, the tax scheme presented here by Republicans is not a plan but a scam that represents a betrayal of our values as a nation.

This tax scam is not a revenue policy adapted for the real world that real Americans live in but a fantasy resting on the monstrous belief that the wealthy have too little money and that poor, working, and middle-class families have too much.

Our Republican friends continue to cling to the fantasy belief that their tax cuts for the rich will pay for themselves despite all precedent to the contrary and evidence that their tax scheme is projected by experts to lose between $3 trillion and $7 trillion.

Mr. Speaker, in evaluating the merits of a taxing system, it is not enough to subject it only to the test of fiscal responsibility.

To keep faith with the nation's past, to be fair to the nation's present, and to safeguard the nation's future, the plan must also pass a ``moral test.''

The Republican tax bill fails both of these standards.

I strongly oppose the Conference Report to H.R. 1, the ``Republican Tax Scam Act,'' and urge all Members to join me in voting against this reckless, cruel, and heartless proposal that will do nothing to improve the lives or well-being of middle and working class families, and the poor and vulnerable `caught in the tentacles of circumstance.'

Mr. Speaker, I hold in my hand the vote tally for the ``Tax No Jobs'' bill. It is interesting, when you are asked about the tax bill, they put the word ``jobs.''

This was a very close vote, and 12 Republicans understood this was the worst vote, worst bill in the history of the United States; and the reason is, of course, because tens of millions of middle class households and those who need a tax break will not get it. $1.7 trillion in debt.

It eliminates tax benefits that directly impact the middle class, it results in 13 million fewer Americans with health insurance, it adds over $2 trillion in deficit spending, and it triggers PAYGO's automatic spending cuts to mandatory programs.

So let me tell you, my voice is a little rough, but my heart is strong. Social Security to the American people, it is going to be cut. Medicare, it is going to be cut. The Medicaid, for those in nursing homes like my friend who I visited over the weekend, will be cut.

And you know what? There will be no answer in jobs of corporations who got low tax rates, lower than you.

This is a debacle so bad that it has to come back and we have to vote again for it.

My voice is a little rough, but I am going out there to tell the American people that this is the worst calamity since we collapsed under the past Republican administration. Vote ``no'' every time you see this bill because it is ``no'' for the American people.

Mr. Speaker, wherever I go throughout my district and speak to an audience, I always acknowledge the veterans and Active- Duty military. I think that is one unifying factor for this Congress and for this Nation.

Today, the President offered a national security strategy. During his first 12 months, that strategy has been haphazard and lacking understanding. All of us, however, want to have a strong military, strong military families, and strong resources for our Active Duty and our veterans.

It is sad, however, that in the next 2 days we will be voting on a tax bill that will take $2.3 trillion out of our budget and create a debt. It will raid Medicare and Medicaid, impacting some of those very soldiers and veterans' families. As well, in this new bill, the top 1 percent will get 83 percent of this tax bill.

Isn't it interesting, if you are a family of four making $59,000, there will be $1,800 not given to you but taken away?

We can't have it all, Mr. Speaker. We can't have a strong strategy, of which

there was none today, by taking $2.3 trillion away from the men and women of this Nation.