Floor Statements

I thank the gentlelady.

Mr. Speaker, Lynn Richards of Elgin, Illinois, a town in Illinois that is well known for manufacturing everything from Elgin watches all of the way through to the Elgin street sweeper, still in use today, Lynn Richards of Elgin, Illinois, needs her unemployment insurance extended. In April, she lost her manufacturing job of 3 years. She and her husband kept their family afloat with the help of unemployment insurance. And now, 10 months later, she is pregnant with her second child. She said recently:

I have been working since I was 20 years old. I have never

had this much trouble getting a job in my life. I have

applied to 200 places, and I have gotten less than 10 calls

and just a couple of interviews. No employer wants to hire

someone who is pregnant.

Lynn is just one of 80,000 Illinoisans who have lost their unemployment insurance. I understand what these families are facing. When I was a teenager, my father, a combat veteran, was in his mid- fifties and had worked since he had enlisted in the Marine Corps at 16. He lost his job. My dad did everything he could to find work, but was turned down again and again. My mother took in sewing, and I took a minimum-wage job to help make ends meet. Eventually my dad got a job, but Federal assistance programs were there to help keep my family afloat. Many Americans want to find work, but simply cannot. Punishing these families by taking away unemployment benefits is a terrible mistake.

The absence of unemployment insurance is jeopardizing the economic progress that we are making. By removing the benefits to 80,000 Illinois families, we are taking more than $25 million out of our economy every week. Let's put partisanship aside and extend unemployment insurance now for our families and our businesses.

I thank the gentlelady from California again for her leadership on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, today, I stand with my neighbors in Illinois and express my deepest sympathies to the victims of Typhoon Yolanda. More than 4,000 Filipinos died in this tragedy, and millions more are now in need of assistance.

While we mourn for those who suffer, I am also inspired by the resilience of the victims and of the generosity of the American people. I want the people of the Philippines to know that we stand with you.

Our brave men and women stationed in Okinawa were on the ground, evacuating victims and dispersing supplies within 2 days of the storm hitting. Local communities throughout the United States, including my district, are also helping. Motorola Solutions, based in Schaumburg, Illinois, and its employees have already donated $150,000 and emergency equipment to help with the recovery. We in the Eighth District will not forget our Filipino friends and families.

Yesterday, members of the Illinois congressional delegation and I also sent a letter to Secretary Hagel, asking that the men and women of the Illinois National Guard be allowed to fly their C-130s of supplies, collected in Illinois, to the Philippines in order to assist with the recovery. I know the dedication and professionalism of these men and women, and I am certain that their contribution will save lives.

Citizens of the world look to the United States for leadership in difficult times; and time and again our Nation has stepped forward to help those in need. I am proud that America is doing so much to help the victims of Typhoon Yolanda, but I also know that that need, that that assistance will be needed well into the future as the Philippines continue to recover.

Again, to our Filipino friends and families, we stand with you.

Mr. Speaker, today is my alive day.

On November 12, 2004, I nearly lost my life in a dusty field in Iraq. I would have died that day if it were not for my helicopter crew.

If it weren't for Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg, we would never have been able to land that aircraft. If it weren't for Specialist Kurt Hannemann, who, despite his own injuries, stood the perimeter to protect us from approaching enemy, I wouldn't be here today. If it weren't for Sergeant Chris Fierce, who was also grievously wounded and pointing to the medics to take care of me before him, those medics would not have realized as quickly as they did that I was still alive. There was no way to egress if Chief Warrant Officer Pat Meunks didn't land his aircraft right behind ours to pull us out. Dan could not have carried me out if Sergeant Matt Backeus were not there to help all of us to his aircraft.

It is because of my buddies that I am here today. I owe it to them to make their sacrifices and their heroic efforts that day worth it. I owe it to them to live every day to the fullest and to stand up for our veterans and for all Americans.

It doesn't matter where you come from. It doesn't matter what god you pray to or whether you are a male or a female. What matters is the mission and that you will never, ever leave one of your own behind.

We have a lot of work to do here in Congress, but we must remember that our mission is to serve the American people. That means we must work together just like my crew. That's why I will always reach across the aisle to work with all of my colleagues in order to find solutions for our Nation. We don't often get chances like I did. I will never waste a second chance, this time that I have.

Dan, Chris, Kurt, Matt, and Pat, thank you for my life.

Mr. Speaker, achieving immigration reform is not just an issue of security or economics; it is also an issue of women's rights. It is women who disproportionately bear the brunt of our inability to fix the immigration system. Undocumented women are more likely to suffer from domestic violence, poor work conditions, or be victims of human trafficking. They are afraid to demand justice for crimes that are committed against them, and they are afraid of retaliation and deportation.

A pathway to citizenship is critical to putting an end to a system that encourages the exploitation of women. Far too many mothers have been separated from their children because our immigration system does not value family unity and parental rights. Family values are American values. Women waiting decades to reunite with their families is not acceptable.

Ensuring that our family-based immigration policies are strong and that they come with rights to employment are key to promoting the well- being of women. We benefit as a Nation when women have the ability to reach their full potential. With the help of women, it is projected that comprehensive immigration reform will reduce our deficit by $1 trillion over 10 years.

I know that my neighbors care about women's rights and care about keeping families together. That is why we need to pass comprehensive immigration reform now.

Mr. Speaker, for medical reasons, I was unable to be in Washington, D.C. for the roll call vote on H.R. 3080, the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013. Had I been present, I would have voted Aye. I've heard from manufacturers, workers, and farmers in Illinois about the importance of an efficient and modern water transportation system that allows them to move their products to market. Investing in our ports, waterways, and other water infrastructure is key to keeping our economy competitive and creating jobs and much needed economic growth. While not perfect, H.R. 3080 represents true bipartisan compromise that will allow us to move forward with reform that is long overdue.

Mr. Speaker, my neighbors cannot understand how we could actually recess today with so much work left to today.

In 2012, businesses in my district were approved for $391,000 in Small Business Administration loans per day. That is the most of any district in Illinois. Yet zero SBA loans have been approved in the last 12 days because our government is shut down.

ACME Design in Elgin, Illinois, was founded by Clint Borucki and has been a part of our community since 1992. Clint has 10 employees and has designed and manufactured models for advertising, businesses and government. Now, an important project for his business is on hold because a military contractor is unable to move forward during the Republican government shutdown.

Last Monday, in Schaumburg, I spoke with Federal employees who serve their country and play by the rules. These middle class Americans who live paycheck to paycheck are being punished for our inability to fund the government.

Church of the Holy Spirit Food Pantry in Schaumburg told me that they will be unable to fill the gap the government shutdown has left for families in need in my district.

My neighbors can't understand how we could recess for 2 days while this Republican government shutdown remains in effect. Let's stay in session, get to work for the people we serve, and reopen the government.

Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

I am opposed to the bill, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, it would appear that the chairman has resigned himself to keeping the government shut down for 30 days so that the VA will run out of money in that 30 days' time. The way to ensure that the VA doesn't run out of money in 30 days is to pass a clean CR to reopen all of government.

Mr. Speaker, I have spent every moment since waking up in my hospital bed at Walter Reed defending our military and serving our veterans. I know when they're being exploited.

Mr. Speaker, the bill we are debating isn't a serious or respectful attempt to support our Nation's heroes. It will not help veterans; in fact, it does just the opposite. It cuts more than $6 billion in funds for the Department of Veterans Affairs from the same bill that my colleagues and I passed, 421-4, just earlier this year.

I can't support this bill because it pits one veteran against another. It would continue paying out pension benefits at the cost of cutting medical and prosthetic research for wounded veterans. It would give veterans in the VA their health care and needed mental health services, which I applaud, but it leaves 800,000 of their brothers and sisters--my brothers and sisters--caught in the backlog where they would have to wait even longer to get a decision on their benefits. It would allow our troops with posttraumatic stress to access the Veterans Crisis Line, but at the expense of not laying our heroes to rest in our national cemeteries on a timely basis. It would allow our veterans to be counseled for military sexual trauma, but not quickly review the appeals that they submit to get the compensation they so rightfully deserve for that trauma.

This is unacceptable. It is shameful we are even considering responding to our veterans' service to our Nation with a funding cut at a time when the need for their services has never been greater. And we don't fund government by pitting one group against another. A piecemeal deal to fund some veterans could still allow TRICARE to run out of funds for prescription medication for our military and retirees.

We're not a Nation that would ask veterans to accept funding at the expense of their children who are in Head Start. A piecemeal-approach bill tells our thousands of military and veterans' families who rely on food stamps that we will pay their salaries when they go to war, but we won't feed their children.

And the idea that funding the VA will protect their benefits from the effects of this shutdown is simply not true. Our veterans are also small business owners in Elgin, Illinois; they are students in Addison; they are homeowners in Hanover Park; and many of them continue to serve their country as government employees. Funding just part of the VA will not help the veterans who are waiting on loans from the Small Business Administration.

So let's put our politics aside and stop using our veterans as pawns. This approach will not meet the full range of desperately needed veteran services. It is no way to fund government.

Our veterans didn't leave their comrades behind on the field of battle. Shame on the majority for leaving them and the Nation they defended without a government.

Our Nation is better than this. We are better than this. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this motion to recommit and please, please allow us to bring up the clean, Senate-passed continuing resolution that has the additional $6 billion of funding for our heroes, for our veterans.

Let's reopen the government so we can get back to the work of serving our Nation.

Point of Order

Yes, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. Speaker, if you rule this motion out of order, does that mean we will not have a chance to keep the entire Federal Government open today?

Can the Chair please explain why we can't open the entire Federal Government today?

Mr. Speaker, I appeal the ruling of the Chair.

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

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Because of the demands of extremists in Congress, today, in communities across our country crucial services have halted. Hundreds of thousands of middle class employees have been told

to stay home without pay. All because Congress has failed to carry out the most basic of its constitutional duties--to keep this government funded.

The bills we will be considering tonight will not fix the government shutdown. I am the first to support our military men and women and our veterans. Ensuring our citizens have access to their national parks is a priority. And I am a cosigner of the letter for the gentlelady from the District of Columbia asking for the city to be able to continue to be open and do its work. However, this piecemeal approach will only prolong a shutdown.

We cannot keep government running piece by piece. All--not just some--of my constituents deserve service.

I urge the House leadership to end the shutdown today by passing the continuing resolution that was approved by the Senate, and then get together to conference on a long-term budget that reduces deficit reduction and creates jobs.

I thank the gentlelady from Arizona for bringing us together on this incredibly important issue.

Mr. Speaker, our veterans, throughout their military careers, are taught to be physically tough and mentally strong; and just because they suffer from post-traumatic stress, it does not negate that. They deserve every opportunity to achieve the same American Dream that they defended for the rest of us. Yet, unfortunately, too many of our veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress or from other mental injuries resulting from their service.

Post-traumatic stress and mental injuries are not always the result of combat; they can also include such trauma as that of sexual assault. Regardless of how the trauma is suffered, we still must take care of our veterans. We cannot allow these injuries to prevent them from living the lives that they deserve; and in some cases, these injuries have led these brave men and women to take their own lives. It has been almost 8 years since my own injury; and in that time, if the 22- suicides-a-day rate is to be counted, there have been at least 24,000 veteran suicides. This is simply unacceptable.

When I was director of the Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs, one of the very first things that I did was to create a 24/7 hotline for mental health available for vets. We have one now across the Nation, and that telephone number is 1 (888) 273-TALK. Please put that on your refrigerator doors. You never know when that number could save a life. We started that hotline because caring for our veterans and their mental well-being is not a secondary priority; it is a mission that we must pursue each and every day.

We cannot rest until we end veterans suicide in our Nation. We need to care for these warriors' invisible wounds with as much dedication and as many resources as we do their other combat injuries. Yet, because they are invisible, we often overlook these wounds.

I am asking all levels of government, business and ordinary citizens to make preventing veteran suicides our mission. We must come together and reduce the stigma of post-traumatic stress. We must provide the funding and the support that our heroes need. They fought for us. Now it is time for us to fight for them.

Mr. Speaker, several weeks ago, we had a deeply partisan debate about cuts to SNAP. The proposed cuts by the majority were then $20 billion--a number that many of my colleagues and I found unacceptable and rejected. The majority has now doubled these cuts to $40 billion a year--nine times the amount passed in a bipartisan vote in the Senate. They have abandoned all attempts at bipartisanship and compromise to satisfy the unreasonable demands of the far right.

Mr. Speaker, we should not be playing politics with a program that means so much to American families. The $40 billion in cuts will slash benefits to as many as 6 million Americans, including 170,000 veterans. The average benefit for SNAP is only $4.50 a day--just $1.50 a meal.

As someone who benefited from food stamps when I was a teenager, I know what the safety net means. This benefit is the difference between a child going to bed hungry or having the energy to focus on school. It is the safety net that allows low-income seniors to be able to both eat and afford medication. In my district, the poverty rate rose from 5.3 percent in 2000 to 9.2 percent in 2011. We need to be finding ways to reduce poverty in our communities, not cutting programs that work, like

I thank the gentlelady from New York for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, instead of bickering over partisan pieces of legislation that will go nowhere, we should be working to fix the sequester and hammer out a budget that creates jobs, grows our middle class, and responsibly reduces the deficit.

We should be taking up a well-funded Transportation and Housing appropriations bill rather than the draconian measure that drastically underfunded projects like those in my home district, such as the Elgin- O'Hare and the Barrington Road and Interstate 90 interchange. We need to make investments to rebuild our bridges, to improve our infrastructure, and to keep our children safe. We should be working on comprehensive immigration reform that is practical, fair, and humane. Reform with a pathway to citizenship will expand our workforce, secure our borders, and bring in new revenue to help us balance our budget.

I was sent to Washington to work on legislation that creates jobs and tackles the deficit. I don't want to leave for a 5-week district work period without taking some action on our critical, unfinished business.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday marked the 48th anniversary of the establishment of Medicare and Medicaid. Since Medicare was signed into law in 1965, millions of Americans have relied on the crucial programs to live their lives in dignity, and millions more who have paid into the system are counting on Medicare to one day provide them with quality health care.

This historic commitment and pledge from our country is one of our greatest achievements. Seniors like my mother, and those living with disabilities, all understand the essential role Medicare plays in the lives of so many Americans.

In April, I held a roundtable with constituents in Elk Grove Village, Illinois. They all stressed to me the importance of protecting and preserving Medicare, but also on cracking down on abuse and fraud that exists in the program.

I have met with people living with disabilities who rely on these benefits for their health services. As we celebrate and acknowledge the great benefits of Medicare, it is important that we reinforce our commitment to the program, even as we cut down on the waste and fraud. We must continue our fight to strengthen and enhance Medicare and fulfill our 48-year-old promise to millions of hardworking Americans across this great Nation.

Mr. Speaker, I submit the following.

Whereas, for 48 years, Universal Technical Institute (UTI) has been the leading provider of post-secondary education for students seeking careers as professional automotive, diesel, collision repair, motorcycle and marine technicians, with 11 campuses across the country; and

Whereas, on July 18, 1988, the first class at the Glendale Heights, Illinois campus convened, and since then the campus has grown and expanded; and

Whereas, since the first class convened, more than 19,000 students have graduated from the Illinois campus, ready to enter the workforce and obtain jobs in industry; and

Whereas, since opening, UTI's Illinois campus has expanded its advanced manufacturing training programs; and

Whereas, UTI's Illinois campus attracts students and families from across the Midwest, drawing half of its students from 100 miles or more away; and

Whereas, UTI provides its students with the career training necessary to succeed, including placing an emphasis on technical expertise, professionalism and personal responsibility; and

Whereas, four out of five UTI graduates find jobs in their field of studies within a year of graduation; and

Whereas, UTI produces nearly $50 million in direct and indirect economic benefits for the region and state annually, according to a recent economic impact study. Now, therefore, be it

Resolved, that we do hereby celebrate the 25-year anniversary of UTI's Illinois campus and commend them for their commitment to the community and to career-focused education.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding, and also for your leadership on this important issue.

Earlier this year, at Harper College in Illinois, I held an education roundtable with school district administrators and parents on the importance of averting the sequester and reforming our education system.

Since then, I have heard continuously from educators and parents throughout my district on the importance of English language learner programs for our young men and women. As a child, English was not my first language, and I understand intimately the importance of programs that help children learn the language of our Nation. It makes them more competitive when they become adults and enter the workforce. It also makes our Nation more competitive to have truly bilingual members of the workforce.

That is why I support proper funding of the English Language Learner program, and I'm rising in opposition to this dangerous bill that, simply put, lets students down. H.R. 5 ignores the needs of this growing portion of our student population. It ignores them, along with poor children, migratory children, and neglected children.

This bill guts education funding, rolls back protections for disadvantaged students, and removes accountability provisions that we all know our students deserve. I want the children in my district to receive excellent education, and this partisan, extreme bill will fail to provide that.

Madam Speaker, last month, in Addison, Illinois, I held an immigration roundtable with 38 organizations that spanned the political spectrum. Attending were the chambers of commerce, the ACLU, local colleges, and municipalities. They all told me that now is the time to act on comprehensive immigration reform.

My neighbors know that, done right, immigration reform can make our communities stronger and that it can provide opportunities for our businesses by expanding our workforce. Reform will make us safer by securing our borders. We can help balance our budget by letting millions of immigrants who are willing to make the necessary sacrifices become tax-paying American citizens. We must work together to provide a pathway to citizenship as part of any comprehensive immigration reform legislation.

The Senate has passed such a bipartisan proposal, and Members of the House should reach across the aisle and do the same. We cannot allow partisanship and extremism to stop us from making commonsense reforms that are vital to the future of this great Nation. Now is the time for Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation that is practical, fair, and humane.