Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, I have been directed to report to the House that the Democratic Members have selected as minority leader the gentlewoman from California, the Honorable Nancy Pelosi.

Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Democratic Caucus, I have been directed to report to the House that the Democratic Members have selected as minority whip the gentleman from Maryland, the Honorable Steny Hoyer, and as assistant Democratic leader, the gentleman from South Carolina, the Honorable James Clyburn.

Mr. Speaker, I have an amendment to the resolution, but before offering the amendment, I request that there be a division of the question on the resolution so that we may have a separate vote on the Chaplain.

Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment to the remainder of the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady for yielding.

It is time to get to work. Americans don't care who won or lost in the election. They just want us to get our work done. They want us to work together to solve the problems that they see every day. They want us to boost job growth, and they want us to build an economy that works for all Americans, not just the privileged few.

The rules of the road that should guide this Congress should be built on the foundation that has increased opportunities for American families over the last few years--nearly 11 million new jobs, 57 consecutive months of job growth, the longest streak in our country's history. There are 10 million more Americans with health insurance, which means more security for those Americans. The deficit has been cut by two-thirds since 2009.

What is the one piece of the puzzle that we now need to work on? In that span of time since we have seen things go better; the economy has grown 12 percent; corporate profits have grown by 46 percent, and the stock market by 92 percent. What hasn't grown? The paycheck that the average American gets day in and day out for working to do all those things to make it possible for the stock market and corporations to succeed. So it is time for us to focus on the middle of America that works hard every month and gets a paycheck but doesn't see that paycheck grow.

This rules package requires Congress to use fuzzy math, so-called dynamic scoring, to make it easier to give massive tax breaks to special interests and the wealthy. Is that what the middle class wants? No.

Republicans have also added a midnight change to this rules package that rigs the rules against 59 million Americans who currently receive Social Security and to the 160 million Americans who are working today to get Social Security in the future and don't know if Social Security will be there based on these rules. That is not what Americans in the middle want.

Congress should be in the business of making life better, not worse, for everyday Americans. So let's establish rules of the road for this Congress that let us build on the economic progress of nearly 11 million new Americans going back to work, 57 months straight of job growth.

What we don't need are rules of the road for this House that give a green light to reckless legislating that favors special interests and the privileged few at the expense of the middle class and America's Social Security.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the legacy of public service for two of our departing colleagues, Rep. George Miller and Rep. Henry Waxman.

I have had the pleasure of serving alongside Reps. Miller and Waxman for over twenty years and it is with great respect and admiration that I say goodbye to them as colleagues, friends and brothers-in-arms.

Since 1975, Henry and George have not only served the people of their districts but also our nation as champions of progressive democratic ideals and stewards for the tenets established by our founding fathers. Their legacy as effective legislators is virtually unmatched in the House of Representatives and serves as a reminder that constructive work can lead to positive results in this legislative body.

George and Henry together claim responsibility for enacting some of the most important legislation that has come before Congress over the last century. Henry's leadership on the Clean Air Act, the Ryan White CARE Act, the State Children's Health Insurance Program or the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act are only a few examples of his passion and dedication. George's leadership on the California Desert Protection Act, the Davis-Bacon Act, and the Fair Minimum Wage Act were a result of his endless tenacity and compassion.

I will always remember how instrumental each of them was in securing the enactment of the Affordable Care Act; what seven presidents could not accomplish over so many decades, President Obama principally accomplished because of the relentless efforts of each of them.

Whether we found ourselves in legislative foxholes or at the vanguard of new ideas and solutions, we were always in it together for the American people. Their efforts were always led by the desire to serve the best interests, ideals and policies for our nation.

Mr. Speaker, many are called to public service, but few leave legacies that endure the way that Rep. Henry Waxman and Rep. George Miller's legacies will endure. As they move on to the next stage of their lives, with their health intact and their heads held high, let us be thankful that we had these champions of American democracy and patriots for America's freedom for forty years.

Mr. Speaker, It's a laudable and worthy goal to incentivize savings and ensure that families of individuals with disabilities have access to the resources they need. But Congress has a responsibility to ensure that limited resources benefit those who need the help the most. Unfortunately, this bill is yet another example of an upside-down tax code that provides the greatest benefits to those of greatest means, not to middle class families living paycheck to paycheck.

Additionally, as AARP has noted in the attached letter, ``establishing the ABLE program should not be achieved by tapping into Medicare savings.'' Using Medicare savings to offset non-health related programs sets a dangerous precedent. While there are elements to this bill that both sides can agree on, this bill takes one step forward and two steps back.

American Association

of Retired People,

December 3, 2014.

Dear Representative: As the largest nonprofit, nonpartisan

organization representing the interests of Americans age 50

and older and their families, AARP urges you to reject using

Medicare savings as an offset to pay for non-healthcare

programs, including the cost of the Achieving a Better Life

Experience (ABLE) Act of 2014.

AARP has consistently advocated against using permanent

reductions in Medicare to pay for other unrelated government

spending. While we agree it is important to help individuals

with disabilities maintain health, independence, and quality

of life, we oppose using Medicare savings to finance tax

expenditures or other non-healthcare programs.

The ABLE Act establishes tax-exempt savings plans for

persons with disabilities, making it much easier for them and

their families to save for future expenses. Although ABLE

accounts are only available for individuals under the age of

26, the savings accrued will help with living expenses as the

person ages. This is especially important because at ages 50-

64, adults with disabilities are less than half as likely to

be employed as those without disabilities.

However, establishing the ABLE program should not be

achieved by tapping into Medicare savings. This is especially

true at a time when Medicare faces its own long term funding

needs, and when Congress will shortly need to find savings to

pay for either permanent Medicare SGR reform or another

temporary ``doc fix'' in 2015. We urge you to remove Medicare

offsets from the ABLE Act.

Sincerely,

Nancy A. LeaMond,

Executive Vice President,

State & National Group.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me this time.

I don't hear anyone disagreeing that our immigration system is broken. It is broken for our commerce as businesses try to figure out how to do the best business across the border, as they try to figure out who they can employ and not employ. It is broken. I don't think anyone contests that.

We need to have as much security here at home as we can because we know, abroad, there are folks who would like to hurt us. If we don't have a Department of Homeland Security with laws that work well, our security is broken.

Certainly, the whole discussion here makes it very clear that American families--American families--are being disrupted, separated day after day. No one wants to see that done to an American family, certainly not to a whole bunch of American citizens who want to have opportunities in the future. Our immigration system is broken. Let's just all agree on that.

So what do we do? Well, we can fix the broken immigration system, or we can put message bills on the floor of the House that are never going to get signed and become law and leave in 5 more days and end the year 2014 without having done anything and watch as we have gone more than two to three decades without fixing a broken immigration system.

Or we could finally take the bill that has been sitting here in the House for 525 days that passed in the Senate on a bipartisan vote, 68 out of 100 Senators, Republicans and Democrats, voted to fix the broken immigration system. That has been sitting here waiting for a vote for 525 days.

We have 5 days left in this session. Within 5 days, we could fix the broken immigration system for our economy, for our families, and for our national security; or we could do a message bill as we have on the floor, which will not pass the Senate, which will not be signed by the President, which means that we leave 2014 having done nothing.

The President said in January, during his State of the Union, ``Congress, let's get this done together, but if you can't do something, then I will do what I can under my executive authority.''

The President said in his State of the Union, ``If you can't do

something, I will do what I can under my executive authority under the Constitution.'' And so he did.

Now, it is a matter of trying to make things work better and smarter, given that we have a broken immigration system. Now is not the time to double down with these social agenda matters that go nowhere. We could get this done, but we all have to be accountable. Just as we demand those immigrant families to be accountable, Congress has to be accountable.

Let's get this done. The American people have been telling us that for years. Get this done. You know the solution. Let's act. There are 5 days to go. Let's get this done. Put the Senate bipartisan bill on the floor, and we will get this done.

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

Let me begin, Mr. Speaker, by thanking my colleague, but, more importantly, my dear friend, Mr. Sam Johnson from Texas, for the work that he did to move so quickly working with his able staff to try to make sure we had a bill come before us. I also want to make sure that I salute the staff on this side of the aisle for the work they did in partnership to make sure that we could quickly put a bill on the floor of this House that could address what all of us agree is a glaring omission.

And so I am pleased to stand here to say, Mr. Speaker, that we have a bill that not only will take care of those dollars that Americans contributed to Social Security on a daily basis as they go to work and pay into the system, but it also will protect the dollars that so many Americans now rely on to receive their benefits.

Today, Mr. Speaker, 160 million Americans work and pay into Social Security. They know that because they do that their families will be protected if they happen to die or if they happen to become disabled or if they decide to retire. Now, for most of the 58 million Americans who are already retired or currently receiving Social Security benefits of some sort, that Social Security benefit is the most important source of income for them.

One of the greatest privileges we have as Americans living here in the U.S. is the opportunity to work and earn this Social Security protection for ourselves and for our families.

We recently learned, as Mr. Johnson has mentioned, that Nazi war criminals and collaborators slipped through a loophole in our laws and began receiving Social Security benefits. The record is clear: Congress never intended for the perpetrators of the Holocaust--the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored murder of more than 6 million Jews and millions of other innocents--to be allowed to enter the U.S., let alone to participate in Social Security. It has been our longstanding policy that when Nazi persecutors who came under false pretenses are discovered that they be deported and stripped of all their privileges of U.S. citizenship and residency, including, of course, Social Security.

I am pleased to be here today because today what we are saying is we are ready to act. This legislation will tightly close the loophole that allows some individuals to use and retain Social Security benefits even after their Holocaust crimes have been proven and their citizenship has been revoked. As the chairman has mentioned, and as we are trying to make clear today, it is critically important that we make everyone aware that when you work for Social Security, you have earned it, and only then will you get it. So when someone comes in, uses a loophole, tries to take advantage, and then believes that they can get away with it, we want to be able to act quickly and make it clear that it will never happen again. We want those safeguards to be in place for everyone who has been working hard and paying into Social

Security for years and years. They are the ones that own it, not people who have defrauded our government.

Like past Congresses, we believe that we must act quickly because the issue of the Holocaust is not unresolved in our minds. We know what we must do to anyone who perpetrated those heinous acts. We must act as quickly as we can. And so, Mr. Speaker, I say with a great deal of pride and friendship that I stand with the chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee today, Mr. Sam Johnson, to urge my colleagues to join us in closing this loophole now before Social Security has to pay another dime to a Nazi war criminal.

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

Mr. Speaker, we are expecting another speaker, but I reserve the balance of my time and let the gentleman from Texas proceed if he has another speaker.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Carolyn B. Maloney), who has been very active on this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time, and I think it is important to close on a particular note. I don't think it gets lost on the chairman or me that, when we sit as the chairman and ranking member on the Social Security Subcommittee, we have a major responsibility, and that is to make sure that what people expect when they allow a good chunk of money to come out of their paycheck, it is going to be used for what they believe, and that is for Social Security benefits for those who have earned them.

When something like this comes along and you find out that someone found out a way to circumvent the laws and the process and take advantage of getting dollars out of America that have been put in for the purpose of providing security to those who retire or become disabled or who die, it really makes you want to act, but when you realize that, on top of that, the folks who are gaming the system are folks who should never have been in this country in the first place because they committed heinous crimes and were perpetrators of some of the worst evils we have seen in our history, then it makes you want to work doubly fast.

At a time when we deal with major issues and oftentimes have challenges in reaching agreement, the American people should watch for a second because, in this case, we are coming together to say that we understand the purpose of Social Security.

It is important to extend a thank you to the chairman of the Social Security Subcommittee for making sure that, before we ended this year and before we ended this session, we had an opportunity to put our vote on the floor saying, ``No, if you don't earn your benefits, you won't get them, and if you shouldn't have been here in the first place, then you certainly shouldn't get Social Security as well.''

It is important to get this done, and we hope the Senate will act quickly. Hopefully, before too long, the President will have an opportunity to sign this, and forever, we will be able to say that we know that no perpetrator of the Holocaust will ever have an opportunity to steal Social Security from those who worked hard to earn it.

With that, Mr. Speaker, and thanking the staff on both sides of the aisle for the work they have done so diligently and to my friend and chairman, Mr. Johnson, I say thank you.

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

Mr. Speaker, today, 160 million Americans pay into Social Security every day that they work, and as a result, they know that they and their families will be protected if they die, become disabled, or retire.

For most of the 58 million Americans who currently receive Social Security, a Social Security benefit check is their most important source of income. We recently learned that some Nazi war criminals and collaborators slipped through a loophole in our law and are in fact receiving these very same Social Security benefits.

I am pleased to join with my dear friend and colleague from Texas, Mr. Sam Johnson, to introduce the No Social Security for Nazis Act, which tightly closes this very loophole.

As the chairman and the ranking member of the Social Security Subcommittee, Mr. Johnson and I have the responsibility to safeguard Social Security, and I believe this bill is the right way to do that.

Like past Congresses, we believe that there is no place for the Holocaust perpetrators in the United States of America, and if there is no place for them in our country, then there is certainly no place for them in our crown jewel, Social Security.

I hope we can move quickly to enact this legislation before Social Security is required to pay another dime to a Nazi war criminal.

I thank Chairman Johnson for his tireless work on this issue, and I urge my colleagues to join Chairman Johnson and me in sponsoring the No Social Security for Nazis Act.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, today, the President is meeting with congressional leaders to discuss our strategy moving forward in Iraq and Syria to protect Americans, our homeland, and our national interests.

It is hard for me to understand why we are debating this partisan resolution that would condemn the President and our government for having saved the life of an American soldier, Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl.

In the past month, we have seen with horror the sight of two Americans killed at the hands of some of these deranged insurgents, not unlike the situation many of our American soldiers have faced in Afghanistan where Mr. Bergdahl was captured.

So here we have 2 weeks to go in this congressional session because we are just back from an August recess where there were no votes, and we have already been told by the Republican leadership in the House that they don't intend to be in session more than 2 weeks now, this week and next week, possibly a few days in the following week, and we are going to be gone.

In that time, we have to finish a budget, we have to deal with all sorts of other pressing matters, and we have to work with the President to come up with a strategy to make sure that it is clear where America stands on these issues that impact the lives and security of Americans abroad and at home, and here we are debating a resolution that has no impact. It doesn't change the circumstance. Bowe Bergdahl is now alive and back home. It doesn't change the fact that James Foley is still dead and so is Steven Sotloff. They are both still gone. But what we do know is that the military kept its commitment to our men and women in uniform when they say we never leave one of our own in military uniform behind.

Now, you can have this semantic discussion about whether a statute supersedes the Constitution or whether this statute required the President to act a certain way. All I know is what General Dempsey has said before. General Dempsey being the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Dempsey, General Dempsey said this with regard to the rescue of Bowe Bergdahl:

This was likely the last best opportunity to free him.

Now, anyone in this Chamber has the right to argue whatever they want. But no one was in the shoes of Bowe Bergdahl, quite honestly, no one was in the shoes of General Dempsey, and at the end of the day, not one of us is in the shoes of President Barack Obama. And if that window is closing, he has got to make a decision because there is an American life on the line. And if we don't believe that, just ask the families of Mr. Foley and Mr. Sotloff.

Bowe Bergdahl is alive today. Thank the Lord, thank you, President Obama, and thank you to our men and women in uniform who risked their own lives to make sure that men and women like that could come back home.

We have 2 weeks to go before we are gone and out campaigning for election. You would think that we would work on the things that people in America are concerned about most. They want us to not shut down this government again, they want us to make sure that we continue the success of the last 55 months of creating 10 million jobs--because remember, don't forget, it wasn't too long ago, January 2009, when George Bush handed the keys over to Barack Obama at the White House, we bled 800,000 jobs in just 1 month. We have got more work to do to get people to work. There are a whole bunch of families, including mine, who are sending their kids to college.

We have more student loan debt in America held by our young men and women trying to get their college degrees and, of course, their parents, as well, who are paying for them, than we hold in all the credit card debt in America today.

Does this bill do anything to help young Americans and their parents help their kids get through college? Not a thing. Does this help an American today who works full-time and still lives in poverty because he is working at a minimum-wage job? Not a thing.

Does this help a woman who is out there working just as hard as a man and doing the same exact thing but earning less money than he is? Not a thing.

We have got work to do.

Bowe Bergdahl is alive. Let's praise that. Let's make sure every American can come back home and say the same thing, and then let's get to work doing the real business of this country rather than passing partisan resolutions that have nothing to do with the business at hand.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding.

The corrosive effects of shutdown do-nothing politics is on full display here tonight in the House of Representatives. Stripping the rights and protections of children is never a good solution in any legislation, whether it is the children huddled at the border alone and afraid or now including the young DREAMers of America who believe in this country. They have now become the targets of this legislation. They are the ones who are being told, it is because of you that we must change the law and treat human beings so harshly.

Mr. Speaker, if I could speak to those frightened children and our DREAMers of America and those working for a fair solution on their behalf, this is what I would say:

(English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)

Is there any doubt what Republicans' intentions are for the migrant children at the border?

Is there any doubt what Republicans' intentions are for young DREAMers and their families?

Is there any doubt why immigration reform remains shackled?

Is there any doubt what we must do with our vote, our voice, to defend the rights and dreams of our children?

Queda duda de las intenciones republicanas hacia los ninnos migrantes en la frontera?

Queda duda de las intenciones republicanas hacia los muchachos sonnadores y sus familias?

Queda duda de porquee la reforma migratoria queda encadenada?

Queda duda de lo que tenemos que hacer con nuestro voto, nuestra voz, para defender los derechos y los suennos de nuestros hijos?

Tonight, with this bill, we see what happens when, for more than 390 days, our Republican colleagues refused to allow a vote on the Senate's bipartisan solution to a broken immigration system. But for the shutdown do-nothing politics in this House, we could have tackled the humanitarian issues we face down on the border a year ago, but we haven't been able to get a vote to do this the right way.

It is time to have that vote to fix the broken immigration system, not blame children and punish them by changing the law to strip them of their rights and of their protections.

We can do better. This bill will not become law, and we will have a chance to do better for those children, for those DREAMers, and, quite honestly, for America.

I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Madam Speaker, I agree with those who have said that doing nothing is not an option. But making matters worse should not be an option either. Stripping children of the chance to establish their credible fear of death or endangerment is a crude and cold way of dispensing justice in America. That is not the American way.

This bill is a patch, not a solution. It lasts 2 months. So we will be right back here, trying to solve this challenge again, in September. Governing and budgeting in pieces is what leads to government shutdowns. That is not the American way.

This bill robs Peter to give to Paul. How does this bill fund the money to pay for the border work that has to get done? First, it strips emergency funding to tackle devastating wildfires that the President has requested because the States have requested it. Second, it takes $407 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund, money which would be used to help people who have been devastated by wildfires and other natural disasters.

Madam Speaker, if we had passed immigration reform a year ago with the bill that passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis--which on this floor, we have been denied a vote on for more than 380 days--we would not be looking at a crisis on the border the way we are today. But that is the difficulty we have.

When you don't fix the broken immigration system, this is what you encounter. And these piecemeal approaches aren't going to solve anything. We are going to be right back at it in September. That is not the American way. We provide justice to people. We make sure we dispense it the way we should, and we take care of our emergencies.

Let's get this done the right way. Let's do two things: let's give the emergency funding that the people need at the border to run this process right, and then let's finally on the floor of this House have a vote to fix a broken immigration system.

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained and missed rollcall vote 437. If present, I would have voted ``no.''

(By unanimous consent, Mr. Boehner was allowed to speak out of order.)

Honoring Dr. Jessica Bienstock

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained and missed rollcall vote Nos. 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, and 367. If present, I would have voted ``yes'' on rollcall vote Nos. 362, 363, 364, 366, and 367, and ``no'' on rollcall vote No. 365.

I thank the ranking member for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise to engage in a colloquy with the gentleman from New Jersey, Chairman Frelinghuysen.

First, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you and the ranking member for your efforts in putting together this legislation. In particular, I appreciate that this bill provides funding for the support for international sporting competition fund.

This account is crucial for ensuring the safety and security of countless Americans who participate in different Olympic initiatives, including the preparations for the Olympics, Paralympics, and Special Olympics.

The United States has a rich tradition of supporting the Special Olympics, both in the United States and abroad. These unique events empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, while promoting acceptance for all and fostering communities of understanding on a global scale.

Approximately 1,000 athletes participated in the first Special Olympics World Games in 1968. By comparison, there has been a sevenfold increase, with 7,000 athletes expected to participate in the 2015 Special Olympic World Games, which will be held in Los Angeles, California.

With this substantial growth, there has come an increased need for security. It is important for this legislation to match as best possible our country's previous funding commitments. This critical funding need could be addressed either through additional funding for the support for international sporting competition fund or unobligated funds at the Department of Defense.

I asked for and look forward to the opportunity to work with the chairman, ranking member, and all of our colleagues who wish to continue our country's support for the Special Olympics through any available funds in this legislation.

At this point, I yield to the chairman for his response.

I thank the chairman and the ranking member.