Hire More Heroes Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, today has certainly been a historic day in Washington, DC. With the arrival of His Holiness Pope Francis this week, Washington has been flooded with the faithful who were eager to mark his first visit to the United States. I know my colleagues and I are grateful we were able to host him at a joint meeting of Congress, and we were all in awe of his incredible stamina given his schedule--something we are not unfamiliar with.

As head of the Catholic Church, Pope Francis leads a diverse community of believers. Catholics in the United States make up about one-fifth of the population in the United States and also in my home State of Texas. In fact, Catholic priests from Spain were some of our earliest settlers in Texas, and one of the dozens of missions established by the Catholic Church early in the 18th century in Texas was Mission San Antonio de Valero, what would later be called the Alamo.

It was a privilege to welcome Pope Francis this morning and to hear his remarks. I am told he was the first pontiff ever to address a joint meeting of Congress.

CARDINAL DANIEL DINARDO

It was also my honor to host a friend of mine, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, who accepted my invitation to join me today to hear Pope Francis. Cardinal DiNardo is the archbishop of Galveston-Houston, home to more than 1 million Catholics--the largest number of the 15 dioceses in Texas. I have had the honor of knowing Cardinal DiNardo for a number of years, and I am grateful to him for his unwavering commitment to life and for his extreme compassion in both a pastoral and spiritual sense as well as a practical one. We saw that in action recently when historic flooding devastated many of the communities in the Houston area. During that time, Cardinal DiNardo was quick to ensure that Catholic Charities would provide some relief to those in need. There is no doubt that his leadership will continue to serve not only the Catholic community in the Galveston-Houston area well but also all of us in Texas.

Mr. President, on another matter, earlier today Democrats blocked a measure that would fund the U.S. Government but redirect Federal money that currently goes to Planned Parenthood to go for women's health care at community health centers. Actually, there are many more community health centers in Texas than there are Planned Parenthood facilities.

Earlier this week I outlined how the Democrats, while earlier calling for regular order in this Chamber, have delivered on their promise to block legislation from moving forward that would fund vital parts of our government, such as the men and women in uniform who defend us. This is in spite of the fact that earlier this year, as I believe the majority leader mentioned, members of the Appropriations Committee actually did the work we were elected to do. We passed a budget and then in a bipartisan way passed appropriations bills out of the Appropriations Committee. But because they have chosen to filibuster all of these appropriations bills, we find ourselves with unneeded and unnecessary drama when it comes to funding the Federal Government--hence the vote on Monday for closing off debate on a continuing resolution to fund the government through December 11, 2015. Unfortunately, even our uniformed military has been taken hostage to this strategy, which has created unnecessary drama, as I said, and created some real hardship. So as we approach the looming fiscal deadline of next Wednesday at midnight, it is important to remember how we got here.

While Democrats filibustered legislation that would have removed all Federal funding for Planned Parenthood, this fight--the fight for the sanctity of life Pope Francis talked about this morning--is far from over. We are going to continue the four different investigations of Planned Parenthood's practices and pursue legislation that would protect the fundamental right to life of the unborn. Protecting the sanctity of life is an ongoing mission, and it does not end with this one vote.

I yield the floor.

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