Legislative Program
Floor Speech
(Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that information with respect to the legislation that is going to be on the floor next week.
I would simply say with respect to one of these bills, the Debt Management and Fiscal Responsibility Act, I don't know whether that bill requires the House to do the same, but certainly both the executive and the legislative branches of government need to have a responsible fiscal program and analysis so that, in fact, we can move toward fiscal balance. I look forward to having that discussion next week on the floor.
Mr. Leader, we had a prayer breakfast this morning. It was a moving and very, I think, unifying time here in Washington where we had Republicans and Democrats and a lot of people from around the world attending. We talked about coming together. We talked about respecting one another, talking to one another, and serving our country and our people in a way consistent with our various faiths.
In that context, I am going to ask the gentleman some questions on the scheduling, but I am hopeful that the Speaker has indicated that he wants to consider some broad issues. He refers to five in particular: national security, jobs and economic growth, health care, poverty and opportunity, and restoring the Constitution. I am not sure exactly what that last phrase means, but in any event, I think all of us want to make sure the Constitution is honored and certainly adhered to.
However, it also appears--and we had this discussion last week--that substantive legislation--that is, translating thoughts and objectives and visions into legislation--may not occur in 2016. I don't know that to be the case, but I fear that to be the case, that we will not offer to the American people in this critically important election year specifics as to what we might do.
I mention specifically the Affordable Care Act, which I know the gentleman's party believes is not good policy, whether or not we were going to consider an alternative to do what your party has said it is going to do for the last 5 years, and that is repeal, but replace with policies. I think that would be a useful discussion for us to have and do so in a way that respects the integrity of each person's view as to what the best interests of our country are.
In addition, one of the pieces of legislation would be the Voting Rights Act amendment. I bring that up now because Speaker Ryan said yesterday, as I understand it, that he was in favor of doing a voting rights bill. I don't know that he went into specifics.
We believe that we need to address this bill because we believe it was substantially undermined by the recent decision of the Supreme Court some few years ago. He indicated that that was not going to be brought to the floor because of Mr. Goodlatte's opposition to that or, perhaps, the failure of Mr. Goodlatte to address that in committee.
I bring that up specifically because I know, Mr. Leader, you made the observation, and I think you are quoted as saying you believe the two parties can achieve consensus on that legislation, but we may not be able to move it forward this year.
Excuse me. That speaks to criminal justice system reform, not to voting rights. I think we can reach consensus on the criminal justice reform. I think both parties believe that there are substantial areas that need to be addressed in criminal justice reform. Senator Cornyn has certainly indicated that. Republicans and Democrats in this House have indicated that.
My question to you is with respect to the issues that I think we have all discussed and that the Speaker has discussed, such as: jobs and economic growth; health care; poverty and opportunity, which we believe is a very important issue; criminal justice reform; job creation; long- term fiscal agreements so that we can replace the sequester with a permanent rather than an every-2-year resolution; comprehensive tax reform, which almost all of us have said we are for--Mr. Camp brought a bill forward on that--comprehensive immigration reform; restoring voting rights, which I mentioned; taking action to address gun violence, which we are in favor of, and I think clearly your side has indicated that mental health is very much a component of that and you want to address that; and addressing our national security challenges, which I agree with the Speaker that is a primary responsibility and concern of, I think, everybody on the floor of this House.
My question, therefore, Mr. Leader, is: Do you expect any substantive legislation, rather than simply ideas that both parties might express and put out to the public, that would be transparent, specific, and on which we could have debates on alternative policies? Do you expect, in the relatively short time we have this year, to have legislation on the floor dealing with one or more of those subjects?
I yield to my friend.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman.
I think, certainly, we agree that we ought to work together. He and I have worked together, as a matter fact, on some very significant legislation more than a month ago that passed the House. I think the American public wants that.
My urging to the majority leader would be that each of these ideas, if we are going to ultimately make them policy, has to be translated into legislation.
The gentleman says all of us will be able to participate. Frankly, the gentleman knows, as well as I do, that legislation has to come to the floor for all of us to engage in, hopefully, with the ability to offer amendments and our ideas on how to perfect legislation that may come out of the committees. I would hope that we would see that.
The gentleman mentioned the budget. I think the gentleman and others have said they want to accelerate the budget process. I think that is a good idea. I have always felt that we ought to move the budget and the appropriations bills earlier than we have historically done so that we can get those to the Senate, so they have time to work on them and bring them back, in order to have all 12 appropriations bills done seriatim, one after another.
In my view, we are going to need a bipartisan effort and not have poison pills or the so-called riders in them in order for the Senate to consider them and be able to work their will and then go to conference and get that done all prior to October 1. I don't know whether that is possible, but I think the gentleman would say that would be certainly good to do, if in fact we could get that done.
When does the gentleman expect the budget, which is the start of that process, to be on the floor?
I yield to my friend.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. Am I correct, then, in saying that our target is the first week in March or the second week in March, at the latest, for the budget?
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I appreciate that information.
Let me discuss a number of other specific issues, if I can.
First of all, the Speaker indicated that he wanted to see legislation on the floor of the House by March 31 on Puerto Rico. As you and I both know, Puerto Rico is facing a fiscal crisis of its own. It is going to need some authority to deal with that crisis so that neither the Americans living in Puerto Rico are disadvantaged nor the children and others--whether it is through the educational system, the healthcare system, providing power, or whatever services are necessary--will not be adversely impacted.
Can the gentleman give me an idea as to what progress we are making towards seeing legislation on the floor by March 31?
I yield to my friend.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for that.
Again, I would reiterate that, on the voting rights issue, the Speaker is supportive of some legislative treatment addressing that issue.
Does the gentleman have any idea when that might occur?
I yield to my friend.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I was not.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I appreciate you keeping me posted, but my frustration is that this issue has been hanging around for a very long period of time. When Mr. Cantor had your position as majority leader, he indicated he was receptive to addressing it. The gentleman is correct; I was not there either, but I believe the Speaker is reported as having said it needs to be addressed.
I understand bottom-up, but if bottom doesn't work, you never get up. I refer to the Export-Import Bank that lay sanguinely for 2 years in the committee because the chairman was opposed to it when the majority of your party was for it when it came to the floor.
So it is one thing to say that we ought to work bottom-up, but if the bottom is a stopper and creates gridlock, frankly, this body does not get to do what its responsibility is, and that is to reflect the will of the people, as we did on the Export-Import Bank.
So I sympathize with the bottom-up, and that is the way it ought to work; but if, in fact, what we have is a blockage to the people's Representatives having the ability to work their will and reflect the United States citizens' views, then democracy is not working.
We saw that in the Export-Import Bank, in my opinion, which I worked on very, very assiduously for over 2 years to get to this floor. Very frankly, when it did get to this floor, as I said repeatedly, it would enjoy the majority's support.
In my view, if a voting rights bill gets to this floor, it will enjoy the majority's support. As you know, Mr. Sensenbrenner was the sponsor. President Bush was President when we passed the Voting Rights Act in 2006. It passed overwhelmingly in the House, overwhelmingly in the Senate, and was signed by President Bush.
I am certainly sympathetic to wanting to make sure that we follow regular order, but if regular order precludes democracy from working, then it is irregular order and not in the best interests of our country.
Lastly, Mr. Leader, recently, all of us are concerned about Zika. We are all focused on Zika. Can the gentleman tell me whether or not there are any planned efforts to address what is clearly a very serious health crisis that confronts not only us, but certainly South America, Latin America, and other parts of the world?
I yield to my friend.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. You gave me such a great opening.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman. We certainly agree on that. I look forward to working together to address it.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source