Providing for Consideration of H.R. No Rate Regulation of Broadband Internet Access Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, we have just days before the legally mandated budget deadline. Yet, instead of debating your budget, Mr. Speaker, my budget, Mr. Speaker, anybody's budget, Mr. Speaker, we are debating whether to codify existing FCC policy.

There is limited time to provide a budget for our country. Households across our country have budgets, and businesses have budgets. Unless there is an announced change to the schedule in bringing Congress to work on Friday and Saturday and Rules Committee convening today or tomorrow, it seems like Congress will miss the deadline for the budget and perhaps never produce a budget.

Now, folks on the other side will say that there have been years Democrats didn't produce a budget, and that is true. But Republicans ran to take over this body, saying: We are going to do better. We are going to produce a budget. Republicans have had the chance, and there is not even a vote on the budget.

I am going to offer later in this debate a motion to defeat the previous question. If that passes, Mr. Speaker, I will be able to offer an amendment to the rule to bring up the budget resolution.

I hope it does. I hope there are enough Democrats and Republicans in this Chamber who are outraged by the failure of the Republican leadership to allow the Republican and Democratic Members of this body to present and vote on their budgets.

We have historically had a very open process around budgets. There is usually five or six budgets that come before the House and we try to get to one that passes. There have been years where I think they have a king of the hill process and whichever one gets the most votes can become the budget.

But it looks like, rather than any of those debates or give Members who have thoughtfully been preparing the budgets from the Republican Study Group or from the progressive Democratic coalition the chance to present their budgets, along with the Republican and Democratic members of the Budget Committee, I think the Republicans are saying: we don't want to have those tough decisions about where to cut or where to tax; we would rather just pretend like our country is in good fiscal order and spend the day discussing codifying FCC policy rather than discussing what the American people sent us here to do--how to balance the budget, restore fiscal stability, and pass a budget.

There is another missed opportunity here today. When talking about broadband--if that is what we are going to talk about--in districts like mine in Colorado, we have communities that simply don't have reasonable access to the Internet. I talk to constituents in Evergreen and Conifer in Grand County every day, rapidly growing communities, where people only have access to speeds that were more relevant to the 20th century rather than the 21st century. I remember I visited a school in Grand County where the district has an initiative to provide every child with a Chromebook computer and the computer science teacher there didn't even have high-speed access from his own home.

Access to broadband is essential for our economy, particularly our rural economy like those in my district. It is essential for the education of our kids, for a vibrant private sector, for civil society, and democracy. While the FCC and the Department of Commerce have some tools in place, there is not nearly the tools they need or the resources to make our Nation competitive coast to coast by making sure that every American has access to broadband.

Bills that try to codify regulations certainly have their place. I would argue it is probably not when we are 48 hours from reaching a budget deadline. But I want to make sure that even if we are going to spend time discussing codifying FCC policy, that we have the more important discussion about how we can make sure that broadband access is available to our rural communities, such as the ones that I represent.

Democrats and Republicans largely agree on some of the goals of this bill. In fact, I think there is a missed opportunity to have worked on a bipartisan version that likely could have passed on suspension. There are a number of amendments under consideration, and it is my hope that some of the consumer protection issues can be addressed through that.

But I think the big picture here, Mr. Speaker, is we are just 2 days away from Congress' own deadline for passing a budget with no budget in sight. If we can defeat the previous question, we can immediately move to consider the budget. I call upon my Republican and Democratic colleagues to do that. As we look at broadband, which I am hopeful that we can do after this deadline passes--I am happy to revisit this bill if my motion to defeat the previous question passes and we move into the budget debate--I will be happy to resume this debate next week. I haven't seen any particular reason that we have to try to cram in codifying FCC regulations around broadband in the 48 hours before our own budget deadline expires.

So let's get back to talking about the budget. It is never easy. The Republicans have certainly talked about how they wanted the country to have a budget. Well, the country is not going to have a budget unless Congress gets to work debating it and passing it.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. POLIS. I am prepared to close.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up the Republican budget resolution and allow for consideration of alternative budget proposals under a similar process to that which we have used every year in recent history. It is truly time for the Republicans to stop the partisan game and finally consider a budget before this Friday's legally mandated deadline.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, Americans get it. Households have to balance their budget, businesses have to balance their budget. Not talking about it and putting your head in the sand is only a recipe for increased debt and increased liability for future generations of Americans.

The fact that we are spending $400 billion or $500 billion more than we are taking in--of course we might not know about that for the next year until after the fact if we don't have a budget--the fact that we have enormous unfunded liabilities in Medicare and Social Security doesn't go away just because Republicans ignore the topic and refuse to have a debate on balancing our budget.

I am proud to sponsor a balanced budget amendment. I think that by working together, Democrats and Republicans can restore fiscal responsibility to our Nation.

How can we do it?

Well, I will tell you how we can't do it. We can't do it by 48 hours from the deadline to pass a budget by discussing obscure bills to codify FCC regulations with our valuable floor time.

It starts with an honest discussion. It starts with Democrats and Republicans offering their budgets. I have been proud in the past to support bipartisan budgets that have come to this body. I have supported and opposed some of the Democratic budgets that my colleagues have offered, but we have to have that discussion on the floor. The work doesn't do itself and the problem doesn't go away when Republicans choose to ignore it.

I wish our budget deficit was as easy to solve as simply ignoring it. Wouldn't that be convenient if we could simply ignore the budget deficit and it would go away? Wouldn't it be convenient if we could just ignore the national debt and it would go away? Wouldn't it be convenient if we could ignore the damage to agencies that an indiscriminate sequester has caused and it would simply go away?

I like that line of thinking, Mr. Speaker. Unfortunately, it is completely unrealistic. The American people realize it is completely unrealistic. That is why when America looks to Congress and says: we have these discussions in our households about our budget, and businesses have these discussions. Why can't you, Mr. Speaker? Why can't you? That is the reason the Congressional approval rating is so low.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question. I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule and the underlying bill.

I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

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

The yeas and nays were ordered.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source