Legislative Program

Floor Speech

(Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for that information. I want to ask him just one question on one of those commonsense bills that seeks to remove those employees who work for the IRS who collect taxes, that if they are delinquent, they will be removed.

Does that apply to the Congress of the United States as well which levies those taxes, that if we have any Members who are delinquent, that they, too, would be removed?

I yield to my friend.

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Mr. HOYER. I may do that.

First of all, let me thank the gentleman. We are confronting a crisis, as the gentleman so well knows, in Puerto Rico. On May 1, they will be unable to pay their debts.

I want to thank the majority leader who has been leading to reach a bipartisan solution. Unfortunately, as the majority leader and I both know, there was a failure in committee this week to move the bill forward. But I want to reiterate my appreciation to the gentleman from California, the majority leader, for his efforts to make sure that we do, in fact, address this issue before May 1. I want to thank him for that.

It is critical that we do so, it is critical that we do so in a bipartisan fashion, and it is critical to have a bill that both sides can support. I have told the majority leader, and I reiterate, we hope that on both restructuring and the composition and the authority of a board of review, an oversight board, that we can come to an agreement so that we can have such a vote and have it in the near future.

Secondly, can the majority leader tell me where we are? I know the budget has been reported out of committee. The gentleman talks about Tax Day. Obviously, we are now at the point when a budget was expected to be brought to the floor. Can the majority leader tell me where we stand on the budget process and the budget coming to the floor of the House of Representatives?

I yield to my friend.

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman.

Let me mention two other items briefly because I know the gentleman has a time constraint. Zika and Ebola continue to be challenges to the health of Americans and, indeed, the health of the international community as well.

Obviously, we previously committed a significant sum of money to meet the Ebola crisis, which still remains with us. It is not on the front burner as it was for a period of time, but it is, nevertheless, as the gentleman knows, a very significant and serious one.

In addition, of course, we have the crisis that Zika poses to the health and welfare not only of women who either are or may become pregnant, but also to others as well.

Can the gentleman tell me where the funding--as the gentleman knows, the administration transferred some funds out of the money that was dedicated to Ebola. And I want to thank the gentleman for having a hearing, which he invited me. We joined in having that hearing, and we had Secretary Burwell of HHS, Tony Fauci of NIH, and Dr. Frieden of CDC--a very important hearing. They have transferred some money.

Does the gentleman have any information as to when we might move forward, both on backfilling the money that has been taken from Ebola and responding to the administration's request for funding for response to Zika?

I yield to my friend.

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I look forward to working with him on both--continuing to focus on Ebola, while at the same time we focus on the immediate threat of Zika.

The last comment I would make, Mr. Speaker, is that Members ought to be disabused of the concept--and I have heard it, as well as the gentleman has heard it--that the legislation under consideration for Puerto Rico is a bailout. There is no money going to Puerto Rico. There is no guarantee of any of their indebtedness going from the United States to Puerto Rico.

This is simply whether or not we can construct a mechanism so that they can restructure their debt, which may prolong the period of time in which the debt is paid off. It may reduce by some amount the debt that is repaid. But as the gentleman knows--and he is shaking his head in agreement--we are not contemplating nor are we moving forward on a bailout for Puerto Rico.

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