Providing for Consideration of H.R. Prohibiting the Transfer of Any Detainee At United States Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. Regulatory Integrity Act of 2016
Floor Speech
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Byrne) for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
(Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this rule and to the underlying legislation.
We are only scheduled to be in session for two more weeks before leaving until after the November election. And instead of considering legislation to adequately respond to the Zika crisis or address the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or deal with the terrible gun violence plaguing our communities, we are back on the floor with more Republican messaging bills that are going nowhere.
On these pressing matters, where is the leadership from Speaker Ryan and the Republican Conference? How can this Congress further delay action on these issues that are so important to the health and the safety of the American people?
The rule before us today provides for consideration of two deeply flawed pieces of legislation. The first, H.R. 5226, imposes overly burdensome requirements designed solely to hamstring the Federal rulemaking process. The second, H.R. 5351, prohibits the transfer of any individual detained at the prison at the U.S. Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Until January 21, H.R. 5351 would prohibit the transfer of any detainee held at Guantanamo not just to the United States but also to any foreign country.
The Republican leadership could have chosen to use these final months to work constructively with the administration on how to transfer to other countries the approximately 20 remaining detainees who have been cleared for transfer. The Republican leadership could have chosen to help build a consensus around the timeframe for transferring to maximum security facilities in the United States the remaining detainees who have been charged with crimes or deemed too dangerous to release.
Instead, they chose to bring this bill to the House floor and close down any and all reasonable avenues to safely and securely reduce the population at Guantanamo. Mr. Speaker, this is simply crazy.
Continuing the operation of Guantanamo prison is a threat to our national security of our own making. It damages our relations with key allies and partners. It provides a rallying cry to violent extremists. And it undermines our moral authority and credibility in ways large and small across all aspects of our foreign policy and military policy.
Since it opened in 2002, the prison at Guantanamo has cost the American taxpayer $4.8 billion. In 2013, U.S. taxpayers spent $454 million on this prison, which now holds just 61 detainees. That is about $7.4 million for each prisoner, compared to around $70,000 for a prisoner held in solitary confinement in a maximum security prison here in the United States.
Mr. Speaker, the Oklahoma City bomber was tried and imprisoned in the United States. The World Trade Center bomber was tried and imprisoned in the United States. The Boston Marathon bomber was tried and imprisoned in the United States. Serial killers, psychopaths, terrorists, saboteurs--they have all been in custody, tried, and imprisoned safely and securely in the United States and, I would add, far more successfully than any trial or tribunal held at Guantanamo and at a much smaller taxpayer expense. Why not the remaining detainees at Guantanamo?
There should be a way for both parties to work this out. If only the leaders of this Congress were willing to work with this administration and be committed to finding a way to shut down Guantanamo once and for all. But instead, we are here today throwing up yet another set of roadblocks.
Eight years ago, Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama agreed on one issue: it was time to shut down the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Former President George W. Bush believes we should shut it down.
I have a letter dated yesterday and addressed to all Members of Congress from Marine Corps Major General Michael P. Lehnert, the very first commander of the detention facility at Guantanamo, asking us to oppose this bill and to close Guantanamo.
I have another letter here, dated March 1, from retired generals and admirals who also advocate for the closure of our prison at Guantanamo.
Mr. Speaker, the failure to close Guantanamo is a stain on Congress. It is Congress that has hindered efforts to release detainees cleared for transfer to third-party countries. It is Congress that has barred the Pentagon from moving those who must remain in prison to maximum security facilities here in the United States. It is Congress that has undermined America's standing as a champion for human rights.
Mr. Speaker, this bill is going nowhere. It certainly will never be signed into law. It is a waste of time that could be better spent on addressing the crisis of clean water in Flint, Michigan, granting real money to deal with the national opiate crisis and the spread of the Zika virus in the United States, and responding to the crisis of gun violence in our cities and communities across America.
Mr. Speaker, in June, when 49 innocent people were ruthlessly killed in an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Americans across the country were heartbroken and looked to their leaders for action. Surely in the face of such tragedy, House Republicans would put partisan politics aside. Surely both parties could come together to pass bipartisan legislation to reduce gun violence by keeping guns out of the wrong hands.
House Democrats tried repeatedly to bring up bipartisan gun reform legislation that the overwhelming majority of the American people support. The bills would expand background checks and stop anyone on the FBI's terrorist watch list from buying a gun. What could be more common sense than that?
All we wanted was to debate the legislation and have a fair up-or- down vote, but Republicans continued to put up roadblocks and refused to even let us consider these bills. So House Democrats held a 25-hour sit-in on the House floor, raising the voices of millions of Americans who are sick and tired of seeing their families and neighbors gunned down in communities all across the country while Congress does absolutely nothing.
Instead, Speaker Ryan and House Republicans abruptly shut Congress down for summer recess, the longest in modern era. While House Republicans were on summer vacation, more than 2,300 Americans were killed by guns.
Now Congress is back, and, instead of doing the right thing and finally bringing bipartisan gun reform legislation to the floor, we hear through the press that Speaker Ryan and House Republicans are looking at ways to punish Democrats for our sit-in demanding action to reduce gun violence.
Really? Congress is only scheduled to be in session for 2 weeks until we recess again, and this is one of the Republican priorities?
We need real leadership, not more finger wagging. I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to ask themselves: Is this really what your constituents want? Is this what they sent you to Congress to do?
And let me be clear, and let me be crystal clear. If Republicans think that we will be intimidated or silenced by any legislation that they bring to the floor to slap us on the wrist simply for asking Congress to do its job, they are wrong.
The fact that Republicans are appalled by our demand to debate and the fact that they are appalled by our demand that there be a debate and a vote on gun safety legislation I find outrageous.
My question is: Why aren't my Republican friends appalled by the massacres in Orlando and San Bernardino and Aurora and Newtown and Charleston--and I could go on and on and on and on. Why are they not appalled by the gun deaths that happen each and every day in these United States of America? All we get from them is nothing. All we get from them is silence and indifference and apathy and, oh, legislation to condemn Democrats for wanting to do something. It is sad, and it is pathetic, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I am going to ask my colleagues to defeat the previous question; and if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up the bipartisan no fly, no buy legislation that would allow the Attorney General to bar the sale of firearms and explosives to those on the FBI's terrorist watch list.
Mr. Speaker, the time to act is now. There were more than 2,000 gun- related deaths during this summer alone while we were on recess. This country cannot tolerate Republican intransigence any longer. Mr. Speaker, we are asking and we are demanding that the Republican leadership and this House do its job.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, so let me get this straight. In response to 49 people killed in Orlando, 14 in San Bernardino, 9 in Charleston, 27 mostly kids in Newtown, 12 in Aurora, 6 in Tucson, Arizona--and our former colleagues, Congressman Giffords and Congressman Ron Barber, were shot there--and 32 in Virginia Tech--I can go on and on and on.
So, in response to all of that, what my Republicans friends are doing is bringing a bill to the floor, and we are talking about legislation that is going nowhere. The Senate is not going to take it up. And even if it did, the White House is going to veto it. That is the response.
That is where the frustration on this side of the aisle is, that there are real, meaningful things that we need to do in this Congress, including protect the American people from this epidemic of gun violence, and instead of bringing legislation to the floor to do that, instead of working with us, instead of holding hearings, we get press releases from the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee that are going nowhere. We are wasting our time. We are wasting the American taxpayers' money.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Castor) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Judy Chu) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Hahn) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Esty) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Eshoo) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Titus) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Speier) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Brownley) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Boyle) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Schakowsky) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Lee) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request
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Mr. McGOVERN. Clark) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Slaughter), the distinguished ranking member of the Rules Committee, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would like at this time to yield to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire why?
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Mr. McGOVERN. Frankel) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Kuster) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Doyle) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Maloney) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis), a leader on issues of justice and nonviolence, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield to the gentlewoman from Alabama (Ms. Sewell) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Esty) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Michelle Lujan Grisham) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Jackson Lee) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.
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Mr. McGOVERN. 1217, the bipartisan expanded background checks legislation, to honor the memory of Jennifer Rooney, age 44 from Bristol, Virginia, who was shot by a stray bullet while driving. She is a victim of gun violence who never received a moment of action on this House floor.
I mean, I don't know what it is going to take to compel my Republican colleagues to do something, to do more than just have a moment of silence in the aftermath of every massacre. I mean, these are real people. They had families. They were loved, and now they are gone, and we need to do something.
For the life of me, I can't understand the inaction in this House, the silence and the indifference. It is appalling. I would suggest to my colleagues, rather than trying to bring legislation to the floor to slap us on the wrist for having the audacity to come to the floor and demand that this House of Representatives do its job, my Republican friends ought to do their job and bring these bills to the floor.
Let's have a debate and let's have a vote, and let's try to save some lives. This is real. This is meaningful. It is a heck of a lot more important than the message bills that are going nowhere that are being brought to this floor.
I urge my colleagues to vote to defeat the previous question so we can have a vote on the no fly, no buy legislation, and I plead with my Republican colleagues: Do your job. Do something. Enough of this silence. Enough of this indifference. Too many people in this country are dying.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.
A recorded vote was ordered.
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