Legislative Program
Floor Speech
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for the week to come.
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy), my friend, the majority leader.
(Mr. McCARTHY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the information.
Mr. Speaker, I note that the bill that was supposed to be on the floor either yesterday or today dealing with DACA and dealing with the children, who are an object of great concern by all the country, is not mentioned in the gentleman's remarks for legislation that will be considered next week.
The DACA bill was supposed to be voted in the second immigration bill pursuant to the rule that we adopted this week. That vote, I thought, had been postponed until next week. Now, however, I do not see it being announced as a bill that is going to be considered.
It is disappointing that, after months of committing to working together on a solution to the DACA crisis, Mr. Speaker, this week, the House considered two partisan bills.
I would like to point out that Speaker Ryan, on September 5, 2017, some 8 months ago, said: ``It is my hope that the House and Senate, with the President's leadership, will be able to find consensus on a permanent legislative solution that includes ensuring that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this country.''
Speaker Ryan said more recently, on February 8, 2018, when he urged people to support the caps bill--that is, setting the limits of expenditures--``my commitment to working together,'' and he looked at our side of the aisle when he said that. But, Mr. Speaker, the only persons who apparently will be included in ``working together'' are between the Freedom Caucus and others on the Republican side of the aisle.
He went on to say: ``My commitment to working together on an immigration measure that we can make law is a sincere commitment. Let me repeat,'' the Speaker said, ``my commitment to working together on an immigration measure that we can make law is a sincere commitment. We will solve this DACA problem.''
He said that February 8, 2018, from that rostrum on the floor of this House. There has been no ``together.''
Now, my friend, the majority leader, Mr. Speaker, said this: ``This all started when I was at Camp David with the President this weekend.''
We know that the majority leader is probably the closest ally that the President has in the Congress of the United States.
``He was telling me how, earlier last week, he was with some Republican Senators talking about DACA. They all agreed, but he said we can't solve that unless we bring Democrats into the room, too.''
That was Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy on FOX News on January 10, 2018.
So I ask my friend, the majority leader, can the gentleman clarify whether or not changes will be made to H.R. 6136--that is, the Ryan- Trump so-called compromise that, from our perspective, ``together'' meant simply together among Republicans trying to decide what the Republicans wanted to do. Can you tell me whether there will be changes to that so-called compromise bill and whether or not that bill may be brought to the floor anytime soon?
I yield to my friend.
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, together, working with their Conference, not with us, not, frankly, with a bipartisan group that has support on this floor of 240 Members. 240 Members of the House of Representatives, and you need 218 for a majority, support an option and have been asking for that option for a long period of time.
Now, the majority leader is looking somewhat quizzical, Mr. Speaker, and he wants to know how you get to 240; 193 plus 47.
There were 54 Republicans who asked for the rule putting four bills on the floor, but 7 were, apparently, encouraged to take their name off of that, so only 47 Republicans remain. All 193, that is 240. That is a majority of the House.
What was asked for was to put four options, giving everybody a chance to put the option that they liked on the floor. Notwithstanding Speaker Ryan's commitment and notwithstanding the comments that Mr. McCarthy made following his meeting at Camp David with the President of the United States where they needed to bring Democrats in, all we have seen is a deeply divided Republican Party negotiating with itself.
They brought a bill to the floor, and they passed the rule. The only real effect of the rule, because the bill lost, was to negate the 216 signatures--and we believe there would have been more but for arm- twisting--to bring those compromised bills to the floor, which had both Republicans and Democrats working together and supporting. Two of those bills, the principal sponsors were a Republican and a Democrat.
Mr. Speaker, I would ask the gentleman, he says he is going to bring a bill to the floor--I presume he is talking about the bill that was going to be brought to the floor yesterday then changed to today, and then changed to next week--whether there will be amendments in that bill and, if so, will they be discussed with us and will we have input into that process?
The gentleman concluded, Mr. Speaker, his comments with he hopes he could have our support. We are not included. We are shut out. The compromise has been rejected and undermined, and the Speaker ignored 216 people who asked for those bills to be brought to the floor, and he said no: no openness, no transparency, closed rules, consistent with the policies that have been followed in this, the most closed Congress in which I have served.
So I would ask my friend again, Mr. Speaker: What changes will be affected in the bill that would be brought to the floor, or are we going to be told when they are brought to the floor what those changes are?
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I reclaim my time just to remind the majority leader of what I asked.
The majority leader likes to talk about what we did in the past. His party shut down the government, and he says I voted to shut down the government. That is absurd that he could cite a vote of mine against some sort of proposal that they put forward.
The question is: He refuses to put on a bipartisan, to give even the House the opportunity to consider a bill that is supported by 240 Members of this House. And, frankly, my perception--and I am not bad at counting, Mr. Speaker, which is why I am standing at this podium and why the majority leader is standing at his podium. We understand counting.
I dare him, Mr. Speaker, I dare him to put the Hurd-Aguilar bill on the floor, and I guarantee him it will get 240 votes. The people's House will be allowed to speak. But they are afraid to do that, Mr. Speaker.
All of this stuff about we had meetings in his office, we had meetings in his office and he knew, from the start, that the two things they were asking for were nonstarters. Very frankly, I have had discussions with the Secretary, who said: Well, we will just stick with border security and DACA.
But that is all in the past. What we are talking about is today. And what they did was shut down the people who wanted to vote on their option, on our option, and on two other options in this, the most transparent House that would take issues one by one and would face the tough issues head-on. While people are twisting in the wind and while children are being separated from their parents, ripped from the arms of their moms and their dads, we fiddle while Rome is burning, and we talk about shutting down government.
Their party shut down government a number of times since I have been here. They did it intentionally. And, very frankly, their Speaker and the head of the OMB voted ``no'' and to shut it down; they voted not to open it up.
That is not the issue, Mr. Speaker. The issue is: What are we going to do to solve a problem the President of the United States said we ought to solve?
Now, the President of the United States, of course, this morning, says: No, forget it. Go deal with it.
His tweet at 7:06 a.m. this morning: ``Republicans should stop wasting their time on immigration until after we elect more Senators and Congressmen/women in November''--in other words, until we take over.
This President who said: Well, you know, I met with Kim Jong-un. He is loved by his people. And, boy, when he says stand up, his people stand up.
Perhaps, that is what he wants us to do, Mr. Speaker, but we are not North Korea. We are a democracy, and, very frankly, they don't have the courage, Mr. Speaker, to bring bills to the floor and allow this House to work its will. What they do is they negotiate with themselves and bring bills to the floor, neither of which would have passed yesterday.
After all of their compromise, after all of their talk, and after all of their commitments to solve the problem, neither one of their bills would have passed yesterday. They have 240-plus Members. They don't need us, but they took the bill off the floor because they couldn't get their own party to come to agreement.
So, Mr. Speaker, my question is, and I will reiterate my question: What changes are going to be effected in the bill that would have been considered yesterday, had it not been pulled from the floor, that we will have to consider next week?
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Mr. HOYER. Certainly.
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, he didn't answer the question, of course. He hardly ever does.
400,000 more jobs created in 2016 than 2017. He doesn't say that. They inherited a growing economy. We inherited, when President Obama took office, a receding economy, hemorrhaging 787,000 jobs in January of 2009. He doesn't talk about that. That was after the two tax cuts that they passed in 2001 and 2003 that they said would create the greatest economy we have ever seen. It didn't. He didn't say that.
Mr. Speaker, he didn't say that the only time we balanced the budget for 4 years was under President Clinton, and we created jobs and had the best economy he has experienced and I have experienced. He didn't say that.
And, Mr. Speaker, what he didn't say is why we are not bringing to this floor four pieces of legislation, giving everybody on the floor the opportunity to express their opinion and say to the American people how they think we can address, yes, border security, which we want to address.
But what the President asked us to do and the Speaker said he would do, and the Speaker has not done, and that is to address in a rational way, in a way that can get the majority of votes--the two bills they brought to the floor, they knew they couldn't get the votes.
The farm bill that he just talked about that is going to the Senate, it is dead on arrival. He knows it, Mr. Speaker. The 69 times they tried to repeal the Affordable Care Act, wasted time. He knows it.
And he mentions, by the way, how bipartisan this Congress is. Let me tell you why it is bipartisan: we don't control it, but we cooperate when we can. When we were in charge, it wasn't nearly as bipartisan, because the Republicans did not cooperate when they could.
And, Mr. Speaker, he talks about fiscal bills. Ninety percent of the fiscal bills could not have passed this House, kept the government open, opened the government up, give relief to those who were suffering from natural disasters without substantial Democratic help, and in many instances with the majority of Democrats and the minority of Republicans.
But the answer I looked for, Mr. Speaker, what are we going to consider next week in terms of an issue that the Speaker said some 8 months ago we were going to solve and promised us in February 2018 he was going to address to solve DACA? And now we have this crisis in the country created by the President of the United States with children being wrenched from the arms of their moms and dads. That is what we ought to be discussing.
The majority leader is a good friend of the President's. I understand that. All the President has to do is pick up the phone and call and say to the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security: stop wrenching those children from the hands of their parents.
We don't need legislation, but now we have legislation. And I would ask him if he would bring the Nadler bill to the floor, which will prevent children from being wrenched from the hands of their families simply because they have committed a misdemeanor of wanting to seek opportunity in the land of opportunity that we call America.
Apparently, they haven't decided. So the majority leader says they will let us know as soon as they have decided what they are going to do--who they have to deal with to cobble the votes together on their side of the aisle. We have 240-plus votes for an option, but they are being muzzled. They are being prevented to express the will of this House.
Mr. Speaker, I ask the majority leader, does he believe that my representation that Hurd-Aguilar has 240 votes on this floor inaccurate?
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, we will close now.
Neither of the questions that I posed were answered. And certainly the fact that there are 240 votes on this floor was not disputed, by the majority leader, for the Hurd-Aguilar, which addresses security at the border. By the way, cosponsored by Mr. Hurd, a Member of the majority leader's party. A Member from Texas who knows about the border and who, I presume, wants to keep it secure. The bill he has cosponsored has at least 240 votes on this floor.
This is the most closed Congress in which I have served, the most closed rules. That is a fact. And apparently it is closed to the majority, who want to move ahead on a bill and just have the opportunity to vote on it and to give the Speaker the opportunity to put something on the floor and have the House consider it, and have Ms. Roybal-Allard and Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Republican from Florida, have a bill on the floor and have it considered, and have Mr. Goodlatte, who did, in fact, have his bill on the floor, and it lost.
So, Mr. Speaker, I regret that I don't know what there is going to be next week, because we need to take action. And we need to take action not by compromising with one side of the aisle and seeing only capitulation by some. We do need compromise, we do need action, and we need action that can pass the Senate.
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