Providing for Consideration of H.R. Save the Internet Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Investing for the People Act of and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mr. MORELLE. Mr. Speaker, on Monday, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 294, providing for consideration of H.R. 2021, the Investing for the People Act, under a structured rule. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on the Budget. The rule makes in order three amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes.

The rule also provides for consideration of H.R. 1644, the Save the Internet Act. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. The rule makes in order 12 amendments, each debatable for 10 minutes.

Additionally, the rule deems as passed House Resolution 293, which will immediately put in place an enforceable top-line discretionary spending level so that the Appropriations Committee can begin its work.

Finally, the rule provides standard recess instructions through April 26.

Mr. Speaker, the Investing for the People Act is a 2-year budget bill that will raise the defense sequestration caps for defense and nondefense discretionary spending for fiscal year 2020 and 2021.

I believe my colleagues from both sides of the aisle fully understand the devastating effects of sequestration. Across-the-board, mandatory cuts to every Federal program are not a successful path to fiscal responsibility.

Without taking action to lift the caps established by the Budget Control Act, nondefense discretionary funding will be cut by $54 billion. Such drastic cuts threaten public health, the environment, access to education, job training, and lifesaving social services like food and housing assistance.

Cuts to nondefense discretionary funding would also impact our national security. Nearly one-third of investments in this area fund veterans' programs, homeland security initiatives, diplomatic operations, foreign aid, and Justice Department activities.

If an agreement on lifting the cap is not reached, defense programs also stand to lose $71 billion. In a dangerous world, those cuts would be, in my view, harmful to national and global security.

Only a few months ago, the American people felt the harsh effects of a government shutdown. It is time to come together to take decisive action to avoid another blow to essential Federal programs that help hardworking Americans in every State. This legislation ensures working families will be able to rely on continued Federal funding for the programs that keep them safe, support their jobs, and invest in their children.

In fiscal year 2020, defense spending would be capped at $664 billion, with nondefense discretionary spending capped at $631 billion.

The Investing for the People Act would also provide up to $8 billion, annually, for nondefense overseas contingency operations, OCO, activities that do not count against the spending caps, while limiting OCO designation of defense spending in 2020 and 2021 to no more than the fiscal year 2019 level of $69 billion dollars.

In his budget, President Trump proposed continued spending on defense measures but massive cuts to domestic programs like public health research, infrastructure investment, and support for low-income families.

Even as our Nation draws down from our overseas war operations, domestic spending remains at a historic low as a percentage of our economy. H.R. 2021 provides a pathway for improving the lives of Americans in every community and renews our commitment to spending to meet the needs of our communities and invest in our economy.

In addition to protecting Americans from spending cuts, the House will be considering protections for a product all of us here today rely upon to do our jobs and live our lives, just like millions of Americans: the internet. This rule also provides for consideration of essential protections for American consumers who use the internet.

The Save the Internet Act would reinstate the Open Internet Order of 2015 that classifies broadband internet services as common carriers that are prohibited from preferentially treating or discriminating against groups of persons.

An overwhelming 86 percent of Americans opposed the FCC's rollback of net neutrality protections. All this legislation does, Mr. Speaker, is restore those protections.

Fair and reliable internet access is absolutely essential to millions of working families and small business owners. Practices like blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization harm the ability of every American to experience the internet in the same way, regardless of provider or how much money you pay.

The Save the Internet Act includes enhanced transparency protections and enacts specific rules against throttling, blocking, and other violations of net neutrality. The FCC would be empowered to investigate consumer and business complaints and impose necessary fines against internet service providers for violations of the Communications Act.

The bill also provides pathways to internet access for every American, especially those in rural communities who are being left behind by modern, high-speed internet infrastructure.

The Save the Internet Act would once again allow the FCC to fund rural broadband through the Connect America Fund.

Additionally, this legislation revives the Lifeline program, created under the Reagan administration to subsidize phone service for low- income families. Under this legislation, the FCC would again have authorization to use the Lifeline program to expand access to broadband for low-income Americans, especially seniors, students, veterans, and disabled Americans.

In response to concerns raised by our Republican colleagues, the Save the Internet Act also ensures that the FCC has the power to protect access to the internet but does not have authority to make decisions over internet content or the power to impose taxes and fees for internet access.

This legislation forbears the FCC from applying more than 700 regulations under the Communications Act that are unnecessary to protecting an open internet, such as rate setting.

Internet service providers have long claimed that they were hamstrung by net neutrality protections and that strong consumer protections were preventing them from investing in higher speeds and advanced broadband infrastructure.

In reality, ISPs actually increased speeds and invested huge amounts in improving their broadband during the time when net neutrality protections were enforced by the FCC. Moreover, many of the largest providers have failed to keep their promise of increased investing after the Trump FCC repealed those protections, with investments actually shrinking in recent years.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this rule and for both pieces of legislation underlying it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, let me just make a few brief comments, and I always appreciate the passion that Mr. Woodall, my distinguished friend and colleague, brings to this discussion.

I do want to say what this is. First of all, the rule before the House has both a resolution, which I talked about, which is really the safety net, it establishes the $1.295 trillion for discretionary spending and, in addition, allows us to do IRS enforcement--$400 million is in the resolution--and the census 2020, which is upcoming and which will take thousands and thousands of people to conduct the census in the way that the Framers identified it to be.

It also has a budget bill. And I do want to just mention just a few points that relate to what Mr. Woodall said.

The major components of the budget are in the budget bill. It provides a top line for discretionary spending, provides allocations to the authorizing committees, provides a revenue floor, enforces all these 302 allocations, and sets new caps for discretionary spending, gives allocations to authorizing committees, all of these things which will match the CBO's baseline, I might add, and enforcement through regular Budget Act points of order.

So this does have a budget bill. What we do with the resolution, however, is critically important because it makes sure that we begin this process.

I think the thing that we all want to avoid in the greatest possible way is a shutdown. We saw that happen, and 2018 made history.

Although the House, the Senate, and the White House were all controlled by the same party, we ended Congress for the first time in U.S. history in a government shutdown, an inglorious end to the 115th Congress.

We need to do anything we can. This starts that process, creates a safety net, and jump-starts the budget process. So this is a completely appropriate and, in my view, mandatory way to start this process. And I will perhaps, if I get a moment or two, talk about the budget that the President submitted to us.

I also want to just mention for a moment, if I can, the comments raised by my colleague relative to the net neutrality bill. This, under the current rule, has enormous exposure to consumers and businesses. It does not impede innovation, what we are attempting to do. In fact, in my view, it will spur innovation, and it provides predictably for all users, consumers and businesses alike.

I do note that the rule that we reported out last night ensures that we do everything we can to reaffirm that commitment to fair access.

The rule made in order 12 amendments, both from Democrats and Republicans. It is a structured rule. Some of those amendments I agree with, some of those I disagree with, but every single one is worthy of debate on the floor. I am very proud, and I want to also congratulate the chair of our committee, Mr. McGovern, for making sure that we have amendments from both sides to discuss on this floor.

I do want to just mention a couple of them. Several amendments aim to strengthen access to broadband internet in rural and underserved communities. Mr. Brindisi, for instance, has an amendment which we will take up which requires the GAO to produce a report about the ways the U.S. government can promote the deployment of broadband to rural communities.

Representative Wexton has an amendment requiring the FCC to submit to Congress a plan on how the Commission would address problems in collecting data on deployment of broadband. By fixing these problems, we can have a better understanding of those communities that are served by broadband and ensure every community has access.

We have an amendment by Representative Waters asking the Comptroller General to submit a report on how net neutrality helps ethnic and racial minorities and how those rules will help disadvantaged groups, rural populations, individuals with disabilities, and the elderly. Without that full information, we cannot ensure that everyone is receiving the same treatment.

We have an amendment from Representative Davids directing GAO to submit a report examining the FCC's efforts to assess competition. Colleagues are worried about how net neutrality rules will impact competition, but they have no data to back up their claims, so let's collect the data we need. Good policy is always backed by good evidence.

We also made in order an amendment by Representative McAdams which would affirm that ISPs can still block unlawful content, such as child pornography. Some content has no place on the internet, nor anywhere in our homes, and we want to make sure that ISPs block this, as they should, and that nothing in the bill will prevent them from doing so.

There are several other amendments made by Democrats that will be on the floor. I won't go into them any further. But I do want to acknowledge, also, that we have amendments in order submitted by Republican colleagues as well.

Mr. Latta submitted an amendment requiring the FCC to share the list of 700 rules that will be permanently forborne once this bill becomes law, which makes sense to me. We had this conversation in rules yesterday, to ask the question what those 700 rules are. The FCC has determined them to be unnecessary and burdensome.

Let's look at them and see what they are. Let's see the list. Let's show the American people that the government was not regulating for the sake of regulating and that, when those regulations are no longer appropriate, we will remove them.

Finally, my colleagues on the Rules Committee made Representative Burgess' amendment in order. It directs the GAO to initiate a study to examine the virtuous cycle of the internet ecosystem and the effect of net neutrality on that ecosystem--again, an amendment which was made in order to make sure that we have bipartisan discussion here on the floor.

I appreciate my good friend, the gentleman from Oklahoma's comments.

Those on the other side may say this is messy, but do you know what is messier? Another government shutdown.

We just endured, earlier this year, a 35-day government shutdown, the longest shutdown in our history. In this committee, we are committed to doing everything in our power to prevent that from happening again.

We want to make sure we can move forward with appropriations legislation, and this provision is a safety net to assure that process can begin. Whenever a budget bill comes up, whenever we begin that appropriations process, we will have a path forward.

My good friend raised the question of the President. I have to admit I am new here, haven't been here very long. I have been involved in the budget process in the State of New York for many years.

Frankly, watching the budget and looking at the budget submitted by the President, I would be embarrassed. I think it is no wonder that my friends on the other side of the aisle didn't submit, as an amendment, the President's budget.

The President's budget is devastating. I look to how it would devastate the people in my home State of New York: repeals the Affordable Care Act, eliminates health insurance for 2.2 million New Yorkers, abolishes protections for people with preexisting conditions, substantially increases premiums for older Americans.

If the budget that Donald Trump submitted became law, a 60-year-old living in New York making $25,000 a year could see their healthcare premiums increase by up to $5,000 annually, from $1,600 to $6,300 in 2020, a quarter of their income.

It cuts funding for New York's Medicaid program by $159 billion over the next 10 years. Nationally, the Trump budget proposes to cut Medicaid by $1.5 trillion over the next 10 years, 36 percent in 2029 alone.

College would be more expensive for 179,000 New Yorkers by completely eliminating the Direct Subsidized Loan Program and taking away grants for 108,000 students by abolishing the Supplemental Education Opportunity Grant program. At a time when people need to have knowledge more than at any other time in human history to safeguard their economic future and those of their families, to cut college programs is reprehensible.

But I don't care just about New Yorkers, Mr. Speaker. My friend from Georgia, I have a brother who lives in Georgia. His children live in Georgia. I care a great deal about the people in Georgia as well.

The Trump budget:

Eliminates after-school programs for 41,000 Georgia students by zeroing out the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program;

Takes away high-quality childcare and early education for 4,200 low- income Georgia children by cutting Head Start by 17 percent in the final year of this budget;

Eliminates nutrition assistance for up to 395,000 Georgians, 90 percent of whom live in households with at least one child, elderly person, or a person with a disability, by cutting the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $220 billion, nationally, over 10 years;

Takes the food out of the mouths of 4,000 pregnant women, new moms, babies, and toddlers in Georgia by cutting the Women, Infants and Children program by 13 percent in the final year of this budget.

I could go on and on, Mr. Speaker, but I will spare my colleagues a long dissertation on the Trump budget, other than recognize that this House is moving forward. We are beginning this process. We have established a safety net.

This is what Americans want. They don't want another shutdown. And we are going to do everything in our power--together, I hope, in a bipartisan way--to make sure that we continue to move forward in the years to come.

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Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the sentiments of the gentleman. We certainly agree.

The House has passed disaster relief. We await Senate conferees, so we can move that process forward. But what strikes me is how troubling it is to have this conversation.

The reality is that the President of the United States has chosen which Americans to provide aid to. The island of Puerto Rico, American citizens, has suffered disasters, calamities, as a result of Hurricane Maria, yet the President shows no indication that he understands the plight of the people on Puerto Rico. That is why it is necessary for the House and Senate to come together to provide relief, because the President, frankly, has chosen not to do it.

We welcome the comments by the gentleman. We look forward to the Senate establishing members of a conference committee, so we can work out differences that we may have and move this forward. We continue to hope for that day and hope that the President will gain some enlightenment about how we help and protect all American citizens.

Mr. Speaker, I would just reiterate what I said earlier, which is that all Americans need help in times of disaster.

Despite the fact that some would try to ignore the fact that climate change exists and has created natural disasters that we could not have predicted years ago, the fact is that those disasters continue to happen.

All Americans--I don't care whether you live in New York or Alabama, Florida, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands--all Americans need help.

One of the first bills we passed under a structured rule in this Congress was to provide that relief, yet it sits in the Senate because they seek to choose which Americans get benefited by the Federal Government's relief efforts and which do not.

We are going to stand firmly in the corner of all Americans getting the support from the Federal Government that they deserve. We are not going to pick and choose.

Mr. Speaker, I certainly hope that my colleagues here across the aisle are going to march across to the other Chamber and insist to the United States Senate that it takes up that bill, that we establish a conference committee, and that we send this to the White House.

Mr. Speaker, I always appreciate the passion that Mr. Woodall brings to conversations, both here on the floor as well as in the two committees on which we are privileged to serve. I thank him for that and thank him for his concerns about how we move forward.

I believe this is moving forward. Today, we are moving forward. We set the tone of how we move forward. We establish our discretionary amount. We end the sequestration caps. We begin to move forward, and I think that is what we want to do.

It is fascinating. I note that Mr. Woodall, in his comments, mentioned you can't get all 435 Members to agree. I certainly understand that, and I appreciate it. We couldn't get one Member to offer the President's budget as an amendment.

The truth is that there is a failure of leadership here. This is a process that is new to me, but I certainly expected that the President would provide greater leadership on how to move forward. We have seen none from the White House, which I find troubling and I find puts us at a considerable disadvantage.

We need to move forward, nonetheless, Mr. Speaker, and that is what we are doing today.

I do know that, for me, the amount of discretionary investments we make will say a great deal about where we are going as a country and what our priorities are.

I think we need to make greater investments in education and in public health, highways and transit, veterans healthcare, agricultural research, workplace safety, K-12 education support, national parks, housing assistance and mortgage insurance, small business assistance, Head Start, food safety, scientific research and space exploration--God knows, as a percentage of GDP, we need to continue to invest dramatically in those--embassy security, Pell grants for higher education students, hazardous waste cleanup, waterway maintenance for commerce and recreation, weather forecasting, hurricane-proofing communities, forest and wildlife habitat management, conservation resources, patents and trademarks, consumer protections, and aviation safety.

The list goes on and on for the kind of investments we need to make to continue to make sure that America leads in the 21st century. That is what this does today. That is what this rule will do. That is what the resolution budget process starts today.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all my colleagues for their words of support for H.R. 2021, the Investing for the People Act. I especially thank Chairman Yarmuth and Ranking Member Womack for their work on our Nation's budget.

I also thank Chairman Pallone and Ranking Member Walden and all those who have worked on H.R. 1644, the Save the Internet Act.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule, and I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question.

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