National Law Enforcement Museum Commemorative Coin Act

Floor Speech

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Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding in a very gracious and generous way. More importantly, I want to thank her for her tremendous leadership as chair of the Appropriations Committee to bring a bill to the floor that has shared values, meeting the needs of the American people. And I want to commend Ranking Member Kay Granger for her leadership, as well, so that we can have strong, bipartisan support in meeting the needs of the American people.

I congratulate Madam Chair for getting all of our bills done this summer. The gentlewoman worked around the clock and across the aisle to overcome any opposition and to craft a strong appropriation package that we are bringing to the floor.

As the gentlewoman mentioned, I am an appropriator, and when I served on committee I had always said to the administration and to others: When left to their own devices, our appropriators can get the job done. They have experience in working in a bipartisan way, they understand everyone's concerns, regional needs, and the rest, and that we must by the clock get the job done. I thank the gentlewoman for doing that and making today possible.

Madam Speaker, this weekend I was pleased to join a bipartisan delegation to observe the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge. We spent time in Luxembourg and in Belgium where so much of that conflict took place. We met with the leaders of the community, the king, the queen, and the archduke; and that was all wonderful.

But what was really important, and the purpose of our visit was to meet with our own veterans--now 75 years later, who are revisiting the site--and to thank them, to hear their ongoing stories, and to hear their purpose in fighting.

Some of them were as young as 18 years old at the Battle of the Bulge. Do the math. They are in their nineties. One of them told me he was 20, and one was 21. The oldest one is 98 years old now. But all of them were full of vitality and concern about our country as we go forward. We promised them in a tribute to their courage, their determination, and their patriotism that we know that our responsibility is to build a future worthy of their sacrifice and that we also want to always be ready to meet the needs of our men and women in uniform today as they protect and defend democracy and freedom as our valiant veterans did 75 years ago.

Mr. Conaway was with us on that trip--a very valued leader on that trip--and I think you will agree, Madam Speaker, that America was truly blessed by the courage of our veterans then and now.

So I am glad that in this legislation we meet the needs of those who are providing for our defense and the security of our country to make us the home of the brave and the land of the free.

I do believe that our success on this legislation began when working together we were able to come to an agreement on the caps in funding to make sure that although we obviously all support our national security, we want to be sure that people understood that we measure the strength of America not just in our military might but in the health, education, and well-being of the American people, and this part of the legislation does just that.

We will vote on the earlier part and now on the part that deals with, shall we say, the health and well-being of the American people. With this agreement we are investing in the good health of the American people. We are protecting the quality of affordable healthcare of millions as we permanently repeal healthcare taxes and block the President's ACA sabotage nuclear options by preventing him from ending silver loading and auto re-enrollment.

At the same time we are investing in innovation and the future of healthcare with robust funding for the National Institutes of Health that our distinguished colleague, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, mentioned, we continue our leadership to combat the opioid epidemic, and we honor our responsibility to our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico and the other territories.

Of course, we want more, and, of course, we need to get more at some point. But for now we are very pleased with the fact that we have 2 years' adequate funding to go forward. Again, I look forward to preparing further into the future.

While this legislation does not contain permanent fixes for everything, we are proud that it lays the groundwork for further progress to end the financial catastrophe of surprise billing, to lower prescription drug costs, and to extend robust funding for key health initiatives.

This appropriations package also achieves critical victories for, as I mentioned, our national security and the economic security of the American people. Our appropriations legislation makes America safer at home by funding gun violence research at the CDC and the National Institutes of Health for the first time in more than 20 years; and funding election security grants to protect against foreign attack which the minority, the Republicans, then the majority, refused to do last year.

These bills make workers and families stronger by protecting the pensions of 100,000 coal miners; reauthorizing the job-creating Export- Import Bank; extending the National Flood Insurance Program; protecting schools, small businesses, and other pillars of communities, as well as commercial interests by reauthorizing the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program and doing so in a timely fashion; extending key tax provisions through 2020 that encourage investments in clean energy, provide relief for families recovering from disasters, support investment in low- income communities with the low-income housing tax credit, and protect families facing high medical costs for the loss of home to foreclosure.

Again, this is very personal. People always talk about coming to Washington and having a seat at the table. The most important seat at the table for us is the seat at America's kitchen table where people talk about their plans for the future and how they intend to meet their financial obligations, whether it is the education of their children, the mortgage on their house, their medical expenses, or providing for their own pension future.

Personally and officially, I am proud that this legislation takes strong action to advance the health and well-being of America's children. The three most important issues, in my view, facing the Congress are the well-being of our children, our children, our children; strengthening Family First Prevention Services; securing record funding levels for Head Start, Child Care and Development Block Grants, and Title I schools; and extending funding for thousands of schools in rural communities across 41 States because there is no better investment that Congress can make than an investment in the education of our children.

By the way, there is nothing that we can do that brings more resources to the Federal Treasury than investing in education: early childhood, K-12, higher education, and lifetime learning training for our workers.

I also want to acknowledge the important investment that this legislation does in IDEA, meeting the needs of our children with additional challenges.

In this House our title and job description are one and the same: Representative. Today we must pass this legislation so that we can meet the needs of the people whom we are privileged to represent. I know that this is going to be a strong, bipartisan vote, and I think that is a very good thing for the health, the economic security, and the well- being of the American people.

I am grateful to Ranking Member Granger, Chairwoman Lowey, and all of the leadership of our subcommittees who made this successful day possible for us.

Madam Speaker, I urge a strong, bipartisan vote on minibus 1 and minibus 2, and, again, a great victory for our children, our children, our children.

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