Providing for Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF MOTIONS TO SUSPEND THE RULES -- (House of Representatives - December 18, 2005)
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 631 and ask for its immediate consideration.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
This resolution provides that certain specified measures may be considered under suspension of the rules at any time on the legislative day of Sunday, December 18, 2005.
Mr. Speaker, we are gathered here on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in Washington, D.C., December 18, 2005. We have had our priest to open up this beautiful House today, asking that America and Americans understand our responsibilities. We are here today because we still have work yet to be done, but there are people that we need to give thanks to.
Mr. Speaker, our families expected us home weeks ago, but we are here because we have an obligation and a duty.
Mr. Speaker, we are here today under protection of members of the Capitol Hill Police Department, members of the United States military who protect our great country, our staffs, as well as the people who work for the United States House of Representatives who serve with honor and distinction. We deserve to give them thanks for all that they have done on what surely will be the last day of this first session of Congress. But there is still much work left to be done, and we recognize that we are here to do that.
The Republican leadership of this House has set forth yet again a positive legislative agenda for the remainder of this week and the balance of this first session of the 109th Congress. The goal of this plan is to address a number of outstanding issues that still remain on Congress' calendar before we adjourn, and we must utilize this schedule to make sure we maintain our commitment to improving America's economic and national security.
One of the things, Mr. Speaker, that sets America apart from other nations is that we do not expect others to do the work for us. We take part and get it done ourselves, and that is what this Congress is doing.
Over the past year, we have passed a number of important new education, health care, trade, tax and national security bills that will keep America safer and healthier, create new jobs and improve our economy. This rule will allow the House to consider a number of additional bills today under suspension of the rules that will ensure that Congress can complete more additional work necessary before we go home for the holidays.
This rule makes in order the consideration of eight bills under suspension of the rules. These bills will accomplish important domestic goals such as reforming the Federal deposit insurance system and reauthorizing the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant program through March 31, 2006.
The suspension authority allows us to consider necessary and noncontroversial items such as H.R. 4501, which amends the Passport Act in order to comply with the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004; a bill to authorize the transfer of items in the War Reserves Stockpile; and H.R. 2329, to allow an officer of a foreign government to receive an award under the Department of State Rewards Program under certain circumstances.
This rule also recognizes the importance of democracy throughout the world. H. Con. Res. 284 expresses the sense of Congress with respect to the 2005 presidential and parliamentary elections in Egypt. Another resolution, H. Res. 545, expresses the sense of the House of Representatives on the arrest of Sanjar Umarov in Uzbekistan.
Finally, we have a great opportunity today to honor a very dear friend of mine and a friend of this House, Helen Sewell, as part of the suspension calendar today. This resolution honors Helen for her outstanding service to the United States House of Representatives throughout her work in the Republican cloakroom. During this time, Helen has not only touched the lives of countless Members who have served in this body but also counts President Ford, former President George Herbert Walker Bush and George W. Bush as good friends. It is an honor to stand here today and to join my colleagues in recognizing Helen Sewell for her over 70 years of service in the United States Congress.
All of these bills scheduled for consideration today by the House leadership are on behalf of the American public who enjoy broad support from both Members of the majority and the minority parties.
This rule simply provides us with the tools needed to ensure that all of this important work is completed before we adjourn and leave Washington to join our families and our communities to celebrate the holidays. Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this noncontroversial and balanced bill.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from Massachusetts, who has very well articulated some of the differences that exist in this body. Our ability to work through those differences is why we come to work.
We recognize and know that we began this year with a presentation of the State of the Union by the President of the United States who clearly outlined those things which would be important goals for the year, not only for Congress but for the American people and certainly those things that deal with the war in Iraq.
My party, the Republican Party, has been very conscientious about those things which we believe we told the American people that we would do last November. We reiterated we would not raise taxes, as the Democrat Party wanted to do. We indicated that we would not cut and run from the war, which is what many people in the Democrat Party want to do. We recognize that those things that are ahead of us are very difficult choices that have to be made.
We have concentrated our activities on an attempt to streamline the budget process and make ourselves available to working with government for more efficiency. We accomplished for the first time this year a chance for all of our appropriations bills to be done by the July 4 break. Given the world as it was, that was a great idea. But we then were struck with a number of the largest hurricanes that have ever hit the United States of America, the largest storms in the history of the world.
We have worked through adversity. It has not been easy. It has caused great consternation throughout the United States. But I am pleased to tell you that this Congress has still come to work, we have debated the ideas, and it is the Republican Party that has the responsibility as a result of our being the majority party to come up with a plan of how to lead.
We have attempted to work as much as possible with the President of the United States and with our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol in the United States Senate on those things that would empower America. One of those things which we think we have done a very good job on is to say that we disagree with the rhetoric that says we have to raise taxes; that we have to increase spending; that we have to have government to be the answer.
We still reject those ideas here on what we think will be the last day of the first session of the 109th Congress; I still reject that in the face of adversity from the Democrat Party and those elements today who bring their case forward. We respect those thoughts and ideas. I respect very much the disagreement that we have in the Rules Committee on a regular basis. The articulation not only by the gentleman from Massachusetts but by others is very measured and very well said. However, we simply disagree with that; and that is why we will proceed the way in which we do. I respect our colleagues who bring adversity and their thoughts to the floor, and we will continue to do that today.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, we have had an opportunity again today to hear wonderful debate on the floor of the House of Representatives, the gentleman from Cleveland, speaking about some of those things which he deeply believes in. I also have a deep belief that we should be drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
The American way of life, our ability to have energy independence, the opportunity for us to be able to explore for and find energy will determine, in my opinion, the success or failure of the economy of the United States. I do understand that many people who talk about this new way of life simply want us to ride bicycles and to destroy our economy to where we are no better or no worse than a Third World nation.
America, I believe, has set itself on a course where we believe that there is no problem bigger than a solution, and that we will find those avenues through research and development that can lead us on. An example of this would be we have utilized technology in our past for some 25 years. We have used about 21 million barrels of oil a day. It has been about constant what our utilization has been in the United States, and yet we continue to grow our economy. We continue to utilize these things with an increased population through efficiency.
The gentleman from Ohio had a chance to vote for a comprehensive energy bill just this year, a comprehensive energy bill that would put the Federal Government at the apex, at the forefront of making sure that we would lead the way through the government of finding and utilizing new technologies. The government will create a critical mass as a result of the spending which we will do to change government buildings and the way we do business to the most efficient forms that are available to us now and to create the future.
But I would say that this body, Mr. Speaker, needs to be mindful of a future that we are not afraid of, that the past which some of our Members would want us to go to find this opportunity for a new world with tribes and with global people who have been incapable of solving their own problems and addressing change is not the direction we should go.
We need to support an economy. We need to move forward to make sure we are solving the world's problems. Poverty and hunger are still problems in this world. We have opportunity today, as we handle bills, to solve some of the most basic problems through research and development, through medicine, and the opportunity for us to go to world leaders like Johns Hopkins University Medical Center, a leading edge in technologists and research and development people, people out at Stanford University Medical Center, like Dr. Bill Mobley, who are looking at genes and gene therapy and the opportunity through research and development to solve problems.
These problems, Mr. Speaker, are what America develops and spends their precious resources on to help the people of the world.
Yes, we know that there are people who want to go back and who want us to ride bicycles everywhere we go and to have an economy that is far different and do not do trade with the world, and isolate America, and cut and run from the war, and do not accept the responsibilities of the world leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I reject that thought process. I believe it will be done through the constant prodding and leadership of this House of Representatives, through our Speaker, DENNIS HASTERT, and through committee chairman like DAVID DREIER from the Rules Committee, who give of themselves some 27 years of service as Mr. Dreier has given. Yes, we will even talk about years of service for Helen Sewell, who for over 70 years came to work almost every day for the benefit of America's future.
This is simply an experiment that we are engaged in, Mr. Speaker. There is no blueprint. There is no direction to say how we will handle things in the future, for we know not, any of us, what lies ahead of us.
But I have the confidence that the Republican Party and the things which we have done and will do will lead this great Nation, and the people will understand a vision, and we shall not perish. In God we trust.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for the opportunity for us to be here today and his collegial support of this rule. The gentleman very clearly understands as a result of his career that he has spent not only serving as a member of professional staff but also as a Member of Congress that Congress does engage in a lot of issues and ideas.
I would submit to him two things: Number one, that the process that we are going through is not perfect. It has existed this way because we have chosen the form of government that we have whereby two bodies get together on pieces of legislation that are of importance. This is something that we have lived through for a long period of time.
I would say to the gentleman that I respect his disagreement about how we should do everything in the day, and in the light of day and hold everything for days and let everybody know. In fact, almost every single piece of any bill has been debated and voted on. There are positions that Senators and Members of this House have taken that I hope are included. I hope that even though they may not be something that was completely understood by one body or another, they were well thought through thoughts and ideas that would be contained.
I believe that the idea of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one that has been debated in this country for over 10 or 12 years. It is time for resolution. For someone that does not understand that putting this on the DOD bill would be appropriate, I wonder who uses more energy than anyone, and it would probably be the Department of Defense. I think there is an intrinsic interest in us making sure that our own security of this country is participated in by and as a result of this being on the bill.
Mr. Speaker, lastly, I disagree with those who say that we need a change of leadership.
I do recognize that the other side, the Democrat Party, has different ideas about how to do things. But I am proud of my leadership, and I believe that the service of Dennis Hastert and those that are committee chairmen and those that are part of our leadership have stood the test of time to make sure that we are open and ready to do business, that we have the leading-edge thought process of this great Nation, that we are open to hearing from those who can help lead us to the greater pathways, and lastly, that we work with those constitutionally elected officials in a process to make sure that our Constitution is alive and well and a model to the world.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud of Dennis Hastert and his leadership of this House of Representatives and those Members, whether they be from Iowa, Texas, California or Massachusetts, who come to this great body for service to this great Nation. Once again, I am proud of that which we do.
AMENDMENT OFFERED BY MR. SESSIONS
Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I offer an amendment.
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Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, again I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this rule to provide that suspensions will be in order at any time on the legislative day of December 18, 2005.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the amendment and on the resolution.
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