North American Wetlands Conservation Extension Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, we live in an interesting age.

I rise in strong support of this legislation.

I have heard my Republican friends lament the fact that we have things in this bill that they don't like and apparently that the Senate doesn't like. I have been here long enough to know and to serve when the Republicans were in charge.

They passed bill after bill with partisan provisions that they knew President Obama wouldn't sign and that could not pass the United States Senate because they couldn't get enough Democrats to get to 60 votes. They knew that.

So both sides pass legislation that they think is good, notwithstanding the fact that the other side does not agree with some of the provisions in the bill.

But, Mr. Speaker, this bill responds to the needs of the American people at a time of crisis. The House passed the Heroes Act more than 4\1/2\ months ago.

Normally what would happen is when a bill goes to the Senate, they would pass a bill of their own unless they believed: Ladies and gentlemen of America, you are on your own. And States, as Senator McConnell said, you can go bankrupt.

The minority leader of this House said: Let's wait and see what happens.

And we waited and we waited and we waited, and 120,000 additional Americans have died since May 15.

How long are we going to wait?

The House did its job in May for the American people, yet the Republican Senate and President Trump have still not done theirs.

They talk about compromise on that side of the aisle and working together. So what did the Republican leader of the Senate do? There was a trillion-dollar offer on the table, so he came back with a compromise and cut it in half to $500 billion. And the only reason that bill got a majority of Republicans in the United States Senate--it didn't get a majority of the United States Senate; it did, because there are enough Republicans--is because they thought it wouldn't go anywhere, it was a message bill. That is the only reason it passed with 51. It didn't pass, of course, because it needed 60.

Now, let me tell you what John Boehner did and what Paul Ryan did when the Freedom Caucus wouldn't give them the votes, Mr. Speaker, for the Republicans to pass legislation that they knew was needed, the debt limit, fiscal bills. They knew they were needed. So what did John Boehner do? He walked across the aisle, talked to the Speaker, talked to me, and said, ``We need some votes,'' and we made a deal.

The ranking member of the Appropriations Committee is one of those people who wants the House to work. I am a friend of hers and I respect her, because she is a Member that I have experienced who wants to make it work.

But Senator McConnell doesn't walk across the aisle and say, Let's make a compromise.

So don't preach at us, Mr. Speaker. Don't preach at us about reaching across the aisle. We have seen tax bills that slam bam, there it goes, and so you come up with a bill.

Negotiations are ongoing right now. And I want to congratulate the Speaker of the House. She has been in Washington more than any of the rest of us in the last 6 months--I know that, because I talk to her on a regular basis--trying to get this to work, trying to make a deal.

Mr. Speaker, I applaud Secretary Mnuchin. There are some others who don't make deals, and who have a history of not making deals and have a history of undermining deals that Paul Ryan wanted to make or that John Boehner wanted to make. Not Democrats.

But negotiations are continuing, and I hope we will reach a bipartisan agreement.

Frankly, if we had reached a bipartisan agreement yesterday, we would not have this bill on the floor. If we had reached it the day before or the day before, we wouldn't have this bill on the floor, because we know we want a bill signed.

But we also know we want to let the American people know where we stand, not for just one bill that helps this group or that group or the other group, but all Americans who are suffering and are at risk. So we believe that this bill is a reasonable compromise.

That is why today we will pass a bill that achieves the goals of the Heroes Act and represents a reasonable compromise.

Some people, Mr. Speaker, are saying to themselves, This isn't reasonable.

Remember, McConnell goes from $1 trillion down to half a trillion, which clearly did not cover the needs. Every economist tells us that.

Notwithstanding the passage of this bill, House Democrats will continue to negotiate to reach the kind of bipartisan agreement that we believe is necessary to help Americans get through this crisis. The airlines need the money now, and we ought to be that close.

But our position is clear. The Federal Government cannot shirk its responsibilities to the people it serves, not just some of the people.

We have in this bill the help for small businesses that people on that side of the aisle have been talking about. We are talking about it. They need it.

It includes support for State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments.

I have a letter here--and letters can be sent from the National Governors Association only if they are unanimous--which says: ``Every major economist, regardless of party or ideological bent, came to the same conclusion after the 2007-2009 financial crisis: The lack of support for State and local governments slowed the Nation's economic growth for more than a decade. As we begin to recover and rebuild from the COVID- 19 crisis''--unanimously, Republican and Democratic Governors--``we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past,'' i.e., not giving aid to State and local governments.

That is what the Governors are saying, all of them, Republican and Democrat.

My Governor is a Republican. His name is Hogan. His father served here in the House of Representatives. He is one of those who came up, with Mr. Cuomo, with the amount of money that was needed by State and local governments.

Why do we aid State and local governments? Because they hire police. We hear about defunding police. They are hemorrhaging revenues and they cannot support the personnel they have, the police, fire, emergency medical response teams, sanitation workers, nurses at public hospitals. All of these State and local governments are critical if we are going to solve the economic problem and the COVID-19 problem.

While the Heroes Act provided the level of fiscal support unanimously recommended by the National Governors Association--I want to repeat that. This is not a Democratic idea. Unanimously, the Governors of our States, red and blue States, said we need this money--this bill recognizes the reality that--faced with a Senate Republican leader who suggested that the States go bankrupt--that level might not be possible.

So we reduced that sum in half, cut out $1 trillion of the proposal we thought had merit; actually, $1.2 trillion.

So we offer a compromise: 1 year of funding, cutting in half that which was in the Heroes Act, yet still sufficient to get us into next year.

This legislation renews the expanded emergency unemployment insurance benefits that millions of people are relying on.

And by the way, it goes to them, but what do they do with it, Mr. Speaker? They spend it in the economy at those small businesses that Republicans are worried about, that all of us are worried about.

When we give a family the sustenance that they need to support themselves and the family, they go spend it where? Small businesses and large businesses.

We give that $600 a week through the end of January 2021, which will help small businesses and the general economy.

It will provide another round of direct payments to Americans of $1,200 for each individual adult and $500 to eligible dependents to help families make ends meet.

I think all of you have voted--it might have been a voice vote on the CARES Act, but everybody voted for it. And we are making sure college students aren't left out.

Our bill offers a second round of the Paycheck Protection Program to help small businesses remain viable through the pandemic and includes additional support for workers in the airline, restaurant, and live- entertainment industries. It covers a whole lot of folks who need help.

For 4\1/2\ months after we passed the bill, the Senate has not sent us a single piece of legislation, not a single piece because Senator McConnell will not compromise so he can get votes from the Democrats, which he needs to pass a bill, just as John Boehner and Paul Ryan crossed the aisle because they needed the votes for bills they thought were critically important for our country.

To help reopen the economy safely, the bill also includes $75 billion for testing, contact tracing, and other public health initiatives.

And it provides a lifeline to the Postal Service. Now, I know that may be objectionable to some people because they may want to see the mail delayed, for whatever reasons.

I want to thank Chairwoman Lowey of the Appropriations Committee and all the other chairs and members of all of our committees who worked hard on this legislation. It includes input and contributions from many Members, including many of our outstanding freshmen.

This bill represents a substantial reduction, a 35 percent reduction. I tell my friends who served on the Appropriations Committee with me, if I was in charge and we wanted to make a deal and I said, ``Well, I will come down 35 percent,'' they would have taken it like that.

It is approximately the level of funding--somebody mentioned $2.2 trillion. The CARES Act was $2.2 trillion, and all of you voted for it. It was a voice vote, unanimous. I don't know specifically whether you were here or whether you would say, ``No, no. Silently, I voted no.'' Nobody voted against it, $2.2 trillion.

It is extraordinary the amount of money we are spending, Mr. Speaker. But then again, no one in this body, of whatever age, has experienced the crisis that America has found itself in over the last 8 months--no one.

Every economist said it required that kind of response, and that is why we voted for four bills in a bipartisan way. But then the leadership on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Speaker, said: Let's wait and see what happens.

And, as I said: 120,000 people have died. That is what happened.

We passed an emergency supplemental appropriations bill, 415-2. We passed the Families First Act, 363-40. We passed the CARES Act by voice vote. Nobody voted against it, at least audibly. And the Paycheck Protection Program and Healthcare Enhancement Act was passed by the House on April 23 by a vote of 383-5.

What has changed? The politics have changed.

The needs, Mr. Speaker, have not changed. All four of those bills passed the Senate and were signed into law. Some passed by unanimous consent by the United States Senate.

I urge President Trump and Senate Republicans to work with us to reach bipartisan agreement without further delay.

Yes, we have differences. But we have great needs, and I agree with those on the other side of the aisle and on this side of the aisle who said we must meet those needs if we are going to keep our economy going, keep our families intact, and make sure that we have jobs for the future.

Millions of American families, workers, and small business owners are looking to Congress for help.

Let us, Mr. Speaker, come together, as we have four times came together overwhelmingly and said--not this is a lot of money. It is a lot of money. I am boggled by the figures that we are dealing with. But I am also boggled by the challenge that we confront.

This bill represents a significant compromise, while addressing the priorities we share.

Mr. Speaker, I hope we can show the American people that we can come together to govern responsibly in this crisis and provide much-needed relief to the people we serve.

People pick out individual items in this bill and, unfortunately, deeply mischaracterize some of them. Fake facts are being debated on this floor, Mr. Speaker. I don't have the time to go into all those fake facts.

One of them, though, was that we are defunding the police. There was $600 million in the COPS program in the Heroes bill. Then, subsequently, we passed an appropriations bill at $343 million.

By the way, the Senate hasn't passed a single bill to fund anything-- anything--Mr. Speaker.

What did the President do? The President zero-funded--if you will check your budget--zero-funded the COPS program. Zero-funded it. Check it out.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for this bill, and I guarantee you that we are going to continue tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow to try to get an agreement that we can pass in the House and the Senate, and that the President will sign, because we understand the American people are in need. That is what this bill does, responds to them.

If the Senate doesn't like it, have them pass a bill. Let us go to conference. Let's get it done. We will be here to do it every day.

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