Providing for Consideration of Senate Amendment to H.R. Affordable Insulin Now Act; Providing for Consideration of H.R. Fairness for Families Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1404 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows: H. Res. 1404
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to take from the Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 6833) to amend title XXVII of the Public Health Service Act, the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to establish requirements with respect to cost-sharing for certain insulin products, and for other purposes, with the Senate amendment thereto, and to consider in the House, without intervention of any point of order, a motion offered by the chair of the Committee on Appropriations or her designee that the House concur in the Senate amendment. The Senate amendment and the motion shall be considered as read. The motion shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the motion to its adoption without intervening motion.
Sec. 2. Upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 8987) to amend the Justice for United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Act to authorize appropriations for catch-up payments from the United States Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. An amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 117-68 shall be considered as adopted. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), 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. general leave
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, yesterday the Rules Committee met and reported a rule, House Resolution 1404, making in order a motion offered by the chair of the Committee on Appropriations, or her designee, to concur in the Senate amendment to H.R. 6833. The rule provides 1 hour of debate on the motion equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations.
The rule further provides for consideration of H.R. 8987, the Fairness for 9/11 Families Act, under a closed rule. The rule provides 1 hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary, and provides one motion to recommit.
Madam Speaker, I am sure we will have a spirited debate on this rule, but before we do, I want to begin by expressing my heartfelt sympathy for the people of Florida. The catastrophic devastation left behind by Hurricane Ian is unlike anything we have seen in quite some time.
Our hearts are with those whose lives have been lost and their loved ones, and we pray for those who are missing that they will be located safely and soon. If there is one thing we know, it is that the people of Florida are strong. This is not their first hurricane. They will recover and they will come back stronger than ever.
I want to thank all of the first responders who have sprung into action to save lives: from local police, fire, and EMS, all the way up to our Federal response at FEMA. The people of Florida ought to know that America stands with them. Part of standing with the people of Florida is passing this important legislation to keep the government open during this critical moment.
Madam Speaker, with less than 24 hours until the end of the fiscal year, today we are here to do our job. We, in Congress, have a responsibility to the American people to keep the lights on. In addition to preventing the furlough of thousands of Federal employees, averting a shutdown will also ensure that our constituents can continue to receive the vital government services that they need.
The last shutdown, when the Republicans were in charge of the House and the Senate and the White House, was the longest shutdown in our history. It cost our economy an astounding $11 billion.
In contrast, Democrats are doing our job. We are keeping the government open as we finish up bipartisan, bicameral negotiations on a longer-term fiscal year 2023 appropriations package.
This CR also provides Ukraine with the security, economic, and humanitarian assistance that they need to fight back against Russia's brutal invasion. With Russia holding fake elections to annex parts of Ukraine, the Ukrainian people urgently need our support to protect their families and defend global democracy.
Finally, Madam Speaker, I mentioned earlier the devastating hurricane in Florida. We also just had an awful hurricane in Puerto Rico. The people of Puerto Rico are still reeling from the damage of Hurricane Fiona. Also, the people of Alaska are recovering from a terrible typhoon.
This bill contains money to support communities across the United States as they recover from natural disasters.
Madam Speaker, we are talking about hurricane relief for God's sake. I am begging my Republican friends, can we please at least come together on providing relief to communities devastated by hurricanes?
Can we all agree that we ought not shut the government down in the middle of a major natural disaster response?
The funding in this bill will help families and small businesses get back on their feet and rebuilt from extreme weather events while repairing damage to critical infrastructure.
This is a bipartisan bill, Madam Speaker. It earned 72 votes in the Senate. I don't think you can get 72 votes in the Senate on what to have for lunch, let alone on government funding legislation.
Madam Speaker, I am going to again plead with my colleagues, do not vote against additional funding to help people recover from hurricane damage, please, especially my Republican friends from Florida. A vote against this CR is a vote against funding for help with hurricane recovery in your own State.
I just hope that we are not at the point where we have become so partisan and so polarized that we can't even agree on this.
Madam Speaker, this rule also includes H.R. 8987, the Fairness for 9/ 11 Families Act. This bill will ensure thousands of 9/11 families and victims who received some but not all of the compensation that they deserve are made whole.
Both of these measures deserve broad support today. Americans are depending on us to get this done.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I appreciate my friend from Pennsylvania reciting the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee's greatest hits, but let me remind people who are watching why we are here today.
We are here today to move two important pieces of legislation forward; one that would help 9/11 families, which I hope we all can agree is worth supporting; and the second is to make sure that the government doesn't shut down; that we continue to provide funding that will help aid some of the natural disasters that we are seeing happen all over this country.
While it is too early to have a damage assessment from Hurricane Ian and actually know what the true cost of all this is going to be, make no mistake, this CR will help. There is money for 2022 disasters and community development block grants for disaster recovery above the OMB request.
More importantly, we included language to give FEMA a full year's worth of funding up front, not just for the 2\1/2\-month CR period; and more help will come for Florida, as we find out what is needed.
Communities across America are currently dealing with record-breaking numbers of storms. According to The Washington Post this morning, ``Since 2017, an unprecedented number of storms rated Category 4 or stronger have lashed the U.S. shoreline: Harvey, Irma, Maria, Michael, Laura, Ida, and now Ian. They all qualify as `rapid intensification events,' when a storm's wind speeds increase by at least 35 miles within 24 hours.''
People should read The Washington Post about what is happening as a result of these storms.
We have an obligation to help all of these communities. But you know what won't help? A government shutdown in the midst of a natural disaster of this magnitude.
Again, I would point out to my colleagues here, we think it is unacceptable to ever shut down the Federal Government. My Republican friends obviously have a different point of view because when they were in charge, when they controlled the House, the Senate, and the White House, they shut the government down, the longest government shutdown in our history, and it was costly. To even contemplate doing that in the face of these natural disasters is unbelievable.
Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I appreciate the gentlewoman's comments, and I hope that she will vote for the rule because if the rule doesn't pass, we can't bring this bill up for a vote. I agree with her; this is incredibly important. So I hope all my colleagues will vote for the rule, not just to help 9/11 families, but also to keep the government open during this really critical time.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I am embarrassed for my friends on the other side of the aisle. I just saw the bill. I am looking at the bill, and all it does is ask for more reports, more paperwork. I don't know. I kind of think it is silly that that is going to fight crime, asking for more reports and more paperwork. Give me a break.
We are here today, Madam Speaker, to try to bring two important bills to the floor, one to help 9/11 families and the other, Madam Speaker, to keep the government open because if it shuts down amidst all of these natural disasters, things are going to be incredibly worse for everybody who right now is suffering. And this is what they come to the floor with? This is what they want to talk about?
If you want to talk about what they are about, let's look at their poorly named ``Commitment to America,'' which I guess is a rip-off on Contract with America, which basically would gut Social Security and Medicare. They want to ban abortion nationwide, and they want to make it easier for people to overturn the will of the American people in elections.
I mean, that is the radical agenda they are all pushing here.
Here we are, at this moment, trying to make sure that essential funding is there to help deal with these natural disasters, and this is what we get? This is like we hear the greatest hits from the National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee. They use Russian B-roll in their rollout of their Commitment to America. Come on.
At this moment, right now, we have two bills that, quite frankly, should enjoy huge bipartisan support. We ought to move forward to help the 9/11 families, and at the same time, we ought to keep this government open. Then, that gives us time to work out a longer term bill, which we can vote on after the election.
But turn on the news. Look at what is happening in Florida right now. Look at what happened in Puerto Rico. Look at what is happening in Alaska. People need help. We have a responsibility.
Look at what is happening in Ukraine. Do we support helping preserve democracy in Ukraine or not? That is what is at stake here.
So, we can try to cut a political ad on the House floor here. Fine. But let's not kind of make-believe that what my friends are trying to do is somehow real or will make any kind of a difference. It is a sound bite, plain and simple.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
My friend can yell all that she wants, but what I took exception to is the fact that a proposal that essentially does nothing more than call for more reports to be sent to the Committee on the Judiciary is somehow fighting crime.
I would also tell my friends, let's not talk about defunding the police when my friends on the other side of the aisle have Members that are now selling T-shirts to defund the FBI and law enforcement or the fact that many of them voted against bills last week that actually provided more funding to the police.
Come on. Reports somehow are going to fight crime? I mean, if that is your crime-fighting solution, well, America is in trouble.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me say this again: a reporting requirement. I mean, all of us are against violent crime, and we are against all the things that the gentleman listed. That is why we brought a group of bills to the floor last week to try to deal with some of these challenges. Again, many of my Republican colleagues voted against it.
I am not questioning why my friends bring these items to the floor. I know why they do it. It is politics 101. But I do have to say that I do have a problem when they come to the floor and say that they are making a proposal that will somehow do something. A reporting requirement, more paperwork to the Committee on the Judiciary, oh, boy, that is really going to stop carjackings, that is going to stop murder. Give me a break.
If you want to come up with something that actually does something, we are all willing to work with you. But to come to the floor to say, oh, a reporting requirement, more paperwork going to the Committee on the Judiciary is somehow going to do something to prevent crime, I mean, I don't know anybody who believes that.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, this morning, a resident of the State of Florida was interviewed, and he said that with Ian, his whole house was gone. Everything in his house was gone.
The people of South Carolina are facing Ian now. The people of the areas of Alaska and the people in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico have all faced an enormous surge and impact of hurricanes--lives lost, people still being rescued.
That is why the leadership of this Congress and the Members will join together, I hope in a unified manner, to recognize what our job is. Our job is to be the umbrella on a rainy day.
In this, those who will suffer in the coldness of the winter, I am reminded of the freeze in Texas. Of course, we had no electricity, but thank God for $1 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Some people are saying how grateful they are. Helping FEMA to be able to be on the ground, $2 billion for helping people recover their housing and infrastructure. They are obliterated in Florida, 1 million people without lights. Of course, we know about Jackson, Mississippi, and Flint, Michigan, $20 million for water and wastewater and other crises that we have had.
I want this Congress to stand up for not shutting the government down but taking its rightful responsibility and dealing with the crises of America.
We have done it with the Inflation Reduction Act. We want to take people over politics. We want to make sure that we have jobs, good healthcare, low cost. We want to do something.
My friend on the Committee on the Judiciary, I am always eager to work with you. We all are facing the crises that come about after the pandemic.
But thank God we have legislation that deals with safer communities and restricting gun trafficking. We have one that provides us with the opportunity for those cases that have been backlogged.
We have done the work as Democrats. We ask you to join us in this effort. The CR must pass. Ukraine is fighting for democracy. We are helping them. We must make a difference by keeping the government open.
Madam Speaker, I ask for support for the underlying rule.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I have great respect for the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), but I will take exception with his characterization of us passing messaging bills.
Let me just go through a few items here that we did pass and that have been signed into law:
The Honoring our PACT Act for our veterans.
The Inflation Reduction Act.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the biggest investment in infrastructure ever in this country. A bill, by the way, that some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted against, but they were at the announcement of moneys to rebuild bridges and roads in their district even though they voted against it.
The Postal Service Reform Act.
Protecting Medicare and American Farmers from Sequester Cuts Act.
The American Rescue Plan Act.
I could go on and on and on. These aren't messaging bills. These are major investments in our country that will have an impact for generations, that will help our children, that will help our senior citizens, that will help our veterans.
This is what we are supposed to be doing, helping uplift the American people, investing in our country. So that is not messaging. That is real work.
Today's bills aren't messaging bills, either. I mean, helping 9/11 families. That is not a messaging bill. That is real. It is something we should do. We ought to be together on that.
This continuing resolution, this is important, especially in light of all the natural disasters that are happening in this country right now.
Madam Speaker, this should be simple. We have an obligation to fund the government. We have a bipartisan bill, again, that had 72 votes in the Senate. We have a bipartisan bill that not only will keep the lights on but will provide critical funding to help communities devastated by recent natural disasters.
Now, House Republicans have made it clear that they would rather brag about their dangerous, extreme, unpopular agenda than do real work. All I can say to that is that Democrats are committed to putting people over politics.
The Republicans' radical agenda bans abortion, and we want to protect Americans' right to affordable, accessible healthcare and safeguard America's right to reproductive care.
We are here to defend Americans' right to vote. They want to make it easier to overturn elections.
We want to protect Social Security. You saw the agenda that the Republican leaders in the Senate unveiled. They gut Social Security.
There is a contrast here. But today, we are here to advance relief for communities hit by natural disasters, pass overdue benefits for 9/ 11 families, and keep the government running.
What does putting people over politics mean?
It means that we come together to make sure that the people of Florida have what they need to get through this terrible disaster.
It means that we are there for the people of Puerto Rico and that we are there for the people of Alaska, that we are there for people anywhere in this country, whether it is a red State or blue State, who are dealing with these natural catastrophes.
That is what this is about. If this went down and we shut the government down, the pain that people are already dealing with would only increase. Shame on us for doing that.
Now, I get it, Madam Speaker. There are some people here who don't really care about whether the government stays open or shuts down.
I remind you again, when my friends were in charge, when the Republicans controlled the House, when they controlled the Senate, when they controlled the White House, they shut the government down. They walked away. The longest shutdown in history. Billions and billions and billions of dollars it cost our economy.
We had to clean up their mess when we took over. Today, we are doing what is right for the American people, for all people. This is not about politics. This is about putting people over politics. I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule and the previous question.
The material previously referred to by Mr. Cole is as follows: Amendment to House Resolution 1404
At the end of the resolution, add the following:
Sec. 3. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the bill (H.R. 7967) to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act to direct district attorney and prosecutors offices to report to the Attorney General, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary; and (2) one motion to recommit.
Sec. 4. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H.R. 7967.
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Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
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