Providing for Consideration of H.R. Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, before us today, we have a difficult vote. Like many of my Democratic colleagues, I would have preferred to vote on a clean debt ceiling bill. I signed a discharge petition, along with all of my Democratic colleagues to bring a debt ceiling bill to the House floor, but we couldn't get just five Republicans to join us to force that vote.

That is why we are here today because not just five Republicans could do that. I don't like the language in the bill to bypass environmental reviews and approve the Mountain Valley Pipeline. There are pipelines that have leaked and there are pipelines that have leaked.

I joined Representatives McClellan, Beyer, and others in the Virginia delegation in support of an amendment offered to remove that language, but it wasn't allowed to be voted upon. I don't like the permitting reform that strips NEPA of its authorities.

Instead of rolling back regulations, we should be adequately funding the agency so that staff can help projects be built in a timely and responsible manner. I don't like that tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans are protected. The Trump tax scam, which was not funded, raised the debt by $2 trillion, and not an effort was made to put more duty and responsibility on those individuals.

I sponsored a bill to make billionaires pay their fair share. They should. Despite all the things we don't like about this bill, including the addition of work requirements for SNAP recipients in their 50s, as Members of Congress, we have tough decisions to make and ultimately do what is best for our constituents and our country.

In my district, in particular, we have to protect the progress we have made in the last 2 years that is providing a boost to Memphis; for instance, in healthcare and energy savings we have secured for seniors and others throughout the district under the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

These investments are funding improvements and smart development in my district now, but Republicans have tried to defund them. We need to protect Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, but the Republican majority was trying to take away those benefits from over 20 million Americans.

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Mr. COHEN. Mr. Speaker, we protected Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare in these bills. We needed a clean debt ceiling. We didn't get it. The fact is, the Republicans brought us to this brink because they wanted to extract political damage on President Biden, and if the American people were there as collateral damage, so be it.

When Trump was President, they approved every extension of the debt relief, and yet when Biden is here, no. This is extortion, but we have to deal with it. It is for the benefit of our country and the world's economy, and I will vote ``yes.''

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