Expressing Support for Rural Communities Across the United States As Stewards of the Environment, Major Suppliers of United States Energy Resources, Critical Providers of Food Production and Manufacturing Capacity, and Drivers of National Economic Stability, and Recognizing the Work of the House of Representatives in the 119th Congress in Support of Those Vital Communities

Floor Speech

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Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I also wish to express my sympathy to the family of David Scott.

David was someone that I talked to a lot, who I considered a friend, and was always supportive of me. In his position as the chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture, he was always looking out for farm interests for not only farmers in his district but around the country, and he worked, of course, on the farm bill so many times over the years.

There were even times when I was working with him on some agriculture issues because, although I don't have many farms, we have Rutgers and the Cooperative Extension Service in my district. There were many issues that came before the committee that I worked with him on, so I will definitely miss him and am sorry about his passing.

Madam Speaker, I wish to speak about this bill today because I think that it is very unfortunate that this resolution is coming to the floor. Prices are soaring for the American people. Trump's reckless war of choice continues in Iran, and Republicans are spending valuable time here on the House floor bringing up an undeserved resolution to essentially pat themselves on the back and to pretend that they have supported rural communities when in fact they have not.

Trump and Republicans promised they would lower costs on day one, but Americans are over $5,000 poorer today because of their policies. That is per person.

Yet, rather than doing something to actually address the affordability crisis, they are making it worse. House Republicans are bringing up a resolution that does nothing. It is just commemorative. It is not going to make life better for one American living in rural America. Instead, it is a pathetic attempt, in my opinion, for Republicans to show that they care about rural America when their actions show the exact opposite.

Thanks to Trump's reckless war in Iran, diesel prices are now over $5 per gallon, drastically increasing costs for farmers across the country. The war has also caused fertilizer prices to skyrocket, leaving 70 percent of American farmers unable to pay for all their fertilizer needs.

Republicans promised to bring a bill to the floor that would allow a higher blend of ethanol in gasoline, known as E15, to be sold year- round, but they haven't. Year-round E15 would greatly benefit corn farmers in rural America, while also saving drivers money. Republicans have also done nothing to address the massive amount of energy being consumed by data centers that are rapidly expanding in rural areas, driving up energy costs.

Turning to health, Republicans have created a healthcare affordability crisis that is disproportionately impacting rural Americans. Republicans' big, ugly bill cut Americans' healthcare by more than a trillion dollars, the largest cut in our Nation's history, which will result in 15 million people losing their health coverage. These deep cuts are hurting rural Americans the most. Rural clinics are already being forced to close their doors. Hospitals in rural communities are shutting down maternity care units and laying off healthcare workers. Another 300 rural hospitals are likely to shutter, closing down altogether or reducing services. This is driving massive increases in uncompensated care.

The big, ugly bill made unprecedented cuts to Federal Medicaid spending. This will have a disproportionate impact on children and disabled people in rural areas who are more likely to rely on Medicaid. Republicans will claim that a temporary $50 billion slush fund, representing just 5 percent of the $1 trillion cut to healthcare, will somehow overcome the long-term suffering of rural providers in communities that rely heavily on Medicaid. This is false. The slush fund is temporary while the cuts are permanent, and it can be used for an array of purposes other than payments to struggling rural health providers. The $1 trillion in healthcare cuts will compound over time, devastating the healthcare safety net in rural communities far into the future.

Republicans have also refused to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, driving up healthcare premiums for rural Americans. Rural residents' premiums are increasing by an astonishing 107 percent, and rural Americans are facing thousands of dollars in additional out-of- pocket costs.

As rural Americans lose their healthcare coverage and watch their doctors' offices and hospitals shut down critical services, congressional Republicans are doing absolutely nothing to fix the problem that they created.

Despite the false words in this resolution, House Republicans have done nothing meaningful to expand internet access for rural America.

In the last 15 months, Republicans rescinded billions of dollars from public broadcasting stations that serve rural areas with programming and emergency alerts. They have withheld broadband investment from rural and Tribal communities. They sabotaged the BEAD program with inferior broadband technologies to save money--supposedly to save money. It doesn't really. And they topped it all off with the fact that House Republicans cheered as the Trump administration tore WiFi out of rural schoolbuses. It is clear that rural Americans are not being served by Republicans. They are frankly being ripped off.

This resolution also pats Republicans on the back for supposedly bolstering manufacturing capacity in rural communities, but the reality is Republican policies are harming the manufacturing sector. Manufacturers are reeling from the uncertainty of Trump's chaotic tariff strategy. These tariffs have raised costs for manufacturers and could reduce manufacturing investments in the U.S. by $490 billion in the next 5 years.

Mr. Speaker, if Republicans really want to show rural Americans they care about them, they would roll up their sleeves and actually put together bills, not meaningless commemorative resolutions, that would actually make a difference, but this Republican majority is simply not capable of that.

I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. PALLONE. Stansbury).

Mr. Speaker, I have to say that I am very proud of the two speakers who preceded me on the Democratic side because they represent rural districts, and I think they understand why this commemorative pat on the back that we are voting on today is really not deserved and simply not accurate.

I said at the Rules Committee that my mother used to use a phrase: Self-praise stinks. Frankly, regardless of what is in the resolution, the idea of bringing a resolution to the floor that has no impact whatsoever but just says how wonderful we are is kind of absurd in itself--the very idea that we should waste time on the floor on what I would call commemorative resolutions that have no substantive impact whatsoever but just say how wonderful we are.

Whether you are saying the Republicans are wonderful or the Democrats are wonderful or all of us are wonderful makes absolutely no sense to me because it is just self-praise, and frankly, that does stink.

That is all this is. There is nothing in here that is going to make a difference either way. It is just an effort by the Republicans to say we have done all these wonderful things for rural America when, in fact, they haven't.

If they really wanted to do something, they wouldn't bring commemorative resolutions to the floor. They would actually try to pass some legislation that addresses the concerns right now of Americans living in rural America.

Mr. Speaker, for all those reasons, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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