Providing for Consideration of Conference Report on H.R. 2112, Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 201
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. House Resolution 467 is a closed rule providing for consideration of H.R. 2112, the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, also known as the mini-bus.
Mr. Speaker, this conference report was approved by the conference committee on a wide bipartisan basis with all but one of 38 House and Senate conferees signing off on the report. The bill contains a continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown and continue Federal operations until December 16, 2011, or until Congress completes the remaining nine FY 2012 appropriations bills. It is important to highlight that this CR is a clean extension and includes no new funding provisions.
In accordance with the Budget Control Act, this conference report upholds the overall discretionary spending level of $1.043 trillion and includes $2.3 billion in disaster relief funding, which falls under the disaster designation cap set by the act.
The Agriculture agencies and programs in this bill will receive a total of $136.6 billion in both discretionary and mandatory funding, a reduction of $4.6 billion from the President's request based on the administration's midsession review. Discretionary funding in the legislation totals $19.8 billion, a reduction of $350 billion below last year's level and a cut of $2.5 billion from the President's request.
It is important to note that mandatory food and nutrition programs within the Department of Agriculture--including SNAP, also known as food stamps, as well as child nutrition--are funded at $98.6 billion. This funding will allow all individuals and families who meet the programs' criteria for aid to receive all the benefits available to them, and includes $3 billion in reserve funds in case of unanticipated increases in participation or food price increases.
Additionally, school lunch and school breakfast programs will receive $18.2 billion in mandatory funding in the agreement. This funding will help low-income students with free or reduced-price meals at schools in every community in the Nation.
The conference agreement includes provisions to prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals in the national school lunch and school breakfast programs. Without these provisions, the cost of these important programs would balloon by an additional $7 billion over the next 5 years, leaving States and local school districts in the lurch.
The WIC program is funded at $6.6 billion. This funding will provide supplemental foods, as well as nutritional and other preventative health services, to low-income participants.
I am pleased to report that the bill places restrictions on the implementation of a Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration, GIPSA, proposed rule that would have allowed harmful government interference in the private market for livestock and poultry.
The Commerce, Justice, and Science section of the conference report includes a base total of $52.7 billion, a decrease of $583 million below last year's level, and a decrease of almost $5 billion below the President's request.
The conference agreement includes numerous provisions that protect the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Three of these protections are made permanent law beginning in fiscal year 2012. These three provisions prohibit the Department of Justice from consolidating firearms sales records, electronically retrieving the records of former firearms dealers, and maintaining information on persons who have passed firearms background checks. The conference agreement also contains numerous 1-year firearms protections and new language prohibiting DOJ from requiring imported shotguns to meet a sporting purposes test.
The bill extends important provisions related to Guantanamo Bay, including a prohibition on the transfer or release of any detainee into the U.S. and a prohibition on the acquisition or construction of any new prison to house detainees. Under no circumstances should we endanger our communities by allowing some of the most dangerous people in the world to set foot on American soil.
The conference agreement includes important provisions to protect unborn human life, including a ban on abortion funding for Federal prisoners and a conscience protection for prison employees, and a prohibition on the Legal Services Corporation funds for organizations that engage in abortion-related litigation.
The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development section of the conference report includes a base total of $55.6 billion, representing a decrease of $19.4 billion below the President's request.
The conference agreement provides $500 million for National Infrastructure Investments, commonly referred to as the TIGER program, and includes language prioritizing rail, highway, and transit projects that improve or expand existing systems.
The conference agreement provides $39.9 billion for the Federal highway program, which is the annual spending level set by the latest Surface Transportation Extension Act.
The agreement provides $1.66 billion for the Federal Highway Administration's Emergency Relief program, which assists States in rebuilding Federal highways that were damaged by major natural disasters such as Hurricane Irene and the flooding of the Missouri River.
Included in the conference agreement is $12.5 billion for the FAA. The agreement provides $3.35 billion for airports and $2.7 billion for facilities and equipment. Language is included to restore the Block Aircraft Registry Request program, or BARR, and to prohibit future changes to the program. Also included is $878 million for FAA Next Generation funding to ease congestion and reduce air traffic delays.
The legislation includes a total of $37.3 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a decrease of $3.8 billion below last year's level and $4.7 billion below the President's request.
The bill does not extend the increased maximum loan limits for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. These entities have been under public scrutiny for their questionable business practices and use of billions in Federal bailout funds, some of which have been used for extravagant management bonuses. The bill does allow an increase in the conforming loan limits to the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, which is subject to greater congressional scrutiny and oversight.
Mr. Speaker, I am appreciative of the members of the conference committee and cognizant of the tough jobs they had to get to this bipartisan agreement coming to the floor for consideration. It is for this reason that I urge my colleagues to support the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Our colleagues across the aisle often try to distract from what are the real
issues facing our country and get into the weeds, and bills like this give them a perfect opportunity to do that. But when I'm home every weekend and talk to my constituents, what they're concerned about is they have incredible outrage with the inaction of the liberal Democrat-controlled Senate.
My constituents are aware of the many bills that the House has passed but which are stalled in the Senate, and many of these bills deal directly with promoting jobs, which remains the prevailing issue of so many Americans.
Our colleagues are upset about the quality of the free lunches that we provide. Well, we have more people in poverty and getting free lunches because the Democrat-controlled Senate refuses to work with the Republicans in the House to set an environment where more jobs can be created and fewer people would be dependent on food stamps and be dependent on getting free breakfast and free lunches in the schools.
My constituents understand the colossal failure of the Obama stimulus bill and the general policies that existed when the Democrats were in control of the House for 4 years. My constituents understand that government can create jobs only for more government bureaucrats. And those bureaucrats must justify their existence by creating more regulations that wind up killing more private sector jobs.
The liberal Democrat elites in Washington keep asking for one Republican jobs bill. Well, Mr. Speaker, we've passed at least 20 jobs bills that help the private sector--the only sector of our economy that can actually create real jobs through growth in their businesses.
The liberals keep buying into the false theory that government will create millions of jobs. The reality is that, unless we provide the private sector with an environment that is conducive to job creation, jobs will be very hard to come by.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans have been listening to our constituents, and we're acting to provide private business owners and entrepreneurs with the tools that they need to create jobs. However, the bills we pass and send over to the Senate just sit there and nothing is done with them.
Mr. Speaker, we could reduce the number of children, again, on free and reduced lunches by creating jobs and getting people out of poverty in this country. That's what we should be focused on right now. We could solve a lot of the problems in this country by doing that.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the rule before us today allows us to proceed to the general debate of a bill that encompasses three major appropriation measures. I want to thank the conferees for their work on this agreement.
As we move forward with the debate, we must keep in mind the dire fiscal situation that our country is in, and we must continue to work in a fiscally responsible manner.
With that, I urge my colleagues to vote for this rule. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.
The previous question was ordered.
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