Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5973, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013; and Providing for Consideration of HR. 5972, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2013
Floor Speech
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Ms. FOXX. House Resolution 697 provides for an open rule providing for consideration of two bills, H.R. 5973, which is a bill making appropriations for fiscal year 2013 for Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration and related agencies, and H.R. 5972, the fiscal year 2013 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are offering yet another open rule, something that our liberal Democrat colleagues gleefully denied this House when they held the gavel. Once again, House Republicans continue our commitment to an open appropriations process in which all Members from both parties have an opportunity to influence the final legislative product.
In fact, this rule represents the eleventh open rule the Rules Committee has reported to the House thus far in the 112th Congress, which is in stark contrast to the 111th, in which the House considered a grand total of zero open rules.
I want to thank my colleagues from the Appropriations Committee for their leadership and hard work in producing the two bills referenced in this rule. H.R. 5973 includes $19.4 billion in discretionary funding, which represents a cut of $365 million below last year's level. H.R. 5972 provides a total of $51.6 billion in discretionary spending for the departments and agencies funded in the bill for fiscal 2013, which is a level representing $3.9 billion below last year's level.
While my liberal colleagues would undoubtedly prefer to borrow and spend more and continue to ignore the dire fiscal realities of our country, House Republicans remain committed to reining in wasteful spending, even if it involves making difficult and sometimes unpopular decisions in order to save our country from fiscal ruin.
The simple truth is we cannot afford to fund every program at the bloated levels that, for many years, kept political promises but, in the end, hurt the fiscal stability of our country. It would be unconscionable to continue indebting future generations to creditors like China without working to reduce Federal spending, which is the real driver of our deficit.
These are important bills, Mr. Speaker, and I'm proud that House Republicans, led by our esteemed Rules Committee Chairman Dreier, have embraced an open process to consider this legislation. We welcome the support of our Democrat colleagues on final passage of the underlying legislation.
At this time, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, one of the bills that will seek consideration under this open rule is H.R. 5973, which primarily funds agriculture and nutrition programs. The legislation contains discretionary funding, as well as required mandatory funding for food and nutrition programs within the Department of Agriculture. This includes funding for the special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children, or WIC, the food stamp, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, and the child nutrition programs.
The bill provides $6.9 billion in discretionary funding for WIC, which, contrary to what liberals suggest, is $303.5 million above last year's level. This program provides supplemental nutritional foods needed by pregnant and nursing mothers, babies, and young children. Language is included for oversight and monitoring requirements to ensure the proper use of taxpayer dollars, as well as food price tracking to ensure necessary resources continue serving those eligible for program benefits.
The bill provides for $19.7 billion in required mandatory funding outside of the discretionary funding jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee for child nutrition programs, which is $1.5 billion above last year's level. The bill provides for $80 billion in required mandatory spending, which is, again, outside of the discretionary funding jurisdiction of the Appropriations Committee, for SNAP, the food stamp program. This is $408 million below last year's level.
Since food stamps or SNAP spending is driven by program participation, the spending is called mandatory. This legislation also includes new stringent reporting requirements to help weed out and eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in the program, such as a requirement for States to include the fraud hotline number on all EBT cards, a directive that the Secretary of Agriculture ban fraudulent vendors, and a requirement for States to share data with enforcement agencies.
The legislation includes $996 million for food safety and inspection programs, which is equal to the President's budget request, and a decrease of $9 million below last year's level. These mandatory inspection activities, which play a significant role in maintaining the safety and productivity of the country's $832 billion meat and poultry industry, help maintain critical meat, poultry, and egg product inspection and testing activities and support the implementation of a poultry inspection program to improve safety and inspection efficiency. This voluntary inspection program is expected to reduce government costs by $85 million to $95 million over 3 years and reduce costs to private businesses by a total of $250 million.
The FDA receives a total of almost $2.5 billion in discretionary funding in the bill, representing a 0.7 percent or $16.3 million reduction below last year's level. Total funding for the FDA, including user fees, is $3.8 billion.
These are just some of the priorities outlined in the underlying legislation. I look forward to hearing from committee leaders, who will provide further discussion of various elements of the legislation at the time the bill is debated.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, the other bill that will benefit from consideration under this open rule is H.R. 5972, which provides funding aimed at supporting a vibrant and safe transportation infrastructure while making the difficult decisions needed to balance the budget.
The bill includes $17.6 billion in discretionary appropriations for the Department of Transportation for fiscal year 2013. This is $69 million below last year's level. The bill designates $39.1 billion from the highway trust fund for the Federal highway program, which is the same level provided last year.
However, the committee recognizes that since the highway program still requires reauthorization and the funding level provided in the bill may change upon the enactment of a highway authorization bill for the next fiscal year, the Appropriations Committee is prepared to support a differing highway trust fund spending level should a new multiyear authorization bill be enacted.
Included in the legislation is $12.6 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration, which is $91 million above last year's level. The bill provides nearly $1 billion for the FAA's Next Generation Air Transportation System, otherwise known as NextGen, allowing the FAA to move forward with the next step in modernizing the Nation's air control and airport system. The bill also supports operations and staffing, which will help ease congestion and reduce delays for travelers in U.S. airspace while rejecting the administration's proposals for new aviation fees.
The legislation contains funding for the various transportation safety programs and agencies within the Department of Transportation. This includes $776 million in both mandatory and discretionary funding for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, representing a reduction of $23.8 million below last year; $551 million for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, representing a reduction of $2.6 million below last year; and $177 million for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which is $4 million above last year's level.
The legislation includes a total of $33.6 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which is $3.8 billion below last year's level. The bill wastes no funding on any new, unauthorized ``sustainable,'' ``livable,'' or ``green'' community development programs. $26.3 billion is included in the bill for public and Indian housing, representing an increase of $759 million above last year's level.
Within this total, the bill provides funding to renew benefits for every single individual and family currently receiving assistance and ensures that no critical benefits are eliminated or canceled. The bill also fully funds the President's request for veterans' housing at $75 million and Native American block grants at $650 million.
Housing programs within the bill are funded at $9.3 billion, representing a reduction of $361 million below last year's level and $49 million below the request. Within this total, the bill provides sufficient funding for the most vulnerable populations, including $165 million for housing for the disabled, an increase of $15 million over last year, and $425 million for housing for the elderly, again, an increase of $50 million above last year.
These are just some of the priorities outlined in the underlying legislation. Again, I look forward to hearing from committee leaders who will provide further discussion of the various elements of the legislation.
With that, I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues are talking about the fact that we are going to have a district work period next week. The district work period is because next week we are celebrating the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, one of the most important holidays in this country.
Our colleagues across the aisle want to create more dependence in this country. They are as far away from the Founders of this country as you can be in terms of what makes this country unique and what makes it so great.
We don't need more dependence in this country, Mr. Speaker. We need to celebrate what makes this country great, what makes us unique. It's the independence of this country and the independence of citizens and their ability to take care of themselves and to personally take care of each other and not continue to look to the nanny state that our friends would create and have tried to create over the years.
These are very difficult times, Mr. Speaker. We all know that. But it's important that the American people understand that House Republicans have repeatedly worked to find common ground with the President and Senate Democrats and have passed several bipartisan bills that would improve this economy which has been so damaged by the policies of the left and this President.
Several proposals supported even by the President have passed the House and have been signed into law, including trade pacts, a bipartisan veterans hiring bill, and a repeal of the IRS withholding tax on job creators. But the President's own job council has embraced many of the job proposals advocated by Republicans but ignored by the President himself.
The simple truth is that President Obama's attempt supported by our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, and by them only, to stimulate the economy by growing government has failed.
But you don't have to take my word for it, Mr. Speaker. Just look at the facts: The recent jobs report showed that the U.S. gained only 69,000 jobs in the month of May.
May marked the 40th consecutive month that the unemployment rate has remained above 8 percent, repudiating the administration's pledge that unemployment would remain below 8 percent if the Democrat 2009 stimulus plan became law. Lest we forget, it was the Obama administration which claimed unemployment would be below 6 percent today if the $1.178 trillion Democrat ``stimulus'' was signed into law.
At the current rate of job growth, if the United States continues to struggle under the failed policies that have produced the ``Obama economy'' and adds only 69,000 jobs each month in the future, it would take a total of 10 years and 5 months--until June 2018--to regain all the jobs lost during the latest recession, which is longer than the 8 years it took to regain the jobs lost during the Great Depression.
But even these figures, Mr. Speaker, hide the fact that the rate of underemployment, or real unemployment, which counts those who want to work but have stopped searching in this economy and those who are forced to work part-time because they cannot find full employment, is 14.5 percent or higher.
Also troubling is the realization that since 2008, which is the year President Obama was elected, median family income has declined by $1,154, falling to its lowest level since 1996. As a March 2012, the number of Americans receiving food stamps was 46.4 million, which is the third most in any month in history and up 80,000 from February. Today, 15 percent of Americans receive food stamps, representing an increase of 45 percent since President Obama took office.
Mr. Speaker, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to continue the failed policies they began in 2007 and instituted for 4 years and worked with President Obama for 2 years on. Fortunately, Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are working to improve the dismal conditions imposed by the liberal regime that dominated Washington, D.C., for far too long.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. I need to remind my colleague across the aisle we're not debating an adjournment resolution here today. I also need to remind my colleague across the aisle that it was the Democrats that set this student loan problem up. They made promises in 2006 to the American people they couldn't keep; and so they set up a time bomb, actually, so that the interest rates on the student loans would go back up because, again, they made promises they couldn't keep about lowering the rate of interest.
It affects a very small number of students, and it only affects them when they graduate from college, Mr. Speaker. If the Obama economy weren't so lousy and only 50 percent of the students graduating were getting jobs, it really wouldn't be that big an issue because it's a very small amount of money to the students. And if they had jobs, they wouldn't be quite so concerned about it. They only have to pay those loans back after they graduate because we're subsidizing interest while they are in school.
So I think our colleagues don't really want to go in that direction and talk about blaming Republicans for this mess with student loans, since they created it. And if the students were getting jobs, most of them wouldn't be as concerned about it as they are now.
Also, on the transportation bill that our colleagues tout so well, again, it fits right into their philosophy of borrow, borrow, borrow; spend, spend, spend. It is not a responsible bill because the Republican bill would stay within the limits of the revenue that we get from the highway trust fund. But they just want to borrow from the general fund and make our situation worse.
Mr. Speaker, it seems clear to everyone except the liberal leadership that job creators are bogged down by overly burdensome Federal regulations that prevent job creation and hinder economic growth. These regulations are particularly damaging for the real job creators in the country: small business owners. The Federal Government may create jobs, but they are not sustainable jobs, and they are a drag on the economy.
However, House Republicans recognize the need to remove onerous, redundant Federal regulations that are so harmful to small businesses and impede private sector investment and job creation. In order to ease the regulatory burden on the economy and to promote job creation, House Republicans have worked to advance legislation to rein in the unaccountable Federal regulatory apparatus and continue to pursue innovative initiatives such as my bill, H.R. 373, the Unfunded Mandates Information and Transparency Act, which would help improve transparency and accountability by disclosing costs to Federal mandates that would otherwise remain hidden from public scrutiny.
House Republicans appreciate that America's Tax Code has grown overly complicated and cumbersome, filled with loopholes and giveaways and is fundamentally unfair. That's why the House Republican plan for America's job creators recognizes the need to eliminate the special interest tax breaks that litter the Tax Code and reduce our overall tax rate to no more than 25 percent for business and individuals, including small business owners. This would make the Tax Code flatter, fairer, and simpler. Commonsense changes to the Tax Code would ensure that everyone pays his or her fair share, lessens the burden on families, generates economic expansion, and creates jobs by making Americans more competitive.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, I don't know about my colleagues across the aisle, it's not a paid vacation for me. I go home and spend time with my constituents and hear from them what's of concern. Maybe they're on vacation, but I know the people on our side of the aisle are not on vacation. They're working hard for the American people, and I reserve the balance of my time.
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Ms. FOXX. Mr. Speaker, again, next week is the Fourth of July. We are going to be celebrating Independence Day, and I would like to say that I don't believe the job of the Federal Government is to provide things to citizens but to preserve our liberty, and that's what next week should be reminding us of.
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are aware of the clear mandate the American people gave us. Our charge is to reduce the crushing debt that our country is currently carrying. According to the Senate Budget Committee, debt grew four times faster under President Obama than Clinton or Bush, with President Obama already having amassed more debt since taking office than did President Bush during his entire two terms in office. Today, the national debt is over $15 trillion, which amounts to nearly $48,000 for every man, woman and child in America.
It's clear without a change in leadership in the White House and Senate, the legacy we are apt to leave our children and grandchildren will be a crushing debt burden and a weaker, less secure, and less prosperous Nation. This is simply unacceptable.
The Federal Government's current budget deficits are simply unsustainable. During these tough economic times, American families are getting by on less, and the government should do the same.
When the Democrat elites were in the majority, they pushed a job-killing agenda starting with the $1 trillion failed stimulus package, followed by a massive job-killing tax hike in the form of cap-and-trade, then the job-killing ObamaCare, all the while leaving our country with record debts and deficits as unemployment skyrocketed. Recognizing that government has gotten too expensive, Republicans are here to stop the senseless Obama spending binge. That's why I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying legislation.
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