No Subsidies Without Verification Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I rise today to present H.R. 2775. This legislation will raise the Nation's debt ceiling to avoid default, reopen the doors of the Federal Government, and end this unfortunate shutdown.

The legislation before us is Senate amendments to H.R. 2775. The Senate has just passed this bill, and now it is up to the House to send it to the President for his signature. It is the product of a final agreement between Republicans and Democrats to help put us back on stable ground with an open government and without the threat of default as we look to find a long-term comprehensive solution to our multitude of fiscal problems.

First and foremost, it provides critical funding for operating the Federal Government at the current annual rate of $986 billion through January 15 of next year to end the government shutdown.

The resolution includes a limited number of noncontroversial or technical changes called ``anomalies.'' Many have already been passed by the House and the Senate. A few are new, such as provisions to ensure the smooth reopening of the government, to provide due compensation for Federal employees and other funding for shutdown costs, to provide funding for the FAA to continue current operations without interruption, and so on. These have been included to prevent irrevocable harm to vital government programs, to continue critical services, and to ensure good governance.

To be clear, Madam Speaker, the CR portion of this resolution is virtually clean and is essentially identical to the legislation I introduced in the House in early September.

Secondly, this legislation will increase the debt limit until February 7 of next year. By extending our borrowing ability, these amendments will avoid the damage a default would cause to our recovering economy, to businesses large and small, and to our people who desperately need a stable economy and continued job growth.

Lastly, the resolution before us will help protect against fraud and abuse by requiring income verifications for individuals seeking subsidies under the ObamaCare act.

Essentially, this bill before us tonight allows us to move on. It deals with the Nation's immediate short-term problem and allows time for Congress to address the broader picture: what the real drivers of our debt are, how we can keep from reaching the debt limit in the future, and how we avoid staggering from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis.

After 2 long weeks, it is time to end the government shutdown. It is time to take the threat of default off the table. It is time to restore some sanity to this place. To do this, we have all got to give a little.

Clearly no one on either side has received everything they wanted, but I believe that now we all should act for the greater needs of our Nation. If we want to get anywhere, we must be willing to negotiate, and we should be willing to put partisanship aside and govern for the greater good.

The House must realize it is just one-half of one-third of this government and that no laws can be made without the consent of the Senate and the President, just as they can't enact laws without us. We must also acknowledge the profligate spending and borrowing that is driving us into unsustainable debt and hurting this Nation and the people who call it home.

I am optimistic that once this resolution is passed, the House and the Senate will come together in a budget conference to work out our broad fiscal and budgetary challenges.

It is my hope that a common, topline discretionary number for fiscal year 2014 will be established that will allow Congress to enact full-year appropriations bills and avoid shutdowns like this in the future; and it is also my hope that Congress can address head-on the problem of unsustainable growth in our mandatory and entitlement programs and work to reform our overly complicated growth-stifling Tax Code.

The resolution before us will buy us some time to accomplish this must-do list, and it will ensure that our people have access to the critical government services they rely on in the meantime. We must take actions that will help restore the people's confidence in their elected officials and in the economic future of this Nation. We must.

The sooner we pass this resolution, the sooner we can move on to the many tasks before us that the people have sent us here to work on.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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