Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3979, Protecting Volunteer Firefighters and Emergency Responders Act of 2014; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5759, Preventing Executive Overreach on Immigration Act of 2014; and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5781, California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to this
convoluted closed rule, which includes a huge defense bill, a partisan
anti-immigrant bill, a California water bill, and, from out of nowhere,
an Arizona land exchange bill all in one.

The gentleman from Florida is praising this Congress as somehow being
open. The fact of the matter is this is the most closed Congress in the
history of the United States of America. This is appalling the way this
House of Representatives has been run. Routinely, important, vital
issues are shut out from debate on the House floor, and what we are
talking about here today is no exception.

The rule includes the FY2015 National Defense Authorization Act. I am
pleased that the NDAA establishes the Blackstone River Valley National
Historical Park, but this version of the NDAA also authorizes over $500
billion for the Pentagon's base budget and, on top of that, includes an
additional $63.7 billion for the Pentagon slush fund to finance the
continuing war in Afghanistan and the new war in Iraq and Syria against
the Islamic State.

Once again, Congress is failing to do its job because, once again,
this bill continues to fund two wars for years to come without Congress
authorizing either one.

First, Afghanistan. We are ostensibly pulling out of Afghanistan in
just 3 weeks, but, in fact, we are leaving about 10,000 troops behind
for the next several years. Congress has the responsibility to
authorize this new mission. We just can't continue the same-old, same-
old.

Mr. Speaker, I will insert, for the Record, a Reuters article,
entitled, ``Obama Widens Post-2014 Combat Role for U.S. Forces in
Afghanistan.''

It doesn't sound like we are winding down anything.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Twice now, Ranking Member Adam Smith, Congressman
Walter Jones, and I have tried to offer an amendment requiring a vote
next March to authorize any post-2014 deployment of U.S. troops in
Afghanistan, and twice, the leadership of this House has refused to
allow our amendments to come to the floor.

What is the leadership afraid of? Why do they refuse to allow a
debate and a vote on authorizing America's post-2014 mission in
Afghanistan? Don't we owe it to the troops who are going to be there?
Don't we owe it to their families?

The gentleman from Florida talks about that we need to be the voice
of our troops. Well, we are not the voice of our troops. We are ducking
these important debates. It is shameful. We are letting our troops
down. We are better than this, and we ought to be debating and voting
on these important issues.

We are also at war against the Islamic State. On July 25, this House
overwhelmingly passed a resolution that I offered that if the U.S. were
involved in sustained combat operations in Iraq, Congress should vote
and enact an authorization. Mr. Speaker, 370 Members of this House
voted for that resolution.

Two weeks after that vote, we began bombing Iraq. We have been
bombing Iraq nearly every day for the past 4\1/2\ months. We have
increased the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to around 3,000. On
September 22, we started bombing Syria. We have flown scores of bombing
missions over Syria over the last 2 months.

We bomb Iraq and Syria as part of our coordinated military operations
with the Iraqi military and Kurdish military forces. We bomb to protect
infrastructure, and we bomb to target towns and camps harboring Islamic
State forces. If that is not being involved in sustained combat
operations, I don't know what is.

The war against ISIL began under this Congress. It has escalated
under this Congress. It has expanded from Iraq to Syria and now, maybe,
to Turkey under this Congress. It is the responsibility, the
constitutional responsibility of this Congress, the 113th Congress, to
authorize it. And yet while the bill authorizes the money to carry out
this war, it does not allow us a ``yes'' or ``no'' vote on actually
authorizing the war.

Now, last night in the Rules Committee, I offered amendments to limit
funding for the Iraq/Syria war until Congress enacted an authorization
to ensure that U.S. ground troops in Iraq would not engage in combat
operations. Both were rejected. Both were rejected.

Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. It is the institutional and
constitutional duty of the Congress of the United States to decide
matters of war and peace. It is time for the leadership of this House
to step up to the plate and bring an authorization to the floor. It is
time to debate it and vote on it before the 113th Congress adjourns. No
more excuses. No more whining. Just do it.

The rule also includes H.R. 5759, the Preventing Executive Overreach
on Immigration Act. Give me a break, Mr. Speaker. Give me a break. For
over a year and a half, a Senate-passed bipartisan comprehensive
immigration reform bill has been awaiting House action. All it needs is
a House Republican leadership with the political backbone to take it up
because we all know that the votes are there. We could pass it today or
tomorrow or next week. We could put an end to all this rancor, all the
nasty sound bites by simply doing what we are paid to do: debating and
voting on major pieces of legislation.

I would say to my friends on the other side of the aisle, if you
don't want the Executive to take administrative action, then start
acting like a real Congress. There is still time before we leave town
for the holidays. Stop this farce. Take up the Senate bill, pass it,
and send it to the President for signature.

Mr. Speaker, whether it comes to issues of war and peace or whether
it comes to major issues like comprehensive immigration reform, the
answer is simple: all we need to do is our job.

I urge my colleagues to defeat this ridiculous triple-closed rule,
and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, the American people would be better served
if we addressed our broken immigration system. And if we defeat the
previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up
H.R. 15, the immigration reform bill.

To discuss our proposal, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from
Colorado (Mr. Polis), a member of the Rules Committee.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 15 seconds.

Mr. Speaker, I want to just be clear about one thing. The President
did not create this problem. The cowardice of the House Republican
leadership created this crisis. Over 1\1/2\ years after the Senate
passed an overwhelmingly bipartisan, comprehensive immigration bill,
this House, Mr. Speaker, has failed to bring it up and debate it. If
there is a crisis of leadership, then it is here in this House.

At this point, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms.
Titus).

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

Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the words of the distinguished chairman of
the Rules Committee. And he is correct. We were in a meeting yesterday
for quite some time--over 6 hours--in the Rules Committee discussing
multiple amendments on the defense bill, on the immigration bill, and
on other things as well.

My problem with what happened yesterday is that, after all that talk,
we got nothing; not a single amendment is being made in order here. We
have yet another closed process.

I appreciate the fact that the Senate can be difficult, but the
Senate is not the problem when it comes to the House of Representatives
debating and voting up or down on an AUMF on Iraq or Syria--or any
other war for that matter. We can do that ourselves. We don't need
anybody to tell us we can do it. We don't need the White House to tell
us we can do it. It is our constitutional responsibility.

Yes, we had a long meeting. We had a lot of discussion. It was a
spirited discussion, but at the end of it all, we got nothing. I regret
that very much because the issues that we talked about last night are
very, very serious, and we owe it to the American people, we owe it to
the men and women who we put in harm's way to have these serious
discussions, and we are not having that on the floor today.

With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms.
McCollum).

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Mr. McGOVERN. We have a couple, but they are not here yet. I yield
myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I am sad to say that this Congress is kind of ending the
way it began, under a very closed and restrictive process. As I said
earlier, this is the most-closed Congress in the history of the United
States of America.

Routinely important issues, issues that impact not just the American
people, but that impact the entire world, are denied a debate on the
House floor. We are bringing up multiple bills here today all under a
very closed process; yet there are some very important issues that need
to be debated and to be discussed and to be voted on.

I have crumbling bridges and sewer and water systems in my district
that need repair, and I can't get a penny to repair or replace them. We
are told that we don't have any money, but we seem to have billions and
billions of dollars to throw at these endless wars in Afghanistan and
the Middle East.

Mr. Speaker, I enter into the Record the November 2 New York Times
editorial, ``The New War's Rising Cost.''

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Mr. McGOVERN. We seem to have money for these other things. We heard
earlier today about the fact that there are 50,000 ghost soldiers in
Iraq that we are funding with our taxpayer dollars; they don't exist.
Somebody is stealing that money, and where is the outrage in this
Congress? Where is the outrage?

Mr. Speaker, these wars deserve a debate. They deserve our oversight.
We are supposed to be a deliberative body. We should be talking about
these things, and we are getting more deeply involved in another war in
Iraq and in Syria. We have 3,000 troops in Iraq right now. God knows
how many are going to be there when we come back in January.

By the way, there is nothing in this bill that prevents the President
from adjusting the mission of those troops, so that they are engaged in
direct on-the-ground combat. It is something that we ought to be
concerned about; yet we are not. We are leaving town without even
talking about this stuff.

You don't need an NDAA bill to be able to debate and vote on an
authorization. All we need is a Republican leadership with the backbone
to bring it to the floor. This is our responsibility. This is our job.
This is our constitutional responsibility; yet we are not doing
anything.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to enter into the Record an article by
FOX News political analyst Juan Williams entitled, ``Congress ducks its
duty on ISIS vote.''

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I also want to talk a little bit about the
immigration bill. As I said before, the President didn't create this
problem. Quite frankly, the House Republican leadership created this
problem. We had the Senate that acted in a good faith bipartisan manner
and passed a comprehensive immigration reform bill. That was a year and
a half ago.

In a year and a half, this House of Representatives has done nothing
except come to the floor and demagogue the immigration issue. The
debate on the other side of the aisle, quite frankly, has gotten so
ugly that it is, I think, beneath the level of dignity of this House of
Representatives.

We should expect better in terms of the debate on the issue of
immigration.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, let me close by again asking my colleagues
to vote against this closed rule--triple closed rule. It unfortunately
has become a pattern in this Congress, the most closed Congress in the
history of the United States of America.

I would urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' as well because we are
talking about a defense bill, but we are not allowed to have a debate
or a vote on any of these wars that we are involved in. If we truly
care about our troops, if we are truly living up to our constitutional
responsibilities, we ought to have a debate and a vote. We ought not to
duck it. We ought not to leave town without talking about these serious
issues.

On the issue of immigration, rather than this silly, petty, ugly,
symbolic bill that is being brought to the floor, if my colleagues
don't approve of the President's executive action, then help me defeat
the previous question and we will bring up H.R. 15, the comprehensive
immigration reform bill that the Senate passed in a bipartisan way, and
we can get that job done and end all this nonsense and end all this
rancor that we have seen unfold here in the House.

We could do better than what is on display today. I regret very much
that the Republican leadership continues to insist on this closed
process which stifles debate and prevents us from debating and voting
on important issues.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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