Providing for Consideration of H.R. 529, Section 529 College Savings Plans Amendments; Providing for Consideration of H.R. 5, Student Success Act; and for Other Purposes
Floor Speech
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Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I would like very much at this time to be able to accommodate the ranking member
of the Appropriations Committee, Mrs. Lowey. She was going to be scheduled to speak earlier. I am going to allow that she go forward now to discuss something that is very important, and then I will proceed with my opening, if the Speaker will allow.
There are only 3 days left until funding for the Department of Homeland Security expires, which will shut down many of the crucial operations that keep our country safe.
Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I am going to offer an amendment to the rule that will allow for consideration of a clean Department of Homeland Security funding bill. With such serious consequences, it is time to put politics aside and prioritize the safety and security of the American people.
To discuss that particular aspect of the proposal, I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey), my good friend, the distinguished ranking member of the Appropriations Committee.
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Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank my friend, the gentleman from Georgia, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes.
I rise, obviously, in opposition to the rule and underlying bill because neither of these measures will keep the Department of Homeland Security from shutting down in 3 days, something that I am sure is of vital interest to my friend from Georgia who is an advocate, continuously and has been since being on the Rules Committee and here in Congress, of having an open process.
I would only urge that we understand that the last Congress, the 113th, was the most closed Congress in the history of all of the House of Representatives; yet, at this point, in this, the 114th Congress, we find ourselves in this position. In the last Congress, 38 percent of the rules were closed at this point, six out of 16.
As of today, this House has approved 75 percent of its rules that are closed. In other words, this Congress is on a path to be twice as closed as the last, which had the most, in history, closed rules.
Now, my friend Mr. Woodall certainly understands that, and every Member of this House understands that. A lot of times, constituents hear us, and it sounds a whole lot like Washington speak, but the fact is, just simply, that when a rule is closed, as this one is, with the exception of one portion that is open for yet another provision in the measure, H.R. 5, but when a rule is closed, that means all of the other Members, all of your constituents who do not have an opportunity if they so choose, are precluded from offering an amendment to the base bill that is being discussed.
Congress has 3 days to act before we shut down; and truthfully, I don't believe that my friends on the Republican side are crazy enough to shut down the government at this point, so I think something is going to happen. I don't know what.
It is not like this debacle caught us by surprise. It was obvious way back when Congress funded the rest of the government for the year but funded DHS for only a few months. Yet each week my Republican friends continue to consider bills that will do nothing and go nowhere. And now, without a road map out of this quagmire, my Republican friends are threatening to double down on their politics by shutting down the agency responsible for our national security, yet somehow we find ourselves talking about completely unrelated measures.
You can disagree with the President--and many of you do, and sometimes some of us do. Great. It is a beautiful free country that we live in--but don't put our national security at risk to do it.
Now, I have heard my Republican colleagues' talking point--oh, no, don't worry about national security; most of the DHS employees will still work, and very little will change--but that is just a guess, because those employees will be expected to work without pay.
Among those who are expected to work without pay are more than 40,000 Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers, more than 50,000 TSA aviation security screeners, more than 13,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement law enforcement agents and officers, more than 40,000 Active Duty Coast Guard military members, and more than 4,000 Secret Service law enforcement agents and officers.
Footnote right there. Very occasionally when we are talking budget matters and when we are talking authorization and appropriations, we talk about the need for certainty for the agencies that have to implement the measures that are before them. Well, that could not be truer at any point any more than with DHS needing that certainty as well.
To add insult to injury, when all this gets fixed--and it will need to be fixed--we will need to pass another measure to retroactively ensure that they receive their paychecks. But until then, there is no way for them to know when they will be paid. That kind of gamble is not the best way to ensure the stability of our national defense, and it is not fair to ask of the men and women keeping us safe.
We talk a lot about job creation here in this institution. My friends across the aisle gut clean air and water protections in the name of job creation. In the name of job creation, my friends hack away at the policies implemented to keep big banks from preying on hardworking Americans. If, by chance, DHS shuts down, approximately 30,000 employees would be furloughed. That is 30,000 families with jobs taken away.
Who knows how long a shutdown will last. We have already had months to address this lapse in funding. Why do we do this? Why is it every time we get ready to do something important, we play brinksmanship, we come up until the day of? It is really the kind of holding up of our process that is deleterious to the good of this country.
Just because DHS employees are furloughed or not being paid but still must go to work, that doesn't mean that their mortgage payment or their car payment or any other bills are going to go away. What are they supposed to say? ``Don't worry. I will pay you retroactively''? You can't run your household that way, and we certainly should not be running our government that way. For the life of me, I cannot understand why my Republican friends will not join House Democrats in supporting clean legislation to fund the Department of Homeland Security.
So, after all that, what do these two education bills that are in this particular rule have to do with keeping DHS open? I have no idea. I consider them to be important, but they don't have anything to do with what is the most germane issue before us today, the most pertinent issue.
If the goal is to make college more affordable, there is no reason to focus on provisions used by only 3 percent of families. We need to make higher education more affordable for all Americans. Moreover, my friends have yet to explain what makes these 529 provisions so important that they are willing--listen to me carefully--to add $51 million to the deficit for these particular measures, $51 million added to the deficit that they talk so much about.
The other measure, H.R. 5, makes even less sense. It would have catastrophic consequences for our Nation's most vulnerable youth and their educators. I respect my colleague from Georgia immensely. I respect his intellect immensely. I am proud that his schools are doing extremely well in the community that he is privileged to serve. But I can tell you, based on what I know, that any changes to the No Child Left Behind program must adhere to the spirit of the law. In Florida, we didn't only leave children behind; we lost them and couldn't find them.
Somehow or another, we keep changing these things without having the accountability and the transparency. We cannot and we should not leave any child in America behind. Children with disabilities, English learners, families with less financial resources, and those from racial and ethnic minority groups of underserved communities all deserve quality education, and our Nation would be better for it if they all received quality education.
These two bills are distractions from the main event, side shows for the center ring of the circus. It is time for Congress to focus on the things that matter, because even as our economy grows stronger, we still have plenty of real work to do.
I reserve the balance of my time.
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Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I am grateful to the chair for permitting me earlier to allow Mrs. Lowey to speak to the previous question. As I indicated, if we are not successful in defeating this measure then I am going to ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question, if I may.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Marchant). Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Florida?
There was no objection.
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Mr. HASTINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
In closing, there are 3 days left until the Department of Homeland Security will shut down. As I have said earlier, I don't believe that is going to happen. I believe my friends will be about the business of making sure that it does not occur. I hope they do because our country needs to make sure that we are not in any insecure position going forward.
Notwithstanding that, the brinksmanship continues, and we are here considering two bills that will go nowhere. That, to me, is the state of play right now. If my friends want to pass these education measures, they need to take care of business first. And it is time to quit messing around.
Mr. Speaker, there is a list of extraordinary organizations in this country that are against H.R. 5. I lift from a list that I will insert into the Record the names of the Congressional Tri-Caucus; the American Association of People With Disabilities; the American Association of University Women; the American Federation of Teachers; the American Foundation for the Blind; the Association of University Centers on Disabilities; the Autism National Committee; the Center for American Progress; the Children's Defense Fund; the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund; Easter Seals, which most of us contribute to; the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network; the NAACP; the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the National Association of School Psychologists; and the National Down Syndrome Congress.
Disability plays a major role in this particular legislation, and the fact that all of these organizations are standing up saying that they are opposed to it should get our attention.
In addition, the United Negro College Fund, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the United States Chamber of Commerce.
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Mr. HASTINGS. All of these people are opposed to this measure, and yet we find ourselves going forward. It is time for us to get real in this Congress, stop having closed rules, and let all of the Members in this body participate in the decisional process as we argue measures that are needed on behalf of our country.
This is a great institution, and the people that serve here are absolutely wonderful people, but somehow or another we have gotten stuck. And by getting stuck, we are not able to do the things that are vital for the Nation. We need to unstick it and get on with the business, knowing that we can sit in a room together and come to conclusions not only about education, but about energy and every aspect of American life that we have a responsibility for.
With that, I yield back the balance of my time.
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