No Hires for the Delinquent IRS Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Mr. KILDEE. I am opposed.

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Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

This Republican bill is unnecessary because the IRS already, as has been said, has rules in place to terminate employees that are delinquent on their taxes. But it is important to note that out of the entire Federal Government, the employees of the Treasury Department have the lowest tax delinquency rate, a rate of 1.19 percent, one- fourth the delinquency rate for the U.S. House of Representatives, which is over 5 percent, and substantially lower than the delinquency rate for the general public, which is about 9 percent.

My motion would stop this bill from going into effect in any year that the Federal tax delinquency rate of either the House or the Senate is more than that of the Treasury Department. It is that simple.

You know what we are doing here. We are taking precious time on the floor of this House of Representatives to deal with a bill that will go nowhere, that has no impact, and is simply a talking point to continue to beat up the IRS.

Meanwhile, we have public health crises taking place. The Zika crisis, which endangers pregnant women, what have we done on the floor of the House to deal with that real crisis? What have you brought to the floor for us to vote on? Nothing.

And in my own hometown of Flint, Michigan, a city of 100,000 people who now for 2 years have not been able to drink water that comes from the tap because it has been poisoned by the terrible decisions of its State government, a community in crisis that has every right to expect that its government, its Federal Government, would come to the aid of these people, 100,000 people poisoned by their own State government in crisis, 9,000 children under the age of 6 who for 2 years have had lead going into their bodies. Lead is a neurotoxin.

Three people today in Michigan have been criminally charged for inflicting this terrible tragedy on my hometown, a city in America in crisis, facing a disaster. And what is the response of the United States Congress? What is the response of the Republican leadership?

Not 1 minute devoted to coming up with a solution for the people in Flint. Nothing. More messaging bills, more talk, no help for people in crisis, no effort to deal with the Zika crisis, and nothing, nothing for this great American city facing an existential threat and facing generations of impacts, unless the State, that so far has failed to step up, and the Federal Government act.

I sat through the hearings that have been held here in the United States Congress and listened to Members, Democrats and Republicans, offer concern and offer sympathy. But when I introduced the Families of Flint Act, an effort that would share equally the responsibility for solving this terrible crisis between the State and Federal Government, rather than arguing about who was at fault--we all have a sense that the State of Michigan is at greatest fault--but rather than litigating that question, we seek to solve the problem.

Not only do I not yet have one Republican cosponsor who has been willing to step up, nearly 100 Democrats have, and I am sure there will be more. And I asked for help from my friends on the other side, but no time on this floor has been devoted to what is clearly one of the biggest crises facing this Nation--a great American city facing a threat, a literal threat to its existence, a threat to the health of those people, a threat to the future of those children.

One of the first votes I cast when I came here to the House of Representatives was to cast a vote to provide relief to the victims of Hurricane Sandy, not my district, not my community, not my region, but fellow Americans.

I was proud of that vote. I was proud that, at that moment, on that day, as a Member of the House of Representatives, I was first an American, and when other Americans were suffering, we were willing to help. Why not Flint? Why spend time on these meaningless political messaging bills when there are real problems in this country that need to be addressed?

Mr. Speaker, I ask that we put aside this nonsense and get to the work that the American people sent us here to do.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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