Providing for Consideration of H.R. Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of Providing for Consideration of H.R. Mental Health Matters Act; and Providing for Consideration of S. Pava Program Inclusion Act; and for Other Purposes

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

We are here to debate the rule providing for consideration of three bills: H.R. 7780, Mental Health Matters Act; H.R. 3843, Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act; and S. 3969, Protection and Advocacy for Voting Access, or PAVA, Program Inclusion Act.

H.R. 3843 would increase funding to the Federal Trade Commission without justification or restrictions on that funding. This is the same agency that, through its strategic plan for the next 4 years, removed a longstanding clause that states the agency will not unduly burden legitimate business activity.

In the coming term, the Supreme Court will hear a case as to whether the FTC is mission creeping beyond the bounds of its constitutional authority. The FTC, through its initiatives in antitrust enforcement, has taken an increasing liberal view of its traditional focus on protecting consumers from fraud and ensuring businesses have clear rules to follow and is instead moving toward an interpretation of reshaping the American economy through enforcement action.

In the Committee on the Judiciary, my colleagues offered amendments to put limitations on this funding.

Mr. Roy offered an amendment to prohibit appropriated funds from being used to promote critical race theory and one to require funds to be used to enforce antitrust laws as defined in the Clayton Act.

Mr. Fitzgerald offered one to prohibit funds from being used for non- enforcement activities.

Mr. Bishop offered one to limit the scope of the bill to only apply to mergers involving large technology companies.

All of these failed on party lines, and I can't understand why, unless my colleagues on the left want to encourage the FTC to get involved in issues outside of its purview. The FTC is out of control under this administration and cannot be trusted with these additional resources.

H.R. 7780 misses the mark. Republicans are committed to addressing the mental health crisis facing young people in the country. Unfortunately, this bill is another one-size-fits-all proposal that fails to provide local leaders with the flexibility they need to address the unique problems they face. Republicans support mental health parity, but this bill will actually do the opposite. It opens insurers and employers to lawsuits when they voluntarily offer to provide mental health care benefits.

As with so many bills promoted by the majority this Congress, provisions of this bill ban arbitration clauses, class action waivers, and representation waivers, discouraging other means of settling disputes and pushing creating even more bottlenecks in our judicial system.

During markup, Republicans offered an alternative bill that streamlined existing programs, helped the needs on the ground, helped all students in need regardless of where their school is, and included important accountability metrics. I wish we were discussing that bill here today. Unfortunately, this and every other Republican amendment is effectively blocked from discussion under this rule.

Mr. Speaker, it is for that reason that I oppose the rule and ask Members to do the same.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Lofgren).
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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, Republicans will offer an amendment to the rule allowing for the immediate consideration of H.R. 6184, the HALT Fentanyl Act.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Mr. Speaker, over 100,000 people died from fentanyl overdoses in a 1-year span, according to the CDC. That is a 30 percent increase from the year before.

Fentanyl is now the number one cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45. I think we can all agree that something must be done to put a stop to this heartbreaking epidemic.

Fentanyl has been temporarily classified as a schedule I substance. This classification strengthens law enforcement's ability to prosecute fentanyl traffickers, and DEA reports that it has acted as an effective deterrent.

The HALT Fentanyl Act would make the schedule I classification permanent and would also promote research by removing regulations and streamlining the research process. We should do everything we possibly can to put an end to the devastation caused by fentanyl in this country, and the HALT Fentanyl Act is one piece of the puzzle that could make a real difference.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, while I want to be in favor of these bills, Republicans are in agreement that the underlying problems these bills seek to solve are valid and warrant our attention. There are serious flaws with these bills as written that must be considered first. H.R. 7780 is a one-size-fits-all strategy that will not help the people on the ground. What a school in Minneapolis needs is not likely what a school in my rural district needs. Furthermore, it pushes people in the courts to settle disputes and discourages other methods of resolution.

H.R. 3843 trusts the FTC with no-strings-attached funding, even though the FTC is becoming increasingly partisan and cannot be trusted with more resources.

Madam Speaker, I oppose the rule, and I encourage other Members to do the same.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

This is a 5-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 217, nays 212, not voting 3, as follows: [Roll No. 456] YEAS--217 Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Cherfilus-McCormick Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Costa Courtney Craig Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Peltola Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan (NY) Ryan (OH) Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NAYS--212 Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Conway Correa Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Finstad Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flood Flores Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Lofgren Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sempolinski Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack NOT VOTING--3 Kinzinger Swalwell Zeldin

Ms. BARRAGAN changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''

So the resolution was agreed to.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. members recorded pursuant to house resolution 8, 117th congress Bacon (Stauber) Bilirakis (Fleischmann) Bowman (Tlaib) Brown (MD) (Trone) Buchanan (Bucshon) Carter (TX) (Weber (TX)) Cawthorn (Nehls) Chu (Beyer) Conway (LaMalfa) Curtis (Moore (UT)) DeFazio (Pallone) Demings (Dean) Deutch (Wasserman Schultz) Diaz-Balart (Reschenthaler) Dunn (Cammack) Fletcher (Pallone) Gimenez (Malliotakis) Gonzalez, Vicente (Garcia (TX)) Gosar (Weber (TX)) Herrera Beutler (Valadao) Jacobs (CA) (Garamendi) Jacobs (NY) (Sempolinski) Jayapal (Cicilline) Johnson (TX) (Stevens) Khanna (Garcia (TX)) Kirkpatrick (Pallone) LaHood (Wenstrup) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Mace (Wilson (SC)) Maloney, Sean (Jeffries) Mast (Waltz) Mfume (Evans) Murphy (FL) (Peters) Newman (Beyer) Ocasio-Cortez (Neguse) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Pfluger (Ellzey) Porter (Neguse) Rice (NY) (Morelle) Rice (SC) (Meijer) Ryan (OH) (Dean) Salazar (Waltz) Sherman (Garamendi) Soto (Wasserman Schultz) Speier (Garcia (TX)) Steel (Obernolte) Steube (Reschenthaler) Titus (Pallone) Torres (NY) (Correa) Upton (Meijer) Vargas (Garamendi) Wagner (Barr) Wilson (FL) (Cicilline)

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