Ander Crenshaw

Mr. CRENSHAW

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's effort in terms of minimum wage legislation, but I would simply remind him that this is an appropriations bill. The Appropriations Committee is not the committee of jurisdiction as it relates to minimum wage. As he points out, if he has legislation ready to go, I would just encourage him to introduce that at the appropriate place, have the appropriate discussions, and move forward there. But this is not the time or the place. Again, I appreciate his effort to legislate. With that, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this amendment. I think we all believe in commonsense regulation--and we have plenty of that--but the gentleman has pointed out that so often well- intentioned rules and regulations have unintended consequences. I don't think anybody believes that we don't have enough regulation. Any time there is a problem, somebody suggests that we spend more money, we pass another rule, we pass another law. What I think we need and what this gentleman is talking about is that we need common sense. We need to protect investors, but we need to do it in a reasonable way. So this is an amendment that I think makes the point that so often the rules are bad for investors, they are bad for the economy, and that shouldn't be the case. So I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. CRENSHAW

Mr. CRENSHAW. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise and report the bill back to the House with sundry amendments, with the recommendation that the amendments be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, do pass.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Yes, I am.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Speaker, let me just tell the gentleman that he will be happy to know that we have already taken care of all of his concerns in this bill. We have a pretty good bill that we have worked on, Mr. Speaker. The bill has been on the floor now for 3 days. This is the first time this subcommittee bill has actually been to the full House since 2007. All of the Members of the House had a chance to look at the bill, and they had a chance to offer amendments. After that process, we now have a good bill that is even better.

Mr. CRENSHAW. I thank the gentleman for clearing the well. Mr. Speaker, as I said, we have a good bill that this process has actually made even better. It is a spending bill, and we know that the government needs money to provide services. Government needs something more right now, and we have tried to provide that. The government needs discipline to rein in spending. The government needs the courage to make decisions even when they are hard, and government needs a commitment to make sure that every task of government is accomplished more efficiently and more effectively than it ever has been before, because I will tell you, if life is going to change in America, life has to change right here in Washington, D.C., and this bill takes a giant step forward in making that change. First of all, we rein in this out-of-control spending that has been going on for so long. We have said for four straight years we are spending less money this year than we spent last year, and that is quite an accomplishment in itself. How do we do that? We do it just like every American business does, like every American family. They sit down. They take the money that they have, and they set priorities. Then they make some tough choices. That is what we have done. We take agencies and programs that are no longer vital to the operation of the Federal Government or that have a history of wasting taxpayer resources, and in some cases, we get rid of them. Nine agencies are gone under this bill. We also take things like the Small Business Administration, which actually supports small business and assists in private sector job creation, and we add money to it because it is going to help turn the country around. Another thing we do is rein in this out-of-control administration and out-of-control bureaucracy. How do we do that? Let's just take, for instance, the IRS. I think most people in this House would say that the IRS has betrayed the trust of the American people and that they have got a long way to go before they restore that trust. So what we have done in this bill is we have said we are going to rein in that out-of-control spending because your funding is going to be reduced. We send you back to the core issues, and we are not going to give any more money until you prove to us that you can be a good steward of the money that we have already given you. We also say to the IRS no more wasting money on lavish conferences and silly videos. We say no more intimidating individuals and groups of individuals based on their political philosophy. No more. We say no more drafting rules and trying to shut down freedom of speech, which is guaranteed by our Constitution. We say, listen, we don't want you meddling anymore in our daily lives, much less our health care. If you are like me and you are tired of seeing taxpayers' dollars go down the drain, if you are like me and you are tired of seeing nameless, faceless bureaucrats invade your life more and more and more, well, then join with me in saying we want responsible spending, we want reasonable regulation, we want to unleash the individual responsibility that has made our country great. Vote ``no'' on the motion to recommit and vote ``yes'' on the bill. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CRENSHAW

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Mr. CRENSHAW

Mr. CRENSHAW. I thank the chairman for yielding and for bringing this to the attention of the full House. I will refer to the gentleman as ``chairman'' because I have the pleasure of serving on the Defense Subcommittee, and he acts as the chairman of that. Mr. Chairman, as the chairman has said, the National Security Council and the National Security Adviser have gotten into a bad habit, I think, of bypassing the Appropriations Committee, including the chairman of the Defense Subcommittee and the ranking member of the subcommittee, when it comes to issues of national security. I can tell you firsthand that I have had situations in which I have asked for an update on some matters, and they haven't been followed up on. I want to thank the chairman for his leadership in all things defense. I want to encourage my colleagues to follow his lead, and I urge that we adopt this amendment.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CRENSHAW. I just want to let you know that we are happy to accept your amendment.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I would like to engage the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Yoho) in a colloquy and I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. CRENSHAW. I thank the gentleman. As you point out, this is an extensive regulation. It is going to have a profound and far-reaching impact on our economy. I believe these regulations, as you pointed out, are fraught with unintended consequences. As you point out, the regulation is creating headaches for many Americans who must report their foreign financial activities on the U.S. tax return, so they spend countless hours to prepare and file their tax forms necessary to comply with the regulation. Mr. Chairman, we don't need more burdensome regulations. We need some pro-growth tax reform, to make it easier for Americans, whether living at home or living abroad, to comply with our tax laws. Now, it is good to go after tax dodgers, that is understandable, but this is overkill, and I look forward to working with the gentleman to address these unintended consequences. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time. Amendment Offered by Ms. Schakowsky

Mr. CRENSHAW. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. CRENSHAW. I would be pleased to accept the amendment.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. CRENSHAW. I would like to engage in a colloquy with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, and I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Well, I appreciate the gentleman giving attention to this issue. As you noted, we have included report language on money market funds within the bill. We are concerned about the issue, and we will work with you as this bill moves forward.

Mr. CRENSHAW. I yield back the balance of my time. Amendment Offered by Mr. Sherman

Mr. CRENSHAW. Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and let me see if I got this straight. Right now, manufacturing, distributing, or dispensing marijuana is still illegal under federal law. Right?

Mr. CRENSHAW. And the Bank Secrecy Act still prohibits banks from laundering the proceeds of illegal activities. Is that right?

Mr. CRENSHAW. But in spite of the Controlled Substances Act and despite the Bank Secrecy Act, Treasury has given banks guidance on how to facilitate the sale of marijuana. That seems wrong, absolutely wrong. This amendment corrects that wrong, so I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment.

Mr. CRENSHAW. Will the gentleman yield?