Tom Cole

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Westerman), my good friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Babin), my good friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Latta), my friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Kevin Hern), my good friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger) for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Burchett), my friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Texas, Judge Carter, my very good friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Bergman), my good friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from the great State of Maryland (Mr. Harris), my very good friend, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request.

Mr. COLE

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

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, my friend is not impressed, and that is a fair statement, and I don't question my friend ever, but I am not impressed with legislation that can't become law because it is futile. We come down here with a lot of sound and fury, but we don't get anything done. Madam Speaker, in closing, I urge opposition to this rule. This rule will make in order for consideration two bills: H.R. 3351 and H.R. 2722. The first is a partisan appropriations bill that is marked to an unrealistic number that does not reflect agreement with Republicans or the Senate and that includes partisan policy riders that must come out before this bill can become law. Not to be outdone, H.R. 2722 is even more partisan, throwing out the traditional ability of States and localities to manage their own election procedures and, instead, imposing a one-size-fits-all regulatory regime direct from Washington, D.C. like H.R. 1 before it, this bill was produced without Republican input and, instead, reflects only the partisan motivations of the current majority. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question, ``no'' on the rule, and ``no'' on the underlying measures. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, could I inquire, I am prepared to close whenever my friend is. If he has additional speakers, I will just reserve.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois.

Mr. COLE

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

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Woodall), my good friend.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. Mr. Speaker, we are here today on our second rule of the day. This one is on a supplemental appropriations bill for the southern border. While the Rules Committee met to consider this bill last night and took testimony on it, due to some reported revolts in the Democratic Caucus, we did not actually report this bill out last night. Instead, we met on this bill at 5:30 this afternoon and reported it to the floor 10 minutes later, using the same-day authority that Chairman McGovern has so often referred to as martial law. Our emergency meeting this afternoon includes several last-minute changes in the bill that have provided little opportunity for anyone on either side of the aisle to actually review. Tragically, that is the story of this bill: last-minute changes made on short notice in an attempt to push through a partisan agenda at the expense of not only deliberation and consideration by the House of Representatives but, more importantly, at the expense of innocent children. H.R. 3401 is a supplemental appropriations bill providing funding for the humanitarian crisis on the southern border. When it comes to H.R. 3401, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the Democrats finally agree that we need a supplemental appropriations funding bill for the southern border after Republicans have been sounding the alarm for months. The fact is, as my friends know, the President first requested assistance in this matter on May 1, almost 2 months ago. A lot of the crisis at the border is because my friends simply didn't discharge their responsibilities. If you are the guy that is supposed to pay for the toothpaste and the soap, and you don't, you have some measure of responsibility when they are not delivered on time. There is actually some more good news here. There is a real opportunity for us to produce a bipartisan, bicameral bill that can become law. The bad news is that H.R. 3401 is not that bill. In here, the majority is once again making no pretense to even pretending to work with the minority. H.R. 3401 contains several partisan provisions. It fails to provide supplemental funding for the Department of Defense despite the significant resources the military has expended responding to this crisis. It includes partisan policy riders that tie the hands of the administration and fail to provide the flexibility necessary for the government to adequately address the crisis. Most notably, this bill was produced without any Republican input at all. Mr. Speaker, I want to reiterate what I said a moment ago. Both Republicans and now Democrats agree that there is a need for a supplemental appropriations bill. Why the majority failed to take advantage of the opportunity this agreement provides, I don't know. Until the majority chooses to work with Republicans on this and produce a bipartisan bill, I fear we will simply be heading down the exact same path we have trodden so often before in this Congress, with the House pushing yet another piece of partisan legislation that will not pass the Senate and will not be signed into law by the President. That is disappointing, to say the least. Mr. Speaker, this state of affairs could and should have been avoided. Instead of pushing three partisan bills this week, the majority could have chosen to work with Republicans to craft bipartisan bills to address all three of these problems. Even if that did not come to pass, the majority at the Rules Committee could have worked with us to make minority amendments in order and to give all Members an opportunity to fix these flawed bills on the floor, or at least be heard. That they did not is merely yet another indication of where the majority's priorities lie, with pushing partisan bills to score political points and avoiding doing the hard work of actually making law. There is a chance to change this, Mr. Speaker, but in order to do so, the majority needs to decide whether they are here to score political points or if they are here to make law. I remind my friends on the other side, passing a bill that is a partisan bill through this Chamber won't solve the problem. I congratulate them on having a vehicle to go to conference. That is a good thing. But when they get there, they are going to find out they are going to have to do something they haven't done, frankly, throughout their tenure in the majority, and that is actually sit down and compromise with people on the other side of the aisle and work with the administration. I hope they prove up to that task because if they don't, we will have exactly the same result--that is, legislation passing here but not succeeding in the other Chamber. That will not solve the crisis on the border. It will exacerbate it. Mr. Chair, I urge opposition to the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I want to begin by telling my good friend how much I respect him, how much I admire him. I know how passionate he is on the issue of the children. No doubt about that. I also want to tell my friend that I think, 8 weeks ago, we should have been acting on this. We were told there wasn't a crisis, and there wasn't a serious effort on the other side. Last night, when my friends were struggling to find the votes, frankly, we could have delivered a lot of votes. Instead, they moved the bill further to the left to placate the most extreme elements in their own conference. I think that is going to make to it much harder to come to a deal eventually with the Senate and with the administration. Mr. Speaker, in closing, I urge opposition to this rule. The rule will make in order consideration of H.R. 3401, a supplemental appropriations bill that could have been a bipartisan bill. Instead, the majority chose to make it partisan, failing to fund the national security elements of the border crisis, including partisan policy riders that tie the hands of the administration. Not to be outdone, the majority also pushed through last-minute changes, using the same-day rule authority that had not been adequately considered by anyone on either side of the aisle. Let me just reiterate, for the record, to reinforce the point my friend Mrs. Lesko made. Look, we got this bill at 4:57. We convened the Rules Committee at 5:30. I can read things, but I can't always understand everything, let alone research everything in 33 minutes. We haven't got a single opportunity to offer a single amendment to this bill. That is unfortunate, and I don't think it is a process that is likely to lead to a successful outcome. Mr. Speaker, I want to conclude by urging my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question, to vote ``no'' on the rule, to vote ``no'' on the underlying measure. Let's go to work on a bipartisan bill. Let's meet all the requests the administration has asked for, in terms of resources. Give them the flexibility they need to do the job and recognize this is not a new problem. We dealt with it, frankly, pretty successfully when President Obama was here by giving them the resources and the flexibility they needed. I am sorry my friends are not extending that same courtesy to the current President. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to immediately bring up H.R. 3056, the Border Crisis Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2019. Unlike the bill before us today, H.R. 3056 provides all the necessary funding that the administration has requested to address the humanitarian crisis on the southern border. The bill provides funding for the Department of Defense, which has expended significant resources responding to the crisis. It also provides the funding for refugee and entrant assistance and for U.S. Customs and Border Protection that the administration has requested and has told us is necessary to meet the crisis. Most notably, this bill does so without adding any of the partisan riders that plague the majority's version of the supplemental. We can provide funding to meet this crisis without tying the hands of the administration and leaving them no wiggle room or flexibility. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. COLE. I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Florida.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Gonzalez).

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I just want to briefly yield myself such time as I may consume to make a quick point. My friend is saying there is no money for Border Patrol and the military. Whose custody do you think those children are in for the first couple of days? The problems are actually at those facilities. They have not been identified at Health and Human Services, other than they are just simply too full because my friends have spent so much time arguing about this rather than giving the administration the money that it asked for in a timely fashion, 2 months ago. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), my very good friend, fellow Rules Committee member, and distinguished doctor.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Spano).

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Texas an additional 30 seconds.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Lesko), my good friend and fellow member of the Rules Committee.