Tom Cole

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Thompson), my very good friend, a member of the Agriculture and Education and Labor Committees.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. John W. Rose), my very good friend and member of the Financial Services Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my very good friend and member of the Judiciary Committee and Natural Resources Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I have additional speakers on the way. They have not yet arrived, so I am going to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I just remind my friend we did join them in four bills. It might have been nice to be asked to join in a fifth. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Kustoff), my good friend and a member of the Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), my very good friend, a member of the Agriculture Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Spano), my very good friend and member of the Small Business Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Palmer), chairman of the Republican Policy Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wenstrup), my very good friend who is a Member of the Ways and Means Committee and who has rendered distinguished service to our country and to our institution.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Kevin Hern), my very good friend and colleague from my State and member of the Budget Committee, Natural Resources Committee, and Small Business Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Huizenga), my very good friend and a member of the Committee on Financial Services.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser), my good friend, a member of the Committees on Budget, Education and Labor, and Veterans' Affairs.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from the great State of Mississippi (Mr. Guest), my good friend, a member of the Committee on Ethics, Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Committee on Homeland Security.

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), my good friend, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, we are here today to consider a rule that provides for consideration of two items. Today's rule establishes a process for consideration of H.R. 6800, what the majority is calling the HEROES Act, but what is better described as an 1800-page, $3 trillion Democratic list of policy priorities. The rule proposes the most consequential change in the rules of the House of Representatives during my time in Congress. The change to the House rules covers two key areas: First, it would impose, for the first time in our history as an institution, a system of proxy voting on the floor of the House of Representatives. That change also allows for the adoption of totally remote voting upon the certification of a single Member of Congress, Chairman Lofgren, of a technology for that use. Second, it would also allow committees to operate remotely and approve legislation remotely. Madam Speaker, I said quite a bit about these rules changes at our committee meeting yesterday, and I continue to stand by those comments. I believe these changes will fundamentally alter the nature of the institution, and not for the better. We must never forget that the House is part of a Congress--literally, a physical meeting between delegates. When we move to acting remotely, we lose that fundamental aspect of our character. We lose the opportunity to meet together, discuss ideas, discuss legislation, and move forward together on bills that shape our Nation. And we do so in a way that does not, in my view, pass constitutional muster. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject these rules changes today and return to the drawing board so that we can act together in a bipartisan manner to ensure that Congress can continue to operate during this crisis. Not to be outdone with attempting to change the fundamental nature of the House of Representatives, in today's rule, the majority is proposing an enormous bill that will fundamentally change the nature of our country. H.R. 6800, which we saw for the first time on Tuesday afternoon, is 1800 pages long. While we do not yet have a CBO score, the majority is purporting that the bill includes spending in excess of $3 trillion. And to make matters worse, the bill was assembled with only Democratic input. It is not a stretch to say that this bill is nothing more than Democratic policy agenda masquerading as a response to the coronavirus crisis. Madam Speaker, it goes without saying that this bill is going nowhere, and it is going nowhere fast. The Senate will not consider this bill. The President will not sign it into law. Why we are wasting what precious little time that the Speaker is allowing us to be assembled here at the Capitol on partisan policy priorities of one party instead of working together in a bipartisan manner is beyond my understanding. What is even more surprising is how quickly the majority wants to move on a bill of this magnitude. Just 6 weeks ago, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, the CARES Act, a bill that provided over $2.3 billion for coronavirus relief efforts. And just 2 weeks ago, we passed another bipartisan bill that provided an additional $500 billion in relief. Some of the money from these two bills hasn't even been spent yet. But now, Democrats are falling all over themselves to spend another $3 trillion on their own priorities. It is simply astonishing. Let me be clear of one thing, Madam Speaker: Republicans in the House, in the Senate, and in the White House stand ready to work with Democrats to pass another bipartisan coronavirus relief bill at the appropriate time and after the normal give-and-take of serious negotiation. That bill, when it comes, will be very different in scope and detail from what we are considering here today. Consider just a few of the provisions in H.R. 6800: $3 trillion in spending; Nearly $10,000 for every American; A controversial bailout of multiemployer pension plans; Forgiving $10,000 of student loan debt per person; Federalizing the national election system; Changing credit scoring models and banning debt collection; Requiring nationwide vote by mail and same-day registration. I could go on and on and on, but I think everyone gets the picture. So much of what is in this bill simply has nothing at all to do with the current crisis. It is more like a liberal Christmas card wish list. Madam Speaker, it would make more sense, in my view, to just send it straight to Santa Clause than to send it to the United States Senate. It would have a better chance of becoming law that way. Madam Speaker, this doesn't make sense. If the majority actually wants to help Americans, there are plenty of bipartisan ways to do so. We could be focusing our efforts on legislation to combat the pandemic, to get people back to work, and to restore the economy, but instead we have been handed 1800 pages and over $3 trillion in Democratic priorities that they would be pursuing regardless of the pandemic. We can do better than that; and, frankly, Madam Speaker, recently, we have done better than that. I remind my friends that we actually considered and passed, on a bipartisan basis, four relief bills with almost no partisan dissent. Those bills were negotiated before they ever arrived on the floor of this body. We should return to that method and that system. It yielded real results for the American people. What we have got today will not. Madam Speaker, I urge opposition to the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my very good friend.

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

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Womack), my very good friend, and the distinguished Republican ranking member of the Budget Committee, and a fellow member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Hagedorn), my good friend and a distinguished Member of this body.