Tom Cole

Mr. COLE

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

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I have a great deal of respect for my very good friend from California, but we live in a system right now of divided government. We have a Democratic House that certainly has a voice in anything that is done. We have a Republican Senate, and we have a Republican President. We have proven that we can work together. We did for four straight bills, extraordinary amount of time, largest single bill in American history. So it is not as if the two sides don't know how to do this. For whatever reasons, my friends chose to decide to move alone. Well, they can certainly do that through this Chamber, and that is their right to do. I respect that if that is what they want to do. But if they think moving alone without Republicans will get them anywhere in the United States Senate or at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, I would just suggest that is probably not the case. So again, we know how to do this. We have proven we can do it; an extraordinary job by all concerned on both sides of the House to get those four bills done. Nobody works better, by the way, in a bipartisan sense than my good friend, the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee, and nobody works with her better than my good friend, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. I would suggest the rest of us probably should clear out for a while and let those two work together. I bet you we could actually get a bill to pass. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I just remind my friends we actually do hear. That is why we worked with you to pass four straight bills. I would be willing to work with you again. You chose not to do that. You chose to bring to the floor a bill you know will not be taken up by the Senate, will not be signed by the President. So let's abandon that course and go back to where we were at. We worked together. We got a lot done in a short period of time. I think that is what the American people want us to do. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 6800. Not only is the bill premature; it was crafted behind closed doors and without any Republican input at all. The pandemic we currently face is unlike anything we have experienced in modern history, and so, too, has been our response. I am pleased with how the Congress has worked together and quickly to provide urgent aid to those on the front lines and those struggling with the economic impacts of this disastrous scourge. Every bill that has been enacted up to this point was ultimately the product of cooperation and bipartisan support. Each of those bills passed this floor with essentially no partisan division at all. So it is very disappointing to come before you today, Mr. Speaker, on this one-sided bill that is loaded with provisions unrelated to the crisis that we face. This is not in the spirit of cooperation that the American people expect from their leaders during difficult times. Indeed, the bill before us today has $3 trillion in spending, we think. We don't know. We don't have a CBO score yet. It provides nearly $10,000 for every person in the United States. And the $1.5 trillion of discretionary funding provided in this bill is more than typically appropriated in an entire fiscal year. This includes almost a trillion dollars in new funding for States, cities, and counties, on top of roughly a trillion dollars we have already provided over the last two months. These new dollars are made available without any safeguards against funds going to jurisdictions that had financial problems long before the crisis and are unrelated to the crisis. The bill gives the U.S. Postal Service a $25 billion windfall without requiring any reforms to their operations, and it bails out multiemployer pension plans. There are also sweeping changes to our election system, requiring same-day voter registration and nationwide vote by mail. This is an incredible Federal intrusion into the election system that is operated not by the Federal Government, but by the States. I am concerned with this path, Mr. Speaker. It leads us in the wrong direction. There is no reason for us to be here on the floor in this House debating this partisan wish list. I know what can come from Members working across the aisle together. I have done it on many occasions with my good friend, the distinguished chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee. It is what led to the creation of the Infectious Disease Rapid Response Reserve Fund that allowed the administration to respond immediately to the emerging threat from the new coronavirus as we worked to understand where resources were needed. I was proud to work with my counterpart in the Labor, Health, and Human Services Committee, Chairwoman DeLauro, on that fund, and even more proud to see it used effectively. That is an example of the two parties coming together, working together to pass a really good idea that benefitted this country at a critical time. That is the cooperative nature that has been the hallmark of our government's response to the pandemic up till now. The American people expect and deserve nothing less. For that reason, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill, so that we can work together and on a better product that will be a responsible use of taxpayer dollars and truly help those in need. Mr. Speaker, I have full faith that the leaders of the Appropriations Committee, Chairwoman Lowey and Republican Ranking Member Granger, will work together to come up with a bill that we all support. That confidence is based on experience. I have seen them do it over and over again during my time in Congress, and particularly in dealing with the last four bills where we did work together and manage to craft a bill that not only passed here, but passed the United States Senate as well, essentially without dissent. Mr. Speaker, if we continue down the path with this bill, we know that the Senate will not pick it up, and we know the President will not sign it. It is much more about political messaging than effective legislating. I would just urge my colleagues, let's return to the path that we walked down together in these recent weeks. We bargained, we debated, but we brought products to the floor that we knew could pass the other chamber and that we knew the President would sign, and that we knew would immediately go forward to help the American people. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hice), a member of the Natural Resources and Oversight and Reform Committees.

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 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. Speaker, I remind my friend that we worked with our friends to pass four bills, $3 trillion in the last 10 weeks. We would work with the majority again if they would sit down and bargain with us. Sadly, they decided not to do that. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), who is a member of the Ways and Means Committee. My very good friend is a great neighbor.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Joyce), who is a member of the Homeland Security and Small Business Committees.

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

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, while our distinguished Speaker and I may disagree on this particular bill, we certainly agree on our opinion of the chairwoman of the Appropriations Committee and her ability to bring us together. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Aderholt), my good friend and distinguished ranking member of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Walden), my very good friend, and the past chairman and current ranking member of the Energy and Commerce 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 yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), my very good friend, and the Republican ranking member on the House Administration Committee.

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from the great State of Texas (Mr. Crenshaw), who is a former Navy SEAL.

Mr. COLE

Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), my good friend and former Rules Committee member.

Mr. COLE

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

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

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume for a quick response to my friend. I recall that we requested oversight committees for TARP. That was not allowed by then-Speaker Pelosi. We requested oversight committees for the stimulus package in 2009. That, too, was not agreed to by Speaker Pelosi. So we find this new need for oversight refreshing, but somewhat questionable. Madam Speaker, I also remind my friend, there are eight existing committees, all of which, by the way, the Democrats control, all of which they chair. We have confidence in the eight existing committees to do their job. We don't see the need for a ninth. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my great friend.

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

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Hice), my good friend.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), my good friend and distinguished member of both the Rules Committee and the Energy and Commerce Committee.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Jordan), my good friend and a distinguished Member.

Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Comer), my good friend and a distinguished gentleman.