Rosa DeLauro

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Maine (Ms. Pingree), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson Coleman), a Member of the Appropriations Committee.

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

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise to include in the Record a statement written by John W. Wilhelm, Retired President, UNITE HERE, in honor of the late Rich Trumka. UNITE HERE had a special bond with Rich Trumka. His unexpected death this month hit the labor movement hard. It was a personal loss for me, and the loss of a passionate advocate for the members of our Union. Rich Trumka was a leader of principle and courage. He was a third generation coal miner from immigrant Italian and Polish stock, growing up in the little Appalachian coal town of Nemacolin in southwest Pennsylvania. His Union, the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), is one of the most important Unions--arguably the single most important--in American labor history. The UMWA was founded in 1890, one year before HERE. The UMWA has always been important to its fiercely loyal members, working for brutal companies in a dangerous industry. It was equally important to the American labor movement because the UMWA was the driving force in the creation of the CIO and the massive industrial organizing campaigns of the Great Depression, as well as a crucial political ally for President Roosevelt and the New Deal. My mother, who grew up in the coal country of Southwest Virginia, always said that the only good things that ever happened to the Appalachian people were Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt and the United Mine Workers. After the legendary Mine Workers leader John L. Lewis retired in 1960. the Union lost its way. Rich Trumka went to Penn State, intending to play football until he got hurt, and then the Villanova Law School. Rich could have done anything, but he decided to become part of a growing reform movement in the UMWA. After the murder of reform leader Jock Yablonski, Rich redoubled his efforts. In 1982, at age 33, he was elected President of his Union. Rich set out to restore the confidence of the miners in their Union, and to restore the Union's hard-earned respect from the coal companies. His rebuilding program culminated in the epic 10-month strike of 2,000 Union miners against the Pittston Coal Company in 1989-1990. Pittston was a creative campaign, with the mine workers' trademark militant picket lines backed up by massive, repeated civil disobedience, strategic corporate and political action, and determined support from women organized as the Daughters of Mother Jones. My predecessor as HERE General President, Edward T. Hanley, supported Rich Trumka from the time Rich became President of UMWA. During the Pittston strike, Edward saw a CNN report that Pittston had put on a lobster dinner for the scabs, outdoors where the pickets could see the scabs eating. That angered Edward. He told Rich that the company fed the scabs once, but HERE would feed the strikers every day. He sent five cooks who were members of HERE Local 863 at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia to Camp Solidarity in Castlewood, Virginia, the strike headquarters. The Greenbrier HERE members prepared three meals a day, seven days a week, until the strikers won. The key issue in the strike was retiree health care. Pittston unilaterally gutted the health benefits of its retirees, and refused to pay into the health care fund for retired miners who had been employed by other companies that had gone out of business. Rich told me that Ed Hanley's help was crucial to settling the Pittston strike. During the AFL-CIO Convention in 1989 in Washington DC, Edward invited Rep. Daniel Rostenkowski, his life-long Chicago friend who was then Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, to meet in the bar at the Sheraton Wardman Park Hotel, site of the Convention, and asked Rich to join them. By the wee hours of the next morning, Rich, Edward, and Rep. Rostenkowski shook hands on the framework to settle the Pittston strike. The strike continued full force, but the Sheraton Wardman Park framework succeeded. Pittston reluctantly agreed to pay for retirement security for its own current and future employees and their spouses. The UMWA strikers triumphantly returned to work. For the retirees from other companies for whom the strikers had also been fighting, Dan Rostenkowski promised Rich Trumka and Ed Hanley that Congress would step in to help. Bob Juliano, HERE's peerless Legislative Representative, worked with the UMWA and the Congressman's staff to structure the solution. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Democrat of West Virginia, sponsored legislation which required that all coal companies pay the retirement costs of their own retirees and spouses. It also guaranteed Federal funding of benefits for ``orphan'' retirees, those whose employers had gone out of business. Congress passed this landmark legislation, and President George H.W. Bush signed it in 1992. It was the Pittston strike that solidified an enduring bond between HERE and the United Mine Workers. The good turn that our Union did for Rich Trumka and the UMWA has been repaid many times over in the intervening years. Rich Trumka found in HERE three things he admired: workers with the bravery and tenacity to fight for justice, a Union courageous enough to take on strikes that like Pittston seemed impossible, and a Union that organizes and fights for immigrant workers. The Culinary and Bartenders Union in Las Vegas was our Union's largest affiliate in the 1980's, and it still is. By 1990 the Culinary and Bartenders had made progress in rebuilding after the terrible 1984 Las Vegas strike, but two tough obstacles loomed. The first was a brutal 9-month strike in 1990 at the Horseshoe in Downtown Las Vegas. The second was the historic Frontier strike on the Strip, which lasted six years, four months, and ten days, from 1991 through 1998, with no striker ever going back to work across the 24/7 picket line. The Union had to win these two strikes, both against very wealthy families answerable to no one. Benefit, wage, and job security standards were at stake. So was the Union's aggressive Las Vegas organizing program. Rich came to Las Vegas over and over during the Horseshoe and Frontier strikes. Rich would be the first to agree that the Union won both strikes because of the courage and commitment of the strikers and strike captains, the extraordinary leadership of Joe Daugherty as well as D. Taylor, Richard McCracken, and other organizers and researchers, the steadfast support financially from the city- wide Culinary and Bartenders membership, and the unwavering support of President Hanley and the International Union. But Rich Trumka's role in those victories cannot be overstated. The Frontier strikers adopted the slogan of the Pittston strikers, ``One Day Longer.'' Rich inspired the strikers and the entire Union membership again and again, giving all of us confidence that we would win. He worked hard to ensure broad support from the entire American labor movement. He led the charge for Desert Solidarity during the Frontier strike, the largest labor action in Las Vegas history, which closed down the Strip on a busy Saturday night, with participation from Unions throughout the country. Rich also gave our Union a lasting gift by assigning Vinny O'Brien, an amazing talent who organized Desert Solidarity and went on to help so many UNITE HERE Locals over the next 20 years. In 1995, during the Frontier strike, Rich joined John Sweeney and Linda Chavez Thompson as the candidate for Secretary-Treasurer on the first slate to contest the AFL-CIO leadership in the 40 years since the AFL and CIO merged. That slate won. Ed Hanley surprised many of his labor friends by supporting the Sweeney ticket. Rich served as Secretary- Treasurer until 2009, when he was elected to succeed the retiring Sweeney as President of the AFL-CIO. In his new AFL-CIO position, Rich's support of HERE didn't let up. He was there when the Frontier strikers joyfully went back to work at midnight on January 31, 1998. And his support wasn't confined to just Las Vegas: wherever our Union needed help, Rich was there. As just three examples among many, he marched in the People's Graduation action by Locals 34 and 35 at Yale University in 1996, he was arrested in a civil disobedience supporting Local 2 members at the San Francisco Hilton in 2010, and he kicked off our global Hyatt Boycott that same year. He was everywhere we asked him to be, and he was always inspirational. Rich Trumka had a deep relationship with his fellow miners, and with workers of all kinds. He believed in his soul that all people are created equal. Solidarity was not an abstraction to him, perhaps because of his roots in the mines and the United Mine Workers. The pro-worker, pro-immigrant doctrine of his Catholic faith informed his sense of solidarity. When UNITE HERE's Father Clete Kiley started reviving the tradition of Catholic labor priests, Rich was all in. In 2000, when HERE took the lead in changing AFL-CIO policy to embrace the cause of immigrant workers, Rich supported that fight, drawing on the experiences of his own immigrant family. A shining chapter of his AFL-CIO leadership came in 2008. Rich relentlessly crisscrossed the Midwestern and Appalachian states, bluntly insisting that white Union members had to confront the racism that held some back from voting for Barrack Obama for President. With his trademark plain-spoken eloquence he described racism as just another form of divide and conquer. His ability to connect with white workers on matters of race and immigration was unmatched. Rich was very disappointed when HERE helped lead several Unions out of the AFL-CIO in 2005 to organize an alternate federation, Change to Win. Nevertheless, when the Service Employees International Union under then-president Andy Stern attacked UNITE HERE and perverted the goals of Change to Win, Rich warmly welcomed us back into the AFL-CIO fold at the same 2009 Convention where he became AFL-CIO President. He addressed the UNITE HERE 2014 Convention, D. Taylor's first as President. Rich Trumka was passionate. He was one of the great orators of our time. He was a voracious reader and a keen student of history, especially of the Civil War. Many of us have been frustrated with the AFL-CIO, but I never doubted for a moment Rich's commitment, his moral authority, and his integrity. Rich Trumka supported worker struggles everywhere. He inspired workers wherever he went. Many different Unions and many different battles benefitted from his help. But in UNITE HERE, our members have perhaps benefitted to a greater measure than any other Union except, of course, his own United Mine Workers. We had a very special relationship. I last saw Rich in Washington DC in May of this year. We met at his favorite breakfast place, the Hay-Adams Hotel across the street from the AFL-CIO building. He was in a nostalgic mood. He reminisced with the members of UNITE HERE Local 25 who were servers in the dining room about his intervention when new owners at the Hay-Adams had sought to evade their Union obligations. I told him I had just visited Lebanon, Virginia, my grandfather's home town, where my mother and sister are buried, and nearby Castlewood, where HERE members cooked for the Pittston strikers at Camp Solidarity. I reminded Rich that shortly before my mother passed away he had visited her for several hours, compared notes with her about growing up in coal country, and left her with an autographed copy of a book on UMWA history. Rich and I talked at that breakfast about many struggles, among them Pittston, the Horseshoe, the Frontier, the fight to change the AFL-CIO immigration policy, and his heroic work in the 2008 presidential campaign. We talked about our mutual admiration for Ed Hanley, D. Taylor, and Joe Daugherty. We talked as well about struggles not yet won, particularly his determination to reform labor law by passing the PRO Act in Congress and his commitment to winning for immigrants. During that breakfast Rich told me that he had decided to retire at the AFL-CIO Convention in 2022. He was looking forward to spending time with his family and especially his grandchildren, and to pursuing his hobbies, reading, visiting Civil War battlefields, and being in nature, where he loved to hunt, fish, and camp. His sudden death means that he won't get those opportunities. Like Ed Hanley, he left us too soon. For that I am sad. But miners, UNITE HERE members, and workers everywhere are blessed that he came our way. His inspiring life will outlast the sadness for me, and I hope eventually for his family.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, this rule allows us to move forward on rebuilding our Nation's crumbling infrastructure, restoring the power of the Voting Rights Act, and an historic budget resolution that advances our priorities by making critical investments to expand our Nation's social safety net to continue to build back better. For far too long, the deck has been stacked for the wealthy and the well-connected, while middle-class hardworking families and the vulnerable have been left behind. After decades of disinvestment, we have an opportunity today to make history, to deliver on a promise we made to the American people: to build a stronger, fairer future for our kids; a once-in-a-lifetime moment, creating more jobs, cutting middle-class taxes, while simply asking the biggest corporations and the top 1 percent to pay their fair share of taxes. What are the transformative issues in this bill: expanding to improve the child tax credit already acclaimed to cut child poverty and hunger with only one payment; guaranteeing affordable high-quality childcare; tackling the long-term healthcare crisis; access to long-term services and supports for aging loved ones and those with disabilities; universal pre-K; 2 years of tuition-free community college; maximizing the Pell grant award; launching the first-of-its-kind paid family and medical leave benefits; historic investments ranking alongside the New Deal and the Great Society, standing the test of time and strengthening our society. President Roosevelt didn't just rebuild America. He created Social Security, and when it came to infrastructure and human needs, he did both. So to meet today's moment, we must and we can do both. We have that opportunity not to throw money at a problem but to build the architecture for the future. Today, we must advance this rule and the budget resolution, demonstrating our commitment to our values, making a difference in the lives of so many Americans. This is a moral imperative. And to paraphrase President Franklin Roosevelt: This is our rendezvous with destiny, a watershed moment. Don't let the moment pass. It will not come back again. Let's seize it with action, with hope and unity of purpose for a better, stronger America.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 3237) making emergency supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2021, and for other purposes.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the Senate amendment to H.R. 3237 currently under consideration.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, but far too much time has been consumed already. Mr. Speaker, 204 days ago, this building, this very Chamber, was brutally attacked. A mob of violent insurrectionists invaded our Capitol, hellbent on stopping the peaceful transfer of power. For the first time in over two centuries, the temple of our democracy was defiled and damaged. The brave men and women of our Capitol Police protected us. Since that fateful day, they have continued to work day in and day out, with only the barest minimum of support. They have soldiered on with physical, mental, and emotional trauma and have sacrificed their own needs and those of their families for the safety and security of our democracy. We need to respect their service. The legislation the House passed 2 months ago was a very strong bill that met the needs of the Capitol Police, who were so brutally attacked, and the National Guard, who bravely responded. I am pleased that the Senate amendment largely leaves those provisions intact, which is why we are bringing it to the floor today. However, the Senate bill falls short of what we need in key areas. It does not include resources to prosecute the terrorists who attacked our government, and it does not have enough funding to secure the Capitol for the long term. These needs will not disappear. As we pass this bill today, we know that we are not finished, and we are committed to filling in the gaps the Senate amendment has left. Mr. Speaker, this bill is not perfect, but time is running short, and the immediate needs are dire. In those harrowing moments of January 6, the men and women of the Capitol Police protected us. They said yes. Now, we must protect them. We must say yes. Vote ``yes.'' Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman. With both of us, this is a maiden voyage, so it is wonderful to be with her. I thank her for the work that she has done. I thank our ranking member as well for the work on this bill. Mr. Speaker, the past 4 years have seriously eroded our Nation's position in the world. Under President Trump, our government was more disruptive than constructive and more absent than present on the world stage. This has been especially true in the midst of the worst public health and economic crisis in a generation. President Biden has made it clear that America is back. The State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs funding bill puts those words into action. It makes America stronger at home and respected again in the world. It restores American leadership by responding to global health threats, including the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. It addresses urgent humanitarian needs while confronting the climate crisis. As we speak, the global pandemic is far from over. Around the world, we are still seeing over 400,000 new cases per day and over 8,000 deaths. To confront this continuing crisis, this bill invests in global health and the prevention of future pandemics with $10.6 billion to support the health of families and global communities, including $1 billion in global health security to bolster the public health surveillance, detection, and response capabilities of countries around the world. Given the global economic devastation wrought by the pandemic, this bill provides $8.5 billion to meet urgent humanitarian needs. It empowers women to build a brighter future for their families and communities by providing $760 million for family planning and $70 million for the United Nations Population Fund while repealing the restrictions that make it more difficult for women across the world to access safe and legal abortions. Finally, this bill prepares us for the existential threat of climate change. It provides more than $3 billion to address the climate crisis and other environmental programs, including $1.6 billion for the Green Climate Fund. With this bill, we are proving that America is back and ready to confront the biggest challenges facing our Nation and the world. I thank Chairwoman Lee for her work, and I urge support for the bill.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentleman, Madam Speaker, for yielding. I just might say that just as this is his first time in chairing the subcommittee--and congratulations--it is my first time chairing the full committee. So we are on the same page. I want to thank both the chair and the ranking member for their work on this bill. Madam Speaker, as the oldest modern democracy in the world, the United States exemplifies the success and long-term sustainability of democratic governance and of the great American experiment. If we fail in this experiment, then we fail to honor our sacred duty not only to our own citizens, but to America as an ideal. The events of January 6 threatened that ideal. The brutal, violent assault on our Capitol was an attack on the cradle of our democracy and against liberty. It was a determined and violent insurrection aimed at stopping the peaceful transfer of power; something that the United States has exemplified in its history. It was an attack not just against this building, but on America's example to the world. This bill also honors the sacrifices of the brave women and men in uniform who risked their lives defending this institution shockingly on display at the first hearing of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. It gives these heroes the funding, the resources, and the training they need to ensure what happened on January 6 never happens again. It also says: We respect what you do. It includes measures to provide more transparency, diversity, and leadership training for the Capitol Police to standardize vetting and routinely review staff for employment suitability, to provide for the wellness and the well-being of our Capitol Police. While securing the Capitol Police must be our top priority, we must also ensure the institution within these walls remains strong. I am proud that this bill provides increased funding for the Members' Representational Allowance, for standing committees, for select committees, and for leadership offices to help retain and recruit a talented and a diverse workforce. To grow opportunity and create a diverse hiring pipeline, it expands paid internship opportunities while providing the authorization for Dreamers to work in congressional offices. Together, Madam Speaker, the initiatives in this bill will not only protect the Congress and our democracy, they also strengthen and sustain it. I urge support for the bill.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that, in the engrossments of H.R. 4373 and H.R. 4346, the Clerk be authorized to correct section numbers, punctuation, spelling, and cross-references, and to make such other technical and conforming changes as may be necessary to reflect the actions of the House.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that amendment Nos. 129 and 205 printed in part B of House Report 117-109 be modified in the form I have placed at the desk.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), the chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies for Appropriations.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 555, I offer amendments en bloc.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Though, to consume time is not what I am here to do today. To consume time is a luxury that we can no longer afford. Madam Speaker, after decades of disinvestment and the devastation of the pandemic, the time is now to reinvest in the American people. The time is now to create jobs, grow opportunity, and support our Nation's most vulnerable. The time is now to meet the moral test of government. Vice President Hubert Humphrey defined this test by how government treats ``those who are in the dawn of life . . . , those who are in the twilight of life . . . , and those who are in the shadows of life.'' As I have led the Committee on Appropriations over the past 6 months, this idea has served as a guiding light. It has challenged us to dig deeply into the areas of greatest need and to provide every American the opportunity to contribute and succeed. I believe the package of seven appropriations bills before us, H.R. 4502, will not only pass this moral test, it will fulfill the sacred mission we are charged with as a body to leave this Nation stronger and better than we found it. With investments in education, nutrition assistance, and rural and underserved communities, we are providing every American the resources they need. By rebuilding our Nation's infrastructure and confronting the climate crisis, we are creating and sustaining good-paying American jobs. And with renewed urgency to protect our democracy, close racial disparities, and advance women's rights, we are building back better and fostering a brighter future. We are meeting the moment and more than meeting Hubert Humphrey's moral test. As chair of the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, I want to take a moment to turn to the investments we are making in this legislation more specifically to lift up the most vulnerable and prepare our Nation for future challenges. The $253.8 billion we provide in the Labor-HHS bill represents a historic increase of 28 percent. It includes $7.4 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant, $12.2 billion for Head Start, nearly a $20 billion increase in Federal support for high-poverty schools, and record funding for students with disabilities. It provides continued support for social and emotional learning and makes post-secondary education more affordable with a $400 increase for the maximum Pell grant. It includes $1.1 billion for programs serving historically Black colleges and universities, minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and underresourced institutions of higher education. And it provides $100 million for the Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grant program. To give workers the skills and protections they need, this bill includes an increase of $1.6 billion for the Employment and Training Administration, including a total of $285 million for registered apprenticeships and $3.1 billion for Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act State grants, and $2.1 billion for worker protection agencies. This bill heeds the lessons of the pandemic by providing record funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including $1 billion for public health infrastructure and capacity. It invests $6.5 billion in the National Institutes of Health, which were crucial in developing the COVID-19 vaccine in record time, including an increase of $3.5 billion for biomedical research at existing NIH institutes and centers. And it supports the President's request to establish the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, or ARPA-H, which will be indispensable in achieving breakthroughs in the treatment of diseases, such as diabetes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease. This bill further provides $100 million to help communities create a new mental health crisis response partnership pilot program in partnership with our law enforcement agencies. And it provides $50 million for gun violence prevention research at the NIH and the CDC. Finally, this bill ensures equal treatment for women by repealing the discriminatory Hyde amendment and supports the more than 3 million men, women, and young adults who receive the full range of family planning and reproductive health services funded by Title X. I have just scratched the surface of the historic and unprecedented investments contained in this funding package, which together meet this moment and, I believe, faithfully fulfill the moral test of government. I thank all the subcommittee chairs, the ranking members, and all the members of the Committee on Appropriations and their staffs for their hard work on these bills. In particular, I must note my deep appreciation for my partnership with Ranking Member Cole; my partnership with the ranking member of the full committee, Congresswoman Granger; and my gratitude for the Labor- HHS staff led by Stephen Steigleder, and including Jared Bass, Philip Tizzani, Jennifer Cama, Jackie Kilroy, Laurie Mignone, Becky Salay, and Trisha Castaneda. Thank you as well to the minority staff, Susan Ross and Kathryn Salmon. Last but not least, I must thank my personal staff, including Liz Albertine, Christian Lovell, Caitlin Peruccio, and Marie Gualtieri. Madam Speaker, I urge support for the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the chair of the Committee on Appropriations' Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies.