Rosa DeLauro

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to join family and friends in celebration of my dear friend, Joanne Samuel Goldblum, as she celebrates her 50th Birthday! As she marks this auspicious occasion, I wanted to take a moment to laud her many accomplishments and invaluable contributions to our community. A social worker by training, Joanne spent much of her career working with impoverished families. It was during this time that she began to notice that many of the families she was working with simply went without basic toiletries like diapers and toilet paper. When one of her clients told her that these things were not covered by food stamps or any other assistance program, Joanne decided to take action. Founder and Executive Director of the National Diaper Bank Network, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring that every child in the United States has an adequate supply of diapers to remain clean, dry and healthy, Joanne is a pioneer in the ongoing struggle against poverty. True to Joanne's vision, the organization's mission is to raise awareness of diaper need and to build the capacity of diaper banks throughout the country by creating a national network of community partners. In 2013 alone, the organization distributed more than 15 million free diapers to needy families across the country through their network of local diaper banks. With 5.8 million babies in the United States three years or younger living in poor or low-income families, disposable diapers costing up to $100 per month per baby, and most childcare centers, even free and subsidized facilities requiring parents to provide a day's supply of disposable diapers, the need is staggering. The New Haven Register's ``Person of the Year'' in 2007, as well as recognized by ABC News as their ``Person of the Week'' and People magazine as one of the publication's ``Heroes Among Us'' Joanne's passion and advocacy is ensuring that these issues are at the forefront of policy debate. In addition to her professional contributions, Joanne's philanthropic efforts also touch countless lives. She is a champion for a variety of programs including emergency housing and education. Joanne serves on the Early Childhood Council, which brings together community members that are focused on school readiness for young children and their families. She is on the guide team for the MOMS Project at Yale, which develops public health approaches to ensuring that pregnant and parenting women achieve high standards of emotional health and well- being throughout their lives. Her participation informed her interest in basic needs/safety net funding after a study done by the project found that the greatest stressor for the female participants was a lack of basic needs. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Foote School and the Edith B. Jackson Child Care Program at Yale. A dedicated and unwavering advocate, Joanne's lifetime of contributions have enriched the lives of others and made our community a better place to live and grow. She continues to make a difference in the lives of some of our most vulnerable citizens. Put simply, she is a reflection of all that we hope community leaders will be. In recognition of all of her good work, I am proud to stand today and extend my deepest thanks and appreciation to Joanne Samuel Goldblum. Joanne--Happy Birthday! My very best wishes to you, your husband, David, and your children, Mollie, Jesse, and Sherman, for many more years of health, happiness and success.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it is with great pleasure that I rise today to join the faculty, staff, students, and Greater Waterbury community in extending my sincere congratulations to Naugatuck Valley Community College as they celebrate the 50th Anniversary--a remarkable milestone for this innovative institution of higher learning. The City of Waterbury, through Works Progress Administration funding, was able to help hundreds of its residents get trained for and obtain good jobs with livable wages. When that funding was exhausted, Waterbury Higher Education, Inc. campaigned vigorously for an institute of higher education, namely a branch of the University of Connecticut in Waterbury. They were successful in that endeavor with a local branch opening in 1955. It was in that environment, through that commitment to continued education and in response to a growing need for engineering technicians in expanding local industries, that Waterbury State Technical Institute--later to be upgraded to Waterbury State Technical College--opened its doors in 1964. With the advent of a state-wide community college system under Governor John Dempsey, Waterbury became the home of Mattatuck Community College which became one of the first to open its doors. When classes started in September of 1967, the college enrolled 288 full-time and 224 part-time students. In just five short years, enrollment at the Mattatuck Community College nearly quadrupled and programs were expanded to include early childhood education and nursing programs. In 1992, under consolidation efforts by the General Assembly, the merger of Waterbury State Technical College and Mattatuck Community College established what is now Naugatuck Valley Community College. Today, NVCC serves 2,951 full-time and 4,244 part-time students and is the only community college in Connecticut to offer associate degree programs in aviation science, horticulture, digital arts, and visual and performance arts. The campus boasts over 1100 networked computers, its Technology Hall features the latest in high-tech facilities, and its Fine Arts Center, in addition to including two theaters, music and dance studios, video studios, and rehearsal rooms, is also home to one of three observatories in Connecticut. Today, our community colleges are playing a critical role in educating our workforce. Just as they did in 1955, NVCC is providing quality education and training programs that are preparing students of all ages for good jobs that are in demand in our local economy. Under the guidance of current President, Daisy Cocco De Filippis, NVCC continues its commitment to providing students with access to innovative programs, training, and hands-on experiences that will ensure their future success. For its many invaluable contributions to our community, and particularly for its critical role in our education system, I am proud to rise today to extend my sincere congratulations to Naugatuck Valley Community College on its 50th Anniversary as well as my very best wishes for many more years of continued success.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise today to join the many friends, supporters, and community leaders who have gathered this evening to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the New Haven Diaper Bank. This is a remarkable milestone for this outstanding organization--a decade of ``change from the bottom up!'' A social worker by training, Joanne Goldblum spent much of her career working with impoverished families. It was during this time that she began to notice that many of the families she was working with simply went without basic toiletries like diapers and toilet paper. When one of her clients told her that these things were not covered by food stamps or any other assistance program, Joanne decided to take action. The New Haven Diaper Bank, an organization dedicated to ensuring that every child in the United States has an adequate supply of diapers to remain clean, dry and healthy, was founded in 2004 with Joanne holding the first diaper distribution in her home. That year, the New Haven Diaper Bank provided nearly 5,000 to five flagship agencies and in just ten short years, the organization has grown tremendously, distributing 17,000,000 free diapers to families in need throughout the country through their nationally recognized Diaper Distribution Network. True to Joanne's vision, the organization's mission is to raise awareness of diaper need and to build the capacity of diaper banks throughout the country by creating a national network of community partners. With 5.8 million babies in the United States three years or younger living in poor or low-income families, disposable diapers costing up to $100 per month per baby, and most childcare centers, even free and subsidized facilities requiring parents to provide a day's supply of disposable diapers, the need is staggering. Today, while Joanne is leading the National Diaper Bank Network, the New Haven Diaper Bank is currently led by another exceptional woman, Janet Alfano. Joanne and Janet have been relentless fighters for children in our state, and the good work they do could not be more important. I cannot thank them enough for helping to ease the burdens on low-income families, and giving every child an opportunity to thrive. I am so proud to stand today to extend my very best wishes to Joanne, Janet and the many the friends and supporters of the New Haven Diaper Bank as they celebrate this very special occasion. Happy 10th Anniversary and all the best for many more years of continued success.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my strong support of this welcome bipartisan reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant Act--an act first championed by my friend and mentor Senator Chris Dodd. But I also think we need to go further as an institution to support families with the high costs of this critical care. We all know that, given the realities of today's workforce, quality child care is both a necessity in today's economy, and very expensive. It is often a family's biggest expense, bigger even than their mortgage. Families living in poverty pay almost a third of their income--30 percent--on this care. The Child Care and Development block grant--CCBDG for short--is the only federal support available to offset the high costs of child care for low-income families. It helps children in working families have access to the quality care they need to learn and thrive in life later on. But if anything, we are moving in the wrong direction in terms of covering eligible children. In the poorest families in the United States, only one in six eligible children receives child care assistance. And, at a time when nearly one in five working mothers with very young children are working low-wage jobs, our commitment to these families has dwindled. Since 2006, over 250,000 eligible children have lost access to CCDBG- funded child care. The monthly average of children receiving this aid has fallen to its lowest levels since 1998. And because of budget cuts, many states have seen waiting lists grow and rates for providers plummet. That means less quality care. I support the new requirements in this reauthorization--They include conforming to state health and safety standards, unannounced on-site monitoring visits, and criminal background checks for providers. But these requirements will cost money. And according to the states, without additional funding, the number of families who receive this aid could be cut by as much as 20 percent. Mr. Speaker, time and again families all across this nation have told us that we can make a positive difference for them by facilitating access to quality child care. Countless educational studies have stressed the importance of good care at an early age for children. And countless economic studies have told us that the return on these sorts of investments, in our kids and our future, are amazing. So I urge all of my colleagues to support this bipartisan reauthorization today. And I also urge them to match this vote with a strong budgetary commitment to CCDBG, and other critical child care investments, in the future.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise against this amendment to arm and equip both Syrian rebels and other Syrian groups and individuals. I want to be clear: we need to take action against the threat posed by ISIL, and I support the President in the use of airstrikes, but our response must also be appropriate to the complexity of the situation on the ground in Syria. First and foremost, we must make sure that any response to the threat that we face does not plunge us deeper into a complicated and sectarian civil war. I feel that this amendment may lead to that. With their barbaric attacks against journalists, women, children, and innocent civilians, ISIL is a terrorist group, pure and simple. While they are not now a threat to our Nation, they do have the potential to be one if left unchecked. I believe that operating with our allies in the region, like Arab nations and leaders in the newly-formed Iraqi government, we must be part of a broad coalition to address this potential threat, but I do not think this amendment is the right way forward. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a tyrant. He has tortured and massacred his own people for years now. He should stand before the world and be made to pay for his crimes, but, as the very existence of ISIL illustrates, simply arming those who oppose his tyranny will not make America or the region safer. Syria is a deeply complex situation. It is a nation in the midst of a civil war, splintered between Shi'a and Sunni, authoritarians and al Qaeda, and along countless other points of fractures. I do not see how we are going to be able to thread the needle whereby we arm those we think are ``good guys'' in this conflict without inadvertently making the ``bad guys'' stronger as well. We need to take action against ISIL, and I support airstrikes and other counterterrorism measures, but I believe that the amendment before us today provides much broader authority, and I cannot support it.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I must rise in opposition against this irresponsible and insufficient border supplemental. For months, Democrats have urged this majority to pass comprehensive immigration reform--the bill that was passed on a bipartisan basis in the United States Senate--reform that reflects our values and the country that we want to be: one with strong enforcement at the border, the deportation of dangerous criminals, and a path to citizenship that protects workers, helps families reunite, and clears backlogs. But this Republican majority has done nothing. They have refused to act. My colleague from Texas is right--doing nothing is not an option. Now we face a humanitarian crisis on our border that demands an immediate response, but the majority's answer is just to send home the children who enter our country alone regardless of the violence and the imminent danger that they face. This bill only includes $197 million for providing shelter and care for these refugee children. While these kids are here, we have a moral and, yes, we have a legal responsibility to provide for their housing, care, and processing in the most cost-effective way possible. This insufficient amount will mean that HHS will have to make up the difference through high-priced, short-term contracts. That will cost us more in the long run, and it could result in cuts to other priorities, like education, health, medical research, and job training. If Congress tries to make up these shortfalls elsewhere, this is not responsible leadership. Our policy, signed into law by President George W. Bush, provides for the appropriate screening of those who may be victims of trafficking, and that rightly includes unaccompanied children. This supplemental appropriation would change this policy and would almost certainly result in children being returned to the violence that they are desperately trying to escape. America can do and should do better. We should help protect those kids who are in serious danger, and we should push the leaders of these nations to address the root causes of why so many of their citizens are fleeing. We should pass comprehensive immigration reform. It is time for leadership from this Republican majority.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to bring up the Paycheck Fairness Act--for men and women, same job, same pay--to jump-start this middle class, instead of this partisan lawsuit attacking the President of the United States.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the previous question because defeating it will allow an amendment that provides for consideration of legislation that will, in fact, create jobs, grow the economy, support small businesses, ensure equal pay, and alleviate the financial burdens on working families today. There are so many things we can and should be doing right now to spur the economy for the American people. We need to help workers. We need to help them find opportunities. We need to achieve higher pay for their hard work. Instead of considering those many bills, this Republican majority continues to waste this institution's time by pushing a partisan lawsuit against the President. This is the first time in history that a branch of Congress has tried to sue a President. My God, what a legacy you leave. Americans are tired of partisan dysfunction. They want to see us working to solve their problems, and defeating that previous question will allow us to have a vote today on something very important to American families, and that is equal pay for equal work. Women in America face overwhelming financial challenges. They are more likely to be poor, make minimum wage, go bankrupt, less likely to have retirement security. Women still only make 77 cents, on average, for every dollar made by men. That is $11,000 lost wages every single year, and over the course of a career, that adds up to $434,000 lost. I have introduced the Paycheck Fairness Act in every Congress since 2007. It passed the House twice with bipartisan support. It would ensure that women receive equal pay for equal work. A famous American once said, and I quote: ``Mind you, I believe in marriage and children and home, but I'm not one of the kind that think that God made women to do nothing but to sit at home in the ashes and tend to babies. He made her to be as good as man, and he made her better too . . . If a woman can do the same work that a man can do and do it just as well, she should have the same pay.''

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, that was Buffalo Bill Cody, and he said that in 1898, 116 years ago. Women, Mr. Speaker, are tired of waiting. Let us not waste our time on the partisan lawsuit against the President. Let us defeat the previous question and today give women a vote on equal pay for equal work.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition against this cruel half-measure by the House Republican majority. The bill is a boon for upper middle class families, but failing to extend the child tax credit expansion for lower-income families means 12 million Americans will be plunged deeper in poverty. That includes six million children, infants, and toddlers. It also includes 400,000 veterans and members of the armed services, men and women who are giving their lives and sacrificing their families for this Nation. Yesterday, in an article, Bob Woodson, the president of the Center For Neighborhood Enterprise and, I might add, a mentor for Chairman Paul Ryan, my Republican colleague, he told The Wall Street Journal that we cannot and should not--and this is a quote--``should not generalize about poor people. There are the deserving poor, and there are the undeserving poor.'' I ask my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in this Republican majority, you tell me which are the infants and the toddlers who are the deserving poor and those infants and toddlers who are the undeserving poor? This is not right. I have always been a strong supporter of the child tax credit. Research has shown that this sort of income support for parents, it boosts employment, increases earnings and income, reduces poverty, and improves kids' school performance. I have worked hard to pass the expansion of the child tax credit in the recovery act.

Ms. DeLAURO. I have long called for the lowering of the eligibility threshold to zero, so that more families in need could benefit. But, like so much else from this majority, this bill unnecessarily leaves working families who are struggling behind. I cannot, in good conscience support it, nor should any of my colleagues support it. Oppose this cruel, cruel elimination of a child tax credit for deserving families.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentleman. I can't thank you enough for the great work that you are doing and being such a leader on issues that focus on what this institution has, by way of offering opportunity for people. That is its mission. We know that. I thank you for coming to the Congress for the right reasons, and for helping to try to make a difference in people's lives. A rose is a rose is a rose. Once again, Chairman Ryan has come forward with what he and the Republican majority purport to be a serious plan for addressing poverty in America. And once again, the centerpiece of his plan is the same old bad idea. Chairman Ryan wants to dismantle all of the major Federal antipoverty programs that have long been proven to work for families in need. He wants to convert them into a block grant for the States. He now calls them Opportunity Grants. That is a message. It sounds good. They are block grants, pure and simple. They put decisions in the hands of the States. They cut the funding, and they take all of the safeguards out and they fray the social safety net. That is what it is about. They have been consistent about this year after year after year. I will just tell you about the food stamp program. Congressman Pocan, you were not here 17 years ago. I was, when the then-Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, said we need to block-grant the SNAP program, Medicaid, and a variety of other programs. It is the same failed policy over and over and over again. Let me talk about food stamps for a second. Food stamps helped to lift 5 million Americans above the poverty line in 2012, 2.2 million of them children. Every single dollar invested in food stamps generates $1.79 in local economic activity. But what would Chairman Ryan do? He would end food stamps, our Nation's most important antihunger initiative, in favor of a block grant, just like he would end the low- income energy assistance program, LIHEAP, child care fund, weatherization assistance, public housing, temporary assistance for needy families, community development grants, and dislocated worker grants. If you read his report, it is almost diabolical in the sense that the language that is used, and it is language, and it is a message, and it does nothing to provide opportunity or to help the poor in this country. There are some good parts of his antipoverty plan. Expanding the EITC for childless workers. But even that issue is infected with bad ideas. To pay for this EITC expansion already introduced by the Democratic Party, Mr. Ryan would end programs like the social services block grant, which helps roughly 23 million Americans, half of them children, with child care assistance, child abuse prevention, and community-based care for seniors and disabled persons. He also wants to end the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, which--it is madness--which reaches over 115,000 students in 14 States with healthy foods. And then he will decry people who are on food stamps and say they are selecting the wrong foods for their families, when he will just cut the Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Program. What have we come to here? What is this harshness that has come over our public policy, that mean-spiritedness that has come over our public policy? For over a year now, Chairman Ryan has tried to pretend that he wants to put forth serious proposals to alleviate poverty in America. But the proof is in the pudding. Look at his most recently proposed budget. Two-thirds of the cut in that budget fall on low and middle-income families. It tries to turn Medicare into an underfunded voucher program, shreds our social safety net, block-grants food stamps and Medicaid, slashes the WIC program, that is Women, Infants and Children, by $595 million. It cuts spending that we do every year on health issues, on worker training, on education. He tries to cut that program by $791 billion over the next 10 years. It slashes the child care assistance program, as I said, job training program, Pell grants, and medical research. I am a cancer survivor. I am alive because of the grace of God and biomedical research. Why shouldn't other people have the advantage of biomedical research? Why would he want to cut that? And he does this all while cutting taxes for the wealthiest. I am glad to see that Chairman Ryan at least recognizes that he and his party need to be doing more to help end poverty and hunger in our Nation, and I hope we can engage in a constructive dialogue on issues like the EITC expansion and sentencing reform. If Chairman Ryan and the Republican majority want to get serious about helping families in need, they can start tomorrow. They need to make sure that their Republican child tax credit bill--so generous to those who can afford it--that they need to make sure that that helps low-income kids as well. That child tax credit program will cut the child tax credit for 450,000 veterans. What are our veterans doing? They are serving. They are sacrificing themselves and their families, and he wants to cut their child tax credit. That is what is in there. Then he talks about the deserving poor and the undeserving poor. Let me ask Chairman Ryan: What about low-income kids? What about them? What about the infants and toddlers? Tell us, Mr. Chairman, who are the ``deserving'' infants and toddlers? Who are the ``undeserving'' infants and toddlers? We need an answer to our question. Our colleagues could join us in raising the minimum wage, something that is long overdue, but until then, actions speak louder than words. The bulk of this new plan, I am afraid, is the same old snake oil, the same tired, discredited, ideological attacks on the social safety net that Chairman Ryan and this majority have been putting forward time and again since coming to power in 2010. It will not wash. It is harsh. It is cruel, and it is mean-spirited. That is not why we came to this institution, Mr. Pocan. It is not why you came. It is not why I came. It was the hope and the dream and the opportunity to provide opportunity for the people of this Nation, to make this institution do what our Founding Fathers thought it should do and to give people a chance. This Expanding Opportunity in America will take away people's opportunities, and the American public knows it. Thank you for what you are doing. It is an honor to work with you and the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore), Congressman Ryan of Ohio, and our other colleagues who stood on this floor tonight to decry this shame of a document.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chair, I yield myself 2 minutes. My amendment would prohibit Federal contracts from going to entities incorporated in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands--the two nations most often abused as tax havens. In the past few weeks, this body has accepted similar provisions for the Department of Defense Appropriations bill; the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill; and the Energy and Water bill. The latter passed on a rollcall vote. As before, we should not be spending taxpayers' money on Federal contracts for companies that have renounced their American citizenship in favor of an island tax haven. Let me quote from an article from Saturday's Washington Post by Allan Sloan, a senior-editor-at-large from Fortune, and the title of the article is: ``Tax-Dodging Firms Are Sticking Us with the Bill.'' He writes: These companies don't hesitate to take advantage of the great things that make America America--our deep financial markets, our democracy and rule of law, our military might, our intellectual and physical infrastructure, our national research programs, all the terrific places our country offers for employees and families to live--but inverters do hesitate, totally, when it is time to ante up their fair share of financial support for our system. He is right, and we should not be rewarding bad behavior and gifting these firms with lucrative Federal contracts. Nearly two-thirds of the companies that have established subsidiaries in tax havens have registered at least one in Bermuda or in the Cayman Islands. If a firm is going to abuse tax loopholes by pretending to be from these two island nations, we should make sure we are doing business with companies that are paying their fair shares instead. We now have taken strong, decisive, and bipartisan action against these tax havens in three appropriations bills. I urge all of my colleagues to act here as well and stand for American businesses that are meeting their responsibilities to our Nation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, how much time remains?

Ms. DeLAURO. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, at this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Ms. DeLAURO. I yield the gentleman an additional 15 seconds.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I mentioned Mr. Sloan's article of this past weekend, and I just want to read this quote because I think it really puts this whole issue into perspective: How much mone are we talking about inverters sucking out of the U.S. Treasury? There is no number available for the tax revenue loss that is caused by the inverters and the never- heres so far, but it is clearly in the billions. Congress' Joint Committee on Taxation projects that failing to limit inversions from evading their responsibility like this will cost the Treasury at least another $19.5 billion over 10 years and possibly much, much more. At a time when we struggle here day by day to look for the resources to extend unemployment benefits, to pass a highway trust fund, to increase the minimum wage, to increase the dollars for biomedical research, to look for funds for education in this Nation for our children, we have corporations that are siphoning off $19.5 billion. Not only do they do that, but they take with them, and we give to them, billions in Federal contracts. No more should we do it. I and others long fought for this. We have passed through the appropriations process a ban on Federal contracts for U.S. companies that acquire businesses in lower tax jurisdictions, and then they claim that their headquarters are there despite still being U.S. companies. We can send another strong statement to these companies today as we have already done on Defense, on Energy and Water, on Transportation- HUD, by coming together and passing this amendment. I urge all of my colleagues to support it. Tell them that they are not allowed to give up their American citizenship and, yet, claim it for billions in Federal contracts. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes. My amendment would prohibit Federal contracts issued by agencies under the jurisdiction of this bill from going to entities incorporated in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, the two nations most often abused as tax havens. This body has accepted similar provisions for the Departments of Defense, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. As before, we should not spend taxpayer money on Federal contracts that go to companies that have renounced their American citizenship in favor of an island tax haven. Just this week, Business Week wrote an article examining the loopholes that longstanding American companies like Ingersol Rand, which was founded in Connecticut in 1871, have been exploiting in order to enjoy lucrative government contracts while pretending to reside overseas for tax purposes. These firms simply should not be allowed to pretend they are an American company when it comes time to get contracts, then claim to be an offshore company when the tax bill arrives. According to a recent study, 70 percent of Fortune 500 companies used tax havens last year. They stashed nearly $2 trillion offshore for tax purposes, nearly two-thirds of which was hidden away by just 30 firms. Of the companies who have established subsidies and tax havens, nearly two-thirds have registered at least one in Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. The profits these companies claim were earned in these two island nations in 2010 total over 1,600 percent of the country's entire yearly economic output. These companies take advantage of our education system, our research and development incentives, our skilled workforce, and our infrastructure, all supported by U.S. taxpayers. We have already acted on the Transportation-HUD bill and Defense. Let us do the same for Energy and Water. Let's support the firms that are staying at home and meeting their obligations and pass this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, ``The ranks of Federal contractors with foreign addresses''--and I am quoting from an article that appeared in Bloomberg this week--``The ranks of Federal contractors with foreign addresses are likely to grow this year as a new stampede of companies escapes the U.S. tax system.'' Escapes the U.S. tax system. These are companies who are taking their funds, bringing them to Ireland, to the Caymans, to Bermuda because they do not want to pay their fair share of taxes in the United States of America. There isn't a citizen who can get away with that, but we are allowing these companies to do it. And not only that--because it is legal under our Tax Code which has to be reformed, but my God, that is going to take a month of Sundays to get done--in the meantime, they are collecting millions and millions of dollars in Federal contracts. We are rewarding these arrent corporations who renounce their U.S. citizenship. They go offshore, take their money offshore, and don't pay taxes so that we can do anything about education or biomedical research or any other areas that we have had to cut the budget on so that they can save their money and not pay any taxes. Then we say: Okay, the floodgates are open; come and get a Federal contract. It is wrong and we shouldn't do that. Mr. Chairman, how much time is remaining?

Ms. DeLAURO. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to my colleague from Texas (Mr. Doggett).

Ms. DeLAURO. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. DeLAURO

Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this bipartisan legislation reauthorizing the Workforce Investment Act and the critical job training programs that help unemployed and underemployed Americans find work and get back on their feet. No investment is more critical than investment in our human capital. These job training programs make opportunity real. They benefit families and working people who need help, people who have played by the rules. Businesses rely on these programs to fill vacant positions with qualified and skilled workers. This bill, the product of many years of bipartisan negotiations, takes what is already working and improves on it. It streamlines and provides stability to these critical programs, while including important protections for workers with disabilities. It encourages partnerships between the workforce system and our community colleges while enhancing adult education and encouraging innovation in adult training. Members of both parties have understood the vital role of the government in helping people help themselves by providing access to workforce development. The bill is a good compromise. It makes good on a critical promise to our workers and businesses. I urge my colleagues to support it. I thank Mr. Tierney, Mr. Miller, and those on the other side of the aisle for coming together and passing this very important piece of legislation.