Rodney Davis

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, we know this bill is not going to be signed into law. I look forward to working with the gentleman on other amendments that we might be able to come up with some good plans to engage our 16- and 17-year-olds, engage the next generation of leaders. I hope maybe a visit that we can do together could inspire somebody to do what we do one day, and that would be that we would manage to call ourselves successful in legislating to inspire the next generation. This bill, H.R. 1, is not going to inspire the next generation. I appreciate Mr. Neguse; I appreciate his willingness to serve. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, I thank my colleague, Mr. Neguse, again. I admire his tenacity, and admire his willingness to come down and legislate. I stand ready to come to his district and talk to high schoolers with him, and I would hope he would reciprocate, come to mine. If the gentleman will have his team call mine, we will figure out a way to work something out. I think that is the best way for us to send a message to high schoolers to get them engaged, get them involved. This is just an administrative burden that is going to affect our State and local officials. To process--I mean, there are provisions in this 700-page mammoth bill that don't allow our local election officials to clean voters off the rolls that they know no longer may live in their jurisdiction. So we are hindering local officials' ability to clean up their rolls; and then decide, you know, later on, that we are going to be ahead and pre-register people that we don't know, may or may not want to vote in their college town of residence. So it just is a burden that I think is unnecessary. Although, again, I respect the gentleman's willingness to come down here and debate; this is an issue that goes further than Mr. Neguse's amendment. I am going to oppose the amendment. I urge folks to vote ``no'' on it. But more importantly, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this bill that is going to eventually cost taxpayers billions of dollars and add billions upon billions to the campaign coffers of Members of Congress. That is not what the taxpayers in my district are asking for. It is not what the taxpayers of America are asking for. It is only what the Democratic majority is asking for. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, I thank my new colleague, Mr. Neguse, and welcome him. I am glad he is participating in the process. I am going to oppose the gentleman's amendment; not because of the process, just because it adds another layer of burden to our States and our localities. Many States already accept pre-registration forms, and that is within their State's jurisdiction to do so. I just don't like this top-down approach which this now upwards of 700-page mammoth bill called H.R. 1 is putting on to our States and our local election officials. Our county offices, our local officials, they are bleeding from unfunded mandates from State and Federal Governments, and this is one more of those. I agree, we ought to get more 16- and 17-year-olds interested in government. I have got twin boys who are 18; I try and get them interested. Sometimes they are not even interested in me and what we do. But the key is we, as Members of Congress, ought to go take our message to the high schools. And I just recently was in Boston with a bipartisan group in and around our colleague, Joe Kennedy's district. Joe, Markwayne Mullin, and Lisa Blunt Rochester and I, we visited numerous high schools. And I hope all four of us standing there in a bipartisan way actually inspired some young people in the Boston area to get engaged. My colleague, Jimmy Panetta and I visited schools in my district last fall to do the exact same thing, to show people that we can work together in a bipartisan way. Unfortunately, this process in H.R. 1 has been nothing but partisan; and that is not the message that we need to send to 16- and 17-year- olds. I have put my hand out with an olive branch. I have accepted many Democratic amendments throughout the last few days, and not one single amendment, either in the markup of the only committee that marked this bill up, House Administration, where we offered 28, not one Republican amendment to this bill that is now 700 pages has been accepted. Every amendment has been a Democrat-led amendment. I thought the new Democratic majority was going to be bipartisan. I thought the new Democratic majority was going to be transparent. I thought the new Democratic majority was going to not work with special interests to write mammoth 700-page bills. But I guess, Madam Chair, I was mistaken. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. I object.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, for the sake of innocent lives, I urge the Speaker to immediately schedule this important bill.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of H.R. 962, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. I am not going to oppose this amendment, and it has been great debating with the other side tonight. I look forward to a livelier debate tomorrow. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I include in the Record a list of groups such as the Hispanic Leadership Fund, The LIBRE Initiative, Americans for Tax Reform, Coalition to Reduce Spending, the National Right to Life, Heritage Action for America, and the Chamber of Commerce and several letters in opposition to H.R. 1, obviously, or I don't think I would be entering them into the Record. The following organizations oppose H.R. 1:

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Well, I would be remiss to not thank my colleague from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes) for being a cosponsor of this amendment. We have had some lively discussions back and forth. My apologies. I thank the gentleman for his efforts on this amendment, too. I am ready to close, but congratulations once again to Ms. Slotkin. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I know our time together tonight is winding down. This, I think, is the last amendment we are going to debate tonight. I thank Ms. Slotkin for her amendment and thank her for her service to our country. It is a pleasure to be able to serve in this great institution with the gentlewoman. As I said, I am not going to oppose the gentlewoman's amendment. Congratulations. I certainly wish this would be part of something that could go into law, because this bill is not going to go into law. I certainly look forward to working with her to address these issues as we move forward. Congratulations, and I thank the gentlewoman again for her service here now. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I claim time in opposition, although I am going to do the right thing and not oppose this amendment.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I am having a lot of fun down here, but I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, how much time do I have left?

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. May I reclaim my time?

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, again, let the Record show I was for the amendment once again before the chairperson. I should get kudos. Listen, this is a good amendment. I congratulate the gentlewoman on her election, being a Member of Congress, and helping to legislate and participate. I also want to use a few seconds to really highlight the work of our intelligence officials in the administration and our Department of Homeland Security, especially Secretary Nielsen and her team, working with our local officials in Illinois before the last election to ensure that there was no nefarious activity that could have come about in our home State. Our home State election officials got a lot of accolades from the Department of Homeland Security, and I think the Department of Homeland Security and their team, especially Secretary Nielsen, deserve the accolades, also. So, with that, I am ready to close. I congratulate Ms. Spanberger. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I am going to support this amendment. Mr. Chair, it is great to work with Ms. Spanberger, and I thank her for her service as an intelligence officer for our great Nation. This is an issue that she knows better than me and she knows better than most of us here in this institution. I look forward to supporting this amendment, and I welcome the gentlewoman to the U.S. House of Representatives and look forward to working with her. Mr. Chair, I would love to work with the gentlewoman on issues like this when this bill does not pass the Senate and is signed into law and we can work together in a bipartisan way. I will continue to show bipartisanship. I congratulate and welcome the gentlewoman. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chairman, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment, even though I am not opposed to it. I think this is a darn good amendment.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I am all for more paper production. Those paper plants that exist in my district, you know, they use recycled materials, too. I am more than happy to have more trees be deforested out of areas that are caught up in wildfires on an annual basis. If we could have the paper that is going to work, if the other side is okay with burning more fossil fuels to make this happen, hey, maybe we won't need those exceptions I talked about, maybe we will have enough American manufacturing and paper jobs. Some of the best paying jobs in my district are at the paper mills. Mr. Chair, I am certainly looking forward to working with the gentleman when this bill fails. Especially after seeing some of the preliminary numbers out of this new CBO score. I don't know how many cosponsors of this bill are going to actually be able to cast a vote for it, but I will reserve judgment until I see the board tomorrow. Mr. Chair, I am ready to close, but since I have the right to close, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. I yield to the gentlewoman from California.

Mr. RODNEY DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman from New Jersey. Look, I am all for increasing American manufacturing, I am all for building new paper plants, but I would urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to remember they are probably going to burn more fossil fuels. You know, if we are going to have to cut down more trees, maybe we will get some bipartisanship when it comes to deforestation, which could help cut down on forest fires that may cause the problems that would need the exceptions that we talked about earlier. So I certainly hope this fits into the New Green Deal provisions that are going to be voted on in the Senate. There is a lot of talk about paper in this bill. And in this bill, actually the paper keeps growing. It is upwards of 700 pages now. Mr. Chair, I just got a very important piece of paper with the new CBO score, so I assume we are going to be talking about that soon.