Raúl Grijalva

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. H.R. 841 makes technical corrections to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Reservation Act. In the past, efforts by the tribe have been hindered in its effort to restore traditional land within its original reservation by a very cumbersome and long process. The bill would end the current two-step process that requires the tribe to take the former reservation land into trust with approval from Interior and then get congressional approval to be designated reservation land. Also, the bill would allow the property taken into trust within the boundaries of the tribe's original reservation after September 9, 1988, to be part of the reservation. Congressman Schrader is to be commended for his leadership on this legislation and his commitment to working on behalf of our first Americans. H.R. 841 has wide support, including the entire Oregon delegation, and I urge its passage today. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Schrader), the sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), another returned Peace Corps volunteer, who served his 2 years in Colombia and who has sponsored this legislation in previous Congresses.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Garamendi), a returned Peace Corps volunteer who served his 2 years in Ethiopia.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy), the sponsor of the House companion to the legislation.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Last November, we marked the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's tragic assassination. Losing President Kennedy left a lasting scar on the American psyche, but his legacy lives on through his words and ideas, including the establishment of the Peace Corps, an institution that has sent over 200,000 Americans to 139 countries in its 52-year history. S. 230 authorizes construction of a memorial to commemorate the mission of the Peace Corps and the values on which it was founded. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate President Kennedy's legacy and the tremendous accomplishments of the Peace Corps. With the passage of S. 230, we will be sending a worthwhile bill to the President's desk. I am glad we have been able to put our differences aside and pass such a meaningful bill in the first few weeks of the new year. Both Congressman Sam Farr, who sponsored the House companion to this legislation in prior Congresses, and Representative Kennedy, who is the sponsor this Congress, deserve our thanks for the diligence in getting this legislation approved today. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, before yielding back the remainder of our time, let me congratulate the sponsors of the legislation, Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Hastings, for moving this rapidly through our committee, our chairman, and to the alumni of the Peace Corps that are a part of this great body, and to say that this legislation marks an acknowledgment of this great country providing to the world its greatest resource, its people, their talent, their intelligence, and their drive. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA

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

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. The Battle of Gettysburg is one of the Civil War's most revered and remembered events. Over the course of 3 days in southeastern Pennsylvania, approximately 50,000 Americans lost their lives, and the battle turned out to be one of the turning points in the war. This tragic sacrifice will always hold a unique place in our national history and story, but it was the eloquence and humanity of President Lincoln's Gettysburg Address that has helped it endure for 150 years. H.R. 1513 expands the boundaries of the Gettysburg National Military Park to include the Gettysburg Train Station and a 45-acre plot known as Plum Run. The Borough of Gettysburg plans to donate the train station to the National Park Service so they can incorporate this significant resource into their efforts to appropriately protect Gettysburg, its story, and its contribution to our Nation. By authorizing the Park Service to accept the donation, H.R. 1513 makes this possible. This bill passed out of committee by unanimous consent. I am pleased that we are able to vote on it today on the floor of the House. We support H.R. 1513 and urge its adoption. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. Congressman, let me at the outset thank you for the opportunity to provide some clarity to the discussion and the lack of debate, many times, in this House about what is really important to the American people. That clarity is important to this whole Congress. It is important specifically to our Democrats and in particular to the Progressive Caucus, of which you are a member, and I want to thank you for that and for your efforts. The Federal Emergency Unemployment Compensation program expired on the 28th because of a lack of action on the part of the majority--the majority being the Republicans--cutting off an average weekly benefit of $300, as has been stated, to 1.3 million job seekers. Without that extension, another 72,000 Americans on average are estimated to lose their unemployment insurance every week during the first half of this new year. All economists agree that providing extended unemployment benefits is one of the most effective job creation strategies available during a high period of joblessness. In this period of economic uncertainty, every $1 of unemployment compensation creates 52 cents in additional economic activity beyond that dollar. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that extending benefits for another year will save 200,000 jobs. The failure by the Republicans to extend Federal unemployment insurance at the end of last week is already taking more than $400 million out of the pockets of American job seekers nationwide and State economies. Unemployment insurance is viewed as a very effective stimulus because Americans without jobs tend to spend their unemployment insurance right away and on the very basic needs that they and their families need. Democrats have called on Congress to extend the Federal emergency unemployment insurance program through 2014. Congress must act soon to restore those necessary benefits to the unemployed workers and to their families. This economy still has 1 million fewer jobs than before the Great Recession began; 37 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than 6 months; almost 1.9 million more would lose their unemployment benefits in the first half of 2014, as their State benefits run out. In my State of Arizona, the failure by the GOP, the Republicans, to reinstate and extend the unemployment compensation benefits directly affected 17,100 unemployed workers in Arizona. An additional 22,500 unemployed workers will lose their benefits in the first 6 months of 2014 if this Congress does not act. Arizona has an average of an 8.3 percent unemployment rate throughout the State. There has been a 20 percent reduction in unemployment benefits to these workers since 2011. So we stand a chance, in Arizona, to save up to 2,000 jobs and reinstate for 17,000 people their unemployment benefits if this Congress were to act now. We are here today, with the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan) managing this hour, to talk about the necessity and the urgency of the extension of unemployment benefits that has to be a priority for this Congress. For those willing workers and their families, it is an essential, essential act by this Congress. These workers should not be pawns in political gamesmanship or in gotcha strategies by the Republicans to try to, in effect, embarrass the President. That does not need to be part of this equation. As Mr. Pocan pointed out, this has been dealt with in a bipartisan manner. This renewal, regardless of who has been in the White House, has been a response to the needs of the American people and their workers. I also believe that people receiving unemployment should not be subjected to punitive, mean-spirited requirements in order to receive that support. We need action. We don't need posturing. We don't need empty preaching from the majority on extending unemployment benefits. That needs to be done and done immediately. As we talk about unemployment benefits and their extension, I also want to mention that we have to realize that there is not a subtle or overly covert agenda at work here by the majority. We see the nonaction on unemployment, a vital and necessary response that, in the past, has been met with bipartisan support. We now see cuts amounting to $20 billion in nutrition and basic sustenance support for people in need, the SNAP program in the farm bill. That cumulative effect of $20 billion will affect many, many families, children, and adults throughout this country. There is also a growing wage and income inequality and disparity in this country. That has been as a consequence of policies in which we reward those that are doing well--and God bless them, and they should do well, and we should be proud of them--we reward them with tax breaks, with loopholes, and with the ability to increase their income and their purchasing power while at the same time shifting the burden of responsibility for basic services in this country to hardworking, middle class people in this country. That income inequality is possibly one of the most dangerous economic realities that is happening to this Nation, and that, too, is an agenda that is going on and continues to go on in the policies and the initiatives that are being promoted by the majority party in this House. There is a huge need in this country for a livable minimum wage that pays people for the actual work that they do. We can't ignore the sequester cuts and how they have directly affected child care and the ability for parents, and particularly women, to be able to work and have some security that their children are being taken care of. The cuts in that area, in Head Start, in particular, are going to be devastating; early childhood education, the cuts in that area, and the freedom that it would provide parents to be able to feel secure about being at work while their children are learning and being taken care of. The cuts in job training and the ability for people to seek new careers and change the orientation of where they are working, that has been cut. Public education, an investment strategy that, in hard economic times, has been critical to our country, again, is being cut. Access and affordability of higher education, again, being cut. There has been no jobs bill. It was interesting to hear the Speaker of the House say the other day that it is the Democrats' fault that there is no jobs agenda that has been presented. There has been a jobs agenda presented over and over again by a variety of colleagues in this House, in the Senate, and by the administration. The inaction and them turning their face to that reality has been a consequence of the leadership in this House that has refused to deal with that. Unemployment benefits are part of a greater crisis, a crisis of economic fairness in this country, a crisis that demands that this Congress look beyond its own rhetoric and look at the reality. In my district, every time in our office people come in seeking help from us, and, invariably, the biggest request is, How can I find a job? How can I get trained for a new career? How can I get myself in a situation where I can go back to work and feel secure in taking care of and supporting my family? For single heads of households, it is the same issue. I would suggest that if we really want to deal with the economics and not just provide rhetoric about jobs that we look at the first necessary step: extend these unemployment benefits, provide some security and some sustainability to millions of workers in this country, and then move on to the real agenda, which is to provide some fairness to these workers and some opportunities to these workers. Again, Congressman Pocan, I appreciate the time and yield back.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I just want to conclude by again thanking the sponsor of the legislation and, I think, to point out the obvious: this legislation is important, its timing is important, and the fact that this recognition, per capita, for contributions to our Nation in military service for Native American peoples and tribes across this country is a very important one. It speaks to real loyalty, real love of the land, and real love of this Nation. I am proud to be here and to lend my support to this legislation. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), cochair of the Native American Caucus in the House.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, H.R. 2319 authorizes the construction of a Native American Veterans Memorial on the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian. The memorial is already authorized to be built within the museum, but planning efforts have identified the needs for more space. This bill simply allows the memorial to be built outside. Native Americans have a long and proud tradition of military service. Navajo code talkers were involved in every assault the U.S. Marines conducted in the Pacific from 1942 to 1945. Their heroics even inspired a Hollywood movie, but the proud tradition of Native American service goes all the way back to the Revolutionary War. Since then, the Nation's first Americans have fought in every U.S. engagement, and it is about time that we recognize their service with a national memorial. I cannot think of a better place to commemorate that tradition than on the grounds of the National Museum. I also want to take time to thank Congressman Mullin for his leadership and sponsorship of this legislation, overdue, and very, very appropriate and historically necessary. We support H.R. 2319 and urge its passage. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. (Mr. GRIJALVA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, as Members of the House reach their conclusions on the budget deal announced by Congressman Ryan and Senator Murray, I might add it is a deal devoid of any support for the unemployed, real investment in jobs and education, and tax reform that produces fairness, pushing additional cost burdens on Federal employees. But it does avoid cuts to Social Security and Medicare and the Republican-inspired government shutdown and near default. I want to remind my colleagues in the House that that same kind of effort, attention, and risk is needed on the issue of comprehensive immigration reform. If we can produce a budget deal through the crisis that we have been through, then it is time for the House of Representatives and the Republican leadership to step up and produce the same kind of effort, the same kind of attention to one of the most critical domestic issues affecting so many families and communities in this country, and that is the question of comprehensive immigration reform. If we have the fortitude, the risk to compromise on a budget, we should certainly be able to do that for immigration reform.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Fond Du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and the county of Carlton, Minnesota, have proposed a land exchange involving 1,451 acres of tribal fee land located outside the Band's reservation. Those lands would be exchanged for tax-forfeited State lands of equivalent value that are administered by Carlton County but located within the Band's reservation. H.R. 2650 would authorize the land exchange and would allow future land exchanges between the county and the Band which have been identified as candidates for similar land exchanges. I support H.R. 2650 and urge its passage by the House today. Representative Nolan is to be commended for his leadership and persistence on behalf of his constituents and his district. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Nolan), the sponsor of the legislation.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. H.R. 1241 would authorize the Secretary of Agriculture to accept lands outside the boundaries of the Inyo National Forest in the Eastern Sierra in exchange for non-Federal lands desirable for the National Forest System purposes. If completed, the land exchange could result in significant revenue for the Federal Government. The bill has bipartisan support, including the Department of Agriculture. I urge its passage in the House, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlelady from New York, Representative Maloney, the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as she may consume to the gentlelady from New York, Representative Velazquez, the ranking member of the Small Business Committee, the sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the Tenement Museum was founded in 1988 and has preserved the history of immigration in Manhattan's Lower East Side for the last 25 years. Through the personal experiences of the generations of migrants that have called 91 Orchard Street home, over 200,000 annual visitors are able to hear the stories of real families that lived in the building between 1863 and 1935. H.R. 1846 would expand the boundaries of the current National Park Service affiliated site at 91 Orchard Street to include a recently purchased building two doors away and will allow the Tenement Museum to expand the stories they tell. This new building holds an array of untold stories from a family of Holocaust survivors who were allowed in the United States under the first refugee act, and Puerto Rican and Chinese families that were part of the foundation in making New York home to the largest Puerto Rican community on the American mainland and the largest Chinatown in the Western Hemisphere. The ranking member of the Small Business Committee, Representative Velazquez, is to be commended for her legislation on behalf of this important cultural and historic resource. We support H.R. 1846 and urge its passage by the House today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GRIJALVA

Mr. GRIJALVA. I have no further speakers, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time.