Alcee Hastings

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Nolan).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown) to discuss our proposal if we defeat the previous question.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield the distinguished gentlewoman an additional 1 minute.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, at this time, I am pleased to yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, this bill used to be known as the Water Resources Development Act. Now it is called the Water Resources Reform and Development Act. While it is with many of these new reforms that I take issue, I look forward to working with my friends on the other side of the aisle to make sure that we are here in 2 years to again update our water resources and infrastructure, hopefully a bill with less ill- advised reforms. Mr. Speaker, if the previous question is defeated, I am going to offer an amendment to allow for the inclusion of the bipartisan Brown amendment, which would authorize projects that receive a final Chief of Engineers' Report up to 1 year following the enactment of this bill. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the Record along with extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question. I urge a ``no'' vote on the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would help to maintain beaches and the integrity of our shipping channels around the country. Sand transfer plants are vital for beach renourishment, as well as to fight erosion and shoaling in navigation channels. These inlets are often the lifeblood of the communities they serve. When shoaling of the channels makes navigation dangerous, it is the people and businesses that suffer. The Army Corps of Engineers is already spending money to dredge these channels. By reducing the need to dredge so often, my amendment allows for more efficient allocation of Federal dollars. Furthermore, additional Corps resources are then freed up for other uses. This amendment does not authorize or appropriate any funds. It merely allows the sand transfer plants to participate in the process and gives the Corps flexibility in prioritizing its funding. It applies to all sand transfer plants, those that are in existence and those not yet in existence. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, at this time I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Brown).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, I have great respect for this committee. I think they have done extraordinary work on behalf of all of us here in Congress, operating with fiscal restraint and able to produce a bipartisan product. Toward that end, most of all I respect Chairman Shuster, but I firmly disagree with his assessment of this particular measure. There is one transfer plant that is located in an area that I serve, and that is in Lake Worth, Florida. It is the Lake Worth Inlet. There is one in California, one in New Jersey, and one in Bethany Beach on the Indian River Inlet. Additionally, this amendment would just apply whenever the Corps builds additional sand transfer plants. There is no money that is involved. The money that the Corps of Engineers would save is immense, and I don't for the life of me understand why there would be opposition to that. I will have a lot more to say over the course of time regarding how the Corps conducts its operations, but I have lived for 21 years with many of their successes and a hell of a lot of their failures. Toward that end, in this particular instance, I am trying to help them to save something and to be able to do the things that are necessary to allow for navigation of these waters that are critical to the areas that they serve. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Rev. Griffin Davis, Sr. on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of his ministry. He is the longtime pastor of Hill Top Missionary Baptist Church in Riviera Beach, Florida. Rev. Davis is widely known as a compassionate person who will always go out of his way to help the less fortunate among us. He truly embodies the words of Jesus, who said, ``Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.'' Rev. Davis' lifetime of good works is well known among people of faith in the Riviera Beach community. The city and its residents know that they can count on him for support whenever there is a need for civic improvements, and in every effort to assist the poor and disabled--especially senior citizens and children. Rev. Davis' moving words touch countless lives each Sunday, but his sermons make up only a small part of the many good deeds that he continues to perform each and every single day. As he approaches a half century of serving God and all his children, I am pleased to join his family, his friends, and everyone in the community in honoring him. Mr. Speaker, Rev. Davis is one of the finest people that I have had the privilege to know, and I wish him continued success in his life and ministry for many more years to come. He is a selfless individual who has given so much to his community, and I am extremely humbled to not only represent him in Congress, but also to call him my dear friend.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Debt Limit Reform Act. This bill will reform the statutory limits on our nation's federal debt by providing the President of the United States with explicit authority to raise the debt ceiling without Congressional approval, and by removing intra-governmental accounts from the debt ceiling calculation. As Congress faces an ongoing government shutdown that has left hundreds of thousands of American workers without a paycheck, we are getting ever closer to our nation defaulting on its debt obligations. On October 17th, the debt ceiling is expected to be breached. Democrats and Republicans must come together before then to act or risk a global economic catastrophe. This is exactly where we were just two years ago, and where we will be again in the near future if we do not take any steps to reform the way in which we calculate and consider our nation's debt. Congress has legislatively limited federal debt for nearly 100 years, from the Second Liberty Bond Act of 1917 to the more recent Budget Control Act of 2011 and subsequent increases. These increases, however, do not address the fact that the current manner in which we determine the debt ceiling is no longer relevant to how we govern today. We need a new debt limit law--one that takes the modern world into account. Under this bill, the debt ceiling will distinguish between mere accounting techniques and actual debt. No longer will debt owed from one branch of our government to another be considered the same as debt held by foreign governments, banks, pension funds, and other entities. According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), of the $16.699 trillion in outstanding debt subject to limit, roughly $11.9 trillion is held by the public and about $4.8 trillion is held by government accounts. By excluding these government-held accounts from the debt limit calculation--particularly the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and the Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds that constitute the Social Security Trust Funds, Medicare Parts A and B, the Civil Service and Military Retirement Trust Funds, Unemployment Insurance, the Highway Trust Fund, Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Trust Fund, and Airport and Airway Trust Fund--we will have a more accurate view of our actual debt obligations. These intra-governmental accounts are the means by which the Treasury tracks payouts and obligations to other government entities. They are accounting techniques, not debts. These funds serve to help retired workers and their families, the families of deceased workers, and disabled workers and their families. In addition, they provide inpatient hospital stay and medical insurance benefits; fund programs for civilian and military retirement; provide unemployment benefits to eligible workers who become unemployed through no fault of their own; fund road construction and mass transit projects; provide insurance for long-term services in the case of disability; and fund the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). They need not be considered the same as our government's debt for purposes of calculating the debt ceiling. Mr. Speaker, at a time when partisan gridlock is having a devastating impact on our nation's economy through a government shutdown and further threatening to destabilize global financial systems, this legislation represents a common sense solution to modernizing the way in which we calculate our nation's debt and increase the debt ceiling. By excluding intragovernmental accounts from the Treasury's debt ceiling equation and authorizing the Executive to alter the ceiling as needed, the Debt Limit Reform Act will help Congress avoid some of the last-minute showdowns that have become all too common in recent years. In this way we can begin to tackle the real challenges facing this country.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. What I would ask the Speaker to advise this Member of is as to the definition of ``appropriate clearance.''

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Further parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Does the Chair know, as Speaker, whether or not such an attempt has been made and maybe denied with reference to the bipartisan clearance?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, further parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. The Chair is a Republican and I am a Democrat. I seek appropriate clearance from the Chair.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the House bring up the Senate amendment to H.J. Res. 59, to open the government and go to conference on a budget so that we end this Republican shutdown, and that's with or without clearance.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Florida Atlantic University (FAU) for their excellence in offering valuable educational opportunities to the residents of South Florida for more than 40 years. FAU first began operating in my district in 1971 with the opening of the Commercial Boulevard campus in Fort Lauderdale. This campus saw high enrollment and immediate success, and in 1987--just eleven years later--FAU began construction of the Reubin O'D. Askew Tower in downtown Fort Lauderdale. In 1989, the Florida Legislature designated FAU as the lead state university serving Broward County. Shortly thereafter, another large campus was established in Davie. The latest addition to these FAU campuses is a state-of-the-art, 12-story Higher Education Complex, also located in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Throughout its history in Broward County, FAU has worked in close cooperation with Broward College, establishing a system of seamless transition from lower-division to upper-division work that can be called a model for the Nation. Thousands of place-bound students who otherwise would have been unable to obtain a university education have earned degrees on FAU's Broward campuses, and have gone on to pursue successful careers in fields that include architecture, public administration, business, communication, engineering, computer science, criminology and criminal justice, social work, urban and regional planning, education, nursing, the arts and sciences, and many more. FAU boasts the most diverse student body in all of Florida's public universities. With nearly half of the population representing minority groups or foreign nations, their 30,000 member student body was recently ranked the 27th most diverse university in America by the U.S. News & World Report. Students from Broward make up almost 40 percent of this body, maintaining the county's historic status as the home of the greatest number of FAU students and alumni. Furthermore, it is focused on preserving and protecting the future of South Florida and helping cities all over the world face the challenges of the 21st century. On the Davie campus, FAU researchers are engaged in a critically important initiative to understand and mitigate the major human-caused stressors that have created grave damage to the Everglades. In the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Broward County, FAU engineers affiliated with the Southeast National Marine Renewable Energy Center are working to establish the world's first offshore turbine test site, with the goal of advancing the effort to generate energy from ocean currents. In Dania Beach, residents are being served by a new nano-filtration facility that has vastly improved the quality of the water they receive in their homes. Designed with input from FAU engineering faculty members and students, this is the first water treatment plant in the world to receive Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Mr. Speaker, it is my distinct pleasure to recognize Florida Atlantic University for the tremendous work that the institution has done in South Florida for over 40 years. I want to express my sincerest gratitude for their leadership in both providing opportunities for higher education and addressing many environmental issues in the community. I wish the University all my best and many more years of continued success.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of Ms. Kristin Beck, a decorated U.S. Navy SEAL who not only spent 20 years fighting for her country in uniform, but is now leading the charge for equal rights for transgender Americans. During the course of her distinguished military career, Kristin was known as Chris Beck, and served through 13 deployments in Bosnia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, including seven combat deployments, before retiring and coming out as the first openly transgender Navy SEAL. From fighting terrorists overseas to knocking down gender barriers at home, she is a true patriot and source of inspiration. At the age of five, the young Chris Beck knew that he was different, being drawn to his sisters' feminine clothes and toys. The son of socially conservative, dogmatically religious farmers, however, he was sent to a Christian school operated by televangelist Jerry Falwell and pushed into traditional masculine roles, such as playing football and riding motorcycles. Fifteen years later, Chris found his calling with the SEALs, the Navy's elite special operations force. He proved himself to be a courageous and much respected hero, while developing the deep bonds of brotherhood with his fellow SEALs. In between missions, though, when Chris had a little time to himself, he could not help but dress in women's clothes. Over the next two decades, he went on to serve on a tour with the counter-terrorism unit known as SEAL Team Six, famous for its harrowing missions and rescues, and earned the Bronze Star with ``V,'' the Purple Heart, and other numerous honors. In 2011, Chris retired from the military and embraced his true feminine identity as Kristin Beck. She started undergoing hormone therapy and physically transforming herself into a woman. With this metamorphosis came the decision to officially come out to the world. It began with replacing her LinkedIn profile picture with one of her dressed as a woman, and changing her name from ``Chris Beck'' to ``Kristin Beck.'' On February 9, 2013, Kristin officially came out to the military in a press release, in which she stated that she ``respectfully remained silent regarding her gender identity'' during the era of ``Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' and deeply desired to be ``afforded the freedom to live in a manner consistent with her life- long gender awareness as a female.'' With the pain of shrapnel, broken bones, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as reminders of a life of extraordinary military service, Kristin agreed to participate in a study of ``resilience'' by Dr. Anne Speckhard, a Washington-area psychologist and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Medical Center. An expert in the psychology of terrorism, Dr. Speckhard wanted to study how service members draw upon coping mechanisms to integrate the stresses and exhilarations of combat with their workday lives back home. What she found was the disjointed story of a woman coming into her own following a lifetime of military service and societal pressures. After more than 100 hours of interviews that often resembled psychotherapy, Kristin and Dr. Speckhard co-authored the book Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming Out Transgender. Kristin has embarked upon perhaps the greatest mission of her life: self-actualization. Since her return to civilian life, she has worked tirelessly to raise awareness of the issues affecting both the transgender community and veterans. Kristin works closely with Healing Grounds, the non-profit organization she founded to support returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Healing Grounds lends therapeutic help to them by providing specialized training in landscaping and gardening to build a place of tranquility in their own backyards. In addition, she has two teenage boys from a previous marriage, and works as a Pentagon consultant. Mr. Speaker, I commend Kristin Beck for her outstanding bravery and service to our nation. All her life, she has selflessly put duty and country ahead of her own needs. Kristin's story reminds us of the many daily struggles faced by transgender Americans and veterans alike, including the continued discrimination faced by transgender service members who must hide their identities in order to serve in the military. As she continues working to advance lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality and address the needs of veterans, I remain an ally in Congress and wish her the very best in her new life's mission.