Marcy Kaptur

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Such a raise would put $3,200 in the pockets of more than 128,000 workers just in northern Ohio. Mr. Speaker, the Raise the Wage Act will dramatically improve the lives of millions of hardworking people and families and communities across our country. Let's come together and really help the American people who are working and pass this much-needed legislation without delay.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, America's workers do not support the Trump- negotiated NAFTA-2 trade deal. Just like the original NAFTA, the new NAFTA is half-baked, repackaged, and broken. It was not written to improve the lives of our working families in Ohio or in Mexico or in Central America. It was written to advance transnational corporate interests and the schemes of very wealthy elites. In a country whose public and private sectors too often serve the interests of the rich and powerful and not the average person, this is the last thing the working people of Ohio and North America need, regardless of whether they work in the mills or toil in the fields. The President's promise of higher wages and returning jobs is not to be believed. NAFTA cannot deliver for the working people unless it ensures the dignity of labor, of labor rights, and labor enforcement on this continent. Our leaders must wake up to the human suffering these trade deals create, not only for our own citizens as their jobs are outsourced but, also, people who are exploited in Mexico and the Americas. When transnational corporations crash together the economies of first- and third-world countries, without a second thought about the consequences, it is the working people who get crushed. The ravages of NAFTA inflicted on the Americas and their workers are etched across America's communities. Far too many have been devastated by the outsourcing of factories, many left in economic ruin. NAFTA was sold as the model of the modern integration of first-world and emerging-world economies. It was then replicated in Central America with the so-called CAFTA sweatshop deal, covering nations from which millions are now fleeing to our border. When multinational corporate interests dominate negotiations and place a heavy thumb on the scales of economic justice for labor across the Americas, trade with our closest neighbors is never a zero-sum game because too few control the levers of negotiating power. It is no surprise that nearly a half a million migrants have been taken into custody at our southern border this year alone--half a million. In the past, undocumented immigrants were overwhelmingly single men from Mexico, but that flow has changed. First, we experienced immigration from Mexico post NAFTA. There was a hemorrhage. That has gone down in recent years, but now CAFTA, the gift of CAFTA, sees Central American families having become the new face of undocumented immigration. These landless people, jobless people from the Americas live in fear. As America exports our transnational-driven trade models, we knowingly rely upon the human suffering our economic policies inflict on the poor. NAFTA and NAFTA-2 were always about cheap labor and bringing down the benefits of health and pension benefits for American workers. Undocumented migrants arrive brutalized through trafficking channels. Indeed, one can easily see, in agriculture alone in the Americas, the exploitative model of slavery has simply morphed into a new serfdom under the present system. Once in the United States, many become undocumented farm workers, and the Department of Agriculture estimates that about half of our Nation's farm workers are unauthorized, undocumented. These workers face great hostility and black-market labor conditions repugnant to our values. This undocumented status makes workers especially vulnerable to abuse. Is the answer to expand our migrant visa worker programs, the H-2A or H-2B visas? Absolutely not. Take the tragedy of Santiago Cruz, a Mexican labor recruiter brutally murdered in a legal labor recruitment office in Monterrey, Mexico. Santiago was communicating to his fellow Mexican workers who sought economic opportunity in America that they did not have to pay a coyote $8,000 to get across the border--a crooked, lone coyote. Twelve years after his death near the Mexican-U.S. border, Mexico has not prosecuted his murderer and our country has not raised a voice to get justice in his murder. But the greatest injustice is the new NAFTA deal that fails to address the cancer of undocumented labor in the Americas, especially in the agriculture industry. The current migrant worker system is widely abused by employers seeking a captive workforce. NAFTA-2 must include a comprehensive strategy to address continental labor, and agricultural immigration must be a part and central to it, not absent. The continental enforcement of healthy working conditions and integration of enforceable labor laws must be central to NAFTA-2. It is not in it. That is the ugly exploitation of America's industrialized and farm workers that we allow to continue. How morally reprehensible is this? I ask my colleagues to please take a look at our bill and include a labor secretariat in the new NAFTA deal. Let's put some justice in trade.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. Mr. Chair, the amendment that I offer aims to expand the Department of Defense's authority to work with the Coast Guard on youth science, technology, engineering, and math programs. For several years, I have worked closely with the U.S. Coast Guard to engage on youth STEM programs. Earlier this year, the Coast Guard came to me and acknowledged that to continue our efforts, they needed new authority and advice. The specialties these dedicated public maritime servants rely upon daily is rooted in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, yet they do not have the authority to engage beyond volunteer status in their communities to build special capabilities in young people for the future. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense offers excellent examples of the benefits of such programming and holds the respective experience in successful applications, such as the STARBASE program. Now more than ever, the future of our country, our very prosperity and security, depends on an effective and inclusive STEM education- reliant workforce. That begins with our youth. Basic STEM concepts are best learned at an earlier age and are central prerequisites for career technical training, advanced college- level and graduate study, and success in various workplaces. Given the Coast Guard's mission of coastal defense, maritime law enforcement, and maritime operations, the Coast Guard, too, has a vested interest to advance STEM youth exposure. With my amendment, we can invest in the future of America's youth and the Coast Guard itself by expanding the Department of Defense's ability to work with the Coast Guard on youth STEM programming to transfer know-how. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to condemn President Trump, his administration, and all the anti-life Republicans in Congress who seek to strike down the Affordable Care Act using the judicial system this time. Their callousness would cut off millions of Americans from their affordable healthcare plans. Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit began hearing oral arguments in Texas v. United States, a case supported by the Trump administration that would strike down every health benefit afforded to the American people under the Affordable Care Act. If Republicans strike down the Affordable Care Act, then the protections for 130 million Americans with preexisting conditions, more than a third of our people, would be erased, including nearly 5 million Ohioans. The uninsured rate would go up by 65 percent. The Affordable Care Act's historic Medicaid expansion, which covers 17 million people, would go out the window. And protections for women that prevent insurance companies from charging them higher rates than men would disappear, as well. These popular and lifesaving provisions would be repealed. Mr. Speaker, since its inception, the Affordable Care Act has provided quality coverage for more than 16 million Americans. Let's ensure that high-quality healthcare remains a right for all, not a privilege for just a few.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, today I rise to introduce the Transforming Student Debt to Home Equity Act of 2019. My bill would enable graduates current on repayment to renegotiate their student debt into an opportunity to purchase and own a home, which, of course, is an equity-accumulating instrument. With an estimated $1.6 trillion student debt, it is no wonder homeownership rates among young adults have plummeted. Luckily, there is a proven financial instrument already in widespread use that could facilitate a solution: the home mortgage. This common lending tool has the power to incorporate student loan repayments into a means for building equity, not just debt: the home mortgage. This bill directly asks HUD and the Federal Housing Administration to establish a pilot program that connects creditworthy Federal student debt holders with eligible homes by arranging financing that recalculates terms, debt-to-income ratios, interest rates, community reinvestment thresholds, and other factors. Short-term student debt in certain situations could transition into longer-term home mortgage ownership opportunity. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation to help unleash the student debt stranglehold on so many in the aspiring generation.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. President, American workers and organized labor do not support your renegotiated NAFTA. Corporate America and wealthy elites might, but don't make any effort to sell NAFTA's half-baked, repackaged broken promises to our workers, be they industrial or farmhands. You defy the liberty of our democracy when corporate elites speak as the democratic process. The promise of higher wages and returning jobs is not to be believed without engagement to ensure the dignity of labor, of labor rights, and labor enforcement on this continent. Hidden between the lines of the current NAFTA text are dollar signs and profits for self-dealing, transnational corporations that have outsourced our jobs, and very wealthy lobbyists who negotiated NAFTA 2's deal. They do not prioritize living-wage jobs, family-sustaining wages, or workers' environmental safety and health conditions across America. NAFTA 2 is still an escalator to the bottom for workers in industrial plants and farmhands. The ravages NAFTA inflicted on America's workers are etched across American communities devastated by the outsourcing of factories, many left in economic ruin. NAFTA served as the ``model'' of modern integration of First World and emerging world economies. It was replicated in Central America with what is called CAFTA-DR. The same plundering of non-rich communities ensued throughout Mexico and Central America. Many fell victim then to drug cartels and gangs, overridden with violence. Economic hope further vanished. Many of those refugees are coming to our borders, if we but understand the force driving them. Today's proposed new NAFTA will be worse. In the quarter century under NAFTA, more than a million American jobs were outsourced, our workers' wages stagnated, and U.S. trade deficits with Mexico and Central American countries increased exponentially, not just a little bit. The minimum million jobs lost in our country are only those that are certified. Can you imagine how many other jobs were lost related as suppliers to those jobs? Our Nation lost thousands of jobs to penny-wage environments where workers could not even afford to buy what they made as they toiled in sweatshops, which I have visited in the maquiladoras, exposed to unimaginable toxins. And millions upon millions of Mexico's small farmers were obliterated due to NAFTA. This man knew the fate that would be dealt him back in 1993, and it was. This is a Mexican farmer that no longer holds his land. The original NAFTA fueled massive migration from Mexico's countryside to our Nation, as thousands of very, very, small farmers had their livelihoods extinguished. A minimum of 2 million--million--Mexican farmers were displaced as U.S. agricultural products, heavily subsidized, flowed tariff-free south over a 10-year period, and Mexico's white corn industry was decimated. Does anybody here care? Wages in Mexico have gone down under NAFTA, and U.S. wages and benefits have been stuck for the majority of over a quarter century in our country. Due to NAFTA and CAFTA nations alone, our southern neighbors stock us with fresh produce. Meanwhile, our multinational grain outfits send millions and millions of tons of feed grain down there, displacing Mexico's farmers, and creating an endless flow of desperate, cheap labor across this continent. Some very powerful people must love this system, as ordinary, hardworking people are quashed across this country and held in bondage. America must wake up to the impact our trade deals impose on people. Surely our own citizens, but also people who are exploited from other places when you have unequal economies that are joined at the hip by transnationals who don't give a hoot about people. When multinational corporate interests dominate negotiations, and they have a heavy thumb on the scales of economic justice across the Americas, trade with our closest neighbors is never simply a zero-sum game, because too few control those levers of negotiating power. It is no surprise that nearly half a million migrants have been taken into custody at our southern borders this year alone. Half a million. In the past, undocumented immigrants were overwhelmingly single men from Mexico, but that flow has changed. As the President continues to negotiate NAFTA, I urge him to include an enforceable labor rights section, a Labor Secretariat in NAFTA 2, or this exploitation will continue. Let's stop NAFTA 2.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I thank our able chairwoman, Nita Lowey from New York, for yielding me this time. I come to the floor to urge my colleagues to support this emergency supplemental request to address the humanitarian cry on our southern border. It aims to save lives and health. All people of conscience know it is urgently needed. These funds are vital to ensure the health and safety of these migrant refugees and migrant children. A record number of desperate families and unaccompanied children have crossed into the United States, and our Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Office of Refugee Resettlement are simply overwhelmed. Just this week, we learned that four toddlers being held in a Border Patrol station in McAllen, Texas, had to be hospitalized because of dangerous neglect. The AP reported last week that children have been locked up in Border Patrol facilities for as many as 27 days without adequate food, water, and sanitation, for heaven's sake. This administration has failed to provide detained children with soap, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and beds, and it doesn't have the resources to adequately address flu and lice epidemics in these facilities. News reports say children are caring for other children. Five children have died in Customs and Border Protection custody since late last year. The situation is getting worse. Our Nation needs a comprehensive and continental diplomatic solution that acknowledges the economic and political conditions pushing Central American and Mexican communities to the brink. The only option, in desperation, for these people is to flee north. We need comprehensive immigration reform that respects all continental laborers and migrants. President John F. Kennedy had a name for it. He called it the Alliance for Progress. Today, this Congress must meet the immediate need to provide financial support to end the humanitarian neglect confronting these travel-weary migrants. This $4.5 billion emergency spending will provide adequate support for key priorities, including legal assistance, food, water, medical services, support services for unaccompanied children, alternatives to detention, and refugee services.

Ms. KAPTUR. Most importantly, this spending correctly includes restrictions to hold this administration accountable on how it spends taxpayer dollars in a capacity that protects the rights and dignity of desperate people who happen to be migrants. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairwoman Lowey for working so hard to bring this bill to the floor, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this lifesaving supplemental.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), a superb chair of the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, and I rise to discuss an issue very important to America's livestock and poultry farmers, the Packers and Stockyards Act. For decades, the Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration, familiarly known as GIPSA, was a stand-alone agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Until recently, GIPSA was a parallel agency to the Agricultural Marketing Service itself. But under Secretary Sonny Perdue's reorganization of the Department of Agriculture and consolidation plan, GIPSA was moved deep within the Agricultural Marketing Service--some fear, buried. Now, the Packers and Stockyards Division of the Fair Trade Practices Branch within the Agricultural Marketing Service administers the Packers and Stockyards Act. Do you see the layers? This consolidation will increase difficulty for farmers who seek relief from unfair and abusive practices common--unfortunately--in the livestock and poultry sectors. The administration recently announced a rulemaking process to define criteria the Secretary will consider to determine violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act on whether an undue or unreasonable preference or advantage occurred. I welcome this action. These terms were never adequately defined or explained. However, I am very concerned this administration is utilizing delays and stalling tactics through this rulemaking process. For several years, the previous administration's rulemaking process was blocked through appropriations riders. Year after year, I fought those riders. Finally, Congress reacted to the public backlash over the riders and backed off efforts to block the rule. This enabled the last administration to move forward and to comply with the 2008 farm bill requirements. However, the rulemaking was not complete. With the turnover in administrations, Secretary Perdue quickly stopped all work on these rules and demoted the agency in charge of the effort. It seems a positive step that the Secretary decided to advance new rules to clarify criteria used to enforce the undue and unreasonable preference or advantage authorities. However, given the administration's previous actions, I am quite concerned that this rulemaking will fall far short of addressing the worst abuses that America's livestock and poultry farmers experience. There are gross examples of abusive contracting practices, particularly in the poultry sector. Companies greatly disadvantage certain growers at the expense of others. The thumb of justice surely seems obsolete. Protection against retaliation, pay transparency, and a right to a fair and just legal system are essential to protect our hardworking farmers from abuse. Each of these concerns must be addressed in the rulemaking process. The alarming realities of the poultry industry and similar ones in the hog and beef industries highlight the imbalance within today's corporate meat production hierarchy. This must be addressed through USDA's planned Packers and Stockyards Act rulemaking process. I hope the administration will better protect small farmers who work very hard every day to help feed our Nation.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of National Pollinator Week. I am honored to be the Representative of three cities each named a Monarch City U.S.A.: Oak Harbor, Port Clinton, and Sandusky, Ohio. They are bestowed this title for their citizenries' efforts to support the monarch butterfly, a noble and substantial pollinator, by planting milkweed and nectar plants. With beekeepers having lost 40 percent of their bee colonies last year, it is imperative that Congress follow my constituents' lead to protect and support pollinator populations. The 2018 farm bill and the fiscal year 2020 Agriculture appropriations bill prioritized a commitment to the welfare of pollinators for the sake of human life. The farm bill authorized the Honey Bee and Pollinator Research Coordinator, and the Appropriations Committee funded the position to strengthen our research and protect pollinators from extinction. In the spirit of National Pollinator Week and as an honored cosponsor of the Saving America's Pollinators Act of 2019, please join me in celebrating the beauty and utility and essential presence in our environment of one of nature's finest constructs: pollinators.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chair, I thank the Gentlewoman from New York for writing such a strong State Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. You are a truly able chair. The base bill and report contain $500,000 for Grass Carp control and this amendment doubles down on that investment, by providing an additional $500,000 for a total of $1 million for the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission to manage Grass Carp. Much of the countries Asian Carp focus has been on stopping the Big- Head Carp, but let us not forget that the Grass Carp pose an existential threat to the economic future of the Great Lakes. This threat is not theoretical. Just a few weeks ago, we found Grass Carp larva in the Maumee River. Every day, fisherman remove Grass Carp from the Lakes. To understand just how dangerous the Grass Carp are, it is important to understand that on average, they consume 50 percent of their body weight of vegetation in just one day. Think about those numbers. A five-pound grass carp consumes 2.5 pounds of vegetation in a single day. While Grass Carp present a deadly threat to the Great Lakes fishery today, far too few resources have been allocated to the Grass Carp. The Great Lakes Fisheries commission is an ideal partner to control this bi-national threat. The commission operates in coordination across our national borders to protect both American and Canadian fisheries. The biodiversity, commercial and recreational fishery on the Great Lakes are threatened by the Grass Carp. The Great Lakes Fishery Commission has a long history of controlling invasive species across the American-Canadian border. This amendment fills critical gaps and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I move that the Committee do now rise.

Ms. KAPTUR

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I rise in opposition to this amendment and point out that our country really can't neglect vital investments for the safety and welfare of the American people. Our bill funds water resource projects that are critical, including in Texas; supports science and energy technology research activities necessary to build the future and our future competitiveness; and responsibly funds a credible nuclear deterrent and important nonproliferation efforts. This amendment will harm all of these. It will harm job creation and reduce protections against flooding and natural disasters that all parts of our country have been facing. One can be penny-wise and pound-foolish, and not making these investments will make the costs in the future even greater. This amendment will also result in fewer investments in water resource infrastructure and energy research and development programs, all of which create good jobs, have substantial returns on investment, and position our Nation for future needs. We must continue investing in these areas to ensure our national security on many levels and to remain the global leader in energy and in science. Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I ask my colleagues to oppose this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I rise in strong opposition to this amendment, which really doesn't belong in this bill. Section 108 prevents the President from siphoning off funds from critical Army Corps projects to build a border wall. These include important flood control projects to protect and restore communities from natural disasters and navigation projects to keep our ports moving commerce. Our bill protects more than $20 billion in disaster funding appropriated since February of last year to rebuild damaged Corps projects and speed up flood control projects all over the country, including in my colleague's home State of Texas, which has been so hard hit. It also protects funding for Corps projects that are currently underway, or soon will be, including projects in every district across America. Without this language, the President can raid funding from any Corps water infrastructure project he wants and divert those funds to a border wall. Earlier this year, when it became public that the President was considering using the Corps' Civil Works fund to pay for a border wall, the backlash was swift and strong, with bipartisan opposition. In fact, a number of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, including those from Texas, tweeted that they had secured the commitment of the White House that the President would not raid disaster funding for their Harvey relief projects. If approved, this amendment would strike the language in the bill that protects those projects. So I remind my colleagues that a ``yes'' vote on this amendment is a vote signaling that they are fine with the President raiding Corps water infrastructure projects in their district to build a border wall. The President, on hundreds of occasions, may I remind you, promised that Mexico would pay for any border security necessary to restore order at our shared border. We cannot allow the President to dip into accounts with infrastructure funds to assist ravaged communities across our Nation. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this amendment. And I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano), my esteemed colleague, chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Water Subcommittee.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I would just like to remind the gentleman--I think he is new to this body--that the President said he was going to get Mexico to pay for everything. He said that 1,000 times. Didn't happen. He is not going to raid our accounts. The gentleman has communities in his State. Unfortunately, he held up the money for a long time about a week and a half ago; and so now he comes to the floor and talks this way. He is not going to raid the Corps budget under my watch; that is for sure. Communities across this country need this money. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chairman, pursuant to House Resolution 436, I offer amendments en bloc.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, this en bloc includes amendments from Representatives Wasserman Schultz, Langevin, Grijalva, Castor, Bera, Boyle, Omar, Lee of Nevada, and Garcia of Illinois. This includes a number of ideas that were not included in the original bill, and that we support. Madam Chair, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), the chair of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia).

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, I ask my colleagues to join me in support of this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Chair, pursuant to House Resolution 436, I offer amendments en bloc.