Nita Lowey

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I, too, appreciate the chairman's comments, and I do hope, during this process, we will respond to this important request. I rise in support of this amendment. The underlying bill cuts the Department of Labor's Youth Employment Program, which provides funding to all 50 States, by $42 million, a shortsighted proposal that ignores the needs of millions of young people. In the United States, there are roughly 5.5 million teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 24 who are neither working nor in school. This translates to one in seven teens and young adults. The youth program helps prepare out-of-school and low-income youth in your communities for employment and postsecondary education. These youth represent extraordinary potential for our Nation's economy. Investing in them has a ripple effect on future generations of low-income children and families, and I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in opposition to this amendment. This amendment would truly decimate the ability of the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education to meet the needs of Americans by indiscriminately transferring $351 million to the spending reduction account. This does nothing to improve the bill, which is already underfunded. The majority has imposed more than a $5 billion cut to the Labor-HHS bill below the 2017 omnibus level. Further cuts are completely unnecessary, and that is not all. The committee's allocation was approximately $5 billion below the nondefense level allowed under the Budget Control Act. We have the resources available, yet the majority refuses to allocate them to the essential programs funded through this bill. This amendment would not encourage the agencies to do more with less. Simply put, it would force the agencies and our constituents to do less with less. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to join me in opposing this amendment.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I am very pleased to rise in support of Mr. Sablan's amendment which would improve enforcement of workplace safety standards in the territories. I would note that, adjusted for inflation, OSHA's enforcement budget has been cut by more than 20 percent since 2010, and OSHA's safety inspections declined by more than 20 percent during that time. It is a sad commentary that we are placing less value on an American worker's safety at the workplace than we did a decade ago. We should be supporting workplace safety in the territories, and we should be supporting workplace safety in the 50 States as well. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support Mr. Sablan's amendment.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of my friend Ms. Meng's amendment which would restore the Women's Bureau to its FY 2017 funding level. Women now comprise almost half of the Nation's workforce, and their contributions are vital to the country's economic prosperity. But there continue to be barriers to women's full and equal participation in many careers and industries. Women continue to earn less than men in the same positions, which means the research and policy advocacy supported by the Women's Bureau continues to be as important as ever. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support Ms. Meng's amendment.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise as the designee of the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), and I have an amendment at the desk.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, nearly 1.7 million children, including more than 87,000 in my home State of New York, rely on afterschool programs supported through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers to provide a safe, enriching environment to learn. Yet this bill would cut funding for afterschool programs, leaving tens of thousands of students without educational programs as well as drug and violence prevention counseling, arts, music, recreation, and more. We should invest more, not less, in our children. This amendment would restore funding to the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program so our students can have access to the safe afterschool enrichment they deserve. Mr. Chairman, I urge support for my amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the gentleman's kind and thoughtful words about afterschool programs. There are over 18 million children whose parents want to take advantage of afterschool programs, but they lack access in the area where they live. That is why we work to fund our national network of afterschool programs through the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I just want to say to the distinguished chair that I appreciate his positive comments about this program. I look forward to a better allocation as the process moves forward, and I look forward to having him and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle join me in supporting this very important program. Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman from Oklahoma yield?

Mrs. LOWEY. I thank the distinguished chairman for yielding to me. Again, I look forward to working with him and the other members of our committee as we expand the budget. Mr. Chairman, I want to say to the distinguished gentleman who spoke before, I grew up in the Bronx, New York. I was fortunate to have my mother not working at the time. She was able to supervise me. I had many wonderful play dates. I would like to say to the distinguished gentleman, in my community where this program is so essential, many of these people are working two, three jobs. The mother is working two or three jobs; the father is working two or three jobs. For some of these families, there is only one parent. Perhaps you can come visit my district. I would like you to come to Port Chester, New York. This was one of the first afterschool programs I was fortunate to be able to support with this account. I would love you to come and visit and see what these programs do, which is provide important support for their parents who want to help and want to be supportive of their children, but sometimes these jobs do stand in the way. These programs are so very important, and I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle in providing more funding.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to the amendment.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mrs. LOWEY. Knowing, Mr. Chairman, of the gentleman's commitment to families, and I know that the gentleman's family is committed to their children, I am totally shocked that this amendment will be addressed tonight on the floor of the House. This amendment, my friend, would cut personnel. Mothers and fathers will be directly affected by this. This amendment will cut the personnel whose responsibility it is to ensure the safety and health of our Nation's coal miners. The proposed amendment, my friend, would cut the Mine Safety Health Administration coal enforcement personnel by 10 percent, would result in the Mine Safety Health Administration being forced to violate Federal law because it would be unable to fulfill its statutorily mandated duty to inspect underground coal mines every 3 months. We have seen what happens, my friends, when mandatory inspections are cut back and the number of experienced mine inspectors are reduced to coal miners that cut corners on safety. Following the massive explosion in 2010, at Upper Big Branch, which killed 29 coal miners in the worst coal mine disaster in the country in four decades, investigators found that mine management had consistently violated basic safety standards such as ventilation and rock dusting intended to prevent coal dust explosions. The number of violations at this mine were among the highest in the Nation. The ultimate responsibility, my friends, for that disaster lays squarely at the feet of mine management, including its CEO Don Blankenship, who was criminally convicted of a misdemeanor and served the maximum of 1 year for conspiring to violate mine safety standards. It is also clear from the internal review that due to budget cuts during the Bush administration, MSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, became severely short staffed. There were too few inspectors to meet the requirement for mandatory inspections. You cannot underfund mine safety and health and expect to adequately protect the lives of miners. We know what happens when safety takes a back seat to profits. People die. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), the distinguished ranking member of the Education and the Workforce Committee.

Mrs. LOWEY. In closing, this amendment would irresponsibly cut staffing by 10 percent at an agency responsible for the safety and health of our Nation's coal miners. Mr. Chairman, lives are at stake. Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose this amendment, I urge my colleagues to reject it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chair, I move to strike the last word.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I would like to address a closing remark to my good friend from North Carolina, and I know that my good friend and I have worked together, Mr. Chairman, on many important issues. I would just like to say again that whether there are 1,000 miners or 50 miners, and I understand the gentleman's concern about the closing of mines, but we have a responsibility to those who are still working in those mines to make sure that they are safe. I would ask my colleagues to vote against this amendment because it is absolutely vital that we protect those outstanding workers who are supporting their families and make sure they are safe. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 2 minutes, and I rise in support of providing critical emergency relief to respond to the catastrophic damages wreaked by Hurricane Harvey and the expectation of damages from Hurricane Irma. And I also want to acknowledge the cooperation and the good will extended to us by Chairman Frelinghuysen. It is a pleasure for me to work with him as well. My thoughts and prayers remain with all those whose families, lives, homes, and businesses have been upended by these disasters. This Congress and the American people are with you in your time of need. I am pleased this package provides a temporary suspension of the Federal debt limit to prevent a catastrophic debt default and a continuing resolution extending Federal funding through December 8. As in 2013 and 2015, when faced with government funding deadlines and impending sequestration, we must use the time until the CR expires to develop a new budget agreement with realistic caps on defense and nondefense discretionary spending. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal).

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

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Schneider), who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Torres), who is a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate my colleague's effort to boost funding for a successful assistance program such as the Merida Initiative. The flow of drugs into the United States is a serious concern and more emphasis should be put on both the demand and supply side of the issue. However, I cannot support an amendment to take from another very successful program such as the Fulbright Program. The Fulbright Program is our flagship public diplomacy program. It has run for over 70 years and boasts more than 370,000 alumni that are now in leadership positions and have a positive connection with the United States. These alumni include 37 current or former heads of state, 57 Nobel Laureates, 82 Pulitzer Prize winners, 29 MacArthur Fellows Foundation, 16 Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients, and thousands of leaders across private, public, and non-private sectors. There are 1,300 U.S. institutions that actively participate in the Fulbright Program, either receiving or sending students to become global citizens, a requirement in today's interconnected economy. In our challenging times, Mr. Chairman, we cannot hinder such an effective diplomatic tool as the Fulbright Program.

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this amendment. I do support the en bloc amendment, and I appreciate the chairman's inclusion of amendments from Democratic Members as well. I am very pleased that the en bloc includes a procedural amendment to allow me to discuss the deportation status of Mr. Jakiw Palij, a former Nazi guard. I had filed an amendment that would have directly addressed the deportation status of Mr. Jakiw Palij, but it was ruled out of order by the Rules Committee. The U.S. State Department must ensure that justice is served and that Mr. Palij is held accountable for his crimes. He served as a guard at the Nazi Trawniki camp. This camp was the site of untold atrocities, including the death of thousands of blameless victims at the hands of the Nazi regime. Mr. Palij's role at the Trawniki camp served the Nazi regime by trapping men, women, and children in inhumane conditions, where they waited for their untimely deaths. After the Holocaust, Mr. Palij came to the United States, where he omitted his service at the Nazi camp, and eventually he became a U.S. citizen. When his crimes during the Holocaust came to light, the United States stripped him of his citizenship, but he continues to reside in New York, as Poland, Germany, and Ukraine have each declined to take him. I believe that it is time for Mr. Palij to be held accountable for his crimes. So, again, I thank the chairman for including this in the en bloc amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.