Nita Lowey

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Swalwell).

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer.)

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), a distinguished member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman.

Mrs. LOWEY. May I ask how much time remains.

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia, Mr. John Lewis.

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished leader.

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished whip, the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Steny Hoyer.

Mrs. LOWEY. I yield the gentleman an additional 30 seconds.

Mrs. LOWEY. I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from the District of Columbia (Ms. Norton).

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. The people are counting on us to do our jobs, to work together, to create jobs, to keep the government open and to keep the economy running. This is not the time or the bill for relitigating health reform or for holding up the administration's ability to protect the full faith and credit of the United States of America. With the great suffering in the wake of another natural disaster in Colorado--my heart goes out to all those families who've lost lives, who've lost loved ones, who've lost property--this is not the time, my friend, to limit the ability of the United States of America to give relief to those losing loved ones, homes, and livelihood. Republicans refuse to work together with the Senate and the White House to bring a constructive piece of legislation to this floor today. Instead, we consider a bill we know is destined for failure in the Senate and would be vetoed by the White House. For months, the majority has failed to lead. They have refused to appoint Members to work with the Senate on a top-line spending number. They can't even pass their own spending bills in this Chamber. We remember how the very important Transportation and HUD bill had to be pulled off the bill because they couldn't find the votes. Today, they risk halting government services, functions vital to the American people and our economy, even when their own appropriations chairman, my friend, Mr. Rogers, had said we should end the sequester, find a balanced plan forward. Just days before the end of the fiscal year, they're still playing political games. I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill, support the responsible replacement of the sequester with a balanced plan to create jobs and keep our economy moving. I know we can do it, and I would be pleased to be part of that partnership with the chair, Mr. Rogers. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this rule. Last night, the Rules Committee spent nearly 3 hours discussing the merits of health reform, food assistance in the farm bill, and U.S. debt held by foreign entities. Yet very little time was devoted to one of the primary jobs of the legislative branch which this bill addresses: appropriating funds. This rule adds a provision to dictate to the President in what order to pay the Nation's bills in case of default and another provision to defund the Affordable Care Act. The President issued a veto threat this morning, based on these extraneous provisions. We should be focused as sharply as a laser beam on the American economy and jobs. This brinksmanship on the budget and the debt limit will force the stock market to plummet and businesses to freeze hiring. Continuing sequestration, as this bill does, will cost our economy up to 1.6 million jobs over the next year, according to CBO. That is why I join my Rules Committee colleague and urge the House to reject the previous question to get a vote on the Democratic amendment to stop the sequester job loss. Voting to add politically motivated provisions to the CR is akin to voting to shut down the government. And shutting down the government means shutting down the Nation's economy. Nonetheless, Republicans place their ideological crusade against health care reform ahead of the American economy and jobs. I urge my colleagues to reject this rule.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Chairman, what a difference a year makes. Last year, Chairman Latham put forward a responsible bill that invested in our Nation's infrastructure and the housing needs of our most vulnerable citizens. The bill we consider today, which is $7.7 billion below the FY 2013 CR level and $13.9 billion below the President's request, is a stark contrast. For example, last year's bill funded Amtrak's capital program at the highest level ever. This year's bill funds Amtrak at the lowest level in a decade, which will likely cause furloughs of mechanical employees and slower service. Last year, the chairman spoke out against an amendment offered by Mr. Chaffetz to cut the CDBG program to $2.95 billion--still $1.3 billion higher than the level in this bill. Member after Member on the majority side spoke out against the cut, noting how important CDBG was to economic development in cities and States across the country. In fact, 17 Republican appropriators, including Chairman Rogers and Chairman Latham, helped to defeat this wrong-headed cut by a vote of 157-267. What changed? Have these programs become ineffective? Have local infrastructure needs and homelessness disappeared? Or do House Republicans simply support raising local taxes to fund affordable housing and infrastructure investments? Because that will be the result. Unfortunately, what has changed is that the reckless Republican Ryan budget guts investments in domestic priorities that increase American prosperity. In fact, this bill alone would mean the loss of between 125,000 and 140,000 Tenant-Based Rental Vouchers, cause 146,000 people who are now housed to become homeless, and result in 7,110 fewer jobs created, and $1.4 billion in lost economic output due to the $237 million recision to the TIGER program. Instead of investing in affordable housing to help people make the transition from dependency to independence and investing in infrastructure to fix deficient transportation systems and create jobs, Republicans would rather defund the Affordable Care Act, block-grant Medicaid, privatize Medicare, while protecting subsidies for Big Oil and tax breaks for the very wealthiest Americans. The Senate is currently marking up bills at the level to which Democrats and Republicans agreed in the bipartisan Budget Control Act. The Senate T-HUD bill provides a more responsible path that invests in job creation and assistance to families suffering in this economy. For example, the Senate provides nearly $10 billion more than the bill we consider today for infrastructure investments that have received strong bipartisan support and would create jobs, including $1.45 billion to fund Amtrak, more than $3 billion for the Community Development Block Grant program, $550 million for the TIGER grant program, and $1 billion for the HOME program. If we are to avert a developing crisis and make progress on long-term fiscal challenges, Senate Democrats need a partner in the House majority to conference the budget. The American people, local governments, and small business owners want this budget standoff to end so that we can avoid shutting down the government in October and help them build a stronger economy. When will Republicans stop holding their livelihoods hostage to the Ryan budget? House Democrats are ready to work with our Republican colleagues to responsibly address our fiscal challenges. However, if they continue to move farther away from consensus by turning once bipartisan bills like this one, T-HUD, into red meat messaging bills for their base, Congress will have a difficult time reaching a balanced agreement before the CR expires in 2 months. I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

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

Mrs. LOWEY. Today's bill is part of the House majority's irresponsible charade of a budget process. The sequester cuts affecting 2013 spending levels are having a tangible impact on American families and hurting our economy: 70,000 children losing access to Head Start; 4 million fewer Meals on Wheels delivered; $1.5 billion in cuts to the National Institutes of Health's lifesaving medical research and jobs; degraded military readiness; furloughs and reduced paychecks for hundreds of thousands of Federal employees; and delayed safety modernization at airports. My friends on the other side of the aisle want it both ways. They adopted a budget resolution that endorses the sequester levels for next year, locking in a top-line figure $92 billion below the Senate's and the President's budget levels, while they pretend they fixed the sequester for defense. They cut more than required on the domestic side and did nothing to shield defense programs from legally mandated cuts under sequestration. If the House bills are enacted, defense will be cut $48 billion in January as a result of the sequester because the majority has not enacted legislation to stop it--$48 billion when General Dempsey has made it very clear to those of us who have had recent talks with him that our readiness is at stake. The Republicans allocated more adequate funding to the initial bills to fund military construction, veterans affairs, defense, and homeland security. The remaining bills have quickly revealed the Republicans' thoroughly inadequate investments to sustain job creation and invest in America's future prosperity. Perhaps no other bill's programs mean as much to the communities in our districts as the bill we are considering today, yet it guts affordable housing and community development and underfunds rail, air, and road transportation networks. The same majority wrote a very different bill last year that reflected an understanding of the impact these programs have on our economy and Americans' livelihoods. Compare the House bill to the Senate version, which is almost $10 billion higher. Seventy-three Senators, including 19 Republicans, voted to proceed to floor debate. The House bill, on the other hand, was reported from committee on a straight party-line vote. I would be hard-pressed to find a better example of fiddling while Rome burns than the House majority's budget and appropriations process this year. They continue to trot out bills despite White House veto threats and despite even worse sequestration cuts right around the corner. I have asked at our committee to suspend our markup until we conference a budget resolution with the Senate so that we can negotiate a reasonable top line for the appropriations process. There is no sense in the House proceeding alone with levels totally unacceptable to the White House and the Senate, yet we will be here late into the evening again considering amendments to a bill that is going nowhere. When the House returns after the August recess, we will have only 9 legislative days until the end of the fiscal year: 9 days to negotiate a path forward, 9 days to avert a government shutdown, 9 days to do the jobs we were sent here to do--work together to invest in America and build up our economy. I genuinely hope our majority will be prepared in the fall for the necessary compromise these negotiations require, because this bill shows they are not prepared for responsible governance today. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mrs. LOWEY. This amendment is just another example of how the Republican majority is limiting transportation options for the American people. Last year, more than 31 million Americans chose Amtrak as the means of transportation to get to business meetings, family gatherings, and vacations. They chose Amtrak to avoid crowded airplanes, congested highways, and for the opportunity to view the wonderful and majestic scenery of this great Nation. Americans deserve a passenger rail system that is safe and reliable. This amendment also demonstrates how many Members on the other side of the aisle will blindly cut funding without any idea of the real ramifications. For instance, I sincerely doubt that the gentlelady from Tennessee understands that in addition to handing out 20,000 pink slips, her amendment would cost the government $4.5 billion over the next 5 years due to the violation of labor agreements. This is a shortsighted amendment. I urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mrs. LOWEY

Mrs. LOWEY. Madam Chair, I thank Chairman Young, Ranking Member Visclosky, and Chairman Rogers for working across the aisle on the bill before us today in keeping with the Defense Subcommittee's long bipartisan tradition. I also want to recognize and thank the Defense Subcommittee staff for working tirelessly on the nuts and bolts of this bill. Sadly, however, the appropriations process has become a quandary that could easily have been avoided with good old-fashioned compromise. Instead, we have disparate House and Senate allocations. House bills follow the Ryan budget, which endorses sequestration and is unrealistic, unworkable, and economically misguided, while the Senate and White House budgets are based on the higher level agreed upon in the Budget Control Act. With only 18 days of session left in the House before the end of the fiscal year, we are racing toward a government shutdown that is irresponsible. Assuming the sequester is turned off, this is a good bill. It includes additional funding and tougher penalties to address the epidemic of sexual assault plaguing our military, an increase for Active Duty pay by 1.8 percent, enhancements to embassy security by increasing the presence of Marine Corps security guards, substantial investments in health services and suicide prevention, maintenance of all the National Guard weapons of mass destruction/civil support teams, and continued support for the Israeli Cooperative Program. However, the bill also contains serious shortcomings. On July 8, I was at Camp Smith in my district in New York where 48 of the more than 600,000 Defense civilian employees nationwide are being furloughed. Each will lose $2,706, a 20 percent reduction to their fourth-quarter earnings, on top of 3 years without a pay increase. Yet this bill does nothing to fix the pay freeze or furloughs resulting from the sequester. In fact, the majority simply ignores sequestration when it suits their purpose, including in the spending allocations for MilCon-VA, Homeland Security, and Defense bills. While the Republicans are steadfast in sticking to the post-sequester overall discretionary allocation they included in the Ryan budget, they are comfortable breaking the Budget Control Act's cap on Defense spending by $47.7 billion. Of course, they may not tell you that, unless we end the sequester, on January 15 those funds will be lost, creating a gaping hole in the Defense budget. They don't have the courage of their convictions to admit that breaking the Defense cap further shortchanges vital domestic priorities like medical research, Head Start, teachers for military families, energy efficiency, disaster preparedness, and other vital investments, all of which create jobs. We have already achieved $2.5 trillion in deficit reduction since 2011, including $1.5 trillion in discretionary cuts. It is time for Congress to buckle down to reach a bipartisan agreement to replace sequestration with a balanced approach that protects critical services and investments. As I did for MilCon-VA and Homeland Security, I support the overall funding level in Defense because it was written as though Congress will turn off sequestration, as we should. But on the remaining bills, as with the Energy and Water bill, I will not support slashing investments in our families and workforce. If we are to remain a global leader, we need a strong national defense and a strong economy. I thank you again to the chairman and the ranking member, who have worked so hard in a bipartisan way, maintaining the tradition of this committee. As we move forward, I do hope that we can go to conference and work together with the Senate to come up with a bill that can really pass and sequestration be eliminated.