Conor Lamb

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Madam Speaker, I rise today to remember and honor the life of Amil Padezanin, a fellow Marine and a pillar in the community in Beaver County. Mr. Padezanin served in the U.S. Marine Corps during the Korean War. He was a retired brakeman and conductor working for 42 years out of the Conway Yards for Conrail, formerly known as Penn Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad. During his 85 years in Freedom, PA, Mr. Padezanin played varsity football at Freedom High School, served on the town council, led the town's holiday festivities, was a member of the Freedom Serbian Club, and was an avid Freedom Bulldogs sports fan. He was also a member of the St. Elijah Serbian 0rthodox Church in Aliquippa, and a member of the Serb National Federation, the oldest and largest Serbian fraternal organization in the country. I want to express my deepest condolences to Mr. Padezanin's wife Martha and the entire Padezanin family. We will all miss Amil, but it may help to remember that there is no such thing as a former Marine, and that his duties are much needed in the next world. As it says in our hymn, ``if the Army and the Navy ever look on heaven's scenes, they will find the streets are guarded by United States Marines.''

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I know a firefighter who is going into sick people's homes still today with no mask. We all talk like this is war, but did George Marshall, a western Pennsylvanian, wait for U.S. Steel to join the U.S. war effort in their own good time? No. He used to say: You cannot fight against the problem. You have to decide it. We have given this government money. We cannot give it leadership. Now is the time to decide this problem. Take this money, buy the masks, build the ventilators, and protect our people now.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague for yielding. I thank my colleague from Kansas for his excellent support and work on this bill, as well. People often ask me when I go home to western Pennsylvania whether we ever knock off all the fighting down here and do some actual work and work across the aisle between Congress and the White House to actually get things done. What you are seeing here in this Chamber today is an example of the fact that there are many of us down here who are very serious about making that happen and making it happen more often as we go forward. The FREED Act responded to a very specific set of circumstances, which is that it has long been true that, if you are a 100 percent disabled veteran, you have your Federal student loans forgiven. But we all know there is a big difference between putting something down on paper and making it happen in real life, and we were seeing huge numbers of disabled veterans not take advantage of this program either because they didn't know about it or because the process of applying for it was just too burdensome, there was too much paperwork, or it took too long. If you have a 100 percent disability rating, there is a lot in your life you have to worry about besides doing paperwork; so Congressman Watkins, Congressman Fitzpatrick and another great western Pennsylvanian, Congressman Guy Reschenthaler, and I were all looking at the same set of facts and said: We know what we need to do here. We already know these people have a 100 percent disability rating. Let's just make the loan forgiveness automatic. That was the genesis for this bill. I want to acknowledge that the administration and President Trump did the right thing here. They noticed this same problem last year, and they began to automatically forgive these loans by executive order. The problem was that there was some legal uncertainty about exactly who had the authority to forgive the loans how fast and when. Our understanding is that some disputes developed between OMB and the Department of Education, and it was slowing down the ability of veterans to take advantage of this thing that they are already entitled to by virtue of how much they have given to this country. So our bill was necessary to make sure that everybody involved knew they have the legal authority to forgive these loans. By this time next year, assuming we are able to get this through the Senate and to the President's desk for his signature, that number you heard from Congressman Courtney of 25,000 veterans whose loans are in default and an even higher number of tens of thousands more who haven't taken advantage of that should be zero. We are making an unequivocal statement today that, if you have given so much to this country that you have a 100 percent disability rating, you do not need to worry about your Federal student loans any longer. It is our job to remove obstacles from the paths of people who have given so much to this country. We all believe that there is much to be done on the subject of student loans, but what we want to make sure is that these brave Americans are first in line when we do that, and that is what our bill does. It is very common in America these days to hear people spot a veteran and say, ``Thank you for your service.'' I think the important thing about this bill is that it is Republicans and Democrats, Congress and the President all working together to say, ``Thank you for your service''--not only in words, but in actions. That is what this bill means. I am so grateful to have had the support of so many hardworking Members who look forward to seeing this bill pass today, and I urge all my colleagues to support it.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the USS ``Pittsburgh'' on its decommissioning on January 17, 2020. The USS Pittsburgh, a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, was launched on December 8, 1984 and commissioned on November 23, 1985. This submarine is the fourth ship to receive the name USS Pittsburgh and has long had a special relationship with the city through the Navy League Pittsburgh Council, the Submarine Veterans Association of Pittsburgh, and the Pittsburgh Relief Crew. The USS Pittsburgh conducted submarine-launched Tomahawk missile attacks during both Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom and completed many other missions vital to national security. In November 2017, the USS Pittsburgh completed its 1,000th dive, an achievement few boats carry. The USS Pittsburgh carries the fitting motto ``Heart of Steel'', which reminds me of the determination and passion of all Pittsburghers. Please join me in honoring the USS Pittsburgh for its nearly 35 years of service protecting U.S. interests around the world and all the remarkable crewmembers who have served aboard it during that time.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I echo the comments of my colleague from Massachusetts, Mr. Moulton. On December 9, the United States lost a great hero. Peter Frates once crushed a home run into the bullpen at Fenway in Boston's Beanpot Championship for his BC Eagles. But Pete will be remembered for another reason: ALS would go on to rob him of his physical gifts, but not his spiritual ones. Pete simply refused to give up. He helped launch the Ice Bucket Challenge, which raised more than $220 million. These funds have already begun to change the world for ALS patients. They helped find a new gene that may open pathways to treatment. It is said that, in the Bible, God breaks through to humanity 366 times to say, ``Do not be afraid,'' once for every day and once more in case we just didn't get it. In the Christmas season, we are reminded that God sent his most precious gift to this planet for such a short time. We don't know why, but we do know that he invites others to carry the message. Pete was known for telling others, ``Do not be afraid to be great.'' I cannot think of better words to close out the year of our Lord 2019 or a better man for us all to honor.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Madam Speaker, due to unforeseen travel delays I missed two votes on December 3, 2019. Had I been present, I would have voted YEA on Roll Call No. 643, and YEA on Roll Call No. 644.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Chairman, I thank Madam Chairwoman for her work on the underlying bill. Mr. Chairman, I am offering this amendment because one of the most pressing problems in my district in western Pennsylvania and in America as a whole has been the massive erosion of our manufacturing and industrial base, particularly in the last 20 years. Many people view this as an older problem, but, in fact, it is since the year 2000 that we have shed millions and millions of jobs, lost mostly to China and some to Mexico. But today, in my district, there still remains a plant that makes large steel components for nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants and the Navy's nuclear fleet. They are organized by the IBEW. These are good-paying jobs in the manufacturing base that have remained. And so the question is: How did those jobs get there, and why did they remain? The answer is because the United States Government has performed its historic role to drive open and create a new market and preserve that market with the partnership of private industry--and that is the market for nuclear energy. If the United States hadn't made its investments in the 1940s and 1950s, they never would have opened the first nuclear reactor for civilian use in my district in Beaver Valley; we never would have had 15,000 people working in nuclear energy directly in Pennsylvania today: 71 additional companies and thousands and thousands of more manufacturing jobs that allow us to sell nuclear technology all around the world. Of the many tools the U.S. Government has used for this purpose, the Export-Import Bank is an important one. They have helped drive open these new markets overseas and make it possible for historic companies like Westinghouse to sell their technology all over the world, with it still being made and manufactured in the United States. And so, today, as we vote to reauthorize this Bank, I would ask to add an amendment that will make sure that not only will we defend the jobs we have already created, but we will play some offense and create some new jobs. And if we are going to play offense, we will keep score; we will make sure we know exactly how many jobs are both preserved and created in the energy and related manufacturing sectors. In our district, there is a company called Eaton that makes software and hardware products to integrate clean energy into the grid both in the United States and overseas. They are one of the biggest users of Ex-Im financing in my district. For them to create new manufacturing jobs to sell new ways to integrate clean energy all over the world, they need this reauthorization. Just earlier this year, I met a Pennsylvanian who is working on a design for wind turbines that look a lot more like helicopter blades than they do like the windmills we tend to see today. An entrepreneur like this will benefit from the role his government plays in reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank, and we need to take careful account of every single new job that is created from new opportunities like this one. Mr. Chair, this is the United States Government at its finest. We will keep score on the work we do on the Ex-Im Bank so that we will win. These jobs and these markets will be created somewhere. Our duty is to make sure it is here. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentleman for his words, and again, I would commend the chairwoman for including all energy sources and technology in this bill. I think our debate going forward will be more honest and accurate when we have a score of how many jobs have been created, so we not only are talking about energy sources in the abstract, but we can tie them to a specific job number for hardworking American families. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Speaker of the House of Representatives.

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I am proud to stand up in support of the SHIELD Act, which incorporates my bill, H.R. 4703, The DEFEND Act. The DEFEND Act, as incorporated here, would forbid paid internet activity by foreign actors, foreign political parties, foreign intelligence services and the like. This is a problem because in 2016 across Pennsylvania users of social media saw this image over and over again. It is the real image of a coal miner suggesting that miners were supporting the Republican nominee and getting together in huge rallies in places like Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. But the problem is, there were no rallies. And the truth is, the actual opinions of coal miners were much more mixed. They know, in fact, that they have been let down on issues like healthcare and pensions, by both Republicans and Democrats, and they have been supported and protected on those same issues by Members of both parties. In fact, just today, the House Natural Resources Committee passed the Miners Pension Protection Act, and I was proud to stand with members of both parties in support of that. Mr. Chair, the man in this image died in 1987 at the age of 57--too young--like most miners, of black lung. These miners have given a lot. We cannot allow the Russians or anyone else to take anything else from them and affect our elections.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3207, my bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 114 Mill Street in Hookstown, Pennsylvania, as the Staff Sergeant Dylan Elchin Post Office Building. Staff Sergeant Elchin served our country valiantly in the United States Air Force and was killed in action in November of 2018. He was a special tactics combat controller who was deployed to Afghanistan in August of last year as part of the U.S. Army Special Operations Force Operational Detachment-Alpha team. Staff Sergeant Elchin's role included advising the ground force commander, directing air support aircraft, and supporting offensive combat operations. Dylan repeatedly disregarded his personal safety to coordinate lifesaving strikes and combat enemy fighters. Dylan's bravery was credited with saving the lives of many of his fellow soldiers and airmen. At Staff Sergeant Elchin's funeral last year, we heard how, throughout all of the difficult conditions that Staff Sergeant Elchin experienced in Afghanistan, he was always cheerful, always enthusiastic, and always someone who inspired his fellow airmen no matter what. Mr. Speaker, I believe this is because Staff Sergeant Elchin was living his dream. Staff Sergeant Elchin was born in Brighton Township, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Beaver County, and from the earliest age he had an interest in serving our country. Staff Sergeant Elchin was eager to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather, who served 8 years, himself, in the United States Army. At the age of 14, Dylan immersed himself in military history, especially the Vietnam and Gulf wars, and this passion fueled his desire to serve. Dylan enlisted in the Air Force as a special tactics combat controller, the best of the best, immediately after graduating from Hopewell High School in 2012. Dylan was assigned to the 26th Special Tactics Squadron at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. Dylan was trained for combat operations, like precision strike and personnel recovery, and he was especially skilled in reconnaissance, air traffic control, and terminal attack control operations. Staff Sergeant Elchin's awards and decorations include the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart, the Air Force Commendation Medal, the NATO Medal, and many others. Dylan was incredibly young to be honored in so many ways, which is a testament to his bravery, his skill, and his dedication to his mission. Mr. Speaker, if we do our job and we pass this bill, the citizens of Hookstown and all over Beaver County will never forget Dylan's name, and they never should. Dylan joins a long line of western Pennsylvanians who gave what Lincoln called the last full measure of devotion. We are proud of Dylan; we thank him for his service and his sacrifice; we honor him; and we will never forget him. Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to support H.R. 3207.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I begin by thanking Chairman Takano and Ranking Member Roe for their support getting this bill through committee, and my Republican colleague, Brian Fitzpatrick, for cosponsoring it with me. I rise tonight in support of H.R. 2385. Mr. Speaker, we are here on the 75th anniversary of D-Day, and it always struck me, an American general who said, if anyone ever needed proof that the United States of America fought for a cause and not for conquest, it is that when we invaded another continent halfway around the world, the only soil we ever asked to maintain was enough to bury our own dead. It has been true, throughout generations, that veterans ask very little recognition or very little thanks for their service. I have it on good authority that, when they built the monument to World War II here in Washington, D.C., throughout that whole year, there were a number of veterans who approached the construction site after hours or early in the morning, and they handed their dog tags to the people who were working there and just asked them to throw them down in the pit underneath those big stone pillars that they were putting in the monument. Anyone who has ever served understands that feeling, that total commitment to the cause and lack of desire for recognition. But we do programs like the Veterans Legacy Project because we need to communicate that same spirit of sacrifice to the next generation, and that is what this project can do. The graves in these national cemeteries and the memorials that we find there cause young people, especially, to slow down in a world that is speeding up, and they express a confidence in the thing it is that they memorialize. They tell young people that there are things that are permanent in this world, as hard as that is to believe, and that there is nothing more permanent than the sacrifices that these men and women have made. They also tell them that there is one thing that is not permanent, which is the freedom that we all live under every single day, and that it has to be refreshed and renewed with the sacrifices of people in each generation. So by expanding this program, making it more accessible to more high schools and more colleges and more community groups, we can spread that spirit of sacrifice, of permanence, of total commitment to the cause of freedom throughout the next generation, and I can't think of any time when that has been more needed. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleagues for supporting this bill.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Madam Chair, I also rise to support these en bloc amendments, particularly my amendment to increase and emphasize the support for research in the Office of Nuclear Energy Light Water Sustainability Program. In my district in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, we gave birth to the civilian nuclear fleet. President Eisenhower launched that plant in 1958, and many other plants have come up around the Nation providing carbon-free, safe, reliable energy, and many of them have served long past their useful life. Tens of thousands of American workers keep these plants running today. They keep us safe. We have to protect these plants, protect these jobs, and, most importantly, protect our energy grid. We can do that with better research into how to make these plants run more efficiently, more cheaply, and more competitively.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Madam Speaker, it is with great pride that I recognize a former constituent of mine, Joyce Knestrick, PhD, C-FNP, APRN, of Washington, Pennsylvania for her service over the last two years as President of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). Dr. Knestrick has an exemplary career of service with over 30 years as a registered nurse, of which she has spent 25 of those years as a nationally board-certified family nurse practitioner working in clinics that serve low income and underserved populations both in urban and rural Appalachian areas. As an organizational leader, Dr. Knestrick has served as an adjunct professor in organizational leadership master's programs. She has served multiple clinical roles as a family nurse practitioner, a nurse manager and a registered nurse in critical care, medical surgical, pediatric and long-term care settings. She serves on several committees for the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties and was elected as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners in 2007. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners is a national professional membership organization representing over 270,00 nurse practitioners nationally. Under Dr. Knestrick's tenure, AANP membership has grown to more than 97,000 members, making AANP the largest nurse practitioner organization in the world. Dr. Knestrick has helped lead nurse practitioners in transforming patient-centered health care and has made tremendous strides in ensuring that policy makers and the public understand the care that nurse practitioners provide to millions of Americans each year. I urge my colleagues to join me in congratulating Dr. Knestrick on a successful term as President of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and in thanking her for the excellent care she has and continues to provide to her patients and the nurse practitioner profession.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Whole Veteran Act. I thank the chairman of the Veterans Affairs' Committee, Mr. Takano, and the ranking member, Dr. Roe, for their support for this act, along with all members of our committee. This is a bipartisan bill with a bipartisan goal, which simply is to reform and continue to improve VA healthcare. Our bill will do that in two very important ways. First, we aim to make the VA a leader in the future of healthcare. Many doctors have looked at how America's healthcare system is too expensive and too reliant on prescription drugs. It turns out that not all doctors think that the best way to deal with chronic pain, PTSD, or depression is to simply hand out more pills. In fact, we believe that the future of healthcare is going to involve a mix of old and new methods of treatment. In the future, patients who are suffering will get access to yoga, acupuncture, or meditation before they are ever exposed to these addictive drugs. This is safer and it is also cheaper, and we believe that, in the long-run, it is going to be better. The NIH, which is the government's gold standard when it comes to research, has looked at these treatments and found that yoga is effective for back pain, that acupuncture is highly effective for chronic conditions like osteoarthritis, and study after study has documented the benefits of meditation and healthy eating when it comes to anxiety, when it comes to stress, when it comes to chronic pain and all of the drivers of the suicide crisis that we are seeing today. In the right combination, these treatments will allow us all to spend less on healthcare and to feel better in the future. But perhaps, Madam Speaker, the most important part of our bill is that it gives veterans more real choices and greater power to manage their own healthcare. I visited a Whole Health Clinic here in Washington, D.C., and the veterans who were partaking in that clinic, they like it because they get to pick which treatments work well for them based on how it makes them feel. They pick the teachers they like and they go to the classes, where they meet other veterans who they get to know and spend time with, and it keeps them coming back. One of the greatest challenges is how we keep people coming back to the VA for treatment once they have got it. To stop veteran suicide once and for all, one of the most important things we have to do is go out and get all the veterans who are living in isolation and not using the VA for care. Thirteen of the 20 veterans who are committing suicide every day are outside of the VA's reach. We have got to find them, and we have got to give them a reason to come back. This is what the whole health program does. It gives our veterans a reason to come back and stay in the VA that they didn't have before. We don't know right now which parts of the whole health program work the best and which ones still need more work. Our bill will start to answer that question. But we do know one thing, which is that there is no time to lose. Veterans serve this country because they want to prevent the suffering of others, and now too many of them are suffering themselves. We owe it to them to try anything that will work.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Larson for yielding to me. Mr. Speaker, I am honored to be here tonight. Last year, during a long campaign season, two campaigns and two elections, there was no issue in western Pennsylvania that came to me from my constituents more often than Social Security, and it was usually with a heavy heart. I will never forget one man who came up to me at an event. He was about 77 years old. He told me how he started paying into Social Security when he was 12. They don't really make them like that anymore, but in western Pennsylvania, people started working at earlier and earlier ages to make ends meet. The gentleman had worked in a factory. He had been laid off. He told me: We were in the streets, not sure where to go during the day, but we didn't want our kids to know that we were out of work. He had five kids. He became a janitor, got hurt on the job, needed his union to stick up for him, but that cut into his prime years of earning. So the gentleman becomes 65, he retires, eventually collects Social Security, but he still works to this day as a janitor. So he is telling me all about his life, and he pulls out one of those big key rings that every janitor seems to have, and he shoves it into my hand. He had pulled off of it the dog tag that he carried when he served in the U.S. Army in Korea in the 1950s. He pressed it into my palm and he just looked up at me and said: Don't you break your promise to us. If you get a chance to go down to Washington, D.C., you fight for Social Security, you fight for Medicare. You promised these programs to us and you have got to keep your promise. I will tell you, I don't think a man his age and his experience wanted to have to stand there and ask a 33-year-old young congressional candidate to stick up for him in that way. That was a promise that we made, and it is not an entitlement. It is something he paid into for over 45, 50 years of a working life. Mr. Speaker, I wonder if Mr. Larson has met constituents like that back in Connecticut as well.

Mr. LAMB. It is the most important thing we can work on in this Congress for many of the people who are affected. The problem is, as you said, it hasn't been adjusted since the 1980s, and a couple of really important things have happened since then. When Tip and President Reagan struck the last deal on Social Security, there wasn't the heroin epidemic that we see today. One of the problems that we have in western Pennsylvania is that we are losing a lot of young parents in their 30s and 40s to heroin, fentanyl, and prescription drug overdoses. Because they come from good families, their aunts, their uncles, and their parents are stepping up and taking care of the kids who are left behind. I have run into dozens and dozens of senior citizens in western PA who are raising kids on their Social Security benefits. They are working part time, too. They can barely make ends meet. Social Security wasn't designed for that.

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, it is why we need to make sure that those who do choose to continue to work, and many will, see the benefits of that work. Here we are calling for a tax cut and promising to account for every penny of it with a proper adjustment to the other taxes and the payroll tax. You would almost think we were Republicans standing up here tonight. But the Republicans, instead, have chosen a path through their tax bill to cut taxes for a very different group of people, the people who make more than $500,000 a year, and the people on the boards of the largest and most powerful corporations in our country. I think that is what frustrates so many people today, that the average Social Security benefit now, at this point, is--what?--about $16,000. The people who benefited from the tax cut in 2017 make $500,000, $1 million, or even more than that per year. There are far more people earning closer to $16,000 in this country than there are at the very top. If we are going to have special breaks in the Tax Code for anyone, or if we are going to do anything with our tax laws to benefit anyone, it should be those folks who are just trying to get by. They are not going on vacation with this money. They are not going to Disney World. And they are not going on a cruise. They are paying for prescription drugs, and they are paying for groceries. Mr. Clyburn just talked about hunger and how Fritz Hollings was fighting hunger 40 and 50 years ago. Well, senior citizens in the United States are going hungry today. They have a very simple choice. They have a certain amount of money, and they can go to the grocery store or to the drugstore, but they can't do both. Usually, they go to the drugstore to stay alive, and they skimp on the rest.

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, how many programs do we really have that are truly universal, that are truly for every American, in which we all share the sacrifice and we all share the benefit? We are all in this together at the end of the day. A very wise man said to me once that one of the problems we have in America today is people think the economy is like the weather. You might be able to predict it, and you might be able to prepare for what is coming, but you just can't do anything about it. Well, that is not true. The economy is a set of rules written down on pieces of paper and it is the set of people who are there to enforce them. This is a better rule than anything the other side has. This is a rule that allows us to keep our promise. This is a rule that says, if you paid into this for all your working lives and now all you are asking for is about $16,000 a year to be able to live with some dignity in your old age, after you finished the project of a lifetime of building the country that we all enjoy, we are going to make sure that is there for you, and we are going to make sure we keep our promise. We think it is a pretty good bet to side with the folks who are getting $16,000 a year over the folks who are making $16 million a year. We think that is a pretty good bet, and we are all going to share the burden together going forward. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Larson for allowing me to be part of this great bill.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support veterans in STEM careers. First, I would like to thank the gentleman from Florida, Dr. Dunn, for his leadership in helping connect veterans to these good jobs. Veterans are working today. Most Americans are working today. The unemployment rate is low. And yet everywhere I go, I meet businesspeople who tell me that they can't find the right workers for the right jobs at the right time. If we could fix this, we would stop being held back by the shortage of workforce that we face, and, most importantly, our families would not be held back by lower paychecks. But these new jobs in cybersecurity, in medical technology, in advanced manufacturing, they are hard jobs and they require training. We need to make the training available to people where they live at a cost that they can actually afford. We have no time to waste. Our businesses are competing on a global stage against countries that will use the full machinery of their governments to make sure their workforces are ready. We need to meet their efforts with an even greater one. Luckily, we already have a workforce that will go anywhere and do anything. When it comes to hard work, these folks are fearless. That is the veteran population here in the United States. Marine officers are trained that if we are given an order to move that mountain over there, no sooner is the order completed than we are leading 100 marines down the road with shovels. I still have great faith in the ability of 100 marines with shovels, but what we really need today are hundreds of thousands of veterans who can 3D print those shovels, put them in the hands of robots, program them to go down the road, and defend the entire network from foreign intrusion. These are the jobs of today and tomorrow. These are the jobs that will support our families. Most importantly, these are the jobs that will grow the new middle class. We want to make sure veterans get these jobs. To do that, we are going to use this bill to turn to the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation was born in the aftermath of World War II to make sure that we led the world in science and math, and the most important advancements. We knew that if we did that, we could make our country safe, healthy, and strong. If we are going to continue that mission in the new generation, we will need veterans to lead the way. We do have a global competition on our hands, Mr. Speaker, and I know we can win it if we have the veterans with us. This bill will help them, and I urge all my colleagues to come together to pass it.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, the underlying bill here was made in regular order, and many amendments were considered, including the amendment we just voted on. It is an amendment that does keep children safe. In fact, the way to make a mistake here and ensure that the safety of our children is in jeopardy would be to defeat this underlying bill. This underlying bill does what we were sent here to do. It takes an excellent government program which provides childcare to tens of thousands of veterans and their families. It takes a program that works and says we are going to double down when the Veterans Administration does the right thing and people are satisfied; we will continue that program. Instead, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to interrupt a great program, and when they could have made an amendment yesterday or when they could introduce new legislation, they want to sideline this successful program that takes care of children. We had one veteran tell us that this was the best benefit they had been extended in exchange for their service since 1992 and that their child loves the childcare program at the VA, loves the children that they are included with and the people who watch over them while their parent can get treatment. There are tens of thousands of people out there like them. Mr. Speaker, the motto of the Veterans Administration came from President Lincoln himself. He dared us to strive on, to finish the work we are in, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan--in other words, to take care of the entire family. This is about family, and through the amendment process, we have made sure that no one will provide childcare to these children who is in serious trouble. We are doing our job. We will continue to strive on. There is no reason to get in the way of this excellent bill. Mr. Speaker, I have learned a lot in my past year of being here. One important thing that I have learned is that we can always update the references we have made. I have quoted President Lincoln, but my colleague from New York (Mr. Jeffries) is also fond of making more contemporary references. There is one that occurred to me today as I thought about the message of this bill. As the Pittsburgh Pirates were racing toward the World Series in 1979, they adopted as their slogan the words of the disco stars Sister Sledge: ``We are family.'' Mr. Speaker, that is what this bill is about. We are family. We will take care of the veterans, and we will take care of their children. We are family. Now get up everybody and vote against this MTR and for the underlying bill.

Mr. LAMB

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. LAMB. I am opposed in its current form.

Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended. Mr. Speaker, I have been here for 5 months now. I have met a lot of people who still want to work hard, do the right thing, and, most importantly, get things done. This is true on both sides of the aisle. But the problem is that, even when we work together and we are close to finally getting something done, the leadership of this House can deny us a vote on bills that are already written, on bills that are supported by both sides, and on bills that are good for the American people. They deny us a vote. Mr. Speaker, this amendment is a perfect example. I offered an amendment to this bill. The amendment would help make sure that veterans are getting the information they need about student loans. This bill does not recognize veterans. It does say that, down the road, we have to study its effects and that we should look at race; we should look at ethnicity; we should look at gender; we should look at income; and we should look at people with disabilities. I agree with all of that. But we should also look at the effect on veterans. Veterans are different from other students. Many students rely on their parents, but many veterans are parents. Many students are taking out their first loans, but many veterans already have mortgages. Many students are leaving home for the first time, while many veterans are coming home from tours of service all over the world. We need to know if veterans are getting the information they need about their student loans, in addition to these other groups. I know that Members of both parties agree with that. I met with several Republicans yesterday, and not a single one raised a single objection to this amendment. But then we find out that leadership will not allow a vote on this amendment. Why is that? Well, Mr. Speaker, this motion to recommit will allow us a vote. It will allow us to vote for veterans. Our student loan system is stacked against veterans, just like it is stacked against so many of our fellow Americans. We thank our veterans for their service all the time, using words. Today, let's thank them with action. Let's thank them with the force of law. Let's thank them by doing our jobs. Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this motion to recommit, and I yield back the balance of my time.