Jim McGovern

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. Esty) for raising an important issue, for forcing us to talk about something that the Republican leadership is working overtime to prevent us from having a vote on. Only in this Republican-controlled House of Representatives would the idea of prohibiting terror suspects from getting weapons be considered controversial. It is stunning. Let me say to the Republican leadership, who are, again, preventing us from being able to deliberate on this issue, you take my breath away. I cannot believe that you will not allow us to have a vote on the floor on this important issue. You are on the wrong side of history. You are certainly on the wrong side of public opinion. The vast majority of Americans--Democrats, Republicans, Independents--all think we ought to close this loophole, everybody but the leadership of this House, which is beholden to one special interest. Terror suspects can't fly on airplanes. I fly back and forth from Boston to Washington every week. I am glad that terror suspects can't fly on airplanes. I feel more safe. The people I fly with feel more safe. Why would it be somehow acceptable, then, to allow those same people who cannot fly to be able to go out and buy weapons, highly sophisticated weapons, weapons that are used by terrorists to kill civilians? Why would that be acceptable? We ought to have a vote on this. Let us vote. Let us deliberate on this important issue.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself my remaining time. I am sorry that the previous speaker doesn't see the importance of this issue and thinks that this is theater. I assure you that the vast majority of Americans--Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike-- think this is a very serious issue. Right now, according to the ATF, the people who cannot own a gun in this country are criminals, unlawful users of controlled substances, people who are mentally ill, people who have renounced their citizenship, and people who have been convicted of domestic violence. Our laws are clear on that. These people can't go out and buy guns. Yet, when it comes to people who are suspected of terrorism, for some reason, we can't apply the law to them. For some reason, there is a reluctance by some on the other side of the aisle--not all, but some-- to do something about this. This is fairly easy. Congressman King, a Republican from New York, has a bill that I think is fairly straightforward. It basically says that people who are suspected of being terrorists, who right now can't fly on airplanes, should not be able to go out and purchase a gun, should not be able to purchase a weapon of war. That concept is controversial in this House of Representatives. It is hard to fathom. People can't quite understand what the problem is. Now, maybe my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are going to introduce bills to allow us to be able to sell weapons to people who are convicted of domestic violence or to people who are felons or to people who have renounced their citizenship. Maybe that is going to mysteriously come to the House floor. Maybe that is what the plan is, but I hope not. I don't hear them saying that. I don't hear people on the other side of the aisle saying we should do away with the no-fly list and allow suspected terrorists to be able to fly on airplanes with the American people. I don't hear people asking to do that. So what is the problem? We are making a big deal of this. I am sorry the gentleman from Nevada doesn't appreciate the importance of this issue, but we are making a big deal of this because it is a big deal. We need to do a lot of different things to protect the American people, and this is one of them. No one is up here saying this will solve all of our problems, but we are saying this is an important piece that we ought to get done. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to defeat the previous question. Allow us to have the opportunity to bring this up because we have tried every which way--we even have a discharge petition going to try to force a vote on this issue--and all we have encountered is resistance, resistance, resistance. Give us the opportunity to deliberate. Let the people's House do the people's business. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the previous question and to then vote ``no'' on the rule. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. I am the last speaker on my side. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire if the gentleman has any further speakers?

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

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. If my colleagues on the other side of the aisle wanted to defend the record of this House in terms of regular order, they can have it at. It is laughable, the record. This is the most closed Congress in the history of the United States Congress. That is the record that they are proud of. We are here, again, trying to pressure the leadership of this House to let this House do what it is supposed to do: have the committees of jurisdiction report this bill to shut down this terrible loophole which is a potential danger to our citizens. Bring it to the floor. We can't get you to bring anything to the floor related to this issue. But to get up here and to somehow talk like my friends on the other side care about regular order or even are in the most minimal way committed to an open process here is laughable. Look at the record of this Congress. The Speaker and the previous Speaker all get up here and talk about their commitment to regular order. And then what do they do? They do the opposite time and time again. I read to you some of the bills that you brought up recently that have come to the floor not under regular order. We don't need lectures on regular order from my friends on the Republican side who, again, are presiding over the most closed Congress in the history of the United States of America. With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Torres).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. McGOVERN. This astounding loophole has allowed more than 2,000 suspects on the FBI's terrorist watch list to buy guns in the United States over the last 11 years.

Mr. McGOVERN. Will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline.)

Mr. McGOVERN. To discuss our proposal, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum).

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I include that in the Record, first of all, to make it clear to my colleagues that what we are doing here is a waste of time. This bill isn't going anywhere. I would say to the gentleman from Washington that, if his idea of regular order is bringing bills to the floor that are going nowhere, we have a different definition of what regular order is all about. I have listed for you a series of major bills that did not go through regular order. Most of them never went through committee. This whole process, since we are 1 day away from a government shutdown, of putting an omnibus together is not regular order. Mr. Speaker, my friends control the House, they control the Senate, and yet we are going to get this big bill no matter whether it passes or not. We are not going to know what is in this bill for weeks and months afterwards, all these riders and all these different deals on the omnibus bill and the tax extender bill. So, please, regular order is dead. We are again pursuing these procedural motions to try to force you, to try to shame my friends on the other side of the aisle, to bring a bill to the floor that the overwhelming majority of the American people want us to vote on. Mr. Speaker, I am going to urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question. If the previous question is defeated, I will offer an amendment to the rule to bring up bipartisan legislation that would close a glaring loophole in our gun laws allowing suspected terrorists to legally buy firearms. Mr. Speaker, this bill would bar the sale of firearms and explosives to those on the FBI's terrorist watch list. Why that is so controversial for the Republican leadership is beyond me. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 2130, which says that if the President were presented with H.R. 2130, his senior advisers would recommend that he veto the bill. Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 2130--Red River Private Property Protection Act (Rep. Thornberry, R-TX, Dec. 8, 2015) The Administration strongly opposes H.R. 2130, which would set aside existing Federal surveys, divest the Secretary of the Interior of responsibility as surveyor of record for the United States, and transfer lands out of Federal ownership without ensuring a fair return to the taxpayer. H.R. 2130 would set aside existing Federal surveys of land along the Red River in Texas and would require the Secretary to commission and to accept, without Federal participation, surveys of the land approved by the Texas General Land Office. This legislation would require the Secretary to delegate her authority for determining Federal estate to a state agency, would be counter to nearly 100 years of settled law, and could reduce mineral revenue opportunities for the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache Tribes and the State of Oklahoma. The Administration shares the goal of providing legal certainty to property owners along the Red River, but strongly opposes the approach of voiding or nullifying Federal surveys. If the President were presented with H.R. 2130, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. McGOVERN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, some of us on the Rules Committee voted to bring up a bill that would prevent terrorists from buying guns, but Republicans on the committee blocked that attempt. Democrats have tried to close this loophole by defeating the previous question, and Republicans have blocked those attempts. Can the Speaker tell me how we can get an up-or-down vote on this bill that prevents terrorists from buying guns?

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, last week, I had the pleasure of taking part in Monte's March, an annual hunger walk in western Massachusetts. The march started in 2010 and is named after its founder, Monte Belmonte, a local activist and WRSI The River radio host in Northampton. Over the course of 2 days, we walked 43 miles across western Massachusetts, from Springfield to Northampton to Greenfield, to raise awareness about the very real problem of hunger in our communities and help families in need this holiday season. We had a great group walking with us this year, led by Monte, and including Andrew Morehouse, the executive director of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan, and a host of other local officials and community members. I want to say a special thanks to my colleagues Congressmen Richie Neal and Joe Kennedy for joining us along the way and helping to support those in need. Also joining us on that march were Sean Barry of Four Seasons Liquor in Hadley, Erika Cooper of Tea Guys in Whately, Ben Clark of Clarkdale Fruit Farm in Deerfield, Natalie Blais of UMass Amherst, Steve Fendel from Gill, Marty Dagoberto, Dan Finn from Pioneer Valley Local First, Chia Collins from Northampton, Kristen Elechko, Georgian and Rick Kristek, and many, many, many more. This year's walk was extra special for me because my son, Patrick, walked the entire route with us both days. Mr. Speaker, every day, 48 million Americans struggle with hunger, including 15.3 million children. We live in the richest country on Earth and have greater access to food than any previous generation, so the fact that hunger continues to be so widespread in America is absolutely stunning. Monte's March was started in 2010 to do something about it. This year's walk was the longest and biggest effort yet. Bright and early last Monday morning, our group of walkers began our march in the Mason Square neighborhood of Springfield. The Mason Square neighborhood is one of those communities in western Massachusetts most in need, with so many families living in poverty and facing food hardship. In fact, childhood poverty rates have been as high as 59 percent in this area alone. For these families, overcoming hunger is especially challenging because the neighborhood is a ``food desert,'' an area where affordable and healthy food, like fresh fruits and vegetables, are hard to come by. With no full-line supermarket within walking distance for residents to purchase food at affordable prices, we wanted to make sure that the Mason Square neighborhood was front and center in this year's march. It also gave us the opportunity to thank the Mason Square Health Task Force for their tireless efforts to address hunger and to show our deep appreciation to local feeding programs like St. John's Congregation Church. We then marched through Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke before finishing day one in Northampton. Seventeen miles were behind us, with day two still to go. We started on Tuesday morning walking through Northampton, then Hadley, and then Amherst, where we stopped at the Amherst Survival Center. The Amherst Survival Center is an amazing place. Since 1976, they have welcomed everyone who has come through their doors with open arms and a kind word. They help those who are struggling to meet their basic needs. All of their services are free. They run a food pantry, community meal program, drop-in health clinic, job-readiness workshops and job fairs, and a host of other important programs. After our brief visit, it was back to the pavement, through Sunderland and Deerfield, before finally ending in Greenfield. We walked a total of 26 miles on day two. Along the way, we felt the incredible support of the western Massachusetts community. People stopped us along the way to add canned food and other donations to our shopping cart. They came out of their homes and their businesses and schools, or they stopped their cars along the side of the road to offer words of encouragement. Along the way, we helped raise more than $150,000 for The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, which distributes hundreds of thousands of pounds of food throughout the emergency feeding network in the region. Mr. Speaker, by the end, we were sore and tired, but we were exhilarated by people's generosity and support. When you add it all up, the outpouring of donations and support from our community will help provide more than 450,000 meals to families in need. The good news is that hunger is a solvable problem. We just need to muster the political will to help more communities like these in Massachusetts and across the country. There is not a single congressional district in the United States where hunger isn't an issue affecting the daily lives of kids, families, seniors, or veterans. We all have a stake in this, and with strong grassroots support from communities in all 50 States, just like the ones we visited over 2 days, we have the power to make a real difference and help the 48 million Americans struggling with hunger. Mr. Speaker, during this holiday season, I urge my colleagues and all Americans to remember those who are struggling with hunger. They are our neighbors or colleagues and our friends. I want to thank everyone who supported this year's Monte's March and especially want to thank the incredible community partners on the ground for their tireless efforts day in and day out. You inspire us, and we thank you for your service.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. McGOVERN

Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.