Gwen Moore

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Madam Speaker, it is very heartbreaking to think that it has been a whole year since our girls, 276 girls, were kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria. I think the importance of memorializing this is to talk about the nature of terror and its cruelty, to take these children, these babies, away in the name of religion. It is extremely important for us to galvanize all around the world and to focus on the main thing. The main thing is these are criminal organizations. These are not religiously motivated people. These are people who will maim, cripple, and kill anyone for their political objectives. I want to thank Frederica Wilson for her leadership in bringing us all together today, and Mrs. Maloney from New York, and I pray that our resolve will be reignited today.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I could just sit down and say I agree with everything that the gentleman has said, but I want to add my voice to this debate and rise to support the Democratic motion to instruct conferees. As Mr. Van Hollen has said, there are provisions in the Senate version that are very, very worthy of our adopting. There is the reserve fund on paid sick leave, and it also rejects the House provision on Medicare premium support, the vouchers. I have been a member of this Budget Committee for over 5 years, and I can tell you that, while I have an appetite for leftovers, this has just been warmed over too many times. This budget is just another variation of the same themes that we have seen in the past several years. What is this thing? The majority party has recommitted themselves to benefit the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans while balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. Now, I know there are many people--unfortunately, on both sides of the aisle--who are not all that concerned about the poor. They figure that the poor have done this to themselves; but what has the middle class done to deserve being hollowed even more while we provide tax breaks for the wealthiest two-tenths of 1 percent? What have hard-working men and women and cities and mayors all over this country done so that we just ignore infrastructure improvements, ignore devolving money to the States, all in the name of providing tax breaks for the richest of the rich? Now, the commonsense approach would be to adopt our Democratic motion to instruct conferees, and it would be very much in league with the bipartisan actions we have seen over in the Senate. It has been historic, miraculous, to see 61 Senators--both Senators from my State, both parties--voting to establish a deficit neutral reserve fund to allow workers to earn paid sick leave. It is a filibuster-proof majority over there. Paid sick leave is good for Americans, the 13 million working men and women who don't have paid sick leave when they need it. Millions are unable to take care of their sick kids, their parents, or their spouses because they can't afford to do it. Workers have agonizing choices when their kids fall ill. Nearly a quarter of working adults have reported that they have lost or come close to losing their job, Mr. Speaker, for taking sick time.

Ms. MOORE. I will use it expeditiously. I mean, 3\1/2\ days of pay loss is equivalent to a month of groceries. People can't afford to do it. It is not just good for people, it is good for our economy as well. People won't use the emergency room as much. There are 1.3 million emergency room visits every year because we don't have sick leave. People won't come to work and pass communicable diseases with paid sick leave. Again, the Medicare voucher is just a sham, Mr. Speaker. Senior citizens and people with disabilities rely on this for their health security. I guess the Republicans have said it time and again that they would like to see Medicare wither on the vine, and adopting the provisions in the House budget will in fact accomplish that. I urge my colleagues to vote for the motion to instruct conferees.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Leo Ries, the Executive Director of Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Mr. Ries is retiring after 15 years with this organization; the office he ran is part of LISC's national network. Mr. Ries has spent much of his career helping improve neighborhoods in Milwaukee. Prior to his employment at LISC, he worked for the City of Milwaukee for 10 years, ultimately serving as Director of Housing and Neighborhood Development. Mr. Ries' heart has always been in neighborhood work; he brought people and organizations together in order to create projects that had a real impact on struggling neighborhoods. He has remained optimistic regarding the future of Milwaukee's neighborhoods even while acknowledging the challenges of people struggling against ``hopelessness and helplessness''; he sees promise and opportunities in the resurgence of urban living especially by the millennial generation. The son of a Sheboygan mink rancher, Ries is the youngest of seven children. He attended a seminary high school and thought for a time he wanted to be a priest. Leo Ries has enjoyed an unusual and varied working life. He worked as a volunteer at Casa Maria Catholic Worker House, a cab driver, registered nurse in an intensive care unit and as business manager for two inner-city Catholic churches. Mr. Ries has worked on many initiatives during his tenure at LISC but he has identified two recent projects as being especially meaningful. The relaunching of the Associates in Commercial Real Estate (ACRE) program, which Marquette University oversaw from 2005 to 2010, to help introduce minorities to careers in commercial real estate and working with the Milwaukee Police Department on proactive community safety strategies. He sees both of these initiatives as providing a structure for building relationships among people; people from different races came together for these two projects with a shared interest in building Milwaukee's future. LISC has accomplished so much under the leadership of Leo Ries; programs initiated under his tutelage have become models for the nation and made Milwaukee a strong, prosperous community for all of its residents. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to know and work with Leo Ries for so many years and wish him much success as he transitions into a different phase of his life. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to honor Leo Ries and I am proud to call him friend. The citizens of the Fourth Congressional District and the State of Wisconsin are privileged to have someone of his ability and dedicated service working on their behalf for so many years. Leo, I thank you for all that you have done. I am honored for these reasons to pay tribute to Leo Ries.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to the Job Corps Program. Established in 1964, it was one of the central initiatives of President Johnsons' War on Poverty and modeled after President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal Initiative called the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). The CCC employed thousands of people during the Great Depression to help rebuild our country's infrastructure. This is certainly a milestone year for the Job Corps Program nationally. I am honored, as an elected official, to have had a role in bringing this worthwhile program to the 4th Congressional District of Wisconsin. Job Corps assists low-income student ages 16 to 24 improve the quality of their lives through vocational and academic training. Because of its emphasis on providing academic and ``hands on'' training, graduates of Job Corps' program are assured the all-around skills needed to succeed in a career and in life. The Milwaukee Center is just one of 125 Job Centers nationally serving 60,000 students each year. Since its inception, Job Corps has served more than three million young people. The benefits of this no cost education and career technical training program administered by the U.S. Department of Labor are both tremendous and life changing. Over 80 percent of the Job Corps graduates obtain jobs, enroll in higher education or enter the military. In fact, Job Corps is the nation's largest and most successful residential training program. In addition to the direct services provided to participants, Job Corps impacts the local communities in which they are sited with economic benefits. 228 local jobs are directly or indirectly supported by the average Job Corps campus each year and $1.91 in local economic activity is generated by each dollar invested in Job Corps. Mr. Speaker, I am deeply proud of Job Corps success over the past 50 years. I commend them for their work and dedication to our nation's at- risk, jobless and disenfranchised youth. I will continue to lend my support to the Job Corps mission of teaching eligible young people the skills they need to become employable or further their education. Congratulations on the 50th Anniversary of Job Corps and continued success in the 4th Congressional District and around the country.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Thank you so much for that courtesy. Mr. Chair, it is really my privilege to discuss the social safety net programs that are at the heart of the Congressional Black Caucus budget. The CBC acknowledges the efforts on the part of the majority to address debt and deficits, but we cannot do it on the backs of the poor. Much has been made of jobs being the answer. We agree with that, but there are the disabled, elderly, and children who comprise the poor who cannot and do not work. The Republican budget proposes $759 billion in cuts to the nondefense discretionary budget below the already damaging sequester levels. That is in addition to the more than $4 trillion in cuts to mandatory spending, a lifeline to benefits like food stamps, Medicaid, and Medicare. The CBC budget offers Americans a choice. In stark contrast to the Republican budget, we invest in low-income families and students and provide security so that our impoverished, our infirm, and our elderly and children are treated with dignity and respect. It protects the social safety net. It rejects the block granting of Medicaid and food stamps and voucherizing Medicare. It restores the TANF emergency contingency fund, rather than the $34 billion OCO slush fund. We do $2.5 billion rather than $34 billion for a slush fund. It also restores our emergency unemployment insurance for all Americans. Millions of Americans have exhausted these benefits. And it invests in so many other vital programs, such as WIC, LIHEAP, public housing, homeless assistance, Section 8 and rural housing programs, Social Services Block Grant, Child Care and Development Block Grant. I want to thank the chair and my CBC colleagues for working with me on this very worthy budget. Please vote ``yes'' on this alternative budget.

Ms. MOORE. Let me thank the ranking member and my colleagues on the other side for the tremendous effort and work that they have put into this budget. Mr. Chair, of course, I am opposed to the Republican Study Committee budget. This is the committee adopted budget on steroids. The Republican Study Committee, to kind of outdo their Republican counterparts, balances this budget in 6 years instead of 10, and it cuts it by $7.1 trillion in just 6 years. I can tell you, while I am opposed to this budget, I have to commend the Republican Study Committee for putting it on the table here in a very transparent manner. Rather than raising the defense budget by $9 billion above the President's budget and putting all of those funds into the OCO account, at least they end the sequester and do it in a transparent, budgetary way. I commend them for that, but I do urge my colleagues to reject this budget. This budget raises taxes on the middle class. It divests in education for our students. It divests in infrastructure improvements for our roads, for our ports, for our bridges. There is much to be said for balancing a budget, but you not only can't do it on the backs of the poor, the elderly, the infirm, and children, but on the back of the economy. I am also on the Financial Services Committee, and we have been warned that growing inequality is not only bad for morale in our country, but it will destroy our economy in the long run.

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Chair, I would like to engage the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) in a colloquy. I was wondering if it were possible for the gentleman to yield the Congressional Black Caucus maybe 4 to 6 minutes of his time. We have many speakers, and we have worked very hard on this budget. You know, the majority gets its way, but the minority ought to get its say.

Ms. MOORE. I yield to the gentleman.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Chairman, I thank the ranking member for yielding to me. I want to add my voice to those who congratulate everyone on the Budget Committee, particularly the chair and the ranking member, for their really hard work--and the staff--that we put into this labor. I can tell you that I was, indeed, shocked. Even though I have been on the Budget Committee for several cycles, I continue to be shocked at how this budget does not reflect what I call democratic values. I mean democratic, not as a Democratic Party, but as our democracy. I believe that our democracy is really at risk when we put forth such a budget. I think that this budget hollows out the middle class; and, based on the constructs that we have seen in the past, it would raise taxes on middle class families. I am talking about those people earning modest incomes--$50,000 to $75,000 a year--by $2,000 a year. Of course, it abandons the poor. Of the $5.5 trillion, 69 percent of this is on the backs of those who are the most poor and most vulnerable. A lot of people just don't care that much about poor people; but who do we care about in this budget? This budget pulls up the ladder of opportunity from our kids, that next generation that is going to make our economy work. They are doing us a favor by trying to go to college; yet we cut Pell grants in this Republican budget by somewhere around $90 billion. It deconstructs our job-creating infrastructure investment by $187 billion. There used to be a time when the transportation budget was a bipartisan thing; but, in the name of balancing a budget, we even throw these workers under the bus. It pulls the lifeline from seniors, disabled, and kids by block granting our Medicaid program and cutting $913 billion, that being a portion of the $2 trillion that we cut from health care, a lifeline, by repealing the Affordable Care Act and all this in the name of a phony balancing of the budget. We are going to see a display here at some point. I don't know if you call it the king of the hill, the queen-of-the-hill budget, the price- is-right budget--I don't know--where we are either going to have $94 billion or $96 billion in a slush fund, the overseas account that is $36 billion, $38 billion above what the generals and the President say they need for war.

Ms. MOORE. Don't believe the hype. I agree with the gentleman from Wisconsin. Don't believe the hype. This is not a democratic budget, as Americans have come to know it.

Ms. MOORE. That is $1.4 trillion of entitlements that we spend through the Tax Code for gas and oil subsidies, jets, hedge fund managers. There is talk in this budget of eliminating the estate tax. Millionaires and billionaires are benefiting tremendously on tax income from CEO pay.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I can tell you that Mr. Young from Alaska has really made a very important point to have thanked our staffs. I was remiss in not doing that. So I would like to add my voice to those Members who really, really appreciate the hard work that our staffs provide. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Gabbard).

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I am so happy that the Hawaiian and Alaskan contingencies have commented on this. I think it is important that this bill include all native people. I am so happy that the Senate is now working on a version of NAHASDA that is similar, and I hope that we will all be able to quickly reconcile our differences and get a reauthorization to the President's desk. I look forward to him signing H.R. 360 into law. With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, it is so wonderful always to work with Mr. Cole. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee).

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, at this time I am pleased to yield such time as he may consume to my good friend from Hawaii (Mr. Takai).

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I just want to let Mr. Pearce know I have two more speakers, and then I will be prepared to close.

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I have said so many times that this has taken a tremendous amount of work and team effort and good will to get us to the place at which we are today. I want to thank all of our cosponsors. It really has been a heavy lift, and I can tell you how appreciative I am. It has been so wonderful working with Mr. Pearce. He has just been levelheaded and calm all the way. Of course, with regard to Mr. Cole, Mr. Heck, Mr. Kildee, Mr. Pearce, and Mr. Young, we have all worked so closely together for 2 years to craft this bipartisan legislation. I need to also recognize the leadership role of our ranking member, Ms. Waters. She has had a few concerns, but she has been engaging and constructive. The National Congress of American Indians, the National American Indian Housing Council, and many individual tribes from all across the country have provided comments, education, and energy every step of the way. I think that this legislation, Mr. Speaker, honors the trust relationship of the United States Government, and it respects tribal sovereignty of the nations of the First People, but I don't want to make short shrift of the concerns that have been raised. For example, I wish we could have provided more funding, given the dire need. However, this legislation is the product of a truly bipartisan process. It is not that all of us agree 100 percent on every provision, but we keep talking, and we keep working, and we have done that until we have come up with a bill that may not be perfect but that serves the people for whom it is intended, and it is very good for tribal communities. The need for affordable housing in Indian Country just cannot be understated. Some of the poorest and most remote communities in this country are Native American communities. In fact, the three poorest communities in the United States of America are Native American. NAHASDA provides tribal governments the ability to provide safe and affordable housing to tribal communities that is consistent with their status as sovereigns. A few improvements that I would like to highlight are that it expedites certain Federal approvals. It makes all native people eligible for NAHASDA funds. It preserves provisions protecting Cherokee Freedmen. Expediting approval ends administrative duplication and delays, approval which is essential due to unique timing and building challenges on reservations. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Hastings for yielding to me. I, too, rise in support of H.R. 1031, the Promoting U.S. Jobs Through Exports Act of 2014, which reauthorizes the Export-Import Bank long term. I am so proud to have been able to introduce this legislation, along with our ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services, Ms. Waters, and Representatives Heck and Hoyer. The bill has 189 Democratic cosponsors. You add that number to the 57 Republicans that are supportive of Representative Fincher's legislation to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and just do the math there: 189 and 57, far and above any kind of majority needed to reauthorize this important jobs creation, jobs engine, and I would hope that this body would move forward on reauthorizing this legislation. My district of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, has a very strong manufacturing and industrial base. I believe that we are maybe second in the country that really depends on a strong manufacturing and industrial base for our basic economic activity, and the small manufacturers in Milwaukee utilize the Export-Import Bank to export goods and services to places like China and India. One of the narratives, the untrue narratives about the Export-Import Bank is that it is a utility for big companies like Boeing, it is the Bank of Boeing. Well, not so much. There is an endless supply chain, like the ones that I have visited recently. I just recently went to a shop in Milwaukee that employs 30 people-- 30 people--yet they export U.S. goods to work on the Panama Canal. The president of that company just flat out stated that he doesn't exist without the Export-Import Bank. Folks, it is just that simple. I have heard many debates and arguments about the importance of passing stuff like Keystone, which is debatable as a job creator, and where it does create jobs, it is in a very small geographic area-- whereas the Export-Import Bank creates hundreds of thousands of jobs in all of our districts. Folks, it is just really that simple. The Export-Import Bank is a necessary part of our discussion about creating jobs. Until we get past the political arguments that are being made about hanging the Export-Import Bank out there as low-hanging fruit to demonstrate our willingness to cut off so-called corporate welfare so that we can then get at cutting off entitlement programs to people, until we get past that cynical debate, I don't think that we are going to see very much in the way of improving our job creation performance in the United States.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I was privileged just recently to stand hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder in Selma, Alabama, with 100 Members of Congress, with civil rights leaders, friends of the movement of all races from every State in the United States, with civil rights luminaries such as Mrs. Abernathy, Dorothy Cotton, Amelia Boynton--113 years old--Doris Crenshaw, and, of course, our very own colleague, John Lewis, who helped lead a march for a better life and more equality for all of America. But it was very, very hard to celebrate. There was a very sober mood in the crowd as we realized that the voting rights of Americans, particularly African Americans, were under threat 50 years after the Voting Rights Act was signed. As the President said in his remarks: Right now, in 2015, 50 years after Selma, there are laws across the country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood, so much sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, the Voting Rights Act stands weakened, its future subject to political rancor. As we think of those martyrs like Viola Liuzzo, James Earl Chaney, Andy Goodman, and Michael Schwerner, it is very, very difficult to deal with the reality that States such as the one that I hail from, Wisconsin, is one of the States who has joined the map of shame and passed one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country. In the following years since 2011, Wisconsin has been a battleground in fighting this pernicious law. In 2014, a Federal judge ruled that our voter ID law was unconstitutional and violated section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. It found that 300,000 Wisconsinites lacked the proper ID needed under the law and that the law would have a disparate impact on Blacks and Latinos. Despite that powerful finding, the Federal district court was recklessly overturned by a three-judge panel in the Seventh Circuit. Right before our 2014 election, the United States Supreme Court stepped in and enjoined this law in an emergency stay to prevent them from implementing the voter ID law only 6 weeks before the 2014 election. Recently, members of the Congressional Black Caucus have sent an amicus brief, and I am optimistic that justice will prevail. I know that there have been many African Americans and people of other races who have marched across that Edmund Pettus Bridge. As a woman, I know that the brave suffragettes fought equal treatment for over 70 years while they faced humiliation and shame from society. History has made it so very, very clear that voting rights are so fundamental. The 14th Amendment to the Constitution protects voting rights; the 15th Amendment provided that males, even former slaves and males of any race, could vote; women's suffrage; with the 24th Amendment, poll taxes supposedly were eliminated, and the 26th Amendment allowed 18-year-olds to vote. Of course, we have the Voting Rights Act of 1965. I think it is very, very clear, when you look at the history of this protection, that it is one of the most constitutionally protected rights that there is. I would urge my colleagues here in this body to do more than hold hands and sing, ``We Shall Overcome,'' but to really pass laws to strengthen the Voting Rights Act. We have all heard the adage that history repeats itself, and we have seen a race across the country for Republican legislatures and Governors to pass these voter ID laws, but I think we also have the power to shape our future by drawing from the lessons of the past: our civil rights movement, our march in Selma, where we stood hand in hand, arm in arm, and fought back against this tide of oppression.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues and the over 6,800 Peace Corps volunteers around the globe in commemorating National Peace Corps Week which coincides with the 54th Anniversary of the Peace Corps. Since its beginning in the Kennedy Administration, nearly 220,000 Americans have served in 140 developing nations around the world. These volunteers serve as teachers, health care service providers and educators helping to bring needed care to communities that lack access. Their vision and commitment to bettering the world around them has helped make enduring contributions in agriculture, education, health and HIV/AIDS, youth, and technology in developing countries. Additionally, returned Peace Corps volunteers are the type of leaders we need in all sectors of our society to help face the many challenges in our own country. And as a strong reminder that growing numbers of young Americans want to go and make a difference in this world, in 2014, the Peace Corps received a 22-year high of 17,336 applications. But it is not only young Americans making a difference in the Peace Corps. A growing number of volunteers are over age 50. A total of 5,800 volunteers from my home state of Wisconsin have served in the Peace Corps since its founding, including my distinguished former colleague from Wisconsin, Congressman Tom Petri. On a per capita basis, Wisconsin ranked 9th in the nation in sending Peace Corps Volunteers in 2013 with the University of Wisconsin-Madison among the tops in the nation among large colleges and universities in sending Peace Corps volunteers overseas. Over 200 Wisconsinites are currently serving. I want to personally thank the seven volunteers from my district who are currently serving in the Peace Corps. Caitlin Connolly, Adam Coonen, Sarmeera Hassan, Casimir Korducki, Jodi Lemmer, Daniel Pologe, and Lindsey Powell. From Belize to Zambia, these young people are representing the best of Milwaukee and of America. I am very proud of them. As a representative for the great state of Wisconsin, I strongly support the goals of the Peace Corps and the passion and commitment of its volunteers on behalf of the United States. I am pleased that the President's FY2016 request includes $30 million increase in funding to help increase the number of volunteers serving. As our world continues to struggle with natural disasters, diseases such as Ebola, conflict and instability, fledging transitions to democracy, and poverty and hunger, the Peace Corps will be a vital part of the U.S. diplomatic and development response and a sign of our nation's long term commitment to helping alleviating suffering around the globe. I congratulate the Peace Corps and their volunteers on this momentous occasion. It is an excellent example of the type of program we need to invest in as part of our efforts to promote development, peace, and stability around the globe.

Ms. MOORE

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. MOORE. Mr. Chair, if this is duplicative, then it does no harm. This was offered with an abundance of caution because the formula is being proposed to be changed. So just vote for it. I mean, if it is repetitive or redundant, what is the harm? Please vote for it. Please withdraw your objection. I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. MOORE. I reserve the balance of my time.