Jared Polis

Mr. POLIS

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

Mr. POLIS. When we defeat the previous question, we can send our colleagues back to work with regard to infrastructure and a long-term solution and address an issue that my constituents have been writing me about and that American women and men across the country have been crying out for. Contraception was a tremendous leap forward for women and for the American people. It empowers women to make the reproductive choices that make sense for them and their families. It reduces the number of abortions. It helps ensure that children are planned and well-raised, yet the recent Supreme Court decision throws into jeopardy the availability of contraception as a basic part of comprehensive health care. By defeating the previous question, we can bring to the floor a simple bill that I strongly support that would remedy that and ensure that women have access to contraceptive choices as part of their basic health care and prevent us returning to the pre-contraception era. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' and defeat the previous question, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, may I inquire if the gentleman yielded back?

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, if--or should I say when--we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule that will bring up legislation that will prevent employers from denying common birth control coverage to women, and it will fix the damage that has been done by the recent Hobby Lobby Supreme Court decision. Now more than ever, it is critical to protect everyone's right to health services, including that of basic contraception. To discuss our proposal, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy).

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, with due respect to my colleague from Florida, the gentleman is incorrect. We have stated it and will offer the language on the previous question. So, as long as we can have the votes to defeat the previous question, we will be able to bring to the floor under the procedures of this body a bill that will ensure that women have access to contraception as part of basic health care. That is under the rules of this House--by defeating the previous question now being discussed and that I will offer--and we will be able to move forward on ensuring that women have access to comprehensive birth control. I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Frankel).

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a leader on the issue.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Nevada (Ms. Titus).

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I would like to inquire if the gentleman from Florida has any remaining speakers.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close. I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, this Congress seems committed to kicking the can down the road, avoiding discussions of real solutions, failing to solicit ideas from Members of both sides of the aisle to move our country forward, and just stumbling along. I think we can do better as a Nation, and we need to do better with regard to our Nation's infrastructure. Yes, this bill funds the highway trust fund until next May. That is important; but what happens after May 2015? Is that the magic month where we finally agree that we need to take long-term action to address our Nation's crumbling roads and bridges? This Congress continues to manage self-imposed crisis to self-imposed crisis. That is no way to run a company. It is certainly no way to run a country. As long as we kick the can down the road, we are reducing the certainty that developers and contractors need to plan for the future and increasing costs for taxpayers for supporting our existing infrastructure. We are undercutting opportunities for public-private partnerships because of the lack of stability or even knowing when or if or in what form the highway trust fund will be funded in the future. If we don't act to provide stability to the highway trust fund, we are not only putting our economy at risk, but the safety and well-being of all those who send us here as their representatives. It is not only a competitiveness issue. It is a safety issue for the American people. Madam 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. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts. Madam Speaker, 1998 was the last time the Workforce Investment Act was authorized. I recall I was on the State board of education in Colorado in 2000 and 2006. As the act expired in 2003, they said, Oh, Congress will do it next year. In 2004, they said, Maybe they will do it next year. In 2005, Maybe they will do it next year--well, next year, next year, next year. Well, I am proud to say that thanks to the work of Chairman Kline, Ranking Member Miller, Mr. Tierney, and others, we are finally at the point where we are reauthorizing the Workforce Investment program. I am particularly thrilled to see that many aspects of my Women WIN Jobs program are included in this compromise. Women represent half of our Nation's workforce, yet their vital contributions are too often compensated at lower levels, and this bill will help ensure that women receive training for higher-paying jobs to help them reach pay parity with men. The legislation's references to assisting women and minorities in succeeding in nontraditional careers will help women and minorities participate in higher wage jobs that open the doors of opportunity this country has to offer. It is also great that we recognized the need for adult education, helping many of our new immigrants learn English, so they can live the American Dream. I applaud my colleagues and their staff in both the House and the Senate. I look forward to supporting this bill.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania as well as the gentlewoman from Oregon and the gentleman from Kentucky. I am very pleased to support both this amendment as well as a very similar one along with Representatives Massie, Blumenauer, Bonamici, and Barr, thanking them for their leadership on a very commonsense issue that helps my home State of Colorado. Last year, I was thrilled to be part of a successful effort to pass an amendment to the farm bill that allows colleges like Colorado State University in my district to grow hemp and cultivate hemp for academic and agricultural research purposes. But in no other instance can I think of urgent emails and texts that I have got from farmers where they are in dire straits and need my help in getting the seed they need to grow their crop approved through our own State Department of Agriculture. Our current ag commissioner in Colorado is a former colleague of ours in this body, former Congressman John Salazar, as some of you may recall. He is our ag commissioner. They set up a rule process around industrial hemp farming. But farmers are unable to get the seed they need to be able to grow their legal crop. Industrial hemp is critical for our economy. It is already used in countless products from clothing to a flag that is flown over this very United States Capitol last year to, in fact, some of the very first American flags, which were made of hemp. And yet we are forced to import it from other countries, driving jobs away from American agriculture and farmers to farms overseas. It is really hard to grow industrial hemp when the DEA, without any clear reason, any argument, or any sense throws itself down as a roadblock to success. The DEA recently seized industrial hemp seeds intended for a university research pilot program. It is essential that our institutions of higher education are not prevented from growing or cultivating hemp seed. In addition, hemp, as we know, is an important agricultural commodity and a historic one. We can do a lot better as a country. That is why Representative Bonamici and others are offering this very simple amendment which states that the DOJ and DEA cannot use funds to prevent State agricultural agencies and universities from growing industrial hemp in States where it is always legal. Let us have access to the seed to ensure that we can continue to grow this crop here doing the research we need to ensure that the next great generation of hemp products that are bought and sold in our country are made in America. I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on the Bonamici amendment as well as the Massie amendment. I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania kindly.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. I am happy to further yield to the gentleman from Virginia. How many of those agents would be alive today with their families?

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chair, I would like to know if anybody in this body can answer the question and tell the surviving husband, the surviving wife, a 10-year-old child who lost their father to a failed Federal policy, how many of those agents would be alive today if it were not for the failed Federal policy on prohibition. Does anybody have an answer? I thought that might be the case, Mr. Chair.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chairman, I am pleased to join my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Broun) to offer this bipartisan and commonsense amendment. The underlying CJS appropriations bill provides $2.42 billion for the Drug Enforcement Administration's salaries and expenses. That is $35 million above last year's--fiscal year 2014--enacted level and above the President's budget request. The report says the increase will ``help DEA offset its necessary pay and non-pay base costs'' and will also ``support DEA's growing enforcement workload.'' Again, a mysterious $35 million above and beyond what the agency requested that Congress is adding without any description of where it is even going that means anything besides bureaucratic gobbledygook, as if we have all the money in the world to hand out to every agency above and beyond what they want at a time of deficits, Mr. Chairman, when this body, like the American people, needs to tighten our belts and where we can try to save money. And here is an opportunity to save $35 million. I have noticed that this same $35 million has been targeted by other Members of this body for their project that is important to their district. Why don't we just add it to the deficit reduction account? What has the DEA done to deserve a $35 million raise when many Americans are not getting raises? At a time when agencies across the board are being asked to tighten their belt, why are we singling out the DEA for receiving funds above what the DEA itself requested in the President's budget? The DEA has demonstrated time and time again that it can't efficiently manage the resources that it already has. It is diverting funds to ridiculous things like impounding industrial hemp seeds which have no narcotic content, intimidating legal marijuana businesses in States like mine, and wasting money on marijuana infractions that are legal in States where they occur. If they simply refocus those resources, frankly, Mr. Chairman, we should be talking about cutting their budget to better meet their limited scope. Instead, we are giving them a raise? Although legal under federal law, the DEA recently seized and impounded harmless, non-narcotic industrial hemp seeds in Kentucky. To be clear, industrial hemp is an agricultural commodity, not a drug. Don't they know this? In testimony before a committee of this body, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart refused to acknowledge that drugs like heroin and cocaine are worse or more addictive than marijuana. This is the head of our chief Drug Enforcement Agency? This is the type of thinking that leads to this kind of continued misappropriation of tax dollars. Examples like these demonstrate that the DEA doesn't have a growing enforcement workload--other than in their own minds--but rather the DEA has simply allocated its enforcement workload in pursuit of misguided priorities. When they should be focused on prescription drug abuses, and on the rising heroin problem, they continue to focus on harmless seeds that have no narcotic content to the point of actually impounding them. Is that what they are using this over $35 million more of taxpayer money for? This amendment will ensure that DEA will have to tighten their belt just like agencies from DOD to the Department of Education. They have the money they need to complete their mission. We don't need to increase our deficit to fund misguided and misinformed priorities. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this simple, commonsense amendment that simply strikes $35 million from the DEA's budget, returns the DEA budget to the same funding levels as 2014 and the same funding levels as the President's budget. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Michigan. Mr. Chair, very clearly there are two issues here. Why are we plussing up an agency above their own request level for a vague bureaucratic purpose--that is question number one--when other agencies are being cut? That is what this amendment addressed. However, there has been a lot of discussion on the floor about some of the wasted efforts in DIA. I wanted to address the very moving testimony that my colleague from Virginia gave with regard to names of the brave agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency that have given their lives in service to this Nation. I would like to inquire of him: How many of those whose names he read, who gave their lives, would be alive today, with their families today, if it weren't for the failed Federal policy of prohibition with regard to marijuana? I am happy to yield to the gentleman from Virginia if he has an answer.

Mr. POLIS. I thank the gentleman from Virginia. The DEA folks on the ground in Afghanistan deal with opium and heroin production, not marijuana. My remarks were with regard to marijuana. In addition, with regard to the head of the DEA, she may, in fact, have been a fine line officer and cop on this beat, but she is a terrible agency head, and she has repeatedly embarrassed her agency before this body in committee.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. POLIS. Madam Chair, I am very concerned with regard to the House CJS appropriations bill and the drastic cuts to climate research. The House bill provides for $69 million below the President's request and $37.5 million below the 2014 level. These cuts endanger our economy, our recovery, would harm our understanding of climate change, and will set scientists back years with regard to understanding our climate. Climate research is critical for our economy. It provides us with forecasts beyond 2 weeks, including heat waves, hurricanes, droughts, and tornado predictions. Cutting these functions would negatively impact transportation, agriculture, commerce, and all industries that make important planning decisions based on these long-term forecasts. Cutting this important investment will hurt economic growth and destroy jobs in these critical sectors. Based on climate research information, some examples of how it is used are: a cargo ship can reroute its course to circumvent a storm; a trucker can choose a different road to mitigate delays; or a water manager may restrict types of water use to plan for extended droughts, like we have had in Colorado these last few years. The Second Congressional District of Colorado is home to two world- class universities--the University of Colorado at Boulder and Colorado State University at Fort Collins--in addition to the numerous Federal labs, collaborative institutes, and research institutions. I am proud to represent a community that has deep roots in science, with many scientists among my constituents, providing technology, research, and innovation in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors. Science is an incredibly important driver of economic growth in my district. Federally funded research is a linchpin in helping our country understand and respond to the concerns of climate change, severe storms, drought, and fire risks. We need to invest more in climate research in order to plan for and respond to severe weather events and climate events, reducing damage and increasing economic growth. That is why, for the second year in a row, I was proud to lead an appropriations letter, along with 73 of my colleagues, requesting full funding for the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Science. Climate research is an important part of this program. I urge my colleagues to support climate research and restore critical funding to at least the 2014 levels, and hopefully more, so that we can have the very best science guiding our decisions, provided to companies in commerce, transportation, and agriculture, and employing the very best information that we have with regards to climate science. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Enyart).

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I would like to inquire as to how much time I have remaining.

Mr. POLIS. I would like to inquire of the gentleman from Florida if he has any additional speakers.