Hal Rogers

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, we have heard from the other side of the aisle on all of these bills that attempt to reopen many aspects of the Federal Government. We hear them say, well, I am in favor of that program, but I want to vote against it until they bring the entire government funding bill before us. I would love to do that. I would love to bring the entire budget here. In fact, we did, and we can't get the Senate to act on it. But in the meantime, the other side is saying, I will vote against this because I want to save and vote for the entire Federal Government. That may work in some of the agencies, but this is safety. This is the safety of people flying the skies of this country and the world. You don't want to delay safety until you can vote on a bigger bill. I think it is irresponsible not to support the safety of our people in the skies. This bill provides funding to resume operations within FAA that are critical to the safety of our skies and our aircraft fleet. It would bring back 7,000 aviation safety inspectors currently not working, restart aircraft certification activities, resume training for air traffic controllers, reopen the aircraft registry service, and continue air traffic control modernization. Mr. Speaker, you don't want to mess around with the safety of our people. This bill cures that problem. I can't imagine anyone wanting to oppose this bill. The sum total of these efforts will help guarantee safe, efficient, and reliable air travel for the American public. This funding is provided at an annual rate of $12 billion and will last until December 15, or until the Congress enacts and the President signs full-year appropriations bills. The language in this bill is yet again nearly identical to what was included in the CR I offered back in September--nearly a month ago. Once again, we are calling on the Senate to consider and pass this bill. Our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol continue to call for a clean CR; yet they continue to act on these ``clean'' mini-CRs. The House has put forward a plethora of options to fund the Federal Government: first, the four annual appropriations bills to fund the government in regular order; then three different continuing resolutions prior to September 30; and now the short-term CRs to reopen parts of the Federal Government--in fact, more than a third of it so far. But the Senate is committed to inaction. They didn't pass any regular appropriations bills; they will not pass our clean, short-term funding bills; and they so far have refused to join us at the negotiating table. Mr. Speaker, that completely puzzles me. It goes against the grain of what has gone on in this country since we have been a country. When the two bodies differ, the Founding Fathers said, if you can't agree, appoint conference members from either body--both bodies--and let them go out and recommend a solution to the problem. It has always worked, except now the Senate refuses to do their duty. I hope they will consider this bill as a steppingstone toward ending the shutdown. We need to come together in a productive way with open ears and open minds to find a way to clean up this mess. I urge my colleagues to preserve the safety of American skies. Vote for this bill.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill, the Honoring the Families of Fallen Soldiers Act. This bill, as has been said, will ensure that the families of U.S. military members who have given the ultimate sacrifice will receive the benefits they were promised in spite of this unfortunate government shutdown. The House has voted to take care of our warfighters by ensuring that they will be paid during the fiscal crisis, but our responsibility to our soldiers doesn't end there by any means. As they put their lives on the line on behalf of this Nation, our brave soldiers shouldn't be concerned about who will take care of their families. That's part of our Nation's agreement with our men and women in uniform: You take care of the United States, and we will take care of you and your beloved family. To this end, the bill allows continued funding to guarantee that the government honors its commitments to our military families without delay. It allows funding to provide a death gratuity to families of fallen soldiers. This is a lump payment to assist them in one of their greatest times of need. The bill also allows for the customary financial assistance for funeral costs, family travel and housing, back salary payments, and living expenses. It's certainly the least we can do for those who make the ultimate sacrifice for our country. The reality is we are a Nation at war. Wars don't stop just because our government is not functioning properly, nor do our obligations to our soldiers get put on pause while we work to clean things up. To the families who have lost a son, a daughter, a sister, a brother, a husband, or a wife to war, this bill is our commitment to you that you should not have to suffer even more heartache after such a significant loss. This legislation is the right thing to do. It should be passed without delay. I urge a ``yes'' vote.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I am really puzzled. We hear speaker after speaker on the other side tell us how committed they are to these poor children in the Head Start program, and yet here's the chance, Mr. Speaker, to continue this program. Yes, it does not include the entire government, but are we going to hold hostage these kids from poor families who are desperate for this program. Are we going to hold them hostage, or are we going to go ahead and approve this short-term funding for the Head Start program? If you believe in Head Start, it seems to me you would stand in the well and say: I support this bill because it continues the Head Start program. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Terry).

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I am prepared to close.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I can't believe what I just heard. The gentlelady was describing the importance of the Head Start program in glowing terms, and yet she turns around and tells us she's going to vote against funding for the Head Start program. That's a puzzle to me. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Yoder), a member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Mrs. Miller), who is the chair of the House Administration Committee.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I reserve a point of order on the gentlelady's motion.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 371, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 84) making continuing appropriations for Head Start for fiscal year 2014, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.J. Res. 84, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, we have heard here today what we have heard in the last several days from the other side--that they will not vote for any of these individual bills because we are not bringing the entire continuing resolution before the House. But let me point out: with this bill--the 10th in this series that we brought out in a so-called piecemeal fashion--it will take us to about a third of the CR, the original continuing resolution. So we are passing the continuing resolution one piece at a time, but nevertheless we are passing a continuing resolution. To say that I am not going to vote for this bill because you don't have all of the bills before us doesn't have much logic to it. It means that every bill that comes before the House could be argued the same way: I won't vote for that bill because it doesn't fund whatever or enact whatever piece of legislation that is waiting in the wings. Now, Mr. Speaker, this is about Head Start. It is not about health care; it is not about procedure; it is not about whether or not this is piecemeal or full, or what have you. It is about Head Start. If you believe in the Head Start program and the hundreds of thousands of young children in this country--and families--that are depending on this program, it seems to me you would lay everything else aside and vote for that program, which I am asking our Members to do as I close. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today to present H.J. Res. 84, the Head Start for Low-Income Children Act. This bill provides Federal funding at the current, post- sequester rate for the Head Start program, which millions of children across the country rely on to fulfill their educational and health needs. As we work our way out of this government shutdown mess, we shouldn't let some of our most vulnerable citizens--low-income children with no recourse--suffer. In my home State of Kentucky, 20,715 kids rely on Head Start to provide a helping hand. If we don't do anything about this today, 2,800 kids in Kentucky will lose access to Head Start programs starting November 1. This bill provides funding for Head Start at an annual rate of $7.586 billion. This funding will help reopen the doors to the more than 1,600 Head Start programs across the country. As before, the funding will last until December 15 or until we enact full-year appropriations. This is another step the House is taking to alleviate the burden of this current fiscal dilemma and move us closer to ending the government shutdown. The nine bills the House has passed since October 1 to reopen the government--this will be the 10th--constitute nearly one-third of the Federal Government's discretionary budget. These 10 bills fund very critical programs, cleanly, as the Senate has demanded, and have been supported on a bipartisan basis in this House. So why are these bills still sitting on Harry Reid's desk? Why is the Senate not making every stride it can to help our Nation's disadvantaged children, hungry families, and our veterans? This method of funding the government is not my preferred way, Mr. Speaker, nor is it the standard, but while we work to find an end to the shutdown, we should fund those programs we can as soon as we can. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate will take this opportunity to meet us at the negotiating table. We've got a great deal to work out, but this can't be done if we are not willing to talk and listen to each other. It is the time-honored way, Mr. Speaker. When the two bodies disagree on something, each body passes a bill, and we send it to conference with the other body. That's what should be done here. In fact, this body, several days ago now, appointed conferees on this topic and sent it over to the Senate, only to be met by a loud snore. So, Mr. Speaker, I want us to get together and talk about ending this shutdown. Though I wish we were able to end the shutdown in its entirety, this bill will at least reopen one indispensable government program and lessen the toll that the shutdown is taking on the American people. This Congress is facing a great deal of difficult choices in the near future, but taking care of our children should be a top priority. I urge my colleagues to support the bill. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I make a point of order that the instructions contained in the motion violate clause 7 of rule XVI which requires that an amendment be germane to the bill under consideration. As the Chair recently ruled on October 2, 3, 4, and 7, 2013, the instructions contain a special order of business within the jurisdiction of the Committee on Rules, and, therefore, the amendment is not germane to the underlying bill. Mr. Speaker, I insist on my point of order.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I move to lay the appeal on the table.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this legislation. This bill addresses a critical issue facing the Congress right now. It ensures that the essential personnel who've been working throughout this shutdown receive their hard-earned pay on time. These diligent men and women are protecting our homeland; they're ensuring our safety and well-being; they're providing critical services for our people and shielding our economy. They've been by our sides as we have worked to find a way out of the mess that we find ourselves in. They've been guarding this very building, putting themselves in harm's way. It's our responsibility to these dedicated professionals that they receive due compensation for their service to this Nation. In addition, the House will consider a second piece of legislation this afternoon which will be combined with this bill and sent to the Senate. The second bill will provide a path forward to bring all parties to the table to end the government shutdown. For a week, this House has been toiling, working, trying to find a way to end the impasse or at least mitigate its effects as we work toward a solution to this very serious problem. We've provided bills that would fund the entire government and avenues to reopening certain critical government functions. We even proposed a conference committee, hoping the Senate would finally agree to talk to the House. We heard nothing. But a week later, we're still no closer to a resolution. The Senate has turned down nearly every bill we've sent them and rejected every compromise we've offered. They've flatly refused a conference committee to attempt to find some sort of solution. After 8 days of a shutdown, it's high time that we all start having real, adult conversations about how to get out of this mess. This second bill will establish a working group, Madam Speaker, that will provide a framework to get the House and Senate together to hash out our differences on the myriad fiscal crises that we are currently facing. If enacted, it will require, by law, Members from both Houses to meet and work our way toward a final agreement. There is far too much at stake now to be stuck in our ways. We must work together in a productive fashion if we wish to get anything accomplished. It's imperative that we get our fiscal house in order and put our budgets on an attainable and sustainable path. We must have a common, agreed-upon, top-line discretionary spending level with the Senate, which will allow our annual appropriations work to be completed this year. To do this, we must enact meaningful, commonsense entitlement program reforms that will slow the monstrous growth of these auto-pilot programs. We need to ensure that they're sustainable in the future-- stop them from devouring the entirety of our Federal budgets--including funding for our domestic programs and our national defense, and prevent them from plunging our Nation further into debt. I believe that the Members of this House and of the Senate are reasonable people, people of goodwill, people who wish to do right by this country. That's why I hope that this House will approve both of these bills today. This is the right thing to do, to help find an end to this government shutdown, to tackle our spending problems and our debt limit, and to show the people of the United States that we are here to legislate, not to pontificate. They expect and deserve no less. So I urge my colleagues to support this bill and this path forward. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, this bill makes sure that, even during this shutdown, the Food and Drug Administration's critical safeguards remain in place to protect our food and drug supply. The health of our people should not be jeopardized. This legislation provides funding for the FDA at the current post-sequestration annual rate of $2.3 billion. This will provide funding to maintain protections for food, drugs, and medical devices, and allow the FDA to collect and spend user fees. The length of this authority will last until December 15 or until we enact year-long appropriations that address the funding of the Federal Government in full. As with each of the other individual bills we have considered this week, the language in H.J. Res. 77 is nearly identical to what was included in my clean continuing resolution filed back in September. This bill moves us a step closer to the finish line, but we've got to remember that we can get there much faster if we find a way to fund the entire Federal Government. This will require cooperation and conversation from both the Senate and the House. This will be the ninth bill the House has sent to the Senate to reopen the Federal Government. The ninth bill, Mr. Speaker. The House has voted to provide nearly one-third of the funding to reopen the government; but, unfortunately, the Senate won't even consider these bills, and so the government is still shut down. Our colleagues in the Senate say they want a clean CR, but when we've sent them these bills-- pieces of a clean CR with clean funding mechanisms, nonetheless--they won't even bring them up for a vote. This is not my first choice of how to fund the Federal Government. My preference would be to have passed full-year appropriations bills for all the government before September 30. The House made great strides toward that goal with our committee approving nearly all of our annual bills and with the full House passing four of them, yet the Senate would not even pass a single bill off the floor of the Senate. But I still hope and believe that we can find a path forward. It will require both parties, both bodies, to find ways we can work together to end this shutdown. As we work toward that end, we can pass this bill to ensure that nearly all of the Federal Government's food safety activities are funded during the shutdown. I urge support of the bill.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I thank the chairman for yielding me the time. Mr. Speaker, this is a bipartisan bill, and I hope every Member in this House will be happy to support it. I'm glad to see that, at the very least, the Senate has plans to take up this bill. Stop the presses. The Senate's going to take up a bill, even if they won't consider most of our other bills. And as we wait for the Senate to come to the negotiating table on shutting the shutdown down, our Federal workforce should not wait to find out whether or not they'll be paid. This bill will provide backpay for those workers who have been furloughed in a fair, full, and timely manner after the shutdown ends. The House has made great strides toward this end. And in fact, as of yesterday, the House has approved 15 different options to fund the government. We have sent them over to the Senate. Sadly, the only response has been a loud snore. I hope this bill, which I know is a priority for my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, will encourage this Congress to find that spirit of bipartisanship that seems to have evaporated over the last few weeks. It will demonstrate that we are able to let level heads prevail and that we can unite in our responsibility to care for the hundreds of thousands of people who serve this Nation day in, day out. I want to thank the gentlemen from Virginia, Messrs. Wolf and Moran, two very fine members of our Appropriations Committee, for bringing this bill to the floor, and I salute them. I urge my colleagues to provide our workforce with some certainty for their futures and pass this bill.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. This House passed four of those regular bills this year. Unfortunately, our colleagues on the other side of the Capitol passed none. For all of their talk on the other side of the Capitol about returning to regular order, it seems the Senate has made very little action to achieve that goal. We're in this mess today in part because of that. But passing this bill will help us get out of it. So I urge my colleagues to support an end to this shutdown with this WIC program, support this bill, and pass it today.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding me this time. Madam Speaker, I rise in full support of H.J. Res. 75. This bill ensures that the nearly 8.7 million women, infants, and children who rely on the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children will continue to receive critical nutrition assistance without interruption. This bill provides funding for WIC at the fiscal year 2013 post- sequester rate of $6.5 billion until December 15, or until we can enact full-year appropriations legislation. That is the ultimate goal of this bill, Madam Speaker, to move us closer to ending this government shutdown by providing regular appropriations for all government programs. To achieve that, we've got to have an adult conversation about what this might entail and how we can get there. And I've got a great suggestion, Madam Speaker. Monday night, the House passed an amendment to the CR over to the Senate and asked for a conference with the Senate. Then the Speaker named House conferees. Now the normal traditions of this body, as all of us know, is that when the House and the Senate pass differing versions of the same bill, how do we resolve the difference? Well, we appoint conferees. We have some House Members and some Senate Members that are selected by their respective leaders. And they go up, and they argue and debate and amend. And they come up with an agreement that they then bring back to each body for approval, and that becomes the law. That procedure is in play right now. I mean, the House has appointed conferees. We've got a table arranged downstairs for the Senators to join us in resolving the shutdown. And what does the Senate do? What do we hear from the Senate? A big loud snore, that they're not willing to come to the table and talk. Just talk. We may not be able to agree. But we can talk and try to work it out for the American people. And as we work this out, we've got to be sure that our most vulnerable citizens don't fall victim to politics. This bill will take care of those who count on WIC to meet their nutritional needs--our women, our infants, our children. Because this language was essentially included in my original initial clean continuing resolution, I endorse it today. This House, I think, should support it today. But our colleagues in the Senate should also support it. This would be the seventh bill we've sent them to help reopen the Federal Government in the last 3 days. The seventh bill. We've heard nothing from them. Altogether, these bills provide nearly a third of the discretionary funding that's needed to operate the entire Federal Government. So in the last 3 days, we've passed bills to fund a third of the government. The Senate keeps demanding from us, and yet they won't vote on these bills that would be a part of that clean CR. The math just doesn't add up, Madam Speaker. Though this piecemeal funding approach is not my preferred mechanism to move forward, it does move us incrementally forward. I would rather we fund the government with regular appropriations bills, so-called regular order.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Reclaiming my time, that's the way we've done it for 200 years or so, and that is, when we disagree with the other body, we each appoint our conferees. The conferees go off and haggle and amend and argue and debate until there's some agreement that can be brought back to each Chamber, which then can reject or accept that conference report. The House has acted. We're waiting on the Senate to appoint their conferees so that we can go off and work, 24 hours a day, if necessary, to come to an agreement, which we can do. And I would urge the other body to honor the age-old tradition in the Congress. When you disagree with the other body, you appoint conferees to work out the differences, bring it back to each body, and I would hope that the Senate would do that.