Pete Sessions

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 619 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Hastings), my dear friend, pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. General Leave

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's observations. We don't have 4\1/2\ years to work through the process that he talked about. The American people want and need something done right now. I say to the gentleman that he is right, the economy is roaring--and it has been roaring since the day Donald Trump won the election--with an expectation of performance. Why are we doing this now? Why at Thanksgiving? Why at the end of the year? We are going to see that American business, as it makes plans for the future, is going to look up and say: We have got a better shot at keeping jobs here. We have got a better shot at being competitive here. I think what is going to happen is you are going to see this boom, this big opportunity that is already well underway, to continue. But it is up to us to deliver that. It will be one party. It will be those pesky Republicans that will get it done. We are going to get it done, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), a member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), a member of the Rules Committee.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Byrne), a gentleman who participated for hours in the Rules Committee debate last night and is one of our most valuable young Members.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, what a delight it is for me to stand up and say that, the work we are going to do today, the President of the United States will sign. He is encouraging what we are doing today. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter of support from the National Federation of Independent Business--that is ``The Voice of Small Business'' in America--and also what is called a Statement of Administration Policy from the Executive Office of the President of the United States. National Federation of Independent Business, Washington, DC, November 14, 2017. Dear Representative: On behalf of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation's leading small business advocacy organization, I am writing in support of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This legislation will provide much needed tax relief to America's job-creating small businesses. H.R. 1 will be considered an NFIB Key Vote for the 115th Congress. Small business is the engine of the economy, and tax reform should provide substantial relief to all small businesses so they can reinvest their money, grow, and create jobs. Ninety- nine percent of all American businesses are small businesses; the average NFIB member has just 10 employees. Taken in sum, however, small businesses create half of all private-sector jobs in the U.S. and contribute half the nation's gross domestic product. Three-quarters of small employers are structured as pass- through entities, meaning their owners are taxed at the individual rate as opposed to the corporate rate. Crucially, H.R. 1 reduces the tax rate on the smallest pass-through businesses to 9 percent over five years, without industry exclusions or restrictions. NFIB supports passage of H.R. 1 and will consider it an NFIB Key Vote for the 115th Congress. Thank you for your consideration. We look forward to working with you to protect small business. Sincerely, Juanita D. Duggan, President & CEO, NFIB. Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 1--Tax Cuts and Jobs Act--Rep. Brady, R-TX, and 24 cosponsors The Administration strongly supports House passage of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Passing the bill is an important first step in achieving comprehensive tax reform that cuts taxes for hard- working families and puts the Nation's economy on a path of higher economic growth. The President's priorities for tax reform have been consistent from day one: (1) cut taxes for middle-income families; (2) simplify the Nation's complicated tax system; and (3) reduce business taxes so that American employers can create jobs, raise wages for their workers, and better compete with foreign businesses. H.R. 1 would deliver meaningful tax cuts for middle-income families by nearly doubling the standard deduction, lowering tax rates, increasing the child tax credit, and creating a new Family Flexibility credit. It would simplify tax filing so that the large majority of Americans could file their taxes on a single page. The bill would also cut the corporate tax rate to 20 percent--below the average tax rate in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Finally, H.R. 1 would lower taxes for millions of S corporations, sole proprietors, and partnerships that pay taxes at individual rates. Based on a review of more than 100 academic papers, the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) estimates that the corporate provisions in H.R. 1 would grow the economy by between 3 and 5 percent over the next 10 years, which if applied to 2027 Gross Domestic Product projections, would result in an additional $700 billion to $1.2 trillion in economic output per year. CEA also found that the same provisions would increase average household income by at least $4,000 annually. If H.R. 1 were presented to the President, his advisors would recommend that he sign the bill into law.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, the President's priorities and tax reforms are consistent and have been from day one. Tax cuts for middle class families, simplifying the Nation's complicated tax system, and reducing the burden of taxes so that American employers can create jobs, raise wages, and better compete with foreign businesses, that is what we are going to do. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I am waiting for a speaker, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

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

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

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

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Rothfus), a gentleman who serves on the Financial Services Committee and a distinguished young Member of our majority.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelly), from the Ways and Means Committee. At this time, we are putting the A-team up.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentleman.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time until the gentleman has closed.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, the gentleman from Florida, Judge Hastings, for his exemplary work and the work of his colleagues on the Rules Committee and my colleagues also on the Republican side. Mr. Speaker, our previous speaker, the gentleman from Butler, Pennsylvania, Mike Kelly, had it best when he said: `` . . . an economy hampered by restrictive tax rates will never produce enough revenue to balance our budget, just as it will never produce enough jobs or enough profits. Only full employment can balance the budget, and tax reduction can pave the way to that employment.'' What he did not say is--that will be in the record--is that John F. Kennedy said this on December 14, 1962, 55 years ago, in an address to the Economic Club of New York. Mr. Speaker, in fact, there have been a lot of people here who have given testimony, I think testimony that they intended to sway the voters and those listening in this country that the Tax Code that we have works just fine, but then they spoke about the frailties of that and they talked about jobs going offshore, they talked about jobs and economic activity going somewhere else. I, being from Dallas, Texas, hear stories every day about people who are coming to Texas, coming to north Texas, coming because of the economic climate that will allow them and their companies to have a better shot at not only being competitive, but, as Mike Kelly said, to be winners in this economy, at the very top of the heap rather than at the bottom of the heap. What this common denominator is, is that my State of Texas does do the things that this bill does also. It keeps taxes low, it creates opportunity. By the way, how many poor people create jobs? I don't know. How many of those who really have incentive and entrepreneurship create jobs? A ton of them. We are going to grow entrepreneurs out of today. We are going to grow young people getting out of college, veterans leaving the military coming back and seeing where they can make a go of it. Instead of it being a 95 percent failure rate of new business--which is what it is, it is a heavy bar because of rules, regulations, and taxes--we are going to make it easier. The White House Council of Economic Advisers based their review, as they provided the economic outlook to us, on more than 100 academic papers, estimates that corporate provisions in this tax bill alone will grow our economy, not leave us in 23rd place, as Mike Kelly said. Who wants to be in 23rd place? If you want to be in the top 25 and you are comfortable, sorry. We want to be at the top. We want to Make America Great Again. We want to be able to say that businesses all over the United States stand a chance, and that is what this does. The Council of Economic Advisers says that this will grow the economy between 3 and 5 percent. Whoops. They got comfortable with 1.2 over 8 years. I am not comfortable and the American people aren't comfortable either. We are going to add some $700 billion to the economy this next 10 years. That is the guess, that is what Republicans want to do, but it is based on a lot of factors, it is based on hard work. America has the best, most innovative workers in the world. We want to put this together with an opportunity, because we have a great place to be: the United States of America, any of our States. We have the best energy policies in the world and we have the best price. We have the best workers. We have tool kits with our universities. Our industry will grow back and reinvest in themselves. We are going to take our Tax Code and take what is $5.6 trillion worth of tax areas and move that where it will boost our economy. We will become pro growth again. Yes, we heard that it was John F. Kennedy, it was Ronald Reagan, and it is going to be making America great again. Mr. Speaker, for that reason, I urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying legislation in order to boost middle class Americans.

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a poem, on behalf of Albert Carey Caswell, to honor the men and women and families of The Armed Forces, for their selfless service to our Nation on this upcoming Veteran's Day. And over the many years All in our Nation clear, Has been one constant here The men and women of The Armed Forces who hold our Nation dear Whose valor, honor, courage, faith, selflessness, and sacrifice perseveres While, in the darkest of days of night they all stood without fear Who at a moment's notice into the face of hell would so appear, All so we can all he here This Veteran's Day stand for something, because they stood for you The ones who fought and bled for all that's true And stand for that old Red, White, and Blue All in what they would do Ready to die for their brothers and sisters in arms to their left and right so true And remember what all of their families must go through On this Veteran's Day, please remember our Nation's real who's who Stand for something because they stand for you When, in the darkness of war comes into view Teaching us all how men and women of honor behave so true Who came home without arms, legs, and scars upon their face But, for the greater good they gave Stand, Stand for something noble, Because they all stood so you can live the American Dream While, over the generations so rose to the top America's Dream Honor all those who fight the fight, Who today still stand at the ready on this very night, Who turn the dark into the light Stand, for those on the battlefields of honor who watched their Brothers and Sisters die, And had to bury them all with tears in their eyes, Stand, on this Veteran's Day and every day, For The Armed Forces, their families, and the ones who gave Stand, because where would we all be? If it were but not for the likes of all of these who stood for you and me Stand, because freedom is not free But, only bought and paid for by all of he defenders of the free Stand, because they live and they die for you, They bleed and they cry for you All so you can turn your back on them, And they don't ask you how you caught your disease Stand for our Veteran's on this Veteran's Day and everyday For what they give and gave Because, it's all they ask.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call on the Department of Justice to impose a moratorium on its practice of using the False Claims Act to demand settlements from America's mortgage brokers for perceived violations in the loans these lenders made under the Federal Housing Authority's mortgage insurance program. Simply put, intentional efforts to defraud the Federal Government should be prosecuted and pursued to the fullest extent of the law. However, as the FHA has worked to provide further clarification on the law, the Department of Justice has, unfortunately, focused their efforts on attacking honest mortgage brokers, lenders, and first-time home buyers for infractions as small as a clerical error or a small technical mistake. The FHA, in conjunction with HUD, is close to finalizing a taxonomy that would allow for a specific and transparent penalty to be imposed for a specific violation of the FHA application loan process. But as Brian Montgomery, the nominee to be Assistant Secretary for Housing, told the Senate Banking Committee last week, the Department of Justice has stepped in front of the FHA. We should correct this circumstance.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I first want to say, ladies and gentlemen who are here, thank you for being here. I am from Dallas, Texas, and I stand in sorrow for my fellow Texans and the country, for those from Sutherland Springs, Texas, outside of San Antonio, who suffered the mass shooting of this weekend. Mr. Speaker, I rise today also to highlight an issue that is impacting first-time home buyers in America. Over the past 8 years, the Department of Justice has penalized many mortgage lenders who participated in the Federal Housing Administration's mortgage insurance program, a program that provides access to mortgages for some of America's first-time home buyers. Unfortunately, the Department of Justice still continues, even today, to use the False Claims Act to impose penalties on mortgage lenders, many of whom were guilty of only material deficiencies in the loan applications, minor issues that, years later, people came back and tried to find a mistake so that they could pin the tail, pin a fine on some mortgage lender. My colleagues and I have objected to these actions by the Department of Justice because many of the shortcomings in these loan applications were never intended as efforts to defraud anyone, but merely technical oversights, perhaps facts that might have not been completely known at the time of the loan application. Many long-time mortgage lenders have exited this program because they cannot risk opening themselves to the penalties that have been imposed, I think, unwisely, by the Department of Justice for mere technical shortcomings of these loans. So I have been a part of Members who are asking the Department of Justice to impose a moratorium to review what they are doing on the use of the False Claims Act to pursue such violations until the FHA can complete its own taxonomy, which is a set of standards that would impose penalties commensurate with the severity of the offense. Mr. Speaker, I, once again, would ask the American people for their express blessings upon those who gave their life this weekend in Texas.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I really appreciate the distinguished gentleman from Lewisville, Texas, Dr. Michael Burgess, who serves several roles in this House of Representatives. First of all, he is chairman of the Subcommittee on Health for the Energy and Commerce Committee--actually, his favorite committee--and then his duties at the Rules Committee, and Mike has spent a good number of years in service to the entire body. I want to thank Dr. Burgess for his personally handling not only this matter, but bringing to Congress a really strong attitude that he has about children. Dr. Burgess, for a number of years since his early days in Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, as a resident and then becoming an obstetrician-gynecologist who served not only the Dallas area, thousands of people, but he brought to that a love of children, women, and families to give precious life to the United States of America, I want to thank him for his healthy child bill that he brought to the Energy and Commerce Committee. Mr. Speaker, let me say this. The gentlewoman from New York, the ranking member of the Rules Committee, and the entire committee yesterday spent a great deal of time not only looking at this particular bill, but other very germane issues related to healthcare. My colleagues, including the gentlewoman from New York, really have the best heart in this. I believe this is an issue where we agree. We agree that children's health is not only an important part of what Congress should be involved in but, actually, resolving the issues. She is very correct. Several weeks ago it was brought up in the Rules Committee the timeliness of this issue, the appropriateness of the Rules Committee handling this bill to get it to the floor so that we would allow not only the American people to understand what we were doing, but, really, to put it in play so that this could be handled by the United States Senate and the President. I want to congratulate my colleagues. I think that my colleagues, to a person, understand the importance of this--and certainly Mike Burgess' leadership at Energy and Commerce Committee--but also the Rules Committee. So reauthorizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, as it is known, is vitally important. It is important because there are some 400,000 children in Texas, alone, where Chairman Burgess and I live. We see not only families, but we see the healthcare community. We see other elected officials and just normal people at home who expect us to get our work done. We are today. In fact, we are not only getting it done, but, as Chairman Burgess has talked about and even as the gentlewoman, Ms. Slaughter, has talked about, there will be States at the end of November that will be running on fumes, be running on empty, and a good number of States are funded until probably February or March. But that is not a reason for us to delay. So we are here, respectfully, to ask the entire body, Republicans and Democrats, and also to let the American people know that the Children's Health Insurance Program, through the efforts of Mike Burgess and through the efforts of Greg Walden as chairman of the committee, who have worked very diligently to make sure that it not only comes to the floor, but that the new nuances of the bill that will include many, many good bipartisan ideas will be offset, and it will be offset. We are going to have to make sure as we move forward that those are careful instructions that we all understand. But the bottom line to this is, Mr. Speaker, this Congress, because of the bipartisanship, because of the ability, because of the importance of CHIP, is handling this today. We are going to ask all Members if they did not have a chance to see what I thought was a robust, distinguished panel that came to us yesterday to talk about this, but also the thoughtful ideas from our Members about the importance of this, I think we can convince this body--this body, Republicans and Democrats--that the underlying legislation helps secure for 5 more years--which is what the goal was, 5 more years--to make sure that we can move forward; and it gives States the authority and the responsibility, gives the American people confidence that what we are doing to take care of this issue has not only been done, but presented in such a way that it will be successful. That is our job, Mr. Speaker. Our job is to take the work that comes from the committee of jurisdiction--in this case, the Energy and Commerce Committee--and move that through, look at it, vet it, and make sure the best ideas happen. I am pleased and proud to be here today.

Mr. SESSIONS

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, in honor of Veterans Day, I rise today to recognize three World War II veterans who have honorably and faithfully served their country. Milledge A. ``Mitch'' Hart, III, graduate of the US Naval Academy Class of 1956, served for 5 years in the U.S. Marine Corps. His final rank was 1st Lieutenant, selected for Captain, USMC. William ``Bill'' James Sloan, graduate of SMU Class of 1949, served in the U.S. Navy from October 1942 to May 1946. Raymond Earl Sloan, graduate of SMU Class of 1949, served in the US Army from 1944 to 1946. These gentlemen served with honor and distinction and I thank them for their service.