Mary Scanlon

Ms. SCANLON

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

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, as well, and I yield myself the balance of my time. With the rule we consider today, the Republican majority ends a failed year in the choke hold of its most extreme members. They are finishing out 2023 as they started: unproductive, ineffective, and unconcerned for the American people. They have ignored the real problems facing our Nation today, issues like the gun violence crisis, ongoing threats to Americans' fundamental freedoms, access to economic opportunity and good-paying jobs, and threats to our national security. They have filled this Chamber with culture wars and conspiracies and pushed policies that would hurt our children, families, students, seniors, members of the Armed Forces, and workers. They have turned their backs on our allies: democracies standing in the breach against forces that pose serious threats to our own national security. They have wasted days, weeks, and months with cheap political stunts all to the detriment and on the dime of our constituents. Congress is supposed to work for the people, and this is not what the people sent us here to do. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to put people over politics and to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak on the portion of this rule which would once again throw our student loan system into crisis. Congress' failure to address the student debt crisis has left American borrowers with over $1.6 trillion in student loans, and Pennsylvania borrowers hold some of the highest student debt in the Nation. This crippling burden is preventing generations of Americans from taking public service jobs, from buying homes and cars, and from fully participating in our economy. The resolution we are considering today does nothing to solve the student loan crisis. It would undermine the income-based repayment program authorized by Congress years ago and will create more chaos and confusion for student loan borrowers. Nearly 5.5 million borrowers across the country have enrolled in the SAVE plan in just the past 3 months. In my district alone, 13,700 people have signed up in anticipation of an average relief of $1,200 a year. If this resolution were to pass, millions of borrowers enrolled in this program will be left in limbo again, unsure how they can meet their student loan obligations and keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. Instead of shooting down every attempt to address this crisis, Congress must take action to provide comprehensive, long-term solutions to make higher education more affordable and simplify the repayment process for student loan borrowers. Mr. Speaker, I oppose this rule.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, while gun deaths in the United States far outpace those of other countries and now are the leading cause of death among children under 18, recent CDC data shows a glimmer of hope: Gun homicides are down slightly from 2021. We have seen this reduction in places like Philadelphia and Chester as a host of community violence prevention programs, funded by the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, take hold. Tragically, the data also shows gun suicides reached a record high last year with nearly 27,000 people across the United States dying from gun suicide. More than half of gun deaths in Pennsylvania alone were from suicides last year. We have ways to reduce gun suicide in this country, red flag laws, safe storage, and waiting periods, all of which have been proven to reduce gun suicide, but the NRA and extremist Republicans continue to block these commonsense constitutional measures which can save lives. When we speak about gun violence, we often say there are solutions, research-based solutions. We don't have to live this way. Today, I will add that in the case of gun suicide, we should also be mindful that people don't have to die this way. By creating legal space between a person in crisis and access to a firearm, more people will live and more families will be spared the immeasurable pain of losing a loved one. We need Congressional action now. Election Misinformation Continues

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, election misinformation continues to plague our country as leaders who know better repeat or fail to contradict baseless conspiracy theories and lies about the integrity of our elections. Not only do these lies and conspiracy theories undermine public faith in our democracy and elections, they cost taxpayer dollars. Since the 2020 election, in the county where I live, we have seen multiple baseless lawsuits filed seeking to overturn or audit election results. None of them have produced evidence of misconduct or inaccurate results. What they have done is cost taxpayer dollars in legal fees, court resources, and time and effort by county employees and election officials that have to be diverted to defending these groundless suits. I am proud of the professional administrators and volunteers who work so diligently every election to safeguard our democracy and make it work, but it is also important that leaders from across the political spectrum step up and stand up for our democratic processes and call out those who are trying to undermine them, as well as call out those who are wasting taxpayer dollars.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to join my Sikh friends in Pennsylvania and around the world to recognize the 39th anniversary of November 1984 anti-Sikh violence in India. November 1984 marks one of the darkest chapters in modern Sikh history. Sikhism traces its nearly 600 years of history to the Punjab region of India. The Sikh community has a rich history in our country, with emigration dating back 100 years. With nearly 30 million followers globally and a thriving community here in the United States, Sikhism is one of the world's major religions. Today we are here to remember the violence which occurred in November 1984, after the assassination of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in the capital territory of Delhi and most major cities of India. These killings lasted for days, and it is estimated that thousands of Sikh men, women, and children were brutally murdered in their homes and on the streets. Mr. Speaker, as a proud co-chair of the Congressional Sikh Caucus, remembering this heartbreaking violence that targeted Sikhs across India in 1984 is an important and historic step towards justice, accountability, and reconciliation and to prevent future such occurrences.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. For the past 6 months, the Republican majority, embroiled in chaos and dysfunction, has wasted valuable time. Because they are unable to perform the most basic job of Congress, working with Representatives from both parties and across the country to fund the government, they have brought us to the brink of a shutdown twice in the last 2 months. Before that, they threatened to tank the global economy, and if their proposals pass this week, we will likely face new shutdown threats again in the new year. This isn't serious governance. It is not serious or governance at all. They are playing politics with Americans' lives and our country's future. It is outrageous that my constituents are yet again subjected to the uncertainty and fear that their paychecks won't come next week and that services they rely upon, like LIHEAP and WIC, will be interrupted. House Republicans still refuse to come to the table where the majority of the American people are and work with us in a bipartisan way to pass the spending bills that Americans expect and deserve. The Senate is doing it. Why can't the House? Instead, House Republicans continue to try to force the entire country to go along with their farcical and extremist approach to government funding. Unsurprisingly, they continue to fail, over and over again, on the House floor. Their proposals are so extreme that Members of their own party won't even vote for them. The MAGA majority may have new leadership, but it is the same old story. They plan to kick the government funding can down the road, once again, so they can try to pass all 12 spending bills, which are now 2 months overdue, that cater to the most extreme and noisy fringe of the MAGA party. These are bills that reject any bipartisan input, bills that contain harmful spending cuts that violate the Fiscal Responsibility Act's spending levels that were approved on a bipartisan basis and signed into law last spring, and these bills include poison pill policy riders to enshrine MAGA culture wars into law and force these extremist views upon every American. There is no clearer example of that than the unacceptable spending bill they have brought to the House floor today. The Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill is supposed to help Americans access education, jobs, and healthcare. These are the foundations of our constituents' lives and livelihoods. Mr. Speaker, I don't know about you, but they are three of the issues that I hear about the most when I have the opportunity to be back home rather than debating meaningless bills and amendments here on the House floor. Yet the majority has proposed legislation that slashes funding for existing programs supporting these parts of Americans' lives by a shocking 28 percent across the board, back to 2008 spending levels with even deeper cuts in certain critical areas. Let me outline what these cuts will mean for Americans. Mr. Speaker, our public schools are responsible for educating the next generation of Americans: our civic leaders, our innovators, and our taxpayers. They are the key to our country's present and its future. However, this bill seeks to further efforts of MAGA extremists to undermine our public school systems by ripping critical funding away from the K-12 schools that need it the most. This bill slashes billions--that is billions with a b; 80 percent-- from title I, the foundational Federal program that for over five decades has helped schools ensure that low-income students have access to a high-quality, well-rounded education to equip them for what lies ahead. These cuts will be devastating for the children who live in my district, which houses one of the largest public school districts in the country. Hundreds of millions of dollars in funding will be slashed from Philadelphia public schools. Thousands of teachers will lose their jobs, but it is not just my district that will suffer. It is everyone's. Mr. Speaker, Virginia's Sixth District will lose $23 million in title I funding. Mr. Burgess' district, Texas 26, will lose $22 million. That is over 300 teachers that will lose their jobs in each of those districts. I challenge any of my colleagues to explain to the teachers and families in their districts how they can support a bill that cuts millions of dollars and hundreds of teachers from their local public schools, particularly at a time when our children need extra help. Members of Congress who vote for this proposal will be telling kids and families clearly and cruelly that where they live or how much money their parents make is the measure of whether they are worthy of a good education and future success. That is un-American. In addition to title I cuts, this bill also eliminates--not cuts, eliminates--funding for programs that support English language learning, academic achievement, professional development for educators, and the emotional and mental health of our students. In this bill, MAGA Republicans are going after preschool by slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from Head Start, which has been proven to provide young children with a critical early learning foundation that sets them up for lifelong success and saves taxpayers dollars down the road. I want so much better than what is in this bill for our children, and I find it deeply disturbing that my Republican colleagues don't feel the same. Early childhood and K-12 education aren't the only things on the House Republicans' chopping block. With this bill, they are also abandoning college students and hardworking people trying to improve their lives and their futures through higher education and job training. This bill would eliminate the Federal Work-Study Program for hundreds of thousands of hardworking students who use it to pay for a higher education. It would block regulations to implement income-based student loan repayment programs, and this bill would rip need-based financial aid away from over a million students. Consequently, it will be harder for people from working families to get a degree, and it will stifle their potential earnings and opportunities in the job market. This bill also leaves behind Americans who want to work, who want to access job training, or want to find a higher paying job to better support themselves and their families. When employers across this country are scrambling to find qualified job candidates, House Republicans are defunding the programs that prepare Americans for the 21st century workforce. The bill they have proposed eliminates job training for over half a million Americans, the WIOA programs, youth job training, adult job training, and employment programs for seniors. The bill also cuts over a billion dollars from critical worker protection agencies at the Department of Labor, including programs that ensure worker safety and promote equality and economic security for working women. Every day, I see how my district's dozens of higher education institutions, including community colleges, bring innovation and prosperous futures to our region, but House Republicans' shortsighted vision for our country undermines these accomplishments and jeopardizes the strength of our workforce for generations to come. Finally, the majority is using this bill to come after programs that support Americans' health, safety, and well-being. My district and the whole Philadelphia region is a hub for biomedical innovation, but the bill before us would undercut this lifesaving work by slashing funding for cancer and neurological research. Programs that help us fight public health crises, like opioid misuse and HIV/AIDS, will be eliminated. As grieving Americans everywhere call out for action to bring an end to senseless gun violence, MAGA Republicans in the House, rather than answer these calls, want to eliminate funding for research on how to keep communities safe from firearms, now the leading cause of death for American children. This bill also puts women's and children's health at risk. At a time when the U.S. lags far behind all other developed countries in addressing maternal mortality--not for lack of will and resources--and outcomes for mothers, but particularly women of color, are getting worse, this bill cuts hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for programs that support safe pregnancies, healthy babies, and affordable access to contraception and a full range of reproductive healthcare. Of course, this bill also includes a toxic stew of unpopular, extremist policy riders, yet another example of rightwing lawmakers pushing their extreme agenda to ban abortion care nationwide. This is a terrible bill, and the House majority knows it. It has been dictated by its most extreme Members. It couldn't even survive a committee markup. Therefore, the party that preaches regular order has sent it straight to the floor. On the way, with no committee input, this bill acquired additional policy riders, and no one in the Rules Committee could explain last night how they got in there since they didn't happen in committee. This bill is so extreme it may have to be pulled from the floor, like the two bills that preceded it last week, because it cannot win enough votes even from the House Republican Conference. If it does pass the House, it will not pass the Senate or be able to overcome a White House veto. The appropriations legislation that House Republicans have put in front of us today does nothing to invest in Americans or America's future. Instead, it slashes programs and support for children, families, workers, and women. It is a cruel vision for our country as House Republicans continue to worship at the shrine of trickle-down economics, despite its failure for half a century. Instead of making wealthy corporations and billionaires pay their fair share, they would rather balance the budget on the backs of kids and hardworking families, and undermine the U.S.' global reputation, credit rating, and national security. Americans, my constituents, are fed up. The people who send all of us to Washington do so with a belief that we will work and fight to make their and their families' lives better, but it seems too many of the MAGA Republicans in the House aren't interested in keeping up their end of that bargain. This bill doesn't live up to the promises I have made to my constituents, and I absolutely can't support it. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The fact remains that under Democratic leadership, the House did pass budget bills. It passed the actual bills. What we are seeing here is a string of MAGA bills being brought to the floor and not passing and not leading to an eventual budget, so we keep ending up in this Mobius loop of potential shutdowns. The bills that we have seen so far will not result in a budget. Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to make in order amendment No. 81, offered by Ranking Member DeLauro from the Appropriations Committee, which strikes section 239 of the bill, which prohibits funding to Planned Parenthood and other similar women's health organizations. Mr. Speaker, when will Republicans in the House learn? The American people want them to stop trying to tell women what they can do with their bodies. At the ballot box, in Congress, in State legislatures, women want them to stop. Republican politicians have no place dictating decisions about women's reproductive health. These decisions should be made between a woman and her doctor. This MAGA messaging bill callously prohibits funding to an organization that provides many different health resources to women across the country. I, myself, used Planned Parenthood when planning my family. Planned Parenthood also offers vulnerable communities services they wouldn't otherwise have access to, including critical preventive services like breast and cervical cancer screenings, contraception, and sex education. Simply put, blocking this grant funding endangers women's health across the country. There is no reason we should restrict access to Federal grant money simply to score political points for the MAGA base while limiting reproductive healthcare options. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record, along with any extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, as I said before, this is a terrible bill. I remind all my colleagues that this is kids' futures that we are talking about. It is the jobs that support American families. It is the health and safety of our loved ones. If the House's MAGA Republicans had their way, our workers, students, children, women, and families would all suffer if the cuts in this bill were implemented. Our public schools, the centerpieces of our communities and our democracy, would be decimated. Hardworking people would be underwater, unable to find good-paying jobs to keep themselves and their families afloat. Devastating diseases would go uncured and unchecked, and women would be denied the right to make their own free choices about their own healthcare. America and the people who live here are worth investing in so much more than this, and I won't accept the bleak and nihilistic picture that House Republicans are trying to paint. Our country's future can and should be brighter. It is what our constituents and our children deserve. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, my heart is breaking for the parents, children, friends, and neighbors in Lewiston, Maine, who woke up today to the unfathomable grief of yet another mass shooting. We do not have to live like this. My constituents know it, and, Mr. Speaker, your constituents know it, too. Americans are disgusted by Congress' failure to check the gun violence that is so rampant across our country, and they should be. Gun violence now impacts all of us, in urban areas, in rural areas, and in red and blue States. We must work together to address the gun violence crisis. The House can and must act now to consider the numerous gun violence prevention bills that are waiting to be brought to the floor and that a majority of Americans, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans, support. We call on Speaker Johnson to bring these commonsense and constitutional bills to the floor as soon as possible. Our constituents, our children, deserve to know where their Representatives stand on these bills. The very least we can do is have the courage to show them.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania for yielding the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, over the past month, House Republicans have plunged this Chamber into chaos. Whether it is the extremists who refuse to honor the bipartisan budget deal negotiated with the White House and voted into law by bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, and then sought to shut down the government with their outrageous demands, or whether it is House leadership who seem unable to prevent this destructive behavior or perhaps to leave this Chamber at all. As I and my Democratic colleagues push back against the majority's cruel, extreme, and unworkable agenda, Members on the other side of the aisle have been consumed with infighting and trying to distract from the fact that their refusal to work in a collaborative or bipartisan manner either with the Senate, Democrats, or even within their own party, has resulted in their failing to perform Congress' most basic job of funding the Federal Government. Just this past weekend, they brought us within hours of a devastating government shutdown. As the funding deadline approached, my office was fielding calls from terrified constituents; people feeling that come the end of month, their paychecks would no longer arrive and that critical government services which they rely upon would be interrupted. Parents wondered whether they would be able to make ends meet, whether they would be able to pay the childcare bills that allowed them to go to work and keep food on the table for themselves and their children. Seniors worried about heat assistance as temperatures drop. That is why Democrats stepped in to keep the government up and running without the outrageous rightwing demands coming from the most extreme and exotic fringes of the House Republican majority. Now, we have 6 weeks before another funding deadline, and we have a lot of work to do. The American people don't deserve this continued uncertainty. After the majority's reckless approach to government funding failed, time and time again, on the House floor, we still only have 4 of the 12 appropriations bills passed through the House; 2 haven't even been marked up, another one has failed, and more may go down this week. One would think they would be willing to change tactics because after all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. You would think they would be willing to come to the table, honor the agreements, pass the spending bills that the American people should expect and certainly deserve, but apparently not. Instead, we see them doubling down on the strategy of jamming through unrealistic spending proposals that would devastate children, families, seniors, and veterans all across this country. That includes the two hyper-partisan bills they have brought to the House floor today; bills that continue to break the pattern of the bipartisan funding agreement that Congress approved last spring and that both parties in the Senate have been willing to honor. These bills slash vital services and include rightwing culture war provisions; bills that are so extreme that the House Republicans may not be able to pass them here, the Senate won't agree to, and the President certainly won't sign. The first of these is H.R. 4394, the Energy and Water Development funding bill. With this legislation, we should be ensuring that the U.S. is able to meet the challenges of today's and tomorrow's world. Unfortunately, the bill in front of us doesn't do that. It is full of harmful rescissions, repeals, and funding cuts. It attempts to impede the progress we have made by increasing America's energy costs, jeopardizing our energy security and hurting U.S. global competitiveness. It claws back important funding that supports programs to combat flooding, improve wildlife habitat, and reduce pollution in our drinking water. That includes millions in funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Let me zoom in on that for a minute and talk about all the important work that the Army Corps does in my district alone. It is responsible for the regular maintenance of two major rivers running through and alongside Pennsylvania's Fifth district: the Schuylkill and the Delaware. That maintenance includes tasks like dredging, debris removal, and maintaining river embankments. This river work is critical to our region's environmental, public, and even economic health because it means boats can use our waterways without interruption, and larger vessels can sail into and trade at the port of Philadelphia. The broader budget cuts included in this bill undermine the importance and viability of all of these programs and means that additional measures to improve the health of our communities, both in my district and others, will go undone. Critically, this bill also fails to meaningfully confront the climate crisis. In southeastern Pennsylvania, we have already started to feel the effects of climate change, more intense and frequent storms have resulted in unprecedented, devastating flooding across our region. For example, the Eastwick neighborhood of Philadelphia, which sits adjacent to a flood-prone marsh, has experienced increasingly dramatic floods in recent years. About 3 years ago, Tropical Storm Isaias damaged more than 300 homes in this low-lying area. We have seen tornados and flooding in the Brandywine River region in Norristown and elsewhere. It is important for everyone here to realize that none of our districts are immune from the impacts of the climate crisis. Flooding, hurricanes, rising sea levels, wildfires, and other climate disasters, they affect us all. My Republican colleagues' denial of this fact would only leave us extremely unprepared and will prevent us from doing anything proactively to address these growing threats and help our communities be more resilient. Ultimately, it is our constituents and future generations of Americans who will suffer the consequences of these kind of policy failures. Additionally, just as families have started taking advantage of provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that reduce their home energy costs, this bill would increase energy bills for hardworking Americans. For all my Republican colleagues' talk, it is clear that Democrats are the only ones here willing to take action to keep costs down for American families, because with this bill, the majority is trying to undo the work that we did with the Inflation Reduction Act. They want to slash funding for programs that help people to weatherize their homes, purchase efficient appliances, and be able to afford to heat their homes. These programs have the potential to save Americans thousands of dollars a year. For the past several months, I have been holding meetings across my district to talk to constituents about these measures and help them access and improve their lives and their budgets. Now House Republicans want to take this away. This bill also blocks funding for initiatives that direct investments to our underserved communities most overburdened by pollution. My region has long struggled with dangerous air quality and its negative health impacts leading to high rates of cancer and some of the highest rates of childhood asthma in our Nation. Federal investment is needed to ensure that kids in my district and across the country can grow up healthy and have bright futures. In kneecapping this important work, it seems that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are more concerned with catering to polluters than the health of our children, and I find that incredibly disappointing. We are also considering today H.R. 4364, the legislative branch funding bill. Unfortunately, this legislation undermines the important work of this institution and threatens Congress' ability to move into the future and serve its constituents and America today rather than in the 19th century or so. I served on the bipartisan Select Committee on Modernization of Congress for 2 years. Since then, I have followed its subsequent work to produce recommendations on how to make Congress work better for the American people. Ultimately, that committee passed over 200 bipartisan recommendations, including recommendations related to diversity and inclusion among our staff here in Congress. Leading businesses around the globe have embraced diversity and inclusion because they know that a diverse workforce is more effective. Despite the successes we have seen in other sectors, it seems my Republican colleagues here in the House want to go backwards. Troublingly, they want to eliminate the Office of Diversity and Inclusion here on Capitol Hill. A well-functioning legislative branch is critical our democracy, and I know our democracy is strongest when Members of Congress and their staff look like the America we are here to represent. We should all want to serve our constituents in the best way we possibly can, and we can only do that if we give our institution the tools and the staff to achieve progress with the times and truly represent our modern Nation. Unfortunately, this bill would undermine that goal. Even after flirting with a disastrous shutdown, my Republican colleagues are still trying to force through spending bills written in back rooms with no bipartisan agreement and riddled with culture war poison pills and devastating cuts. They do so knowing that these bills are so extreme that their passage is imperiled here in the House, and it is a fiction if they think it is going through the Senate or that it will be signed into law by the President. This continued dysfunction only hurts America and throws our country into chaos. The bottom line is that the House needs to do better than this. The American people deserve better than this. Madam Speaker, I strongly oppose both of these bills, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I wish that our colleagues across the aisle were as concerned about the fact that this bill would increase our dependence on Russian oil, Russian oil that is being used to fund their illegal, inhumane war against the Ukrainian people. Madam Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to provide for consideration of a resolution which clearly states that it is the people's House's duty to keep our promise to American workers and seniors to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare and fight against any cuts to these vital programs. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record along with any extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

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

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Rules.

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Kamlager-Dove) to discuss our proposal.

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez), a distinguished member of the Rules Committee.

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, funding the Federal Government is not a game. The American people who elect us to Congress depend on us to solve real problems. They don't send us here to play politics with their lives and our country's future. The incompetence, extremism, and infighting we have seen on display from our Republican colleagues is not serious governance. It is dangerous. It is destructive behavior, and it makes it wholly clear that there are Members of this body who care more about making headlines than the job they were sent here to do. Madam Speaker, our budgets reflect our priorities. Democrats are here to put people over politics, and these bills make it clear that my Republican colleagues are prioritizing scoring political points over working for American families or strengthening this body and our democracy or protecting our planet. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose the previous question and the rule, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON

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

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding. We are 37 hours, 6 minutes and 25 seconds away from a shutdown, an unnecessary and devastating government shutdown after wasting weeks on rightwing messaging points and bills. Here, the majority has brought to this floor not a responsible short- term funding bill, but more of the same posturing, dangerous, and unrealistic games to placate the most extreme factions in their party. It is well past time for the chaos caucus to get serious about governing. Funding the Federal Government is Congress' most basic duty and this colossal failure of the Speaker and House Republicans to keep the lights on across this country will cause real harm to our economy and to hardworking families. These aren't just numbers. These are real people whose lives will be upended. This shutdown means senior citizens won't be able to heat their homes because this CR cuts 74 percent from the LIHEAP budget. That is a $137 million cut to LIHEAP in Pennsylvania alone. That is over 342,000 families who are counting on this program and who will be left in the cold in October. Just a few hours from now are when those funds should start to become available. This shutdown means that mothers and babies in my district will go hungry because their WIC benefits will be cut. It means that teachers will be kicked out of their classrooms that need them most because of draconian cuts to the IDEA and Title 1. Cuts to Title 1 and IDEA equates to nearly 150,000 teachers and service providers being cut from our public schools where they need help the most. Approximately 275,000 children will lose access to Head Start, undermining early education for them and their futures, and harming their parents' ability to go to work. My district is home to the Philadelphia airport. TSA workers and travelers alike will be affected by delays.