Mary Scanlon

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. I also note that, in that article, it talks about the multiple studies now that are investigating the impact of gas stoves on asthma, including by the American Lung Association. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas.

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

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, Social Security and Medicare are vital to many of our constituents' economic and health security, yet many of my friends across the aisle have called for major cuts to these critical programs. In fact, just last week, Speaker McCarthy announced he was forming a bipartisan commission tasked with looking at budget cuts and suggested that Social Security and Medicare could be on the chopping block, saying: ``We have to look at the entire budget. . . . The majority driver of the budget is mandatory spending. It's Medicare, Social Security, interest on the debt.'' It wasn't too long ago that I remember some of my Republican friends calling the President a liar during the State of the Union when he suggested that Republicans were willing to put Social Security benefits on the chopping block. Now, instead of debating gas stoves and the finer points of administrative law, I am giving my friends on the other side of the aisle a chance to reassure the American public and unequivocally state these programs won't be cut, not just with rhetoric but also with their votes. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Ms. Bush), to discuss our proposal.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Once again, my colleagues on the right are reverting to their favorite tactic when confronted with real problems in the real world: distraction to conceal that they are doing nothing. They propose to grind the gears of government to a halt to impose an extreme ideology that Americans as a whole do not support, just as they threatened to tank our entire economy to impose other extreme cuts that even their own party members couldn't support. They want to ensure that we can do nothing with these bills, that we can do nothing to protect kids from pollutants and dangerous products, to keep businesses from scamming working families out of money, or to ensure that the food people eat every day is safe. Imagine an FDA that can't issue new food safety and drug regulations, or an EPA that can't keep our drinking water clean, or a VA that can't properly serve our veterans, or a Department of Transportation that can't enforce safety standards for cars, trains, or airplanes. This is what the majority is proposing, and it is a very dangerous vision for America. The people who elect us to Congress depend on us to make their and their children's lives better, and doing nothing will not accomplish that goal. If anything, we need to make our government more responsive to the needs of the people. We need to do better, not nothing at all. 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. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Ms. SCANLON

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

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, Americans are demanding action, and we must deliver. Too many lives are being lost to senseless gun violence. Every day, we are retraumatized by yet another shooting. In school, our children are learning active shooter drills before their ABCs. When families go to a grocery store or the mall, they scan the crowd for shooters rather than sales. We know we don't have to live this way, fearful for our kids and our loved ones when they leave the house, furious that gun manufacturers are making billions of dollars marketing weapons of war to irresponsible gun owners, and frustrated by lawmakers who lack the courage to pass commonsense gun safety legislation. We can change this. There are commonsense, constitutional solutions with broad public support that can stem the carnage. Where leaders in my district and across the country have adopted those solutions, we have seen progress. It is not enough, but it is a start. Above all, doing nothing is not an option. We cannot sit idly by and allow preventable gun deaths to happen day after day. We need to pass policies that will save lives now.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, at 10:15 a.m. on Thursday morning, with the U.S. on the brink of a devastating default, our colleagues across the aisle decided to call it a week. Turning their backs on the American people to beat Memorial Day traffic is a new low for House Republicans. House Republicans have left town while America speeds toward a devastating default, and they chose that route. They are willing to drive our Nation off an economic cliff and trigger a global recession, cutting veterans' benefits, taking food from hungry families, and laying off first responders. The American people didn't send us here to play chicken with their retirement plans. House Republicans created this crisis, and they can end it. There is an off-ramp from this highway to hell. The overwhelming majority of Americans don't want the far right driving our national agenda. Responsible Republicans need to come to the table for the American people, not skip town with the MAGA extremists.

Ms. SCANLON

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

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, Social Security and Medicare are vital to many of our constituents' economic and health security. Many of my Republican friends across the aisle were calling for major cuts to these critical programs but recently some have changed their tune. If they truly believe in a new position, I am offering my friends the opportunity to back it up with a vote in the people's House. This vote will give Members the opportunity to reassure Americans that the House won't eviscerate these foundational programs that our constituents rely upon. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Magaziner) to discuss our proposal.

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. Mr. Speaker, it is now after 4 o'clock in the afternoon. We were scheduled to be on the floor today around noon, but when I came to the floor prepared to debate this rule, we were told first to wait and then that the House would recess so the Republicans could go back behind closed doors to negotiate among themselves. This is becoming a pattern in this Congress. For the second session week in a row, the Rules Committee met far into the night and reported out completely closed rules that allow no amendments on the floor. Now, after Speaker McCarthy realized that he couldn't pass his own bill, he spent all day negotiating in secret to twist people's arms to get enough votes from his own party to get this bill or the rule passed on the floor. No one has seen what is coming out of the backroom deal today and allegedly moving to the floor under this very rule. This isn't how you run the people's House, although it is apparently how the new House majority runs the people's House--backroom deals that prioritize politics or policy over people. Turning to the matters at hand, this rule moves two bills to the floor. The first bill is H.R. 2, although, as mentioned, we still don't know what the final version of that bill will be. We should all be able to agree that immigration and border security present vast and complex issues. Despite my colleagues' pronouncements to the contrary, we all want a secure border that protects our national security, but we also need to address the realities of migration, the forces that are driving families, even young children, to flee their homes, and the serious workforce shortages confronting businesses in our country and elsewhere. Given the complexities of these issues, they require comprehensive and nuanced solutions. H.R. 2 is neither. It is a great example of the old adage: For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, clear, and wrong. During my legal career, I spent decades working on immigration cases and within our immigration system. I know it is underfunded and dysfunctional and has been for many years. We also know that American businesses, small and large, are asking for immigration reform so that they can hire the healthcare, agricultural, research, and food service workers they need. Solving these issues is not simple, but I am extremely disappointed that my Republican colleagues want to create more chaos by bringing an extremist, cruel, and completely unworkable bill to the floor today. The truth is, this isn't responsible or serious governance. Without any real proposal, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle resort to conspiracy theories, fact-free rhetoric, and political theater designed to stoke fear and chaos to distract from their lack of real solutions. We have seen how the failed and inhumane immigration policies of the prior administration weakened our economy, undermined our moral standing in the world, inflicted unimaginable cruelty upon defenseless migrant children, and did not make us any safer. However, Republican extremists want to take us back there again. Once more, they would rather fixate and waste American taxpayer dollars to build a wall that the experts, including Customs and Border Patrol, agree will not solve the issue. I must call out the dishonesty of claiming that families seeking legal asylum are a source of the very real scourge of fentanyl and other dangerous drug trafficking. We know from Customs and Border Patrol data that over 90 percent of fentanyl seizures occur at U.S. ports of entry in trucks or cargo ships, not in areas that a border wall might cover. Despite this fact, the bill fails to provide needed resources at ports of entry to fight fentanyl smuggling where it is actually happening. Just last month, House Republicans voted to cap nondefense discretionary funding, which, according to DHS, would result in the cutting of 2,400 Customs and Border Patrol officers and agents that do this work fighting the scourge of fentanyl. How can we begin to craft measures to address either the fentanyl crisis or humanitarian issues at our border if our Republican colleagues insist on starting from a place of misplaced blame and misguided policies? Additionally, this bill, or at least the most recent version of it that we have seen, enacts a nationwide E-Verify system without providing other reforms that give meaningful pathways for undocumented workers to legalize their status, which employers across this country are screaming for. In doing so, this provision has the potential to wipe out half of our agricultural workforce, cause huge disruptions in our Nation's food system, allow a mass offshoring of jobs, and sink American farms from California to Pennsylvania and throughout States across the Nation. This isn't the first Congress in which Republicans have tried to move forward on this E-Verify proposal. In every Congress, it faces opposition from the small business community, civil liberties groups, religious organizations, agricultural organizations and growers, privacy advocates, libertarian think tanks, and immigration reform groups because it fails to address our broken immigration system in a meaningful way. This time around is no different. H.R. 2 also bans Department of Homeland Security funding for critical nonprofit and religious partners that provide shelter, food, legal assistance, and other aid to vulnerable immigrants. That means a faith-based NGO that helps an Afghan refugee to find housing or gives support to a woman here on a U visa, a special status set aside for victims of crimes, will no longer get assistance to do that important work. How can our Republican colleagues say this bill is only about border security when it clearly and cruelly rips resources away from those in the country legally, too? When it comes to this bill, the immoral policies do not stop there. This legislation puts children in harm's way--the very ones the other side of the aisle claims they want to protect. Children come or are brought to the U.S. because the conditions in their home countries are so horrific, whether due to poverty, violence, corruption, or climate change and how it is destroying their way of life. This is a situation that has been building for decades, and H.R. 2 does nothing to address it. During my legal career, I represented many of those children, those who were orphaned, those who were fleeing gang violence, starvation, or abuse. If we really want to protect child victims of trafficking or children separated from their parents who arrive at our border, we don't limit their access to representation, as this bill does. We give them the tools to make the case that they are eligible to stay in this country, which a child simply cannot do unless they have a qualified attorney with them.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I have seen up close how important representation is to anyone trying to navigate our immigration system, but especially kids. When our colleagues say they want to send unaccompanied children home to safety, they are turning a blind eye to reality. The reality for most of these kids is there is no safe home. Their parents are dead or otherwise unavailable, and country conditions are so dangerous that the journey to our border is a safer alternative. This bill would expose children to the very harms and exploitation my Republican colleagues hollowly insist they want to prevent. In addition to limiting children's access to counsel, the bill allows them to be jailed. It guts the protections of the Flores settlement agreement, which has governed the conditions of children held in government custody for 26 years. In doing so, the bill upends a carefully crafted system to minimize the detention of children due to the grave impact that it has on their physical and mental health. The evidence is clear: No amount of detention is safe for kids. Even a short period can cause long-term harm like psychological trauma and mental health risks. Despite knowing this, my Republican colleagues wrote a bill that allows the long-term detention of minors who arrive in the U.S. and that jails kids and their families indefinitely. I want to describe for a moment a tragic situation this bill creates. A mother and her child fleeing violence or starvation at home come to America in search of safety and legal asylum. When she finds the ports of entry are closed, which this bill would do, that mother takes her child and crosses between them. She then follows the rules and applies for asylum. To be clear, she is not a risk for flight or violence. Even so, this bill requires that she and her young child could be jailed for what could be years if she is prosecuted for the misdemeanor of unlawful entry, a result that is prohibited by current law and the Flores litigation. This legislation falsely states it is consistent with the Flores decision; although, it is clear that it is not, and that the Court has already ruled on that precise point. If my colleagues want to come together and meaningfully work on immigration reform, it can't start from a place of cruelty against the most vulnerable. Instead, we need to recognize both the horrific conditions that cause migrants to flee their homes and the meaningful contributions that immigrants make to our country and, critically, we must provide functioning pathways for people to enter the U.S. lawfully. Mr. Speaker, the second bill here is H.R. 1163. In addition to their misguided immigration plan, today House Republicans are bringing up a harmful bill that hinders antifraud programs, opens up new pathways to fraud in unemployment insurance programs, and opens workers up to surprise bills through no fault of their own. My colleagues want to attack unemployment insurance, a benefit that helped millions of Americans stay afloat during the depths of the pandemic. Of course, it is important that we prevent fraud in our public programs and instances of fraud in unemployment insurance absolutely should be addressed and prosecuted. In fact, just this morning, we learned that a Republican Member of this Chamber was indicted in New York on charges that, among other things, he allegedly stole public funds by fraudulently collecting pandemic unemployment benefits. I hope all my colleagues agree that stealing public funds, especially during a global pandemic when so many working people lost their jobs and needed the support to keep their families healthy and fed, is unacceptable and absolutely should disqualify someone from serving in the United States Congress. However, although my colleagues across the aisle claim that they want to fight fraud in unemployment insurance, their leadership continues to welcome the votes of this alleged fraudster in order to push a deeply unpopular and extremist agenda and they want to pass a bill that makes it harder to catch the kind of cross-State fraud that their colleague has allegedly committed by slashing $400 million in critical funding for Department of Labor antifraud programs. It opens up opportunities for fraud in UI programs by halting the roll out of new identification verification systems and the legislation allows States to send surprise bills to workers for accidental overpayments of unemployment insurance benefits made during the pandemic. These overpayments were made to workers who did nothing wrong and did not know they had been overpaid. These people spent their unemployment insurance on necessities like food for themselves and their children. They returned to work as soon as they could, but now Republicans, with this bill, want to send these working people a bill and punish them for an error that they didn't commit. Ultimately, both of these proposals from my Republican colleagues are unserious and unworkable. They will wreak harm on America's economy, especially businesses unable to find workers to grow or even survive. They will wreak harm on working families, law-abiding immigrants, and terrified refugees who have the right to seek asylum at our borders. These bills are political stunts to stir up extremist supporters, not serious solutions to complex problems, problems that require comprehensive and nuanced solutions. We are eager to work with responsible legislators from any party on an immigration bill that truly secures the border, protects Dreamers, and solves the workforce challenges we are seeing from farms to pharmacies. Such a bill would grow our economy, help our communities combat crime, and stem the flow of illegal drugs into our country. We firmly believe that we can reach an agreement that secures our border and reforms our immigration system in a way that reflects fundamental American values, and we are ready to work on that now. We welcome assistance in that from the House majority. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I do find it a little hard to credit the expressions of concern for the migrants who are crossing our border when yet again, today, the Governor of Texas sent a busload of migrants from the border after announcing he was providing free transportation to them. He refuses to tell the cities where they are headed, but the migrants are on their way. So as has occurred multiple times over the last year, people were dumped in Philadelphia at 6 o'clock in the morning. Thank God that the weather has turned because when they were dumping them on New Year's Eve, it was pretty darn cold. So please spare me the crocodile tears for the humanitarian concerns when you are not willing to help ease that process. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Leger Fernandez), a very distinguished member of the Rules Committee.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I just have to push back a little bit on this idea that somehow immigrants coming to this country are taking advantage of our police and different parts of our society. I mean, the Cato Institute, of all places, has recently published a study that shows there is a net economic benefit for several generations when we have immigrants come to this country. Of course, there is also the continuing inaccurate characterization of these folks coming here illegally when they are applying for asylum. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Rules.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to provide for consideration of a resolution which states that it is the House's responsibility to protect and preserve Social Security and Medicare for our future generations and reject any cuts to these essential programs. 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 yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. McGovern raised a few good points, but one in particular: We haven't seen the bill that we are allegedly supposed to be considering with this rule. Last night, Mr. Norman, who just spoke, correctly criticized this closed process. He said, ``That's a problem going forward, a huge problem because that is not the process we think is fair to everyone.'' I would simply say to the gentleman that the process has only gotten worse. Reportedly, there will be an amendment offered to this rule that we haven't even seen yet. Although, I guess the fact is we may know why we had to delay the hearing until this point; so that your Member could return from New York. I wonder when we are going to see the open and transparent process that some of our Rules Committee colleagues have spoken so much about. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I apologize to my colleagues across the aisle. I didn't realize that I needed to delay my remarks until the next round. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert into the Record a letter from the Department of Labor, which states that H.R. 1163 would hinder efforts to tackle unemployment insurance fraud, delay payments, and undermine State efforts to modernize and protect the system from fraud.

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Correa).

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time for closing. Mr. Speaker, since the aftermath of World War II, the United States has championed its duty to uphold the international right to seek asylum by providing those fleeing persecution with safe haven here in America. However, the Republican immigration plan in H.R. 2 and the rhetoric we have heard about it today does nothing more than sow chaos, anger, and fear about this important humanitarian system. It puts the blame for our broken immigration system on the backs of families and children fleeing poverty and violence, instead of recognizing the complexity of the issues involving immigration and border security and blaming Congress for failing to address our broken system for decades. It is clear that jailing families indefinitely or sending unaccompanied children back to dangerous and exploitive situations and refusing to provide working legal pathways to residents will not make us any safer; neither will wasting American taxpayer dollars to build a discredited and ineffective border wall, decimating our agricultural sector, or defunding trusted nonprofit organizations that provide support to immigrants. These are not the comprehensive, multiprong solutions we need, the kind of solutions that Democrats have been imploring our Republican colleagues to come to the table on, solutions that secure our ports of entry, expand legal pathways, and address the root causes of migration. A long and impactful history of immigration is at the heart of our American story. As such, we should meaningfully fix our immigration system so it works better and can continue making our county stronger. We shouldn't gut it or attempt to destroy it altogether. I want a better future than that for the United States and all of those who call it home. 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. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

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

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the rule and the underlying bill. This bill makes good on Speaker McCarthy's threat to hold the economy hostage. Several of my colleagues have spoken about the draconian cuts that this bill would make to our social safety net, to services for vulnerable veterans, seniors, families, and children, but it also jeopardizes critical investments that were just enacted as part of the historic and long-overdue climate rescue measures that were included in the Inflation Reduction Act, and those cuts have received less attention. If you didn't know that this bill gutted billions of dollars of environmental measures, you are not alone. Those cuts were made in a deal the Speaker negotiated with the extremists who control his Conference sometime after midnight last night, around 2 a.m. this morning. I am not surprised that they are trying to sneak this provision into a bill that they are ramming through the House with no hearings. The Speaker and his far-right allies argue that Federal spending poses the most significant threat to our country while blocking legislation to address gun violence, healthcare concerns, and other pressing concerns for all of our constituents, but climate change is an actual existential threat to our children and to all future generations. I know the Republican Party isn't fond of looking at the science, but without intervention, the facts are clear: Our children will be forced to face more frequent climate disasters, new and devastating health threats, and untold economic loss. The extremist bill before us dismantles the clean energy climate rescue programs that we passed in the IRA that are essential for our children to thrive. This bill eliminates a billion dollars to promote energy efficient construction, $5 billion for loans to back energy infrastructure projects, $1.9 billion to improve access to public transportation in low-income neighborhoods, and $5 billion to reduce climate pollution in addition to gutting environmental review protections. Mr. Speaker, I am appalled that the Republican Party would so carelessly leverage our children's future, health, and safety to satisfy political extremists. I am disturbed by the shadowy process used to put this bill together. I encourage all of my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule and the underlying bill.

Ms. SCANLON

Ms. SCANLON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 324th anniversary of Khalsa Sirjana Divas (Vaisakhi) which falls on April 14, 2023. On this historic day in Spring of 1699 the sapling of Sikhism planted by Guru Nanak and nurtured by nine successor Gurus came to full blossom with the creation of the Khalsa (Saint-Soldier Sikhs) at a historic Vaisakhi Congregation in Anandpur Sahib, Punjab Sikhism was founded by Guru Nanak in the late 15th century in Punjab on the principles of equality, justice, and respect of all human beings. Sikhs started immigrating to the United States about 125 years ago. It is the world's fifth largest religion with around 30 million followers, including many in my district in Pennsylvania. Sikhs share a strong sense of community, family, and selfless service. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Sikh communities across the country, including many of my constituents in Upper Darby, mobilized to deliver meals, groceries, masks, and other supplies to first responders a hundreds of thousands of families in need. Tragically, Sikhs are frequent victims of hate crimes. In fact, Sikhs are among the most targeted for hate crimes, according to the 2022 FBI Hate crimes report. We must do everything in our power to prevent senseless violence and protect our Sikh brothers and sisters. To that end, I am hopeful that the recognition of Vaisakhi, April 14th as ``National Sikh Day'' will allow people to learn more about the vibrant Sikh religion and encourage more unity in our community. I am proud to lead my colleagues in again introducing a resolution supporting the designation of April 14, Vaisakhi as ``National Sikh Day'' to recognize this exceptional community and the contributions to our country.