The rules committee will come to water and thank you very much for joining us. We said we would be here at 3 00 and we made it. We are having a lot of fun. The committee will be considering the hr amended that will to verily extend federal funding until january 19, 2018. Fundsegislation fully National Defense programs for the entire fiscal year. Billion for the department of billion for the department of defense. This includes important emergency funding for missile activities. And as we all know, our troops and commanders must have the resources they need, especially in Uncertain Times and the time of the holidays. This legislation will allow them to continue to advance peace with the resolve of superior powe firepower and professionalism across the globe. The legislation authorizes and extends funding for the chip program for five years, some thing that is very important to me. Not only from being from dallas, texas but as an advocate for children especially those with disabilities. Rt extends funding fofo Community Health centers. More medicaid funding for puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. I know we have a gentleman who i will be asking to give a full update on this issue from the from the energy and Commerce Committee. The subcommittee that has been at the epicenter of this issue. I want to thank dr. Michael burgess for his work with the young chairman on this issue. Has been disaster something that has been posted website. Les committee while there are still ongoing discussions on the best way to get the bill enacted into law quickly, i would ask the chairman since he is here, along with the Ranking Member to go product, giving us an idea. Without objection, i would like to welcome the young chairman from new jersey excuse me, pete, you are here in place. I assumed you were a subcommittee chairman of what we will primarily handled today. Youre more than able to stand and give usead that full update. I figured the chairman needed help too. We are delighted to have both of you here to discuss this legislation with us. Our awesome stenographer here that will like to get the transcript correctly so anything you leave for our awesome her wa benefit. Before we get to you mr. Chairman, i would like to defer to the Ranking Member of the committee for any Opening Statement he would like to make. I want to welcome our witnesses. With regard to what you are here to present to the committee, it is a little bit frustrating. I think we all know that this is not a serious attempt at keeping our government open and running. We all know that this is dead on arrival in the United States senate. I would like to ask consent to sent to letter that was speaker sent to speaker ryan and leader mcconnell by every democrat in the senate that says we will not support a bill that basically provides special treatment for budget at the expense of every other budget. Objection to that record. This is not a serious fix for chip. We have been talking about this for a long time. I think we need to, the offset unacceptable. It is frustrating because we are coming to the end. Unacceptable. It is frustrating because we are coming to the end. I think we are coming to the end, maybe we are not. One would like to thank all of this have been worked out by now. Instead, what we see within the house is the right wing is having a fight with the extreme right wing and we are moving this bill forward which we know is going nowhere. We just have to wait and see what the senate does. But, i would just say to my friends, it would be better if we just behaved like grownups and worked out a deal that kept the government running and onet just have a special for the Defense Budget but dealt for everything. That is what i had hoped we would be dealing with today, but apparently we are not. Will goim i this charade and it will go nowhere in the senate and we just have to wait and see what the senate does and we will meet again and figure it out. You all should be happy today. You got what you wanted in this tax bill. This Corporate Tax bill. All your donors should be happy. This charade and it will go nowhere in theall the peopled wellconnected are happy. So, i think you have enough actuallyh your base to do the right thing on keeping the government running and we can then move on. With that, mr. Chairman, lets go through this charade and hopefully we will get to the point where we can actually do something meaningful. I yield back. Thank you very much. I dont know whether you want to throughe doing the c. R. January 19. [indiscernible] finalize that piece for the year. Not here for about 10 minutes. Do you think there is a chance we can help her . One constituent was a vietnam veteran. He was seriously wounded. At this point, he is dying of cancer. Secretary mattis had looked into the case. As secretary mattis, that he is entitled to the congressional medal of honor. We can have copies made and everybody can see this. Because it is eminent, imminenti of hoping as an act kindness, if we can help that by making that would are in the bill, the managers amendment in some possible way if there is one. That is a good question. I want you to know that i learned about this 10 minutes ago. Me too. With Great Respect to the kindness, if we can gentleman and his service to our and theduring vietnam, congresswoman came up and we the congresswoman came up and we met and i have told her that i would be very pleased it, and will be very pleased to tell you when we get out of here we will go for votes in a few minutes of the substance of what i am trying to learn more about. I would like for all of you to get the letter from general mattis. If anyone could judge the to look very diligently atfitness of this med be him. I was hoping there might be some of, simply as an active mercy, because his family is very keen on having this. Very close. She would like to know that. So, i just wanted for you thank you very much. Anything further . Not yet. We are coming back up after votes. We will come back up. We will try to get as far as we can now and then move on. Petes here to offer a vision for your party. Petes my buddy. I thought he was my buddy too. Probably. We are delighted to have you. I went to indiana with him once. Have you done that . He has not invited me yet. We are going to continue now. They are both very hardworking and i am very fond of both of them. Gentlemen, thank you for joining us. What we do here is serious work. Assertionsbeen some that this is not serious. In fact, it is. I want you to know that i do respect the United States senate. I respect them as coequals. Their work is as important as our work, but our work is as important as their work. The bottom line is is that any indication that we have that we cannot make the determination before we go into a twoweek delay of christmas break to take care of the men and women of this country and not put them on a short timeframe is vitally important to me. Debate willd the take place today, you will receive our feedback. Im delighted the remark that the young gentleman brought to us. The gentleman from new jersey is recognized. Thank you for having us here this afternoon. It is a pleasure to be back to testify on the house amendment to Senate Amendment h. R. 1370. It prevents a Government Shutdown, extends the Children Health Insurance Program and other vital programs. I am here to present the emergency funding legislation. Totaling 81 billion to help americans across the gulf coast, caribbean and west recover from multiple devastating disasters. Im here to seek an appropriate role to provide for prompt consideration of this necessary legislation. The current government funding mechanism as far as friday is now. Cal that the house act this legislation is a simple extension of the funding level to the levels of the current fiscal year 2017 rate until january 19, 2018. This deadline extends to allow leadership time to complete its negotiations on our top line spending levels, the Appropriations Committee to complete its integral work on all 12 Appropriations Bills. In the meantime, it is essential that congress maintained the Government Programs and Services Americans depend on. Legislation ways the automatic cuts to defense spending for fiscal year 2018, National Defense and temporary delays the automatic cuts to nondefense funding due to take place in january as a result of sequestration. National security is a chief priority. In addition to stopping these cuts, the departments funding 2018 fiscal year passed twice by the house. This funding will have the troops to have the resources they need to be able to fight now an advance peace around the world. Contains 59. 9 billion of emergency and overseas operations funding as requested to bolster missiledefense, replace damaged navy ships, provide resources for the troops serving in afghanistan. The bill provides 663. 8 billion in base, oco and emergency funding of the department of defense. This bill also includes 2. 1 mandatory funding for the v. A. Choice program to ensure our veterans continue to receive the health care they need and have earned. In addition to the critical funding, the bill extends the National Flood insurance january 19 ofgh next year. The legislation will include the january 19 of next year. The legislation will include the full text of h. R. 2932, the champion of healthy kids bill which ensures funding for the program, qualified health centers. This will ensure that 9 million children from low income families receive Important Health coverage. I understand there are ongoing conversations on how to proceed on the supplemental. Would like to present the supplemental, emergency supplemental legislation. The muchneeded funding to support ongoing recoveries following multiple hurricanes and wildfires that have devastated our nation and caused the loss of life and much property. This years backtoback hurricanes are three of the top five most expensive hurricanes in the last 25 years. This congress is committed to helping people, communities and businesses that are in the midst of major rebuilding efforts in texas, florida, california, louisiana, puerto rico and the u. S. Virgin islands. This legislation is the next step in their recovery and provides 81 billion to crucial federal programs that supports this process. It relates to livestock loss. Assistance for these two communities. Provisions also included to allow the transfer of up to 4 billion in Disaster Assistance direct loans program for Community Disaster loans, cdls. Providing up to 50 for disasters declared in this years wildfires. We also include funding with our federal highways, local transit. Help children displaced because of hurricanes in puerto rico get back to school wherever they have come from, if they have come out of puerto rico. And for Small Business disaster loans. Congress has artie provided 51. 75 billion of these ongoing effort. As we move forward, we will monitor Recovery Efforts that require accountability for every dollar spent on recovery. We also stand with our fellow americans to ensure that they have need to rebuild their livelihoods and lead their lives. I think the committee for their time and urge support for legislation on the house floor. Thank you. Know my good friend from the state of indiana. A Ranking Member on the Appropriations Committee is recognized. Thank you very much. Id haveinstead of unanimous consent to have her statement entered into the record and my statement. I do believe the chairman and believe describes the legislation before us that will be on the floor tomorrow and i will make an observation. Despite the best efforts of the chairman, representative lowy, chairwoman grangers, other members, we are nearly three months into the fiscal year and a realistic path towards enactment of the 12 fiscal year 2018 bills has not emerged. Mr. Mcgovern mentioned earlier that we are coming to an end. It was stated a bit differently, the end of the last fiscal year was september 30. All likelihood as the sun sets on the first session of congress, the federal government will be operating under its third shortterm continuing resolution. It is my sincere hope that however long the next c. R. Lasts that it will allow for a budget agreement that provides this committee with the opportunity to write a thoughtful, comprehensive and effective omnibus bill under the chairmans leadership. The sooner congress carries out its most basic responsibility of funding the federal government, the better off this country will be. Every day we operate our country under a c. R. Is a day wasted. Thank you. Let me begin by acknowledging the obvious, that these are two of my favorite members. One of them is my chairman of my Major Committee and the other is a valued friend and colleague and leader on the other side. I want to reinforce both of your opening remarks. I share the frustration. I know mr. Chairman, that you feel because all of your bills were already on time and we were waiting almost 100 days for the senate to pass a single bill. I casti cast no partisan dispers in this, but the president , the majority leader in the senate, the speaker of the house, and the two minority leaders have to give us a number. We demonstrated three consecutive times we know that to get this done but this could have been done a lot sooner and a lot more orderly process and both of you have been advocates for that. Both of you have done it. The speaker of theboth of you hs the aisle to find compromises. We know there are going to be disagreements. We also know that the appropriations process has to be a bipartisan process. It civilly does not work any other way. You commendably have done that the route your careers. Where we are at today certainly does not reflect you were the committee. It reflects the inability of the people above us to come to an agreement. I regret it under president obama and President Trump. It is not good. Mr. Chairman, i have a couple of quick questions. I want to also commend you for the supplemental. I think a lot of people dont know we had a full discussion about this today. Obviously, the administration has committed 44 billion. You look at the request from the affected areas, the reported they were 193 billion. I dont know what the right number is but i know these numbers we had multiple hearings. You work with the members from the affected states on both sides of the aisle and try to come up with what is a reasonable number. One thing i will be proud of congress for that on this question we have demonstrated twice and we will eventually demonstrate a third time that we work across the aisle to make good for our fellow americans in texas, louisiana, florida, puerto rico and the virgin islands, california will have a different kind of challenge, getting the help they need in a timely fashion. That is a good thing. I always point out you already produced a budget for this year in april. You produce two and now a third supplemental. We may disagree with how we proceed, but i think it is fair for the house to send to the senate its best product. I think that is what you have done here. The senate is free to send back Something Different. I suspect they will. The one thing i would hope is that we simply do not leave town until the government is funded for an agreedupon period by the top leaders in our respective parties and the president. And that this supplemental is done so that people dont have andorry over christmas, texas and florida and louisiana, and again, puerto rico and virgin islands, that if there is any chance that the help they need is not forthcoming. This committee has done its job in that regard. Im confident in the end we find there may be some maneuvers or whatever but i think in the end of the day, we will work across the aisle, across the rotunda their. Their. You guys have really set the example of this year. On the defense portion, portioni know there is some controversy about that to me, i will speak for myself the bill that was crafted in the House Armed Services committee and the funding the both of you have on, as a former chairman of the subcommittee on defense and the current Ranking Member, pretty much mirrors what the senate did. I dont see any reason why there should be any holdup. We are going to fund the rest of the government. C. R. Is notarlong good for anybody. I would like to get that out of the way. I recognize my friend for massachusetts and accurately so, the senate has a different point of view and they have a vote and they have the right to pursue what is in their interest. I dont think these things are i know we cannot go through another round of sequester on january 22. We have to give that topline a number. The leaders in congress and the administration will get the number, i have every confidence y, ourou, ms. Lowe colleagues on the other side of the aisle will deliver and get it done and bring it home. We oi dont think we should go home until we reach those agreements. I dont like playing fast and loose with Government Shutdowns. I want to give you each a chance to respond and make any point you care to make but i am very comfortable with the product you are presenting, mr. Chairman. We did our appropriations bill 100 days ago. Ofneed to meet the needs texans, blue radians, our fellow citizens of puerto rico and the virgin islands. Bad inare still california. I dont think those fires are out. We have put together a package you know because you shared one of the eight hearings. To telltepped forward us the needs of their agencies in these ongoing situations. I feel pretty good about the package i hope when it gets over it to the senate that they will feel similar we need to do something before we leave town. Keep the government open for business. Victimized by hurricanes and wildfires. Thank you. I would simply state my bel f ef that the defense portion of this bill is an excellent product. Chairwoman granger, all the members of the committee and subcommittee did an excellent job given the number they were given. I believe our constitutional responsibility is to make sure the department spends it wisely and effectively. It is a big add from last year. Having said that, given the vote we have had today in this body, im very concerned about how the other 11 bills that we are charged to report and pass will look given a certain class of our colleagues argument that now we have no revenue and now we have an increased deficit. If i cannot pass a written exam, i cannot join the marine corps in this country. I cannotn ill health, join the United States navy and help defend this country. Chairwoman granger and i had a briefing on some critical technological issues. If we dont make an investment as a nation in that cutting edge technology, we are going to be overtaken by some very serious allies adversaries. I am concerned that if we dont holistically,lls we run a risk to the National Defense of our country because of that human infrastructure that would be left behind. I certainly dont disagree with my friend on anything he has to say. I know my chairman would like to get all of these things done because he sees the interrelationship. All dont want to whine afternoon but i have had it with continuing resolution and we are wasting even more money and more time of people at the department of defense. At the department of energy, department of education, by not telling them at the start of the year here is what you have. Go effectively do your job. We are going to spill into next year. We will tell them three or four different times what theyre spending level is. It is wrong. I am sincere and hoping that during this next time period, and as you suggest i agree with you let us come to with thoughtful agreement on a number and let this gentleman and everyone else get theirs job done and do it on time. Could not agree more. Last point of want to make and then i will go to my friend from georgia and then my friend from new york. When we deal with the disaster portion of this, it is good to remember i want to come will let you on this disaster reaches beyond the affected areas. We have a lot of displaced people. I was talking to my friend from pennsylvania. A school he represents has about 1000 displaced children that has rican population. A lot of the folks moved to an area where they have family ties. One of the things i like in this ricanbill is that we have monet aside to help these folks out of the goodness of their hearts are helping their fellow americans in difficult situations. While most of this money will be directed to the immediate areas, we recognize there are ripples that reach out beyond those that impact other communities and we are trying to be helpful. Let me go with my good friend from georgia. Thank you. Thank you both for being here. I want to ask the gentleman from indiana, sometimes we find ourselves in a coaching around here. We often than the republican conference talk about the fullyear dod funding and the accuracy of what you said we are losing money and effectiveness at doe as it relates to energy, doe as it relates to education, ag. It is bad Public Policy period to be operating on c. R. s. We talk about it as there is something particularly pernicious happening at dod where folks cannot stray from the last years funding model. As the resident expert on that, is that part of the neck go chamber or is there Something Different that is worth talking about finding agreement on a school year dod funding it even though we have not been able to find an agreement on a of dod . R i would respond to the gentleman by saying that every agency of the government, the budget for fiscal year 2019 is going to be presented to this body, the house and senate, the first week of february. I would respond to the gentleman by saying that every agency of thethat is about 40 ds after we have returned from the holidays. What are these agencies basing that budget on as towards the end of january we are still on a continuing resolution from the past year . Planning. S effective it again oscillates the flow of money. It wastes money towards the end because for many longerterm agreements and contracts, it inhibits people for making decisions. I am convinced across all 12 bills not so much for major contractors that do good work for this country whether it is building roads for the department of defense. Those smaller businesses that dont have the financial wherewithal to wait until seven months into the year, this answer will be a contract. There is a range of things that are very upsetting. Ability toweaken our effectively govern and also i am convinced waste more money than some of our colleagues think we are saving in this process. Whethercomment you are running a head Start Nutrition program for seniors or working on a major defense contract that provides stealth for aircraft, you need some predictability. You need some stability for the Government Workforce as well as the private sector. This is why we are pushing ahead. I think we ought to push ahead on all 12 bills. The constitutional responsibility is defense but in the end i want all 12 bills across the finish line. I would ask you to share with me. I brag about your collective effort on the Appropriations Committee at every Public Meeting that i have because we are not in the habit of success. It is really hard. I was listening to senators there is no time in the calendar to take up the house bundled appropriations bill. Historically, you had to take up 12 bills and then 12 conference reports. There is room on the counter for 24 different bills but for we have had not bill thesesingle bills these days. Every time we vote on c. R. , i go back home and say exactly what you said today which is it provides us of the bill these bills these days. More time so we can find that agreement. The only explanation i have of what is going to be different next time is if the leadership is required to cut this deal as obviously focused on other things over the past few weeks. Perhaps with those things behind them, they will now be focused on issues that you and i care about. From your perspective, what is going to be different two weeks from now than two weeks ago . I should hope we would have prevented a Government Shutdown for one and we have the money out the door to those areas where people have been suffering. Senate is aon the Different Institution than the house. I always say this because this is live one issue at a time. We need to address multiple issues. Our leadership tried to reestablish regular order this year. We went through all 12 of our bills. It might have been a hellish path. We worked together as republicans and democrats to get things done 90, 100 days ago. I think we have established a pattern for the future for which we should follow. I cannot speak to the senate other than what i have said which i think is pretty accurate. Thank you. To make the gentleman from indianas point, the future is honest as those requests are rolling into the door for next year, just around the corner. If i could just say, you mentioned aggressive oversight that the committee has done. The gentleman from indiana mentioned it in dod as well. No one should be immuned from aggressive oversight and often its said the responsibility of this chamber is to appropriate dollars, it is rarely or at least not often enough coupled with the responsibility of this institution is to appropriate those dollars and to ensure that each and every one of those dollars is spent as responsibly intended. You all have a lot on your plate that continuing resolutions dont make that job any easier. I hope your optimism that one more time will be the last one more time that we have to come and visit the battle line. I thank you both for your collaborative work. It says a good model and encourages the men and women that i serve back home. Mr. Chairman, i yield back. Thank you very much. The gentle woman from new york. Thank you, mr. Chairman and gentleman weve heard this so many times, this is the third cr that weve had this year and you talked about uncertainty but you have to add the chip program, child health insurance, which expiredseptember 30 september 30. The Community Health service expired september 30. Planned parenthoods moneys been taking away from them. This country is not working. It absolutely is not working and its troublesome i think because of three crs and we know the uncertainty is awful but i think the most important thing you want to do is what you did today and i want to report to you that ive just checked dow jones, they just closed 11 minutes ago theyre down 37 points, nasdaq is down 31 points. S p 500 8. 69. You have time to keep that bill from going over the senate and having them work at it tonight and sign it tomorrow. I dont know if this is not a good indication of what youre going to get but the continuing resolutions. We all hear it. We hear it in our districts all the time. I really because i believe what everybody was telling me told my Community Health center one of which is spending enormous amounts of money expanding because they have to. Im very much concerned the middle of the flu season which is awfully heavy this year that childrens insurance is not going to be dealt with. The Defense Department is critical that they know where they are. But as pete pointed out its the same for all of them. Weve really we as somebody said today, if you think what were doing here is Thomas Jeffersons manual or how a bill was passed, were not even close. Were always in an emergency and we are trying to stop gap and maybe put a trying to hold the waterback. This is no way to run a government, not the United States of america. Its pathetic. I think were all depressed and shellshocked over the news every day which comes out of bad news every minute, but lets start a new year and get this with, but this has got to be done. I understand the senate is not bill, am ike this right about that . If some things were not in this bill they would not vote for them, is that right . Do we expect to see you back here on friday or something . Its always fun to see you, ms. Slaughter, whatever the circumstances. [laughter] i hope to only see you once this week. That was pretty sincere. Well, i could sit up here forever but somebodys got to cook the christmas dinner. Im really concerned with about it. This democracy is in peril. I think were quickly losing our reputation in the rest of the world. Were being denigrated. We are no longer a reliable ally. If we cant even do the budget, what use are we . Lets stop embarrassing ourselves and everybody that sent us here and try to get something done but you dont believe the senate is going to pass this, do you . Theres not that expectation but then what . Well see what plan b is. Do you have a plan b . I cant tell you were preparing other resolutions but if i were you, id have one. Seriously. I mean that. Were prepared that we have a very professional staff and obviously checked our notes with your side as well. Obviously we have an obligation to keep the government open for business and we have to meet these needs of people that are suffering from these disasters in horrendous circumstances and well be pushing forward to make sure thats done as quickly as possible. The last shutdown was 16 days, 24 billion went out of this economy by shutting down all the federal facilities where people who owned the little newspaper shops and restaurants in federal buildings, all had to close down. Veteran facilities shutting down. We had five Nobel Laureates working for the federal government at the time and laid off. This is not new. I think we have been slipping here for a while in really how to operate this government. And im deadly serious here. I am very much concerned. Ms. Slaughter, i would simply say and not to beat a dead horse. Im playing the cards that were dealt today. I would never speculate on politics for tomorrow. If theres a new set of cards tomorrow, we will all have to play them but the chairman made an interesting point, no matter what the future holds tomorrow, whether its thursday or friday, or some other future date, our staff will get the job done and do an exceptional job doing it and pull us through until that next date. It is a heck of a way to run the country to make them do that and i would hope getting back to the conversation with the gentleman from georgia is lets its humiliating is what it is. Its really embarrassing. And in this committee we talked about it last night about the process for that bill we passed here today, there wasnt a democrat fingerprint on any piece of legislation even when it went to the conference. It was decided before they went to conference and announced in the press what they were going to do. Obviously everybody on the conference knew it was a sham. We have to stop that. I would like to see the process changed in here but wedo have in here but we do have smart people in this congress and i know we have dedicated people and we can do better than this. If we dont have a plan, i sure hope you get one. Good luck. Gentlemen, i want to say both of you are handling a very difficult issue and you unfortunately are not immuned immune from hearing from members of congress that the rules committee, but i hope that you know just as chairman cole offered his value placed words, you know that we are struggling with you not at you, and i hope you both recognize the difference in that. The gentleman from texas. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Weve all been sitting here a long time. So in the interest of proper circulation i have to stand up every so often and move around. There clearly is a solution to this and that solution does reside over the United States senate and its within their power to end this and i frankly dont understand why it hasnt happened, but there are some important things that were considering today. One of those things is the Disaster Assistance that youve capably put together, although my area in the state of texas was not directly effected, it did effect my state. I feel that very profoundly. I have made two trips to the island of puerto rico on behalf of the energy and commerce kpree Commerce Committee because of the Health Concerns and Energy Concerns over which our committee has jurisdiction and i will say that there was some improvement from the first time to the second time but there is still a massive amount, a massive amount of work that needs to be done. I know my own in my own state there are some who are concerned that this that this is not going far enough but i think, mr. Chairman, you alluded to this is our third our third approach to this Disaster Recovery so there was the immediate replenishment of the of the fema Disaster Assistance funds and then there was a secondary one that followed that and this is now a third look, i am going to assume that because of the magnitude of the problems were up against this is not thelast the last time that well be visiting this, is that correct . Thats correct. Certainly i think florida is going to have ongoing needs. We dont have all the information we need from california but if youre talking about hundreds of thousands of acres and people fighting those fires and the destruction of property, largely private but i assume some public property, and then as you mentioned i had the opportunity to go down tothe go down to puerto rico, theres a lot of misery down there. Potential as you know zika virus, lack of potable water. Human lives are at stake, many lives lost and i think at some point in time were going to have to come back here again to talk with this committee and consult with our colleagues as to what further we need to do to meet the needs of these disaster victims. So let me just allude to the fact that you and i talked yesterday about the problem with the federal map, the territorial share for puerto rico and it does represent a significant obstacle to them and of course theyve discussed that with me. My study of the situation after the storm called katrina was that it took about a year to come up with the funding to offset, in this case, the state portion of that federal match in the state of louisiana. What i had forgotten in that equation and you pointed out to me last night it does require an authorization so ive taken that back to my committee, in fact, you are correct, the authorization between 2005 and 2006 came on the deficit reduction act in at the end of 2005 and the dollars then actually were made available to the state of louisiana at the end of the fiscal year september of 2006. So i think that is, again,thats so i think that is, again, thats information im taking back to my community. We will work on that and i will commit to you that we will get that solved to the limits of our ability. I just want to encourage you. You guys have done a lot of work. Weve done a lot of work, mr. Chairman, as far as delivering 12 appropriations bill for the end of the fiscal year. Quite an accomplishment. Been a long time since that has happened as was pointed out. Its it may not have been perfect or exactly the way you would have drawn it up if you had a free hand but they were delivered. We do need we do need some movement on the other side of the rotunda and its as simple as that. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for the time and i yield back. Thank you very much. The gentleman from massachusetts. Let me begin by saying that my opening rant was not aimed at you. You have to deal with the guise that youre giving and i would argue that the numbers youre giving, the budget numbers youre giving are inadequate for what the needs of the station are. I would say to my colleague from texas, put all the blame on the senate. I would suggest that some of my friends on this side look in the mirror. The bottom line is some of these unreasonable numbers that many in your conference insist on are nonstarters. If you want to keep the government running, you need to be able to get numbers that can pass muster here but also pass muster in the other body and weve known where some of the difficulties are for some time. Weve weve talked about chip, how the offsets are put forward in the chip program, nonstarters and yet with were in the same place over and over and over again, and i get it. You have to deal with deficit hawks in the Freedom Caucus but after todays vote, after what they vote today add to the deficit today with this tax bill that benefits mostly corporations and people who are well off in this country, they should be humbled and maybe now is the time to come together and come up with numbers they can pass muster in the house and senate and lets move forward. Were at the brink again. Its just really frustrating and again i think you both said it. This thing is going well go through the motions here. The senate is going to send something entirely different back to us and well have to deal with that. Moving forward, i think there needs to be some reflection on why there is so much difficulty and maybe and maybe some of the problem lies here in the house with some of the numbers that are being proposed which i think are totally unrealistic. We all want to fund defense. National security in this country is about more than Defense Budget and as you pointed out, we have people that need to be given a good education, to be able to succeed in this country. Even to get into the military. Even with the senior citizens, housing and nutrition programs. Those are allimportant and the idea that somehow were making a decision that theyre not so important i think is the wrong decision to make. Rather than, you know, pointing a finger and putting the entire blame on the other body, there should be some soulsearching, you know, by the leadership of this house and i wish you luck and no need to belabor this point. Were going to go through the motions and deal with this tomorrow and wait and see what the senate does and well be back here in the rules committee hopefully only one more time. I want you to know i admire and respect both of you and the work you do and the appropriators and you have to deal with what is given you. So with that i yield back. Thank you very much and i do appreciate the gentlemans clarification to make sure that both of our witnesses understand that this committee is appreciative of not only thework the work that you do but the constraints that you both live under and that of your staff and i appreciate the gentleman from massachusetts taking time to make sure that our guests today do understand how important they are and that theyre very valuable to the process and we appreciate them enormously so i want to thank you for doing that. The gentleman from alabama. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to add my thanks to all of you and the committee. Ive worked very hard. You produced a good bill in september. You produced a bill in september. The senates done nothing. Now the senate doesnt have to like what we do, they can pass their own version if its different with different numbers and send it to a conference committee. We do conference committees. Thats normal. So i dont think the factthat so i dont think the fact that they dont like our numbers lets them off the hook from doing something. I really appreciate your inclusionship. The First Program was in alabama. I was on the state school board when we adopted it. Im a big believer in chip. Its helped a lot of children in my state. Our state is going to send out notices thatthe chip program is going to be ended. It will start very soon. So because i love the chip program and i think its important id really appreciate that be included. I do want to talk about thecr to talk about the cr from a standpoint of defense. I do not consider it to be defense spending to be like any other spending we have in government. It is the that which not there isnt a country. I have listened as all of us in the Armed Services have listened to the secretary of defense, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, all the heads of the services and many other of our generals and admirals tell us the crs are directly impacting in a major way the readiness of our troops. We had two destroyer incidents this summer. I sat through classified briefings about what happened. Ive read the report and there is no question that our failure to provide money to them on the appropriate basis has impacted in a very negative way theyre their readiness. In one of those hearings we had the mother of one of the dead sailors and to sit in the same room with that woman and have the chiefs and Naval Operations to say the continuing resolution funding of the navy has caused them to have these readiness problems made me sick to my stomach. So before i left home, mr. Chairman, i bought all my christmas presents, i wrapped them, i put them under the tree, i hugged my wife and kids and i said i may not be home for christmas because there are literally thousands and thousands of men and women in uniform in the United States who are not home for christmas either and we continue to let them down when we do these crs. The fact that were doing this cr is not the houses fault. Its the senates failure to do anything and so i like the fact that this bill at least does one thing beyond chip. It funds the defense of this country in the way we can go out and get the readiness our sailors and soldiers need. We shouldve done it in september. We didnt. Waiting one more day really does put them in harms way. I want to thank you for that in this bill. I dont know what theyre going to do with this over in the senate. I never know what theyre going to do with things over in the senate. They dont know. Send it over there and hopefully theyll send something back. Something. Just about anything. And then we can as reasonable people see what we can do to find a way to reach an accommodation with them. I thank you both. I thank the committee but as i make my decision on this bill and perhaps other bills this week, im going to remember that mother of that dead sailor because i dont want to look at any more mothers in the eyes. I yield back. Appreciate the gentlemans comments. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. In the interest of time i echo the sentiments of mr. Mcgovern and the Ranking Member ms. Slaughter. Obviously i thank our two friends. We know how hard they and their staff work to produce a product and we also know how the other body works. But i do want to make one observation, in all the years that im here, democrats in the majority or republicans, we have a holiday syndrome when and whatto legislating we wind up doing just before whatever the holiday is, its christmas this time but it was thanksgiving before or the fourth of july or whenever its a holiday we seem to have our legislative process hung to what is happening. Let me help, mr. Byrne. The senate is going to strip out the defense measure and send it back and well be back here dealing with what we have to deal with. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The gentleman yields back his time. The gentleman from the state of washington, mr. Newhouse. Thank you, mr. Chairman. As one of the newest members. Members of the Appropriations Committee which im very pleased to be able to serve with the fine gentleman from new jersey as our chairman, a fine leader on the other side of the aisle as well as dr. Cole, lots of people to work with and look up to, i was very proud of being able to get all 12 Appropriations Bills across the finish line through the house representatives and over to the senate. To me this seems like normal. We do it every year, right, but thats not the case. This is the first time in a dozen years that that has been accomplished but due to the strong leadership in that committee we were able to do that and thats something that we should be able to follow every single year. As have been said before and not to through our other colleagues under the bus thats where the frustration lies. You they have the vehicle they need in order to get these appropriation this appropriation work done that they could send back to us. Theyve had it for 100 days and here we are at this point before christmas as mr. Hastings pointed out finding ourselves in this particular spot where nobody wants to be. So it is frustrating, even though weve had successes, its frustrating where we are at this point. Im hopeful that we can get this done in the next couple days and do it as responsible a way as possible. Certainly the defense of our country is primary responsibility that we must we must respond to but at this point i just want to say express my appreciation to the members of the Appropriations Committee for doing the work necessary and also express my frustration with our colleagues in the senate and my hope that we can get this done if a timely manner that satisfies the needs of our country but for now mr. Chairman, ill yield back. Thank you very much. I appreciate the gentlemans support for the gentlemen that are before us. The gentleman from colorado. I have no questions for the panel. Ill be testifying later about my amendments. Thank you very much. The gentleman from windsor, colorado, mr. Buck. The gentlewoman from the state of wyoming. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I want to echo some things my colleagues from alabama said. Theres a vast difference between the department of defense and all other Government Agencies and when we force the department of defense to operate under continuing resolution, we are putting our troops at increased risk. When we force the department of defense to operate in a way where they he do not have reliable, dependable funding, particularly in a situation that were in today where were facing grave and growing threats, we are making the mission of our men and women in uniform harder and what that means today, im interested that those on the other side of the aisle are talking about this as though its some kind of a game, that were all playing a game. Its just a game that were sending it over to the senate. Maybe its that i havent been here as long. I do not believe the defenseof defense of this nation is a game and for the house of representatives to do the right thing, which is to say were going to fund defense at the he level it needs to be funded with an appropriations bill that is at the level that this committee with huge effort by the way, its the level that the senate approved, that is our constitutional obligation. We all in this body spend a lot of time frustrated about senate rules. But this is more than that. As we sit here this evening, the dysfunction in the United States senate is putting americas security at risk. And you can say that as republicans, democrats. Im stunned, frankly that every democrat in the United States senate sent a letter over here saying they would rather shut down this government then fund the support of the troops or the military of this nation. That is appalling. So if it is, in fact, the case that your colleagues in the senate on the democrat side of the aisle are going to play a game, that is their game. But when were in a situation where the train wreck that is the senate right now, absolute train wreck, their inability to get anything done is make it easier for our adversaries to close the gap, is increasing the risk that our troops are facing as they work to keep us safe every day. The reality is the only people in this country, the only people on this planet who can protect the United States military, who can make sure they have the resources they need are the people in this body, in the United States house of representatives. And so this isnt a game where we say were going to pull defense out and send it over there. We are doing what is right for this nation. We are doing what is right for our men and women in uniform and if it means that the senate is going to play a game, we dont throw our hands up and say you know what, other continuing resolution lets go again. We stand and we fight and i mean that very seriously. We are the ones that are right now tasked with protecting the men and women in uniform. The men and women who are on the front lines defending us. Only us in this body can make sure they get the resources they need. And if the United States senate wants to play games, if the democrats want to play games, thats their choice. But theyre going to have to stand up and explain to the American People how it is they are not willing to support our men and women in uniform to provide them with what they need to do to keep this nation safe and i absolutely agree, we dont go home. I agree completely with will byrne. We pass this bill, we pass this cr, we pass this appropriations bill and we stay here and we get it right. Because the effectiveness and the reliability and the readiness and the ability of our troops to protect us depends upon that, so i am very grateful for all of the work that you have both done. Youve worked very hard on this. I was very pleased to hear in particular your comments about the damage of a cr and i am very proud of this bill. And you can bet that the vast majority of the people of this nation know that funding the defense of this country is no game and we certainly no its no game. With that i yield back, mr. Chairman. Day in and day out, your attention to detail, your attention to a numerous activities in this body are essential are essential. It was on i was not speaking properly, thank you judge hastings. And i want you to know that we view that we have an important relationship with you and you have not gotten frustrated with us today. Youve accepted our feedback. I hope that whether its mr. Mcgovern or ms. Cheney that you take our feedback that were with you most of all, at a time when our nation needs to see wise Decision Making and cool heads we want to offer our support for you. So thank you very much. The last thing i say is, mrs. Lowly lowie arrived a few minutes ago and was in my office and she said petes doing such a great job im going to watch him on tv so i expect to get a report card on your activities because i guarantee you shes got one on me too. So best of luck, thank you very much and god speed. If youll please remember we have an awesome stenographer here. Is there further amendment or amendments that need to be provided with the knowledge that you and i both know that were in the middle of a vote . I dont know whether to do it now. The gentleman would have to decide if he wants to do that now now. Is there no time on the clock . You tell me how much time you want . I dont need very long but im sure the committee will have questions about my amendment so well do it when we come back. Were going to go ahead and now and move down to the floor. Were going to vote. Were going to be subject to all the literally as soon as we finish the floor well come back. Mr. Chairman . Yes, sir. I just wanted to give you breaking news. Apparently what we passed as the tax measure has violated some of the senate rules and the likelihood is that were going to be here again tomorrow voting on the tax measure. Yes, sir. In fact, thank you very much. Maam . It would lead us back here probably maybe how about if we said if we decide to do this probably at 8 00. Mr. Chairman . If thats what happens here. If i can ask a question, mr. Chairman . The senate has not acted if that happens i would provide another opportunity for me to get some of my amendments in, right . Equal opportunity. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Ill work on the rest of the members of the committee. So what were going to do is now go down and vote and subject to the call of the chair, well be back. Who have amendments and we would then move directly to the first person, that would be the gentleman from colorado. The gentleman is recognized and i will say to you without objection, anything you put in writing the stenographer, it will enable her to properly. Amendment number two which i would say physical page amendment, nice and easy to read. All they would do is reduce the defense spending to conform with President Trumps own budget. House as you outspends billion. Trump by 18 this 18 billion of taxpayer money that President Trump is not
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