Search bar. Now we take you to the u. S. House of representatives. On the agenda, ideal this is like covered on cspan. Live coverage on cspan. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. The chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers rooms, washington, d. C. February 13, 2018. I hereby appoint the honorable mark meadows to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, paul d. Ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 8, 2018, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties. All time shall be equally allocated between the parties and in no event shall debate continue beyond 1 50 p. M. Each member other than the majority and minority leaders and minority whip shall be limited to five minutes. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania missouri, mr. Cleaver, for five minutes. The gentleman is recognized. I cleaver mr. Speaker, rise today to remind my colleagues and the American Public about what is happening to families around this country and why Congress Must enact comprehensive Immigration Reform as quickly as possible. Father of three and husband and chemistry professor from bangladesh who lived in the United States for 30 years. He had overstayed his visa but checking in periodically with immigration and custom enforcement, i. C. E. , that he was told to do. On january 24 as he was getting ready to take his kids to school, i. C. E. Officers pulled up, put him in handcuffs, and arrested him. And chemistry professor from bangladesh who they threatened his children as was talked about this morning on most of the stations. They threatened his children that they, too, would be arrested if they tried to hug him goodbye. He was detained for several weeks without the ability to contact his family and despite his lawyers, the communitys, and my efforts he was set to be deployed yesterday. He was on his way to bangladesh where he probably would have been killed. When an emergency appeal was was released in hawaii but still in limbo. I will be working across party lines with representative jenkins to see a was released i hawaii pathway to citizenship for him and his wife. Im calling on i. C. E. To bring him home to be with his family while the Court Decides this case. Over 96,000 people have signed a petition to stop his deportation. Thank you, mr. Chairman, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Fitzpatrick, for five minutes. Mr. Fitzpatrick thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to recognize the Bucks County Opportunity Council for their commitment to serving members of our community. The Opportunity Council will be offered free income tax preparation assistance to lowincome residents of bucks county through its volunteer income tax assistance program. Trained and certified volunteers will be available in lovetttown, newtown, between february 1 and april 15 to serve as many members of the community as possible. Individuals and families with combined income of 54,000 or less are eligible for assistance through the program. Volume tour tax preparers receive training and need to pass an exam to be certified. Others can assist in support roles such as greeting visitors and scheduling. The program is sponsored by the i. R. S. And supported locally by the bucks county foundation, key bank foundation, and First National bank and trust of newtown. Mr. Speaker, we offer our thanks to the Bucks County Community council for all they do for the community. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. Courtney, for five minutes. Mr. Courtney thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, last tuesday the i. R. S. And department of treasury issued a ruling which was good news for folks who live in North Central and eastern connecticut as well as western massachusetts. In a nutshell what the i. R. S. Did it extended a Property Casualty loss deduction for homeowners who had foundations built over the last 20 years from material from a quarry which contained a metal substance which when exposed to moisture over time spider web cracks, and the houses are subject to full collapse. I have here a photograph which shows, again, a contractor who is repairing one of the foundations of an affected home which shows, again, how fragile the concrete foundation becomes as a result of this condition. So last year the i. R. S. Issued a ruling that said that homeowners no make the repairs, which can cost up to 150,000 to 200,000, you have to lift the house, pull out the old foundation, poor a new one, and relower the house on top of it, would add least be able to get a deduction under an i. R. S. Deduction provision that goes back decades. The Property Casualty loss provision. Which was good news. Unfortunately, the tax bill which was signed into law by petroleump in december, one of its most boneheaded provisions, actually narrowed the scope of the Property Casualty loss to only those property cases which happened in an area thats been declared a federally disaster. Which, again, because this so far fema has ruled is the result of a manmade 3r0d, concrete, does not call product, concrete, does not qualify. Thankfully we have some outstanding people at the i. R. S. , assistant secretary of the treasury, who, again, looked at the tax bill that was signed into law and basically issued the ruling on tuesday that allows at least for the next three years homeowners to claim this deduction. Again using an amended return for 2017, as a way of getting the full benefit before the tax bill steps in in 2020 and eliminates this avenue of relief. Again, this is a provision which never belonged in the tax bill. Affects a much broader Cross Section of americans, not just folks from homes with crumbling foundations who are not in declared disasters. I know that members on the house ways and means committee, particularly congressman richie neal, are very focused in terms of trying to fix this harmfulle provision that provides almost zero tax savings to the affects section of americans, federal budget but causes huge harm to homeowners like the ones in connecticut in western massachusetts. Again, congressman neal, congressman larson, and myself have been working with the i. R. S. Over the last 19 months to get this safe harbor for homeowners to be able to get the benefit of this provision. I want to thank the folks at i. R. S. And treasury for their ruling on tuesday that at least allowed another threeyear window for people who are totally innocent victims who, because of the Way Insurance policies are structured, cannot in most instances, get Property CasualtyLoss Coverage for this type of loss to at least be able to soften the blow with a deduction. Mr. Speaker, included in the bipartisan budget agreement which passed at 5 00 in the a ing last friday, was provision which again a provision which again did not receive a great deal of attention but actually will provide a great deal of relief. Particularly for americas seniors. In particular it reduced and narrowed the size of the doughnut hole for seniors who use the Medicare Part d Prescription Drug program. As many may recall, in 2003, when the medicare Prescription Drug benefit was first created, it had a doughnut hole that basically said that seniors who signed up for Medicare Part d after 2,000 of benefits for Prescription Drugs covered under the law would then have o pay a full 100 deductible Prescription Drug costs reached 5,000. It was like buying a car, making a monthly payment, and then after 2000 miles having to and walk for the and walk for 3,000 miles until you hit the trigger for the doughnut hole coverage. K in for when we coverage. When we passed the Affordable Care act in 2010, we start add process of narrowing that doughnut hole, again, by 50 in year one, it was again up to 35 in 2017, and the bill that passed on friday night will actually do the final step to eliminate the doughnut hole entirely in 2019. Then really impressive part of that provision is, its not going to be that narrowing will not be paid for by the taxpayer. The pharmaceutical companies are the one who is have to bear the brunt of narrowing that cost so seniors will have huge savings in the scope of thousands of dollars because of that provision. Again this is an example of where the bipartisan work that was done on that budget bill actually resulted in a very concrete, tangible benefit for americas seniors. Again i think that will be welcome news for those who have the high cost of Prescription Drugs. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1rks the chair declares the the cspan bus is traveling across the capitals. We stopped in montgomery, alabama. Being here in the birthplace fert civil rights movement, montgomery, alabama, the most important issues to me is equal for all people. We cant just talk about this every february in black History Month but we have to live it every day of the year. So we have to do more to build bridges. A famous educator in alabama, booker t. Washington, once wrote there are two ways to exert ones power. One is pushing down and one is pulling up. Lets start pulling people up. An important issue is the lack of jobs here in montgomery in alabama but especially in montgomery. People are graduating from different colleges whether it be in montgomery or the surrounding areas and they are coming maybe home looking for a job and theres really no job here. Everybody you need more than just a College Degree to get a job and i think its hindering a lot of people because a lot of people dont have the Financial Aid to keep going to school or a Higher Learning education, Something Like that, so they dont have the money to get the Higher Education and they cant find a job with just the average College Degree. We have been fighting common core for seven, eight years and we still have it here in alabama and we fight that every single year with a new bill and we want to get rid of it. In the state of alabama, i believe, is racial inequalities and justice reform. I think that here in the state we still have rhetoric in our constitution that is representative of a time that has long passed and i think having discriminatory language in the document that governs a Diverse Group of people is very outdated and it limits peoples powers, the disenfranchisement, the way Law Enforcement interacts with the citizens across the state. I think those things need to be addressed so we can have the gap within the disparities and inequalities within the Justice System here in alabama. Those can kind of close and eventually not even exist. The important issue for me is the cost of college education. I feel as if everyone should have equal opportunity to go to college and get the same amount of money to go to college to support themselves because some people may be first time going to college, maybe the first time in their family and i feel like the government should take on responsibility and give them more money than the lack of money they have been giving us for years. I feel like thats an important issue in alabama. Voices from the states on cspan. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Isit ncicap. Org] attorney general Jeff Sessions yesterday spoke at the National SheriffsAssociation Winter meeting in washington. He outlined the trump administrations Law Enforcement priorities such as combating transnational crime and gangs such as ms13 and so