The speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 228, the nays are 164. The bill is passed. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition . Thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Scalise i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for inquiring of the majority leader the schedule of next week. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Scalise thank you. I also ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Scalise with that, id be happy to yield to my friend, the gentleman from maryland, the majority leader of the house. Mr. Hoyer i thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, on monday the house will meet at 12 00 p. M. For legislative business. Members are vezzed that votes are expected are advised that votes are expected as early as 2 00 p. M. I want to repeat. That were going in at 12 00, votes can be as early as 2 00 approximately 2 00 p. M. This is unusual for the first day of the week. I have advised and urge members to stay here this weekend. Most of them that ive talked to are because clearly we are trying to get two critical pieces of legislation done. Which we will speak to, i think, in a little bit. On tuesday and wednesday, the house will meet at 10 00 a. M. For morning hour debate and 12 00 p. M. For legislative business. On thursday, the house will meet at 9 00 a. M. For legislative business. I want to advise members that we still have to pass an omnibus and we have to pass a covid19 relief bill. We will not adjourn the congress until such time as we can accomplish those two objectives. I was hopeful wed accomplish those objectives by next thursday. Unfortunately, things are not moving as rapidly as i think they ought to. Id like them to, but as they ought to be moving. So that members need to be advised they need to keep their schedules very, very flexible until such time as we pass both of those pieces of legislation. We will in addition consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspensions will be announced by the close of business today. I want to Say Something further on suspensions. Somebody said oh, were not passing important bills. Thats not accurate. Somehow, when we have agreement, its not looked at as important. On suspensions, it mean we was agreement between the parties that we can pass those bills because theyre bipartisan and the overwhelming majority of members agree on them. We are passing bills that are good bill bus not controversial. And thats a good thing. We will consider several bills under suspensions as i said, the complete list will be available at the close of business today. The house will consider fiscal year 2021 National Defense authorization act conference report. Im pleased that we have a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on ndaa and look forward to overwhelmingly passing both hambers next week. Im hopeful that we will come together on this bill, it was a tough conference but a Good Conference and the result i think can be supported by both sides of the aisle. Signed obviously by the Senate Republican chairman and our as members know, the current continuing resolution expires on december 11. Therefore the authority for spending to keep government running will expire on the 11th. The appropriate Committee Appropriations committee is hard at work on reaching an agreement on an omnibus and i hope to bring that to the floor as early as possible. Im hopeful that will be next week. Frankly, i had a discussion with senator mcconnell, im told there is no agreement that we can not make on the 11th that will be easier to make on the 18th. Which is the end of the following week. I would urge members, however, to ensure that they are available for the week of the 14th. If we have not completed our business by next week. The house may also consider additional legislation to address the coronavirus pandemic, as ive already said. The house has passed two different heroes bills. Mr. Speaker, we passed a bill on may 15, six months ago, to deal with this extraordinary crisis placing millions of americans at risk. Causing deep emotional and physical distress. And a challenge not only to their health, but also their psychological welfare and to educating our children and keeping our schools safe and providing the resources necessary that if we can get children back in school, which i think all of us want to do, that we can accomplish that bjective. The house also passed on october 1, two months ago, a 2. 2 trillion bill. That was not taken up by the senate. The senate has passed no egislation since may 15. It did not consider our bill either time, either the heroes 1 or heroes 2 blill. Unfortunately in my view that senate unfortunate that the Senate Republicans failed to act even if they condition act on what we wanted to do. Im pleased, ive spoken with Senate Leaders and im hopeful we can get an agreement. The house stands ready to act next week. Lastly, as everybody understands when you get to the end of a session, you dont contemplate everything that might be on the agenda so other pieces of legislation may be on the agenda next week or the week thereafter. Again, i want to reiterate. Im very hopeful that we could get this Business Done by next week. The reason i scheduled, mr. The c. R. He 11th as day is i wanted to make sure we could get members home. The covid crisis, the pandemic, is has exploded. Members ought to be not aggregating here on the house floor or aggregating in washington, they ought to be home and if we got out on the 11th, i want to get through on the 10th so we can send a bill to the senate. However, if we left on the 11th it will be 14 days before christmas. And therefore if members leaving washington had to quarantine themselves, they would have sufficient time to do so, so that they could be with their families on christmas day. I would hope that everyone on the appropriations committee, leadership, myself included, would feel the urgency of passing this needed legislation. I thank the gentleman for ielding. I thank the gentleman. I mr. Scalise i thank the gentleman. It is my understanding that the floor director for the majority leader, i dont want to embarrass her here on the house floor. It is my understanding that she may be leaving. Mr. Hoyer it is a vicious rumor. Mr. Scalise i would be happy to yield to her if she wants to deny the rumor. If this is the last time we do this colloquy before the end of the year, it has been a pleasure o work with shwanza. The u. S. A. Cares act comes to mind as a major piece of legislation this body has done together, republicans an democrats, shes that conduit who works with our staff on the republican side and weve considered it a true joy to work with her. She doesnt schedule every bill i ask her to schedule but ill blame that on the majority leader, not on her. If i can in all seriousness say that, it has truly been a treat. Shes one of the people who makes this place work when it does work. We can think about the things we would like to achieve, but there are many important things we achieve like that piece of legislation and many others that dont get the same kind of attention but they wouldnt happen without the work and great leadership that she has demonstrated here. She will be missed here. But i just wanted to mention that. I know the gentleman feels probably Even Stronger because shes worked for you for, i think, the whole time ive been in leadership, but maybe going back to 2008. I yield back. Mr. Hoyer would the gentleman yield . Mr. Scalise i yield to the gentleman. Mr. Hoyer im hope they feel gentleman is right and we dont have a colloquy next week that well have completed our business as i have been talk talking about. I have been blessed, the house has been blessed, the country has been blessed by her leadership on my behalf and the majoritys behalf working closely with the minority. I know that she would want me to say that she looks forward to the same kind of cooperation in her new job shes gotten in her old job and if the gentleman wants to assure her of that, i will yield to him. Mr. Scalise ill give this assurance, if youre looking for a replacement, i would be happy to make recommendations and offer replacements. Mr. Hoyer the gentleman is most joan rouse. Mr. Scalise im sure the jeb rossity ends there. I do want to pass that on to her and not just on behalf of myself, but on behalf of the minority leader, mr. Mccarthy, his staff, as well as mine. And all of us in leadership who get to work with her. With that, i do want to mention on the schedule next week, one of the items that i know we have worked on together and talked about that i believe the gentleman has scheduled for next week is s. 578, which is the a. L. S. Disability insurance access act, something we worked on a number of these items for people with a. L. S. , the Steve Gleason act was one of those items we worked on a few years ago, passed to help people with a. L. S. And has been a tremendous, tremendous benefit to people struggling with a. L. S. Steve gleason a constituent and dear friend, somebody weve worked with on many things, he received earlier this year, years ago seems like, but just january of this year, was the recipient of the congressional gold medal, deservedly so. But he and i were communicating earlier this week about this legislation which im a cosponsor of. I want to thank the gentleman for schedules that for the floor next week. One of those areas as you were talking about earlier, may in the get a lot of attention but an issue that both republicans an democrats worked on to help people with a. L. S. Who right now under current law even after the diagnosis with a. L. S. As we know is just a devastating diagnosis, have to wait five months to get the normal benefits that they are entitled to and in time and time is very, very critical to people with a. L. S. , and the limb nates that fivemonth gap where they would have to act. One of those additional occasions where it takes an act of congress to fix this and the senate acted and quickly now the house will be acting to address this deficiency that needs to be fixed, i think youll see both sides come together with a very large vote but i want to thank the gentleman for scheduling that for the floor next week. I would yield if he had anything to add on that. Mr. Hoyer i was pleased to schedule this. Obviously as you know, it passed the senate the other day. And hopefully we will pass it on suspension next week and it will be sent to the president , hopefully the president will sign it. Obviously a. L. S. Is a terrible, terrible disease and a disease that acts very, very quickly, which meant theres a premium on the governments response to assisting people with a. L. S. Be quick as well. It provides for acceleration for people who are suffering from and afflicted with a. L. S. To get assistance. Hopefully the house will pass it and well send it to the president. I appreciate the gentlemans cosponsorship of the bill. I yield. Mr. Scalise i thank the gentleman for yielding. As relates to the schedule next week as well as the schedule weve had this week. I want to bring up a piece of legislation weve talked about here at this colloquy and in other venues for months now and that is the bill by congressman schaap, h. R. 8265, the Paycheck Protection Program extension act. Weve seen over these last few months our Small Businesses have struggled tremendously. Some industries have done better during this pandemic, where theyve seen increased sales for various reasons but weve mostly seen and herd from so many of those businesses and industry that was been devastated. Some harder than others but so many devastated to the point of bankruptcy. Daily we see stories of businesses that close their doors for good. And in the state of new york alone it was reported that a third of all Small Businesses, a third, will never open again. And when we came together to do the cares act, to pass that lifeline to so many Small Businesses, save probably 50 million jobs in america, save millions of Small Businesses, but it expired. When it expired, we learned a lot more about where our economy was at that time. When we passed it it was at the beginning of the pandemic. We now saw over those month which is businesses were doing better, which werent. And came back in september with a piece of legislation that would free up money thats not going to have to be borrowed, money thats sitting in that account, frozen, 137 billion, that we already appropriate bud the program expired. So it cant be used anymore unless we change the law. So were not talking about creating a new program. Were talking about going back to a program that was maybe one of the most successful things we have done to help people in need, not just Small Businesses but the millions, 50plus Million People whose livelihoods depend on those jobs. And the bill was brought forward, had a lot of bipartisan interest, but for various reasons hasnt been scheduled on this house floor. And there were reports that maybe it was tied to waiting on the election or whatever other things. In fact the speaker of the house just today made a comment that one of the reasons that bill, a certain relief package bill wasnt brought to the house floor is because she was waiting on, quote, a new president. I hope that was a quote that was made out of context. Or maybe needs to be revised. But there are millions of people that are literally facing elimination of their livelihoods. And we have a bill that if it was put on the floor today, yesterday, september, when we first had this conversation, there would be hundreds of thousands of businesses still hope today that are now bankrupt that will never open again. Every day we wait more businesses dont reopen. Clearly we are negotiating to try to get an agreement on bigger issues. Were not there. We werent there last month. We werent there the month before. The senate has tried to take up votes on things. It wasnt the republicans, it was the democrats that blocked those bills from coming up. This by the way was one of those in the package that would have been voted on by the senate, if not for Senate Democrats blocking even the debate on the senate floor, so they never had that debate. On on this floor, just today we saw a bill to legalize marijuana. You saw items in there where it would give additional money to people in the marijuana industry. Now, this is something that congress im sure will continue to debate. But theres a pandemic where today we have businesses that are shutting their doors. Tomorrow businesses will go bankrupt forever. Small businesses. And we can with help them. Not with the new and we can help them. Not with the new details we need to negotiate the details over but something that we already did that was so highly successful. That we have a track record to show what it can do. Our small banks, local Community Banks were part of that process. And are ready to go again. Again, we dont need to reinvent the wheel here. This is an existing program that has existing remaining money but the program is frozen and expired and this bill just renews it. And could pass on the suspension calendar and still hasnt been brought up. And while were negotiating other things, why not release this hostage and let this bill pass . Could have been done today. Wasnt a lack of time. When were debating legalizing marijuana instead of saving Small Businesses, that is a misplaced priority of this congress. We should have come together months ago. September 16 it was introduced. September 17, i brought it up to the majority leader at this colloquy. The following week, brought it up again. And then we filed the discharge petition. You had 23 democrats sign a letter saying they would sign that discharge petition if we didnt get a bipartisan agreement. Recognizing that the heroes act is not a bipartisan agreement. Unfortunately not one of those members who signed the letter saying that they would sign the ischarge have signed it. Livelihoods are being lost, businesses are shuttering for good. Why cant this bill be scheduled for the floor . Why dont we work on the other things were not in agreement on, this is something were in agreement on. But it wont be scheduled for the floor. Maybe, maybe we can get an agreement to schedule that monday when were coming in at 2 00 to vote on other items. This would be something that would get 400plus votes. If it was just scheduled. I would yield to the gentleman. Mr. Hoyer i thank the gentleman for his observations. He is right. Were for this. Were also for making sure that children have food on their tables. Were also supportive of making sure that education facilities have the money to keep their venues safe and to keep education flowing. Were also in support of making sure child care is available so parents can go back to work whenever their children go back to school. Were also, for were also for having critical money for testing and tracing and for delivering the vaccination. And, yes, were for that and were also for states and localities that are hemorrhaging revenue, have the resources to continue to be on the front line of fighting the battle against covid19. And we are also for resources not only to have created the vaccine, which much of which, almost all of which is being funded by the federal government, we are also for making sure we can deliver that vaccine. And have a vaccination as well as having a vaccine. We are for, very strongly, the extraordinary number of helping the extraordinary number of unemployed who are on Unemployment Insurance and who, at the end of this month, are going to find it goes away. And we are for having additional enhancement of that Unemployment Insurance, which so many economists will tell you, from the cares bill, was absolutely essential to keep the economy afloat. And the fact that we have kept the economy afloat is shown by the apparently the stock market thinks were ok. But the millions and millions and millions of families who are in deep distress are not ok. I am appalled by the fact that we have not acted. Weve acted twice. You say it wasnt partisan. Thats true. You chose not to vote for it. It wasnt much different than the cares bill. Which you did vote for. But apparently shortly after we passed the heroes bill, your leader, mr. Mccarthy, said, lets wait and see what happens. And senator mcconnell said, let the states go bankrupt. Well, theyre on that road. And weve seen what happened by waiting. We have thousands of our fellow citizens dying every week. Thousands. Now over 260,000 americans. Millions afflicted. So i tell my friend, mr. Speaker, that we care about p. P. P. And we took care of it. In both bills we passed. Now, it wasnt a question that they were partisan or not partisan. They werent taken up in the United States senate. We passed them. They were not taken up. Yes, the Senate Leader offered a bill that every economist with whom ive talked said was not substantive enough, not sufficient resources to stop the hemorrhaging and to help fight covid19. So i tell my friend, were for that bill. Hat were not for is forgetting the kids, the hospital workers, the researchers, the states, the localities, were not for forgetting them. And we believe that if we pass one part of a multifaceted response to covid19 and the implication for our economy, that will not be what our economy nor our people need. So, we would ask you to talk to the senate or to offer your own bill. Offer your own bill. Offer your own bill that deals with all of those millions of people that i just referenced that are in deep, deep distress. Because we need to deal with the Small Businesses and we do. We need to deal with the unemployed and we do. We have a lot of things expiring on december 31. P. P. P. , your bill does not deal with any of that. We need to deal with all of it. We ought to do it. And that ought to be, mr. Chabots bill ought to be a part of that. And it will be. Because were committed to that. But were also committed to not forgetting all of those people and elements that i mentioned. I want to help the airlines. And hopefully that will be in any deal that we come to. I want to help the restaurants. Are, are people who through no fault of their own, devastated. So i tell my friend, he is right. But only partially so. He is right that we ought to be helping the Small Business. But i dont think theres a Small Business man in america that would say, let the nutrition issue go. As we sigh lines of cars see lines of cars and lines of people getting food boxes so they can put food on their table for their kids and themselves. People who would never, ever expect in their lives to be in a food line. I think Small Businesses would say, take care of them. I think the Small Businesses would say, i havent been able to pay taxes and i know the ates still operating, hospitals are still operating, its hiring police and fire and nurses and public hospitals, they need help too. And were all in this together. So thats my response to the gentleman. Mr. Speaker. We want to have a comprehensive bill that will deal with a comprehensive threat to our economy and to the health of our people and to the welfare of our people. We think thats the responsible thing to do. So, im hopeful we can get an agreement in the near term and when i say the near term, by next week. And ive been talking to senator mcconnell toward that end. The speaker is talking to senator mcconnell toward that end. Senators are working on an effort to get that done. Im hopeful theyre successful. The speaker and mr. Schumer said it was a place that they could negotiate from which means were closer than we have been and i hope it gets done. I yield my time. Mr. Scalise let me remind the gentleman that in the cares act, we addressed many of those issues that the gentleman already brought up. Starting with the states. In fact, i dont know of a single state in this country who has spent all the money we sent them. Educational opportunities for schools to reopen safely and educate kids are being denied in some places but not in others. But its not from a lack of money. Theres not a Single School system ive heard from who says, my state, where we sent them the money, and by the way, they still have millions and in some case billions of those dollars sitting in their account, idle, that can be used today to safely reopen schools. If the state choose not to do it, or the chooses not to do it or if the School System chooses not to do it, thats on them. But theyre denying those kids opportunities. And were seeing report after report, scientific study, the American Academy of pediatrics talking about the damage thats being done to our Young Children by being denied the opportunity to go back to school in classroom and learn. Its devastating to those kids. Suicides are up. Opioid abuse is up. Because of all of these things. And its the psalm small billses who are and its the Small Businesses who are paying the biggest price. If you look, people that are getting Unemployment Insurance at the state level, we did enhanced uninsurance for a period of time. And in most cases we were paying people more money not to work than they were making before they lost their job. What they asked me is not that they want to stay on unemployment, they want to go back to work. They want their business to be alive when they go back to work. But if a Small Business closes for good, the cost to us is going to be dramatically higher. If we can right now throw that lifeline again to those businesses, not with a new program, not with things that we dont agree on, like 900 billion to bail out failed states which is the heroes act, we already spent hundreds of billions of dollars that we gave to states. And like i said, i think every single state still has some of that money left. Some have billions of dollars of that money left. So the idea that were going to hold up relief to Small Businesses who are closing every day, hundreds of thousands, 1 3 of every Small Business in the state of new york are gone for good. How many more need to die before this problem is recognized by this congress . So those states are sitting on money and the gentleman wants to hold up their relief for the Small Businesses to give another 900 billion to bail out states, not for the covid damage, but for the problems they had before. That was what the heroes act disagreement was about. We agreed on giving states money. They still have some of that money. And it can be used to reopen schools safely, still today. What is not there right now is relief for those Small Businesses. So when you look at all of these Different Things, the vaccine, theyre not waiting on approving a vaccine based on more money coming in. We put money in the cares act and President Trump spent it effectively on operation warp speed to get us to a point where we have two, not one, but two major pfizer, moderna, ready to go. F. D. A. s about to approve two different vaccines and its being mass produced today. Were not waiting on money to mass produce it. The Defense Department is actually involved in helping distribute it. Airlines have already been contracted to get it out. Some need to be air conditioned more than others. All thats put in place. If we need more money, well come together and get more money but a vaccine isnt waiting on us to send them more money. We need to get it out, we need the f. D. A. To follow their process. Which theyre doing. Theyre the Gold Standard in the world for approving vaccines. And its unheard of in the history of mankind for a virus that we didnt even know of until a year and two days ago in the world to now be on the brink of not one but two f. D. A. Approved vaccines. Thats happening because of what we did coming together with the cares act and then President Trumps operation warp speed. So these arent items that are waiting on our relief. What is waiting is relief for Small Businesses. Now, the heroes act, again, it was a partisan exercise, not because it was most like the cares act. It was very different from the cares act. In the heroes act, there are billions of dollars in that bill to give checks to people here illegally. That wasnt part of any agreement. Wasnt in the cares act. Thats new policy thats not going to be signed into law. And if you want to negotiate and hold Small Businesses hostage on that, we may never get relief for Small Businesses. But that was one of the items in the heroes act where we had no agreement. But the areas where we had agreement, can we at least agree to pass the things we have agreement on . And what did we have more agreement on anything, p. P. P. Every day we hear from Small Businesses who say they wouldnt be alive today if not for the p. P. P. But we also hear from Small Businesses every day who are about to close. Some states are talking about shutting their whole state down again. We know that will lead to businesses that will never come back. We have a bill ready to go that would get massive bipartisan support without a new dime of money, money sitting frozen in an account, the criteria is you have to have at least 25 loss. Small businesses that are doing well today, we know there are some doing better, but we know some that are about to close for good. We can help them. Not with new policy that were not in agreement on. Thats where the negotiations are continuing to go back and forth on. But if theres something we all agree on, do we really need to hold that hostage when that means that many of those businesses will never come back. We could have done this in september. It was brought up in september. Its not a new item. How many thousands of businesses died from the day that bill was introduced until today and will die again between now and monday . It can be put on the schedule monday. There are other things that were both in agrement on that arent part of that bill. Bring that as a standalone. Lets bring each of those items that were not in agreement on but the idea that we hold everything hostage to things that arent going to happen, hundreds of billions to failed states, giving checks to people that arent here legally. Is that a priority . Is that the things were getting called on every tai . The folks on unemployment want to be able to go back to their job. Their job. If the company is dead and gone therell be nothing to go back to. So were working on so many items that were in agreement on. Weve given given money to Health Expert tots continue to focus on the virus, to continue to get the vaccine. We may have another two, could be four, vaccines by the end of the year. Thats something we ought to applaud. Its because of something we did when we came together. Heres an area where we came together, it was so successful but that money now is frozen. Those businesses that did well are still doing well. The ones that arent will or will not be alive in a month from now base odden based on whether or not we confront. This its not new policy. Its something we already agreed on, something we celebrated as a success. Lets do that one more time while we negotiate on the things were in disagreement with. I would just suggest that and yield to the gentleman. Mr. Hoyer i thank the gentleman for suggesting that. I didnt hear him talking about the children who are having trouble getting food on their tables every morning and every evening. I didnt hear him talking about the unemployed, 12 million American Workers who are going to run out of unemployment as of the end of this month. I didnt hear i did hear him alk about the failed states. Let me tell you, maryland is not a failed state. And our governor is a republican. His name is hogan. Is father served in this body. He, along with mr. Cuomo, the governor of new york, said the states, meaning all the states, need a substantial assistance or theyre going to have to make substantial cuts and in my state we have made cuts. And were a wealthy state. Weve made cuts, which have undermined the states ability to respond as robustly as they need to do to covid19. Now the president talked about failed states. What he means is blue states, mr. Speaker. Thats what he means. Large states like new york. Like california. But by the way, florida and texas are in the same position. Now texas has a greater surplus. But failed states. Is a fake news item. Mr. Speaker. What we should do is come together and have an agreement. Now we can pass something here and we did pass something here. The republicans chose to join us, mr. Speaker, on the first three bills. One was a . 3 billion bill responding to 1. 2 trillion, or 2. 2 trillion the president asked for. Four times as much as the president asked for. In terms of what weve done that seems like small potatoes. A lot of money. But it was clear that the administrations response to this crisis was woefully inadequate. Represented by that first bill that they send to us. Knowing full well it would not even come close to meeting the needs. We increased it about 400 . Then we negotiated. The speaker negotiabilitied with mr. Mnuchin and came up with two additional bills that were passed in a bipartisan fashion. And very frankly, the president told us this was about to go away. Not to worry. Its going to go away. Go away tomorrow, maybe. Or maybe next week. Its going to go away when the weather gets warm. And mr. Fauci, dr. Fauci, said no, mr. President , that wont happen. And so essentially the president dismissed mr. Fauci, dr. Fauci, as principal advisor. Thankfully, mr. Biden, president elect biden, will bring him back as the principal advisor. One of the great experts in the rld on vaccines and on infectious diseases. So im somewhat frustrated that we focus on one facet, but i will tell you if theres if theres 12 Million People who become unemployed without additional assistance, they wont have money to spend on Small Businesses. If those states dont have dont have enough to operate properly, that will hurt Small Businesses. If the Transportation System faulters, itll hurt Small Businesses. My point is, mr. Speaker, that we are, you know, e pluribus unum, out of many one. We are a nation reliant upon one another. And the harm to one results in the harm to the other. Therefore, we believe that there ought to be a comp rehence i piece of legislation, as there was overwhelmingly supported. But the republicans after cares, and when we passed the heroes 15,in may, passed it on may they thought everything was hunky dory and they walked away. Mr. Mcconnell said the states can go bankrupt. Think of what that would have had the the consequence that would have had. We gay them some money under cares. Nobody, when we voted on cares, thought we would be where we are today. Nobody. Except dr. Fauci. And some other experts, scientists, medical personnel. Said look, this thing will come back. Thats what happens with these pandemics. They have original assault, then they come back and they came back with a vengeance. People are losing their lives. And the failure to pass a comprehensive bill, we agree, we want to help these Small Businesses. And heroes 1 helped Small Businesses, heroes 2, you didnt vote for those, you said they were partisan. Im not sure what was partisan about them. They were no more partisan than the cares act was partisan they feel difference was, very frankly, mr. Speaker, the republicans decided they were going to vote for cares and then they decided weve done enough. And weve been twisting in the wind now for six months. Since we passed heroes. I dont want to make a speculation of how many hundreds of thousands or tens of thousands or lives may have been saved. Had we passed hero 1s. Or we enact mutched or he wad or we had acted much sooner out of the administration. Im hopeful we can get rid of all this, who did it, i did it, you did it, and come to grips in the next seven days, maybe 14 days, but seven days, theres no reason why we cant come to an agreement. Theres a Bipartisan Group in the United States senate, republicans and democrats, who have come up with a bill, 908 billion. Now thats a lot of money. But what they tried to do is deal with all the issues that i have raised. And they do. Maybe not as much as i think we ought to do. Maybe not as specifically targeted as i think. But it is a basis for agreement. I hope the Senate Passes it. I hope they pass it next week. And send it over to us. And i guarantee you when they send it over to us, well act on it. We wont leave it sit as heroes 1 and hero 2s have sat in the senate for six months or two and a half months. We wont let it sit. Why . Because the country is at risk. Our people are at risk. Our children are at risk. Our families are at risk and as you so correctly pointed out, mr. Speaker, our businesses are at risk, he is absolutely right, we need to act. But if we only act on Small Businesses and we dont take care of the other problems, the Small Businesses ultimately will not be able to survive either. Ere in this together. We do not have a policy on this side of the aisle saying youre on your own, chin. Youre on your own, unemployed. Youre on your own, states, localities, municipalities, small town, small counties. Youre on your own. Thats not our policy. Were in this together. We want to help all of those in distress. So i dont know that ill have anything more to say on this particular item but i am appreciative of mr. Chabots bill. I hope that his bill is included and i hope that we can pass something next week. To help all of those in deep distress. That would be good for our country. Its the right thing to do its the moral thing to do. And i hope we do it. I will facilitate it when we get to an agreement. I thank the gentleman. Mr. Scalise i thank the gentleman too. In terms of our children, we know sending them back to school safely, the protocols are out there. Child nutrition programs are administered in our schools. Thats not happening because the kids are in those systems where theyre not safely reopened, those kids arent able to get the school lunches. Mr. Hoyer will the gentleman yield on that point . I dont know about your School System but my School System is still providing for meals for kids either as a pickup at the school or delivery at some site. So because that is a critical problem. But they need money to do that and we know that food banks are stretched and we need to deal with that program. Thats my point. Its not just Small Business. The nutrition program. I just want to clarify that in my School Districts we are delivering meals. Not with standing the fact that schools are shut down. And let me Say Something else ust as an aside, three of my notties have a majority, if unanimous, county commissioners who are all republican. They have all voted to keep the School Systems virtual. As have my other counties. I represent five counties, essentially, or parts thereof. Theyve all voted, hearing from parents, teachers, and perhaps some students, theyre all virtual. Theyll need as much money to continue virtallity as they will to get kids back in school. They need extra resources to do that. And the 908 billion bill thats agreed upon, or proposed by a bipartisan consensus has money in that bill. For those programs. I yield. Mr. Scalise those schools already have access to the 150 billion that they havent even already spent. If i gave you money to do something and you havent used all that money, you cant use that as an excuse for not doing it when you still have money remaining. I agree on the school lunch program, the thing is, we dont give a supplement to schools in normal times. These are not normal times. But in normal times schools feed kids at lunch with the existing budgets they have. They dont wait for us to send extra money to them to feed the kids. If theyre not educating the kids in the classroom, theyre still taking that money. I havent seen them rebate the money to those families in those communities so what are they doing with that money . And so if theres money, if you bring the kids back and educate them safely in the classroom which the protocols allow for in any community, high risk, low risk if youve got a high outbreak, theres different ways to handle each community, c. D. C. Has given that guidelines, academy of pediatrics have given the guidelines, some School Systems have chosen not to follow them and to leave the kids at home. But theyre still taking the money. Theres never been a better argument for School Choice and letting parents choose if one School System is willing to educate their kids safely and the other is not why shouldnt you be able to take that money and send your kid to the place thats willing to do it safely for you. Its not a question of the money, its a question of the will to do it. When we talk about those businesses and what was in the cares act and what one, the cares act is not the heroes act. The gentleman knows some of the differences. ll letting thousands and unknown number of thousands of criminals out of prison. I have never gotten a straight answer how many thousands of criminals would be let out of prison or why that needs to be in the covid relief package and not in the cares act. And we are in disagreement. Why it hasnt been dropped out, who knows. Again sending direct checks, billions of dollars indirect checks to people who are here illegally is not in the cares act but should be dropped out. And in terms of the Small Businesses, the Small Businesses re dying on the vine because some states are giving mixed signals, changing rules, going backward, forward, in states of california, you can operate as a liquor club or strip club, but not as a church. The Supreme Court stepped in and said that is ludicrous and go to other states, for safety protocols, you have to shut down and cant go to a restaurant and the governor of a state at a restaurant without a mask. You see mayors telling businesses they cant stay open or its not safe to have thanksgiving with your family and find out they are flying to other states to have thanks giving with their families. This hypocrisy telling you you have to live one way and living their lives a different way and hiding behind protocols that dont exist, that is driving people nuts. The businesses are dying. It is not isolated. I which it was never going on. But it is over and over again, yesterday and today, a local leader or governor telling you you cant do something and theyre doing it. They didnt think they were going to get caught. My god, thats going to end. The hypocrisy has to end. Working with the protocols with the experts and the scientists but dont use a scientist selectively and Say Something that is not true because you are doing it. It is driving people nuts and driving their businesses under. They will never come back. Those families that are struggling, the kids that are going to have trouble eating are having that trouble eating because the businesses that their families worked out are being bankrupted by crazy radical policies. Some of the stuff i mentioned we are not in agreement ought to get drpped out. But dont hold them hostage. Lets bring those things that we agree onto the floor and save the businesses that we can because every day we dont, more will never come back. I would yield to the gentleman. Mr. Hoyer i just want to say, you know, this business about illegals getting money, let me give you an example. Have a husband and a wife and three children living in an apartment. The husband does not have authorization to be here. And what the bill provided that the gentleman talks about is making sure we feed those children even though somebody who is illegal living in the household. Nobody in that household has gotten help. Its just a difference of perspective. And i get it. But let me tell you something, what you cant get away from is, mr. Speaker, they have not passed a bill through the United States senate. Why . Because it would require compromise because you dont have the votes, mr. Speaker and the republican party, to pass a bill without compromise. So they have sent us no bill. Now mr. Mcconnell can say all he wants, we need 60 votes and wont give us 60 votes. Hes right. And he wont compromise. Your side, on a regular basis, when you were in charge, couldnt pass a lot of pieces of legislation that had to be passed and what did john boehner do . Walked over here and said, madam leader, mr. Whip, can you help us. And we did. Bush asked for tarp. President bush asked for tarp. Where did he come, our side, which saved the country from depression. We when you are talking about all this stuff, we sent two bills, you didnt like them, fine. Pass something through the senate that would have required compromise. And mr. Mcconnell offered no such compromise. So i think frankly we ought to move on, because i dont think we can beat this horse anymore. We arent going to agree. But pass a bill. Have a comprehensive bill that helps those children, unemployed and those renters, who are going to be evicted. You think that helps Small Businesses and Small Grocery stores or barber shops, you think it helps the gasoline stayings . It does not. If they are going belly up and dont have any resources, were in this together. And what i keep telling him, mr. Speaker, and what i keep telling my side as well, we need to help everybody who is in such distress, not just Small Businesses. We need to help Small Businesses. The airlines say they are going to stop flying. Doesnt help them. I yield. Mr. Scalise if we wanted to pass another cares acttype piece of legislation as we have seen in both other cares act bills, you have a lot of willingness and interest on this side of the aisle which was there on both of those votes. There are clearly things in heroes that is there no bipartisan con sense us on. We are willing to go on those items that we agree on and not months from now, not months ago. It should have been done today and it will be when we return. If the gentleman has nothing else, i would be happy to yield back. R. Hoyer i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair leaves before the house a communication. The clerk the honorable the speaker house of representatives madam, i submit my resignation effective monday december 7, 2020 at 12 00 p. M. Eastern standard time as United States representative for the 8th district of california. Attached is the letter i submitted to the secretary of state of california, signed sincerely, paul cook. The speaker pro tempore the chair will entertain requests for oneminute speeches. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized. Thank you, mr. Speaker, i rise today to celebrate a long overdue victory for our vietnam veterans. For decades, tens of thousands vets havent gotten the benefits they deserve, like parkinsons disease and Bladder Cancer are linked to agent orange. They still arent covered by the v. A. But today, im thrilled to say veterans can finally stop fighting their own government because my bill the fair care for veterans act is on track to become the law of the land. I dedicate this effort to Joshua Millen dezz, a veteran who will be impacted by this change. I dedicate this effort to my grandfather, First SergeantAlbert Simmons who was cut short by agent orange. These veterans fought for us in my honor to fight for them. God bless you and thank you for your service. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized. As Ranking Member on the subcommittee of environment and Climate Change i thank chief counsel mary martin and steven cory and Peter Spencer for their tremendous support of me in commonsense legislation and supports jobs and the economy. If the public knew hard that Committee Staff members worked they would have a better appreciation of our government. Mary, jerry, peter, you have my personal thanks. I would be remiss if i didnt thank the loyal opposition, rick kessler and jackie cohen. Although many times adversaries, both have become friends. With that, i yield back my time. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my marks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. I rise in support of the more acting urge my colleagues in the senate to do the same. Mr. Hall focus on financial justice, investment in research along with the schedule we must lean on, our covid innovation zones and might be a strategy for bringing a bipartisan solution that creates jobs but deals with this terrible pandemic. I yield, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise to honor indiana resident dr. Mark hugely. This marks the 25th that he has cochaired the National Televised festival parade. Using his experience as the former director of bands at mccutchen high school, he has helped students from 425 Indiana Schools participate in the nationally acclaimed i. P. L. Festival parade. He has served as an enthusiastic supporter of the indianapolis 500 festival for decades. Mark has attended the parade since 1980 and volunteer for the event for 29 years. It stands out foreign 3,000 volunteers who will fill 7,000 positions for the long event. He is a pillar of the community. And i want to express my deepest thanks and appreciation for his patience and the service he has devoted to a program who defines hoosier heritage. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition . I request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise to honor my retiring director of tu tituent services, zina ssaine. She is an extraordinary Public Servant and human being. She answered the ad in my dads district office. Over the years, she built an incompareable network with officials in an astounding array of federal agencies and unmatched mastery of how to solve virtually any constituent problem. Even after 16 years of service in a pandemic causing untold suffering and chayoost, she listened to each constituent, leveled with people when necessary and comforted and reassured every family member. In addition to her work for constituents, she took care of everyone around her, generations of staff and cooking to die for indian males for the office. Z, i admit you richly earned the right to retire from your job but i hasten to add there is no retiring from friendship or from love. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Lamalfa i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Lamalfa i rise today to recognize from placer county, california of the sheriffs office, lieutenant andrew scott in his 30 years of service. Since joining the sheriffs since joining the force, he has worked in almost every capacity. Saw him as president of the association. Aye witnessed his love and passion for the Public Safety of his community. Hes a shining example of what a warrior and man of god embodies, true friend, defender of the weak, devoted to truth, and strong in his faith and love of the lord. Andrew has gone above and beyond to provide support for his fellow Law Enforcement officers through the 1045 organization. His dedication to law officers who have fallen in the line of duty should be an example for all of us to remember those who have paid the made the ultimate sacrifice for all our freedoms. He has made our area a safer place to live, a better one to raise our kids, i consider andrew a true friend and wish him the best in his retirement. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from New Hampshire seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. I rise today because our country is in trouble. We are facing a devastating pandemic and economic crisis and things will continue to get worse if Congress Fails to act. I cant passenger theres a member of this body who hasnt had the same conversations i have, with local leaders, educators and workers out of a job. People are exass rated, tired and and think washington is not doing its job. Weave job to do not as republicans or democrat bus as representatives here to serve the people in our districts an secure the future of this nation. This week, members of the house and senate announced a framework for covid relief legislation. Its not everything everyone wants, no compromise is but it will fundamentally save lives and keep our economy moving forward. Heading home for the holidays without addressing the crisis will have disastrous consequences. Lets commit to finding a way forward and getting to yes. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks as necessary. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, the coronavirus is exploding, our hospitals are bursting, and many parts of our economy are hurting. Its no wonder why fed chair powell and so many other economists are warning about the longterm damage that could be done if we dont pass another stimulus package soon. We passed the cares act earlier this year and that did keep our economy afloat and our poverty rate flat. But because of the pan emic were experiencing over one million cases a week and 2,000 deaths a day. Because of that, were finding ourselves in more selfinduced economic comas just like were seeing in my state of california and my district on the Central Coast of california. So we cant wait any longer for another economic package. Thats why democrats and republicans of the problem solvers caucus, we worked with a Bipartisan Group of senators to come up with a targeted and temporary package of croce to 1 trillion to meet our most pressing needs. Its a compromise that can be a way to yes for both houses and both sides to come together. Its going to be a dark winter, its our obligation to our constituents to come to the table, to negotiate and pass a pandemic relief package to help us get on the road to recovery this spring. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2019, the gentleman from texas, mr. Green, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. Green and still i rise, mr. Speaker. I rise today on behalf of my constituents, mark and debra tice. He parents of austin tice. Mark and debra have asked that i extend their sincerest gratitude to the house of representatives, all of its leadership and membership for the passage of h. Res. 17. A resolution that in effect supports the president s desire to bring their son home. Hence, mr. Speaker, pursuant to their request, i thank Speaker Pelosi because i had a personal conversation with Speaker Pelosi about this resolution and i believe that that led to its coming to the floor. I thank majority leader hoyer. He in effect orchestrated the bringing of this resolution to the floor. I thank congressman hill for his support of the resolution at the Committee Level and for his efforts to bring his constituents, dr. Ka maul his constituent, dr. Kamalmaz home. I thank the jut going chair of the Foreign Affairs committee, mr. Eliot engel, for his efforts to bring the resolution out of committee. I also thank the Ranking Member, the texan, mr. Mccaul, who is a person that has worked with me endeavors, he made this bipartisan early on and i thank him for what he has done to help us get it through the committee. I thank senator cornyn, senator murray, the 41 cosponsors of h. Res. 17, the 52 senators and 152 representatives who signed on to a letter to the president. And while they have asked me to extend their gratitude, i personally would like to thank the tice family for their unwavering commitment to have allow eturned home and him to be with his family and his friends. They also wish that i would thank President Trump on their behalf. The have a letter that is best evidence of why they would have President Trump be thanked or what he has done. 13 november, y, 2020. Dear President Trump, thank you from the entire tice family for your steadfast commitment and determination to bring our beloved austin safely home. Yesterday, there was a news story from the region that austin tice had been released. And was on a plane headed home. Our phone our phones were going crazy. Our email was exploding. Twitter, facebook, instagram, every kind of social media was buzzing with an outpouring of high hopes and great joy. Many, many news outlets reached out eagerly, hoping to verify this great good news. We know you can make this joyful news a reality. We know the syrians are ready to work with you. Please, please bring austin home for the holidays. It is signed, respectfully, debra tice, austins mother. The president has known is known to respond to letters of ais kind by simply writing on copy of the letter a message to be returned to the sender. I shall read the president s statement. Debra, working so hard on this. Looking for the answer. We want austin back. I will never stop. Mr. President , i salute you. For your desire and your commitment to bring austin home. And mr. President , i pray that it will be done before christmas. It would be a wonderful thing, mr. President , for this family that you now know and communicated with, for this family that has suffered for some eight years without their son. You would do well and serve them well, mr. President , if you that honor the commitment you have indicated on this letter. It would bring joy unlike any these parents have ever experienced if you would do so. So, mr. President , i salute you. Andlute you for your desire commitment to bring austin home. I suspect that it has a lot to do with the fact that hes an american citizen, but i also suspect, mr. President , that it has a lot to do with what you know about austin. Ustin is an american hero. A veteran captain of the marine corps. Austin loved his country. He was willing to fight for it and if necessary, sacrifice his life for it. Ustin played by the rules. In college at age 16. Wanted to be a lawyer. But also, austin was one of those rare unique persons who not only wanted to help but who is willing to go to great lengths, great extremes to be of service. He was a freelance journalist, as you know, mr. President. And as such, he was willing to go into harms way to places that most of us would never go into, to be of service. To help people. So austin decided that he would take his talents and his desires to syria. Crossed o syria and he on into the Syrian Border may of 2012. And in august of 2012, he was detained at a check point. Some place near damascus. And hes been missing ever since. There have been what we call in the intelligence agencies, i believe, signs and proof of life. We know that he is alive. And we know that eight years of this experience is taking a toll on austin. Austin deserves our greatest efforts to bring him home. Because austin is an american hero. His parents are in need of his touch. Of his presence. They need to hug their son. So the appeal has been made and mr. President you have said that will do e that you everything that you can, im paraphrasing, you said you will never stop. And that youre looking for the answer. I believe the answer is within your power and i believe the tice family will be eternally grateful, as will most americans, if you will bring their son home. And do so before christmas. On behalf of the tice family, mr. President , i salute you for your desire and commitment to bring him home. I yield back the balance of my time the speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. Members are further reminded to address their remarks to the chair, not to a perceived viewing audience. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2019, the gentleman from texas, mr. Gohmert, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the inority leader. Mr. Gohmert thank you, mr. Speaker. At this time, its an honor to yield for as much time as he may use, my friend from North Carolina that is in his last term in this body and hopefully he will be serving in another body. But my friend from North Carolina, good brother walker. Mr. Walker thank you to the gentleman from texas for yielding such time. Today as we wrap up three terms, we could not be more overwhelmed with the privilege that its been to serve the people of North Carolina, specifically central North Carolina in the United States congress. I am oldest of three boys, mr. Speaker. Im a baptist preacher from the pand handle of florida and had the privilege to North Carolina since 1991 and having the opportunity to work, spent 16 years as a pastor and last six years serving in a different capacity. What an honor it is to walk the halls and to be able to think about the history that has made this country what it is today. We were blessed to hit the ground running, becoming the first member since its inception in 1973 to be legitimated chairman at the end of the first term of the largest conservative caucus of the republican study committee. I have enjoyed extending and wrapping up a term as the vice chair of the g. O. P. Conference. What a privilege it has been to serve a bulk of that time as cochairman with senator James Lankford of the prayer caucus and gather each monday many people dont know the prayer caucus to exist and on that monday evening after we fly in to gather in room 219 right off to my right and seek gods guidance as we pray for constituents and pray for the lord to give us the hope and direction for this country. I have lots of reflections over these last six years. I think of the having a chance to be starting pitcher for the republican baseball team, exhibition game for charity. Every year has been quite a treat. Many of my republican friends are glad to see that sed Rick Richmond is Senior Adviser to a gentleman who is no longer and what an effort to go to the boys and girls club and has been a tradition since 1909. There were moments, steve scalise, the whip, come back and our teammates being shot at that morning. And came back strong and he has always represented his faith in a way that i think has impacted potentially far beyond any political work that he may do in this house. There has been times to engage in a more stern manner and serving on the House Oversight committee with chairman chaffetz. He did a wonderful job as the House Oversight chairman and questioned some of the scrupulous behavior of james comey. I still think peter strzok doesnt cares for me. One of the moments that stand out is questioning cease eel richards when i asked her, does it bother that more africanamerican babies that are aborted than actually born. She wasnt aware from that statistic. Nor did i share away from those fights. When we were working and going back and forth on the bornalive amendment and cant help but remembering the heavyness and oppression of that night. Only three of my colleagues on the democratic side stood up and said a baby that survives a botched abortion should have the rights to stay alive. I struggled with that. I still struggle with it. I think it is apparently evil not to stand up and fight for all of us who are created in the image of god. We have heard other comments, even a good friend and colleague from illinois that was prolife is no longer part of the body and was basically run out of town. I struggle with those things. If our rights come from our creator and as our Founding Fathers have said so in the past, do they not also come from the creator in the present and the future. Not too far behind us here is the rotunda. There are eight pictures of john turnbull. The first four are depictions of our settlers. And all four of those pictures are pictures of christianity and the other four are pictures of our Founding Fathers and last one is a picture of george washington, december 23, 1783 his his hand he has resignation and he was the commander in chief of the revolutionarye army. He captured something. He realized that if this country was going to be great, he had the foresight in that letter to write that the power had to come from we, the people. What a powerful expression. As i think back over the last six years, traveled different places, 20something different countries, no place has impacted me than standing on the shores there at normandy. As our guide began to talk that day, i thought about this for the first time, history shows us that those young men with supposed to have air cover but because the horrific weather, there was none. And that day wasnt won by military might or great generals or colonels and military genius. Our freedom today we can trace back to that moment was won by 18 and 19yearold young men who kept running up that hill one wave after the other. What a powerful place and what a privilege it is to see these real heroes. Arthur ashe put it this way, he said true heroism is remarkably sober and undramatic. It is not the urge to pass all others at whatever cost but to serve all others at whatever cost. In our six years, we tried not to stick to the talking points. Maybe we have had a different pproach serving in congress. Mr. Speaker, i believe the best kind of representative you could have is someone who is pledging to represent all the communities. You see, america is the greatest country and longest lasting republic in the history of the world, but we didnt get it right to start with. And took a iberty few years to get it right, george white, shirley chisholm, jackie robin son and so many more heroes. But heres the cool part of the story, we never quit trying until our actions matched our words that in america that all men would be created equal. One of the privileges i have had is to serve with john lewis and cross the edmund pet ties bridge pettis bridge. Whether republicans or democrats, relationships is the conduit for good policy, people before the politics. You dont have to throw what you believe your values or principles, do we show up, do we have to be the key note speaker at times . I was committed to doing this to be both a conservative and a bridge builder. And our team committed to that. Hardly a week went by that we didnt answer the question, are we making an argument or are we making a difference. In this town, those who make the most noise get the key roles, but in looking back, making the difference is ultimately the price. The successes where i believe its simple, staying close to the lord and having the people pray and wrap their arms around us. So many times after spending a week in this arena, you go back home kind of worn out and i will never be able to express my gratitude to the people who lifted our arms up and pray for us week after week. Couple of months ago i met freddie in North Carolina. He is a Street Vendor with his guitar and hoping to make a few bucks. And i harmonized when he played let my light shine. What our calling is to let our life shine. I think of luke 2 and the Different Things in this season that mean so much. In this city there are ups and downs and double crosses, but i ave today, no bitterness, no axe to grind but with a genuine love for my colleagues. I have to point out three that i had the privilege to know and having been aware basically for 3 1 2 years almost once a week, tuesday evenings with trey gowdy, senator tim scott and the director of National Intelligence john ratcliffe. I love these men. They have impacted my life. There were times the fellowship, the joy and the laughter and even the merciless countdowns from mr. Gowdy were incredibly rewarding and timely. But there are people behind the scenes here in washington, d. C. , names you will never know, but people like everett, lloyd, people behind the scenes that continue to impact. In closing today, i would be remiss if i didnt acknowledge the people that made this possible both in North Carolina and here in washington, d. C. ,. My aappreciation to janine, grace, bradley, kyle, emily, jerome, amber, cory, madeline katie,exa, john, alison, brian josh, luke, lauren nd two chiefs, scott and jack, deputy chief julie who has been with me since the very beginning. I am proud of you guys. We made a difference. Mr. Speaker, i would like to conclude by thanking my family ryan, rachel and claire and kelly. Thank you for allowing me to do something that is considered pretty special. To my mom and dad, thank you for investing in me inputting the values. I would like to close right now by expressing it maybe in the words of andre crouch, how can i say thanks for the things you have done for me, things so undeserved. The voices of a million angels could not express my gratitude. All that i am and ever hope to be, i owe it all to thee, to god, be the glory. Thank you to the gentleman from texas. Mr. Gohmert i thank my friend. He has been a real asset here in the house and look forward to more accomplishments in the days to come. Speaking of people i served with marsha s on senator, blackburn of tennessee, very proud of her home state. Doing a great job as a senator as she did a great job in the house, shes become the object chinese e good by stateowned media editor. This article from written by christina wong, december 3, says the European Union bureau chief nd columnist for chinese staterun media outlet china aily charged an insult to senator blackburn in a tweet. Blackburn, a respected conservative senator who is a hawk on china tweeted thursday, quote, china has a 5,000 year history of cheating and stealing. Ome things never change. Chin, the e. U. Bureau chief and columnist for china daily responded to her tweet with witch spelled with a b. Senator blackburn chen followed up with another tweet that said this is the most racist and ignorant u. S. Senator ive seen. A lifetime witch spelled with a b at the start of the word. Senator blackburn came back, i guess that was the original tweet. The gentlelady retweeted chen later retweeted his with oneword reply to blackburn. Blackburn responded in a statement, she said, from Tiananmen Square to the uighur genocide, communist china is an expert at slaughtering populations. America will not bow down to sexist, communist thugs. , he wrote chen works for the governmentowned china daily, reliably tranking out articles with headlines such as, quote, white house must concentrate on fighting outbreak, not china bashing, unquote. And, quote, washington must stop making decisions which undermine w. H. O. , unquote. It coincides with the peoples republic of china propaganda plans, from deflecting blame for coronavirus away from beijing, to defending beijings minions at the world health organization. Chen has previously tweeted, trump and pompeo are not even good liars. He noted that chen bashes the president and his administration reliably but also eagerly, echoes Top Democrats and leading nevertrumpers. Chen has also called senator josh holley, republican from missouri, another leading china hawk in the senate, quote, ignorant, unquote. Olley responded, quote, china not happy about my call to confront their economic imperialism by ending the World Trade Organization and replacing it with a system thats good for American Workers. Love being insulted by china state run press. They noted chen has been the beneficiary of many liberal programs in the u. S. Hes got a blue check mark in his twitter bio, he was a World Press Institute fellow at Mcalester College in minnesota. He also listed the Freedom Forum in washington, d. C. So isnt that special. Perhaps one of those institutions is where he learned to call women witches spelled with a b. Wherever it was, not a very polite person, very defensive of misogynistic, sexist, racist religionhating administration. So apparently proud of that. Very unfortunate. But im proud of senator blackburn. Were known by our friends but were known even more by our enemies and senator blackburn has a real enemy there and i was reminded back early on in my time in china, we went to china nd she and i, the two of us, personally confronted in beijing the chinese bureaucrat in charge of enforcing copyright and patent fraud. Which was just overwhelming in china. The amount that the state appeared to not only allow but actually be involved in was pretty staggering. At one point, either marsha or i asked, you know, why do you low all of this patent fraud and copyright theft to go on . And the bure the chinese bureaucrat indicated that actually they dont, they step in and in fact he said the year before, they had seized the assets from 500 different vendors who were selling copyright or patent infringed goods. Whether d. V. D. s, c. D. s, things that violated americans patent, they seized them. I said, so what did you do with what you seized . And i dont know chinese law but his indication was, well under chinese law we cant just destroy goods that have value so we had to do something with them. And it appeared very clear that they seized these assets that were violating International Trade copyright patent laws and if they are not allowed to destroy such goods, then obviously they had to get rid of them since they felt they had value, so the Chinese Government must have gotten into the business of selling copyright and patentinfringed goods. So not a lot of comfort there. And marsha and i did talk pack then. Once you get away from the center of the Chinese Communist party in beijing, an you get around to different cities in hina, we were both reminded, they were so hospitable, so gracious, so wanting you to have a good experience in their towns, that reminded us both of Southern Hospitality here in the u. S. The people were absolutely wonderful. You just had to get away from the center of government before you saw just how wonderful and fantastic the Chinese People are. But in beijing, you have the hotbed of Chinese CommunistParty Activity and although there are some in the United States that are wanting to get to being a communist nation as quickly as possible we see any time there is a communist government, its not good for the people at all. Another story from simon kent, december 1, no twitter fact check warning on chinese officials fake photo of australian soldier beheading a child. A lot of people have seen the photo. Chinese produced a photo that was falsified. The australian soldier was not about to behead a child. It was just more fake information out of the chinese commune case party. And i guess if youre twitter, thats not something you would fact check. You only want to fact check honorable, honest people. With whom you have disagreements. You wouldnt want to fact check someone thats providing you a lot of money despite their retraining camps, their lies, their official misrepresentations, you wouldnt want to do that, because they might be tempted to cut back the revenue to your form of business. So you know, as chris plant says, if it werent for double standards theyd have no standards at all. There at twitter. Twitter expands hate speech rules. Of course. Youre not going to go after people that truly are full of hate. They think conservatives are hateful. As a christian, were admonished by jesus, love one another. We were admonished by jesus hims. To love the lord your god with all your heart, mind, and soul. And the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. And so christianity is truly a religion based completely on love. Such an incredible thing to base a religion on. But thats what it is. God so loved the world, he gave his son. His son so loved the world he gave his life. And then you have people saying, well, you know, these christians, these churches, theyre full of nothing but hate. When actually thats doing what the Chinese Communist party does. Youre taking something out of perverting actually the actual beliefs of christianity. So twitter expanding hate speech rules, that will allow them to continue to produce things and get revenue from the Chinese Communist party and not call into question their true hate of groups that might disagree with them, you knowing, you run over them with a tank if they disagrea with you, even though theyre unarmed, thats the kind of thing that twitter is embracing here. Nolan, 3 ory from december, says twitter has once again expanded its hate speech policies to prohibit language that dehumanizes people on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin. Thats really rich. Coming from twitter. Since they embrace the Chinese Communist party and their hatred and their dehumanization of uighurs, christians, people that want to have more than one child , and based on race, ethnicity and national origin. In gadget reports that social media platform twitter expanded its hate speech policies again. This time to, quote, prohibit language that dehumanizes people. On it goes. The change in policy comes more than two years after twitter said that it intended to ban the dehumanizing language and over six months from that last change the sites policies about speech relating to age, disability and disease. So anyway, again, if it werent for double standards, twitter would have no standards at all. This article from rich noyes, november 24, the stealing of the 2020 presidency, the media kept he truth from americans. A new study shows that if the media didnt apply a leftist bias to its president ial news coverage, donald trump would have comfortably won a second term as president. To measure the true effect of the Media Censorship on the election, the Media Research center said the Polling Company to survey or asked the Polling Company to survey 1,750 biden voters in seven swing states, arizona, georgia, michigan, nevada, North Carolina, pennsylvania, wisconsin, six of which, all but North Carolina, were called for biden. We tested these voters knowledge of eight news stories. All important topics that our ongoing analysis had shown the liberal news media had failed to cover properly. We found that a huge majority, 82 , of biden voters were unaware of at least one of these key items. With 5 saying they were unaware of all eight of the issues we tested. This lack of information proved crucial. One of every six biden voters surveyed said they would have abandoned the democratic candidate had they known the facts about one or more of these news stories. A shift of that magnitude would have changed the outcome of all six of the swing states won by joe biden and donald trump would have comfortably won a second term as president. Now thats from newsbusters and i really like those folks but theyre wrong about that. As we saw from the results and what occurred and were seeing more evidence every day, this concludes donald trump would have won comfortably. But as many of us know, there would have been more trucks with more fake ballots that would have been brought in so the claim would have been made anyway that donald trump did not win, just needed to know how many ballots they needed to overcome and theyd bring them in to do so. So consistent with that, from just the news, david payne, its a story about whats been going on. Sworn testimony of several whistleblowers on so consistent with that from the news, david payne, its whats been going on. Sworn testimony of several tuesday andon his isnt like the fake whistleblower against President Trump that didnt actually hear basing it ion he was on double hearsay. These are actually whistleblowers who have of what wentwledge on. When they testify those under unfounded y it was there was fraud, its not their ault theyre saying that, its just very uneducated. With that, when a witness has firsthand knowledge, personally bserved, something occur on what is evidence and what isnt. Sworn testimony is evidence when its first person and there re some exceptions to the hearsay rule that lots of aboutes have been written in legal treaties. From the things that have been produced. But the whistleblowers alleged one Election Integrity act his is calling, quote, potential ballot fraud on a massive scale, unquote, with eyewitnesss testifying to alleged Malicious Behavior in michigan, a, wisconsin. A Civil Liberties initiative of Thomas Morris society presented the testimony of three individuals who claim to have itnessed apparent voting malfeasance that means wrongdoing for those that dont during ut evidence the 2020 election. Morgan, a truck driver for a subcontractor with the United StatesPostal Service a trailer he was potentially full of 288,000 ballots, disappeared from its park ocation at lancaster, pennsylvania. Depot, after morgan dropped there. Ok. So lancaster, pennsylvania, u. S. Service depot, after morgan dropped it off there. Ballotsransported those from beth page, new york. Its interesting you could ave 288,000 ballots, voting ballots that were produced in and page, new york, supplied to pennsylvania been ntly having already voted in and its possible, you know, people would want to ive them the benefit of the doubt. Its possible they had 288,000 from pennsylvania just temporarily residing in ancaster, pennsylvania, and absentee in the pennsylvania election. So, yeah, maybe it is possible 288,000 pennsylvanians were in pennsylvania, purre pumpkin pie, as perry cuomo used beth page. In but they experienced odd from u. S. Postal serviceperson he will, behaviors that some have said in sworn quote, grossly deviated from normal procedure unquote. Ior, according to a press release amistad project. By the way, for anybody that might be uneducated, mr. Ways of court evidence, in a civil matter such s this, the normal standard of proof is a preponderance of the evidence. Any, the slightest evidence conduct ing that probably was inappropriate. Thats enough. Have to be beyond a reasonable doubt unless youre ready to prosecute people under criminal laws. Into the criminal realm to prosecute people guilty fraud, then it does eed to be beyond a reasonable doubt. But not to establish a standard prevent junction to decertification or force decertification after ertification or to actually declare an election invalid, even. Of more probable than not or probable cause beyond a reasonable doubt. Another whistleblower, nathan madison, wisconsin, himself also a subcontractor for Postal Service, alleged he was told the Postal Service planning to back date tens ballots in the days after the november 3 election in order to circumvent ballot submission deadline. Third witness, gregory stinstrom, who testified in a pennsylvania legislative hearing in gettysburg last week claimed witnessed a dominion spentor inserting ump drives into voting aggregation machines in delaware county, pennsylvania. Dont know, that thes not appropriate under situation as was here, and it really shouldnt be appropriate any situation. We need to do away with the have some foreignowned counting service, texas, in the big cities. No county that wasnt a big city controlled by democratic allow that uld ever o happen in east texas, west texas, south texas, north texas. Theyll g cities, yes, hire firms, firms with foreign money, theyll hire them. They should not be, number one, connected to the internet, not ever be as you say s of susceptible of access ability to information, which means also to manipula manipulate information if theyre good hackers. Just as i said in 2001, back a felony judge in texas and congress overstepped was appropriate and ordered in america hadty to give up what system of voting matter how effective and ppropriate and protective it was and all buy electronic machines. Seemed like 2 billion. It was an unfunded mandate. Worse to me as someone who our county courthouse, means,back in 2001, this because of congress inappropriate bill they passed, eventually elections will go to the best the person best hacker. And now 19 years later, thats have. E but it wasnt just hacking. Also manipulation that wasnt hacking. Through which s lectronic experts could go to manipulate things. It was creating fraudulent ballots. Was and also, as i recall, itself onstitution requires that ballots are to be numbered sequentialally, and i thats been i dont lly, and believe its been done quite sometime. Ven though President Trump won and we picked up republican seats there, i would submit it be intentionally even if we had ballots comported with the texas constitution. I believe everybody should be sequentially numbered ballots just so we can protect the election and voting process. Its press release, the project director phil cline said are compelling. Testimonies means these were under that were said oath, which means it is evidence. Foundation for the election fraud. Quote, this evidence joins with and ful conduct by state local election officials, including accepting millions of private funds to undermine the integrity of this said. On, kleine in this press release the project said its collected expert testimony alleging that over 300,000 ballots are at in arizona, 548,000 in 204,000 in georgia, 121,000 in pennsylvania. Nd in case theres wondering about whether or not that would ffect the election, that would absolutely affect the election states. Of those this story from p. J. Media, 1, again,il, december talks about the truck driver that testified, which means it under oath and it is evidence, he had driven housands of ballots from beth page, new york, to lancaster, ennsylvania, two weeks before election day. Former attorney general of kansas and director project of the the s Moore Society saying project corroborated the Truck Drivers story. Evidence. T is i onel phil waldron that believe he has some former him,. Folks that work with but tells michigan lawmakers truckloads of ballots for joe biden were inserted into the election. 020 colonel phil waldron spoke tonight this is dated a michigan at hearing following his explosive testimony in arizona on monday the Voting Machines used in elections. The dominion systems, which were as ected to the internet, well, despite dominions claims to the contrary. Me insert so let explain hat also helps the u. S. Governments director was supposed to have been rotecting our election, cybersecurity, making sure it was secured, there was a puff director of cybersecurity cyber or astructure association agency. He krebs, r, krebs, he indicated in an article on election day that he wanted to thank his in Silicon Valley and im sure he had someone at advising him, but krebs said everythings good because might ed to people that have been involved in the fraud and they assured him everything so he said everything was good. Attorney ith our general barr, he said he had seen no evidence of fraud, and that have said the same thing and humbly submit do is close have to your eyes, stick your fingers in la, la, la forng a long period of time, keep it nor d you will neither see hear any evidence of fraud. Can our attorney general keep that up, then he will continue not to see or hear any of fraud. So hopefully he has not been listening to what ive had to in the house, because again, it would cause him o demand to see and hear the actual evidence, and he may not stay o do that so he can consistent. But the evidence is there. It is evidence. Sworn. And as this article points out, unitedng to waldron, the states has a copy of the traffic of information that were sent to germany on Election Night. First expert at the Arizona State legislature rudy giuliani, was. S. Cybersecurity expert colonel phil waldron, and phil is an impressive man. Impressive person when it comes to cybersecurity. Olonel waldron spoke about the Voting Machines used in the election. The dominion systems were to the internet as well despite their claims to the contrary. Be manipulated by outside parties and insiders as well. Wednesday night, colonel waldron told the committee that who have witnesses now delivered truckloads of ballots for joe biden from new york to pennsylvania. He said they likely did the same things in wisconsin. He explained that democrats inserted truckloads of fraudulent ballots into the fraudulent 2020 election. Many people saw the video from georgia that was played yesterday, last evening, this article from the gateway pundit, december 3, says, layla today, christina reported on the explosive video that was revealed during the georgia ballot counting at the statefarm arena where crooked democrats pulled out suitcases of suitcases full of ballots and began counting these ballots without election monitors in the room. Trumps legal team showed a video from the state farm arena Tabulation Center when poll workers were told to leave at 10 25 p. M. A few workers stayed behind and were seen pulling suitcases full of ballots out from under ables to be tabulated. So that seems strange if you believe that the Mainstream Media never reports anything but facts, you can i did yesterday, you go online and t into google anything about election or vote counting being uspended during Election Night and all the first entries you get tell you that was factchecked, its not true, its fraudulent representation, the not true. There was never any suspension of vote counting for any time. In the swing states. In other words, even though you heard it, you saw it happening on tv, dont believe your lying eyes and ears, believe what we tell you because were coming to you through the internet, so you can trust us, but dont trust your lying eyes or ears. Anyway. In that video, its very clear they did pull out suitcases full of ballots that were, whether intentional or not, they were hidden under tables and they werent pulled out until after the monitors and the other vote counters were ordered to leave, that they were stopping the vote counting, and they did leave and thats when the ballots come out from under the table and the counting of those ballots begins. It is absolutely extraordinary. But some of us had known that this kind of activity has been going on. We know that there were electronic manipulations in Dallas County in 2018. Its really unfortunate, our Texas Attorney general had the chance to be a National Hero, had they stepped in, utilized evidence from there, and ive heard people say, well, i heard about that, there was really nothing to that. Well, ive been following that for two years and trying to get people in Law Enforcement to do something about it. But they avoided the chance to be a National Hero and refused to go after the fraud that existed in the 2018 primary and general election in Dallas County. Again, by a firm that had foreign money supporting it. And they did the counting for Dallas County. But since nothing was done there, then the people were free to continue that type of operation in the national election. Heres an article from joel pollock. Attorney sydney powell and lynn wood told a rally in atlanta, georgia, republicans should not vote in the january 5 Runoff Election for u. S. Senate unless state authorities rectify the problems in the states voting system. I havent talked to lynn wood or sydney powell about that, but i would imagine, knowing them, that they were trying to make the point, this system needs to be cleaned up before the election on january 5 because we do need people to vote in that election, not multiple times but legally. Not people come in and illegally vote, but people vote legally as to who they want to represent them in the u. S. Enate. So, theres a story from the epic times, christina kim, november 28, complaint against michigan secretary of state, jocelyne benson, governor gretchen whitmer, marks the beginning of powells lawsuit against the state. Some of the allegations are repeated claims from michigan and other states. Republican challengers were unable to meaningfully observe and workers were instructed to backdate ballots. Other claims are newer. Expert witness russell ramsin works with the allied Security Operations group. In the past hes worked with nasa and m. I. T. He said there were four physically impossible spikes totaling almost 385,000 ballots allegedly processed in a combined interval of two hours and 38 minutes. He concluded that, quote, dominion alone is responsible for the injection or fabrication of 290,000 illegal votes in michigan that must be disregarded, unquote. This is nearly twice the number of ballots by which biden is leading trump, which is approximately 150,000 ballots. Dr. David has a ph. D. In engineering and technology and received advanced training from the c. I. A. And n. S. A. And d. H. S. In his sworn statement, and again, since its a sworn statement it means the allegations are not unfounded, whats e is evidence of alleged. Cards ote, u. S. B. Memory were used to facilitate administrative backdoor access to disrupt polling operations and impact ballot counting across michigan, georgia, pennsylvania, arizona and wisconsin. He also said, after a Detailed Analysis of the New York Times data, his expert judgment, quote, the vote count distribution in pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, arizona and nevada and georgia are not based on normal system operation. Instead, they are caused by fraudulent electronic manipulation of the targeted Voting Machines. Unquote. Another affidavit submitted by someone whose name and personal information was redacted, this person was an electronic Intelligence Analyst with extensive experience as a whitehat hacker used by some of the top election specialists in the world. The expert alleged that a search of Edison Research showed they had an iranian server and their records show china accessing dominion votings servers. Wow. Edison Research Reports the vote count tabulation to decision desk headquarters for Election Results. According to the affidavit, the Digital ForensicsAnalysis Shows there is, quote, unambiguous evidence that dominion voter system and Edison Research have been accessible and were certainly compromised by rogue actors such as iran and china, unquote. Now, this is an area that does require expertise and thats why you need experts to come in and testify about it. And it is true that simply making a statement under oath in an area that requires expertise may not be considered evidence until a judge, going back to the decision of the u. S. Supreme court, the judge became the gate keeper, had to make inquiries of the expert out of the hearing of the jury, and determine whether or not this person was an expert in the area which he was proffered as a witness and if the judge so finds, then that indeed is sworn evidence before the court. But the complaint asked the court to provide emergency relief to decertify wayne countys results, stop benson and whitmer from transmitting the state certifications to the electoral college, and, quote, to transmit certified Election Results that President Donald Trump is the winner of the election, unquote, in michigan, among other requests. Michigan Senate Committee has said to is set to meet next tuesday, december 1, to hear testimony about absentee ballot counting at detroits t. C. F. Center. His is a matter that should be thoroughly investigated by all areas of the government. The three branches of government. Including, for those that were told, recent College Graduates that know the three stooges names better than the three branches of government, it is the executive branch from the president all the way down, and the legislative branch, including congress and the senate, and also the judiciary branch, where you would ultimately come to have judicial decisions made over these things. So those are all important and we all ought to be investigating this. Its part of our job as members of congress. Thats what we need to be doing. Yet it is worth noting, and i think important to note that as we heard the majority leader talking about, concerns about covid and businesses going bankrupt and not being able to operate, and of course the unconstitutional shutdown of churches, where the government does prohibit the free exercise religion, those matters should concern everybody, especially about who you place as your servant in the overnment. But we hear the words from some people in this body about how critical it is that we do something about covid and one of the first things we should have done, we had over 120 billion that was unused in the first that was authorized and appropriated in the original payroll protection plan, and its just sitting there. All we got to do is say, yes, go back and allow that to be used by businesses in trouble under the same conditions or we can modify them. And we have a bill. And republicans we dont care. Put the democrat name on there, thats fine. Lets just do it to help businesses avoid going out of business. Instead, what we took up was a tiger bill, we took that up pretty quick this week. Nd as my friend, dr. Desjarlais, pointed out, if you look at the time that we spent in here voting on the tiger ill, that as i understand only perfluorooctanes to one only pertains to one place that keeps tigers, during that period we voted on the tiger bill, there have been more people die of covid than have died from tigers over the last 25 years. Yet we rush in here to do the tiger bill and i know theres a lot of use metaphorically of the red pill, blue pill from third eye or matrix. And it is intriguing, you know, the red pill is supposed to show you truth, whats really going on. The blue pill, youll just be in blissful ignorance. But i couldnt help but be reminded of that when were in here, were not passing anything to help with covid, not to help businesses going out of business, were passing what ought to be called the blue pill law, were not going to fix your problems, but were hoping youll smoke dope so that you can marijuana i didnt vote for it, but appropriating a bunch of money to make more marijuana more accessible, not for medicinal purposes, a lot of us are ok with that, but for widespread Recreational Use so that if youre bothered, whether its seeing an election stolen or seeing your business go bankrupt because the government wont let you open, or seeing your church being closed and a preacher being taken down, or someone who failed to wear a mask, smoke some dope. Thats the message of the week. And thats what we did this week. So, thats the message from the majority. Go smoke some dope. Take the blue pill and you will enjoy life so much more. With that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward members of the senate or the president , including by repeating remarks made elsewhere that would be improper spoken in the members own words. Purr to section b of House Resolution 967, the house stands adjourned until noon on mond and you can watch these events live online at cspan. Org or you can listen with the free cspan radio app. Peaceful president ial transition of power in question following the 2020 election, on q a, t historians talk about two of the president ial us transitions in u. S. History. Buchanan tween james and Abraham Lincoln. And in 1933 between Herbert Franklin roosevelt. Several Southern States did ot recognize the election of Abraham Lincoln as legitimate. Sectional ered him a president for the fact by and support came from states. On South Carolina makes good its promise to proceed toward as ou say seeding from the union seceding from the union. Nature the resounding of the vote and the way it was reported in the press, it was election but the he continued to believe that the as roosevelt framed it during the campaign and began to work towards it after the represented a fundamental threat toward the he ican way of life and so devoted himself preventing roosevelt from being able to enact it. President ial transitions sunday night at 8 00 cspans q a. 245,000 conomy added jobs in november and 7. 6 . Oyment dipped to thats about 10 million jobs short of where we were precoronavirus pandemic. Fifth straight month of decelerating job gains as covid19 continued spreading throughout the country. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi briefing with reporters on capitol hill where she answered a range of uestions on the status of the Coronavirus Relief package negotiation. Report. Recent jobs Speaker Pelosi good morning. Good morning. We had a couple of days of electing