80,000 pictures first, mr. Chairman. I wanted to get them to do that. Mr. Chairman, mr. Neil, thank you. Welcome to the rules committee. We previously began tonights markups with hr 3312. The destination improvement act of 2017. Chairman has given that testimony. We will now proceed to consideration of the conference report to accompany hr 1, tax cuts and jobs act. The tax cuts and jobs act is a bold pro growth bill that will overhaul our tax code and unleash the Free Enterprise system and it does so by lowering taxes on businesses of all size so the job creators can focus what their job is, that is creating jobs, moving forth our economy and giving people an opportunity to better their lives including increasing paychecks and the opportunity to have our country not only move forward but its people at the same time. Mr. Chairman, i have characterized this bill for quite some time as an opportunity to take 5 5. 6 trillion of 10 years worth of tax Code Provisions, and move that from tax Code Provisions that might do a lot for individuals or a family or a business, but that does not provide what i call pop to the economy. That is unleashing our economy to where we get pro growth effects from that. Taking 5 5. 6 trillion worth of tax provisions and moving it from one side of the ledger to an opportunity where we create america, in the worlds eyes, as the top tax haven, an opportunity where the world will look at us with envy and know that we can grab the Free Enterprise system and move it forward. You and i both know we have lots of people out there who simply want to keep the same tax code weve got. The one that moves jobs offshore, the one that moves corporations offshore, the one that makes its easier for the irs to literally bludgeon not only the people trying to abide by the tax law but perhaps worst of all a tax that is the highest in the world when you gather together state and local taxes with the federal tax. What were doing here today, i think what the American People asked us to do at the last election. Thats why were doing this. They were sick and tired of the 1. 4 gdp growth we had about eight years and they want to move our country forward. I have seen the evidence that the stock market, among other people, have caught onto this. The stock market has driven itself higher and higher and higher on a steady basis to where we now can look at whether youre a senior, perhaps on retirement, where your 401 k s investment retirement or a Small Business person where youve been left in the cold and have a chance for this new year. Were taking people all across this country and giving them a shot at the better american dream. I want to thank you not only for taking time to do this, but how youve done it. What happened we went through a model in the house and in the senate. Time in and time out you looked at me and told me we will come wake up a model better than both. Add 1 plus won a1 and come up w. Texas is home to Free Enterprise and opportunity. I will tell you that what you have done with a cadre of people. None of this got done because of one or two people but rather, philosophy. That philosophy is we could keep what weve got and were going to keep getting what we were getting. That is slow to no growth. We were going to see jobs move overseas. I want to see us grab this and move forward and the expectations ive seen from over 100 economic type people who put models together for the next five years, america will lead the world. I want to thank you for not only what youve done but the strong wind thats been against you to do what youre doing. Before i get to you and mr. Neil and ne gentleman, mr. Roscum, great job. And to marie slaughter, who with great expectation came here today not only as the chance to see you and richard and peter, the chance to also offer her own advice on what were getting ready to do here. The gentle woman is recognized. Thank you for the nice introduction. I came here with fear and trembling. You just had a pizza. Thank you for that. I represent new york, a donor state if ever there was one. 48 billion comes to washington from new york every single year, money we get nothing back for. I bet a bunch of your states really benefit from the 48 billion. What do we get in this bill . Were not able anymore to deduct state and local taxes. It is going to be so devastating, not just to us, i dont think ive been able to sleep for two days worrying about this moment. And im sure this bill will be signed probably by tomorrow night and will be the law of the land, and it terrifies me. We havent had a single hearing on the bill before. I doubt if mr. Neely saw it before friday. Now, were here under what we call emergency procedures tonight. Let me take just a second to remind everybody what we were promised when we began the process. There was a framework released for a the plan in september. Among the goals were tax relief for the middle class. Ability of the public to file their taxes on a form the size of a postcard. Tax relief for Small Businesses and closing special interest loopholes. If that sounded too good to be true for a party beholding to donors of special interest we know it was because this is not a plan that benefits the middle class in fact it forces them to pay for the tax cut for the wealthiest americans and the corporations, tax cuts that will never expire. What does expire is a small amount of tax cuts for individuals. They sunset by 2025, in about seven years, even the smallest provisions intended to help families come with a catch. The Child Tax Credit is increased here but only temporary. Regulations added to the application process will deny an estimated 3 million children in the United States this assistance. What about all that talk about filing taxes on a form as small as a postcard . Well, because the majority gave the pen to the lobbyist to write the bill, our tax code will remain complicated by design. Wealthy families and big corporations who can afford expensive accountants and an army of lawyers, will continue to take advantage of a system they helped to create while our middle class gets taken advantage of. Under this bill, a personal exemption is eliminated. The mortgage Interest Deduction is limited. State and local tax is limited. And for a while, even being able to deduct your College Loans and for Senior Citizens with heavy medical bills to deduct those were gone. Even Affordable Care act individual mandate is eliminated. Thats 300 million. Is that correct, mr. Neil, i believe . I think its 300 billion. Which pays for a lot of this tax cut as well another cost to the poor because 13 million more of them will not be insured which has certainly been a goal, ill say, of this congress for a long time to stop giving people healthcare. Far from helping the Small Business sew the overwhelming majority of tax cuts goes the super wealthy. Once we explode the deficit by 1 1. 5 trillion, we know what comes next. We have to cut spending. What spending will we cut . Medicaid, medicare and Social Security will go on the chopping block probably as early as next year because speaker ryan wants to do that and has for a very long time. He said last week i quote we have to get back next year an entitlement reform. Which is how you tackle debt and deficit end quote. 1 1. 5 trillion added to the deficit because the majority abandoned the org plan to make it deficit neutral. That was pretty wonderful. That was promised us by speaker ryan, quote a better way for tax return end quote, deficit neutral. It would indeed be a better way if we didnt add over 2 200 trillion to the nations debt and plan to pay for it by destroying the social safety net. Nothing about this is reform. I cant call it reform at all. Simply a changing around of numbers. Prurient interest is a good example of this. How many times did we hear the president of the United States say this was a hoax, i think it goes to when things were carried on the ship and captains took a percentage off the top and called it their interest and Hedge Fund Managers and others decided to carry that on. A good thing, you dont have to do a thing for it you just get it. President trump quoted last spring, prurient interest is gone end quote. Despite some technical changes its alive and well in this bill. Fund managers still get a special tax break. If we want to do a reform we should have done that one. So why are we priority sizing wealthy wall street Fund Managers and over work clothes gamed even further by the special interest. Public citizen, please listen to this. I think this is critical. Public citizen has reported more than half of the 11,000 registered lobbyists in washington worked on tax related issues through the first nine months of this year. One lobbyist admitted to the New York Times that few members actually had influence on the final product. Members of congress had no influence on it. He said, quote, youre dealing with 14 people instead of 535 end quote. Lobbyists fingerprints are all over this bill. Theres not a single democrat fingerprint to be found. Shut out all the way through. Not at meetings, not a single hearing for the public. No experts called in or economists called in to see what this would do to the future of the United States. We didnt hear from a single independent expert. The senate bill is riddled with errors and ill legible handwritten changes in the margins of the page. There was only one Conference Committee meeting after they had already settled what this bill was going to be. The senators representatives sat around the table for show after the president reported the deal had been reached. This is a wholly partisan product, sadly dangerous result of big corporations wildest dreams. Today, were using emergency procedures to meet on the tax bill. When this republican control of congress, Disaster Relief is not an emergency. Funding for childrens Insurance Program and Health Centers are not emergencies. Rushing the tax cuts to the wealthiest among us is. I think the entire process has been something of a hoax. We all bought into the deficit neutral idea. We all know tax reform is long overdue. We could have had it. We literally could have had some good tax reform with this bill that would have admitted the democrats into all the rooms, where there would have been committee hearings. I think this bill probably stands alone in the fact there were no hearings or anything at all on it. I know there have been a lot of complaints about the healthcare bill. Good grief we had meetings all over the place about a year and a half. I feel really sad about this. I feel sad for all of us and i dont believe anybody will be happy except the big donors. I do have a question. I need to wait for mr. Cole and now i have one. Im literally stunned. I think in my years in three legislatures i have never seen and occasion when i felt so useless and so ashamed of a product that the congress of the United States is putting out today. Yield back. Thank you very much for that opening statement. Gentleman, welcome to the rules committee. Were delight that youre not only here but we knew you were coming, so we have made sure that you got water there. We made sure that youve got a comfortable friend with you from the committee. And just in case theres a problem, just so you know, well give you the time you need to explain yourself on both sides. Well make sure you have an opportunity to be fully heard in this important matter. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, chairman sessions and member slaughter for allowing us to testify on the rules committee to talk about hr1 and jobs act. Im accompanied by peter the chairman of the committee on ways and means. Thank you for consideration of this historic bill to reform americas tax code and bring lasting tax relief to families and local job traders across this country. Last month we passed an overhaul on the nations tax code for the first time in more than three decades. Shortly after we came together in a house and senate Conference Committee i had the honor of leading to deliver one transformational tax reform bill for the American People. As i will describe to you, there are several key differences from the bill we passed a month ago. The main focus of this bill hasnt wavered one bit. This bill always has been focused on delivering more jobs, fairer taxes and bigger paychecks to hard working americans. With this bill a typical family of four earning Median Income of 73,000 a year, two Blue Collar Workers will see a tax cut of nearly 2,100. I know in washington, everyone here, democrats sneer at that. For our working families, thats real relief. Thats result of lowering tax rates at every income level, doubling the standard deduction and improving key provisions families count on. For example this bill doubles the Child Tax Credit from 1,000 to 2,000. Increases to 1400 that which is refundable in this index for inflation. The bill preserves the mortgage Interest Deduction and important relief for state and local taxes. Specifically it maintains the ability to write off state and local property taxes and from there americans can deduct up to 10,000 in either state and local income taxes or sales taxes. A family can fill that up in a way that helps that family the most. This provision and many others reflect how closely we listen to the American People as we worked to finalize the bill. For example the conference report preserves the student loan Interest Deduction, because we were listening to you. Exclusion for graduate student tuition student and waiver because we are listening to the American People. The provision allowing teachers to deduct outofpocket costs for school supplies. I want to make clear this bill maintains and improves the medical expense deduction to help americans who have high medical costs, as we know, due to obamacare, more and more families are paying huge outofpocket bills. Lastly, as it relates to healthcare, im pleased to say this bill repeals the tax Penalty Associated with obamacares individual mandate. No longer will americans be strongarmed into Obamacare Health plans they dont want and frankly they cant afford. These provisions and numerous others shows how we welcome feedback at every step of the process. We worked hard to incorporate key features to help americans from all walks of life. The same is absolutely true of the historic pro growth features chairman for our job traders you talked about. This bill provides the lowest tax rates in modern history for business of all sizes. Well have a Corporate Tax rate of 21 to help our local businesses compete worldwide and create more jobs here at home. For our main street job creators we will finally have a tax code that works with them as they grow and invest in our communities. This includes providing our first ever Small Business deduction up to 20 on the earnings of americas passthrough deductions. And they will have a top rate of just 29. 6 , allowing our Small Businesses to invest more in their operations and workers and features, not washington. Finally with this bill were taking landmark action to increase americas competitiveness and finally have a tax system to help them compete globally and encourage them to invest their property right back in america. Bring it back to our communities. Well strengthen our Energy Security and independence by harnessing more of americas vest increasing resources, and protect our workers and american jobs, Manufacturing Research from going overseas. Above all we will establish america as a 21st century magnet for job investment and job growth leapfrogging us back to the world. I want to thank the senate and finance committees and all the members including those in this room, whose ideas and energy and passion brought this historic bill to this moment. With it, well have an opportunity, the first time in three decades, to fundamentally reshape americas tax code into one that is simpler and fairer and focused on helping the American People, not Washington Special interests. We have that opportunity to make bold pro growth tax reform a reality for the first time in three decades. With that, mr. Chairman, thanks again for your consideration of this historic bill. Chairman ross and i look forward to answering your questions. Youre watching the House Rules Committee as it considers the rules debate on the revised tax reform bill the house is expected to take up tomorrow. Live coverage continues over on cspan2. Congress has a busy week ahead with the tax reform bill and government funding on the agenda. The house is expected to debate and vote on the tax reform bill tomorrow and possible there could be action the same day in the senate and could put it on the president s desk to sign by midweek. The house have until midnight friday to pass a short term spending bill that extends government funding until january 19th. You can follow the house live on cspan and senate live on cspan2. Sunday on cspans q a, Heritage Foundation distinguished fellow, lee edwards chronicles his six years involvement in the conservative movement. I met mccarthy with my father who was somewhat of a confidante to him. He liked to party and a drink or two. As long as you didnt talk about communism you couldnt ask for a more fun guy to be with. He was very serious about that and also someone who did not take advice very well. He consequently said things and even did things that hurt the cause of anticommunism for some time. Q a, sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Tonight on cspan3, American History tv and primetime with a focus on world war ii. First, well learn about the history and design of the m4 sherman tank used in combat. Thats followed by Navy Veterans sharing stories from the battle of midway. Later, Service Members from segregated units describe their experiences during the war. The m4 sherman tank was the most commonly used by the u. S. In world war ii with more than 50,000 made between 1942 and 1945. Up next, well take a look at the design and history of the tank from nicholas moran. With over more than 100 players worldwide hosted by the military affairs symposium. Its an hour and a half. Nicholas moran graduated from University College dublin and enlisted in the irish reserve Defense Forces in 1997. He joined the United States