>> the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain. >> let us pray. god, our father, we give you thanks for giving us another day. bless the members of the people's house as they gather another week in the capital and the graces needed to attend to the issues of the day with wisdom. the results of their effort might benefit citizens of our nation and the world. we also ask your blessing leading into this weekend, upon a world both celebrating sport with the women's world cup competition, and facing heightened, even dangerous tensions in the middle east. spirit best of the human be manifest in all the actions undertaken by those in positions of responsibility. be for yourdone greater honor and glory. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his pproval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from new hampshire, mr. pappas. mr. pappas: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the speaker: for what purpose does the gentleman from new hampshire seek recognition? mr. poppest: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. pappas: thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to recognize my high school u.s. history teacher who retired last week after serving the manchester school district for 49 years, 42 at my alma mater of central high school. she's a central high institution and her passion for her subject matter and dedication to her profession made her an exemplary teacher. she was a long time leader of the social studies department and the national honor society. she gave back to her community in many way, including leading efforts locally to preserve and share the history of man hoster. she knows that history is not simply a collection of case, facts, and figures, it's about people. we must understand it or be bound to repeat it. i think of her lessons on a regular basis and so do thousands of new hampshire students who walked through her classroom doors. on behalf of the new hampshire's first district i thank her for her service and wish her the best in her well deserved retirement. thank you, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. mccarthy: last month i proudly introduced legislation, r. 2695, to tame success dam located in california after. mr. richard l. schaffer. the long time tuli water master. last week i was pleased to see this bill pass the house of representatives by unanimous consent. for decades mr. schaffer has demonstrated unparalleled commitment to ensuring our families, farms, and communities get the water they need to live and work, a major part of this commitment includes this year-long persistence to enlarge lake success. doing so it would increase flood protection to communities farmlands below the dam. as california knows, more water storage means more security for the times of a drought that put a strain on our lives. the good news for the county is that in 2018 the army corps of engineer fully funded work to raise the dam. i stand here today to state with confidence that without mr. schaffer's leadership this project might not have been approved. this is because no matter how contentious water issues can get, if you are in california you know that can be quite contentious, mr. schaffer has always been the consummate professional. always remaining even keeled and result focused. it is only appropriate and fitting that success dam be named after mr. schaffer. i want to thank my colleagues in this chamber for coming together and acknowledging the individuals who work hard and make our communities better. most importantly i want to thank mr. schaffer for his continued leadership and service to our community. this is a much deserved honor. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. i rise today to recognize a hero who has too often been forgotten. mr. evans: frank willis is his name. the security guard who discovered the watergate burglary in progress. mr. willard discovery ultimately led to an exposure of crime, scandalous behavior by several members of the nixon administration and campaign, including the president himself. despite his central role in exposing that presidential scandal, mr. willis only received 3% raise in his weeklyalry and his work at the -- -- weekly salary at his work at the watergate. unfortunately mr. willis passed away at the age of 352 without receiving the type of official recognition he deserved. this week we observe the anniversary of the watergate break-in, on behalf of the congressional black caucus, i urge everyone to remember mr. willis and honor his memory. i yield back the balance of my time. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. thompson: madam speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. thompson: thank you, madam speaker. madam speaker, june is alzheimer's and brain aa wearness month. alzheimer's is the sixth leading cause of death in the united states. it has reached crisis proportions. there is no effective treatment and no means of prevention. no method for slowing the progression of this disease. sadly, one in three seniors will die with the disease of alzheimer's. today on the longest day of the year, the alzheimer's association is raising awareness to outshine the darkness of alzheimer's disease. approximately 50 million people worldwide are living with alzheimer's disease and other dementias. this not only has a devastating impact on those who are diagnosed with the disease but also their caregivers and loved ones. more than 15 million americans provide on paid care to family and friends living with alzheimer's and other dementias. compared with caregivers for people without dementia, twice as many dare givers with people with dementia indicate emotional, financial, and physical stress. the time to act is now. let's join the fight. let's take the pledge to raise awareness about alzheimer's disease. never stop searching for a kur. thank you, madam speaker. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. 7 our neighbors and low-income households pay three times more as a share of their income on energy bills than those in higher income strata. the fiscal year 20 energy and water appropriations bill marks an important step to reduce that energy burden for america's most vulnerable people. mr. tonko: by increasing investments in the department of energy's weather assistance program. this program helps families make their homes 4e89ier and safer. it reduces utility bills which means more money in the pockets of these families for health care, groshery, and other basic expenses. for each dollar the american people invest in the weatherization program, we see an estimated $4.50 in energy and nonenergy benefits. this additional funding will ensure even more families are able to experience the benefits of the program. the energy and waterer bill also recognizes america's need for clean energy innovation by significantly increasing funding for essential d.o.e. research programs, including the office of energy efficiency and renewable energy, the state energy program, and arpa-e. the work done by d.o.e. and state energy offices is critical to accelerate our nation's transition to a clean energy economy. this bill recognizes the need for the united states to continue to be the global leader in lean energy, i novation -- clean energy, innovation, technology, and development. i precks my gratitude for chairwomen lowey and kaptur. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. > thank you. madam speaker, i rise today to honor the life of peoria county states attorney jerry grady laid to rest this week. he was an admired public servant in the peoria legal community and we loved by everyone who had the pleasure of knowing him. jerry grew up in peoria, attending high school and graduating from bradley university and st. louis university law school. in 1981 he became an assist states attorney in peoria county and went on to run a successful private law practice for nearly 30 years. in 2001, he was appointed peoria county states attorney where he served until his unfortunate passing. mr. lahood: inside the courtroom he was known as one of the hardest working legal minds in all of central illinois. outside the courtroom he was known as a benefactor, friend, role model throughout the community. jerry was instrumental in numerous fundraising efforts to support the peoria community, including the recent completion of our veterans memorial in downtown peoria. jerry was a selfless public servant who left a profound impact on our community and peoria illinois misses him and will miss him in the fuhr. as our community mourns his loss, my thoughts and prayers are with his wonderful wife, sue, and their three children. he will be missed. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lowenstein: as we celebrate pride month we are reminded of the great strides towards equality we have taken. 50 years ago -- mr. lowenthal: 50 years ago where the modern lgbtq rights movement began, the journey towards equality, no doubt, looked endless. today we can see the end in sight. and yet for all of our success, the struggle continues. we cannot rest, we cannot compromise, we simply cannot allow the democrat nothings -- demagogues of ignorance, fear, hatred of others, no matter what levers of power they hold torques stop our march forward. -- hold, to stop our march forward. we must ensure that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness applies to each and every american. no matter who they are, and no matter who they love. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise today ahead of a public hearing set to be held in my congressional district by the u.s. fish and wildlife service on the proposal delisting of the gray wolf. the gray wolf has recovered. back in 2013, the obama administration delisted the gray wolf for precisely the same reason we are today, because of science. yet the gray wolf remains listed and without a state developed management plan in place, the population in northeastern minnesota is growing at an untrollable rate. within the duluth city limits, the largest city in minnesota's eighth district, a labrador retriever was attacked by wolves while the owner was a few feet awafmente attacks on cattle owned by farmers trying to make ends meet continue to be all too common. madam speaker, my state's department of natural resources will effectively manage the species once the federal government moves itself out of the way. mr. stauber: i am incredibly grateful to interior secretary bernhardt and the fish and wildlife service for choosing to hold this forum in the heart of gray wolf country. no one knows this issue better than those living in northeast minnesota. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you very much. thank you very much, madam speaker. madam speaker, i rise today in recognition of immigrant heritage month. and millions of immigrant families living, working, and thriving within the united states. for centuries our country has welcomed those in search of a better life and has benefit interested their meaningful contributions. as a proud mexican american, it is a special honor to spell brown-waite my family's immigrant heritage and our nation's entire immigrant community. like countless others, my parents came to the united states looking for hope and opportunity for themselves and for the generations to follow. thanks to their courage and sacrifice, my siblings and i were able to pursue our american dreams. an opportunity that is currently unfortunately slipping away from far too many. today we are witnessing the devastating effect of president trump's cruel anti-immigrant agenda where immigrants are demonized and treated as others. mr. vargas: migrants are denied their legal rights to asylum and safety, children are ripped apart from their parents, and adults of children are dying while in u.s. custody. this is not who we are. immigrants from far and wide helped build and better our nation. they have and will continue to be a source of strength to inspire us. i stand with immigrants today and i think we all should. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. . >> today i rise to encourage the speaker of the house to give us expeditious consideration of the united states-mexico free trade agreement. there's progress on this agreement being made. country of mexico, their senate just ratified it. canada is looking to move very quickly. and it's critically important that we do the same. along those lines, manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, processing have written us and said we need to get this deal done now. r. hagedorn: in minnesota it's manufacturing, machinery, and my you friends at the farm bureau, agri growth, pork, poultry, you name it, everyone wants to get this done. if we can get this mexico-canada free trade agreement, we will build our deals with china, japan, south korea, colombia, european union. we should be dropping down the barriers, expanding our trade, creating economic growth, high-wage jobs and helping the american people and our consumers. thank you and i yield back, madam chair. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask can unanimous consent that the committee on the judiciary be discharged from further consideration of h.r. 962, the born alive abortion survivors protection act and ask for its immediate consideration in the house. the speaker pro tempore: under guidelines consistently issued by successive speakers as recorded in section 956 of the house rules and manual, the chair is constrained not to entertain the request unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships. the gentleman is not requested for debate. -- is not recognized for debate. the chair lays before the house n enrolled bill. the clerk: house resolution 60, joint resolution requesting the secretary of the interior to authorize unique and one-time arrangements for displays on the national mall and the washington monument during the period beginning july 16, 2019, and ending on july 20, 2019. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 445 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the further consideration of h.r. 3055. will the gentlewoman from pennsylvania, ms. wild, kindly ake the chair. the chair: the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the further consideration of h.r. 3055, which the clerk will report by title. the clerk: a bill making appropriations for the departments of commerce and justice, science, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2020, and or other purposes. the chair: when the committee of the whole rose on thursday, june 20, 2019, amendment number 190 printed in house report 116-119 offered by the gentlewoman from washington, ms. schrier, had been disposed of. it's now in order to consider amendment number 195 printed in 119. b of house report 116- for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. raskin: madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 195 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. raskin of maryland. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from maryland, mr. raskin, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: thank you, madam chair. i rise today to offer an amendment h.r. 3055, relating to a problem taking place in my district that may be reflective of what's happening in many other parts of the country. a fire station on the military installation recently experienced a devastating fire itself but now cannot get the funds it needs to construct a new fire house. madam chair, the united states spends billions of dollars every year on military projects, but we need the funds to fix and maintain the basic buildings and infrastructure that have fallen into disrepair on military installations across the country. this situation was brought to my attention by constituents who work at the naval district fire emergency stations located at the naval support bethesda installation in maryland. it provides base support for 40 commands, including walter reed national military medical center, which the members of this body know well. earlier this year a fire work out at n.s.a.'s bethesda location. it began in the kitchen but because the fire alarm never went off, the flames spread into other rooms causing extensive damage and rendering the fire house basically unfit for occupancy. no one was injured because no one was there. if the fire happened overnight while people were asleep it would have been a nightmare. the fire house was built in 1942. the complaints ranged from dangerous mold and asbestos to roof leaks, electrical problems and structural instability. trailers erected flex to the house is at a breaking point with air conditioning units at only work intermittently, mold. firefighters and e.m.t.'s complaints were ignored. they said there is no money available to renovate or build a new fire station. in response to the hazardous conditions caused by the fire, the naval facility's engineering command simply put up some dry wall and told the firefighters that the building was now ready to reoccupy. the firefighters work 48-hour shifts, sometimes longer. they're worried about the carcinogens they are being exposed to, not just when they enter into burning buildings, but when they breathe the air inside their own fire house. now, this is happening at the fire station that responds to emergencies on an installation that's home to walter reed, the most prominent military hospital in america. the men and women working there serve our military and our nation's wounded warriors. many of the firefighters, e.m.t.'s and paramedics are themselves former sailors, marines, coast guardsmen. one of my constituents said, i served four years in the army and was deployed overseas. the conditions in the fire house are by far the worst conditions i've seen or lived in. another told me that he lived in better conditions when he was serving in afghanistan. this is shocking and unacceptable. the men and women working at the fire station deserve better. they need funding to build a new, safe, clean fire station. in a defense budget of hundreds of billions of dollars, we should be able to have money for essential projects like this one. i'd like to yield one minute to my colleague who's been a real leader on this issue, the chairwoman of the military construction and veterans' affairs subcommittee, debbie wasserman schultz. the chair: the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, madam chair. i thank the gentleman for yielding and rise in support of this excellent amendment. the health and safety of our troops and the surrounding communities is paramount. we need to ensure basic projects like fire stations are funded properly just as training ranges, barracks, hospital, and schools are. i look forward to working with the gentleman in future budget amendments and i urge support and yield back the balance of my time. mr. raskin: i look forward to working with you. i urge all my colleagues to support this amendment. i reserve. the chair: the gentleman reserves. does anybody request time in opposition? the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. raskin: i have nothing further if we want to move to a vote. i yield back to the chair. the chair: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from maryland. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. he amendment is agreed to. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. wasserman schultz madam speaker, as the designee of the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. lowey, i offer amendments en bloc. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment the amendments en bloc. the clerk: en bloc number 6 consisting of amendments number 169, 167, 200, 201, 202, 203, 210, 211, 07, 209, 12, 213, 214, 215, 217, 218, 22, 223, 224, 225, and 227 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by ms. wasserman schultz of florida. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentlewoman from florida, ms. wasserman schultz, and the gentleman from texas, mr. carter, each will control 10 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from florida. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, madam chair. the amendments included in the en bloc have been agreed to by the ranking member, judge carter, and i. i support the amendment and urge its adoption, and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: madam chair, i rise in support of the en bloc amendment. let me thank the chairwoman of my subcommittee, my good friend from florida, for her efforts to put this bipartisan amendment together. it improves and strengthens the bill and i urge my colleagues to support it. i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: madam chair, at this time i yield one minute to the gentlewoman from pennsylvania, a sponsor of one of the amendments included in the en bloc, ms. houlahan. the chair: the gentlewoman from pennsylvania is recognized for one minute. ms. houlahan: thank you, representative wasserman schultz. i rise in support of my amendment which would increase medical services account by $1.7 million in order to increase the minimum amount that must be spent on gender-specific care for women at the v.a. with the appropriate offset. women represent the fastest growing cohort in our nation's military and in the past four years, the number of women veterans using services has increased by 22%. we are not providing v.a. with the resources it needs to provide quality care for women. for example, in my community the v.a. does not have a full-time ob-gyn. women veterans in my community must wait until one of the only two days a month that an abgyn to go to the v.a. or go to philadelphia. this lack of available of gender-specific care is widespread across our country's v.a. centers. our women who have served deserve better from us and this amendment helps ensure we are specifically addressing the unique health care needs of these courageous women. i yield back to ms. wasserman schultz. the chair: the gentlewoman from lorida reserves. ms. wasserman schultz: yes, i reserve. the chair: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: i yield one minute to leader mccarthy, the minority leader of the united states house. the chair: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. mccarthy: i thank the gentleman for yielding. thank you, madam chair. i rise today in support of amendment h.r. 3055, which is included in the en bloc amendment. the intent behind my amendment is straightforward. it is to encourage the v.a. to complete construction of medical clinics that the congress authorized 10 years ago in public law. unfortunately, veterans in my district have now patiently waited for the new community-based outpatient clinic in bakersfield to be built for more than a decade. of the 15 new clinics authorized in 2009, a decade ago, the bakersfield clinic is the only facility that has not been built or opened. that means that thousands of veterans in the california 23rd district must continue to depend on a very outdated clinic. now, this is unacceptable. in 2015, our constituents and i were informed that a new v.a. clinic was set to be built. only for that to be derailed by the now failed california high-speed rail conject, condemning the property, the new clinic was supposed to be built in. this forced the v.a. to start all over again. further delays on building a new clinic. now, last october there was this great excitement in the community. i welcomed it. it was the long-awaited news that the v.a. announced that it's finally awarded the contract for a new 30,000 square foot medical clinic in bakersfield on newsome drive. it is state-of-the-art, be able to care for the rise in female veterans, the homeless veterans out there as well, the modernization that we've all been yearning. unfortunately, something happened. the new clinic has been subject to several, what i would call, dilatory actions. must have been resolved or dismissed, which only furthers the delay. now, you can protest. here's a dirty little secret we should all learn. you can have the lease on an outdated clinic, bid for the new one, and lose it, but then you can protest. you get punished for protesting? no. you know what happens? our government rewards you. because you go beyond the lease, they now pay the outdated clinic more money than they paid before, and lo and behold, they're the ones protesting because they didn't win the contract. that is unacceptable. our veterans have fought too hard to wait too long to get this job done, so the v.a. must move forward, be consistent with the application of law and regulation, and let's build this clinic that won the award and let's treat our veterans to a new modern facility that looks for those that really are in the need of care, from mental health to new growth in women veterans to even veterans who are homeless. let's show we will never forget the act they gave for us and worked so hard for all of us. i yield back. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, madam chair. at this time i yield one minute to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. gottheimer. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. mr. gottheimer: thank you chairwoman wasserman schultz and ranking member carter for your work on this legislation. madam chair, i rise in support of en bloc package one which includes my amendment to h.r. 3055 to help address critical staffing shortages at the v.a. we in congress have no higher obligation than to care for our veterans who have our backs and that means make sure they have the resources they need when they come home. the unfulfilled positions at the v.a. has grown and is currently at 49,000 across the system. 49,000 vacancies is a huge problem we must tackle. one person in my district, a constituent, 89-year-old, has been waitling on the adjudication of his appeal for more than a year. that's absurd . when we call to inquire, we were told "this is how long it takes. the appropriations subcommittee on military construction, v.a. looked closely at this issue and say the committee is concerned with a significant number of vacancies will lead to longer waits for veterans going without service. i agree, we must address this problem and address it quickly. our veterans don't have time for longer waits for doctor's appointments, mental health crisis, housing assistance, and more. i'm proud to offer this amendment. thank you, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the entlewoman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: madam chair, i yield one minute to our friend from arizona, mrs. lesko. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from arizona is recognized for one minute. mrs. lesko: thank you, madam chair. i'm proud to sponsor an amendment that will help women veterans. my amendment would ensure that no less than $3 million under the veterans health administration should be directed towards women only inpatient clinics for mental health care. the current system could force women suffering with ptsd caused by military sexual trauma to be admitted into a male dominant ward which could further traumatize or revictimize her. the veteran suicide rate is only increasing. we need to protect our veterans when they are feeling vulnerable. women veterans should not be humiliated, marginalized, traumatized, or victimized to the point of giving up and believing suicide is the only way out. we need to protect them. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from arizona yields back. the gentleman from reserves. the gentlelady from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: i reserve my time. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida reserves her time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: at this time, madam chairman, i yield one minute to representative from kentucky, mr. barr. the chair: the gentleman from -- mr. carter: i yield 45 seconds to mr. allen from georgia. the chair: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for 45 seconds. mr. allen: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, madam speaker. i rise to thank the chairwoman and ranking member for including the allen highs amendment in this en bloc package. congressman highs and i worked together to introduce this bipartisan amendment to fully fund the president's budget request for construction in the second project of the cyber instructional facility at fort gordon. as we all know cyber is the present and future of modern warfare. in georgia 12, the district i have the honor of representing, we are at the forefront of advance cyber innovation. in changing electronic world in which we live, the u.s. cyber command is an increde creasingly significant part of our national security efforts. u.s. cyber command is currently transitioning to fort gordon and this transition requires construction of state-of-the-art facilities that can can accommodate the rapid change of pace retired in cyber space. i ask for -- the chair: the gentleman from texas reserves. mr. carter: i'd like to yield 45 seconds to mr. hice of georgia. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for 45 seconds. mr. hice: i thank the gentleman and my colleague, mr. allen, for his leadership in this. the u.s. army's cyber center for excellence is critical for cyber operations signal and communications netsworks. and electronic warfare. the center carries out its important mission by developing mission doctrine, educational programs, personnel and facilities. it is of utmost importance that we make sure this tradition of training world class, highly skilled cyber professionals is kept intact. so i urge passage of the allen-hice amendment to fully fund this project and urge all my colleagues to do the same. i thank my neighbor and my friend for yielding the time. it's an honor to work with mr. 58en on-- allen on this important amendment. i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, madam chair. at this time i yield an additional one minute to the gentleman from new jersey who has been a passionate advocate standing up for the members of our armed forces as well as the veterans of this country in his district, mr. gottheimer. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. gottheimer: thank you, chairwoman wasserman schultz and ranking member carter for your work on this legislation and leadership. i rise in support of the en bloc package number one which includes my amendment to h.r. 3055 to increase our investment in the veterans health administration for purposes of hiring more mental health professionals. madam chair, we in congress have no higher obligation than care for our veterans. according to the inspector general for the v.a. mental health professionals are the most needed occupation at the v.a. many of those in the veterans community are suffering from mental health conditions with so many of them unfortunately suffering in silence. less than half of all returning veterans in need receive the mental health treatment they deserve and need. that's unacceptable. we have seen increased incidents of posttraumatic stress disorder, and brain injury from our veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan. my office has worked for a number of veterans to make sure they get access to the care they have earned. an average of 20 veterans die by suicide every day. in my home state the rate of suicide is almost double that of the population. this is shameful. surely we can coming together as a body to support this most pressing and urgent need. my amendment will do that. i'm proud to offer it. i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman reserves? ms. wasserman schultz: i do. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. carter: at this time i yield 1.5 minutes to mr. johnson of louisiana. the chair: the gentleman from louisiana is recognized for -- is recognized. mr. johnson: i rise in support of two amendments. my first reflects congressional intent for the army to prioritize necessary funding for its combat development certainties. these centers throughout the united states play a critical role in ensuring a capable and ready ground force. take for example fort polk home to the joint readiness training center located in congress' fourth congressional district. it provide invaluable training to prepare for the unique situations and challenges the unit may face while being cloid. as we continue to grow our ground forces investing in the necessary infrastructure to replace the existing facilities at fort polk such as the joint operation center, we remember that's paramount. this much needed upgrade would allow our troops better training to ensure full readiness for when our men and women in uniform are called upon to defend freedom around the world. my second amendment ensures congressional intent that the air force continues to maintain its he revised plan for construction and upgrades to the weapons generation facility enterprise. ensuring these critical upgrades to that -- those facilities is crate cal to the national security interests of the u.s. especially given the recent aggression from our adversaries. it is requisite to maintaining peace and if congress is serious about preserving our nuclear infrastructure these upgrades must be prioritize. my home state has paved the way for the home of the global strike command. i urge us to support the wide array of strategy deterrence we do there at global strike. i'm proud to represent these vital installations in congress. both are critical to our national security interest in the united states and i appreciate the appropriations committee for giving it due attention. i urge support of both amendment. i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you. i reserve. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida reserves. the gentleman is recognized. mr. carter: at this time i'd like to yield 1.5 minutes to mr. abraham of louisiana. the chair: the gentleman from louisiana is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. >> the first is to ensure that the air force prioritizes the construction of the weapons generation facility at barksdale air force base. mr. abraham: i have continued to push the air force for this project because of its strategic importance to the nation's security and nuclear strategy. millions of federal dollars have been invested in projects to prepare for this facility, last year we in congress prioritized funding for a new ate entrance at barksdale. it's a national security imperative. funding this project cannot wait any longer. i encourage the air force to prioritize funding for this project. the second amendment i would like to speak on is to prioritize the funding of our army's combat development centers. one of these is that the joint readiness training center at fort polk, louisiana. it has supportsed training operations for our army for decades. the training of our soldiers receive at fort polk is the best and closest they will get to combat without actually being deployed. this training is imperative to readiness in our national security. we need to do a better job about resource and the infrastructure needs of these training centers and must prioritize funding for them. i want to thank my colleagues for working with congress and johnson and me on these amendment and look forward to seeing them pass. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: madam chairman, at this time i'd like to yield one minute to the representative -- mr. steal. mr. steal: i rise to support my amendment to ensure the suicide prevention programs are adequately funded. it provides one million to those programs. every day we lose 22 veterans to suicide. these are american heroes, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. valued members of our community. we must support our veterans and fight for them as they fought for us. they will not go through this battle alone. june is ptsd awareness month. we must stand together, democrats and republicans, to ensure that our veterans get the help that they need. this amendment is about supporting veterans and ensuring that they have access to mental health care resources. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: madam chairman, i would like to yield 1.5 minutes to the representative from arkansas who will be batting cleanup, mr. hill. the chair: the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for a minute and a half. mr. hill: i thank my good friend from texas for yielding me this time. my amendment in this en bloc package is very simple. it transfers $1.5 million from the again -- general administration account to the homeless assistance programs and sureside prevention outreach. 40,000 veterans are homeless on any given night in this great country. in arkansas we coordinated robust efforts in little rock to combat homelessness. still, 250 veterans can experience homelessness on any given day. i've got three veterans on my constituent team. they spend time in our shelters every month. helping vets. our vets deserve that extra touch. one of those safe places is st. francis house, a nonprofit in little rock that's done exceptional work to help our veterans experiencing homelessness. for over 30 years they have been providing transitional housing for homeless veterans. our veterans put their lives on the line to protect our freedoms, safety, and they return we need to do everything we can to ensure they get the proper attention and care that they deserve. we must all work together and continue to move forward addressing this issue that plagues too many of our veterans across the country and help those suffering from the plague of homelessness. i urge passage of my amendment. i thank you for your consideration. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. carter: may i ask how much time we have left? the chair: 30 seconds. mr. carter: at this time i'd like to yield 30 seconds to mr. bost of illinois. mr. bost: i rise today in support of the en bloc amendment, the amendment highlights the positive work by public universities and law school offering probono legal services for our nation's veterans. i understand putting together a proper application for disability benefits can be difficult at times. in my district, southern illinois university carbon daily school of law offers assistance to veterans. the program has helped thousands of these heroes and increased chances for veterans receiving positive responses in a timely manner. thank you to the chair and ranking member for including this in the en bloc amendment. i urge its support. . ms. wasserman schultz: i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlewoman has the only time remaining. ms. wasserman schultz: then i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the question is on the amendments en bloc offered by the gentlewoman from florida. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the en bloc amendments are agreed to. it's now in order to consider amendment number 198 printed in part b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? mr. blumenauer: madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 198 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. blumenauer of oregon. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from oregon, mr. blumenauer, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon. mr. blumenauer: thank you. this has been a very important week in the evolution of the federal policy to end the failed policy of prohibition on cannabis. yesterday, the house overwhelmingly approved my amendment that would prohibit the department of justice from interfering with any state legal cannabis activities. we'd also approved an amendment that granted the same protections to the tribes. this is remarkable progress that we have seen, but it is just an effort by congress to catch up to where the rest of the american public is. for the last 23 years, american voters have changed the policies that are outmoded and dangerous. most recently, we have seen a wave of activity dealing with not just medical marijuana, but dealing with adult use. the public, by a 2/3 margin, supports this. when we talk about medical marijuana, it's like the fourth of july. 90% of the american public believe that we ought to have access to medical marijuana. i have been working in this congress to extend the same opportunities to our veterans who, if anything, need medical marijuana more than any other category of our citizens. we lost 7,000 people to the war in afghanistan and iraq, but we've lost 100,000 of those veterans to suicides and opioid overdoses. the v.a., i'm afraid, has not been as helpful as it should be. they prescribe opioids at a -- for our veterans at a rate 50% higher than others. our veterans are twice as likely to die from overdose. i am deeply concerned about that. that's why i repeatedly advanced this amendment. two sessions ago, it passed the house. it passed the senate. it was in the final version of the bill only to be stripped out by the republican leadership. illustration how far we have evolved, the house leadership that stripped this provision out was headed by speaker boehner who is now a spokesperson for the cannabis industry having described he's evolved on this issue and thinks it's a good idea. we haven't evolved in this congress in providing protections for the v.a. even though this amendment has passed repeatedly, all of a sudden the v.a. has decided, well, they would be putting their doctors at risk. never came up before. if we'd known about it, we could work it around. i think we can and should work to fix this. it is outrageous that veterans -- and if you talk to people, like the veterans' cannabis coalition, or talk to veterans in your own district who told you their lives have been transformed by access to medical cannabis, and they don't want highly addictive, dangerous opioids. we need to do right by them. i am going to reluctantly withdraw this amendment. this amendment that has passed repeatedly on the floor of the house and is so badly needed, and i hope we'll be able to work together to fix this little quirk to make sure that v.a. our nation and give our veterans the same consideration to be able have them, to be able have these conversations. i would say, madam chair, i will reluctantly withdraw it, confident we can work together to solve it and ultimately give our veterans the access that they deserve and need. i withdraw the amendment. the chair: the amendment is withdrawn. it is now in order to consider amendment number 199 printed in art b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? mr. walberg: thank you, madam chair. i rise having an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 199 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. walberg of michigan. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from michigan you, mr. walberg, and a member oppose -- the gentleman from michigan, mr. walberg, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from michigan. mr. walberg: thank you, madam chair. i rise today in support of an important issue, preserving veterans' choices over their prosthetic services. while i am prepared to withdraw this amendment, and we had discussions about that, i would hope i can continue to work with the chairwoman as we move to conference on improving the underlying report language. last year, the v.a. released a draft proposed rule which would have significantly curtailed veterans' choices in how they receive their prosthetic or ort oddic you -- or orthodic care. while we seek to address the concerns of the veterans, i remain concerned that the proposal does not go far enough to protect veterans' ability to select high-quality, convenient, and efficient services from community-based providers of their choice. this proposal would have up-ended more than 60 years of successful partnership between the v.a. and local trothettist nd have long-term re-- local rosthettist and have long-term relationships. i'd also like to thank my colleague, representative rutherford, for working on this issue with me. i'd like to yield to the gentlelady from florida to at least assure me that we can continue to work on this issue together. the chair: the gentleman yields. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i appreciate the gentleman from michigan for bringing this attention to this important issue. we agree we want veterans to provide the best prosthetic provider for his or her needs. we provided report language to address this but i agree more needs to be done. we need to find a way forward. we should work with the authorizers and the v.a. to thoughtfully work on this issue to find the best solution for veterans needing artificial limbs. i do commit to working with you on this issue. we are not quite ready to make a decision on the best approach to this as we move towards conference. thank you for your willingness to withdraw the amendment and i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. walberg: i thank the gentlelady. based upon that and also an understanding of the chairwoman's willingness to at least look at how we can find an adequate solution to meet the needs of our service members who have given their all for our great country, i am willing to continue working on that but at this time am willing to withdraw this amendment and yield back. the chair: the amendment is withdrawn. it is now in order to consider amendment number 206 printed in part b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? mr. bost: madam chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 206 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. bost of illinois. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from illinois, mr. bost, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois. mr. bost: thank you, madam chairman. i rise today in support of my amendment and support of the president's executive order entitled strengthening buy-american preferences for infrastructure projects. when federal agencies spend tax dollars, those dollars should be spent on american-made products. this not only includes items directly produced -- procured by the federal government, but also those funded through federal aid programs. each year, the federal government will spend hundreds of billions of dollars procuring goods and services. many bills more will be provided directly to states to build our nation's military infrastructure. unfortunately, buy american preferences requirements are not consistently applied between various agencies. this may result in the loss of jobs and missing contract opportunities for american businesses and workers. to address these potential shortfalls, the president's executive order directs agency heads to identify opportunities to maximize the use of american-made products. i strongly support those efforts. federal agencies should already be following this executive order, and my amendment would simply reinforce the president's efforts. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida wish to be recognized? ms. wasserman schultz: to be recognized to speak on the amendment. although i do not oppose the amendment. the chair: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you. thank you, madam chair. i do fully support strengthening buy-american preferences for infrastructure projects. that language is already included in this legislation. i appreciate the gentleman underscoring the importance of our commitment to buy america policies. i urge all my colleagues to support this amendment, and i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlewoman yields the balance of her time. the gentleman from illinois is recognized. mr. bost: i appreciate the woman's support -- the gentlewoman's support of the amendment. i also support the co-sponsorship from congressman dan lipinski and his support of these efforts as well and with that i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from illinois. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. ms. wasserman schultz: madam chair, i request a roll call vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from illinois will be postponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 208 printed in art b of house report 116-119. it is now in order to consider amendment number 219 printed in part b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. cunningham: madam chair, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 219 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. cunningham of south carolina. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. cunningham, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina. mr. cunningham: thank you, madam chair. i rise in support of my bipartisan amendment, which makes clear that no funding made available by this bill can be used to carry out another wasteful round of base realignment and closure, or brac. folks in the low country still remember the disastrous effects brac had on our economy in the past. our region lost more than 20,000 jobs, according to some estimates, after the 1993 brac commission recommended the closer of the charleston naval ship yard. my amendment would make sure that charleston, paris island, buford, the buford naval hospital do not suffer the same fate. combined, these important national security assets are estimated to count for nearly $13 billion in economic impact and support 78,000 jobs. . this amendment isn't about preserving my disfrict's -- district's economy, it's about fiscal responsibility. the last brac round in 2005 cost taxpayers over $35 billion and is not expected to save even 1/3 of that. this is funding that should have gone to rebuilding our military and improving its readiness. but was instead spent devastating military communities across the country. that's why i'm asking my colleagues on both sides of the aisle join me in supporting this amendment to ensure communities here and across the nation are spared the effects of another brac round. the chair: the gentleman reserves. does any member seek time in opposition? for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. wasserman schultz: i rise to speak on the amendment although i do not oppose it. the chair: the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, mr. chairman. i thank the gentleman for yielding. i rise to point out that d.o.d. has testified that they have excess facilities and needed way to deal with that excess. with that said the underlying ill does not include any funds for it. i appreciate the gentleman pointing out the economic impact and yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from south arolina is recognized. mr. cunningham: i thank the gentleman from texas, mr. ratcliffe, for joining me. and i thank chairman mcgovern and my colleagues on the rules committee for allowing this important amendment to come to the floor for debate. i ask my colleagues vote in favor of this amendment and ensure that our military's limited resources are not wasted on another round of brac. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from south carolina. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. he amendment is agreed to. it is now in order to considered amendment number 220, printed in part b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from maine seek recognition? mr. golden: i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 220, printed in part b of house report number 116-119, offered by mr. golden of maine. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from maine, mr. golden, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maine. mr. golden: thank you, mr. chair. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i rise to offer my amendment to h.r. 3055. this amendment would increase about $5 million to medical facilities account. i did want to talk about a specific problem. most rural states and communities understand when it comes to trying to take care of our veterans, specifically those struggling with mental health issues, perhaps substance use disorder issues as well, it's an issue of care closer to home and access to care. when we have a veteran in a state like maine who is in need of acute mental health care services and needing long-term in patient mental health care, it's become known in the veterans community in maine that care is only available to you as closest in bedford, mass marks perhaps as far away as new york and even further in order to get access to those beds. it's the same when are you in need of a long-term substance use treatment program. i just want to tell you i have seen time and time again working with veterans who are in need of those service that is this is a significant problem. it's a barrier to care. it keeps people from coming in the door at the v.a. to begin with to ask for help. it is not just an issue in rural areas among veterans. the problem is mirrored in the greaterer community. this is not an instance where veterans can go to the community to get long-term in-patient care because the beds aren't there in rural america to begin with. this is an instance where we really need the v.a. to step up and try to make sure every state has a baseline capability to provide long-term in-patient mental health care services to veterans as close to their home and community as possible. with that i want to go ahead and yield my time to the chairwoman --congresswoman wasserman schultz, and thank her for working with me on this issue and all the work are you doing on the committee. i also want to thank very quickly congressman fulcher from idaho for joining me in this. i know idaho is in the same boat as maine. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: i thank the gentleman for yielding. we recognize that there is a lack of available overnight bed space for mental health patients at v.a. facilities. this is a huge issue the v.a. is facing. we did provide an additional $20 million within the medical facilities account as an effort to begin to address this dire need. this amendment will add an additional vital $5 million to expand v.a. facilities, provide additional bed space for veterans, requiring overnight mental health care. we can never do too much to provide mental health care for our veterans. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. congratulate the gentleman on his leadership on this issue. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from maine reserves. does any member seek time in opposition? for what purpose does the gentleman from idaho seek recognition? mr. fulcher: mr. chairman, i rise in opposition although i do not oppose. the chair: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. fulcher: this amendment will invest $5 million into those much needed beds at long-term care v.a. facilities. it's offset by a reduction for that same amount from v.a. i.t. systems account can budget. most of idaho's veterans served in vietnam. and they are aged between 65 and 74. while people are living longer today, they also need more care. in this case there is mental health care concerns. passage of this amendment helps in that regard. giving more bed space to veterans in need and long-term health care. these funds will also provide options to help idaho's heroes to remain closer to their communities. many sit studies have found people respond bettory treatment when they can be closer to their families. please note that this does not add to our growing deficit. i thank you to my colleague, congressman jared golden from maine, for working with me on this bipartisan amendment and for your service to our country in the united states marine corps. improving care forer our veterans should always be an issue we can can agree on. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting this amendment. thank you. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from maine is recognized. mr. golden: thank you, mr. chair. at this time i urge my colleagues to support the amendment. i want to thank congressman fulcher for joining me in this. it's critically important. he made a great point. care closer to home. it's about relationships. it's about trust when you are serving a population like veterans, but also when you are talking about things like mental health, substance use treatment, care programs. that kind of familiarity and trust goes an awfully long way. i talked to health care professionals who talk about continuity of care as well. even in this age with the internet, when you are trying to coordinate continuity of care from new york to maine when a veteran steps outside of that in-patient care, it becomes very difficult. it would be much more efficient if we had the ability to take care of our veterans in our home states like maine and idaho. thank you again for this. with that i yield. the chair: the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from maine. so many as are in favor say aye. - those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. mr. golden: request a recorded vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from maine will be postponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 221 printed in part b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from utah seek recognition? mr. mcadams: i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designater the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 221, printsed in part b of house report number 116-119, offered by mr. mcadams of utah. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from utah, mr. mcadams, and a member opposed, will each control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from utah. mr. mcadams: i rise today to speak on my amendment encouraging the department of veterans affairs to improve veteran credit reporting and to implement important financial protections for our veterans. i'd like to thank the bipartisan co-sponsors of this amendment, representative axne of iowa, representative gonzalez and stivers of ohio, representative barr from kentucky, and representative al read -- allread from texas. congress created this program to respond to inexcusable wait time delays for veterans receiving medical care at v.a. facilities. the choice program allowed veterans to access none v.a. medical facilities to received necessary care. while veterans sought increased protections to health care as v.a. and providers failed to process payments in a timely fashion. even those payments were often not the responsibility of the veteran. my amendment encourages the v.a. to make good on legislation that was enacted last year to ensure that these credit reporting errors are fixed. this legislation establishes a process in which veterans can can dispute negatively reported credit scores due to v.a. billing mishaps. it also requires credit bureaus to remove information related to a fully paid for settled veterans medical debt that has been characterized as delinquent, charged off, or in collection. this program will ensure our veterans are not financially inhibited because of government errors. the v.a. was tasked with establishing a database and process to verify whether a medical death is related to the billing -- debt is related to the billing errors. this one year grace period aloud the v.a. to establish a program to check medical debts, to verify the debt's acuracy, and provide a solution for our veterans. however, the v.a. missed that one-year period at the end of last month. my amendment is simple. it simply instructs the a.v. to submit to congress an implementation plan, including expected timeline and resource requirements for the v.a. to come in compliance with the law and establish these important protections for our veterans. good credit for our veterans is the difference between qualifying for a home loan or not. it's the difference between investing in their education, being able to buy a car, or qualify for a small business loan. this important issue cannot wait. our nation's veterans should not be punished because of government billing errors. they deserve better which is why i encourage a yes on my bipartisan amendment a. thank you, mr. chair. i now -- i yield back. the chair: does the gentleman reserve? mr. mcadams: i reserve. the chair: does anyone rise in opposition? for what purpose does the gentlewoman from florida seek recognition? ms. wasserman schultz: mr. chairman, as the designee of the the gentlewoman from new york, chairwoman lowey, i move to strike the last word. the chair: the gentlewoman is recognized for five minutes. ms. wasserman schultz: thank you, mr. chairman. i rise to support this amendment. i agree with my colleague from utah and i appreciate him drawing attention to this important issue. veterans credit scores should not be negatively impacted by untimely or improper payments by v.a. to third party providers. this is an unconscionable outcome can to the irresponsible actions of the v.a. i understand v.a. is working with the the gentleman on this issue and they are still in the process of setting up a database that will allow consumer reporting agencies to verify whether or not a debt is actually a veterans medical debt as required by public law 115-174, the economic growth regulatory relief and a consumer protection act. unfortunately, due to the complexity of setting up this database it will take longer than the one year deadline required by law. we must hold the v.a. accountable for homely payments and we cannot accept veterans suffering the financial consequences of v.a.'s improper or untimely payments. i do commit mr. mcadams to working with you on this issue as we move through the process. we need to make sure when our veterans come home that they are able to seamlessly transition back to civilian life and not have to have obstacles thrown in their path by the v.a. by their own mistakes. i appreciate you offering this amendment to protect our veterans, protect their credit. i urge my colleagues to support this amendment. i know the ranking member joins me in that effort and i yield back. the chair: the gentlewoman yields back. the gentleman from utah is recognized. mr. mcadams: i encourage members to support this bipartisan amendment. i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from utah yields. the question son the amendment offered by the gentleman from utah. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the amendment is agreed to. mr. mcadams: i'd like to request a roll call vote. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from utah will be ostponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 226 printed in art b of house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. cunningham: mr. chair, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 226 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. cunningham of south carolina. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from south carolina, mr. cunningham, and a member opposed, will each control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from south carolina. mr. cunningham: thank you, mr. chair. i rise in support of my amendment which would further emphasize our need to ensure our military is prepared for the ever-growing risk of climate change and rising sea levels. to that end, my amendment would make sure further d.o.d. construction projects meet military resilience standards. i said time and time again, climate change is our greatest nonmilitary threat. climate change also poses a significant threat to our military's readiness. nowhere is this clearer than in the low country, which is home to some of our nation's most critical national security assets. paris island, one of only two military bases that makes enlisted marines and the only military base that makes female enlisted marines faces frequent flooding and could be flooded over a third of the year by 2050. marine corps air station buford, the only place in the world where pilots are trained to fly f-35-b's faces similar flooding risks. they threaten to disrupt training and fielding of these aircrafts and this year joint base charleston was identified by the air force as one of the p five bases most accessible to the risk of climate change. i'm offering this amendment because it's imperative that these important defense assets are prepared. not only because they're critical to our national security, but because they are an indispensible part of our conomy in the low country. combined, these national security assets accounts for $13 billion in economic impact and support 78,000 jobs in our district. this is an urgent issue that threatens military installations across the nation, so i ask my colleagues join me in support of my amendment and the readiness of our armed forces. i'd reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from south carolina reserves. does anyone rise in opposition? the gentleman from south carolina is recognized. mr. cunningham: i yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from florida. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the past year has been particularly devastating to military installations in multiple states, including my own. there are bases that experienced hurricanes, tornadoes, and massive coastal and river flooding. over time, gradual sea level changes magnify the impacts of storm surge and may eventually result of closures of bases. tyndall air force base was devastated by hurricane michael. building resilient d.o.d. facilities that can sustain the impacts of damaging storms and flooding is no longer an option, but essential requirement. with that i urge my colleagues to support the amendment, commend the gentleman for his leadership on this issue, and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlewoman yields. the gentleman from south carolina is recognized. mr. cunningham: thank you, mr. chair. in closing, i want to thank the gentlewoman from florida for speaking in favor of my amendment and for all of her hard work in constructing this year's military construction and veterans' affairs appropriations bill. this -- veterans affairs appropriations bill. this amendment will make sure that our military has the facilities they need to keep our nation safe and improving services at the v.a. i hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will join me in supporting my amendment as well as the underlying bills. thank you, mr. chair, and i'd yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from south carolina yields. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from south carolina. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. he amendment is agreed to. it's now in order to consider amendment number 228 printed in house report 116-119. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. kim: mr. chair, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 228 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. kim of new jersey. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 445, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. kim, and a member opposed, will each control five minutes. mr. kim: ok. thank you, mr. chair. i have an amendment at the desk. -- i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. chair, as the vice chair of the readiness on the house armed services committee, improving road safety at and around our military facilities is important part of maintaining and enhancing military readiness. simply put, if our service men and women can't safely drive, they can't safely train. and that puts our military at a distinct disadvantage. we have dozens of military facilities across our country, but i want to give you one example of how prioritizing road safety will improve our readiness. my district, made up of burlington and ocean counties in new jersey, is home to joint base mcgwire. the joint base is a key military training facility but the lack of proper investment in road safety projects has impeded our military's ability to train. by building a simple overpass over route 539, the army reserve would have access to more than hundreds of additional training acres. because 1/3 of the army reservists live within a short drive of under four hours from the joint base, additional training would save us money and give them more time with their families. furthermore, this would allow the army reserve to conduct much-needed training exercises with night vision equipment used in war zones, training exercises that simply cannot execute because the roads aren't safe enough. this is one example, but it's not the only one. this is a chance for us to stand with our service men and women, a chance for us to stand for readiness. this is a chance for us to stand for safety. i urge support for the men and women across our country who serve and adopt -- who serve, and adoption of this commonsense amendment and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey reserves. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. kim: i'd now like to yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from florida. the chair: the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the maintenance of our roads in and around our military installations is a must for. it's key for training and the readiness of our troops. i look forward working with the gentleman in future budget submissions to make sure we can address this important issue and protect the safety of our troops and i urge my colleagues to support the amendment and yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentlewoman yields. the gentleman from new jersey is recognized. mr. kim: i thank the gentlewoman from florida for her words of support here. this is something that i find all of us are committed to in terms of ensuring that our armed service men and women have everything that they need to be able to do their jobs and be able to have the success of their missions. i thank the gentlewoman from florida for her support and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey yeemeds back -- yields back his time. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from new jersey. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. he amendment is agreed to. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. ms. wasserman schultz: proceed. the chair: thank you. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, proceedings will resume on those amendments printed in part b of house report 116-119 on which further proceedings were postponed. votes will be taken in the following order. amendment number 206 by mr. bost of illinois. amendment number 220 by mr. golden of maine. amendment number 221 by mr. mcadams of utah. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. the unfinished business is the request of a recorded vote on amendment number 206 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by the gentleman from illinois, mr. bost, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 206 printed in part b of house report 116-119 offered by mr. bost of illinois. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: on this vote the yeas are 373. the nays are 51. the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number 220, printed in part b of house report 116-119. offered by the gentleman from maine, mr. golden, on which further proceedings were postponed and the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 220, printed in part bflt. house report 116-119, offered by mr. golden of maine. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: the yeas are 418. the nays are 6. the vote on the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number 221 prohibited in part b of house report 116-119, offered by the gentleman from utah, mr. mcadams, on with which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed by voice vote. the clerk will redesignate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 221, printed in part b of house report number 116-119, offered by mr. mcadams of utah. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this will be a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the chair: on this vote the yeas are 420. the nays are three. he amendment is adopted. >> mr. speaker, i rise as the designee of the chairwoman lowey of the appropriations committee and i move that the house do now rise. the chair: the question is on the motion that the committee rise. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is adopted. accordingly, the committee rises. the chair: commars, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union having had under consideration h.r. 3055 directs me to report that it has a come to no resolution thereon. the speaker pro tempore: the chair of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee has under consideration h.r. 3055 and has come to no resolution thereon. the chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. the clerk: h.r. 3151, a bill to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to modendize and improve the internal revenue ervice and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. please take your conversations off the floor. for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for the purpose of inquiring the schedule for next week to the majority leader. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from louisiana is recognized. mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman will suspend. members will please take their conversations off the floor. members will clear the well. the gentleman from louisiana is recognized. mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. i also ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. scalise: i would yield to the gentleman from maryland, our distinguished majority leader, mr. hoyer. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the house is not in order. will the members in the middle aisle please clear the well. he house will be in order. the gentleman from maryland is ecognized. mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, on monday, the house will neat meat at 12 p.m. for morning hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. members are advised that debate on amendments to h.r. 3050, appropriation bill, could begin as early as 3:00 p.m. on monday. 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. again, 10 a.m. tuesday and wednesday. on thursday the house will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. we will consider, madam speaker, several bills under suspend the rules. a complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business today. the house, madam speaker, will complete consideration of the appropriation bill h.r. 3055, which entails commerce, justice, science, ag, interior, military construction, veterans' affairs, transportation, and the housing and urban development appropriation for 2020. the house will also consider, madam speaker, h.r. 3551 the financial servicings and general government appropriation act of 2020. madam speaker, that will be the 10th appropriation bill that we will consider and it's another step towards the house doing its work to avoid a shutdown at the end of the fiscal year. the house will also consider h.r. 2722, securing america's federal elections act. this legislation will protect elections for public office by providing financial support and enhanced security for the infrastructure used to carry out such elections. lastly, additional legislative items may be also considered, including ep legislation related to humanitarian assistance at the border and the legislative appropriation bill. i yield back to my friend. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman for yielding back. i know the gentleman and i have been having a conversation for well over a month now about this crisis at the border. i'm glad to hear that there is the possibility maybe the likelihood there will be legislation coming to the floor to address the crisis. i'm also aware that the senate did just pass legislation out of committee to address the crisis. it was a 30-1 vote, very bipartisan vote, to address the crisis. i know that the senate both republican and democrat in the senate, worked closely with the white house to get to a point where while they don't completely agree, madam speaker -- mr. hoyer: madam speaker, the house is still not in order. i'm having trouble hearing the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. he house will be in order. mr. scalise: while they don't completely agree on the details it seems clear the white house would be able to have this bill signed by the president, which, again, a addresses the crisis before it becomes imminent shutdown. there was a letter sent just days ago a, how serious a crisis this is. literally to the point where they are about to run out of money to take care of young children that are coming over legally, many who have serious health problems, they want to take care of these kids, they are properly taking care of these kids. they are about to run out of money to take care of these kids. they just sent an anti-deficiency act notice. . which means they're out of money that was appropriated by congress. it would be a violation of the law to spend any money after you've run out of money appropriated by congress, but under this act, they can spend money in violation of that law if it's to preserve life and safety. they're at that critical of a point. so i make all of these points just to ask the gentleman, as we look at the senate bill, while it might not be ideal, it can be signed by the president, we haven't seen any details of what you're working on right now. i'm not sure how closely you've been working with the white house. but have you been working with the white house to come up with a bill that can actually be signed by the president in time to avert this crisis? before they run to out of money in a matter of days -- run out of money in a matter of days? i would yield back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman. first, let me say i'm pleased that the gentleman refers to the anti-deficiency act and that in this instance the administration will not spend money on an object that it was not designated for by the congress of the united states. this is for helping children. obviously when it wanted to build a wall, it did exactly that. tried to shift money that was not appropriated for it. so i'm glad that in this instance we're honoring it. number one. number two, let me say that i think the senate's action was helpful. it was, as the gentleman pointed out, bipartisan. and i think that will probably be helpful to us here as well. i want to say to the gentleman that i know for a fact that certainly within the appropriations committee, there has been bipartisan discussions all along. there was a time where there was very close to an agreement on what the bill would comprise and it is my hope that as a result of that's both of these actions that we will, as i said, my expectation is that we will pass something next week. that is my hope. you know that work is being done on it as we speak. i know it will be done over the weekend and i'm hopeful that we will get there because this humanitarian relief for the children, for adults, for giving the proper treatment to people who are in our country and in r care is very important and we are working very hard to get that done and my hope is it will be done. i yield back. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i just can't urge enough that as these conversations are happening, as this work is going on over the weekend, that it's worked not just among democrat appropriators and democrat leadership, that you're working with republicans as well, and with the white house as well because we've been hearing that there may be some -- what would be considered poison pills that might be added. there are things that the agency is doing, for example. h.h.s. is trying to find more places to house these children. they have over 13,000 children in their custody right now. in their care. and they want to take care of them. they need the money to take care of them. they are literally days away from running out of money to take care of them. and so in this -- this is the midnight hour, but it's not the midnight hour because they just dropped it. it has been known for over a month. they've been asking for this money for over a month. they're days away from running out. if this becomes a game where only a partisan bill is brought to the floor with poison pills that everybody knows the white house can't support when we've seen the senate take action -- support, when we've seen the senate take action with a 30-1 vote on a bill that the president can support, if a bill comes out of the house that does have those poison pills, limits the ability of the agency not on the wall, we're not even talking about all the other problems with the border, things that are causing so many people to come over illegally. we still have to deal with that. now we're just talking about taking care of these kids. the senate proved they can pass a bill in a very bipartisan way, that can be signed by the president. we need to be working not just among democrats, but among republicans with the white house on a bill the president can sign. because if we don't pass a bill by the end of next week, the gentleman from maryland makes the schedule, you know the schedule. we're not here on july 4 recess. once we leave next week, if we don't have a bill that the president can sign passed through the house and through the senate, they go into shutdown mode. they will literally be in shutdown mode after the july 4 recess. the employees of h.h.s. will not get paid. they will have to be finding money to feed these young kids, over 13,000 of them, with moneys that are not appropriated by congress. they will be out of money. so i say that just to urge -- i appreciate that the gentleman has a group working on a bill. but i can't urge enough that this bill has to be bipartisan and in a way that the president can sign by the time we leave next week. get to conference because the house passes a partisan bill, when the senate proved they can come together and pass a very bipartisan bill, 30-1 out of committee, that the president will sign. we've got to be working on that same track. otherwise we leave next week without a bill signed by the president, they go into shutdown. those 13-plus thousand -- 13,000-plus kids that are being treated will be being treated by h.h.s. employees who won't be getting paid. with money to feed them, to take care of their health care needs from who knows what account. there's no money left. again, this isn't a new problem, this has been known for over a month. we've been urging action. i would just urge that while the work is being done over weekend, can we get an assurance that it will be done in a way where we're working with the white house, like the senate did, republicans and democrats, 30-1 vote out of committee, that kind of approach as opposed to an approach that might include some poison pills that everybody it s, poison the well where won't be signed -- be signed by the president. i yield back. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman. i understand that this is a critical issue that we need to address. but i believe the gentleman is not accurate. h.h.s. employees are going to get paid. this money that is being appropriated is for the special additional services that we need to make sure are available. so i don't think this is a question of h.h.s. employees not getting paid. but more importantly, it is an issue as to whether or not the services are going to be available to provide the humanitarian treatment which the gentleman talks about and i think we're in full agreement. i will say again, i think the senate's action is helpful. it was bipartisan. very frankly i think it hopefully is going to help us get to bipartisan agreement here. frankly, i will tell the gentleman, we thought we were pretty close to a bipartisan agreement with the republicans and the republicans and democrats have been working on this in the committee. as the gentleman knows. we were pretty close to an agreement. we didn't get there. they got to it in the senate. which meant the democrats went along with what the majority could support. ecause they're the majority. hopefully we can do that here and get a bipartisan bill. but i will tell the gentleman that i am working very hard, very focused on getting a bill done so that we do not leave here without a bill having been passed to provide this humanitarian relief that is so essential. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman for that. i know that our teams will be talking, the leadership teams will be talking and working hopefully completely together in a way where when you look at the senate bill, there are components of the senate bill that i would prefer not be in there. you know there are things the white house would rather not have in that bill. but there is give and take and there's been give and take and it's gotten to a point where they at least recognize that with the things that they might not want, there's no poison pills and at least it gives them the tools they need so the agency can take care of those 13,700-plus kids who are here. look, we can talk all day about why a mother and father would send their 12-year-old daughter on a journey from another country into america. but it's happening. and had they come here, they need -- when they come here, they need to be properly taken care of and that money is literally about to run out in days. so i appreciate that the gentleman -- mr. hoyer: will the gentleman yield on that? mr. scalise: i'd be happy to yield. mr. hoyer: i want to make a comment on what the gentleman just said. think most of us are parents. i've had 12-year-old daughters. three of them. they all were 12 years of age at one point in time. i wouldn't send them. unless i thought their life was at risk. unless i thought they were in great danger by remaining with me. unless i thought the alternative of staying was worse than the risk. that's why they come here. because they're terrified that their child is going to be taken from them by death, not by trying to get to an america that is the light of the world, that they think is the opportunity, the land of opportunity. that's why they come here. that's why they take this risk. very frankly, we should have passed a comprehensive immigration reform a long time ago so that there was a safe route, an open door, so that people seeking refuge and asylum, which is under american law, would be able to do that. i agree. sending these children, it's got to be wrenching for a parent. but the alternative they find to be even more wrenching and more dangerous and morrisky for that -- more risky for that 12-year-old child. so they send them here. they send them here because the reputation of america is that we will treat people humanely. thoughtfully. safely. and it is our responsibility to do that. i yield to my friend. mr. scalise: i appreciate that. obviously when you see that somebody would send their child, let's ute guatemala as an example -- use guatemala as an example because they're one of these countries where a lot of young children are coming from. they went through mexico. mexico offered them asylum and they turned that down. ultimately came to america. i appreciate the fact that people look to america as that beacon of freedom. we are the beacon of freedom for a lot of reasons. one of the reasons is because we're a nation of freedom and laws. we're a nation of laws. and we need to find a way to get back to the rule of law so that we can have an immigration system that works for everybody. not just for the people who come over one way, but for the people who follow the rule of law, to come here legally. millions paff of people who are waiting -- millions of people who are waiting today to come to this country and will become part of the american dream. they are will add to the richness and greatness of our nation. but as those 12-year-old children are coming over, they are right now in the custody of h.h.s. because of our laws, but under our law they are literally running out of money. h.h.s. secretary sent a letter o all of us over a week ago. in that he said our valued federal employees in o.r.r. who care for children and place them with sponsors would be required to work without pay. that's from the secretary of h.h.s. under the law his employees would be required to work without pay if we break by the end of next week without an agreement that's signed by the president to properly fund the agency that's taking care of these 13,700-plus kids. that was from secretary azhar and the acting secretary of the department of homeland security, sent to every member of congress over a week ago. and so the agency has told us what the crisis is. they've told us they're about to run out of money. they've told us, and they've sent the anti-deficiency act notice to make it clear that under the law, if they run out of money, the only money they can spend is for life and safety of those kids and they are going to be doing that. but we can prevent that from happening. we need to prevent that from happening. and i would yield. mr. hoyer: i correct myself. the gentleman was correct. i've just been informed. because they are funded, the employees, specifically under that account, you're correct. i was incorrect. apparently they would not be paid. obviously the general labor -health bill that we passed up until september 30 of this year funds almost all employees, but apparently because these funds are segregated in this account, you're correct, they would not be paid. but in any event, while i'm concerned and maybe some of those folks live in my district, while i'm concerned about them being paid, i frankly share your concern which is a much greater concern that we -- people who come here under u.s. law, consistent with u.s. law, seeking asylum from the danger that they face at home, needs to be treated in a humanitarian way. so i certainly agree that we want to make sure people get paid. we shut down the government for 35 days and 400,000 people do not get paid. actually 800,000 didn't get paid. and 400,000 people had to work. we offered numerous bills which very frankly your party voted against on a regular basis, which would have opened up the government and paid those employees. so i wish we'd been more concerned during those 35 days of them getting paid. but the real concern, and i know the gentleman and i share this view, is the humanitarian treatment of the people who are here in our care and i yield back. . mr. scalise: we need to and hopefully will work closely together, not isolated but together, over the weekend to come up with a bill to solve this problem. recognizing that the senate's going to hopefully move their own bill that while flawed does address the basic needs so that those children can be taken care of and the employees can be paid and come together and get a bill done by the end of next week. the urgency of getting it done by the end of next week can't be understated because after that they have made it very clear they do run out of money. it's not a new issue. it's not something that's thrown at us at the midnight hour. for more than a month this has been identified. i appreciate we are going to work to get it done. make sure next week we do work to get it done. there are other issues to talk about, the appropriations process, to come together on the agreement on what the proper levels of spending are and should be that the president can agree on so we can write appropriation bills that can can have the chance to get signed into law and prevent a shutdown, that kind of impasse, by the end of september. this is the emergency immediate need. there are other things we need to keep working on. look forward to working with the gentleman in the coming days and weeks to address those problems as well. mr. hoyer: i would just say, as the gentleman knows, because i have talked to him about it, i have been trying to get an agreement on caps since january. i talked to senator mcconnell. i talked to senator shelby. i talked to ranking member granger. mrs. lowey, the chairman of the appropriations committee. i have worked almost ceaselessly on trying to get a caps deal which i think all of us think is absolutely essential. very frankly, i think there are those down at the white house, specifically reference the acting chief of staff, mr. mulvaney, who believe caps deal was not the policy they thought ought to be proceed - - to proceed on, and would have preferred and talked about having either a sequester, which i think neither side thinks would make much sense, either o on the defense side or nondefense side, but that a c.r. was a preferred alternative and frankly a negotiation at the latest moment was a strategy. witness that as the gentleman knows the republican senators tried to negotiate with the white house so that the republican white house and the republican senators try to negotiate a caps deal and could not. i think -- so it had nothing to do with democratic participation at that point in time. what we have done, as you know, a we have in effect, adopted level of spending to which we have marked our bills. that level of spending, i will tell you, on the defense side, i have reason to believe is agreeable to many republican leaders at the top level on your side. the domestic level of spending was consistent with the raise in defense and domestic, as we have done in prior deals. on the prior most recent deal, as the gentleman knows, was reached between speaker murray-- excuse me, speaker ryan and senator murray. i would be hopeful that we would reach such a deal. obviously if you reach a deal, the president has to be part of that because it's -- you've got to amend the see quester law by statute. and the press has -- sequester law by statute and the president has to sign it. we are moving ahead. this is our alternative. we are going to be passing 10, 11 of our bills. we hope next week. and we'll send them over to the senate. the senate will presumably at some point in time act upon its bills. if there is a different number, we'll have to reconcile the numbers. in conference in the regular order and hopefully pass those bills in time so they will not either be the necessity for a continuing resolution, which really is a recognition of the failure to get the appropriation process done, which has happened often on both sides of the aisle, so it's not a question of just the congress has not reached agreement as it should have, and so we are proceeding, we are proceeding in a timely fashion. we are going to send at least 10 or 11 bills to the senate. and we'll send the homeland security bill, hopefully, at some point in time, or reach agreement between the two parties, and the two houses, so that i think we have done everything we could possibly do absent the ability of, frankly, your side, to get agreement among itself on what you think the cap numbers ought to be. i was hoping in discussion with senator mcconnell that between the two parties we could reach an agreement, but that was -- has not happened. but hopefully at some point in time it will happen soon because ultimately it has to happen because the sequester is not an option and the c.r. ought not to be an option, either. we are doing our work considering amendments. we are in the regular order. this is the way it should be done. i'm proud it is being done this way. i'm hopeful it will result in agreement and signature on appropriation bills by the president so we do not shut down the government or have to operate under a c.r. i yield back. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman for yielding. the political differences between the parties are not mutually exclusive to republicans. clearly we have had ours within the budget committee. not that you are in the majority, the democrats on the budget committee could not come to an agreement amongst themselves about how to get a budget, which is why the democrat majority, your democrat majority, didn't pass a budget first time in nine years that the budget committee hasn't produced a budget out of committee. we produced all eight years we were in the majority. we had differences, clearly. some of those were well written about in the press, but we ultimately came together and passed our budgets every year of the eight years out of committee. many of those not only got through the floor but went into law. sometimes we got those two-year budget agreements so we didn't need the second year. this is the time to be working on negotiating our differences. i'm glad we are having these conversation cans on finding out if we can get to a caps deal, even the acting chief of staff, mr. mulvaney, would like to get a two-year deal. i'm sure he has some things heed like in a deal you wouldn't -- he'd like in a deal you wouldn't agreed to. that's why we have negotiations in june not september when it's the midnight hour. i am glad we are having these talks now. of course can we have differences within our parties, your party and mine, ultimately amongst ourselves we'll have differences, but the ideal objective is that we come together well before the september 30 deadline. that's why it's important these discussions are being held now not in september so that we can hopefully get that agreement and then write appropriations bills. i think the gentleman knows the bills that you are moving through the process this week, next week, are not bills that will be signed into law. not only because in many cases the spending levels are well above what we would agree to, but also the many poison pill amendments that will ultimately get worked out in a conference committee, they won't be in final product, but let's at least try to get an agreement on a caps deal where we are in a time frame where it's responsible to have these differences earlier not later in the fiscal year. i yield back the balance of my time. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman. it's interesting he says these bills will not become law. that had no restraint on your side of the aisle when were you in charge and the appropriation bills you passed in a totally partisan passion i would observe. you -- fashion i would observe. they didn't get past the senate. they didn't become law. there was a compromise made. you did the same thing. why? because you thought that was from a policy standpoint the correct thing to do. we are doing exactly the same thing. will we have negotiations between the house and senate as to levels of spending and other -- as the gentleman points out, provisions in the bills? of course we will. but the assertion that why you passing bills, they won't pass the senate, i would hope they pass the senate. i think they are excellent bills. i think they provide for the national security both on the defense side and on the 2k34essic -- domestic side. very frankly, we put defense and labor a health together, why? because you had made that a way to proceed. why did you make it a way to proceed? because your guys for the most part are hesitant to vote for the levels that we expect are necessary for education and the health of our people. having said that, when you say it won't pass the senate, your bills didn't pass the senate. you passed them because you thought they were goodpolicy. we are passing them because we think they are good policy. i frankly think but for the fact that, i think you have expressed a policy on your side, don't vote for these bills, we would have goten a significant number of republican votes -- gotten a significant number of republican votes on a number of these bills. we did get some votes, but let us hope that we get to a deal on what the spending levels ought to be. as i point out, without any democratic participation, the republican senators can't get a level with the white house. they tried. they worked at it. publicly reported. you have been unable to get an agreement within your own partier on those levels. -- party on those levels. my view is mr. mulvaney doesn't want a deal. you say he want as two year deal. i hope you're right that mr. mulvaney will come to grips with doing a two-year deal to give us some degree of stability. you're right. you didn't have to get a budget because we made a two-year deal. it couldn't have gotten through the senate if we didn't agree. we made a two-year deal. it wasn't at the levels we wanted. senator murray led that negotiation on our behalf. we reached it and had some degree of stability. that's why you were able to pass your bills without a budget because we already had a number. you didn't need a number. we are getting into jargon here. suffice it to say, yes, we are passing bills at levels that we think are appropriate. many on your side disagree with that. the senate may disagree. the way we get a resolution is we have a conference and come to an a agreement. hopefully that will happen and we will not shut down the government of the united states, which we didn't partially. we did for 35 days. that's the way this institution ought to work. i hope it does work that way. i yield back. mr. scalise: i thank the gentleman. i do appreciate this is a part of the process. again i say the reason that it's good that we are having these talks now is because as we have our differences, you within your own party, you with us, us with the senate, maybe with the white house, we have time to work that out now. you don't wait until mid september, late september to try to get that kind of agreement. continue to have these discussions. glad we are having these discussions at this early point so it's not midnight hour discussions like we are talking about on the supplemental. final part i want to commend the gentleman. we had a very good meeting yesterday, our two leadership teams, with the canadian prime minister. mr. trudeau was here to talk with us about a number of things. of course usmca is the most up front issue. mexico just passed the agreement. we are having discussions to see if we can find a path forward for the house to move usmca and get a better deal with our partners both on the south end and north, can in a a da, and mexico. -- canada, and mexico. they loaned us lord stanley's cup. we'll loan them the nba trophy for a while. beyond those trade issues we do, i thirks have some common ground on trade issues that had been needed to be resolved for a long time. i know we'll continue to have those discussions. you with the white house to hopefully get to a point where we can then get that agreement in place. i do appreciate we had a very productive bipartisan meeting with the canadian prime minister, mr. trudeau. we appreciated he was here. on behalf of his nation. mr. hoyer: i agree with the republican whip that these were productive meetings between prime minister trudeau and members of his cabinet, the finance minister, the ambassador, the foreign minister was there. i think they were productive. i think our side has made it very clear that we want to get to yes. we believe that usmca is an improvement over existing nafta, and also accommodates for changes that have occurred over the last 30 years. or so. we very much want to see, however, that we have enforcement provisions in the new agreement which apply to workers. their safety, their standard of living. and to the environment. as well as some concerns about pharmaceuticals and biolodgics. -- biolodgics -- biologics. we believe this is an improvement. i'm hopeful we can get enforcement provisions. i know that speaker pelosi has made it very clear what we need to get to a yes. i'm hopeful we get there because i think it will be in the best interest of the country because it is an improvement over the existing nafta. that doesn't mean it's perfect. none of these aa greements are perfect. but -- agreements are perfect. hopefully it will lead to solutions. mr. scalise: i appreciate the gentleman's work on it. with that, madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. mr. hoyer: madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. hoyer: i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet on monday next when it shall convene at noon for morning hour debate and 2:00 pk for legislative business -- 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the chair will receive a message. the messenger: madam speaker, a message from the president of the united states. the secretary: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: madam secretary. i am directed by the president of the united states to deliver a message to the house of representatives. message in writing. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will now entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. van drew: an gelic health hospice care recently cut the ribbon for their new headquarters in atlanta county, new jersey. their staff provides hospice and transitional care services and wound management to parents -- patients in south jersey. although they have only been operating for a short time, an gelic health care already employees over 200 employees and they provide great care to over 100 seniors. what makes angelic health care special is they go above and beyond for their patients. they don't make their patients come to their facilities, they go to them. to whenever they can, to wherever they can, their patients call these places home. they don't only give care for their patients, they also provide professional support to the families. and they just don't treat physical ailments. they give parents social, spiritual and -- patients social, spiritual and emotional support as well. i want to thank the staff of the volunteers of angelic health who have made our community a more loving place for our senior citizen yors and their families. we are -- seniors and their families. we are lucky to have. they thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from wisconsin seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, this week my southeast wisconsin community lost two heroes. racine police officer john hetland and milwaukee police officer ku her. officer hetland, a 24-year veteran of the racine police department, was shot and killed while off duty trying to stop an armed robbery. officer her, a two-year veteran of the milwaukee police department, was killed on his way home from his shift, as a speeding car crashed into him. these men are heroes. they will always be remembered for their service. this is a solemn reminder of the sacrifices members of our law enforcement make every day to protect our communities. mr. steil: my prayers are with their families and friends of the officers, of the entire law enforcement community, grieving for these heroes. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, miami. -- madam speaker. while i would love to rise in celebration of the first day of summer, the cold hard fact is that as temperatures soar, so does urban gun violence. during a graduation party last weekend in my district in southwest philadelphia, a gunman opened fire claiming one life and injuring five other people. last weekend 23 separate shootings claimed 32 victims and caused five deaths in just two days in philadelphia. 23 shootings in five -- and five deaths in one weekend. ms. scanlon: what's infuriating is there are prove commonsense measures that will reduce gun violence in our cities and the number one strategy is background checks. 115 days have passed since the house sent two bipartisan, commonsense gun safety bills to the senate. they would have strengthened our background checks. and what has the senate done? nothing. during those 115 days, 11,400 people have died from gun violence in the united states. senator mcconnell likes to joke about his legislative grave yard, but countless families are actually burying their loved ones while he does nothing. the american people deserve better, our children deserve better, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. pence: i rise today to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the richmond municipal building in richmond, indiana. this week richmond has the honor of hosting the indiana conference of mayors where over 70 hometown leaders from across the state will come together to share ideas on how to better serve hoosiers in their communities. the city has so much to be proud of and this occasion will give them an opportunity to showcase their hard work. from upgrades to veterans park to connectivity projects throughout the depot district, richmond is an all-american city with a smalltown charm. i want to congratulate the president of the indiana conference of mayors, mayor dave snow of richmond, for his hard work on behalf of all hoosiers. thank you, madam speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. i rise today in recognition of june as lgbtq pride month. as we celebrate the contributions of the lgbtq community, we also know that the fight for full equality under the law is far from over. i call on majority leader mitch mcconnell to respect the clear majority of americans that believe that equality must become the law of the land, by taking up the equality act in the senate. we also must do more to ensure that we have the data necessary to enforce key provisions in the equality act. that is why i introduced the lgbtq business equal credit enforcement and investment act, which would help facilitate fair lending to lgbtq-owned businesses and study the issues affecting them by gathering data from financial institutions about their lending practices these toward businesses. mr. rouda: if we're sbeers our country's commitment to civil rights, protecting minorities and economic opportunity, and for that matter, about growing our economy, lgbtq-owned businesses must have access to equal capital. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> today i rise to advocate for the brave men and women who defend our country. recently i visited normandy, france, for the 75th anniversary of d-day. while overseas, i met numerous men and women who were critical in the defeat of fascism during world war ii. and they all gave me a very simple and direct message. go home and take care of those who have served our nation proudly. the conversations that i've had with the heroes from normandy have inspired me this week to co-sponsor numerous legislative events. these will positively affect our veterans. congress needs to pass the agricultural apprenticeship act to allow veterans to receive the training that they need to enhance their employment opportunities. we need to pass the get veterans a doctor now act, that allows the v.a. to hire top talent so that our veterans can get the best quality of health care. mr. joyce: and we need to pass the veterans' right to expediency act so that the veterans who have sustained injuries in the field of battle cannot be boxed out of filing disability claims. madam speaker, it's time that we take these measures -- our veterans have given everything for us, i thank you for allowing me to present. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition? >> madam speaker, 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 to pay respects to a hero and a warrior. william tully brown. one of the last surviving navajo code talkers passed away earlier this month at age of 96. the code talkser were -- talkers were a group of brave soldiers who used their native tongue to create unbreakable codes in the battlefield and to transmit messages during world war ii. they participated in every major marine operation in the pacific theater, saving hundreds of thousands of lives. i was saddened to hear of the passing of another decorated hero from this important group. mr. o'halleran: william was born in black mountain, arizona, in 1922. and enlisted in the marine corps in 1944. during his service he received many military honors, including the american campaign medal and the asia-pacific campaign medal. we must never forget william tully brown, all code talkers, for their service to our country, and our veterans' service to their country. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from -- the gentleman from, excuse me, forget this side -- forgot this side, the gentleman from indiana is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. today i rise to honor dorothy brown for her dedication to the house at the university. few individuals have had an impact on the fraternal as great as dorothy and we thank her for herselflessness. she graduated from indiana university, receiving a bachelor's degree in education and master's in science and ed administration and supervision and began her teaching career in gary, indiana. mr. baird: after serving as a principal in warren township schools in indianapolis in the 1980's, dorothy returned to her home in green cast until 1986 to teach in the education department of depaul university. in 1993 she took a new role as house mother to the fraternity she quickly became an anchor for the fraternity and made it a memorable experience for generations of young men over the next 26 years. she was honored in twine for her contributions to -- 2009 for her contributions to depaul as the depaul cultural resource center was named in her honor. whether digger her time as mel -- during her time as a school teacher or house mother, she exemplified leadership and compassion and i am proud to call her a fellow hoosier. on behalf of the fourth district in indiana, i thank her for her dedication to her community and i wish her the very best in retirement. thank you, madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today to honor the life of carl buyer, the lives of every single person in my hometown of santa clarita, california, are better thanks to the work around tireless efforts because of mr. carl buyer. after moving to what is now california's 25th district in the late 1960's, carl worked to establish the city of santa clarita in an effort to help our community receive the resources it needed. his leadership continued from there as served on the first ever santa clarita city council and eventually two terms as mayor. carl put his city, our city, at the center of every decision he made. from his first day on the council to his last day as mayor, he worked to protect our beautiful open space and left office having created one of the best park departments in the united states. while serving in santa clarita, he was also a public school teacher and a foster parent to young children who came to the united states for life-saving medical treatment. carl boyer had a heart of gold and will be missed by all. on behalf of the vibrant and wonderful community that he helped create, i extend my deepest gratitude for the legacy of service, engagement and kindness that he leaves behind. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, i reserve the balance of my time revise and extend -- revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise to urge a vote on my bill, the humanitarian standards for individuals in customs and border protection custody act. an all-american value-based comprehensive public health approach to help c.b.p. address the basic humanitarian needs of children and families under their custody and responsibility. when i visited our southern border, i saw overworked agents and the meltdown of a system that is understaffed, underequipped, underresourced, undertrained and underskilled to meet the humanitarian needs of children and families. mr. ruiz: that's why my bill identifies humanitarian standards on water, sanitation, hygiene, nutrition and shelter, missing from the administration's emergency supplemental budget request. my bill requires a clearly defined medical screening for all individuals in c.b.p. custody and identifies priority groups like children and seniors who should receive their screenings within three hours of being detained by c.b.p. it identifies how many calories a pregnant woman or a child should be given each day. for example, and it requires that c.b.p. provides tooth brushes and diapers, the chance to bathe at least once a day, and meets everyone's basic daily need to drink enough water. so i urge my fellow representatives to support these straightforward reforms to prevent the deaths of children and ensure our treatment of women, children and families seeking asylum is consistent with the basic principles of human dignity. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois 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 gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. as a nurse and co-founder of the black maternal health caucus, i'm fully committed to advancing policies that reduce maternal health disparities. black women are four times more likely than white women and more than twice as likely as women of other races to die from pregnancy related complications. -- complications. that is a national crisis. i rise to thank chairwoman rosa others for their work on this. it gives $1.8 million to investigate the causes and dispairs of this difference. money to research the maternal mortality rate and zhrrsdelrs 12 million increase in fund for the c.b.c. save motherhood infant health program, supporting research to comprehensively assess maternal deaths and identify opportunities for prevention. ms. underwood: this is an important step forward in achieving optimal birth outcomes for all americans. i hope my colleagues will continue to support funding for programs that will improve the outcome for women and children. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady rom virginia seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute nd revise and extend my rashes -- my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. >> yesterday i was fortunate to recognize two students as win's they have congressional award gold medal. two of my constituents, casey mies from jeffersonton and katy nicole smith earned national recognition for their respective work in community service, physical fitness and exploration f the world around them. casey's work focused on providing 200 dresses a year to irls around the world. katy's project constructed rehabilitation centers were center. wildlife ms. spanberger: i look forward to seeing how these two amazing young women continue contributing to our seventh district community in the future. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from new mexico 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 gentlelady is recognized for one minute. >> madam speaker, i rise to honor the life and memory of alvin frances jones a lifelong new mexico judge and community leader. alvin earned a bachelor's degree from new mexico tex an j.d. from university of new mexico he began his career in private practice and was apointed to the fifth judicial district in roswell where he served 19 year many as chief judge. during his time on the bench he founded local chapters of casa, to help vulnerable children navigate the system, and character counts, teaching children the value of good character of. after retiring from the bench in 2004, alvin joined a private practice where he specialized in water law. for me he was a personal example of character he had a dogged work ethic and he also dedicated time and resources to mentor new mexicans. a pillar of the community who was loved by his family and friends alike, alvin leaves behind a legacy of selfless service to new mexico. ms. torres small: we are grateful and will miss him dearly. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from the northern mariana islands seek recognition? >> 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. mr. sablan: madam speaker, the mariana islands and four other insular area face a medicaid cliff. funding for the patient protection and affordable care act expire this is year. 2/3 of our funding is gone. putting health at risk not just for medicare recipients but for everyone who uses our hospital or other providers because they depend on medicaid revenues to stay in business or open. i held a hearing last month on this funding cliff. chair eshoo held a hearing yesterday for which i am grateful. this attention is good. we need congress to focus on this impending health care crisis for americans living in the insular area. ertainly more money is needed. insular areas -- in the insular areas like the states. what we need is for care for those in the insular airs to be -- areas to be every bit as good as the care in other parts of the united states. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the jelled yields back. the chair lays before the house a message. clip to the congress of the united states, section 202-d of the national emergencies act 50 u.s.c. 1622-d provides for the automatic termination of a national emergency unless, within 90 days before the anniversary date of its declaration, the president publishes in the federal register and transmits to congress a notice stating that the emergency is to continue in ffect -- i was sent to the ex--- expanded in scope addressed further an executive order 135-70 of april 18, 2011, further expanded in scope an executive order 136-87 of january 2, 2015, and under which additional steps were taken in executive order 137- 2 of march 15, 2016, and executive order 138-10 of september 20, 017, is to continue in effect beyond june 26, 2019, the existence and risk of proliferation of weapons usable fissile material on the korean peninsula, the actions and poll sthoifs government of north korea that destabilize the korean peninsula and imper ill united states armed forces, allies, and trading partners in the region including its pursuit of nuclear and missile programs and other prvobblingtive and repressive actions and poll soice they have government of north korea continue to constitute unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy and economy of the united states. for this reason, i have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency declared in executive order 1344666 with respect to north korea. signed sincerely, donald john trump, the white house, june 21, 2019. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the committee on foreign affairs and ordered printed. the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mrs. kirkpatrick of arizona for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the request is granted. under the speaker's announced spoil of january 3, 2019, the gentleman from texas, mr. gohmert is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. gohmert: thank you, madam speaker. sometimes we get comments about my giving remarks at the end of he week, it might be worth setting a little history of these special order remarks. i 5 and 2006, my first term, was not prone to give any remarks in special orders but i observed during those two years that one of my classmates that came in, january 2005, like i did, debbie wasserman schultz, and some other democrats arranged each night, often taking both hours for special orders that their party was fforded, and i was told by republicans that had been here for a long time, you know, nobody is paying any attention to what they're saying. they're making themselves look bad. they make us look good by what they say. and there were times i would say but are you paying attention to what they're saying? because you can see on c-span sometimes when the sound was off it would be scrolling, look what they're saying. they're blaming us for all kinds of things. we need to respond. this isn't accurate. and i was told look, you know, don't worry about it. it doesn't make any difference. and over the course of two years, i saw what the group that called themselves the 30-somethings, everyone that was probably 60's or 80's but therwise in their 30's -- 60's or 70's but otherwise in their 30's, they did affect national opinion. other that many nights they made a difference. and that's -- after that i endeavored to try to address some of the critical issues when i had the chance if other members of my party were not taking those opportunities. so on fly out days, when so many are rushing, have to get to the airport by a certain time, don't have time to come down here and address some of our critical issues, i volunteered, i'll stay an extra hour or two before catching a plane back to texas in order to address some of these important things. and it is a great opportunity. used to do more than one special order a week. many times. but my democrat friends, and i john hat sincerely, garamendi referred to a new democrat rule that was put in place this year that no one could take more than one special order during the week. my friend john referred to that as the louie gohmert rule and the good thing about that was that it enabled me not to just continue as i had been year after year encouraging other republicans to take a special order and address some of these important national issues. then i was able, this year, to ell them look, i can only do one a week you guys have got to start signing up for special orders, taking the time, addressing areas you know well that we need to communicate about. and so i have been very pleased with how many of my colleagues have signed up for special orders and addressed critical issues, helped educate on the matters before us because you don't always get straight and accurate news even by some of the so-called fact checkers, often fact checkers as they call themselves, need fact checking because many times they're not accurate either. this is a great opportunity that we have in a legislative body to address issues that information oes get out to the public. unless they're reading the remarks in some article that is -- that has had the facts and statements twisted and edited to change the meaning, otherwise they can judge for themselves exactly what's been said and hat's accurate and what isn't. i heard our majority leader hoyer and our minority whip scalise in their dialogue back and forth, bringing up the critical issue of our border and the humanitarian crisis going on there. in their discussion they did not get into what's causing -- well, i guess they referred to it, gee, people are trying to get away from terrible circumstances. well, those circumstances in different places in the world ave gone on for centuries. we have never had the kind of mass effort at entrance that we've seen in recent months. so things haven't gotten worse in the world. why the huge surge at our border this year? and the border patrolmen with whom i communicate, the people that are dealing with those coming in illegally, coming through places that are not legal ports of entry, they get information from them exactly why they're coming. sometimes they're given pieces of paper, the immigrants coming in illegally, with addresses, names, and these are either approved or disken -- given by the drug cartels. nobody comes into the united states across our southern border without permission of the drug cartels. the drug cartels are not interested in preventing humanitarian crises, they're interested in helping create humanitarian crises. since i've been there all hours of the night, when used to be primetime for people coming across illegally, now they're i t coming all the time, but got to see this so many times firsthand, i've even seen numerous times people that had their little piece of paper, it was supposed to be the address that they gave the border patrol , later i.c.e., yes, this is the address where i have somebody waiting for me, somebody that knows me, family member, and often they were provided by the drug cartels. this is where you'll go. which actually fit together to help answer mysteries of who's telling them where to go, but they would be asked by border patrol, it wasn't on the list of questions they were required to ask, but how much did you pay the gangs or the drug cartels responsible for bringing you in? because sometimes the drug cartels have gang members that will act as coyotes and bring people in illegally. and the answer is normally $5,000, $6,000, $7,000, the question follows up, where did you get that kind of money? you don't have that kind of money. well, we have $1,000 or $1,500 here. then people in the u.s. sent us money. well, what about the rest of it? the disturbing comment was normally, they're going to let me work that off when i get where i'm going. well, these are drug cartels. and obviously the work they were going to be doing would be either drug trafficking or sex trafficking. both doing severe damage to our country. and yet we have not been able to , ch passage of a bill bipartisan or otherwise, that would actually help totally secure our border so we can control who comes in. and ensure that they're not people who are wanting to do damage to the country. now some just want to come in the country and they don't realize by en-- by coming in they will do damage, that they have not been educated on how you keep, how you retain a representative form of government. and how, with the liberties, freedoms come great responsibilities. the responsibilities portion has also been neglected in so many schools. it's all about rights and without getting into responsibilities. but we'll continue to bring up n franklin's answer to the woman after the constitutional convention, sir, what have you given us? a republic, madam, if you can keep it. there's a book on this that i read recently. it is very, very difficult to keep a self-governing system going. historically any attempt at some type of self-government has not lasted normally more than 200 years. we're beyond that. the constitution was ratified, first elected to congress, president, vice president, under the constitution of 1787 that was finished being ratified 1789. that e 230 years beyond document, founding document being ratified. so we're beyond the number of years that a self-government has been able to last in the past, normally. and the fact is there haven't been normal self-governments. that's why in ben franklin's speech at the constitutional convention, although kids are taught today in school that he was a deist. if franklin is even mentioned at l, deist believing there's maybe some force, some thing, some whatever out there that created things, and if such force or person or being or eity existed and still exists, it never interferes with nature or the things that were set in motion originally. it's in essence a shorthand rendition of deist. but franklin himself, we know what he said because he wrote it down when people asked for a copy. lived, sir, a long time. the long i -- longer i live the more convincing proof i see, god governs in the affairs of men. which means he wasn't a deist. but he said, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it possible an empire could rise without his aid? we've been assured, sir, in the sacred writing that unless the lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build this. i also firmly believe without his concurring aid, we shall succeed in our political building no better than the builders of babble, we'll be confounded by -- babel, we'll be confounded by partial local interests. franklin knew, he studied history, along with science other things. but he knew from history, this is not something that had been effectively done the way they were wanting to do it. sure, romans had had a senate. the greeks had made an effort at democracy that worked for a short time. not well, but worked for a short time. the british from whom we separated, they had a parliament. they also had a king. this was going to be a new thing . and the thing that's under the pyramid on the two-sided great seal that was adopted over 200 order of meaning new things in latin, new order of the ages, some have tried to to say, ah-ha, new world order, but if you look at the founders' own remarks, they make it clear that they knew, nobody had really gotten the self-government thing right. but if they could do it right, and as frankly said, it wasn't going to happen -- frankly said, it wasn't going -- franklin said, it wasn't going to happen right without the lord's concurring aid, but if they could get it right, this would be a new order of things. this would be what people around the world, for the rest of history, would probably try to emulate. if not outright imitate. but if they didn't get it right, since they had the opportunity and failed, as franklin said, they would become a byword down through the ages, they'd be ridiculed they had the chance to do self-government right and they blew it. but even though they got this thing incredibly right, the founding document and the agreed upon 10 amendments, the bill of ghts, obviously it's taken a couple hundred years to get the constitution to apply and mean what it says. it took a civil war, it took civil rights, movement. but here we are today and we have not continued to educate people on what franklin knew would require education in order to keep the republic. oh, sure we've got more schools now than ever. but because of the heavyhandedness of the federal government, the department of education, even though that education is something that is not an enumerated power in the constitution and therefore under the 10th amendment was reserved for rights only of the states and the local government, the federal government got involved and as a result, not many students are being taught the complete history that they should know an they need to know in order to sustain this little experiment in self-government. so when people come in and they have not been educated at all on what it takes to keep a self-governing system, they are just told in their own language about all of the free things they can get, they're not told about the important responsibilities that come with those free things and opportunities, that keeps up for long and there is no bright light on a hill that draws people from around the world. then as some west africans told me, when america gets weak, we suffer. and we're seeing that around the world. iranians that are suffering tremendously under a heavyhanded , even criminal, terrorist egime in iran that came into place because we had a president that didn't understand radical islam, did not understand that when he turned his back on the shah, who was not a great guy, he apparently did not treat his people as well as they should have been. but nonetheless things certainly got worse when the ayatollah was welcomed into power by president carter as a man of peace. well, the world soon found that iran, now that radical islamists who wanted a new caliphate for the world to subs gate christians and every -- sub jew gate christians a -- subjugate christians and other religious groups under their mean-spirited dictatorship, as radges dictatorship, the people of iran suffered, the world has suffered from the failure during the clinton -- i'm sorry, the carter administration, to understand the dangers that were lurking there. well, those dangers are to longer lurking there. they are being spread around the world. i was amazed to hear people on television say, well, they couldn't really say if iran had caused the death of any american. certainly they have. t long after the ayatollah , our ni took over in iran embassy was attacked and over 50 individuals were taken hostage. but they've continued to support terrorism unabated over all these years, since 1979. they're responsible for the deaths and the explosions at a marine barracks in beirut in 1983. and the message that was sent by the democratic majority in the house and senate was to force the complete withdrawal of troops in the area so that was a great encouragement to the ayatollah and to the radical islamists that wanted to destroy self-government. they think that they need a ictator that is really a religious bigot in control of things. to dictate to people what they can or can't do. that is such a foreign concept after 230 years here under our nstitution, but anybody that studies history that is honest history knows there's a lot better chance that a dictatorship will eventually prevail whether it's religious extremists like you have ruling in iran, or it's just a dictator like you have had in the soviet union. so having been in the soviet exchange summer as an student between my sophomore and junior year in college, i saw the way people suffered. i saw the way the government spied on its people. i saw the mean-spirited things the government did to people that weren't being manipulated the way they wanted them to be. i saw suppression of free thought and free exchange of ideas. and i came home literally thanking god that we didn't have that kind of suppressive government. but in the intervening years, we have seen a government get so powerful that it can spy on its own people and we saw with what was released by wiki leaks, the fisa application, the underlying that, it and the order holy cow, the fisa judge just basically ignored the fourth the protections against unwarranted searches and seizures, the aply commarkse interpretation was basically it said, we just need all the information verizon has on every customer they have and the underlying affidavit saying we need every bit of information verizon has on every customer and then the judge even though a judge,, senate-confirmed it's a secret court. he just signs off on it. oh, you want every bit of information verizon has on every single customer? sure. why don't you provide that. here. here's an order to provide that. that scared me because it actually confirmed what some of s had feared back when the patriot act was being re-authorized in my first term. wait a minute. this is giving the federal government power that could go too far. there's language that's too loosely written that it could allow the government to spy on people without proper authority. we have got to revisit those issues. and that's been further brought to a head with what we are learning about the abuses of the fisa court when one administration wanted to spy on a campaign and then spy on and hopefully eliminate the selection of the majority of the electoral college. it electoral college itself, underwent some evolution back in the early days because originally -- it was a brilliant idea. it was a way of ensuring that both heavily populated states and lesser populated states would all be relevant in a national election for our president. and vice president. unfortunately, in the beginning, the second highest vote getter became the vice president. that became apparent as a failure, a bad idea, under the president soif john adams when friend, his dear became vice president with the second highest number of votes as by the end of the year mccullough points out in his book on with adams, jefferson hired a notorious newspaperman to make up lies about adams to help him defeat him which he did. which probably explains why adams is the only president that didn't stick around for the inauguration of his predecessor that got changed. took a constitutional amendment. we have the electoral process. if you do away with the electoral college it will mean most every state that is not a heavily populated state will never see a candidate running for president, it'll be a waste. they'll want to spend their time in the heavy population centers and mainly disregard what some people refer to as flyover state bus many of us feel are the real guts and the heart of the country. so it's an important thing to have but people are not getting education on these things these ays. and why things were created the way they were. what succeeded? what failed? when i do tours around the capitol, sometimes they go longer than i think they should, but i'm ready to stop any time the people are, when they still have questions. so many people haven't got the education but i hear so often, you know, i never realy liked history in school. that doesn't tell me anything about them, it tells me a lot object their history teachers, that they had history teachers that didn't understand the importance of history so they had true-false, you know, multiple choice or fill in the blank questions. rather than emphasizing that the real importance in history is the story. what went right? what went wrong? it helps to have it in chronological order but the more important aspect is what worked and what didn't. that's not what so many american students are getting anymore. certainly those that are rushing into america illegally, they certainly haven't gotten that. they don't -- they know america is supposed to be a better place. but they don't know why. they don't know that they're jeopardizing that country's ability to continue as an attractive place for people to ant to go. the most attractive place for immigrants to want to come in the entire world. we've got more education to co-, i'm hoping that our colleagues here in this body will begin to understand that legislation that will ultimately legalize illegal activity, like coming into the country illegally or giving benefits for coming in illegally, it becomes a lure for more and more people to come illegally which means it's going to make more money for the drug cartels, it's going to have more young women raped, we're told that's occurring about one in four girls coming to the united states, through mexico, will end up being sexually assaulted. little boys at a lesser rate, i think i read 17%, something like that. just human tragedy. it happens when well-meaning think, ls in congress let's help those less fortunate by ruring them to our country, not understanding that there's a tremendous amount of human in ering that goes on addition to undermining the very foundation of what was the freest country in the world. surveys now indicate that america is not the freest country in the world. we've can'ted to add laws that keep taking more and more of our freedoms away. ut i heard the majority leader ruing that we haven't had comprehensive immigration reform. in congress me what i've come to understand, when you hear the term comprehensive immigration reform a billally means we want that's so big so massive that people that will vote on it won't have a chance to read it all and we'll be able to stick things in there that a majority would never agree to if they knew it was there. that's what i have come to see comprehensive meaning when it comes to legislation. better off if we take subjects up individually, let people have a chance to read and know what's there. let them have a chance to analyze the language is this something likely to be struck down? we don't have that opportunity, we pass legislation that is not hat we want as a majority. and as a majority, obviously i'm a republican, i'm in the majority but i'm talk theag majority of this body. so we have these ongoing offers which is what it is every time we pass a piece of legislation, even if it doesn't become law that word is used by the drug cartels to encourage more people to pay them, to bring them in. that means they're going to have more employees, really more like indentured servants, in the drug trade, in the human trafficking, sex trafficking trade. and people suffer as a result of well-intentioned but poorly thought out legislation. we have got to do a better job on that unfortunately in the last term of congress when republicans had a majority in the house, in the senate, had a republican president, we had leadership in both houses that was not interested in securing our border or we could have assed a bill to do that. we could have passed a bill and gotten it into law. but there are moneys interests out there that contribute heavily and encourage people not to secure the border. of course i've said before from this lectern if you hear somebody who is elected in mexico say, we don't want the border secured, we don't want a wall anywhere on our border with the united states, then you know that is someone who is getting money from the drug cartels. you can take that to the bank. but we also heard well-intentioned but uneducated or miseducated individuals talk about what's happening on our border and even refer to the efforts to care for those who have come in illegally as concentration camps. but if that were so, it would be the first time in human history that people had flocked by the hundreds of thousands to voluntarily go into concentration camps. because that's never happened in the history of the world. the jews during the 1930's and 1940's did not go flocking by their own choice into concentration camps that resulted in over six million deaths. they were forced into those and the people that are coming voluntarily and illegally across r border, they are putting themselves at risk, sexual exploitation, but also even for the very lives. because we constantly get reported of people dying trying to get in or getting in illegally and then being left out somewhere to die by coyotes. we have -- we constantly if you pay attention, get reports of our border patrol saving the lives, i.c.e. agents saving the lives of people that have come in illegally but have been abandoned by the drug cartels, -- by the drug cartels' coyotes. it's also interesting when you think about the facilities on r borders, the concentration camps of world war ii did not have germany appropriating llions of dollars or their equivalent for them to have a more comfortable existence. that didn't happen. that's why clearly they're not concentration camps. as people continue to flock there by the hundreds of thousands, knowing what they're going into. but as they continue to hear that, you know, we're massing laws that will eventually allow them to be legalized if they come illegally, we're going to have the numbers that we're seeing there at this time. now, in the past, we've been told, yeah, we feel like we're catching most of the people coming across but if you spent a lot of time on the border as i have, border patrol will tell you, what scares us is we don't know what we don't know about the people coming in. but they do know that every time a big group comes across our border illegally and makes themselves available to be picked up, detained, that the drug cartels know. we have to put all of our people on duty trying to in-process these folks, and that means that's when the drug cartels know they can bring in big shipments of drugs, bring in may e that would otherwise be a threat to our country, continue to hear from federal officials about people coming, just had a report the last couple of weeks about the isis member that admitted they are continuing to get radical islamists that want to destroy our country into our country through our southern border by paying the drug cartels to bring them in with other people, so that's all going on. . then comes this article yesterday from the "washington times." the border patrol has documented more than 100,000 immigrants who they know manage to illegally sneak past them and get into the interior of the country. the agency's chief told congress on thursday saying it's the most in five years. just for reference here. we do have balloons that can be floated up, that have train red or thermal technology, night vision. we have people on the border with night vision, thermal technology so they can see the outline of individuals that get in, even when they're not caught . but anyway. going back to the article. known as gotaways, the migrants are ones who agents detect but know they didn't manage to stop from crossing the border. i need to insert here, our for a number of administrations have not been allowed to prevent people from coming in our country. we need to fix the law so they can prevent people from coming into the country using reasonable means. but i know when the texas department of public safety has their boats out on the rio grande where people are crossing , they don't cross because texas d.p.s., they don't allow people to cross into texas illegally. if they can stop them. the border patrol on the other hand has their hands tied. they have to allow them to come in illegally and then try to in-process them. this article goes on and says this high level of gotaways is a direct result of agents being reassigned away from the front line to provide humanitarian support to the unprecedented numbers of individuals and families in custody, chief pro voice told the house homeland security committee. the panel was meeting to hear how president trump's orders to send national guard and active duty troops to the border is playing out. the chief said, they've been a major boost, suggesting the got-away numbers might have been worse without the troops there to fill gaps left where her agents got pulled away to do baby-sitting duties for the families and unaccompanied children. and i've gotten pictures from border er of our actual patrol pushing baby carriages and literally baby-sitting because these folks have been lured in by what we're doing here, what we're talking about re, and the chief goes on to say, that support, as my agents are being pulled away to deal with humanitarian crises, is a key to us having situational awareness on the border. she said. article says further down, one example last month, national guard troops in texas spotted a group of migrants rafting across the rio grande and reported it to border patrol agents. agents with the help of local police core aldridge the group -- coraled the group whose members had paid up to 10,000 to be smug -- $10,000 to be smuggled into the united states. this says they coraled them but what i didn't get until i started spending a lot of time on the border, that doesn't mean they stopped them. t means they in-processed them into the united states. anyway, this article makes clear , it's not even just the people that are coming in on record pace this year. but just in one month they think there may have been 100,000 people that came in that were not in-processed, they just came in to the united states, who knows if they want to do evil or good. but they certainly wanted to engage in illegal activity. another article here from adam shaw. illegal immigrants from 52 countries crossed the u.s.-mexico border this year. that's just so far. we're in june. the u.s. border patrol chief testified thursday that migrants from 52 countries have illegally crossed the border this year as she described an agency overwhelmed on a daily basis by the escalating crisis. she said, while smugglers primarily target the northern triangle, family units from 52 countries have illegally crossed the southern border so far this year. further down, it says, the senate panel on wednesday approved a $4.6 billion request for funding to tackle the humanitarian crisis at the border. but only after including a condition that none of the money be used for a border wall. our majority d, leader's discussion today, you know, they're talking about an emergency funding to deal with he humanitarian crisis, but it actually, the way it's being talked about, it will contribute to the crisis because it will encourage more people that we're spending a new $4.5 billion to provide food and comfortable shelter for people that come in illegally. and that language is being drafted to ensure not only that it not be spent on the wall, it's not going to be spent at all on preventing people from coming in illegally, it's just going to be spent on the more and more volumes that are coming in illegally. which will encourage in this yclical worthless effort, it will encourage more to come in, we'll have to appropriate billions and billions more for a bigger humanitarian crisis, and that will encourage more. i mean, at some point we have to take seriously, and i know there are a lot of people that don't like biblical references, but -- not very many, but some, but the fact is it's the most quoted book in the history of our country. it was the most quoted book during the constitutional convention, and continues to be he most quoted book in congress. but if you look back in the old testament, references in osama bin ladens and provebs and -- psalms, proverbs and other place, the best we can hope for and pray for is justice where the rich are treated like everybody else, they don't get any special consideration. and the poor are treated like everybody else and not given any special consideration. you treat everyone fairly and equally under the law and yet what we're seeing in this effort is that we are going to treat people who come and are trying to come into this country legally, we're going to penalize them, we're going to make them take seven, 10 years as some have that we've tried to help family members with before, but if you will just come illegally, we're going to treat you specially, we're going to ship you to place the drug cartels want you to be, to work as their employees or endentured certificate vapts. we're going -- endentured servants. he would going to treat you specially. we're going to give you all kinds of things that people that are still waiting in foreign countries to get approval to come illegally are not getting and will not get because they're trying to do things the legal way while others are flooding the zone illegally. that's not a good scenario for a country to continue to keep a self-governing system. of course we have billionaires that have donated large amounts of money, tried to push us into being a socialist system. of course marks didn't foresee the growth -- marx didn't foresee the growth of a middle class the way we've had it here in the united states. and i continue to think that is the real strength of our country , the huge middle class. it shrank during the obama administration when for the ofst time in our history 95% the new income one year went to .he top 1% income earners middle class shrank. the poorest got poorer. the rich got richer. and the middle class shrunk. well, that could end up leading to a communist revolution once you get to having that small ruling class and then the much larger poor class. but unfortunately for the billionaires that contribute to help take us to a socialist system, they haven't been educated to history adequately to understand that if we go to a socialist system, normally the billionaires' money is taken, they're put in prison or killed, and they don't end up being part of the elite ruling class as they have been so hopeful of. but we do have a crisis on our southern border, but it needs to be while we deal in a humane way with people that are here, that we also secure our border. because otherwise we're not a nation. if you don't have a border that's enforceable, you're not a nation. you're just an area and if there's wealth in the area, it will not continue on for many ore decades. we had a hearing this week, changing gears. on the issue of reparations. and it's been amazing how miseducated people have been on slavery, who supported it, who was against it, civil rights, who supported them, who was against it. it's really been amazing. and there's an article here from from junean spectator 21, says, so amidst of chaos of that congressional hearing on reparations for slavery, former nfl star burgess owens got straight to the point saying this, as reported. quote, i used to be a democrat until i did my history and found out the misery that that party brought to my race. unquote. owens said. he added, i do believe in restitution, let's point to the party that was part of slavery. k.k.k., jim crow, that has killed over 40% of our black babies, 20 million of them in the state of california, 75% of our black boys can't pass standard reading and writing tests. the democratic state. let's pay reparation, let's pay restitution. how about a democratic party pay for all the misery brought to my race. article says, bingo. yet somehow, in some mysterious way, the hard facts of history are blythely ignored by members and sycophants of the democrats, the lart without -- latter without doubt the party of race. republican louie gohmert of texas had the audacity to quote from a 2008 article of mine that originally appeared in this space and was reprinted in the "wall street journal," among other things in that article, he says, i noted these hard facts about what was missing from the website of the democratic national committee as it tried to portray itself as the champion of civil rights by leaving out the hard facts of the party's horrendous actual history on race. these are the things that he correctly notes i read into the record at our hearing. that there is no reference, and this is in the democrats' our history section of the website, says there is no reference to the number of democratic party platforms supporting slavery, there were six from 1840 to 1860. there's no reference to the number of democratic presidents who owned slaves. there were seven from 1800 to 1861. there is no reference to the number of democratic party platforms that either supported silent outright or were on the subject, there were 20, from 1868 through 1948. there's no reference to jim crow as in jim crow laws, nor is there reference to the role democrats played in creating them. these were the post-civil war laws passed enthusiastically by democrats in that pesky 52-year part of the d.n.c.'s missing years. these laws seg regated public schools, public transportation, restaurants, restrooms, public places in general. everything from water coolers to beaches. the reason rosa parks became famous is that she sat in the whites only front section of a bus, the whites only designation a direct result of the democrats. there is no reference to the formation of the ku klux klan which according to columbia university historian eric vonner became, quote, a military force serving the interests of the democratic party, unquote. nor is there reference to university of north carolina historian allen tresley's description of the klan the, quote, terrorist arm of the democratic party, unquote. there's no reference to the thact fat democrats opposed the th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the constitution. the 13th banned slavery. there's no thoveed fact that democrats opposed a civil rights act of 1866. that was passed by the republican congress over the veto of president andrew johnson. who had been a democrat before joining lincoln's ticket in 1864. there is no reference to democrats' opposition to the civil rights act of 1875. ust goes on and on here. tellingly when congressman gohmert was finished reciting these hard, cold, facts of history someone in the audience yelled, you lie. and un-- an unwitting admission of absolute historical ignoshes of meab plain denial and over at the website splinter, writer samantha grasso assailed gohmert as the dumbest republican in the radio room for daring to cite the democrat's own historical record. so anyway, it's an interesting time, education is important, but it's got to be accurate education. and one other thing i would like to quickly reference is the need for criminal justice reform within our military. there's some aspects of military justice that are very good. a grand jury process in the civilian sector, constitutionally, potential defendant is not allowed to be there. nor to have his attorney there or her attorney. and the attorney is not allowed to be there for a potential defendant when that potential defendant is actually testifying. before the grand jury. whereas in the military system of justice, under the uniform code of military justice, there is what's called an article 32 investigation which is sort of the equivalent except a potential accused as we call them in the military is allowed to be there and have an attorney there to see what's being said against them and give a chance to present evidence to the article 32 investigating officer. but one of the problems and it's a very, very serious problem, is a the charges are sent to court-martial by the commander. normally a commanding general or admiral. he's called the convening authority. and he puts his signature on there saying, i want this individual charged and tried in a court-martial for this offense. that's after reviewing the results of the article 32 investigation. where it becomes rather unfair is that to get a jury, saw this during my four years at fort benning, the commanding general , we have platoons that make up company, platoons would offer suggestions of hard nosed guys that would convict ybody that was sent to their -- if they were on the jury and they were referred up to the company commander . the company commander would choose those that he thought were the very best out of those nominated and he would refer them up to the battalion commander, battalion commander would winnow that group down to the toughest who would follow what the commander would want them to do and sends those up to brigade, brigade would take them and review them and decide, get it down to a number that they would send up and eventually it would get to the commanding general of the installation and he would pick maybe up to 15 people that would sit sometimes for six months on every court-martial during that time and they knew why they were there. they knew why the commanding general put them on the jury. they were sent there to convict the guys the general sent to be tried. there were a number of acquittals but i can tell you every time there was an acquittal in a court-martial you never saw that jury panel again. they may have been new but if they acquitted somebody, found them not guilty, the general immediately disbanded them as a jury panel and it's not like you have jury selection where you can challenge somebody and have them taken off the jury. i remember one court-martial where virtually every -- all of the jury said that if a defendant did not testify they would hold it against him and find him guilty just because he didn't testify. and the judge said hey, we're all part of this man's army. and if i instruct you and i will instruct you that you will not hold it against a defendant that you sn't testify, will follow my direct order not to consider it against him. h, oh, ok, sure. -- you had somebody come in and say, i'm the wuven who did it. i've seen a good military judge say, mr. prosecutor, you have a motion to dismiss at this time? and they would make a motion to dismiss. t really a great deal of concern. i saw in a brief that someone matter red for parole that there was out of world war i to korea, vietnam, it said there were seven american military members convicted of war crimes. but since then, the iraq war, desert storm, kuwait, afghanistan, we've had over 200. this is something that needs to be looked at. we should not have our military members risking conviction simply by trying to defend themselves and those around them. so i'm hoping that we can come together in a bipartisan way and make some changes, some corrections, some improvements to military justice so that our trying n't get killed to avoid being seen as criminals by people that don't understand what they're going through. so in any event, i'm hopeful that we will do something next week to help fund border security but it sounds like from what we've heard on the floor, all we're going to do is help attract more people to come in illegally because we're going to send four billion or so down to the borders. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. gohmert: thank you, madam speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. does the gentleman have a motion? mr. gohmert: i move we do now hereby adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to adjourn. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. accordingly, the ayes have it, the motion is adopted. the house stands adjourned until noon on monday next for morning hour debate. president trump tweeted this morning at 9:03 eastern about news report he is ordered an attack on iran then reversed the decision. >> join american history tv sunday when we mark the 50th anniversary of the stonewall riots, a key turning point of the gay rights movement. starting at 8:30 a.m. eastern, we're live with a story -- with of rian marc stein editor "the stonewall riots." we'll answer your calls and tweets. then at 4:00 p.m. on real america two gay rights anymores by a pioneering filmmaker and activist. first "the second largest minority." >> homosexual human beings and homosexual american citizens. everybody always remembers the first one in both of those phrases, homosexuals, but not the second word in each of them, humans and american citizens. >> and "gay and proud." >> how do you feel about being here? >> beautiful. >> how many years have you been homosexual? >> i was born homosexual. >> has the new movement given you added pride? >> i was sad that there was no politician with us here today. lindsey should have been here as well as some of the gay movement organizers themselves. >> watch the 50th a

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