Right based on the authority of your holy inspired word. I especially pray for the many representatives who are your true children by faith in jesus christ. Grant them your favor and blessing and raise them up. Give them supernatural strength for the work they do. Give them great wisdom for the decisions they make and the direction in which they lead this nation. God, purify their motives, protect them from pride, help them bowless they break. Make they never forget your promise, he who honors them, i will honor. In jesus name, the only name by which we have access to heaven i pray, amen. The speaker the chair has examined the journal of the last days proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. Pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved. The pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentlewoman from washington, ms. Delbene. Ms. Delbene 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 without, the gentleman from illinois, mr. Is recognized for one minute. Mr. Hultgren thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today pleased to welcome pastor scott poling who graciously delivered our opening prayer over the house proceedings this morning. Than 20 years pastor scott has faithfully led the congregation at Harvest New Beginnings Church in oswego, illinois now, where my family nd i attend. His passion for eadvantagalism and outreach is contagious. Those touched by his Ministry Energy n first hand his and passion for people around e and passion for people around the world. When hes not running ultramarathons or playing nnis, he spends time expanding the churchs international comminmin industry. Community. They are celebrating 26 years of life giving marriage along with their children. Pastor scott, we praise god for how many have affected so many and your expanding the churchs international comminmin industry. Community. They are legislative work is molested by your prayers over us today. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair lays before the house a communication. The clerk the honorable, the speaker, house of representatives, sir. Pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2h of rule 2 of the rules of the house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on july 27, 2017, at 6 33 p. M. That the Senate Passed without amendment h. R. 3364. Ith best wishes i signed sincerely, karen l. Haas. The speaker pro tempore the chair will entertain up to five further requests for oneminute speeches on each side of the aisle. For what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition . Unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to recognize the 200th anniversary colonel stair entering west point as a fifth superintendent of the United States military academy. Mr. Shimkus he served 16 years as superintendent and is remembered as the father of the military academy. He is responsible for innovations that evolved the academy into the premiere world leader in development institution. He set new standards that are still expected today. The current superintendent is general bob castling who carries on the tradition and instills the identify deof duty, honor, honor, and fon country. Today i end the west point just congrat lated and i congratulate the 936 Second Lieutenants in the United States army as they take their place just congrat in the long gray line. The class of 2017 has just begun with 1,230 members and beginning their west point experience. I want to thank colonel fair and those who followed him for exhibiting in the long gray line. The class courage and developing leaders of character in defense of our country. With that i say, beat navy. 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 washington seek recognition . Ms. Delbene unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Ms. Delbene thank you, mr. Speaker. 26 states and the District Of Columbia have legalized some form of marijuana, including my home state of washington. Yet Marijuana Possession or use for any purpose is still prohibited under federal law. Leaving my constituents, including cancer patients, at risk of prosecution. Thats why today im reintroducing the state marijuana and regulatory tolerance enforcement act, the smart enforcement act. My bill will fix the conflict between state and federal law by giving states a waiver from the controlled substances act. It also resolves the banking issues currently forcing dispenseries to operate on an unsafe, all cash basis. These waivers will ensure people in states that have different laws from the federal government on marijuana are protected from prosecution provided they meet certain requirements. Because people in these states should not live in fear of unpredictable actions from the attorney general and department of justice on this issue. Thank you. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition. Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to honor larry ely, a friend, strong advocate for farmers, growers, and land over owners in my home district. He passed away suddenly at the age of 71 on july 17. He was wellknown in green county, georgia, as a gentle giant and will be remembered for his love for his family and his tireless efforts as president of the Green County Farm Bureau and his steadfast leadership in the Georgia Association of conservation districts. Mr. Hice farming was larrys life. He was a Guiding Force in the community who actively worked with state and local leaders to foster and promote a better understanding of agriculture. He was a leading voice for georgias farmers, larrys legacy will better ensure that our children and grandchildren will experience the same opportunities to enjoy the Natural Resources of georgias 10th Congressional District as our parents and grandparents. He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, nancy and their four children and their grandchildren. My wife and i extend our thoughts and prayers to the family as our parents and durin bereavement. Mr. Speaker, im grateful to have known larry and witness his passion first hand. I ask my colleagues to join me in recognizes his unyielding commitment, the state of georgia, and our agriculture community. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york 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. Ms. Velazquez mr. Speaker, donald trump has now been president for 188 days. D despite the promises his Republicancontrolled Congress has not passed a single meaningful piece of job creation legislation. Last night, we watched as republicans failed in the latest effort to take health care from the American People. Mr. Speaker, it is time at last to move on. The American People are looking for real proposals to create jobs, increase wages, and strengthen our economy. They are looking for and they deserve a better deal. As the Ranking Member of the Small Business committee, almost every day i hear from entrepreneurs and Small Businesses who create jobs in our communities. And under democratic plans we will give them tools to further succeed. We will offer small firms tax incentives to bring on and train new employees. We will invest in apprenticeship programs to help meet Small Businesses work for its needs. We will expand Internet Access to fuel the next generation of innovation and ecommercial. I ask ecommerce. I ask my republican colleagues, at long last give up on this obsession with attacking Americas Health care. Instead lets move forward with giving americas workers and Small Businesses a better deal. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition. 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. Lance mr. Speaker, i rise today in support of permanently authorizing the everify system and requiring u. S. Employers to use the system to ensure their employees are eligible to be working in the United States. I am proud to be a partner with the United States senator grassley of iowa in offering legislation to do so entitled the accountability through electronic verification act. Everify is a proven system for making sure Job Opportunities are for American Workers. Everify is a deterrent against illegal immigration. Expanding it to new workplace also make sure legal American Workers are not shut out of employment. 700,000 american businesses successfully use the everify system. There is no cost for the employer or employee to use everify, and our legislation will make sure that there are no costs passed on to businesses, their employees, or to customers. We should be considering practical solution that is remove incentives for illegal migration into the United States. We need everify up and running and we need all employers to participate to make it effective. I urge cosponsorship and collaborations from both sides of the aisle to implement this effective policy. Mr. Speaker, 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 the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands seek recognition . Miss blast ket ms. Plaskett i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Ms. Plaskett thank you. It is with great pride i speak on behalf of the Centennial Anniversary of the birth of the hobyorblemervin herbert evans. This celebration of governor evans 100th birthday is timely and symbolic. He was born in 1917, months after the transfer of the Virgin Islands from denmark to the United States. When locals had no Citizen Rights and no mechanism for which they could be have their own elected representation. As some of the soil he was educated on st. Croix, val deck tore iian of his High School Class in saint thomas and in 1944 earned his medical degree from Howard College of medicine. Returned to st. Croix and was eventually commissioner of health of the Virgin Islands. In 1969 he was appointed governor of the Virgin Islands by president richard nixon, earning him the distinction of being the territorys last appointed governor, but more importantly the territorys first black native governor. 1971 heback the governor elected by the people of the Virgin Islands after 1970 law which allowed residents to elect their governor. In 1978, he was elected to the house of representatives in the 96th congress. And after leaving congress, he was an ambassador to trinidad and tobago. Governor evans personifies the evolution of the political maturity of the Virgin Islandses. His life and legacy symbolized not only the extraordinary achievement of virgin islanders given but striving and attaining much under the american flag, but also the political growth and progress of our islands come from colonial rule, to selfgovernance. Mr. Speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. I fitzpatrick mr. Speaker, rise today to praise the work of the council of southeast pennsylvania. The council provides resources and opportunities to reduce the impact of addiction, trauma, and other Health Related issues for the five counties in southeastern pennsylvania. Through intervention, education, and mobilization. Established in 1997 by the council, proact works to provide advocacy for those suffering from the terrible disease of addition. Their workshops and meetings for afflicted individuals and families, addiction victims can get back on their feet and learn necessary skills for both recovery and entering the work force. m proud to work with my constituent, executive director beverly and her administrative team, cindy and stacey. Constituent, executive mr. Speaker, i want to share the words of a man named jim who stated through proact a fire was lit inside me. My spirit rekindled by home. Recovery from addiction is difficult and it is up to remarkable associations like the council to serve the southeastern Pennsylvania Community and make sure these people can successfully beat the devastating disease. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman from florida 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, mr. Speaker. I am pleased to introduce a resolution for tom flores urging he be inducted into the pro football hall of fame. Tom flores had an outstanding and successful career both as a quarterback and as a head coach. And this resolution pays tribute to his inspiring athletic talents. Flores became the first hispanic starting quarterback in professional football history and played on two super bowl winning teams. Also he was the first hispanic super ach to win two bowls, a feat he accomplished on two separate teams and the first hispanic manager in the National Football league. He left with an impressive lifetime record and an 83 playoff record. Tom has been a trail blazer for hispanics in the nfl and motivated a generation of new players by showing they can compete and win. Lets enter this trail blazer into the hall of fame. 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 . Mr. Thompson mr. Speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. Yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Thompson mr. Speaker, i rise to call upon the house leadership to not adjourn until we have a Health Care Bill. Respective committees need to meet. We know what we will and will not work given the voting prerogatives of the members of this body and the senate. We understand the needs of our constituents regardless of their voter registration. We understand its our job to navigate the complexity of this issue on behalf of the American People and to come up with a product that makes good on promises that have been made to improve our Health Care System. This will take republicans and democrats. Later this morning i will be proud to once again gather with my colleagues who are members, republicans and democrats alike, who are members of the Problem Solver caucus, to continue our work seeking a bipartisan solution to what has become unfortunately a partisan issue. I stand ready to make good on these promises and suggest we remain in washington until that work is complete. Mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . Mr. Collins mr. Speaker, by the direction of the committee on rules, i call up House Resolution 480 and ask for its immediate consideration. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the resolution. The clerk house calendar number 70. House resolution 480, resolved, that upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill senate 114, to amend title 38, United States code, to require the secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit an annual report regarding performance awards and bonuses awarded to certain highlevel employees of the department of Veterans Affairs. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except, one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on Veterans Affairs, and two, one motion to recommit with or without nstructions. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one hour. Mr. Collins mr. Speaker, for the purposes of debate only, i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlelady from new york, ms. Slaughter, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. During consideration of this resolution all time is yielded for the purposes of debate only. Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on House Resolution 480, currently under consideration. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Collins thank you, mr. Speaker. I am pleased to bring this rule forward on behalf of the rules committee. The rule provides for the consideration of senate 114, the department of Veterans Affairs bonus transparency act. It provides for one hour of debate. The rule also provides for a motion to recommit. Mr. Speaker, we can all agree that our nations veterans are heroes. They deserve our support, gratitude, recognition and they deserve to have the promises we as a nation have made to them fulfilled. Unfortunately, far too often we fall short of keeping those promises. Everyone knows the scandal that shook the Veterans Affairs a few years ago, continuing, highlighting the need for greater accountability. In the wake of this crisis of mismanagement and wrongdoing, congress voted on the Veterans Choice Program in 2014 to seek out timely, appropriate care from providers in their communities rather than wait through excessive wait times and subcare at many of the v. A. Facilities. My colleagues are working to fix that but its been a meaningful start and a quicker path to care. Without congressional action, we risk leaving our heroes without choice. Thats not raveg i am willing to take. V. A. Secretary shulingin has estimated one million shulkin has estimated that one million veterans use choice care. More are using private sector providers. This year alone more than 18 million appointments with private doctors have been authorized by the department of Veterans Affairs. If we fail to take these actions, the veterans will lose their ability to receive prompt care from choice providers. We will be flooding the v. A. Medical centers with patients even as we know many facilities are overburden and underperforming. This is not a dooms day prediction. This is not a hail mary moment o pass an obscure act. Chairman roe has worked diligently to ensure this does not happen. In the senate my friend and fellow georgian senator isakson serves as chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee. He is ensuring our veterans receives care by safeguarding the viability of the Choice Program. I have to say the two chairmen, the body is really at a favor having those two men working and Ranking Members working alongside them in the process. We continue to look forward to this bill passing and many more things to come. When we understand this, mr. Speaker, i believe that them and their Ranking Members, mr. Walz and mr. Tester, are committed to making the system working better for veterans. I also know the Choice Program needs reform. However, we cant improve a program that doesnt exist. We first must protect what is good. Todays underlying bill provides Additional Fund to extend the Choice Program for six months and move forward with sustainable reforms. I have proposed ideas to make those reforms, including the expanded access to choice act which prevents bureaucracy at the v. A. From derailing a functioning Choice Program. I have authored that bill and is in direct response to those concerns raised from those in southeast georgia. I am sure many have heard similar stories from their neighbors and i am confident many members want to fix this program. But supporting the rule and underlying bill today we are taking a step forward to making that help. The secretary told the Veterans Affairs Committee Without Additional Funding they would wait more without health care. We need action. Yet, there are those who would rather we shuffle down the road of inaction than stand for our veterans today. Mr. Speaker, there are some who claim choice represents a move toward privatization. Let me set the record straight. We are not talking about privatizing the v. A. Today. We are talking about sustaining a program that helps millions of veterans across the country. This bill is not privatization. Its about breathing six more months of life into a program. This is not the time for partisan maneuvers. Our Veterans Health, their very lives are on the line. We need to vote to move forward so they can receive the care we promised. Mr. Speaker, i currently serve in the air force reserve and have completed a tour earlier the aq and i witnessed med forces display of heroism. This bill will meet their needs. The underlying bill authorizes Major Medical facility leases including a lease in pike county, georgia. Will encourage leaders to seek employment at the Veterans Health administration and expanded hiring authority of qualified health care personnel. Mr. Speaker, preserving the Choice Program and access to Community Care options that it provides is critical. I agree we can make this Program Better but we have to provide a path to do that. Already i heard from those in my district talking about the availability of funds for choice. We must address this issue today and we must uphold our promises to the american veterans. With that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentlelady from new york. Ms. Slaughter good morning, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, for me this morning, july 28, could be the beginning of new spirit in the house of representatives because of what happened last night in the senate. Since were talking about health care and for veterans, i wanted to just take a moment to talk about health care for all americans. Last night we saw a remarkable thing happen. We have had the poisonous atmosphere around health care in the United States for the past seven years. We are the last industrial country on the planet to provide health care for the people who count on us with that kind of support. We can now give that up. I hope we can take the majority leader at his word that he sees no further use in trying to beat this bill to death and that we can Work Together to improve it and depet onto the other things and get onto the other things which we are so needy of. I do want to say i appreciate very much the votes last night. I think senator mccain showed once again that he is americas hero and senator murkowski and ollins are certainly heroins of mine and let us know that women in positions of power can be counted on. So yesterday in the rules committee, the majority passed the martial law to grant themselves Fast Track Authority so they can get anything through which i think scared even the senate. Now, i read some news reports claiming this was a major victory. But it was not a victory for either side of us fighting viciously over how we wanted health care to be given to our citizens but it was certainly a victory for the American People. Hundreds who stood last night out here on the capitol grounds, outside the senate begging to be able to continue their health care. Imagine somebody with cancer treatment. Cancer, going through all the pain and agony they have to go through with that and wondering every day what in the world are we going to do here. Are they going to be left without health care, left without care that they can afford . So i think without a doubt this is a good morning for all of us who are in the congress of the United States to get together and to do better work. And i know of no agency, frankly, that needs more attention than the Veterans Administration. My personal experience with them has been somewhat like whack a mole. We think we have something settled and then suddenly we dont. We have to be advocates for every veteran in our district directly to the v. A. Personally. Oftentimes simplely to get the most simple kind of treatment done for our veterans. It is my wholehearted wish and has been for some time that we will get the Veterans Administration out of the Building Business which they are abysmal failures and let them concentrate on health care for veterans which i believe is their number one issue. Im very pleased let me echo what my colleague, mr. Collins, said with leadership in both the senate and the house, people running the Veterans Committee now. Dr. Roe has been an exemplary friend to all of us and understands exactly what were doing. So i think this is important, as mr. Collins has pointed out, choice has not been very popular in my district. It is so complicated and so complex that it takes a lot of hand holding just to even use it. So we i think we pretty much have discussed this i dont have any speakers on my side. I reserve the balance of my time until i know whether mr. Collins has more. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady reserves. The gentleman from georgia. Mr. Collins i appreciate the gentlewoman. I have one speaker and its my time to introduce and yield three minutes to the gentleman from michigan, representative mitchell. Mr. Mitchell thank you for yielding. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Mitchell thank you, mr. Speaker. Im here to support House Resolution 480. It allows for consideration of the veterans choice act. For a while there i was confused. I wasnt sure what we were talking there. Mr. Speaker, i am proud to support the veterans choice act. Our veterans answer the call to protect our families, communities and all we hold dear. We can never repair repay them for their sacrifice. We made a promise to care for them. Mr. Speaker, if we dont act today we will breach that promise and deny benefits for those that have access to the choice bill. The choice fund will be depleted by mid august. Secretary shulkin said they are unable to care for veterans if the Choice Program is eliminated. Sometimes it astonishes me how we wait until the last minute to address problems like this. Millions of americans veterans rely on the Choice Program. Thats millions of promises we break if we fail to pass this legislation today. We cannot allow these funds to run out and leave our veterans without access to care. Contrary to critics, todays debate is not whether to privatize the v. A. Secretary shulkin has openly said numerous times he will not privatize the Veterans Administration. Today debate is about people. Todays debate is about people. Its about those who will lose access to care if we dont pass this legislation. Its about allowing veterans choice. Lets not play politics with our veterans. Over the course of the week, the v. A. Choice and quality employment act has been improved with amendments. It would improve the hiring at the v. A. Of the v. A. Work force, but to those who will continue to have concerns about veterans choice, i ask we not let the perfect be the enemy of good. Ive learned in life nothing is ever perfect. I certainly found that to be true about legislation during my short time here in congress. Mr. Speaker, the clock is ticking. We must not allow it to run out and default on the promises we made to veterans. We need to act today. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from georgia reserves, the gentlelady from new york. Mr. Collins to inform the chair. We have no other speakers. Ms. Slaughter im prepared to close. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady from new york is recognized. Ms. Slaughter im pleased to support the underlying bill well be voting on today. I wish i were able to say that more often. The bill fund the Veterans Affairs Choice Program for six months and authorize the number of leases from Major Medical facilities throughout the country. I echo its major responsible. The next rule well consider contains Martial Law Authority that will allow the majority to bring up any bill they want without any notice at all and i hope we will not use that. Its been a long week. Lets end it on a bipartisan note with a strong vote in support of this bill before us to help veterans across america and yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. The gentleman from georgia. Mr. Collins i would reiterate the point of discussion that this is something we need to take today. This is not about the peripheral discussions going on concerning choice, privatization, and other things that have derailed this discussion. I want to see this move forward so we can continue to have viable discussions on choice. I would also be remiss, mr. Speaker, if i did not at least address the discussion by the gentlelady from new york who i have the greatest respect for. Has her opinion, i have mine. I do not believe what happened last night in the senate was in her words hero eck. I believe it was basically heroic. I believe it was basically a failure a failure of process. What happened last night was not anything except the stopping of a process that could have been included democrats and republicans in a conference committee. And it chose not to move forward. Thats the reason we come to this place is to move forward. I think when we look at this, the disaster that is obamacare, and the reasons were now keeping it and that the Health Care Measure has failed, brings a question to my mind. For the one that is have been helped, and i have never from this podium and denied there were many with preexisting conditions and other issues that found help, but if we remember the promise, the promise was to cover all uninsured t came nowhere close. The promise was you could keep your doctor if you liked it, keep your plan if you liked t the promise was that your premiums would go down and the premiums have went up. So for all the supporters, then come to maybe my district or other districts and address those people who have lost their insurance. Address those people whose premiums have went up. Address the people bike the young lady in chicago like the young lady in chicago who did get on the obamacare exchanges, had a premium that was somebody diesed, when she realized she couldnt afford the deductible, i might as well not have it. Its one thing to discuss this in grand terms. Its another to see the result in our system. The talk about the nomal positives against the crushing negatives is not a victory. I think we move forward. Today we have a chance to move forward on choice. Today we have a chance to move forward and look ahead. But i at least say from this members perspective, i dont forget. I understand what i have heard for seven years. Its been said many times that current bill is actually gaining in popularity. I just simply result to the only polls that have really mattered over the last seven years and those are elections. Every time there was an election, and this issue was p, the obamacare lost. Aim not sure how you can continue to support im not sure how you can continue to support with any kind of straight face that kind of abject failure. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. Move the previous question on the resolution. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the previous question ised odd. The question is on adoption of the resolution. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The resolution is agreed to. And without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlelady from wyoming seek recognition. Ms. Cheney mr. Speaker, by direction of the committee on rules i call up House Resolution 3180 and ask for its immediate consideration. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the esolution. Its 4180. 481. The speaker pro tempore House Resolution 481. The clerk will report the lution rule. The clerk house calendar number 71. House resolution 481. Resolved, providing for that upon the adoption of this resolution, it shall be in order to consider in the house h. R. 3180. To authors fiscal year 2018 for intelligence and intelligence related activities of the United States government, the Community Management account, and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and disabilities system, and for ther purposes. All against the order are waived. The Permanent Select Committee on intelligence now printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted. The bill as amended shall be considered as read. All points against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any further amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Permanent Select Committee on intelligence. And two, one motion to recommit ith or without instructions. Ection 2, the requirement of 6 a13 to consider reports on the same day as presented to the house as waived with respect to any resolution reported through the legislative day of august 1, 2017. Section 3, on any legislative day during the period from july 31, 2017 through september 4, 2017 a, the journal of the proceedings of the previous day shall be considered as approved. And b, the chair may at any time declare the house adjourned to meet at date and time within the limits of clause 4 section 5 article 1 of the resolution to be announced by the chair in declaring the adjournment. Section 4, the speaker may appoint members to perform the duties of the chair for the duration of the period addressed by section 3 of this resolution as though under clause 8a of rule 1. Section 5, each day during the period addressed by section 3 resolution shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 7 of the war powers resolution, 50 United States code, 1546. Each day during the period addressed by section 3 of this resolution shall not constitute a legislative day for the purposes of clause 7 of rule 13. Section 7, each day during the period addressed by section 3 of this resolution shall not constitute a calendar or legislative day for purposes of clause 7c1 of rule 22. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady from wyoming second for one hour. Ms. Cheney mr. Speaker, during consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. I now yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from florida, mr. Hastings, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Ms. Cheney mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Ms. Cheney mr. Speaker, i rise today in support of House Resolution 481, which provides a closed rule for consideration of h. R. 3180. The intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2018. Mr. Speaker, there is nothing we do in this body thats more important than actions we take for the definance of our nation. We now face a more complex array of threats than we have at any time since the end of world war ii. North korea continues to test Ballistic Missiles, has successfully tested an icbm, and is continuing to move rapidly toward achieving the capability to strike u. S. Soil. A resurgent russia is imposing its will across europe, occupies crimea, and now using its military to support the assad regime in syria. China is increasingly belligerent, continues to expand the size of its military, create bases on artificial islands in the South China Sea. And iran, mr. Speaker, continues to work on its Ballistic Missile program and expand its influence as it supports terror across the mediterranean and the larger middle east. Terrorist groups like al qaeda and isis continue to carry out attacks across the west and threaten the United States. We have seen a dramatic increase in tensions on the temple mount, mr. Speaker, in just the last few weeks, and we have men and women in uniform deployed around the globe fighting to defend our nation. Our Intelligence Community plays a crucial role in ensuring our decisionmakers and our war fighters have the information they need to keep our nation secure. H. R. 3180 provides the Intelligence Community with the authorization it needs to continue working to protect and defend the United States. Supports Critical National security programs, such as those protecting americans against terrorism, cyberattacks, and hostile foreign nations. The bill maintains critical congressional oversight of the activities of the Intelligence Community. And the bill makes no changes to any surveillance authorities, including those set to expire, which we will take up later this year. In legislation separate from this bill. Mr. Speaker, as you know earlier this week h. R. 3180 was considered under suspend the rules, which is not at all uncommon for bills like this one that receive unanimous bipartisan support in committee. While the bill received well over 50 of the votes of the house, it did not achieve the required 2 3 majority to pass under suspension. Which is why were here today debating this rule. A large portion of this bill, mr. Speaker, is understandably as it should be classified. Which requires members of this body to review the bill. I want to personally thank members of the Intelligence Committee and their staff for facilitating that process and making it so easy for members of this house to undertake. A bipartisan notice was sent out provided to members, informing us of the ailability of the text for text, mr. The speaker, was available for 10 days. Twice as long as last years bill. My staff simply had to call and inform the committee that id like to review the bill, and when they asked the committee asked when text, mr. Speaker, was available for 10 days. Twice as long as last years bill. The bill would be available, when i would be available, they made sure that a member of the Committee Staff was also there to answer any questions i had. The process itself was seamless, was very easy, and was facilitated by the members of the Intelligence Committee staff. Mr. Speaker, this is a good and important bill. It supports the men and women in our Intelligence Community antiwork they do to keep us safe. This is not an issue we should politicize or subject to partisan debate. The Intelligence Community plays a Critical Role in the defense of our nation and we need to support them, mr. Speaker, by supporting this bill. Therefore, i urge support for the rule to allow consideration of h. R. 3180, and i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady reserves. The gentleman from florida. Mr. Hastings mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Hastings i thank the gentlewoman, my friend from wyoming, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes for debate. And i rise to debate the rule for h. R. 3180, the intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2018. I was somewhat dismayed earlier this week when my friends across the aisle attempted to jam todays bill through this regular ttiesing order and bringing the bill up under suspension. Luckily we can add this shortsighted attempt at governance to their long list of legislative failures. And although i may be pleased that their suspension shenanigans failed, my frustration was born anew when we were informed that the bill would come to the floor under yet another closed rule. This is all bad enough, and ill come back to it in a moment, but first we need to discuss the blanket martial law provision that my friends on the other side put into this rule. This move especially when considered in the context of those mentioned above, truly elevated poor governing to an art form. I want the American People, republican and democrat, and independents alike to be Crystal Clear on what is happening here today. But putting a blanket martial law into this rule, my friends across the aisle were trying to make it easy as possible for them to pass a Health Care Bill that they had never seen. The bill would have surely ripped Health Care Away from millions of americans and 1 6 of niously upended our economy. Thankfully senators collins, murkowski and senator mccain and tens of thousands of regular americans turned activists ensured this effort failed. Nce day one, the my colleagues on the other side of health s approach on care and other important issues and this has been horrendous. Its been rushed. Its been secretive. Its been chaotic and its been inspired by the desire for a cheap win rather than the desire to make our Health Care System stronger and more widely available to all americans. Truly whether it is health care, veterans or the authorization of funding for something as important as our Intelligence Community, the approach leaves some of us bewilledered, dismayed and gravely concerned for the wellbeing of our country. Indeed, as discussing something as important as authorization or funding for the Intelligence Community, we ought to proceed n a manner that allows all members of this body the opportunity to weigh in with their concerns. This closed process does a disservice, not only to those of us who do not sit on the committee of jurisdiction, but also the Intelligence Community and the American People. As an example when i did sit on this committee, i was vice chair of the house Permanent Select Committee on intelligence, and i worked diligently to ensure that minorities were given equal opportunity to break into the upper ranks of the Intelligence Community. Since leaving that committee, i have continued this important work and introduced an amendment to previous iterations of the underlying bill that called for the director of National Intelligence to put forth a plan that would encourage diversity hires throughout the Intelligence Community. Frustratingly, im stripped of such an opportunity today because of the republican leaderships unyielding devotion to perpetuating a closed process. Additionally, my friend, ms. Jackson lee from texas, has also offered amendments to the underlying bill in the past that call for an increase in the recruitment and training of minorities as officers and employees of the Central Intelligence agency. She, like the majority of our colleagues, will not be afforded a similar opportunity this time around. This is troublesome because diversity is a mission imperative for the Intelligence Community. Not only do we need to see minorities have more opportunities to climb the ranks, but we also need to recruit americans who will be able to blend in, speak Foreign Languages and understand the cultures in countries that are now central to our Foreign Policy interests. At the end of the day, such diversity is achieved through the hiring process and, therefore, we need to ensure that we are hiring arab americans, iranian americans, pakistani americans, chinese americans, korean americans, women, gays and many other americans from diverse backgrounds as we confront a myriad of threats and work harder to better understand our adversaries wherever they may lurk. We do not seek this diversity in the name of Political Correctness but rather in the name of National Security. As i said before, if the Intelligence Community is to succeed in its global mission, it must have a global face. I have no doubt that scores of members would like to have offered amendments addressing the issues i just mentioned as well as many other issues that are of particular concern to them and their constituents. Unfortunately, under this rule they will not be afforded such an opportunity today. Those who work in the Intelligence Community serve our faithfully and bravely, knowing they will never receive the public recognition they so richly deserve. In fact, they have served and continue to serve knowing that not only will they not receive wellearned accolades but that they will, upon occasion, have to endure unfounded and offensive statements from this administration. These statements began before the Current Administration even moved in down pennsylvania avenue. The e the following from administrations president s twitter account. Quote, intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to leak into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in nazi germany . Unquote. I find that shameful and solutely unfounded in making such a statement, comparing these brave and patriotic americans to nazis. You really have to be kidding me. As a former member of hipsi, i and malign idly by these people who protect our country but it seems with this closed process and their continued support of president donald john trump, even as he slowly erodes the foundation of our democracy one tweet at a time, is exactly what my friends in the Republican Congress are doing. Mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentlelady from wyoming. Ms. Cheney thank you very much, mr. Speaker. And my colleague from florida, with whom i had the privilege of spending many hours in the rules committee debating this and a range of other issues, raised a number of points that i think is important to clarify. You know, first of all, on the issue of minority recruitment, last night in the rules committee in open session, chairman nunes was asked about this and he testified very clearly and directly that diversity is very important, that it is Mission Critical for the reasons that my colleague from florida stated. And i can report there are several provisions in the classified annex i wont go into the details about them which my colleague may or may not be familiar that support the whole notion of centers for Academic Excellence which is particularly focused on recruiting young people, recruiting minorities and young people across the board for service in the Intelligence Community. You know, we tend in these rule discussions, mr. Speaker, to have a lot of arguments and criticism of procedure. The democrats this morning seem to be particularly concerned about our sameday authority, but i would just note, mr. Speaker, im certainly confident that my constituents who are watching this, and i would say probably most americans watching, would understand the importance of the house of representatives getting its work done in a timely manner. And certainly when it comes to health care, the arguments and the criticism from the other side of the aisle lose a little bit of their credibility when they simultaneously attack the republicans for moving too slowly and then also for moving too quickly. What i can tell you is we are debating hugely important issues and hugely important topics. We are absolutely committed to repealing and replacing obamacare. It is a system thats collapsing. Its a system thats devastated the lives of people across this country. Its a system thats driven premiums and deductibles through the roof. Its absolutely limited peoples choice in terms of Insurance Plans, in terms of Health Care Providers. It is a system thats failing. We have seen the democrats fundamental approach was a government mandate, and their attempt to force people across this nation to buy Health Insurance and they thought that through a government mandate they would be able to force young people into these insurance pools and, therefore, drive the cost down. Its not what happened. It didnt work. We know weve got to put in place a system that will be able to provide people the kind of care that they need, access as well as lowering the cost and increasing availability. So there are a whole range of very important substantive efforts going on, and i think that its clear that the folks on the other side of the aisle dont support the direction were going in, may not support the policy, but the people across this nation, certainly in my home state of wyoming, spoke very clearly last november that they wanted a change, that they wanted to see the government reduce its role in their lives and that they wanted to see us begin the process of building our military, rebuilding what has been lost over the course of the last eight years as well as rebuilding the capabilities of our Intelligence Community. And that is exactly what this bill does. Thats exactly what were here doing this morning. Mr. Speaker, i think thats why its so important that my colleagues support this rule, that we provide the authority that the Intelligence Community needs through this bill to continue to do its important work to keep us safe, and with that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady reserves. The gentleman from new york florida. Mr. Hastings mr. Speaker, through you i will advise my colleague that i have no further speakers and im prepared to close so ill reserve at this time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. Ms. Cheney were prepared to close as well, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady reserves. The gentleman from florida. Mr. Hastings mr. Speaker, the brazen and reckless manner which this bill was first brought to the floor is evidence that my friends across the aisle have still not figured out how to govern. The learning curve may be steep, but its not that steep. Quite simply, my friends, it is time for you to start governing responsibly, not with closed rules and martial law, without hearings and without c. B. O. Scores but through regular order with an opportunity for all members and through them their constituents to take part in legislating. The white house may be in chaos, but that is no reason for the house to legislate in a similar manner. For the good of the country, we must return to regular order. We must work to ensure that those serving in the Intelligence Community are able to do their best work, to do it as safely as possible and do it knowing that they will receive the respect they deserve from all branches of their government. I worry that they increasingly do not receive this respect and that this disrespect, should it continue, will make it more difficult for us to retain and recruit the talent we so desperately need to protect our National Security. Of course, the Intelligence Community is only one part of our National Security apparatus. The men and women in our military are equally important part of maintaining our National Security, and unfortunately we learned just yesterday that these brave Service Members are not immune from baseless attacks from the administration. It was announced on the 69th anniversary of president trumans issuing an executive rder that desegregated the armed forces that transgendered Service Members would no longer be able to serve in the military. Were these individuals numbering between 10,000 and 15,000 banned because they are not brave, because they are not patriotic, because they are incapable of meeting the rigorous requirements of being in the military . No. Theyve been banned because bigotry defeated decency yesterday, and theyve been banned because of who they are. As i mentioned the other evening, i have three uncles who were in the army. They served proudly. They served bravely. They served in a segregated army. Two of them received purple hearts. It was a great offense that they had to serve in a segregated army in which they were made to feel that somehow their bravery, their patriotism and their devotion to their brothers in arms was somehow less because of the color of their skin. President truman knew this was wrong, and he ended it. Simply put, president truman knew then what our current president is incapable of understanding today. The strength of our military is not found in the race, religion, or the creed, or the sex, or the gender identity of its Service Members but rather in the bravery and honor exhibited by these individuals on a daily basis. They like all of us are here today like all of us here today are proud citizens of this country. Like all of us here today are gods children. I thank them for their service to our nation. Mr. Speaker, i urge a no vote on the real and yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentlelady from wyoming checked. Ms. Cheney mr. Speaker, this rule, 481, and underlying bill, h. R. 3180, ensure the men and women of our Intelligence Community that they have the tools and resources they need to continue the vital role they play in helping us address the threats base facing our nation. I do want to point out, mr. Speaker, my colleague is accusing the republicans of being brazen and reckless because of our same day rule making authority. I would only note in the 111th congress when they were in the majority they enacted this process 26 times, in the 110th congress 17 times. Its an important ability for us to have. We know we might need to move quickly on something. As a member of the rules committee im committed to ensuring we do Everything Possible to make sure that were able to bring bills to the floor that carry out kinds of changes and improvements the people of this nation sent us all here to undertake. I was really disappointed, mr. Speaker, the kinds of changes earlier this w this rule was defeated bill was defeated under suspend the rules. Its too bad. There are many things that are partisan issues in this body. Its too bad when the minority uses the intelligence authorization bill as part of a political stunt to make what should be a bipartisan process and a Bipartisan Committee appear partisan. The bill, h. R. 3180, received unanimous support in committee and i certainly hope today, mr. Speaker, that the minority members of that committee, and frankly all on the Minority Side, who understand the importance of the Intelligence Community in keeping our nation safe will put aside the partisanship, will put aside the games that the American People are so tired of, and will join me in supporting a good, effective, and important bill. Frankly the minority of the Intelligence Committee worked very hard to help craft w that, mr. Speaker, i urge adoption of both the rule and h. R. 3180. I yield back the balance of my time. I move the previous question on the resolution. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the previous question is ordered. The question is on adoption of the resolution. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. Mr. Hastings mr. Speaker, i ask for the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore the yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a 15minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 222. One more. The speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 224. The nays are 186. The resolution is adopted. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. For what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Mr. Hensarling mr. Speaker, i send to the desk a report to accompany House Resolution 442. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title. The clerk report to accompany House Resolution 442, resolution of inquiry directing the secretary of the treasury to provide certain documents in the secretarys possession to the house of representatives relating to president trumps Financial Connections to russia, certain illegal financial schemes and related information. The speaker pro tempore referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. The chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. The clerk h. R. 3364, an act to provide congressional review and to counter aggression by the governments of iran, the Russian Federation and north korea and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. Members, please remove your onversations from the floor. Members, please remove your onversations from the floor. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . Thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Roe i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material into the record on s. 114, as amended. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Roe mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 480, i call up the bill s. 114 and call for its immediate consideration in the house. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk senate 114, an act to amend title 38 United States the secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit an annual report regarding performance of bonuses awarded to certain high level employees of the department of Veterans Affairs. The secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit an annual report the speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 480, the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in house report 115262, shall be considered as adopted and the bill as amended is considered as read. The gentleman from tennessee, mr. Roe, and the gentleman from minnesota, mr. Walls, each will control 30 minutes. Mr. Walz, each will control 30 minutes. The house will please come to order. Members, please take your conversations off the floor. The chair recognizes the gentleman fromtown tfpblet mr. Roe mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. From tennessee. Mr. Roe mr. Speaker, the chair i yield myself such time as i may consume. I rise today in support of senate s. 114 as amended, the v. A. Voice choice and Quality Improvement act of 017. Its been a long week of negotiations. Were here today with an agreement. We and more importantly our veterans can all be proud to support i know that i am. Ranking member walls and i have worked feverishly with our center counterparts to find a solution that can pass both chambers and ensure veterans will continue to be able to access care in the community. The v. A. Choice and Quality Improvement act of 2017 would expand veteran access to care both inside and outside the department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System by, number one, providing 2. 1 billion to sustain the Choice Program for the next six months. Facility leases and improving v. A. s ability to recrew and retain high quality employees by including many of the provisions of h. R. 1367, as amended, which was sponsored by dr. Brad wenstrup, the chairman of the subcommittee on health and was unanimously improved by the house in march. I would be remiss if i did not impress upon my colleagues the sense of urgency about this legislation. The Choice Program was created three years ago in response to nationwide v. A. Access crisis that began with 40 veteran patients dying while waiting for v. A. Care in phoenix, arizona. Due to much higher demand, it is slated to run outs of money by august. It would be a devastating consequence for veterans in its wake. Starting with an extremely tight 90day implementation period in countless contract modifications with third party administrators, ill be the first to admit the Choice Program has been plagued with problems. I would also tell you that the program has come a long way from where it once was. And is responsible for more than one million veterans getting the care they need closetory home and more timely manner. The good lord only knows how any lives have been saved. It this is to end three weeks from now, mr. Speaker, v. A. s most senior leaders, including secretary shulkin, have warned waiting times for veteran patients will increase to prechoice phoenix levels. They also say that continuity of care will be disrupted for veterans across the country and that some our most vulnerable veterans may not be able to get the care they either lodge or possibly dwill long or possibly debilitating wait time or travel distances. That is failure, passage of this bill today followed by swift passage of our colleagues in the senate will preserve choice for the next six months. That would allow the program to continue while serving veterans while we continue to work hard on creating a stronger, more integrated v. A. Health care system for the years ahead. Some stakeholders have expressed frustration congress has not adequatel been supporting v. A. s internal capacity for care and too much attention has been paid since 2014 to the 2014 access crisis to dreasting issues with growing veteran demand for Community Care programs, choice included. They argue providing increased funding for choice without identical increases in funding v. A. Medical facilities harmful to veterans. I disagree with that. I do not agreet argument is fair and constructive given the historic funding increases v. A. Has received in recent years and the growth in staffing, programming, and v. A. Physical footprint that has resulted rom those increases. V. A. Budget, the health care budget, has grown more than 83 billion since i came to congress in 2009. We spent 93. 7 billion when i was sworn into this house in 2009. The president s request is 186. 5 billion. In the same time the number of v. A. Fulltime employees has ncreased by almost 63,000. We passed a v. A. Milcon bill. Nevertheless, i listened to the concerns of those stakeholders which include many veteran Service Organizations and i respect their viewpoint and willingness to be strong advocates for our nations veterans. I belong to many of those organizations. That is why this bill includes provisions to increase v. A. s internal capacity by authorizing 28 medical facility leases,er most of which are for communitybased Outpatient Clinics and by enhancing v. A. s ability to maintain a robust, highly qualified work force in recognition of the many challenges v. A. Has in competing for workers in an extremely competitive hiring market. To offset a significant portion of the cost of this legislation, we have used offsets that have been used routinely on a bipartisan basis over the last decades and were included in the legislation which first created the Choice Program three years ago. As i alluded to earlier, this bill was crafted as a result of negotiations in between myself, my friend Ranking Member Sergeant Major walz, and senators isakson and tester, the chairman and Ranking Member respectively of the Cincinnati Committee on vare, im grateful to them for this work. Im grateful to my friend and colleagues in the house leadership for their effort and willingness to do some of the difficult work of finding a solution that is in the best interest of both veterans antitaxpayers and to our v. S. O. Partners for their input and support throughout the past weeks. Theres still much work ahead and this is only six month patch in the Choice Program. The Ranking Member and i have a Framework Agreement for moving forward. And that will require cooperation and buyin from all my colleagues in the house and senate. I urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation. With that, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Walz i rise today and associate myself with the words of my friend and chairman, the gentleman from tennessee, i strongly recommend support for the newly amended s. 114, a bill as the chairman so clearly stated not only extends veterans access to care in the community but provides Additional Funding to 28 critical leases to expand capacity and also making sure we can recruit and retain the best medical professionals. Mr. Speaker, i would like to note that on monday someone another member mentioned that they felt a disturbance in the force on monday is the way they described it. There has been a reputation that i think is rightfully earned from the leadership of the chairman and the members of the committee that the house Veterans Affairs committee is here to do the business of this nations veterans and the taxpayers. And that the politics that are necessary and that are a part of getting things done take a back seat to that. What you saw on monday was disagreements. We could not come to an agreement, but instead of the theatrics of partisanship, instead of the politics of destruction, it was the politics of the possible. Instead of sulking away or sending out competing press releases, we came back together to try and find compromise on this. For that i am grateful. I am grateful as a veteran, citizen, that on a morning Many Americans are waking up wondering about our politics and seeing the theatrics that go on, i am here to tell you that under the chairmans leadership the honorable gentleman from tennessee, he is guiding this house and tying it into the senate in the best interest of our nations veterans. Taking in the concerns of the Minority Side, taking in the concerns of the veteran Service Organizations in a way that also means grow mize on my republican colleague side. And that is hard to do on both. Asking people to put their own personal ideology aside if its in the best interest of building a coalition and producing a piece of legislation that can passthrough this house, senate, and be signed by the president. That is a tough order around here right now and i am proud to stand with someone who has done t im proud to give my little piece of what it takes to do that. But i would encourage my colleagues, lets show a strong sign not just to our veterans, not just to this piece of legislation that the gentleman was right is absolutely critical for the care of our veterans, lets send a sign to our fellow citizens that this democracy still can function. This democracy still can find answers. This democracy can put american citizens first and we can walk away from this knowing that our job was to come here and do exactly that and it will be done. With that i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. At this time i would like to yield three minutes to my good friend from maine, the privilege of visiting his beautiful state last summer, mr. Poliquin. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from maine is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Poliquin thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you very much, mr. Chairman. I would remind you that maine is vacation land. And for those of you, including you, sir, who have not booked your maine vacation, there is still plenty of time. With that, i would like to thank chairman roe, who is a vietnam veteran himself and a doctor, in leading us down this path for Better Health care for our veterans. You know, mr. Speaker, it was i believe our first commander in chief, george washington, who said, and i paraphrase that, we can never expect young men and women in this country to step forward and fight for their country and give us the freedom that we all enjoy unless and until we take care of those who have already sacrificed on the battlefield. And thats what this is about. Mr. Chairman, in our state we have about 125,000 veterans and we love our veterans in the state of maine. More than half of them are in the second district, the second Congressional District, that i represent, which is mostly central down east, western, and northern maine. Let me tell you, mr. Speaker, we know how to shoot straight up in maine and we need to make sure we take care of our veterans who live in rural areas. One of the great concerns i have, and i know the chairman and others on the committee have the same concern, is that what about if you are a veteran that lives far away from a medical hospital, a veterans hospital. In the state of maine we have one veterans hospital. Its called togus. It is the first v. A. Hospital in the country. About 150 years old. It was put together first to take care of those who have served in the battlefield in the civil war. Well, in northern maine you might live in fort kent or van buren and be five hour drive away from there. If youre not feeling well and its february and the snow is blowing sideways, it might be really tough to get down there. Thats why this Choice Program is so important. It allows our veterans who live far away from medical facilities to get their treatment close to home. And this is something im a huge advocate of and something we need to keep doing. One more thing i want to mention if i may, mr. Chairman, is that we all know that veterans heal better with other veterans. Were not in any way trying to replace the veterans Facilities Health care facilities in this contry. But the Choice Program allows us to augment that care through the Choice Program where they are able to go to private facilities. Now, this emergency funding is absolutely critical. It will extend this program for six months instead of letting it run out of money in three weeks. And it also includes something that is highly important, mr. Chairman, and i am so grateful to you to include it. It includes the ability to authorize a lease in Portland Maine for a brand new portland, maine, for brand new top of the art, if you will, v. A. Facility, an outpatient facility that will serve about 4,000 veterans in the state of maine. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Roe another 30 seconds. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Poliquin thank you. I want to thank congresswoman Shelly Pingree from the first disstrict of the state of maine. I represent the second. I want to encourage nve this body, republicans and democrats, to please take care of our veterans, please vote for s. 114 to renew the authorization and funding. Emergency funding for the Choice Program. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The gentleman from tennessee reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz i yield to the vice Ranking Member of the committee on Veterans Affairs, also from a great vacation state of california, mr. Takano. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Takano i thank the gentleman for mentioning that. Please visit california, especially riverside, california. I rise in support of s. 114 which presents a funding lapse in the v. A. Choice program while making critical investments to strengthen the department of Veterans Affairs. This legislation is a significant improvement over the bill we considered earlier this week. It now includes leasing authorizations for v. A. Facilities across the country and includes several provisions that i introduced that will help address the v. A. s work force shortages. This is what i hope to be the first step in providing v. A. The tools it needs to meet its internal work force challenges. As i have often said, the v. A. s ability to provide quality and timely care to our nations veterans will be determined by who it hires. There are nearly 50,000 vacancies at the v. A. That need to be filled. This bill strengthens and streamlines them to retain and hire dedicated individuals. More needs to be done to expand v. A. s internal capacity to provide care for our veterans. V. A. Choice is a wellintentioned program but it has not delivered on its promise to consistently cut wait times. We dont want to be back here in january passing another shortterm fix. Starting today we have six months to come together and develop a more efficient and effective system to connect veterans with the care they need. Earlier this week i expressed my desire to vote for a bill that avoids a funding gap in the Choice Program while also recognizing the importance of a strong and sustainable v. A. This legislation meets that standard and i urge my colleagues to vote yes. Thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The gentleman from minnesota reserves. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. At this time id like to yield two minutes to my good friend from west texas, lubbock, texas, jodey arrington, who is the chairman of the subcommittee on economic opportunity. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Arrington thank you, mr. Chair, Ranking Member walz. I rise in support of senate bill 114 which will continue funding the Choice Program, an Important Program to make sure our veterans have access to quality care. For too long, mr. Speaker, our veterans have been trapped in a system thats failed them and they are in a single payer system. We put them in a system that the members of congress wouldnt sign up for. We dont give them the same choice for years that weve given medicaid patients and medicare patients. The Choice Program isnt just common sense, its common decency. Weve asked these folks, men and women to serve and to sacrifice for our freedom. They deserve the very best care and the only way they are going to get the best care is to have choice when they have geographic challenges or when theyre waiting in lines. We all read the reports about how our veterans have waited in line, have gotten sicker and some even died. Thats unconscionable, its unacceptable and we are so grateful in an institution that has a reputation of gridlock and dysfunction we have a committee and we have the leaders like chairman roe and Ranking Member walz who will come together and put america first. I am heartened by this and i support this continuation of funding and the improved access to care for our heroes. Thank you, again, mr. Chairman, for the privilege of serving under your leadership on the ommittee and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz id like to yield two minutes to my good friend, a longtime champion of veterans, the gentleman from the gentlewoman from california, ms. Brownley. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from california is recognized. Ms. Brownley i thank our chairman and the Ranking Member for their leadership. Im extremely proud to work on the Veterans Affairs committee because we have shown we can takele the big issues in bipartisan way. Thats why i tackle the big issues in a bipartisan way. Thats why i support this bill and support the Choice Program while making needed investments n direct v. A. Provided care. Im so pleased that my amendment was included. This will bring more care closer to home for veterans from coast to coast. Demand is increasing. Outdated facilities are too small to accommodate the growing number of men and women seeking care. The leases authorized in this bill are located in 17 states with nearly 12 million veterans living in them who have been waiting years for improved access to care. This includes a new clinic in oxnard, in my district, which will bring muchneeded Specialty Care closer to home for our veterans in ventura county. Veterans in my community and communities across the country have waited long enough for these expanded services and i thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and our veteran Service Organizations for working with me to deliver this win for them. We can fund v. A. Choice and fund other programs critical to v. A. s mission and my mission and the mission of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, provide the care our veterans who have risked their lives for our country have earned and deserved and, mr. Speaker, i urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation and help ensure veterans get the care they need and to make the investments we ed to build a modern veteran centric 21st century v. A. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields. The gentleman from minnesota reserves. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe mr. Speaker, i have no further speakers. m ready to close. Mr. Walz i yield to a new member of the veterans acares affairs committee, mr. Correa. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Correa i want to thank our veterans for their great sacrifice. I come from california, home to the greatest number of veterans in this great country. And i hope the rest of this place learns from the work the Veterans Committee has done. I hope tomorrow when we wake up and open up the newspapers, i hope this is a front page story because it deserves to be. Everybody coming together to work for our veterans, thats the way it should be done. Three years ago congress created the Choice Program. To make sure our veterans didnt have to wait to get the service, the Health Services that they needed. This bill will provide Additional Funding, shortterm sustainability for this Short Program called the Choice Program. This program this bill will also allow the department of Veterans Affairs to open up more clinics and hire additional doctors, again, to make sure that our veterans get the service that they deserve. Again, im glad were here today, that we could work to make sure the veterans get the services they deserve. I ask my colleagues to support this bipartisan measure. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The gentleman from tennessee continues to reserve. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz thank you, mr. Speaker. At this time i yield two minutes to a member of the Veterans Affairs committee and apparently the entire state of california is here today, mr. Peters. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california is recognized. Peters mr. Walz i stand corrected. I yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from maine who is also on the maine tourism board, ms. Pingree. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. Ms. Pingree i thank the Ranking Member for yielding time and allowing me to reinforce my colleague from the state of maine to say if you havent made your plans, its not too late. Lobster season is picking up and i highly visit to the maine coast or anywhere in the state of maine. I rise in support of this bill this bill to provide the v. A. Choice program with Additional Funds and to authorize several provisions to improve care for our nations veterans. Specifically, i want to recognize the authorization of a lease included in this bill for a communitybased Outpatient Clinic in portland, maine, that will provide muchimproved services to the veterans in that area. The new facility will be a huge step in improving the care for veterans in my district. The proposed facility will go a long way for a more efficient, patientcentered approach to care and will provide a wide range of Services Including odd yoling, dental, prosthetics and womens health. Most of the veterans served by this new facility will be coming from the surrounding areas and this clinic will result in a much shorter commute for those veterans living in the most densely populated area of maine. The entire maine delegation has worked for the authorization of this lease, including my colleague, mr. Poliquin, from maines second district. And i want to thank ms. Brownley for her work on this issue. Im proud to support s. 114, and i want to thank the Ranking Member walz. The authorization of this lease represents a tremendous step for our state and providing veterans the proper care they have earned. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields. The gentleman from tennessee. Mr. Roe since were doing a disc in herniated a my back wasnt all good. ll continue to reserve. Mr. Walz mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers. I am prepared to close at this time. Mr. Roe im prepared to close. Mr. Walz the gentleman from tennessee re the speaker pro tempore the gentleman from tennessee reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz as you heard from numerous members, this is how business should be done, compromises being made. I do want to extend my thanks to secretary shulkin, to the other v. S. O. s and to the staff on both sides of the aisle who are the ones carrying out late night negotiations. Chairman roe did bring up a good point. This is the beginning of tough decisions that need to be made, tough negotiations and i hope everyone here understands that the continued good will, the bipartisanship is needed because we have an opportunity to transform the v. A. Into that 21st century v. A. , the one that is more responsive to the needs of veterans once it takes into account the realities of modern day mad sin that involves many out medicine that involves many different areas, especially to rural veterans that we represent. This is a great start. Its one that i think we go from a stop on monday to what i hope can be a unanimous vote for a good, smart piece of legislation. I would urge my colleagues to support this and i would yield back the remainder of our time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I do want to associate my remarks to the Ranking Member. We have a lot of thanks to go around, but the major thanks go to our veterans who served this great nation and i think it would be remiss on us and perhaps on this body if we didnt do what was right for our veterans and we are. As mr. Walz said, this is the first step. Although a major one. A first step in really a transformative process that we have been given the opportunity to do. We serve 22 million veterans in this country that have served this nation honorably. It doesnt get said, the v. A. Does a lot of good work. There is not a day that i run into somebody at the Grocery Store that somebody tells me a positive thing that happened to them at the v. A. Its not everywhere, though. I also get stopped and told and have documents on my desk that tell me the problems at the v. A. We hear those loud and clear. I think both of us do. But i think its an opportunity for us as a body, not just this committee, but the entire body that today to thank our veterans, pass this bill unanimously, send it to the senate and then send it to the president s desk for his signature. I once again thank mr. Walz. I thank his committee, his staff and our committee and staff for working in a bipartisan way to pass this. I encourage all members to support s. 114 and i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. All time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 480, the previous question is ordered on the bill, as amended. The question is on the third reading of the bill. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. Third reading. The clerk an act to amend title 38, United States code, to require the secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit an annual report regarding performance awards and bonuses awarded to certain highlevel employees at the department of Veterans Affairs. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The bill is passed. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. Without objection, the title is amnded. Amended. Mr. Roe i think, mr. Speaker, we asked for a recorded vote. Mr. Walz i apologize. We ask for the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore the yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20 , further proceedings on this question will be postponed. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered or votes objected to under clause 6 of rule 20, the house will resume proceedings on postponed questions at a later time. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 95 as amended. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk h. R. 95, a billtomend title 38 United States code to direct the secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide childcare assistance to veterans receiving certain medical Services Provided by the department of Veterans Affairs. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from tennessee, mr. Roe, and the gentleman from minnesota, mr. Walz, will each control 20 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and and to heir remarks include extraneous material. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Roe mr. Speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman virginia tech. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today in support of h. R. 95 as amended, the veterans access to childcare act. This bill would make the department of Veterans Affairs successfully Pilot Program to provide care assistance to veterans seeking mental or other intensive Health Care Services through v. A. Health care system permanent. I have been a doctor dad myself and i know first hand how difficult it can be to manage childcare responsibilities on top of everything else. We know that the lack of childcare is a barrier to many patients and that assisting veteran parents, grandparents, and guardians in finding childcare opportunities while they are attending v. A. Appointments will relief a relieve major stress point and increase access to care. Im grateful to congresswoman julia brownley, the Ranking Member on the subcommittee for health, for her leadership on sponsoring the veteran access to childcare act. Im proud to support this bill and urge my colleagues to do so as well. With that, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walls thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. Mr. Walz than you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. I rise in support of this bill. Mr. Chairman, to increase access we must eliminate barriers. This amendment in the nature of a substitute does exactly that. The veterans access to childcare act assists those veterans who are also parents to access the health care they need by allowing the v. A. To provide childcare assistance toll ingible veterans. Representative brownleys bill is essential to ensuring all veterans have that access. I urge my colleagues to support the amendment in the nature of a substitute and i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. Gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz its my pleasure to yield five minutes to the author of this piece of legislation, the gentlewoman from california, ms. Brownley. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from california is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Brownley i thank the gentleman from minnesota, our Ranking Member, and the gentleman from tennessee, our chairman, for their support of this bill and for their tireless advocacy on behalf of our nations veterans. I rise today in support of h. R. 95, the veterans access to childcare act, which will break down a barrier to care barrier to care many veterans with children face. This is especially problematic for Women Veterans who are often the primary caretakers of Young Children and a rapidly growing segment of the veteran population. According to a 2015 v. A. Study, 42 of women who use the v. A. Said it is difficult to find childcare that would allow them to attend medical appointments and for those who can, that care is often unaffordable. The average cost of childcare in my home state of california, for instance, is more than 13,000 a year. As the post 9 11 generation continue to start their families, more and more veterans will face the unacceptable choice between caring for their children and getting the health care they need. Without affordable childcare options, veterans can miss their appointments, including Critical Mental Health appointments that impact their longterm wellbeing. Its just common sense, better access to childcare will lead to better access to care which will ultimately result in Better Outcomes for our nations veterans. The v. A. Currently runs a successful childcare Pilot Program at several locations around the country that benefits female and male veterans of all eras. My legislation will make that Program Permanent and expand it nationwide ensuring that no veteran will have to miss a v. A. Health appointment because of a lack of access of childcare. I want to thank my colleague, congressman brian higgins, for his steadfast support of this bill and all of my colleagues on the v. A. Committee who have backed this proposal every step of the way. Mr. Speaker, i urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation and help ensure that veterans do have that do not have to choose between caring for their children and getting the health care they need and desoy. I thank you, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman yields. The gentleman from reserves. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe i have no further speakers. Prepared to close. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from tennessee reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz we have no more speakers and prepared to close at this time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Walz thank you, mr. Speaker. You heard the reasons for this. I thank the gentlelady for authoring this needed piece of legislation and urge my colleagues to support its passage. We yield back the balance of our time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. Once again i encourage all members to support this legislation. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass bill h. R. 95, as amended. So many as are in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, 2 3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is thravenlt is laid upon the table. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I move to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 2772. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill does the gentleman call up the bill as amended . Mr. Roe yes. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk h. R. 2772, a bill neend title 38 United States code to provide for requirements relating to the reassignment of department of Veterans Affairs Senior Executive employees. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from tennessee, mr. Roe, and the gentleman from minnesota, mr. Walz, will each control 20 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Roe thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Roe mr. Speaker, i rise today in support of h. R. 2772, as amended. The v. A. Senior executive accountability or s. E. A. Act. This bill would provide needed transparency of the department of Veterans Affairs reassignment of members of the Senior Executive service, specifically the bill would require the secretary to personally approve of a reassignment of v. A. s approximately 350 s. E. S. Employees. It would also require v. A. To report to congress identifying those employees who are reassigned and the costs associated with reassignments. I thank representative taylor for his thoughtful legislation w that, mr. Speaker, i urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting h. R. 2772. I reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Walz mr. Speaker, i rise in support of h. R. 2772, the v. A. Senior executive accountability act. Mr. Speaker, this is a commonsense bill that has received bipartisan support as it moved through regular order of our committee. This bill requires any reassignment of Senior Executive at v. A. Has written approving. Ranking member mr. Takano for developing this legislation. I urge all members to join me in this support. I reserve the balance of my ime. Issue reports on any reassignment a v. A. Leadership and how much the cost is. Additionally, the secretary of the v. A. Would have to personally sign off on the reassignment. Mr. Speaker, veterans need to trust that they are getting the best care possible. They need to trust that they will have transparency. They need to trust there will be accountability. I want to thank the chairman, the Ranking Member, and all those on the committee for their work, dedication, and commitment to upholding our sacred responsibility of care for those who upheld their own sacred responsibility to our nation. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields. The gentleman from tennessee reserves. The gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz mr. Speaker, we have no further speakers and prepared to close. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from tennessee providing that trust to our veterans absolutely critical. This will do that. I urge my colleagues to support this bill. And i yield back. Mr. Roe i encourage all members to support this legislation and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the 2772. R. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, 2 3 being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . Mr. Roe i move to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 3262 as amended. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk a bill to resecretary of Veterans Affairs to carry out a pile program to provide Educational Assistance to members of the armed forces for education and training as physicians assistants and require competitive pay for physicians assistants and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule the gentleman from tennessee and the gentleman from minnesota will each control 20 minutes. Mr. Roe i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to add ex trarneyouse material. I yield myself as much time as i may consume. I rise today in support of h. R. 3262 as amended, the grow our own directive or good physicians assistants employment act of 2017. The p. A. Connection is first class of p. A. s composed of army medics who served in the vietnam war. When i did basic training in san antonio, texas, one of the first p. A. Classes there. Today, the department of Veterans Affairs is the single largest employers of p. A. s. It is one of the top five professions. H. R. 3262 as amended would help solve that by creating a Pilot Program to provide assistance to veterans who want to become a p. A. And serve their fellow veterans. Im grateful to representative kuster for sponsoring this legislation. And im confident it will go a long way in resolving recruitment and retention issues ensuring that v. A. Facilities are staffed with high quality p. A. s and increasing care. For that, i urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting h. R. 3262 as amended and i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from minnesota is recognized. Mr. Walz i yield myself such time as i may consume. I rise in support of h. R. 3262 as amended, the good act of 2017 and introduced by someone who is a dogged champion, the Ranking Member of oversight and investigations. This important piece of legislation will allow veterans who served as medic and corpsmen to train as physician assistants. And there are vacancies to fill. In the United States, we face a provider shortage in general especially in our Rural Communities where most veterans live. This bill will address critical shortages by providing veterans to aid their communities. Ms. Kusters hard work on this legislation is admirable and i urge colleagues to support this bill and i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from tennessee is recognized. Mr. Roe its my privilege to offer two minutes to Lieutenant General bergman who is the chairman of the subcommittee on oversight and investigation. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Bergman for years the department of veteran affairs have seen its medical personnel leave to pursue opportunities outside of the v. A. Health care system resulting in fewer Health Care Providers and ultimately less access to care for our veterans. In the First District of michigan, we are largely a rural district and our district and our veterans have suffered more than most on this. The good act utilizes a twopronged approach to address v. A. s struggles in recruiting and retaining physician assistant work force. This is a Pilot Program to provide that pathway for veterans to receive education necessary to become a p. A. While at the same time requiring the v. A. To establish a National Strategic plan to recruit and retain a robust and longterm medical staff. Our veterans have given so much for our country at exceptional costs and they deserve, they deserve access to timely and High Quality Health Care from skilled professionals. Im proud to join Ranking Member kuster from our oversight and investigation subcommittee in supporting this Bipartisan Legislation on behalf of our nations veterans. I urge my colleagues to support our bill h. R. 3262 and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from minnesota. Mr. Walz at this time, its my pleasure to yield five minutes to the author of this piece of legislation, the Ranking Member of the subcommittee of oversight and investigation, ms. Kuster. Ms. Kuster i rise to join my colleague in support of our bill h. R. 3262 the grow our own directive physician assistant employment and education act of 2017. The department of Veterans Affairs and the entire nation are experiencing a shortage of quality physicians and Health Care Providers. For doctors alone, the association of american medical colleges estimates that by 2030, the country to face a doctor shortage of over 100,000 physicians. Access to care will be a harder problem to solve the longer it takes to be addressed. Nonphysician providers like physician assistants are an important part of the solution to this shortage. Physician assistants are trained providers that focus their training on specialties sike orthopedics and interm medicine. My bill would help get more p. A. s into the v. A. The profession started when a small group of four Navy Corpsmen completed the program at duke university. That First Program was based on the fast track training of doctors during world war ii. Veterans have been part of the physical assistant profession. It offers unique value to rural and underserved areas in places Like Northern new hampshire. P. A. s help resolve shortages for Family Physicians and primary care physicians, shortages that have existed for decades. My bill would on leverage the department of veteran affairs to improve access to quality care. And it would create a Pilot Scholarship Program that would aregard no less than 250 scholarships to p. A. s over five years. The v. A. Has 2,000 p. A. s. My bill would increase the work force by over 10 . In exchange for these scholarships, p. A. s would be required to work at the v. A. And placement would be sending providers to rural and underserved areas. We know if a a provider is placed in new hampshire, they tend to stay there. This would get help for veterans for medical training in the work force and with good paying jobs. Its crucial we find career paths to utilize the skills they used while in the military service and added bonus that they get to take care of their brothers and sisters in arms. The final provision was in the choice funding bill. This provision would provide p. A. s in the v. A. With competitive pay based on the community they serve. This provision is crucial because it helps recruit and retain these critical providers. The g. A. O. Reported that p. A. s experienced the highest lost rate of any critical profession. So i would like to applaud my colleagues for coming together in a bipartisan way to craft the choice funding bill. Not only will the bill fund the Choice Program for another six months but includes a number of important reforms that will improve service for all our veterans. These provisions include improved hiring. Measures to increase account built and my provision to boost the pay. I would like to thank chairman bergman. Your support for this legislation was crucial to its passage today. Ranking dr. Roe and member. I ask for passage and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee rise . Mr. Roe i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from minnesota. Mr. Walz we have no further speakers and im prepared to close. As you heard i urge my colleagues to support this smart piece of legislation but i would like to add also thank you to the chairman and majority side showing bipartisanship offering two bills introduced by our side of the aisle that are being heard on the floor and could be signed into law. It is greatly appreciated and shows the care of veterans always come first and we on the Minority Side are appreciative of that courtesy. I urge my colleagues to support this bill and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee. Mr. Roe i certainly support this bill and want to thank both general bergman and ms. Kuster. We made a trip to afghanistan and she has a dogged commitment to the veterans and i thank her for bringing this piece of legislation up. And i believe it will make a difference. I truly do, when its implemented and i want to thank the Ranking Member and his staff and mine for bringing a lot of pieces of legislation to the house floor in the last couple of weeks. And this week especially. We had some success here. And that means veterans had success. G. I. Bill is 11 an enormous bill and will do good generations. So i want to thank them and thank my colleagues and wish everyone a safe recess. And healthy recess. And i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h. R. 3262 as amended. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, 2 3 of those being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Without objection, the title is amended. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . I move to suspend the rules and pass h. R. 8736789 the clerk Union Calendar 190, a bill to authorize the global war on terror Memorial Foundation to establish the National Global war on terrorism memorial as a commemorative work in the District Of Columbia and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from california, mr. Mcclintock and the gentleman from arizona, mr. Gallego will control 20 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock i ask members may have five legislative days to revise and extend tear remarks and include material on the bill under consideration. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Mcclintock i yield myself such time as i may consume. The global war on terrorism war memorial act authored by congressman mike gal ager in wisconsin would bring the process to establish a global war on terror memorial on federal land in the District Of Columbia. The memorial will recognize and honor the men and women that have served in active duty since the attack on our country of september 11, 2001. The global war on terrorism is the longest conflict ever fought by the United States and there is still no end in sight. We can and should debate the policies that have prolonged this war and denied the full resources of our nation. One thing is far above any debate and that is the heroism, selflessness, devotion and patriotism of the men and women of our nation who stepped forward from the safe and security of home and into harms way when our nation called. The commemorative works act require the war be ended for 10 years. There is good reason. It gives history the insight to place the war in Historic Context and to begin fully appreciate its full significance to our country and future generations. But the war on terrorism has been fought in a decidely different way than our past wars. We are approaching the 16th anniversary of the attack on new york and washington. The veterans who sacrificed to keep that war away from our shows need a tribute to their patriotism while they and families and fellow countrymen can know it. He gold star heroes deserve so assurances that their sons and daughters will never be forgotten. We should remember that many of our nations heroes from world war ii never livet to see the completion of the world war ii memorial which was completed 59 years at the end of that conflict. This measure suspends the 10year period in current law. Doesnt repeal it but merely sets it aside for the unique circumstances for the current war on terrorism. Im confident that the commission will appreciate the fact that many may have yet to serve in this war and history has not yet had time to reflect on its significance to our nation, indeed to the future of western civilization. Im sure the design they recommend will respect these facts and provide significant latitude for the completion of the memorial after this bain of islamic terrorism has been gone from this planet and the long suffering people of the middle east have been liberated from it by the brave fighting men and women of the armed forces. I urge my colleagues to support this measure and i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. R. Gallego i raise to claim time in opposition. I yield myself such time as i may consume. Mr. Speaker, today i speak in favor of the global war on terrorism memorial act. This will pay tribute to the brave men and women who fought and died. As a veteran in the iraq war, im proud to be on the floor today as we memorialize the bravest and best of americans, the ones who volunteered and the ones who put themselves in harms way. I want to commend my fellow marines, mr. Moulton and mr. Gallagher. It takes for enlisted marine to speak highly of any officer let alone marine corps officers. But there are exceptions. As we consider this legislation, i hope every member will think about the courageous men and women we lost over the past 16 years. When i cast this vote today, i will be thinking of my Close Friends including Corporal Andrew williams and Lance Corporal christopherly ons who died 12 years ago today in iraq. This memorial will honor thousands of countrymen who have been killed and wounded in iraq and around the world. And we memorialize those who survived the battle only to fall victim to the mental and emotional demons of posttraumatic stress and it will represent a token of thanks to family and friends who served by supporting loved ones in uniform. In it will all those who have given their last full measure of devotion. I look forward to the Commission Design to the day the memorial passes from an idea on a piece of paper, the landmark on the National Mall. Thank you, congressman moulton and congressman gallagher, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock thank you, mr. Speaker. Its my honor and privilege to introduce the author of this measure, one of the many thousands of americans who stepped forward to answer their countrys call, the honorable Mike Gallagher of the state of wisconsin, for as much time as he uses. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman. Mr. Gallagher thank you, chairman, for your leadership on this issue for working with us and send our thanks to every member of the Natural Resources committee for its effort in getting this bill to the floor. I also want to thank the gentleman from arizona for his words and for his service. It is my honor to call him my fellow marine. As an officer i did my best just not get in the way of my enlisted marines doing the real work, and maybe we can bring some of that ethos here to congress. Mr. Speaker, i rise today in strong support of this bill. That honors our post 9 11 veterans and secures their rightful place in our nations capital. Miles per hour heroes to journeyed to washington d. C. On the old glory honor flight. Thats one of the incredible things we get to do as members of congress. Just to watch generation after generation of veterans representing every major conflict since world war ii visiting the very memorials that honor their sacrifice, their service, their commitment, their courage in those conflicts was one of the most remarkable experiences of my life. Just as the veterans visited those memorials, so, too, should the brave men and women who serve and have served on the ongoing war on terrorism have a memorial to honor their service and sacrifice. But as the chairman laid out law does not allow a memorial for war. Monuments for engagement not be authorized until at least 10 years after they officially end to the conflict. As we know this is a conflict unlike many others that have preceded it. This war will have no clear v day or v. J. Day. Threats will continue to rise and so the longest ongoing conflict in our nations history continue. After 15 years, after over 6,800 american lives lost, there is still no end in sight. So this memorials on the men and women who died fighting. Those who continue to fight. Those who are still joining the fight against terrorism. I just want to take a second to recognize the dedicated members of the global war on terrorism Memorial Foundation, many of them with us here today, specially andrew, george, matt they have been tireless in their commitment to getting this done. Today were taking important steps forward but we still need to get it across the finish line. I want to recognize their effort. I just want to say, mr. Speaker, like most i struggle with how to truly honor the men and women who sacrificed sacrifices far exceed my own. I was lucky, i had brave marines that kept me safe. We all came home safe. But my hope is that this memorial will serve as not only a way to honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifices, but also as a call to action for us, the living. I believe that those we will pay tribute to for this memorial didnt risk everything just so we would sit back and praise them for keeping us safe. I would submit to you that the fallen dont want our praise, they want our participation in this incredible experiment in selfgovernment. If were going to continue passing the torch of democracy from one generation to the next, then we need to build this memorial so that future generations never forget their duty to do the same. So that future generations never forget the costs of liberty. With that, mr. Speaker, i call op my colleagues to support this legislation i call on my colleagues to support this legislation to memorialize the service of the brave men and women who have fought in the global war on terrorism. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. Mr. Gallego i yield as much times may consume to the gentleman from massachusetts. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. I thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to thank my colleagues from wisconsin and arizona. Its an honor to stand here as a fellow marine in support of this bill today. Today is a big day. Its a milestone and a journey we started over a year ago. Mr. Moulton were taking a major legislative step in the direction of creating a memorial honoring those who have served on active duty during the global war on terrorism. For many, like my colleague, this bill is personal. None of us will forget where we were on september 11, 2001. And we all continue to live with the aftermath of that tragic day in American History it is important to note that the tracki events of 9 11 and wart on terror that war on terror that followed did not leave us isolated and afraid as a nation. Rather in true American Fashion they inspired an entire generation to come together and serve. So many young men and women selflessly answered the call to serve their country in the wake of that tragedy and id like to share just one story with you about someone from my district who would be on this memorial. Captain Jennifer Harris lives captain harris was graduate from the United States Naval Academy and became the first Massachusetts Woman killed in the iraq war. Jennifer was the epitome of leadership and sacrifice. On flying missions she had the call sign the dove. She would often be called to evacuate our Wounded Soldiers and marines on the battlefield. Captain harris final mission was to transport blood supplies. She willingly volunteered for it, even though she was just days away from returning home. In fact, she was initially told, no. You are too close to leaving. Dont go. But she said i want to fly one more time. Her superiors reluctantly agreed and captain harris died on february 7, along with six other crew members after insurgents shot down her helicopter. In her 20s with a Bright Future ahead of her, captain harris was on her third tour of duty in iraq. I cant help but think today of my grandfather, world war ii veteran he never got to see the world war ii memorial in his lifetime. He was never afforded the opportunity to have someplace to take his family, to reflect on his time in the service. Or remember his colleague who did not have the opportunity to come home. Lets not let that history repeat itself. The men and women who have given their all in the war on terror should be afforded a place on the National Mall where their loved ones can pay respect and honor their sacrifice. Passage of this bill is an important first step in seeing this memorial built in our lifetime. Lets get this done for captain Jennifer Harris and the thousands of others like her who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock mr. Speaker, im now pleased to recognize for such time he may consume, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Rothfus. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized. Mr. Rothfus thank you, mr. Speaker. I thank you for yielding. I rise in the strongest support possible for this bill to begin the process of establishing a memorial to honor the service embers of our longest war. 5,799 days ago on a crystal blue september morning we came facetoface with an evil as old as time. Within days our military was engaged and within weeks we sustained our first casualties. Our latest loss happened this very month. It came from every walk of american life. From the north, the south, the east, the west, every race, color, and creed, men and women. The memorial authorized in this bill will allow the nation to remember not only those who did not come home, but also those with life changing injuries, visible and invisible. The incomprehensible and too unoften noticed stress on the spouses and children of those deployed. And the sacrifices of those who t their lives on hold to serve. Mr. Speaker, amidst the divisions in our country today, we need this memorial now more than ever. Yes, to remember our fallen, but also to bind us together. As we reflect upon the sacrifice for the tran scentant ideals upon which this country was founded. I thank the gentleman from wisconsin, the gentleman from arizona, the gentleman from massachusetts for their work on this legislation and for their service to our country. With that, mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yield back time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. Mr. Gallego were going to allow somebody from the army to speak on this bill. I yield two minutes to the gentleman from california. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Thank you, mr. Gallego. Like a typical marine he got it wrong. I was actually in the navy and the navy officer, but im sure that was on purpose. So standing here actually as a navy officer being asked to address this bill, h. R. 873, and to support this bill, being asked by a bunch of marines is a true honor and its very humbling at the same time. Mr. Speaker, i do rise in support of h. R. 873, the global war on terrorism to create the foundation which will then provide the global war on terrorism memorial right here on National Mall. I want to thank mr. Gallego from arizona, mr. Moulton from massachusetts, and of course mr. Gallagher from wisconsin, my classmate, here in the 115th congress, fellow freshman. Again it is quite a privilege to stand here with these veterans, fellow veterans, as piers, peers but also as a true sign of bipartisanship in the house of representatives. Now, i had remarks prepared yesterday. To address the house about this topic. Mr. Panetta last night i went to Arlington National cemetery. I took my two daughters here in town. We saw what people normally see. The changing of the guard, the tomb of the unknown soldier, the tomb of president kennedy. But i made it a point to go to area 60. The area where there are many recent internments from the people, from our veterans, from our brethren who have served in the global war on terrorism. D on that haloed ground Hallowed Ground i made a point to seek out a gentleman i rved with, a gentleman named loony. I served with him in korea. He was an Intelligence Officer back then. Both of us made shear sure that we wanted to do more. I went forward. Mr. Loony wanted to do more than that, he wanted to become a seal. He did. He served in iraq and he served in afghanistan. And it was on that it was in 2010 when the black hauck he was riding on went down and crashed killing everybody onboard. Brendan is interred in area 60 as Arlington National cemetery along with his brother in arms, travis manon. I looked at travis tombstone and on that tombstone is a quote id like to share. On that tombstone it says, if not me, then who . If not me, then who . And right next to mr. Manoin was another 19yearold who was interred there. A veteran of the global war on terrorism. And on his tombstone was a quote that id like to share. It said, i just want to do my part. I just want to do my part. Mr. Speaker, its this attitude that was inscribed in those tombstones which is the attitude of this generation of veterans who served in the global war on terrorism. My generation, our generation, men and women who didnt step back, instead they stepped forward. They didnt just step forward, they ran forward. They ran to the fight. Now, also at Arlington National cemetery was another quote id like to share. It was from john f. Kennedy. The quote that they had up there by his tomb was from one of his speeches which he stated, in the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom. And its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility, i well welcome it. The men and women who served in the global war on terrorism did not shrink from that responsibility. They did not they did not run away, they ran forward. So, mr. Speaker, i believe that it is important to have this memorial because the families, the friends, the men and women of this country should not just have to go to cemeteries to honor those who served and paid the ultimate sacrifice. I stand here in full support of the memorial here on National Mall to not just honor, but to celebrate the service and the sacrifice of the veterans of the global war on terrorism. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock im pleased to recognize such time as he may consume, the gentleman who has brought this legislation before us today. R. Gallagher i want to add my thanks to the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Moulton, who started this effort in the last congress with another colleague of ours and i was fortunate to join that team when i arrived here and without his dedication from the start, we would not be at this moment today. And i would thank him for his example of leadership in the marine corps and in congress, which has inspired a generation of marines like myself and while we dont agree on everything, we always look for ways to Work Together. And it is my belief listening to these speeches from the veterans who serve in congress, there is so much we can Work Together and there are forces that are trying to divide us, but there is still so much we can agree upon. While this may seem like a small step, i would submit this is big and i hope this is the beginning of more work we can do on behalf of the country and thats what it should be about at the end of the day. I thank my colleagues and the chairman for his help and i couldnt be more proud to do something good on behalf of past generations of jet rans and on behalf of the next generation. I yield. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona. Mr. Gallego i thank congressman gallagher and all the veterans who have sponsored this bill in remembrance of our brothers and sisters. I would say a couple more minutes to speak about the guys that i served with. There was a group called lima 325 out of ohio and it was the best depupe of people i have ever met. We were nice young men from new mexico that were added to these country boys and city boys in ohio and sent to iraq. And from there, we saw a lot of combat. We lost a lot of friends. And section 60, many of us veterans have a tradition where we put our quarters on the headstones of the men we served with and i had to unfortunately put down a lot of quarters. One thing ill remember that this unit, lima 325 really brought people from all walks in america. Africanamericans, country boys from ohio, navajo from the Navajo Nation and other parts of our tribal nations and latinos and even taught some of the ohio boys how to cook since they really dont have good taste and introduced them to the idea of green chile which has taken off in ohio and we lived together for seven months going from house to house, from hole to hole and even today even though we cant see each other, we live together with our spirits and souls. For many of us this generation is not the generation that all who served together on a base. We served in different parts of the world. We dropped our jobs at what we were doing, our schools sometimes to join in, leave our families, leave the comfort and safety of the United States to go and defend what we believed was important to this country and honor our commitment. Sometimes its test memorials brings us together. I was lucky enough to have my 10year memorial with the guys from lima company a reunion, i should say and first time i had seen many men that i had lived with for so long and it was inspiring as well as moving and really consoling thing for me. I believe that having a memorial like this of this nature would be extremely important for many men and women to be able to come and maybe not necessarily physically meet with their partners, with their comrades but spiritly have a place to meet with their comrades, with the people they served with in arms. With that, i yield back. And i urge everyone to vote yes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Mcclintock with this vote, we will begin proceeding on this memorial and begin the process of planning a great work to honor the bravery, sacrifice and patriotism to those who have defended western civilization from the bash barism that has reappeared in our time. But even more importantly, we begin work on a tangible promise r future generationes, the promise of a coming age of liberty and justice and peace and tolerance that will surely come. I ask for adoption of this measure. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The question now is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h. R. 873. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, 2 3 of those being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed , the hout objection motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Nunes mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on the bill h. R. 3180. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Mr. Nunes mr. Speaker, i yield yself such time as i may concern. The speaker pro tempore call up the bill. The clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk h. R. 3180 a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for intelligence and intelligencerelated activities of the United States government, the Community Management account and Central Intelligence retirement and disability system and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 481, the amendment in the nature of the substitute recommended by the Permanent Select Committee on intelligence printed in the bill. And the bill as amended shall be considered read. The gentleman from california, mr. Nunes, and the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff, each will control 30 minutes. Without objection, members have five legislative days to insert into the record as requested previously. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. Mr. Nunes i yield myself such time as i may consume. Mr. Speaker, this is a good bipartisan bill that we have worked all year putting together in a bipartisan manner. And i want to thank all of my colleagues not only on the Intelligence Committee but also those colleagues who came down to review the bill. Hopefully they got all the information from our staff to provide all the answers that they may need so they understand the classified nature of the bill and the importance of this bill to our nations Intelligence Community and the war fighters. I want to highlight just a few things in the bill because we did debate this bill on monday so i will go through this quickly. The legislation provides the Intelligence Community authorization needed to protect and defend the United States. It supports Critical National security programs such as those protecting americans against errorism, and hostile nations. This is below the president s budget and consistent with the House Budget Committee passed fiscal 2018 budget resolution. It enables the intelligence to carry out in protecting americans in the most complex environment since 9 11. And with that, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. Chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Schiff i yield myself such time as i may consume. Intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 2018 is a solid bipartisan bill, one that garnered unanimous approval in the committee by voice vote. I want to thank my Committee Colleagues and the staff for their efforts in crafting the measure we consider here today. In the 114th congress this Committee Worked in a similar bipartisan fashion to pass into law four key pieces of National Security legislation. Im proud of our past legislative accomplishments which justify to the virtues of substantive deliberation and reasoned compromise without needing to compromise the security of the American People or our brave Service Members. Reflecting on the past year and russias assault on western democracies, but other challenges as well, from everything to include north koreas unrelenting pursuit of a Strategic Nuclear capability, we owe the American People a deliberative process. I wish the bill had come to the floor with a rule that allowed members to offer amendments. That opportunity is commensurate with the importance of the intelligence bill and vigorous oversight by the i. C. The man test shortcomings in the process cannot take precedence over the imperative in discharging our duty. On its merits, i urge all members to vote yes on h. R. 3180 today. The Intelligence Committee oversees some of the most sensitive and classified aspects of u. S. Intelligence operations and programs. The annual intelligence authorization act is the primary means by which he we can guarantee an appropriate balance between our imperatives and Civil Liberties and privacy rights. H. R. 3180 does that by funding, equipping and giving policy direction to the Intelligence Community and military intelligence elements of the defense department. It sustains support for key National Security priorities and programs and represents the slight decrease from the president s budget request from 2018. This bill features a number of provisions championed by my democratic colleagues some of which doublets the i. C. s focus on the threat both overt and covert. H. R. 3180 mandates public reporting about cyber and counterintelligence threats against future u. S. Elections, bolsters oversight of our policy guiding counterterrorism outside of declared areas of hostilities and seeks more information about the executive branchs process determining when and to whom to reveal information about vulnerabilities in computers and networks. This bill owe myths problematic language regarding guantanamo detentions and did he priving Civil Liberties oversight board. Im supportive of this legislation but the bills merits any misgivings i may have had and i cosponsor the bill. Through it our committee and the congress serves as a guardrail against any excesses, transgressions or abuses and always been a solemn obligation, but of this im certain, the carries even more responsibility for all of us. And so again, i urge my colleagues to vote with me to advance the intelligence authorization act and see that it is enacted into law. Mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Nunes we are prepared to close. I continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the chair reserves. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california. Mr. Schiff i yield four minutes to mr. Heins of connecticut. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. Lines lines i would like heins heins i would like to thank the chairman and bipartisan manner in which it was developed and enacted and hope tlly will be passed. I rise in strong support for this bill. This authorization bill is an odd one. To fully understand it, you need to go deep in the capitol and review it behind heavy metal doors. The bill is full of code words and classified information. As such it can be hard to understand and things that are hard to understand sometimes cause anxiety and fear. Let me take a moment to describe what this bill does. This bill has the strong bipartisan support of my fellow Committee Members liberal democrats and conservative republicans alike because it provides the life blood to a Remarkable Group of people who work behind the scenes and in the dark to keep us safe and to keep us free. As we speak, north korea is feverishly working to develop the ability to deliver a nuclear bomb to american shores. Our Intelligence Community is watching, evaluating and planning against this mortal threat. As we speak, for the first time in a generation iran is not feverishly working to develop the ability to deliver a nuclear bomb to american shores. Our Intelligence Community is working to make sure that that stays true. S we speak, mr. Speaker, terroristses in places like afghanistan and terrorists in place like afghanistan and libya and syria are spend their time desperately trying to stay alive, instead of spending their time planning to attack our people. Mr. Speaker, russia lurks, seeking advantage, promoting instability, and working to erode International Norms and instability. We should make no mistake about russia as an adversary because there is a lot of noise about this. Russia is a country that invades neighboring sovereign countries. It murders political opponents. It bombs syrian hospitals. And, yes, it conducted an unprecedented attack on the very core of our democratic system, our free and fair elections. This bill funds the warriors who are watching that, who are standing up against that in order to keep our system, what we all like it to be. Mr. Speaker, because these activities are carried out secretly in the dark of night, and usually unacknowledged, there is always the possibility for abuse. These activities by their nature run up against the lines of those values that make us americans. This is surveillance. It is other things that are worthy of debate. And the members of this committee spend their days in good argument about what the limits of those activities should be. We will have additional arguments around things like the reauthorization of the section 702 surveillance programs. These are terrific arguments that we have in a constructive way. These are not arguments that are present in this bill. Just as we did in section 215, well have a robust discussion of the section 702 international authorities. These are authorities that raise questions and that should be subject to the debate of this chamber. But this bill, this bill today is about the life blood of a Remarkable Group of people who dont always get it right any more than we do. But who are patriots, who respect the constitution, and who need our support in the work that they do to keep us safe and keep us free. Id like to again thank the majority, the chairman, the Ranking Member, and especially the staff who worked dill lent ndiaye to make this a diligently to make this a bill we could unanimously support. And i suggest to my colleagues in this chamber, we dont see a lot of bills like this one, but this one is worthy of their support. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Himes thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Schiff thank you, madam speaker. I will continue to reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california, mr. Schiff, is recognized. Mr. Schiff madam speaker, im pleased to yield to ms. Pelosi as much time as she may consume. The speaker pro tempore the entlelady is recognized. Ms. Pelosi thank you, madam speaker. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And join our colleague in saluting the committee for bringing this Bipartisan Legislation to the floor. So many issues that the committee has to deal with, i know that full well. As a previous Ranking Member. Aped know we all agree that every and i know we all agree that every chance we get, we want to absolute the patriotic men salute the patriotic men and women of the Intelligence Committee for their unblinking vigilance to keep the American People safe. I thank them for all they do for force protection, and conflict representation. The Quiet Professionals of the u. S. Intelligence Committee Work every day, again, to keep this country safe and our leaders informed. Respect for their work is essential. I thank you, mr. Ranking membership, members of the committee, mr. Schiff, for your leadership, and all the members of the committee for those dedications to those same goals. Im sorry that this bill is coming up in a closed rule so that members the Company Offer amendments. Cannot offer amendments. One might be about an independent commission. Its the judgment of the Intelligence Committee community, as expressed in the january, 2017, Intelligence Community assessment, that russian president Vladimir Putin ordered a multifaceted active measures campaign to so he discord in our plit sew discord in our political process and help one president ial candidate and hurt the other. For this reason we continue to ask for an outside independent commission to look forward on how to prevent russian and others from russia and others from meddling in our election system again. It has 200 bipartisan cosponsors. I also want to salute the chairman, Ranking Member, Homeland Security ranking meb, bennie thompson, for his member, benoity thompson, for his leadership bennie thompson, for his leadership. Our election systems are part of the Critical Infrastructure of our country. Some of the most Critical Infrastructure of our democracy itself. We must protect it. The United States must reject foreign intervention in our elections, no matter which party it helps or which party it hurts. An oath of office, our oath of office is to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. Working with the Intelligence Committee to ensure to better ensure the integrity of our elections is vital too to that goal vital to that goal. So i urge a yes vote on this Bipartisan Legislation. I especially want to acknowledge the tremendous leadership of our Ranking Member, mr. Schiff of california. With that i yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Schiff madam speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff, reserves. The gentleman from california, mr. Nunes, is recognized. Mr. Nunes madam speaker, i continue to reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Schiff thank you, madam speaker. I want to express my agreement with leader pelosis comments on the continuing need for the appointment of an independent commission, an independent commission would have the dedicated focus, distance from any political interference, and the resources to prepare a report along and of the caliber that we saw of the 9 11 commission. So i think that would be a very sound and important compliment to what were cog in congress and what special congress and what doing in congress and what special counsel muler is doing. Im pleased to yield mueller is doing. Im pleased to yield to mr. Heck from the state of washington. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Heck thank you, madam speaker. I rise to support the 2018 intelligence authorization act. First id like to enter a point of personal privilege. Happy birthday, madam speaker. The speaker pro tempore thank you. Mr. Heck the intelligence authorization act has very strong bipartisan language. I just want to highlight two areas where the i. A. A. Further what is i believe to be High Priorities for our National Security. First section, 605, which i have the honor to offer. And it sets in motion how to change the committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. We also call it something else, to better protect our keystone technologies. This i. A. A. Provision dovetails with broader work were doing in the Financial Services committee. Across the aisle with congressman pittinger and myself and others. It would modernize the process to better protect and prevent strategic foreign adversaries like china or russia from taking advantage of our open markets, in a way that undermines our National Security. Americas technological edge is in fact a cornerstone of our National Security. But our strategic adversaries know that too. Theyre increasingly seeking to obtain these Critical Technologies and resources through commercial transactions. This is a place to safeguard us against this risk. But it needs modernization, more resources, and authority and support from the Intelligence Community. Russian meddling in the 2016 elections showed us what happens when an adversary tries to exploit our political openness. Now theyre trying to exploit our economic openness. Our Intelligence Community is vital in protecting against both of those threats. Let me also underscore this point. The f. Y. 2018 i. A. A. Takes steps to safeguard our nations edge, our advantage in space, which is, im sorry to say, increasingly threatened by adversary nations. To mitigate that risk, the bill supports some truly cutting edge Space Technologies and invests in and overseas programs to ensure the resiliency of overhead architecture. At the same time it keeps up with the intel communitys committees longrunning efforts to stimulate innovation. In particular, the Committee Report accompanying todays legislation asks the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency to exam new approaches to examine new approaches to programs with the goal of faster and smarter development of automation in Artificial Intelligence and similar technology. Im proud to support this legislation. I hope all my colleagues will join me in both wishing the speaker a happy birthday and in voting yes on this bill. With that i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Schiff i continue to reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Nunes madam speaker, i wasnt aware it was your birthday. But happy birthday. Ill continue to reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Schiff happy birthday. Im pleased to recognize my colleague from texas, mr. Castro, who will now sing happy birthday for you. Mr. Castro. Mr. Castro thank you. Ill spare you that, madam speaker. The speaker pro tempore thank you. Mr. Castro thank you, Ranking Member schiff. Madam speaker, i voice my support for h. R. 3180rk the intelligence authorization act for fiscal year 201. The men and women of americas Intelligence Community 2018. The men and women of americas Intelligence Community protect our country every day. They serve beyond the front lines of conflict to collect and analyze intelligence on oured a certificate air ises. In addition to on our adversaries. In addition to being highly effective, their effectiveness is amplified when theyre in close cooperation and coordination with policymakers. I want to thank my fellow members on the committee, especially Ranking Member schiff, and chairman nunes, for working with me to add language into this bill requiring the Intelligence Community to brief congress on our intelligence capabilities in the South China Sea. Over 5 trillion in shipborne complers flows through the region commerce flows through the region each year, including imports by close u. S. Partners such as japan, south korea and taiwan. The security of the United States and those of these partners is closely linked to the ability of the United States to guarantee the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Our ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea threaten the principles of a rulesbased order and the security of the United States and our allies. The language in the i. A. A. Allows congress to more effectively understand the yields the needs of the Intelligence Community. It allows for a twoway conversation so that congress can act to provide the Intelligence Community the tools and authorizes it needs to inform policymakers. Thank you, madam speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Nunes madam speaker, i continue to reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Nunes madam speaker, im prepared to close. Ill continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Schiff thank you, madam speaker. Im now proud to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from florida, mrs. Murphy. The speaker pro tempore the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. Mrs. Murphy thank you. Madam speaker, i rise in support of the intelligence authorization act. Good intelligence safeguards our nation from adversaries. Its used to support our armed forces, our diplomats and our Homeland Security professionals. The men and women of the u. S. Intelligence community make enormous sacrifices on behalf of our country. While others seek the lime light, they shun publicity and selfpromotion. They are silent warriors and quiet heroes. I want to highlight section 609 of this legislation. It is a version of a bill that i authored called the prevention and oversight of intelligence sharing with enemies act. Or the poise act. I introduced the poise act in may after the president disclosed highly Sensitive Information to senior russian officials during a white house meeting. This information had been entrusted to the u. S. By key allies. Under federal law, the executive branch is required to inform the congressional Intelligence Committees of u. S. Intelligence activities. The poise act would specify that the executive branch must notify the committees when a member of the executive branch, including the president , intentionally or inadvertently discloses top secret information to an adversary foreign government. It is dangerous for a u. S. Official to share classified information with an adversary, especially outside of established intelligence channels. The adversary could use the information to harm the United States or its allies. Moreover, our partners might decide to stop sharing critical intelligence with us if they lose confidence in our capacity to keep it confidentiality. The congressional notification requirement in the poise act would help deter inappropriate disclosures of classified information to adversaries. Once formally notified of the disclosure, congress would be in a position to take any appropriate oversight action. Im so pleased that the core of the poise act is contained in section 609. I want to thank chairman nunes and Ranking Member schiff for including this provision in the bill. And i urge the bills swift passage. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady yields back. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Schiff i reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from california, mr. Nunes is recognized. Mr. Nunes i continue to reserve. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff is recognized. Mr. Schiff i yield three minutes to mr. Swalwell, the gentleman from california. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Swalwell happy birthday to you and also thank you to our Ranking Member and chair. I think this i. A. A. Represents the best of what we do together in the committee and im thrilled on behalf of the men and women who serve this country and our military and in our Intelligence Services that they have an authorization act that respects what they do, that enables what they do and understands that we have trying days ahead, press reports right now are showing that north korea may have Just Launched another Ballistic Missile. And so people who we represent at home are counting on us to do everything we can to protect this great country and it has been a privilege to work with mr. Schiff and the chairman on this bill. Of particular interest for me is that this bill also has our intelligence agencies report back to Congress Just what efforts the russians are taking across the globe, just not in america, but across the globe to interfere and medical in other countries elections. We have seen an escalating pattern of this over the past few decades, certainly culminating in our recent 2016 election. And its very important that the Congress Knows and the American People and allies know what continued efforts will look like. So i appreciate the majoritys willingness to work with us. We have seen i think in the past few days a bicameral effort to come together and say were not going to tolerate russias aggressions in the world. The sanctions recently passed in this house and in the senate show the world we are serious, we are a democracy and still worth protecting. And the i. A. A. Reflects that spirit as well. I thank the chairman for his work. And i thank the staff and members of the majority side and our staff to put this forward to protect and defend this great country. And with that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from california, mr. Schiff is recognized. Mr. Schiff if the chair is prepared to close, im prepared o close as well. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Schiff i yield myself such time as i may consume. This years intelligence authorization act was a bipartisan effort and im pleased to vote for it today. With this legislation we reaffirm our governments activities including ones that are class tied must be effective and bound by law. And so i urge my colleagues to vote yes on this years i. A. A. I want to commend our committees outgoing fellow from the loss almoss lab, phil toob sing. He has worked with the staff imparting his scientific expertise and the National Security work that our National Labs undertake. Phil, we thank you for your service to the committee and wish you every success in the future. Finally, i want to extend a closing word to the men and women of the Intelligence Community. The work that you do keeps us safe. Your mission is to speak truth to power, to give policy makers objective rigorously vetted and recently produced intelligence and you do that in magnificent fashion. Thank you for your commitment and resolve in the face of a challenging global threat landscape. With this legislation, we believe that we provide you with the adequate tools, authorities and funding while making sure that our congressional oversight remains robust. Thank you, madam speaker. And with that, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from california, mr. Nunes, is recognized to close. Mr. Nunes i want to thank both the majority and minority members of our committee for working in a bipartisan manner this year to complete this bill, which i believe is a really good product and support the men and women doing difficult work to protect the American People. I do want to thank the staff not only from the Minority Side and also for the majority side, specifically, shannon, nick, scott, bill, alan, lisa, jacqueline, mark, jessie, angel, doug, steve, george and jack for helping crafting this bill with the minority as well as the committees shared staff, brandon, kim and kristen. I would like to take another moment as mr. Schiff just did and thank our fellow who will be leaving us this year who has been here a couple of years. Phil will be going back and ending his fellowship and thank him for all of his work. With that, i urge all of my colleagues to pass this bill and send an overwhelming message to the men and women who protect this country that this Congress Stands ready to support them. Yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. All time for debate has expired. Pursuant to House Resolution 481, the previous question is ordered on the bill as amended. The question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The clerk a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for intelligence and intelligencerelated activities of the United States government, the Community Management account and the Central Intelligence Agency Retirement and disabilities system and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. Mr. Nunes madam speaker, i request the yeas and nays. The speaker pro tempore the yeas and nays are requested. Those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. A sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, this 15minute vote on passage of h. R. 3180, will be followed by a fiveminute vote on passage of s. 114. This is a 15minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 378, the nays are 34. The speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 380 and the nays are 35. The bill is passed. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The unfinished is vote on passage of the s. 114 on which yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk senate 114 an act to amend title 38 United States code to require the secretary of Veterans Affairs to submit a report regarding awards to highlevel employees of the department of Veterans Affairs. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore the yeas are 414, the nays are zero. The bill is passed. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. Without objection, the title is amended. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on Foreign Affairs be discharged from further consideration of senate bill 317 and ask for its immediate consideration in the house. The speaker pro tempore does the gentleman mean senate 371 . Mr. Royce senate bill 371. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk an act to make technical changes and other improvements to the department of state authorities act fiscal year 2017. The speaker pro tempore is there objection to the consideration of the bill . Mr. Royce i have an amendment at the desk the speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the amendment. The clerk amendment offered by mr. Royce of california, strike after all the enacting clause and insert the following, section 1 short title this act may be cited as the department of state mr. Royce i ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading. The speaker pro tempore without objection. The amendment is agreed to, the bill is read a third time, passed and the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The chair will receive a message. The messenger madam speaker, a message from the president of the United States. The secretary madam speaker, im directed by the president of the United States to deliver to the house of representatives a essage in writing. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition . Madam speaker, by the direction of committee on Homeland Security, i send to the desk a report to accompany House Resolution 447. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the title. The clerk report to accompany House Resolution 447, resolution directing the secretary of Homeland Security to transmit certain documents to the house of representatives relating to department of Homeland Security policies and activities relating to this as owned or controlled by president donald j. Trump. The speaker pro tempore referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Madam speaker, i send to the desk a privileged resolution reported from the committee on transportation and infrastructure. The clerk report to accompany House Resolution 437, resolution of inquiry requesting the president to provide certain documents in the president s possession. The speaker pro tempore referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. He house will be in order. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Permission to address the house and revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. I rise today to offer my condolences to the loved ones and families of the 10 victims who died in the tragic human smuggling incident that took place in my hometown of san antonio, texas, over the weekend. Mr. Castro as many have done before them who have sought to come to our country by land and by sea and perished, these were not americans, but they are children of god and this was above all else, politics aside, a human tragedy. Please join me in a moment of silence to remember the victims and countless others like them who have lost their lives in pursuit of the american dream. The speaker pro tempore members, please rise. Will members please rise. All members in the house, please ise. Mr. Castro thank you. Yield back. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 4 of rule 1, the following enrolled bill was signed by the speaker on thursday, july 27, 2017. The clerk h. R. 3298 a bill to authorize the Capitol Police board to make payments from the United States Capitol Police Memorial Fund to employees of the United States Capitol Police who have sustained serious line of duty injuries and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the chair will now sbrains requests for oneminute speeches. For what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection. I rise to recognize two groups of young men the boy scouts jam borrowey 3218 and the grand Columbia Council as they attended the 2017 National Scout. Mr. Newhouse the boy scouts of america have instilled the values of hard work, responsibility, resourcefulness and citizenship into the hearts and minds of thousands of Young American men. The National Scout brings together first class scouts of all 50 states to participate in a variety of scouting traditions and to sell bait their organization. The boy scouts of america have made a marked difference in our nation in Washington State and in my 4th Congressional District to the skills and values that they teach our young people and i have no doubt these young men will continue to be leaders in their families and their careers and their communities. Please join me in thanking these troops for their commitment to american values, service and leadership. Thank you, mr. Speaker. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Green mr. Speaker, members, the Senate Republican majority failed to pass their a. C. A. Repeal. This was a win for the people across america who wrote letters, made phone calls and organized communities against this disastrous bill. Mr. Speaker, millions of people rely on insurance expansion made possible by under the a. C. A. Our job is not to harm the a. C. A. Our job is not to harm the people we serve but to make their lives better. Under every single republican Health Care Bill, millions of people would lose health coverage. There are many steps we can take together. Lets strengthen the risk pools, promote Competition Among insurers, require states to expand their medical programs. These steps will help lower premiums, increase choice, and allow 50,000 individuals in my district and millions of lowincome americans across the country to get insurance. My constituents are tired of the partisanship. I urge my friends on the other side of the aisle to work with us and each other instead of against each other. So every day americans do not grow even more cynical of our governing institutions. While the failure of trumpcare is welcome news, now is the time to hold public hearings, bipartisan meetings, and work towards goals that reduce premiums, deductibles and Health Care Costs for American People. I look forward to working with my republican colleagues to build on the a. C. A. And improve the law. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Thank you, mr. Speaker. It is my privilege today to rise to recognize the 50th anniversary of the sugar grove corn boil, a volunteerrun annual summer festival bringing residents together to raise funds for local organizations doing good work in the community. This year the corn boil is focused on helping families and organizations addressing autism. In 1967 the first ever corn boil brought Sugar Grove Community members together for several hours in order to raise enough funds for the towns first ever street lamp. Mr. Hultgren as a result of the festivals initial success, the community continued the tradition year after year. The corn boil has grown from a oneday event to fourday event that brings around 35,000 attendees annually. Even though the old steam engines that used to boil the corn are no longer in use, the tradition of corn in the community ensures the grain remains a staple of the festival. While the festival has grown in mission prominence, the has staze staid the same. To bring friends, family and neighbors together to raise money for local organizations and town improvement. In addition the corn boil celebrates sugar groves citizen of the year to remind the community of the difference one person can make. Every dime donated to the sugar grove corn boil is given back to the community, whether it is local groups, food banks, churches, or to meet village needs. I am pleased to share that this years festival is dedicated to the effort to address autism. I commend the vital role of the sugar grove corn boil organization and the members play in our community and i ask that all my colleagues join in acknowledging their great contribution to the individuals and families of the 14th Congressional District. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition . Without objection. Mr. Mcgovern mr. Speaker, i rise to sing the praises of virginia, who is a Senior Advisor for peace processes at the u. S. Institute for peace and the director of its columbia program. Ive known virginia for over 0 years. Shes a powerful 30 years. Shes a powerful voice for peace. Ive seen her create the conditions, open up the spaces so that peace may take hold, even during violent conflict. Around the world, but especially in colombia, shes brought together people from different points of view, different walks of life, the powerful and the marginalized. Shes worked alongside them to find Common Ground and common purpose in building peace. In all honesty, mr. Speaker, shes the very model of a life lived fully with intelligence, love, compassion, tolerance and devotion. Right now shes under Critical Care at Georgetown University hospital. I ask all my colleagues to keep her and her family in their thoughts and prayers. 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. Mr. Speaker, the senates inability to Pass Health Care reform legislation does not change the fact that the Affordable Care act is failing. Many americans may not have one insurance provider on the exchange this fall. 40 of counties in the country now only have one option on the exchange. Mr. Rothfus the a. C. A. Medicaid expansion treats nonelderly, nondisabled individuals living above the poverty line more favorably than the elderly and disabled that this Crucial Program exists to protect. Seven years ago president obama and Congressional Democrats rammed through an illconceived and unsustainable Health Care Law that was grounded in make believe and statements that were just not true. The Supreme Court twisted an unconstitutional individual mandate penalty into a dubiously constitutional tax. Not only mocking our constitution, but facilitating an invasion of responsibility for representatives who imposed an unpopular tax on the American People. The legacy obamacare has been and will continue to be, lost plans, lost doctors, and as Chelsea Clinton reminded us last year, crushing costs. Single payer is not the option. Not one senator voted for single payer yesterday. The solution to our Health Care Problem is more freedom, more choice, less washington control. We must continue our efforts to save the American People from this failing law and continue our Health Care Reform efforts. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentlewoman from washington seek recognition . Without objection. Ms. Jayapal mr. Speaker, today with congressman joe wilson of South Carolina im introducing Bipartisan Legislation to raise Awareness Regarding the alarming rate at which the south Asian Community is developing Heart Disease. And to invest in ways to reverse the trend. Coming from countries including india, pakistan, bangladesh, and nepal, south asians are the sixth largest and Fastest Growing ethnic group in the nation. Despite a traditional diet thats high in len tills, vegetables, grains and spices, Heart Disease is on the rise in these communities. A study has found that south asians have a four times greater risk of developing Heart Disease than the general population, and have a much greater risk of having a heart attack before the age of 50. Coupled with the prevalence of diabetes in the south Asian Community, something needs to be done. And that is why were introducing the south Asian Heart Health awareness and research act. Specifically our bill will create grants at the c. D. C. , n. I. H. And usda to fund hearthealth research and promotion among south asian populations. We hope through doing this that we can help save lives, develop tools and support valuable research that can broadly benefit the American Public. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Without objection. Mr. Lamalfa thank you, mr. Speaker. Im pleased that the house is able to pass the extension of the veterans choice act, funding for an additional six months, to allow veterans to have choices, the ability to not wait in long lines, long lists, and have local proximity to treatment and care that they need. We need to do much more on this in the future, but with todays action, at least we can sustain that program for an additional amount of time and serve our veterans who served us so well. Veterans choice act is a good outlet, a good opportunity, for them to receive the care they need, timely and in proximity to where they live. Mr. Speaker, lets make sure the senate gets this through and our veterans are served well. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Without objection. Mr. Takano mr. Speaker, late last night Senate Republicans failed in their latest attempt to repeal the Affordable Care act. But today is not a day for celebration. It is a day for solutions. Over the past seven years, the Affordable Care act has expanded access to health care for millions of americans. But the laws imperfections, combined with plit kay cli motivated opposition politically motivated opposition, has created a system that falls short of the goals we all share. In many communities across the country, there is not enough competition in the individual marketplaces. Theres not enough support for middle class families. And Small Businesses. And there is not nearly enough being done to curb the Prescription Drug prices that are swallowing family budgets. The good news is that we know how to solve these challenges. Now is the time for us to Work Together. Democrats and republicans. To build a Health Care System that is worthy of this great nation. Thank you and i yield back. 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. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I take great pleasure in he sharing the story of in sharing the story of a truly remarkable man whose presence has eliminated illuminated our community for decades. Rabbi huffman has called Washington Heights his home for more than 39 years. Fathering nine children. He has served our community by teaching precollege students and providing spiritual guidance to those in great need. I am honored to have such an exceptional individual in my district. I was recently informed that the rabbi has donated his kidneys to a 62yearold woman diagnosed with kidney disease. His boundless act of philanthropy serve as a testament to his tremendous character and reminds us of the power of humankindness. He serves as a role model to all of us and i am proud to have recognized a man of such compassion and virtue on this floor. Thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore are there any further requests for oneminute speeches . Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the gentleman from california, mr. Lieu, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. Lujan thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Lieu thank you, mr. Speaker. The collapse of trumpcare in the senate shows we need a new way. The process was fateably flaw. Their plan was written behind closed doors. There were no hearings, no witnesses, no doctors, Insurance Plans, patients, nurses, nobody could testify in front of congress and let people know about the current Health Care System. I am willing to work with republicans, with the president , with democrats to update and improve obamacare. Any law can be made better. But to repeal obamacare without a plan is a really stupid way to go about it. And to repeal it with an even worse plan known as trumpcare is an even stupider way to go about it. The version that the house passed was going to cost 23 23 Million People to lose their Health Insurance, increase premiums in 2018 and 2020, and then take people with preexisting conditions and give them enormously higher costs. No wonder the senate killed that version. Now were in a position where the republicans, instead of trying four, five, six, seven, eight different versions of trumpcare, they should do the one thing they havent yet tried which is bipartisanship. I have my colleague here who will make some comments as well. Mr. Gallagher thank you. My experience, mr. Gallego thank you. My experience with the Health Care Act comes from the state legislature. In a bipartisan manner the republican governor joined with the minority democrats and a handful of republicans in the senate to pass Medicaid Expansion. Why did we do that . If you looked at what was happening in arizona, it was some of the trump areas, as i like to call, these rural districts where rural hospitals, which are not only the medically necessary infrastructure of the area, but also the economic drivers. The only high wage employers in the area that were about to shut down. There was some uncompensated cost because people were using the emergency room as their primary care doctor, that these hospitals were starting to have to charge more and Insurance Companies were starting to refuse to pay more for their premiums that they needed to respond to that. So in the end, what we started hearing from these hospitals is that were going to have to shut down the emergency room and if you have an emergency, were going to have to helicopter you either to tucson or phoenix. For many of you guys that are not southwesters like us, southwest earners like us, we have a lot southwesterners like us, we have a lot of territory and land. For to you drive to phoenix for Emergency Care would be insane and let alone the expense of helicoptering into phoenix was even more so than that. But because we had the goal of actually increasing and improving our health care outcomes, we worked, again, in a bipartisan manner, with the governor, governor brewer, with republicans, and democrats, to pass one of the most comprehensive Medicaid Expansion bills in the country, that has actually turned around, lowered costs, had create has created Better Health care outcomes, and hats now insured more than 400,000 and has now insured more than 400,000 arizonans who didnt have it before, including those in the Disability Community as well as children. If it wasnt for the bravery of senator mruczkowski, senator collins and senator mccain, as well as the democrats, what we would have seen is a bill that would not just have rolled back the people who are now covered with Health Insurance, it would have been detrimental to the people who have private Health Insurance. Premiums were going to go up for everybody everybody. The estimated amount of people just on the socalled skinny bill that were going to lose Health Insurance would be 16 million. On the house bill it was going to be 23 Million People. In addition to the essential gutting of medicaid, all for giving a tax cut to the top 1 . Now, is bad policy. But its worse policy when you dont have an open process to it. When you seek it through the middle of the night and keep hoping the American Public is going i think is going to accept what comes out. Theres a reason why this trumpcare was polling less than congress. And trust me, it is very difficult to poll less than congress. At this point its just our families that like us. Mr. Lieu i like you. Mr. Gallego i like you, too, ted, youre a good man. But the fact that the American Public knew so little, but knew enough to say, this bill is bad, and was able to come out and put pressure on our senators and members of congress, with public hearings and town halls, was key to stopping this. Lastly, before i move back to ted, if you were so proud of this bill if youre the Senate Republicans and youre so proud of this bill, if youre donald trump and youre so proud of the bill, even our house colleagues, why didnt you have consistent town halls . Why didnt you go out and explain to people what you were planning to do and why this is better for america . Instead, they tried to hide it, they tried to move it as fast as possible and then try to schedule a vote in the middle of the night. If you have to vote for something in the middle of the night it means youre not very youre not very confident and youre not very proud of that bill. So what is the solution now . Nobody, nobody in the Democratic Caucus thinks the affordable Health Care Act or obamacare as some people call it is the endall, beall. We dont think its perfect. We think theres a great bipartisan approach we can take to make it better. What i mean by better is more coverage, lower premiums, Better Health care outcomes. And when i use those words, those are almost exactly, word for word, what donald trump said he wanted to see happen when he was going to replace the affordable Health Care Act. But points by point, whether it was the bill that came through the house or the bill that came through the senate, none of those would have even fit Donald Trumps mandate. Which is why at the end of the day, that bill was radioactive. Nobody likes it. And they had to hide it. Hide it. So what we should do is follow e advice of sara mccain in arizona. Follow the example of senator mccain in arizona. Follow the example of senator mccloseky, get back to regular order and work out an actual fix for the affordable Health Care Act and get americans more health care coverage, lower premiums and Better Health care outcome. I say that as someone who is in the obamacare plan. I am not exempt from it, neither is ted. We are in it as much as anybody else. I yield back to you. Served in the th United States military. We had to take an oath. Its the same oath representatives take and the executive branch takes. Under the constitution the president has a duty to enforce the law. Today the president tweeted he want os ba macare to implode. Not only is that mean, mean, mean, its also a dereliction of duty. The job of the president is to help americans. Not hurt millions of americans out of spite. Let me give you an example of what it was like before obamacare. I was at a restaurant and a waitress came up she knew i was a legislator, i was in a state i was in the state legislature at the time. She wanted help. Her daughter had just furned 18 and in california, where im from, you cannot get government Health Insurance if you dont have any minor children. So she lost her government Health Insurance, she was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. She tried to get private insurance, none of them would cover her. And i realized that she is now going to slowly he die slowly die because she could not get Health Insurance coverage. She could not go into an emergency room and get treatment because her Breast Cancer had not progressed to that point but one day she was going to get to that point, to go to the emergency room, get treated for a few day, an and then shell die. I thought , in a country as great as america, that should never be happening. Now that the Affordable Care act is the law of the land, you cannot be discriminated against because of a preexisting condition. Theres some incredibly amazing elements of this law. Thats why the republicans couldnt repeal it. The American People, after looking at it for seven year the majority said, this is a pretty good deal. Is it the best deal . No. We can definitely make it better. Representative gallego and i are offering to the republicans and speaker ryan to engage in bipartisanship. The one thing were asking the speaker not to do is to not enable the president to sabotage the Affordable Care act. Not only is that wrong, it would be enabling his dereliction of duty and will cause millions of americans to suffer greatly out of spite. I will yield back to epresentative gallego. Mr. Gallego if you want to hear some ideas, and i think its important not just to knock what was introduced but to have idea. Ideas. I, and i think representative lieu, would prefer to have medicare for all. But if we cant do that, theres many things we could do. Trop the age of medicare eligibility to 55. Do that, youll decrease premiums for people that are not on medicare. People that are just buying private Health Insurance. You could be on medicare at 55 and still be working. What about for counties who dont have private insurers on the subsidized market . They should be able to buy into the federal Insurance Plan of all workers in that district or buy into the plan ted and i have. Why not let them do that . High why not cover every u. S. Citizen under the age of 18 under medicaid until to the relieve patients of the burden. We can look at Community Health centers to make sure we take the poorest of the poor who cost the most when it comes to Health Care Costs and instead of forcing them into a hospital or primary care situation, they can get consistent care without putting a burden on the overall medical system. There are tons of ideas that we could be working on with our colleagues that will, again, fulfill president trumps goal of lower costs, lower premium, Better Health care outcomes. This doesnt have to be a static situation. This doesnt have to be an eitheror. President trump is making this sound, making it sound like because we did not pass his idea of reform, we must collapse the whole system. That is unnecessary. That is irresponsible. And thats not how adult people that legislate act. You can fix this. We can fix this. So more people can have health care coverage. More people can have the security that theyre going to always have Health Insurance. That they can go and start a business and know theyll have Health Insurance. That they know they can send their kid to college and still have Health Insurance. They could retire knowing that theyve been healthy the whole time and theyre going to have a good, dignified retirement because we made sure west fab lished a good Health Care System from the time they were born to the time they retire. This is possible. This is possible. That and i yield back to my friend from california. Mr. Lieu in conclusion, the house of representatives is going to go on recess in august. Now is the time for millions of people across america to contact their member, ask them to hold town halls, ask them to explain their vote on the awful trumpcare legislation that passed the house and ask them to now work with democrats and work on a bipartisan basis to improve obamacare. Now is the time for millions of americans to speak up. You have an entire month in august to contact your member of congress. I urge you to do so and i yield back to representative gallego. Mr. Gallego last thing i would close with is this, if youre a member of congress that voted to gut the affordable Health Care Act, there is time. There is time. There is a way to come back from that really bad decision. You can turn around and start working for the betterment of this country by trying to fix the affordable Health Care Act. The American Public will look kindly upon those legislators that are here to work on a in a bipartisan man to manner to again lower costs, lower premiums, more coverage, Better Health care outcomes. There is time to do this. But there is not time for more opportunities to gut this, for more time or more time to kick people off medicaid, for more time to create some kind of situation thats only going to raise premiums. Because if we allow trump to actually, in his words, make the ole thing fail, its not obamacare that fails. Its not the affordable Health Care Act that fails, its the American People that fail. Hes playing games with the lives of the American People. Hes going to cause millions of people to either lose their insurance because Insurance Companies will have to start shedding people. Premiums are going to end up going up because it creates instability in the market, these will try to recoup their costs somehow, and its going to discourage younger members from coming on and buying into the obamacare insurance pool which again will raise premiums. This is unnecessary. For those members of congress and those senators that want to work with us, the first step is to encourage and stop the president from sabotaging the affordable Health Care Act and to working diligently in a bipartisan manner to fix the affordable Health Care Act and cover more people. I yield back. Thank you. Mr. Lieu thank you. Mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president. The chair lays before the house a message. The clerk to the congress of the United States. Section 202d of the National Emergencies act provides for the automatic termination of a National Emergency nlings, within 90 days of 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 effect beyond the anniversary date. In accordance with this provision i have sent to the federal register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the National Emergency with respect to lebanon that was declared in executive order 13441 of august 1, 2007, is to continue in effect beyond august 1, 2017. Certain ongoing activities such as continuing arms forevers to hezbollah that include increasingly sophisticated weapons system, undermine lebanese sovereignty, contribute to instability in the region and continue to pose a threat to the National Security and Foreign Policy of the United States. For this reason i have determined that it is necessary to continue the National Emergency declared in executive order 13441 with respect to lebanon. Signed, donald j. Trump, the white house, july 28, 2017. The speaker pro tempore referred to the committee on Foreign Affairs and ordered printed. Under the speakers announced spoifl january 23, 2017, the gentleman from texas, mr. Poe, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. Poe i want to thank the speaker for the time. I want to talk today about a person. A person that i never got to meet but this is her story. And this is her story from her point of view and the information that i have received from people who know her, including her parents, her aunt, and some of her friends. Like i said, i dont know the real facts of this case, im just giving you my opinion. And im telling here im here today to tell megan bodinis case, her story, because she cant tell her case. I am cochair of the victims rights caucus along with my friend, mr. Costa, from california. Im a former prosecutor in houston, texas, for eight years, i tried felony cases. I was a criminal court judge for two years, seeing all kinds of violations of the law. I mention that because that is the background from which i speak. Ver that time, i knew a lot of victims of crime. Too many victims of crime. Worked their way to the courthouse. Im going to talk about another one today. Megan bodini. She was she was 19 or 20 when she was a student at the university of alabama. And july 1, 2015, megan and some of her friends, sorority , ends, went to a nearby bar as we would term it in the old days. And where a lot of students in tuscaloosa, alabama, went for meeting other folks and hanging out. She came in contact with an named terry jackson. His nickname was sweet t. Sweet t. Being from the south, you can understand somebody being called that, mr. Speaker. He was a patron of the establishment. He was older. He was in his early 30s. Megans approximately 20. And he invited her to go over to his house to look at his house. Because he and his family live in a big mansion in tuscaloosa, alabama. And she agreed to go. He went with another individual that he knew. Nd they went over to his house they go upstairs, and heres where the problem and the crime apparently started. He takes her into his bedroom, she says, this is not a good idea. She may have been intoxicated. But apparently later during that evening, shes drugged or under the influence of drugs. And really was not coherent during this time, according to her later. He sexually assaulted her. She did not consent. She did not consent. And she for that day on told everybody that talked to her about this case, she did not consent. He has sexual intercourse with her. He falls asleep on the bed. She gets up, she tries to get out of this upstairs room. Theres a deadbolt on the door apparently. She couldnt get out. She couldnt figure out how to get out. So she climbs out the second story window in the middle of the night and jumps from the second story window to a trash can on the ground. She doesnt have her keys. She doesnt know where they are. So his car is parked there. Mercedes. Sleek mercedes, which he picked her up in earlier. She gets in the car, looks for her keys. And she doesnt have any money. So she takes money out of the vehicle to call a cab. The pay to pay for the cab so she could get away. And the cab later shows up. During this time, shes texting her friends, asking for them to come get her. The Text Messages maybe didnt make a whole lot of sense because of the condition that shes in. And she eventually gets to the hospital. The place where Sexual Assault victims usually go first. To get medical attention. And so she goes to the hospital here in tuscaloosa, alabama. And while there she told her story, even though she was somewhat still under the influence of drugs probably. And while there, a Women Gender Resource Center advocate shows up at the hospital, while shes there. The hospital people take what we call in the vernacular in Law Enforcement, as you used to be, a rape kit. Its called a Sexual Assault kit now. They take that Sexual Assault kit and they perform that examination. But they didnt take any blood and they didnt take any urine and they didnt test megan for whether she was under the flunts of drugs. She did the Sexual Assault under the influence of drugs. They did the Sexual Assault kid kith. Along the route, the Sexual Assault assault kit. Along the route, the Sexual Assault kit gets to the Sheriffs Department. We dont know what happened after that. Its never been tested. Hasnt been tested yet. Dont know where it is. That Sexual Assault kit, like i said, was never tested. So, after shes there, or while shes there, the police, the Sheriffs Department, show up. And they question her briefly these two ars that homicide detectives heard her story and they didnt take any notes about it. They just listened to her story. What transpired there maybe was not a lot of information given to her, given to the police, except she told her story, she told the police she didnt consent, that she may be under the influence of drugs, druginduced rape. And they left. The next morning, megan staying up all these all this time, the police either at the first or the second interview wanted to know why she didnt physically resist. Why she didnt fight back. This older man. And she was under the influence of drugs. She couldnt physically, under most laws in most states, she couldnt physically fight back. And that is the lack of consent. She didnt give consent. And its still Sexual Assault. But apparently not so to the Sheriffs Department in tuscaloosa, alabama. She didnt fight back. Im older than you are, mr. Speaker. But i remember the days of these old ar cake archaic rape laws where in many states the victim ,ad to fight almost until death statutory limitation on Sexual Assault or rape was one year. Thats when the victim only had a year to have that case indicted. And there are some other things about the old law that we both know. But ill get to that hopefully later. But, it was obvious to her that either at the first interview, and at least the second interview, the Sheriffs Department did not believe her. When she told them who the alleged perpetrator was, sweet t , they seemed to back off the prosecution. Sweet t comes from a family in tuscaloosa, alabama, well known, bunker citizens, the folks run a corruption bunn folks run a construction company. Everybody knew who they were. And they backed off. According to her. Of the investigation. Still not taking apparently any real notes. On the second interview, later that morning, with the police, the police started accusing her of committing a crime. So the victim no longer is the victim but becomes the accused. The defendant. About the money that she took from bunns car, so she could get a cab to flee her the perpetrator. Nd the police interviewed t. J. Bunn. He first denied she was at his mansion. Then later he changed his story. As accused individuals tend to do. And then said it was consent. She consented to everything and that this is not a criminal case. And the police further backed off and then later said to megan , we think were going to prosecute you for theft of that money to get home and get away from the offender, unless you drop the charges, the accusations against sweet t. Mr. Speaker, we need as a community to understand and put ourselves in the place of this girl whos alone. And i believe all through that night she made the best decisions she could to get help and everywhere she turned people turned her down. I dont know what most victims would do in this case. But she didnt know what to do. She called her mom in austin, texas. Mom quickly gets in her car and starts driving to alabama. As mothers do. Wanting to know how she should handle this particular situation. Shes becoming the accused. And thats the trump card that the police put on her. You back off the prosecution, we wont prosecute you for theft and maybe other crimes that you committed. So, megan left not knowing what to do. She eventually can we have order in the gallery, mr. Speaker . I would appreciate it. The speaker pro tempore will the folks in the gallery please come to order. Mr. Poe so, the Sheriffs Department doesnt believe her, doesnt want to believe her, and takes the alleged perpetrator and makes him the victim. And makes her the accused individual. So, Sheriffs Department has the rape kit. Never tested. Sheriffs department is accusing victim of committing a crime. So she seeks relief from the university of alabama. He goes there and she talks to a lady who was a counselor for students at university of alabama. A female. And tells her the whole story again. No consent, i was sexually assaulted. After the story is told to the counselor, the counselor apparently says, i cant help you. I know the bunn family. I have a relative that works for bunn construction. I cannot help you. And im backing off and recusing this the counselor, of case. What does megan do . Well, the university gives her another counselor who was, i wouldnt say is a real counselor. Its a graduate assistant. And the graduate assistant talks to megan and says, i cant talk to you until you take medication for your anxiety. Well, no kidding she has anxiety. Because of what has happened to her over these several hours. And that was the last we heard of the university of alabama physical therapist. She backs off because she has anxiety. The District Attorney eventually , about three weeks later, said the District Attorney, were not prosecuting this case. No case. No Sexual Assault. Believes the Sheriffs Department, believes its consent, and were not prosecuting the case. Later it turns out, mr. Speaker, and dont know if this influenced the decisions or not, but we learned that the defendants family, the construction company, gave financial contributions to the Sheriffs Department, to the District Attorneys office campaign, and to the university of alabama where they apparently are big contributors. I dont know if that influenced all this or not. But you can take it for what you want. But anyway, they backed off the case. Megan leaves because its the summer break, leaves and goes back home to texas. She wants to get away from the university of alabama because she had seen the defendant on campus, hes not a student there. She had told the people on the campus, im very worried about me, because of this person being on campus. Nd she leaves the university asking the tight 9 folks to help her title ix folks to help her transfer her University Education from the university of alabama to s. M. U. And she leaves, apparently she did not get cooperation, according to her, for a couple of months from title ix folks, which is another issue that im not going to go into. And enrolls in the university of s. M. U. Meeting needing a letter from alabama to get back to get into another university, as all kids need to have nowadays. Hes at the s. M. U. Shes at s. M. U. She seeks medical help in texas. Or told her that she was findings apparently were posttraumatic stress, anxiety, depression. All from this criminal case that happened against her. Always telling folks she didnt consent. Never changed her rendition of the case. She wasnt doing very well. She saw a counselor at s. M. U. In depression, when shes filling out her medical history form on the medical history form that goes to the university of s. M. U. In dallas, tick. She said she had mental issues texas. She said she had mental issues. She said that she had bad thoughts about living. And then later, on february 26, 2016, with that form laying next to her, megan committed suicide. She took her life. Why . My opinion, because she never got any help. She couldnt get help from the hospital. Because of the urine test, no drug test no, blood test. The rape kit never analyzed by the police department, Sheriffs Department. Sheriffs department didnt believe her. Its my opinion, they didnt want to believe her. University didnt help her. Gave her a graduate assistant to fry to help her with her mental case, told her to get on edication. Mr. Speaker, megan did everything that she should have done under those situation. Its easy for society, in cases like this, always say to victims of crime, especially rape cases, you should have done this. You shouldnt have done that. And theres a lot of secondguessing going on in this case by a lot of people. As a prosecutor, former judge, i think she did the best she could to get help. And she got no help. And when people are desperate, when they feel like nobody cares, that nobody is going to help them, in a Sexual Assault case where to me that is its one of the worst crimes that can be committed against a person. Theyre desperate. She didnt think life was worth living because of this case. Over the years, i have learned, ive learned a lot from Sexual Assault victims. One thing that they all want is validation. They want validation from us. Community. Society. Government. That that act they said happened to them, did happen. Thats what they want. Sometimes they want that more than prosecution. Or apprehension of the offenders. Its validation. That we believe them. She didnt get that validation, except from her family. O she took her own life. What a tragedy. Thats why im here today. Megan cant talk about what happened to her. But we can. We as members of congress, were really in the people business. And thats why im in congress. I know thats why youre in congress. And so what are we going to do about this . What has happened in the interim . Well, at the hospital at the hospital because of the failure no, drug testing, no urine testing, the loss of the Sexual Assault kit, rape kit, not being analyzed. Myself, Carolyn Maloney a democrat from new york, and also terri sewell who represent this is area in alabama, have filed the megan brondini act on her behalf. What does that do . This legislation will require hospitals in our country, erever they are, have a safe at that hospital. What is a safe . A Sexual Assault forensic examiner. Some hospitals do, some dont. But this law will require you have one at your hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or be able to take a Sexual Assault victim to one place close by that has. That has this type of exam. Its a special recognition of people in the Sexual Assault business, whether theyre a nurse or a doctor, and we filed that legislation. Maybe that would have helped in this case. For the Sexual Assault examiner could have finished the examination, made sure the testing was done or had some examiner near this hospital. We filed this, the megan brondini act, thats one of the pieces of legislation we filed. Lets talk about the Law Enforcement agency. You know as much about Law Enforcement as anybody in congress but let me tell you the way i see this. They never tested the Sexual Assault kit, the rape kit. The urine sample. They questioned her because why didnt she resist . Why didnt she fight back . A person is drug induced, in a Sexual Assault, they cant fight back. They cant consent. But that was what they were asking her. Even though that didnt apply in this case. She couldnt fight back she didnt fight back because of what happened to her. When she was drugged or under the influence of something. And then they accused her of being a criminal. Rather than examining her case and finishing her case, they went on to take the defendants position, say they believed him, even though he gave contradictory stories later in his investigation. We have a piece of legislation thats already been filed to deal with Sexual Assault kits and i have introduced legislation today to reauthorize safer. Safer is a piece of Legislation Congress needs to reauthorize to have rape kits throughout the country examined. There are thousands of Sexual Assault cases sitting on the shelves, sitting in warehouses, some have been destroyed theyre so old, where Law Enforcement, government, has not analyzed those Sexual Assault rape kits. Theres a lot of excuses made, theres not money, all those things. They need to be examined. In all criminal cases. Safer provides funding to do that so that the backlog evidence gets tested and so that it convicts the guilty and it clears the innocent. Thats one second piece of egislation that we have filed. The District Attorneys office after megan committed suicide, after they refused to do anything about the case, almost a year later, they took the case to a grand jury and it was not indicted. No bill. Now i have presented cases to the grand jury. Im sure youve testified before grand juries. Unfortunately, some District Attorneys, not saying all, or even most. The grand jury does the will of the District Attorney. If the District Attorney encourages an indictment, that person is indicted. If they encourage, recommend, a nobill, not indicted, grand juries will do that. Some prosecutors dont offer advice and let the grand jury make that decision because thats their decision. I dont know if that happened in this case or not. But they did decide to present the case to a grand jury and it was not indicted. The offender was not indicted. Nothing could happen to her, shes already taken her own life. The University Made some mistakes in my opinion. The School Victim advocate abandoned her at the hospital. Where she was. Campus, the counselor, even though hearing the case, full story, at the end, this is interest, at the end decided to recuse herself because she knew the bunn family. She knew the bunn family when the interview started. Why didnt she recuse herself before the victim tells the story again, to another person, to another stranger. Interesting turn of events. Graduate assistant, in my opinion, didnt have any qualifications to order that she get medical treatment before they before she comes back to talk to the folks at the hospital. We have passed, or filed a resolution. Its a sense of congress resolution. Calling on all universities to employ a fulltime Victim Advocate on campus that deals with Sexual Assault victims. Have that expertise. It is an expertise. Victim advocate needs to be specified to be a Sexual Assault Victim Advocate because, talk about a Victim Advocate that could be somebody talking about a theft case or something. But you need a Sexual Assault Victim Advocate on campus, no matter what university this happens to be. This is a sense of congress. Its a resolution. Its been filed today. How much time do i have left, mr. Speaker . The speaker pro tempore 34 minutes. Mr. Poe thank you, mr. Speaker. This is megan brondini. This is the way she looked when she was a student. We have heard a lot about her and as we should. But now i want to talk about the family of the alleged perpetrator. Sweet fey and the bunn family. A wellknown business in the community. Good for them. Sweet tea and the bun family. A wellknown business in the community. Good for them. The business is doing well. They give money to the university. They give money to the campaigns of the sheriff and District Attorney. And they make other contributions throughout the tuscaloosa region, apparently Everybody Knows them. They are so ncerned about this case that this is a full page ad taken out in one of the tuscaloosa, alabama, newspapers this week. Defending their honor. As we would say in the south. And it goes into quite a bit of detail. And what it does is attack the victim of this crime. T almost justifies the defendant, the accuseds position. All through this ad, they talk about a lot of things. I want to read you part of it. Heres just one paragraph. Talking about their three generations of civic involvement in tuscaloosa, alabama. We support education, we support Law Enforcement, we support our hospital and civic. We are generous and now were condemned as if its a conspiracy. The bunn family, for more than 70 years have given their time, energy, resources to make our community a better place to live. Now, according to some journalists, every act of charity and good citizenship was nothing more than a large standing conspiracy. If no good deed goes unpinnish unpunished, then why should anyone invest in our community and take the risk of being a good citizen. Theyre defending their honor. Theyre defending sweet tea. And all through this ad, taken out this week, they never ntion sympathy or compassion or sadness for the death of the victim in this crime. That seems very strange to me. Regardless of guilt or not guilt, we know that a person took their life because of what happened. I find that very strange. They seem to protest too much. Fullpage ad in a local newspaper. Megan, the parents of mike and cindy, theyre just folks that live in austin, texas. Robin, the aunt, shes a constituent of mine in houston. Just listening to them talk, there sure is a different side o the story about compassion than what we hear from the bunn folks. Mr. Speaker, ill try to sum this up. Appreciate your patience. I mentioned that ive known a lot of Sexual Assault victims. Years ago, before you were born, i was prosecuting in houston, texas. And im going to change the name of the victim in this case because of concerns about privacy for her family. Lisa was a student at the university of houston, working a second job, and she leaves school one evening, 9 00 p. M. Or so. Shes driving north on one of our interstates, or freeways as we call them. Has car trouble. She pulls off the freeway, goes to a service station she thought was open, it was not open. An individual comes an individual comes up to her, has a pistol, luke, well call him, kidnaps her, sexually assaults her, abandons her. Very later found in a traumatic, emotional state somewhere in the area. The police are called. They figure out who the perpetrator was, go out, arrest him, investigate the case and one thing i want to mention that happened in most cases that didnt happen in megans case, the police didnt talk to any witnesses. They didnt talk to any witnesses at the bar. They didnt talk to any of megans friends. They didnt talk to anybody. They just talked to the alleged perpetrator and to megan. No investigation. Anyway. Investigations gone. Luke is captured. Turns out hes an excon for Sexual Assault rape as we called it in those days. Convinced lisa she convinced herself she would testify. Sympathy comes to the courthouse. I prosecuted the case. She went through every detail. Remember, mr. Speaker, years o before the law started having justice in it, the sexual victim had to tell their whole sexual life before strangers. Of course, the defendant, you could never go into the sexual life of the defendant but the defense could always go into it on a victim. E goes through the trial, 12 rightthinking folks and the jury they gave him 99 years in the pent, what he deserved. Penitentiary, what he deserved. We hoped that life would go on, justice is done and everybody is satisfied, justice is done. That doesnt always work. Lisa, she lost her job. Dropped out of school. Started abusing alcohol, drugs, a lot of stuff. Married, had two kids. Her husband, being the kind of guy he was, apparently decided to leave her and took the two kids and went somewhere else. It wasnt long after that i get a call from lisas mom telling me that she had taken her own life and left a note saying, im tired of running from luke in my nightmares. Another victim years ago. I give her example only because we need to understand that this is one of the worst things that. N happen to a person one other case. Prosecuted a case where a guy was charged with sexually assaulting an older woman. An elderly woman. She came to the courthouse to testify, sadie, ill use her first name. Shes dressed in a dark gray suit, long skirt, doublebreasted coat. She had on a dark hat, gray hat, and she had a little vail over her face. She took the witness stand. I asked her what happened when this perpetrator that you identified, what happened when he came into your house and she said, he committed an act worse than death. What do you mean . What did he do . Did he assault you . What did he do . He committed an act worse than death. Finally, she testified to the legal requirement of penetration. To some Sexual Assault victims, rape is a fate worse than death. To megan, she got the Death Penalty for being a Sexual Assault victim. Couldnt quite handle it. Why . Because no one was there to make sure that she did handle it. Mr. Speaker, Sexual Assault predators thats what they are. You can call it rape, Sexual Assault, you can call it a fate worse than death, but those predators sometimes steal the soul of the victim. Thats the way the victims feel. Everything that was important to them is gone because of the perpetrator. I think the best evidence unfortunately that megan, in my opinion, was telling the truth throughout all of this was that. He took her life and thats what makes this case so sad. Sexual assault or rape, mr. Speaker, is never the fault of the victim. Never. Never. And while some folks want to look at this and say, megan, she should have done this, she should have done that. You shouldnt have gone with him. You shouldnt have been drunk. You shouldnt have allowed him to get you intoxicated. Whatever. I think they get the best you can. She went to the hospital, denied help. Sheriffs department, in her opinion, denied help. In fact, they accused her of being a perpetrator. Didnt investigate. Didnt talk to witnesses. E goes to school, university that gets federal funds, trying to get help. Denied. Denied, denied, denied. She leaves. She goes back to texas. Enrolls tries to enroll in another university and before all thats completed she takes her life. Hope we can understand, not just this case and not just megan but we can understand the plight and the awful things that happen to some of our young women in our country. The same constitution that protects defendants of crime, protects victims of crime, they are entitled to equal protection under the law. Talking about victims of crime. We understand that principle, well understand justice, well understand what were all about. That were in the people business and this house of representatives on this late friday afternoon, we need to understand that. Justice means Different Things o different folks. But justice must be balanced between the rights of the accused and the rights of the victim so that we do the right in g for the right reason every case. Mr. Speaker, you know this doing investigations in your capacity before, and i want to reiterate this. Sometimes victims just never get over it. They just never do. So we should be there with them. Im talking about community should be there with them. At least hear them out and make rational and just decision regardless of who the offender s, poor, rich, famous, somebody in the community, big contributor, whatever, and no same who the victim is, background, poor, rich, famous. That should go away in determining justice. Otherwise we dont have justice for all. Only have justice for a few so mr. Speaker, i appreciate the time, appreciate the patience of the house of representatives when i wanted to talk today about megan rodini. This case bothers me as a father, four kids, three girls, 12 deprand children, eight of them grandchildren, eight of them girls, bothers me as a house of representatives, a person who worked at the courthouse for over 30 years. I hope it bothers the house of representatives so we move forward with trying to get help for folks like this, that we pass legislation that requires the safe officer at hospitals, that we pass legislation as House Resolution that its a sense of congress that all universities have a Victim Advocate, a Sexual Assault Victim Advocate or coordinator, as the law says, on campus. Want to thank Carolyn Maloney from new york, terri sewell from alabama who represents this area, for their cosponsorship of this bill. I would ask leadership to move this legislation forward. Lets not forget about megans family and megans case and the thing that happened to her that just cant happen anymore. Justice can be served. It shall be served because justice is what we do, mr. Speaker, and thats just the way it is. Mr. Speaker, id ask how much time is left. The speaker pro tempore 17 minutes, sir. Mr. Poe thank you, mr. Speaker. Ill yield back to the speaker so that you can yield time to mr. Flores from texas. S that the way it works . The speaker pro tempore i thank the gentleman for his compassioned plea. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the gentleman from texas, mr. Flores, is recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the majority eader. Mr. Flores thank you, mr. Speaker. And i thank the gentleman from texas for yielding the balance of his time to me and i appreciate him sharing the story about megan with this chamber and i look forward to supporting him and his efforts to try to keep these things from happening again in the future. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to honor one of College Station, texas, who passed away on july 25, 2017. Emma was born on september 15, 1927 in blackwell, oklahoma. He was raised by his mother, mary, in bowling green, missouri. Growing up during the worst of the great depression, he experienced poverty firsthand and lived in juanroom house. To provide for her son, she worked as a maid for 2 a week. To help the family, he worked any odd job he could find. During this time, an act of kindness from a member of the local rotary club would change his life. He was enamored with baseball that and ed noticed he loved baseball but could not afford the equipment. So he sent a bat, a glove and a ball to emmel. The care that ed and the rotary member showed emmel put his life on a better course. He valued their support once stating, quote, i could have been a very rebel use child excuse me i could have been very rebelous as a child. Things like poverty can make you grow up with some resentment but all of a sudden i had a whole town with surrogate fathers and it motivated me to become beater example. The leaders of the community who we respected were all members of the rotary and i didnt want to disappoint them after they had taken an interest in me, unquote. In 1945, emmel joined the u. S. Army air corps and was assigned to the base unit known as the brass hat squadron. The brass hat squadron was a group of esteemed army pilots whose job was to fly highprofile persons around the world to significant events. Based out of National Washington airport they flew senators and congressmen and u. S. And foreign dignitaries and military leaders among others. He flew dignitaries to events such as the normberg war trials, the atomic bomb test and the National Independence celebrations in the philippines. Due to his service in the military, he visited more than 30 countries before his 20th birthday. In 1947, emmel married his High School Sweetheart and the love of his life, clementine. Her support answered couragement always kept emmel grounded. Their love and commitment to each other, their catholic faith and the values which they had continued until his death. They had six children. At the time of his passing, their legacy included 22 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren. After his service in world war ii, he played professional baseball playing for the brooklyn dodgers and Baltimore Orioles organizations. His career lasted from 1949 to 1953. His baseball career took place in west texas, first for the midland indians and then for the odessa oilers. During his playing days, emmel met several baseball legends including jackie robinson. Emmels baseball career came to a close when clementine gave him an ultimatum, either stay married or keep playing baseball. Emmel was a wise man and he chose to focus on marriage. He went to texas he studied at texas a m. He finished a degree in philosophy when he was in his 60s. On finishing his degree laettner life, emmel said, quote, too ny of us grow older and say, so many of us get older and think, theres nothing else to do. And make do and with what i know. I think that person has already partially died. In 1953, emmel returned to abilene, texas, begin his career in the oil industry. While starting his career he worked odd jobs to make ends meet for his growing family. One of those odd jobs was playing the trumpet in local dance bands on the weekends. Independent oil and Gas Properties hit it big, creating the nuclear threeus of his business successes. The oil and gas business brought him back to College Station in 1979 where he would be instrumental in developing the successful brian woodbine oil field in the 1980s. Passionate about educating youth , he helped found thing a den chap ral Education Company where he produced a Childrens Television show called imagineland in the 1990s. The first show aired on kamu tv in the brazos valley and was eventually shown on stations across the United States. Even with all his business accomplishments, emmel will best be remembered for his fill an flopic efforts. His upbringing in poverty and struggles in his early life were something emmel never forget and it made him empathize with those in need. He served on the board of directors for the local boys and girls club in multiple positions in the knights of columbus as chairman of the aeromoon district of the arrow moon district of the boy scouts of america and was a member of the Bryan Rotary Club he feel also gave to many conservative causes, including donating seed money for the 40 days to life campaign, which advocates for p pro life causes around the world today he also sponsored three habitat for humanity homes, saying it was, quote, my way of giving thanks, unquote. Speaker, emmel og done ogden worked tireless fi they are brazos valley. He was loved in College Station and will be forever remembered as a think lan philanthropist, husband, father, grandfather, great fwraufer, prolife champion and friend. My wife geena and i offer our deepest heart folet condolences to the ogden family and we lift up the friends of emma in our prayers. I requested that the United States flag be flown over the nations capitol today to honor the life and legacy of em of emmel ogden. I urge all americans to continue paying for our country during these difficult times for our military men and women who protect us from external threats and for our First Responders who protech us from threats here at home. Mr. Speaker, i yield back the balance of my time to be used for other members. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. Under the speakers announced spoifl january 3, 2017, the chair recognizes the gentleman from North Carolina, mr. Holding, for 30 minutes. Mr. Holding i rise today to reflect on the life of the late james Louie Maxwell jr. The gentleman from a small, eastern North Carolina county, whose innovative mind and entrepreneurial spirit helped grow his grandfathers local Milling Company into a thriving international agribusiness. Louie maxwells story is certainly one of commercial and financial success, but it is more importantly, mr. Speaker, about a life devoted to family and community. January 9, 1927, blaine county, North Carolina, james Louie Maxwell and his wife, ruth gearing, welcomed the birth of a season, louie jr. He was an active youngster and became involved in boy scouts, proudly earning his eagle scout badge. He would later say that scouting had a transformational impact on him and he remained actively involved with the scouts throughout his life. His fwraufer funned golds brogue Milling Company, a company honored to celebrate 109 years of business this year. The Company Began with the production of various seeds for farm animals along with milling corn meal and making grits. High louie, graduate of school attended college but left to serve world war ii. After completing his service , he enrolled in u. N. C. Chapel hill, graduating in 1950 with a degree in commerce. Proud of his deep roos in North Carolina , he returned home to goles brogue and began working in the Family Business. He rose quickly through the ranks. He was always looking at ways to expand the Family Business and he began the companys efforts in raising turkeys. Hoping that eastern North Carolina would be favorable to growing those large birds. Turkey production grew rapidly and today, mr. Speaker, louies vision and hard work have helped his Company Become the largest producer and processor of turkeys in the world, having acquired Butterball Turkey some years ago. Continuing to grow agribusiness across the United States, louie expanded his familys ventures, becoming a major swine producer along with timber and blueberry farming. His vision an accruemen has carried through five generations of the Maxwell Family and shows no sign of slowing down. And yet, despite all of the many achievements of this good man, and i have really not even touched the surface of those achievements, hes truly a humble person. The Louie Maxwell to Louie Maxwell helping folks in his communities by providing good jobs and many opportunities was one of the most honorable things he thought a man could do to serve his fellow man. He expected much from himself and from those who employed. And he was pleased to reward loyalty and hard work. His outlet for working hard when he wasnt working hard what he liked to do was spend his time outdoors. He was the ultimate outdoorsman. If it wasnt hunting season, it was it was fishing season. And his children were right there with him and they say he was still out in the boat fishing even into his later years. They always stuck to one rule, though, which was he had to clean the fish that he caught. Louie was a born and bred methodist, was a lifelong member of st. Pauls Methodist Church in goles brogue and no matter where he was, mr. Speaker, he never met a stranger. Never walked past someone without saying hello, and he was a proud american. He loved he loved his flag, loved his country. But most importantly , he spent more than 60 years married to the love of his life, mary ann jeffries until she passed in 2014. Together they had four children, eight grandchildren, and now a great grand child. Louie was very proud of his family and they were of him. And he cherished his role as a husband, father, and grandfather. In his lifetime, Louie Maxwell enriched countless lives in ways too many to express. He will truly be missed. He was a friend. Mr. Speaker, with that, i yield ack. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina rise . Mr. Holding mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourn to meet at 11 00 a. M. On tuesday next. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Louie gohmert, for 30 minutes. Mr. Gohmert thank you, mr. Speaker. Its been a deeply troubling last 12 hours, 24 hours, i guess. The house went about trying to repeal the its just tough to say Affordable Care act because of the thousands of people weve heard from in my district in the last seven years who have just been devastated by the costs that skyrocketed, the premiums that skyrocketed, the deductibles that had skyrocketed, the critically important doctor or medicine or facility that president obama promised they could keep that were taken away by obamacare. Its just hard to call it the Affordable Care act because it is it has cost some people everything everything. Had every republican promised we would repeal obamacare. Its possible Susan Collins in the senate might not have. She didnt vote for repeal in the last congress. But its my understanding that virtually everybody had promised, if you will elect me or reelect me, i will vote for repeal. Prayed for iterally senator john mccain, with the cancer that they found out has overtaken him and i do hope and pray for speedy, full recovery. T i do recall vividly that election in arizona and apparently he was extremely concerned about getting reelected. There was a hardcharging opposition in the republican primary. More than one primary opponent. And as i recall, there were repeated promises that the senator, if the good people of arizona would just reelect him, give him another six years, he would be work tirelessly, hed be working so hard to repeal obamacare. And i did go down to the senate amber this week, a couple of days ago. I went down because i thought it would be historic, potentially, to ve the senate vote proceed to debate on what we hoped would be an actual repeal of obamacare. Turns out they called it a skinny bill, or skinny repeal. Wasnt much of a repeal at all. In fact, i guess theres a decent chance if that had passed and become law it may have very the ensured that ensured total collapse of private insurance. And ultimately the desire of those that pushed through obamacare, wed ultimately end up with socialized medicine, rationed care, im not a fan of the term single payer because it masks what were really talking about, were talking about government takeover of health care. And as weve watched the little precious child, charlie gard, his parents going through absolute hell, there have been so many questions. You know, ok, whether you agree or disagree, should he be allowed to have further surgery, should he have been allowed to have a procedure that might have saved his life, it ends up going to court and because of the laws in england with their socialized medicine, the government gets to choose who can have what potentially lifesaving procedures what lifeenhancing procedures, and who cant. That is the nature of socialized medicine. And during my summer in the soviet union, former soviet union, back when i was in college, as an Exchange Student over there, didnt just have tours, i saw the way people were treated in socialized medicine. Of the soviet union. And ive heard even some of my dear friends and colleagues here in the house say, you know, well, we know socialized medicine always fails, and actually thats something i dont know. What i know is, what i believe is, socialized medicine never actually fails. Now socialism will always fail, it always has, even going become to the new Testament Church when the apostle paul tried to beautiful, wonderful concept, bringing all into the common storehouse, sharing and sharing alike, well eventually you realize thats going to work in heaven just beautifully but it sure doesnt work on earth. So ok, heres a new rule. If you dont work you dont eat. Why . Because in this beautiful, incredible world incredible world, where people are human, they are imperfect. No one, everyone has done wrong at some point, fallen short of the glory of god. Every one of us. Nobody is perfect. So you cant have a perfect system that does anything but become a totalitarian government. It has to become totalitarian in order to force people to bring into the common storehouse and when you do that, you eliminate the incentives that have proved to be the ed history least effective. If you dont have incentives, its ineffective. People dont work the hardest. And mr. Speaker, ive mentioned mr. Speaker, i mentioned before but there was a great example during that summer in the soviet union at a collective of m 30 miles or so outside kiev. It was thousands and thousands of acres, but i could not tell the difference between the cultivated areas and the noncultivated areas, and i worked on farms and ranches and i know this was in the middle of july. Well, in july, were about the same latitude in east texas, and youll want to get out there as close to sunup as you can because it gets so hot, by mid afternoon, you want to be finishing up by mid afternoon. And here it was the middle of the morning and most of the farmers were out there in the middle of the village there in the shade and back in Mount Pleasant growing up, we had some of the older gentlemen had a spit and whittle club. Hat reminded me of that. Guys talking young and old and i tried to use my best russian, when do you work out in the field . Obviously these guys hadnt worked up a sweat all morning. And you know, trying to be pleasant. When do you work out in the field . And they all laughed. I thought maybe i didnt say it right, but one of them then responded in russian, i make the same number of rubles if im out there in the sun or im here in the shade, so im here in the shade. Obviously not forgotten and that is such a great example why socialism never works because there is no incentive to work. Oh, yeah, you can punish people but that doesnt provide nearly the incentive as the pilgrims found their beautiful compact bringing to the common store shouse storehouse. Fter they lost so much, they got private property. Why, did it work out well . Its worked out well over the years even to the present time although this government has continued to buy and take over more and more land, move in the direction of being socialistic but our medicine has not been really socialistic. It has been taken over more and more by government and the Insurance Companies and why in the world did the Insurance Companies support obamacare, the a. C. A. When it passed . Because they were so shortsighted. I think they and the Big Pharmaceutical Companies knew that eventually well, by signing onto obamacare they were signing their own death warrants not immediately and those executives that got involved, they will be able to take their golden parachutes and millions and millions of dollars in distribution but ultimately we would become a socialized medicine country. You would see mortality rates begin to come down where people didnt live as long. People would not get the knees, the back surgeries, the hips, the things you know, hearing aids. The government ends up deciding whos worthy and who is not. So america, they voted the democrats out of majorities in the house and senate mainly because they pushed through obamacare and the huge majority of americans were satisfied with their Health Insurance, their Health Insurance plans and health care. There is a big difference. But those terms, Health Insurance, health care have been skewed, the differences. There is a big difference, but we have got to get back to a place where patients and octors have a relationship unincurvered and without being nencumbered u and without being separated. Charlie gards situation where the government says, you can have a lifesaving procedure, you cannot, that day has already come and its going to be a common occurrence if we dont keep our promise and repeal obamacare. So i was down there when they voted to proceed to debate, but i honest to goodness, even though ive been here 12 years, think nothing shocks me, i couldnt believe that so many people who promised over and over and over and over again we will repeal obamacare, we will end obamacare, we will get you back control of your health care, we will get you back Affordable Health care, they couldnt vote even for the skinny bill. I mean, it hardly did much of anything to obamacare. Even a little bit and its the first time i am aware of in the history of the United States congress where one body contacted the other body, the senate in this case contacted the republicans in the house and said, please, we think we can pass our bill in the senate but you got to promise us you wont pass it in the house. Well go to conference. Please promise us you wont pass in the house. We have a chance to pass it in the senate. What kind of governance is that . Well, i think its a good thing to take a break from being here in session where we talk to ourselves too much. I think thats a problem here at both ends of the house. Im proud of some of the things weve done here in the house. We made some progress. We need to make a lot more. We need to pass the tax reform. I want to see the Corporate Tax get down to 15 so those thousands actually, hundreds of thousands and millions of jobs that went to china can come back to the United States. Why . Because we undercut the insurance im sorry the income tax that china charges to corporations. And whats a Corporate Tax . Its an insidious fee that citizens have to pay where the government makes them think they are not paying it. Oh, its the evil corporation paying it. No, its every customer pays for the Corporate Tax. You reduce that tax, we become competitive around the world in things that were not currently competitive, jobs come back here and as any historian can tell you, an International Power that does not produce the things they need in a time of war will not remain an International Power after the next war. When we lost production of steel, of rubber, of tires, all these things that are critical in a time of war, it will encourage our enemies to take advantage of the fact that they provide the things well need in a time of war. And the only way you effectively avoid war, as president reagan made clear, you become so strong nobody wants to fight you, and that ose are the small areas, times of peace in World History either when someone is so strong they enslave everybody else or one country is so strong that believes in freedom, they force the evil leaders in the world to stay at bay, where people have peace. I want peace. I want a strong america. I want to keep our promises and have tax cuts, and i feel pretty comfortable were going to do it in the house. And i just hope and pray, mr. Speaker, that those in the senate who have made promises about repealing obamacare and cutting taxes will have the kind of august where god lays it on their hearts that its not a good thing to lie to the American People or constituents that the best thing i can do for myself politically and for country is to keep my promises. And with that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore does the gentleman have a motion . Mr. Gohmert i move we hereby adjourn. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly, consistent with the fourth clause in section 5 of article 1 of the constitution, and notwithstanding section 132 of the legislative recognition act reorganization act of 1946, the house stands adjourned until 11 00 a. M. On tuesday,
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