Transcripts For CSPAN U.S. House Of Representatives Legislative Business 20170719

Office. Mr. Langevin its difficult to express in words how difficult their work is. They take care of the least among us. They provide shelter for the working poor and they assist those not working because of age, infirmity or disability. They help keep lives together. They help keep families together. Mr. Speaker, we must continue to provide strong funding for these programs in our appropriations bills. We still have not fully emerged, as you know from the financial crisis and people are still trying to make ends meet. Foster youth are particularly vulnerable with as many as 40 who age out of the system becoming homeless. Social Services Organizations and nonprofits can only do so much on their own. They need support to keep our vulnerable brothers and sisters from falling off a cliff. We can do better and we deserve to support them. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition . Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to recognize the Paducah Area Chamber of commerce for their designation as the 2017 chamber of the year by the association of chamber of commerce executives. This National Honor was awarded t the acce National Convention in nashville, tennessee, on july 18. This is the second win for the Paducah Area Chamber of commerce in six years and it is recognition for the areas Business Leaders Whose Community contributions are unparalleled. Ranking among the top 10 chambers nationwide they developped wellrounded, lifelong business lead wers the pride and responsibility to their fellow community members. As the largest city in the First District of kentucky, the chambers efforts have benefited not only the paducah area but positively Impact Communities throughout western kentucky. I would like to thank president Sandra Wilson and board chair Tammy Zimmerman as well as the board of directors, staff and Chamber Members for their unwearing dedication to the betterment of local industry. I look forward to many future accomplishments for the chamber and am proud to represent the thriving Business Leaders of paducah. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition . Without objection the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. Ms. Kaptur thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise because President Trump dubbed this week made in america one out one cant pretend ways to raise jobs in the United States even if president. A key number that gives you clues about jobs in america is the trade deficit, how many things we export rather than import. For every month of the Trump Administration, the red line, the jobs hole for america is growing deeper. Seen here, may 2017 depeff sit on the scorecard confirms the failing trump trade record of 46 billion in trade and jobs deficit for may alone, larger than last year, larger than every other month with his trade deficit has gotten worse. The president spoke endlessly about trade during the campaign and promised turning nafta into a good deal for americans. Working people in the midwest put him in the presidency because he promised to renegotiate nafta, that bad deal. Now its his turn to live up to the bargain. Theres an old expression, dont tell me what he says, show me what he does. He could start by onshoring all the foreign goods he makes abroad. From ties, sutes, bracelets and so forth. I cant seen any inclination to date by this president reshoring his items so we create jobs in this country and he contributes to a growing trade surplus not deficit. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, a recent washington abc news poll states that only 30 of americans approve the job President Trump is doing but the results of this poll are flawed because it did not use a representative sample of republican and democratic participants. Mr. Smith this Washington Post abc news poll used a population sample that was 35 democratic, only 23 republican, underrepresenting Republican Voters by about 10 . As noted by strategist jim mclaughlin, quote if the poll reflected the actual electorate, trump would be in the mid 40s, which is what his favorability rating was on election day when he won an overwhelming Electoral College victory. He same pollsters consistently predicted a clinton victory only to be proved wrong. Their credibility is questionable. The gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition . Without objection the gentleman s recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to recognize this friday as the coalitionsnational h. I. V. Aids awareness day. S the harsh reality that hivaids touches every Community Across this country. Though weve made great progress in treating the disease, it is imperative to continue striving for prevention, effective treatment and the cure this particularly is important in my home state of new jersey. In 2013 alone, over 2,000 adults and adolescents were diagnosed with h. I. V. Making new jersey the sixth highest in the country of new diagnoses. In ages 13 to 24 diagnoses have increased from 10 to 18 and in the Africanamerican Community rates are above the national average. We must remain vigilant to combat this epidemic that continues to plague communities across our nation. Especially in light of the continued efforts to repeal the Affordable Care act and remove insurance protections for millions. We must be vocal against all efforts to take away the ability to receive adequate care and do our part to fight hivaids. I encourage your loved ones to get tested. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Wilson tomorrow marks president Donald Trumps First Six Months in office. I appreciate his many successes for the American People. His leadership for jobs has inspired record highs for the dow, s p 500 and nasdaq. President trump advanced a decisive foreign policy, positively addressing the muslim world, upholding the United States commitment to nato, and working with allies for peace through strength. The president has taken firm action against rogue regimes. In syria he was clear that america will not tolerate chemical weapons attacks by the assad regime against his citizens. In north korea, the president made clear that he will challenge the continued provocation by the communist totalitarian regime and that the u. S. Will expose iran for their Ballistic Missile testing and human rights abuses. As of june 30, the house passed 269 bills, the most in the last five administrations, with 37 laws signed to date, the most of five administrations. I look forward to continuing to work with President Donald Trump and Vice President mike pence for positive achievements to promote american families. In conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the tpwhrobal war on terrorism. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek reck snigs . I request 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. 11 years ago, i set off on a long shot campaign run by a talented and passionate but also overworked an inexperienced staff, many of whom were learning on the job. Yet everything went pretty smoothly, smoothly enough, anyway. A big reason for that was an unpaid volunteer who just seemed to know how to do everything. Shed show up with a warm, everpresent smile, eager to tack they will smallest task or take on the most challenging responsibility. Mr. Yarmuth whatever was needed, carolyn made everything easier. When it was time to hire a district director, carolyn made that decision easy too. I am fortunate to have had my friend carolyn running my Louisville Office since day one. Though ill miss her leadership, im proud shes moving on to new opportunities. I know the people of louisville are better off because of herer is vess. I saw it firsthand every day for more than a decade. For all she accomplished, her commitment and continued friendship, i am forever grateful. I expect great things from carolyn and her amazing family and wish them nothing but the best going forward. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Poe mr. Speaker, today i was joined by some members of congress along with other americans in taking a stand for the First Amendment right of freedom of expression. We stood across the street from the Turkish Embassy where a few weeks ago tushish president erdogan was visiting. While the peaceful protest was taking place last may, dictator erdogans security detail crossed this estreet and assaulted and beat up u. S. Citizens protesting the rogue regime. People were injured, the outlaws escaped arrest and escaped to turkey. No apology was issue, the government justified the assault on american. Erdogan should not be welcome back to the United States until he apoll jieses. Also the culprits must face justice in american court. The First Amendment right of expression of freedom is the First Amendment because its the most important of all our rights. No foreign tyrant can assault the First Amendment or assault americans without consequences. This should never occur on our soil. Thats just the way it is. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition . For what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition . Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to congratulate the young guns at quail creek for winning the 2017 scholastic play target program Clay Target Program national championship. Based out of my hometown, okeechobee, florida, theyve won the state championship for the last three years. The wrung guns had the highest combined team score of all 38 teams competing, specifically one participant, nick blanker, had the highest overall score in the competition for trap, skeet and sporting clays. Mr. Rooney over the course of two days, he shot 575 out of 600, only missing 25 shots. Mr. Speaker, i congratulate the whole team on their success and for making okeechobee proud. With that, i yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. For what purpose does the gentleman from california the gentleman from california. The gentleman from pennsylvania rise . Mr. Speaker, i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Thompson thank you, mr. Speaker. As chairman of the nutrition subcommittee i rise today to speak about an Important Program that gives snap participants access to more fruits and vegetables. Snap, the supplemental nutrition assistance program, help prossvide low income families with the resources they need to consume more nutritious food. The agriculture act of 2014 created the Food Insecurity Nutrition Incentive Program which provided 100 million to support produce insent i programs around the country for snap participants. This means snap benefits could be used at farmers markets, grocery stores, or other farmer to consumer retailers serving urban and rural communities. It is successful at achieving the goal of encouraging snap households to encourage fresh, healthy produce. More than 0 pnth of shoppers reported they were eating more produce. As the Agriculture Committee farm to define the next bill, we should support this it supports American Farmers and provides more americans with quality food. Thats what i call made in america. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise . Without objection without objection. The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Im proud to recognize middle town township two new officers. Officers grove and more ison, oth 23 years old were sworn in this week. Grove is attending Lock Haven University and went on to work at the Lehigh County sheriffs office. Morseon graduated and enlisted as a military Police Officer and graduated from the Temple University police academy. As we celebrate them joining the police department, we recognize the larger commitment of all Law Enforcement to step up and serve their communities. I stand in solidarity with my brothers and sisters of the thin blue line. Together, let us recommit our ourselves, the laws that officers grove and morseon and others are sworn to uphold. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition . Mr. Thompson i ask unanimous consent that when the house adjourns today it adjourns to meet at 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow. The speaker pro tempore without objection, so ordered. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the gentleman from maryland, mr. Raskin is recognized as the designee of the minority leader. Mr. Raskin im delighted to take this time from the minority leader on behalf of the congressional progressive caucus and doing a special order hour this evening on police and civilian relations. We are joined by the very distinguished congressman keith ellison. I yield first to our wonderful colleague, congressman brad sherman from california. Mr. Sherman i thank the gentleman for yielding and i will speak for two minutes. I rise today to honor the life of my good friend of 30 years. A leader in the indianamerican community who passed away on july 3 of this year at age 70 in los angeles surrounded by his steppeded family. He was born in india and emgrated to the United States in 1978, arisk in america with just the clothes on his back, he poured his energy into building a career into being a tax consultant. He gue his Santa Monicabased Accounting Practice to a thriving firm. He served as president of the hindu temple, one of the largest in the United States and invited me to speak there and be there on many occasions. As president of the temple, he was regularly invited to speak to political, cultural and religious groups across the world. Natador founded a foundation, a pioneering think tank that empowered americanindian political activism. He received the ellis island medal of honor. He personally met with many u. S. President s, Prime Ministers of india and other legitimated first. He was responsible for organizing several major events, many of which i was honored to attend, including the worlds hindu economic forums with indian ambassadors to the United States and events with a wide range of public figures. Mr. Speaker, i ask that all of my colleagues join me in honoring his many contributions to our nation and extend , his nces to his wife , his brother, his and his extended family. And to all whose lives he touched. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Nd i yield back my time. Mr. Raskin the progressive caucus special order hour tonight is on the subject of its e power in america and uses and abuses and we are going to kick off with keith ellison, who has been the chair of the progressive caucus and in addition to being the congressman from minnesota, he is vice chairman of the Democratic National committee and i yield as much time to him, hopefully no more than 20 minutes. Mr. Ellison i appreciate the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, i come before the house today to talk about a tragic situation involving just een damon, a young woman who believed she saw a Sexual Assault outside her home and made a call to the police and asked them to come and give assistance. She then went outside to meet with the police to report what she saw and for some reason what no one really knows quite yet, she was shot in the abdomen and died. Ms. Damon, 40 years old and due to be married in few weeks. Nce, her her fia parents and here we are again dealing with a tragic situation which an unarmed civilian has been shot by a member of Law Enforcement. As i speak today, mr. Speaker, i want to be very clear. I know many Police Officers personally. I know how hard they work. I know the dangers that they incur. I know they join the force because they want to help people because they are courageous and brave and willing to put themselves in harms way in order to protect other citizens. I have called on the police to stop crimes from happening and report them and grateful when they report. But its also true, mr. Speaker, that officerinvolved shootings happen with tremendous frequency and its not a matter of blaming the officer. We have to ask ourselves whats going on with the system of policing, which allows us to return to this tragic scenario again and again and again. Justine was in her pajamas and trying to help another person. And yet somehow the officer on the passenger side shot through the door or the window and thats not clear and she sustained lethal injuries. One of the most disturbing things about this particular case is that the officers body cameras were not turned on. The dash cam did not capture the interaction between her and the officers. And the body cams were not on. This is despite the fact that all minneapolis Police Officers have worn body cameras since the end of 2016. Why the body cameras were not on , we can only speculate. But i i urge with everything i have that the Minnesota Bureau of criminal apprehension and Minneapolis Police department and anyone who has Jurisdictional Authority investigate the reason for these ools to not be in use. Justine is dead and shes not coming back. And its true innocent people get killed by criminals all day and thats a sad reality of our world. It doesnt just happen in my city of minneapolis but happens all over the country and happens all over the globe. But i think the citizens expect that members of Law Enforcement who are sworn to protect us would take due care to protect life and not end it unless there was a legal basis to do so. Again, i dont know what happened here. Nobody really knows what caused the officer to somehow reach er his partner and shoot ms. Damon in the abdomen and in her pajamas. The weeks and days ahead will reveal what happened. But i assure this isnt the last time this will happen unless we begin to ask ourselves why these things are happening. Our community in minnesota, were still trying to figure out how to deal with it and cope with the death of castillo and stream to the credit of john choy, who was the prosecutor and district attorney, that officer was charged with the criminal offense of manslaughter and after a jury trial, that officer was acquitted. When i looked at the dash cam and saw the officer discharge s firearm into the body of castillo, it was horrifying and i couldnt understand why this happened. I dont know what the jury saw and i support the jury system, but castillo who did have a firearm said officer, i have a firearm, i have a license to carry a firearm and next thing you know. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Young man dead. Casteeao was a beloved member of his member. He was the lunch manager at Hill Elementary School in st. Paul. And the children needed counseling and the families eded someone to splage why castillo was treated this way. They loved him. And they couldnt reconcile why the police who they respect, would hurt castillo, who they also respected him and admired and loved. Gentleman march clark, another one from minnesota, unarmed, shot and killed. Tremendous outpouring of Community Frustration around this, brought an 18day protest outside of the fourth precinct in minneapolis and you know, drew the attention of the entire community and i can assure you that many people, particularly young people were angry, upset, frustrated, feeling vulnerable because they felt there was no accountability and their lives didnt matter much in the eyes of those sworn to protect and defend them. We have a community problem. We have to come together and deal with it. Its not enough to say to say this is the police fault. This is a social problem that calls for a social solution. Part of it will be changes in law, part of it will be departmental changes, but we have to have these changes and if people just say, its not my fault. It was an accident. This person had it coming, we will never get to the bottom of these kind of things. Mr. Speaker, in 1967, there were a state of civil disturbances, some people called riots throughout our urban areas and the government responded by issuing a Kerner Commission findings one of the was that communication was important poor and police were sent into areas that were isolated and deprived in order to keep order on what should have been happening and we should have been investing and jobs and opportunity and social inclusion and we asked the police to solve this problem without making the investments that our society should have made. Im sad to say we dont seem to have advanced very far. The fact is that often civil disturbances which are referred to as riots occur after these tragic shootings. Civil judgments are paid out. Citizens tend to distrust the police and not willing to call them when they need them. There are tremendous social costs to not addressing these officerinvolved shootings involving unarmed civilians and we have to be there to do something about it. Weve seen a number of tragic circumstances all across the country, whether its sandra bland or whether its walter scott in South Carolina. Or whether its eric garner who died begging for a breath. Or whether it is all of the victims of officer holdsclaw who routinely and systematically sexually abused women in oklahoma city. The fact is, there is great discretionary latitude conferred on our Law Enforcement officers. We need more oversight and accountability. We need people to be held accountable when they break the law. And i mean people who are not people who are police and people who are not. We need to say that theres one standard of justice and that everyone has to adhere to it. We know that michael brown, 17 years old, shot, 2014. Or we can say tamir rice. Theres so many case they go on anded on and tissue d they go on and on and on. Were at a point where we have to address this crisis. Ms. Damond is one of more than 500 fatal shootings by police this year alone. Shes one of more than 500 people who have been fatally killed by the police this year. Some of them, the officer may have had legal justification. Some not. But when youve got 500 people across this country being shot and killed, its a crisis that we have to do something about. This year, i can simply tell you, mr. Speaker, that offering prayers simply isnt going to get it done. We have a systemic problem. And whether we have to talk about addressing body cameras more and insisting upon their use or whether we need implicit bias training for police to raise awareness of unconscious or implicit biases, whether we need to train officers on the deescalation of force and have training in that regard, and yes, prosecutions of people who just commit crimes with a uniform on. We have got to take decisive action. We need more diversity in Police Departments and we need more diversity in jury selection. We need grand jury reform and we need the department of justice to keep account of all the cases that involve officer involved shootings and one thing we abslutly to not need is for the torney general Jefferson Beauregard segs, to undo consent depsychiatry crees which have brought about some understanding between communities and Police Departments. We need a partner in the federal government, mr. Speaker. Whats at stake is too important. And we also need quality schools , we need investment in neighborhoods, we need quality jobs and affordable housing, we need health care for all, and we need to have a clean and we need to have clean air and water for everyone. We need those things as part of the ecosystem we live in. None of these things are a replacement for decent, respectful treatment people deserve from Law Enforcement. Im not here im not here to give up and im here to engage police in a dialogue about how we reduce these shootings. How we increase the trust. How we make sure that no one feels that they cant go to the police because they just because the trust has been so severely damaged. I believe we have got to come together as a society and recognize that this problem is serious. Its not getting better. In fact, its getting worse. And when you think about cases involving people like maya hall r alexa christian, megan hockaday, sandra bland, natasha mckinnon, all africanamerican women killed by or after encounters with police. Its not just men, women too. Not just africanamericans, its whites too. Ms. Damond was a white female. Its latinos. Its people of different economic stations. Its not just one community. If ms. Damonds case proves anything, its that shootings of unarmed civilians dont only occur in certain neighborhoods of certain people. But the time is now for us to act and i do put out a call for police and communities to engage in intensive discussion about how we restore trust, how we increase accountability and how we really make it true when we write on the side doors of our Police Vehicles all across this country, to protect and serve. I yield back to the gentleman from maryland. Mr. Raskin thank you very much for those insightful comments. I want to pick up the discussion about the police power and the and expand the discussion to include not just power over persons, but power over property in america. You know, our constitutions framers were deeply informed by the social contract theorists of the 17th and 18th centuries. And those theorists believe that we enter into a social contract out of a state of nature because were all made better off by virtue of being part of a society. So the first incarnation of it came from thomas hobbs in his leviathan, n the and hobbs argued that the state of nature was nasty, brutish and short. Because anybody could kill anybody. So we enter into society together, give our power to the leviathan, the government. The problem with his view, the government had whatever powers it wanted, unlimited, infinite powers. At that point, as the framers of our constitution would see, youve got a real problem because you might be saved from criminals and bandits and thieves but now youve got to deal with an allpowerful government and police who can trample your rights just as much as the thieves and the bandits could. So the hobbsian theory was inadequate. John locke in his famous work on the social contract improved upon the proposition. The state of nature for him was not quite so frightful a place. There were certain virtues to a state of nature so people were actually giving something up by going into it. So on his view, entering the social contract meant that we would surrender some of our powers to government and certainly our powers to commit violence and theft against other people but in return, we would be guaranteed rights by the government and we would have rights against the government. And that was the view that deeply informed the u. S. Constitution. The whole point of the rule of law is that the people have rights against the government, gerns those who are just the agents of the sovereign, the sovereign is the people. The people are the sleeping sovereigns who can come awake in times of constitution making and also in order to make law. Now, the whole social contract comes unraveled, hobsian style, if we were attacked hobbesian style, if we are attacked by the police. The congressman spoke about the horrific spectacle of violence waged against us citizens and others in the streets of washington, d. C. By this thugs of Prime Minister erdo fwmbings an from turkey, he were unleashed on protesters. We saw as congressman poe said, a scene of really savage violence take place right here in washington and im glad that we have a bipartisan consensus that that kind of Police Attack on freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, is unacceptable in the United States of america. Whether its on citizens or permanent residents or on noncitizens. But theres Something Else thats going on in the country. Having to do with the police power. And the police power in common law terms, in the american vernacular, is not just the power that Police Officers have to regulate Public Safety and public order, the police power also has to do generally with the governmental power to regulate. There are some very troubling things that are taking place in america today. And one of them has to do with the Eminent Domain power. We are seeing rampant abuse of the eminnocent domain power across the country today where private developers use their political power and influence and Campaign Contributions in order to get local governments condemn governments to private property of homeowners in order to oust them from their homes in order to build a private project. Now, one of the chief perpetrators of this Business Model in the United States of america happens to be the president of the United States. Donald trump. Who has bragged about his use of the eminnocent domain power and has been involved in a lot of lit nation related to Eminent Domain power. Ill take you to atlanta city to Atlantic City and introduce you to vera cokeland who lived in a theestory house off the boardwalk in Atlantic City, next door to the 22story trump plaza that thenbusinessman donald trump had built, and trump had built the ohotel, built the casino, built a parking garage, but it wasnt enough for him. He wanted a v. I. P. Parking garage. He wanted a parking fwradge for limos. And made an offer which ms. Cokeland refused on her house so he could demolish her house and expand his garage. She said no thank you. He made another offer, she said no thank you, its not a question of money, my family lived in this house for yen rations and my kids went to school here, and we belong to the church here, its not for sale. Well then at that point, President Trump, in order to build his goldplated parking garage for the limos went to a Government Agency he knew well called the Atlantic City casino redevelopment authority. To help him take away ms. Cokelands property. And they entered into litigation. Fortunately she found pro bono counsel in the libertarian Public Interest group, the institute of justice, the libertarian think tank, and legal action center. And they were able to stop donald trump in court in a case called Atlantic City Community Redevelopment authority versus banen. Unfortunately, that took place before the famous helo versus new london decision in 2005. There was a very similar scenario in kelo a hardhit working class town in connecticut called new london, Pfizer Corporation and a local private land redevelopment authority, one of these shadowy, mixed, publicprivate entities, decided they wanted to displace a whole neighborhood in new london so they could destroy the blight as they call it and put in their new development. Ms. Kelo, a very soft specken soft spoken, single working class woman decided to fight. She also found the institute of justice. They organized the community to say no, they were not blight. They had ties to this community and they were not going to be forced out. By these big corporations. Unfortunately, and they won all the way up to the Supreme Court and then a fivejustice majority in the Supreme Court in the decision in 2005 determined that it is perfectly constitutional and consistent with the takings clause in the fifth amendment of our constitution for a public Municipal Corporation to condemn a persons private home or a private Small Business in order to turn it over to another private business if its consistent with someones economic redevelopment plan. And this was the decision that President Trump said he, quote, agreed with 100 . Because remember, that was his Business Model. Everything is for sale and if you refuse to sell to donald trump and his companies, theyll get Public Authority to come in to get you out of the way so they can condemn your land and take it over. That in the kilo decision, after the Supreme Courts erroneous judgment in it, the land was condemned, sue seth kilo forced out of her house and think never even built it. Today its an urban wilderness, taken over by wildcats. Ok. Lets look at another example of abuse of the police power in america today. I understand that earlier this morning the Justice Department announced a new federal policy to help state and local Police Officers take cash and property from anybody suspected of a crime even without arresting them, even without charging them with a crime, and even without an arrest warrant. Reversing an obama a rule that was put in place because of ram papt abuse of peoples rights. This is the United States of america. The police should not be able to stop people on the street, in their cars or at their homes and say i think the money you have doesnt really belong to you. I think the condo you have doesnt belong to you, the car you have doesnt belong to you, we are going to seize it and were going to hold it and you have the burden to prove that your property is innocent without charging them with a crime, without arresting them, without using a search warrant and this is what attorney general sessions wants to do with the new order that he handed down today. He wants to get the federal Government Back into the business of working with state and local governments to simply declare peoples property and their money guilt youy. And they have to go out and hire a lawyer and go to court and prove that their property or money is clean within the eyes of the government. But whatever happened to due process . Under our constitution, we are presumed to be innocent of crime. And our property should be presumed to be innocent of crimes. If there is no Legal Process at all to condemn our property or to cast a shadow of criminal suspicion over it. If you look at the history of this, attorney general holder barred state and local police from using the federal legal regime to seize cash and other property without criminal charges or without criminal warrants, which is the right way to do it. That is the constitutional way to think about it. In a democratic society, the people are presumed to be innocent until they are proven guilty. Its not as if we are Walking Around with the stigma that we are presumed guilty in the ice of the state. Since 2008, thousands of Police Agencies have made more than 55,000 seizures of cash and property worth 3 billion under a Justice Department Civil Asset Forfeiture Program which allowed police to make seizures and share the proceeds with federal agencies and allowed them to cooperate with state and local Law Enforcement and then the Justice Department said they were disengaging from it. There was a story in the Washington Post about the extraordinary abuses taking place. There was a Small Businessman, a chineseamerican citizen of the United States who was traveling with a lot of money because he was going to purchase a building for his new Chinese Restaurant that he was going to open up. He had 25,000 and he got stopped by the police and he was nervous about the whole thing and they said he was acting nervous and took his money from him, his life savings in order toll purchase a building for a Chinese Restaurant. Luckily he found some lawyers, but took several years for him to get the money back. He lost the deal and he is in the minority, because most people this happens to never go to court to try to go to court to get their money back. They are demoralized that their money was taken by government agents without due process. And i urge everyone to find the abuses that led up to the changes that was put into place by attorney general eric holder. Now attorney general sessions does a uturn. The administration, President Trump said he wanted to give power back to the people of the United States said the federal government is going to be in sentivizing more violations of Due Process Rights by allowing seizure of property and money. At is this going to do for police, civilian relations in the United States when people are terrified that their property can be taken away by agents of the state without an arrest, without a criminal warrant, without any charges at all . Thats not right in our country. Thats not right in a country at does not allow for taking of private property and not right based on due process of law or probable cause and search warrants for people being searched. Thats where this administration is taking us with the policy that was announced earlier today and going to make our communities only more suspicious and only more dangerous. We have to step back from this. R wellian vision of government all powerful state that can seize your home because a big businessman wants your property to build a casino for his v. I. P. Guests or a Company Wants to redevelop your land or because the police decide you dont look the right way and we are going to seize whats in your wallet and take your car and take your boat, condo or apartment without any criminal charges at all and you go and deal with the problem. Mr. Speaker, in the United States of america, we are a land of laws. The great tom payne said that in the monarchies, the king is law, but in the democracies, the law is king. We have to abide by the rule of law here. And im not talking about democrat, republican, left, right, we all have to be constitutional patriots in america to stand up for our constitution. And i would invite the president of the United States to come join us here to talk about the problem of Eminent Domain abuse and talk about the problem of Law Enforcement taking peoples property and their money without due process of law, because its a serious threat to everything that we believe in. And why we created our social contract. All of us have got to be constitutional patriots and stand up for the basic principles of the country. With that, i yield back. And i thank you for your indulgence, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the gentleman from arizona, mr. Schweikert, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. Schweikert thank you, mr. Speaker. Actually, i would like to start with yielding as much time as he might consume, my friend from. Ndiana holingholing i promise to be holingholing hoosiers are back home talking to me and that is to rise to express my support for those struggling against burdensome and costly regulations, those regulations and re hurting hoosier ultimately being able to hire more hoosiers. Doddfrank ssed a has become a nightmare. While i was back home, i met with two businesses working hard to do right by their customers but confounded by the section 5, 1502. It requires businesses to disclose Due Diligence on the source and chain of custody of conflict minerals as well as hire third parties to audit their Due Diligence and support a report. According to its authors, this provision would affect only the biggest of companies but they have to bring in all of their suppliers. One of those firms is best home furnishings, they manufacture quality furntur and i was astounded to learn the lengths they must go through. They travel far abroad to make sure the wood is conflictfree and after that are travel, they are left wondering despite their best efforts if they are making any efforts, that are far from their plants, customers and employees. Key electronics, a manufacturer who is working on electronics in diana to get through opioids withdrawals for many hoosiers. It is a laudible goal but hamstrung by the thousands of dollars they pay to ensure the customers they work with ultimately get this thirdparty audit on them and their vendors. This challenging business is being limited in what they can invest in desperately needed therapy. For every dollar and every moment that a Business Owner has to spend to comply with this unnecessary regulation, those are minutes and dollars that are not directed towards job creation or americas future and not fulfilling their and their employees ley dream. I would like to bring an end to the excessive jobkilling regulations that stand between hoose years and their dreams. I want to talk about how regulations and restrictions are preventing new innovations from being able to deliver better care. I met with a local business just outside of my district, main Street Health partners who is developing new Rapid Recovery Centers that are matching patients needs. When a patient has knee surgery, they only need the hospital for a limited window during their period of acute care and they need the hospital for recovery. But hours after that, they can be transferred to a different Recovery Center one that better matches their needs enabling them to recover much more quickly and enabling us to match that care with the needs that they have. Frankly, i have been amazed of the quality of these Rapid Recovery Centers. Such they can develop and have physical therapy light there. Innovations just like these Rapid Recovery Centers that will develop better cures for more americans. This is not only more affordable, not only more accessible, but also better for patients in the long run. I want to be just as effective in addition to affordable and accessible. What is standing in their way . Government bureaucracy that is retarding the ability to grow and build more of these facilities despite the demonstrated need and the dem straighted benefit. I want to talk about those regulations and how they stand in the way of hoosiers. Trying to help their fellow employees get ahead and will america get ahead. I thank the gentleman for yielding. And i yield back to him. Mr. Schweikert thank you for yielding back. Something we never often do is to thank the speaker. Its appreciated. Most people dont realize when we are doing these special orders, you probably have reading and other things that need to be done and all been there and its still appreciated. It was only about three weeks ago, we actually took the leadership hour and we did a series of presentations on what as happening in debt, in the essence of spending in the federal government and what was happening with mandatory spending and the very next morning, c. B. O. Issued an update. And ever had one of those moments in your life where you just spent almost an hour on the floor walking through the numbers and you get a document and you start digging into it and you find out a number of the things you presented just 14 hours earlier were wrong . But sadly, they were wrong in the wrong direction. Think of this. From januarys Congressional Budget Office number to june u. S. He u. S. Debt deficit this year grew by 134 billion. So we functionally, the deficit r 2017, fiscal year were in will come very close to 700 billion this year. 693 billion is the projection and if anyone saw yesterday or the day before, milk mulvaney at o. M. B. Was projecting that the deficit this year is going to be 704 billion. To just sort of understand whats going on and trying to put this in perspective. Ok. So were going to use the c. B. O. Number, because, you know, the Congressional Budget Office. So 693 billion is going to be borrowed for 2017. The year were in right now. Think about that. Thats 1. 9 billion every single day 1. 89 billion every single day. Thats 79 million every hour. 1. 3 million every minute. 1,900 1,900 every second. Thats what were borrowing. If i take up an hour here, you all get to make a decision of if my hour here was worth 79 million of borrowing. And why is this sort of devastating in the numbers . When you really start to dig into the c. B. O. Report. First, let me give you one of the things that botherses me the most. This is a botherses me the most. This is bothers me the most. Thanks big deal. When from january to june our excessive spending and borrowing number actually increases by 25 , and it got almost zero press. Were living in a society right a shiny if theres object, a tweet, another story, the press, even a lot of the members of this body, run, talk about a shiny that. And i will make the argument, the greatest systemic threat to his society are these numbers. Because the fact were going to borrow 134 billion more than we were already projecting, the worse than that. If you were to step back a year ago, one year ago, we thought this years deficit was going to be about 450 billion. I mean, still outrageous. In a years time, that number now is kissing up to 700 billion. This year. To understand the scale of that, were going to actually do some of our slides. And the first one were going to puppet is the slide from three weeks ago were going to put up is the slide from three weeks ago. The numbers are worse than this, i just wasnt going to print a new one. But this is important to understand. So this is where we think were going. His is going. This is whats in the c. B. O. Report. But do you see actually the blue areas . Thats sort of spending thats on auto pilot. When we say auto pilot, the by form lafment you reach a certain age its by formula. You reach a certain age, you get certain benefits. You fall below a certain income, you get certain benefits. We borrow money, we pay back the interest. Youve served honorably in the military, you qualify for certain benefitses. But this is 2026. So this is functionally nine budget years from now. Understand where we will be. Social security. Medicare. Medicaid. Other things that are formula driven, you fall below a certain income, you get. Interest on the debt. 22 art to realize, only of all spending in nine years will be things that functionally get voted on here. Everything else will be by formula. Your government is very quickly becoming a Health Insurer with an army. An Insurance Company with an army. And whats fascinating is, think about this. This year were going to kiss up close to 700 billion in borrowing. Thats more than all Discretionary Spending. On nonmilitary Discretionary Spending. So think about it. If you came to me and said, david, i want you to only spend exactly what youre taking in right now, you get to help me make a decision. If im not allowed to touch mandatory spending, the entitlements, you remove the entire military, or do you remove Everything Else you think of as government . The park service, the f. D. A. , the f. B. I. , Everything Else thats government . Because all of that is living on borrowed money. And somehow we desperately must find a way for the American Public to understand the scale and how quickly these numbers are moving away from us. In five years, to those folks who are 60 years old today, they are at the peak what have we call the baby boom. So in five years, we actually hit the peak of our brothers and sisters who will receive their retirement benefits, if they take them at 65. And you start to look at the numbers. Were going to lets switch to the next slide. Youll actually start to see that curve steepening, steepening, steepening. Were going to show you a slide and a couple boards from here that start to show you at what point were running these trilliondollar deficits. The next point i also want to make, that was here in the c. B. O. Report, is when we borrow an additional 134 billion on top of what we already projected, so close to 700 billion this year, thats now part of the rolling debt. Thats part of, now were going to be paying interest on that for generations. Because our inflexion point to pay down the debt is moving farther and farther and farther away from us every day. Because you saw the previous slide. Every day were borrowing pretty close to 1. 9 billion, every single day. So why this slides important is just understand, in nine budget ars, if you said, david, david, i want you to deal with the debt, dont want you to do it today because i dont want to lose any benefits, i dont want to talk about the complication what have happens if we had to deal with the reality of trying to make the combination of making the economy grow and having to deal with entitlement reform. 11 of ne years, only would be nondefense, nonentitlement. And the amazing thing is that number will stay almost identical for the next 10 years. So almost all the growth, 1 trillionplus of growth in those nine years is coming almost solely from medicare, medicaid, Social Security, interest on the debt, veterans benefits. But mostly medicare. And its really difficult to talk about. But if you actually look in the c. B. O. Numbers, you understand, we have a couple of our Key Trust Funds that start to run out of money within the 10year window. So lets switch slides. And try to and a couple of these are going to be repetitive for a point. So it starts to become more absorbable of whats really going on in these underlying numbers. So we put this one together just to sort of have a sense of what has happened. What happened from when we were estimating in 2016, Congressional Budget Office gave us a number. So this is a year ago. We were building our budgets. We were building our projections. We were building our cost analysis on how much interest financing, these things. Thanks year ago. We thought we were going to borrow this is a year ago. We thought we were going to borrow 5. 4 billion. Still an outrageous amount of money. Here we are a year later, were going to come close to 700 billion. Then january. From a year ago. So this last january, it moved up to, hey, were going to borrow 559 billion. Not a lot of movement. And then six months later it blows off the charts. And now all of a sudden we know from the congressional number its 693 billion of borrowing this year. The o. M. B. Number, i know the chart over here i think is saying 702 billion. I could swear i saw 704 billion. But lets just call it 700 billion. This is an intense frustration. Because if you actually listen to many of us as we get behind these mikes, we will argue and fight and fuss, often on things that, when you actually add them up, are pretty small. Sometimes bordering on petty. That dont really have a Multiplier Effect into the future. And yet how much discussion you have heard behind these microphones in the last three weeks since the c. B. O. Report came out, the update came out, that, hey, from january to june somehow the number just grew by 25 , we just added another 134 billion of borrowing this year . This isnt way off in the future, its this year. And guess what, were going to be financing that for probably as long as anyone watching this, listening to this in this room is alive. Let me go to the next slide. We are heading towards a time where the growth of this debt, the growth of mandatory spending, is moving to crushing Everything Else we care about. So if you happen to be someone who is a member of this body and you care passionately about education, you must understand that the mandatory spending is going to crush it. If you care about the nvironment and other programs, the finding resources to pay for those things is gone. If you care desperately about defense, defense is going to be competing for scarcer and scarcer dollars. Because those dollars are promised in our mandatory spending. Our entitlements. So the only reason i threw this one up was just getting a sense that just the movement from january to june the chart may not look like a big deal. But were dealing with hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars here. You see that little separation between a red line and a blue line . That separation is six months. This isnt a game. T shouldnt be partisan. The numbers are the numbers. And congress cannot continue to exist in a mathfree zone. So and im sorry. And this is actually ive toned down my chart because i was getting made fun of about making too many of them. I think i killed one of the big printers here on capitol hill. But thats another discussion. So lets sort of look at this one. This is functionally 2017 to 2027. So the 10year window which we use constantly around here. Just understand what this constant growth of the debt does in the mix of our priorities, that were able to pay for. Wheres the money . Where does it ultimately come from . Where does it go . So if were here right now, the first bar is spending. The second bar is revenues. Or payfors or mechanics, some of its borrowing, some of its payroll taxes, other things. Then the same thing for 2027. So lets first take a look at where were at right now. This is by gross domestic product. So they tell me this is a much more elegant way to sort of understand how much of our societys economy is going into finance government. Is going into finance governments debt. Numbers have se state and local. This is just the federal government level. So take a look. This year, hey, about 1. 4 of our g. D. P. , of the economic muscle of our society, is going into financing our excessive spending, our debt. In 10 years, its 2. 9 . So the entire economy, close to 3 of it is going to be grabbed just to pay for debt. But when you also start to look at you see that black portion on the top . In 2017, the excessive spending here, without revenue, so 3. 6 of our entire g. D. P. Went to borrowing. In 10 years, its 5. 2 and it keeps growing and growing and growing and it really starts to take off. Remember we had the comment, in five years we hit the peak of the baby boom, moving into retirement . And if you see the curve, it steepens and steepens and steepens. And over the next couple decades, it blows off the chart. So you actually start to look at the mix of what are our resources . What do we have . Lets just lets just go to the 2027. So thats this. So functioning 6 of our entire economy will be going to Social Security. 6. 9 of our g. D. P. Will be going to health care programs. Another 2. 5 of our societys g. T. P. Will be going to other mandatory program g. D. P. Will be going to other mandatory programs. Only 5. 4 will be going to everything we call discretionary and part of that is also defense. About half that will be defense. Half that will be other discretionary programs. This is where were moving prioritywise. The growth of these programs consume everything in their path. And one of the things we actually talked about three weeks ago, when we were behind microphone look, theres demographic changes, but when i was a kid, 4 were spent for young people for every 1 that was spent for our well call seniors. Today thats reversed. Today we will spend 4 for seniors, for every 1 spent for young people. And that curve continues to move away from us. Thats the decision this body has made for our priorities. Now why this slide is so incredibly important to understand, if you see the blue there and look, im blessed to be on the Social Security committee in ways and means and we just had the actuary report and Social Security has problems, but its not a crisis. It is fixable. Wellmeaning people, a handful of them could get in a room and 60 unfunded liabilities over the 75year window for Social Security. What should terrify you are numbers within medicare. Lets reach over here and forgive me for leaning over. Lets say you are 50 years old today and we are going to use 65 as the benchmark. You will be retiring in 2030. You see the gray here . So over your career, over your work life, the average person who will be retiring in 2030 into ve put in 179,000 medicare. You see this side . They are going to receive 621,000 in benefits. For the person who is 60 years old today and these are mean, the person who is 60 today, retiring in five years will have id 179,000 in part of their fica tax going to medicare. And over their years of retirement because of longevity, because of Health Care Costs and series of different things, they will take out 621,000. I need you to start to multiply those differentials where we are taking this out and multiply it times 76 million of our brothers and sisters who we define as baby boomers. Ou see the math problem . And this slide isnt from some conservative group. I believe its from the urban institute. This is just reality. Lets say you happen to be my most liberal constituent and you care desperately about the entitlements and medicare, you should be the first one lining up with me and others around here from both sides of the aisle saying we must do two key things, we must adopt policies that maximize Economic Growth, whether it be tax reform or Regulatory Reform or immigration reform, all these things, but primarily tax reform, we must drive Economic Growth because the growing economy solves a lot of problems but doesnt come close to dealing with these shortfalls. So the second thing is, it must be done. And its going to take fairminded people on both side of the aisle. Its just the math. And when someone gets behind one of these microphones and say if we get rid of foreign aid and waste and fraud, im sorry, they need to go out and invest in a calculator. Thats not what the underlying numbers say. And to try to double down on a couple of these points, to understand how fast these numbers are moving away from us. In 2022, sounds like a long time from now. But we are working on the 2018 budget right now. So four budget years right now, very year we will be running a trillion dollar deficit and it grows and grows and deprose and deprose. That has to be financed. And we are working on this chart. Its a little more complicated and wont get to see it for another month or so, as you are borrowing more money and Interest Rates go up, you do understand its not just the money we are borrowing this year, when we move up the Interest Rates because we are out there in the market sucking up the capital, pulling the capital in, when we raise terest rates there is 2. 5 trillion of our 14 trillion that is refinanced every year. Its not just the interest we pay on new borrowing like right now, 1. 9 billion had to be board today. Not the interest we are going to pay on that, but the effect on everything that is refinanced every year, every day, every month, every quarter, because as the Interest Rates moves up we have to change the financing. When you look at this chart. And this is just the borrowing number how it explodes. In 2027, 10 years from now. 1. 463 billion of just borrowing and that is nine budget years from now. You realize if you add that up, i believe thats more than all military and all of the Discretionary Spending we are spending today. Please understand how fast these numbers are moving away from us and start demanding that we as members of congress toughen up and do those things that are really difficult and really hard and the willingness to tell the truth about what is driving hese debts and deficits. My primary reason for putting up his chart is i am a huge fan that we have to do this approach that is now incumbent upon us to do everything and do everything at once. You cant just have us say, we need to do Health Care Reform because almost no one in the country who is outside that world is paying attention to what is doing to the debt and deficit. And those of us who are focused on doing tax reform. We talk about our book of specialty. People think about immigration. We have to do it all at the same time to maximize Economic Growth. The g. D. P. Indicator today from the atlanta fed, a wonderful website, a great app, has us at 2. 5 g. D. P. The new c. B. O. Baseline is saying 1. 9 g. D. P. Growth. Thats unacceptable. Because these numbers continue to remain incredibly ugly. 3. 5, we were to be at 3, the numbers get much, much easier to deal with. But this chart is really important and a little tough to absorb, but it demonstrates even th additional growth, we are going to have to do entitlement reform and on a fairly large scale. Growth makes it just a lot easier and makes it so we can do much longer onramp for our brothers and sisters planning for retirement or other benefit programs that are out there. So and this next slide, i want to throw up because i wanted to talk about i know there is a lot of consternation in regards to health care and there is a lot of misinformation about the Health Care Bill we did in the house. What i have read of what has been worked on in the senate. Lets get a couple of things very, very clear. If you here a commentator talk about well, its 1 6 of the economy and thats what is in this bill, they didnt read the bill. The a. C. A. Replacement is almost about the small portion of our society that is in the individual market. They dont get their health care from an employer or medicare or the v. A. Or Indian Health services or tricare. They basically there is a plumber. My wife and i when we were running our own business, in my congressional district, only 2 of my population, only 4 of my population, that was the population that was having great difficulties if they had a preexisting condition. We are guaranteed issues in society. That was in our bill when it passed. But that is a tiny portion of the society thats in that individual market. And in arizona, you have a single choice, single choice, huge price hike, none of that was promised. And when you start to look at the math on the deductibles and in the price, so many of our brothers and sisters out there who should be in that individual market are basically saying, i would rather pay the fine. Let them try to catch me, because we have talked and we did a presentation two months ago that were in this ratcheting problem. Half of our population that should be in that individual market, lets call them the healthy. 50 of that population only used 3 of the Health Care Dollars and said its too expensive. But someone who is part of that healthy portion of the curve says, yeah you have mandatory purchase and im not going to buy, you end up in this ratcheting effect. And it gets more expensive and more drop out. And thats been the crisis that is the a. C. A. Most people know it as obamacare. To be respectful, lets call it the a. C. A. It has an acktue i cant recall spiral. Article death can you lower the premiums enough for that 50 of the population that uses 3 of the Health Care Dollars to buy mandatory hasnt worked maybe lowpriced coverage will work. When they participate, the curve flattens out. And we know a tiny percent of our population, like 5 of the population equals almost 50 of all the spending. So the reason this chart was up here. We were trying to find an elegant way, i have fairly severe asthma, but folks with chronic conditions, diabetes, particularly if it is not managed, thats actually 84 of all Health Care Costs. And when we did the risksharing amendment for the House Health Care replacement or a. C. A. Replacement bill, we were trying to fixate on that continuity of care where do you find that for our brothers and sisters who have chronic conditions to make sure there is continuity of care between themselves and the doctors. And i thought we did a fairly elegant job and putting real resources behind it. But this is important to derstand the outliar that of our brothers and sisters out there, those of us who have preexisting conditions or chronic conditions, end up being the cost drivers in our health care. So our ability to be creative, our ability to say, to have one of these in your pocket and this could be part of your health care management, are we going to accept the reality that someone with a chronic condition should be able to pick up their phone and talk to their phone. Should a poor person be allowed to wear crensors and other things. There are incredible things rolling out in the market to help our brothers and sisters with chronic illness. Heres the punch line, whether it was the a. C. A. Or replacement, almost nothing to do with health care but who pays. This is about if the money. Who pays, who gets the money. Because remember, it was in 1986 , 31 years ago, this legislation was passed basically saying you cannot deny someone medical services. You show up in the emergency room or the hospital and getting your medical services and see it from the data. The last 0 years, the number of procedures, stayed pretty much the same. When you have people saying, you wont be able to get health care. Weve been a society for 30plus years that has a guarantee of delivery of health services. The great battle is who pays. Do you remember a few years whag we had the great consternation of uncompensated care . I worked on those issues. Now all these years later, were basically trying to make an argument of who pays, how do we pay, how do we get more healthy, thats 20yearolds, 30yearolds, 40yearolds who are healthy, how do we get more of them, particularly in the individual markets, to participate . Then the second half is medicaid. This is a strange city. Because its one of those cities, when you actually look at the dollars, even though the dollars are going to continue to grow and grow and grow, so many people define that as a cut. But you remember we were looking at the exploding deficitdebt numbers. We have to deal with the reality. Were in real trouble. And were going to have to step up and start being honest with each other about whats happening in these in the underlying math here. So i know this is a little diversion from what was in the c. B. O. Report. But once again you saw on the chart that the health care, Health Care Entitlement numbers were substantially driving the deficit. Now you actually sort of see whats in the underlying part of that population. Sorely about that. So we go sorry about that. So we get g back to the beginning again so we go back to the beginning again. Hopefully i havent spoke for a hole hour, for your sake and mine, but one more time. This year, according to c. B. O. , three weeks ago, and youve heard lots of talk about it, right . That was me being sarcastic. Borrowing this year. Were going to borrow almost 1. 9 billion every day, 79 million every hour, ive been here an hour. Has this been worth d 79 million worth 79 million to you . Think about it. I know i missaid this earlier, so this is one of the reasons i want to put this board up. 21,900 ,900 its every second of borrowing. I have a 21monthold. Greatest gift the dear lords ver given my wife and i. I pray for the birth mother very night saying thank you. But if you look at the charts, when she hit her peak earning years, her tax rates are going to be double, maybe even more, at have i would pay today of what i would pay today. The Economic Growth is probably crushed by the amount of debt. And a lot of the calculations, if we step out 30 years, the computers cant even model them anymore. Because, understand, theres this amazing number in here. That functionally in nine budget 91 debt e at 9 to g. D. P. On publicly held debt. Thats not the money we borrowed from the trust fund. The question i ask i love my little girl. How many of you love your kid . How many of you love your grandkid . How many of you love this country . How many of you want this country to have an amazing future . Because it can. This is all fixable. Just every single day we wait, we make it so much more difficult. With that, mr. Speaker, i will yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. Garrett, for 30 minutes. Mr. Garrett thank you, mr. Speaker. I also want to thank my colleague, congressman schweikert, from arizona. I hadnt intended to but ill begin my remarks by addressing his remarks. And ill do something that i rarely do, and that is to quote a french historian, political scientist and diplomat, who stated, the American Republic will endure until the day that congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the ublics own money. The Previous Administration was led by an individual who on the campaign trail said that 7 trillion in debt was unpatriotic. Now we sit at the precipice of 0 million in debt after 20 million in debt after two terms and i would submit that perhaps thats unpatriotic multiplied by three. Or nearly that. And echo the sentiments of mr. Schweikert, that it is absolutely, positively unsustainable. Now, there are ways that we can certainly deal with runaway debt. One way would be to completely deval the currency. If you really want to step away from the hyperbollic barbs that is are thrown by my colleagues across the aisle as it relates to the motives for the legislation that we carry and find out who would really be harming seniors and children, it would be those who we continue to spend, until the only way to cover the tab was to deflate the value of the very moneys set aside to care for those least able to care for themselves. So i thank congressman schweikert. Not only for his wise remarks, but also for reminding me just how much i miss being a member of the state house in the commonwealth of virginia. Where there is actual back and forth debate on the merits of issues, where in those small percentage of individuals who choose to inform themselves might shape their opinions based on a discourse rather than people standing at this microphone unchecked. Which leads me to my next point. Which is also not on the subject that i originally intended to address. And that is the statement of my distinguished colleague from maryland, mr. Raskin, who spoke on this floor about 45 minutes ago, on a subject thats important not just to him, and not just to me, but to america. And that is on the subject of Asset Forfeiture. His comments were indicative of the tone that this body has devolved into. One of the Many Democrats who i admire, Daniel Patrick moynihan, who saw the value in working with republicans, where is he today . Once said, youre entitled to your own opinions, but youre not entitled to your own facts. Mr. Raskin said the Trump Administration was burdening americans by virtue of an Asset Forfeiture policy and ie cited the case of a Chinese Restaurant. An entrepreneur he said had amazed 25,000 amassed 25ds,000 so he could buy a building but he was going over the speed limit so he was pulled over by police and without cause they took his money and it took seven years to recoup his money and the opportunity was lost and thats whats wrong with mr. Trumps policy. Wow. And he implored listeners to please look up this case. So i did. In fact, there was a man who had saved money to purchase a Chinese Restaurant, who was going 10 Miles Per Hour over the speed limit. Who was pulled over but Law Enforcement who had 75,000 for fitted. It took him not seven years but 10 months to get it back. And it happened in 2014. And im not terribly sure who was president then but i dont think it was donald trump. So i will join my colleague in suggesting that we need Asset Forfeiture review and reform in this country, but please, youre entitled to your own opinions, youre not entitled to your own facts. Why am i here tonight . Why am i here at all . Who are we as a nation . I tell my children, if you want to know whats the right thing to do in life when youre confronted with tough challenges, when you have a dilemma, ask yourself, who do i want to be, not who am i, who do i want to be . Because i hope i never reach my aspirational goals, but i keep trying as long as im here. I dont think, if you reach all your goals for who you want to be, that youve aimed high enough. If you ask yourself, who do i want to be, when you face that ethical or moral dilemma, you will always then come up with the right answer. When you answer what the person you want to be would do. So i grew up with a father who actually had a name for the belt that he wore around his waist, it was the enforcer. I had a mother who thought i could do anything i wanted to do and a father who would kick my tail if i didnt give it my best effort. Spent 10 years as a prosecutor and i cant tell you how many times i looked at the criminal defendant and thought, i wonder but there for the grace of god but for the fact that spent blessed with amazing parents, who encouraged me and loved me and disciplined me and told me the things i could do, unlike so many in Political Office today who garner votes and support by telling people what they cant do. What they need done for them. By gosh this country was built on a government dependent upon people, not a people dependent upon government. And thats who we are. Now, who are we going to be . Where are we going . A wiser person than i once said, if you want know where youre going, you should look where youve been. Its the relatively humbling thing to do. Representing the Fifth District of virginia. Because the Fifth District of virginia was first represented in this institution by james madison. I tell people those are some very small big shoes to fill. Very small big shoes to fill. James madison won the congressional seat when he ran in an election against a pillar of American Foreign policy named monroe. They were so collegial during their campaign that they often traveled together. And when madison was elected to Congress Prior to the 17th amendment, he went to the virginia general assembly, the longest serving democratically elected legislative body on the planet earth, and suggested that james monroe should be the senator and indeed he was made the senator. So we have madison, we have monroe. The drafter of the declaration of independence Thomas Jefferson, lived in virginias Fifth District. The father of the power of the article iii branch of government, the Supreme Court, john marshall, retired in virginias Fifth District. Patrick henry retired in virginias Fifth District. Lee and grant sat at a table and ended the American Civil War in the Fifth District of virginia. And a young woman named Barbara Johns stood up in the face of possible injury or death to start the virginia Civil Rights Movement in the Fifth District. So its pretty humbling. But it gives me a good lesson in who we are. So many on my side of the aisle criticize president obama when he said, you know, if you have a business, you didnt do that. Somebody else did that for you. Ill defend him. Ill defend him. Did you it with blood and sweat and tears and hard work and persistence and the willing tons stand up time and again after failing. You did it. But you did it because you stood on the shoulders of giants who gave you the opportunity to do it. That imperfect people, Thomas Jefferson, a slave owner, who gave us near perfect documents. James madison, documents that have been revised, oh, i dont know, 27 times in hundreds of years. That we constantly should strive to be a more Perfect Union. That we will never achieve that status of a Perfect Union so long as institutions on earth are governed by mere mortal men. But that we have a duty in this nation to try to continue to. So thats why im here. Im not here to perpetuate my own power. I understand that the most indispensable person is the person who recognizes that they are not indispensable. Folks drive past the graveyard and look at the headstones, because i can promise you, theres piles of folks buried there who thought the world just couldnt go on without them. And the band played on. The Fifth District of virginia was here before i got here, it will be here after i leave. Im not here to perpetuate my own name or my own legacy or any sort of power. Im here to make sure that everything do i is pointed toward giving the posterity that will follow us, my children, schweikerts children and your if ren, every bit as good not better opportunities than those which we had. I believe there are two fundamental indictments to birth of americanism. First, that you are entitled to an tufpblete we should always striving to make that opportunity more of an equal student opportunity. In a world where if your last name is clinton or trump or obama or bush you have a better chance of getting into harvard. Were not there yet. But everyone, everyone is entitled to an opportunity. And everyone within the jeffersonian construct of liberty thathes my freedom extends to the point where yours starts, so long as you dont harm another, you should be free , make decisions for yourself has an entitlement to define success for themselves. If you want to be the worlds best bee keeper, go be the worlds best bee keeper. If you want to be a great stay at home dad, do that. If youd like to work to cure cancer, please do. If you want prosperity, please do. And perpetrate our own power, please dont. This brings me to the point of why i stand here today. I have been here six months, not terribly long, thank god, i have been unable to shake my view. So as i walk into this chamber, as i stand next to these women and men, im a little humbled. When i walk down the staircase of the original House Chamber that has been worn by time by the likes of kennedy and madison and monroe and eisenhower and lincoln, im humbled. But i would revert back to the 150 years ago, and that is we will delive to attempt the taxpayers with their money and some point some things become unsustainable and we are about freedom of individuals to venture and fail and venture and gain. And that we are a nation whose government should depend upon people, not whose people should depend upon government. I stood on this very floor and i dropped at the clerks desk h. Res. 458. It is a vehicle that would move to discharge pass the normal procedures House Resolution 1436. Its a bill that was voted for by every republican member of this body which would provide for repeal of the broken promises of the Affordable Care act. Just yesterday in conference they showed us polling that the American People trust the republicans more on national defense, border security, jobs and the economy, but we were sketchy on health care. I can read a poll. But i came here to do what is right. I came here to do what i said i would do. Think couldn that i asonably be called managed health care bailout program, the Health Insurance enhancement profits act has failed and the paradigm which we have debated it has failed to be an honest one. So if im here not to enhance myself or my legacy, if im here to do what i said what i would do when i ran for office, then i need to stand up and say what im going to do and that was to ensure that the decisions of americans were left to americans that we minimize of the interference of individuals lives and mr. Jefferson was correct when he said the fruits of the when the legislature is not in session. I believe it was will rogers who said they say the only certain things in life are death and taxes, death doesnt get any worse when congress meets. We heard about a c. B. O. Score that said x Million People will lose coverage. Well, the last time i looked, this was called the Affordable Care act and if it were the affordable coverage act. A story published that twird of americans couldnt find 1,000 case of a financial crisis, but deductibles have gone up to 5,000 for the average family of four and i ask you if your deductible is 5,000 and cant find 1,000 in times of crisis, do you have health care . You have coverage . You have coverage, but you dont have health care. You are still indig gent. But dont worry. If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. And see a decrease, turns out that wasnt true. Dont worry these insurers who supported the plan, the Insurance Industry are doing this out of this. I have a an article from the New York Post and with the cost spiral is upward. If you bought 100 and sold it in the last time i looked, you would have 580. Thats a heck of an investment. The only people making out are big insurers and americans are lied to by folks who say who dont care. We do. We arent trying to perpetrate our own power by taking from one group and giving it to another and robbing our children blind. And so i have only been here for six months. And i said how about discharging this bill. Im frustrated. And they said, its not time for that. I said ok, i want to be a team player. Im frustrated. And the president is frustrated. The senate is frustrated. I care about the American People who i serve and they are frustrated. And nobody on the other side of the aisle will talk about a plan hat the namesake of the plan president obama said and i quote has serious problems. That minnesota governor said it is unsustainable. That president clinton is the craziest thing, we have zeroove suggestions for health. Because by gosh, we can score political points, shame on you on both sides of the aisle if you are trying to score plig points. We ought to be doing this to make sure that the fundamental birthright of opportunity is perpetrated for perpetuity and doesnt die in the hands of the Political Class who says this will get me points at home. It might not help you. Your district is not that safe. Im going to do the right thing. I never had a job in my life that i wasnt willing to lose if t meant doing the right thing. I want the leadership of this chamber to understand that the rank and file members support them thats correct we got their backs and thank them for their best efforts and thank you for what you do. Lets keep going and keep that darn promise. I got a feeling if you keep that promise and worried about elections your reward will come. So i want to support leadership and send a message to the other chamber and maybe embolden them and we havent quit on them. I want to send a message to the American People that some people n d. C. Mean what they say. Whoa. There have been dozens of votes for repeal by members who knew that the repeal would never happen because it came across the desk for the person for whom the bill was named. It was a theoretical abstract. Sure, i support it. Were playing with life ammunition, folks. Lets see what they said. Come to this desk and if you are watching and tell your member come to this desk and sign on to h. Res. 458. Maybe you didnt mean it. But let us know. Shoot straight with folks. Dozens of votes for repeal. Let he me be straight. The bill that would be discharged by this resolution would not immediately end obamacare. Instead, it would give us a twoyear window, a twoyear indow and ill bertscha, the replacement we might get input from people on both sides of the aisle. I know to a certainty no side has good idea. Some members will say, there are members we should have single pair. We are stuck in a broken system because of the political gamesmanship and burned me when i was on the outside and burns me on the inside. What are the facts . What are the real facts . The individual premium has gone up 39 . And that means if you are an individual and premium was 1 thundershowers a month and now 1,300. If you are a family and paying 500 a month and that is in two years, the average individual 2008. S up 147 from the average family plan is up 177 . Most americans pay hasnt increased. The average is up 25 and that is up of department of health and human services. If you were paying 2,000. 25 in one year. And candidly all the arguments about how many people will die if we move to a system that allows individuals choices are not hollow and beneath the dignity of this body by their virtue but also folks. For the first time, the mortality rate rose in 2015. S. Life expectancy dropped from 2014 to 2015 for the First Time Since the 1990s and it dropped more in states that expanded medicaid. So im not only distrusted with and sickened with harsh rhetoric ut its now been proven false. We talk who will be kicked off their plan. According to the c. B. O. , 10 Million People lost their employer plans. Those who liked the plans, they could keep. 15 Million People are insured asal result of an individual mandate. We have compelled american citizens to purchase a gooder service at the risk of forfeiture of their money or their freedom. We live in a country where you can choose in many places to buy marijuana or bunk gee jump. In some places, you can choose to visit a prostitute but cant choose a Health Care Plan that doesnt have mental health. You cant do that, thats against the law. This is about choice. I served in the United States army as a fire support officer d when i left the army i attended law school and when i did that, i chose not to have health care because as i looked at what i was able to do on the limited amount of money that my family had and did a crossbenefit analysis and i was in good shape and young, that our familys best interest was served by not spending that money. It paid off. But it should be within the purview of decisions that americans make. And right now, its not. Im frustrated, but im fighting. A lot of people are frustrated, but theyre fighting. I want to see our leadership succeed. I want to see this nation continue to be unequivocally, the greatest experiment in freedom that the earth has ever known. Largesse to par lay and programs into political power, we wont, we wont. And the time to measure things based not only on intentions and results is ney. In oregon they spent millions of exchange andeate a nobody was fired and nobody was prison. I was a prosecutor. And if you waste or defraud people 300 million you either lose your job or go to prison. But in oregon, you are rewarded. Lets judge these things not by their intentions but their outcomes. But who has access to Affordable Care. Lets support provision that drives down premiums and down deductibles and lets trumpet our victories of who we help and no not who we intended to help. I stand united with the bulk of my colleagues. This is an avenue who we might find how tall who we are. I dont question the individual motives of members. They can sign on to this resolution. I ask you if you are watching at home to contact your member and ask them if theyll come to this bar when were in session and sign their name to House Resolution 458 and demonstrate they are willing to do the exact same thing when it counts when they did dozens and dozens of times. I dont do this to score political points or to make my name bigger, i do this because we owe it to the giants whose shoulders we stand upon, to Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther king d john f. Kennedy and ronald reagan, the people who gave us the opportunity to be as successful and great as we are. Dont piddle it away. Be responsible. Be willing to stay cey no when no is the appropriate answer, and do whats right. Mr. Speaker, with that, i yield back my time and i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the topic of this special order. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Garrett thank you. The speaker pro tempore members are reminded to address their remarks to the chair. The chair will entertain a motion to adjourn. Mr. Garrett mr. Speaker, at this time i make that motion. The speaker pro tempore the question is on the motion to adjourn. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. The ayes have it. The motion is adopted. Accordingly, the house stands adjourned until 9 00 a. M. Tomorrow. One of the hugest problems is the insane city ok. We can get into later how it became insane. It is harming the companies that use it. It is harming the employees. It is terrible for the economy it is one of the principal drivers of increasing economic equality in this country. Saturday at 7 00 p. M. On book tv. Talks about his book, the ceo pay machine. Parker, aillie christian and Abortion Provider talks about his book lifes work, a moral argument for choice. Morbidity back on the of abortion. We push back on the claim that it is dangerous. We havent made the case that women have and people who are making decisions about reproduction, a process that occurs in their body, that it is within their agency as human beings to make those decisions. For more of this weekends schedule, go to book tv. Org. Republican senators met with the president at the white house to strategize on their effort to pass a Health Care Law to replace the Affordable Care act. Before their meeting, the president spoke about the problems with the current law. Thank you. Hard. s not were close. I think we are a lot closer than people understand and we have to pull it through. It is so