The publication is reproduced in full below:
FURTHER EXTENDING GOVERNMENT FUNDING ACT
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 829, I call up the bill (H.R. 6119) making further continuing appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 829, the bill is considered read.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 6119
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Further Extending Government Funding Act''.
SEC. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS.
The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short Title.
Sec. 2. Table of Contents.
Sec. 3. References.
DIVISION A--FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2022
DIVISION B--ADDITIONAL AFGHANISTAN SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT,
2022
DIVISION C--EXTENSIONS
Title I--Extensions
Title II--Budgetary Effects
SEC. 3. REFERENCES.
Except as expressly provided otherwise, any reference to
``this Act'' contained in any division of this Act shall be treated as referring only to the provisions of that division.
DIVISION A--FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2022
Sec. 101. The Continuing Appropriations Act, 2022
(division A of Public Law 117-43) is amended--
(1) by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and inserting ``February 18, 2022'';
(2) in section 118, by striking ``first quarter'' and inserting ``first and second quarters'';
(3) in section 137, by striking ``$22,080,000'' and inserting ``$44,838,000'' and by striking ``$2,261,000'' and inserting ``$4,547,000''; and
(4) by adding after section 157 the following new sections:
``Sec. 158. Section 9(i)(2) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008 (7 U.S.C. 2018(i)(2)) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for `December 31, 2021'.
``Sec. 159. Section 533 of title V of division B of Public Law 116-260 is repealed.
``Sec. 160. (a) Notwithstanding section 101, section 748 of title VII of division E of Public Law 116-260 shall be applied during the period covered by this Act by--
``(1) substituting `2023' for `2022';
``(2) substituting `2022' for `2021' each place it appears;
``(3) substituting `2021' for `2020' each place it appears; and
``(4) substituting `section 748 of division E of Public Law 116-260, as in effect on September 30, 2021' for `section 749 of division C of Public Law 116-93' each place it appears.
``(b) Subsection (a) shall not take effect until the first day of the first applicable pay period beginning on or after January 1, 2022.
``Sec. 161. Section 302 of the Universal Service Antideficiency Temporary Suspension Act shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for `December 31, 2021' each place it appears.
``Sec. 162. In addition to amounts otherwise provided by this Act, there is appropriated $1,600,000,000, for an additional amount for fiscal year 2022, to remain available until September 30, 2024, for the account specified and for the activities specified, in section 141 of this Act.
``Sec. 163. During the period covered by this Act, section 506(a)(1) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2318) shall be applied by substituting `$200,000,000' for
`$100,000,000'.''.
This division may be cited as the ``Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2022''.
DIVISION B--ADDITIONAL AFGHANISTAN SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT,
2022
The following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes, namely:
TITLE I
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
MILITARY PERSONNEL
Military Personnel, Army
For an additional amount for ``Military Personnel, Army'',
$128,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, for support of Operation Allies Welcome by the Department of Defense.
Military Personnel, Navy
For an additional amount for ``Military Personnel, Navy'',
$7,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, for support of Operation Allies Welcome by the Department of Defense.
Military Personnel, Marine Corps
For an additional amount for ``Military Personnel, Marine Corps'', $32,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, for support of Operation Allies Welcome by the Department of Defense.
Military Personnel, Air Force
For an additional amount for ``Military Personnel, Air Force'', $145,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, for support of Operation Allies Welcome by the Department of Defense.
OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE
Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid
For an additional amount for ``Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster, and Civic Aid'', $4,000,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2023, for support of Operation Allies Welcome by the Department of Defense.
GENERAL PROVISIONS--THIS TITLE
Sec. 1101. Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, and every 30 days thereafter through fiscal year 2022, the Secretary of Defense shall provide a written report to the congressional defense committees describing the execution of funds provided in this title, including the amounts obligated and expended, in total and since the previous report; the nature of the costs incurred or services provided by such funds; and any reimbursements or funds transferred by another Federal agency to the Department of Defense which relates to the purpose of the funds provided by this title.
Sec. 1102. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, funds provided by this title shall only be for the purposes specified, and shall not be subject to any transfer authority provided by law.
TITLE II
DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY
DEPARTMENTAL MANAGEMENT, OPERATIONS, INTELLIGENCE, AND OVERSIGHT
Office of the Secretary and Executive Management
operations and support
For an additional amount for ``Operations and Support'',
$147,456,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, for necessary expenses in support of Operation Allies Welcome, including the provision of staffing and support services for Safe Havens: Provided, That amounts provided under this heading in this Act may be transferred by the Secretary of Homeland Security to other appropriations in the Department of Homeland Security only for necessary expenses of Operation Allies Welcome and not for any other purpose: Provided further, That amounts made available under this heading in this Act shall be available in addition to any other appropriations available for the same purpose, including appropriations available pursuant to the authority of section 506(a)(2) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961: Provided further, That, beginning not later than January 31, 2022, the Office of the Secretary shall report monthly to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the use of transfer authority provided under this heading in this Act.
TITLE III
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
cdc-wide activities and program support
For an additional amount for ``CDC-Wide Activities and Program Support'', $8,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 2022, for support of Operation Allies Welcome for medical support, screening, and other related public health activities related to Afghan arrivals and refugees.
Administration for Children and Families
refugee and entrant assistance
For an additional amount for ``Refugee and Entrant Assistance'', $1,263,728,000, to remain available until September 30, 2023, for support of Operation Allies Welcome for carrying out refugee and entrant assistance activities in support of citizens or nationals of Afghanistan paroled into the United States under section 212(d)(5) of the Immigration and Nationality Act and citizens or nationals of Afghanistan for whom such refugee and entrant assistance activities are authorized: Provided, That amounts made available under this heading in this Act may be used for grants or contracts with qualified nonprofit organizations to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services, including wrap-around services during temporary housing and after resettlement, housing assistance, medical assistance, legal assistance, education services, and case management assistance: Provided further, That the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, in carrying out section 412(c)(1)(A) of the Immigration and Nationality Act with amounts made available under this heading in this Act, may allocate such amounts among the States in a manner that accounts for the most current data available.
TITLE IV
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
Administration of Foreign Affairs
diplomatic programs
For an additional amount for ``Diplomatic Programs'',
$44,300,000, to remain available until expended, for support for Operation Allies Welcome and related efforts by the Department of State, including additional relocations of individuals at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan and related expenses, and to reimburse the account under this heading in prior Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for obligations previously incurred.
emergencies in the diplomatic and consular service
For an additional amount for ``Emergencies in the Diplomatic and Consular Service'', $36,000,000, to remain available until expended, for support for Operation Allies Welcome and related efforts by the Department of State, including additional relocations of individuals at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan and related expenses, and to reimburse the account under this heading in prior Acts making appropriations for the Department of State, foreign operations, and related programs for obligations previously incurred.
BILATERAL ECONOMIC ASSISTANCE
Department of State
united states emergency refugee and migration assistance fund
For an additional amount for ``United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund'', $1,200,000,000, to remain available until expended, notwithstanding section 2(c)(2) of the Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962
(22 U.S.C. 2601(c)(2)), for support for Operation Allies Welcome and related efforts by the Department of State, including additional relocations of individuals at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan and related expenses.
GENERAL PROVISION--THIS TITLE
Sec. 1401. The Secretary of State shall include in the reports required by section 2402 of title IV of the Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022 (division C of Public Law 117-43) the proposed uses of funds appropriated under this title.
TITLE V
GENERAL PROVISIONS--THIS ACT
Sec. 1501. Each amount appropriated or made available by this Act is in addition to amounts otherwise appropriated for the fiscal year involved.
Sec. 1502. No part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall remain available for obligation beyond the current fiscal year unless expressly so provided herein.
Sec. 1503. Unless otherwise provided for by this Act, the additional amounts appropriated by this Act to appropriations accounts shall be available under the authorities and conditions applicable to such appropriations accounts for fiscal year 2022.
Sec. 1504. Each amount provided by this division is designated by the Congress as being for an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4001(a)(1) and section 4001(b) of S. Con. Res. 14 (117th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2022.
Sec. 1505. Not later than January 15, 2022, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall provide to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate a written report on Operation Allies Welcome: Provided, That such report shall describe the strategy and transition plan leading to the conclusion of Operation Allies Welcome; a plan, including timeline, for relocating all Afghans currently residing at Department of Defense facilities to longer-term housing; the activities and responsibilities assigned to each Federal agency involved in such strategy and transition plan; and an estimate of the costs from each such agency for carrying out such strategy and transition plan.
This division may be cited as the ``Additional Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022''.
DIVISION C--EXTENSIONS
TITLE I--EXTENSIONS
SEC. 2101. EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY TO MAKE CERTAIN
APPOINTMENTS FOR NATIONAL DISASTER MEDICAL
SYSTEM.
Section 2812(c)(4)(B) of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh-11(c)(4)(B)) is amended by striking ``December 3, 2021'' and inserting ``February 18, 2022''.
SEC. 2102. EXTENSION OF ADDITIONAL SPECIAL ASSESSMENT.
Section 3014(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking ``December 31, 2021'' and inserting ``February 18, 2022''.
SEC. 2103. EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY ORDER FOR FENTANYL-RELATED
SUBSTANCES.
Effective as if included in the enactment of the Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act (Public Law 116-114), section 2 of such Act (as amended by Public Law 117-43) is amended by striking ``January 28, 2022'' and inserting ``February 18, 2022''.
SEC. 2104. EXTENDING INCREASED FMAP FOR CERTAIN TERRITORIES.
(a) In General.--Section 1905(ff)(3) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1396d(ff)(3)) is amended by striking
``December 3, 2021'' and inserting ``February 18, 2022''.
(b) Reduction of Medicare Improvement Fund.--Section 1898(b)(1) of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 1395iii(b)(1)) is amended by striking ``$69,000,000'' and inserting ``$56,000,000''.
TITLE II--BUDGETARY EFFECTS
SEC. 2201. BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
(a) Statutory PAYGO Scorecards.--The budgetary effects of this division shall not be entered on either PAYGO scorecard maintained pursuant to section 4(d) of the Statutory Pay-As- You-Go Act of 2010.
(b) Senate PAYGO Scorecards.--The budgetary effects of this division shall not be entered on any PAYGO scorecard maintained for purposes of section 4106 of H. Con. Res. 71
(115th Congress).
(c) Classification of Budgetary Effects.--Notwithstanding Rule 3 of the Budget Scorekeeping Guidelines set forth in the joint explanatory statement of the committee of conference accompanying Conference Report 105-217 and section 250(c)(8) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, the budgetary effects of this division shall not be estimated--
(1) for purposes of section 251 of such Act;
(2) for purposes of an allocation to the Committee on Appropriations pursuant to section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974; and
(3) for purposes of paragraph (4)(C) of section 3 of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 as being included in an appropriation Act.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The bill shall be debatable for 1 hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations or their respective designees.
The gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) and the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Connecticut.
General Leave
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Connecticut?
There was no objection.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, before I go any further, I would first like to take a moment to mourn the loss of Congresswoman Carrie Meek. She was an extraordinary force in the Congress and a pioneer who was never deterred by any challenge that came her way. I like to say that though she was unassuming and soft-spoken, she carried a big stick. That is evident in her enduring legacy today. I had the honor of serving together with Congresswoman Meek on the Appropriations Committee years ago, and I feel immensely privileged to have worked with her to help expand opportunity for all Americans. We all mourn her loss.
Madam Speaker, I will be frank. Instead of being here today discussing another continuing resolution, I wish that we were here to present a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations agreement. Continuing resolutions are not the way to govern. They are a short-term patch that leaves the American people behind. But we are here today because my colleagues across the aisle have refused time and time again to begin negotiations or even offer a proposal of their own for government funding that delivers for the American people.
House and Senate Democrats have put forward their proposals, but Republicans have not presented an offer of their own. There is not one piece of paper describing what Republicans want. It has been 30 days since I brought together a bipartisan, bicameral four-corners meeting on November 2, and to date we have not heard one word from them--not one word.
But now my Republican counterparts want more time--something that they have had since we came to this floor to pass the last funding extension 62 days ago, which means we now have no choice but to pursue a short-term extension. Make no mistake, Madam Speaker, a vote against this continuing resolution is a vote to shut the government down.
The legislation before us, the Further Extending Government Funding Act, continues government funding at current levels through February 18. It makes minimal changes to address the most urgent of needs during the period of the continuing resolution and provides $7 billion to continue supporting Afghanistan evacuees after the end of 20 years of war.
While I wish the February 18 end date were earlier--and I pursued earlier dates--I believe this agreement allows the appropriations process to move forward toward a final funding agreement that addresses the needs of the American people.
Let me be clear, working families, small businesses, veterans, and our military need the certainty that comes with passing omnibus funding legislation instead of short-term funding patches. Republicans must join us for bipartisan, bicameral negotiations to resolve our differences and keep government working for us all.
For our communities, we need an omnibus to create and sustain good-
paying jobs, support small businesses, prevent future pandemics, and advance lifesaving medical research. We need an omnibus to strengthen public schools, protect our air and water, combat the opioid epidemic, and support core services such as food safety and consumer product inspections. Without an omnibus, investments in all these areas will be denied.
For our veterans, we need an omnibus to provide sufficient funding for veterans' benefits, reduce backlogs for veterans and their families, and meet the needs of the VA's healthcare system. Without an omnibus there will be a shortfall that will cause veterans not to receive their benefits in full.
For our national security, we need an omnibus to support defense readiness and modernization, secure our cyber infrastructure, and strengthen American leadership abroad. Without an omnibus, a pay raise for troops will not be funded while funds will be misdirected to a war we are no longer fighting.
As I said before, I wanted to be here today passing a bipartisan, bicameral appropriations agreement. Sadly, we are not. But as Republicans take the next 2\1/2\ months, Democrats remain ready, willing, and able to move this process forward. We are ready to go, but we need willing partners to put the American people first.
With a new deadline of February 18, it is long past time for our Republican colleagues to offer constructive proposals to address the critical issues facing the country by funding the Federal Government's important work. As the American people put their faith and trust in us, they deserve no less.
Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. GRANGER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, today I rise to speak on H.R. 6119, a short-term continuing resolution through February 18. I must admit that I am disappointed to be on the floor of the House today to speak about a continuing resolution rather than full-year appropriations bills. But earlier this year, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle crafted fiscal year 2022 bills with little input from Republicans, and we have not been able to find a path forward.
During markups this summer, our Members made it clear we would not support partisan bills that include irresponsible spending increases and extreme policies. Unfortunately, that is exactly where we find ourselves.
The House and Senate bills were drafted to top-line spending levels that do not reflect a bipartisan consensus. The majority party also focused funding on their own priorities with nondefense spending increasing at a much higher rate than defense spending. And last, but certainly not least, the policies in the bills are the most extreme that I have seen since I became a member of the Appropriations Committee.
During 2019 and 2020, there were also strong differences of opinions, but we had an agreement in place that allowed us to negotiate final bills quickly. The terms were rather simple. The party leaders and the White House reached early agreement on the spending framework. Everyone agreed to drop controversial language and restore longstanding provisions unless all sides agreed to changes. I am concerned that we cannot have meaningful discussions on full-year appropriations without a similar understanding before we start.
I wish we would have focused on funding the essential elements of government long before now. Instead, too much time has been spent focusing on extremely partisan and costly bills being sent to the President's desk, and there could be another bill on the way before the end of the year.
It is unrealistic for Republicans to negotiate on appropriations bills while this massive reconciliation package is still under discussion. Our constituents are demanding that we take a comprehensive look at all of the spending this year. With our debt skyrocketing and inflation at the highest levels in 30 years, we cannot afford to think about appropriations bills in isolation. However, I do hope that we can make progress getting our bills finalized once we move into the new year; otherwise, we will be having the same conversation in February about another continuing resolution.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), who is the chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies.
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairwoman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise to address this latest short-term budget fix before us. We have a bipartisan responsibility to pass a full-year appropriations package. Democrats have worked in good faith to find common ground that will allow us to meet our national obligations to the American people and deliver essential services that they expect.
Unfortunately, Republicans have decided that engaging in partisan politics and throwing up needless speed bumps in delays and roadblocks is more important than doing their job.
The people harmed most by this obstruction are the hardworking families, seniors, and veterans I represent. In fact, our Great Lakes region deserves so much better, and Americans deserve better. Let's govern our Nation. No more stalls.
Our bipartisan Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee worked diligently to craft a forward-thinking bill. It invests new resources to meet America's needs and create good jobs in clean energy and water technologies allowing us to secure our Nation's energy independence, create good-paying jobs, and confront the climate crisis that is impacting every coast in every region and, frankly, continent.
A full-year bill will ensure our water resource agencies are able to meet the needs of the American people and solidify our waterway and port infrastructure driving our economy forward, meeting the backlogs that are there, and creating good jobs from coast to coast.
The people's business must be conducted, and for the sake of our Nation, Republicans should work in a constructive manner, not destructive.
We look forward to passing these bills and investing in the American people. For now, I urge my colleagues to support this bridge to the future and move our Nation forward again.
{time} 1530
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in reluctant opposition to the continuing resolution.
But first, I want to recognize our good friend, Carrie Meek, from Florida. I share the gentlewoman's sadness over her passing. She was a good friend. She was a great Member, and we will miss her, and I extend my condolences to her family.
For months, my friends on the other side of the aisle spent their time crafting their big tax and spend social welfare bill. In the end, they passed a bill that will most likely fail in the Senate because it represents the most radical change to the American social contract in history, creating generations of dependency on the backs of the American middle class. While they went back and forth, going further left with each version, the clock on funding our government ran out.
The most basic responsibility of this Congress is to fund the government, to ensure seniors and veterans receive their earned benefits on time. Yet, the majority pushed aside that basic duty in the name of radical social change. The CR before us represents their failure to govern.
As the ranking Republican on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, our committee has heard firsthand about the threats that face our country and our allies.
Right now, at this very moment, the Russians have amassed forces along the Ukrainian border, weeks after they purposely demonstrated their ability to destroy a satellite in high orbit. It is unbelievable.
A record number of Chinese military airplanes have flown that Taiwan airspace, and their naval forces continue to threaten freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
President Biden's abject failure in Afghanistan, which freed an estimated 7,000 hardened terrorists, has created more uncertainty for both us and our allies. And threats such as North Korea, Iran, and other nonstate actors remain as well.
We cannot continue to cripple our national security apparatus with CRs year after year. It is not only wasteful--this CR is going to cost the Department of Defense about $1.7 billion per month for nothing--but it allows our adversaries to continue gaining while we remain stagnant.
Now more than ever, we must give them the funding and tools they need to counter threats to the United States.
It is time that the majority focus on their most basic task: Do the work the American people expect of our government.
Our U.S. servicemembers, veterans, seniors, and the most vulnerable among us deserve better. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, once again, the Republicans refuse to come to the table to negotiate, thereby jeopardizing benefits for our veterans and our national security. We can move if they come to the table.
I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this continuing resolution. But I want to make clear: This is a stopgap measure, necessitated by Republican refusal to work with Democrats on a bicameral, bipartisan basis to find a path forward for the balance of the fiscal year.
Specifically, I can attest to the need for a full-year transportation T-HUD bill to update our aging transportation infrastructure, to remedy inequities in housing and transportation, prevent evictions, and make our infrastructure more resilient to natural disasters and climate change.
We need to fortify safety as the primary function of the Federal Aviation Administration, providing full-year funding to strengthen certification activities, modernize air traffic control, and hire highly qualified personnel.
We need to fully renew all Section 8 and other housing vouchers for nearly 5 million low-income and working families to ensure that they can remain stably housed. We also need to keep pace with the cost of upgrading our Nation's public housing, which houses more than 2 million low-income residents.
We also spent months vetting over 1,000 Community Project Funding requests in a bipartisan manner for well-designed housing, transportation, and economic development projects that produce direct community benefits throughout the country. Without completing the annual appropriations process, none of these investments will be possible.
Madam Speaker, I urge adoption of this CR today but I also urge my Republican colleagues to meet Congress' most basic constitutional responsibility of funding our government and directing investments for the future by coming to the table. Come to the table. Let's find a constructive path forward.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy).
Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
There is a lot of noise in this town right now about government shutdowns, and the fact is, the issue isn't about shutdowns. It is about whether or not Members of this body will continue to use money we don't have to fund mandates, indoctrination, and the use of force against our citizens:
$73.5 billion for the Department of Education that subsidizes the indoctrination of our children with critical race theory and woke gender ideologies;
$10 billion for an FBI that was just used by the Attorney General of the United States to target parents;
$50 billion for a Department of Homeland Security that leaves our borders wide open, empowering cartels because Secretary Mayorkas fails to execute the laws of the United States;
$6 billion for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases run by Dr. Fauci.
Need I say more?
$592 million for OSHA, which has imposed an unconstitutional vaccine mandate on 84 million Americans.
I offered an amendment to strip any funding from this bill that would fund Federal vaccine mandates, and it wasn't even able to see the light of day.
This is about a Congress that is supposed to use the power of the purse, our Article I authority, rather than hiding behind the judges in Article III, to check the executive branch. We have a moral obligation to give voice and representation to the people who elected us whose liberty and livelihoods are being attacked.
My friend who battles MS is looking at being terminated from the university she teaches at because of the unlawful Federal contractor mandate.
The medical hero in Texas who is 9 months pregnant is facing termination under the unlawful CMS mandate.
Military personnel, including the 13-year Army veteran in my district who is concerned about myocarditis, are facing being discharged from service to our country.
These are our neighbors, our relatives, our friends--maybe not for some of you who go home to double-masked, vaccine passport cities. But these are real Americans that this government wants to go after.
I urge my colleagues to stop empowering executive branch tyranny over Americans, and I urge my Republican colleagues to not just vote ``no'' and give a speech, but go stand with Mike Lee. Go stand with others in the Senate trying to defend these Americans. We should not fund tyranny over American citizens.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, antiscience fearmongering about vaccines is wrong. Fears about government requirements for vaccines are flat-out silly. And the Republicans are prepared to shut down the government based on this. Incredible.
I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Roybal-Allard), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security.
Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD. Madam Speaker, each year, the first and most important responsibility Congress has is to determine how taxpayer dollars will be spent on behalf of our constituents. The continuing resolution before the House will prevent a government shutdown and give us sufficient time to complete the full-year funding bills if the minority will finally come to the negotiating table.
Some friends on the other side of the aisle have suggested simply enacting a yearlong CR, which would effectively wash our hands of our constitutional duty. My subcommittee is responsible for drafting the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. If, as my Republican colleagues have suggested, we were to pass a full-year CR, DHS would lose critical increases in the House bill that are imperative to the security of the United States. This includes a historic 20 percent increase for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; funding to increase FEMA's capacity to respond to the growing frequency of disasters linked to climate change; a quadrupling of funding for trade facilitation and security at our ports of entry; a 6 percent increase for Homeland Security Investigations; and an 8 percent increase for critical Coast Guard operations.
Let's quickly approve this short-term CR and then roll up our sleeves and work together to fulfill our constitutional duty by negotiating full-year bills.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies.
Mr. BISHOP of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
This year, House Democrats worked hard and passed government funding bills which support vital programs that create jobs, grow our economy, and ensure our national security.
As chairman of the House Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies, I want to stress that the programs in our bill touch the lives of every single American every day.
It would ensure that USDA can continue to feed America and the world, to help expand economic opportunity, to create jobs in rural areas, and to fully meet the demand for farm ownership loans.
It would increase funding to address the opioid crisis and rare cancers and resume unannounced, in-person inspections in the two largest foreign drug manufacturing countries in the world, China and India.
Simply put, it would provide resources to ensure that we have the most abundant, wholesome, and safest food and medicine in the world.
It will help families that may struggle to put food on the table through programs like SNAP and WIC.
Sadly, the bill cannot move forward because, in the past few months, House and Senate Republicans have refused to negotiate with Democrats on government funding.
Today, we are passing this short-term bill just to keep the government open. In doing so, Democrats are making sure our government continues serving the American people. We are also offering another chance for our Republican colleagues to come to the table with constructive proposals.
I urge my colleagues to support this bill and, more importantly, to come together with us to provide peace of mind and certainty to our fellow Americans by passing a full fiscal year '22 funding bill package.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record letters in support of the bill from the Aerospace Industries Association, the Coalition on Human Needs, the Coalition for Health Funding, and the National Defense Industrial Association.
Aerospace Industries Association,
Arlington, VA, November 2, 2021.
Hon. Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Ranking Member McConnell, and Ranking Member McCarthy: The United States aerospace and defense industries are an essential partner with the federal government in an array of efforts vital to our economy and our national security. Each fall, that partnership is tested when those programs are slowed down or deferred by the use of multiple continuing resolutions (CR) to keep the government running. On behalf of our vital industries and our more than two million employees, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) strongly urges you to reach a near-term agreement on fiscal year 2022 funding to avoid further CRs beyond December 3, 2021.
Government watchdogs continue to document the waste and unnecessary disruption that CRs cause to federal programs. Multiple agencies advised the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in a 2021 report that longer CRs ``contributed to distortions in agencies' spending, adding to the rush to obligate funds late in the year before they expire.'' The GAO determined that contracting officers working under a CR must continuously align the period of performance under their contracts to the specific timeframe of a given CR, resulting in many unnecessary contract modifications during the year. Hiring of new civilian staff is also delayed, making it harder for agencies to meet their goals. The GAO notes that agencies apply creative workarounds in the first quarter of each fiscal year, because they assume that appropriations bills will not be in place by the beginning of the fiscal year. However, these effects become far more serious, and agency staff have fewer options, when CRs continue into the second quarter and beyond.
The Department of Defense (DOD) is uniquely harmed under CRs because these bills typically prohibit DOD from starting new programs or activities or increasing any program's production rate beyond that of the current fiscal year. Both
`new starts' and rate increases are critical for our national defense because our defense posture and threats are always evolving. As CRs extend to longer periods during the year, this is an increasing problem for which DOD seldom gets relief. DOD reported to the GAO that between FY10 and FY20, they had requested exceptions to CR language (called
``anomalies'') 1,258 times and had only been granted three percent of those requests. Most of these requested relief from the prohibition on new starts and rate increases. We strongly believe that, should Congress produce CRs extending into the second quarter of FY22, it should eliminate the prohibition on new starts and production rate increases.
FY22 is the first year in a decade when discretionary spending levels have not been fixed in statute by the Budget Control Act. AIA has long argued that statutory caps are not needed because Congress and the administration are able to assess and address the needs of the nation more effectively, and with greater oversight, through the annual appropriations process. Last year, Congress enacted all 12 full-year appropriations bills by December 27. If Congress fails to once again enact full-year appropriations bills, or continues running the government into 2022 under continuing resolutions, it will send the wrong signal to the government's partners, like those in our industry. We count on stable, reliable and adequate funding to support the critical capabilities that we provide for all Americans.
Like other industries, COVID-19 took a serious toll on our workforce and the thousands of small- and medium-sized businesses along the supply chain that are at the heart of the aerospace and defense industries. More than ever, businesses across all industries need predictability and consistency.
We again ask that you ensure that all government programs receive full Fiscal Year 2022 funding on or before December 3, 2021.
Sincerely,
Eric Fanning,
President and CEO,
Aerospace Industries Association.
Coalition on Human Needs,
Washington, DC, November 15, 2021. Hon. Rosa DeLauro, Chairwoman, House Committee on Appropriations, Washington,
DC.
Dear Chairwoman DeLauro: On behalf of the Coalition on Human Needs, I am writing to strongly urge you to do everything in your power to enact omnibus FY 2022 appropriations legislation including all 12 subcommittee bills. Our nation badly needs the increased funding provided in the House Appropriations Committee bills. We face many increased needs, a great many exacerbated by the pandemic and its economic dislocations. For more than a decade, funding levels for vital human needs programs have shrunk, especially taking inflation into account. If Congress fails to enact omnibus appropriations legislation and instead defaults to a long-term continuing resolution (CR) with flat funding, we will seriously damage our capacity to respond to the multiple public health and economic crises we face. As a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, you have a key role to play in working for enactment of an omnibus, not a long-term CR.
Members of the Coalition on Human Needs, including human service provider organizations, faith groups, labor, civil rights, policy experts and other advocates concerned with meeting the needs of people with low incomes, enthusiastically welcomed the funding levels provided in the Biden FY 2022 budget and the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. We have tracked nearly 200 human needs programs over the past decade. Between FYs 2010 and 2020, we found that two-thirds of these programs, covering health care, housing, nutrition, social services, education, training, and more, had lost ground, taking inflation into account. In the past year, we have begun to rebuild. But the needs are also growing.
We now face rising prices affecting necessities including utilities, food, and rent. Flat funding from a prolonged CR would fail our people by not providing needed increases in programs such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The House increases LIHEAP by $125 million; the Senate bill increases funding by $175 million. Both these increases are too modest when taking into account that natural gas heating costs are projected to rise by 30 percent this winter and heating oil is expected to rise by 43 percent. Nutrition programs will also need funding increases because of rising food prices. The House has provided $1.4 billion for Senior Nutrition programs, an increase of $436 million above the FY 2021 enacted level. Responding to the acute shortage of affordable housing, the House bill would expand rental assistance to 125,000 additional households. These increases are vitally needed. Flat funding in all these areas would be simply unacceptable.
We have for some time faced a substance use crisis, and are projected to reach 100,000 deaths from opioid overdoses by the end of this year, up from about 93,000 in 2020. The House funding level for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is $9.16 billion, $3 billion more than current year funding. Without those additional funds, we will not be able to cope with the continuing increases in opioid addiction.
The pandemic has increased mental health problems. The proposed SAMHSA funding levels allow us to respond more adequately. In particular, House funding for various children's mental health programs increase by $118.5 million over current year levels. This is a vital turn-around after years of erosion. From FYs 2010 to 2020, Children's Mental Health Services declined by 14 percent, including inflation. We must not return to flat funding when the pandemic has adversely affected the mental health of millions of children and adults.
Over the past decade, we allowed our public health capacity to diminish, and as a consequence we were not ready to cope with COVID-19. The House Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill increases the Centers for Disease Control about $2.7 billion over the current year, allowing for the agency to rebuild so that it can more effectively respond to COVID-19 and future health threats.
We know our economy is hampered by a mismatch between jobs available and people with the skills to fill those positions. FY 2022 appropriations proposals include increases in Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act programs (WIOA), YouthBuild, Registered Apprenticeships, and Reintegration of Ex-Offender programs, as well as expansion of community college training programs. These will lead to jobs with higher pay and broadly shared economic growth. These increases are needed to overcome a ten-year 17 percent reduction in WIOA programs and to move us forward.
There are too many important programs to list here. But we do wish to underscore that children have experienced many hardships during the pandemic, including unprecedented losses in education. The historic increases proposed in Title I K-12 education for students with low incomes and in special education funding are urgently needed to help children overcome the educational setbacks they have experienced. Title I spending rises by at least $16.6 billion over FY 2021, and there will be $341 more per student for more than 7.6 million students with disabilities. The FY 2022 appropriations bills include many important funding increases to help families care for their children. In addition to the mental health, housing, and education funding already mentioned here, there are badly needed increases in child care, Head Start, early learning programs, and child abuse prevention and treatment programs. There are also urgently needed increases in funds to care for unaccompanied immigrant children.
The nation's recovery depends on strengthening a host of domestic programs that have been allowed to shrink for years, not just to get to where they had been before, but to respond to needs far greater because of the pandemic and its global economic dislocations. A long-term continuing resolution would be a severe failure to address these needs. We strongly urge you to enact omnibus appropriations legislation including all twelve bills as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director.
____
November 19, 2021. Hon. Rosa DeLauro, Chair, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kay Granger, Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Richard Shelby, Vice Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Chair DeLauro, Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Granger, and Vice Chairman Shelby: On behalf of the Campaign to invest in American's Workforce, the Coalition for Health Funding, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the Committee for Education Funding and our members, we urge you to pass the fiscal year
(FY) 2022 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill as soon as possible. The bill passed by the House this summer and the bill proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee this fall provide vital increased funding for the programs and services that have a profound impact on health and well- being, child development, educational and skills attainment, employment, and productivity. Failing to enact the FY 2022 bill and relying on continuing resolutions (CRs) would be a grave missed opportunity to improve the lives of all Americans.
The use of extended CRs creates disruption and dysfunction, and injects fiscal uncertainty into an already uncertain environment for the agencies that support the nation's public health, education, job training, social services, and much more. The reliance on CRs that extend far into the new fiscal year that has become commonplace in recent years limits Congress's ability to exercise its oversight authority and make necessary adjustments to funding levels to meet new demands.
While short-term CRs are challenging enough, the possibility of a year-long CR could be catastrophic as our nation continues to struggle to return to normalcy amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Below are some examples highlighting the challenges that a year-long continuing resolution poses to critical programs funded by the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill:
Last year, the nation's overdose rate increased by a staggering 30 percent with 90,000 deaths nationwide--a rate of increase not seen in three decades and it is now reported that drug overdose deaths reached 100,000 between April 2020 and April 2021, a grim record. In FY 2022, states are slated to receive billions of dollars to assist with prevention, treatment, and recovery services--these dollars will be lost with a full year CR.
CRs make it difficult for state and local health departments, as well as school districts, to plan activities and hire staff as they rely on predictable funding from federal agencies to carry out their work. Funding delays will hold up essential programmatic work in communities across the country.
CRs force grant-funding agencies like the National Institutes of Health to adopt conservative funding policies, holding back on investments in new areas of life-saving research and damaging existing ongoing research efforts. Unreliable and unpredictable funding streams hurt the nation's scientific enterprise, and damage America's competitiveness globally.
After a decade of almost frozen funding for education, the House and Senate Labor-HHS-Education bills provided needed investments for FY 2022, starting to address long-standing needs along the education continuum. Freezing funding at last year's levels would leave funding for the Department of Education below the level of a decade ago in inflation- adjusted dollars.
The pandemic continues to have profound impacts on teaching and learning, and while the COVID-relief already enacted supports short-term costs associated with the pandemic, there will be new, ongoing needs that the FY 2022 appropriations bill begins to address for students, educators, and institutions.
During the pandemic, the costs of child care at a center rose an estimated 47 percent, while family day care increased by 70 percent; many child care centers were forced to close. Lack of child care is keeping many women from rejoining the labor force. The House bill increases child care by $1.5 billion and Head Start by $1.4 billion; flat-funding child care would make it impossible to rebuild capacity.
More than 11.8 million people are unemployed or underemployed and women, people of color and people without an education past high school comprise a disproportionate amount of these workers. A CR would deny additional investments to an already historically underfunded workforce system at a time of great need.
As the Administration works to implement the historic investments to our nation's infrastructure included in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the demand for skilled workers in industries including construction, manufacturing, energy and related industries will continue to grow. At the same time, workers who lost their jobs in retail, hospitality and other sectors hardest hit by the pandemic are looking for opportunities to build new skills for available job opportunities. A CR denies critical investments in training programs necessary to mitigate the current skills mismatch and allow workers to access the jobs for which businesses are hiring.
The cost to heat a home with natural gas is projected to rise by 30 percent this winter; heating oil costs are expected to rise by 43 percent. Flat-funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program would lead to dramatic reductions in the number of households served and the amount of help they get from LIHEAP.
The undersigned organizations call on Congress to pass a FY 2022 appropriations bill in a timely manner to avoid the damaging trend of long-term CRs and provide needed services for the American public. Thank you for your consideration. If you have questions about this letter, please contact:
Erin Will Morton, Coalition for Health Funding
Sarah Abernathy, Committee for Education Funding
Katie Spiker, Campaign to Invest in America's Workforce or
Deborah Weinstein, Coalition on Human Needs
Sincerely, Erin Will Morton,
Executive Director, Coalition for Health Funding. Katie Spiker,
Managing Director of Government Affairs, National Skills Coalition, Campaign to Invest in America's Workforce. Sarah Abernathy,
Executive Director, Committee for Education Funding. Deborah Weinstein,
Executive Director, Coalition on Human Needs.
____
NDIA,
Arlington, VA, November 1, 2021. Hon. Patrick Leahy, Chairman, Appropriations Committee, U.S. Senate. Hon. Rosa DeLauro, Chairwoman, Appropriations Committee, House of
Representatives. Hon. Richard Shelby, Ranking Member, Appropriations Committee, U.S. Senate. Hon. Kay Granger, Ranking Member, Appropriations Committee, House of
Representatives.
Dear Chairman Leahy, Chairwoman DeLauro and Ranking Members Shelby and Granger: On behalf of the thousands of companies represented by the National Defense Industrial Association
(NDIA) and across the defense industrial base, we write to request the expedited completion of the defense appropriation bill. While we applaud the bipartisan effort to pass a continuing resolution (CR) and avoid a government shutdown, it is a poor stand-in for the full-year appropriations desperately needed by our warfighters and those who provide them with the equipment and services that enable their mission.
We cannot stress enough the importance of the defense appropriations bill to our national security and to a healthy defense industrial base. The limbo caused under CRs wastes precious time and money our nation cannot recover. Delayed new starts and initiatives place a strain on companies and their workforce, particularly as they recalibrate operations to a post-pandemic normal. Our nation's competitors face no similar challenges putting us at a competitive disadvantage, particularly with emerging technologies, and place our supply chains at increasing risk, something we cannot afford after the nearly two years of pandemic impacts.
Doing business with the Federal Government is already hard. The tomes of regulations, burdensome business requirements, sometimes Kafkaesque contracting and oversight procedures, and compressed margins have combined to drive businesses out of the defense sector with a net outflow of well over 10,000 companies since 2011 and, as noted in our annual Vital Signs report, a halving of new entrants to the sector between fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2020 alone. Add to that the uncertainty of ``if and when'' a full-year defense appropriations gets signed into law, more companies will reassess their participation in the defense industrial base. The ultimate price of this is paid by our warfighters who will lose out on innovations and new capabilities not delivered.
The inefficiencies caused by beginning 12 of the last 13 fiscal years without full-year funding have cost the military services billions lost in inefficient expenditures and program delays. Also, delayed contract starts challenge larger contractors while threaten the existence of smaller prime contractors and small businesses down the supply chain. The effect of that has a human face and a long-term impact. To execute a new-start contract, a company must recruit, hire, and train a workforce despite a tight labor market and a shortage of workers with the required security clearance. Faced with a delayed start, that company must now choose between two bad options, either pay that workforce to stand idle or let those workers go--both of which could lead to contract or business failure and undelivered capabilities to our service members.
With no full-year funding, we cannot afford to go too long without hampering readiness recovery efforts, delaying capabilities to our warfighters, and postponing investments in advanced technologies while allowing our defense industrial base to erode. NOIA supports a bipartisan agreement on domestic and national security spending and encourages the adoption of a two-year budget to prevent another year of budget instability and to provide the needed support to the Department of Defense for their critical missions.
We appreciate your attention to this critical issue and look forward to working with your Committees moving forward.
Very respectfully, Herbert J. Carlisle,
General, USAF (Ret), President and CEO, National Defense Industrial Association. Arnold L. Punaro,
MajGen, USMC (Ret), Chairman of the Board, National Defense Industrial Association.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), the chairwoman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs.
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, let me first thank our chair, Congresswoman DeLauro, for yielding and for her tremendous leadership throughout this overall process because, I tell you, this continuing resolution, it really should not be necessary.
We have had ample time under the previous CR to complete bicameral, bipartisan negotiations to complete our full-year funding responsibilities, but not all parties have agreed to even come to the table.
But Democrats are determined to keep our government open, so I urge everyone to support this continuing resolution.
There are immense needs, though, and challenges outside our borders. We must complete our work on a full-year appropriations bill that provides the much-needed investments in diplomacy and development to meet those challenges.
For far too long, we have had an imbalance between defense, diplomacy, and development. So I am very proud that the House passed the State-Foreign Operations bill, increasing funding for global health and pandemic response efforts, humanitarian assistance, and our commitment to key allies and partners. We must provide our international agencies the resources they need to defeat the global COVID-19 pandemic and ensure that we are taking the proper steps to protect ourselves in the future.
The House bill also has a tripling of environmental funding from the prior year, which are critical investments to address climate change and accelerate the progress in adaptation of clean energy.
Our bill prioritizes the protection and advancement of women, including for family planning, which has not received an increase in funding in over a decade.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from California.
{time} 1545
Ms. LEE of California. Madam Speaker, these investments, along with other important investments in housing, jobs, and community investment, are on hold until we complete our work for fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills. So we must not shrink from our global responsibility but instead work to pass our budget, an omnibus bill, as soon as possible. Lives and livelihoods depend on this.
Madam Speaker, again I thank Chairwoman DeLauro for making sure we keep the government open.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense.
Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, we are here today to prevent the Republicans from shutting down the Federal Government tomorrow.
Republicans in the U.S. Senate are holding the FY 2022 appropriations process hostage by refusing to do any work, let alone negotiate with Democrats.
Rather than doing their job of funding the Federal Government, Senate Republicans want to kick the can down the road, wasting the first 4\1/
2\ months of the fiscal year.
As chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, it is clear that Republicans are undermining our national security. They are increasing waste and inefficiency, they are weakening our military readiness, and they are sending a signal to our troops and the millions of workers in the defense industry that they are not a priority.
The American people should be sick and tired of hearing Republicans in Congress talk about how we need a stronger national defense while doing everything in their power to weaken our national defense.
This is a time of instability in the world. Russia is knocking on the doorstep of Ukraine. China is at the doorstep of Taiwan. There are serious national security threats in the world.
When our adversaries look at Congress, they see Republicans playing political games rather than investing in research and modernization. What kind of message does that send to our adversaries? What kind of message does that send to the men and women of our military, who we ask to do the toughest jobs while putting their lives on the line?
I am voting for this continuing resolution to prevent a Republican shutdown. But I must say, while this CR is necessary, I find it to be unacceptable as an outcome.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington).
Mr. ARRINGTON. Madam Speaker, these CRs, these fits and starts of prioritizing the Nation's resources and allocating these resources so we can run the people's government, are inefficient at best, they are dysfunctional, it is disgraceful, it is pervasive, and it is a structural issue that both Republicans and Democrats have to solve ultimately. I am trying to be fair about this, because I have seen this happen when Republicans have been in charge, in all fairness.
I think the difference this time in the life of our country is that my Democrat colleagues have been distracted while trying to pass a massive tax-and-spend bill. It is the largest expansion of government and the largest tax hike. It is the biggest transfer of wealth. It is a lot of things, and they ain't good.
Meanwhile, we are just totally punting on managing our budget. Three years in a row, my colleagues have not put forth a budget.
What I would like to see us do, to fix this for both sides, is to consider when we are talking about CRs and the debt ceiling and we are putting on display for the entire world how dysfunctional we are with respect to budget and appropriations, is that we would actually put forward bipartisan reforms like enforceable spending caps. Those are gone after this year. How about paygos and CutGos that are actually enforceable so that we force Congress to do what everyone else in the country does, which is live within their means.
There is a whole list here. Debt targets; no budget, no recess. How about we stay here and celebrate Christmas together and the holidays until we get a dadgum budget passed?
There are lots of bipartisan measures that I implore my colleagues to talk to their leadership about while I am talking to mine, so we can do something about it and not just keep this dysfunction going infinitum.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, once again, it has been the Republicans' refusal to come to the table to negotiate that has stopped the process and forced us to do a short-term stopgap measure. We shouldn't be doing it, but Republicans need to come to the table.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan), the chairman of the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch.
Mr. RYAN. Madam Speaker, what you are seeing here before the United States Congress is two clear, different visions of America and where we want to go and what we want to do.
We know that China is running circles around us. We know they are building islands in the South China Sea. We know Russia is on the border. We know the middle class has been eroded. And we know the Republican philosophy has been cut taxes for the top 1 percent and hope the crumbs fall down to places like Youngstown, Ohio.
But what we are trying to do is three things. We want to build the United States, we want to rebuild the middle class, and we want to beat China.
But we can't do that if we don't have our greatest weapon. And our greatest weapon during the Cold War and our greatest weapon over the last 50 years has been a strong middle class. That has been our greatest weapon, our greatest strength. We reinvested into the United States, we reinvested into our communities, we invested in the technology, and we dominated the industry: steel, glass, and aerospace.
Now, we are hearing from the other side: Shut government down. Don't do anything. We don't want to be an honest broker.
Tyranny? What are you people talking about? We are talking about universal preschool, and they have it as a communist indoctrination of the American student. It is insane.
We need to pass this appropriations bill. We need to pass the CHIPS Act, because we have got to close the technology gap.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Ohio.
Mr. RYAN. Madam Speaker, we see all of these cargo ships out in California. They are not coming from Kansas. They are coming from China. If we don't reinvest and bring these supply chains back here, we are going to continue to lose. That is what is happening.
China is out-manufacturing us in semiconductors, communications equipment, electric vehicles, and batteries. We have to rebuild our country, or this whole thing isn't going to work.
We have got to make sure our kids are healthy and educated and skilled so they can thrive and outcompete China. That is what this bill is about. It is not about tyranny. It is not about communist indoctrination. It is about rebuilding the United States.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I just want to make a point. The Republicans on the Appropriations Committee want to increase our defense spending. We don't want to cut defense spending. Both the Republicans and the Democrats on the authorizing committee don't want to cut the defense spending. And both the Republicans and Democrats in the United States Senate don't want to cut defense spending.
We have a national defense strategy that was laid down by General Mattis, which I think we should follow, which asked for a net increase of a minimum of 3 to 5 percent net of inflation. That is just to maintain some credible deterrent against China and a resurgent Russia. Until we get to those numbers, we will continue to be operating on a continuing resolution.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, if the Republicans wanted to do something about our defense and our security in the military, they would move to work with us to pass the defense appropriations bill and the omnibus.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida
(Ms. Wasserman Schultz), the chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, the Republicans' refusal to negotiate bipartisan spending bills has us standing on another shutdown cliff and, once more, relying on another Band-Aid funding bill. It is the same place we were 2 months ago when Congress voted to provide 2 more months for earnest negotiations. Since then, House and Senate Democrats put forth proposals, and Republicans put nothing on the table.
As anyone who figures out their household bills every week knows, a table full of nothing doesn't keep the lights on, doesn't put groceries on the table. Nothing isn't going to put food in the refrigerator, and it certainly doesn't pay the phone bill or buy anyone's prescriptions. But that is what Republicans came up with in the last 2 months: absolutely nothing.
It looks a lot like the solutions Republicans put forward to solve all of the problems American families face: nothing. They have no plan.
So as responsible stewards, Democrats on the Appropriations Committee crafted yet another extension to maintain funding levels through February and ensure that our most urgent needs can be met.
But working families, small businesses, and veterans can't live on temporary patches. They need the certainty that comes with passing a full appropriations package to create jobs, prevent future pandemics, and keep schools safe. We need an omnibus budget to safeguard our air, our food, and our water.
As chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans' Affairs, I know veterans need an omnibus to get their earned benefits, to slash the claims backlogs they face, and to fully meet their VA healthcare needs.
I urge a ``yes'' vote on this continuing resolution because it will keep the government open and extend funding for critical education, health, housing, and public safety programs. These are programs and services that every community, red or blue, relies on every day.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentlewoman from Florida.
Ms. WASSERMAN SCHULTZ. Madam Speaker, Republicans' refusal to put the American people first and faithfully negotiate leaves every parent and mom-and-pop shop less secure.
Let's get serious about governing.
I say to my Republican colleagues: It is time to show up for work and stop worshipping at the altar of Donald Trump for 5 minutes, long enough to do your job.
Let's stop this legislative brinksmanship and immediately begin to negotiate the FY 2022 bills so we can meet our country's needs.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I think everybody knows, Madam Speaker, what the conditions are that have been pretty much publicized. National defense spending must go up and the balance of the appropriations has to come down; the legacy riders must come back in, and the poison pills have to go away. It is pretty simple, as far as I am concerned.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I want to remind my colleague on the other side of the aisle that a continuing resolution is a cut to defense. If you come to the table, we will discuss it, then we can move forward on the defense of this Nation.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Maine
(Ms. Pingree), the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.
Ms. PINGREE. Madam Speaker, I rise to support the continuing resolution, which extends government funding at current levels until we pass a full appropriations package for the next fiscal year.
It is my strong hope that this short-term extension will be the last one and that my colleagues across the aisle will acknowledge our solemn duty to exercise the power of the purse.
A continuing resolution that lasts a full year does not serve the American people. As the chair of the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, I can attest that the investments in the House interior bill would benefit all of our constituents, for those of us on both sides of the aisle.
The bill makes long-overdue investments to protect human health, to fight the climate emergency, and to meet our trust obligations to Tribal nations. It provides critical resources to rebuild the Federal workforce so that these agencies can meet their missions and better serve the public.
Failing to complete a full-year bill means no additional investments in the EPA to research and develop standards for harmful pollutants like PFAS, no further investments in domestic renewable energy, and insufficient resources for the healthcare of nearly 2.2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Regardless of whether we pass a full-year bill, we can be certain that millions of Americans will be exposed to pollution, that healthcare costs will rise, and that our window for mitigating climate change will shrink.
To ignore these threats is not in the Nation's best interest, nor any of ours. We were sent to Congress to improve the lives and livelihoods of our constituents.
Madam Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this bill, but I encourage my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to finish the bill.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research.
The Ad Hoc Group
for Medical Research,
November 15, 2021. Hon. Rosa DeLauro, Chair, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kay Granger, Ranking Member, Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Patrick Leahy, Chair, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Richard Shelby, Vice Chair, Committee on Appropriations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairwoman DeLauro, Chairman Leahy, Ranking Member Granger, and Vice Chairman Shelby: Thank you for your past leadership in championing sustained, real growth in medical research funding. As Congress begins to draft a final fiscal year (FY) 2022 spending package, the 314 undersigned members of the Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research urge you to invest robustly in agencies and programs to improve the nation's health and well-being, including base funding for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a key national priority and to finalize the appropriations process as expeditiously as possible. The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research is a coalition of patient and voluntary health groups, medical and scientific societies, academic and research organizations, and industry, dedicated to enhancing the federal investment in biomedical, behavioral, social, and population-based research supported by the NIH.
We greatly appreciate that both the House-passed (H.R. 4502) and Senate draft Labor-HHS-Education spending bills include strong increases for the NIH base in FY 2022, which would provide greater hope and opportunity for every patient awaiting a cure, every researcher working toward the next breakthrough, and every aspiring scientist considering a career in the lab. To maximize the potential of medical research to make rapid progress toward these goals, we urge you to provide at least $46.4 billion for NIH's base, as included in the House-passed bill. Continuing the momentum of the prior six years of bipartisan support for meaningful funding growth in the NIH's existing institutes and centers is key to ensuring that the nation can continue to accelerate the development of life-changing cures, pioneering treatments and diagnostics, and innovative preventive strategies.
Additionally, we appreciate that both bills ensure that the new investment for the proposed Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) supplements, rather than supplants, the NIH's base. While complementary, NIH and ARPA- H have distinct and important missions. As such, investment in ARPA-H must not come at the expense of the NIH base. Instead, to fully realize the benefits of the envisioned new entity while simultaneously allowing NIH to keep pace with discovery, an FY 2022 appropriation of at least $46.4 billion for NIH's base budget is needed. Prioritizing strong investments for foundational research discoveries funded by the NIH will be critical to the success of the visionary new research initiative, particularly as it builds its operational capacity in its inaugural year and beyond. Likewise, avoiding further delays in finalizing funding determinations will enable both ARPA-Hand NIH's planned and existing programs to be maximally efficient and strategic in their work in FY 2022.
To that end, our organizations strongly support an approach to the final FY 2022 spending package that avoids additional CRs past December. Aside from the budget implications, CRs create inefficiencies and add uncertainty to a system that is already under stress with the continued reverberations of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We strongly urge you to work swiftly in securing bipartisan, bicameral agreement on topline discretionary spending allocations and to ensure any final budget agreement reflects a strong commitment to the nation's health.
Once again, we commend you for continuing to recognize the incomparable value of the federal investment in the NIH, and we look forward to working with you to secure $46.4 billion for the agency's base in FY 2022, in addition to funding you provide for ARPA-H.
Sincerely,
314 Signatories as of November 15, 2021
Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, Academic Pediatric Association, Academy for Eating Disorders, Academy for Professionalism in Health Care, Academy for Radiology & Biomedical Imaging Research, ACT for NIH, AdventHealth, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine (AAIM), Alliance for Aging Research, ALS Association, Alzheimer's Association and Alzheimer's Impact Movement, Alzheimer's Foundation of America, American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP), American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, American Academy of Neurology, American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.
American Academy of Sleep Medicine, American Association for Anatomy, American Association for Cancer Research, American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research, American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, American Association of Chairs of Departments of Psychiatry, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training, American Association of Immunologists, American Association of Neurological Surgeons, American Association of Neuromuscular & Electrodiagnostic Medicine, American Association of Physicists in Medicine, American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges, American Brain Coalition, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American College of Academic Addiction Medicine (ACAAM), American College of Cardiology.
American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, American College of Physicians, American College of Radiology, American College of Surgeons, American Council on Education, American Gastroenterological Association American Geriatrics Society, American Headache Society, American Institute for Cancer Research, American Institute for Medical
& Biomedical Engineering, American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine, American Liver Foundation, American Lung Association, American Massage Therapy Association, American Pediatric Society, American Physiological Society, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, American Society for Investigative Pathology.
American Society for Microbiology, American Society for Nutrition, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, American Society for Reproductive Medicine
(ASRM), American Society for Virology, American Society of Anesthesiologists, American Society of Hematology, American Society of Human Genetics, American Society of Nephrology, American Society of Neuroradiology, American Society of Pediatric Nephrology, American Society of Radiologic Technologists, American Surgical Association, American Thoracic Society, American Urogynecologic Society, American Urological Association, Anxiety and Depression Association of America, Associated Medical Schools of New York.
Association for Anatomy, Cell Biology and Neurobiology Chairs (AACBNC), Association for Clinical and Translational Science, Association for Clinical Oncology, Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, Association for Psychological Science, Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO), Association of Academic Health Centers
(AAHC), Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries, Association of Academic Physiatrists.
Association of American Cancer Institutes, Association of American Medical Colleges, Association of American Universities, Association of Bioethics Program Directors, Association of Chairs of Departments of Physiology, Association of Independent Research Institutes, Association of Medical and Graduate Departments of Biochemistry (AMGDB), Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, Association of Minority Health Professions Schools, Association of Pathology Chairs, Association of Population Centers, Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, Association of Schools and Colleges of Optometry (ASCO), Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health, Association of University Professors of Neurology, Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology, Association of University Radiologists, Atrium Health, Autism Speaks.
AVAC (AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition), Barnes-Jewish Hospital, Bassett Healthcare Network, Biophysical Society, BJC HealthCare, Boston Medical Center, Boston University, Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research, Brown University, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, CDH International, Cedars-Sinai, Child Neurology Foundation, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Children's Mercy Kansas City, Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation, ChristianaCare.
Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, Clinical Research Forum, Coalition for Clinical and Translational Science, Coalition for the Life Sciences, College on Problems of Drug Dependence, Columbia University, COMBINEDBrain, Conference of Boston Teaching Hospitals, Congress of Neurological Surgeons, Consortium of Social Science Associations, Cooley's Anemia Foundation, Coriell Institute for Medical Research, Cornell University, Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology, Council on Social Work Education, Crohn's & Colitis Foundation, CURE Epilepsy, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health.
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, Digestive Disease National Coalition, Dravet Syndrome Foundation, Drexel University, Duke Health, Duke University, Dystonia Medical Research Foundation, East Carolina University, ECAN Esophageal Cancer Action Network, Emory University, Endocrine Society, Epilepsy Foundation, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB), Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Fight Colorectal Cancer, Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Friends of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, GBSICIDP Foundation International, Global Health Technologies Coalition.
Global Liver Institute, Harvard University, HealthyWomen, Henry Ford Health System, HIV Medicine Association, Hope For Stomach Cancer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Indiana University, Indiana University Health, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Initiative to End Alzheimer's Disease Board of Visitors, International Foundation for Gastrointestinal Disorders, International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), Interstitial Cystitis Association, JDRF, Jeffrey Modell Foundation, John & Amy Mewhiney Cancer Foundation, Johns Hopkins University and Medicine, Joslin Diabetes Center, KidneyCAN.
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Lewy Body Dementia Association, LGS Foundation, Lupus Foundation of America, Lymphatic Education & Research Network, Magee- Womens Research Institute and Foundation, March of Dimes, Mass General Brigham, Medical College of Wisconsin, Medical Image Perception Society, Medical Library Association, Memorial Sloan Kettering, MemorialCare Health System, Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation, METAvivor, Michelson Center for Public Policy, Michelson Medical Research Foundation, Michigan State University, Moffitt Cancer Center, National Alliance for Eye and Vision Research.
National Alopecia Areata Foundation, National Association for Biomedical Research, National Eczema Association, National Fragile X Foundation, National Kidney Foundation, National Pancreas Foundation, NephCure Kidney International, New York Medical College, New York University, North American Vascular Biology Organization, Northeastern University, Nutrition & Medical Foods Coalition, NYU Langone Health, Oakland University, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, Patient Services, Inc., Pediatric Policy Council, Penn State University, Personalized Medicine Coalition.
Population Association of America, Project Sleep, Prostate Cancer Foundation, Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation, Pulmonary Hypertension Association, Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), Recurrent Pregnancy Loss Association, Research!America, RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science, RTI International, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, Scleroderma Foundation, Sjogren's Foundation, Sleep Research Society, Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine.
Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, Society for Neuroscience, Society for Pediatric Radiology, Society for Pediatric Research, Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, Society for Reproductive Investigation, Society for Women's Health Research, Society of Academic Associations of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine
(SAAAPM), Society of Behavioral Medicine, Society of General Internal Medicine, Society of Gynecologic Oncology, Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging, Society of Skeletal Radiology, Society of Surgical Chairs, Society of Toxicology (SOT), Society of University Surgeons, St. Louis Children's Hospital, Stanford University, Stony Brook University, Syngap1 Foundation.
Temple University, Texas A&M Health, The American College of Rheumatology, The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy, The Gerontological Society of America, The Jackson Laboratory, The Maya's Wings Foundation, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, The State University of New York, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, The University of North Carolina System, The University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center, Triage Cancer, TSC Alliance, Tulane University School of Medicine, UC San Diego, UCLA, UNC Health and UNC School of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
University of California, Irvine, University of Chicago Medical Center, University of Cincinnati, University of Colorado System, University of Connecticut, University of Hawai'i System, University of Illinois College of Medicine, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, Baltimore, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, University of Michigan, University of Nebraska Medical Center, University of Pennsylvania, University of Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences, University of Rochester, University of South Carolina, University of Southern California, University of Washington, US Hereditary Angioedema Association (HAEA).
USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, UVA Health, Vanderbilt University, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Washington State University, Washington University in St. Louis, West Virginia University, Yale University.
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Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Perry).
Mr. PERRY. Madam Speaker, in the name of science, congressional Democrats are continuing their unconstitutional, unlawful march to force Americans to get the jab.
Think about it. Democrats are already on the path to ruin Christmas, destroying the supply chain. They are just going to keep going, right? Destroying industry after industry.
For a party who praised America's healthcare workers when there wasn't a jab available, who were out there on the front lines, now if they don't get it, it is okay to fire them, and not a word.
Finally, mandates for defense contractors and intelligence workers who have to make a choice between defending their country and putting their own life in peril, and no discussion about natural immunity, none whatsoever. You could have had COVID already. Not good enough. You have got to get the jab or lose your job.
Vote against this.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I just want to remind the gentleman that antiscience fearmongering about vaccines is wrong. Science is on our side, and history is on our side. Vaccines work.
I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Quigley), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.
Mr. QUIGLEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today in disappointed support of a second continuing resolution, but let's remember, every continuing resolution reflects a failure to govern.
House Democrats did our job and passed government funding bills, all of them, to create good-paying jobs to support the hardworking middle class and protect our national security.
In September, we voted on a bipartisan basis to extend government funding through December 3 to allow negotiations to finalize legislation. Since then, my colleagues across the aisle have refused to seriously negotiate with us on funding.
That leads us to where we are now, considering another new short-term CR right before the holiday break, when we should have already completed our work.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Sure enough, here we are again, having to pass another short-term CR because we can't pass funding bills in a regular manner.
There is more than enough time in a year to come to an agreement and pass funding bills. America's friends and enemies around the world are watching us to see if our country can continue to function in a changing world. We must show them we can, but this effort requires compromise, as it always has.
I ask them to join us for a bipartisan, bicameral negotiation to resolve our differences and keep government working for the people.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Cartwright), the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies.
Mr. CARTWRIGHT. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the continuing resolution. At the same time, I join my colleagues in calling on the other side of the aisle to join in helping enact a year-long appropriations act, the way we are supposed to do, rather than relying on this kind of stop-and-go government funding or a full-year continuing resolution, as has also been threatened.
Look, a full-year continuing resolution would be disastrous to our country in so many ways. It would greatly limit or reduce essential investments in our Nation's future.
As for the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, as reported out of committee earlier this year, it provides funding increases aimed at creating jobs in distressed communities, enforcing our trade laws, fighting crime and supporting community involvement with law enforcement, ensuring civil rights, advancing American scientific research, fighting the opioid epidemic, confronting the climate crisis, among so many other critical public investments. These funding increases are only possible with an appropriations agreement.
I urge support, both for the short-term CR, and to quickly finalize a full-year appropriations agreement.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, I thank the Chairwoman and all of the very important people on the Appropriations Committee for their work on this bill.
I ask the question, what side do you want to be on? Do you want to be on the side that provides our hardworking military pay raises for the troops, to be able to get money away from a misdirected war?
Do you want to be on the side that provides for working families?
Do you want to be on the side that stops those who can't pay for daycare to have that?
Do you want to be on the side of those who say, ``I am a Federal employee, and I have been shut out of my job''?
What side do you want to be on? I want to be on the side of negotiating an omnibus that works for the American people. I want my Republican friends to know that we have tried to negotiate, but we are adults and we are not going to let this government shut down.
What we are going to do is recognize these are dangerous times. We know that there is now an omicron variant. We are not going to play the antivaxxer game, we are not going to say that it is about vaccine mandates because we know that most of the Federal Government has been vaccinated; but what we are going to do is extend this resolution to keep the government open because the side that Democrats are on is the side of the American people and our government workers who go out and work every day and the families who go out and work every day.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. Scanlon). The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentlewoman an additional 30 seconds.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. A shutdown would induce furloughs that could hit 62 percent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, right in the middle of COVID-19.
In addition, families would be desperate as well.
I want you to understand that veterans would suffer. During the Thanksgiving holiday, I went to the veterans hospital. I can tell you, it is not empty. Veterans are there every day, and when they are there, they are getting services. Do you want to be part of a government shutdown where veterans hospitals are closed and veterans are standing outside with their hand asking what is happening?
I want to be on the side of those who understand the value of working for the American families and doing what Democrats have done, passing bills, passing laws that serve the American people.
Vote for the CR and vote for the omnibus so that we can get the job done. I thank the gentlewoman for her courtesies.
Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, and on the Budget, I rise in support of H.R. 6119, the ``Further Extending Government Funding Act,'' which provides funding to continue the operations of the federal government through February 18, 2022, and avoids a wasteful and irresponsible shutdown, and also the underlying bill.
House Democrats passed government funding bills to create good paying jobs, support the hard-working middle class, and protect our national security; Senate Democrats have also released all their appropriations bills.
Without an omnibus, there will be a shortfall that will cause veterans not to receive their benefits in full.
For our national security, we need an omnibus to support defense readiness and modernization, sustain good-paying American jobs, secure our cyber infrastructure, and strengthen American leadership abroad.
Without an omnibus, a pay raise for troops will not be funded while funds will be misdirected to a war we are no longer fighting.
With a new deadline of February 18, we need Republicans to offer constructive proposals to address the critical issues facing the country by funding the federal government's important work for the American people.
Madam Speaker, I need not remind my colleagues that we are at a critical point in the fight against this pandemic--less than 24 hours ago, it was reported that the first case of the Omicron variant was confirmed in the United States.
Our response in the following days and weeks will be crucial.
Yet some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle in the House and the Senate have indicated that they intend to block the passage of this stopgap spending bill in order to trigger a shutdown of the Federal government unless a bill is passed that undoes President Biden's initiatives to vaccinate and test employees at large companies.
Simply put, this is irresponsible and dangerous at a time when we have a new threat on our soil in the form of the Omicron variant.
A government shutdown would induce furloughs that could hit 62 percent of employees at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
It would be nothing other than reckless to hamstring the agency at the center of America's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic at this time--we need all hands on deck.
In September, Congress voted on a bipartisan basis to extend government funding through December 3 to allow time for bicameral, bipartisan negotiations to complete omnibus government funding legislation.
Since then, House and Senate Republicans have refused to negotiate with Democrats on government funding.
In fact, while House and Senate Democrats have put forward their proposals, Republicans have not presented an offer of their own.
Therefore, the Appropriations Committee introduced H.R. 6119, the Further Extending Government Funding Act, which continues government funding at current levels through February 18.
It makes minimal changes to address the most urgent of needs during the period of the Continuing Resolution.
Although this bill is necessary, working families, small businesses, veterans, and our military need the certainty that comes with passing an omnibus as opposed to short-term funding patches.
Republicans must join us for bipartisan, bicameral negotiations to resolve our differences and keep government working for the people.
For our communities, we need an omnibus to create jobs by supporting small businesses, bolster our public health infrastructure to prevent future pandemics and medical research to save lives, strengthen public schools with a focus on those serving students with the highest need, protect our air and water through environmental protection and enforcement efforts, combat the opioid epidemic on the ground in our communities, and support core services such as food safety and consumer product inspections.
Without an omnibus, investments in all these areas will be denied.
For our veterans, we need an omnibus to provide sufficient funding for veterans' benefits, reduce backlogs for veterans and their families seeking assistance, and meet the needs of the VA's health care system.
Throughout the 117th Congress, House Democrats have worked to deliver results for the American people, passing legislation to address each pillar of the ``For The People'' agenda: lower health care costs, higher wages by rebuilding America, and cleaning up corruption and strengthening our Democracy.
And under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, the House has passed hundreds of bills, including legislation to crush the COVID-19 pandemic, build our economy back better, lower health care and prescription drug prices, raise wages, advance economic and retirement security, end gun violence, act on the climate crisis, protect Dreamers, and strengthen voting rights.
For example, in this Congress the House has passed and sent to the President the following legislation that has been signed into law:
H.R. 1799, Paycheck Protection Program Extension Act:
This legislation extended the Paycheck Protection Program application deadline for two months through May 31, 2021 to help struggling businesses keep workers employed during COVID-19.
H.R. 1276, SAVE LIVES Act:
This law ensured that more veterans, their families, and caregivers got access to COVID-19 vaccines in a timely manner.
S. 937, COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act:
This law addresses the dramatic increase in hate crimes targeting the AAPI community since the start of the pandemic. This law designates a point person at the Department of Justice to review hate crimes related to the COVID-19 pandemic, bolsters state and local governments to improve their reporting of hate crimes and ensures that hate crime information is more accessible to Asian-American communities.
S. 475, Juneteenth National Independence Day Act:
This law established the first federal holiday in 38 years to formally recognize Juneteenth National Independence Day and commemorate the end of slavery in the United States.
House Democrats have also worked to advance critical pieces of legislation, which await action in the Senate:
H.R. 1, For The People Act:
This comprehensive legislation would promote government transparency, strengthen access to the ballot box and make it easier for Americans to exercise their right to vote, secure election infrastructure, and curb the influence of dark money in politics.
H.R. 5, Equality Act:
The Equality Act would codify consistent anti-discrimination legal protections for LGBTQ Americans by amending several existing civil rights laws to include explicit non-discrimination protections in key areas of life.
H.R. 6, Dream and Promise Act:
The Dream and Promise Act would protect Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) status holders from deportation and provide an opportunity to obtain permanent legal status that would enable these groups to work legally within the United States and continue to contribute to their local communities and economy.
H.R. 7, Paycheck Fairness Act:
This bill would strengthen labor protections around equal pay by prohibiting the use of salary history to set compensation, provide more transparent options for joining class-action lawsuits challenging systemic discrimination, and require employers to show that gender pay gaps are job-related and consistent with business need.
H.R. 8, Bipartisan Background Checks Act and H.R. 1446, the Enhanced Background Checks Act:
These bills would modernize federal laws around gun sales. The former would close current loopholes that allow buyers to purchase guns without a background check in certain venues, while the latter would prevent gun sales from going through before background checks are completed.
H.R. 1280, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act:
This bill, which House Democrats also passed in the 116th Congress 30 days after the murder of George Floyd, will address racial bias in policing, ensure accountability for police brutality and misconduct, and work to change the culture of law enforcement to promote better relationships with the communities they serve.
H.R. 842, Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act:
This bill aims to strengthen labor protections for union workers through overriding Republican-led ``right to work'' laws, promoting free and fair union elections, and holding companies that attempt to restrict union activity accountable.
H.J. Res. 17, Removing the Deadline for Ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment:
This resolution would remove the deadline for ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment in order to enshrine women's equality in the Constitution.
H.R. 1620, Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act:
This long-overdue legislation to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act passed the House with bipartisan support. It would reauthorize funding to vital grant programs that help prevent sexual assault, domestic violence, and improve access to resources for victims and survivors.
H.R. 3237, the Emergency Security Supplemental to Respond to 1/6 Appropriations Act:
This bill provides $1.9 billion in funding to secure the U.S. Capitol Complex and ensure the brave men and women of the U.S. Capitol Police have the resources they need to do their jobs. The legislation responds to the direct costs incurred by the National Guard and DC police on January 6, provides funding to improve the security of windows and doors in the Capitol complex, and secures funds to improve Capitol Police training and equipment.
H.R. 3005, Legislation to #RemoveHate from the Capitol Building:
This bill would remove statues of those who perpetuated and supported slavery and segregation in this country, along with statues or busts of those who served voluntarily in the Confederate States of America, from public display in the U.S. Capitol.
H.R. 1603, the Farm Workforce Modernization Act:
This bipartisan bill would stabilize the agriculture industry's labor supply by reforming the H-2A guest worker program and creating a pathway to citizenship for agricultural workers, many of whom worked through the pandemic.
H.R. 51, the Washington, DC Admission Act:
This bill would admit Washington, DC as the 51st state in the Union and end the injustice in denying nearly 700,000 citizens the right to be represented fully in Congress. It would also end the unjust practice of treating District of Columbia residents differently when allocating government resources or relief.
H.R. 3985, ALLIES Act:
This bill would increase the visa cap and expedite the visa process for Afghan allies who worked alongside American military personnel, diplomats, development professionals, and partner forces, to help ensure they make it safely out of harm's way.
H.R. 803, Protecting America's Wildness and Public Lands Act:
This comprehensive bill would conserve and protect natural landscapes across America, designating over 1.5 million acres of public land as protected wilderness and withdrawing significant amount of public land from drilling and mining activities to promote a healthier environment.
H.R. 2467, the PFAS Action Act:
This bipartisan bill would improve the safety of Americans' drinking water by requiring the EPA to set a drinking water standard, prevent the future release of PFAS chemicals into our bodies of water, and start the process of cleaning up affected communities.
H.R. 256, Repeal of the 2002 AUMF Against Iraq:
This bill, which passed with bipartisan support, would repeal the 2002 Authorization of Military Force Against Iraq.
H.R. 1230, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act:
The bipartisan Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act restores protections for older workers that were weakened in a 2009 Supreme Court ruling that made it harder for older workers to prove age based discrimination in the workplace.
H.R. 2662, the Inspectors-General Independence and Empowerment Act:
This bill seeks to promote government transparency and accountability by ensuring the independence of federal inspectors-general, allowing government watchdogs to act freely without fear of political pressure or threats. It would also protect whistleblowers from threats of retaliation by making it a violation of House rules for Members to reveal their identities.
In addition, three Congressional Review Act resolutions have been signed into law, overturning dangerous rules put in place by the Trump Administration:
S.J. Res 13, a CRA overturning an EEOC rule to address discrimination in the workplace;
S.J. Res. 14, a CRA addressing dangerous methane emissions; and
S.J. Res. 15, a CRA to protect against predatory lenders.
These along with many, many others are among the bills awaiting Senate action.
Madam Speaker, let me briefly list several of the programs vital to Americans that are protected or extended by H.R. 6119. The bill:
Provides waiver language for certain intelligence programs as well as agencies that operate under the State Department Basic Authorities Act and Foreign Relations Authorization Act;
Allows the Food and Nutrition Service to spend at a higher rate during the period covered by the legislation to provide supplemental USDA foods to low-income seniors (age 60 and over) and to some low-
income women, infants and children up to age six.
Allows a higher spending rate for the White House to support continuing COVID-19 operations.
Allows the Small Business Administration flexibility to spend at the rate necessary to accommodate potential demand increases for commitments for business loans through the 7(a) and 504 business loans, for the Secondary Market Guarantee Program, and for the Small Business Investment Company (SBIC) program.
Allows District of Columbia voucher schools an additional year to be accredited and therefore remain in the program. The accrediting process requires in-school visits, which are not happening during the coronavirus.
Allows the District of Columbia to spend FY 2021 funds received from local tax revenues and other non-Federal sources in the amount and for the programs and activities provided in DC's FY 2021 Budget Act.
Extends the term of certain bankruptcy judgeships.
Allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency to access the entire DRF appropriation for fiscal year 2021 under the continuing resolution as necessary to respond to declared disasters.
Continues the authorization for the NFIP.
Extends funding for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the Child Care Entitlement to States program during the period of the continuing resolution. The extension will allow HHS to make first-quarter payments to States.
Extends the availability of funding for multiyear research grants supported by the National Institutes of Health that were interrupted in fiscal year 2020 by COVID-19 and would have expired at the end of the fiscal year.
Madam Speaker, our colleagues across the aisle have in both chambers have been obstructive, dilatory, petulantly uncooperative throughout the first session of the 117th Congress.
Nowhere was this more apparent than the refusal of the majority of J Republican members in the House voted 175-35 against H.R. 3233, legislation modeled after the 9/11 Commission establishing a National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex Act.
Madam Speaker, American families do not get to choose which bills to pay and which ones to ignore; neither can the United States Congress without putting the nation into default for the first time in its history.
Long ago, in 1789, Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first and greatest Treasury Secretary, understood that the path to American prosperity and greatness lay in its creditworthiness which provided the affordable access to capital needed to fund internal improvements and economic growth.
The nation's creditworthiness was one of its most important national assets and according to Hamilton: ``the proper funding of the present debt, will render it a national blessing.''
But to maintain this blessing, or to ``render public credit immortal,'' Hamilton understood that it was necessary that: ``the creation of debt should always be accompanied with the means of extinguishment.''
In other words, to retain and enjoy the prosperity that flows from good credit, it is necessary for a nation to pay its bills.
To preserve the sanctity of the full faith and credit of the United States, protect American jobs and businesses of all sizes, and ensure the continued growth of the economy, I strongly support the provision in the bill before extending the public debt limit to December 16, 2021.
Madam Speaker, I would also like to discuss an important topic that is closely related to this bill and that this House must address very soon--raising the debt ceiling.
Preserving the full faith and credit of the United States by raising to the debt limit to ensure that America pays the bills for past expenditures when they come due is not a partisan exercise but an act of patriotism, a recognition and embrace of the solemn obligation to preserve the unrivaled advantages that flow from the ability provided in the Article I, Section 8, clause 2 of the Constitution to ``borrow money on the credit of the United States.''
Long ago, in 1789, Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first and greatest Treasury Secretary, understood that the path to American prosperity and greatness lay in its creditworthiness which provided the affordable access to capital needed to fund internal improvements and economic growth.
It is because of the existence and wise use of the Borrowing Power that the nation was able to expand its reaches, resources, and riches by financing the Louisiana Purchase, the purchase of Alaska from Russia, to fund the investments to end the Great Depression, to finance the mobilization of resources needed in World War II to defeat fascism and save freedom in the nation and the world, to revive the economy after the catastrophic Great Recession of 2008, and most recently, to protect the public health and safety and restore the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This is why the ability to borrow money on the credit of the United States to finance its growth and protect its people and interests is essential to the national security and led Hamilton to proclaim that
``the proper funding of the present debt, will render it a national blessing.''
But to maintain this blessing, or to ``render public credit immortal,'' Hamilton understood that it was necessary that: ``the creation of debt should always be accompanied with the means of extinguishment.''
In other words, to retain and enjoy the prosperity that flows from good credit, it is necessary for a nation to pay its bills.
The United States has never defaulted on the payment of any debt incurred, and because of the size and strength of its economic and unmatched creditworthiness, is able to borrow on the lowest and most favorable terms of any nation or entity in the history of the world.
So secure and reliable is a bond issues by the Department of Treasury that the Unites States is the preferred haven for investments of foreign governments, corporations, and sovereign wealth funds.
The interest rate charged the federal government of the United States is the base for which every rate, from the prime rate charged the richest corporation to rates charged small business on purchases to the mortgages rates and students loans taken out by consumers.
If you raise the cost of borrowing for the government of the United States, you set off a chain reaction of increased interest rates for every other borrower in the United States and around the world.
This is why leading public finance experts and agencies, like Moody's Chief Economist Mark Zandi, have said it would be ``cataclysmic'' for the United States to default on its loan obligations.
Republicans know the debt ceiling needs to be raised; in 2019 during the Trump Administration, the Republican Senate Majority Leader marshalled Senate Republicans to vote to raise the debt ceiling, saying: ``We raised the debt ceiling because America can't default[,] that would be a disaster.''
Madam Speaker, this debate over extending the debt limit is not about restraining future spending, it is about paying the bills piled up already under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
The question of raising the national debt limit does not depend on how one feels about the Build Back Better agenda, as wildly popular as it is among all Americans, Democrats, Independents, and Republicans included.
It is instead about preserving the singular asset of the United States, its enviable and unrivaled creditworthiness, to finance future investments beneficial to the national interest, like the provision of free college for two years, or $2 billion investment to reduce violence in communities approved by the Committee on the Judiciary, or investments to preserve and strengthen Medicaid expansion programs, or extend broadband to underserved rural and urban areas, an action that will be as life-changing as the rural electrification program was in the 1930s.
Madam Speaker, if our friends across the aisle really want to shrink the deficit, reduce the national debt, practice fiscal responsibility, and bring about sustained economic growth and prosperity, there is a much better, easier, and more certain way to achieve these goals than by tampering with the U.S. Constitution.
The easier and better way is for the American people to keep a Democrat in the White House and place Democratic majorities in the House and Senate.
In the 1990s under the leadership of President Clinton the budget was balanced for four consecutive years, the national debt was paid down, the national debt, 23 million new jobs were created, and projected surpluses exceeded $5 trillion.
Under President Obama the financial crisis and economic meltdown inherited from his Republican predecessor was ended, the annual deficit was reduced by 67 percent, the auto industry was saved from collapse, and 15 million jobs were created.
In contrast, under every Republican administration since President Reagan the size of the deficit bequeathed to his successor was substantially larger than the deficit he inherited, a major economic recession occurred, and economic growth was lower than it was at the beginning of his administration.
To preserve the sanctity of the full faith and credit of the United States, protect American jobs and businesses of all sizes, and ensure the continued growth of the economy, raised.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I am kind of a little confused. Last I looked, the Democratic Party controls the House, they control the Senate, and they control the White House. If they want to pass an omnibus bill, pass it.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline).
Mr. CICILLINE. Madam Speaker, I first want to say thank you to the Appropriations chair and to the members of the Appropriations Committee for their extraordinary work.
Let's be clear about one thing. A continuing resolution is not a way to proceed, but it is the only way we can proceed in the face of Republican obstruction, and when you vote ``no'' on the continuing resolution, you are voting to defund the government and shut it down.
That means veterans can't access healthcare at the VA.
It means Native American Tribes can't have access to healthcare and schools.
It means our troops won't get the pay they deserve.
You are voting to shut the government down, and at the same time you are unwilling to be part of a process to pass appropriations bills for an entire year. You are here to govern. You have a responsibility to make sure this appropriation process works. And I am grateful for the service of the members of the Appropriations Committee that have worked on this in a painstaking way.
We have Republicans in the Senate who are obstructing this process, but I am glad that I am part of the process that makes sure government remains open, that we take care of our responsibilities, that we ensure that the economic recovery that is underway is not hampered. I thank the chair of the Appropriations Committee for the hard work in bringing us to this moment.
I urge everyone to support the continuing resolution. Be responsible.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Let me just say to you that we have heard from a number of advocacy groups urging the Congress to move on taking up a full-year omnibus. Let me just tell you the groups that have written to us.
We are looking at the National Defense Industrial Association: On behalf of thousands of companies represented by the National Defense Industrial Association, we write to request the expedited completion of the defense appropriation bill.
We talk about the Association of American Universities: Urge you to reach a bipartisan agreement to complete the FY22 appropriations process before the end of the year.
The Aerospace Industries Association: Our essential partners are urging us to avoid a further CR beyond December 3, wanting us to come to the table in order to be able to have a full-year appropriations bill.
The Coalition for Health Funding, the same message to all of us: Relying on continuing resolutions would be a grave, missed opportunity to improve the lives of all Americans. A full-year appropriations bill.
The Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research telling us the very, very same thing: To maximize the potential of medical research, we need to move forward with a full-year bill.
The veterans organizations saying the same thing: Do not shortchange veterans and their benefits by holding back on a full-year appropriations bill.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record statements in support of the bill from a broad coalition of groups urging negotiations now, as well as letters from veterans' organizations and America's leading research universities.
Broad Coalition of Groups Urging Negotiations Now
A broad coalition of groups have joined Chair DeLauro and Democratic Appropriators urging negotiations and agreement on fiscal year 2022 appropriations bills. These organizations include:
Ad Hoc Group for Medical Research
Our organizations strongly support an approach to the final FY 2022 spending package that avoids additional CRs past December. Aside from the budget implications, CRs create inefficiencies and add uncertainty to a system that is already under stress with the continued reverberations of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We strongly urge you to work swiftly in securing bipartisan, bicameral agreement on topline discretionary spending allocations and to ensure any final budget agreement reflects a strong commitment to the nation's health.
Aerospace Industries Association
The United States aerospace and defense industries are an essential partner with the federal government in an array of efforts vital to our economy and our national security. Each fall, that partnership is tested when those programs are slowed down or deferred by the use of multiple continuing resolutions (CR) to keep the government running . . . If Congress fails to once again enact full-year appropriations bills, or continues running the government into 2022 under continuing resolutions, it will send the wrong signal to the government's partners, like those in our industry. We count on stable, reliable and adequate funding to support the critical capabilities that we provide for all Americans.
American Association for Cancer Research
As the nation continues to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, cancer has not stopped, and remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. To better prevent, detect, and treat cancers, Congress must act swiftly to increase investments in cancer research and prevention. A full-year continuing resolution or funding lapse would threaten our nation's research enterprise and stall medical breakthroughs that could benefit the lives of millions of patients with cancer and survivors. The AACR urges congressional negotiators to come to the table and agree to Fiscal Year 2022 allocations that would support robust and sustained funding for cancer research and prevention.
Association of American Universities
Higher education, research, and innovation play integral roles in our nation's competitiveness, security, health, and ability to combat and overcome the pandemic. Our nation cannot afford continued inaction on FY22 appropriations. In the absence of final appropriations, federal agencies postpone research award decisions and prepare for potential lapses in funding. Continuing resolutions (CRs) slow the pace of scientific innovation and create funding uncertainty for researchers and students. It is vital that Congress complete appropriations this year and avoid serial stop-gap measures and a yearlong CR.
Coalition on Human Needs
The nation's recovery depends on strengthening a host of domestic programs that have been allowed to shrink for years, not just to get to where they had been before, but to respond to needs far greater because of the pandemic and its global economic dislocations. A long-term continuing resolution would be a severe failure to address these needs. We strongly urge you to enact omnibus appropriations legislation including all twelve bills as soon as possible.
Joint Coalition of the Campaign to Invest in American's Workforce, the
Coalition for Health Funding, the Coalition on Human Needs, and the
Committee for Education Funding
The bill passed by the House this summer and the bill proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee this fall provide vital increased funding for the programs and services that have a profound impact on health and well-being, child development, educational and skills attainment, employment, and productivity. Failing to enact the FY 2022 bill and relying on continuing resolutions (CRs) would be a grave missed opportunity to improve the lives of all Americans.
National Defense Industrial Association
We cannot stress enough the importance of the defense appropriations bill to our national security and to a healthy defense industrial base. The limbo caused under CRs wastes precious time and money our nation cannot recover. Delayed new starts and initiatives place a strain on companies and their workforce, particularly as they recalibrate operations to a post-pandemic normal. Our nation's competitors face no similar challenges putting us at a competitive disadvantage, particularly with emerging technologies, and place our supply chains at increasing risk, something we cannot afford after the nearly two years of pandemic impacts.
Veterans Service Organizations, including the American Legion and the
Veterans of Foreign Wars
A full-year continuing resolution could result in an estimated $7 billion shortfall in funding for mandatory compensation and pension benefits, in large part due to an increased number of benefit claims resulting from congressional approval of new diseases related to Agent Orange exposure for Vietnam veterans . . . we call on you to reject consideration of a full-year continuing resolution that would reduce veterans' funding below what has already been approved in an overwhelming bipartisan vote.
____
November 10, 2021. Hon. Charles E. Schumer, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell: On behalf of the millions of veterans our organizations represent, we write to express serious concerns about reports that the Senate is considering approving a full-year continuing resolution to fund the federal government for the remainder of fiscal year 2022, which would have significant negative consequences for veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors. Therefore, we are asking that you work together to ensure that veterans programs, benefits and medical services receive the full level of funding for fiscal year 2022 that was approved with strong bipartisan support
(25 to 5) by the Senate Appropriations Committee in August.
As you know, Congress approved and the President signed a short-term continuing resolution (Public Law 117-43) on September 30th to fund the federal government through December 3, 2021, extending funding at the levels previously enacted in fiscal year 2021 appropriations legislation. Funding for Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical care and benefit payments for fiscal year 2022 was previously approved in December 2020 as advance appropriations in Division J (Military Construction and Veterans Affairs) of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, Public Law 116- 260. However, the advance appropriations process only works properly if funding levels are adjusted to address increased demand for benefits and services as part of the following year's regular appropriations process, as is necessary for fiscal year 2022. Further, if Congress passes a full-year continuing resolution, all other programs, services and benefits would remain funded at fiscal year 2021 levels, which would fall short of the anticipated needs.
For example, a full-year continuing resolution could result in an estimated $7 billion shortfall in funding for mandatory compensation and pension benefits, in large part due to an increased number of benefit claims resulting from congressional approval of new diseases related to Agent Orange exposure for Vietnam veterans.
In addition, the time it takes to process these and other claims for benefits would be significantly increased without the $300 million increase for the Veterans Benefits Administration approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee. Similarly, reductions from the Committee-approved levels for the Board of Veterans' Appeals and the National Cemetery Administration would negatively impact veterans and their survivors seeking their services and benefits.
Enacting a full-year continuing resolution would also negatively hamper veterans' ability to receive timely medical care absent the $3.3 billion increase for Veterans Medical Community Care approved by the Senate Committee. VA's critical Medical and Prosthetic Research programs would be cut by $67 million and funding to support VA's health care infrastructure would be cut $450 million below the levels approved by the Committee if Congress passes a full-year continuing resolution.
As leaders of the Senate, we call on you to reject consideration of a full-year continuing resolution that would reduce veterans' funding below what has already been approved in an overwhelming bipartisan vote of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Instead, we ask that you use your influence to ensure that the Senate completes consideration of the fiscal year 2022 appropriations so that veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors have timely access to all the benefits, services and medical care they have earned.
Respectfully, Lawrence W. Montreuil,
National Legislative Director, The American Legion. Tom Porter,
Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. Heather Ansley, Esq., MSW,
Associate Executive Director of Government Relations, Paralyzed Veterans of America. Patrick Murray,
Director, National Legislative Service, Veterans of Foreign Wars. Joy J. Ilem,
National Legislative Director, DAV (Disabled American Veterans). Dan Merry,
Colonel, USAF (Ret), Vice President for Government Relations, Military Officers Association of America. Sharon Hodge,
Director for Policy and Government Affairs, Vietnam Veterans of America. Brian Dempsey,
Government Affairs Director, Wounded Warrior Project.
____
Association of American Universities,
November 18, 2021. Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Kevin McCarthy, Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Washington, DC. Hon. Charles Schumer, Majority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Hon. Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leaders Schumer, McCarthy, and McConnell: I write on behalf of America's leading research universities to urge you to reach a bipartisan agreement to complete the FY22 appropriations process before the end of the year.
Recent suggestions that final FY22 appropriations could be delayed until March 2022 are distressing. Higher education, research, and innovation play integral roles in our nation's competitiveness, security, health, and ability to combat and overcome the pandemic. Our nation cannot afford continued inaction on FY22 appropriations. In the absence of final appropriations, federal agencies postpone research award decisions and prepare for potential lapses in funding. Continuing resolutions (CRs) slow the pace of scientific innovation and create funding uncertainty for researchers and students. It is vital that Congress complete appropriations this year and avoid serial stop-gap measures and a year-long CR.
Congress has made good progress in determining FY22 funding levels, and now it is time to finish the job. Both the House and Senate bills include important increases to federal investments in student aid and research that would help bolster our nation's economic competitiveness and standing as the global innovation leader. For example, the bills propose a $400 increase to the Pell Grant maximum award and increased funding for other student aid programs, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy's Office of Science, and other critical research agencies. AAU supports the proposed increases, and we stand ready to reinforce efforts to ensure final passage.
We urge you to complete FY22 appropriations before the end of the year and to approve the highest levels of funding proposed for student aid and research programs in the House and Senate bills. Thank you for considering our views.
Sincerely,
Barbara R. Snyder,
President.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the majority leader of the House of Representatives.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Connecticut has 30 seconds remaining.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I thank the chair of the Appropriations Committee for yielding me 1 minute.
I rise to say, of course, everybody is going to vote for this bill. I wish I believed that.
Madam Speaker, this bill is a demonstration of the failure of 535 adults elected by their fellow citizens to act responsibly. Obviously, of those 535, a number have acted responsibly, have worked to get the job done.
There are really only 12 bills that need to pass the Congress. There are many other bills that are important bills and should pass the Congress that I voted for and make life better for America.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. HOYER. How is that?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Connecticut had 30 seconds remaining.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman, who is my friend, and I thank him for that.
As I was saying, this is a failure. We knew that these 12 bills have to pass. Why? Because if they do not, government shuts down. It stops serving the American people. It stops maintaining security and health and welfare of our people. So we know these bills have to pass.
But notwithstanding that, year after year after year, we come to this point where we are adopting a CR. It is really a CI, congressional irresponsibility.
Now let me say that I generally speak of the Congress, but very frankly, Madam Speaker, we have exercised our responsibility in this House. We passed 9 of the 12 appropriation bills and sent them to the Senate.
{time} 1615
The Senate, Madam Speaker, has not sent a single bill to the House, not passed a single appropriations bill through the United States Senate. They have passed through some in committee.
I heard my friend Tom Cole speaking earlier on the rule. He is my friend, and he is a Member I respect. He is a member of the Appropriations Committee and the Rules Committee. He is a Member who respects this institution. But I disagree with him very much about why we are at a CR. We passed overwhelmingly 75 percent of the appropriation bills before August 1 and sent them to the Senate. They have neither acted on those bills nor have they acted on their own bills and asked to go to conference.
So we find ourselves at the 11th hour, as we did on September 30--
although we passed the CR a little before September 30--without having funded the government.
The gentleman referred to the fact that we control both Houses. Frankly, nobody controls the United States Senate. We are in the majority by one. But, unfortunately, in the United States Senate, you need not a majority; you need a supermajority. So the minority can defeat the majority.
The minority can defeat the majority in the United States Senate. That is an appalling place for our democracy to be. I have written an op-ed in Time magazine on that issue, and it has been distributed to many Members.
Mr. Cole made an assessment about why the CR is coming to the floor today with just hours to go before it expires. His assessment was not correct. The reason we have not gotten, as the gentlewoman has pointed out, to even the opportunity to discuss a resolution of the differences between the House and the Senate on spending levels and the objects of that spending is because Senate Republicans have refused to negotiate and made as a condition precedent--as we lawyers say, something that has to happen before you do something else--that we resolve all the riders.
Now, for any of us who have been involved in the appropriation process for any period of time, the riders are almost always the last items to be resolved, invariably. I served as an active member of the Appropriations Committee for 23 years, and for the last 16 years, I have been very much involved in working with the Appropriations Committee to get these bills passed.
Because of the refusal to even sit down and determine how much money we will spend overall, which is called in our jargon 302(a) numbers, the chairman has been unable to get to a discussion of the differences so that they could be resolved. If you can't discuss, you can't resolve.
So for Mr. Cole, frankly, to have intimated that somehow it was the Democrats that couldn't do it, it takes two to tango, and frankly, one of the partners in the Senate doesn't want to tango until something happens that almost always happens at the end.
The timing for the consideration of this CR resulted not from the majority's focus on passing critical legislation to help the American people get ahead, the Build Back Better Act, the infrastructure bill which, by the way, only 13 Republicans voted for, but my speculation is at least half of them are going to take credit for what was done in that bill, maybe all of them. It is as a result, this failure, of the minority's determination to slow down the work of Congress so that such legislation is delayed.
As a matter of fact, the minority leader of the United States Senate said exactly that. He said that he would not consider negotiating on the CR until Build Back Better was done, which means he is prepared to shut down the government. I think that is probably not true. I don't think he wants to shut down the government. I hope he doesn't want to shut down the government.
He wants to gum up the works on Build Back Better. I get that. He is opposed to it. He doesn't like it. He thinks it is the wrong priorities. That is an honest position to take. I think it is incorrect, but it is honest. But don't do it by playing games with the appropriation process.
In my view, the Senate treats the appropriation process as a back-
burner issue. When we get to it, we will get to it, but we have a lot of other things we want to do first. For the last 10, 11 months, that is what the case has been.
To dissemble and derail the legislative process using every tool available to them to prohibit Congress from doing exactly what the American people are looking for us to do is not responsible. How sad. How shameful that reality is.
I agree that it is unfortunate that we have to take up another stopgap measure this week to keep this government operating. If it were based upon whether this is the right thing to do in terms of substance, I would vote ``no.'' But it absolutely is the right thing to do in terms of process.
But the chair is absolutely right; we need to pass an omnibus. I would hope that every Republican after, hopefully, passing this piece of legislation today or tomorrow will then address how we are going to have an omnibus, how we are going to deal with the problems, how we are going to give the government agencies that which they need to meet new challenges that were not available to us a year ago and so they could not be addressed.
It is extremely disappointing that Senate Republicans are blocking progress toward full-year appropriations that will enable our government to serve the American people. I happen to believe that the ranking member, Senator Shelby, wants to see an omnibus passed. I believe that. But I believe the tactics of the Republican leadership in the Senate are not to do so until they get what they want.
That is dangerous for our country, and it is extraordinarily inefficient for the 2 million people who are waiting to see what we are doing. That is what they are focused on, not the job, not the priorities, not the dangers, but what is happening: Is the government going to fund us on Saturday? On Saturday, are we going to be able to operate?
There are few certainties in Washington, Madam Speaker, but one of them has now become that Congress will not complete the appropriation process by the start of the fiscal year. I have tried to make that happen every year that I have been majority leader. The chair of this committee, Rosa DeLauro, did everything she could to pass 12 appropriation bills by the August 1 deadline. If we had had any help on the Republican side, we would have done it--any help.
Now, we have only a four-vote margin over here, so on some of the bills that were more controversial for one reason or another, we needed some help. I will remind my friend--and I dearly thank him for yielding me the time. He knew it was going to be a somewhat extended discussion, but I thank him for that. It reflects back to how this institution used to operate, frankly, and I appreciate it. But he knows that when the Republican side was in the majority, and they could not get the majority of votes on fiscal issues, they looked to this side of the aisle. We always helped and made it happen; maybe not 100 percent of us, but a large enough amount so that the important fiscal issues would be dealt with and passed.
Only six times over the past 20 years has Congress come within 3 months of this deadline, the end of the fiscal year.
Now, I could go on for some period of time talking about Mr. Cole. He said the majority wasn't serious. We are very serious. We have been the ones that opened up government after it was shut down for some 35 days when we took over from the Republican leadership two Congresses ago. We can do better.
For Mr. Cole to say that we were spending time pandering to the American people by passing the Build Back Better Act or passing the bipartisan infrastructure act, I hope he reflects upon that statement and says, no, that was wrong. Yes, we focused on Build Back Better because we think it is important for the American people, but we had already passed the appropriation bills. They were already in the Senate ready to be acted upon, and we were ready to act in response.
Madam Speaker, this is the result of the inability of the Congress to work. The House worked. Republicans and Democrats, this House can work. Maybe sometimes I don't agree with what it does, and maybe sometimes my colleagues on the other side of the aisle don't agree with what it does, but it works. It can pass legislation.
The Senate is not working, and it is hurting our country.
We should all resolve, however we vote on this CR, we should all resolve, hopefully, all of us--and I am a good friend of the ranking member, Ms. Granger. I think she wants to get this bill done. By ``this bill,'' I am talking about omnibus, all 12 appropriation bills. I think she wants to get that done. But I am not sure that she has been empowered by her leadership to do so.
We can have differences, and we have a way of resolving those differences. Ultimately, we vote. But if we keep putting it off, putting it off, putting it off, it undermines the credibility of the United States, the confidence that people have in our country, the confidence that our workers have in our stewardship of the leadership of this country, and the people's confidence. So we ought to resolve that we stop this.
The Republicans, through Mr. Cole, have talked about a motion to recommit. It mirrors the unserious nature of their opposition. Why do I say that? Because their motion to recommit has nothing to do with the funding of government. It has nothing to do with our responsibility to ensure that government continues to work on behalf of the American people. Rather, it would send this bill back to committee and would not possibly be able to act in a timely fashion that some 30 hours from now, I guess 31\1/2\ hours from now, government would shut down.
I would have understood perhaps a motion that would have said we are going to fund government at this level, or we are going to fund this objective and not that objective, but that is not what it did, totally irrelevant to the appropriations process bill. They may think it is an important issue. I get that. But it doesn't have anything to do with this issue.
Very frankly, that is exactly what the Senate has been doing on the Republican side, irrelevant issues, not the appropriations process. So we find ourselves now at a time when we must pass this CR.
I am not in love with this CR, but in a world of alternatives, there should be none for any of us. All of us should have the courage to be responsible. Madam Speaker, all of us should have the courage to say there is no alternative, and after we pass this bill and the Senate passes this bill, get down to the work between now and February 18.
I would hope we could pass an omnibus appropriation bill including the work of the gentleman from California, the gentlewoman from Connecticut, and all the rest of us on the priorities that we want to pursue as an American people and the investments that we want to make in achieving those objectives. I hope we do that.
{time} 1630
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to remind my friends in the majority, we don't run the House, we don't run the White House, and God only knows who runs the Senate.
But I do know this, that the gentleman that the majority leader referred to, the ranking minority member in the United States Senate certainly wants an appropriation bill, but I think he has made it quite clear, and I think we have made it quite clear--the gentleman referred to Mr. Cole--I think he has made it quite clear that the legacy riders, which need to come back in, the poison pills have got to go out, the dollars, by the way, which we have not agreed to in defense spending because, as you know, the Committee on Appropriations did not agree to a number that passed in the United States House of Representatives. It did pass by the authorization committee at a higher number, and in the Senate by a higher number, both Republicans and Democrats.
So I think we recognize that defense number has to go up and something else has to come down. If those things happen, I think we can have a serious negotiation. Until then, I am afraid we are going to be continuing to operate on a continuing resolution.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Georgia
(Mrs. Greene).
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to the CR. The American people are $29 trillion in debt, thanks to Congress. And this Congress wants to borrow more money and more time to figure out how to run the government and how to pay for it. That is an outrage to the American people.
You want to talk about courage and responsibility? Do you know what courage and responsibility is?
It is learning how to manage the people's money. The people work hard every single day. They have to pay the taxes. And then they have to trust this House, this body, and the Senate to create a budget, but every single time, it is the budget that puts them further and further in debt.
It is the audacity of Congress to borrow more money and not be able to come up with a budget that makes sense and that we can pay for.
What an outrage. What an irresponsibility. That isn't courage. That is not responsibility. That is out-of-control behavior that this Congress needs to rein in. This government should be shut down. You want to know why it should be shut down? Because the people in here cannot control themselves. The people in here do not understand how to balance a checkbook. And the people in here do not deserve the responsibility on how to spend the American people's money.
Madam Speaker, $29 trillion. Shut it down. Do not pass the CR. Shut it down.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, as I said before, the fiscal year 2022 bills were drafted with little input from Republicans. And since then, we have not been able to find a path forward.
In years past, we have had an agreement in place that allowed us to negotiate final bills quickly. I am concerned that we cannot have a meaningful discussion on full-year appropriations without a similar understanding going in.
Madam Speaker, that is why, in a few moments, I will offer a motion to recommit. My motion would simply send this bill back to committee so that we can come to agreement on a process for addressing full-year bills.
Madam Speaker, to return to our strong bipartisan traditions, I urge support for the motion, and I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 829, the previous question is ordered on the bill.
The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.
The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was read the third time.
Motion to Recommit
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to recommit.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Calvert moves to recommit the bill, H.R. 6119, to the Committee on Appropriations.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 2(b) of rule XIX, the previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the noes appeared to have it.
Mr. CALVERT. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 211, nays 219, not voting 3, as follows:
YEAS--211
Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fortenberry Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Harshbarger Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kinzinger Kustoff LaHood Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunes Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Young Zeldin
NAYS--219
Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--3
Bass Hartzler LaMalfa
{time} 1710
Messrs. DELGADO, QUIGLEY, CASE, LARSON of Connecticut, CORREA, and TORRES of New York changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Messrs. ALLEN and WALBERG changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the motion to recommit was rejected.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Stated for:
Mrs. HARTZLER. Madam Speaker, on Thursday, December 2, 2021, I was unable to vote on Roll Call No. 398. Had I been present, I would have voted as follows: YEA on Roll Call No. 398.
Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress
Adams (Brown (MD)) Butterfield (Ryan) Cardenas (Soto) Cawthorn (Nehls) Crist (Wasserman Schultz) Curtis (Meijer) DeFazio (Carbajal) Donalds (McClain) Frankel, Lois (Kuster) Fulcher (Johnson (OH)) Garcia (TX) (Jeffries) Green (TX) (Cuellar) Hagedorn (Moolenaar) Kildee (Ryan) Lawrence (Johnson (GA)) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lesko (Miller (WV)) Meng (Kuster) Moore (UT) (Owens) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Wexton) Posey (Cammack) Reed (Kelly (PA)) Reschenthaler (Meuser) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Quigley) Sires (Pallone) Stewart (Owens)
Swalwell (Gomez) Takano (Chu) Underwood (Casten) Vela (Gomez) Watson Coleman (Pallone) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on passage of the bill.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. NEWHOUSE. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 221, nays 212, not voting 0, as follows:
YEAS--221
Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kinzinger Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth
NAYS--212
Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fortenberry Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunes Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Young Zeldin
{time} 1730
Mr. WITTMAN changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the bill was passed.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. DeGette). Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I object.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Objection is heard.
Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress
Adams (Brown (MD)) Butterfield (Ryan) Cardenas (Soto) Cawthorn (Nehls) Crist (Wasserman Schultz) Curtis (Meijer) DeFazio (Carbajal) Donalds (McClain) Frankel, Lois (Kuster) Fulcher (Johnson (OH)) Garcia (TX) (Jeffries) Green (TX) (Cuellar) Hagedorn (Moolenaar) Lawrence (Johnson (GA)) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lesko (Miller (WV)) Meng (Kuster) Moore (UT) (Owens) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Wexton) Posey (Cammack) Reed (Kelly (PA)) Reschenthaler (Meuser) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Quigley) Sires (Pallone) Stewart (Owens) Swalwell (Gomez) Takano (Chu) Underwood (Casten) Vela (Gomez) Watson Coleman (Pallone) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)
Motion to Reconsider
Mr. EVANS. Madam Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Mr. Evans moves to reconsider H.R. 6119.
Motion to Table
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion.
The Clerk read as follows:
Ms. DeLauro moves to table the motion to reconsider.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to table.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 217, nays 209, not voting 7, as follows:
YEAS--217
Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum
McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth
NAYS--209
Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fortenberry Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kinzinger Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunes Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Young Zeldin
NOT VOTING--7
Brady Burgess Hern Keating Meng Porter Spartz
Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore
The SPEAKER pro tempore (during the vote). There are 2 minutes remaining.
{time} 1748
Mr. McCAUL changed his vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the motion to table was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
Stated for:
Ms. PORTER. Madam Speaker, I was unable to vote on the Motion to Table the Republican Motion to Reconsider, H.R. 6119--Further Extending Government Act. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''
Stated against:
Mrs. SPARTZ. Madam Speaker, I was present but did not realize I was not recorded. I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 400.
Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress
Adams (Brown (MD)) Butterfield (Ryan) Cardenas (Soto) Cawthorn (Nehls) Crist (Wasserman Schultz) Curtis (Meijer) DeFazio (Carbajal) Donalds (McClain) Frankel, Lois (Kuster) Fulcher (Johnson (OH)) Garcia (TX) (Jeffries) Green (TX) (Cuellar) Hagedorn (Moolenaar) Lawrence (Johnson (GA)) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lesko (Miller (WV)) Luetkemeyer (Meuser) Moore (UT) (Owens) Palazzo (Fleischmann) Payne (Pallone) Posey (Cammack) Reed (Kelly (PA)) Reschenthaler (Meuser) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Quigley) Sires (Pallone) Stewart (Owens) Swalwell (Gomez) Takano (Chu) Underwood (Casten) Vela (Gomez) Watson Coleman (Pallone) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 208
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