Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, September should be a particularly important month for this House. It will be a month of contrast. It will be a month in which the American people will be able to see that the Republican message to the American people is ‘you're on your own,’ while Democrats say ‘we're on your side.’

In today's paper there’s an op-ed , it's written by Mr. McCarthy, the new Majority Leader. In that op-ed he said, quote: ‘I have always believed that you must win the argument before you can win the vote. In Congress, committees act as idea factories for policies from both sides, and as Majority Leader I will commit to the committee process and regular order.’ Apparently he didn't start yesterday doing that, and we don't start today doing that.

I congratulate [Rep. Jeff] Miller, the Chairman of the Committee, and [Rep. Mike] Michaud, the Ranking Member, for working together to get this done. Mr. Speaker, this bill is a result of a bipartisan agreement, and while I have some serious concerns about a number of provisions of which I’ll speak, I’m supporting it because it assigns resources to help cut down the waiting times for veterans to get the care they need and that we owe them. That must be our number one goal.

It’s always interesting to hear the debate. I wonder if the Gentlelady [Rep. Lynn Jenkins] believes the analogy she made in terms of cost of living applies to the minimum wage as well. If she does, I would ask her to urge her leadership to bring the minimum wage bill to the Floor.

Madam Speaker, I rise today alongside my Republican colleague from Illinois, Representative Aaron Schock, who is here to speak about the Full-Service Community Schools Act of 2014, which we will be introducing later today. 

I rise to speak on this bill but not to offer an amendment. I don't offer an amendment because to offer an amendment I would have to identify an offset within the body of this bill. This bill is deeply and harmfully underfunded. 

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill, but I am constrained to respond to the remarks, the emotional remarks, the perplexed remarks of the Gentleman who preceded me.

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to meet with the DREAMers, a number of DREAMers who want to join the Armed Forces of the United States. There is a bill called the ENLIST Act, introduced by one of our Republican Members, that, essentially, says we're going to allow DREAMers to enlist and, through their service, they could establish their path to citizenship.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this bill, which I am proud to cosponsor, and I thank the Gentlelady from Florida, Congresswoman Wilson, for spearheading this effort.

Mr. Speaker, I rise with a great deal of sadness. We're punting. USA Today said: ‘House action on tax extenders forfeits credibility on deficits and national debt.’ They are right.

As the gentleman knows, we have an agenda, which I talked to him about briefly, we call Make It In America, which is essentially about growing manufacturing, encouraging manufacturers to return to the United States, and encouraging people when they want to go into manufacturing to do so here in America. Not only will that provide for a made in America label all over the world, but it will also provide the middle-class jobs and opportunities that we need. Part of that agenda, I will tell my friend, is to make permanent the research and development tax credit.