Hoyer: While House Republicans’ Record of Partisanship Continues, House Democrats are Working to Jump-Start the Middle Class

WASHINGTON, DC - House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) spoke on the House Floor this morning to contrast House Republicans record of obstruction and partisanship with House Democrats’ agenda to jump-start the middle class and ensure families and businesses can make it in America. Below is a transcript of his remarks and a link to the video:

Click here for the video.

“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.’

“All right, Hoyer, what does that mean? Republicans announced agenda for this month ought to be no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the gridlock in Congress. Instead of focusing on the issues that matter – creating jobs, raising the minimum wage, fixing our broken immigration system – they're planning to reintroduce partisan messaging bills the House has already passed. So we're repeating what we've already done, as little as that may be.

“Mr. Speaker, it appears as if the Republican House Majority in the 113^th Congress will go out much as it came in, fixated on a single goal.  The Republican Chairman of the Rules Committee, Pete Sessions, summed up that goal late last year when he said – and I quote Congressman Sessions, Republican Chairman of the Rules Committee, quote: ‘Everything we do in this body should be about messaging to win back the Senate.’

“Not about creating jobs. Not about making America more secure. Not about energy. Not about the minimum wage. Not about immigration reform. Not about making sure that women get equal pay for equal work. Not about any of those things. The Chairman of the Rules Committee that controls how we consider legislation on this Floor said it's about messaging so ‘we can take back the Senate.’

“All of us should remember that when Senator McConnell was asked a few years ago in the first term of the President of the United States Barack Obama he said that, when asked ‘what is your major objective,’ his response was to ensure that President Obama is a one-term President. Again, not about jobs. Not about the economy. Not about growing the middle class. Not about making sure voting rights were secured, but making sure that President Obama only served one term. He failed in that objective, but the fact of the matter is they have stayed on that message and objective.

“Central to achieving that goal, Republicans believe, is to repeal or undermine the Affordable Care Act, and it comes without a shock to anyone that this month will also feature – as a matter of fact, this week – the fifty-third vote to do just that.

“However, Mr. Speaker, the American people are obviously tired of partisan gridlock.  All of us hear that, and all of us on both sides of the aisle say we don't want partisan gridlock, but we have seen wasted opportunities in this House over and over again for Congress to make headway on the challenges that we face as a nation.

“Many are asking what happened to the promises Republican made in 2010, when in their Pledge to America they wrote – and again I quote in their Pledge to America: ‘A plan to create jobs, end economic uncertainty…’ – by the way, they are the ones who threatened to default on the debt twice and who shut down the greatest government on the face of the Earth and the greatest country on the face of the Earth, shut down its government for sixteen days at a cost of $24 billion. ‘A plan,’ they said, ‘to create jobs and end economic uncertainty’ – it was uncertainty they created – ‘and make America more competitive.’ They said: ‘that must be the first and most urgent domestic priority of our government.’ That's what they said in the Pledge.  Chairman Sessions said, of course, messaging to take back the Senate was their major objective. Therefore, it was a promise forgotten.

“Throughout September, House Democrats will be outlining how Republicans have failed to focus on the issues Americans care about and what Congress should be doing instead.

“House Democrats are ready to jump-start the middle class. That's not just a phrase, we know the middle class is shrinking, and we know to the extent the middle class is shrinking, America will not be doing as well. We need to expand the middle class, giving opportunities for those who are not in the middle class to climb ladders of opportunity to get into the middle class.

“We need to move our economy beyond recovery and into prosperity. We are for raising the minimum wage and ensuring equal pay for equal work. The overwhelming majority of Americans are for that. Poll after poll after poll shows that over 70% of America is for those two propositions. In my opinion, both have a majority of votes on this House Floor, but Americans must be surprised that those two issues are not brought to this Floor for action so that the people's House can speak.

“Now, there may be differences of opinion. Many Republicans may want to vote against the minimum wage. But America deserves to have a vote on that issue. And it has a right to have a vote on making sure that women get paid equally for what men get paid for the same job. They do that in the House of Representatives. Women are paid exactly what men are paid. That's right. That's what ought to happen.

“We need to fix our broken immigration system. My friend, Mr. Cantor, who is no longer with us, and I had colloquies week after week after week, in which Mr. Cantor said ‘we understand the immigration system is broken.’ I said, ‘we agree. It's broken, and we have done nothing to fix it.’ The Republicans have passed some five or six bills to fix it. They haven't brought their own bills to the Floor so that the House could work its will. I don't believe that's the kind of Congress, Mr. Speaker, that America wants. We need to fix that system in a way that secures our border and brings millions out of the shadows.

“Mr. Speaker, we need to bring to the Floor bipartisan Make It In America jobs bills designed to grow our manufacturing base, help our businesses compete, and attract jobs that pay well and open doors of opportunity to workers and their families. The Republican-led Committee passed out a bill sponsored by Mr. Lipinski almost unanimously. I think it was on a voice vote – a bill that passed in the last Congress with over 300 votes. And I have been asking for the last ten months that that bill be brought to the Floor. All it says is, America needs to have a playbook, a plan, a strategy, if you will, to grow our manufacturing sector, create more middle-class jobs, and compete with the rest of the world. We cannot get that bill to the Floor. Mr. Speaker, I don't believe that's the kind of Congress America wants.

“These are the issues the American people want Congress to focus on. Not undoing the patient protections and cost savings that health care reform has brought. Not rebranding an anti-regulatory and anti-worker platform as a ‘jobs package’ that would – add, Mr. Speaker, Americans are going to be astounded – legislation we are going to consider this week will add $560 billion to the debt. We passed most of those bills and created a larger debt by more than that $560 billion already, but we are going to do it again. Not wasting taxpayers' money and time on partisan lawsuits and investigations. Not giving the American people the least productive and least open Congress in modern history. The Pledge to America talked about transparency. We have had more closed rules in this Congress than any Congress in which I have served.

“Mr. Speaker, Americans want leaders who are on their side. Not ones who have broken their promises. They need – and deserve – a People's House that is truly on their side.”