Floor Statements
March 24, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the underlying Republican budget for fiscal year 2016, and I also rise to commend the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Van Hollen) for his strong opposition.
Mr. Chairman, this budget is not a serious plan. It contains trillions of dollars in tax cuts, but it doesn't show a dime's worth of tax increases when they say it is going to be revenue neutral. It includes trillions of dollars in unspecified cuts that will not be made. For example, are we really going to repeal Medicare as we know it?
March 13, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the 75th anniversary of the Dochiki Civic and Social Club in Newport News, Virginia.
Originally known as ``Los Amigas,'' the club was founded on March 15, 1940 by eleven businessmen gathered at the Odessa Barber Shop located at 29th Street and Chestnut Avenue in Newport News. Two years later, the name of the club was changed to ``Dochiki,'' a word of Chinese origin meaning love and friendship. The founders of the club were Homer Hines, Ward Bridgeforth, Virgil Evans, B. C. Anthony, Oliver Hawkins, James Hawkins, Harold Heath, James Jones, Irving Thomas, Robert Whitney, and Howard Ovelest.
February 25, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 5, a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA, a landmark civil rights law enacted under President Lyndon B. Johnson. As we approach the 50-year anniversary of its enactment, we cannot take lightly ESEA's mission, goals, and achievements over the course of five decades. It is by that yardstick of history that we must judge H.R. 5 today and determine if it will move our education system closer to meeting the challenges of the 21st century and prepare our students for the global economy.
February 3, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 596.
As the new ranking member on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, I know that protecting access to affordable health care for America's workers and families is a high priority. Despite scare tactics and misinformation, the bottom line is that the Affordable Care Act is working. Perhaps those who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act have a short memory. It is important to remember why the Affordable Care Act was passed in the first place.
January 27, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, I rise in opposition to H.R. 285, the SAVE Act. While I support the underlying goal of ensuring that those who facilitate sex trafficking through advertising are prosecuted to the full extent of the law, I am opposed to the bill's mandatory minimum sentencing provisions.
Mandatory minimum sentences have been studied extensively and have been found to distort rational sentencing systems, discriminate against minorities, waste money, and often require a judge to impose sentences that violate common sense. To add insult to injury, studies have shown that mandatory minimum sentences fail to reduce crime.
January 26, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 468, the Enhancing Services for Runaway and Homeless Victims of Youth Trafficking Act of 2015.
I am honored to join my colleagues, the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Heck), the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg), and the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Kline, and appreciate their leadership on this important issue.
Our bill makes important changes in the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act, so that victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking can get more of the help that they need. We know that trafficking and youth homelessness are often affecting the same populations.
January 26, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Strengthening Child Welfare Response to Trafficking Act of 2015, sponsored by the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Bass).
This bill will support victims of child sex trafficking by helping them find services they need, by training child protective services workers to identify cases of child sex trafficking, and by improving data collection on the number of child sex trafficking victims.
January 26, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 246, a bill to improve the response to victims of child sex trafficking.
The bipartisan bill, sponsored by the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), would amend the Missing Children's Assistance Act by adding the term ``child sex trafficking'' to the list of items which may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline.
January 13, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Chairman, I rise against the underlying bill.
Mr. Chairman, we have heard a lot about job growth. We just want to remind people that our economy has experienced job growth in excess of 200,000 for 11 consecutive months, a record that hadn't been seen since the Clinton administration, and 58 consecutive months of private sector job growth, a string that hasn't been seen in recorded history.
So, continued economic growth and strong regulatory protections are not mutually exclusive. In fact, regulations are often necessary to protect the investments the American taxpayer makes in our economy and to ensure stability, order, and safety inside and outside of the workplace.
January 9, 2015
Floor Statements
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, the gentlemen from the other side of the aisle have already voted over 50 times to roll back the Affordable Care Act. This is one more attempt.
More than 150 million Americans get their health coverage through their jobs or through a family member's job. As for the Affordable Care Act, when we passed it, at that time, 96 percent of all businesses with over 50 employees provided health insurance for their full-time employees.
So that we wouldn't dismantle the President's system--rather, that we would build on it--we established a mandate. Those employers--those businesses--with over 50 employees would be mandated to provide insurance for their full-time employees. Ninety-six percent were already doing it without a mandate, and those with under 50 employees weren't subject to the mandate.
Issues: