▶ 0:10:40Good evening. The committee will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess at any Today, the rules committee is convening to end finally the Democratinduced Chuck Schumer sponsored shutdown.
▶ 0:11:01It has been over 40 days since we last sat in this room when Republicans advanced a responsible, nonpartisan, clean CR and all but one Democrat voted to shut the government down. The amount of wild rhetoric we've heard from Democrats ever since they shut the government down is astounding.
▶ 0:11:23They have been over backwards and contorted themselves to such a degree that they've deluded themselves into believing that they're somehow doing right by the American people. But don't take my word for it. Listen to what Democrats in the Senate who voted to reopen the government are saying about the absurd position that their own party has taken. Senator John Federman, it should have never come to this. This was a failure.
▶ 0:11:51Senator Katherine Cortez Masto, I've consistently voted against shutting down the government because I know the pain it is causing working families and minority whip Dick Durban. I cannot accept the strategy which wages political battle at the expense of my neighbor's paycheck or the food for his children. The Democrat government shutdown that has lasted over 40 days did not have to happen. It did not have to be this way.
▶ 0:12:19Our work in service to the American people did not have to be interrupted. Service members, Capitol police, air traffic controllers, and countless others did not have to miss their paychecks. SNAP benefits did not have to lapse unnecessarily. Airports around the nation did not have to scale back their operating statuses and leave millions of travelers in alert. The list goes on and on.
▶ 0:12:46Now we'll be voting on another iteration of the CR that does not contain any of the hostage demand that Democrats made. So, all that bluster and showboarding for over 40 days on their part led to a big fat nothing burger and they're walking away empty-handed.
▶ 0:13:03As the ranking member once said during a debate on the floor this year, "Wow, what a victory." I anticipate we'll hear a lot of lecturing and blame cast at Republicans for everything under the sun today. We'll hear a lot of bottle up angst with a lot of exclamation points and raised voices to boot directed at the president too. Not surprising.
▶ 0:13:27What we won't hear from our colleagues across the aisle today is they're taking ownership of the chaos they've unleashed upon the nation. We won't hear them apologize to the American people for gaslighting them incessantly. And we won't hear an admission that the only reason they shut down the government is to cover up for a policy failure that they themselves concocted and stamped an end date on.
▶ 0:13:53But it's a new day and maybe they'll have a change of heart, see the light, and come clean. We'll just have to wait and see. With that, I now yield to the ranking member, Mr. McGovern, for any comments he wishes to
▶ 0:14:06Well, hello, Madam Chair. Um, welcome
▶ 0:14:09Hello, Ranking. Long time no see. I hardly recognize you guys. Where the hell have you been? Uh, it's good to see you back on cap back in the Capitol building. We've been looking everywhere for you guys. I mean, seriously, we were worried. We actually started handing out missing person posters. Nobody has seen you for eight weeks. But hey, I'm glad that you're okay. I'm glad that you survived your nice two-month paid vacation while Democrats stayed in Washington to try to end this shutdown. But here's the deal.
▶ 0:14:39Most Americans think that what Republicans did skipping town in a shutdown has been one of the most disgraceful, embarrassing, pathetic eras in in the modern history of the House of Representatives. For eight weeks, eight weeks, Speaker Johnson let you all stay home while Americans miss paychecks, skip meals, and watch their costs explode. quiet quit their jobs.
▶ 0:15:10They disappeared. And they can argue all they want that the House did its job and that's why they went home. It's just BS. The House didn't do its job. If Republicans had done their job, we wouldn't be here right now voting on a different bill than the one that they passed. But instead of working with us on trying to end the shutdown, they all just left. They abandoned their offices, but more important more more importantly, they abandoned the American people.
▶ 0:15:39And just so people know, while Republicans sat on their couches waiting for someone to tell them what to do, House Democrats were here. We were here working. We were meeting with regular people, talking with folks about next year's skyrocketing health insurance premiums. I've been back and forth to my district almost every weekend. People showed me the letters that they got on their premiums. They're doubling and they're tripling not because of Democrats but because Republicans are failing to act.
▶ 0:16:09They extended tax breaks for billionaires in like in like a nancond. That got done. They wasted no time helping out the welloff and the well-connected. But when it came time to help regular people uh to extending the health care tax credits that 24 million people depend on, they didn't just say no. They shut the government down over it.
▶ 0:16:34Republicans skipped town for eight weeks because Democrats had the gall to ask you to do something to help regular people. And you know what? It's a real shame. Republicans are selling out middle America, selling out working people. At a time when affordability is the number one issue, and as we see record levels of inequality in this country, Republicans are selling out working people all so they can do the bidding of the billionaire class. I mean, look what's happening.
▶ 0:17:05Trump's reckless tariffs continue to wreak havoc on the economy. He says food prices are way down. That's coming from a guy who dines on caviar at Mara Lago. He's never shoed for groceries a day in his life. He doesn't have to pick between plastic or paper, but his tariffs are costing the average American household over $1,200 this year, and next year it will be $1,600.
▶ 0:17:31That's money for groceries, for bills, for rent, taken out of the American people's wallets. And he's not even hiding it. He's rubbing it in. Trump is literally renovating his bathroom in marble and gold and posting about it on social media while regular people are getting letters saying that their healthcare premiums are going up by a thousand bucks. People are struggling to stay afloat and this guy is golfing. He had Air Force One fly over a football game. How much did that cost?
▶ 0:18:00He shut down the airspace while regular travelers are stranded all over the country. The administration is funneling $40 billion to bail out Argentina. Republicans are literally subsidizing an entirely different country instead of keeping families in North Carolina or Minnesota or Texas or Indiana from going bankrupt if they face emergency hospital bills. And then giving your donors a fancy new ballroom at the White House while moms and dads can't afford to put food on the table.
▶ 0:18:31And speaking of putting food on the table, Trump illegally withheld food assistance from 42 million Americans, kids, veterans, seniors, working families. Two federal court orders demanded that he pay out these benefits in full. But he would rather appeal to the highest court in the land to starve people out than to simply provide them with the food assistance that he is legally obligated to send to American families. Like, who does that?
▶ 0:19:00I mean, that's the Republican policy position. We'll give you your food if you let us take away your health care. I mean, who the hell thinks like that? And I know Republicans don't care. I know your donors have private doctors and insurance CEOs on speed dial.
▶ 0:19:16Uh, but could you at least pretend to do something about the 20 million Americans who are about to see their healthcare premium sore or the four million people who could lose their coverage You don't even have you don't even have a health care plan. You've been promising one for over a decade and we've never seen it because it doesn't exist. Or maybe it's simply just hiding behind the missing appropriation bills that this Republican majority hasn't passed. I don't know. But what I do know is this.
▶ 0:19:45Republicans have been in charge for 292 days. That's 292 days to do something, anything, to lower costs, to bring down prices, to make America more affordable, to do something about health care, tariffs, grocery prices, rent, or heating bills. And what did you do? You handed out tax breaks to billionaires and took the longest paid vacation in modern history. Even your own colleagues called it out.
▶ 0:20:13Even Marjorie Taylor Green says, "You guys messed up." When Marjgerie Taylor Green thinks you've gone too far, you might want to rethink things. And by the way, you also refuse to even swear in our new colleague, the duly elected representative from Arizona's 7th district, Adalita Graalva. Why? Because she will represent the 218 signature on a discharge petition to release the Epstein files. Oh, we didn't forget about those either.
▶ 0:20:41Don't worry, we won't forget uh we won't forget that the speaker of the house refused to swear in the first Latina ever elected to represent Arizona because he was more concerned about protecting pedophiles than getting the truth out there uh for the survivors. But that's just the perfect metaphor for the Trump economy. If you're rich and powerful, you get ahead. If you're a regular person, Republicans will not lift a finger to help you. And I want to be crystal clear. Host Democrats represent something very different.
▶ 0:21:10We refuse to accept a government that moves at lightning speed to give tax breaks to billionaires but then goes home for eight weeks when it comes to ensuring healthcare is affordable for working families. We've said it from day one of this shutdown. We will sit down with any Republicans any time, any place, anywhere in order to find a path forward that would reopen the government and finds a solution to Republicans healthcare crisis.
▶ 0:21:37But we're not but we're not we're not just going to roll over and accept your way um your my way or the highway approach to governance. If you need our votes, you need to work with us. But you refuse because you're more interested in extremism than governance. But here's the thing. The beautiful thing about politics is that you don't really lose until you quit trying.
▶ 0:22:02And Democrats are going to keep trying because people are are counting on us to do something about this healthcare crisis. And when their health care premiums double and triple, and they will. And your constituents, I'm sure you're getting the calls. Republicans will own it. Every premium spike. Every family force off coverage, every life put at risk, you own it.
▶ 0:22:27And good luck going home to your constituents to explain why you sold them out in order to appease the millionaires and billionaires. Extending these tax credits is the right thing to do. It is the more it is the moral thing to do. 13 House Republicans have said it needs to be done because soaring health care costs will devastate our constituents whether they live in a red state or a blue state. So I want people to know that we will keep fighting. I will keep fighting.
▶ 0:22:55My colleagues on this committee on the Democratic side will keep fighting for a government that puts the working class first and for a Congress that actually shows up and does their damn job. I yield back my time.
▶ 0:23:09Thank you, Mr. McGovern. And uh I want to welcome all the members. I should have said that. I'm very pleased to see everyone. Without objection, any prepared statements that our witnesses may have will be included in the record. And now welcome our first panel, Chairman Cole and Ranking Member Deloro from the Committee on Appropriations. Your full statement will be submitted for the record. We ask that you summarize your statement in five minutes.
▶ 0:23:38Chairman Cole, I welcome your testimony and welcome you back to the rules committee.
▶ 0:23:45Thank you very much, Madam Chairman. Uh, Chairwoman Fox, Ranking Member McGovern, and esteemed members of the rules committee, I thank you for your warm welcome and your kind invitation to testify today. As members of this committee are all too painfully aware, for the last 6 weeks, the federal government has been shut down. Millions of workers have gone unpaid. Air traffic control functions have slowed to a near halt.
▶ 0:24:09SNAP benefits expired, forcing millions of Americans to either find assistance from food banks or else go hungry. Seniors saw telepath resources suspended and Head Start education programs for children have been closing. These are just a few of the examples of the harm being inflicted on our nation. Yet, it didn't have to be this way. Nearly two months ago, the House passed a continuing resolution that would have kept the government open and operating.
▶ 0:24:38This would have allowed Congress time to keep working on the FY2026 appropriations process through regular order, but instead Senate Democrats blocked its passage. The result of this political temper tantrum has been the longest government shutdown in the nation's history. For 42 days and counting, Democrats have held the country hostage.
▶ 0:25:01Make no mistake, all the pain, all the suffering, and all the difficulty Americans have endured in these past six weeks could have and should have been avoided. Instead, the hardship and damage caused by an intentional choice made by Democratic leadership. Minority leaders Hakee Jeff and Chuck Schumer led their caucus to shut down the government.
▶ 0:25:25And for 42 days, the American people have borne the brunt of that decision and have been mere pawns at partisan hands of the Democrats. At long last, reason has prevailed and the measure before us will finally end this pointless shutdown. Today's bill will not only reopen the government, but it will also move the appropriations process forward, representing a return to regular order.
▶ 0:25:54This legislation includes three bipartisan bicamel fullear appropriations measures covering the military construction and veterans affairs legislative branch and agriculture rural development and food and drug administration divisions. These three bills have been negotiated between the two chambers and reflect a final full and bipartisan agreement.
▶ 0:26:18With passage of these three divisions, we will have fullyear funding in place for many of our most crucial programs. Military construction needs will be met for a full year, as will medical programs for our nation's veterans. The legislative branch will be fully funded, including critical funding enhancements for the Capitol Police and for member security.
▶ 0:26:41The Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration will also be fully funded, as will the WICK program to ensure that pregnant women and young children will get the food and nutrition they need to survive and to thrive. Importantly, the agreement encompasses community project funding in both the military construction and agriculture divisions, reflecting Congress's clear control over the power of the purse.
▶ 0:27:07Inclusion of these pro uh pro projects was a high priority for the appropriations committee and it accomplishes this goal while holding the line on overall spending levels. We also break Senator Schumer's beloved end of the year holiday omnibus habit. No more thousandpage spending be uh behemoths at midnight. Republicans have restored an open linebyline process.
▶ 0:27:34As we continue to make strong progress on fullear FY26 bills, we've included a continuing resolution to fund the remainder of the government through January 30th, 2026. This extension supports our ongoing work on this front, especially giving the time given the time lost during the democratic shutdown. The simplest truth today is this. Reopening the government will put an end to the chaos Democratic leadership has inflicted on Americans.
▶ 0:28:05It will also ensure that SNAP funds are made available to ensure that no American goes hungry. It will reestablish control of the skies, keeping our nation's air traffic moving during the holiday season. It will pay federal workers and and American military personnel.
▶ 0:28:24And it will ensure that the government uh can continue to provide critical services for our constituents like roads, parks, child care, water projects, infrastructure improvements, scientific research, drop job training, and countless others. I look forward to continuing the FY2026 appropriations process in the coming weeks.
▶ 0:28:48And I hope that having seen the consequences of this historic shutdown on the American people, it's not a political stunt that will be repeated in the future. I thank each of you for your time and I look forward for to your
▶ 0:29:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ranking member Delora, you're recognized.
▶ 0:29:08Thank you so much. Uh thank you, uh Chairwoman Fox, Ranking Member McGovern, members of the committee. Uh, I really appreciate the opportunity to testify today. I'm so glad to be here alongside my fellow appropriator, Chairman Cole, whose partnership I appreciate it. If I can just say one minute, first of all, welcome back. Um, and one point about the uh the shutdown.
▶ 0:29:30Um it's been several months where Democratic leadership uh has uh called uh for an opportunity to sit down whether it has been with the House and Senate leadership or with the president of the United States where there was just that one meeting. Uh he reneggged on the first meeting that he was involved so that we could sort out a bipartisan uh agreement in trying to move forward.
▶ 0:29:54Um and that the the offer was there to meet anytime, any place, anywhere so that we could to we could really move try to move forward. As I said, rebuked at every turn. And so um the shutdown stands firmly uh in in the process of the president who rather shut down the government rather than negotiate. I'll just give you two quotes and you can check on the quotes.
▶ 0:30:19He first said, "It's a waste of time to meet with leader Jeff and leader Schumer." The second thing he said, and he admonished his Republican uh colleagues and said, "You need to jam the Republican continuing resolution down the throats of Democrats." I don't make it up. Those are his words. Anyway, um I want to talk about why I oppose this bill.
▶ 0:30:45I oppose this bill because it does nothing to address the Republican health care crisis that will send costs skyrocketing for more than 20 million Americans in a matter of weeks. No, nothing has changed since yesterday's Senate vote. Health care costs are still poised to double or even triple for some folks practically overnight, worsening the cost of living crisis manufactured by President Trump.
▶ 0:31:13There is no restoration of premium subsidies, the tax credits. This bill is an empty promise, as is the promise for a vote in the Senate. And as the speaker said, no guarantee of a vote on premium subsidies in the House. All across this country, families are struggling to navigate an affordability crisis that President Trump refuses to address.
▶ 0:31:39As a matter of fact, I think within the last 24 hours, he talked about affordability as a conj job. Get out there, talk to the people of this nation, Mr. President. Energy prices are up. Grocery prices are up. Housing costs are up. Everything is more expensive. And now on top of that, the Republicans plan to squeeze families even harder. The report today came out that talked about families in the US living paycheck to paycheck.
▶ 0:32:04And you read really really the the president went to the Supreme Court to deprive kids of food. Unbelievable. And now wants to deny their parents healthc care. This is a point I've heard it twice already this evening here that whether or not the government was open or shut.
▶ 0:32:26There was $6 billion in a contingency fund passed by Democrats and Republicans uh for food stamps to be used in the event of occasion like this. It was the administration. President Trump refused refused to put let those monies flow to the people who need it the most. It was not a question of whether or not the government was open or not. And let's stop aligning the two of those efforts.
▶ 0:32:52In my district, a mother of two named Renee, Renee Shalas, she will see her annual annual premium cost go up by next year. She got her letter. That's $2,000 more per month. On top of caring for her two children, she is primary caregiver for the children's father, a brain cancer survivor who is physically and mentally unable to work. She is working tirelessly to do the right thing by her family, but she's already stretched thin.
▶ 0:33:21She literally cannot afford this. I just read you a couple of headlines from the Connecticut Press, New Haven Register. How much more can we cut back? Connecticut families brags for soaring health insurance premiums. The Connecticut Public Mirror for middle inome Connecticut residents. Sticker shock looms with ACA health subsidy set to disappear. Uh uh channel three Connecticut Richfield couple faces tripling health care costs as cancer survivor needs continued care. That is a reality.
▶ 0:33:51And Rene's story is not an outlier. This is going to make life significantly harder for people all across this country in every state and yes in every district. There are some 24 million Americans who get their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. The Republican plan puts us on a path to destroying the Affordable Care Act, which quite frankly they have been trying to do unsuccessfully for 15 years now.
▶ 0:34:16Some of you may not think that healthc care is related to this continuing resolution, and I beg to differ. Take a look at the authorizing titles in the continuing resolution. There are more than 50 pages worth just dealing with healthcare. We can solve this problem in this bill if we choose to. And isn't the continuing resolution in the jurisdiction of the appropriations committee? You know, the entire House was marginalized in this process.
▶ 0:34:41Senate Republicans abruptly called off talks in the middle of negotiations, made their own bills public before reaching an agreement with all four corners. Unprecedented in the modern era. And yet they made the House constitutionally impotent in moving forward.
▶ 0:35:01In one of the most egregious examples of something the House was not even aware of before the bills became public, the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee secretly added language in the legislative branch bill from the Senate Majority Leader without the consent of the chair or ranking members of the subcommittee or the full committee. that allows Republican senators to sue the government for their involvement in the January 6th insurrection.
▶ 0:35:28And regardless of anyone's opinion on what happened on January 6th, it should be and it should be unacceptable to every member of the House that the Senate can secretly add language to a bill without even notifying us. The result, legislative branch bill that includes a provision to give senators who may have participated in the insurrection as much as a million dollar payout each.
▶ 0:35:55While excluding they excluded a provision to hang a plaque honoring the police officers who put their lives on the line to defend our democracy from that same insurrection. The military construction division excludes $51.7 billion which was in the House bill for advanced funding for the toxic exposure fund for 2027. This is a fund that helps victims I'll wrap up and victims of burn pits and agent orange get the care they deserve.
▶ 0:36:26In our markup in the summer and the chair Cole will remember this ranking member Wasserman Schultz. Chair Carter negotiated a compromise to include this funding. The Senate took it out before abandoning negotiations altogether. Simply wrong. We have provided advanced funding for the medical care for veterans for the last 15 years. It's Veterans Day today. Um and this bill doesn't even meet the funding level that President Trump and OM director vote restored.
▶ 0:36:55Reason why we're here, I have one last point to make. Chairman Cole and I is because the power of the purse belongs to the Congress. This package fails to protect that authority. Democrats fought to prevent President Trump and OMB director from stealing from our communities withholding funding that was approved by Democrats and Republicans, blocking the issuing of illegal pocket recisions, preventing President Trump from unilaterally reneging on any appropriations bill. It does nothing this package to address these problems.
▶ 0:37:24You can't honestly expect Democrats to go along with any bipartisan funding proposal that can be rescended with a partyline vote. not after trust has been broken in this process. The main reason I oppose this bill is because it does not address the healthc care crisis that President Trump created. Serious concerns with appropriations divisions. I encourage my colleagues to oppose this measure and I thank you uh and I yield back.
▶ 0:37:50Thank you, Ranking Member Delora. Chairman Cole, with respect to the agencies that would operate under a CR, this bill keeps the government running at the same level it's been at since early 2024. Is that correct?
▶ 0:38:10That's correct.
▶ 0:38:11And it was President Biden who initially signed these funding levels into law. Is that correct?
▶ 0:38:19Absolutely correct. This bill came out of the Senate with bipartisan support. Correct.
▶ 0:38:26That is correct.
▶ 0:38:30Mr. Chairman, passing this legislation will take away any ambiguity about pay for America's fight war fighters. It'll bring certainty for SNAP payments. It will guarantee that air traffic controllers, federal law enforcement officers, and other federal workers will receive back pay. Is that correct?
▶ 0:38:54That too is correct.
▶ 0:38:56And there's no other solution on the table that has the bipartisan backing of the Senate. Is that correct?
▶ 0:39:04That's correct, Madam Chair. So voting against this bill would be a vote to continue that uncertainty to our military SNAP recipients and federal workers. Is that not the case?
▶ 0:39:19That is indeed the case.
▶ 0:39:22One more question. I have been astonished to hear our colleagues say that this Republican healthc care crisis was manufactured by President Trump. I mean, I I'm sure if I asked the clerks to read that back, that's what they say.
▶ 0:39:51you refresh our memory as to what created the Affordable Care Act and how did we get here as a result of what happened during CO? Would you mind uh doing that? President Trump was not in office in either of those cases. Is that
▶ 0:40:17That too is correct, Madam Chair. Um, you know, I'm trying to limit how much time I use and how outrageous some of the statements I've heard are. The reality is this is goes back to fundamental defect in Obamacare itself, which is constantly d, you know, the affordable care act has made health care unaffordable. It's been doing it for 15 years. The basic subsidies are in law.
▶ 0:40:47Our friends on the other side during COVID decided that we've got a crisis underway. We're going to add a subsidy on top of a subsidy.
▶ 0:40:57The subsidy to what was called the Affordable Care Act, which was never affordable because we taxpayers who pay for our own insurance or subsidizing. Correct.
▶ 0:41:12That is absolutely correct. Uh so again it's a subsidy on top of a subsidy. Our friends added it during CO co is over. They set a date certain that these subsidies would run out. They chose the
▶ 0:41:27and the date certain was
▶ 0:41:28was December 31st of this year. Uh so they chose that date. Uh, by the way, they did it without any Republican votes, uh, without any, uh, consideration of reforms, without any effort to hold down the price. I mean, they literally are the big insurance company's best friends. They funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into these things. But again, this is their legislation. They wrote it. They extended it.
▶ 0:41:58They added a subsidy to it. uh and they set the date at which that subsidy was to run out. Uh President Trump certainly wasn't president when either the original legislation was created or this additional subsidy was added. So to blame it on him instead of looking in the mirror and blaming it on yourself is the height of hypocrisy.
▶ 0:42:22Uh so uh yeah, this is a democratic manufactured crisis that they're blaming on everybody but themselves. And at the same time, you know, as they're doing that, they've decided, well, I guess we don't need to pay our men and women in uniform that are defending us. Thank God President Trump twice has pulled rabbits out of a hat and made sure that didn't happen.
▶ 0:42:46or we're not going to pay pay our air traffic controllers or our meat inspectors or our Capitol police that they celebrate so constantly and rightfully. Uh so I mean come on uh this is a totally manufactured crisis by Democrats. They've kept the government shut down. Finally in the United States Senate eight of pretty courageous people said I'm not going to be part of this charade anymore.
▶ 0:43:15I'm going to vote to open the government. We can negotiate on these other issues. Uh Majority Leader Thun, our own speaker, made it clear we're willing to do it. We're not going to, by the way, sign off on something that has been an utter disaster. Uh and what the Democrats basically have asked for here is like $1.5 trillion dollar over 10 years in exchange for a four or seven week CR or now one that will go a little bit longer since they've wasted most of the time.
▶ 0:43:45So, I mean, we shouldn't have any doubt about who created the crisis, who's perpetuating the crisis, and who's trying to capitalize on it politically. So, I hope that answers your question.
▶ 0:43:57That answers my question very well. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. McGovern, you're recognized.
▶ 0:44:03Yeah. So, I just um you just made me think of something, Madam Chair. Um you said that this is merely an extension of the January 2024 spending bill. that basically it's the same. Everything's the same. I think that's what you and and the chairman just with that.
▶ 0:44:19Does that mean that um all the federal workers that were fired uh have been put back to work
▶ 0:44:25uh and this under this bill? Yeah. People that uh uh you know were were let go or rifted. And by the way,
▶ 0:44:33you created you created my friend the crisis that caused that to happen. I I just want to know whether all the people that were fired from the beginning of the year whether whether or not the cuts in the
▶ 0:44:46there are there are provisions made to rehire people but again let's let's be clear about put people out of work I can't get my question out so I will let him answer if he lets me ask the
▶ 0:44:57I thought I did I apologize if I didn't
▶ 0:44:59mean I I want to know whether or not the cuts to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are reated or the cuts to NIH um or I mean I I go right down all the Doge cuts. I mean are they have they been put
▶ 0:45:12the provisions the Democrats asked for in terms of firing in the Senate are in the bill?
▶ 0:45:17No. Well, that's not what this that's not my question.
▶ 0:45:20Look, if you want to be against the bill, that's perfectly
▶ 0:45:22No, the the the chairwoman just said that basically this is the same uh as as all the funding that we voted for in January of 2024. I'm just asking you uh the stuff that we voted for in January 2024, some of it is no longer there and some of it I think has been illegally uh cut by the president. Mr. Laura, do you want to give me a straight answer to that question?
▶ 0:45:44Absolutely. This is really quite remarkable. Since January until now, and the number may have gone up, over federal employees have been let go. They have and they have most of them let go. some who took a buyout. The other fact of the matter is it's not the same budget because and we have a tracker.
▶ 0:46:08I can give you documentation that showed you $410 that we appropriated Democrats, Republicans signed into law by the president of the United States. And that money has been terminated. It has been delayed. Uh, and it and it's $410 billion. I'll give you the tracker.
▶ 0:46:32It's about 25 or 26 pages and you can go down and take a look at every appropriations bill and you can find out what program has been terminated, what's been gone. and that since January has nothing to do with this crisis that the Republicans have initiated and shutting down the government because they don't want to negotiate on healthcare costs.
▶ 0:46:57So, thank you for correcting the record. It's not the same that we voted for. But but in addition to that, um was the was this slush fund for senators who were might have been involved with January 6, right? They snuck that in. Was that in it was not in and I will just say in all fairness that was done by the Senate. They snuck it in and apparently there are two violations attached to it. We could be losing about $8 million.
▶ 0:47:24So, Chair, let me let me just ask you this question. Um, do you think the House should have been here these last several weeks trying to pass appropriation bills? Now, we had to wait until the Senate acted on what we sent them. Uh, it took the Senate a long time, largely because our Democratic friends used the filibuster, which they claimed they
▶ 0:47:50uh, to force us to get to 60 votes. We finally did, or they finally did in the Senate. So, no, there wasn't much for us to do until Can I finish my answer?
▶ 0:48:01There wasn't anything for us to do until the Senate acted. And the only reason they didn't act more quickly under their own rules, the filibuster requires them to get to 60. The Democrats withheld their votes. So, I mean, it's Democrats that have kept us out of session. We sent this over in plenty of time. It's not like it was a lastm minute emergency thing.
▶ 0:48:21I think as the chairman pointed out, we passed this on September the 19th, well ahead of the time, sent it to them, uh, and they couldn't get anything done. How many done? How many appropriation bills do we cooperate?
▶ 0:48:35How many more appropriation bills do we have to pass in the house?
▶ 0:48:38We have passed everyone out of
▶ 0:48:40Uh we have passed over 60% of the funding across the floor. We asked to have additional time. Uh that time has largely been wasted. uh you know we're we in this bill actually passed three bills across the floor if we're able to do that uh later this week. So we were making uh actually pretty good pro progress.
▶ 0:49:04The difference is my friends uh on the other side in the Senate and here decided they would add things to appropriations that are not in our jurisdiction or our expertise. Look, we don't deal with Medicaid. That was actually done in the big beautiful bill. We don't deal with that in appropriations committee. We do not deal with subsidies for Obamacare. They're not within our jurisdiction. So you added things that were unconnected. You can I finish my answer?
▶ 0:49:32You were added things that were unconnected to appropriations and then were shocked when they weren't dealt with an appropriations bill. They belong somewhere else. It's my understanding both the speaker and the majority leader and frankly the president have said we'll negotiate with you when you reopen the government. But we're not going to sit here and negotiate after you shut down the government uh and threaten us. Nobody does that. You didn't do that. Maybe you can answer the question. How many appropriation bills?
▶ 0:50:02Nine are left to go. Nine are left to go. We could have done them.
▶ 0:50:06Well, they in committee but they haven't been to the floor. answer without any interruption. We've passed every across the the out of committee. We've passed three across the floor. They collectively add up to over 60% spinning. By the way, a far better record than the Democrats and the Senate had last year when they were in control. They didn't pass a single appropriations bill out. So, yeah, we're moving pretty well. We have nine bills. Let me let me let me just ask nine.
▶ 0:50:35The qu the question I just want to make sure the the question I asked that doesn't get answered is how many do we have left to do on the floor?
▶ 0:50:42We have nine bills to do across the
▶ 0:50:45I'm talking about that are about 40% of federal spending.
▶ 0:50:48Madam Chair, I mean I mean I'm asking Mr. Laura a question and I we can't
▶ 0:50:53Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was directing me. I apologize.
▶ 0:50:55Yeah. And and and I just want to know the question I asked Mr. Cole which he didn't want to answer, but I'll ask you. Couldn't we have been doing stuff on the floor absolutely these last?
▶ 0:51:05Absolutely. There has been so much wasted time even in the process of the appropriations bills and we did pass them in committee and hours and hours and hours about poison pill writers that were done. These were unilaterally partisan bills that we were faced with.
▶ 0:51:24And when not maybe I don't know how many weeks ago when the four corners chairman Cole myself uh uh uh uh chairman Collins and ranking member Murray we sat down the four of us together and this is what we said we would do. We talked about these three bills and we wanted to deal with the top lines and we did. We got that and we worked through working through the bills the staff to work through the bills.
▶ 0:51:47The second thing that we said and there was consensus in that room, consensus that what we would do is have a bipartisan continuing resolution and that bipartisan continuing resolution would consider what Democratic priorities were and also deal with the power of the purse. We said that in that room.
▶ 0:52:08The next thing that we know, we were slammed with a partisan continuing resolution bill that did not take into consideration any Democratic priorities, nor did it address any of the issues of the power of the person.
▶ 0:52:20But let me let me just say I think what Mr. Cole won't say, but I think you know I I I don't I'm not sure he really believes this, but the bottom line is I think in answer to the question of whether we should have been here doing other work, the answer is of course we should have been here uh doing other work. um by not being here doesn't make this doesn't make things go faster.
▶ 0:52:40This one I have another question here and that is that um according to the Congressional Budget Office extending the ACA enhanced premium tax credits for a one year would cost between 25 and $35 And I just want to know how you guys are able to find $4.5 trillion in tax cuts in your reconciliation bill with more than 1.4 4 trillion in tax cuts for people with incomes over $500,000
▶ 0:53:11per year, but choose not to extend these healthc care tax credits that working people rely on. I mean, that's 56 times more on tax cuts for the wealthy than it would have been that it would have cost just to extend healthcare tax credits for a year. I mean, I you know, I mean, I again, I I think in in in your district, Mr.
▶ 0:53:36Cole, I think there's like 48,000 of your constituents rely um on the ACA for their healthcare. Um and they're getting bills like my constituents are, like Mr. Rollers are. Um I have 37,000, you have 48,000 in your district, and in my district, Massachusetts, I've got 37,000. So, kind of comparable. Um, I mean, I've getting calls from constituents um who are, you know,
▶ 0:54:06out of their minds trying to figure out how they're going to pay for this. I mean, uh, I this week I received, uh, you know, um, I, this is one of them wrote me, "This week I received the Massachusetts Health Connector open enrollment paperwork. The cost of the plan I'm currently on is going up by 62%." Another person said, "I just received my letter and my monthly cost has gone from $1,287 to $3,026 for the next year. As a working family with a daughter who has an autoimmune disease, we're struggling.
▶ 0:54:36I'm working 50 plus hours just to pay the insurance." Another person, if if we if if I continue on the same plan I am on now, it will be two and a half times more uh and be unaffordable. 15,000 plus a month is incredible incredulous for one person's health premium. When I calculate my net income, not gross, it is beyond sustainable. I mean, I I can go on and on and on. I know.
▶ 0:55:01But how do we how do we reconcile the priorities that give us, you know, tax cuts for people who are well off, but when it comes to health care, and we can argue about whether the system can be better. I I I would prefer a different system. I would prefer Medicare for all. We've done it.
▶ 0:55:19We did a hearing when I was the chairman of the rules committee on that which when you and and was a very good hearing but nonetheless this is an immediate crisis and I think people can't understand is how you can find in a nancond the money for tax cuts for people who are well off but we can't find a way to just help middle class working families get through this really difficult time. I mean,
▶ 0:55:48yeah. I mean, I
▶ 0:55:49Is that a question?
▶ 0:55:50Well, the most immediate crisis in my district are the thousands of workers that you and your colleagues have put out of work that aren't getting a paycheck. That's the calls I get. I have thousands of them. They're the ones that keep the airplanes flying. They're the ones that do the National Weather Center. They're wondering why they're not getting paid. When there was legislation, we could have had these debates. We could have had these arguments. Why are they being held hostage? Why are you not willing to pay them?
▶ 0:56:20That's the calls I get. So nobody calls the government shutting down. Why do men and women in uniform who are deployed have to wonder whether or not their family at home is going to get a paycheck? That's on you. Look, this is the stuff you said you would never do.
▶ 0:56:36We would never shut down the government. We would never do. That's exactly what you've done. So you're putting thousands of people out of work. The health care issue you're talking about is a subsidy that you passed on your own on top of other sub you said was COVID related. You said it would run out. We've said okay let's sit down and talk about fundamental changes here. But no, it's like we have to have our way.
▶ 0:57:01We have to have a guaranteed spending of a trillion and a half dollars over the next 10 years to exchange for you to pay people for four to seven four weeks in your original proposal. We actually asked for
▶ 0:57:16you've tried over 50 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
▶ 0:57:19The most immediate crisis in my project you've created.
▶ 0:57:23My people aren't getting paid thanks to you and your colleagues.
▶ 0:57:27So So nobody in your district is complaining about the healthare. Hey, people complain everywhere about everything. We have a chance to do
▶ 0:57:34Ask me what the most important calls I get is why am I not getting paid and we have a chance to do something forcibly furoughed. There's important work for me to do.
▶ 0:57:42Here's the thing. You have we have a chance to do something to help millions of people afford their health insurance. And what you're all telling me is you're not interested.
▶ 0:57:51I thought that we had affordable
▶ 0:57:54No, I am interested. I have a whole series of them, but they have nothing to do with the appropriation bill. They have nothing to do with the work of my committee. We do not do that at my to hijack our committee.
▶ 0:58:09You all voted to extend tax cuts for mult millionaires and billions, make them permanent, but you could not extend these for people. Mr. Laurel,
▶ 0:58:17I'm just to say you got 13 members, 13 Republican members of the House who have said allowing these tax credits to lapse without a clear path forward, there was no clear path forward, would risk harm to those we represent. This is these are 13 members of the Republican conference who are scared to death that that's what's going to happen in their districts.
▶ 0:58:40You've got and and and in in in the chairman's district, a 60-year-old couple that makes $82,000 is going to see insurance premiums rise by unless the Congress prevents it. Now, if that's okay, and you've got other members in the same situation, we can go down district by district and let you know what it is that is out there for this and members who serve on the appropriations committee as well. All 13 of those members voted to pay people.
▶ 0:59:10They voted to keep the government open. None of you did except for one member in Maine who's now retiring because you control the House and the Senate. Madam Chair, with all due respect,
▶ 0:59:22when we debated the ACA, you controlled over an hour of time and you want to cut me off, that's fine. My constituents are getting screwed by what is happening here in this Congress or what is not happening in this Congress. and they sent me here to fight for them because they're they're they're going to lose their healthare or they're not going to be able to afford their healthare. This is a big deal and and the indifference
▶ 0:59:42uh on this shown by the Republican majority in this house and by the guy in the White House who's remodeling bathrooms and building to Argentina, you know. I mean, it is it is it is it is ridicul. But I'm just saying I want to point for the for the historical record. Um, I'm not getting the same courtesy that the chairwoman received when we did the ACA.
▶ 1:00:03Listen to the American people. Last Tuesday, may they made their voices heard on these issues and you ought to take heed with what happened last
▶ 1:00:10M. Mr. McGovern, what Mr. Cole has pointed out and I've pointed out and others have pointed out, this was put in place by the Democrats. the cut off of the subsidies was put in place by you and I think we have um debated this point
▶ 1:00:33Miss Fishbach. Okay,
▶ 1:00:35Miss Fishbach, you're recognized.
▶ 1:00:38Thank you, Madam Chair. And I I just before before I go any further, I just want to recognize I think you mentioned it is Veterans Day. So, I want to wish all of the veterans
▶ 1:00:48happy Veterans Day.
▶ 1:00:49We should pass and all of us I
▶ 1:00:52advanced funding.
▶ 1:00:53I'm I'm speaking
▶ 1:00:54I know I know you are
▶ 1:00:56um but I I think I think that very much
▶ 1:00:59you know all of us probably to be here had to miss um miss events that we were going to be at. And so I just wanted to uh say thank you for being here and sorry that we couldn't attend those Veterans events to um to commemorate Veterans Day for them. So just for that, but I I I am as the discussion goes on am amazed at this because this um this Democrat shutdown is all over a simple clean continuing resolution.
▶ 1:01:29Six weeks. Six weeks clean. Well, the Democrat alternative, ma'am, was $1.5 trillion worth of spending.
▶ 1:01:37So this is this was a clean six week CR. We could have had all of those all of those discussions you're so concerned about. We could have been doing that. And the simple fact is
▶ 1:01:48there was a vote on September 19th. If you voted yes, you voted yes to keep government open. You voted yes to pay people. You voted yes to keep things moving along. You voted yes to continue the appropriations. If you voted no, which the Democrats, with the exception of one,
▶ 1:02:05voted no that shut down government. You voted yes money was stolen.
▶ 1:02:11Ma'am, I am speaking.
▶ 1:02:13I hear you. And and and I just wanted to say, you know, there's questions about whether or not we were working. And with all due respect, you're not working. You were looking in the wrong place because all of us were working. I've been I've I was in DC. You looked in the wrong place. I was meeting with constituents. I was in my district part of the time meeting with constituents. So to imply that we were on a vacation is is ridiculous.
▶ 1:02:41It's just ludicrous because our constituents know we were working. I mean my staff, you know, I came met with constituents here, met with constituents in the district, and I think pretty much every single one of the Republicans did. And so I find it just ridiculous. And those kinds of statements are just pure pure not accurate. I'll say it that way. But Mr. Mr. Cole, chair Cole has pointed out that the appropriations process is so incredibly important.
▶ 1:03:10It is the way we should be doing things. They were the appropriations committee was doing it. Just needed six more weeks on that clean CR so that we could continue to do it. We're going to pass the three um that are going to be on this bill. We have some more. We're going to continue to do that. But that's the way things should be happening here. It is absolutely it's regular order. We should be doing it. And I just had a couple of questions just for clarification for Mr. Cole.
▶ 1:03:38Um, and so does this bill provides funding for SNAP?
▶ 1:03:42Yes, it does.
▶ 1:03:43Did the bill that we voted on September 19th provide funding for
▶ 1:03:47It did.
▶ 1:03:48Yes. So if we had voted way back in September 19th, we would have taken care of that.
▶ 1:03:56worth noting too majority of both houses voted for that. 55 senators voted for that and obviously a majority in this body because it passed here.
▶ 1:04:06So this is simply a Senate rule that's been perverted and taken advantage of. A majority of Congress has voted consistently to keep the government open while these other issues can be dealt with. It's Democrats that decided to shut the government down. And and like I pointed out, simple fact, September 19th, you can check the record. Who voted yes? Who voted no? Yes to keep the government open.
▶ 1:04:32And I've pointed that out repeatedly over the last few weeks, uh the last weeks while we've been shut down because it's it's a simple fact. It's not that not the rhetoric. It just you can prove it by checking the uh checking the record. And um and Mr. Cole, I was going to ask you about if both of those bills, so the September 19th bill would have paid the troops. the September 19th bill would have done kept the government open.
▶ 1:04:55The September 19th bill would have kept the funding for veterans and and so we had that and they chose to shut the government down. So, but um and and so this bill is going to reopen. We're going to get our troops paid. We're going to get the capital police paid. We're going to do what we need to. We're going to get back pay. We're going to for the federal workers. And we are going to make sure that folks get their SNAP benefits. And so I I'm
▶ 1:05:21I appreciate that this has come forward. And so I would ask the other side to join us in opening the government back up so then we can have these discussions that you've been so concerned about that you want to make sure it gets done. And I don't think that with the proposals that you have
▶ 1:05:38actually solve the issue of increased healthc care insurance. It doesn't do it. We need to have more in-depth discussions about what's really going on about it. And so um please join us in opening the government. And with that I yield back.
▶ 1:05:5310 lady yields back. Now recognize Miss Scandlin for her time of question.
▶ 1:05:57Thank you. I would first yield to Mr.
▶ 1:06:00Yeah, we are happy to join with we want the government open. We just don't want millions of people to get screwed over on their healthcare insurance. So if you join with us, this is a crisis by the way that's right now. It's not three months from now or six months from now. It's right now. People have gotten their bills. people are making decisions whether they're going to forego their health care. So that that is it.
▶ 1:06:21And and the idea that we can't get any well there are 13 Republicans that at least have said that they support us on extending the benefits. We'll see whether uh you know they did it for show or whether it's for real.
▶ 1:06:37But um I I think if you let the House work its will, I think a majority of of of Democrats or Republicans would vote to extend uh the that tax credit and millions of people won't lose their healthcare, won't get screwed over uh because of the indifference and the enaction of this Congress. Um, you found it you you you found the time, you found it acceptable to extend the expiring tax cuts for multi-millionaires and billionaires, but you couldn't find it within your heart to extend this.
▶ 1:07:07So, we're happy to join with you, but join with us, too. If you want our votes, then, you know, just we want to help working people afford their health insurance. I yield back to M. Thank you.
▶ 1:07:18Thank you, Mr. McGovern. Um, as we're convening here for the first time in months, our nation's health care system is buckling under the combined attacks of over almost a trillion dollars in cuts to Medicaid that were rammed through in the big ugly bill this summer, the White House's unilateral cuts to congressional uh congressionally approved spending for NIH medical research, including pediatric cancer.
▶ 1:07:48And now the Republican refusal to extend the ACA tax credits that help millions of Americans afford their health insurance. And they're already seeing these health insurance premiums go up. As Mr. McGovern said, this is not something that can wait because families are enrolling now for next year. And the Republicans have refused to address this issue all year, not just since the shutdown occurred. They've refused to address it at all.
▶ 1:08:17And none of this is an accident. It's all by choice. Just like it was a choice by President Trump to defund SNAP benefits this month for the first time in history for more than 60 years through recessions, n natural disasters and even previous shutdowns, including previous shutdowns under this president. The federal government has never missed a SNAP payment until now. And why?
▶ 1:08:45because President Trump and congressional Republicans will pick their billionaire buddies over American families every damn time. So once again with this bill, they're choosing to let health care premiums skyrocket and causing families to lose coverage. Look, there have been two big tax provisions set to expire this year. And they've taken up a lot of attention. One was tax cuts for billionaires and the second was tax credits for American families.
▶ 1:09:15This summer, Speaker Johnson called us back to DC when we were supposed to be home for the Fourth of July weekend because it was an emergency to pass this big ugly bill which extended tax cuts for billionaires. But when it came time to extend tax credits for millions of Americans to help them afford health care, Speaker Johnson sent the House home for almost two months.
▶ 1:09:41And he won't commit to having a vote on those healthcare credits even after the government reopens. And again, that's a choice. For the last 42 days, while the speaker has made clear that he has no interest in negotiating with Democrats to produce a piv a bill capable of passing both houses, his job isn't just one house. It has to be able to pass both houses.
▶ 1:10:05While he's been refusing to do anything, the White House has been working overtime to use the shutdown to inflict as much pain as possible on the American people, particularly the most vulnerable of our neighbors. And again, that's a choice. The White House chose to try to fire more than 4,000 federal workers. That's a choice. The White House has threatened to withhold back pay to federal workers despite a 2019 bill that would prevent that.
▶ 1:10:35That's a choice. This White House chose to withhold SNAP benefits for 42 million Americans. It has pressured states not to advance those benefits. It has threatened grocerers with penalties if they offer discounts to struggling SNAP beneficiaries. It has defied court orders to fund SNAP benefits. And it has appealed every one of those decisions every step of the way. Those are all choices.
▶ 1:11:02And again, never before has an administration blocked SNAP benefits. They have always tried to make sure those go out because the funding in fact is available. But this is what happens when governing becomes a game. And games are exactly what this Trump administration has played with SNAP and with the American people during the shutdown. Millions of families have spent a couple weeks struggling to feed their kids because of this White House's deliberate choices.
▶ 1:11:33The human cost of this Republican shutdown and this budget proposal are staggering. and behind every number are kids and veterans and seniors all across America who are going to pay for these choices. Um, ranking member Deluro, I I had a couple questions for you. First of all, just to go back, the the chair and Mr. Cole have said that this CR funds the federal government at the same levels as during um the Biden administration.
▶ 1:12:03Does that mean that it fully funds the Consumer Protection Finance Bureau?
▶ 1:12:08No, it doesn't. It doesn't go back to USAD. Okay. I can go chapter inverse on programs that are not there. $410 billion terminated, delayed.
▶ 1:12:18Okay. So, it doesn't fund the Department of Education.
▶ 1:12:23No. And it doesn't fund USAD.
▶ 1:12:25You got it.
▶ 1:12:26And it doesn't fund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
▶ 1:12:29No way.
▶ 1:12:30And it doesn't fund all those NIH research grants that have been cut.
▶ 1:12:33Cut. Absolutely. Cut. CDC, FDA.
▶ 1:12:37Okay. a whole nine yards.
▶ 1:12:38It is not the same bill.
▶ 1:12:40No. And they have allowed for the the the president and for uh Russ vote an unelected bureaucrat to really steal appropriated funds and that the CR does nothing about that. It gives them cart blanch to continue to do the same thing which anybody who serves on an appropriations committee quite frankly needs to understand what role we have.
▶ 1:13:06Well, that is our role is to and and if the president wants to take away take it away from us, we need to fight like hell to make sure that that don't any president any president.
▶ 1:13:16Some would say that is something else that Congress could have been doing over the last two months is protecting its right to allocate funding. Um, with respect to the SNAP benefits,
▶ 1:13:29um, does this CR that they're pushing through now, does that guarantee reimbursement to the states for funds they may have advanced?
▶ 1:13:38No, it does not.
▶ 1:13:39Okay. And the White House is fighting them about those funds.
▶ 1:13:41That's right. Well, the White House is saying, "Take back the money that you've given to people." My state of Connecticut, we the when when the when the court said, "Get it all out." We did it. And now they're telling Governor Lamont that he has to go back and get that go go go get that money.
▶ 1:13:58We saw the same thing in Pennsylvania. Has any
▶ 1:14:02administration before this ever tried to
▶ 1:14:05prevent states from helping their No. Um
▶ 1:14:09it's happened in the past and they have been reimbursed
▶ 1:14:11and they have been reimbured. That's what I the first time that really food and the uh and has been used as a political weapon to deprive people of food which is actually what's happened
▶ 1:14:23Okay. Um would the bill under consideration here would it make SNAP payments mandatory in the future?
▶ 1:14:30No. The well in the agriculture bill this is let let me just take one second to explain. We passed the the the last go round where we had uh money money for SNAP which is mandatory funding.
▶ 1:14:44We then do a contingency fund there and the president actually Trump President Trump uh he he signed a bill into law in March which provided for $3 billion for the contingency fund. Biden had done it you know before. So there's $6 billion in a contingency for an emergency. So to say that the government had to open before those is is is is really misinformation and quite frankly it's a lie. It's a lie.
▶ 1:15:09But in the bill that's there, the agriculture bill, there is the money for SNAP and yes, there's a $6 billion contingency fund.
▶ 1:15:17Okay. Um whenever we have a big bill like this, there are things that crop up in it. And one of the corrupt Easter eggs in the text of this bill is that it would allow certain senators
▶ 1:15:35um to get payments from the federal government because a special prosecutor got a warrant that allowed the special prosecutor to investigate whether or not they participated in illegal efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Is that an appropriate use?
▶ 1:15:57Well, first of all, it doesn't belong. Speaking of things that don't belong in an appropriations bill, this certainly doesn't. But
▶ 1:16:03as I mentioned in my remarks that this is really egregious. This was the chair of the uh uh of the Senate Appropriations Committee saying taking u the word of the majority leader and putting this piece in the bill without anyone knowing about it.
▶ 1:16:25Leadership I I didn't know about it and I will just say my colleague the chairman of of the of the House committee didn't know about it. And the the issue here is what the result of that is is to allow I there's several seven or eight people involved here that u and again whether or not you believe what happened on January 6.
▶ 1:16:47My god, how the heck can we just airdrop this stuff in in in the bill with no one knowing but the price tag is potentially $8 million to pay off pay off senators.
▶ 1:17:00Okay. Look, I think the American people are smart enough to know who's fighting for them and who's fighting to line their own pockets and those of
▶ 1:17:11This is a bad deal. It fails to extend the ACA premium tax credits. It fails to guarantee a vote to address the Republican healthcare crisis. It even fails to guarantee that states are reimbursed for stepping up and providing SNAP benefits that have been illegally blocked by this administration. We need a budget that protects all Americans. That's what governing and leadership is supposed to be about and that's what Americans deserve.
▶ 1:17:39So I can't in good faith support this deal to reopen the government because it doesn't meet those basic standards. And I would yield back.
▶ 1:17:48Gentle lady yields back. Now recognize gentleman from Texas, Mr. Roy.
▶ 1:17:53Thank my friend from Virginia. Good to see everybody back. Good to see you, Mr. Chairman, ranking member. Um, couple things. There's been a lot of conversations here about the uh federal employees. Uh, real quick question for the ranking member. How many uh employees would depart through attrition whether it was under Biden or President
▶ 1:18:15Yeah. Well, over overall we've got that's almost I think it's now over federal employees that were either fired, some took the voluntary uh uh buyout, which maybe is what you're talking about with the in attrition piece, but two over 220,000 federal employees that started in January. It has nothing to do with a government shutting down and people furoughed etc.
▶ 1:18:46These people were gone in a nancond here.
▶ 1:18:49So question to Mr. Chairman what I was getting at here is for the whatever the numbers are 220,000 or variance Mr. Chairman, would you would you agree that a very large number of those go every year by attrition
▶ 1:19:03say over 100,000 that there was in fact this deferred uh program right where where they were basically offered the ability to leave which represents another large chunk I don't know 60 or 70,000 or some some significant number
▶ 1:19:20and then there there are questions then of additional employees whether it's riffs and so forth and in the question of the riffs from October which are post shutdown, postdemocrat cause shutdown that those riffs are reinstated under this legislation. Correct. To the ones post shutdown. Is that correct?
▶ 1:19:38That's correct. And all of the prior uh folks we're talking about the vast majority are those that are either left through attrition or those who uh went out under the um the deferred program. Is that true?
▶ 1:19:53That's correct. So uh I think a lot is being made of that and I think then the question becomes what is the right number of employees right I mean so you've got people who are leaving under attrition you have people who were then they took a deferred program they left
▶ 1:20:09and the administration is trying to act and then with respect to the riffs and the decisions they were making in October is that not the prioritization authority that the administration has during a shutdown to manage what they've got to on a cash flow basis to manage the functions of government.
▶ 1:20:26Uh I think that's correct. Let me add one thing just an interesting wrinkle on this and I just speak for my own district. Uh we had people that wanted to take the buyout that they
▶ 1:20:38literally the government said no, we're not going to off you're not going to be able to because you're mission critical. I mean over a thousand at Tinker Air Force Base wanted to take the buyout but they were too important to keeping bombers in the air, tankers in the air, awax in the air and decision was made locally uh by the commanding general. No, we can't afford to lose you. I mean you can leave obviously any Americans can resign their position but we can't give you a buyout. We really need you here.
▶ 1:21:08So yeah, I mean these numbers are a lot more complex than simple, which I think is the point you're making than just stating a number and and saying these people are all driven out. That's just not the case.
▶ 1:21:19Well, and importantly, I you know, I think if you take go from that to then the second area of concern, which we're talking about with respect to just the shutdown generally, true or false, on September 19th, we passed legislation that would have continued funding at current levels through November 20th. That's true.
▶ 1:21:38And on October 1st, the government entered shutdown because the Senate, by virtue of decisions by Senate Democrats, refused to take up and pass that bill, which undeniably would have continued to fund government at the current level beginning October 1 through November 20th. And instead, we entered a
▶ 1:22:01Uh, that's correct. Although I always think it's important to note 55 senators, majority of the senator,
▶ 1:22:06did actually vote to keep the government open. And so important for the American people to understand that was a choice. And so I think when we talk about a shutdown, the question is why? Why? Why do it? Because here we are and we've got legislation in front of us that Democrats have now supported in the Senate that return us effectively to the status quo ante where we're going to have government funded out to another now date certain now extended into January because we're now into November. So we had to extend the date.
▶ 1:22:36We got we managed to move three appropriations bills through some degree of regular order three bills in the House and the Senate. But by virtue of now passing this bill, we're going to restore where we would have been had we just done our work on October 1. So the question is, what was the last 45 days all about? Could it have been potentially the intervening political elections?
▶ 1:22:59Could that possibly have been the cynical motivations of the Not right now, I won't
▶ 1:23:04I was your question.
▶ 1:23:05Could it have possibly been the cynical motivations of my colleagues on other side of the aisle? Just a rhetorical question that I'll leave floating out there to say what were the reasons. We know why. Because our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have nothing to run on and our colleagues on the other side of the aisle want something desperately to run on. So they're trying to manufacture a healthc care crisis that they created. That's the actual truth. And with respect to healthare people,
▶ 1:23:32the question that I would ask is this. Should we be putting forward should we be putting forward legislation that will continue to fund the insurance companies at the level they're currently getting where 85% of their revenues are coming from the federal government because that's what's happening or that $35 billion are going to insure insurance companies last year to go to people the people that weren't even using their plans. Is that what we should be doing?
▶ 1:24:03Is that the health care system that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are saying that must be addressed by virtue of subsidies to insurance Because President Trump had it right last week when he said, "Well, if you're going to do these subsidies, which is not how we would prefer to do business, then shouldn't it go to the American people to be able to go into a market and go be able to get the doctor of his or her choice or get direct primary care or be able to figure out how to take care of their family rather than call an insurance bureaucrat
▶ 1:24:33who's pocketing the money through a system that our colleagues designed and broke and for which not one single Republican ever voted. including the subsidies that no Republican voted for that were created to be temporary by our colleagues own voice. They were to be temporary during co and we are now to extend the very subsidies that my colleagues are laying bare the broken health care system that they created.
▶ 1:25:01I remember all too well in 2013 being on the floor of the Senate with Ted Cruz when we were raising the questions of what would happen
▶ 1:25:09when this system were implemented. Because the debate then was whether we should fund the implementation of a system that would end up bankrupting the average American family as this system has done.
▶ 1:25:21Shut down.
▶ 1:25:21What I'm talking What I'm talking about is the reason I'm talking about the reason that one would go to the Senate floor and say maybe we shouldn't do the very thing that right now is causing the American people pain
▶ 1:25:3215 years.
▶ 1:25:33Because we talk about the co you talk about the constituents who are having pain. Yeah. How about my constituent who were died last year who couldn't go to MD Anderson because Obamacare doesn't cover it? Is that coverage? Is that the kind of health care system that people deserve? While insurance companies are pocketing extraordinary profits off theart years and you haven't come up with a plan for health insurance
▶ 1:25:56and health insurance, health insurance executives are minting money.
▶ 1:26:00Oh god.
▶ 1:26:01Minting money on the back of dollars coming from federal taxpayers and the federal government. and then our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have the tearity to come here and complain about the system they broke.
▶ 1:26:13That's what we're actually dealing with
▶ 1:26:15It's about repeal of the Affordable Care Act. That's what this is all about.
▶ 1:26:18Or the extent to which you've got
▶ 1:26:20no replacement.
▶ 1:26:22Is it our time? the extent to which we are here because our colleagues know full well that this was a political exercise
▶ 1:26:34to the chairman. We heard about SNAP. True or false? If we pass this will SNAP benefits proceed immediately?
▶ 1:26:45They could proceed.
▶ 1:26:46So if we pass this legislation tomorrow,
▶ 1:26:49SNAP funding will continue immediately. while our col while our friends at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue are trying to manage the funding of government while our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have shut it down. Correct.
▶ 1:27:01Supreme Court trying to end that
▶ 1:27:06Mr. Chairman, one last question. Our colleague brought up the big beautiful bill. When we created and set out the big beautiful bill and we put into it components to deal with border security and defense where we had $150 billion for each in that legislation.
▶ 1:27:25Was that not u beneficial for the executive branch to manage through such a moment as this where our colleagues have shut down the government and they've now had additional flexibility with respect to dollars. Not all, it's not appropriations. I realize that, but they had additional flexibility to manage through it so that we could continue to secure the border and secure to defend the nation.
▶ 1:27:48Um, I wouldn't presume to speak for the administration, but that would be my opinion that that has given them the ability to make sure that uh we've been able to pay our troops twice, which would not have happened uh had they not had that flexibility and the president not made some tough decisions.
▶ 1:28:06So, uh, yeah, they're, you know, I point out I know everybody here's concerned about SNAP and wick and president directed additional resources into those programs to the extent that he could uh during a government shutdown. So uh I mean the president's done everything he can to mitigate I think uh what our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have done. They haven't been able to do it in the house.
▶ 1:28:32I do stress this is a Senate deal that it's been the minority position in both chambers. Uh so uh but uh I appreciate what the administration's done to try and make sure the people that needed help got it. The people that deserve to get paid did get paid in so far as they could do it. But yeah, again, they can't do it indefinitely and they can't do it for everyone.
▶ 1:28:54Mr. I think chairman. Um, one last point that I want for the record. The Obamacare 2026 premiums, um, there's a great report that puts out that shows that only 3.3% of those premiums are affected at all by the COVID credits. That 97% of the premiums in 2026 will continue to flow as normal. And I'd like to insert that in the record.
▶ 1:29:15Thank you,
▶ 1:29:16Mr. M. Mr. Noose, you're recognized.
▶ 1:29:19Thank you, Madam Chair. Good to see you. Uh, I just have to start, Chairman Cole, I have, you know, a number of probing questions, but before I ask you some questions, I have to address some of the comments made by the gentleman from Texas. I'm just going to read a quote. And I do this because I actually don't think I could find a quote like this from Chairman Cole.
▶ 1:29:46So, uh, in some respects, although I disagree with, uh, you know, much of his testimony, but he certainly has more clean hands than some of my other colleagues. Quote, "Let's not fund a government that's going to be exacting tyranny over our American brothers and sisters." Full length of the interview is available here, and some key quotes are below. This is from the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Royy's website. November of 2021. Should any Republican vote to fund an executive branch?
▶ 1:30:15In other words, should article one, Congress, which has the power of the purse as the founders gave us, should we give any dollars to the executive branch or President Biden to issue unconstitutional and lawful mandates that are causing people to have to choose between their livelihoods and getting a vaccine, which they don't want. Let's stand united. Let's not do what these 13 Republicans did last Friday and go side with Nancy Pelosi. Let's not fund a government that's going to be exacting tyranny over our American brothers and sisters. This is for Mr. Roy. Spare me. Hold on. No, Mr. Roy, it's my time. It's my time.
▶ 1:30:44You You You You certainly made that clear with the chairwoman. Spare us. Mr. Cole perhaps I I think, as I said, can have some clean hands to talk to us about this particular um set of circumstances we find ourselves in. You cannot There might be other colleagues of yours, I think, who uh might share Mr. Cole's worldview, but I I I don't know.
▶ 1:31:06I thought I've heard everything in Congress, but to to hear my colleague from Texas uh you know his indignation about the the government shutdown as he instigated and tried to instigate shutdown after shutdown. Uh just three years ago, four years ago, we're not this is in distant memory. In any event, uh I digress. Mr. Cole, how many days has the House of Representatives been in session since August 3rd?
▶ 1:31:37Couldn't
▶ 1:31:37tell you off the top.
▶ 1:31:3812 days. Sound about right?
▶ 1:31:39Uh, something like that.
▶ 1:31:41I can represent to you that the House since August 3rd has been in session for a total of 12 days. I don't know if you're familiar with Steve Bannon. I suspect you are. Yes.
▶ 1:31:56Never met him.
▶ 1:31:57Never met him. know of him?
▶ 1:31:59If you read the newspapers, you know of
▶ 1:32:02Yeah. I don't It's not a trick question. You know Steve Bannon exists. All right.
▶ 1:32:07I know. Okay. There was a report recently uh where Steve Bannon compared the US Congress under Speaker Johnson to the Duma allegedly. You think that's a apt comparison?
▶ 1:32:17No, I don't.
▶ 1:32:18No. Would it surprise you to know that the Duma has been in session longer this fall than the United States House of Representatives? I don't know that the Duma sessions make very much difference.
▶ 1:32:28Well, I'm not so sure they make much difference here given the way in which Republicans are capitulating to every demand that President Trump makes. I think it is shameful, shameful that the House has been in session for 12 days since August 3rd. 54 days out of session. You cannot possibly, Chairman, you you've been in Congress for some time.
▶ 1:32:56You can't possibly defend a 54 day recess, the second longest recess in the modern history of the Congress. You would defend that.
▶ 1:33:05You should probably direct that U sentiment toward the United States
▶ 1:33:10The Senate decides when the House is in session. No, if you'll let me finish my
▶ 1:33:15Well, no, because I I don't
▶ 1:33:16My point is we sent a bill in plenty of time uh over to the Senate to keep the government open functioning. All these other issues you're concerned about could be addressed, could be debated.
▶ 1:33:28Why not pass these bills? Why not why not consider the bills on the floor?
▶ 1:33:32We're waiting for the Senate to get back. The Senate The Senate has now finally acted. Okay, Mr. Wasn't the Republicans that kept
▶ 1:33:40I understand that. I understand you said that in response to Mr. McGovern. My question is, and this was what I think he was trying to glean from both you and the ranking member. There are plenty of appropriation bills that were passed out of committee.
▶ 1:33:53The House could have met the last week of September, any week in October, last week yesterday, any time over the last 54 days, the House could be convened to consider these appropriation bills. John Thun doesn't get to decide when the House of Representatives is in session. Mike Johnson does. And I'm trying to understand from you why you've decided to take this position. I I'll finish and then I'll let you why you've taken this position
▶ 1:34:22that the House should effectively stay out of session. I mean, I I guess this is your position that if the government is shut down, the House of Representatives should not convene. Is that your position? to if we can open it by ourselves, which we had done.
▶ 1:34:39We we had passed legislation, clean legislation to keep the government open. It went to the United States Senate and you wait until they send you something
▶ 1:34:50and do nothing else.
▶ 1:34:52That's my point. There are Do you know how many bills have passed out of committee this year that are sitting downstairs at the floor, the desk in the 150 bills that have passed. Many of your colleagues here on the Republican side of the aisle, they have passed bills out of committee along with bills that I've passed on veterans, healthc care, on issues of foreign policy, you name it.
▶ 1:35:20The House has refused to consider any of those for the last 54 days. I'm trying to understand why. Why not just say to the speaker in October, you know what,
▶ 1:35:30call us back,
▶ 1:35:31Speaker Johnson. It's time to bring the House back. We'll wait. You know, the Senate, you're right. The Senate's considering the bills that we sent them. They're considering the CR that you mentioned, right, that you've you've made clear. You passed it. I get it. But while we're waiting, maybe we ought to consider other matters, including the appropriation bills that you are so proud of out that you moved out of your
▶ 1:35:53I am proud of them. I would be much happier if the Senate would just open the government. So, I don't understand. I I mean I honestly I think I've got an answer to that qu. I think you've answered it and I think the answer is effectively
▶ 1:36:06that John Thun is in charge of the House calendar from here on out. That basically the position I mean Mike Johnson has given his gavvel I thought he gave I didn't ask a question Mr. I'm not so I thought
▶ 1:36:18I thought
▶ 1:36:20Mr. Speaker Johnson had given his gavvel to the president, but it appears as though at least based on your answers that he gave it
▶ 1:36:28to Senator Th because there is no excuse for the speaker's decision to keep us out of session for 54 days. And by the
▶ 1:36:37no excuse for the government to be shut down. You and your colleagues,
▶ 1:36:41that wasn't a question. I'll ask you. I'm happy to ask you a question it seems like you are very comfortable with the House being out of session for extended periods of time. Is Is that a fair
▶ 1:36:59I am comfortable doing my job and I've been here quite a bit, my friend.
▶ 1:37:04I understand.
▶ 1:37:05Uh but and working on these issues quite frankly. But we didn't vote to shut down the government in the House.
▶ 1:37:12Okay. You mentioned you've been here a long time.
▶ 1:37:14And to be fair, my Senate colleagues didn't vote to shut down the government. And a majority of United States Senate clear members from your party. You've made your position clear, Mr. Cole.
▶ 1:37:25I think the people that shut down the government can take responsibility.
▶ 1:37:30As you said, you've been here a lot longer than I have, and that's certainly true. I haven't been here for long. I found an article. This is from 2007. you've been in Congress for some time. The headline, Cole, quote, "Now is not the time for a vacation." End quote. This is when Democrats had the majority in 2007. Congress must work through Memorial Day recess to produce a clean funding bill.
▶ 1:37:54US Congressman Tom Cole today joined nearly every member of the Republican conference in sending a letter to then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calling her to keep calling her to keep the House in session until Congress sends then President Bush a clean funding bill that he will sign into law. This was effectively I'll just say the letter was sent to Speaker Pelosi 8 days before Congress is scheduled to adjourn for the Memorial Day recess. Legislative business is not scheduled to resume until June 5th.
▶ 1:38:22I I mean, you all were clamoring demanding that the speaker reconvene the and not take a 10-day recess. And now what? We're in week eight and we're finally here. And and you won't say a word of criticism about the speaker's strategy in keeping all of us
▶ 1:38:39deserve my criticism for the people that shut down the government of the United
▶ 1:38:43I kept it shut down for 40 odd days. Made sure SNAP people recipients didn't get it. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I think it's rich. Uh, and I again, I would just simply say
▶ 1:38:58that if the shoe were on the other foot, I don't think I honestly I really I I don't think you would hesitate that you would hesitate to call the speaker's actions disgraceful to keep us out of session for 54 days. But in any event, that's fine. Let's talk about the last 54 days. So, the speaker, he said something that was fascinating. I I thought it was it was a really interesting quote if I can find it. Here we go. Uh yeah, it was interesting.
▶ 1:39:25So the quote is House Republicans are doing some of the most meaningful work of their careers. They are in their districts. I don't want to pull them away from that. You agree with the speaker's comments?
▶ 1:39:40I don't speak for the speaker, but I don't disagree with him. Look, we're waiting for
▶ 1:39:44No, no, no. That's not the question. That's not the question. You answered it. You answered it. Okay. So, chairman, it sounds like you're saying that you agree that this with the speaker, Republican members were were doing some of the most quote meaningful work of their careers during that 54 days. I assume you were here in Washington and back in Oklahoma.
▶ 1:40:03Right. Did you have any in-person town
▶ 1:40:07None. 54 days.
▶ 1:40:09Did several telet town halls.
▶ 1:40:10Telettown halls. But you've done inerson town halls before. I know that to be true. Why not? 54 days is a long time. Not one town hall?
▶ 1:40:19No. I
▶ 1:40:20Did you visit any of the federal
▶ 1:40:21Oh, I've visited federal facilities. I've done multiple meetings with chambers of commerce, Rotary clubs. It's been highly visible.
▶ 1:40:30I don't know if you heard my colleague, Miss Fishbach. She took great umbrage at this notion that, you know, that Republicans were somehow on vacation. I did you make it down to uh the Mara Lago
▶ 1:40:42You didn't get the invitation to the Gatsby invite? I don't know. It'll be interesting. I don't know if any of her colleagues here on the other side of the dis made it down there. I I it strikes that it would be hard to describe
▶ 1:40:56the last 54 days at least from what I've seen as meaningful work on the part of my colleagues uh in the House Republican Conference. But you know, again, those are uh that's something you'll have to defend and and folks will defend to their constituents. Uh
▶ 1:41:11I can defend myself a lot easier. not voted to shut down the government.
▶ 1:41:16Mr. Chairman, you've answered the
▶ 1:41:19Thousands of people. You've answered the question. Let's talk about Mr. Chairman. That's what I would worry. I
▶ 1:41:24Madam Chair, regular order, please. So,
▶ 1:41:27I want to talk to you about the
▶ 1:41:28I want to ask the members of the rules committee not to interrupt the witnesses, please.
▶ 1:41:35And and I I hope Mr. Negus, you do have some questions and yet you just don't want to harang the chairman. I'm far from heranging the chairman. I'm given the opportunity for the chairman to explain the meaningful work that he's been engaged in and I suspect that he welcomes and relishes that.
▶ 1:41:52So, I want to talk to you about the provision that my colleague from Pennsylvania noted earlier, and this is the provision that essentially allows specifically eight Republican United States senators to reap upwards of a half a million dollar payday uh with respect to the phone record notice provision uh that they've added into the bill. You support that
▶ 1:42:16I didn't have anything to do with it. Didn't have any knowledge of it.
▶ 1:42:19Not asking if you have knowledge of it. Do you support it?
▶ 1:42:21Uh yeah. Uh, do I support the bill? Yes. Do I support every single provision in the bill? No.
▶ 1:42:26You don't find this provision repugnant? I think most American people are going to find this
▶ 1:42:30I was surprised to see it in the bill.
▶ 1:42:33I was unaware of it. It was not uh
▶ 1:42:36Why not work with us to remove it?
▶ 1:42:39Let's see what you do. Uh,
▶ 1:42:41well, we've got an amendment.
▶ 1:42:42Let me tell you this. I am very concerned and actually Democratic senators said this. I I think particularly of Senator Coons, uh I am very concerned that anybody whether they're in the House or the Senate is singled out and not notified that their records are being subpoenaed. I that concerns me a great deal.
▶ 1:43:04And does that just
▶ 1:43:05Now, did I know about this provision, the bill? No. Do I think it needs to be in a funding bill? Not particularly. But do I think getting the governments open is important? Yes, I do. But I was unaware of the provision. So,
▶ 1:43:18well, there's an amendment that will be introduced that I'm not asking a question, Mr. Chairman. Not asking you a question. Let me finish my statement and then you'll have an opportunity. Yeah,
▶ 1:43:28there will be an amendment proposed to remove what I think is a deeply insidious provision.
▶ 1:43:35Jesus Christ. I think it is outrageous, for these Republican senators to effectively guarantee themselves
▶ 1:43:45million dollar paydays. retroactive provision in this bill that very clearly applies to them. The removal of all relevant immunity defenses on the part of the United States government. This is insanity to allow this provision to go forward and I would hope that my Republican colleagues would join us in supporting the removal of this provision.
▶ 1:44:14At a minimum, we ought to be able to find common ground on that. So with that, Madam Chair, I yield back.
▶ 1:44:20Thank you.
▶ 1:44:21Thank you, Mr. Noose. Mr. Langworthy, you're recognized.
▶ 1:44:26Thank you, Madam Chair. and I like all of you are here in Washington today instead of celebrating uh the incredible veterans in our district uh and across the country. Uh but as members of the rules committee, we begin the important process uh here in the House that will finally end this shutdown madness. Uh, I honor the veterans every day and especially today.
▶ 1:44:52But the work we're doing here tonight and starting that work and we'll finish tomorrow will begin to end the turmoil that has made their lives in the lives of millions of Americans harder for more than 40 days. For over 40 days, the American people have endured a completely unnecessary and entirely avoidable government shutdown. Not because Congress couldn't find common ground, but because Senator Schumer and his allies turned governing into political theater.
▶ 1:45:22And you've heard a lot of political theater already here tonight. You've chosen performance over duty and outrage over outcomes. From day one, the House did its job. We passed a clean continuing resolution, a straightforward measure to keep the government open while the appropriations process continued. And I think Chairman Cole has uh really articulated that very well here tonight. It's the same kind of measure that Congress passed repeatedly in the Biden years.
▶ 1:45:53I voted for every one of those CRs despite disagreeing with virtually all of the administration's policies because governing means putting your country before politics and it keeps the lights on for the American people. We pay far too much in taxes, every American, for the government to not be responsive when they need it the most. But and that's what responsible leadership looks like.
▶ 1:46:20And I and I'm sure if we dug into all of the tweets and the statements from all the different shutdown cliffs and crises that we've been in over the years. I mean, we would see all of my colleagues on the other side of the day swearing up and down how it was the end of the world to shut down the government.
▶ 1:46:38But White House switches hands and then they did what they probably said was the unthinkable and they shut down the But this time, you know, even though we passed the bill in the House, the Senate Democrats refused to act responsibly. They saw an opportunity to score political points and to appease an angry faction within their own ranks. They decided to shut down the government, not out of principle, but to please the loudest voices on the far left.
▶ 1:47:08Now, let's be clear. This debate wasn't about spending. This shutdown is not about health care or any legitimate policy disagreement. It was an exercise in power, a stunt to divide and distract and delay. And while they were busy playing politics, it was the American people that paid the price. The hypocrisy has been staggering. We've all seen members of Congress.
▶ 1:47:33I've seen some in my own region standing at a food bank lamenting that nutritional assistance was lapsing and was Then in the very same press conference, they vowed against ending the shutdown.
▶ 1:47:50Nothing to do.
▶ 1:47:50How can you have it both ways?
▶ 1:47:52You can. How can you want to be seen as an honest human being where you you stomp and you stamp and you have your temper tantrum and you say my way or the highway? You acknowledge people are suffering and doing without, but then you say you won't vote to make that pain go away. if you want to present yourself as an intellectually honest individual, how can you try to have it both ways on this argument?
▶ 1:48:20The American people have suffered long enough. You've called it a Republican shutdown. Now you're furious that the shutdown is ending. IT'S NOT LEADERSHIP. IT'S HYPOCRISY at its very worst. You're trying to say this is a healthc care bill about a policy that Chairman Cole has articulated about 19 times tonight is not involved in the funding levels of this government. it.
▶ 1:48:43There is plenty of time for a robust discussion to work together through the natural process where it belongs. Our VA employees have gone without pay. Our border agents, our Coast Guard, they've missed paychecks while still serving this country. Families depending on SNAP and Wick have been left wondering when they'd get food on the table. Air traffic controllers, by God's grace, we had no air disasters during this.
▶ 1:49:10a system that is already overstretched that we are trying to modernize and fix and recruit more of. They've worked without a paycheck and the American people have fortunately been kept safe. These are the realworld costs of the political games. Real people, not anyone in public office, paid the price. Now, after weeks of pain and posturing, the Senate has finally discovered a breakthrough.
▶ 1:49:40But let's be honest, this is the same bipartisan agreement they could have passed 40 days ago, 30 days ago, 20 days ago. This deal could have been on the table any time they were ready to come to that table. But the only thing that changed was political timing. The only thing that changed and that timing should not be lost on anyone, anyone watching, any members of the media as to how all of a sudden we get to this epiphany that now is the time because election day was a week ago.
▶ 1:50:08And some of their colleagues have said the quiet part out loud on TV and they've said, "We couldn't back down before our base turned out in blue states like Virginia, New Jersey, and and New York." and you're watching all of their colleagues get barbecued by that angry mob. But let's also be clear, this was never about healthcare. This was about another talking point and another distraction.
▶ 1:50:31And and we can and we will have that full and honest debate about healthcare during the final appropriations process in and throughout the budget year. But this shutdown was about one thing. It was about power. It was about Chuck Schumer and Democratic leaders trying to hold a government hostage for their own ambitions
▶ 1:50:51to satisfy their angry mob that wants them to come back with a pine a pound of flesh from President Trump. If Democrats want to let their angry fringe burn their party down, that's their choice. But we are not going to let them hurt the American people any longer in this process. We are not going to let them hold anyone hostage in the name of political chaos. And I want to thank senators on both sides of the aisle to coming to their senses and working together.
▶ 1:51:19And I also I I specifically want to mention Senator Federman who has said from the very beginning that you can support the healthc care policy uh efforts that many in this room are talking about tonight, but you can also do what's right and fund the government and take care of the people, which we swore an oath to do. It was he he was the most plainly spoken, honest broker on the Senate side. And that's what courage looks like.
▶ 1:51:48So, as we take up this measure here in the rules committee today and the House tomorrow night, we're doing what should have been done weeks ago. We're restoring order. We're reopening government. And we're putting the country first because that's what the American people expect and they deserve. To the veterans who have waited for benefits, to the workers who have missed paychecks, to the families who have worried about how to make ends meet, this should have never happened to you.
▶ 1:52:16You deserve better from your government and politics disguised as principle. So today, we will act and tomorrow we will finish the job. We will bring this shutdown to an end once and for all. And we will send a message loud and clear that governing is not performance, it's a responsibility. because this was never a shutdown of the government. This was a shutdown of common sense. And I yield back, Madam
▶ 1:52:42Thank you, Mr. Langworthy. Miss Leisure Fernandez, you're
▶ 1:52:48Well, thank you so very much, Madame Chair, and it's so good to see It has just been way too long, right? Uh but it's been so long that you know following up on uh my colleague and I will now say friend Representative Langworthy's comments about what is this about? Let's remember how we got here.
▶ 1:53:14Uh because it has really not been that long for the American people because we were here, remember in the middle of the night just five months ago while Republicans were jamming through a bill that caused a healthc care crisis.
▶ 1:53:31And now we're here because they refuse to solve a major part of that healthc care crisis, which is those enhanced premium tax credits that are rising and they're doing it now. The reason we needed to act and act now is because people open those bills, they open those notices and their premiums are going up. I mean, anybody watching, I don't know why people watch rules, but people do watch rules.
▶ 1:54:01Raise your hand if you are seeing your health care premiums go up because everywhere I go, people are seeing their health care premiums go up. And it's not just because they're letting them expire. It's what you did back in the dead of night where you rushed through. We had to rush to make sure you gave those billionaire tax credits that are permanent.
▶ 1:54:24Those are permanent tax credits which we had to pass before before July 4th, but you couldn't bother to extend the tax credits for working families and businesses before the end of December. And and and you did it all by raising the deficit. Mr. Roy has passed. He's always talking about that darn deficit. Four trillion dollars.$4 trillion dollars.
▶ 1:54:48Uh you raised our uh not just our healthcare cost or are everything, right? Insurance premiums, groceries, utilities, everything is going up. And you know what's interesting is that those tax credits that Democrats are fighting for are especially important for folks who live in rural in rural and Republican health districts.
▶ 1:55:17And it's not just Marjorie Taylor Green's adult kids that would see their healthcare premiums double. It's across everybody's district. Nearly six in 10 marketplace enrolles, people who benefit from these tax credits, live in congressional districts represented by Republicans. Chairman Cole, do you know how many folks in your district will see their premiums?
▶ 1:55:39I think I've been educated about that tonight, actually.
▶ 1:55:43And and do you remember what it was?
▶ 1:55:45It was about 48,000.
▶ 1:55:4648,000. But you know what's interesting is your your health state's insurance commissioner actually thinks that a 100,000 Oklahoma could no longer afford health insurance by the end of the year. Uh I I'm sure you know Glenn Midi Mo You know what he said?
▶ 1:56:05M ready. So Glenn Mrady, your insurance commissioner said he tried to talk to his delegation about how it's not a great idea to have these all just disappear. that maybe do it more gradually or do something. He said uh I like this quote. He said they weren't listening at that time though. Did you talk to the commissioner?
▶ 1:56:26I have not talked to him about this issue. We actually talk pretty frequently. Okay. He calls uh at least once a year to every member of the delegation. Again, I know him quite
▶ 1:56:34What's interesting is right now we're in this moment where once a year is not enough because those health care premiums are going up. the president of the Oklahoma Hospital Association. He thinks it's even worse when you take into account everything. He said 300,000 Oklahomaans will be affected. This is his quote.
▶ 1:56:55It's been a long time since we've seen individuals faced with the real challenge of deciding whether or not to take advantage of health insurance for themselves, their families, or go bear. And that's a close quote. And this That's the thing about this. These are not just in Democrat district. And what I love is that we are fighting because we don't care whether you're in a Democrat district or Republican district. What we care about is health insurance.
▶ 1:57:25And that's what this fight has proven is that we care about whether or not you're going to be able to afford your health insurance. And you know what? when Representative Roar was talking about being a
▶ 1:57:39I wish you cared as much about whether or not my people get paid,
▶ 1:57:43You know whether or not the people that are working at Tinker Air Force Mr. cared about them getting but I didn't ask your question, Madam Chairwoman. I didn't ask
▶ 1:57:51I apologize but you were you were talking about my district. So I thought I would express myself about my district and what they think. We've heard we've we've heard you talk about that before and I have 30,000 people in New Mexico who are federal employees and I've been meeting with them as well. But I wanted to go to the fact that, you know, Representative Roy who came and left so quickly. Uh he was talking about cancer and how he's a cancer survivor.
▶ 1:58:16I'm a cancer survivor and he was talking about how the Affordable Care Act is so bad, but you know what? I'm a cancer survivor and so if it wouldn't have been for the Affordable Care Act, I would not be able to get insurance because it was a pre-existing condition. You know what else I am? I am a woman. And because I was a woman and could have had babies, I would have also been a pre-existing condition. And these are the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
▶ 1:58:43And the list goes on and on about why that Affordable Care Act makes sense. But what we also need to make it be is affordable. And we had a hearing. I'm the chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus together with members of the Policy and Steering Committee. We had a hearing while Republicans were on vacation. Well, Republicans were gone. If you don't want to call it vacation, let's be honest, you were not here. But we were. And we held a hearing.
▶ 1:59:10And one of the most compelling voices, I mean, they were all compelling. We actually had to take out our tissue because we were crying so much. But one of those voices was Brick from Utah. Brick from Utah who has a condition that he needs infusions. And the only way he can afford those infusions is through the because he gets those tax credits.
▶ 1:59:38And he said, "I want to work." and he went and talked to his representatives and he tried to meet with his senators and he did get to talk to Representative Kennedy and Representative Kennedy's answer to him was well just go on disability. That's not an answer that doesn't save the the American government at all because he wants to work. But you know what? Um we're going to have a an amendment from Leader Jeff and Rip Clark.
▶ 2:00:08I see her here. that's going to have a three-year extension. And I'm supposing you wouldn't support that amendment. Is that right, Mr.
▶ 2:00:16I don't have a vote on that amendment unless you get it out of here. So,
▶ 2:00:19right. But we could vote and we will vote later uh this on a one-year Right. Just a one-year extension because we've heard we've heard the ranking member talk over and over again about that there are Republicans who want that one-year extension. So, we could do that as an amendment. I'll offer that as well. Uh it's 14 of her colleagues. Do you know what would a one-year extension uh cost us? Chairman Cole,
▶ 2:00:48I have no idea. We have no jurisdiction. This is not me. What would it cost 23?
▶ 2:00:53Can I finish my answer? With all due respect, we don't deal with this on an appropriations committee. This is not our jurisdiction. It's not our issue. That's part of the problem here. You're trying to raise it on appropriations bills. This is a ways and means or an energy and commerce issue. It's not ours. And so to hold up the funding of the entire government over something that belongs in another committee, not ours.
▶ 2:01:19And you're basically holding our bills, not you and frankly not the House and not even a majority of the Senate, but our bills have been held hostage over something we have no jurisdiction
▶ 2:01:31Thank you, Chairman Cole. you you made that that point earlier, but as we were here before when we when you all passed it, this bill has tons of stuff that's not appropriations. And ranking member, I've heard it's about $23 billion for a one year of that's about what it cost for one year. Is that right?
▶ 2:01:48One year, but it was one year. I I've asked ranking members
▶ 2:01:51and setting up a bipartisan committee commission a bipartisan to look into this and to address the issues that people may have some concern about but a one-year extension give some relief to the people out there and you quoted I quoted Connecticut you quote your district and we can quote everyone's district and what's happening to people out there today and the notion the notion that we can't take this up because
▶ 2:02:22the continuing resolution is what the appropriations committee does.
▶ 2:02:28This is and we've got 50 pages of this document that deals with health care. If there were the willingness, the political will to solve this, we could do it. And we could do it very, very quickly. And let's not bifurcate continuing resolution to appropriations bills. It is all of one package.
▶ 2:02:54And it is incredible to me that we would watch people suffer to see what's going on with their rising healthc care prices or their kids that are not going to be able to get the treatment that they need and that just say, "Hey, you know, figure it out another way." No, that's not what we're about.
▶ 2:03:18And that really is what is so outrageous about the conversation and what is what is going on. Go ahead.
▶ 2:03:26So, Wanki member, I think that this is you're right on point. It's like we can do this because we do it all the time. This bill is full of things and we'll get to that whole idea of the pola for those senators in a moment, right? But, but I'm also struck by the the contrast of priorities. the contrast of priorities. Democrats have been talking about the need to address health care and we it's not just in it's not just since the shutdown. It was in that big beautifully bad bill of theirs.
▶ 2:03:55Healthc care was key and they could fix it now. But it's the priorities u $40 billion I think that's what is proposed to be sent to down to Argentina. Chairman Cole is that do you recall that?
▶ 2:04:08No I don't.
▶ 2:04:09It's $40 billion.
▶ 2:04:10Billion $40 billion. So that seems to be a priority. They will send $40 billion to Argentina instead of spending th 23 billion to provide health care to Americans. And all they're all they're all we're getting is a pinky promise that they will address that. But they won't even support a one-year extension, a three-year extension, or a permanent extension.
▶ 2:04:33Uh, but let's get to the stuff that's not Let's get to the stuff that is not a probably appropriation. But what has been stuck in this bill that would provide those senators?
▶ 2:04:48It's like a pola.
▶ 2:04:50Like what kind of bribe is that? What who gets 500,000 of violations? And that's why we're saying it's maybe $8 are going to get a million, a couple of million, $500,000, and we're not going to give money to help a father pay for his health care. Is that what's going on here?
▶ 2:05:17Ranking member, speaking of what doesn't belong in an appropriations bill, this doesn't belong in an appropriations bill. It's it's really have a review by an ethics committee that says that they can be paid off.
▶ 2:05:32we hadn't it it's just outrageous what's happened here but in terms of the process what so violates violates what appropriations has done it normally is the process where you get the four people involved that are the chairs and ranking members in the house and senate and you have a sign off on the bills first of all that did not happen this time as Well, and my Republican
▶ 2:06:02colleagues, oh no, the Senate, the Senate chair, they just went forward and posted the bills without having sign off. Then this is secretly put it in the bill at the last hour with no one, including the House chair or ranking member uh or I don't believe the ranking member on the Senate side. This was a sweetheart deal that was put in there that rips off the government and the people of this
▶ 2:06:32And and Americans think that the system is stacked against them. And when Republicans support giving payouts to senators in the millions of dollars, they can see why. But I'm going to give my Republican colleagues on this committee the opportunity to say this is not right. I will be offering an amendment to strip that entire section from the bill. We'll see what kind of courage the Republicans on this day is have.
▶ 2:07:00Now, I am the last Democrat uh to be able to ask questions. So, I wanted to just give the ranking member an opportunity to see if there was anything else she wanted to raise in response to some of the other issues that
▶ 2:07:10No, I I I thank the gentle lady very very much. It's really been really incredible. And first of all, you know, everybody here is supportive of our our veterans and so forth. and to uh if we really wanted to do something about taking care of our veterans and their health care, we would have and you would have uh uh dealt with the 51.7 billion dollars in advance funding for uh our our veterans through the toxic exposure fund
▶ 2:07:41which was done by the way in the fiscal responsibility act several years ago which we've done and and the ranking member of of Milcon VA is here and Yet there is advanced money and there is advanced money for medical care but for the toxic uh exposure fund the answer is no. Why you want to help veterans?
▶ 2:08:04This leads to me when I see that that there's no commitment on the toxic exposure fund and what what we do and what we have done what we have done in the past it really is um uh we have done advanced funding over the years and and and we we we did and uh as I mentioned earlier in my comments ranking member was Schultz Chair uh Judge Carter a full day of negotiations quite frankly it was one of the bright shining
▶ 2:08:34spots of bipartisanship we had in going through the appropriations process, but that has been left out of this bill. You care about, you really care about veterans, let's make sure they're taken care of because they get caught in the crosshairs of this madness that we are currently involved in. I would also like to just say that I am really I'm really tired and quite honestly fed up. It is a lie.
▶ 2:09:00It is misinformation that we have to reopen the government in order for there to be SNAP benefits to go to families. $6 billion dollar in a contingency fund, which we voted for. Read the bill. Understand what you did in the bill and know what you did. You passed it. And it was the president who decided he did not want to spend that money to feed people.
▶ 2:09:26He's taken it all the way to the Supreme Court to deprive people and kids. It's 16 million kids. It's 8 million seniors. It's 4 million dis people who are disabled and 1.2 million veterans. You want to care for your veterans. Care for your veterans.
▶ 2:09:44make sure that that money in that contingency fund is outflowing tonight and going and and not let them claw back telling states get the money back that you have given out what is wrong with this picture and I just say if Mr. Roy were here, I would tell him which he needs to understand. He needs to understand. He talked about a buyout.
▶ 2:10:11The buyouts were offered using money that government simply did not have. They signed contracts, buyouts with money that the Congress had not yet appropriated. That is unlawful. There is a lawlessness about this administration and particularly where it affects the appropriations committee. They have been doing it from day one.
▶ 2:10:31And I love being on the appropriations committee uh as chair as ranking member and I by God am not going to give up one single bit of power that the appropriations committee has in order to be able to carry out our mission. And that is the $1.7 trillion that we deal with every single year for the services that the American people depend on. That's what we should be doing. And the power of the purse. Talk about a clean bill. No clean bill.
▶ 2:11:00They took back $410 billion dollars from that earlier budget. And nothing is said about allowing uh them to continue to get away with this. An unelected bureaucrat, Russ Vote, who has the power to take that money away, which Tom Cole and myself and the other appropriators said we were going to we were we're going to pass because it makes a difference to our to our constituents.
▶ 2:11:24It is really unbelievable lawlessness that has been pervasive since January here and that's something that we ought to really take back for the appropriations committee but for the good of the American people and the healthc care piece is absolutely the center of what this shutdown yes has been about because that is a priority and it needs to be why the last point I will make to you is why now? Why now?
▶ 2:11:51because the enrollment period is underway from starting it started November 1st. Why now? Is because everybody's got the letter in their hand saying $2,000 a month. My my insurance is going up. I can't afford $24,000 a year. Why now? Because by December 15th, they must make the first payment so that they can have healthc care insurance on January 1st. That's what we are fighting for.
▶ 2:12:17and I'll continue to fight that battle every step of the way despite what the United States Senate did yesterday.
▶ 2:12:23Thank you very much, uh, ranking member, and thank you for allowing me to ask that last question. And it is indeed a contrast in priorities. Prioritizing ballrooms and your bathroom and whether you have marble or gilded gold or providing the food and healthare people to not distribute the money that Congress already sent over and we should have had every Republican yelling at the White House to release those funds and I did not hear
▶ 2:12:53them. I don't know. I don't know, chairman, if you went if you went to your food banks. But we did and it wasn't performative, Mr. Langworthy. It was cuz people are hungry and that money was there and Trump refused to release
▶ 2:13:09And that is a disgrace. It is immoral. It is against every principle of faith and clarity that I have ever learned. And with that,
▶ 2:13:20thank you, Miss Leisure Fernandez.
▶ 2:13:23Mr. Scott, you're recognized.
▶ 2:13:26Thank you, Madam Chair. I too intend to talk about the Senate provision that they put in last night. I found out about it sometime around 9:00. And I'll just be honest with you, Mr. Cole. I I represent a lot of people that work for the federal government, Robins Air Force Base, Moody Air Force Base, USDA. I could go down the list. And I was very excited about coming back to Washington DC to vote to open the government back up.
▶ 2:13:53And then when I saw what the Senate did last night, I'll be on I had a hard night and I've been struggling with what the right vote is because of what the Senate did. And um I want just tell you because I want the American citizens to be able to read You can start at page 217 of the legislation where it says requiring Senate notification for disclosure of Senate data.
▶ 2:14:20And there's a lot of with respect to and other things in the first pages, but when you get over to page 223, you'll see where they've created a private cause of action uh for them. And it goes on and it says that uh cause of action and this is on page 224.
▶ 2:14:45Any senator whose Senate data or the Senate data of whose Senate office has been acquired, subpoenaed, searched, accessed or disclosed in violation of the section may bring a civil action against the United States if the violation was committed by an officer, employer, agent of the United States or of any federal department of agent or agency relief. Senator prevails on a claimment under the subjection.
▶ 2:15:10Court shall, not may, shall award for each instance of a violation of this section the greater of, not the lesser of the greater of statutory damages of $500,000 or the amount of actual damages, reasonable attorney fees, cost of litigation, and uh it goes on from there.
▶ 2:15:32Now, there's other language in here, uh, waiver of sovereign immunity, uh, no qualified immunity, and there's other language in here, too, that indicates that each line would be an additional payment.
▶ 2:15:49And so most of us as members have a campaign phone, a campaign email, a personal phone, a personal email, and then a business phone and a business That's six violations the way they count if they if they went for all of them. Six. Minimum of $500,000 a piece.
▶ 2:16:16Now, um I don't think and and I and I've been asking questions on this since last night, and I'm going to tell you, I don't think that Senate leadership shared with the leadership of the House um what they were doing. Now, I I want the Democrats to know this. My understanding is that Chuck Schumer was very much aware and signed off on this particular language as well. So So, just y'all might want to ask questions about that.
▶ 2:16:45I'm being I'm just telling the truth on this is as soon as I found out about it, I started asking questions, but the they're saying, well, the executive branch shouldn't be checking up on the legislative branch. Well, there's some truth to that. There's a lot of truth to to it. I believe in the separation of powers. Um, and they talk about it be being good governance.
▶ 2:17:08The thing that I can't get past though, and this is again, I mean, for the American citizens, if you go to page 227 of the bill, limited retroactivity, retro, limited retroactive In general, the amendments made by this section shall apply to any acquisition, subpoena, search, accessing, disclosure of Senate data as defined in section 10A of the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act of 2005
▶ 2:17:39and to any failure to disclose such an acquisition, subpoena search, accessing or disclosure occurring on or after January 1 of 2022. So, it's given them the ability to retroactively go back. We know you literally know who at least we we may not know all of them but we at least know the list of some of them.
▶ 2:18:04Uh in this paragraph the term violation section 10 is meaning given to the violation section. It goes on from there but there's there's also language in there where it indicates that each each account is a separate payment. this language did not go through any committee markup. This language was not shared with the House Representatives prior to it being put in the bill.
▶ 2:18:34Um, and I I personally agree that it should be removed. The problem is if we remove it, the Senate, it has to go back to the Senate and then you're right back to where you were 40 days ago where all of a sudden you're trying to get a piece of legislation out of the Senate. And so, I mean, I've struggled. I want you to know that, Mr. Cole.
▶ 2:18:57I I want the American This should not be in this piece of and and they can say it's about good governance all they want to. When they made it retroactive, then all of a sudden it was no longer about good governance. There's actually a list of people that know they will get as soon as this thing is signed. At least they've got the coupon where all they have to do is go file at the courthouse and get paid.
▶ 2:19:26And I haven't decided exactly what I'm going to do. gut is because of the way this place is so dysfunctional now that the right thing to do is to get the government cut on as soon as possible and make sure that the American citizens are are watching what those senators do and hold them to account for what they did. And at the same time, the House put legislation out that actually reverses what the Senate has done.
▶ 2:19:55They should vote on this in the light of day. If they think this is the right thing to do, then they should have a committee meeting and a straight up or down vote on it. Don't don't don't hold my people who work in my district at Robins Air Force Base paycheck any longer than it's already been held. And so I'm I want you to know, Mr. Cole, you're our chair. I I I respect you tremendously.
▶ 2:20:21As much as I respect anybody in this house and as much I mean I can take everybody ever met, I have tremendous respect for you. You are a man of integrity and honesty and and when you tell me you didn't know, I I trust you. And when Mike Johnson when when when when I'm asking questions about it at 9:00 last night, I don't I don't think I don't think our side know. I do think both I think the Dems and the Republicans in the Senate knew though. I do. I want you to know that.
▶ 2:20:48And uh but but this is I mean the American citizens just need to read it and they can figure out for themselves. It's not that hard. It's it's big. It's big letters. It starts on It ends on 228. It it won't take you 10 minutes to read it. And and you really can pretty much start where uh where the private cause of action is discussed. But uh that would never pass.
▶ 2:21:18That was a standalone piece of legislation and it is clearly authorizing an appropriations act.
▶ 2:21:25Gentleman yield.
▶ 2:21:26I'll be happy to yield.
▶ 2:21:28I I just want to I just want to add that um I share the concerns of the gentleman from Georgia. Um I do not think that this provision should have been inserted. It certainly shouldn't have been inserted at the 11th hour without deliberation and back and forth. I do believe that the gentleman was correct. There were Democrats and Republicans involved with it. Um, but I look, I think there's going to be a lot of people, if they look and understand this, are going to see it as as self-s serving, um, self-deing kind of stuff. And I don't think that's right.
▶ 2:21:54And I understand I think some of the motivations were to try to target a a DOJ that that u u I think was fairly obviously abusing its authority and targeting United States senators, separation of powers concerns, all the things. We can debate all that. Uh, but, you know, we think it was pretty egregious.
▶ 2:22:11So I have no problem with the prospect of going after and trying to empower even through private right of action a way to go because we do it in other contexts um consent decrees and other things but but the but the you know uh potential to have dollars going to United States senators when we've got American citizens whether it was J6ers whether it was people from the face act whether it was others that have also had the full force of the federal government to the Department
▶ 2:22:41of Justice targeting and coming down on them and they're going to see, oh, but you can slide in a provision in here for United States senators. Like I I just it is beside my comprehension that this got put in the bill and is why people have such a low opinion of this town.
▶ 2:22:57Uh I don't I am torn also the gentleman from Georgia because we need to fund the government and we need to get this passed and I'm trying to figure out what we can do to force the Senate's hand to say you're going to repeal this provision and fix it uh without amending it here to then delay the funding of government which we want to proceed to go move forward with. Uh but that provision needs to get fixed and we need to find a way as a body to get it fixed um as soon as possible. And I'm continuing my explore the options tonight.
▶ 2:23:26I yield back to D from Georgia.
▶ 2:23:28Mr. W. I just want to I just want to point out it's $500,000
▶ 2:23:33and the way it's written it is it is a minimum of $500,000. It is per line. It is um Miss Ledger Hernandez, I'll give you 60 seconds, but I think it's time I think it's time to move on. I just don't
▶ 2:23:50I truly appreciate your very careful consideration and review for the American people of this. As you know, I do have an amendment to strike the whole thing. And I think it would send a great message if you would actually say, I'm going to vote for this amendment.
▶ 2:24:04And this is why I didn't want to get into this debate. The problem is
▶ 2:24:08if we if we could if we could take it out and send it to the Senate and know that the gamesmanship wasn't going to be played over there and and the government would get cut back on, I'd be glad to. But the bottom line is if we if we amend this bill with anything at all, it with anything at all, we risk extending the shutdown, air traffic controllers not being paid, law enforcement not being paid, our staffs here not being paid.
▶ 2:24:34And and that's a risk that I'm just I don't trust I don't tr and I'm not saying I don't trust the just the Democrats. I don't trust the system to work where we could fix it with what probably a super majority of this committee thinks should be done and not delay the government coming back on the other I would only point out I would only point out that it's not
▶ 2:24:56if you if you would
▶ 2:25:00I just wanted to finish
▶ 2:25:02will you give me 15 seconds?
▶ 2:25:04Yes. So the vi it says each violation and so the violation isn't just each telephone, it's each time it's requested. So it could multiply much higher than that because it's by
▶ 2:25:19as well. That is my rate as well.
▶ 2:25:21Yeah, we agree on that.
▶ 2:25:22Madam Chair,
▶ 2:25:24Madam Chair,
▶ 2:25:26I just want to stay for the record. It's it's another reason why the House and the Senate should be in session during a shutdown. Maybe this could have been
▶ 2:25:36Thank you, Mr. McGovern. Thank you, Mr. Scott. Mr. Griffith, you're recognized.
▶ 2:25:43Thank you, Madam Chair. I too am very concerned about those sections. I will tell you, I've already made the decision that I will vote for this bill and not vote for any amendments because shutdown needs to end. It's been going on too long. Too many of my people are hurting and uh we got to get it we got to get it done. There's some other issues in here, not as egregious, but at least it was done in the light of day with a vote.
▶ 2:26:07But the hemp issues that was a fight between gentlemen in the Senate from Kentucky, both of them fighting each other. Uh I don't agree with the solution they came up with. U but I'm voting for it because I've got too many people that need the government to open and therefore notwithstanding, I'm we're going to hear some great amendments.
▶ 2:26:31uh I'm sure uh but I'm not voting for any of them because we need to get this thing done and then we can start negotiating on other things. Now, Mr. Cole, Mr. Chairman, you've said this a couple times. I want to underline it because it's exciting for me to hear it coming from the appropriations chair because one of the things as a now a longtime member of the Energy and Commerce Committee that drives us crazy is that people want to airdrop. This didn't just happen. This happens when we're here in session.
▶ 2:27:00And it didn't happen because people weren't here. It happens all the time between the House and the Senate on bills that come out of appropriations. And I'm not, you haven't done it the best of my knowledge, but they create programs that never authorized by the authorizing committees. And you're absolutely right. When it comes to the premium enhanced tax credits or the enhanced premium tax credits, that's the jurisdiction of energy and commerce, ways and means, and eden workforce. there they overlap.
▶ 2:27:30Different pieces of it belong to each of those. And of course, the the the bill that they keep talking about, uh, you know, that that they claim took all this money away, that came out of the budget committee. That didn't come out of appropriations either, the reconciliation bill. And I just appreciate that that you're recognizing that's that's not the proper jurisdiction.
▶ 2:27:52And before we had the shutdown, I wrote a whole column on how uh we could reach some kind of we we could reach some kind of an agreement on a glide path. But I also pointed out in several and I've had several columns where I've talked about this. I do a weekly column that we have 20% on the in on the enhanced premium tax credits. We have what is pretty darn clear 20% shadow enroles.
▶ 2:28:20Now, if if you will bear with me, Mr. Chairman, tell me if you disagree with this. What we see is normally in an insurance plan, you have 15% of the enroles don't use their insurance in a given year. That's been for decades, and some years it may go up 0.2 or down 0.2, but it ran right around that 15%. With the enhanced premium tax credits, we see 35% not using it.
▶ 2:28:47And here's what I believe is happening, and I think most experts agree with this. You tell me if you have any disagreement. Jump in, Mr. Chairman, and tell me if you disagree. What's what happened because it was an emergency piece of legislation during COVID because they wanted to help people that were having a hard time, they didn't put in all the checks and balances. So, you don't have to reenroll. It's an automatic reenrollment because it was only going to be a five-year program.
▶ 2:29:13And what could happen and the theory I I use and the example, the hypothetical I always use is if you live in North Florida and you happen to go to uh a grocery store or a mall and you get enrolled and then 6 months, 8 months, nine months later you move to South Georgia and you go to the mall or the grocery store and you get enrolled, most citizens of the United States would think, well, I'm enrolled now in Georgia, so they've canled my program in Florida. That's not happening with the enhanced premium tax credits.
▶ 2:29:43And my frustration with this argument for the last 40 days has been open up the government and we can figure this out because as as a as the health subcommittee chair on energy and commerce, I don't want us to continue to waste 20% of our money that we're spending. It's billions of dollars. I don't want to continue to waste 20% of that money that doesn't go to help a enro. It goes to the insurance companies and they're make they're getting the money.
▶ 2:30:14They don't know whether the people really exist or not either because there's no way to check and it keeps rolling on. If we do a three-year extension without some way to check, or a one-year extension, which our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have recommended to us, either a one-year or three-year extension, we're going to continue that 20% waste. We're going to waste the taxpayer dollars. That doesn't mean I don't want to help people who are trying to struggle.
▶ 2:30:39And for even for some of those, Kaiser Family Foundation estimates that 10% of the people are receiving these benefits are over the 400% poverty level, which means they're making $106,000 a year. And maybe in some of the rich districts in the country, that doesn't seem like much money. In my district, where they're where the average household income is just over 50,000, we haven't quite reached 51 yet.
▶ 2:31:05That means they're making pretty good money and yet we're not even looking at at doing that. Now, I'm not saying we take that away 100% the first year. We got to take a look at that. That's what needs to be negotiated. But that was never part of your bill. That was in my jurisdiction. Isn't that correct?
▶ 2:31:19That is correct. And uh to the gentleman's point, just go back a totally separate bill, but you'll remember toward the end of last year, uh we were working hard, a lot of our fellow Americans were hurting from hurricanes. We're doing a disaster relief bill. Uh the appropriations committee did a little over a hundred pages and spent about a hundred billion dollars.
▶ 2:31:49was I think 110 cuz we added 10 billion for a uh that bill was 1,500 pages long when it hit the floor. None of us were consulted on the appropriations committee about this and honestly it had some stuff I probably would be for like PBM reform and it just didn't belong with us. Uh and matter of fact we caught a lot of grief on the floor from both sides of ENC because what were we doing? We didn't.
▶ 2:32:18It just it blew up because people look at a bill that big and they go, "What in the hell is in 1500 pages?" And again, my committee didn't have any. Now, in the end, what we passed was what the appropriations committee did, which was a little over 100 pages, but all the rest of that stuff was loaded on us. This is, you know, so it's not like they even come and ask us. So, I've had some pretty stern discussions with our leadership about this, but it's true on both sides. And it's true with other committees.
▶ 2:32:49I mean, other committees use us as the MU. I don't recall anybody carrying an appropriations bill to help us out on ENC or Ways and Means or any place else.
▶ 2:33:01Don't give us any ideas, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 2:33:02Yeah. So, I again I Yeah, believe me. So, I agree with uh gentleman's point. Uh it just I I would prefer these things go to the committees that have the expertise and they move the vehicles, not us. Not because it's a must pass. We got a fun deal. If it's a good bill, it's and if it's bipartisan like PBM uh reform, I guess was from everything I heard. Then why couldn't it trot out there on its own?
▶ 2:33:31why did it have to be part of ours and confuse everybody about what we had in the bill that we had no hearings, no jurisdiction on anything. So that that's an institutional problem and and I would say uh I see it on both sides of the aisle.
▶ 2:33:47It's just it's something that we're trying to stay away from and
▶ 2:33:50well it's and I appreciate you're working on that because as you know and it's part of why my my colleague Mr. Scott is frustrated with the way this place works because we have rules and then we don't follow those rules. And if we follow the rules, I don't think we'd be in this spot because my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are correct. We've dumped all kinds of things before in appropriations bills. But that doesn't mean it was right.
▶ 2:34:14And in this case, you gave us a bill that dealt with appropriations, kept us open for seven or eight weeks. And I submit to you, Mr. chairman, I think at least on the part that was I don't know about the part with ways and means and eding workforce, but the part that was in energy and commerce, I think we could have hammered something out, but the number one concern that I have about just doing this blanket and claiming, oh, we're saving healthcare is the 20% that's going to the insurance companies.
▶ 2:34:42It's not a question of, you know, which side of the aisle you're on. We're giving 20% of the money that we're spending on the the enhanced premium tax credits directly to the bottom line of insurance companies because they don't know whether it's Joe Smith or Jane Doe or somebody else, but they know pretty much based on statistics over decades that there are 20% shadow enroles. And if we don't fix that waste, we are not doing a service for the American people. We are not keeping track of the dollars.
▶ 2:35:13And it it it's a shame that it got wrapped up into this. It was a it was fake from the beginning in my opinion. We could have worked on it. We could have passed the the CR and and while some people say it wasn't clean and technically it had some some other stuff in it, but none of it was stuff the Democrats oppose, tele medicine, federal qualified health centers, I mean there was some good stuff in there that belonged in an appropriation style bill. And it's all in here, is it not, Mr. Chairman? All of that stuff we had in the original CR is still in here
▶ 2:35:43pretty much. Yeah.
▶ 2:35:44Yeah. I mean, as far as those programs are concerned and yet because some folks wanted to make it all about health insurance, which was not what this bill was about, was it?
▶ 2:35:56No, sir. and didn't actually want to deal with resolving the issue in a in a responsible legislative manner, working through the proper We've been shut down for 40 days and that then ties my hands tonight. I can't vote for amendments that I might otherwise think are appropriate.
▶ 2:36:18And I can't vote for amendments that I think are are not only appropriate, but are justified, not just marginally, but by twothirds. I cannot vote for them because I want to get this shutdown over. There are too many things being impacted in my district and I'm sure in other districts, too.
▶ 2:36:40I can only speak to my district, but having uh one of the most economically challenged districts in the country, I heard somebody say something about suffering. I just going to tell you, I looked it up and that individual said we had to have a little suffering. They're like 29th. I'm 49th out of 435 on household income. I got enough suffering without the federal government adding to it. So, I will be voting no on all the amendments and yes to get this thing across the finish line.
▶ 2:37:10But the gentleman yield one second. I will yield to one second which is this. You you made a a stat I want to make sure everybody understands. You talked about 15% a number that you said was an historic number.
▶ 2:37:20It's it's it's over the decades roughly
▶ 2:37:23as it relates to enroles who don't file a claim. Right about 15%. That is for private plans, but that was also the number give or take a percentage point for Obamacare plans prior to the co subsidies when they then bumped from 15 to now 35 to 40%. Is that correct?
▶ 2:37:39That that that is my understanding. And and and the other thing that drives me crazy I would say to the gentleman is is that everybody talks about these subsidies and a lot of my folks are afraid that they're basic Obamacare ACA subsidies going away. That was never threatened. That was never in question. The only thing that's in question is the emergency program that was put in for a 5-year period. That is the enhanced premium tax credit, not your basic ACA subsidies. The enhanced premium tax credit. With that, Madam Chair, I go
▶ 2:38:11Thank you, Mr. Thank you.
▶ 2:38:13Thank you, Mr. Jack. You're recognized.
▶ 2:38:16Thank you, Chairwoman. And as the last thing between uh this panel and the amendment panel, I recognize that uh I will be brief, but I will say just from the outset, um first I want to commend um my colleagues comments and I want to commend the chairman's testimony. Um I also want to note I'm proud that Congressman Langworthy noted that it is Veterans Day and I want to note from the outset we have 79 veterans serving in the House, Republicans and Democrats, some of whom are in the room.
▶ 2:38:42We thank you for your service and we thank the millions of Americans who served in our uniform for your service on this important day. Uh chairman, in closing, if you could just tie everything together from this hearing, the vote tomorrow. Um the vote tomorrow, it's a binary choice to open the government or to prolong the shutdown. And we've talked a lot about um what this bill actually does and we've heard the other side comment on what it what they think it does.
▶ 2:39:08I want to give you a chance to close out and let it remind everybody what this bill principally does
▶ 2:39:13Well, thank you very much for the question and I appreciate the attitude and honestly uh I won't say um uh tonight's hearing made me miss the rules committee, but it does remind me how grateful I am to all of you on both sides of the aisle for uh what you do here. And I mean that's true. Uh look, I think uh it is a pretty simple choice uh tomorrow. Uh there are parts of every bill that uh I don't like.
▶ 2:39:43If I got to write everything, then I'd love everything in it. And if I didn't have to get things through the Senate, I'd probably But basically, this about reopening the government. Uh you know, we got three bills that we broadly agree on. We don't agree on every single thing in them. There's certainly some things, but they were negotiated out mostly by the subcommittee chairs and ranking members. There were relatively few issues that went up to us. Uh they're all either flat spending or slightly reduced. Those are three good bills.
▶ 2:40:14And in those three areas, they'll protect us from disruption of service for SNAP and wick. Uh they, you know, they'll take care of our military construction. They'll make sure that the Capitol Hill police and our staffs and people get paid through September 30th. So, that's actually a good start on the appropriations process. The CR buys us back the time and then a little bit more that I I would argue we've wasted in the last several weeks. Uh gives us to January 30th.
▶ 2:40:44We'll try and negotiate another package of bills, maybe two or three more. I mean, that's something the four corners have to get together and decide, but we're ready to negotiate on all 12 bills. Three across the floor, all of them out of committee. We literally once they're out of committee, we can negotiate. We know we didn't write the final version uh in the deal. And if you look at our bills, they're a lot different than sometimes characterized in the press.
▶ 2:41:12We're not as far apart from the Democrats or from the Senate as as you might think. So, we'll try and get those things done. We got some really important bills there. Defense and labor age probably the two most important to get done. But this will give us the time to do that. Um I would say we've gone through this process is my opinion. Others would have a different because we're trying to deal with things or things have been dumped into the appropriations process that have nothing to do with it. I mean, we do not decide Medicaid.
▶ 2:41:43That is not our business or our wheelhouse. We do not decide the subsidy issues like everybody here. If you're on the relevant committee, then you're hands on and the rest of us have a vote when you produce a product and we go to floor. So, I'm going to have a vote on those things. They're dealt with. They don't, but you shouldn't be holding up. Neither side should. Both sides have done this over the years. So, I don't, you know, it's not like anybody's got clean hands here, but we've seen this enough.
▶ 2:42:13It doesn't work. You don't hold up the funding for the government to achieve an unrelated objective. We tried to do it with the repeal of Obamacare. It crashed and burned. Now, we were smart enough to get out of it in 16 days. I didn't think anybody would ever be dumb enough to go beyond 16 days. We're at 42 now. And then, uh, we tried to do it. Really, the administration tried to do it. uh over building the wall in 2018 and 19. Democrats tried to do it over DACA.
▶ 2:42:43Didn't work. They're trying to do it now. Not going to work here either. Sooner. This is just a bad strategy. Shutting down the government to achieve an unrelated objective is not likely to be successful. Has not been successful. If we pass this tomorrow and it comes out of committee tonight, obviously you guys have the first decision. I think that hopefully puts another nail in the coffin, you know, and we don't do this anymore. Let's just make the government run.
▶ 2:43:13The people that I care, they may care very much about what my friends care about on the insurance, which some of them undoubtedly do. Most of them just want to go, if I go to work, can I get paid? If I'm doing important work for the government, you know, keeping airplanes flying or you know, helping our guys train for drones or whatever, I just want to get paid or I've got a uniform on and I I'm willing to go to really bad places for my country. I'd like to know my family at home's going to get a paycheck. That's really bad.
▶ 2:43:43This is the dayto-day functioning of the government. And that's the choice before us. And uh again, you can be for these other things. I still think Obamacare was a mistake. If it never happened, I don't think we'd be in this mess on this insurance issue, but it did happen. It passed. It passed both houses. The president of the United States signed it. We tried to repeal it. We repealed it multiple times in the House. Never could get Senate. Never could get a president when we had the Senate to get it done.
▶ 2:44:12We came close, you know, got to one vote uh in President Trump's first term, but we didn't get it done. But the point is shutting down the government is just a bad thing. So, I think we have a chance here to restore some regular order, get three good bills through, not perfect, but good.
▶ 2:44:28Buy some time to get the rest, and then hopefully these other matters, which again, the president has said he's willing to negotiate once the government's reopened, the majority leader and the speaker said, but I it's not going to look exactly like it does now if it's a real negotiation. You have to remember this subsidy wasn't negotiated in a bipartisan sense. Uh it didn't have a single Republican vote, you know, and again my my friends had the power to do that. They did it.
▶ 2:44:57Okay, fair enough. I'm not saying it was enacted by the rule or in some way contrary to the rule, but again tomorrow's question to me and I agree with a lot of the comments on various things here by both sides is simply I want to make sure that the people that go to work for the federal government get paid. I want to make sure that the government is open and functioning.
▶ 2:45:20I want to know when an American buys an airline ticket that that airline plane is likely to leave on time and travel safely and get there. I want people that are inspecting meat, not the most glamorous job in the world so that my family can have a good Thanksgiving are doing that job and getting paid to do it. This is just about operating the government and then giving us a chance to do it for the other nine areas that we have to do. So again, I I appreciate the work you guys do here.
▶ 2:45:50Uh but to me, this is a binary choice and it'll have some things in the bills that I don't like or I didn't agree with or in one case didn't know anything about until it was posted. Uh so uh is what it is, but uh uh you know, where I'm from, my my folks want to go to work, want to do their job, and then want us to work out these other things in the appropriate way to the appropriate committees.
▶ 2:46:15They don't want government held hostage, you know, and uh you know, they they'll get mad at me over something, but it won't be because I voted to shut the government down. I've never done that. I've never been in favor of it. I argued we were making a mistake when we've done it. I think my friends on the other side and certainly in the other chamber have made a mistake uh when they've tried to do it. And again, I just think want to get the government up and running.
▶ 2:46:42Well said. I appreciate that. Chairman, Madame Chairwoman, I yield back. Thank
▶ 2:46:47Thank you, Mr. Jack.
▶ 2:46:49I'm sorry, Mr. Laura.
▶ 2:46:51I thought you might be sorry.
▶ 2:46:52Thank you. this um this ends um the um first panel. I thank the chairman and the ranking member of the appropriations committee for being here for almost three hours. And I appreciate your kind words, Mr.
▶ 2:47:17And uh we um Well, you are excused.
▶ 2:47:21Thank you very Thank you. Leader Jeff and Democratic Whip Clark, you're invited to the witness table.
▶ 2:48:18Leader Jeff, you're recognized for five
▶ 2:48:22Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, and thank you to our ranking member Jim McGovern for the opportunity to testify before uh the rules committee uh on behalf of an amendment that Whip Katherine Clark and I are introducing uh that would extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years. Millions of working-class Americans all across this country are struggling from the high cost of living that exists in the United States of America.
▶ 2:48:51This country is too expensive. Now, Donald Trump and Republicans promised all throughout 2024. That costs were going to go down on day But costs aren't going down for the American people under Republican complete control of government. Costs are going up, housing costs up, grocery costs up, electricity bills through the roof.
▶ 2:49:22And now, because of the Republican to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of Americans are about to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. In some cases, everyday Americans, workingclass Americans, middle class Americans are going to see their premiums go up by a,000 or $2,000 per month.
▶ 2:49:53We have an affordability crisis here in the United States of America, and Republicans continue to bury their heads in the sand. During the longest shutdown in American history, the Trump Republican shutdown. What we've seen repeatedly from our Republican colleagues who here in the House were on a taxpayer funded vacation for more than seven weeks.
▶ 2:50:19Welcome back, is that Donald Trump has done every thing but try to actually make life better for the American people. He somehow has found $40 billion to bail out his right-wing wannabe dictator buddy in Argentina, putting Argentina first, but not the American people first.
▶ 2:50:48And so Whip Clark and myself on behalf of the House Democratic Caucus believe that this amendment to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of hardworking American taxpayers is actually designed to put the American people first.
▶ 2:51:05And we're hopeful that our Republican colleagues will join us and abandon the reckless policies that you all have pursued in creating this Republican healthcare crisis, including but not limited to what Republicans did in your one big ugly bill. largest cut to Medicaid in American history, ripping health insurance away from at least 14 million people.
▶ 2:51:32Hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health clinics all across the country, including in rural America are closing because of Republican policies. And now because of the refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of people are going to suffer, will be unable to see a doctor when they need one in every single community in this country.
▶ 2:51:58And so we respectfully urge all of our to support this amendment to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits and support the American people. Thank you, Madam Chair.
▶ 2:52:16Thank you, Mr. Jeff. Miss Clark, you're recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, ranking member McGovern, members of the committee. Thank you for having us. I am proud to co-sponsor Leader Jeff amendment and to be here in support of this urgent lifeline for the American people. To my Republican colleagues, welcome back.
▶ 2:52:40I I know what you've been doing the last 54 days, but I hope you've spent some of that time talking to your neighbors, hearing from your constituents, and I hope you've heard the same stories that they have been conveying to us. I hope you realize just how anxious they are, how desperate they are as they scramble to figure out how they are going to afford health care under this Republican budget.
▶ 2:53:11And I hope you got a chance to hear from the people who traveled to the United States capital trying to secure meetings with their Republican members of Congress. Americans like the farmer I met, an from Minnesota. She's a soybean farmer already suffering from the market disaster caused by Republican tariffs. Then she found out her local hospital was closing because of the Medicaid cuts in your budget.
▶ 2:53:42And now you're going after her ACA coverage. And by the way, one in four out of our farmers get their health care coverage through the ACA. You have sent her premium skyrocketing. And I have heard this same story from small business owners, from gig workers, from parents, from people who live in your states. So what are we doing here today?
▶ 2:54:10You've already voted to dismantle Medicaid, the largest health care program in America, a program that covers 40% of all births in this country, 40% of children in this country, 40% of disabled people in this country. But you couldn't leave it there. Now you're going after the millions of families who get their coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
▶ 2:54:35And let's be clear about what that actually means specifically to your own Let's take a couple making $88,000 a year. In each of your districts, that couple currently play pays for silver plan $623 a month. It is by no means cheap.
▶ 2:55:00But here's what that couple will pay in 2026 if you vote yes on this budget. In Pendleton, New York, this couple will go from paying $623 to $1,160 per month. In Tiffan, Georgia, they will pay $2,134 a month.
▶ 2:55:27In Greensboro, North Carolina, they will pay $2300. In Rock Hills, South Carolina, they will pay $2600. And in Frederick'sburg, Texas, this middle class couple will pay $3,000 every single month to get themselves some halfway decent health insurance.
▶ 2:55:50This budget will raise costs on people who voted for Donald Trump, people who believed him, who believed their Republican members of Congress when they promised to lower their cost of living. And instead, they're being asked to spend up to $3,000 a month for ACA coverage. That's $36,000 a year before their deductible, before their co-pays.
▶ 2:56:18What a betrayal of a straightforward promise. But this is not a given. This does not have to happen to the American people. This is a choice. Democrats have been presenting offramps all year. We've been giving you a chance to reverse course day after day.
▶ 2:56:41Well, here's another here's another chance to do right by the people you represent who believe in you and voted for you. I urge you for the sake of the American people to make Leader Jeffy's amendment extending the ACA tax credit for three years in order and bring it to the House floor for a vote. Thank you.
▶ 2:57:06Thank you. I'm going to defer my until the end when I see how many things need to be corrected that are being said. U Mr. McGovern
▶ 2:57:25Well, I need to correct the record for some things that have been said, Madam Chair, with all due respect. Uh first of all uh with regard to the claims that my Republican friends can't vote for any amendments because somehow that will mean that the government shutdown will be prolonged. The Senate basically took a day and a half for them to do what they did.
▶ 2:57:46Um if we were to pass any uh make any amendments in order in the rules committee like getting rid of that slush fund for certain senators, uh the the Senate Majority Leader Thun could call them back tonight. say, "Be ready to vote tomorrow night." They could and they could take care of that right away. So, that's number one. Number two, um my friends keep on talking about a Democratic shutdown. Let me let me I want in case anyone's watching here, I want to make this very very clear. Uh and I want to make it clear to my Republican friends, you control everything.
▶ 2:58:15You control the White House, you control the House, you control the Senate. Um and um you know, and uh so Democrats did not shut the government down. Republicans did by refusing to negotiate. And the third thing I want to correct for the record uh is I I I gotta be honest. I am shocked by the indifference um that my Republican friends are showing towards the impact of not extending the ACA tax credits. It is stunning to me.
▶ 2:58:42I don't know whether you don't talk to your constituents, but if you do, people are getting bills where their premiums are skyrocketing. I mean, it's astronomical. Um and you knew about this well before the shutdown. You chose to do nothing. You chose to do nothing. You knew about it during the shutdown. You choose chose to do nothing. Not even to want to sit down and negotiate. And now you know about it. I'm going to tell you right now, you refuse to act. You own this. You own this. Uh and it's a cruel thing to do to the American people.
▶ 2:59:10Leader Jeff, I want to get to the substance of your amendment, which I think is so important. But first, I want to ask you about some something one of our Republican colleagues said in this hearing room just before you came in here. Earlier, I asked Chairman Cole a simple question.
▶ 2:59:24I said, "Do you think the House should have been here these last eight weeks trying to pass appropriation bills?" Because, as you know, as appropriations chair, he still has not passed nine out of 12 bills that need to pass by the end of the fiscal year, which was in September, by the way, to keep the government funding. So, I pointed that out and I gave and he gave this long meandering non-answer. Uh, and he said something that stood out to me as odd and it kind of shocked me to be honest.
▶ 2:59:55And I went back and I looked at the transcript and he said it was okay that we weren't here because quote there wasn't anything for us to do until the Senate acted. End quote. And I got to tell you, I'm shocked by that that Republicans would say there wasn't anything for us to do.
▶ 3:00:13Uh, and can you talk about what the House should have been doing for the last 8 weeks on on healthcare, on grocery prices, on rent, on what looks like that a war that might occur in the in the Caribbean, on the many things that people are looking for us to take action on. What would Democrats have done if we were in charge
▶ 3:00:37Well, I thank the distinguished gentleman from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Uh, and it's an incredible question. It was a stunning answer given all of the problems that the American people are confronting right now throughout the country. Beginning with the affordability crisis, the cost of living in America is far too The American people throughout the country just made that clear last Tuesday across the country that they want to see action.
▶ 3:01:08Yet for seven plus weeks, House Republicans saw fit to be on a taxpayerf funed vacation, missing in action, part of the witness protection program, doing nothing to make life better for the American people. That's And you got to wonder whether this was an order that was given by Donald Trump, who apparently has said that he's got two jobs. He's both the president and the speaker of the house.
▶ 3:01:38His words, not mine. Donald Trump apparently doesn't believe that there's an affordability crisis. Said it himself. There is no affordability crisis in the United States of America. That's what Donald Trump, top Republican in this country, says.
▶ 3:01:55So, I guess it's no small that the Republican chairman of the Appropriations Committee would say that there's nothing to do because Republicans apparently don't think that there are problems in this country that should be dealt with such that the House of Representatives should be in session. But as Democrats, our view is that we've got to lower the high cost of living.
▶ 3:02:19We've got to make life more affordable for everyday Americans who are suffering under crushing Republican policies. Costs haven't gone down. That was the day one promise. Costs have gone up. Inflation going in the wrong direction. Far too many people across this country working hard, playing by the rules, but cannot get ahead. Are barely getting by.
▶ 3:02:48can't thrive and can barely survive. This is in America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world. And Republicans have been out since 19th. That's extraordinary. So, there's a lot of work that needs to be done. Apparently, House Democrats are the only ones committed on a day-to-day, week to week, month-to-month basis to do the people's business.
▶ 3:03:15And our commitment remains to lower the high cost of living, to fix our broken health care system. Starting by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits to prevent tens of millions of people from experiencing unaffordable health care premiums skyrocketing through the roof that will either lead to medical or prevent them from being able to go see a doctor when they need one.
▶ 3:03:46Well, if I could go back to the issue of of healthcare, just for the record, I mean, has uh Speaker Johnson um promised a vote to extend the ACA tax credits to either of you? It's extraordinary that he hasn't uh indicated that there will be a vote one way or the other to address the Republican healthc care crisis.
▶ 3:04:08Now, our colleague from the great state of Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Green, found it laughable that there's a Republican healthcare plan. She said she couldn't find it. She can't find it cuz it doesn't exist. Now, we know what the plan has been in the past in terms of the Affordable Care Act. Republicans have tried to repeal it more than 70 times over the last 15 years.
▶ 3:04:40And so we are just trying to get our Republican colleagues to take yes for an answer. We've said repeatedly, let's find a bipartisan path forward. Let's reopen the government. Let's make life better for the American people, but let's address the health care crisis that our Republican colleagues have created. And we can start by extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.
▶ 3:05:04Has he talked to any of you about a pathway forward? I mean, has he engaged uh either of you and our leadership about how we might resolve this healthcare crisis?
▶ 3:05:15Absolutely not. And it is it is astounding when we have 60% of American families telling us they have hard time affording the basics for their families. This is about lowering people's costs, whether that's housing, groceries, utility bills, and affording health care. Health care.
▶ 3:05:37This should be something that Republicans should have come and negotiated with us, but they wouldn't do that. They showed so little regard for the American people. Not only did they make this extreme bargain where they took away their health care, Medicare, Medicaid, the ACA tax subsidies, medical research, all to pay for permanent tax cuts for the very wealthiest Americans.
▶ 3:06:07They couldn't even while they were home not doing their jobs swear in a dulyeleed member of Congress because they would rather not do that than actually have to talk about the fact that they are shielding those in the Epstein files. The outrages and the disdain and arrogance that they look at the American people with is truly hard to take in.
▶ 3:06:36I mean, I took I took the train down here today. Uh, and I got an earful from a lot of people on the train. Um, and they're quite frankly puzzled at like the priorities of of Washington right now. They don't understand, you know, why billionaires and millionaires get tax cuts and the ACA tax credits can't be extended so that working families can afford their healthcare.
▶ 3:06:58Uh they don't understand Donald Trump's obsession with redoing his bathroom in marble and gold and you know building a Marian Twinet you know ballroom um and demolishing the East Wing while they're struggling to afford groceries. I mean bottom line is the president even won't even acknowledge that food prices are going up. When's the last time he's ever been in a grocery store? He has no clue what he's talking about. You got to talk to real people. Um but there is a disconnect and people are furious.
▶ 3:07:26And by the way, this is not about Democrat versus Republican or left versus right. This is now about top versus bottom. I mean, and people increasingly feel like they do not have a voice down here. That the the leadership in this Congress and this White House, um, all they care about are people who are well off and wellconed, who can write out big checks and who can help enrich, you know, the president, his family, and those around him. And, you know, that is that's corruption. That is corruption.
▶ 3:07:53You know, I I I I used to say during his first term that that Donald Trump um is the most corrupt US president in recent history. This time around, I want to amend that statement to take out the word recent. This is this is unconscionable what's going on. And we ought to be able to come together and make sure people don't get screwed over on their healthcare. I thank you and I yield back.
▶ 3:08:16Thank you, Mr. McGovern. Mr. Roy, you're Notice the ranking member says that quote we own this. You do
▶ 3:08:28if we don't go down the road that is being suggested here before us. when in fact the current situation with respect to healthcare exists entirely by record of vote and record of policies as a result of my Democrat colleagues putting forward the policies that the American people are having to live under They broke the system and
▶ 3:08:58then they come saying that we own it if we don't throw more subsidies, pour more diesel on the to the fire that they started. That's what's happening right now. That's what for the American people to understand. Insurance companies
▶ 3:09:18bail out Argentina. Insurance companies stock prices up since 2010. 448% up from 2013. of the revenues for insurers come from the federal government. What my Democratic colleagues are proposing is an insurance company enrichment scheme. It's literally what they're doing is printing money in the Treasury and giving it to insurance companies.
▶ 3:09:48That's their solution for healthcare. Enriching insurance companies that are the very people that are telling the American people which care they can get and not get. There's no chance for an American to go to the doctor of his or her choice. There's no chance for them to go get care. There was no chance for my constituent who lives near Fredericksburg, Texas to go to MD Anderson to get care because she's on Obamacare which can't go to MD Anderson.
▶ 3:10:17And if the cancer that I had when I went to MD Anderson came back and I'm on Obamacare as a member of Congress, I couldn't go to Obama. I couldn't go to MD Anderson because of the situation that my Democratic colleagues have put the American people in. Going around and preing that you're somehow caring for people more by giving them coverage for care that doesn't actually provide them care while insurance companies get rich.
▶ 3:10:47$ 35 billion in subsidies in 2024 for people who didn't even use their It's absolutely unconscionable. That is right. That is the correct word. It is unconscionable what we have done to the health care system, destroying it for the American people so that they can't get the care of their choice. That's what's happened.
▶ 3:11:12And now you hold the government hostage for 45 days and then try to come lecture Republicans about it when you've been holding the American people hostage to a broken health care system for 15 years. That's what's been going on.
▶ 3:11:35The fact is, Madam Chairman or we are here today trying to with, I think, reason with three appropriations bills combined with a continuing resolution through after having tried with reason to fund the government through November 20th so that we could continue the debate on the various issues in question,
▶ 3:12:06but our Democrat colleagues refused to do it. And so now we've got the opportunity in front of us to extend, fund government at current levels, roughly flat, trying to stave off the inflation that is the direct consequence of the massive amount of government funding that has been going on by both sides of the aisle, but heavily being promoted from my colleagues here on this on the other side of the aisle who want
▶ 3:12:36us to throw another trillion and a half dollars at That's literally what they were saying. It's not a solution. That's just printing more money while trying to go run campaign ads while you shut the government down for very clearly and obviously political
▶ 3:12:54I yield back. Madam Chair,
▶ 3:12:56Madam Chair, I wish the gentleman had that passion condemning the $40 billion bailout of Argentina, a right-wing cuckul clock in Argentina. I wish he wish I wish he had the passion to condemn that.
▶ 3:13:06Mr. McGovern and Miss Scandal, you're recognized.
▶ 3:13:11Thank you. Uh, Leader Jeff, we just heard a fairly passionate condemnation of the Affordable Care Act. Um, you've been here a little longer than I have. Um, have our Republican colleagues ever been able to produce a plan that would provide the kind of coverage for um affordable coverage uh that the Affordable Care Act did.
▶ 3:13:41You know, it's very interesting that my colleague from Texas uh wanted to sit there and lecture both Katherine Clark and I but couldn't see fit to ask us a single question, engage in a debate. Where y'all been, bro? You've been out for seven weeks. You don't have the time to have a back and forth.
▶ 3:14:02we hear you rant for a few minutes, basically threaten to repeal the Affordable Care Act, and then don't want to defend that position, you should feel free to defend that position. You've done it 70 times. And if you think that's on the right side of the American people, then fine. That's your plan. Repeal and displace tens of millions of people. That's the Republican plan.
▶ 3:14:30And what I don't understand is why my colleague cut and run. I'm sitting right here. Katherine Clark is right Hopefully, Madam Chair, uh, we can have a back and forth as opposed to just being lectured to by our Republican But I thank the distinguished gentle lady from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who by the way, another decisive win for the American people in Pennsylvania last Tuesday.
▶ 3:15:00It was extraordinary rebuke of the extremism that we've seen from our Republican colleagues and the absence of any plan to make life better for everyday Americans. I appreciate that and I appreciate your your prior remarks regarding what we could have been doing in the House over the last few months. I mean, the Senate's taken some votes on tariffs.
▶ 3:15:24Maybe we could have done something with respect to tariffs here, except I think we have a rule that would prevent us from doing votes on tariffs. Yeah, I thank I thank the general lady for raising the tariff issue because uh there's so many parts to the parade of horriles that Republicans have unleashed on everyday Americans that I neglected to actually mention the tariffs.
▶ 3:15:46The Trump tariffs are causing costs on everyday Americans to increase by thousands of dollars per year. This is an affirmative effort to make life more expensive for the American people.
▶ 3:16:05My colleague from Texas before he cut and run, he also said you know, we have a fiscally irresponsible situation in this country and that because Democrats want to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for everyday Americans, workingclass Americans, and middle class Americans, somehow that's problematic. You know what's problematic?
▶ 3:16:30The fact that Republicans with the one big ugly bill enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history, ripped health care away from millions of folks, in that same piece of legislation cut $186 billion from SNAP, the largest cut to nutritional assistance in American history. Literally stole food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans.
▶ 3:16:57And all of that was done to enact massive permanent tax for GOP billionaire donors. And in the process, as if that wasn't bad enough, the debt by trillions of dollars more per year, saddling our children and our and making it more complicated for them to experience the American dream in their future.
▶ 3:17:24So, we are not going to be by anyone on the other side of the aisle about fiscal responsibility when the bill that you just passed jammed down the throats of the American people in a partisan way cuz Donald Trump ordered you to do it is the most fiscally irresponsible piece of legislation ever in this country's history.
▶ 3:17:48Thank you. Um, whip clerk, like you when I've been in the district and not in DC at the hearings we've been having here. Um, I've been meeting with constituents. Um, last week I had an open house and a lunch for our federal workers. Was really interesting because I had three federal workers drive over an hour to my district from one of our Republican colleagues districts because they'd been unable to have any kind of dialogue with him.
▶ 3:18:17Um, I came into Congress during the first Trump shutdown and what has been so remarkable this time around is hearing federal workers saying, "Yes, this is painful, but what is happening to our federal workforce, the cuts that are happening, um, the pain that is in being in that is being inflicted on the workforce is so bad that we need you to hold out.
▶ 3:18:44We need you to make this situation better." So, between that, between the veterans at the parade I went to this morning in my district who said, "Keep fighting. Um, this is not working for my family and be and the families who are sending me the comparisons between last year and this year's health insurance and and they were paying 1,600 a month and now they're going to be paying $600 more a month for a family of four." I mean, the individual stories are just astonishing.
▶ 3:19:14are you I assume you're having a similar
▶ 3:19:18Thank you. Um and thank you for bringing the American people into this. Uh you know, I'm surprised to hear my colleague from Texas having a new interest in taking on insurance companies. Where have those discussions been? Where are the plans?
▶ 3:19:34Where's the answer to a witness who came and talked over the last five weeks to Mariah Plant from West Virginia who told us about her brother who has special needs, who needs a lot of care, but who she is committed to keeping at home and being with people that he loves. Without Medicaid, she cannot care for him.
▶ 3:20:02He is a very medically complicated person and she is so afraid of what is going to happen and she 29 years old is also a small business owner while caring for her brother full-time. ACA is what gets her her health insurance coverage. This plan and let's not sell the Republicans short. They had a plan.
▶ 3:20:29Their plan was to come in, take a trillion dollars out of Medicaid, trigger a half a trillion dollar cut to Medicare, take away the ACA tax and then cut medical research. So, while we take it away from people in the immediate and now, we are also saying to the future, good luck.
▶ 3:20:54As one researcher who recently lost her lab due to federal funding cuts under the big ugly bill said to me, "All the hopes of the patients I've been working with are now in a freezer." Now in a freezer. She said, "I'll be okay. I'll be able to relocate probably to Europe
▶ 3:21:15to be able to continue her research." But that plan that they have is to take all of that funding and give it to the very wealthiest Americans in a permanent tax break. And they couldn't wait to get us back here. We had to come back on July 3rd to make sure that we did that in time.
▶ 3:21:37But we've sat here for 54 days without a single hearing, a single negotiation, a single offer. And the one most moderate of proposals to have a one-year extension and a bipartisan commission to look at ways we can work on this system and make health care work for people. Rejected out of hand and no comment.
▶ 3:22:05And I just want to say that it's a little hard to be lectured to about the pain that is being inflicted on the American people when we have heard nothing from our Republican colleagues as this administration saw their shutdown as an opportunity to fire another additional 4,000 plus federal workers to the 200,000 they have already let go to threaten furlowed federal
▶ 3:22:35workers they might not get their pay after this shutdown concludes. Where was the outrage? And going on and lecturing our air traffic controllers that somehow they're not patriotic enough to be working without pay. And then we just go through the parade of horribles on the split screen.
▶ 3:23:00People so concerned their spouse may not be able to have the cancer treatment continue they need. They may not be able to manage their diabetes, get that inhaler that their child needs, and the continuing medical care to and nothing as the president takes down the east wing to build a ballroom, hosts a Great Gatsby party with a burlash show thrown in, $40 billion to bail out
▶ 3:23:34And then we get to SNAP where this president and the loyalists in Congress sat on their hands and made up excuses. Well, they took food away from hungry kids, seniors, veterans, disabled people and said, "We legally can't give this out." They knew that was not true then and they have taken it all the way to the Supreme Court in order not to feed hungry kids.
▶ 3:24:03It went from let them eat cake to let them eat nothing. How dare you lecture us when you are willing to let hunger in this country be a political weapon?
▶ 3:24:17Thank you. I will yield back.
▶ 3:24:22Thank you, Miss Gan. Mr. Scott,
▶ 3:24:25thank you.
▶ 3:24:26You're recognized.
▶ 3:24:26Thank you, Madam Chair. And uh would you agree with me that the gross premium is set by the insurance carrier and doesn't have anything to do with the
▶ 3:24:39Who are you asking that question to?
▶ 3:24:41Either one of you. Uh what I
▶ 3:24:44what what what what I'll say is that tens of millions of Americans are at risk right now of their premiums, co-pays, and deductibles dramatically increasing because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. And these are people all across the country.
▶ 3:25:05In fact, in the 10 states that would be most impacted by the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, all 10 of them are run by Republicans.
▶ 3:25:18Mr. Chair, if I may, we're talking about we're talking about West Virginia.
▶ 3:25:22I'm going to reclaim my time. I I wasn't I wasn't trying to be smart with the question. I'm going to just read from KFF, which I think most of us who study healthc care use KFF. Um, and by the way, I was an insurance broker for 20 years. I got four professional designations in employee benefits. I don't have them anymore, but I had them when I was in business. And my degree is actually risk management insurance. My father was a surgeon, so I actually saw all sides of it. And I live in rural America. And if you want to talk about rural health care,
▶ 3:25:52one of the key issues that we could fix is uh there are 425 hospitals in urban areas today that claim rural status. So when we put money out there for rural hospitals, the urban hospitals step in and they take that money. In 2017 there were three. Today there 425.
▶ 3:26:15So there there's a lot of gamesmanship in in the system, but according to KFFF and we can get rid of PBMs. There are a lot of things there's a lot of agreement on how to reduce the cost of healthcare that I'm baffled that 90% of members of Congress would get rid of PBMs and yet we can't get that passed and signed into law. Uh but the gross premium just for the American citizens watching and I wasn't trying to ask a question trick question Mr. Jeff the gross premium is going up 26%.
▶ 3:26:44That is what the insurance companies on average are raising their premiums from to 2026. Now, um certainly if the subsidies go away, you're going to see a bigger share of the premium, but the American citizens that are covered under the Affordable Care Act aren't paying the gross premium. They're paying the the the gross premium minus the subsidy.
▶ 3:27:07So there there's I mean if we're honest the the biggest part of the rate increases coming from the insurance companies going up 20 26%. Their cost didn't go up 26%. I'm not I don't want to get into a debate. I wasn't trying to be smart. I'm just telling you if you want solutions there's solutions but the solution comes in two two areas. One dropping the cost of health care in the country by getting the middlemen like PBMs out.
▶ 3:27:32Two is you got to put competition back into the insurance industry, which means you're going to have to allow some smaller companies in that aren't big enough to do business nationwide. And you're going to have to give the American consumer the option to change plans and not be stuck with the plan they buy January 1. The thing I've never understood about what y'all did when y'all wrote the Affordable Care Act is when you buy your contract January 1, if it doesn't work for you, you got to stick with it for another 12 months.
▶ 3:28:00I mean, you should have any system that's going to work will have more insurance carriers with more competition and portability for the consumer so that they can move uh from carrier to carrier. We did it with no loss no gain in in the uh in the mid 90s. No loss no gain was the provisions that we put in so that we stopped the carriers from um games they were playing. if you would, however you want to put it.
▶ 3:28:28We stopped the carriers from doing a lot of things they were doing with no loss, no gain. There are a lot of things that could be done to fix it. But what you can't do
▶ 3:28:34is pretend that the Affordable Care Act
▶ 3:28:38works. It just doesn't. It's going to have to be rewritten.
▶ 3:28:41Well, Representing M. Jeff, I promise you there's a lot of us that'll work with you.
▶ 3:28:47Well, I I appreciate your observations and and and I will say, listen, we agree on this side of the aisle that we need PBM reform. In fact, there was an agreement to engage in aggressive PBM reform until Donald Trump and Elon Musk killed that agreement.
▶ 3:29:02It was actually
▶ 3:29:03in December.
▶ 3:29:05Well, you know,
▶ 3:29:06it's not elected.
▶ 3:29:08It was actually Musk that was posted.
▶ 3:29:10Well, whoever, right? Whoever it was, Republicans apparently decided to pull the plug on that PBM reform. So, we
▶ 3:29:17But, M. Jefferson, you're from New York,
▶ 3:29:20That's right.
▶ 3:29:20So, I'm from Georgia. So, so I trust the Georgia state legislature to determine um our no loss, no gain or pre-existing conditions clauses and portability option should be. And so, and so that's one of the things as we go forward that we'll be pushing for is is flexibility at the states. I I'll yield. It's getting late, but thank you for your
▶ 3:29:45Thank you, Mr. Scott. Mr. Legus, you're Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Leader Jeff and Whip Clark. And I think you've eloquently described the stakes for the American people with respect to the healthcare crisis that Republicans have created. One, I have a particular question about a different provision of the CR. Before I do, I don't know if you care to expound with respect to Representative Scott's questions or anything you'd like to add.
▶ 3:30:09Yeah. No, I I appreciate uh Representative Scott, you know, raising the questions and giving us an opportunity to respond unlike his prior colleague. And the thing that I would say is we agree there's a broken health care system in the United States of America and we need to fix it.
▶ 3:30:27The problem that we confront right now is that tens of millions of Americans who are in open enrollment as we speak are going to see their health insurance premiums skyrocket to levels of That's the crisis that is immediately in front of us. These tax credits expire on December 31st of this year.
▶ 3:30:50and our Republican colleagues saw fit with great urgency to renew massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors on July 3rd of this year while at the same time enacting the largest cut to Medicaid in American history and causing hospitals, nursing homes, and community-based health centers, including in rural parts of Georgia and this country, to close.
▶ 3:31:17that is why we believe this is a Republican healthc care crisis that needs to be decisively addressed with the fierce urgency of now. And I couldn't agree more. Leader Jeff. I I want to talk about another provision that I described earlier is I think You and I four years ago, Mr. McGovern, many of many of us were on the floor of the House on January 6th.
▶ 3:31:44There's a provision in this bill, this payday provision for eight Republican senators connected to January 6th, and I suspect you share the same outrage that I have about it. I wonder if you and and Whip Clark might talk a bit about.
▶ 3:31:58Yeah, I'll yield to to Whip Clark initially on it, and then we'll certainly have more to say. This particular provision would be outrageous in the best of times to say that we are going to use our appropriations process to put in personal payments to eight specific senators in relation to an investigation. This is guaranteed money.
▶ 3:32:28As our colleague from Georgia pointed out, it is outrageous. And I heard our colleague and I appreciated his comments and his cander about it. But what struck me was his reluctance to act in this moment. This is exactly the moment where we are not Democrats or Republicans. We're Americans who have identified something wrong.
▶ 3:32:56a payout in a bill when Americans are waving their hands and saying, "We're not making it in this economy. We're not making it in this system." We have to hold ourselves accountable. And if we cannot reject and demand that that get out and proceed quickly with our work, then I would question what you think you're doing here.
▶ 3:33:25I don't think we have heard a single person try and muster any defense of this payout that was snuck into this bill. And the fact that at minimum we're going to pay US sitting senators $8 million while we dismantle health care for people while they can't afford to buy meat and coffee and groceries. They can't afford their electric bills.
▶ 3:33:57I I mean, what are we doing? What are we We have to be able to say no to this. This is blatant corruption and payouts that were snuck in and we have to do this now. There's no excuse in the world for not acting.
▶ 3:34:17Thank the distinguished gentleman for that question. It's extraordinary. And you know, for the American people, it's important to understand we're talking about a multi-million dollar slush fund that is in this bill for eight Republican senators who apparently believe they're part of the House of Lords.
▶ 3:34:40Because that's something that would be done if you think you're a lord, not someone who is subject to the rule of law. That's extraordinary to me. And unfortunately, it appears that despite how outrageous this provision is, my Republican colleagues are prepared to vote for it here before the rules committee and tomorrow on the House floor
▶ 3:35:10while at the same period of time can't find a dime to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for workingclass Americans, middle-class Americans, and everyday It's shocking and it speaks for itself and the American people are going to reject. This is real time corruption that's on full display.
▶ 3:35:35A multi-million dollar slush fund for eight Republican senators that every single House Republican is apparently prepared to sign off on. And if you vote for it, you own it. Well said. Well said, Leader Jeff. Uh, with that, I'll yield uh to the chairman
▶ 3:35:58Yeah. I mean, Mr. Scott cited KFF uh and I just kind of did a little search here. Um, he said he cited KFF as saying that the there is a 26 26% increase in premiums. I just want to share what KFF said as to why rates are going up. And let me quote them. The amount insurers charge for ACA marketplace premiums is rising for several reasons, including but not limited to increasing hospital costs, the rising popularity of expensive GLP-1 drugs like Ompic, and the threat of tariffs.
▶ 3:36:29These factors are similarly cited by insurers selling employer coverage. However, an additional factor driving up the amount insurers charge for ACA marketplace premiums is the expected expiration of the enhanced premium tax credit. end quote. I thank the gentleman.
▶ 3:36:46I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
▶ 3:36:49Gentleman yields back and I now recognize myself for my time of questioning. I would refer everybody to my prior comments. We have to get the government back open. Uh there are things that are not ideal in this bill. There are things that are highly suspect that were put in by the
▶ 3:37:20but if we try to fix it at this point in history after 40ome days of a shutdown, we have no choice but to send it back to the Senate. They will not be back until
▶ 3:37:31My people My people cannot suffer As I said before, my district has an average take-home pay of less than $51,000, and I'm 49th out of $435 in in the nation. We don't need any more suffering. We can't take any more suffering, I have to vote to open the government back up, notwithstanding, it's an imperfect process, and notwithstanding, there's things that I would like to vote to change.
▶ 3:38:01because it has taken this long, we cannot wait any longer. And I yield back and now recognize Miss Ledger Fernandez. Thank you, uh, Mr. Chair. And, um, you know, Republicans keep saying and placing, I think, what would be described as a false choice, which is what we just heard, that you cannot fund the government and extend the tax.
▶ 3:38:28You cannot fund the government and remove that reprehensible provision which I am calling a polola and still move forward on funding the government. They have a choice. I have an amendment and we will ask each of the Republicans on this committee.
▶ 3:38:50Are you going to vote for millions and millions of dollars to go to those eight senators and not a dime for enhanced tax credits for people's health insurance? And so I wanted to ask you Hakee uh leader Jeff also uh I want I wanted to ask you to so
▶ 3:39:11I still go by Hakee.
▶ 3:39:13You still go by Hakee. Uh so is it possible like they have the power to do this. Why is it that they think that they cannot act? Because this is something that is possible. So, I'd love for you to talk about this choice that they keep providing us that says we can't do that, we can't do this, we can't do that. Why can't we vote to fund the government? Vote to extend the tax credits. Vote to remove that horrendous
▶ 3:39:45It is absolutely the case. And I thank the distinguished gentle lady from the great state of New Mexico for that question. It is absolutely the case that this corrupt provision can be removed and should be removed. It can be struck if the amendment is made in order here before the rules committee. The amendment that you are offering, the amendment that I know will be discussed and debated.
▶ 3:40:07No one can defend this And in allowing it to happen, you know, it's bad enough that Donald publicly proclaimed that he's got two titles, that he's the president and the speaker of the house. But now the Republican controlled House of Representatives wants to act subservient to the United States Senate.
▶ 3:40:33When I read the Constitution, we're separate and co-equal parts of the legislative branch. It's in article one. In fact, the House of Representatives is the first amongst equals, first institution mentioned in article one. And by the way, we've got the power of the purse. The House, we were given that by the framers of the Constitution. The Senate wasn't. The Senate was given the confirmation power.
▶ 3:41:02And it's bad enough that we've already given away our authority the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who brags about him being the speaker of the house. But now we're letting eight senators conducting themselves like they're the House of Lords air drop at the 11th hour this corrupt provision.
▶ 3:41:29And now our Republican colleagues are claiming there's nothing we can do about it. I mean, that's that's extraordinary. We've said in the House, and I'm proud to be part of the people's house, that that we don't like to be jammed by the Senate on policy, and we should never be jammed by the Senate on policy.
▶ 3:41:51But now you're allowing the Senate to jam House Republicans to enrich I mean that's unconscionable, that's unpatriotic and that's unamerican.
▶ 3:42:09Thank you Hakeim Jeff. And you know earlier we also heard some of the representatives uh in this committee sort of attacked the Affordable Care Act. Uh they uh contested rep Clarks. you're pointing out how important these subsidies are for Georgian and how their uh costs will increase.
▶ 3:42:33Uh and and if you look at the news articles coming out of Georgia, uh they one of them from one of their WJF BF says marketplace enrollment in Georgia has doubled since the enhanced credits took effect. The Georgia Recorder headline says, "Expiration of the ACA tax credit spells disaster for rural Georgia." And the fact that the ACA and these tax cuts pushed enrollment to new highs.
▶ 3:43:0424 million people, more people signed up. And these are the things that we're worried about. And when they attack the ACA, I think about the and they attack these tax credits. I think about the women. You pointed out some of those impacts, but think about the women who are going to be negatively impacted when they allow these tax credits to expire and when those Medicaid cuts go into effect.
▶ 3:43:29Brook Clark, can you talk about what that means for American women and families if the Republican policies go in effect?
▶ 3:43:38Thank you for for the question and uh I'm sure that your experience has been very much like mine. We were talking about the Kaiser Family Foundation numbers. On average, the ACA premiums are going up over $1,000, $1,026 in a monthly payment.
▶ 3:44:01And you think about the mom that I met at a food bank just a few days ago and she had really narrowed what she was eating to a few crackers a day because she wanted to make sure that her children when she was unsure that that SNAP benefit was coming.
▶ 3:44:21And she's already working two jobs as a single mom to keep food on her table, to keep the lights on, to try and keep a shelter, and trying to hide all of this from her kids so they can go to school and learn and not be anxious. That is hard. That is sacrifice. And we talked today about to veterans who said to me, "Fight on.
▶ 3:44:46Fight on." to this morning in Arlington, And we talked in our comments about veterans today about sacrifice and what it means to put it all on the line for your country. That is what we ask hardworking Americans to do all the time. Get up, work hard, and try and get ahead. and they are telling us this system doesn't work for us.
▶ 3:45:17I would join any one of my colleagues in working on overhauling our health care system. It wasn't working well for people before they took an axe to all of it and all of the supports.
▶ 3:45:32But when we're here on Veterans Day talking about sacrifice and courage, if we cannot find the courage to at least speak out, and as the leader said, when we're not going to find a dime in this budget to give people health relief, when we are not going to talk about restoring the almost $200 billion cut to SNAP that was made before they politicized ized it
▶ 3:46:02as a weapon. We certainly owe those who dawn the uniform for our country to be able to stand up and say we have identified a wrong in this in creating a personal fund for eight select senators. Millions of dollars that could flow to them and we can't stand up and demand that we do better then it's time to think of something else to do.
▶ 3:46:31if that's the kind of decision because what's hard is to be a single mom in this country and trying to make it trying to get that little bit of breathing room and we can certainly look them in the eye and say we are fighting for you and we are not going to stand for blatant corruption in this CR.
▶ 3:46:52Thank you for fighting for the women of America and for all the families of America wherever they happen to live Republican or Democratic districts. And with that, if there is nothing else, as the last Democrat on the Havana, I yield
▶ 3:47:06Thank you, Miss Leisure Fernandez. Mr. Jack, you're recognized.
▶ 3:47:10Thank you, Chairwoman, and thank you to Leader Jeff and Whip Clark for testifying before us today. Uh, I'm just curious, rewinding back to March of 2021 when these enhanced premium tax credits were created, could you walk us through in this committee through the thought process as to why they were set to expire at the end of this year?
▶ 3:47:29Well, uh, actually, we'll correct the gentleman's time frame because, as you probably recall, uh, the original Affordable Care Act tax credits were part of the American Rescue that lapsed at the end of December in 2022 as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was enacted did in 2022
▶ 3:48:00that extended the Affordable Care Act tax credits for an additional 3 years. Which is why the amendment that we're offering today would extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for three years under current policy baseline. That's been the Republican policy.
▶ 3:48:22In fact, you all just use current policy baseline to jam the one big ugly bill down the throats of the American people. Current policy baseline where you ripped Medicaid away from 14 million Americans. Current policy baseline where you enacted the largest cut to SNAP in American history. and most egregiously current policy baseline as part of your one big ugly bill to provide massive tax breaks for your billionaire donors.
▶ 3:48:53And you made it permanent. And now what we've seen over the last several weeks is the Republican refusal to even extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for working-class Americans for a year. So that's why we're in the situation that we're in. and Republicans continue to refuse to take yes for an answer.
▶ 3:49:15We're trying to help you help your own folks because the states that will be most impacted if the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire, West Virginia, Wyoming, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, South Carolina, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Those are the top 10 impacted if the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire.
▶ 3:49:44So, this is not a partisan issue for us as House Democrats. It's a patriotic issue because we're fighting to protect the health care of everyday Americans. Whether you're a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent, you're a hardworking American taxpayer, and you can't afford to have your health insurance premium skyrocket by thousands of dollars a year. Thank you for that.
▶ 3:50:10And a question I have, um, you mentioned, uh, part, it should be things should be bipartisan issues. I'm curious, you know, this bill before us is a bipartisan bill. Eight Democrat senators cross the aisle, uh, to send it over to the House. I'm curious, what's your message to those eight Democrat senators who bravely crossed the aisle to send this bill to
▶ 3:50:28Our message, our fight right now is that there are at least 25 different House because we're in the House of Representatives right now, 25 House Republicans who in different ways have said, "Yeah, we need to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits." And now is the opportunity for members of the House Republican conference to mean what they say. and we're giving them this opportunity. If you make this amendment in order, let's debate it on the House floor.
▶ 3:50:58My friends on the other side of the aisle have been literally gone for seven plus weeks, we should have ample opportunity, and I appreciate, Madam Chair, you've given us the opportunity to testify here today, the distinguished gentle lady from the great state of North Carolina by way of Brooklyn, the Bronx, them all in there.
▶ 3:51:22We'll get them all in. let's debate these issues. We've been saying it week after week after week. We'll find a bipartisan path forward. Let's reopen the government, but let's do it in a way that addresses decisively the Republican healthcare crisis.
▶ 3:51:44Thank you. I'll yield to my colleague and friend, Mr. Roy, before I yield back to the chair.
▶ 3:51:49I'll know Um I I just wanted to record a couple things.
▶ 3:52:05I wanted to ask consent to enter the record Washington Post subtitle ACA subsidies for fundamentally broken healthare system in which they go through an outline
▶ 3:52:25without objection
▶ 3:52:26thank you madam that had commented that the um sorry that the um affordable care act has been anything but affordable and um in going through the analysis in this editorial um I won't go through the whole thing here for for the sake of time but it's it's making the case for how we got here and walking through the whole uh process in terms of the mandate and then in terms of sort of a backoor into it through the subsidies with the 400% pop which we've
▶ 3:52:57already talked about earlier we then went from the 15% rate which is historic for private plans and was true for Obamacare care and now we're at a 35 to 40% rate in terms of these uh plans that were not being used yet massively subsidized. So, um as the editorial points out, the late economist Milton Freeman has said nothing is as permanent as a temporary government program.
▶ 3:53:22And that's what I think needs to be stipulated here is that this was put forward as a temporary program during CO and it is being asked to be extended um to do uh the the work of trying to basically put a band-aid on it to use the Washington Post terms as they say quote the solution offered by Democratic leaders is to keep shoveling more taxpayer money into a pit of ever larger subsidies even though the national debt is $ 38 trillion and is
▶ 3:53:52the Washington Post editorial board. And I would just close by saying we have uh significant solutions to uh healthcare that we have been putting forward and proposing um from any number of possibilities involving uh expansion expansion of health savings accounts, direct primary care. We had provisions of direct primary care that we put in the big beautiful bill which I believe will have uh serious benefits being able to use insurance for direct primary care.
▶ 3:54:19I've got direct primary care doctors throughout my district which are helping people, helping musicians, helping people that can't get access to doctors through their insurance companies. The ability to be able to have greater transparency and be able to go to places like the Surgery Center of Oklahoma where you can get a $14,000 knee replacement instead of $65,000 through the insurance plans, being able to have um expansion use expansive use of of things like Medshare and health sharing ministries that allow people to defay costs.
▶ 3:54:45We've got lots of people coming up with creative solutions to be able to afford health care because right now they're denied the ability to afford health care because we broke the system after World War II wage controls and then we had this employer foisted product that is now making it impossible for people to afford care. And what we ought to do is eliminate that tax disparity. We ought to make it to where you have same tax treatment whether you're getting it from your employer or whether you have it yourself. If your employer wants to give it to you, you should go to health savings account.
▶ 3:55:14You should be able to go to the market and shop and you ought to have varied uh solutions including short-term limited duration plans which we we should bring back and other ways in order to get cost down so you have more competition. There are lots of ways we can address this if we'll sit and debate it. But what we shouldn't be doing is demanding that in order to proceed as we've gone forward with short-term CRS and now three appropriations bills to keep government going and moving forward, we should debate those in a full open debate on healthcare. Happy to do that. Happy to do that anytime.
▶ 3:55:42Um, but I don't think it needs to be done as a con in the context of offering an amendment here to do as I said the Washington Post said the solution is to keep shoveling more taxpayer money into a pit of ever larger subsidies even though the national debt is $38 trillion and which by the way will continue to drive the cost of healthcare up. I yield back to the gentleman from Georgia and I yield back to the chairwoman.
▶ 3:56:04Uh, thank you very much. H I'm going to follow on with that, but I do want to set the record straight just a bit. Wikipedia is wrong. I was born in Manhattan,
▶ 3:56:21I was baptized uh at Mount Carmel Church. My grandparents moved to the Bronx and I spent some time with them. So my mother though was living in Brooklyn when she met my father there.
▶ 3:56:39So I do have most of the burrows
▶ 3:56:42That's a beautiful thing. But you strike me as someone from the Boogie Down
▶ 3:56:49I uh I took the train at Pel Bay, walked through the park in the days when you could walk through the Pel Bay Park and get on the subway. Anyway, I want to follow on with what my colleague from Texas was talking about from the Washington Post. The Affordable Care Act is really a misnomer. It's never been affordable.
▶ 3:57:15As the Washington Post said, it's just And let's be clear, the ACA subsidies will still be present in the individual market next year. Despite all the things you all have been saying, the enhanced premium subsidies, which go directly to insurance companies and were justified as COVID relief when they were authorized,
▶ 3:57:47are expiring because Democrats insisted on a take it or leave it. no reforms approach co is over.
▶ 3:58:05Democrats themselves were responsible for suns setting these provisions were are responsible for setting up the suns setting of these provisions at the end of December 2025. Republicans had nothing to do. We never voted for the Affordable Care Act.
▶ 3:58:36Yes, we voted to repeal it 70 times. We always had an alternative to it. We've heard over and over tonight that there were no alternatives. That is not true. Much of what has been said tonight is not true.
▶ 3:58:57We'll deal some more with that But we should not be rewarding our for taking the entire government hostage by rubber stamping a COVID related CO is over.
▶ 3:59:22Democrat colleagues would have the public believe that the only way to stabilize the individual insurance market is to flood it with subsidies. But again, we have a long history of offering mar market reforms like associated health plans which have been fought you fought against tooth and nail.
▶ 3:59:53We've supported HSAs which you've fought against tooth and nail. You never seem to want the American people to have any control over their health care. It's always force it's always forcing people into governmentont controlled health care.
▶ 4:00:16Would the gentle lady mind yielding just for a moment?
▶ 4:00:20not the not not for an entire back and forth. I just wanted to ask a question. Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. And Donald Trump has taken a my way or the highway approach from the very beginning of his time in office. And so I'm just wondering why Republicans haven't seen fit. We can agree we have a broken health care system. and we as Democrats want to fix it.
▶ 4:00:42But throughout the entirety of this year, unless I'm missing something, where's the Republican action on addressing the health care of the American people other than ripping Medicaid away from 14 million folks?
▶ 4:00:56Well, I wasn't going to address every point you made. I said that earlier, but we did not rip away Medicaid for a single soul. That's another lie that you all have been putting out. We did not take Medicaid away from a single soul. We said that a million times when we passed the Working Families Tax Cuts Act.
▶ 4:01:24We never took one person off of Medicaid. What we've done over and over and over again is to attempt to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse. I hope when you say we have a broken health care system, you're including in that, Mr. Jeff, that we have waste, fraud, and
▶ 4:01:49Am I to believe that the one big ugly billast loved and cherished Medicaid?
▶ 4:01:53We have waste, fraud, and abuse. Now, we look forward to continuing that support when the shutdown's over and the American people aren't being held hostage. We've said that a million times you all shut down the government. We've said that. Let us get through the appropriations process.
▶ 4:02:20We had we had November and December to work on this after we got through the appropriations process. But no, that wasn't good enough for you all. And I wish we were in control. I truly wish we were in control.
▶ 4:02:39Who's in control?
▶ 4:02:40I can tell you, we have a majority of one in the House. And you know, and I know that it takes 60 votes in the Senate. We have 53
▶ 4:02:53Is that majority of one Donald Trump?
▶ 4:02:56Democrats refuse to infuse a lick of accountability into the subsidies that they legislated. And again, you decided to sunset that per the CBO in 2025. When we talked about Kaiser family, now we're talking about CBO.
▶ 4:03:19In 2025 alone, 2.3 million ineligible individuals received these temporary credits. A broken health care system.
▶ 4:03:33The Biden administration took a hatchet to eligibility safeguards, weakened eligibility verification, reduced tax reporting, and allowed insurance brokers to game the system by switching enroles plans monthly. This led to phantom enroles, millions of people who never actually received health care.
▶ 4:04:02For context, 35 billion was spent on approximately 4.6 million phantom enroles in 2024 who never received healthcare. That's been alluded to here earlier. I think that the last thing we should be doing is rubber stamping this giveaway to insurance companies.
▶ 4:04:32The biggest subsidies in this country right now are given to insurance companies for people who aren't getting We do want to fix the health care system in this country. We need to fix the waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid, waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare, waste, fraud, and abuse in the unaffordable care act. We want to work on it. Let's get the government back.
▶ 4:05:01Let's work on appropriations and let's let the committees be working on healthcare. Let's not muddy the water. This has been an obuscation exercise tonight by saying over and over we got to do healthcare. We got Mr.
▶ 4:05:22Cole said over and over it's not an appropriations process it's other So you all are trying to take away the American people's attention from what we're here to do tonight and we've spent a lot of time on it. Madam
▶ 4:05:38with that I yield myself back. Can you I I mean, have you heard from anybody in your district who has seen their health premiums double or triple? I mean I mean and what do you tell these people?
▶ 4:05:53I heard that
▶ 4:05:54your own tough luck. And you know,
▶ 4:05:56uh Mr. McGovern, I'll answer.
▶ 4:05:59No, I have not. But I heard when Obamacare was put in effect how horrible Obamacare was. Mr. McGovern, I'm answering your I heard how awful Obamacare was when it went into effect. I hear from people all the time, not just now, but for the last several years, how their insurance premiums have gone up over and over
▶ 4:06:28So, do you know the approval rating of the Affordable Care Act is like 65% and Donald Trump's approval rating is at 37%. I'm happy to go down to your dish. We can do a joint town hall together and listen to people uh tell us their healthcare stories. Uh but I I can't go back to my constituents and just tell
▶ 4:06:45screw you. You're on your own. We're not going to help.
▶ 4:06:47Mr. McGovern, it's my time
▶ 4:06:50and I yield back and I thank our witnesses for being here. You're
▶ 4:06:56Thank you.
▶ 4:06:57Thank you. We have Miss Washerman Schultz, Miss Miss Randall, Miss Bonamichi, Miss Ansari, and Mr. Subramanny.
▶ 4:07:46You all know the rules. We hear you. We your written testimony will be put in the record. We ask you to speak for no more than five minutes. And I'll just call out names in the order that we saw you come in. So, Miss Washerman Schultz, my classmate.
▶ 4:08:20Oh, it's now it's on again. Thank you, Madam Chair, my 109th Congress classmate. Good to be with you again. Um, ranking member McGovern, uh, I appreciate the opportunity to testify this evening on my amendment to the appropriations package before the committee.
▶ 4:08:37As the ranking member of the Milcon VA subcommittee, it should be not lost on anyone that we are here on Veterans Day considering a bill that not only unleashes brutal health care cuts on millions of Americans, but a bill that also underfunds critical Medicare for veterans subjected to toxic After Republicans have been awall for 7 weeks, it's quite a slap in the face to veterans on this of all days. As you all know, the Pact Act is the most significant expansion of veterans benefits in a generation.
▶ 4:09:08It's a sacred promise we've made to them. Yet, like so many other broken promises, we already see Republicans reneging on our commitment to veterans who put their very lives and health on the line to serve our country. During committee consideration of the Milcon VA bill this summer, I secured bipartisan support for my amendment to restore $51.7 billion in advanced funding for the toxic exposure fund or TE funding that was also requested in the president's budget.
▶ 4:09:34And let me be clear, despite what some of some senators are claiming, advanced funding the TE is not a slush fund, nor is it illegal. It does nothing more than provide what we promised toxic exposed veterans who we passed the PAC Act to support that we would provide certainty that funds will be available when they're needed for veterans subjected to toxic substances. It's a legal mechanism our subcommittee uses to ensure consistent predictable funding for veterans medical care.
▶ 4:10:03As a glaring and obvious example of why we do this, look no further than the last 42 days where our Republican colleagues shut down this government because they refused to deal with a preventing a healthc care crisis created by them. Once rare, these cruel shutdown games are now all too common. This is after all the third one for Trump and we're not through the first year of his current term. It should go without saying that our brave men and women who have served must never be left exposed to such partisan cruelty and budgetary conflicts.
▶ 4:10:33Our bit bitter political divisions must never stand in the way of veterans being able to continue to receive quality care. The final Milcon VA bill before us today stripped out this funding. While President Trump and Republicans have no problem cuttering vet veterans medical care to pay for tax breaks for their bill billionaire donors, I do not share this cold-hearted view. This result was not a finished conference product. It was unilaterally decided in the Senate and sent over to the House. That is why my amendment is simple.
▶ 4:11:03It adds back in the Taff advanced funding that was agreed to by this chamber mere months ago. Advanced funding, the toxic exposures fund was in the president's budget and agreed upon by the House. We advance fund health care like the TE. So there are no gaps in funding as Congress negotiates from one fiscal year to the next. To deny this funding on Veterans Day would of course only offer one more symbolic act of Republican cruelty.
▶ 4:11:27After all, we're mere days from Thanksgiving and President Trump still brutally attempts to withhold food assistance from our most vulnerable veterans, children, and seniors. Please make this amendment in order to ensure that the guaranteed seamless funding that we promised veterans in the PAC Act is there. To add insult to injury, for the winter holidays, Republicans in Congress are about to pull on their Grinch masks and snatch health care from millions of families nationwide to start the new year. I know, Chair Chairwoman Fox, you know this quite well.
▶ 4:11:56You have 62,000 people in your district who will see their health care costs rise if Republicans let critical ACA tax credits expire. Because of this and the big ugly law that Republicans passed while Americans slept, as many as 38,000 people will actually lose coverage in Chairwoman Fox's district from that cruel act. Yet, none of us will be spared. In my district alone, the healthc care horrors are even more bleak if this bill passes.
▶ 4:12:21There are 203,000 people about to be clobbered with huge increases in healthc care coverage and 82,000 people that I represent will lose coverage from combined big ugly law and ACA price hike impacts. Tragically, the tearjerkering stories of lost coverage, denied care, delayed diagnosis, and needless deaths will haunt every single member who votes for this bill. It didn't have to be this way, of course. Instead of vacationing for nearly two months, House Republicans could have sat down to negotiate a bill that would avoid all this pain.
▶ 4:12:50They could have crafted a bill that fulfilled the promise to lower costs that President Trump and all of our Republican colleagues made to voters a year ago. Instead of covering up the Epstein files and fleeing Washington, Speaker Johnson could have held hearings to prevent this healthc care shock to our system. But Donald Trump and Republicans broke their promise to lower costs. And this Republican bill is about to cause tens of millions of Americans to endure huge premium increases that will crush them financially.
▶ 4:13:16If we don't restore advanced TE funding, well, we can add it to the list of broken Republican promises. But this one, of course, will break a pledge we made to veterans on Veterans Day. And while we are breaking our promise to veterans in the PAC Act, we are creating an actual slush fund to line certain senators pockets with millions of taxpayer dollars. I hope you all will not break that or any other promise we've made tonight or tomorrow. And this bill is not the final word. Mark my words, House Democrats will fight on to lower health care costs.
▶ 4:13:45We'll throw our bodies in front of every Republican push to make health care more expensive for tens of millions of Americans. And we'll continue to fight to protect veterans exposed to toxins. Those are promises we made and we intend to keep them. Above all, we'll make sure every Republican complicit in having this wrecking ball into America's health care system are held accountable for the harm they inflict on all of our hardworking families. Thank you for the time. I yield back.
▶ 4:14:10Thank you, Miss Washerman Schultz, Miss
▶ 4:14:14Thank you, Chair Fox, Ranking Member McGovern, and members of the committee. I appreciate this opportunity to speak. I did not spend 20 years taking care of the sickest patients in our community to come to Congress and let their he health care system be decimated.
▶ 4:14:32I came here to fight for my constituents, the people behind every statistic and policy debate who just want to be able to see a doctor that they can trust, afford their prescriptions, and keep their families healthy and safe. Letting the Affordable Care Act tax credits expire this year means Republicans in this chamber are complicit in forcing tens of thousands of Oregonians I represent to make impossible, deeply offensive choices.
▶ 4:15:01One constituent wrote to tell me, quote, "I just got noticed that my marketplace plan is going up from $568 a month to $1,21 a month next year, an increase of a year. Another 62-year-old living in Portland wrote, quote, I received an email from my plan saying my rate without ACA support will go from $139 a month to $1,883 a month starting December 31st.
▶ 4:15:31That's an eight-fold increase and it equals per year. Families and seniors in my community cannot afford price hikes like this. They will be forced to make impossible choices between keeping their their health insurance and putting food on the table or paying their rent. And as a doctor, I can tell you what will happen. People will go without. They will go uninsured. They will delay care. They will skip medications.
▶ 4:16:00They will get much sicker and potentially be financially ruined as a result. That's not speculation. It's what I saw in practice for two decades. People suffer in silence until it's too late. And then we all, taxpayers and community members, pay the price. And even in instances when a patient doesn't get sicker, putting insurance out of reach has consequences. When we make healthcare unaffordable, healthy people drop out. They leave behind the sickest.
▶ 4:16:29That raises premiums and we end up in a vicious cycle of rising costs that hurt every American looking to access care. I know firsthand the consequences of inaction. So, I'm proud to join my colleagues in introducing an amendment to extend the ACA premium tax credits to ensure health coverage is not put out of reach for more than 111,000 Oregonians who rely on this critical support.
▶ 4:16:54And if Republicans refusal to extend the ACA premium tax credits wasn't bad enough, my community is steeling from the devastating impacts of Medicaid cuts and trying to understand what they're going to mean in the big ugly betrayal bill. In the wake of wake of its packet passage, I heard from a single mother in Parkdale who said, quote, "The cost of everything is still rising, and if I lose my benefits, I won't be able to afford my rent, food, or clothes for my children and myself.
▶ 4:17:23When I am home in my district talking to Oregonians, this is what I'm hearing time and time again. The cost of living is too damn high. People are doing everything right, working hard, playing by the rules. They were raising kids, starting businesses, going to school, paying taxes, struggling paycheck to paycheck just to get by. And they are still just one bad policy decision from losing it all. I refuse to accept this as our destiny. I choose to believe in the ability of this institution to do better by the people it serves.
▶ 4:17:54I implore my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to show courage and not believe leave behind the working families who are desperate for relief. This is a moment for moral clarity. do the right thing. First, extend the ACA tax credits. We can and must fix the system, and we cannot abandon our constituents today while we talk about how to make it better. Number two, repeal the harmful provisions of HR1.
▶ 4:18:20Commit to giving every family in this country a real chance at achieving the American dream. And before I close, I wanted to thank Congresswoman Werman Schultz for her leadership in advancing a critical amendment to restore the 51.7 billion in advanced funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund that has been stripped out of this package.
▶ 4:18:41For over seven years, I was honored to care for veterans at the Denver VA, where I walked past a sign each morning that read, "The price of freedom is visible here." As a pulmonologist, I was often the specialist trying to address the breathing challenges of my patients exposed to burn pits, Agent Orange, and other toxins.
▶ 4:19:00It is unconscionable to me that today of all days, Democrats have to fight to ensure our veterans poisoned on the front lines get the benefits and care they deserve. We must ensure all Americans, including and especially our veterans, get the care they need, not just to survive, but to actually thrive. Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
▶ 4:19:25Thank you, M. Randall.
▶ 4:19:30Thank you, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to testify on this funding package sent to us from the Senate. I'm glad to be here today testifying in committee after the speaker canceled votes and has kept us out of session for 53 days and counting. Americans deserve a government that works as hard as they do.
▶ 4:19:50And while some of my colleagues on the other side stayed home, I was here in DC along with my Democratic colleagues for much of the past seven weeks willing to meet and negotiate with the other side. During this time, I also held virtual town halls with my constituents where I heard from hurting federal workers who were still encouraging us to keep fighting to make sure we protect everyone's healthcare.
▶ 4:20:15I also heard from hundreds of neighbors who shared their personal experiences with Medicaid, Medicare, and with the ACA programs my Republican colleagues cut when they called us back from the district to pass the big ugly law. I visited food banks and met with families who were uncertain if they were going to get their SNAP benefits and be able to keep their kids fed. Today, I want to share with you some of the stories that I've heard over the last 42 days.
▶ 4:20:42Andrea from F told me that losing the ACA credits will impact her family significantly. Andrea makes a bit too much to qualify for Apple Health Washington's Medicaid program. She's pregnant and without the ACA credits, she'll be swimming in medical debt from healthcare bills she can't pay. She's the only one who provides for her and her children.
▶ 4:21:02It's for Andrea that I'm here today introducing an amendment to permanently extend the ACA credit so that she and millions of others across the country don't have to worry about whether they can afford to take their kids to the doctor or get prenatal care. And let's not forget that this healthcare crisis is not just about the Affordable Care Act. It's one that started unfolding in July when Republicans passed the big ugly law absolutely decimating Medicaid and our rural healthcare systems.
▶ 4:21:31Carrie from Hokquam told me that her son has schizophrenia and has struggled with addiction. Without Medicaid, there's no way he would be able to afford the medication that keeps him sane and out of a mental hospital and alive. Brooke from Port Orchard told me that her dad, who lives with them, needs a host of medications to manage his depression, insomnia, high blood pressure, but without insurance, they cost more than $350 a month. With Apple Health, they're free.
▶ 4:21:58It's for Carrie and her son, for Brooke and her dad, that I'm here before the committee today to submit an amendment to undo all of the big ugly laws Medicaid changes. Many of the individuals I spoke with about Medicaid have also shared with me the importance of SNAP to their families. Britney from Port Orchard told me that Medicaid has helped her and her siblings children. They rely on their Apple health coverage and their health is already suffering this year because of the SNAP cuts and their ability to afford healthy food.
▶ 4:22:27We know that without access to nutritious food, families can't stay healthy. It's for Britney and her family that I'm introducing an amendment to undo the cuts to SNAP from HR1. I represent 27,000 federal workers and I want to share with you Kevin from Tacoma's story. Kevin was impacted by the most recent reduction in force, a riff as we call them here at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. His federal career spanned 18 years with HUD and two years with Americanore.
▶ 4:22:57He said to me, as you can imagine, I'm sad and frustrated to see that that career come to a premature end. I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to fight for my job and return to my career of serving the American public. It's for Kevin that I'm offering an amendment to not just reverse this administration's illegal reductions in force during the shutdown for the duration of this CR, but to prevent this lawless administration from undertaking any more riffs for the rest of the Trump presidency.
▶ 4:23:23Our dedicated civil servants deserve better than to live in constant fear of whether they will receive their next paycheck and whether they will still be employed tomorrow. Madam Chair, on behalf of those 27,000 federal workers, on behalf of the 115,000 SNAP recipients in my district, and on behalf of the millions of Americans across the country who stand to lose their healthcare, I urge you to make these four amendments in order. Thank you, and I yield back.
▶ 4:23:49Thank you, Miss Bonichi. You're
▶ 4:23:54Uh, thank you, Chair Fox, Ranking Member McGovern, and members of the rules committee. I'm here to speak in favor of my very important amendment uh which is very similar to the amendment introduced by Democratic leader Hakeim Jeff and whip Katherine Clark to extend the ACA premium tax credits for three years. It's an amendment I enthusiastically and strongly support. Right now in Oregon and across the country costs are up. They're up for housing.
▶ 4:24:25Costs are up for groceries, for child care if you can find it, for utilities, and costs are up for health care. And unfortunately, without this amendment, health care costs are about to skyrocket for thousands of Oregonians and for millions of Americans. I think about Teresa who lives in rural Classip County, Oregon. She's a small business owner of a wonderful produce and flower farm. I've been there. It's wonderful.
▶ 4:24:50Like many small business owners, Teresa purchases her coverage on the Oregon Healthcare Exchange. Because of Republicans refusal to protect health care, her premium will soon be going from $230 a month to a month. She doesn't have an extra almost $800 a month. This is unconscionable. It's unacceptable and it's also unnecessary. Teresa is about to turn 60. She works a tough physical job.
▶ 4:25:18Running a small family farm is challenging, even in a strong economy. But she won't be able to afford her premium. But she can't afford to be without health care. One illness or one injury could threaten her health and her livelihood. Teresa could be forced to close her family business, a business that plays an important part of the North uh coast economy in Oregon. And Teresa's not alone.
▶ 4:25:42Americans across the country are receiving similar letters about dramatic premium increases, forcing them to make impossible decisions. If they keep their coverage, how will they pay for food and housing and child care? They can't. Continuing the tax credit is what the public overwhelmingly supports. I've been in this room for a bit this evening and I've heard a lot of conversation about the Kaiser Family Foundation.
▶ 4:26:06They found that about three quarters, 74% of all US adults say Congress should extend the enhanced tax credits for people who purchase their insurance through the ACA marketplace. At least half of adults across parties continue to support the extension of the tax credit. Uh more than nine and 10 Democrats, three4ers of independents and half of Republicans. Colleagues, we know we know that too many Americans are struggling to get by because of high costs. And Madam Chair, you you were talking about pandemic.
▶ 4:26:37No, we're not suggesting that there's still a pandemic. What we're suggesting is that this president ran for office saying he was going to lower costs. Costs aren't lower. Costs are going up. And with this amendment, the cons the continuing resolution under consideration. This will without the amendment, the cons the CR will add to their burden. More people will struggle to pay for healthcare. Many will go without. And that means, as Dr. Dr. Dexter explained they will delay getting critical care.
▶ 4:27:06They will end up in emergency rooms and we know that's worse for health outcomes and it's more expensive. So Teresa and everyone in the United States, they should feel secure, not fearful when they get sick. They deserve better and we can make things better by adopting this amendment to extend the enhanced premium tax credit for three years. Now I I want to note that it's been interesting to listen to the conversation in this room about insurance companies. It's about time somebody was talking about insurance companies profiting.
▶ 4:27:35I think it's good that we have that conversation, but in the meantime, until we have a plan to address it, we cannot let these costs go up. And people are getting these costs right now. This is November. It's almost the middle of November. These uh increases are going into effect very soon. We don't have a plan. You don't have a plan to to uh address that before. So, let's let's in uh increase and continue these uh credits so that people do not have to pay more.
▶ 4:28:04Finally, I do want to mention as well the outrageous get-richqu scheme for several Republican senators that was tucked into this bill apparently at the last minute through which several Republican senators will be getting payouts of millions of dollars. This is truly a corrupt provision that should not be in this bill.
▶ 4:28:24And when I think about the the feeling that people have now about the government, this is going to do absolutely nothing to encourage people to trust in their lawmakers once a provision like this is put into a bill like this.
▶ 4:28:38So, I encourage uh this committee uh Madame Chair to uh make this amendment in order to continue the the provisions of the uh the tax credits for uh the Affordable Care Act, but also let's work together and find a way to get this ridiculous uh pola get-rich scheme provision out of this bill. Uh it's not a partisan issue, Madam Chair, and and rules committee members. This is an issue of right and wrong and trust in government. I thank you and I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 4:29:09Thank you, Miss Bonamichi. Miss Ansari, you're recognized.
▶ 4:29:14Thank you, Madam Chair. Welcome back from your eight weeks of taxpayer funded vacation. It's good to see you and I hope I'm going to interrupt you. Republicans I'm going to interrupt you,
▶ 4:29:24I am sick and tired of hearing you all say we had an 8week vacation.
▶ 4:29:29That's exactly what happened.
▶ 4:29:30I worked every day. I don't know about you. I don't want to hear every single day as well. We all work every single day and that's exactly what happened with Speaker Mike. I'm
▶ 4:29:40taking You're recognized.
▶ 4:29:43I hope that you all enjoyed yourselves while American families looked at their letters from their health insurance companies terrified that their insurance premiums were going to double or triple while the House was out of session for 53 days. That is unacceptable.
▶ 4:30:00Madam Chair, now we are back here to vote on a terrible partisan spending bill that will deepen a healthcare crisis that you did create by first stripping away Medicaid from 15 million people. That is a fact. I'm sorry that you deny that fact, but that is a fact of the matter in the bill. And by refusing now to extend the Affordable Care Act health care premium subsidies that keep coverage affordable for American families.
▶ 4:30:30And you also did all of this while engineering the most unprecedented transfer of wealth from the workingclass and poor Americans to the wealthiest people in this country. That is another fact. The Republican shutdown lasted 41 days. It is the large longest shutdown in American history. 41 days of unpaid federal workers and families losing access to food assistance.
▶ 4:30:5641 days of families skipping meals and seniors delaying care because Donald Trump chose to use hunger and health care as leverage. The callousness and corruption is astounding. Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson throughout this entire time did absolutely nothing. They did not lift a finger to try to negotiate a real solution on any of this. What was Donald Trump doing during this time?
▶ 4:31:22I know that he announced plans for his $350 million ballroom funded by billionaires and corporations. I know that he was traveling around the world to Asia. He hosted a huge Great Gatsby party. I don't know if anyone here was invited the night before. 42 million Americans lost access to SNAP assistance. He is acting like a king while millions of people in this country are suffering. That is unacceptable.
▶ 4:31:51and Speaker Mike Johnson throughout this time, he has not just enabled this corruption, he has actively participated in it. That's why I staked outside of his office last week to be absolutely clear about what's been happening. Mike Johnson is starving Americans and gutting healthc care to cover up the Epstein files. And I want to explain exactly why and how he's doing so because the public deserves to understand it very clearly.
▶ 4:32:18Congresswoman elect Adalita Grahalva, who is from my state of Arizona, would be and will be the 218th signature on the discharge petition. 218 is the number needed to force a vote on the floor, whether the speaker wants one or not.
▶ 4:32:36And when Adalita is seated tomorrow, finally after 49 days since she was elected to the US House of Speaker Johnson's going to lose control because then every single member of Congress on the Republican side and our side will have to go on the record and answer one very simple question. Do you want to to support and uh protect the release of the Epstein files or do you want to protect the names of the men who were involved in the crimes?
▶ 4:33:07That's the vote that Speaker Johnson has been running from. There's been plenty of reporting that the White House and Speaker Johnson have been actively working throughout this entire period to threaten the four Republican members of Congress who are on the discharge petition to get one of them to come off of that discharge petition because that is their number one priority. That's what's been happening. It is a cover up and Speaker Johnson must and should be investigated.
▶ 4:33:34Now, Republicans want to move on as though none of this ever happened. We cannot rush through a funding bill that raises costs and leaves family families worse off in the middle of Trump's affordability crisis. So, I have amendments at the desk. First, to guarantee that the American people are not forced to subsidize Donald Trump's $350 million ballroom, a private palace where his billionaire donors will be rewarded with access and influence.
▶ 4:34:00These amendments also require complete transparency on which corporations and ultra-wealthy individuals are financing this project and what they are receiving in return. Second, to ensure that this bill cannot take effect until ACA premium tax credits are renewed because when, if and when they expire, premiums will skyrocket and people will lose health care. The corruption and heartlessness of these policies must end.
▶ 4:34:25I urge the committee to support these amendments in order for us to have a real debate on protecting American families and on restoring trust in government that Donald Trump is dismantling. I yield Mariah Yan, you're recognition out of the bill.
▶ 4:34:55And uh this provision would simply allow that that the so just to take a step back because we've been talking about it here, but people may be joining in. But basically, Republicans in the Senate put this provision in. Eight or nine of them of the Senate Republicans would be given a legal pathway to force taxpayers to pay them millions of dollars over phone record collections during the January 6th investigations. It's a rewards program for Republican senators.
▶ 4:35:22And I would walk you through it, but the Republicans on this committee seem to know it well and have walked us through it quite well. It's $500,000 at a minimum per phone line, per fence. uh this could go up to $50 million per Republican senator if you think about it. And it limits the government's ability to defend itself and defend these claims on behalf of the taxpayers. And so you're basically having these Republican senators being able to make these legal claims and then the government can't even defend itself.
▶ 4:35:52It's just going to be rewarding these senators with cash, cash, cash, cash. How is that not corrupt? And this is in the middle of an affordability crisis. $50 million. That's a thousand times the average annual salary of a person in this country. Think about that. A thousand times the average annual salary. Regret Democrat versus Republican. This completely undermines this entire institution and everything about it.
▶ 4:36:19This this is why people hate Congress is because they think we're all corrupt because stuff like this happens. And I've heard Republicans on this committee say that they agree that it's wrong. They agree that this is a wrong thing. and that we'll fix it later. Well, you have the chance to fix it right now. And this is really the only chance to fix it right now. Because the reality is the only way to write this wrong is to strip this bill of this amendment right now and send it back to the Senate and force them to vote on the bill without this provision.
▶ 4:36:49Because if you make them do it later on, they're never going to strip this amendment. They're not going to unenrich themselves. That's never going to happen. So, this is our only chance to write this wrong. And this is corruption. It is theft and broad daylight. And anyone anyone voting against this amendment to strip this bill, this corrupt provision is complicit in that corruption. So I urge you to support amendment 23 and not aid and abed corruption. I yield back.
▶ 4:37:25I I'll delay my questioning. Mr. McGovern, you're recognized. Well, first I want to thank you all uh for being here uh at this hour and I appreciate it. Um I support all your amendments. Um and I think people are tired of us uh saying that uh we can't fix problems. I mean people want us to fix problems. They want us to clean up corruption. They want us to make sure people have healthcare. They want us to be to respect our veterans. They want the Epstein files uh released.
▶ 4:37:55Um, and we, you know, and and what's happening around here is you got a lot of people who are trying to have the, you know, do do the double talk. Yeah, I know. I'm with you, but we can't do it because of this or we can't do it because of that. I mean, and so then nothing ever gets done. And I just want to say one thing about um, you know, there's been a lot of kind of negative talk about the Affordable Care Act, but I I do want to point out I mean, look at I believe we need a very different health care system in this country, but I do want to point out some of the good things about the Affordable Care Act.
▶ 4:38:24Again, um it's it's polling at 64% favorability. Donald Trump is at 37% favorability. But just so people understand, uh the Affordable Care Act stops health insurance companies from charging sick people more in premiums than healthy people. It keeps those same health insurance companies from denying coverage to pregnant women, people with pre-existing medical conditions, or because of a person's medical history.
▶ 4:38:50It prohibits the health insurance industry from setting an annual or lifetime limit. It demands insurance companies cover most preventative services. It gives states the flexibility to expand their Medicaid programs, which 40 states have done. It provides financial assistance to working people to make health coverage more affordable. And it allows young adults to stay on their parents' insurance plans until they're 26.
▶ 4:39:14And those are just some of the provisions within the ACA that make it um quite frankly popular with with a lot of people. I wish the ACA went further. Some of us went during the debate fought for a public option. Uh we got frustrated by some of our colleagues in the Senate. But I just want people to understand uh what that's what the ACA does. And I again I don't think I I would like to think that none of them are controversial. I don't know my Republican friends don't like those things.
▶ 4:39:42But let me just say also in addition uh the last time Democrats were in control uh you know we we we built uh on the progress made with the ACA. We allowed Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time in history saving both Medicare and the American people billions of dollars. Democrats capped the cost of insulin at $35 per month. Uh we crucially we we made up uh we we made signing up for healthcare coverage easier and more affordable.
▶ 4:40:08Democrats lowered premiums by an average of $800 per person per year. And over four years, nearly 12 million more Americans signed up for insurance on the ACA marketplace, bringing the total up to nearly 24 million uh uh in 2025.
▶ 4:40:23And so I I mean I and I think my my Republican colleagues have made this case as they've attacked us for these for calling for the extension of the ACA um uh you know uh uh enhance enhanced credits is that we we have always been a champion for providing additional assistance to help make healthcare more affordable for people. Uh they have been on the other side.
▶ 4:40:48I want to thank them for reminding the American people that we're always on the side of trying to lower their cost and not reducing the quality of their care. And I just want to say one other thing and uh and I appreciate my the the the you know the the chairwoman you know uh you know getting animated over uh the fact that the Republicans were basically not around for uh seven weeks.
▶ 4:41:14I mean, the speaker of the house basically abolished the House of Representatives uh during a time when quite frankly, people are frightened to death over losing their healthcare premiums. And it really bothers me that there's not much there's not much support here. So, if Republicans are going to screw people over, at least they should show up. And they haven't worked for eight weeks, they should show up. I move to uh I move to adjourn. Madam Chair,
▶ 4:41:43people ought to show up at the hearing on healthcare.
▶ 4:41:52Has made a motion to adjourn.
▶ 4:41:58Question is on the motion to adjourn. All those in favor say I. I. I. All. Those opposed. No. In the opinion chair, the nose have it. We Mr. McGovern is going to request a recorded vote.
▶ 4:42:14Recorded vote. A recorded vote
▶ 4:42:18is requested. The clerk will call the
▶ 4:42:24Mrs. Fishbach,
▶ 4:42:25Mrs. Fishbach, no. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy,
▶ 4:42:29Mr. Roy, no. Mrs. Hchen,
▶ 4:42:31Mrs. Hchin, no. Mr. Langworthy,
▶ 4:42:34Mr. Langworthy, no. Mr. Scott,
▶ 4:42:35no. Mr. Scott, no. Mr. Griffith,
▶ 4:42:38Mr. Griffith, no. Mr. Jack,
▶ 4:42:40Mr. Jack, no. Mr. McGovern,
▶ 4:42:42Mr. McGovern, I Miss Scandlin,
▶ 4:42:44Miss Scandlin, I Mr. Negus,
▶ 4:42:47Mr. Negus, I Miss Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 4:42:49I led Fernandez. I Madam Chair,
▶ 4:42:52Madam Chair, no.
▶ 4:42:56Clerk will report the total.
▶ 4:42:58Four years, eight ns.
▶ 4:43:00The uh motion is not agreed to.
▶ 4:43:04Now everybody's here. Good. Okay. Are you back?
▶ 4:43:13Does uh any member on the Republican side wish to ask a question of the Miss Scandlin, you're recognized.
▶ 4:43:24Thank you. And I wanted to thank all the witnesses for coming in particularly to talk about the stories of your constituents because some of our colleagues don't seem to have heard from their constituents about the really drastic price in increases that they are uh being subjected to.
▶ 4:43:42Um and thank you for the amendment with respect to funding the toxic uh substances with the pact act and addressing uh a whole variety of issues that we wish we were talking about and and addressing at this juncture. So really appreciate the work that everyone's put into this and hope that all the amendments are made in order so we can get full and fair debate and votes. I yield back.
▶ 4:44:09Thank you, Miss Scandlin. Mr. Goose, you're recognized.
▶ 4:44:12Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh before my friend from Georgia steps out, my question to Mr. uh my colleague from Virginia here was going to be connected to something you had said previously just in regards to this very problematic provision uh regarding the payout or pola as uh my colleagues articulated.
▶ 4:44:34And I guess the question is I appreciate the gentleman from Georgia's concerns and certainly echo those concerns and share his sentiments. And I think I want to understand and perhaps I'll maybe I'll direct the question to uh Representative Wasman Schultz because I think she served the longest here on this particular panel.
▶ 4:44:56If we were to excise this particular provision from the bill, the Senate, I presume, could quickly hotline this bill and the country could see what corrupt senator is willing to stand up and refuse unanimous consent to get this bill across. Is that is that is my understanding of our cake Senate procedure accurate, Mr. Noose? Uh that that is a correct understanding.
▶ 4:45:22It is Um, and I quite feel quite certain given how quickly the Senate seems to be be able to pull their only 100 members back into session. Um, and I will say thankfully remained in session for these last eight weeks. Um, unlike our colleagues who were on vacation, uh, they seem ready, willing, and able to be able to deal with the work necessary.
▶ 4:45:52um that was outside of the the process of passing a CR and and certainly should be able to come back in, excise this grossly corrupt provision that will enrich and line the pockets of eight senators and breathtakingly they they have millions of dollars that they were willing and able to include in this bill to line the pockets and enrich senators, but they can't
▶ 4:46:23agree to advance fund vital healthc care funding to ensure that toxic, exposed, and poisoned veterans don't have a gap in our ability to keep that safety net underneath them. That shows you where their priorities are.
▶ 4:46:40If everyone is so concerned with reopening the government, which we all should be, they will get their tokuses back to Washington, take that provision out and pass after we've taken out, they can pass the bill and send it to and send it back to us.
▶ 4:46:54Well, I couldn't agree more.
▶ 4:46:55Send it to the president.
▶ 4:46:56I I certainly agree uh with the gentle lady from Florida, and I appreciate the gentleman from from Virginia proposing this particular amendment. One final note, I guess I would say, Madam Chair, uh I like everyone here in the committee room noticed with great uh interest your reaction to Miss Ansari's statement regarding House Republicans being on paid vacation for the last 54 days. And I understand that you took great umbrage at her suggestion or her statement on in that regard.
▶ 4:47:24What I find fascinating is that none of your other Republican colleagues took any umbrage to her statement or to any other of those statements, similar statements made by my Democratic colleagues here. And of course, it's no surprise because they're not here. They're all in the back room. None of them. I mean, that hence Mr.
▶ 4:47:41McGovern's motion to adjurnn to somehow find a way after eight weeks of Republicans just completely skipping town that perhaps uh they might grace this committee with their presence to hear the testimony from their colleagues. So, in any event, I'm certainly glad that the chairwoman is here uh and has an opportunity to defend uh you know, the the propriety of of how uh she accorded her time during the course of this 54 day sojourn that Speaker Johnson sent the house on.
▶ 4:48:11Um but I I wish my colleagues might perhaps join us so that they could defend themselves as well. But I digress. I I'll keep waiting for that. Maybe there'll be another motion to adjurnn in the offing here. Anyway, I I yield back to the chairwoman.
▶ 4:48:27Miss Ledger Fernandez, you're
▶ 4:48:30Thank you very much, Madam Chair. And it was sort of quite hilarious how they all rushed in here to vote. None of them came to work to actually sit through the committee. And in fact, they didn't most of them didn't even sit through the testimony of their own chairman of appropriations or through the ranking members and you know threw out speeches and then left. So there could be no dialogue. There could be no debate.
▶ 4:48:57And this is the only time that the House has to debate this bill.
▶ 4:49:04It feels like the duma. It feels like the duma. And you know what else it feels like? It feels like you know back then when we were debating that big beautiful bill that we all was back here to vote for because they wanted us to make sure that we voted before July 4th for their big beautiful bill they could move heaven and earth to make sure we got here but they can't move heaven and earth to make sure we get tax credits for working families to make sure that we eliminate this
▶ 4:49:35polola. Yes, I started calling it poliola and I looked up when I started calling it that was like when I read that when I first read that I said we got to get rid of this because what is a piola? Is it a bribe? Like what did these senators get in return? Like what were they giving up? And we keep saying eight senators. I'm going to say their names. We have eight senators.
▶ 4:49:57Senators Graham Johnson, Senator Blackburn, Senator Lumis, Senator Hagerty, Senator Holly, Senator Se Sullivan, and Senator Tuberville. Let's say their names. Let's make sure the American people know who will get millions of dollars cuz each violation will give you $500,000. And so they can claim violation. And when we say violation, that sounds like something went wrong.
▶ 4:50:24Let's make sure the American people know these were subpoenas or inquiries by the FBI that were authorized by the courts that were authorized by grand juries when they were looking into what happened around the January 6th insurrection. And the American people saw that this place was overrun by violent attackers. We were here.
▶ 4:50:55We were here. There were 140 law officers who went to the hospital. 140 police officers went to the hospital. And now we're going to pay senators, these eight senators that I have called out. We're going to pay them millions of dollars instead of providing any money to the veterans, instead of providing any money to the children, to the families.
▶ 4:51:24It is outrageous and it is horrible. And I also appreciate that you have sponsored a similar amendment. And I think there are going to be multiples of these because we all recognize how horrible they are and Republicans recognize but they think they have no power when they have power. How dare they? Uh, you know, Representative Subar, why don't you say a little bit more about this concept that they can't do anything.
▶ 4:51:52Yeah, absolutely. And I'll just say there's eight right now. There's been a couple others that have come forward and said, "Wait, what what about my payout?" And so they're actually going to this might expand past eight actually. Uh and so uh but thank you for reading the names and calling this out. But yes, all we have to do is vote for one of these amendments that we're putting forward to strip this bill of this provision and take away this corrupt scheme by these Republican senators and send it back to the Senate and put on the floor for them to vote for.
▶ 4:52:22Are they going to continue the shutdown so that they can get line their pockets with tens of millions of dollars potentially? That's really up to them. That's really up to them, right? And so let's make them take that vote. If you truly care, if you truly believe that this is corrupt, you will vote for this amendment and you will send this bill back to the Senate if you truly believe this is corrupt. If not, then you seem to not have a problem with this. This is your chance right now.
▶ 4:52:46Right. And I want to thank you uh represent uh for pointing out how much money has been wasted uh by President Trump. You forgot to mention his golf trips. like he just took one $10 million like the American taxpayers are paying $10 million every time he goes uh decides to go engulf when he repaid for his trip to Scotland.
▶ 4:53:09And it's this kind of contrast that the American public is seeing the American public is seeing that they're not willing to provide tax credits for working families and small businesses. and you all described powerfully what that means in your communities. But they're willing to let him send $40 billion to Argentina. They're willing to let him spend taxpayer dollars on his golf trips. And you want to say
▶ 4:53:36I wanted to talk a little about your polo uh issue. You know, I remember I remember when Republicans raged against earmarks. I mean, some of us have been around here long enough and and I mean when when we had bills that had provisions that helped the specific members constituents and we had some Republicans that would rage against them and what we have here is an earmark on steroids. Um I mean, forget about the constituents.
▶ 4:54:01Uh this money, hundreds of thousands of dollars, possibly millions of dollars, goes directly to a spec to specific Republican senators. Uh and most Republicans are just going to say, "Oh, well, what can we do? we just have to going to move on. Trump is trying to get hundreds of millions from the Department of Justice. Uh so now I guess we have some senators who want their cut. Uh and uh and my Republican friends just seem to be all okay with it. I mean this is this is corrupt and it is disgusting.
▶ 4:54:32Um and at some point we you know I mean people have to be willing to stand up, develop a backbone and say no, we're not going along with this. I thank the gentle lady. Yeah, it's about courage versus corruption. And what we are asking Republicans to do is to have the courage to vote against the corruption that's in this provision. We might disagree on Clearly, Madam Chairwoman, we disagree on the benefits of the Affordable Care Act.
▶ 4:55:02I've told you earlier, I think it's wonderful because I'm a cancer survivor and have pre-existing condition. I needed the Affordable Care Act. I love the fact that I could keep my kids. I'm also pretty much a single mom with regards to three kids, right, who are going to college now, getting their degrees, and I could keep them on the Affordable Care Act. You know, as my kid was working in service industry, you don't get enough money to get healthcare. I could keep them on my health insurance.
▶ 4:55:32So, we might disagree about the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, but I'm hoping we don't disagree on the fact that we shouldn't be spending millions of taxpayer monies and sending it directly to 8, 10, 12 senators. And did you notice that it only applies to the
▶ 4:55:53right? There were subpoenas, lawful subpoenas. Remember, these are lawful subpoenas. Grand jury court approved
▶ 4:56:02Madam chair, can I would you yield just
▶ 4:56:04I would love to yield. I I just want to make one other point on the appropriations process because as the rank ranking member mentioned, you know, years gone by and the chairwoman and I were in Congress when actually some members of Congress went to prison for enriching themselves through the earmark process, which was why we lost earmarks. Uh big reason we lost earmarks uh for about a decade.
▶ 4:56:27Um but now because we reformed that process, we actually each certify that we have no personal interest or and no benefit comes to us from a a uh a community project funding request. And so so I mean we're that careful now because of past abuses.
▶ 4:56:51And this provision literally personally enriches at least eight senators and allows millions of dollars with with the inability of the government to even raise opposition or evidence or any counter to that ch to to to that process and for eight senators at least to be personally enriched.
▶ 4:57:16I I I can't even understand how some of our colleagues would stand in front of their constituents after going home and voting for this and with a straight face defend that vote. It's
▶ 4:57:29Thank you, Representative Dexter.
▶ 4:57:31Thank you so much.
▶ 4:57:32Dr. D.
▶ 4:57:33No, thank you so much. Um, I just had a point of clarification. Did those eight senators vote on this bill? because it seems that they should have declared a conflict of interest and have exempted themselves from the bill.
▶ 4:57:48I think they made sure that the provision made it into the bill and then voted for it. Uh thank you very much for bringing to the American people the issues about veterans care, about your individual constituents, about the priorities that Democrats are fighting for and what how Republicans are just spending all this taxpayer money on things that I don't think make a lot of sense. And with that, uh, I yield back.
▶ 4:58:19Thank you, Miss Leure Fernandez. Uh, you're excused as a panel. Thank you very much. Miss Selenus, Mr. Vinman, Mr. Ofski, Miss Stanbury, Mr. Horserruit, Miss Brian, and Mr. Rascin, if we can squeeze you in, we'll bring another chair.
▶ 4:59:03We'll do as we did on the other panel and just go in the ne way. I called out the names before Miss Selenus. and the District of Columbia.
▶ 4:59:33We have seen across the United States provocation in um use of ICE enforcement in cities like Portland, Oregon where you see inflatable um dolls, frogs, unicorns dancing in the streets and aggressive action from the Trump administration who believes that um we need further escalation from the National Guard.
▶ 4:59:59And we've seen this in cities across the United States, in Chicago, in Los Angeles. And instead, I know our National Guard is needed for things like wildfires, natural disasters across the United States. That's what they're trained to do um to protect um civil society, um not to enforce immigration. And so this again is a straightforward amendment to basically prohibit the use of um federal enforcement of immigration purposes.
▶ 5:00:28I also am in uh support of Mr. Horseford's amendment that should be at the desk to basically um direct $40 billion from Argentina to um to be used for healthc care purposes. This is a big issue in my district.
▶ 5:00:44I serve on the House Agriculture Committee and I talk to my growers in my district all the time and while they're very upset over the use of the $40 billion from the Trump administration to prop up soybean and cattle um um it's yeah I mean it's something that they're very upset about. We should have had a farm bill um in 2023. They're upset over that and they've asked me you know what could we be doing? What else is going to be happening in this um current Congress? And I said well you should also be thinking about healthcare.
▶ 5:01:14We have about four different rural hospitals in the state of Oregon that are at risk of going under. And um for us in Oregon, a lot of my rural communities actually use the Affordable Care Act and they recognize that this is something that's really um big and perilous for them.
▶ 5:01:30And and um we've had hospital closures where women from rural parts of my district, actually in uh Congressman Cliff Ben's district, where um our labor and delivery units have closed and people have had to drive much farther than two hours to, you know, as they're about to have a baby. And that's a long time to drive if you're in a snowstorm.
▶ 5:01:51So, taking that $40 billion that President Trump has used to prop up soybean and cattle, and again, my my growers and my farmers are apoplelectic over this, but to use it for health care, especially for our rural communities who are some of the biggest users of the Affordable Care Act, would be a great way to make amends to our rural communities who are in a very difficult position right now. So, I support that amendment as well. And with that, I yield back. Thank you, Miss Selenus. Mr. Vinland.
▶ 5:02:21Thank you, Madam Chair.
▶ 5:02:22Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. So, um we're now um living through the longest shutdown in this country's history. And um I actually was in the Trump White House for the previously longest shutdown in this country's history. And what thing is in common between those two? Donald Trump is president. And so last week we just had um elections in a in a very purple state here in Virginia in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
▶ 5:02:51And uh the message was very clear that chaos and cruelty are not popular policies. Okay, we're less than a year out from the midterms. And so, u I just want to remind my colleagues that I don't see any anybody in the room right now, but um that this shutdown, these policies to eliminate healthc care for millions of um the corruption that we're seeing in the White House and now in the Senate is
▶ 5:03:22outrageous and the American people are paying attention. So today's Veterans Day and as I look around I think I'm the only veteran member in the room. So I'm going to take a little bit of privilege here. I was at my VFW and I was having a beer with uh some paratroopers and Marines and others and I wanted to get a sense from them what what are they thinking about the shutdown? What are they thinking about the state affairs? You know what they want and they demand accountability.
▶ 5:03:51They put their lives on the line. Um and uh they fought for this country a certain set of values and what we're seeing from this administration, from this Congress is complete antithesis to those values. Many federal employees live in my district and um there are American patriots that see the lawlessness in this administration.
▶ 5:04:15Few weeks ago, I was at a food bank and it was build as given fresh produce to federal employees that had been furoughed and that weren't sure when they would receive their next paycheck. every the line stretched around the building. It didn't get any shorter the entire time I was there. And every federal agency was represented. There was a guy in a TSA uniform that had come after work.
▶ 5:04:43uh DOJ, DoD, uh Department of Labor, everybody. And what that was not I mean that was um certainly something that was striking to me, but the thing that struck me frankly the most was the lady that was in line next to me that was handing out food was a Customs and Border Protection employee that was essential.
▶ 5:05:05So, she came after work to hand out food to her um to her to her um friends and neighbors and um I got to talking with her. She was also a gold star spouse that she had lost her husband in 2008 in combat. These are the people that are being impacted by these terrible policies.
▶ 5:05:31So look, we we find ourselves at kind of like a pretty pivotal moment, right? We have obviously American healthc care that we're seized with. That's what this shutdown was about. But, you know, something really outrageous in my opinion. It's my first time appearing before this committee, but I I really couldn't sit on the sidelines. Spent 25 years in the army, half of it as a as a lawyer, as a prosecutor. Uh, I was an ethics lawyer during the Trump White House, which I will tell you was not easy.
▶ 5:06:02Um, and look, we have a we have an opportunity to actually do um what's right. I heard some of my colleagues, uh, Mr. Scott made a a pretty sort of impassion statement about um having a problem with uh the the pola scheme. It's it's a quid proquo.
▶ 5:06:22The the senators, the eight senators um they want payback for having support of the president and it's only senators and um what do we do? You know, the Senate has an opportunity had an opportunity to make a decision. We are an independent, separate, co-equal part of Congress. We have an obligation to do what's right. My colleague in the previous panel was right. People hate Congress.
▶ 5:06:52They have a low opinion of Congress. I mean, this reflects poorly on all of us. So, how about we actually do the right thing? Let's not worry about what the Senate's going to do. They the Senate could get back and and vote on this thing this week in the next 48 hours if they wanted Let's take this terrible provision, this polo, this quid proquo that the Senate put in to enrich itself out of this bill. It's simple as that.
▶ 5:07:20I'm just going to read an extract from the New York Times article that came out about this. Says, uh, it was published yesterday. A spending package expected to uh be approved as part of a deal to reopen the government would create a wide legal avenue for senators to sue for as much as half a million dollars each per offense when federal investigators search their phone records without notifying them. These are extracts.
▶ 5:07:45The provision tucked into a measure to fund the legislative branch appears to immediatow allow for eight GOP senators to sue the government over their phone records being seized in the course of an investigation by Jack Smith, the former special counel counsel into a riot. I'll call it an insurrection on January 6th because that's what it was. Each violation would be worth at least $500,000 in in any legal claim.
▶ 5:08:14I think I'm getting the signal here. So, I'm I'm going to wrap up.
▶ 5:08:21Can Can we Can we just give a little leeway to a veteran on Veterans Day?
▶ 5:08:26I'm almost done. So, each violation is is $500,000 according to the bill language, which we know can stretch into into the millions. Um, and it waves sovereign immunity, other defenses for the government. So, I mean, this is just a straight up payout. So, how about this? I'm gonna I'm gonna make an offer even though I don't see any of my colleagues here.
▶ 5:08:53Uh, and my offer is this is that we know that the uh the Republican majority is only a couple of seats. You can only stand to lose a couple of votes. If you can strip out this provision from this bill, even though I don't like many aspects of it, I will hold my breath and vote for it. if you will strip out this That is my offer.
▶ 5:09:21Mr. Ovski, you're recognized.
▶ 5:09:25Thank you, Madam Chair. Um members, um it is good to see you. Thank you as always for powering through, Madam Chair. Um I I will say it is hard to see so many empty seats to your left. Um I I really know this is an important debate and discussion that we're having for the American people and there's no other business being conducted. There's no other reason uh that members who are serving on this very important committee um aren't in this room because for
▶ 5:09:54well I hope that they are listening
▶ 5:09:58madam chair I I hope I hope they are listening because I have very important um things from my heart that I want to share and I'm speaking not just on behalf of the people I represent for Maryland second but for all Americans uh because millions of families are being affected by the shutdown. It is the longest in our nation's history. It has been a real hardship. The unnecessary suffering must end and the continuing resolution is a step forward.
▶ 5:10:26But it falls far too short of providing the relief that all Americans deserve. We can do better and we can do better right now in this committee and in this house. We can pay our workers, feed hungry families, provide reliable public services while also protecting working families from exploding healthcare premiums and co-pays and what amounts to a massive tax increase.
▶ 5:10:52We can do that by reopening the government and preserving those ACA credits that we've heard so much about. We've already heard Republicans in Congress recently passed a trillion dollars in tax cuts that disproportionately affects the ultra wealthy. President Trump, we've heard already, has marshaled $40 billion in resources to bail out his buddy in Argentina, another billion dollars to retrofit a new jet.
▶ 5:11:16Surely, we can find the resources to extend healthcare subsidies for one year, as several House Republicans have already proposed in a bipartisan framework released last week to help end the shutdown. As also as I mentioned, there are nearly two dozen Republicans who have one way or another endorsed some extension of the ACAs.
▶ 5:11:39But I'm here before you, Madam Chair, because I am also deeply concerned in what ranking me member Delora brought forward that this so-called deal does absolutely nothing about cuts that are unilaterally being enacted by the executive branch. President Trump and this Congress have already slashed more than $9 billion dollar from the last bipartisan budget that was passed.
▶ 5:12:03He's halted energy creating jobs and jobs potential um by explicitly targeting Democratic states and Democratic districts in Maryland and across the country. He's explicitly threatened funding for the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, a project that is so important. It is probably the largest infrastructure project in the So important.
▶ 5:12:30So any path forward should include one simple guarantee. The commitments we make to the American people and the commitments we make to each other should not be allowed to unilaterally be undone by the administration tomorrow. If we shake hands, that deal should stick. Without that protection, no deal is worth the paper it's written on. But I'm not just asking you to believe in me, Madam Chair. I'm asking you to agree with our Republican colleagues.
▶ 5:13:00Congressman WAC questioned why any Democrat would support a deal if, and I quote, you know that whatever you negotiate is going to be subject to the knife pulled out by Russ Vote. Senator Macowski told reporters that Democrats should be asking themselves, why am I going to be helpful if Mr. vote and OM are just going to do a backdoor move and rescend what we've been working on. We are a important institution. We are a co-equal branch.
▶ 5:13:27We should be vigorously guarding our power of the purse, not giving it away. I offer two straightforward amendments to do that. Madam Chair, one eliminates the president's authority to expedite the recision package. It puts back into regular order the Senate practices that requires a 60 vote threshold. If we're going to have a bipartisan bill to bipartisan agreement to enact a budget, let's have a bipartisan agreement to remove a budget.
▶ 5:13:51The second amendment prevents those so-called pocket recisions, specifically requiring any any funding appropriated by Congress be obligated if we are within 90 days of its expiration. These amendments are simple, but they are important. They're about checks and balances. They are about restoring Congress's control over matters of spending, just as our founders intended. And I know they're not here, but they are listening because you told me so.
▶ 5:14:17Madam Chair, um, for members who have predetermined that they will not vote for any amendments, I just have to ask them, and if they were here, I would ask them, and I mean this sincerely, Madam Chair, how egregious do the provisions have to be to change their mind? Is there a point? Is there a breaking point in terms of the self-enrichment item that I didn't even come here to talk about?
▶ 5:14:42What what is the point at which we say we can fix these things right here, right now and force the Senate to do what's right? Do the things that stop having Americans have no trust in these institutions. This is why Americans hate Congress. This is why people are so frustrated with our politics today.
▶ 5:15:06So, and it's why I'm here asking you to support these amendments in the spirit with which they are presented in bipartisanship and with respect for the Constitution. I thank you for the time and I yield back.
▶ 5:15:21Thank you, Mr. Oashki. Miss Stanberry, you're recognized.
▶ 5:15:26Thank you, Madam Chair. With the 15 minutes remaining, I'd like to wish everyone a happy Veterans Day. I represent a very humble set of communities in New Mexico's first congressional district. And like others on this panel, I had the opportunity to celebrate and to honor our veterans in New Mexico today.
▶ 5:15:48And so I do have to say, Madame Chairwoman, I was looking forward to coming back here and having the opportunity to debate this bill. But over the last five hours since I've landed in Washington and listened to this debate, I just feel I just feel sad. The people I represent are humble people. People who struggle to put food on the table, who struggle to put a roof over their head.
▶ 5:16:17tens of thousands of federal workers who for the last how many other weeks it's been haven't known whether or not their jobs are going to be there at the end of this shutdown. People who literally didn't know how they were going to feed their children this weekend.
▶ 5:16:36They literally didn't know how they were going to feed their children this And so I find it heartbreaking to be honest to come here and sit in this committee and literally madam chair I do appreciate that you are here doing your duty but all other eight members of the Republican party who sit on this panel are not even in this room.
▶ 5:17:02And for the last 54 days the house hasn't even been in session. It hasn't held votes. It hasn't heard bills. It hasn't sworn in the dulyeleed congresswoman from Arizona. I heard a lot of expertise today about health insurance and how the Affordable Care Act is broken. But not a single one of the other eight people on this panel, and I know you were here, Madam Chairwoman, because I have been back and forth across this country 13 times since the shutdown happened.
▶ 5:17:31And last time I was here, you gave me down on the House floor when I tried to introduce my bill, which is the exact amendment which I'm introducing tonight to save staff.
▶ 5:17:41She did that to me, too. So, don't feel
▶ 5:17:46So, I I know, Madame Chair.
▶ 5:17:53yes. So you get a pass. But I do have to say that, you know, for your other 200 plus colleagues, the real question that I wanted to come here and ask tonight is where have you been? What have you been doing for the last eight weeks?
▶ 5:18:11is the literally hundreds of thousands of people in my district didn't know how they were going to pay their rent, pay their mortgages, buy gas, put food on the table, and feed their children. Where were you? Where were you? And you're not even in this room tonight to even answer that question. I just I I literally find it disgusting. I mean, it is a privilege to serve in Congress.
▶ 5:18:41It is a privilege. I grew up in a low-income family. I grew up in a humble family like the people that I represent, and I don't take for granted that I have the opportunity to come here every week and represent my people and show up for my people. So, I want to know from our colleagues who I can literally hear laughing in the other room, where were you? Where were you for the last eight weeks while the house was shut down?
▶ 5:19:07And people in this country were left without food on the table. While the president was playing golf, he was demolishing the East Wing. He was throwing parties at Mara Lago and giving American taxpayers to a dictator in Argentina to bail him out before his election. Where were you? But you're not even here to answer that question tonight.
▶ 5:19:36So, I don't know what else to say except for that I will explain my amendment, which is to protect SNAP because while the president chose to not disperse food benefits to 42 million Americans, and I heard one of uh the gentlemen on the panel earlier say that he did everything he could.
▶ 5:19:57That is just a blatant lie because he appealed a court who directed him to put that money into EBT accounts for 42 million Americans and even asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a court ordered him to because that is a lie. That is a lie. So the amendment that I am introducing today would protect SNAP benefits.
▶ 5:20:23It would make sure that no president, whether it's Donald Trump or any other president, could ever withhold SNAP benefits again during a shutdown. It would make sure continuity in the program. And it would reimburse states like New Mexico who took the unprecedented action of spending tens of millions of dollars to make sure that our children would not starve because we showed up for our people. Unlike, I'm sorry to say, Madam Chairwoman, your colleagues who are not here tonight. I yel back.
▶ 5:20:54Thank you, Mr. Horford. You're recognized for five minutes. Madame Chair, uh, Ranking Member you know, there have been really important historic moments that have happened in this very room and in this chamber that we're honored to serve in in the House of Representatives.
▶ 5:21:18And I think back over those moments and I I wonder what those leaders had to do to compel our colleagues to care enough to prick the hearts and the minds of the people that we serve with and the constituents that were honored to serve.
▶ 5:21:38And so I think about that as we're here in this moment, a moment when federal employees are going without pay when half a million Neadans wonder whether their nutrition assistance benefits will arrive or not. like Charles Gaudy, the Vietnam era veteran, Navy veteran that I met with this morning before I got on the plane to come here to do my job.
▶ 5:22:07or the 104,000 people in my state who are about to get kicked off of their health insurance because of this big beautiful bill that cuts their health care and Republicans refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits even though some of their own members know that it's At a moment like this, the Trump administration decided to give a $40 billion bailout
▶ 5:22:37to Argentina right out of the blue. Now, my constituents are wondering, where the hell did this money come from to begin with? Where's the transparency? No congressional consultation, no explanation to the taxpayers who have to fund it. The clear winners are the hedge fund billionaires who bet on Argentina's economy. It directly benefits them and it sells out America.
▶ 5:23:07The American people get nothing out of it. Even though Trump himself said we were going to put America first. Just a few weeks ago, this administration said that there wasn't enough money for healthcare. that 24 million Americans now stand to lose access to health insurance as a result. And somehow Republicans found plenty of money to ensure that their billionaire speculators make out.
▶ 5:23:38And once again, Republicans have made clear who they work for. And it's not the working people of America. The truth is Argentina's experience since their president took office in 2023 is a cautionary tale for the United States. Their president in Argentina has cut their health care budget in half. Sound familiar? He fired thousands of public health workers. Sound familiar?
▶ 5:24:06Roughly 40% of Argentines now rely on a collapsing public health system and can no longer afford basic care. Sound Cancer patients die waiting for treatment and infectious diseases spread rapidly. Sound familiar? And this was done in the name of reducing bureaucracy and waste. The same justification that we hear from my Republican colleagues.
▶ 5:24:35If we continue down this path, we know exactly where it will lead us. So my amendment tonight would redirect that $40 billion bailout from Argentina. It would redirect the money that Trump said wouldn't benefit the American people and it would we would use those funds to extend the advanced premium tax credits for two years. Now I'm like other people on this dis. I come from humble beginnings. I don't know what $40 billion looks like.
▶ 5:25:04I don't know what a million dollars looks like. Neither do most of my constituents. Well, $40 billion that they used to bail out Argentina covers health care under the advanced premium tax credits for two years. This is an investment in the health and economic security of the American people.
▶ 5:25:25It's a far better use of taxpayer dollars than sending billions I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this amendment. And I also want to just speak for a moment to this p polola.
▶ 5:25:44And I don't know if Speaker Johnson read the bill or not. Did he negotiate the Did House Republicans have a say in the bill or not? Because if so, this provision that pays out these senators, which is a corrupt provision, is on the watch of Speaker Johnson. So maybe he should resign.
▶ 5:26:06Maybe House Republicans who reviewed the bill because we didn't review the bill and this whole notion that we can't do anything now because the Senate is gone.
▶ 5:26:18Stop gaslighting the American people. There are two ways for the Senate to dispose of an amendment once it's adopted by the House. One is by unanimous consent or voice vote, which is the most common, and the other is by roll call if requested. So don't say that the House doesn't have power. We have the power to do our job.
▶ 5:26:41You know that this is corrupt just like the $40 billion bailout to argentina is corrupt and it's time that this house do its job. Thank you, Speaker Johnson, for finally calling back the House of Representatives. You don't just work for the Republican Conference. You work for the House of Representatives and all of its members. I yield back.
▶ 5:27:07Miss Bergen, you're rec represent. You are recognized. Pardon me.
▶ 5:27:12Uh thank you, Madam Chair. I also am disappointed to not see other Republicans here today. I couldn't help but overhear a Republican member as after she voted walking out saying the chair wants us to leave and it only raises the question what are they afraid of in the questions from the members. So I was going to start by welcoming uh Republicans for returning from their seven plus week vacation.
▶ 5:27:40I can't really do that because they've been instructed by the chair to leave the room. Now, US House of Representatives, our jobs are we travel to Washington DC. We attend hearings. We vote on matters. That is part of our job. Most Americans don't get to take a seven plus week break from their jobs. They don't just get to stay home. And I remember, if I remember correctly, at one point it was Republicans who were telling people to get back to work.
▶ 5:28:10But instead of doing the work to address the rising healthc care crisis, House Republicans decided to walk away. And now families are paying the price. The Republican le Senate has sent us a funding bill that fails to extend the healthcare tax credits that are critical to keeping health care costs down for tens of millions of working Americans. And I have, as I have sat here through this hearing, I can't help but just kind of think about what Republicans have said here today.
▶ 5:28:40Republicans have said here today in this hearing is we don't like the Affordable Care Act. We didn't even vote for it. So if there was any positive thing coming from it, it wasn't us. Republicans have said we voted to get rid of it. and we will vote to get rid of it. And Republicans have said we are not going to help the American keep people keep their health care.
▶ 5:29:11They've also said and we have no plan to help Americans have affordable health care. Just think about that. If you're in California's 22nd district, which is the central valley, represented by a Republican, which includes communities like Viceelia and Hanford, think about this. This is the Republican position. We are not going to help you keep your healthcare.
▶ 5:29:36If you're in California's 48th district, which is in central and eastern parts of San Diego County, including Falbrook and Escandido and Tmacula, Republicans there, that's what Republicans are doing here in Washington. Those members of Congress, will they take action or will they just give lip service? Because when we hear somebody say we don't like something, but then they don't actually take action, it's really just falls by the wayside. Actions are louder than words.
▶ 5:30:05The Trump Republican healthc care crisis will now continue without relief. These tax credits are a lifeline. They help millions of American families afford healthc care coverage. These are the same families in my district and across the country who have received notices that their premiums will skyrocket in the coming year. Lydia in my district, a small business owner from Long Beach, told me that her premiums will take almost $1,200 out of her pocket next year. That's how much her rate's going to go up.
▶ 5:30:32and an educator from Long Beach I spoke with over the phone was hit with an increase that went from $383 a month to almost $1,000 a month, over 260% increase. I find it hard to believe that Republicans don't have constituents in their district who haven't received these notices. We know at least one Republican House member has said even her family member has been hit. It's clear that people in my district cannot afford these increases.
▶ 5:31:00The tax credits ensure that people can see a doctor when their child has a fever. They allow Americans to fill prescriptions. They provide the stability families need when medical emergencies arise. Without the tax credits, some will delay treatment. Many more people will choose to go without coverage. And we know what that means. People will get sicker and people will die. We are in the middle of open enrollment when Americans need to make budget decisions about what their healthc care coverage will look like next year.
▶ 5:31:31Families need relief now. They cannot wait. The crisis is entirely of Republicans making. President Trump and Republicans can find billions of dollars to bail out an Argentina. They can pay for tax breaks for billionaires. They can even find money to build a fancy new ballroom. They can even give money away in this bill to aid Republican senators, but they can't be bothered to spend a dollar to help Americans keep their health care costs down.
▶ 5:32:01They're willing to let Americans shoulder the burden of higher premiums and less access to care. We cannot and we must not allow that. House Democrats have fought for weeks to protect Americans right to affordable healthcare. We've been clear reopening the government must include a bipartisan agreement to extend these tax credits. We will not give up. Our constituents depend on it. Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House. Last time I checked, you are in charge.
▶ 5:32:30You own this vote that will increase the health care costs of tens of millions of hardworking Americans. to support this bill as written would be to abandon people who voted as here and to support the corrupt slush fund in the bill to pay eight Republican senators. I want to know if there is a backdoor agreement for a kickback to people who support this.
▶ 5:32:54I urge my colleagues to reject this legislation and insist on any agreement that gives the American people what they deserve, affordable healthcare. Thank you. Mr. Raskin, you and uh Mr. O'Hevki are anchoring the table from Maryland. So, you're next. And then, Miss Hayes, I'll recognize you after that.
▶ 5:33:18Mr. Raskin,
▶ 5:33:19the the free state will stand in the breach. Madam Chair, thank you for uh for your indulgence. And Mr. McGovern, thank you uh as well. like uh Miss Leisure Fernandez uh whom I woke up this morning, I think at 7:30 when I learned of this provision. Um I've got an amendment to delete section 213.
▶ 5:33:39Um this milliondoll jackpot provision is one of the most blatantly corrupt provisions for political selfdeing and plunder of public resources ever proposed in the United States Congress. And we're watching it happen in real time.
▶ 5:33:56You know, it was said that the Roman Senate was so corrupt, so drenched in bribery and private self-enrichment that the senators were actually as corrupt as Julius Caesar and as Caligula, uh, the tyrannical maniac. Um, I don't know if the Republicans in the Senate today are as corrupt as Donald Trump, but they're on the path and they're right behind him.
▶ 5:34:19If this were to pass, this astounding provision would give eight Republican senators a personal payday of at least a million dollars each, paid for directly by the US taxpayers at a time when we're throwing millions of people off of their healthcare. Uh, I want to associate myself with the eloquent remarks of Mr. Vinman, but I I want to wait make one um dissenting remark. Two section 213 um is actually about a million dollars, not $500,000. And I'll tell you why.
▶ 5:34:49Um, it's retroactive to 2022, which is extraordinary. It's an exposfacto civil law. It allows quote any United States senator, not any US citizen, mind you, not even any lowly member of Congress, mind you, but any senator, to receive from the taxpayers if the Department of Justice subpoenas their phone bill without giving them notice. That's 500.
▶ 5:35:14and then an extra $500,000 if the Department of Justice seeks a lawful non-disclosure order from a federal judge. That's a cool $1 million they're handing to each of these senators. Case closed. It's over. They want this pirates treasure simply for having their call records turned over by the phone company in response to a lawful grand jury subpoena. That happens tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of times a year.
▶ 5:35:43So, are our MAGA colleagues dealing themselves a million-dollar payout? Suddenly, civil libertarians saying they want to change the law so grand jury subpoenas can't go out for any Americans unless they're notified first. No, it's not for all Americans. It's not even for the secondass citizens over in the House of Representatives, those present and those absent in the other room. It's not for any of us. It's for 100 Americans. They get special privileges under this criminal justice right.
▶ 5:36:13It's a right for those 100 people to say if a grand jury subpoenas us in a lawful investigation and if a judge orders non-disclosure, they get a million dollars. Wow, that's incredible. Uh now, um why are they doing it?
▶ 5:36:32Well, this multi-million dollar self-care package is designed to soothe the feelings and feather the nests of senators who Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and the other 77 people they pardoned yesterday, or maybe it was the day before yesterday, worked to enlist in their criminal efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which I don't need to tell you.
▶ 5:36:54Joe Biden won by more than 7 million votes, 306 to 232 in the electoral college as determined not just by the House and the Senate, but also by 60 federal and state courts that rejected every fraudulent claim of electoral corruption and fraud. Well, following this evidence, including many calls made by Giuliani and the president to US senators who were on the floor on January 6th, they said, "Well, the grand jury looked and saw the evidence. The president was in touch with all these senators.
▶ 5:37:23They wanted the pen register for them. It's not a phone tap, which is what they're lying about over there. No contents of the call were revealed, but it was a record of the calls. It's like your phone bill. And the grand juries do this all the time. But now they're saying that really hurt their feelings. They don't think US senators uniquely should be subject to such treatment. They want a million-doll payout because of that. Now, it's extraordinary. Now, I doubt it even uh is consistent with equal protection.
▶ 5:37:53I think it violates equal protection. It does not pass the lowest level of equal protection scrutiny, which is rational basis. On what rational basis could we say that the grand jury and a federal judge could send out the precisely these orders for the pen register to all Americans, members of the House, members of state legislatores, governors, mayors, but not the US Senate? Come on. I mean, is this the Hunger Games? Is this the Roman Senate? I I I just I can't believe it. We are the people's house, Madam Chair.
▶ 5:38:23I know you agree with me about that. We're the people's house. So, they want to treat us like the House of Commons, and they're the House of Lords, and they're going to deal themselves all kinds of special entitlements and privileges. Well, let's be the rules committee. I once served on this great committee. Be the rules committee, not the fool's committee. don't roll over and play dead when the Senate decides that they want to deal themselves to this stuff. That provision is an insult to the House.
▶ 5:38:50It's an insult to the taxpayers and it's an in insult to the US Constitution and the people of the United States. This must be deleted regardless of how you feel about everything else. This provision must be deleted. And I yield back.
▶ 5:39:03Thank you, Mr. Rask. And Miss Hayes, you're recognized.
▶ 5:39:10Thank you. And thank you to everybody here. I had two delayed flights and a train to get here because I wanted to make sure I was on this committee to say the exact same thing the last time I came before this committee to make to fight for support for SNAP for the 42 million people who rely on this benefit.
▶ 5:39:36I one of the good things about riding the train was that I had the opportunity to listen in on this committee, Madam Chair, and I heard you reference many times the working families tax. I don't know what it was, but that's just it. I don't know what that is.
▶ 5:39:54I never voted on that. What was presented before the House was the one big beautiful bill that cut $187 billion from SNAP. What was voted on in the House was a farm bill that went after SNAP. What was voted on and presented in the House was the debt ceiling that went after SNAP. This is a program that has been under attack at every turn and now is no different.
▶ 5:40:23But I'm going to give the president the benefit of the doubt because what he said over the last couple weeks was that he really wanted to feed hungry children. he just didn't have the legal authority to do so. Went back and forth to the court and said, "No, I want to do this. I just don't have the authority to do it." The court said, "Absolutely, you do." Appealed it again. I want to do this.
▶ 5:40:45So what I'm asking today is I have introduced an amendment, amendment number 24 that clarifies that the contingency fund that is set up that the emergency SNAP benefits that are set aside are in fact intended to cover an emergency such as a lapse in government funding. So that if this ever happens again, the president doesn't have to go to the Supreme Court.
▶ 5:41:09The Secretary of Agriculture doesn't have to ask for clarification on what the procedures are. This bill, just like the last appropriations package, set aside $6 billion in emergency contingency funding to cover The fact that we had to fight all the way to the Supreme Court for those benefits to be released is egregious.
▶ 5:41:37You can call it what you want, but it was using hungry people as a bargaining tool. This is Stalin era tactics. And I don't think that that is what the president intended. I don't think that's what Republicans intended. So I believe that in this moment we can correct that to make sure it never happens again. to make sure that it is clear that the Congress, let her listen to me while I'm talking.
▶ 5:42:06You can talk to her when I'm done. make it clear that the Congress has set aside this money so that if we are ever in this situation again, hungry families, hungry children, hungry veterans who already are at risk of losing eligibility for this program once the provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act go into um kick in.
▶ 5:42:34We have millions of families that are already at risk of losing benefits. But those children who are not Republican or Democrat, who didn't vote for any of us, who are 39% of the participants who are at risk of not receiving benefits so that they don't suffer. My amendment says that the contingency fund that is set aside be used in an emergency.
▶ 5:43:00that we clarify that a lapse in government funding does count as an emergency and that those funds are released immediately so families don't have to wait for the president to appeal to the Supreme Court over and over and then threaten states with punitive damages if they don't undo releasing the benefits that they've already released. I ask that this committee make that amendment in order.
▶ 5:43:28I mean of all the egregious things that are a part of this. The fact that hunger was used as a political cudgel in this moment is unconscionable. We can talk about healthcare. We can talk about so many other things.
▶ 5:43:42But the fact that starving children was used in order to and and I I guess I hope what the what the American public took away from that is the people who were affected by that, the people who care deeply about that are the Democrats because the Republicans didn't give a damn about it. I yield back.
▶ 5:44:05Thank you. Um I have no questions, Mr.
▶ 5:44:10Yeah. Well, I just want to I want to thank uh this entire panel for being here. Um look, I you know, I was raised to believe that government should be a force uh of good to help people uh not to hurt people. And I think of late government has become, you know, everything that I believe it shouldn't be. And so many of my constituents have been hurt.
▶ 5:44:33uh they're being negatively impacted by uh the ACA premium uh the ACA tax benefit not being extended. Uh they've been hurt by the SNAP uh withholding of SNAP. I mean, and here's the deal. Um and I, you know, I appreciate Miss Hayes being very diplomatic, saying that she didn't think the president um intended it to be this way, but I I just you know what? Um I think he did.
▶ 5:45:03And that's what really bothers me. Um I mean because um he had the authority before the federal courts intervened uh and not just not one uh ruling but two rulings. Um and and then he decided he would appeal and I was trying to think like who who would do that? I mean all the ICE agents get paid, right?
▶ 5:45:25Right. Yeah. Right. I mean yeah I mean I mean all the ICE agents get paid. Um, and you know, no questions asked. Uh, but you know, he's withholding SNAP benefits. I mean, you know, look, um, you know, we we just we just heard about the corruption, um, going on in the Senate where a million where senators can get up to a million dollars if they say that a court looked at their phone records, who they called. I mean, that's it.
▶ 5:45:53And um and yet we can't extend the ACA tax credits so that 24 million people can afford their health insurance so that they don't have to live through a nightmare of not having insurance and they have kids, you know, or is somebody who's sick and you know is afraid to go to the hospital because they had to give up their insurance um because they couldn't afford it and and so they're putting off getting seen by a doctor and all of a sudden something gets much much worse. I mean like what the what's going on in this country?
▶ 5:46:22Um, I mean, 40 billion dollars to this rightwing cuckoo clock in Argentina, but the administration can't find it within their heart to make sure that 40 million Americans get the SNAP benefits that they're entitled to. I mean, I I I think, you know, and I say this all the time, and you know, the more I hear Republicans, the more I hear the speaker talk about this issue, the more I come to the conclusion that we just don't share the same values.
▶ 5:46:52I mean, I I believe that food ought to be viewed as a fundamental human right. I think you do, too. I think healthc care ought to be viewed as a fundamental human right, and I think you do, too. And for whatever reason, um, you know, you know, we're having these arguments over whether just regular people, struggling people, you know, can get benefits quite frankly that they should be entitled to.
▶ 5:47:18We argue over that stuff, but nobody argues over, you know, a million dollars special, you know, giveaway to certain US senators or tax cuts for a mult for multi-millionaires and billionaires or big corporations get all these little sweetheart deals or $40 billion to bail out Argent. I mean, like like this is like this is like a Twilight Zone episode. This is crazy. This is nuts. And I I think people have had it.
▶ 5:47:44And I've said I said earlier today, I don't really think this is about Democrat versus Republican or left versus right. It's just about people just don't want to be ignored. They they they see, you know, the president tweeting about the Golden Marble in the in the Lincoln bathroom and and this new Maria Twinette, you know, ballroom, you know, uh that he's building while they're worried about are they going to get food for the week, you know, will they be able to afford healthcare? will they have to go without healthcare?
▶ 5:48:14You know, their rents are going up, groceries are going up. He he was on 60 Minutes saying they're not. When's the last time he was in a grocery store? And you know, I don't know how many of you saw this, but the the USDA actually sent out a notice to grocery stores basically telling them that they cannot offer food at a discounted rate for people on on EBT. I mean, like like how how the hell did you want I did.
▶ 5:48:43I just want to say that for many of the American people, they think that this is something that just started on November 1st. These attacks against against SNAP have been going on for years. And when people realize the work requirements, the exemptions have been changed.
▶ 5:48:59When people realize that the age of a minor child went from 18 to 14, when people realize the administrative costs and burdens that are shifted to the state and all of the cuts that are going to be triggered by the one big beautiful bill, $178 billion in cuts to SNAP. So this isn't new.
▶ 5:49:25So for everyone who's thinking I mean even today after my state released the benefits you still not like other things where you can pay retroactively you can't feed somebody from last week that was hungry. We still have lines outside of churches outside of food pantries.
▶ 5:49:44The fact that last week we saw uniform service members in line at food banks before they reported for duty on the base is should be egregious to everybody.
▶ 5:49:57At the same time, it'd be one thing if that was happening in isolation, but it's happening against the backdrop of permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest individuals, a ballroom being built, a Great Gatsby party, $40 billion in subsidies to a foreign country. All of these things are happening at the exact time where the pres literally today I'll find the money to give bonuses to TSA agents who I feel like were loyal. Where are you going to get the money? I don't know.
▶ 5:50:27I'll find it. But when it came to feeding hungry children, you didn't even have to look for the money. The money was right there.
▶ 5:50:34He was It was right there. And the president decided that he would not use
▶ 5:50:39And And I will I will say I I want to push back on on right-wing, you know, social media for posting a lot of really, you know, a lot of lies about Snap and about who's on Snap. I mean, you know, there was something circulating that 59% of the people on Snap are not Americans. I mean, that's just it just just crazy. But, you know, you got all these you get all these all these followers or, you know, or people just need to work. Well, the the majority of able-bodied adults on SNAP who are able to work actually do work.
▶ 5:51:08Some work two jobs and they still don't earn enough and they qualify for SNAP. Children, senior citizens, veterans are on SNAP. Um and the idea that that rather than making sure that people in need get the food benefit that they're entitled to um you know they get demonized um and all this false information gets put out there.
▶ 5:51:28But again food and healthc care should be things that you know we all should come together on and I and it really bothers me that we can't which which which makes me conclude that we don't share the same values. Um, and you know, and I don't know, you know, how things get turned around. Maybe they don't get maybe they don't get turned around until, you know, until the next election, but I don't think people can wait. People lo people are going to lose their health care like now now.
▶ 5:51:57And so I support your amendments and I look forward to to working with you. Uh, but I appreciate you being here at this late hour. Uh, means a lot. Thank you,
▶ 5:52:07Mr. Scandlin. You're recognized.
▶ 5:52:09Thank you. I just want to thank this panel. I mean, it is late. You are the last panel, but it feels like we saved the best for last. No offense to everyone who came before, but I mean, you have spoken with such passion and such heart and really laid out what the problem is with this bill. I mean, we always say our budgets reflect our values and I think as the ranking member has just illustrated, we are talking about very different values here. Mr.
▶ 5:52:39Horsford. Um, when you talk about the fact that the decision was made to send 2 years worth of Affordable Care Act tax credit uh money to prop up hedge funds in Argentina rather than extending the tax credits. Once again, we have this administration putting its thumb on the scale for the billionaires as opposed to for American families.
▶ 5:53:04Um, Representative Viniban, I really appreciated you talking about what you have heard from veterans and from federal employees in your district because I've been hearing the same thing in my district that they do not like the country the the direction this country is going under this administration and they want accountability. They don't want corruption and chaos. Um, so I just it dovetailed so neatly with what I have been hearing from my constituents.
▶ 5:53:35Um, and with respect to the accountability, Mr. Rask. And um I was glad that you laid the connection between this crazy Poliola uh provision in the Senate bill that would basically direct taxpayer funds into the pockets of folks who were at least aligned with the president's efforts to um undo the 2020 election.
▶ 5:54:00But you made the connection to the fact that just yesterday or maybe two days ago now uh all these pardons were issued to these fake electors and to Mr. Giuliani and other people who participated in those schemes and again it goes to accountability and the accountability that the American people have the right to demand. Um so I would love it if you would address that. Miss Scalen, you and I have been on this for a long time now. ever since January 6th happened.
▶ 5:54:30Uh and some of our colleagues mentioned the fact that this was, you know, a mass violent assault on the police in order to drive us out of the House chambers, the Senate chambers in order to get to Vice President Pence, where they were chanting, "Hang Mike Pence, hang Mike Pence," in order to try to force him or someone in his position to rebuff and repudiate electoral college votes of tens of millions of people from lots of states out there, including Pennsylvania, including Michigan, including Arizona.
▶ 5:54:58And these officers have gotten nothing from the Republican House majority. Nothing. And they were wounded. They were injured. They were hospitalized. They were disfigured. They were disabled. Uh no fund for their families. A lot of them um were forced out of their jobs because they were so disabled they couldn't work anymore. Um and uh what have they done for them? Nothing.
▶ 5:55:26In fact, we did get a vote for a plaque for them. It was supposed to have been put up in March of 2023, and Speaker Johnson and the Republicans won't even put up the plaque that's already been produced to honor those officers, much less give them a dime or give their families a penny.
▶ 5:55:44and they want to give a million-doll payout to each of these Republican senators because the American justice system had the temerity to treat them like all other American citizens, which is if your number appears on the name of somebody involved on on the uh call list of somebody involved in criminal conspiracy. Yeah. They want to know who else you were talking to and that we're all subject to that.
▶ 5:56:05If they want to change that and give a million-dollar payout to people who have had their phone records disclosed to a grand jury, they're going to be spending billions of dollars on the American people. But those senators don't want to make that a right that all of us have. They want to make it a right just for them to have.
▶ 5:56:21Well, just on that point of what is an appropriate remedy? I mean the supposedly the reason they in they installed this provision is some sort of discomfort with the um investigation that the special counsel Jack Smith was doing. But hasn't Jack Smith been asked to come and testify before Congress? Couldn't he allay their fears if they would just let him testify in public?
▶ 5:56:47None of those people has gone none of those senators has gone to court to try to bring an action because there's no cause of action because their rights weren't violated. there's no remedy because their rights weren't violated. Meantime, if they think it's bad that their phone records had to be disclosed because the grand jury wanted to see it, what do they think about the fact that our colleagues are being prosecuted for nonsense, like Monica Maccgyver, who's facing 17 years in federal prison for doing her oversight duty?
▶ 5:57:13How about the fact they're going after Adam Schiff, not as a potential witness, but as a subject of a clearly selective, vindictive prosecution, the same kind that's taking place with James Comey. How come they're not uttering a peep about that? How come Adam Schiff's not getting his million dollars? Where's Monica Maccgyver's million dollars? They're subject to much worse government persecution than people whose phone records were turned over because they were talking to conspirators on January the 6th.
▶ 5:57:40Right. I couldn't agree more and just once again, thank you all for your passion and I know I've spoken to Miss Stanbury and Miss Hayes multiple times in recent days about SNAP and and just the damage it's doing in our communities to have the president for the first time ever uh withholding blocking SNAP payments that were clearly available. So, thank you for your advocacy and I think all of these amendments should be made in order. I yield back.
▶ 5:58:17Thank you uh Madam Speaker. I would echo uh the sentiments of ranking member McGovern and uh the gentleoman from Pennsylvania in terms of my gratitude to all of the witnesses for your testimony and for your efforts to fight on behalf of your constituents and the American people uh as valiantly as you have.
▶ 5:58:36Uh I want to ask uh you ranking member Raskin a couple of questions regarding this corrupt you know January 6th kickback provision that has been the subject of much discussion this evening. I have no doubt not withstanding the you know sort of uh the the feigned indignation of some of my Republican colleagues on this committee earlier about this provision that they will undoubtedly support this provision, support this bill and do nothing to address it.
▶ 5:59:04Um and and I welcome them to come back into the room. I know they're back there if they'd like to perhaps uh challenge that proposition. So given that, I want to make sure the record is crystal clear because as you know, the legislative history and the intent behind this particular provision, I suspect will become the subject of whatever future litigation unfolds as a result of this I think this provision is plainly
▶ 5:59:35Ranking member Raskin, I am sure you are very familiar with the 27th amendment. How does this not violate the framer's uh proposition embedded in the 27th amendment that precludes the very kind of corrupt sort of selfdeing that this legislation provides for? Right?
▶ 5:59:57As you know, we're not allowed to members of Congress, the Congress as an institution cannot increase the salary of members of Congress, senators or members of the House before an intervening election. And this provision clearly, I assume, is an attempt to subvert that, if not the plain text of the 27th amendment, at least the spirit of it.
▶ 6:00:18Yeah. I mean, my first instinct when I read this was if they want to vote a pay raise for themselves and for other members of Congress, they should put it on the table and we should move it forward. But this is a hell of a way to do it. But I'll tell you, the 27th amendment is parallel to a number of other provisions in the Constitution. We've talked a lot about the foreign government amaluments clause. The domestic imalments clause in article 1, section 9 says that the salary of the president shall be fixed.
▶ 6:00:43It shall not be increased by a dollar by him deriving other revenue from the federal government or state governments. And it shall not be decreased either. That's the president's salary. And the 27th amendment adopts very much that same approach to our salaries, which we should not be increasing our own salaries even if it's for a tiny subset of the overall Congress. So I would say between that and the equal protection clause, this thing's a constitutional loser.
▶ 6:01:08I mean the equal protection clause, you know, there is strict scrutiny and heightened scrutiny when you're discriminating on the basis of race and gender and so on, but every law has to pass some minimal rational basis scrutiny. There's got to be some rational end and means adopted to it that make sense. What is the rational end of giving 100 people a right not to be subpoenaed by a grand jury that the rest of the population doesn't have?
▶ 6:01:39And you know, I I don't think the House of Representatives should have anything to do with this selfdeing. But if you thought for some reason members of Congress should be treated differently than everybody else in the country, why just the members of the Senate? I mean, that's why I invoke the Roman Senate. I mean, we're at a state of tremendous decadence and corruption right now when the senators think that that's okay in order to get their vote for this terrible legislation that's been described so beautifully by our
▶ 6:02:08I couldn't agree with you more and I I do think ultimately uh this provision will be ruled unconstitutional for the reasons that you described. I want to read you just a short snippet here of a provision from the Senate rules. As you know, every member of the United States Senate is subject to the standards of conduct promulgated by the US Senate Select Committee on Ethics. No different than House members. Different standard of conduct, but nonetheless uh you know equal force of obligations.
▶ 6:02:39Senate rule 37.4 Four states very plainly, "No member, officer, or employee shall knowingly use his or her official position to introduce or aid the progress or passage of legislation, a principal purpose purpose of which is to further the officials or immediate family members financial interest or the financial interest of a limited class to which such individuals
▶ 6:03:09belong. This is Senate rule 37.4 under the Senate Select Committee on
▶ 6:03:18That financial help understand this. Thank you member R.
▶ 6:03:21You know Senate rule 37.4 reates the basic premise of our whole system of government. Madison said that no man shall be a judge in his own case. Right. That's why every legislature in the country has a provision just like the Senate rule you just cited. You can't vote on legislation that is going to narrowly benefit you or a small group of people like you. Well, that uh seems to me to be custommade for this situation.
▶ 6:03:51You've got eight US senators who get together to say, "Hey, there could be a payday for us. Why did they stop at a million dollars?" In fact, they didn't. You know, the 500,000 in each category is just the floor. It's not the ceiling. It starts there. But they could have started it on their rationale at 50 million, 100 million. I mean, Donald Trump is suing the US government for $230 million.
▶ 6:04:16And his own deputy attorney general, Todd Blanch, the guy who went over to interview Galileain Maxwell and pronounced himself satisfied with their answers. He gets to decide whether Donald Trump is going to get $230 million. Why? What was the injury? Donald Trump said he was injured by the authorization of a judicial search warrant at Mara Lago. A court ordered it. They never appealed it. It was never struck down.
▶ 6:04:40You remember they found all kinds of classified documents illegally pilferred in his bathtub and where the pool table was. They found everything there. But he doesn't like the way he felt. It hurt his feelings. And so he wants $230 million. And now Todd Blanch is going to get to decide.
▶ 6:04:57So these corrupt Republican senators say, "Hey, if Donald Trump can do that for $230 million, all I want is a million dollars for my family." So those eight got together, decided to violate that rule, decided to violate the 27th amendment, and decided to violate equal protection. I'm glad you're laying it out for the
▶ 6:05:16As am I.
▶ 6:05:17Thank you, Rank Member Raskin. I yield
▶ 6:05:20Thank you, Mr. Negus. Miss Leger Fernandez, you're recognized.
▶ 6:05:24Thank you. and and and it it strikes me in each of the testimony that we've received tonight about the each of the individual amendments there there there's a theme that comes through. One is deep empathy and concern and care for the people you represent.
▶ 6:05:43The humble people who make us cry when we think about the impacts of these policies that are being passed here in that are terrible for our children, for our families, for our veterans.
▶ 6:05:59But there's also another theme uh that came through I think especially as we heard you know our our veteran on the panel uh speak about patriotism and uh you know we heard Oeski speak about the constitution and patriotism uh and down to you know representative Rascin there is a sense that what they are doing is unamerican it is against the principles for which
▶ 6:06:29we stand as a country that corruption should not be the coin of the land. Uh, and Representative Ventman, I think you said it so eloquently that as a veteran, how does all of this resonate not just with you, but with your fellow veterans and military that you know of, right?
▶ 6:06:56Is is is it a sense of of of of what is right and and this oath to the constitution rather than to a man? Well, what what I see is today on or I guess yesterday on Veterans Day that as we hold this uh debate that this is a betrayal of those values and what veterans served in this country for uh and um some that made the ultimate sacrifice to
▶ 6:07:26um basically watch the Congress and the Senate self um you self-enrich to watch this president and this administration self-enrich themselves. Um it is unamerican. It's unacceptable. And I will tell you that uh um the veterans that I know that I interact with, they see that plain as day. And the American people see that.
▶ 6:07:52And look, um, we may not be satisfied today or in the next few days, but we have seen that the American people, uh, have already said and made very clear that chaos and cruelty and frankly corruption are, uh, not popular
▶ 6:08:12But, but this is the this is the history of our America. Our America has always been about struggle to make that more perfect union and working in that struggle for that more perfect union.
▶ 6:08:26Is never about one vote and it's never about one moment, but it is about continuing to push and to organize and to raise the issues that you all have because we did not eliminate slavery and abolish slavery quickly. It took us years. We did not give women the right to vote for over a century. We didn't give Native Americans the right to vote.
▶ 6:08:53The last case was in New Mexico in the right? And so this concept of what we are involved in of working towards a more perfect union is not something that we give up on in one vote.
▶ 6:09:08And this vote that we're going to be taking tonight is incredibly sad and you know, worrisome about who we are as a nation when we're going to have probably nine votes against the amendment that when we move it, right? But we're going to have nine votes against the amendments to protect the hung, you know, those who are hungry.
▶ 6:09:32We're going to have nine votes against the amendments to protect the Affordable Care Act and to protect medic Medicare and Medicaid and everything else. But that's not the end of our struggle, right? And I think that that's something that you have all done. I am going to yield to my ranking.
▶ 6:09:50No, I appreciate that because I I just I wanted something's been on my mind here and I just I wanted to be able to say it before the before um all of our time is out. Madam Chair, first I want to thank you for for being here for most of the six hours that this has gone on. Um I appreciate it.
▶ 6:10:07We I we have our differences and uh but uh I appreciate you being here, but I just want to note that for most of the six hours that we've been here, not a single one of your members could be bothered to sit in this room and listen and debate us. And they've been sitting home for eight weeks. So you think they'd want to come here and defend this continuing res resolution or defend the process or def defend the policy that everybody seems to be so proud of.
▶ 6:10:35instead instead they spent the entire hearing sitting in your office um I guess just hanging out instead of of working. But that's just a continuation of the same old laziness and failure uh to show up uh to to show to show up that we've seen for the for the last eight weeks. And I I got to tell you, you know, um you know, again, I think if we're not listening to each other, if we're not in the same room, even we're disagree disagreeing with each other, we're not going to find common ground.
▶ 6:11:04And I just it really kind of bugs me because I think there's so much at stake in what we're doing here today. Um and uh and again people are are really disappointed that we've been that we have not had a formal session. We've not been in session for close to eight weeks. Um and again the the issues we're we're hearing about today are are so enormous and so important.
▶ 6:11:30Um, I just wanted to say that for the record and I thank I thank you for yielding the time.
▶ 6:11:35Well, thank you. I mean, we could have had the conversation of Representative Scott about this amendment if we would have been here. We could have had the conversation with the 14 members who want to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credit. We could have had the conversation with the people who care about feeding the hungry. And it's not it's not just those who receive the SNAP benefits. It's the grocery stores. It's the farmers. It's the others. And uh I'll give you some time to address that.
▶ 6:12:03No, I just wanted to say the fact that we're not even considering a single one of these amendments is a metaphor for the idea that there's a trust deficit and that our Republican colleagues have not shown themselves to be reliable legislating partners. We're in a moment right now where we're being asked to come back and we can decide, we can work these things out later.
▶ 6:12:32How can we trust that we'll have conversations and work these things out later when literally our first day back, no one is even here? Our first day back, we're not even having serious debate about, well, you know what, this is a good amendment. Let's offer it up. Let's have a vote on it.
▶ 6:12:51the fact that all of this was done as a take it or leave it negoti not even you can't even call it a negotiation you vote for it or you leave it there that's the only option and we're supposed to accept sick children choose between sick ch sick children and hungry children and and that's supposed to be a choice for us that I mean we ref I refuse to accept that and the fact that my Republican colleagues are not even here as Mr.
▶ 6:13:20McGovern said to have a debate. You mean to tell me of all the amendments that were presented, there's not one that the Republicans are open to saying, you know what, there's a good point there. Let's spend some more time on Says that you don't want to work with us. That's the takeaway right now. You don't want to work with us. You don't want to feed children. You don't want to talk about health care. You don't want to do any of these things.
▶ 6:13:45Tonight, the last 50 some odd days is a metaphor for the environment that we are operating in right now. And the fact that everything was contingent upon a promise of a future conversation when we can't even have a right now conversation tells us everything we want to know about what is happening.
▶ 6:14:08And I hope the American people are paying attention to this because when Democrats were in the majority, the things that we fought for were healthc care subsidies and feeding people and making sure we took care of people. When Republicans were in the majority, the things that they fought for were permanent tax credits for the wealthiest individuals. And that's just facts. That's not a narration. That's not an opinion. That is just the facts about what was passed under each Congress.
▶ 6:14:38The fact that PAC apps, the PACE act, some of the provisions are being rolled back while the protections in the one big beautiful bill act remain the same. The fact that the Republican majority is doing all they can to rebrand that says that you know that it's bad. You know that it's bad. There was nothing beautiful about it. So I thank you all for everything.
▶ 6:15:07You know, people are watching. People understand the one of the one of the things about being in at home for so many weeks in a row was that I really had a sense to talk to people all over the district and it is clear that the American people are on the side of health care. They're on the side of feeding people. They're on the side of taking care of their neighbors. and nothing that this Congress does in this moment is going to change that.
▶ 6:15:33Thank you very much. And I would also point out that it's about 73% of the American people want us to extend those tax credit and that includes Republicans uh and uh independents as well as Democrats. Uh one last quick question.
▶ 6:15:49Uh, Representative Raskin, the 8 million and the fact that these eight senators were specifically singled out, not singled out, priority, they got special treatment, right, by having this retroactive, but this money that's that's the floor because all the going forward can seek this kind of payment. Correct. So 8 million is just a floor. It's going to go way higher.
▶ 6:16:17Absolutely. And this is a special right and privilege that they have now dealt to the 100 Americans, the Americans who are in the US Senate against all other or 40 million people in the country, uh, including all other elected officials.
▶ 6:16:36it's it's a it's a money spigot that only flows to the senators. That's like a a visual of how I see this. There's a special spigot that those eight get, but the the the money spigot only goes to the senators in this instance. And with that, uh, I think unless there's anything else, I'll go ahead and yield
▶ 6:16:58Thank you for yielding, Miss Leisure Fernandez. The panel is dismissed. Is is there anyone else seeking to testify on
▶ 6:17:29the Senate amendment to HR Seeing none, this closes the hearing portion of our meeting. The chair will be in receipt of a motion from the gentlewoman from Minnesota, Miss Fishbach. Thank you, Madam Chair.
▶ 6:17:53Madam Chair, I move the committee grant a rule providing for the consideration of the Senate amendment to HR5371, the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs and Extensions Act of 2026.
▶ 6:18:11The rule makes an order, a motion offered by the chair of the committee on appropriations or his design that the House concur in the Senate amendment to The rule waves all points of order against consideration of the motion and the Senate amendment. The rule provides that the Senate amendment and the motion shall be considered as read.
▶ 6:18:32Finally, the rule provides one hour of debate on the motion equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking minority member of the committee on appropriations or their respective
▶ 6:18:46Thank you very much. You have now heard the motion. Is there any discussion or amendment to the rule?
▶ 6:18:51Yes, madam chair. I have an amendment to the rule. Um I move the committee add a section to the rule providing expedited procedures in the House for consideration of a Senate passed measure extending the Affordable Care Act enhanced premium tax credits. Um uh Speaker Johnson hasn't has not committed to holding a House vote on a Senate deal to preserve four million people's healthcare and prevent uh premiums from skyrocketing for over 20 million Americans.
▶ 6:19:18I certainly hope he'll change his mind if the Senate sends us a bipartisan healthc care fix. Uh but hope won't get you far in the 118th Congress. So let's ensure that we have a we have the chance for an up or down vote. Expedited procedures would allow any member to bring the Senate pass measures straight to the floor for a debate and a vote. I want to be clear, a yes vote on this motion is a vote to guarantee that the House can consider a bipartisan bill protecting Americans healthcare if it passes the Senate.
▶ 6:19:48A no vote will uh to allow a Senate healthc care deal to uh would allow a Senate healthcare deal to die a quiet death uh and turn a blind eye to working families who will continue to struggle to pay for health insurance next year. So, I urge a yes vote on my motion and I yield back. Does um any Republican wish to speak to Mr. McGovern's motion? Nope. Anyone else wish to speak to Mr. McGovern's motion? Miss Leger Fernandez.
▶ 6:20:17Madam Chair, this is basically so that the deal that was struck in the Senate is not simply a pinky promise, but that there is a way to actually vote in the House if the Senate uh takes up uh the Affordable Care Act uh tax credit I I think we should vote for this amendment so that we can actually put in place the deal that was struck in the Senate. It's it's an easy thing.
▶ 6:20:47Let people vote. We should let people vote on these matters.
▶ 6:20:52Well, the Senate, the majority leader in the Senate has um said that he will uh call for a vote and uh if a bill comes to the house, I believe that the um speaker will um deal with that also. So, I don't think that we need to do an amendment. um
▶ 6:21:17to to force the speaker to do something.
▶ 6:21:21Well, with with respect, Madam Chair, I I haven't heard the speaker make that make that promise.
▶ 6:21:26I I didn't say he had
▶ 6:21:27I didn't say he had.
▶ 6:21:29I said it it's I I believe he will. I believe that he will. So,
▶ 6:21:34I I don't intend to speak for the him.
▶ 6:21:40Hearing no further debate, the questions on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:21:48All those opposed, no.
▶ 6:21:51In the opinion of the chair of the nose have it. The amendments not agreed to roll. Mr. McGovern request a roll call vote. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:21:59Mrs. Fishbach. No.
▶ 6:22:00Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy.
▶ 6:22:03Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr.
▶ 6:22:08Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith.
▶ 6:22:10Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. No.
▶ 6:22:12Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern.
▶ 6:22:13Mr. McGovern. I Miss Scallan.
▶ 6:22:15Miss Scallan. I Mr. Negus.
▶ 6:22:17Mr. Naggus. I Meredger Fernandez.
▶ 6:22:19M. Ledger Fernandez. I
▶ 6:22:21Madam Chair.
▶ 6:22:22Madam Chair, no.
▶ 6:22:24Clerk will report the tally.
▶ 6:22:25Four yays. Eight nays.
▶ 6:22:28The amendment is not agreed to. Uh, is there further discussion or amendment?
▶ 6:22:33I have an amendment to the rule. I move the committee make an order amendment number 30 to Senate amendment HR 5371 offered by myself which repeals the $186 billion in cuts to the supplemental nutrition assistance program included in the big ugly bill which harms all SNAP beneficiaries including families with kids, older adults, and veterans. Madam Chair, Republicans have ignored the needs of everyday Americans.
▶ 6:22:56people in our districts just trying to get by amid skyhigh food costs uh in order to help billionaires uh out with another tax break. The big ugly bill cuts millions of parents, older adults, veterans, homeless people, and former foster youth off of SNAP. It cuts benefits for every single person on SNAP, including children, all to fund again the tax breaks for the richest people in the country. Think about that for a minute. You are taking food away from veterans and cutting SNAP benefits for kids to fund tax breaks for billionaires.
▶ 6:23:27It seems to me to be twisted and shameful. Everywhere I go in my district, I hear from families who are scared to death about losing access to SNAP or having their benefits cut. Parents don't know how they will afford food for their kids. Older adults are scared that they will have to take prescriptions on an empty stomach. I visited a veterans pantry in Milbury, Massachusetts last week in my district, and the need is at an all-time high. Food prices are going through the roof. And this bill and the bill we're debating today institutes a one-year farm bill extension.
▶ 6:23:58That's the that's the third time Republicans have knocked the can down the road and neglected bipartisan negotiations on a farm bill. So, we don't have another opportunity uh for another year to try to address some of the cuts in the big ugly bill. You chose to help billionaires over regular working-class people and now those people are left terrified that they won't have enough food to eat. It doesn't have to be this way. So, I'm giving Republicans another chance. Please, hungry people in every one of your districts and in our in our and in ours are counting on you.
▶ 6:24:29So, please repeal the cuts to the to SNAP that were made as part of that legislation. I urge a yes vote and I yield back my time.
▶ 6:24:37Is there further discussion on the Hearing none. The questions on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:24:46All those opposed say no.
▶ 6:24:48In the opinion chair the nose have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Mr. McGovern asked for a roll call. Clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:24:56Mrs. Fishbach. Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy.
▶ 6:24:59Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. No.
▶ 6:25:08Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern.
▶ 6:25:11Mr. McGovern I Miss Scanland.
▶ 6:25:13Miss Ganlin I Mr. Negus
▶ 6:25:15Mr. Negus I M Ledger Fernandez M
▶ 6:25:17Ledger Fernandez I Madam Chair
▶ 6:25:20Madam Chair no
▶ 6:25:22the clerk will report the total
▶ 6:25:25four yays eight nays then nos have it the amendment is not agreed to Mr. McGovern, you're
▶ 6:25:32I have an amendment to the rule. I I make I urge the committee to make an order amendment number 24 to Senate an amendment uh to HR5371 offered by Representative Hayes who we just heard from which ensures uninterrupted benefits for supplemental nutrition assistance program during a lapse in government funding.
▶ 6:25:51Is there further discussion on the hearing? None. The question is on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I. I
▶ 6:26:01those opposed say no.
▶ 6:26:03No. In the opinion of chair the nose have it. The amendment is not agreed to.
▶ 6:26:07I ask for a roll call.
▶ 6:26:08Mr. McGovern request a roll call. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:26:12Mrs. Fishbach.
▶ 6:26:13Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy.
▶ 6:26:16Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Howton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr.
▶ 6:26:20Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. No.
▶ 6:26:23Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Hi.
▶ 6:26:25Mr. McGovern. I am Miss Scan. Miss Scallan. I am. Mr. Negus. Hi.
▶ 6:26:28Mr. Negus. I am Medger Fernandez. Miss Ledger Fernandez. I madam chair.
▶ 6:26:33Madam chair. No.
▶ 6:26:35Clerk will report the total.
▶ 6:26:36Four yays. Eight nays.
▶ 6:26:38The nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to.
▶ 6:26:42Madam chair.
▶ 6:26:43Mr. McGover.
▶ 6:26:43I have an amendment to the rule. I move the committee make an order amendment number 20 to the Senate amendment to HR5371 offered by Representative Wasserman Schultz which restores 51.7 billion in advanced funding for the toxic exposures fund. Today is Veterans Day, but this bill still cuts health care for veterans who were exposed to tox toxic substances while defending our country. The amendment is simple. It honors the commitment we made to the veterans who serve this country with distinction and honor in the PAC Act.
▶ 6:27:13Advancing funding for VA medical care is nothing new and it should not be controversial. However, this bill appear appears to undo a bipartisan compromise reached in the House that would have fully funded over $50 billion in advanced spending for the toxic exposures fund. Toxic toxic exposed veterans shouldn't have to wonder whether Congress will decide to fund the expanded medical care and benefits they've earned.
▶ 6:27:36A vote for this amendment will restore the bipartisan compromise reached in the House to advance appropriations for the toxic exposures fund. A vote against this amendment is a vote against ensuring access to medical care for veterans.
▶ 6:27:50Is there further discussion on the Hearing none, the questions on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:27:59Those opposed say no.
▶ 6:28:02In the opinion chair, the nos have it.
▶ 6:28:04Ask for a roll call.
▶ 6:28:05Mr. McGovern request a roll call. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:28:08Mrs. Fishbach. Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy. Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr. Scott.
▶ 6:28:16Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. No.
▶ 6:28:18Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack.
▶ 6:28:20Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern.
▶ 6:28:21Mr. McGovern. I am. Miss Gallant.
▶ 6:28:23Miss Gallon. I am. Mr. Noose.
▶ 6:28:25Mr. Noose. I am. Miss Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 6:28:31Miss. Ledger Fernandez. I. Madam Chair.
▶ 6:28:35Madam Chair. No.
▶ 6:28:38Clerk will report the total.
▶ 6:28:39Four yays. Eight nays.
▶ 6:28:41The nos have it. the amendments not agreed to.
▶ 6:28:44Madam Chair, I have another amendment to the rule. I I move the committee make an order amendment number 70 to the Senate amendment to HR5371 offered by the Democratic leader, Mr. Jeff, which extends the enhanced premium tax credits for three years. Right now, tens of millions of Americans are experiencing skyrocketing uh health health care costs. Due to Republican inaction, the 24 million people on the Affordable Care Act will experience an average premium increase of 114% next year.
▶ 6:29:12This will bankrupt families, take away people's access to see a doctor or receive treatment. This inaction will cost lives. This amendment will would provide the certainty that Americans need and deserve by cleanly extending the enhanced premium tax credits for the three years. By adopting this simple amendment, Republicans could join us and avert the most significant premium hike in history and protect healthcare for over four million Americans.
▶ 6:29:38With this simple amendment, Republicans could join us in protecting access to doctor uh and the ability to afford prescription drugs. With this simple amendment, Republicans could join us in standing up for workingclass Americans. With this simple amendment, Republicans could join us in saving lives. I urge a yes vote on this amendment. I uh and I yield back the balance of my time.
▶ 6:30:03The um is there any further discussion on the amendment? I'm going to exercise amazing restraint at this moment.
▶ 6:30:18Hearing none, the question is on the All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:30:27All those opposed, no.
▶ 6:30:30In the opinion chair, the nos have it. Mr. McGovern,
▶ 6:30:33I need a roll call on that.
▶ 6:30:35Mr. McGovern would like a roll call. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:30:40Mrs. Fishbach. No.
▶ 6:30:41Mr. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy.
▶ 6:30:43Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Houch. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr.
▶ 6:30:48Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack.
▶ 6:30:52Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Hi.
▶ 6:30:53Mr. McGovern. I Miss Gallon. Hi.
▶ 6:30:55M. Gallan. I. Mr. Noose. Hi.
▶ 6:30:57Mr. Noose. I. M. Ledger. Fernandez.
▶ 6:30:59Miss Ledger Fernandez. I. Madam Chair.
▶ 6:31:02Madam Chair. No. Clerk will report the
▶ 6:31:05four yays, eight nays.
▶ 6:31:08Uh the uh nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to. Miss Camel.
▶ 6:31:14Thank you, Madam Chair. I have an amendment to the rule. I move the committee making an order amendment number 32 to the Senate amendment to HR offered by myself which strikes the language in the big beautiful bill which defunds Planned Parenthood. The CBO numbers don't lie. By defunding Planned Parenthood, the big ugly bill increases the deficit. So, this isn't about saving money.
▶ 6:31:40It's about punishing Planned Parenthood and the 1 million people who rely on its health centers every year for cancer screenings, STI testing, birth control, and safe legal abortion. Republicans are willing to gut public health, cut off care to millions, and take away essential services, all to get a win for their most extreme base, and to secure tax cuts for billionaires.
▶ 6:32:07This provision doesn't just target abortion, it targets health care. It strips care away from lowincome patients, young people, and anyone who relies upon Planned Parenthood. In many communities, Planned Parenthood Health Centers are the only expert affordable provider of sexual and reproductive health care. And we know exactly how much this cruel provision costs, $300 million.
▶ 6:32:34And that's before you consider the very real impacts that will have on people and communities. So that's why I'm introducing an amendment to repeal this expensive and harmful provision to protect Americans access to the life-saving health care that we know Planned Parenthood provides. At a time when our entire health care system is under attack, this protection is more important than ever. I urge a yes vote on my amendment and I yield the balance of my time.
▶ 6:33:04Is there any further discussion on the Hearing none. The question is on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:33:13Those opposed say no. No.
▶ 6:33:16In the opinion chair the no have it. Miss Gandlin request a recorded vote. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:33:22Mrs. Fishbach. No.
▶ 6:33:23Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy. No. Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr. Scott.
▶ 6:33:30Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Hi. Mr. McGovern. I am. Miss Gallen. Hi. Miss Scallan. I Mr.
▶ 6:33:39Mr. Negus I. M. Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 6:33:42Miss. Ledger Fernandez. I Madam Chair.
▶ 6:33:45Madam Chair. No.
▶ 6:33:47The clerk will report the total.
▶ 6:33:48Four yays. Eight nays.
▶ 6:33:50The nose have it. The amendments not agreed to. Miss Scandlin, you're
▶ 6:33:54Madam Chair, I have an amendment to the rule. I move the committee make in order amendment 40 to the Senate amendment to offered by myself which would make WIC mandatory spending thereby sparing it from being impacted by future shutdowns. This this amendment would codify ranking member Bobby Scott's bill to make WIC mandatory spending.
▶ 6:34:17Wick provides healthy food, baby formula, and nutrition support for nearly 7 million pregnant women, new moms, and young children. That's about half of all infants born in this country. It helps families afford milk and eggs, vegetables, cereal, basic staples that every parent needs to help keep their child healthy. It provides breastfeeding counseling, health screenings, and referrals for prenatal care. and it's one of the most effective public health programs ever created.
▶ 6:34:48But every time there's a shutdown, this program gets put at risk. WICK is classified as discretionary spending, which means its funding can stop the second a shutdown begins. I'm sorry, but babies don't believe that food is discretionary, and I don't either. This isn't a question of whether we can afford WIC. It's whether we have the moral decency to guarantee that no baby in America goes hungry when politicians in Washington can't come to a timely resolution to an issue.
▶ 6:35:18The solution is simple. WIC should be made a mandatory funding program just like Social Security and Medicare. It should be shielded from shutdowns and partisan gains games. That's why I'm introducing this amendment to make WIC a mandatory program and guarantee parents and children can lie rely on this life-saving benefit. So I would urge a yes vote on this and yield the remainder of my time.
▶ 6:35:45Thank you, Miss Scandlin. Is there further discussion on the amendment? Hearing none, the question is on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:35:56Those opposed say no.
▶ 6:35:59No. In the opinion of the chair, the nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to.
▶ 6:36:04I'd request a roll call.
▶ 6:36:06Miss Kandler request a recorded vote. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:36:09Mrs. Fishbach? No.
▶ 6:36:11Mrs. Fishbach? No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy.
▶ 6:36:13Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hchin. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr.
▶ 6:36:18Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Hi.
▶ 6:36:23Mr. McGovern. I Miss Scallan.
▶ 6:36:25Miss Gallen. I Mr. Negus. Hi.
▶ 6:36:27Mr. Negus. I Miss Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 6:36:30Miss Ledger Fernandez. I madam chair.
▶ 6:36:32Madam chair. No.
▶ 6:36:34Clerk will report the total
▶ 6:36:35four yays. Eight nays.
▶ 6:36:37The nos have it. The amendments not agreed to. Miss Ganon.
▶ 6:36:42Madam chair. I have an amendment to the rule. I move the committee make an order amendment 49 to the Senate amendment to offered by Representative Horford which provides that all financial support provided to Argentina not explicitly authorized by Congress is hereby terminated and $40 billion is hereby appropriated to go towards extending um the Affordable Care Act's extended tax credits through December 31st, 2027.
▶ 6:37:12We heard earlier from my colleague, Congressman Horford, that it is madness that Donald Trump is sending a $40 billion bailout to Argentinian hedge fund investors during a government shutdown at a time when uh he is also arguing that we can't afford to help American families buy health insurance.
▶ 6:37:34So, while families are going hungry and Americans are begging Republicans to prevent their health care premiums from doubling and and Republicans were saying we couldn't afford it, Donald Trump was busy sending billions to his buddies abroad. So, with this amendment, uh, we want to give our Republican colleagues another chance to distance themselves from the policy and political failures of this White House. Please vote for this amendment.
▶ 6:38:01Show the American people that you care more about their health care than the Argentina politicians who are receiving billions of taxpayer dollars. I urge a yes vote on my amendment and I yield back.
▶ 6:38:15Sir, further discussion on the amendment. Hearing none, the question is on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 6:38:24Those opposed say no.
▶ 6:38:26No. In the opinion of chair, the nos have it. Miss Scandlin request a recorded vote.
▶ 6:38:35Um, the clerk will call the role.
▶ 6:38:38Mrs. Fishbach, no.
▶ 6:38:39Mrs. Fishbach, no. Mr. Norman, Mr. Roy, Mr. Roy, No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack.
▶ 6:38:49Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Hi.
▶ 6:38:51Mr. McGovern. I am. Miss Scan. Miss Scan. I am. Mr. Negus. Hi.
▶ 6:38:55Mr. Noose. I. Miss. Ledger. Fernandez.
▶ 6:38:58Miss Ledger Fernandez. I madam chair
▶ 6:39:01madam chair no
▶ 6:39:03the clerk will report the total
▶ 6:39:04four yays eight nays
▶ 6:39:06the nose have it the amendments not agreed to leisure Fernandez
▶ 6:39:11Madame chair uh I have an amendment to the move I move the committee make an order amendment number 25 to the Senate amendment to HR 5371 offered by myself which strikes section 213 of division C which allows senators who were legally subpoenaed during the January 6 criminal conspiracy investigation to get millions of dollars deposited into their bank accounts at taxpayer
▶ 6:39:43Now, we have offered various amendments tonight because we want to make sure we go on the record to determine where do we Republicans stand? Do they stand with Argentina with the $40 billion dollars we're sending down there or with American taxpayers and their needs for healthcare and those tax credits? Do they stand with the babies who need the Rick funding?
▶ 6:40:10Do they stand in favor of farmers and veterans and children and families who require that nutrition funding? This amendment is slightly different because you agree with us on this policy position. We have heard several of you speak to the fact that you think that this Senate provision is wrong.
▶ 6:40:41We have called it corruption. We do not think it is proper that American taxpayers should be sending millions of dollars into individual senators bank accounts. And those eight senators that we named earlier are not the only senators which may receive these funds. The th though that is the minimum. This money can continue to flow.
▶ 6:41:11We have heard you say that you don't have the power to do anything about this because you want to fund the government because you want to keep it open. If you would have been here earlier, you would have heard the panels discuss the fact that this could be fasttracked. We could get this done, but it only gets done if the House exercises its power.
▶ 6:41:41And your power is your vote. Your constituents sent you here to vote, not to make a speech, not to say, "I think it's wrong," and to tweet something and then vote the opposite. The only way this gets changed is if you vote to change it. And so that's why we are bringing this amendment to eliminate this.
▶ 6:42:08I also want to make sure that we thank Congressman Rascin and Suba Many who have similar amendments and provided excellent testimony tonight about this. So let's see what kind of courage we all have to stand up to this kind of corruption and special treatment for for a hundred people who will be treated completely different than every
▶ 6:42:39other American who may have their records legally subpoenaed by the Department of Justice. With that, Madam Chair, uh, I move my amendments and I encourage all of us to think carefully about your
▶ 6:42:57Madam Chair,
▶ 6:42:58is there further discussion on the
▶ 6:43:00Yeah. I would just simply say to my colleagues, um, uh, you know, uh, do the right thing because if you don't stop this now, you're never going to stop it. I mean, I I I don't this this will be a done deal. you you will not find a vehicle to be able to get at this.
▶ 6:43:19Um and if we pass this amendment um make this amendment in order tonight, John Thoon, get on the telephone and get his senators back there tomorrow night, you could fix this um and the government could could could be open. Uh but don't use the excuse that, oh, this is going to slow down the opening of the government or that um well, we can't do our hands are tied. I mean, you know, you either want to fix this problem or you don't. But understand this.
▶ 6:43:47Uh what if if we don't fix it now, you know, you're never going to fix it. It's a done deal. And it's not just the senators who allow this to happen that are responsible. It will be you as well. I yield back.
▶ 6:44:03Mr. Griffith seeks recognition. Madame quote, "The government needs to open and it needs to open immediately." End Abigail Spanberger, Governor Elect, said that on Sunday. As I said earlier, the problem with all of these amendments is is that it stops the government from being able to open. We're trying to get the government reopened hopefully tomorrow.
▶ 6:44:35And I heard the debate earlier about you can fasttrack it. You can go there's two ways to do it. You can do it on unanimous consent or you can have a roll call. I heard the gentleman say that. The problem is is that a majority of the Democrats in the Senate have opposed this all the way. All it takes is one to say I want a roll call.
▶ 6:44:58Any one of the roughly I guess it's 40 of the senators who voted no can demand a roll call and we lose another week. As I also said before, my district, one of the most economically stressed districts in the nation, has suffered enough. We heard our colleagues say that there needed to be some suffering to get what they wanted. My district has suffered enough.
▶ 6:45:25It suffers economically on a fairly regular basis and in this 40 plus now 42 days I think we're at it has suffered the suffering needs to and we can end it but to do so because of the way the process works here we have to send it back to the Senate if we agree to any of these amendments and I disagree with my colleague on the other side who said and he may be right but I disagree that there's only one chance to do it and it's Now,
▶ 6:45:55no, they're going to be there's going to be other chances that we can strike back at the Senate before the senators actually start filing their claims. And I suspect after all the attention that's been brought on this, any senator that plans to run for reelection is not going to make a claim. So, I think that this is going to resolve itself.
▶ 6:46:19But if not, I'm prepared to vote later, but I'm not prepared to keep the government shut an additional day. And I said earlier, we won't vote on Wednesday. It is Wednesday. With all of the discussion that we've had, we're now into Wednesday. So, we want to get the government open today, later today. That's our goal. That's what I'm trying to do. That's what my people sent me here to do.
▶ 6:46:47That's what the governor elected Virginia has asked us to do and I am going to do it by voting no even though the intent of the amendment is justified. I yield back.
▶ 6:47:02Any further discussion?
▶ 6:47:04Yes, madam.
▶ 6:47:05I would first yield briefly to Mr. And I'll tell you people watching this um if people are still up are rolling their eyes because when you want to uh this institution can move with the speed of light to pass tax cuts for multi-millionaires and billionaires corporate bailouts. I mean it would do it in a nancond. Uh but when it comes to this corruption oh no we we we can't we can't oh no we can't we can't compel the Senate to come back.
▶ 6:47:32you know, I mean, you tried to jam the Senate by sending over your flawed uh continuing resolution. Now, they jammed you back. Um, and you're just going to accept it. And the bottom line is accepting this means that that the people who the people who do not vote for this amendment are complicit in this. And I'm going to tell you, if you believe that this will be fixed, I mean, I I you know, I don't know you I've been around here a while. You know, I I see how this place works. Once this is done, it is done.
▶ 6:48:02The Senate will never revisit this. Um, and we will be powerless to do anything about it. So, but it's just frustrating as hell that when when when when people want to move quickly here, they do. Uh, but when people just want to talk about things, you know, uh, and and not see any any any any changes. Uh, we we we we we see how this plays out. It it really is frustrating. I understand why people are frustrated with this institution. I yield back to
▶ 6:48:30my colleague. careful.
▶ 6:48:31Gentleman yields back.
▶ 6:48:33No, no, no. He yielded back to
▶ 6:48:34Miss Scandlin yields back.
▶ 6:48:36No, not yet. I didn't
▶ 6:48:37I'm sorry. You
▶ 6:48:38He was just yielding back to me.
▶ 6:48:41I appreciate it.
▶ 6:48:41Would you like to speak, Miss Scandlin?
▶ 6:48:44recognized. Thank you. Um, what I find, well, among many things that is so troubling about this is all year we have seen Congress rolling over and letting the White House trample on the Constitution, trample on laws, and now we're seeing the House prepared to roll over and let the Senate trample on things. Um, it's not the way our constitutional order is supposed to work. It's not how legislation is supposed to work.
▶ 6:49:13Uh, I'm very unsympathetic to the idea that it's too late, that the government's been shut down too long. Well, you could have come back a little earlier and we could have hashed this out earlier, but so don't tell us that, you know, it's too late to do anything. And finally, the idea that senators would be too shamed to take advantage of their multi-million dollar payout.
▶ 6:49:38Um, you know, in case you haven't recognized, shame appears to be dead in DC. So, um, I don't think your arguments are persuasive, and I urge a yes vote on this amendment.
▶ 6:49:54Is there any further discussion? Miss Hun, you're recognized.
▶ 6:49:57Thank you, Madam Chair. So, let's just be very clear. Republicans in the House voted to fund the government 50 days ago. Democrats in the House voted to close the government. Republicans in the Senate voted 14 times to fund the government. Democrats in the Senate voted 14 times to keep it closed.
▶ 6:50:21All of the suffering that the American people have been enduring, discussed here tonight, fall only on one party, the Democrats. Democrats thought this political stunt would give them leverage. They use the American people as leverage and for what really so big insurance companies can continue collecting big payouts. Let's discuss WIC. We had an amendment on Wick.
▶ 6:50:46President Trump made sure that this program was fully funded despite the Democrats turning off the funding for it. Democrats have lamented for hours about all the people hurting from the shutdown that they caused. We've listened to Democrats talk about how healthcare is too expensive due to a system they broke. Now they want the American people to believe they're gaslighting and hand even more money to big government and big insurance.
▶ 6:51:15But more money is not going to fix a broken program. Think about this. They shut down the government to fight for enhanced premium subsidies. Guess who gets those? Insurance companies. They shut down the government so insurance CEOs can benefit from record profits. Now, on to the amendment offered by Miss Ledger Fernandez. Many of us agree that no agency of government should ever be used to intimidate or target members of Congress or the Senate.
▶ 6:51:44But we also know that the harms inflicted on this institution and on President Trump by the Biden Department of Justice are so egregious they border on treason. The American people deserve confidence in the DOJ that it's not weaponized against anyone, especially elected officials who have a constitutional duty to hold government accountable.
▶ 6:52:07Now, I cannot answer today what the appropriate remedy is, but I do believe that every citizen has a right to petition their government and seek a redress of grievances. Here's where we differ tonight. Today, the American people have suffered long enough under a Democrat-led shutdown, and I'm not willing to keep the government closed while these issues are debated and decided in the House.
▶ 6:52:30I will vote against the amendment and for the rule because people have suffered long enough under the Schumer shutdown. I'm happy to discuss a standalone bipartisan bill to address this issue moving forward, but I won't make this change today and continue to stall the process. It's time to reopen the government and end the shutdown. I yield
▶ 6:52:52Favors this.
▶ 6:52:54Mr. Nagus, you're recognized.
▶ 6:52:57Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. I actually did not intend to speak on this amendment, but um to my colleague from
▶ 6:53:03follow your intentions.
▶ 6:53:04What was that?
▶ 6:53:05You should follow your intentions. Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, Madam Chair, but I could not resist the temptation to respond to some of the comments uh from my colleagues on this side of the aisle and in particular my colleague from Indiana who has joined us now. It's 1:00 a.m. here, I believe, to her first remarks of uh of the hearing uh today after 7 hours, 8 hours of uh testimony from our colleagues and from the appropriations uh leaders and all the rest. But nonetheless, wonderful to welcome here her to this committee.
▶ 6:53:35With respect to this amendment, again, it is folly to think that once this is signed into law by President Trump that it will ever change. Why do you think these senators packaged this provision into the CR in the first instance? It's because they knew that you would make the exact arguments you're making now.
▶ 6:54:02Well, of course, I I this provision is problematic, but I can't possibly vote uh in favor of this amendment now and and and put at risk uh all of the various rationes that all of my colleagues have offered. It's ridiculous. If you oppose this provision, which I believe, as I said, is a corrupt provision. And I suspect that there are some of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who agree with me.
▶ 6:54:33I'm actually some is very charitable. There are two colleagues of mine, three I think on the other side of the aisle, Mr. Roy, um Mr. Scott and the gentleman from Virginia who I think agree that this provision uh is deeply problematic and should not become law.
▶ 6:54:48I don't I I don't with respect to the sentiments of the rest of my colleagues um I I guess I just would take this at face value because I in my view it is very clear to me that at least with respect to those three uh individuals you've expressed your and I would simply encourage you at one or two of my colleagues whom I vote in favor of this amendment so that we can at least send a signal
▶ 6:55:18to the Senate that what they did in this instance is unacceptable. If you do not, if the amendment fails, if it can't garner a single Republican vote, again, I think this Senate will see this for what it is, which is complicity, that at the end of the day, sure, House Republicans may make a lot of noise, but fundamentally we can roll them whenever we'd like. We've done it multiple times this year.
▶ 6:55:46We will continue to do it for the remainder of the 119th Congress. And I again I sincerely believe uh that Mr. Scott and Mr. Roy, I believe that you agree with me that this provision is wrong. I honestly do. So I'm just asking you vote in favor of the amendment. Send a signal to those senators that this was I yield back.
▶ 6:56:11Oh, I yield to the gentleman from New Mexico. If you would, I mean you have done that before. We have seen not frequently very infrequently but where you have exercised that kind of independence and voted your conscience on some of these issues. And we appreciate that because we know that's not easy to do. So I do encourage you to consider the signal you are sending to the Senate.
▶ 6:56:40the signal you are sending to Americans when you can't even vote for an amendment to strip this provision. Uh, and with that, I yield back to my
▶ 6:56:55Thank you, Mr. Noose. Anyone else?
▶ 6:57:02Mr. Roy.
▶ 6:57:03Um, I I'll only um add just a couple of thoughts to what gentle from Indiana said. Um, bill before us, as the gentleman from Virginia articulated, is a bill that will open the government probably in about 24 hours if all goes to the current schedule tomorrow voting or less
▶ 6:57:27or yeah, give or take. And that's the whole point. That's what we're doing. That's what the last 54 days, quoting my friend from Indiana, um that the American people have been watching and the messages we get and people asking what's going to happen, the folks at TSA that we've all met with, people with the air traffic controllers we've all met with, all the things we've all been doing for whatever theater this is all about, which 99.9% of Americans aren't going to give a rip
▶ 6:57:57about or watch. And that's all this is is political theater in this room here right now. just back and forth trying to joust on political points, Democrat, Republican. That's it. That's all that's happening. Um the fact is you've got you have an egregious
▶ 6:58:13an egregious violation, an abuse of power by the FBI, the Department of Justice that was carried out against United States senators. just just an egregious abuse of power.
▶ 6:58:30In coordination with a federal judge that comes in and says that AT&T can't provide the records to a sitting United States senator, at least one of the uh providers had the courage to at least go into court and say, "Wait a minute, speech and debate clause. Maybe we can't do this." At least one of them did that. But the extent to which 20% of the Republican members of the Senate were targeted by the FBI is extraordinary.
▶ 6:59:00And we haven't talked about that at all. When we talk about the corruption, let's talk about that corruption, the power of the government, the executive branch being targeted to Article One in that way. That's that merits full hearings, full discussion. It should offend us all.
▶ 6:59:22Fine, we'll get there. But we're sitting in the rules committee and we're talking about this now having this information now at our disposal.
▶ 6:59:30We're talking about a slush fund. That's what we're talking about.
▶ 6:59:32And we're talking about the root cause of what we're talking about.
▶ 6:59:35You either favor the slush.
▶ 6:59:36We're talking about I It's my time. And what we're talking about is how we got here. The abuse of power by the FBI and a federal judge.
▶ 6:59:47That's the truth.
▶ 6:59:54I I don't like the provision,
▶ 6:59:56but this is my time.
▶ 6:59:58Come on. Come on.
▶ 7:00:00The fact of the matter is
▶ 7:00:02the fact of the matter is that's the corruption that should be alarming to any member of Congress. The dismissal by my colleagues on other side of the aisle tells you everything you need to know. It tells you everything you need to know.
▶ 7:00:16a complete lack of regard for what the executive branch did to target members of the United States Senate and members of Congress and our colleagues when my friend Scott Perry was on family vacation and has the FBI rolling into his house in front of his kids to confiscate his phone. Like, we don't seem to care about that. We don't seem to care about that abuse of power.
▶ 7:00:40This is my time,
▶ 7:00:42but this is what my colleagues don't seem to care about. And what we're here now talking about is an amendment that yes, I expressed early and share and continue to share the concern. Well, you can say whatever you want. The fact of the matter like logic and reason should matter here. And what my point before that you scoffed at Mr. Ranking member earlier when I said this is political theater. That's precisely what it is.
▶ 7:01:03Because if you're being at all objective about this, you would be equally concerned about the corruption of what we saw to the Department of Justice and the FBI as you are concerned about a provision that I don't believe should have been put in the bill. But no, we're not going to reject the funding of the government tomorrow because that provision was inserted in the bill.
▶ 7:01:27But I join my friend in Indiana and I would join with my friend from Virginia and my friend from Georgia or any of my other colleagues who want to go address this issue on a standalone bill as soon as tomorrow or next week or in the rules committee next week. But that's the position we're taking and the American people should be reminded as to why we're even having the conversation in the first place. I yield back my madam chair just one point.
▶ 7:01:57It's not a slush fund. It actually is a payment to them individually. So just The question is on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 7:02:26All those opposed say no.
▶ 7:02:28No. In the opinion here the nose have it. Miss Leger Fernandez request a recorded vote. The clerk will call the
▶ 7:02:37Mrs. Fishbach. Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy. Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Houchin. Mrs. Houchin. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Hi. Mr. McGovern. I. Miss. Scallan. Miss Gallon. I. Mr. Negus.
▶ 7:02:53Mr. Negus. I. Miss. Ledger. Fernandez.
▶ 7:02:56M. Ledger. Fernandez. I. Madam Chair.
▶ 7:02:58Madam Chair. No.
▶ 7:03:00The clerk will report the total.
▶ 7:03:02Four. Yes. Eight. Nays.
▶ 7:03:04The nos have it. The amendment is not agreed to. What are we doing?
▶ 7:03:08So, so Madam
▶ 7:03:10Miss Ledger Fernandez,
▶ 7:03:11Madam Chair, I had a couple of more and I don't think they'll uh get as much uh debate uh even though I wish they would. Uh but I will uh just uh add this one. Madam Chair, I have an amendment to the rule.
▶ 7:03:23I move the committee make an order amendment number 29 to the zmenum HR5371 offered by myself which reaffirms affirms USDA's authority to reimburse states for SNAP and NAP under section 118 and requires state reimbursements for other nutrition programs.
▶ 7:03:43And the reason I need to bring this amendment even though we are at this late hour and we had such a great conversation about my earlier amendment is because there were certain states that stepped up to make sure their families, their veterans, their children, their elderly did not go hungry when the USDA refused to disperse the money that was sitting there basically sitting there in the bank
▶ 7:04:13available to fund SNAP. In every other shutdown, that contingency fund that sits at USDA precisely for purposes like this has been used so that people don't go hungry. And in this instance, sadly, uh, President Trump and USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins decided that they weren't going to send it out.
▶ 7:04:39So, Democratic states like New Mexico and Vermont and others, but also Republican states like Virginia and Louisiana and others did what the federal government was refusing to do. They kept their children, seniors, and people with disabilities fed. And I think it is only proper, and it was left out of this bill, that we show the same leadership that they did, and we reimburse them.
▶ 7:05:08This is what has been done in the past too. I mean that's the thing is like we have never used hunger. A president has never used hunger before as a cudel. And this time this president did even though the money was there. And so I think that we need to make sure that all states, including those Republican states who stepped up to make sure their people did not go hungry, received the reimbursements that is normally done.
▶ 7:05:39And this administration shouldn't have needed a court order to care about Americans hunger. All it needed was a conscience. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of my amendment that requires the administration to reimburse states who made sure no child veteran or senior went to sleep hungry. And with that I ask a yes vote on my any further discussion on the amendment hearing.
▶ 7:06:08None the questions on the amendment. All those in favor signify by saying I.
▶ 7:06:14Those opposed say no.
▶ 7:06:16No. In the opinion of the chair of the nose have it. The amendments not agreed to. Miss leisure Fernandez request a recorded vote. The clerk will call the
▶ 7:06:25Mrs. Fishbach. No.
▶ 7:06:26Mrs. Fishbach. No. Mr. Norman. Mr. Roy.
▶ 7:06:28Mr. Roy. No. Mrs. Hton. Mrs. Hton. No. Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. No. Mr.
▶ 7:06:33Mr. Scott. No. Mr. Griffith. No.
▶ 7:06:35Mr. Griffith. No. Mr. Jack. Mr. Jack. No. Mr. McGovern. Mr. McGovern. I. Miss Gallon. Miss Gallon. I. Mr. Negus. Mr. Nagus. I. M. Ledger Fernandez. Hi. M. Ledger Fernandez. I, Madam Chair.
▶ 7:06:47Madam Chair, no.
▶ 7:06:48The clerk will report the total.
▶ 7:06:50Four yays, eight nays.
▶ 7:06:52The nos have it. The amendments not agreed to.
▶ 7:06:59We just did that.
▶ 7:07:02We just did. Okay. All right. Um, hearing no further discussion, the question is on the motion from the gentlewoman from Minnesota. All those in favor signify by saying I. I.
▶ 7:07:19Those opposed say no.
▶ 7:07:21Any opinion? Chair, the uh eyes have it. The emotions agreed to. Um, Mr. McGovern requests a recorded vote. The clerk will call the role.
▶ 7:07:33Mrs. Fishbach.
▶ 7:07:34Mrs. Fishbach. I Mr. Norman.
▶ 7:07:37Mr. Mr. Roy.
▶ 7:07:41Mr. Roy. I Mrs. Houchin.
▶ 7:07:43Mrs. Houchen. I Mr. Langworthy. Mr. Langworthy. I Mr. Scott.
▶ 7:07:47Mr. Scott. I Mr. Griffith.
▶ 7:07:49Mr. Griffith. I Mr. Jack.
▶ 7:07:50Mr. Drag. I Mr. McGovern. No.
▶ 7:07:53Mr. McGovern. No. Miss Scan.
▶ 7:07:55Miss Gallant. No. Mr. Nagus. No.
▶ 7:07:56Mr. Negus. No. Miss Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 7:08:00Miss Ledger Fernandez.
▶ 7:08:02Miss Ledger Fernandez. No. Madam Chair.
▶ 7:08:05Madam Chair. I
▶ 7:08:08the clerk will report the total
▶ 7:08:11eights four ns.
▶ 7:08:12The eyes have it. The motion to report is agreed to accordingly. The gentle woman from M Minnesota, Miss Fishbach, remmanaging this rule for the majority.
▶ 7:08:23Mr. McGovern for the minority. Without objection, the committee is adjourned.
▶ 7:08:32Good morning everybody.