The publication is reproduced in full below:
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 5376, BUILD BACK BETTER ACT; AND
FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 774 and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 774
Resolved, That upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the House the bill (H.R. 5376) to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II of S. Con. Res. 14. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. An amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of Rules Committee Print 117-18, modified by the amendment printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution, shall be considered as adopted. The bill, as amended, shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, and on any further amendment thereto, to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) two hours of debate equally divided among and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Budget or their respective designees and the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means or their respective designees; and (2) one motion to recommit.
Sec. 2. House Resolution 188, agreed to March 8, 2021 (as most recently amended by House Resolution 716, agreed to October 12, 2021), is amended by striking ``November 18, 2021'' each place it appears and inserting (in each instance)
``December 3, 2021''.
Point of Order
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I raise a point of order against consideration of the resolution because the resolution waives all points of order against consideration of H.R. 5376.
The resolution is therefore in violation of section 426 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 prohibiting the consideration of a rule waiving the application of section 425 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. DeGette). The gentleman from Missouri makes a point of order that the resolution violates section 426(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
The gentleman has met the threshold burden under the rule and the gentleman from Missouri and a Member opposed each will control 10 minutes of debate on the question of consideration. Following debate, the Chair will put the question of consideration as the statutory means of disposing of the point of order.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Missouri.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, we have seen a circus here for the last 7 hours. We saw history: The longest vote held in this body in modern history, a motion to adjourn, just so some backroom agreement could be made.
This point of order, the whole purpose of it, is to make sure that this budget bill that is before us--before there is a vote--that we know the true cost of this agreement from the Congressional Budget Office. That is what the rules are.
We know that there are more than 150 different programs being created in this legislation, and we know that there are a lot of many--numerous different possibilities of unfunded mandates that would go to the States, that would go to individuals. And before there is a vote on this bill, a vote on this rule, we need to make sure that there is a Congressional Budget Office score. We do not need to violate the House rules and Federal statute by forcing through this piece of legislation without knowing exactly the cost.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a letter that was sent to the Speaker of the House from five different Democrats of this body, following our lead, what we just said here, that there should not be a vote on this bill until the Congressional Budget Office does a score.
Congress of the United States,
Washington, DC, November 2, 2021.
Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Madam Speaker: As we work to put the COVID-19 crisis behind us and build back better than ever before, we applaud your focus on infrastructure and on measures that help children and working families across America.
We continue to ask that you please schedule a floor vote on the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework as soon as possible, and we are pleased by the progress we are making on the Build Back Better (BBB) Act. As we enter the home stretch of these negotiations, we ask that you please provide additional information so that we may make more informed decisions that better serve our constituents.
First, we applaud the commitment from both you and the President that the BBB Act will be fully paid for. In order to ensure the final bill is indeed fiscally responsible, we must first have the proper CBO/JCT scoring information before any floor consideration. Therefore, we cannot lend our support to advancing the BBB Act until we have had a chance to review these scores which provide the true cost of the legislation. Moreover, the U.S. Senate cannot even consider the BBB Act under reconciliation rules until it has received an official CBO score.
Secondly, we appreciate your public statements committing to properly pre-conferencing the BBB Act with the U.S. Senate. We continue to urge you to only bring a bill to the floor for which we have a strong level of confidence that the provisions in the bill will be ruled in order by the Senate Parliamentarian and earn passage in the U.S. Senate.
Finally, consistent with House rules and considering the magnitude and complexity of the BBB Act, we ask that the final text of the bill be posted at least 72 hours before its consideration so that we--and, more importantly our constituents--have time to review the bill before any vote.
While we understand the needs of the nation are great, we believe our job as legislators is to provide the due diligence required to properly serve our constituents. It is better to get this done right than to needlessly rush its consideration only for our constituents to discover the negative impacts of our unintended consequences.
Sincerely, Ed Case. Josh Gottheimer. Kurt Schrader. Jared Golden. Stephanie Murphy.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I hope that the five Members that are on this letter to the Speaker will follow through with the same commitment that they allowed on November 2, and to make sure that the American people get a valid, transparent score so that they know what exactly is in this piece of legislation.
We know it is the largest spending bill in the history of the United States. We just don't know exactly how much. It is at least $4.5 trillion, but we don't have the Congressional scorecards of doing it.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I claim the time in opposition.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler).
Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend, Ranking Member Smith, for yielding.
Madam Speaker, it was just 4 short years ago that Speaker Pelosi tweeted, ``Republicans shouldn't vote without an updated CBO score.'' Those were the Speaker's own words 4 years ago.
The Speaker even doubled down later in that tweet. She accused Republicans of attempting to ``jam this bill through without an updated CBO score of its impacts.'' Again, that was the Speaker 4 years ago.
Apparently, the Speaker has forgotten those words, because later today, Democrats plan to ram through this Big Government tax-and-spend proposal with no information from the nonpartisan CBO about the true cost and the true economic impact their spending spree will have on the American people.
So I guess it is fair to say that the Speaker subscribes to that age-
old adage, ``do as I say, not as I do.''
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Hinson).
Mrs. HINSON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding today.
Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this massive tax-
and-spend plan that was only posted late last night.
This entire process has been a sham. It has been full of nothing but partisanship, disrespect for taxpayers and late-night and all-day antics. No wonder my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are in disarray.
Late last night, the 2,100-page bill was finally posted. We certainly have not had adequate time to fully read or digest what is in it, let alone figure out how much it is going to cost my constituents.
Iowans deserve to know how much of their hard-earned paychecks are going to be wasted on frivolous, misguided priorities, like funding for butterflies or desert fish when my constituents are busy trying to put food on their tables, provide for their kids, and keep their family farms operating.
But no, we can't even get the most basic information. We don't have an official cost estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Instead, we have nonsense numbers, totally made-up numbers, handed down from the White House in the middle of the night. That is not how we govern responsibly in this body.
Madam Speaker, I came to Washington, D.C., to be an advocate for taxpayers, to make sure that Iowans' voices are heard and to bring a little bit of that Iowa commonsense to the Capitol. This place clearly needs it.
Working families in Iowa sit around their kitchen tables, they talk about what is important to them, they build a budget that fits within their means and they stick to it.
I know what that is like. Moms across the country know what that is like. It is not easy. We have to make hard choices. And frankly, it is disrespectful and embarrassing that we are even having this debate right now.
How can we spend taxpayers' money without knowing how much we are spending?
In the Speaker's own words, we shouldn't vote without a CBO score. I agree. Americans deserve to know the impact legislation will have on their lives. The best estimates that we have, which don't even include all of the provisions that Speaker Pelosi stuffed in there last night, ring up in the trillions.
We are spending approximately trillions of dollars on nonsense priorities when Iowans are dealing with real challenges, and we can't even give them the respect of waiting for a proper cost estimate. This bill bankrupts the economy, it benefits the wealthy, and it builds bureaucracy. It is a bust. Vote ``no.''
{time} 1530
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole).
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, we have heard repeatedly from the President of the United States that this bill costs nothing. That is obviously not true, it costs lots of money.
Last night, my very good friend, the Rules Committee chairman, the distinguished Member from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), said it is fully paid for. I know he believes that. Unfortunately, he doesn't know that.
We don't have a Congressional Budget Committee score. We have had five Members of the other party say they would not vote for this bill unless they had a CBO score. I hope they hold true to that.
Madam Speaker, we should simply not proceed until we have a CBO score. We will have our differences of opinion, fair enough. But the American people and all of us in this Chamber ought to know what this bill costs before any of us are asked to cast a vote.
Madam Speaker, I would urge the support of my friend's point of order.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, it has been quite a groundhog day when you watch what has been going on with this legislation over and over. It started out with a 2,400 page bill; last Thursday a new 1,700 page bill was dropped; this week on Wednesday an additional 2,135 page bill was dropped, and none of the bills have been completely scored.
What we do know, after 11 p.m. last night they made additional changes to the 2,135 page bill that was dropped on Wednesday. And you know what their priorities were in those changes? It was to give millionaires larger tax breaks. That was their priority, to give already millionaires larger tax breaks.
They try to tell you that this legislation was about the kids and the babies and it is all about the children. That is a bunch of hogwash, Madam Speaker. This bill is all about giving tax breaks to the millionaires. The largest portion in this bill, over $300 billion, goes toward their tax breaks for millionaires.
They don't want a score because they don't want the American people to see the giveaways that they are giving to the most wealthy at the expense of the working class. That is unacceptable. We need to make sure that the only thing that is bipartisan in this legislation is bipartisan opposition.
There is bipartisan support to make sure that this bill is scored before a vote, to make sure that the American people know what is in this bill. Don't you dare try to sneak this through. Don't you dare.
The people of the United States deserve the huge tax break you are giving your millionaires in this legislation. Madam Speaker, I hope the five Democrats that sent this letter to the Speaker join with us and makes sure that we know how much the price tag is in this legislation, in this proposal, so we can tell everyday working-class Americans how much their cost of goods are going to be going up because of the reckless, irresponsible spending of the people on that side of the aisle.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind all Members to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, let me first begin by suggesting, and I say this seriously, that the gentleman from Missouri take a chill pill. We ought to be able to discuss serious matters without getting hysterical and yelling and screaming all the time. The American people expect us to debate serious issues seriously.
First of all, let me just say, this is another tactic to try to derail an effort to help reduce premiums for more than 9 million Americans, lower prescription drug costs, ensure that seniors never pay more than $2,000 a year for their drugs under Medicare part D.
This is an effort by my Republican friends to derail a bill that would lower insulin prices; it offers access to universal and free preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds, which would save American families an average of $8,600 per year per child. That is what they are fighting against here.
This effort by my Republican friends is an attempt to derail a bill that would support the construction of affordable homes, boost our housing supply, deliver much-needed rental and downpayment assistance to our constituents; it would enhance and expand home energy and efficiency tax credits; it would bolster our domestic supply chains; creates thousands of new good-paying jobs right here in the United States of America; it would make historic investments in coastal restoration, forest management, and soil conservation; provides resources to reduce emissions and support our farmers; it creates a diverse new workforce for the establishment of the Civilian Climate Corps, which will conserve our land and improve resilience.
Now, my friends on the other side of the aisle were talking about the cost. They are worried about the cost. Boy, it is nice that they finally worry about the cost of things. They rammed through a tax cut bill for the wealthy, for billionaires, for big corporations, and they never paid for it. It added $2 trillion to our debt. Where were they then?
But here is the good news, Madam Speaker. This bill is fully paid for. The Joint Committee on Taxation and the White House has provided much of the detail. I appreciate the fact that my friends would rather shout than debate, but the American people expect a debate, expect a conversation.
When people, by the way, come to the Rules Committee, they get as much time as they want to be able to speak, and we welcome the diversity of opinion.
Madam Speaker, we also know that the Build Back Better bill will not become law without a CBO score. It will not go through the Senate without a CBO score. That will be coming, and my friends know that.
So the bottom line is, this is a red herring. They are not concerned about a CBO score. They are not concerned about cost, they never have been in the past on any of their legislative priorities that benefit the well-off and the well-connected. The idea that somehow they are fighting for the middle class or those struggling to get in the middle class; give me a break. People know the record of my Republican friends, they know the priorities of the Republican Congress, they know the priorities of the previous occupant of the White House.
Nobody buys that this is about protecting the middle class because most of my friends on the other side of the aisle never gave a damn about the middle class or those struggling to get into the middle class.
So this is an effort to try to basically derail or stall or obstruct all the things that I mentioned. Madam Speaker, there is no merit to what my friends are complaining about here today, but they will complain, and they have a right to do so. We will grin and bear it. At the end of the day we will deliver for the American people.
We have two major pieces of legislation that we want to get enacted into law: one is the Build Back Better initiative, which I just talked about all the priorities in it; the other is the infrastructure bill that was bipartisan over in the Senate, and maybe we will see if it is bipartisan over here, I hope so. It is about investing in our roads and our bridges and our water and our sewer facilities, and giving America basically a facelift because we have neglected our infrastructure for too long.
And here is the difference. When they were in charge, when the previous occupant of the White House was in charge, we got infrastructure weeks and infrastructure months and infrastructure press releases, but no money, no resources to help build one single infrastructure project. That is going to change with this majority and this President.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject what my friends are peddling here today and vote ``yes'' on the question of consideration.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is, Will the House now consider the resolution?
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 215, nays 212, not voting 7, as follows:
YEAS--215
Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown (MD) Brown (OH) Brownley Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Carter (LA) Cartwright Case Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Harder (CA) Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Pelosi Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stansbury Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth
NAYS--212
Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carey Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Ellzey Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fortenberry Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kinzinger Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Letlow Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunes Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Taylor Tenney Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Young
NOT VOTING--7
Bush Gomez Jayapal Ocasio-Cortez Pressley Tlaib Zeldin
{time} 2018
Messrs. WITTMAN, GRAVES of Louisiana, LaHOOD, and ISSA changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
Mses. SANCHEZ, ADAMS, Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois, Mrs. LAWRENCE, Messrs. DeFAZIO, GOTTHEIMER, RUPPERSBERGER, CLEAVER, Ms. DAVIDS of Kansas, Messrs. HOYER, BLUMENAUER, Ms. LEE of California, and Mr. WELCH changed their vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the question of consideration was decided in the affirmative.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
Stated for:
Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I missed Roll Call 368 on November 5, 2021. Had I been present, my vote would have been yea.
Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress
Axne (Clark (MA)) Babin (Nehls) Baird (Mooney) Barr (McHenry) Barragan (Huffman) Bilirakis (Fleischmann) Boebert (Franklin, C. Scott) Brooks (Moore (AL)) Buchanan (Smucker) Bucshon (Banks) Cardenas (Gomez) Cawthorn (Nehls) Clarke (NY) (Kelly (IL)) Costa (Sanchez) Crawford (Stewart) Crenshaw (Ellzey) Cuellar (Veasey) Demings (Kelly (IL)) Deutch (Rice (NY)) Duncan (Rice (SC)) Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA)) Gaetz (Greene (GA)) Gibbs (Smucker) Gonzalez (OH) (Meijer) Gonzalez, Vicente (Gomez) Gosar (Greene (GA)) Green (TN) (Joyce (PA)) Hagedorn (Carl) Hartzler (Walberg) Kind (Connolly) Kinzinger (Rice (SC)) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Krishnamoorthi (Spanberger) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lesko (Miller (WV)) Long (McHenry) Luetkemeyer (McHenry) Maloney, Carolyn B. (Clark (MA)) McEachin (Wexton) Meeks (Kelly (IL)) Meng (Clark (MA)) Moolenaar (Bergman) Mullin (Lucas) Napolitano (Correa) Newman (Manning) Obernolte (Steel) Payne (Pallone) Pingree (Kuster) Porter (Wexton) Reed (McHenry) Rodgers (WA) (Herrera Beutler) Rush (Underwood) Sewell (Kelly (IL)) Sires (Pallone) Smith (WA) (Courtney) Speier (Scanlon) Steube (Franklin, C. Scott) Strickland (Clark (MA)) Swalwell (Gomez) Tiffany (Fitzgerald) Van Duyne (Jackson) Walorski (Banks) Waltz (Salazar) Wilson (FL) (Hayes) Wilson (SC) (Timmons) Yarmuth (Beyer)
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Ms. DeGette). The gentleman from Massachusetts is recognized for 1 hour.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess), pending which I yield myself such time as I may consume. During consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only.
General Leave
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, yesterday the Committee on Rules reported a rule, House Resolution 774. The rule provides for the consideration of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act, under a closed rule. The rule provides 2 hours of debate equally divided among and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Budget and the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Ways and Means. The rule self-executes a manager's amendment from Chairman Yarmuth and provides one motion to recommit.
Finally, the rule extends recess instructions, suspension authority, and same day authority through December 3.
Madam Speaker, when Franklin Roosevelt stood before the American people in Chicago, Illinois, and accepted the Democratic nomination for President nearly 90 years ago, he promised them a New Deal, one built on equality and fairness. That work is bigger than a single President or a single era, and it continues to this day.
All these years later, this Congress is working to fulfill that promise. We will be considering a bill that will transform the lives of most people in this country for the better.
The Build Back Better Act will help Americans access stronger and more affordable healthcare, better family care, and will set up a stronger response to the climate crisis. It will lower prescription drug costs, capping the cost of insulin at $35. It will establish paid family and medical leave and provide universal and free pre-K.
Madam Speaker, I have talked to so many of my constituents who are sick and tired of working hard but falling behind. All they want is a country and a Congress that looks out for their interest and puts their needs first. That is what the policies contained in this bill will do.
These are the kind of priorities that make me proud to be a Democrat. They are the kind of advancements that the American people have been demanding for decades.
The Build Back Better Act finally turns the page on four decades of failed trickle-down economics. It invests in the people who built this country; in our workers, the middle class, and everyone fighting hard to get there. And at a time when the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest families in this country has more than doubled, this bill will stem the rising tide of income inequality by asking those at the very top to pay what they owe, to pay their fair share. It is bold. It is consequential. And it will transform the lives of so many Americans.
By expanding the child tax credit, more than 35 million families with children will see their taxes go down.
Older Americans and those with disabilities will also see expanded access to home care as part of this bill. People working two or three jobs to make ends meet--17 million of them--will have hope for a better future with access to an education that extends beyond high school.
Parents of three- and four-year-old kids can breathe a sigh of relief as they gain access to universal pre-K, meaning that they can go to work safe in the knowledge that their kids are learning while they are earning.
Nine million Americans will save money on their premiums through changes to the Affordable Care Act, and folks in States that have been cut out of healthcare--four million of them--will finally get healthcare because this bill closes the Medicaid coverage gap.
By making the biggest investment ever to combat climate change, the Build Back Better Act will advance environmental justice and give more communities a fighting chance to respond to this crisis. There are resources here to cut pollution, grow small businesses, improve care for our veterans.
This bill accomplishes all of this while being fully paid for. It finally demands that the largest corporations and the wealthiest Americans pay their fair share. And importantly, it keeps the President's promise not to raise taxes on those making under $400,000, not even one single penny.
This is a seismic shift after my colleagues on the other side of the aisle exploded the deficit to give tax cuts to the rich and the well-
off.
And let me just say to all those Republicans who have been urging action on the COVID-caused supply chain issues, you should join us and support this bill because there are provisions here to bolster our supply chain and prepare for the next pandemic and future supply chain issues.
Madam Speaker, I will put the values contained in this bill against the priorities of my colleagues on the other side any day of the week.
It is about damn time that the wealthy were asked to pay their fair share. It is about damn time that workers and small businesses get a tax break. And it is about damn time that we focus on the middle class for a change.
My Republican friends may stand here today and complain about the process, but the truth is 13 committees of jurisdiction have spent more than 165 hours marking up this legislation. They considered more than 850 amendments. And all that was before the Committee on Rules did its work. Before the Committee on Rules met, not once, but twice, and talked about this bill--even before it was final.
The committees have done their work. Members in this Congress, in this House and all across the Capitol have debated this bill over and over and over again.
The American people are demanding action. Now is the time. Time for us to make real the promises of the New Deal. Time for us to put our government back on the side of working people in this country. And time for us to deliver the agenda that the American people voted for last November.
Madam Speaker, I thank Members on both sides of the aisle, and especially staff. I know that this has been a long day and a long week. We have our differences, but I thank all of my colleagues for their patience.
Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman, the chairman of the House Committee on Rules for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, you have to ask, What in the world have people been thinking today?
Congress--which doesn't enjoy a high approval rating in general--the Democratic leadership and Speaker have shown such disrespect and disdain for every Member on both sides of the aisle that it will be very, very difficult to repair that damage.
Now, exactly 12 hours late, we are considering a rule that provides for the consideration of a so-called Build Back Better Act. The final text of the bill, of course, does not have an opinion from the Congressional Budget Office, and the final text of the bill has been difficult to obtain, but now, there for all to see but none to read, it certainly does not provide for the American people.
So let's just briefly recap the series of events: in an emergency August session, the House deemed passed on a procedural vote the budget resolution--not a real vote, a procedural vote--setting the top line reconciliation levels. In September, the 13 committees of jurisdiction did markup their portions. The Budget Committee held a markup on a Saturday night on a zoom call without a score from the Congressional Budget Office.
{time} 2030
Speaker Pelosi, Democratic Senators, and the White House then engaged in a new round of negotiations, guaranteeing that after over a month of work--very partisan work--this bill would become wholly new legislation before heading to the House floor.
With only a few hours' notice, the Rules Committee met last week on rushed reconciliation text that did not include language for every title. In the middle of this hearing, Speaker Pelosi decided to abruptly end testimony as her hastily crafted agreement completely collapsed.
We were then called back on Wednesday of this week to restart consideration on even newer text with very little time to review. I wish I could tell you everything that is in this bill, but we really haven't had the time. I guess we will have to follow the lead of Speaker Pelosi at another time when she said we will have to pass the bill to find out what is in it.
This is the most expensive piece of legislation in the history of the United States House of Representatives. The spending in this bill is five times America's annual defense budget, seven times the cost of the interstate highway system, five times annual Medicare spending, and more than the gross domestic products of Canada and Mexico combined. If enacted, new spending will be more than the total combined annual wages of the American people. Think about that for a minute. If you tax the American people every single dollar they earn, you still would not be paying for this bill, but Democrats seem unconcerned with this discrepancy.
This bill includes a Methane Emissions Reduction Program. Methane is a pollutant if released into the atmosphere, but it is also a valuable commodity in the form of natural gas; it heats homes, it runs our plants that generate electricity. Domestic energy protection has skyrocketed over the past few decades, and yet at the same time methane emissions in the United States of America have fallen 15 percent over that timeframe.
Instead of building on this progress and welcoming the innovation, this provision would provide millions of taxpayer dollars to create a new natural gas tax, increasing the cost of residential natural gas by up to 34 percent.
During the Rules Committee meeting, I submitted an amendment that would strike this methane language and instead provide incentives to build the infrastructure necessary to get this valuable product to consumers.
Stranded gas in the Permian basin could be shipped to major population centers in the eastern part of the the country, or shipped overseas, but we couldn't find the necessary money to do that in a $5 trillion bill.
This package also provided billions of dollars to roll out electric vehicles and electric vehicle infrastructure--basically toys for rich people. There are also subsidies for electric vehicles manufactured using union labor. Ironically, these pro-labor provisions could put thousands of nonunion auto workers out of a job. The subsidies would also breach international trade agreements. I submitted an amendment to remove this language, but it too was not considered.
This bill contemplates an expansive drug pricing provision. This proposal claims to protect research and development, yet the Secretary still has the ability to set the price of any new drug at any level the Secretary wishes, even zero. There is no judicial review of arbitrary decisions.
Additionally, disagreeing with the prices set by the Secretary will result in a 95 percent excise tax. Under this bill, the government will be the deciding factor determining which drugs and which cures can come to market and be available to the American people.
I am specifically concerned about funding for some of the disproportionate share hospitals being cut from 100 percent of what is expected to be provided to 87 percent; and it will prohibit nonexpansion States from implementing uncompensated care pools, who provide healthcare to the uninsured and underinsured.
When the American Rescue Plan was signed into law, it included a vast expansion of the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies. While these subsidies were intended to be temporary, this bill will provide a cliff that people will fall off in 2025, and premiums having risen during that time, people will be left in the lurch. It is bad that this has very shortsighted, very punitive policy on some of the poorest people in the country, and it hurts the very people we should be trying to help.
Additionally, the American Rescue Plan eliminated the eligible income cap for the Affordable Care Act premium subsidies, permitting those with very high incomes to qualify. Experts estimate this will cost $34 billion over the next 2 years and incentivize businesses to stop offering group health insurance. So 190 million Americans could be in jeopardy of losing their healthcare coverage. Remember that one, If you like your insurance, you can keep it?
I am also concerned that during last night's Rules Committee meeting not one chairman or ranking member could tell me when I asked, All of these new gifts that are being given by this bill, in addition to the ACA credit, the paid time off, do any of these new benefits require American citizenship? Absolute silence from every chairman and ranking member because the answer is no. These benefits will be available to people who cannot provide proof or show that they are citizens of this country.
The magnitude of the changes contemplated in this reconciliation package require the full input of Congress, not just a few privileged in a secret room somewhere; like we have seen all afternoon.
Madam Speaker, I urge opposition to the rule, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Morelle), a member of the Rules Committee.
Mr. MORELLE. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the distinguished chair of the Rules Committee and my colleague for his incredible work and leadership.
Madam Speaker, today we continue to make good on our promise to deliver real results for working families by moving another step forward with the Build Back Better Act.
The pandemic put significant strains on my constituents, including increased costs of childcare and healthcare, amid continued disruptions in our labor markets. Today it is clear, we have their back.
This landmark legislation will help 163,000 people alone in the State of New York gain much-needed health coverage, and save Monroe County families hundreds of dollars on healthcare costs annually.
By lowering the cost of prescription drugs, like insulin, we can ensure no one ever has to choose between putting food on the table or paying for lifesaving medication.
We are making long overdue investments in infrastructure that will result in good-paying jobs, upgrades to roads and bridges, broadband internet, and public transit, all without raising taxes on working men and women.
We are expanding access to high quality and affordable childcare for over 1 million children, giving parents the resources they need to get back to work while supporting their families.
These are real, impactful policies that will have a profound effect on my district and support middle class Americans at a time they need it the most.
Madam Speaker, I look forward to voting in favor of the rule, and I remain focused on delivering real results to insure our families can thrive and succeed.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), the ranking member of the House Committee on Rules.
Mr. COLE. Madam Speaker, I want to thank my friend for yielding, but most of all, I want to thank him for waiting here hour after hour after hour, as our friends who couldn't get their show in order, broke arms, broke knees, did whatever they had to do to bring this to the floor. Thank you for being here and making sure that things were done appropriately in a procedural way.
Madam Speaker, we have purportedly a $3 billion package in two different parts in front of us today. We are not going to talk a lot about the first part of the package, the so-called infrastructure package, but I want to talk about it because it didn't come through the Rules Committee, it didn't need to, and it is not going to be subject to much debate here, but we ought to talk about it.
Now, of the two bills that we are purportedly going to deal with, it is the better of the two. It is abominable. It is unpaid for. The CBO has told us it is $400 billion--$398 billion to be precise.
{time} 2040
The Senate process that produced it did not go through the committee of jurisdiction. Worst of all, it is the most egregious surrender of House prerogatives I have seen in my time here. It has not come through any committee. We have not had anything to do with it. We are going to simply accept what a few Senators negotiated and went through and call it a victory and call it bipartisan. It is nothing of the sort.
Worse than that is the bill that this rule is to advance, and that is the so-called BBB bill. Now, my friends call it the Build Back Better bill. I call it the bad bad bad bill. It has been cobbled together in a convoluted process of missed deadlines, broken promises, and legislative sleight of hand. The defects are almost, Madam Speaker, too many to mention.
My friends will say it is paid for. It is not. Quite frankly, they have about $1.5 trillion of revenue as far as we can tell, and they have ``$1.75 trillion'' with expenditures. But they intend to make every program here for 1 year or 3 years or 5 years permanent. So if you add them all together, it is a minimum of $4 trillion with $1.5 trillion of revenues. So it is an outrageously unbalanced bill.
Some of my friends are going to vote for this because it has immigration in it. Really? Immigration, frankly, will not survive the Senate Parliamentarian, and everybody on your side knows it.
Some of them are going to vote for it because it has State and local tax reform, which is a nice way of saying, my gosh, tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires in blue States. That too, by the way, will probably be changed in the United States Senate if you believe Senator Sanders and Senator Warren and look at what they have to say about this thing.
Finally, we have some people who say: Well, I am going to vote for it because it is just the right thing to do.
It is the wrong thing to do for the American people.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman from Oklahoma.
Mr. COLE. This bill, by the way, will not get better in the Senate.
Now, when it was sold to your side, you were told that we are not going to move ahead until we have an agreement the Senate will accept. The Senate won't accept this bill. We are going to send it over there, and a few Senators are going to write it and send it right back. If you don't like it now, you are going to like it less when it gets here.
Madam Speaker, we should defeat the rule; we should defeat the infrastructure package; and when it comes, we should defeat the bad bad bad bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are, once again, reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am not going to spend any time debating my friend from Oklahoma. We have spent 12 hours in the Rules Committee debating. But I do want to say that I have genuine admiration for him as well as for Dr. Burgess, Mrs. Fischbach, and Mr. Reschenthaler. We have strong disagreements, but I respect their service to this Congress and to this country.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Scott), who is the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Madam Speaker, every investment in the Build Back Better Act addresses an urgent challenge facing families, workers, and our economy.
Within the jurisdiction of the Education and Labor Committee, this proposal makes childcare more affordable and invests in securing free, universal, and high-quality preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. These provisions will give millions of parents the opportunity to reenter the workforce without having to worry that their children are safe.
The Build Back Better Act makes nearly 9 million more children eligible for free school meals and invests in helping more children get healthy nutrition over the summer. It lowers the cost of higher education by increasing the value of Pell grants and making another major investment in historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions.
The bill invests in high-quality job training programs so that workers can build their skills and increase their paychecks, and it will help employers find the skilled workers they need to grow their businesses.
It shields workers from wage theft, unsafe workplaces, and violations of their right to organize by strengthening enforcement and increasing penalties for companies that break the law.
And it funds service opportunities and job training programs that will help protect our communities from the climate crisis.
The Build Back Better Act strengthens programs that provide vital services to millions of older Americans and Americans with disabilities.
It lowers the cost of prescription drugs, particularly insulin.
Madam Speaker, any of these provisions individually would meaningfully improve the lives of our constituents, but taken together, this historic proposal will lower costs for nearly every family, create millions of good-paying jobs, and set a strong foundation for the future of this country. It is fully paid for by making corporations and the wealthiest pay their fair share.
Madam Speaker, I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting the Build Back Better Act and taking a critical step toward a monumental victory for the American people.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach), who is a valuable member of the Rules Committee.
Mrs. FISCHBACH. Madam Speaker, I thank the Representative from Texas for yielding to me.
Madam Speaker, this bill has gone through several versions just this week--possibly just today--too many for even the bill's sponsors to keep up with.
During one of the several Rules Committee hearings, committee chairs could not even explain specific provisions of the bill.
How does the majority think the American public can really know what is in this bill?
The majority will stick very closely to the talking points, using words like ``transformational,'' ``bold vision,'' and ``values-based leadership,'' and they will say things about affordable housing, universal pre-K, and drug pricing.
But do we know where all that money is really going? Our constituents deserve to understand each of these programs but also the ones that they don't include in their talking points.
They have eliminated the bipartisan Hyde amendment protections that for 40 years have been preventing tax dollars from being used to pay for abortion. It is being reported that there is approximately $756 billion in a welfare spending increase.
How is that money being used? Where is it going?
The bill also includes at least a few budget gimmicks. The bill offers partial funding for some programs, creating temporary programs that are clearly meant to be permanent. This means the cost estimates for the bills are not accurate into the future.
The committee chairs even have a hard time explaining how those budget gimmicks work. One of the biggest ticket items is the $320 billion in tax subsidies for electric vehicles, solar energy, wind, and other green energy, and an additional $25 million for the President to establish an environmental initiative.
The American public might want to know that almost $45 billion is going to the IRS for increased enforcement and digital monitoring, especially since the Democrats have proposed spying on Americans' bank accounts.
This bill pours billions of dollars into government agencies to further insert government bureaucrats into the daily lives of American citizens.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), who is the distinguished chairwoman from the Committee on Financial Services.
Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, I thank Chairman McGovern for creating this opportunity for me to share a few remarks with you this evening.
For decades, we have failed to make the kinds of investments that allow families to access equal opportunities and communities to thrive, so I rise today in strong support of the Build Back Better Act to deliver the urgent investments our country needs to thrive.
I have spent my career fighting for the dignity of safe and decent homes for all. In 2019, I coined the phrase ``housing is infrastructure.'' It hasn't been easy getting to this point, but I am incredibly proud to discuss the more than $150 billion for housing investments included in today's bill that will create or preserve over 1 million homes.
These investments include $65 billion to repair and rebuild our Nation's public housing; $25 billion for new rental assistance to support hundreds of thousands of people struggling to afford rent and help people escape homelessness and domestic violence; $26 billion to create and preserve hundreds of thousands of affordable and accessible housing units; and $10 billion in downpayment assistance to make the dream of homeownership possible for the millions of first-generation home buyers.
Housing is at the heart of building back better.
Madam Speaker, I urge Members to vote ``yes'' and help make safe, decent, and affordable housing a reality for every family.
{time} 2050
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), the designated conscience of the Conference.
Mr. ROY. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Texas for yielding.
I am interested to hear my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who designate themselves as moderates running around saying that they need a CBO score. Yet, we know this isn't paid for. We all know it is a lie.
But you know what you don't need a CBO score for? You don't need a CBO score to tell you that there is a 900 percent increase in OSHA fines because you are going to cause small businesses to go out of business because of mandates.
You don't need a CBO score to know that there is an amnesty provision in here right when our border is completely on fire to provide amnesty for 7 million.
You don't need a CBO score for the $500 billion of a unicorn energy strategy that is already crippling the country, causing gas prices and electric bills to go up while President Biden is across the Atlantic begging for oil and taking cold baths in Glasgow.
You don't need a CBO score for that, and you don't need to know what is in this garbage bill that is going to hurt the American people. Reject it resoundingly this evening.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. PALLONE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Build Back Better Act.
The Build Back Better Act builds on our efforts to make healthcare more affordable and accessible for all Americans. It extends premium subsidies that make healthcare more affordable for millions of Americans, and, finally, expands access to uninsured Americans who are unfairly caught in the Medicaid coverage gap.
The legislation also provides critical relief at the pharmacy counter by finally giving Medicare the ability to negotiate lower drug prices with the pharmaceutical companies. It also caps out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for seniors at $2,000 a year, lowers insulin prices for Americans with diabetes to $35 per month; and penalizes Big Pharma companies that unfairly raise prices.
It permanently reauthorizes the Children's Health Insurance Program, dedicates long overdue resources to provide maternal healthcare; and provides, for the first time, comprehensive hearing benefits under Medicare part B.
The legislation also includes $150 billion in funding for home and community-based care so seniors and people with disabilities can get the care that they need in their homes.
The Build Back Better Act also aggressively tackles the climate crisis with historic investments, moving us toward a clean energy economy while also producing millions of good-paying American jobs. The new $29 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund will accelerate innovation in low- and zero-emission technologies, while also prioritizing the needs of environmental justice communities.
Rebates for homeowners to electrify and make their houses more efficient will save them money and reduce emissions. Investments in a 21st century electric grid will get more renewable energy online. A new Methane Emissions Reduction Program will drive down pollution from the oil and gas industry.
There is no time, Madam Speaker, to delay. Bold climate action is needed now, and the Build Back Better Act is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to invest in the American people and our future. It deserves strong support today.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I am pleased to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Reschenthaler), a valuable member of the Rules Committee.
Mr. RESCHENTHALER. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend and fellow Rules Committee member, Dr. Burgess, for yielding me the time.
Madam Speaker, let's just look at the cost of this. This bill comes in at $4.1 trillion. That is more than double what my friends across the aisle claim this comes in at. And how do we pay for this?
I will tell you how, crippling taxes and budget gimmicks. This bill would levy $420 billion in tax increases on our Nation's small businesses, $800 billion in tax hikes on American companies, as well.
So what does this mean for Americans? What does this mean for the American consumer? Well, it means fewer jobs. It means higher prices. It means more reliance on China for our everyday goods.
If you thought that today's sky-high inflation, if you thought that our supply chain crises were bad, just wait until this bill goes into effect. H.R. 5376 includes a new tax even on retirement plans. It bans production of domestic energy, and it raises taxes on natural gas. All of these policies, all of them would be disastrous for American job creators, disastrous for American workers, and disastrous for American families.
But it is not bad news for all Americans, Madam Speaker. Millionaires and billionaires have it made under this bill. This bill restores the SALT deduction, giving the wealthy up to $72,500 in tax breaks each year. These are the individuals that benefit under this, the wealthy, the elite.
This legislation also includes $550 billion in green subsidies, ensuring that the top 1 percent that already benefits under this bill can put another Tesla in their garage.
You can clearly see where the Democrats' priorities lie. It is not with the American worker. It is with the American top 1 percent elite. Americans deserve better.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am proud to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), the distinguished chairwoman for the Committee on Appropriations.
Ms. DeLAURO. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the Build Back Better Act that is before us today, a package of legislation that I believe ranks alongside the New Deal and the Great Society in its impact.
We must pass this legislation. It delivers a once-in-a-generation investment in children, families, and caregivers, and, finally, a scale of investment in combating climate change that cannot wait.
The Build Back Better Act expands and improves the child tax credit, the biggest cut in taxes for working families with children, a groundbreaking and transformative policy that I have been fighting for nearly 20 years. I am proud that families with children under 6 receive
$300 a month, and children 6 through 17 receive $250 a month. It is a lifeline for the middle class, and it lifts over 50 percent of children out of poverty. It allows us to emerge from the shadows of the pandemic. It is Social Security for children.
The Build Back Better Act adds to this with a first-time investment in childcare that guarantees that its costs will not exceed 7 percent of income. I am so proud that this package includes paid family and medical leave, which finally responds to the needs of workers and their families so that they can take time off to care for themselves or for a loved one when they are ill.
We have an opportunity to build the architecture for the future for working families in this country. Working and middle-class families across the United States are counting on us to build a better and a stronger America.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger), one of the newest members of the Texas delegation from out in west Texas, the Permian Basin.
Mr. PFLUGER. Madam Speaker, I thank my colleague from Texas for yielding.
Madam Speaker, transparency, the American people deserve transparency, and they resoundingly rejected the bad policies proposed by the Democratic Party this week. Yet, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are doubling down to pass legislation that will radically change our country for the worse.
We are talking about transparency. We need transparency right now to understand the tax increases on all Americans; the outsourcing of energy and manufacturing jobs outside this country; and a half a trillion dollars to misguided, new green policies that will, no doubt, bankrupt this country and saddle our children and grandchildren with more debt.
The misprioritized placating of green special interests that this administration has rushed to are unbelievable. It is Midland over Moscow; it is Odessa over OPEC; it is the Permian Basin over Putin, not the opposite. But blue State millionaires and journalists and those purchasing electric vehicles now, apparently--in the 2,000-plus pages--
are going to get a handout.
I am voting ``no'' on this radical legislation, and I urge my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, in a moment I will ask to amend the rule to correct a clerical error in the Rules Committee report. The amendment reinserts the text of the manager's amendment posted on our website yesterday which was inadvertently omitted from the copy of the report filed today. This is purely a clerical fix.
Amendment Offered by Mr. McGovern
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the pending resolution with an amendment that I have placed at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the amendment.
The Clerk read as follows:
In the first section of the resolution, strike ``the amendment printed in the report of the Committee on Rules accompanying this resolution'' and insert ``Rules Committee Print 117-19''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The resolution is amended.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I want to thank Dr. Burgess and Ranking Member Cole for their courtesy.
Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Nadler), the distinguished chairman on the Judiciary Committee.
{time} 2100
Mr. NADLER. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule and the Build Back Better Act. There are so many important provisions of this legislation, but I want to highlight just a few of the Judiciary Committee's contributions, which invest in our communities, our economy, and our people.
We invest in communities by supporting community violence intervention programs, and we invest in our economy by providing resources to the antitrust enforcement agencies for their work to protect competition.
We also invest in people by improving our immigration system to provide protections and stability to those who have made significant contributions to our economy.
This legislation provides an opportunity for immigrants who have lived here since January 1, 2011, to receive temporary protection from removal, as well as work permits, if they are not inadmissible on criminal, national security, or other grounds.
While this is not the permanent protection so many of us wanted, the peace of mind that comes along with protection from deportation is life changing for these people and their families. This legislation will provide security and stability to millions of people, including an estimated 1.6 million Dreamers, 1 million farmworkers, and 2.6 million other essential workers who kept us safe during the pandemic.
The bill would also restore the availability of over 400,000 unused immigrant visas lost due to COVID-19 or bureaucratic delay and would enhance green card processing.
This historic and transformative legislation makes the investments we need to continue growing our economy and strengthening our communities for many years to come. I urge all of my colleagues to support the rule and the Build Back Better Act.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice).
Mrs. BICE of Oklahoma. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the build back broke act. A vote for the underlying bill, along with the infrastructure package, is a vote for trillions in new taxes and spending that will cause inflation to skyrocket and make businesses in America less competitive. Together, these bills would lead to nearly $3 trillion in spending before the government is even funded for next year.
Of the many concerning provisions in this bill, perhaps the worst are those concerning American energy. Americans are already paying the most for a gallon of gas in 7 years; and now the Federal Government is warning Americans that their home heating bills could cost 54 percent more this winter as compared to last year. How is that helping middle-
income families?
Many of my constituents have contacted me about a provision in this bill to assess a $1,500 tax on each ton of methane emissions. This would devastate oil and gas producers in my home State of Oklahoma, where this industry accounts for nearly 134,200 jobs and over $57 billion in economic output, over a quarter of my State's GDP. Not only would this policy kill tens of thousands of American jobs, it would also destroy a major source of my home State's tax revenues, totaling over $13 billion annually, that fund schools, roads, hospitals, and our first responders. This is unconscionable.
Madam Speaker, this rule would enable House Democrats to ram through a poorly written and ill-conceived bill that is not supported by the large majority of Americans.
Despite the Biden administration's claims that it is fully paid for, a new analysis by the Wharton School of Business shows the full costs of this measure being nearly $4 trillion, with only $1.5 trillion being paid for. The Democrats' claims that this bill wouldn't raise taxes on middle-class Americans is also false. This bill is full of regressive taxes that will hurt middle- and low-income Americans, while it gives huge tax breaks to the wealthiest 1 percent in high-tax States.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Thompson), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security.
Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding.
Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule and the underlying legislation.
President Biden has a bold vision for getting our country back on track after a devastating pandemic and years of policies that ignored the struggles of so many Americans.
What we are doing here today is about making government work for working people.
The Committee on Homeland Security, which I lead, has used this historic opportunity to make significant long-term investments in three areas: cybersecurity; the protection of houses of worship and nonprofits from domestic terrorism and other threats; and reducing the Department of Homeland Security's environmental footprint. These are three critical challenges confronting our Nation and my constituents in Mississippi today.
Last week, we marked 3 years since the deadliest attack on a Jewish community in United States history when a mass shooting took 11 lives in a Pittsburgh synagogue.
Today, through the homeland security title of this act, we will be able to give $100 million in new funding to help protect our houses of worship.
This act also includes targeted funding to bolster the Nation's cybersecurity posture in significant ways. With the $500 million included there, we can do just that.
Finally, we include $900 million in strategic investment to help DHS reduce its carbon footprint. Such investments have far-reaching and direct impacts on our national security.
I thank Budget Committee Chairman John Yarmuth and Speaker Pelosi for their months of hard work and for prioritizing homeland security in this transformational legislation.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Meuser).
Mr. MEUSER. Madam Speaker, after elections where the American people rebuked the left's tax, spend, and Big Government control agenda, our Democrat colleagues are doubling down on failed and unpopular policies that will exacerbate inflation, workforce and supply shortages that are hurting everyone, including waste, abuse, and fraud.
Madam Speaker, this reconciliation bill has no return on investment for the American people. In fact, independent analysis shows it decreases GDP and it will weaken U.S. economic strength worldwide.
The bill raises $420 billion in taxes on small businesses while giving a massive tax break for high earners in high-tax states.
It gives amnesty and driver's licenses to illegal immigrants while a crisis rages at the border. It spends big on entitlements that disincentivize work and, as stated, are ripe for fraud. As well, it misses any mark for pay-for by $2 trillion to $3 trillion.
This irresponsible spending bill, coupled, by the way, with a bipartisan Transportation and Infrastructure bill, has made it very, unfortunately, impossible to support both, because the net effect of these dependent bills is detrimental to our economy, national security, and global competitiveness.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Mr. DeFAZIO. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5376, the Build Back Better Act. By passing this landmark legislation, House Democrats are making lasting investments in the American people, our infrastructure, and are lowering taxes for working families across this country.
It fights inflation. It is fully paid for. We accomplished this by making sure big corporations and the wealthiest pay their fair share, all while creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs that don't require a college degree. It is no wonder why this bill is popular with a strong majority of Americans and very unpopular with the Republican minority.
As chairman of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, I am particularly proud that the Build Back Better Act will provide a vital down payment in the fight against climate change. The transportation sector is the largest source of carbon pollution. Important investments in my committee, and others, included in this bill to decarbonize transportation will address the climate crisis with the urgency it deserves, something I have been pushing for a long time.
The nearly $40 billion from the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure will support climate investments by reducing carbon emissions from surface transportation, aviation, ports, and public buildings; ensure critical transportation connections to affordable housing and reconnect bisected neighborhoods; robustly fund high-speed rail; supply ports as they struggle with the supply chain crisis; and ensure climate-resilient and affordable investments in our wastewater infrastructure.
For working families, the Build Back Better Act will provide universal pre-K, childcare, lower healthcare costs, and establish a permanent program of 4 weeks paid family medical leave. It makes historic investments in housing and includes provisions to ensure affordable pricing for certain prescription drugs. This legislation also includes investments in tax enforcement to catch the tax cheats, the wealthiest tax cheats in America. Again, the Republicans don't much like that part of the bill.
It should be clear: The Build Back Better Act will lower costs for families, put money back in the pockets of hardworking Americans, create hundreds of thousands of family-wage jobs, and good benefits.
By passing this bill, along with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, we are truly catapulting Americans into the modern era, making the largest investments to combat climate change in American history.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
{time} 2110
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
If we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to immediately consider the Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act, introduced by Mr. McClintock. This bill will prevent the Attorney General from making settlement payments to individuals and families who have entered the country illegally for claims arising out of the illegal entry.
Madam Speaker, we have a crisis along our southern border, and this will only incentivize further unauthorized immigration, overwhelm our border officials, and expose additional immigrants to danger.
Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment into the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Texas?
There was no objection.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, to explain the amendment, I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), my good friend.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, if the previous question is defeated, we will take up the Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act.
Last week, our Nation was stunned by the revelation that the Biden administration is about to use our tax dollars to pay thousands of illegal immigrants $450,000 apiece and up to a million dollars per family.
Why? Because they were separated from their minor child when they were arrested for the crime of crossing our border illegally.
Now, remember, any American citizen arrested with a child is immediately separated from that child. The adult goes to jail, the minor is taken into protective custody. That is what happened.
The penalty for illegal entry is supposed to be a fine and prison. The Democrats are literally changing it into a million-dollar jackpot.
This administration has already made a mockery of our immigration laws by refusing to enforce them. This has now produced the greatest illegal border incursion in our country's history.
Working- and middle-class Americans are the most harmed by this because it is their wages that are depressed by flooding the market with low-wage labor. It is their classrooms that are strained with non-
English-speaking students. It is their emergency rooms that are overwhelmed by illegal immigrants demanding basic services. It is their communities that are made more dangerous as gang activity increases and criminal, illegal aliens are released back into their neighborhoods.
And now, to add insult to injury, the Democrats propose taking their tax dollars to make thousands of lawbreakers fabulously wealthy as an apology for President Trump actually enforcing our laws and securing our border. That is insane.
The American people understand that quite clearly. Republicans will not allow this twisted travesty to go unchallenged. If there are any sane Democrats left in this House, I invite them to join us by voting
``no'' on the previous question.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I include in the Record a November 4 Vox article titled, ``This May Finally Be the Year Congress Lets Medicare Negotiate Drug Prices.'' Vox: This May Finally Be the Year Congress Lets Medicare Negotiate Drug
Prices
(By Dylan Scott)
Democrats in Congress have managed to revive a prescription drug reform proposal that would allow the party to finally deliver on a campaign promise they've been making for 15 years: letting Medicare negotiate drug prices and lowering drug costs for patients.
The breakthrough was the result of negotiations with a few moderate members of the Democratic conference who were uneasy with an earlier version. That version was briefly dropped from the Build Back Better Act, Democrats' wide-ranging social spending bill.
Nothing can be considered final until both the House and the Senate pass the legislation, but the new draft of the Medicare drug negotiations proposal appears to make some concessions to centrists who share the drug industry's concerns about the effect of price controls on medical innovation.
Still, the new plan would also be a rare loss for the pharmaceutical industry, which fervently opposes every version of such a proposal and has lobbied aggressively to stop it.
Under the revised plan, the maximum price Medicare would pay would be 75 percent of what commercial US insurers pay on average for drugs that have been on the market between 9 and 12 years, with the maximum decreasing the longer the drug has been available. Democrats had originally set a maximum price of 120 percent of the average of what other wealthy nations pay for the same drug. The change should lead to drug makers losing less revenue, the goal of moderates, though no CBO score is yet available.
Fewer drugs would also be subject to negotiation. Under the new plan, the government would start by negotiating the cost of 10 drugs in 2025, before gradually ramping up to 20 after a few years. Under the original plan, the government would have negotiated the price of 25 drugs immediately and that number would have eventually increased to 50.
The plan now also includes a moratorium on negotiations for drugs that have been on the market for less than 9 years (for small-molecule drugs) or 12 years (for biologics). Drug companies would be penalized for price hikes that are higher than inflation under the new proposal, a holdover from prior versions of the plan.
Overall, the new plan would save the government about half as much money ($250 billion, by the White House's estimates) as the original plan ($450 billion). That has forced Dems to cut down their health care spending plans, for example, by nixing a progressive proposal to add dental and vision benefits to Medicare. Nevertheless, Democrats can take the savings from their new drug pricing plan and use it to lower drug costs for seniors.
The Build Back Better Act would set a hard cap on how much seniors who enrolled in Medicare's prescription drug benefit pay for prescription drugs: $2,000 out of pocket annually. It would also require private Part D plans to cover more of the cost of expensive drugs, which experts say may motivate those plans to try to extract lower prices from drug makers on medications not included in the new government-led negotiations.
The new proposal also adds a provision that requires all insurers to cover insulin, so patients pay only $35 a month of their own money for the medication.
Democrats have finally built sufficient momentum to approve Medicare negotiations for the first time. They have wanted to do this since at least 2003, when Medicare Part D was first created. While the party still has a long way to go on figuring out what comes next in its health care agenda, this was one priority they knew they wanted to get done.
And with the moment of truth upon us, it looks like they will.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
With the Build Back Better bill, we are on the verge of finally allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which will bring down the cost substantially for consumers.
This has been decades in the making and is overwhelmingly supported by the American people. There is even a provision that caps insulin costs in this bill to just $35 a month. This is a big deal for so many of our constituents.
We are making history here today. This bill will transform people's lives for the better.
Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas
(Ms. Johnson), the distinguished chairwoman of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the underlying bill, the Build Back Better Act, and in favor of this rule.
As chairperson of the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and a Member of this body, I am steadfastly committed to ensuring that our country has a bright future. This bill provides the resources to help accomplish just that.
The underlying bill we will pass, hopefully tonight, will make critical investments that ensure that we are able to address the challenges we face. These resources will help us address the climate crisis, rebuild after the pandemic, and renew and repair our research infrastructure. This bill and funding will strengthen our competitiveness and bolster our position as a global leader in science and technology.
I thank my colleagues for their work on this bill. Investments in research and development now will pay untold dividends for the future health and prosperity of our country.
I am proud to stand in support of the Build Back Better plan, and I urge that we pass this bill swiftly, as soon as we can pass this rule, and thoughtfully for the good of the American people today as well as future generations who will benefit from these investments.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Scalise), a member of the Republican leadership and a valuable member of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to the rule, but specifically against this massive, multitrillion dollar tax-and-
spend bill.
Of course, we just got the text last night, over 2,300 pages. As we have been combing through it, I would like to point out a few pieces in this bill.
Let's start with a natural gas tax. President Biden promised that anyone who makes less than $400,000 a year will not pay a dime in new taxes. He even whispers it into the microphone. The only problem is he breaks the promise right here in the bill with a tax that, according to the American Gas Association, will increase household electricity rates by 30 percent. By the way, it is low-income families that will be hit the hardest with that increase. Broken promise by President Biden right there.
Then you go down and you look at amnesty. It has been talked about. Millions of additional people will get amnesty in this bill, and it comes at a time where President Biden is negotiating--initially, he said he wasn't, and then the White House had to go back up and say the Justice Department is negotiating--half-a-million dollar checks to people who came across our border illegally. And then they are going to give amnesty to millions more people. Estimates are 7 million more people. Can you imagine the flood that will come over when they hear that you can get half a million dollars per person if President Biden gets his way?
Then you go down the line. There is more, unfortunately. We will comb through IRS agents. How many of us have our phones ringing off the hooks with people calling saying: Please add 87,000 more IRS agents to the rolls? Not one of us has probably gotten that call. Yet they put it in the bill.
They call this infrastructure. They call this equity. Whatever they want to call it, it is an army of IRS agents that are going to comb through our bank accounts.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield the gentleman an additional 1 minute.
Mr. SCALISE. Madam Speaker, they are going to be combing through your bank account.
Why? Because they have to generate hundreds of billions of dollars to spend on more inflation-inducing spending. That is right, according to the Penn Wharton Budget Model, you are going to have over $4 trillion of spending with $1.5 trillion of new taxes.
By the way, that is $2.5 trillion of additional debt, even though the President says there is no cost. No cost, just $2.5 trillion of debt. But these IRS agents are going to have to account for over $200 billion to find money from your checking accounts. That is what they are trying to do by dark of night.
We started the morning at 8 a.m. We are here after 9 p.m. starting to get into the details of this bill. No wonder they don't want a CBO score. No wonder they want to do this by dark of night. This is going to induce more inflation that is hurting families all across America.
Listen to what the voters of Virginia said. Stop the madness. Defeat this bill.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader.
Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, by adopting this rule, we are now lining up at the runway in preparation to land the plane on Build Back Better.
As we wait for the CBO to complete its work and produce its analysis, which I believe will confirm an estimate from the White House based on the Joint Committee on Taxation's analysis of the bill's revenue impact, and the preliminary scoring from CBO that this bill is fully paid for.
Now, I am not saying it doesn't spend money. It does not create debt. When the Republicans passed their tax bill, of course, they gave themselves a ceiling of $1.5 trillion that they did not pay for on the assertion that that tax cut would pay for itself.
The problem is none of their tax cuts have ever paid for themselves. None. Zero. Zip. This bill is paid for. And what it will do for the American people will be life changing for working families and moms and children in this country.
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Today, we are going to pass a rule, which will allow for the consideration of this bipartisan infrastructure bill to invest $1.2 trillion.
I was talking about Build Back Better. I am now talking about the bipartisan infrastructure bill, 69 Senators voting for the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which will make an extraordinary difference in the lives of the people in this country and, as importantly, job creation in this country, a million jobs per year. That is what this rule will do.
This bill will help our businesses create millions of good jobs here in our country, and it will make significant investments in promoting the deployment of clean energy technologies and making our infrastructure more resilient against climate change. That is what this bill will do.
And again, I am referring to the bipartisan infrastructure act passed with 69 votes in the United States Senate, almost half of the Republicans voting for it. This legislation will mean that our majority has delivered a major victory for the American people in a bipartisan way, and passing this rule will mean that next up is the transformational legislation to invest in America's human infrastructure--our children, our families, and opportunities for the most vulnerable in our country to access the American Dream.
Unlike our Republican friends who passed their tax bill, which was about 85 to 90 percent of it going to the wealthiest Americans, this bill deals with all Americans, particularly those who are the most vulnerable, most challenged, and having the most difficult time in our country.
So let's get this done today and show the American people that their Congress works for them. We ought to vote ``yes'' on this.
Now, let me say what this rule provides for: a bill which will add 1\1/2\ million jobs per year. This bill, the Build Back Better bill, will add 1\1/2\ million jobs per year and, on average, across the whole decade, increase labor force participation and accelerate the return to full employment; increase our total GDP by $3 trillion throughout the next decade; keep prices stable and decrease inflationary pressures as we continue our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Nation has long underinvested in its infrastructure.
Now, I am sure as my friends across the aisle will remember, in 2016, President Trump was then campaigning for office, and he pledged to the American people that he would present a trillion-dollar infrastructure program for this country. 2017, no such infrastructure bill. 2018, no such infrastructure bill. 2019, no such infrastructure bill. But in early 2019, the President said $1 trillion is not enough; we ought to do $2 trillion. That was President Trump. $2 trillion was his suggestion.
And we asked him: Mr. President, we will support that. Tell us how you think we ought to fund it. Oh, we have to fund it?
The President never came forth with either a bill or with funding for a bill. So we didn't pass that.
This President said, no, we do need infrastructure, and the figure that Trump used is not, certainly, what this country needs, but it is a very good start. So he sent down a bill to accomplish that objective. That bill was not the one we passed because eight Senators from the Republican side of the aisle and eight Senators from the Democratic side of the aisle got together and talked about what we can agree upon.
I hear so much, particularly when I have colloquies with the minority whip about bipartisanship, that we ought to come together, that we ought to work together. Well, eight Senators on the Republican side and eight Senators on the Democratic side did exactly that. And what happened? They then went down to the White House; they talked to the President; and the President worked with them, and they agreed.
So this is a bill that the President, 19 Republican Senators, and 50 Democratic Senators agreed was good for America. And that is what we are enabling tonight.
The Nation, unfortunately, has long underinvested in its infrastructure and social needs and has been slow to respond to the threat posed by climate change. Our national security apparatus, including the four-star generals who lead our various service arms, has said the most existential threat to the security of the United States of America is climate change, global warming. This bill deals with that existential threat.
The policies being considered would direct the benefits of the stronger growth to lower income Americans. Now, that may be why it is sort of not what my Republican friends think ought to be done. Although the whip talked about that somewhat, that is not what their bill did.
It addresses the long-running skewing of income and wealth distribution in America, the richest country on Earth, where we have so many people in poverty, so many children who don't have a good education, so many children who don't have the healthcare they need. This bill addresses those issues.
On November 3, 2021, according to the Economic Policy Institute,
``The Build Back Better Act's macroeconomic boost looks more valuable by the day.'' They said their analysis shows that the U.S. economy is not overheating due to too much fiscal relief and recovery provided earlier this year. Expert after expert says that.
Did we have pent-up demand? We did. Are we having a supply side problem because of the pandemic? That is absolutely accurate. The Build Back Better agenda will ease bottlenecks and improve the resiliency of our supply chains.
It also boosts long-term growth and economic security through public investments and deeper social insurance. It provides a macroeconomic insurance policy against aggregate demand growing too slowly in coming years.
An open letter from Nobel laureates in support of the economic recovery agenda said this: ``Success in the 21st century will require building upon the bipartisan infrastructure deal that has passed the Senate, which prioritizes investments in our Nation's `hard' infrastructure.'' That is what this rule will provide for.
Furthermore, they say: ``The President's Build Back Better agenda employs a broader conception of infrastructure by making critical investments in human capital, the care economy, research and development, public education, and more, which will reduce families' costs.''
``Because this agenda invests in long-term economic capacity,'' they went on to say, ``and will enhance the ability to more Americans to participate productively in the economy, it will ease longer term inflationary pressures.''
That was Nobel laureates talking about this economic recovery plan. It was signed by 15 of those Nobel laureates.
Madam Speaker, the last 20 months have presented our Nation with challenges we could neither have foreseen nor envisioned. A global pandemic took the lives of nearly three-quarters of a million Americans. If you went out to the lawn surrounding the George Washington Monument, you saw rows and rows and rows of white flags indicating those over 700,000, almost now 750,000 Americans who lost their lives as a result of this pandemic.
We responded in a bipartisan way, and because of it, we did not go into a depression. Because of it, we saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives, maybe millions of lives.
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Because of our investment, we saved businesses. Because of our investment, we saved jobs for literally millions of Americans.
From February 2020 to February 2021, 2.3 million women in our country left the workforce, in many cases, to care for children who had to stay home from school or care for a sick loved one. Very frankly, this bill, as well as the Build Back Better Act, will address the critical shortage of childcare in this country.
Thankfully, because of the swift development and deployment of lifesaving vaccines, our economy is coming back. I don't know whether any of my Republican friends mentioned that we created over 500,000 jobs last month. This administration has enjoyed over 5 million new jobs in America. That is twice the number of jobs that Mr. Trump had in his best year. And 7 million more jobs, because Mr. Trump in his last year lost 2 million jobs--now that was because of the pandemic, we understand that. But to say that 500,000 new jobs is not an economy that is growing and providing sustenance for its people.
The delta variant continues to impact, of course, that recovery, which is slower than we would like to see. Our economy, however, has brought back nearly 5 million jobs since President Biden took office: now 5.5 million jobs. Americans are getting back to work. And what this bill will do is to encourage the continuance of the growth of our economy, continue to grow the ability to educate and raise our children, the ability of women and single parents--male and female--to be in the workplace. We need their expertise, we need their talent, we need their energy. And providing safe, reliable, affordable childcare will make such a difference.
Madam Speaker, this bill that we provide for, being considered as we end this debate, will help America grow. And the bill that the rule provides to consider at some time in the near future, will provide Americans with a better, safer, more secure life. For them, for their children, for their friends, and their neighbors, let's pass both of these bills.
Let's pass the bipartisan infrastructure framework tonight. And let us in the very near future, as this rule provides, pass the Build Back Better Act.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time remains on our side?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Texas has 3\1/2\ minutes remaining. The gentleman from Massachusetts has 4\3/4\ minutes remaining.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Khanna), my friend.
Mr. KHANNA. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
Madam Speaker, as a progressive, I rise today to say that our party must unify, and we must vote ``yes'' today on both the rule and the bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Now, I know there is all this jargon about rule and BBB and BIF, but really, to me, this is very simple. The question is: Do you trust the President?
I trust President Biden. I trust that President Biden cares about the working class. And for 40 years, the working class has not had any support. On the other side, for 4 years under Trump, they gave tax cuts to the rich. President Biden wants to give money to working families in the child allowance. He wants to give them a tax cut. He wants to make sure they can pay for childcare. And he understands the working class experience.
We will unify as a party. We will vote ``yes'' tonight. We will deliver. And this President is going to make history by finally looking out for the working class and the middle class in this country.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker of the House.
Ms. PELOSI. Madam Speaker, I thank the chairman for his great leadership in bringing this important legislation to the floor, a rule of the House, to expand opportunity for so many people in our country, to protect our planet for future generations, to do so with great equity in a way that builds back better for women.
Madam Speaker, thanks to the tireless work of so many in the House Democratic Caucus, all of our Members, our chairs of the committees of jurisdiction, the members of those committees worked so hard bringing their years of experience, knowledge, and judgment on how we would go forward to fulfill the President's vision.
President Biden has a big vision for America and for our future, a vision that has equity in it so that we are building with fairness for all in our country to participate in the increased prosperity of our Nation.
We thank the President for his great leadership, the vision that he has put forth, the knowledge of all of his years in the Congress, and as Vice President, in terms of legislation, and his respect for all of our Members, paying so much attention to their concerns and, more especially, to how we can work together to meet the needs of the American people. This is build back better with women, build back better for the people.
It will be one of the most significant legislative undertakings that any of us has ever been part of. And I say that with great proprietary attitude toward the Affordable Care Act, which was transformative and historic. This is even bigger than that. In fact, it strengthens the Affordable Care Act.
So if you are talking about how we want to have immediate and enduring difference for the workers and families, creating jobs, securing middle class tax cuts, lowering costs for families, and making the wealthiest pay their fair share, all while contributing to reducing the national debt--making everyone pay their fair share.
Did I hear a laugh over there? Did I hear a laugh from those who added $2 trillion in tax cuts for the richest people in America, 83 percent of it going to the top 1 percent?
This is paid for. And more than paid for.
In terms of jobs, together with the also historic bipartisan infrastructure bill, it will create an estimated 2 million jobs each year, 20 million jobs into the next decade. And that is just immediately to this legislation, not talking about what it will generate as many more women are in the workplace. If you look at any piece of the bill, it would be extraordinary.
Madam Speaker, if we came to the floor and just talked about protecting our planet for our children, it is always about the children, the green aspects of this bill are for the children and their future. It is about creating good-paying jobs. It is about, again, a generational challenge that we have. It is about healthcare, the air our children breathe, the water they drink, an atmosphere in which they can thrive. It is about jobs--again, good-paying, green jobs, making America preeminent in the world in the new green technologies and sharing that information with other nations and underdeveloped countries, so that they can succeed as well.
It is also about security. National security experts come to us and say that we must treat this as a security issue. Years ago, when I was still on the Intelligence Committee itself--I am still ex-officio--but then in the committee, we were even seeing the need for using our technology and our knowledge in terms of protecting our country, recognizing the assault on our planet that the climate crisis would be.
And why? Because as you know, with rising sea levels, encroachment of deserts, drying up of rivers, the great rivers of Asia, all of the things that are happening, the thermal management of the planet, the list goes on and on, all of this has created, in many ways, drought, famine, floods, violent storms of record proportion.
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So the experts say that the competition for habitat and resources that this causes can increase conflict. Migrations and the rest can cause conflict. We must anticipate that as a security concern, as it is already.
And then when we talk about health for the children, jobs for their families, security for our country, we also recognize that this is a moral issue for us all. If you believe, as do I, that this beautiful planet is God's creation, then we have a responsibility to be good stewards.
But even if you don't share that religious belief, we all agree that we owe it to our children--I would hope we all agree--that we owe it to our children to pass this planet on to them and future generations in a responsible way.
So even if this bill were just about that, it would be historic in its proportion and its transformative nature, and worthy of just voting for that. But it isn't about just that. We will make historic progress to universal healthcare coverage in America, strengthening the ACA to make coverage more affordable for those who buy insurance on their own. It also contains the Medicare hearing benefit, making a major difference for seniors.
As you probably know, Madam Speaker, I know you do, but there are some States that would not expand Medicaid. This is a great disadvantage to children, not only children but seniors who depend on Medicaid for long-term healthcare and the rest. In this legislation we expand not just Medicaid but the Affordable Care Act to draw those people into the plan at practically no cost to them, except their participation in an appropriate way.
Build Back Better contains historic Medicare prescription drug negotiation. For the very first time, the Secretary of Health and Human Services would have the power to negotiate lower prices for some of the most expensive medicines our seniors use.
What is in the bill is a compromise. I have, for a generation, been fighting for this important provision, for the Secretary to negotiate for lower prices, really since, on this floor, we passed Medicare part D, which was a real giveaway to the pharmaceutical industry. This now reins that in.
Under this agreement, when people go to the pharmacy, instead of paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars for their insulin, their bill will be capped at just $35 a month. Think of what the difference that makes in people's lives and how important insulin is to them.
In total, the most that any senior would be allowed to pay for their medications in Medicare part D per year is $2,000 and not one penny more. Big Pharma's outrageous price hikes above inflation will be halted, not only for seniors, but for all Americans. That is remarkable. That was one of the strong points of this agreement. There we are with healthcare.
Under the green framework, we talked about climate. Under the health, we talked about the Affordable Care Act, Medicare, et cetera, and the prescription drug benefit. Now we are talking about Build Back Better.
There is a hashtag: Care can't wait. Indeed, it can't, and help is on the way. In terms of family care, Build Back Better is the most transformative initiative in children and caregivers in generations. For decades, hardworking families have been struggling under a system that stacks the deck against them. A situation made even worse by the COVID pandemic. And that COVID pandemic sort of pulled back the veil on how hard it was for people to deal with many of these challenges.
Our legislation, the Build Back Better, builds back better because it saves most families more than half of their spending on childcare; delivers free pre-K for every 3- and 4-year-old in America. Just on those two scores, parents earning, children learning. It is possible because of childcare and the universal pre-K; giving more than 35 million families a major tax cut by extending the expanded Biden child tax credit; putting money in the pockets of families with children; expand access to high-quality home care for older Americans and Americans living with disabilities.
Madam Speaker, even some of my colleagues in this body on both sides of the aisle have frequently told me that they spend more time caring for their parents when they are sick than they did when their children were small and they were sick because their parents are older and more in need of that attention.
Well, this not only provides the high-quality care for older Americans and Americans with disabilities, it also recognizes the value of those people who are providing that care, treating them with respect and with proper pay.
Then we make a significant contribution to workforce development. If we are going to build back better, even in this bill, the bipartisan infrastructure framework, it is important to have people be trained for the jobs; and not only in construction, but in home healthcare and in other ways.
In doing so, it was very important to President Biden and to all of us, but this was a must for him in every aspect of the legislation, to advance equity and opportunity with investments in maternal care, nutrition, housing, and more. That equity is part of what is happening in the infrastructure bill and here. We must have equity. We cannot perpetuate disparities in income and living conditions and the rest, and to do so with respect for work, honoring work, and to do so in a way that has equity.
We have included permanent universal paid family and medical leave, which is a pillar of our work for families. I hope that this will stay in the bill.
We must get children learning, parents earning, as I mentioned, in a way that assures women can follow a career path as they meet their family needs. Just think of the liberation that this is, that women will be able to go to work, follow their career path, help provide for their families--maybe they are a single parent--provide for their families, all the while knowing that their children, or if it happens to be a parent, are well cared for. I am very excited about what it does in that regard.
Again, I talked about the climate, and I won't go back into it, except to say that with all that we want to do in the climate sector, we have to meet our goals. If we are going to be true to any promise to our children, grandchildren, or future generations, Build Back Better will enable us to do so by cutting greenhouse gas pollution by over a gigaton, helping meet the President's vision to cut pollution in half by 2030, and protecting our children's health. It will drive forward the clean energy economy, creating good-paying jobs and lowing families' energy costs. It will advance environmental justice, back to that equity issue, as it will educate a workforce for the future and advance housing initiatives that are resilient and green.
The Build Back Better is fully paid for and reduces the national debt. According to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation, this legislation is fully paid for with its tax increase provisions in the bill raising $1.5 trillion over 10 years, not including the additional savings from the prescription drug pricing and the IRS tax enforcement.
Further analyses, based on CBO estimates, show that the legislation reduces the deficit by over $36 billion over the next 10 years--are you ready for this, Madam Speaker--then by at least $2 trillion over the second decade.
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As it reduces the debt and grows the economy, Build Back Better will not increase inflation, according to experts. As 17 Nobel Prize-winning economists recently wrote: ``Because this agenda invests in long-term economic capacity and will enhance the ability of more Americans to participate productively in the economy, it will ease longer term inflationary pressures.''
Inflation is very important. We must pay attention to it. That is why it is so essential to pay for the legislation. But I am a pay-as-you-go person. I always want to be able to pay for and offset any new investments that we have, so this legislation is consistent with that.
President John F. Kennedy once said that to govern is to choose. To craft and pass this bill, choices had to be made. We see it is big; it is transformative; and it is historic, so it will be challenging. Different Members will have different views of how we go about prioritizing and the rest.
In this very Chamber, when people come here, I love to tell them about the history of this Chamber. This is a chamber that abolished slavery, a chamber that declared war in World War II and before. It is a historic chamber, a place that we all must treat with great respect. And we will enhance the luster of this institution if we pass this historic, transformative legislation.
No piece of legislation contains everything, and once we pass Build Back Better, more work will remain to strengthen the financial security of America's working families, to improve families' healthcare, to protect the planet, and more. But we cannot and will not miss the opportunity to build back better for women, for children, and for the people.
The Build Back Better agenda creates more jobs, secures more major tax cuts for the middle class, and lowers costs to families while making the wealthiest pay their fair share. It is not punitive; it is fair share.
It is an agenda for workers, for families, for children, for the planet, and, as I said, for women. The passage of this rule will take a strong step in achieving this goal.
Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule. I do so with, again, special congratulations and gratitude to the distinguished chair of the Rules Committee, Mr. McGovern; the distinguished chair of the Budget Committee, Mr. Yarmuth; and so many of the chairs that you have heard from here this evening: Mr. Richie Neal from Ways and Means, so important in all of this; Frank Pallone of the Energy and Commerce Committee; and Bobby Scott in terms of the Education and Labor Committee--these are three really important committees in the legislation--and housing, Maxine Waters and her contribution in that regard; Mr. Grijalva, in terms of climate issues, from the Natural Resources Committee. The list goes on and on.
It is a list that is really a gallery of heroes, of people who have brought their knowledge, their experience, their judgment, and their legislative skill to bear to get the job done for the people.
We do all of this in such a way that it has equity.
We thank the President of the United States for his extraordinary leadership, his encyclopedic knowledge of what is in the legislation because he has been working on these issues so long, affording the opportunity it will provide for families, children, dads, and moms who need to have help at home and to do so in a way that treats people with respect, respect for their work, respect for their families, and respect for their future.
Madam Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the legislation.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I am prepared to close.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, a couple of things come to mind. We are told that, by 2050, the United States will no longer have carbon emissions and that, over that same 30 years, energy requirements in this country, energy consumption, are going to increase 50 to 60 percent. Those two facts do not match up.
It is strange that in this massive bill we have in front of us--$4 trillion, $5 trillion, $6 trillion, who knows--there is not one word and not $1 for nuclear energy, for advanced nuclear energy, for new nuclear technologies and reprocessing of spent fuel. You cannot produce 50 to 60 percent more energy with windmills and solar panels. China can't produce enough solar panels for you to keep up with that kind of energy demand in a zero-carbon future.
We have heard a lot this evening. In fact, the previous speaker recalled President Kennedy. His was the first inaugural I remember, back in elementary school, and he exhorted us, he exhorted the people of our generation: Ask not what your country can do for you.
Yet, we find ourselves here tonight with this behemoth of a bill that is going to spend our children's and children's children's inheritance as far as the eye can see.
This bill was finalized by just a couple of you in some secret room someplace in this Capitol behind closed doors with no input from Members, Members who represent literally one-half of the country. No one seemed to pay attention to when the voters spoke earlier this week and said: We don't want Big Government, and we don't want this creeping socialism that we are seeing.
Yet, the response of this House was to double down on that and jam through this massive bill.
This bill, we are told, is a messaging bill for House Democrats. I will say the Senate is going to rewrite it. I submit you will not like what the Senate rewrites and sends back to you. But I will tell you this: You will not have the opportunity to change anything. Once it comes back from the Senate, it will be a straight up-or-down vote. You will not be able to change one syllable of your bill, and it will become law with whatever the Senate puts in it.
There is nothing here but a partisan social spending scam that is meant to bolster Democrat prospects. Unfortunately, your prospects really took a hit last Tuesday night.
This bill will fundamentally change life in America for every citizen, and not in a good way. The magnitude of the changes contemplated in this massive reconciliation bill should require the full input of Congress.
This should call on us and our various generations to be transformational. Instead, we have watched all afternoon while we are mired in the transactional. You can't be transformational if you are mired in the transactional.
Madam Speaker, vote against this rule, vote against this bill, and vote against the infrastructure bill. Let's do the right thing for the people.
I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are again reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
{time} 2200
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, I don't know what my Republican friends find so offensive about making historic investments in healthcare and family care and combating climate change. Maybe we just have different values. Maybe they are just angry that we are investing not in the wealthy as they did, not in large corporations as they did, but in our workers, and in the middle-class families all across the Nation.
I am proud that we are finally allowing drug prices to be negotiated, proud that we are establishing universal free pre-K. I am proud that we are making the biggest expansion in healthcare coverage in a decade; proud that we are making the most transformative investments in caregiving in American history; and I am proud that we are making the biggest investments to combat climate change ever.
I didn't run for office to help the well connected or just to hold the title. I came here to actually get something done for workers, for students, and for the next generation so we are not saddling them with a planet whose climate is out of control. I ran for office to pass big, bold, transformative legislation like this.
This is the agenda the American people voted for in November. They demanded a clean break from the Republicans. They entrusted a Democratic Congress and a Democratic White House to use their power to change people's lives for the better. Today, we are delivering.
I know it took a while to get to this point, some ups and downs, and I know this isn't everybody's idea of a great and wonderful and fun Friday night, but it is testament to this President, to the Speaker, and to the Democrats on both sides of the Capitol.
We are on the doorstep of delivering once-in-a-generation legislation that builds on the New Deal and the promise that President Roosevelt made over 80 years ago. I urge all of my colleagues to seize this chance to vote for this rule and the underlying legislation so that the American people can truly have a fair shot in the 21st century.
The system, as it exists, is still rigged against workers, against too many families, against too many who are struggling in our country. Let us change that reality. Let us pass the infrastructure bill, the BIF bill, and then let us pass the Build Back Better bill and let's transform this country for the better. I am proud to be here today to advocate for this legislation.
Mr. DANNY K. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I ran for Congress to help people. To help people in Chicago, in Illinois and across the country achieve the American dream. The Build Back Better Act represents a transformative investment in children, families, workers, businesses, and the planet that will improve health and well-being, advance economic and environmental justice, meaningfully address climate change, and grow our economy while asking the wealthiest and most secure to pay their fair share.
The pandemic has harmed tens of millions of Americans--
disproportionately hurting African Americans and other communities of color, women, seniors, and children. This legislation directly and profoundly helps individuals, communities, and businesses build back better by meeting immediate needs for food, shelter, medical care, and child care as well as long-term needs for quality education, good-
paying jobs, safe roads and water, and a healthy environment.
I am deeply proud that many priorities that I have championed are included in this historic bill.
It provides 4 weeks of paid family and medical leave for workers so that they do not face the inhumane choice of caring for loved ones or financial ruin. As Chair of the Subcommittee with jurisdiction over paid leave, I have worked closely with Ways and Means Chairman Neal and advocates to shape this amazing, equity-generating, universal benefit. Lower-income workers and workers of color are much less likely to have any paid leave, yet are more likely to need paid leave due to greater health challenges and less savings to weather caregiving without pay. Paid leave strengthens workers, families, and businesses, and I will continue to fight to enact this provision into law.
The bill enhances the Earned Income Tax Credit to improve the economic well-being and increase the labor-force participation of millions childless workers and noncustodial parents--with special improvements to assist younger workers, foster and homeless youth, and seniors. This provision is expected to help 17 adults nationwide and over 600,000 in Illinois. I've fought for these improvements since the early 2000s as part of my Responsible Fatherhood Act.
It provides $2 billion to train workers with barriers to employment--
including people with records--for careers in the allied health professions, simultaneously connecting people to the labor force and addressing health profession shortages. This success will help Chicago State which has a stellar Health Profession Opportunity Grant program and expand programs like those offered by the Safer Foundation and Johns Hopkins to help people with records become successful healthcare professionals.
It helps vulnerable students by making Pell non-taxable and removing the lifetime ban on the American Opportunity Tax Credit for past felony convictions.
It incents substantial private investment in solar energy that will put money in the pockets of millions of low-income individuals by reducing electricity costs while making the air they breathe safer.
It contains strong labor provisions so that our investments in green energy benefit workers as well as businesses.
It includes $1 billion for to help justice-involved adults and youth to obtain employment and training services via the Reentry Employment Opportunities Program. It makes sure that people leaving prison have Medicaid coverage to improve health and successful reentry.
It includes $2.5 billion for public health approaches to reduce community violence and trauma interventions. I have championed these interventions with Senator Durbin in our RISE from Trauma Act.
It helps restore fairness to the tax code by rolling back the Republicans' punitive limit on the State and Local Tax deduction to hurt citizens and public employees in blue states like Illinois.
The Build Back Better Act dramatically reduces child poverty via a substantial Child Tax Credit for 2022 coupled with making the credit refundable permanently, raising a projected 4.1 million children above the poverty line and cutting child poverty by more than 40 percent. In October alone, the advanced CTC gave caregivers in my Congressional District over $30 million to provide food, shelter, and other necessities for 121,000 children.
It makes Americans healthier via substantial tax credits to cover health insurance, coverage for millions of people excluded from the ACA because their states failed to expand Medicaid, $1 billion for community health centers, Medicaid coverage for women after giving birth, tremendous funding to reduce health inequities, Medicare hearing coverage, and reduced medication costs. African Americans' risk for diabetes is 77 percent higher than that for non-Hispanic white Americans. This bill limits the co-pay for insulin to $35, which will help so many people I know.
The bill addresses racial and economic inequities for communities of color and rural and underserved communities.
It makes the largest investment in child care in our nation's history, saving most families more than half of their spending on child care. Child care is a fundamental component so that our economy and families can recover. Further, it makes historic investments to care for seniors and individuals with disabilities so that they can receive care in their homes and communities, recognizing the need to care for our aging population.
It makes the largest expansion of free education since our country established public high schools a century ago. It provides universal and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds, promoting racial equity in education. In addition, it expands access to affordable higher education by increasing the Pell grants by $550 for more than 5 million students, creating grants to close the college completion gap, and investing in Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions, including Predominantly Black Institutions like Malcolm X, Olive-Harvey, and Chicago State.
It makes the largest investment in affordable housing and community development in half a century. It addresses the housing crisis with $25 billion for rental assistance, $65 billion for public housing, $15 billion to build or improve affordable homes, and another $40 billion for critical housing initiatives. The pandemic has hit Black renters with children especially hard, with 29 percent--or an estimated 1.7 million renters--reporting that their household is not caught up on rent.
It feeds the hungry with $10 billion for nutrition, including expanding free school and summer meals. In 2020, Black and Latino families with children were more than twice as likely to suffer food insecurity as white households. Hunger has no place in the United States.
This bill invests billions in small businesses, including $1.6 billion for minority owned business and $105 million for education and financial assistance for the formerly incarcerated to form businesses to create jobs in their communities. It invests over $3 billion in capital access for small employers and entrepreneurs. The SBA lending programs have been lifelines to local businesses during the pandemic and these funds will help businesses build back better post pandemic.
This legislation ensures the largest effort combat climate change in American history by: putting money back in people's pockets as they shift to clean energy; promoting the manufacturing of clean energy technology in the US, creating hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs; and advancing environmental justice to deliver benefits to disadvantaged communities.
I am honored to vote for this once-in-a-generation legislation. I came to Congress to make this type of momentous change to make life better for tens of millions of people. I urge my colleagues to pass it.
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of this historic legislation and the related Rule to propel American progress. The infrastructure bill along with the Build Back Better Act will usher in a transformational 21st century for the American people. Rebuilding our nation's infrastructure will create millions of living wage jobs for the American people coast to coast. It will add value through work in every state, hamlet, district and territory of our nation.
This measure rewards work in every sector--in both hardware and software. The motor vehicle industry, new carbon free energy systems, modern highways, airports, bridges, ports, rail grade separations, broadband, and so much more. These bills strengthen America's families and communities by relieving economic burdens that have held them back. It allows millions of Americans to access affordable health insurance and medications, child and elder care, and robust education and workforce training to meet new horizons in this new era.
Major investments in education and health care for our children and seniors have been long overdue. And, the environmental provisions to heal our earth in an era of climate change will restore clean water, clean air, healthy forests, and regenerative soils.
Please let me thank all the Committees and Members who have worked so very hard on this measure. The cost of the related bills is paid for and, as more jobs are created, and the overall wealth of our nation increases, not only the annual deficit but also the accumulated national debt will begin to be repaid. By passing these bills, this Chamber meets its obligations to the American people of today and tomorrow. Let us pass this transformative legislation as a critical step in advancing its content to the other body. We acknowledge more changes will likely occur as the bill moves forward. But tonight, this House embraces the future.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Madam Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, and on the Budget, I rise in strong support of the rule governing debate, as well as the underlying bill, which is the Build Back Better Act (RCP 117-18, H.R. 5376 ), legislation making visionary and transformative investments to change for the better the health, well-being, and financial security of America's workers and families.
Madam Speaker, the federal budget is an expression of the nation's values and the investments made to Build America Back Better are a clear declaration of congressional Democrats' commitment to ensuring that our government, our economy, and our systems work For The People.
Madam Speaker, these long-overdue investments in America's future will be felt in every corner of the country and across every sector of American life, building on the success of the American Rescue Plan, accommodating historic infrastructure investments in the legislative pipeline, and addressing longstanding deficits in our communities by ending an era of chronic underinvestment so we can emerge from our current crises a stronger, more equitable nation.
The Build Back Better Act makes the transformative investments that we need to continue growing our economy, lower costs for working families, and position the United States as a global leader in innovation and the jobs of the future.
This $1.75 trillion gross investment will build on the successes of the American Rescue Plan and set our nation on a path of fiscal responsibility and broadly shared prosperity for generations to come.
The Build Back Better Act is paid for by ensuring that the wealthy and big corporations are paying their fair share and Americans making less than $400,000 a year will not see their taxes increase by a penny.
Let me repeat that: No American making less than $400,000 a year will not see their taxes increase by a penny.
In sum, Madam Speaker, the investments made by the Build Back Better Act will expand opportunity for all and build an economy powered by shared prosperity and inclusive growth.
During general debate, I will discuss in greater detail all of the salutary aspects of the Build Back Better Act, but today I will confine my remarks to discuss how the legislation holds substantial benefits for my home state of Texas.
The Build Back Better Act will bring down costs that have held back families in Texas for decades by cutting taxes and making child care, home care, education, health care, and housing more affordable.
These investments will provide new learning opportunities for children, help parents and especially working parents make ends meet, and position the economy for stronger growth for years to come.
The Build Back Better Act will create good-paying jobs for residents of Texas, combating climate change, giving our kids cleaner air and water, and making America the leader in global innovation and 21st century manufacturing.
Specifically, Madam Speaker, the Build Back Better Act delivers the largest investment in child care and early education in history by providing access to affordable child care.
Child care is a major strain for families in Texas, where the average annual cost of a child care center for a toddler is $9,428, meaning that a Texas family with two young children would on average spend 21 percent of their income on child care for one year.
The lack of affordable options also makes it difficult for parents, and especially mothers, to remain in their jobs, contributing to the 26.1 percent gender gap in workforce participation between mothers and fathers in Texas.
The Build Back Better Act will enable Texas to provide access to child care for 2,011,503 young children (ages 0-5) per year from families earning under 2.5 times the Texas median income (about
$205,204 for a family of 4), and ensure these families pay no more than 7 percent of their income on high-quality child care.
The Build Back Better Act will provide universal, high-quality, free preschool for every 3- and 4-year-old in America.
In contrast, today, only 24 percent of the 775,102 3- and 4-year-olds in Texas have access to publicly-funded preschool, and it costs about
$8,600 per year for those who cannot access a publicly-funded program.
The Build Back Better Act will enable Texas to expand access to free, high-quality preschool to more than 588,286 additional 3- and 4-year-
olds per year and increase the quality of preschool for children who are already enrolled.
Parents will be able to send their children to the preschool setting of their choice--from public schools to child care providers to Head Start--leading to lifelong educational benefits, allowing more parents to go back to work, and building a stronger foundation for Texas's future economic competitiveness.
The Build Back Better Act cuts taxes and reduces some of the largest expenses for workers and families, like education, health care, and housing.
Madam Speaker, the average cost of a 2-year degree in Texas is $2,885 per year, and $11,096 per year for a 4-year degree, straining many student budgets.
To help unlock the opportunities of an education beyond high school, the Build Back Better Act will increase maximum Pell Grant awards by
$550 for students at public and private non-profit institutions, supporting the 486,377 students in Texas who rely on Pell grants.
The Build Back Better Act will also invest in Texas's 112 minority-
serving institutions and the students they serve, including Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs).
Madam Speaker, of the world's biggest economies, the United States is second to last in investing in workforce development, and funding for federal job training programs has dropped by almost half since 2001.
The Build Back Better Act invests in training programs that will prepare Texas's workers for high-quality jobs in fast-growing sectors like public health, child care, manufacturing, IT, and clean energy. Fifty-nine public community colleges in Texas will have the opportunity to benefit from grants to develop and deliver innovative training programs and expand proven ones.
Madam Speaker, 18 percent of children in Texas live in food insecure households, harming their long-term health and ability to succeed in school.
The Build Back Better Act will ensure that the nutritional needs of Texas's children are met by expanding access to free school meals to an additional 1,642,000 students during the school year and providing 3,631,226 students with resources to purchase food over the summer.
When it comes to housing costs, more than 1.7 million renters in Texas are rent burdened, meaning they spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, while homeownership remains out of reach for many families.
The Build Back Better Act expands rental assistance for Texas renters, while also increasing the supply of high-quality housing through the construction and rehabilitation of over 1 million affordable housing units nationwide.
The Build Back Better Act addresses the capital needs of the entire public housing stock in America, and it includes one of the largest investments in down payment assistance in history, enabling more first-
generation homebuyers to purchase their first home.
Madam Speaker, access to affordable quality health care should be a right, not a privilege, and residents of Texas facing illness should never have to worry about how they are going to pay for treatment.
The Build Back Better Act will close the Medicaid coverage gap to help millions of Americans gain health insurance, extend through 2025 the American Rescue Plan's health insurance premium reductions for those who buy coverage on their own, and help older Americans access affordable hearing care by expanding Medicare.
In Texas, that means 1,554,000 uninsured people will gain coverage, including the 771,000 who fell into the Medicaid coverage gap, and 1,066,400 will on average save hundreds of dollars per year.
In addition, the Build Back Better Act will support maternal health and invest in national preparedness for future pandemics.
Finally, the Build Back Better Act will expand access to home- and community-based care to more of Texas's senior citizens and disabled citizens and improve the quality and wages of caregiving jobs.
Prior to the pandemic, 15 percent of children under the age of 18 in Texas lived in poverty.
The Build Back Better Act will bolster financial security and spur economic growth in Texas by reducing taxes on the middle class and those striving to break into it.
Specifically, the Build Back Better Act extends Child Tax Credit
(CTC) increases of $300/month per child under 6 or $250/month per child ages 6 to 17, which will continue the largest one-year reduction in child poverty in history.
And critically, the agreement includes permanent refundability for the Child Tax Credit, meaning that the neediest families will continue to receive the full Child Tax Credit over the long-run.
The Build Back Better Act will also provide a tax cut of up to $1,500 in tax cuts for more than 1.5 million low-wage workers in Texas by extending the American Rescue Plan's Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansion.
From 2010 to 2020, Texas experienced 67 extreme weather events, costing up to $200 billion in damages.
The Build Back Better Act will set the United States on course to meet its climate targets--a 50-52 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 2005 levels by 2030--in a way that creates good-paying union jobs, grows domestic industries, and advances environmental justice.
The Build Back Better Act represents the largest ever single investment in a clean energy economy--across buildings, transportation, industry, electricity, agriculture, and climate smart practices in our lands and waters.
And the Build Back Better Act will create a new Civilian Climate Corps that will enlist a diverse generation of Texans in conserving our public lands, bolstering community resilience, and addressing the changing climate, all while putting good-paying union jobs within reach.
In clean energy and in other sectors, the Build Back Better Act will also strengthen domestic manufacturing and supply chains for critical goods, benefiting American businesses, workers, consumers, and communities.
To put it all in perspective, Madam Speaker, we have before us a once in a century opportunity to make gigantic progress in making ours a more perfect union, and to do it in a single bound with enactment of the Build Back Better Act, the most transformative legislation passed by this Congress since the Great Society and the New Deal.
Madam Speaker, I urge all Members to join me in voting for the rule and voting to pass H.R. 5376, the transformative, life-changing Build Back Better Act.
The material previously referred to by Mr. Burgess is as follows:
Amendment to House Resolution 774
At the end of the resolution, add the following:
Sec. 3. Immediately upon adoption of this resolution, the House shall proceed to the consideration in the House of the bill (H.R. 5854) to amend title 28, United States Code, to prohibit payments of compromise settlements arising out of certain violations of the immigration laws, and for other purposes. All points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. The bill shall be considered as read. All points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. The previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except: (1) one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on the Judiciary; and (2) one motion to recommit.
Sec. 4. Clause 1(c) of rule XIX shall not apply to the consideration of H.R. 5854.
H.R. 5854
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Illegal Immigrant Payoff Prohibition Act''.
SEC. 2. NO PAYMENT OF COMPROMISE SETTLEMENTS ARISING OUT OF
CERTAIN VIOLATIONS OF THE IMMIGRATION LAWS.
Section 2414 of title 28, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``No payment of a compromise settlement may be made in relation to a civil action brought by an alien who is inadmissible under section 212(a)(6)(A) or (7)(A)(i)(I) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1182(a)(6)(A) or (7)(A)(i)(I)), or who entered the United States in violation of section 275(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1325(a)), in connection with conduct described in any such section, unless expressly authorized by law.''.
Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution, as amended.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution, as amended.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. BURGESS. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to section 3(s) of House Resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered.
Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question are postponed.
____________________
SOURCE: AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
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