The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“TSA OFFICE OF INSPECTION ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6731-H6738 on Sept. 30, 2015.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
TSA OFFICE OF INSPECTION ACCOUNTABILITY ACT OF 2015
General Leave
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 719, and that I may include tabular material on the same.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 448, I call up the bill (H.R. 719) to require the Transportation Security Administration to conform to existing Federal law and regulations regarding criminal investigator positions, and for other purposes, with the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment.
The text of the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment is as follows:
=========================== NOTE ===========================
September 30, 2015, on page H6731, the following appeared: Senate amendment to House amendment to Senate amendment:
The online version should be corrected to read: The text of the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment is as follows:
========================= END NOTE =========================
At the end add the following:The following sums are hereby appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, and out of applicable corporate or other revenues, receipts, and funds, for the several departments, agencies, corporations, and other organizational units of Government for fiscal year 2016, and for other purposes, namely:
Sec. 101. (a) Such amounts as may be necessary, at a rate for operations as provided in the applicable appropriations Acts for fiscal year 2015 and under the authority and conditions provided in such Acts, for continuing projects or activities (including the costs of direct loans and loan guarantees) that are not otherwise specifically provided for in this Act, that were conducted in fiscal year 2015, and for which appropriations, funds, or other authority were made available in the following appropriations Acts:
(1) The Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015
(division A of Public Law 113-235), except section 743 and title VIII.
(2) The Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (division B of Public Law 113-235).
(3) The Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2015
(division C of Public Law 113-235), except title X.
(4) The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (division D of Public Law 113-235).
(5) The Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act, 2015 (division E of Public Law 113-235).
(6) The Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 114-4).
(7) The Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (division F of Public Law 113-235).
(8) The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015
(division G of Public Law 113-235), except title VI.
(9) The Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2015
(division H of Public Law 113-235).
(10) The Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (division I of Public Law 113-235).
(11) The Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2015 (division J of Public Law 113-235), except title IX.
(12) The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015 (division K of Public Law 113-235).
(13) Section 11 of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015 (Public Law 113-235).
(b) The rate for operations provided by subsection (a) is hereby reduced by 0.2108 percent.
Sec. 102. (a) No appropriation or funds made available or authority granted pursuant to section 101 for the Department of Defense shall be used for: (1) the new production of items not funded for production in fiscal year 2015 or prior years;
(2) the increase in production rates above those sustained with fiscal year 2015 funds; or (3) the initiation, resumption, or continuation of any project, activity, operation, or organization (defined as any project, subproject, activity, budget activity, program element, and subprogram within a program element, and for any investment items defined as a P-1 line item in a budget activity within an appropriation account and an R-1 line item that includes a program element and subprogram element within an appropriation account) for which appropriations, funds, or other authority were not available during fiscal year 2015.
(b) No appropriation or funds made available or authority granted pursuant to section 101 for the Department of Defense shall be used to initiate multi-year procurements utilizing advance procurement funding for economic order quantity procurement unless specifically appropriated later.
Sec. 103. Appropriations made by section 101 shall be available to the extent and in the manner that would be provided by the pertinent appropriations Act.
Sec. 104. Except as otherwise provided in section 102, no appropriation or funds made available or authority granted pursuant to section 101 shall be used to initiate or resume any project or activity for which appropriations, funds, or other authority were not available during fiscal year 2015.
Sec. 105. Appropriations made and authority granted pursuant to this Act shall cover all obligations or expenditures incurred for any project or activity during the period for which funds or authority for such project or activity are available under this Act.
Sec. 106. Unless otherwise provided for in this Act or in the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2016, appropriations and funds made available and authority granted pursuant to this Act shall be available until whichever of the following first occurs: (1) the enactment into law of an appropriation for any project or activity provided for in this Act; (2) the enactment into law of the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2016 without any provision for such project or activity; or (3) December 11, 2015.
Sec. 107. Expenditures made pursuant to this Act shall be charged to the applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization whenever a bill in which such applicable appropriation, fund, or authorization is contained is enacted into law.
Sec. 108. Appropriations made and funds made available by or authority granted pursuant to this Act may be used without regard to the time limitations for submission and approval of apportionments set forth in section 1513 of title 31, United States Code, but nothing in this Act may be construed to waive any other provision of law governing the apportionment of funds.
Sec. 109. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, except section 106, for those programs that would otherwise have high initial rates of operation or complete distribution of appropriations at the beginning of fiscal year 2016 because of distributions of funding to States, foreign countries, grantees, or others, such high initial rates of operation or complete distribution shall not be made, and no grants shall be awarded for such programs funded by this Act that would impinge on final funding prerogatives.
Sec. 110. This Act shall be implemented so that only the most limited funding action of that permitted in the Act shall be taken in order to provide for continuation of projects and activities.
Sec. 111. (a) For entitlements and other mandatory payments whose budget authority was provided in appropriations Acts for fiscal year 2015, and for activities under the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, activities shall be continued at the rate to maintain program levels under current law, under the authority and conditions provided in the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015, to be continued through the date specified in section 106(3).
(b) Notwithstanding section 106, obligations for mandatory payments due on or about the first day of any month that begins after October 2015 but not later than 30 days after the date specified in section 106(3) may continue to be made, and funds shall be available for such payments.
Sec. 112. Amounts made available under section 101 for civilian personnel compensation and benefits in each department and agency may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to avoid furloughs within such department or agency, consistent with the applicable appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015, except that such authority provided under this section shall not be used until after the department or agency has taken all necessary actions to reduce or defer non-personnel-related administrative expenses.
Sec. 113. Funds appropriated by this Act may be obligated and expended notwithstanding section 10 of Public Law 91-672
(22 U.S.C. 2412), section 15 of the State Department Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 U.S.C. 2680), section 313 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995 (22 U.S.C. 6212), and section 504(a)(1) of the National Security Act of 1947 (50 U.S.C. 3094(a)(1)).
Sec. 114. (a) Each amount incorporated by reference in this Act that was previously designated by the Congress for Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 or as being for disaster relief pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(D) of such Act is designated by the Congress for Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A) of such Act or as being for disaster relief pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(D) of such Act, respectively.
(b) The reduction in section 101(b) of this Act shall not apply to--
(1) amounts designated under subsection (a) of this section; or
(2) amounts made available by section 101(a) by reference to the second paragraph under the heading ``Social Security Administration--Limitation on Administrative Expenses'' in division G of Public Law 113-235; or
(3) amounts made available by section 101(a) by reference to the paragraph under the heading ``Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services--Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control Account'' in division G of Public Law 113-235.
(c) Section 6 of Public Law 113-235 shall apply to amounts designated in subsection (a) for Overseas Contingency Operations/Global War on Terrorism.
Sec. 115. During the period covered by this Act, discretionary amounts appropriated for fiscal year 2016 that were provided in advance by appropriations Acts shall be available in the amounts provided in such Acts, reduced by the percentage in section 101(b).
Sec. 116. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are provided for ``Department of Agriculture--Domestic Food Programs--Food and Nutrition Service--Commodity Assistance Program'' at a rate for operations of $288,317,000, of which
$221,298,000 shall be for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program.
Sec. 117. Amounts made available by section 101 for
``Department of Agriculture--Rural Housing Service--Rental Assistance Program'' may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to pay ongoing debt service for the multi-family direct loan programs under sections 514 and 515 of the Housing Act of 1949 (42 U.S.C. 1484 and 1485): Provided, That the Secretary may waive the prohibition in the second proviso under such heading in division A of Public Law 113-235 with respect to rental assistance contracts entered into or renewed during fiscal year 2015.
Sec. 118. Amounts made available by section 101 for
``Department of Commerce--National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration--Procurement, Acquisition and Construction'' may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to maintain the planned launch schedules for the Joint Polar Satellite System.
Sec. 119. (a) The first proviso under the heading ``United States Marshals Service--Federal Prisoner Detention'' in title II of division B of Public Law 113-235 shall not apply during the period covered by this Act.
(b) The limitation in section 217(c) of division B of Public Law 113-235 on the amount of excess unobligated balances available under section 524(c)(8)(E) of title 28, United States Code, shall not apply under this Act to the use of such funds for ``United States Marshals Service--Federal Prisoner Detention''.
Sec. 120. (a) The authority regarding closeout of Space Shuttle contracts and associated programs provided by language under the heading ``National Aeronautics and Space Administration--Administrative Provisions'' in the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (Public Law 111-8) shall continue in effect through fiscal year 2021.
(b) This section shall be applied as if it were in effect on September 30, 2015.
Sec. 121. (a) Notwithstanding section 1552 of title 31, United States Code, funds made available, including funds that have expired but have not been cancelled, and identified by Treasury Appropriation Fund Symbol 13-09/10-0554 shall remain available for expenditure through fiscal year 2020 for the purpose of liquidating valid obligations of active grants.
(b) For the purpose of subsection (a), grants for which the period of performance has expired but are not finally closed out shall be considered active grants.
(c) This section shall be applied as if it were in effect on September 30, 2015.
Sec. 122. The following provisions shall be applied by substituting ``2016'' for ``2015'' through the earlier of the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act or the date of the enactment of an Act authorizing appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities of the Department of Defense:
(1) Section 1215(f)(1) of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112-81; 10 U.S.C. 113 note), as most recently amended by section 1237 of the Carl Levin and Howard P. ``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 (Public Law 113-291).
(2) Section 127b(c)(3)(C) of title 10, United States Code.
Sec. 123. (a) Funds made available by section 101 for
``Department of Energy--Energy Programs--Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund'' may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to avoid disruption of continuing projects or activities funded in this appropriation.
(b) The Secretary of Energy shall notify the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate not later than 3 days after each use of the authority provided in subsection (a).
Sec. 124. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, except section 106, the District of Columbia may expend local funds under the heading ``District of Columbia Funds'' for such programs and activities under the District of Columbia Appropriations Act, 2015 (title IV of division E of Public Law 113-235) at the rate set forth under ``District of Columbia Funds--Summary of Expenses'' as included in the Fiscal Year 2016 Budget Request Act of 2015 (D.C. Act 21-99), as modified as of the date of the enactment of this Act.
Sec. 125. Notwithstanding section 101, no funds are provided by this Act for ``Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board--Salaries and Expenses''.
Sec. 126. Amounts made available by section 101 for
``Small Business Administration--Business Loans Program Account'' may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to accommodate increased demand for commitments for general business loans authorized under section 7(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 636(a)).
Sec. 127. Sections 1101(a) and 1104(a)(2)(A) of the Internet Tax Freedom Act (title XI of division C of Public Law 105-277; 47 U.S.C. 151 note) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``October 1, 2015''.
Sec. 128. Section 101 shall be applied by assuming that section 7 of Public Law 113-235 was enacted as part of title VII of division E of Public Law 113-235.
Sec. 129. The authority provided by section 831 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 U.S.C. 391) shall continue in effect through the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act.
Sec. 130. Section 401(b) of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (8 U.S.C. 1324a note) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``September 30, 2015''.
Sec. 131. Section 610(b) of the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1993 (8 U.S.C. 1153 note) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``September 30, 2015''.
Sec. 132. Subclauses 101(a)(27)(C)(ii)(II) and (III) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(27)(C)(ii)(II) and (III)) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``September 30, 2015''.
Sec. 133. Section 220(c) of the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994 (8 U.S.C. 1182 note) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``September 30, 2015''.
Sec. 134. Section 810 of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (16 U.S.C. 6809) is amended by striking all that follows after ``shall terminate'' and inserting
``September 30, 2017.''.
Sec. 135. In addition to the amount otherwise provided by section 101 for ``Department of Agriculture--Forest Service--Wildland Fire Management'', there is appropriated
$700,000,000 for an additional amount for fiscal year 2016, to remain available until expended, for urgent wildland fire suppression activities: Provided, That such funds shall only become available if funds previously provided for wildland fire suppression will be exhausted imminently and the Secretary of Agriculture notifies the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate in writing of the need for these additional funds: Provided further, That such funds are also available for transfer to other appropriations accounts to repay amounts previously transferred for wildfire suppression:
Provided further, That such amount is designated by the Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 251(b)(2)(A)(i) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, except that such amount shall be available only if the President subsequently so designates such amount and transmits such designation to the Congress.
Sec. 136. The authorities provided by sections 117 and 123 of division G of Public Law 113-76 shall continue in effect through the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act.
Sec. 137. (a) The authority provided by subsection (m)(3) of section 8162 of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2000 (40 U.S.C. 8903 note; Public Law 106-79) shall continue in effect through the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act.
(b) For the period covered by this Act, the authority provided by the provisos under the heading ``Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission--Capital Construction'' in division E of Public Law 112-74 shall not be in effect.
Sec. 138. Section 3096(2) of the Carl Levin and Howard P.
``Buck'' McKeon National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015 is amended by inserting ``for fiscal year 2015'' after ``$37,000,000''.
Sec. 139. Funds made available in prior appropriations Acts for construction and renovation of facilities for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may also be used for construction on leased land.
Sec. 140. Subsection (b) of section 163 of Public Law 111-242, as amended, is further amended by striking ``2015-2016'' and inserting ``2016-2017''.
Sec. 141. Section 101 shall be applied by assuming that section 139 of Public Law 113-164 was enacted as part of division G of Public Law 113-235, and section 139 of Public Law 113-164 shall be applied by adding at the end the following: ``and of the unobligated balance of amounts deposited or available in the Child Enrollment Contingency Fund from appropriations to the Fund under section 2104(n)(2)(A)(i) of the Social Security Act and the income derived from investment of those funds pursuant to 2104(n)(2)(C) of that Act, $1,664,000,000 is rescinded''.
Sec. 142. Section 114(f) of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1011c(f)) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for
``September 30, 2015''.
Sec. 143. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, there is appropriated for payment to Tori B. Nunnelee, widow of Alan Nunnelee, late a Representative from the State of Mississippi, $174,000.
Sec. 144. Of the discretionary unobligated balances of the Department of Veterans Affairs from fiscal year 2015 or prior fiscal years, or discretionary amounts appropriated in advance for fiscal year 2016, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may transfer up to $625,000,000 to ``Department of Veterans Affairs--Departmental Administration--Construction, Major Projects'', to be merged with the amounts available in such account: Provided, That no amounts may be transferred from amounts that were designated by the Congress as an emergency requirement pursuant to the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget, the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985, or the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010: Provided further, That no amounts may be transferred until the Secretary submits to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate a request for, and receives from the Committees written approval of, such transfers: Provided further, That the Secretary shall specify in such request the donor account and amount of each proposed transfer, the fiscal year of each appropriation to be transferred, the amount of unobligated balances remaining in the account after the transfer, and the project or program impact of the transfer.
Sec. 145. Notwithstanding section 101, amounts are provided for ``Department of Veterans Affairs--Departmental Administration--General Operating Expenses, Veterans Benefits Administration'' at a rate for operations of $2,697,734,000.
Sec. 146. Notwithstanding section 101, section 226(a) of division I of Public Law 113-235 shall be applied to amounts made available by this Act by substituting ``division I of Public Law 113-235'' for ``division J of Public Law 113-76'' and by substituting ``2015'' for ``2014''.
Sec. 147. Section 209 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6436) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``September 30, 2015''.
Sec. 148. Amounts made available by section 101 for
``Broadcasting Board of Governors--International Broadcasting Operations'', ``Bilateral Economic Assistance--Funds Appropriated to the President--Economic Support Fund'',
``International Security Assistance--Department of State--International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement'',
``International Security Assistance--Department of State--Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and Related Programs'', and ``International Security Assistance--Funds Appropriated to the President--Foreign Military Financing Program'' shall be obligated at a rate for operations as necessary to sustain assistance for Ukraine to counter external, regional aggression and influence, including for the costs of authorized loan guarantees.
Sec. 149. Section 1334 of the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6553) shall be applied by substituting the date specified in section 106(3) of this Act for ``October 1, 2015''.
Sec. 150. (a) Funds made available by section 101 for
``Department of Housing and Urban Development--Management and Administration--Administrative Support Offices'' may be apportioned up to the rate for operations necessary to maintain the planned schedule for the New Core Shared Services Project.
(b) Not later than 3 days before the first use of the apportionment authority in subsection (a), each 30 days thereafter, and 3 days after the authority expires under this Act, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development shall submit to the Committees on Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Senate a report specifying each use of the authority through the date of the report.
This Act may be cited as the ``Continuing Appropriations Act, 2016''.
Motion Offered by Mr. Rogers of Kentucky
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the motion.
The text of the motion is as follows:
Mr. Rogers of Kentucky moves that the House concur in the Senate amendment to the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 719.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 448, the motion shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations.
The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers) and the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Lowey) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present H.R. 719, a short-term continuing resolution to keep the government open and operating after the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
This necessary measure funds government and services at the current rate through December 11 of this year. As in previous years, the CR also includes a small across-the-board reduction to keep within the fiscal year 2016 cap level set by the Budget Control Act.
Mr. Speaker, this is a responsible measure that prevents a harmful government shutdown, while allowing time for a larger budget agreement to be reached, and time to complete the full year appropriations work for 2016.
It also includes a few responsible provisions to prevent disastrous, irreversible damage to government programs or to address current urgent needs. These changes are limited in scope and noncontroversial. For instance, these provisions extend the authority for critical Department of Defense activities that fight terrorism, increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs to help address the disability claims backlog, and provide emergency funding to the Forest Service to help respond to the disastrous wildfires that are devastating our Western States.
While I firmly believe this legislation is the best path forward at this time, it is also my strong opinion that Congress should do its job and enact actual, line-by-line, separate appropriations bills ahead of our September 30 deadline. Clearly, this is not an option at this time, so we must resort to a temporary measure like this CR.
A CR doesn't reflect our most current budgetary needs. It creates uncertainty across the whole government and does not adequately address our national security obligations, and it causes needless waste when taxpayer dollars are spent inefficiently and ineffectively.
So it is to my great dismay, Mr. Speaker, that we have arrived at this point once again requiring a temporary Band-aid to buy us time to do our constitutionally mandated duty.
The House this year got off to a great start--beginning our appropriations work at the earliest date since 1974--the current Budget Control Act's anniversary--and passing six of our 12 bills by July of this year. My committee reported out all 12 bills for the first time since 2009. And yet, the Senate refuses to act, giving us no choice but to try a continuing resolution.
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But now, with progress stalled, it is clear that all sides must come together to find some sort of agreement that addresses our current fiscal situation in a comprehensive way. This CR, while not ideal, is the next step toward that end, keeping the government's lights on as we work to find a solution.
With current funding set to expire just hours from now, I urge my colleagues to do the responsible and reasonable thing and support this continuing resolution today.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, we may temporarily avert this most recent crisis if we can get this bill to the President tonight, just hours before the entire Federal Government shuts down, but it is certainly not a cause for celebration.
This very short-term continuing resolution avoids the most immediate crisis. But what is step two? After we enact this stopgap measure, are there any firm plans to begin negotiating the full-year appropriations bills we should be passing today? I remain deeply concerned about the potential of finding ourselves facing a government shutdown again in December.
The stakes are very high. We have an economy that is genuinely recovering. Unemployment is down. Economic growth is up. But we still have progress to make. The uncertainty and unnecessary tumult of playing games right up to the brink of a government shutdown is not helpful to our fragile economy. The last shutdown cost the economy $24 billion in GDP, according to Standard & Poor's.
This continuing resolution buys us 10 weeks and takes care of only a handful of the most pressing Federal responsibilities: Provides desperately needed emergency firefighting funds to address the cataclysmic fires raging in the West; provides additional resources for processing disability claims at the Veterans Administration; increases the authorization in the Small Business Loan Guarantee Program to ensure new loans can be administered to help small businesses across the country; and extends several expiring authorizations for programs within the Department of Homeland Security.
Notably, the continuing resolution does not address other key priorities that could bolster our economy, such as the expired authority of the Export-Import Bank, which has created or sustained 1.5 million private sector jobs at no cost to the taxpayer since 2007 and supported billions in American economic activity.
By settling on this short-term extension, we fail to provide proposed increases for medical research at the National Institutes of Health and the Nation's aging transportation system and infrastructure. The President's request for defense funding is shortchanged, which would put our national security at risk in a long-term CR.
Leaving our Federal agencies on autopilot without the line-by-line, year-by-year adjustments that should come from this committee and this Congress is irresponsible and hurts our ability to grow our economy, create jobs, and give hard-working families the services they need.
Yet, with the Republican dysfunction that has driven a change in the majority's leadership on the brink of a government shutdown, the prospects for forging a reasonable, responsible solution by December are not good.
One more indication of the dire outlook is the cynical gimmick--an
``enrollment correction''--the majority has put forward today to supposedly defund Planned Parenthood. Fortunately, it will have no practical effect on the CR for two reasons. First, the Senate will ignore it. Second, there is no need for a correction since, as my friend Mr. Cole noted this weekend, ``there is no money'' in the CR for Planned Parenthood. PolitiFact even confirmed this claim.
I will strongly oppose this attack on women's health today as I support the temporary continuing resolution and urge all of my colleagues to do the same so we can at least avoid a worst-case scenario.
But I again implore outgoing and incoming Republican leadership to please engage with the President and House Democrats immediately on an agreement to replace the sequester-level caps, avert the next crisis just weeks away, stop playing political games with women's health, and invest in American economic growth and security.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), a very valued member of my committee who happens also to be the chairman of the Labor HHS Subcommittee.
Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, first, I want to begin by congratulating both my chairman and my ranking member for the exceptional job they have done this year in getting all 12 appropriations bills through the full committee for the first time since 2009. So we really have on the Appropriations Committee done our work. Six of those bills have come across the floor.
And, frankly, I think we would have had more across the floor if our friends in the Senate, who are blocked by the Democratic minority, had an opportunity to bring their bills to the floor. I think we are here, in part, because the inaction by the minority in the United States Senate has ground the whole process to a halt.
But I am very pleased to see both my chairman and my ranking member here making the argument to keep the government funded. I think we all know that shutting down the government is always a mistake. It is a political mistake, frankly, for people that want to use it to achieve some political tactic.
But, more importantly, it is simply the wrong thing to do for the American people. They send us here expecting us to get our work done. The fact that some amongst us has kept that from happening is regrettable and I think a disservice to all of our constituents.
I also believe, in this particular case, that we have an opportunity, if we pass this continuing resolution for those that are, as I like to say appropriately, above our pay grade--that is, the President, the Speaker, the majority leader, and the two minority leaders--to have time to negotiate the framework for a larger deal, for a larger understanding, that would allow us to move ahead and actually have an omnibus bill where we actually--not as good as moving it across the floor--but had a large bill where we looked at every line, we made concessions to one another, we made agreements, we moved the ball forward, and it could open up a possibility for a normal appropriations process next year.
In that regard, I was very heartened by Majority Leader McConnell's recent remarks that he is interested in a 2-year deal, somewhat similar to Ryan-Murray in terms of its duration. Again, that would allow this House next year to move appropriations bills across the floor one at a time in a give-and-take bipartisan manner. I think that is extraordinarily important.
If you look at where this committee was at in terms of frozen activity before my good friend, the chairman, became the chairman, he and, again, with my good friend, the gentlewoman from New York, have brought us back a long, long way. If we don't finish that journey in the next 2\1/2\ months, we have got several things that are going to happen, the worst of which will be a sequester of $40 billion, roughly, on the American military.
That is an unacceptable outcome. And, frankly, that is something that the Commander in Chief and the respective leaders on both sides of the aisle in this body need to make sure doesn't happen.
I promise you, if the administration, the Senate, and the House can get to a larger agreement, I have no doubt that my chairman and my ranking member and their counterparts in the United States Senate will then introduce a normal negotiating process and we will get to the right place.
So we have a moment, an opening, a little bit of bipartisanship here. I would expect, when this bill is actually voted on, we will have large majorities on both sides of the aisle that actually support it.
So I urge the other Members--again, both Democrat and Republican--to seize this opportunity, to not just focus on where there are differences, but focus here where we have come together, bought the time, and then, frankly, where they can use their influence on both sides of the aisle in both Chambers and with the President to make sure that an adequate deal is arrived at and that we spare the country and certainly the men and women in uniform that defend us each and every day from the agony of dealing with a second sequester.
This is not the time for that to happen. It is a dangerous world. We have not Russia relitigating the borders of Eastern Europe. We have got China building islands in the South China Sea. We have got ISIL having established a caliphate of sorts in the Middle East. We have a dangerous Iran.
The worst thing in the world would be to not do this CR and then not carry it through to a fuller agreement and undercut our military. So I think the stakes of what we are doing are very, very high here.
I want to conclude again by commending my chairman and commending our ranking member for working together, as they have this entire year, so we could get our bills across, as they are doing now in this process, to buy our leaders time, and, frankly, as I know they will do in normal negotiation on an omnibus bill at the end of this process and then, hopefully, on a regular appropriations process next year.
Again, I urge my fellow Members on both sides of the aisle to pass this very important piece of legislation.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro), a distinguished member of the committee.
Ms. DeLAURO. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed in this bill. We are faced with this continuing resolution in order to avert a government shutdown. This is no way to govern. America deserves better than a month-to-month government, forever on the brink of a shutdown and held back by needless budget constraints.
Those who call this a clean continuing resolution are mistaken. In fact, it puts in place yet more indiscriminate cuts. It cuts .2 percent across the board for most discretionary programs. Apparently, we have not learned our lesson about mindless austerity.
Instead of fighting over women's health care, we should use the next month to negotiate a budget agreement that addresses the single biggest economic issue that we face in this country. Today working men and women in the United States are in jobs that don't pay them enough money. Real wages have been stagnant for 30 years.
We need to stop spending hundreds of billions of dollars every year on tax loopholes for the wealthy and for big corporations. We need to invest once more in education and job training and health and all the other priorities that American families hold dear.
Right now we cannot meet their needs. Poor children are struggling. Their vocabularies are, on average, one-third those of their middle income peers. But since 2010, we have cut over $1 billion in real terms from education.
Workers need help learning the right skills, finding work in a tough economy, so that they can support their families, but we have cut more than $1 billion from job training programs.
Millions of Americans depend upon lifesaving medical research to cure disease and to improve the quality of life. I stand here as a survivor of ovarian cancer. I am here because of the grace of God and biomedical research. Yet, we will continue to cut biomedical research. We have cut more than $3.5 billion from the National Institutes of Health.
The list of failures goes on and on. We are failing our workers. We are failing working families. We are failing students and medical researchers and first responders and veterans and families and millions of others.
Our job in this body is to provide opportunity for people. During this economic struggle that we have, we ought to be focused like a laser on the issues that work to better the economic situation of working families in this country.
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What we do here is to continue to hold a cap on what we need to move forward, and, more importantly than that, what we do from the other side of the aisle is to threaten the government shutdown over the issue of women's health.
Who are we? What are we about? Where are the great values of this Nation that helped to provide an opportunity so that families could join the middle class of this country and continue to make it strong?
That is what our job is today to do, not to be involved in these mindless exercises that the other side of the aisle continues to move forward on.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Dent), a hardworking member of the Appropriations Committee, the chairman of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, and, coincidently, the chairman of the House Ethics Committee.
Mr. DENT. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of passing a clean continuing resolution, the one the Senate sent over to us. We should do that immediately.
It would be utterly reckless to let the government shut down for any reason, regardless of one's feelings about Planned Parenthood. Whether you like them or not isn't the point. We should never shut the government down over that or, frankly, any other issue at this time.
It is imperative that we pass this CR so that it will give us the time and space we need to enter into a broader budget agreement, hopefully, for this fiscal year and the next and so that we can then, also, pass the appropriations bills.
As our very fine Chairman Rogers mentioned, I am the chair of the Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies. This CR is essential to making sure that veterans' services go uninterrupted. It also makes sure that we can continue moving forward on many of the projects that are ongoing within the VA system through the anomalies. Nevertheless, we need to move forward on this for that reason.
Also, I want to make a point that we need to stop lurching from one budget crisis to the next. The events of the last few weeks have been very dismaying to me, personally. That said, we are not going to have a government shutdown, and that is good news, but we need to get on with the business of this budget agreement.
Also, I wanted to point out--I heard my friend and colleague from Connecticut made a comment about biomedical research--in the bill that we had passed out of the Labor, Health, and Human Services Subcommittee, we actually did increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by $1.1 billion. I do hope that, in the event that we do come to a budget agreement and move the appropriations bills, we will be able to see an increase in funding for the NIH. We will be able to provide for our veterans and, in my case, also the military construction projects.
Also, our friends who are serving overseas, our men and women serving overseas in the Armed Forces, are very much depending on us to do the right thing, to pass appropriations bills, a long-term continuing resolution, not the one we are voting on today. If we are to do one after December 11, it would have real impacts on our force readiness and the ability for our troops and our men and women overseas to do the jobs that we have asked them to do.
So for all these reasons, I am urging people to vote for this CR today, keep the government functioning, do our duty, and then set up a process where we can complete the appropriations process in December and take care of the responsibilities that have been entrusted to us.
I want to thank Chairman Rogers and, also, Ranking Member Lowey for their strong leadership on the Appropriations Committee. They are doing all that they are doing to try to help us work together and make sure that Congress maintains its power of the purse and does exactly what we promised the American people we would do, and that would be to govern.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New York (Mr. Israel).
Mr. ISRAEL. Mr. Speaker, I thank my very good friend and colleague from New York, Ranking Member Lowey.
Mr. Speaker, I have a tremendous amount of respect for the chairman, the gentleman from Kentucky. I have great personal admiration for him and his leadership, and I thank him for his earnest, hard work; but what we are doing today is a disappointment to the American people, and it is a disappointment to those of us who are on the Appropriations Committee. Success can't be defined as avoid catastrophe, and all we are doing today is avoiding catastrophe. The majority's triumph today is not shutting down the government.
Mr. Speaker, there is not a small-business owner anywhere in America who would say ``had a good day because I am not shutting down,'' ``had a good day because I am not throwing my employees out of work,'' ``had a good day because I am not telling my customers they can't come for services.'' That is not success. That is failure. That is, by itself, a catastrophe.
Mr. Speaker, the managers of those small businesses are judged by their performance and success. The managers of this Congress, the majority, are judged in the same way. They are judged by their ability, as the majority, to produce bills, to pass budgets, to do the work of the American people.
It is time for them to do their jobs, to stop the gimmicks, to pass a long-term budget that invests in the education of our children, that supports job skills for people and careers, that protects our veterans and our national security. It is time to do their jobs, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum), a distinguished member of the Appropriations Committee.
Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, this Republican majority has driven the expectations of the American people so low that the very act of funding government operations has become a significant achievement. Unfortunately, the cost extraction by the Republican extremists for this 3-month clean CR was the resignation of Speaker Boehner, a good man who has served this House honorably.
Passing this CR, however, will keep the government working, which is critical to American families, their economy, and the safety and security of our Nation, and it continues to protect by providing healthcare coverage for women.
In 2013, when the Republicans shut down the government for 16 days, the U.S. economy lost $24 billion, and more than 100,000 Americans lost their jobs. The American people cannot afford another Republican shutdown. Passing this 3-month CR is the first step toward responsibly meeting the needs of the American people.
As a ranking Democrat on the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, I am pleased that this bill includes $700 million in emergency funds for Forest Service to fight wildland fires in Western States. This is critical funding.
The CR will keep our national parks open to the public, keep Native American healthcare and education programs operating, and prevent the furloughing of tens of thousands of Federal employees in the Department of the Interior and EPA.
I am going to vote to pass this continuing resolution, and I applaud all the Democrats and Republicans who will vote to pass the CR, but we need to work to find a bipartisan path forward to fund the government for the coming year. Our job is to serve the American people. The American people expect Congress to do their job. Today, I hope all Members will do their job and vote to pass this CR.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
I have no further requests for time. I am prepared to close if the gentlewoman is prepared.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I was thinking about that, except, I believe, we have some distinguished members of our committee who are running a little late.
So I would just like to say, Mr. Speaker, that I am very pleased that we are here today, and I do hope that there will be strong bipartisan support for the continuing resolution.
This has been a difficult year. I know how hard our distinguished chairman has worked, trying to put together a bipartisan appropriations bill. Although I am very pleased that we are passing a continuing resolution today, it is really amazing that we should be celebrating in the United States of America, the most distinguished country, supposedly representative of our great democracy, that we are keeping the government open.
I feel very confident, Mr. Speaker, that if members of the Appropriations Committee, both Democrats and Republicans, would sit down very seriously, we could work out an arrangement whereby we would lift the sequester, just as we did with Ryan-Murray.
I was on that committee with some distinguished members of the party, and we had some good discussions. We had some differences of opinion; we had some lively debates; but at the end of the day, we came up with a product that we could be proud of.
So, Mr. Chairman, I do hope that after this continuing resolution has passed--and I think you have another speaker who would like to speak while we are waiting for our speaker.
In closing, I would just like to say that I am cautiously optimistic that, after the CR is passed, we can really do our work and come up with a good, strong omnibus bill that reflects our values.
I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), our distinguished leader.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I thank her for her leadership, as well as that of our distinguished chairman, Mr. Rogers, to bring us to the floor today where we can vote in a bipartisan way to keep government open without doing harm to women's health in our country.
To shut government down is a really bad decision for this Congress to make. The last time we did that, we lost $24 billion. The last time this Congress voted to shut down government, we lost $24 billion to our economy, 120,000 jobs in our workforce. Our Federal workforce, which contains more than 30 percent of veterans in its composition, was furloughed or worse. The American people deserve better.
So as we go forward from this continuing resolution, which is a good outcome of the conversations that have gone back and forth--a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate, and I hope a strong bipartisan vote in the House--let us take heed of the words of Pope Francis, who just, not even 1 week ago, spoke to us in this Chamber.
Pope Francis asked us to work together for the common good of the people. He urged and said a good leader would have a spirit of openness and pragmatism, again, to get the job done for the American people.
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As we go forward, we will have some difficult choices to make. We all share the values of strengthening our national security, investing in our children's future, reducing the deficit as we go forward, but as we do so, there are some important differences that we share.
Let's hope that we recognize a good idea, wherever it springs from. Let us also recognize what our responsibilities are to the American people first and foremost.
I consider this a very positive action we are taking today. I wish that we were finished with all of our appropriations work. As an appropriator, I know that that is always the goal of our chairman and ranking member.
I thank our ranking member, Congresswoman Lowey, for her leadership, but also for the optimism she just expressed, that, as we go forward, we will do so in a timely fashion, maybe long before December 11, so we will have removed all doubt in the public's mind that government will work, that it will function, as the Pope had asked us, for the good of the American people.
There are important decisions ahead, though, in terms of what our priorities are in a budget. A budget should be a statement of our national values, and what is important to us should be reflected on how we allocate those resources. We have the omnibus bill to deal with.
We also have investments in the infrastructure of our country and our transportation. That will be an important bill that we will be debating at the same time, but has a relationship in terms of how we offset, how we pay for that.
We have the issue of the Ex-Im Bank, a great job creator for our country and, yet, still unauthorized, long overdue for us to authorize it.
Before Thanksgiving probably we will have the issue of a vote on honoring the full faith and credit of the United States of America. The last time that was put into doubt, it was unfortunate because it lowered our credit rating, even though we didn't follow through with it. Even though the full faith and credit ended up being honored, just the threat, the suspicion, that it could be undermined lowered our credit rating.
We have really important work to do for the good of the people. Again, let us honor our responsibilities in the beautiful spirit of Saint--Pope Francis. I say Saint Francis because that is the patron saint of my city, of San Francisco, and the namesake also of Pope Francis.
But Pope Francis instructed us as to what good leaders do, and good leaders have a sense of humility to respect the views of other people and not be condescending in terms of our views are the only ones that matter.
In that spirit, I look forward to working with you, Mr. Chairman, with the Speaker, with others, and certainly under the leadership of our distinguished ranking member, Congresswoman Lowey.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Jolly), a member of our committee.
Mr. JOLLY. Mr. Speaker, my compliments to the chairman and to the ranking member for shepherding us thus far into this year.
I often say the first job of Congress is to govern, and that means keeping the government open. I think what we are doing today is honoring the responsibility we have, our article I responsibilities to keep the government open.
We talk a lot about Congress having the power of the purse, but with the power also comes responsibility. So as we have hard conversations as a country and as a Congress about whether we fund certain programs, whether we fund certain entities, that is an appropriate conversation to have, and I think we have handled that appropriately thus far.
You sometimes would not know that based on comments on the other side of the aisle because they continue to try to score political points and use political capital to suggest we are on the brink of a shutdown. The simple fact is we are not.
Our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have acknowledged today that they intend to vote for what is a responsible continuing resolution that will ensure that our government remains funded.
The irony of some of the criticisms that often come--and this comes from colleagues on our committee--is that, to finally reach a deal, to finally have responsible governance, it takes a willing partner on the other side of the aisle and it takes intellectual honesty on both sides of the aisle of every member of our committee.
I would respectfully point out to those on the other side of the aisle who serve on the committee that we had a debate over and over and over with each markup about the Budget Control Act and the caps that are in place by statute. There were very good suggestions from both sides of the aisle about where taxpayer dollars should be invested, which programs they should be invested in, from defense to transportation, to education, to healthcare research, and so forth.
The irony is that, for each good idea on the other side of the aisle about where to invest money, there was a willful ignorance of the fact that any additional investment must come with an offset under the Budget Control Act. There were good amendments in the committee, and, frankly, many of them would have passed if they had included responsible offsets. But there were no offsets.
I point that out only for this, not to relitigate all the markups we had in committee, but to suggest that somehow it is the Republicans' issue that somehow we have to resolve this. We have not had a willing partner throughout the markup of all of these bills.
Just as the spirit of cooperation is here on the floor--and rightfully so--and we are going to pass the CR that funds the government and keeps it open--that highway of goodwill has to go both ways. Rather than just talk about what is not funded, let's talk about how we are going to operate under what is a statute, what is the law of the land that was signed by this President and, frankly, recommended by this President.
As we talk about where spending comes between now and December 11, we have to recognize and be honest with the American people that we operate under a budget agreement that has statutory caps signed by this President. There are great ideas on both sides of the aisle about where to spend money, but if we ignore the fact that they are required to be offset, then we have not advanced this conversation one day.
It is important that we keep the government open. I am glad that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle and enough colleagues on this side of the aisle are saying: Yes, we have to keep the government open. We have to keep the Department of Defense funded. Our men and women in uniform who carry the flag for us every day, we have to ensure that they are funded. Our first responders, DHS, coastguardsmen, coastguardswomen, our transportation programs, education, critical healthcare research is all that we will continue to fund through this responsible continuing resolution.
We all wish we had a full-year bill that we were considering today, but we do not have that. The responsible action by this body is to pass this bill with sufficient numbers on both sides of the aisle. I would charge those on my side of the aisle who care deeply about certain extraneous issues involved in the debate this week, we have responsible ways to continue to address how we provide critical nonabortion-related women's healthcare service in underserved communities, while we still act today to keep the government open. It is a responsible path forward.
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for bringing this forward.
Mrs. LOWEY. Mr. Speaker, I just want to reiterate again to my colleagues that I look forward to working in a bipartisan way with the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Appropriations to move the process forward.
I particularly think, because it was just mentioned by the previous speaker, that for us not to increase the appropriations to the National Institutes of Health--this is just one area of the bill that came through the committee in the committee process. This means research for a whole range of illnesses, whether it is autism or diabetes or heart.
We have a responsibility to lift these caps, negotiate a really good bill, and provide adequate funding for the American people. This is important for their health, for their work life. We have to be sure we are investing so we are creating jobs and keep the economy moving. I look forward to that process.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I shall be brief.
I appreciate the work of my colleague, Mrs. Lowey, ranking member on the committee, and all of the people on her side of the aisle and, of course, on our side of the aisle as well. This is a good bill. It is a responsible bill. It does not do anything controversial.
It does do one important thing, and that is keep the government operating. We can't afford to abandon our soldiers, particularly those overseas in harm's way. We can't abandon the people that depend upon the programs that our Federal Government provides.
I urge Members to vote ``yes'' on this bill. It is a good bill, and it keeps the government operating.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this continuing resolution, which will allow us to avoid another completely unnecessary and potentially devastating government shutdown. My vote in favor of the CR does not mean I support the irresponsible sequestration-level budget resolution that has made it impossible to pass FY 2016 appropriations bills, much less the reckless manner in which the majority continues to manage the budget process.
The Republican budget announced this spring made no room for the critical investments in infrastructure, housing, research, health care, and education that our country needs to thrive. In fact, it made deeply damaging reductions.
Defense appropriators were able to avoid sequestration levels only by using the so-called OCO gimmick, amounting to a $38 billion sleight of hand.
It was evident from the beginning that we would have to negotiate new budget numbers--if not a comprehensive agreement of the sort that balanced the budget in the 1990s, then at least a more modest deal like the Ryan-Murray agreement of the last two years--in order to pass our appropriations bills. I and other Democratic colleagues took to the floor again and again to decry these unacceptable budget numbers that simply set us up for failure. Our leaders have been offering to negotiate for months, knowing full well that President Obama would be forced to veto any appropriations bills passed under the Republican budget. Will it take a government shutdown, we asked, to make us do our job?
Apparently the answer is ``yes''. The Senate couldn't pass a single appropriations bill. The House passed a few with Republican votes alone, and then the process collapsed under the weight of the Confederate battle flag debate. That was a particularly disgraceful episode, but the process was already on life support. It was never going to work, and Republican leaders have known that all year.
Despite the failure of the appropriations process, as represented by this short-term CR, all hope is not lost. We can still salvage the hard bipartisan work of my and other appropriations subcommittees, if, when this CR expires, we can stitch together an omnibus appropriations bill for the balance of the year.
The Appropriations Committee still avoids some of the ideological battles that divide this body, and I have been able to work closely with Chairman Diaz-Balart to negotiate a framework for transportation and housing funding. I know that many of the other subcommittee Chairs and Ranking Members have made similar progress. Given realistic funding levels, these bills can relatively quickly be converted into acceptable appropriations legislation.
So I once again join my colleagues in urging Speaker Boehner to resume bipartisan budget negotiations and produce reasonable, responsible funding levels that can allow the appropriations process to move forward. Today, we're buying ourselves a couple of months. Instead of lurching toward another crisis in December, let's actually come to a consensus on the kind of investments in our future that a great country must make.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 448, the previous question is ordered on the motion to concur.
The question is on the motion to concur by the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers).
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of today, further proceedings on this question will be postponed.
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