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25 public bills, H.R. 6019- 6043; and 2 resolutions, H. Res. 874-875, were introduced.
Pages H4666-67
Reports Filed
Reports were filed today as follows: H. Res. 873, providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 5371) making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes (H. Rept. 119-372); H.R. 1736, to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to conduct annual assessments on terrorism threats to the United States posed by terrorist organizations utilizing generative artificial intelligence applications, and for other purposes, with amendments (H. Rept. 119- 373); H.R. 2212, to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to establish the Intelligence Rotational Assignment Program, and for other purposes, with an amendment (H. Rept. 119-374); H.R. 2261, to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to enhance the Department of Homeland Securitys oversight of certain intelligence matters, and for other purposes (H. Rept. 119-375); H.R. 5062, to amend the Implementing Recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Act of 2007 to codify the Transportation Security Administration's responsibility relating to securing pipeline transportation and pipeline facilities against cybersecurity threats, acts of terrorism, and other nefarious acts that jeopardize the physical security or cybersecurity of pipelines, and for other purposes (H. Rept. 119-376); H.R. 5078, to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to reauthorize the State and local cybersecurity grant program of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security, and for other purposes (H. Rept. 119-377); H.R. 2259, to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to require the development of a national strategy to secure elementary and secondary schools against acts of terrorism, and ensure domestic preparedness for and the response to terrorism, and for other purposes, with an amendment (H. Rept. 119-378); and H.R. 979, to require the Secretary of Transportation to issue a rule requiring access to AM broadcast stations in motor vehicles, and for other purposes, with an amendment (H. Rept. 119-379, Part 1).
Pages H4665-66
Speaker
Read a letter from the Speaker wherein he appointed Representative Bost to act as Speaker pro tempore for today.
Page H4593
Recess
The House recessed at 12:03 p.m. and reconvened at 4:08 p.m.
Page H4593
Oath of Office: Seventh Congressional District of Arizona
Representative-elect Adelita S. Grijalva presented herself in the well of the House and was administered the Oath of Office by the Speaker. Earlier, the Clerk of the House transmitted a copy of a letter received from the Honorable Adrian Fontes, Arizona Secretary of State, indicating that, at the Special Election held on September 23, 2025, the Honorable Adelita S. Grijalva was elected Representative to Congress for the Seventh Congressional District of Arizona.
Page H4594
Whole Number of the House
The Speaker announced to the House that, in light of the administration of the oath to the gentlewoman from Arizona, the whole number of the House is 433.
Page H4595
Privileged Resolution: Intent to Offer
Representative Perez announced her intent to offer a privileged resolution.
Page H4609
Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026
The House concurred in the Senate amendment to H.R. 5371, making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, by a yea-and-nay vote of 222 yeas to 209 nays, Roll No. 284.
Pages H4595-H4609, H4609-64
H. Res. 873, the rule providing for consideration of the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 5371) was agreed to by a recorded vote of 213 ayes to 209 noes, Roll No. 284, after the previous question was ordered by a yea-and-nay vote of 216 yeas to 213 nays, Roll No. 283.
Pages H4595-H4609
Committee Resignation
Read a letter from Representative Sherrill wherein he resigned from the Committee on Armed Services and the Select Committee on Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party. Expressing the profound sorrow of the House of Representatives on the death of the Honorable Richard B.
Page H4664
Cheney
The House agreed to H. Res. 874, expressing the profound sorrow of the House of Representatives on the death of the Honorable Richard B. Cheney.
Page H4664
Discharge Petition
Representative Jeffries presented to the clerk a motion to discharge the Committee on Rules from the consideration of the resolution (H. Res. 780) entitled, a resolution providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1834) to advance policy priorities that will break the gridlock (Discharge Petition No. 10). Senate Referrals: S. 778 was held at the desk. S. 2296 was held at the desk. S. 2392 was held at the desk.
Page H4593
Senate Message
Message from the Senate received by the Clerk and subsequently presented to the House today appears on page H4593. Quorum Calls--Votes: Two yea-and-nay votes and one recorded vote developed during the proceedings of today and appear on pages H4608, H4609, and H4664. Adjournment: The House met at 12 p.m. and adjourned at 8:26 p.m., pursuant to House Resolution 874, as a further mark of respect to the memory of the late Honorable Richard B. Cheney.
Every speech and line is the Congressional Record's own text, read from GovInfo. Speakers are matched to members by GPO's own metadata. Referandom places each turn on the Clerk's video by matching its words: 60 of 223 spoken turns were found. Turns without a time are still listed; they just can't seek.
Welcoming the Honorable Adelita S. Grijalva to the House of Representatives
The SPEAKER. Without objection, the gentleman from Arizona is recognized for 1 minute.
Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to rise today to congratulate our newest colleague and our fellow Arizonan on her swearing in as the Representative for Arizona's Seventh Congressional District, Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.
Congresswoman Grijalva has concentrated her career on issues advocating for students and supporting families.
As she follows in her late father's footsteps--and, boy, those are some footsteps, especially with those bolo ties, wow--I have no doubt she will bring to the Halls of Congress the same energy that has defined her years of public service.
As dean of the Arizona congressional delegation, I wish to congratulate Congresswoman Grijalva and welcome her to the United States House of Representatives.
I now yield to the gentleman from Mr. Arizona (Mr. Stanton), my friend.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Gosar, the new dean of Arizona's State delegation. It has been a minute since we have all been together on the House floor. I am looking for cobwebs around here.
As dean, Congressman Gosar replaces the late Congressman Raul Grijalva, one of the most impactful leaders in Arizona history.
Now, with great pride, I rise today to do something we have waited 50 long days to do--exactly 49 days too long--and that is to introduce our colleague from Arizona, Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.
Since September 23, the people of Arizona have been waiting for this day, and the excuses for the delay have changed seemingly daily. First they said they need an election certificate, though one isn't required. Then they wanted to make sure there was enough pomp and circumstance. Then we were informed about a nonexistent Pelosi precedent.
At one point, the Speaker went on television and said, ``Bless her heart. She's a Representative-elect. She doesn't know how things work around here.''
Bless his heart, because here is how it should work. Let's call it the Adelita Grijalva precedent: When the American people vote, this Chamber respects their will and seats them immediately. Politics should never come into play.
Mr. Speaker, Congresswoman Grijalva is a native Tucsonan, the granddaughter of a bracero who came here from Mexico. She is the youngest woman ever elected to the Tucson Unified School Board, serving 20 years, then a Pima County supervisor, fighting for working families, affordable housing, and early childhood education. She brings that same fight to Congress.
The people of Arizona's Seventh District placed their trust in her, and today that trust is rewarded.
Her first act of Congress will be a powerful one. She will be the 218th and final signature on the discharge petition to force the Trump administration to release the Epstein files, delivering long overdue justice and accountability for hundreds of victims abused by rich and powerful men.
She is a smart, principled fighter through and through.
Mr. Speaker, it is my honor to welcome and introduce to this Chamber Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague and friend, Congressman Stanton, for that kind introduction and to the entire Democratic delegation from Arizona and the delegation that stood here with me that has supported me throughout this process.
I rise today, the proud granddaughter of a bracero, a hardworking Mexican immigrant who came to this country for a better life, and I stand as the proud daughter of a U.S. Congressman, a man who spent his entire life fighting for justice, equity, and dignity for the most vulnerable.
From working as a vaquero to serving in Congress in just a single generation, that is the promise of this country. That is the America I want to raise my three beautiful children in--Adelina, Raul, and Joaquin. They, along with my amazing husband, Sol, and my wonderful Mama Ramona are here with me today.
``Thank you for your support and your love.''
``Muchas gracias por su apoyo y tu amor.''
Thank you to ``the people,'' ``la gente'' of southern Arizona for making history, electing me as the first Latina, the first Chicana from Arizona to ever go to Congress.
(English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
``This is a historic moment for our community. It is an honor to be the first Latina to represent Arizona in Congress. Let me assure you, while I am the first, I will not be the last.''
``Este momento es historico para nuestra comunidad. Es un honor ser la primera latina en representar Arizona en el Congreso, y les aseguro que aunque soy la primera, no sere la ultima.''
The SPEAKER. The gentlewoman from Arizona will provide a translation of her remarks to the Clerk.
While we celebrate this moment, today our American promise is under serious threat. Basic freedoms are under attack. Healthcare premiums are skyrocketing. Babies are being ripped away from their parents by masked agents. We can and must do better.
What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority in this body has failed to do: Hold Trump accountable as the coequal branch of government that we are.
It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona's Seventh Congressional District elected me to represent them; 50
This is an abuse of power. One individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing in of a duly elected Member of Congress for political reasons.
Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. They are here in the gallery with us this evening. I thank them for being here.
Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein's abuses than he previously acknowledged. It is past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people.
We need to fight for our immigrant communities and veterans. We need to stand up for our public schools, children, and educators. We need to respect Tribal sovereignty and our environment. We need to stand up for LGBTQ+ rights because that is what the American people expect us to do, fight for them.
That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files, because justice cannot wait another day.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on the Judiciary be discharged from further consideration of the bill (H.R. 4405) to require the Attorney General to release all documents and records in possession of the Department of Justice relating to Jeffrey Epstein, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under guidelines consistently issued by successive Speakers, as recorded in section 956 of the House Rules and Manual, the Chair is constrained not to entertain the request unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leadership.
Mr. Speaker, we Republicans are requesting this unanimous consent.
Are Democrats objecting to this request?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair reminds the gentleman from Tennessee that, as indicated by section 956 of the House Rules and Manual, it is not a proper parliamentary inquiry to ask the Chair to indicate which side of the aisle has failed under the Speaker's guidelines to clear a unanimous-consent request, as was stated.
Mr. Speaker, for the purpose of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the ranking member, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. McGovern), 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.
Mr. Speaker, last night, the Rules Committee met and reported a rule providing for the consideration of the motion to concur in the Senate amendment to H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, and I am happy to say that it will end the government shutdown.
The rule provides 1 hour of debate on the motion equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations, or their designees.
I rise in support of this rule and the underlying legislation. This bill delivers on our commitment to the American people by finally reopening the government. It delivers on the promises that we have made to our veterans, our farmers, and our taxpayers.
Let's be honest: This government shutdown was completely avoidable. On September 19, House Republicans passed a continuing resolution that funded critical services and would have given us time to negotiate long-term solutions. It was a yes vote to keep the government open and to pay our troops, air traffic controllers, and Federal employees.
Every Democrat but one voted no. Every Democrat but one voted to shut the government down. This is not opinion, and this is not messaging like Democrats keep trying to spin it. It is a fact that anyone can check the vote record. Democrats voted against a nonpartisan, clean CR free of poison pills that would have continued Biden-level funding and kept the government open for negotiations.
Democrats chose politics over people. They refused to support a commonsense measure, and American families paid the price.
This bill restores stability to our national nutritional programs, which were put under unnecessary strain during the shutdown. It will fund WIC and SNAP, ensuring that low-income mothers and their babies have access to healthy and nutritious foods.
These programs should not have been used as a bargaining chip during the shutdown. Republicans are stepping up to protect Americans and ensure these programs remain stable and funded. That is what responsible governance looks like.
There are three appropriations bills included in the CR, put here to jump-start our appropriations process.
H.R. 5371 delivers for rural America. It provides funding for the Farm Service Agency to support our Nation's farmers and ranchers. It invests in rural development programs, including funding affordable housing rental assistance for low-income families and seniors in rural communities. These investments strengthen our local economies and ensure that rural communities are not left behind.
For our troops, this bill demonstrates our dedication to veteran medical care, including funding for
We are also funding veteran disability programs, education benefits, and employment training. Funds will be invested in military family housing projects to support those who support our troops and in projects to improve quality of life for our servicemembers, including hospitals and schools.
Mr. Speaker, H.R. 5371 is what governing with a purpose looks like. If Democrats had joined us in September to pass a commonsense continuing resolution, we could have avoided this Democrat shutdown altogether, but they chose reckless posturing over responsibility. Now, Republicans are stepping up to restore stability and reopen the government for the people.
I stand in support of this bill, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 5371 and stay focused on what matters: serving the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Mrs. Fischbach) for yielding me the customary time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
It is great to see you all, Mr. Speaker. We have been looking for you guys everywhere. Where the hell have you been?
Imagine my shock when I found out that you guys went home. Republicans have been on 8 weeks of taxpayer-funded paid vacation. Why did Republicans do it? They did it because Democrats had the audacity to ask them to try to lower people's healthcare costs.
While they sat on their couch for 8 weeks, we were working. We listened to people who told us their health insurance premiums are doubling and tripling. We heard from people who don't understand why you guys moved at the speed of light to give tax breaks to billionaires but won't lift a damn finger to extend the tax credits that help ensure people's health insurance premiums don't skyrocket.
This CR, this dirty CR, which does nothing to solve the healthcare crisis, is one of the most immoral, unethical, evil things that I have ever seen happen in all of my time in Congress. It is just part of a larger pattern of indifference from Republicans that we have seen time after time after time.
When the billionaire class needed another tax cut, when they wanted to funnel money to the people who write their campaign checks, boy, did Republicans deliver. They rammed through their awful, big, ugly bill in a nanosecond. What the hell is wrong with them?
While regular people are struggling to pay bills, Donald Trump's net worth has gone up by $3 billion since he became President.
People's health insurance premiums are doubling and tripling, but Republicans say there is no affordability crisis, even as their tariffs are costing people an extra 1,200 bucks per year.
Regular people can't afford the rent, and Republicans are letting Trump gild his bathroom and build a ballroom to host the rich and powerful elites who own the GOP.
These guys are bailing out Argentina. They are giving $40 billion to an entirely different country rather than helping the 42 million Americans who can't afford to put food on the table.
Here is the clincher, Mr. Speaker: Buried in this CR is a corrupt kickback for eight Republican Senators, a million-dollar payday funded by taxpayers taken straight from the Treasury and deposited directly into their pockets.
What the hell is wrong with this place?
They promised to put America first. The only thing you guys put first is yourselves, yourselves and the rich and powerful people who pull your strings behind the scenes.
These people don't care. They don't have to call the insurance company because their claim was denied. They don't buy their own groceries. If you have a private jet, an offshore bank account, and an invite to Mar-a-Lago, go ahead and support your Republican Representative. If you are a regular person who feels like you are getting screwed over, and if you are fed up with the status quo here in Washington that only works for those at the top, this majority is not fighting for you--but we are.
Democrats are on your side, and we will fight with you every step of the way against the corruption, the lies, and the BS coming out of this administration. We will not back this so-called deal. It is not a real solution, and it is certainly not a clean CR. This CR leaves families twisting in the wind with zero guarantee there will ever, ever be a vote to extend tax credits to help everyday people pay for their healthcare.
I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on this rule and ``no'' on the underlying legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, there is so much to unpack and to object to in the ranking member's opening statement, but I just want to comment on one of the issues.
I find the statement that Republicans were on vacation laughable. The idea that Republicans were on vacation during the shutdown is just simply false. It is false. Many of us were in Washington or in our districts meeting with constituents, advancing local priorities, and staying fully engaged with our constituents and our work.
Our dedication to serving the American people didn't pause during the shutdown, whether in D.C. or back at home, which, for the record, I was in both places and many, many of my Republican colleagues were, too. We were doing the work we were elected to do.
The real story here is not about the absence. It is about the commitment, and for Republicans, we never wavered.
If the Democrats cared so much about working, they would not have shut the government down.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Foxx), the esteemed chairwoman of the Committee on Rules.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, psychologists have a word for the things the Democrats accuse us of: ``projection.''
Mr. Speaker, I sure hope you did not watch all 7 hours of the Democrat group therapy session last night in the Rules Committee, but if you did, you saw what a clown show it was.
It was a crisp 40 degrees outside when we adjourned at around 1:30 a.m. this morning, but with the amount of hot air being spewed by Democrats in the committee room for 7 straight hours, you would have thought we were in the dead of summer.
Mr. Speaker, at this point, I don't think Democrats really agree on anything. Last night and into the early hours of this morning, they showed everyone that they couldn't even agree on what they were angry about. They went off on so many tangents that it would have been a miracle if they arrived at a single, coherent thought at any point during our meeting.
The American people will see the exact same thing play out from them during this debate and during general debate on the floor later today.
Apparently, the only thing Democrats can agree on is that the government needs to stay shut down and that the American people need to suffer even more than they have already made them suffer.
We heard from Democrats repeatedly about the millions of people they believe are going to be affected when their own temporary COVID credits sunset at the end of this year--their own temporary COVID credits.
Did we hear anything about the millions of Americans who got walloped by Democrats when they shut the government down?
Did we hear an apology from Democrats to the American people for deliberately misleading them over 40 days?
Did we hear an admission that the only reason they shut down the government is to cover up for a catastrophic policy failure that they concocted and set an end date on?
No, we didn't hear one of those things, not one.
Mr. Speaker, I am not surprised. This is the kind of behavior that Americans have come to expect from Democrats. Has anyone ever noticed how Democrats have developed such a visceral reaction when confronted about their abdication of responsibility?
They shut the government down, and the moment you call attention to their own actions, all they do is obfuscate and start shrieking about unrelated things.
Scientists should study this at length and try to come up with a cure. It is a serious affliction, as was evidenced numerous times over in our Rules Committee meeting.
It is well past time to reopen the government and end the Democrat- concocted nightmare that Americans have been living through for over 40 straight days.
The CR before us will end that nightmare. It will get this legislative body and the entire Nation moving once more.
Democrats should grow a spine and accept responsibility for their own failures. I urge a ``yes'' vote on the rule.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, you have to love the Republicans. The gentlewoman from Minnesota says that they weren't on vacation. I want to remind her that they haven't voted for 8 weeks, and most people define ``vacation'' as you don't have to show up to work and you get paid.
That is exactly what Republicans did. They didn't show up to work, and they got paid. It was a paid vacation.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Johnson).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this bill. I am a ``hell no'' vote on any legislation that strips healthcare away from millions of Texans.
In my district, nearly 100,000 of my constituents rely on the Affordable Care Act's tax credits to pay for their coverage. Without these lifesaving credits, many of them will go without healthcare at all.
Every day during this shutdown, my office has heard from thousands of families across my district saying: For the love of God, save my healthcare.
Tucked away in this bill is a brazen payoff of millions of taxpayer dollars funneled to the benefit of a handful of Senators. While families are struggling to afford groceries and healthcare, we are being asked to sign off on a deal that lines the pockets of the very people who wrote it. That is an insult to every hardworking taxpayer who expects honesty from their government.
The contrast could not be clearer. Republicans are operating in the currency of cruelty and corruption while Democrats are fighting with courage and compassion. The American people deserve better, and I will never stop fighting to protect the basic necessities that every family needs to survive.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, the American farmer needs this bill to pass. The American soldier needs this bill to pass. Our air traffic controllers need this bill to pass. The men and women who protect us here in this Capitol and all Federal law enforcement need this bill to pass.
Mr. Speaker, I am one of those who represent a lot of Federal employees, and they have been without a check for a long time. This is very simple. It is very simple. It is way past time to open the government up. There are going to be a lot of excuses about could have, should have, would have, and that we need to take this provision or that provision out, or Democrats are going to vote to keep the government shut down.
Mr. Speaker, the vote today is straight up or straight down. You vote to open the government up today, or you vote to keep it closed. That is all there is to it.
As for the provision that has been mentioned a few times about the Senate language, I have introduced a piece of legislation already to repeal the Senate language, and I am hopeful that we will have a vote on that as soon as we get back.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I love my Republican colleagues. The majority is introducing legislation to repeal provisions in a bill that they are going to vote ``yes'' on. Figure that out.
Mr. Speaker, the previous question is the House Democrats' last attempt to make a change to this rule before it gets voted on, and I use this opportunity to talk about a last-minute provision that was slipped into this CR in the Senate. It is an outrageous giveaway to pad the pockets of eight Republican Senators, and it is one of the most corrupt things that I have seen in my life.
Mr. Speaker, if the House defeats the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule to consider as adopted an amendment to the continuing resolution, offered by Representative Subramanyam, which would strike the corrupt giveaway out of the text of this bill so that it does not make it into law.
Mr. Speaker, this is a massive payday for Republicans. It would allow eight Republican Senators to shovel millions--millions--of dollars into their own wallets. I am talking about cash money. It is not for their States and not for their constituents. No, no. It is for their own personal bank accounts.
Why should a United States Senator or any party get a special right that nobody else has? No State legislator, no Governor, no judge, and no citizen in the entire country has this right, but we are creating it for a handful of Republican Senators. It is immoral. I say it is unconstitutional.
It is wrong, and it is probably the most brazen theft and plunder of public resources ever proposed in the United States Congress. It was tucked into this legislation, and I speak directly to Republicans who say that they can't vote with us because it will delay the reopening of the government.
First off, that is exactly what these corrupt Senators were hoping they would say. Second, we absolutely can send this back to the Senate. They can quickly strip it and send the bill to the President. They finished this package in less than 2 days. This is one small thing that needs to be deleted. It is easy, and it could be done very fast.
Mr. Speaker, please spare me the excuses that we will get this done next week with a new bill. Once this is law, that is it. It is signed into law forever. It will never change. It is permanent, and the majority voted for it. Republicans all know that. So they shouldn't say that they are going to pass some new bill next week to address this. That is just an excuse to do nothing that would fix it.
Republicans moved at the speed of light to give tax breaks to billionaires, and the least that they could do is to give the same urgency to stop this shamelessly corrupt fleecing of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I get it. Trump is suing the U.S. Government for $230 million, and I guess these Senators want in on the action. They want their own payday. I have never seen this level of grift, shameless corruption, and theft of public money in my entire life, ever.
Mr. 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 Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, to discuss our proposal, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Subramanyam).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair will remind the gentleman from Massachusetts and others to please refrain from engaging in personalities toward Members of the Senate.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, do you know what people hate more than seeing their costs go up? It is seeing their costs go up while corrupt politicians line their pockets with taxpayers' money. That is what they really hate, yet that is what this bill does.
Republican Senators slipped into this bill a legal pathway for them to personally receive millions of dollars of taxpayers' money for being investigated after January 6. My colleagues on the other side talk about fiscal responsibility and say that there is no money for healthcare, but somehow there is taxpayer money for Republican Senators. This an ethics violation. This is a breach of trust, and it calls into question the very legitimacy of this institution.
Mr. Speaker, I put forward an amendment to reject this corruption, but
Republicans are the system, and House Republicans promised a vote on this next week as a standalone bill. There is no guarantee that the Senate will act. In fact, they probably won't act. The majority has the power to join us in righting this wrong today. Let's take out this ridiculous kickback. Otherwise, a vote for this bill is a vote for corruption.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I never said that this bill was perfect. Not everyone agrees with the provision, and our colleague from Georgia (Mr. Austin Scott) just mentioned that he is already addressing it. What we do agree on is that it is critically important to get the government open, and that is why we are here today.
Mr. Speaker, it is getting our Federal employees paid and getting our troops paid. It is getting SNAP back on track and getting our airports back to full capacity. Once this happens, we can tackle the issues. We can get back to really doing the things for the American people and not using their suffering as leverage like Democratic Whip Clark is willing to do.
Democrats have spent weeks performing political theater by refusing to open government, and they continue to perform that political theater. We need to prioritize the reopening of the government and stop the suffering that the Democrats want to use as leverage.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Langworthy).
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this rule and ending this shutdown chaos.
For more than 40 days, the American people have endured a painful and entirely avoidable government shutdown. It was not because of policy differences but because Senate Democrats and Chuck Schumer chose politics over people.
While Washington stalled, hardworking Americans paid the price. Our air traffic controllers went without pay. A system stretched thinner by the day had a new strain put on that system, which put millions of lives at risk. Americans depend on them to keep our skies safe. Families who rely on SNAP and WIC, parents who are just trying to feed their kids, were left wondering how they would make it through another week.
At the same time, our border agents and Coast Guard members continue to serve this country as their own families went without pay. Through it all, while everyday Americans carried the weight of this shutdown, Senate Democrats had chance after chance to end it, but instead they chose to prolong the pain. That is not leadership. That is hypocrisy.
It was never about budgets or priorities. It was about power. It is not about turning government on. For them, it was about turning government into performance, where the people paying the highest price are the ones furthest from Washington.
For more than 40 days, families were used as political pawns and props while those responsible stood in front of cameras pretending to solve the crisis that they created. I actually saw a Member from my home State stand at a food bank, decry the fact that nutritional assistance was in question, then swear up and down that they would vote against ending this shutdown. That is the epitome of hypocrisy, and the American people deserve better than that.
House Republicans did our job. We passed a clean continuing resolution weeks ago, the same kind of straightforward measure that should have been agreed to immediately to keep this government open. Senate Democrats blocked that 14 times, prolonging this shutdown just to score points to their woke, angry mob.
This measure before us today is the same bipartisan framework they could have passed 40 days ago. The only thing that has changed is the political calendar.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the rule. Let's stand with the American people, the families, the veterans, and public servants who have carried the burden of this shutdown and reopen our government. Let's get this country moving again.
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from ABC News titled: ``Inflation climbs to highest level since January, beef prices soar.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
Inflation Climbs to Highest Level Since January, Beef Prices Soar
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from The Washington Post titled: ``From groceries to gas, Americans say they're spending more under Trump.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from The New Republic titled: `` `No, You're wrong': Trump Spirals When Pressed on Rising Food Prices.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from The New Republic titled: ``Trump Admits He Doesn't Care About `Affordability' As Economy Plunges.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from MSNBC titled: `` `Not a big issue': Republicans shrug as consumers confront health care sticker shock.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an opinion article published in MSNBC titled: ``Trump's Argentina bailout once again puts Americans last.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from PBS titled: ``Trump administration working on doubling Argentina financing to $40 billion.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
Trump Administration Working on Doubling Argentina Financing to $40
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from Forbes titled: ``Presidency Boosts Trump's Net Worth By $3 billion In A Year.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from People.com titled: ``Donald Trump Hosts Great Gatsby-Themed Halloween Party as 42 Million Americans Brace for SNAP Benefits to Expire.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from The New York Times titled: ``Trump's Latest White House Makeover: The Lincoln Bathroom in Marble and Gold.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to include in the Record an article from The Nation titled: ``The Bill to End the Shutdown Is Full of Giveaways to Republicans.''
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Massachusetts?
There was no objection.
The Bill to End the Shutdown is Full of Giveaways to Republicans
Mr. Speaker, I am sorry that the gentlewoman thinks that trying to stop people's healthcare premiums from doubling and tripling and quadrupling is political theater, but we don't. I don't have time to address all the BS coming from my colleagues across the Chamber, but it is clear this Republican leadership is not only failing to deliver on their promises but they are selling out at the expense of the basic needs of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Minnesota for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, here we are on September 19, House Republicans passed legislation which would have funded government through November 20. Here we are on November 12, and we are basically where we would have been had we just passed the bill that we passed in September.
What did we get for all of that? What happened over all these days? Well, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle were searching for a reason for voters to support them next November. They were searching for a cause.
We know this because there were intervening elections and a lot of rhetoric but no results. We are here right now, with Democrats having joined Republican Senators to send a bill over here to fund government through the end of January with three appropriations bills, which we worked through regular order, to keep spending relatively flat. It advances the priorities the American people sent us here to advance, to back up the President who is securing the border, which he was sent to Washington to do; to restore military to focusing on defending this Nation rather than advancing woke priorities, which the American people sent him here to do; for us to continue to work, to grow, and to build this economy after 4 years of being wrecked with reckless spending but also abhorrent policies. The American people are now saying: What on Earth were Democrats doing?
My Democrat colleagues' response is healthcare. That is the only default position they have is the default to healthcare. The fact is, it is because they broke the system so badly that they are now coming and asking us to have the Treasury print money to then give out in order to enrich insurance companies with massive subsidies. That is the actual fact.
The American people understand this and they recognize that they don't want insurance companies to be enriched, but they want to be able to go get the doctor of their choice. The American people understand this and so do we.
We are here to open the government, and we are here to stand up for doctors and patients instead of insurance companies and big regulators. I support this legislation. I know my Republican colleagues do. The question really is: Will Democrats support this legislation, or will they wish to perpetuate the shutting down of government to enrich insurance companies?
Mr. Speaker, I don't think we ought to be lectured by somebody who, over the years, has been the king of government shutdowns and who worked for a United States Senator that pushed for a government shutdown to object to the Affordable Care Act.
I just want to make it clear to everybody: This is a Republican shutdown. They control the White House. They control the House. They control the Senate. This government shutdown is because they don't want to negotiate. It is their way or the highway. This is a Republican shutdown. They own it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), the distinguished ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Speaker, this bill, which they now call imperfect, contains the single most corrupt provision for legislative self-dealing that anyone in this Chamber today has ever voted on. It is such an egregiously corrupt act of legislator self-enrichment and plunder of the taxpayer that not only did every single House Democrat oppose it in the Rules Committee last night, but multiple Republicans were denouncing it, that is, before they were summoned into a side room and instructed to vote for it, which they all proceeded to do.
Now they are telling us: Vote for it today and they will repeal it maybe next week or maybe the week after that or maybe before Christmas. I have a solution. If Members don't like this corrupt provision, don't vote for it today. That will work.
This is a great bill, a great bill that is if you think eight Republican U.S. senators should have a right to collect at least $1 million in a jackpot bonanza payoff from the taxpayers simply because they were subject to the exact same rules all other Americans were subject to and are subject to now. They don't propose to change those rules for anybody else, not for more than 300 million Americans, not for the Members of the House of Representatives, not for Governors or mayors but for themselves. They want to deal themselves a special legal privilege.
In this Republican class war, a Great Gatsby economy where President Trump has made more than $3 billion since he reoccupied the White House, the Federal building which he has proceeded to demolish in large part while millions of Americans face losing their healthcare and their SNAP benefits. This provision is an affront to our taxpayers and to the rule of law.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
It is an affront to everyone who believes that we, in public office, must be the servants of the people, not the masters of the people who get special, legal rights and privileges and multimillion-dollar payoffs, people who think that they have a right to better treatment than everybody else, like Ghislaine Maxwell in the prison camp where she gets room service, puppy time, and special gym privileges.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this continuing resolution. I will not support a bill that will continue the Republicans' assault on Americans and their pocketbooks. At a time when Oregonians and Americans are already struggling with rising costs, this bill locks in devastating cuts to healthcare and drives up the cost, in many cases, significantly.
The assault on healthcare and the Republican shutdown more broadly are further proof that the first 10 months of this Trump administration have been chaotic, harmful, and completely out of touch with the needs of the American people. Donald Trump held an extravagant Great Gatsby party at Mar-a-Lago the night before SNAP benefits expired, while the administration and Republicans continue to ignore the needs of working families. That is not governing. They have abandoned their responsibility to bring down costs and grow the economy.
Mr. Speaker, this bill was already bad, but now they have added this corrupt, get-rich-quick scheme to give hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars to Trump-aligned Senators. That is outrageous. Oregonians and Americans deserve better.
My colleagues should listen to their constituents, vote ``no,'' and come back to the table and join us in the work to make healthcare affordable and accessible to all.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today as we are in the process of ending the longest government shutdown in our Nation's history and to affirm that this Congress will get back to leading America into her next golden age.
Over 40 days, that is how long the government has been closed. For over 40 days, Democrats here in this body and in the Senate have chosen chaos over our country. They chose to shut the government down because politics demanded it, not policy.
The elites who dominate their party's decisionmaking are the ones least impacted by its decisions.
Were the far-left activists and Democrats here in this body the ones not getting paychecks? No, Mr. Speaker. That was the air traffic controllers, our troops, and our Capitol Police officers.
When these same people passed ObamaCare, were they the ones impacted by the law, or was it the middle-class teacher in North Carolina who could no longer keep their doctor? We all know the answer to that, Mr. Speaker.
Across the Nation, Federal workers are working two and three jobs just to stay afloat, all so Democrats could champion illegal aliens who exploit our compassion as they poison our communities with deadly fentanyl.
That is not governing. That was extortion of the American taxpayer. That ends today.
Today, we are in the process of finally reopening the government, returning to the business of the people, and further implementing the mandate our constituents sent us here to deliver on.
Democrats chose to have a month of political theater, but political shows don't do one thing to help make the costs of everyday items more affordable. It is time to govern and to focus on making America more affordable for the middle class.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to a rule for a bill that does nothing to protect over 450,000 New Jerseyans who will see their healthcare premiums skyrocket.
I took my first oath to the Constitution when I was 18 and went to the Naval Academy. It is an oath to serve, to run toward the fight. I ran for Congress after I saw Washington Republicans attacking the Affordable Care Act.
I promised I would take on the status quo. I would fight the big fights because that is what people expect of their leaders. That is what people deserve from their leaders.
I am proud of the wins that I have delivered as the Representative for New Jersey's 11th District: capping the cost of insulin and prescription drugs for seniors, funding the Gateway Tunnel, the PACT Act for veterans, flood mitigation projects, and delivering for Picatinny Arsenal.
New Jersey has trusted me, and last week, they placed their trust in me again, electing me their 57th Governor. I ran on a similar promise: to take on anyone and stop at nothing to lower costs and build opportunity for everyone.
This will be my last speech in this Chamber. I intend to submit my resignation next week and turn to protecting all of New Jersey.
My parting message to Jersey is: Thank you.
To my staff, thank you for your dedication to serving the 11th District of New Jersey.
To my colleagues, do not let this body become a ceremonial rubber stamp for an administration that takes food away from children--
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, House Republicans are back from their 54- day taxpayer-funded vacation. But don't get me wrong, they do know how to work hard. When billionaires wanted tax breaks, they moved mountains to make it happen. When Argentina needed a $40 billion bailout to help Trump's buddy, they moved quickly to make it happen at the White House.
When working people need help, when millions of Americans are seeing their health insurance costs double and triple and Americans all across this country are feeling like they are going to have to go without health insurance for the first time in their lives because they can't afford it anymore and have to make that terrible decision about which of their family members they are going to cut off of their insurance, House Republicans are nowhere to be found.
When Donald Trump's stupid tariffs are raising the price of groceries and the cost of coffee is up 40 percent over the last year, House Republicans are silent. When working people need help, they are absent. Shameful.
They will work when billionaires need tax cuts, when Argentina needs a bailout, but when working people need relief, they go on a taxpayer- funded vacation. Shameful, Mr. Speaker.
Vote ``no'' on this budget. Do not cut the healthcare of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, the reason we know this is a Democratic shutdown is because of how angry they are that we are about to reopen the government, period. That is all you need to know.
Jerry Nadler said the shutdown is really ``an extremist policy designed to appeal to an extremist base and hold the whole country hostage.''
That is exactly what the Democrats have done over the last 43 days. They have held the American people hostage, trying to extract insane things, like free healthcare for illegal immigrants.
If they were serious about tackling the healthcare affordability crisis in this country, then they would address the fundamental problem with ObamaCare. Since ObamaCare took effect, healthcare premiums have risen by 96 percent and on the open market by 114 percent.
When I asked Leader Jeffries to sign on to the 1-year extension of the premium tax credit, he refused. He stuttered. He stammered. He couldn't answer a single question because this shutdown was never about healthcare. It was always about appeasing a far-left radical base.
Chuck Schumer said: Every day gets better for us.
Katherine Clark said: Of course, people will suffer. We want to use this as leverage.
It is an embarrassment to this country. You should all be ashamed of yourselves for inflicting this pain on the American people, taking away food stamps from 42 million Americans, defunding WIC, and not paying our troops, our Federal employees, and our air traffic controllers. It is a disgrace, and you should all hang your heads in shame.
Vote ``yes'' to pass the bill and reopen the government.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Let me remind my colleagues, I fully recognize that there is a lot of pent-up anxiety, and emotions have been elevated somewhat, but please, in the interest of the decorum of this House, direct your comments to the Chair and do not engage in personalities toward the Senate and toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, let me just say that the gentleman from New York sounds as extreme as his voting record. Mr. Speaker, I say to the gentleman who just spoke, by supporting this bill, he is betraying 7,000 constituents in his district who rely on the ACA to afford their healthcare. Boy, I am glad he is not my Representative.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Kennedy).
Mr. Speaker, as the Representative of western New York, where so many people in my community, like others across the country, are already struggling to afford healthcare, I urge my colleagues to reject this disgraceful bill.
As an occupational therapist, I know exactly who these cuts will hurt. I have heard from so many who are desperate for a lifeline, like Iris, a mom in Buffalo, who is worried about how she will keep her kids' healthcare insurance; or Andy, a nursing home resident in Tonawanda, who relies on Medicaid to get the services he needs; or the kids at Bornhava, a special needs school where I provided therapy, who depend on early intervention services.
Donald Trump and congressional Republicans began their assault on the people of our country in the big, ugly bill.
This bill further devastates healthcare and leaves millions of Americans to pray they don't get sick. Shame on anyone who goes along with it. This country deserves better.
I will be voting ``no,'' and I urge all my colleagues to do the same.
Mr. Speaker, there is some big news, some breaking news in the last hour. I am proud to say that our newest colleague, Representative Adelita Grijalva, just became the 218th signature on the Massie-Khanna discharge petition to compel the release of the Epstein files.
To all my Republican colleagues who refuse to sign on: Time is up, you need to figure out where you stand on this because you are about to go on record. Is your loyalty to Trump more important than going after pedophiles? Make no mistake, these files will come out. It is no longer a question of if, only when, and whether the White House chooses to stand with the survivors or throw them under the bus.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Dexter).
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this rule and the underlying bill.
As a physician who spent 20 years saving lives, I did not come to Congress to let healthcare be decimated by Congress. I came to fight for my constituents who deserve to be able to see a doctor they trust, afford their medication, and keep their families healthy.
If House Republicans let the ACA tax credits expire, they are complicit in forcing Oregonians to make impossible choices, like whether to keep their insurance or put food on the table.
As a physician, I know what comes next. People go without. They go uninsured, they delay care, and they skip refills. They get sicker, and sometimes they end up in medical debt that is devastating.
The cost of living is already too damn high. Republicans are committed to cutting Americans' care. They patently rejected amendments to protect Americans, ignoring millions of American families who are desperate for relief.
I will be an absolute ``no'' on the rule and the underlying bill, and I refuse to give up on ensuring affordable healthcare for all.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The ranking member mentioned the discharge petition, and he is very proud that it has 218 signatures, but not that long ago today we had a unanimous consent request that would have moved that resolution along over to the Senate, and I believe the Democrats objected to it.
It seems more like a political stunt than it does that they actually wanted to have that resolution moved along because if they had not objected, it would have gone on its way, and they would have accomplished what they wanted to do.
I don't see their real desire to have the resolution passed. I see it more, like I said, as a political stunt, and it certainly is actually a moot point, given that the Oversight Committee is already releasing many of those files. As a matter of fact, I believe they have done tens of thousands of them, but I believe this morning they did another 20,000 files, so they are being released, and this all seems for naught.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock).
Mr. Speaker, Jimmy Failla offered Democrats this pro tip: If you are going to call it the Republican shutdown, you are not supposed to get mad that it is ending.
Anyone who remembers their ``Schoolhouse Rock'' knows that once the House originates an appropriation, the Senate must either amend it or pass it. Now, the House did its job on September 19 with a simple appropriation that made no policy changes. It merely kept the government operating at current levels while we finished debating priorities.
Democrats deliberately blocked the Senate from acting, demanding $1.5 trillion of new spending as a ransom. Finally, thank God, eight of them put country ahead of party and voted to end this madness.
Hearing the bitter recriminations from our leftist colleagues, it seems unlikely we will see much bipartisanship today, but with or without, we will reopen the government tonight and get back to addressing the challenges that confront our country.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Massachusetts has 11 minutes remaining on his side. There are 9 minutes remaining on the majority side.
Mr. Speaker, I am surprised the gentlewoman brought up the unanimous consent request, but I am glad she did because I want the Record to be clear. I didn't hear any objection on the floor. The Republican chair basically ruled it as an improper unanimous consent request, and so that is why it didn't move forward.
However, I do know this, because I am on the Rules Committee, and I do know the gentlewoman time and time and time again voted against releasing the Epstein files. I know my Republican friends are hoping that they don't have to go on record because they don't want to get Trump upset at them, but the bottom line is every single Republican will go on record, and you will have to make clear whether you are on the side of a pedophile or whether you are on the side of the victims.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their comments to the Chair.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose this bill that allows health insurance premiums for 22 million American families to skyrocket and raises healthcare costs for everyone. Trump and his Republican cult of followers in Congress have unleashed a shameful crisis of cruelty and corruption on the American people.
First, they slash Medicaid by a trillion dollars, kicked 15 million Americans off of healthcare, set up the playboard for rural hospitals to shutter, all so that they could give $7 trillion in permanent tax breaks to their billionaire buddies.
Then they refused to negotiate with Democrats to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits so that 22 million wouldn't have to choose between healthcare and rent. When we refused to go along with that, they caused this 45-day Republican shutdown, illegally refused to pay SNAP benefits for the hungry, and illegally canceled flights, throwing the country into chaos.
Trump and Republicans want to make Americans poorer and sicker, while Trump builds his gilded ballrooms, protects pedophiles, pardons those who buy his memecoins, and lets Americans starve. Shame on them. I am a ``hell-no'' on this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the Senate's provision that allows Senators to make financial gain off illegal government surveillance.
Three things can be true at once, Mr. Speaker. The first truth is this: The shutdown has to end. The American people and countless Tennesseans I represent are suffering and experiencing real pain. This record-breaking Schumer Democratic shutdown was completely avoidable, and it was completely carried out for political purposes.
The second truth is that the last administration, led by Joe Biden and his autopen, unfairly surveilled conservatives and conservative Members of Congress. That included sitting United States Senators.
Yet, Mr. Speaker, the third thing I would note is that the American taxpayer has suffered enough because of the last administration. No one in this body should support allowing Senators to sue and collect from taxpayers because the FBI went rogue under President Biden.
Don't get me wrong. The overreach is more than troubling. It is unfathomable that the Department of Justice was weaponized in this way. I fully support holding those radical agents accountable and the ongoing investigations into their misdeeds, yet no elected officials should profit from
Mr. Speaker, the folks I represent are still reeling from historic Bidenflation, the effects of the border crisis, and the regulatory agenda of the last administration. It is shameful to ask them to shoulder the burden of paying U.S. Senators a half million dollars or more for those misdeeds.
Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise to call to my colleagues' attention that they are no longer claiming that this is a clean CR. The truth is that it is a dirty, filthy, and stealthy CR that has been contaminated with millions of dollars for people who have not earned it. They want to take it from the taxpayers of this country because they have concluded somehow that they have been harmed where no harm has been proven or brought to our attention.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that healthcare for all is important because we in Congress have the best healthcare in the world. Yet, people with the best healthcare in the world do not see fit for persons who need it and who are among the least, the last, and the lost to acquire healthcare, something that they have.
Healthcare is becoming wealthcare for too many people in this country. We need to extend the subsidies. We need to make sure that everybody who can get to a doctor gets care. This is not a poor country.
Mr. Speaker, I refuse to take a poison pill and let my colleagues tell me I will regurgitate it next week. The poison pill has killed the CR.
Mr. Speaker, this is not a clean CR! This is a dirty, corrupt Continuing Resolution that I cannot in good conscience support. This CR does nothing to address the Affordable Care Act subsidies whose expiration Republicans refused to address. This CR includes a shameful stealthy provision that would allow eight senators to sue the federal government for millions of dollars. To allow each of the eight Senators to concoct legislation to benefit themselves and sue the federal government for a $1 million taxpayer funded giveaway would legitimize their blatant corruption in the so-called clean CR.
Millions of Americans deserve a permanent solution to the healthcare affordability crisis, much more than the billionaire contributors to campaigns who just received millions of dollars in tax breaks from their Republican accomplices. While the American people were working through the shutdown, President Trump partially demolished the White House and Senate Republicans negotiated a $ million-dollar gift to some of their colleagues.
This shutdown need not have happened. Republicans control the House, Senate, and Presidency. They could have kept the government open with a negotiated settlement, or in the same way they placed Mr. Gorsuch on the Supreme Court, by using a majority rule rather than a 60-vote rule.
I cannot support this corrupt and dirty CR, and I urge my colleagues to oppose this legislation too.
Mr. Speaker, it is great. It is great that Democrats have a line of people who are willing to fight for working- class Americans from coast to coast in this country.
Mr. Speaker, God forbid that we have a Member of the Republican caucus who stands up and actually wants to extend the Affordable Care Act so that people with cancer, need insulin, and all sorts of healthcare issues across this country have their health insurance protected and extended throughout 2026.
It is unconscionable that what we are debating right now is legislation that will give eight Members of the United States Senate over $1 million apiece. We are robbing people of their food assistance and of their healthcare to pay for it.
How is this even on the floor? How can we, as Members of Congress-- Republican or Democrat--vote to enrich ourselves by stealing from the American people? That is what this legislation does. In fact, Senator Graham went before the press earlier today, and he said he was going to seek well over $1 million from the American people from this.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot support it, and we cannot stand for it.
Mr. Speaker, I would point out to some of my colleagues that the Democrat government shutdown stopped the SNAP benefits. If they were very concerned about making sure that people had their nutritional assistance, they wouldn't have shut down the government. That is what caused it.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gill).
Mr. Speaker, it is great to hear from Ms. Ocasio- Cortez, the new leader of the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, we didn't get to hear from Mr. Zohran Mamdani, their other leader.
Mr. Speaker, I am proud to vote this evening to reopen the Federal Government. For 40 days the Democrats shut our government down to pursue unrealistic policy proposals that they know the American people do not want.
Mr. Speaker, the American people do not want healthcare for illegal aliens. They do not want our tax dollars funding leftwing media outlets. They do not want to drive up our debt $1.5 trillion as part of a short-term continuing resolution.
Mr. Speaker, the last 40 days have been nothing but pure political nihilism. I am glad this nightmare is over so we can get back to work on behalf of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me just say to the gentlewoman this Republican shutdown didn't need to happen. All they needed to do was extend ACA tax credits so the American people wouldn't get screwed on their health insurance bills.
I would also point out to her the President of the United States illegally withheld SNAP benefits. Two Federal judges, basically two court orders, backed us up on that. He is the first President ever in history to shut off food benefits to people during a shutdown. Shame on him.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Khanna).
Mr. Speaker, our country is at a moral crossroads. Just today, it comes out that billionaires are worth $8 trillion. That is more than 50 percent of Americans combined.
What does the President do? He decides he doesn't have the money for the American people. He is going to starve the American people to give $40 billion to the corrupt Libertarian leader in Argentina. Mr. Speaker, $9 million would have fed the American people. How is that America first?
Then he says he doesn't care about the cab driver who is now paying $2,600 per month in healthcare as opposed to $44. He doesn't want to save the 20 million Americans who are going to face high premium increases. How is that America first?
Mr. Speaker, we need national health insurance in this country. We need to tax billionaires in this country. We need to fund SNAP in this country. We need to stop funding Argentina and corrupt foreign leaders.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to address the healthcare issues the Democrats continue to bring up. They act like this had anything to do with the premiums of everyone in the country. We are talking about the Affordable Care Act COVID-era subsidies. This is not what is affecting other people's premiums, other than those folks who qualify for those COVID-era premium subsidies. That is it. They continue to make it sound like this is responsible for every kind of increase that people are seeing.
The Affordable Care Act's original subsidies will remain in place. So that is the original subsidies, ensuring that millions still qualify for the income-based tax credit and capping out-of-pocket costs relative to income.
It is the COVID era. I can't say that enough. It is the COVID-era subsidies that are in question here, and premium increases are actually driven by multiple factors, including medical inflation, provider consolidation, and rising
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of every elder who can't afford their prescriptions and every parent who went to work hungry so their child could eat. In the United States of America, there is no lack of resource, only a deficit of empathy, political will, and courage.
At its best, government is a backstop, a compassionate steward of the public good. At its best, government catches people when they stumble at a moment of hardship. At its best, government does right by the people, all the people.
Struggle does not discriminate, Mr. Speaker. Hardship is not a character flaw and has zero to do with work ethic. Every single person is one diagnosis and one layoff away from hardship. Life can change in an instant.
What we are bearing witness to is not only a lack of political courage, but it is a fundamental betrayal of the people, incompetence and indifference to the suffering of our neighbors, the shame and the sham of it all.
Any Member of Congress who would vote to deny a child a meal or medication, it is child abuse and neglect. I ought to file a 51A on Republicans for that. Every person in this Chamber and every person in our country has lost a loved one to cancer, and yet Republicans would vote to deny people lifesaving cancer treatment and research.
Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the White House, and with a majority they have chosen to enact harm to make people hungry, poorer, sicker, and less safe.
The shame and the sham of it all. You the people deserve better. We the people deserve better, and I won't stop fighting until you get it.
Mr. Speaker, yes, the Federal Government will officially reopen with the House vote today, but here is what won't happen. We won't protect the 22 million people paying more for the ACA or the 15 million people losing their healthcare outright due to Republican actions in the big, ugly law, nor will we stop the healthcare rate increases for everyone in this country.
We won't be restoring food assistance today for the millions of Americans who benefit from SNAP because House Republicans voted to cut the number one program that keeps kids and seniors out of poverty by over $180 billion.
Nor will we be able today to roll back the tax cuts for billionaires and Republicans' GOP donors that they funded by gutting those healthcare and food programs.
I sure hope Republicans are tanned and rested after their 8-week paid vacation, because they are going to need it. Democrats are going to continue fighting every single day for people's healthcare and food benefits. We are going to be on Republicans day after day until we get it done.
Mr. Speaker, this funding deal is why Americans have lost faith in Congress. It does absolutely nothing to address the crushing cost of healthcare, in what amounts to a massive tax hike on working families.
It does absolutely nothing to stop President Trump from canceling the very funding we would provide, something he has already done again and again.
Here is what it does: It allows Senators to write themselves, and only themselves, million-dollar checks because their phone records were legally subpoenaed, checks paid for by American taxpayers.
It is corruption at a whole new level. With bribery and insider trading, someone breaks the law. Here, Congress is writing a law that protects and funds corruption. It is brazen and disgusting and an effort to legalize corruption. Anyone who votes for this CR is complicit in that corruption.
If government still belongs to the people and not the powerful, then we must reject this self-serving scam.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I don't have enough time to rebut all the absurd claims made by the other side. Suddenly, they all have an opinion on healthcare. They had a decade to come up with a plan, and they came up with nothing.
I am glad they finally acknowledged that this is a dirty CR that shovels millions of dollars into the pockets of Republican politicians. They hate this bill so much that they are all going to vote for it.
They say that we shut the government down.
Really, Mr. Speaker?
The last time I checked, Republicans are in charge around here. We heard for months about their mandate. They control the House, the Senate, and the White House. They have a duty to keep the government open, and they failed. They did not have the votes. They refused to negotiate with us because we wanted to help regular people instead of billionaires, and now they want to blame us for the consequences of their own actions.
What the hell is wrong with them?
Give me a frigging break.
America is the richest country in the history of the world. We are blessed with an abundance of so much. There should not be an affordability crisis. Every single person in this country should be able to have a good job, a living wage, affordable food and healthcare, and have a shot at a better future. That is what I am fighting for. That is what we are fighting for. That is how I want to make America great. That is the Democratic vision for what this country could be.
From a moral perspective and from a set of values, we believe it is immoral to have a system that gives so much to just a few billionaires by depriving so many of the basic things they need to live a good life. It is clear to me after this debate that Republicans do not share those same values.
I am going to fight like hell, and we are going to fight like hell because I believe in America. We believe in America, and we believe that the hopes and the dreams of the American people will prevail.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
As we wrap up this debate, I want to take a moment to cut through the noise from our colleagues on the left. Instead of focusing on the legislation before us, they are resorting to fear tactics and tossing out false claims about what this shutdown is really about.
The CR would have kept the government open to continue and finish the appropriations process. Yet the Democrats refused and instead chose to shut down the government.
My colleague mentions values. Democrats claim that our values are different. Democratic Whip Clark said: ``Of course there will be families that are going to suffer . . . but it is one of the few leverage times we have.''
So if those are the values they are talking about, I don't share those values.
Mr. Speaker, I won't make the American people suffer, whether it be their SNAP payments, whether it be keeping air traffic controllers paid, or whether it is paying our troops. Making the American people suffer are not the values that I share.
For the record, Republicans did not cause this shutdown, and we have not been on vacation. I have been splitting my time between D.C. and the District, as I mentioned before, meeting with constituents in both, meeting with Federal agencies, and hosting a teletownhall. I know how hard my Republican colleagues have been working for their constituents and the American people.
It was the Democrats who shut down the government when they refused to support a clean CR that would have kept the lights on and protected critical services, and now it is the Democrats who continue to shift the blame.
Now, getting back to the issue at hand, let's talk about what this bill actually does.
H.R. 5371 restores the funding for SNAP and WIC. It reimburses the contingency reserves to make sure that programs remain stable and reliable. Actually, President Trump moved $300 million of tariff revenue to fund WIC during the shutdown. Republicans are the ones protecting food security and not playing games with it.
This bill also delivers for our farmers and ranchers and for rural development. It invests in the communities that feed this country and keep the economy strong. It supports our troops and Federal workers. It ensures our servicemembers and their families have the support they need, and it honors the promises we have made to those who have served.
Yes, it reopens the government, restores stability, and resumes regular order.
So let's be honest about what a ``yes'' vote means. A ``yes'' vote is a vote for veterans care. A ``yes'' vote is a vote for SNAP and WIC. A ``yes'' vote is a vote for $700,000 for a fire engine in Ranking Member McGovern's district and $1 million for the Navajo Nation Division of Community Development in Representative Leger Fernandez's district. A ``yes'' vote is for farmers. A ``yes'' vote is for our troops and for Federal workers, and, yes, it is for reopening the government.
A ``no'' vote is a vote against all of that, including the development of a wastewater treatment facility in Mr. Neguse's district, and $1.5 million in watershed conservation in Representative Clark's district. It is a vote against Federal workers. It is a vote against healthcare. It is a vote against feeding hungry children, and it is a vote against common sense.
The material previously referred to by Mr. McGovern is as follows:
An Amendment to H. Res. 873 Offered by Mr. McGovern of Massachusetts
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, the Chair will reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on the question of adoption of the resolution.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 216, nays 213, not voting 4, as follows:
Messrs. SORENSEN, POCAN, and Ms. GILLEN changed their vote from ``yea'' to ``nay.''
So the previous question was ordered.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the resolution.
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 2(a)(1) of rule IX, I seek recognition to give notice of my intent to raise a question of the privileges of the House.
The form of the resolution is as follows:
Whereas, on October 27, 2025, Representative Chuy Garcia filed nominating petitions to be on the Democratic primary ballot in March 2026;
Whereas, on November 5, 2025, on the last day of filing, Representative Garcia's chief of staff, Patty Garcia, submitted her own paperwork to enter the Democratic primary;
Whereas, on November 6, after the filing deadline, Representative Garcia confirmed that he would not be seeking another term in 2026 and would be withdrawing his nominating petitions;
Whereas, Representative Garcia's chief of staff was the only Democrat who filed to run in the primary at the direction of Representative Garcia, undermining the process of a free and fair election;
Whereas, Representative Garcia's actions are beneath the dignity of his office and incompatible with the spirit of the Constitution: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives disapproves of the behavior of the Representative from Illinois (Mr. Garcia).
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under rule IX, a resolution offered from the floor by a Member other than the majority leader or the minority leader as a question of the privileges of the House has immediate precedence only at a time designated by the Chair within 2 legislative days after the resolution is properly noticed.
Pending that designation, the form of the resolution noticed by the gentlewoman from Washington will appear in the Record at this point.
The Chair will not at this point determine whether the resolution constitutes a question of privilege. That determination will be made at a time designated for consideration of the resolution.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 873, I call up the bill (H.R. 5371) making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes, with 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.
Senate amendment:
DIVISION D--MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND RELATED
Office of the Under Secretary for Research, Education, and Economics
Office of the Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs
funds for strengthening markets, income, and supply (section 32)
Office of the Under Secretary for Farm Production and Conservation
rural electrification and telecommunications loans program account
Office of the Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer
Office of the Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural
mcgovern-dole international food for education and child nutrition
expense account to be used for deficit reduction or to reduce the
including members' clerk hire, official expenses of members, and
Allowance for Compensation of Interns in House Leadership Offices
Government Publishing Office Business Operations Revolving Fund
JOHN C. STENNIS CENTER FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
limitation on telecommunications or video surveillance equipment
DIVISION D--MILITARY CONSTRUCTION, VETERANS AFFAIRS, AND RELATED
Family Housing Operation and Maintenance, Navy and Marine Corps
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will designate the motion.
The text of the motion is as follows:
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 873, the motion shall be debatable for 1 hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations, or their respective designees.
The gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole) and the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. DeLauro) each will control 30 minutes.
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 the measure under consideration.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Oklahoma?
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026.
History reminds us, Mr. Speaker, that shutdowns never change the outcome. The only cost is paid by the American people.
Over the last 43 days, the facts did not shift, the votes required did not shift, and the path forward did not change. The only thing that did move was the level of pain Democrats inflicted on the Nation.
For 6 long weeks, Americans have paid the price for a shutdown they neither caused nor deserved. The pain has been all too real for far too many Americans, including families struggling without paychecks, seniors on the brink of hunger with food assistance lapsed, airports in chaos, and communities bracing as programs that they rely on were stalled or stopped altogether.
With yesterday being Veterans Day, we especially reflect on the impact of this shutdown on those who served our Nation past and present. Our military families were left wondering if they would be paid. Thanks to President Trump, they were.
Yet, this is not how the greatest Nation in the world should function. Today that changes.
The legislation before us reopens the government, restores critical services, and puts an end to the needless hardship Democrats have inflicted on the country.
This bill supports our troops. It pays Federal workers. It fully funds SNAP benefits until September 30 of next year. It compensates our air traffic controllers right before a busy holiday season. In fact, it takes a holistic approach in ensuring Federal services and programs are operational. In the simplest terms, we are putting the government back to work for our people.
The bill is fundamentally the same responsible approach House Republicans offered on September 19, but with an important addition: three full-year appropriations bills for FY26. These bipartisan, bicameral, full-year appropriations bills cover the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs; Legislative Branch; Agriculture, Rural Development; and Food and Drug Administration divisions.
Once passed, we will have full-year funding in place for many of our most crucial programs. Military construction needs will be met for a full year, as will medical programs for our Nation's veterans. The legislative branch
Importantly, this legislation delivers Member-driven community project funding in both the military construction and agriculture divisions, which will direct resources back into the hands of the communities we represent. This was a top priority for the Appropriations Committee, and we achieved it while holding overall spending levels in check.
It is a responsible appropriations progress like this that causes me to reflect on an important message to our friends in the Democratic leadership. My sincere apologies to Minority Leaders Jeffries and Schumer, but after today they will no longer get to hold the government hostage, and they will not get to force a rushed, pork-filled Christmas omnibus at the end of the year.
Republicans have actively restored a responsible, line-by-line process. Over the next few months, we will continue this work and efforts through regular order. This Article I advancement is an accomplishment that every Member of this Chamber can be proud of regardless of party. Yet some still need to decide what they stand for today.
To my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, do they want the leverage or do they want to legislate? Do they treat Americans as collateral damage or as constituents, and do they answer to their caucus or their country?
For Republicans, the answer has been clear for the last 43 days. We have and we will continue to put Americans first. Democrats can join us. They have an opportunity to make the responsible choice to reopen our government and pass three official full-year appropriations bills. Mr. Speaker, eight Senate Democrats saw reason and did exactly that. I hope House Democrats do the same.
True courage is taking responsible action for the Nation even when politics makes it inconvenient. Let's reopen the government and get back to work.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this bill that does nothing, not one thing to address the Republican healthcare crisis amid a cost-of- living crisis.
More than 20 million Americans will have to pay double, even triple their monthly insurance premiums in just a matter of weeks, and this bill leaves families without even a glimmer of hope that their costs might go down.
Energy prices are up. Grocery prices are up. Housing costs are up. When two-thirds of American workers are living paycheck to paycheck, you can understand why the most important issue on their mind is affordability.
What does President Trump say? Affordability is a ``con job.'' How out of touch can he be? The President should start to listen to the American people, not his millionaire, billionaire friends.
President Trump and my Republican colleagues refuse to address this issue. They continue to avoid it. They were so intent on avoiding it that they shut down the government instead of dealing with it.
Speaker Johnson has indicated that he will not deal with it. He has shown no interest in holding a vote on extending the healthcare subsidies, which would prevent monthly costs from soaring.
Republicans have tried to say they will deal with this problem their own way, but they have no plan. They are trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, as they have been trying to do unsuccessfully for 15 years. However, they are poised to succeed, which is why it is so important for this continuing resolution to fail.
President Trump and Republicans' plan is to drive up prices for everybody, compounding the cost-of-living crisis. More than 2 million Americans are expected to lose their health insurance next year because it has simply become too expensive.
There are more than 50 pages of healthcare provisions in this bill. Not one of them stops costs from skyrocketing at the beginning of next year. Not one of them offers relief to American families being squeezed tighter and tighter by the Republican crisis.
There is one group of people, however, who will receive some relief thanks to this bill: United States Senators who may have participated in an insurrection. Snuck into this bill at the eleventh hour by Senate Republicans is a provision to pay out at least a million dollars each to eight United States Senators implicated in the January 6 insurrection. Understand, this is a corrupt precedent. This is where Members can profit from their own votes. It is the fleecing of the American people, which they get and understand.
At the same time, this bill excludes a provision that would order a plaque to be hung that honors the police officers who put their lives on the line to defend our democracy from that same insurrection. What a contrast.
It is yet another instance of this administration's shameless corruption that is financially ruining American families. While there is $230 million for the President to pay himself from the Department of Justice, $8 million for some of his closest Senate allies, $200 million for a pair of private jets for the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, and $40 billion to Argentina, the American people are left with nothing but higher costs.
This bill also fails to fully cover the Toxic Exposures Fund, which was created to support veterans exposed to burn pits and Agent Orange. We made a promise to stand by the men and women who served our country in uniform. This bill does not live up to that promise.
Mr. Speaker, Republicans need to stop taking photographs with veterans and then vote against their healthcare.
Those who lead in the appropriations process here believe in the constitutional power of the purse. Over the past month, President Trump has been firing Federal workers en masse. When his administration has failed there, they have made life so miserable for Federal workers that they had no choice but to leave.
Federal workers should be ``traumatically affected.'' Those are the words of the Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought, an unelected bureaucratic.
The Federal workforce has dwindled by 200,000 since January, jeopardizing the public services that so many people rely on. I say: Spare us your false concern.
Mr. Speaker, since January, this administration has been stealing from our communities, withholding as much as $410 billion in funding approved by Democrats and Republicans--House and Senate--signed into law. They are illegally blocking authorized funds from being distributed.
Even now, as we debate this bill, the Trump administration is arguing to the Supreme Court that they should be allowed to withhold food stamp funding that Congress lawfully approved. They were ordered by three separate courts to distribute food assistance and are still fighting to withhold it.
It is not connected to opening this government. They have the money. They have it now for food stamps. They just refuse to use it. Imagine using food as a political weapon. It is unspeakable and immoral. It seems like their only plan is to strip children of food assistance, while kicking their parents off their health insurance.
They have demonstrated that that is who they are. These are their true colors. We cannot expect Democrats to go along with any bipartisan funding deal if that agreement can be undone with a party line vote. Congress must assert its authority over the power of the purse.
Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no,'' and I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole), the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, for not only yielding but bringing this important bill to the floor.
Our appropriators worked tirelessly to negotiate a multi-bill package that
Then that bill went over to the Senate. We watched for 42 days, where time and time again Democrats, just to appease their most radical base, continued to vote in unison to shut the government down.
Mr. Speaker, during that shutdown, we saw millions of families experience pain. They experienced pain and suffering that Democrats themselves acknowledged they imposed on the American people. They said over and over again--and we have quote after quote from Democrats during this shutdown--that they needed to oppose the suffering to get leverage. They wanted to use the American people as pawns to get leverage. Mr. Speaker, for what?
They ultimately filed an alternative bill. It was a $1.5 trillion mad spending spree that included things like $200 billion of taxpayer funding for illegals to get taxpayer benefits, while they gutted the $50 billion rural healthcare fund that we put in place in the working families tax cut.
Mr. Speaker, anybody who comes up here and says they care about healthcare is also advocating to gut the $50 billion rural healthcare fund to provide $200 billion in taxpayer-funded benefits for illegals. It is insanity.
If we want to look at where this all began, as some on the other side, Democrats, want to talk about a healthcare crisis, the healthcare law of the land is what many refer to as ObamaCare. Let's remember the original name that Democrats gave that bill when they created it. They called it the Affordable Care Act. Only Democrats voted for it. Republicans knew it was going to be anything but affordable. It was going to interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. Unfortunately, it has done that.
If we want to talk about affordable, maybe the only other bill that is more laughable in its name is the Inflation Reduction Act. That is another product brought to us by Democrat-only votes. The Inflation Reduction Act ushered in the inflation under Joe Biden that we are still trying to shake today.
Mr. Speaker, since the Affordable Care Act started, Americans have seen over 80 percent increases in their healthcare costs because of a bill created by Democrats that they want to now blame on Republicans. I understand why they would want to try to now pawn that off on somebody else.
If we then look over time, during COVID, they created a temporary relief fund, Mr. Speaker, not to individuals but to insurance companies. Democrats called it ``temporary'' in the law. They created a temporary COVID relief tax credit to insurance companies to bail out big insurance companies who were seeing record profits. That is now what they want Republicans to renew.
It is an insurance company bailout that Democrats created to be temporary. They set it up to expire. They are now saying that the world is going to end if that insurance company bailout doesn't get renewed.
At the same time we as Republicans worked to actually lower premiums for families, they fought it every step of the way. That is right. We had a bill we passed through this House just a few months ago in the working families tax credit.
Part of that bill was called the cost share reduction. It was scored by the CBO to lower premiums for families by over 12 percent. What happened? By the way, every Democrat voted against that, too, because they have never cared about lowering premiums.
That bill goes to the Senate. Senate Democrats worked overtime to get that provision removed. If we look at the Senate Committee on the Budget website, they still brag that they removed that provision that would have lowered premiums for families.
Republicans absolutely have worked and will continue, by the way, to work to lower premiums for families. Make no mistake that the high premiums that everybody faces today are a result of the inaptly named Affordable Care Act and the many failures associated with it.
Mr. Speaker, this bill today is about ending the misery Democrats created on families. This is not just about funding the government. It is not just about solving other problems that we should be working to solve. It is about getting the government back open, while not holding the American people hostage.
That is what has disgusted the American people most during this shutdown. It should never have happened. It has caused real suffering for American families. Our men and women in uniform had to wonder whether or not they were going to get paid. Air traffic controllers already had a really stressful job and then had to show up for work without getting paid. They missed multiple paychecks.
We know a lot of those air traffic controllers are going to work jobs as Uber drivers. They aren't able to show up for work because they have bills and rent due. They are trying to put food on their table, and Democrats want to vote ``no'' tonight to keep denying them food.
The 42 million SNAP recipients are people who are low-income and who need those food benefits.
Mr. Speaker, if Democrats vote ``no'' today, then they are voting to deny those 42 million low-income families basic food needs. Mr. Speaker, don't talk about how much you care about low-income people and vote ``no'' tonight to deny them food, basic services, basic things that American families need who shouldn't be part of the leverage Democrats want to show their radical base, that they are fighting Donald Trump because they are upset with the results of the election from November.
It is time to end this madness, Mr. Speaker. Let's get this government back open. Let's go negotiate our differences, which are many, but let's do it while not continuing to hold the American people hostage.
I urge my Democratic colleagues who have voted relentlessly to shut this government down and impose this suffering on the American people to stop. Stop imposing the suffering. Let's open the government, and let's get back to the work of the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I remind the majority leader that for a 60- year-old couple earning $82,800 per year, their premiums will rise by over $17,000. This is a 255 percent increase.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop), who is the distinguished ranking member of the Agriculture and Rural Development Subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, as ranking member of the Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Administration Subcommittee, I rise to oppose this bill. Though it does represent, for the most part, solid bipartisan work to provide investments in agriculture and rural America, I am disappointed that the rest of it falls far short of the needs of most Americans.
Healthcare providers and patients are frustrated and frightened by the imminent skyrocketing of healthcare costs caused by the loss of the ACA tax credits and cuts to Medicaid, Medicare, and lifesaving biomedical research.
My constituent, Ms. Angela Hoomes, is unable to walk without debilitating pain. She is worried that, without the tax credits, she won't be able to afford health insurance to complete the multiple back surgeries she needs.
For many Georgians, healthcare is a matter of life and death. Our Republican colleagues could have corrected this in the Rules Committee, but they rejected an amendment last night that would have lowered healthcare premium costs. To me, that is unconscionable. So are the administration's actions during the shutdown.
As a Christian, I am outraged that USDA used the shutdown to illegally withhold SNAP from 42 million Americans. USDA had the chance to do the right thing and use designated contingency funds but rejected it. When ordered to do so by the courts, they fought it all the way to the Supreme Court to keep hungry families from receiving food.
America produces the highest quality, safest, most affordable, and most abundant food, fiber, and medicine anywhere in the world. To that end, this bill provides many welcome investments.
It fully funds SNAP and WIC, replenishes the SNAP and WIC contingency funds, and fully funds cash value vouchers for fruits and vegetables for women and children.
It also helps rural America by providing $1 billion in single family direct home loans, $120 million over the House level, and funding water and wastewater programs at $446 million, both issues that Democrats tried to address in full committee.
The bill provides $1.85 billion for the Agricultural Research Service and $1.67 billion for NIFA, protecting farmers, small businesses, and families against President Trump's budget request to eliminate land grant university research and extension activities across the country.
I am also pleased to see that the bill language requires the USDA to notify Congress before canceling grants over $1 million.
The agriculture portion of this bill does make positive steps in the right direction. The bill discards many of the harmful policy riders in the House bill, yet it does not go far enough to negate House language falsely questioning the safety of Mifepristone and encouraging the FDA to explore liability protections for certain infant formula manufacturers, over which the agency has absolutely no jurisdiction whatsoever.
While the overall funding package may reopen the government for 1 month or 2, this bill does not address the breach of trust that this administration has demonstrated since January.
They have failed to follow the law, and we cannot trust that they will even execute this bill if we vote on it today.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
They cut SNAP by 20 percent in the big, ugly bill this summer, dismantled and defunded Federal programs, fired Federal workers, and illegally ignored court orders.
This bill fails to address the healthcare crisis, and bipartisan outrage has erupted over language in this bill to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to a handful of Senators whose phone records were subpoenaed in relation to the January 6 investigation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter), who is the distinguished chairman of the Military Construction and Veterans Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my longtime friend and colleague and the chairman of Appropriations Committee, Mr. Cole, for yielding me the time.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5371. I look forward to reopening the government. The shutdown has gone on long enough, and it is time to end it.
Yesterday was Veterans Day. It is a timely reminder of the commitment our Armed Forces personnel have made and the responsibility we have to take care of those who serve our Nation.
The military construction and veterans affairs component of the legislation meets that goal. The legislation includes $133.3 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, including $113.8 billion in discretionary funding for VA medical care.
It includes critical funding for mental health services, telehealth services, veteran homelessness programs, medical research programs, and rural health initiatives.
It invests in information technology, including robust investment in VA's electronic health record modernization.
It fully funds all mandatory veteran benefits, including veteran disability compensation programs, education benefits, and vocational rehabilitation and employment training.
Nearly $20 billion is for the Department of Defense military construction program. This amount funds nearly 300 projects at military bases around the world.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
It includes $2 billion to improve and maintain housing for servicemembers and their families. It provides requested resources for the American Battle Monuments Commission, Armed Forces Retirement Home, and operations at Arlington National Cemetery.
I thank Mr. Cole for his endless work to get us to this point.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting the bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Wasserman Schultz), who is the distinguished ranking member of the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise to oppose this slush fund for Senators bill that will force healthcare costs to explode for millions of Americans.
In fact, this legislation guarantees only two things: Republican Senators suspected of helping Trump try to steal an election will get a whole lot richer, and life will get more expensive for everyone else.
That is because this bill adds rocket fuel to Republicans' larger assault on Americans' access to quality, affordable healthcare.
Remember, Mr. Speaker, Republicans already slashed $1 trillion from Medicaid, $500 billion from Medicare, and let Trump steal billions in medical research. With this bill, Republicans dump massive healthcare price hikes on struggling Americans. Millions will be priced out of any coverage at all, which will drive coverage costs up and health services down for all of us.
It is a health budget nightmare for America's families and a slush fund lottery win for eight Republican Senators. That is because the one thing we can all agree on, unless you are Jeffrey Epstein's best friend in the White House, is that the cost-of-living is out of control. Rent, home insurance, and electric bills are all soaring. The cost of beef, coffee, and vegetables just keep climbing.
People are really struggling to get by, yet Donald Trump continues to block SNAP benefits to 42 million struggling seniors, parents, and veterans.
How anyone could swipe food from the plates of nearly 20 million children like that is simply disgusting, but that same moral bankruptcy is embedded in this bill.
This bill unleashes huge health insurance hikes on 203,000 people in my district alone. Mr. Speaker, 82,000 people will lose coverage altogether due to the impact of the big, ugly law and soaring ACA prices.
Worse, this bill also reneges on our commitment to veterans. As the ranking member of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, I take our promises to veterans personally and seriously.
Just this summer, I secured bipartisan support for my amendment to restore $51.7 billion in advance funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund. This is funding, mind you, that President Trump sought in his budget.
Yet, as Republicans slipped a slush fund for Senators into this bill, they gutted a critical funding protection for veterans.
Just so we are all clear, average Americans will see their kitchen table budget blow up from the health coverage price hikes, and veterans will see their future healthcare funding for toxic exposures put in jeopardy, all so billionaires can keep getting huge tax breaks.
It is hard to pick between the worst moral outrages behind this bill. Was it covering up for Epstein's best friend for nearly 2 months just so Republicans could vacation and avoid negotiating a better healthcare plan for our struggling families, or is it the slush fund that personally enriches Republican Senators and will haunt everyone who votes for this bill?
Well, House Democrats will oppose this partisan spending bill that guts America's healthcare, and we will keep fighting to extend healthcare tax credits.
Donald Trump and Republicans broke their promise to lower costs, and this bill certainly cements that betrayal.
Democrats will stand by our promise to lower costs, and we will make sure every American knows Republicans are responsible for this devastating healthcare crisis.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Senate amendment to H.R. 5371, which will finally put an end to the Democrat-led government shutdown.
Millions of Americans have suffered because Democrats have refused to reopen the government, harming those who depend on SNAP benefits, Federal workers, Border Patrol agents, and our troops, who were uncertain about their next paycheck.
This legislation extends government funding to the end of January 2026, thereby blocking attempts to force a budget-busting omnibus at the last minute before Christmas. It also includes the FY 2026 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.
Republicans have effectively locked in disciplined, flat spending levels while supporting the Trump administration's policy priorities.
The Agriculture bill provides $26.65 billion in discretionary spending, which is level with the current amounts while also including community project funding.
This bill provides critical funding support to America's farmers, ranchers, and rural communities. It ensures both USDA and FDA can safeguard our Nation's food and drug supply and fully fund nutrition programs, including SNAP and WIC.
Additionally, the bill closes the hemp loophole that has resulted in the spread of unregulated, intoxicating hemp-derived products that are being sold online and in gas stations and corner stores across the country. Many of these products are accessible and attractive to children, resulting in thousands of calls to U.S. poison control centers, with more than 30 percent involving children aged 5 years and younger. This provision is supported by 39 State attorneys general and over 81 national and State public health, medical, law enforcement, and other organizations.
It is beyond disappointing that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will soon be voting to continue the chaos and uncertainty of a government shutdown.
This is what responsible Republican governance looks like. We stared down the radical Democrats' outrageous, budget-busting demands and held the line for hardworking American taxpayers.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Appropriations Committee Chairman Cole for his leadership throughout this process, and I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Espaillat), the distinguished ranking member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the Senate's amendment to H.R. 5371 because, once again, the Senate has put other interests ahead of those of the American people.
Today's backroom deal does nothing to stop 20 million Americans who will see their healthcare premiums double or triple. It does absolutely nothing to stop provisions in the reconciliation package that will strip 15 million people of their Medicaid coverage.
These cuts will have a resounding impact on individuals and the healthcare industry and economy as a whole. Safety net hospitals like Montefiore in my district and federally funded clinics like Boriken in East Harlem face having to eliminate services or completely close.
Families, seniors, and children who go to these clinics and hospitals cannot afford to lose healthcare coverage.
On top of that, Mr. Speaker, the Legislative Branch bill was done unilaterally, not with a consultation of both sides. It was done on its own in the Senate, in the dark, in cahoots with a bunch of people. It includes a provision that will line the pockets of eight Senators that we know of by allowing them to sue the government for millions of dollars if the Department of Justice subpoenas their phone records or seeks a lawful nondisclosure order.
While families in my district are stretching every single dollar just to pay for food and rent, Senators want to get a personal payout if law enforcement dares to hold them accountable.
At every turn of this shutdown and fight for healthcare access, Republicans and the Trump administration have tried to inflict suffering as much as possible.
For weeks, the administration held food stamps hostage, and even when some States complied with a court ruling to release full benefits, the President demanded that they be clawed back. Even when Governors stepped up and said they don't want people to go hungry, the administration ran to court, Mr. Speaker, to take $6.20 away from poor people. Who does that? Explain that to me. Who takes $6.20 away from a single mom or a hungry senior?
That is the state of America today. It is unbelievable, and here we are to vote on this. I will be casting my vote as a ``no.'' In fact, it will be a ``hell no'' tonight.
Mr. Speaker, God, I love the compassion and the passion on the other side of the aisle. Democrats are worried about taking money from families. Well, you know what? You all can do the right thing and vote ``yes.'' If not, you are the ones who are taking money from needy families, not us, because yes means we want to feed the families. We want to have SNAP programs. No means we don't fund those programs. See how simple that is? Keep on with the rhetoric. I mean, it is cute, but the American people don't buy it.
Listen, for the past 40 days, Democrats have inflicted needless pain on hardworking Americans. They stranded millions of travelers. They denied food assistance for hungry families. How did they do that? When you vote ``no'' to continue funding, that means you deny food stamps for hungry families. No means no, you don't want to pay them. Yes, like the Republicans vote, that means, yes, we do want to pay them.
Democrats left our troops wondering when they would get their next paycheck, and for what, Mr. Speaker? Democrats did that to use the American people as leverage. Don't take my word for it. Take theirs. It was leverage for more wasteful Washington spending, spending that no one other than the radical left ever wanted.
To remind the American people, Democrats wanted to waste $1.5 trillion of their hard-earned tax dollars. What did Democrats get in return? Democrats got nothing. Democrats got nothing because Republicans refused to waste the American people's money.
Democrats did not get a dime for radical climate change, not a dollar for taxpayer-funded benefits for illegals, and not one single concession to the radical far-left base.
Millions of Americans whose lives were upended by the Democratic shutdown will remember this.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding additional time.
Mr. Speaker, the American people will remember who held them hostage for petty political reasons and who fought to put America first.
Now that the shameful charade is over, House Republicans will continue our work on behalf of the American people. We will restore regular order to the appropriations process. We will continue to fulfill the mandate of the American people, and we will keep delivering results for American people because that is what we are here to do and not to play politics.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are advised to direct their comments to the Chair and not to engage in personalities.
Mr. Speaker, I have the greatest honor to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the distinguished Speaker Emerita and, I might add, probably the epitome of the best Speaker that
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, Madam Chair once and the future chair of the Committee on Appropriations. I thank her for her leadership and her kind words.
I take heed, Mr. Speaker, of your comment to address my remarks to you and not to your colleagues, so I can say to you and perhaps you can tell them: Either they don't know what they are talking about, or they don't care about meeting the needs of the American people.
Did any one of them vote to eliminate a need for preexisting conditions in healthcare? Not one of them.
Did any one of them vote to say to children that, until they are 26 years old, they have access to your policy? Not one of them.
Did any of them vote to eliminate being a woman as being a preexisting medical condition? Not one of them.
The list goes on and on.
Did any one of them vote for the Affordable Care Act, which, Mr. Speaker, you can tell them was paid for? It was paid for. Later, when we decided that we could extend the tax credits further so that more people could have more access to care, did anyone vote for that? No.
Mr. Speaker, all they have done is try to eliminate access to healthcare in our country. The public is catching on to them.
You might tell them: If a woman is born with a child who has a heart condition, she is out of luck with what they are proposing.
If a father gets a stroke, forget about it.
If you have a sibling with a disability, they don't care.
If your wife has breast cancer, you have big bills to pay because they want to take away healthcare, whether it is Medicaid to tens of millions of people, half a trillion dollars for Medicare for seniors and people with disabilities, and millions of dollars added to the cost for families to access the Affordable Care Act.
The list goes on and on. Either they don't know, or they don't care.
I will say one more thing. As a grandmother and mother, how about the President of the United States having a Halloween party on Halloween night and saying to the Supreme Court: Please don't make me feed the children or the poor people in our country.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, going to the Supreme Court for that means that ``cruelty'' has not even come close to the word that is needed for that kind of behavior. This is the worst President for children that America has ever seen.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Moore), my very good friend and distinguished member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support the Senate amendment to H.R. 5371, which includes full funding for the legislative branch. I am honored to serve as the vice chairman of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee, and I am grateful to Chairman Valadao for his leadership on that committee.
Mr. Speaker, it has been a long road to bring this bill to the floor. It is a road that was made significantly longer by a totally unnecessary Schumer shutdown that we have been living in. The bill before us not only reopens the entire government, but it ensures that the House and its supporting agencies remain working for the American people.
The bill invests in safety and security. It increases funding for the Capitol Police and provides support for security programs through the House Sergeant at Arms. It is tough on foreign adversaries, including language that I wrote preventing the purchase of technology tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Cole for his leadership and Ranking Member Espaillat and our subcommittee members and their staff and our staff for their work, and I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes.''
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Ms. Kaptur), the distinguished ranking member of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member DeLauro for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, Congress should vote today for affordable health insurance for Americans and reduce its rising costs. Instead, in the dead of night, eight Senate Republicans slipped into this bill a payola for themselves, literally raking in millions of dollars to themselves.
This payola is called corruption. It is corruption. Millions of taxpayer dollars now are slated for Senators Graham, Hagerty, Hawley, Sullivan, Tuberville, Johnson, Lummis, and Blackburn. Each is teed up to personally rake in a minimum of $500,000 up to $1.5 million.
Meanwhile, the American people need more affordable health insurance, but these Senators, with their House allies, are lining their own pockets. I say: No more tax breaks to billionaires and no payoffs to U.S. Senators. This is what happens when power serves itself instead of the people.
This isn't leadership. It is corruption disguised as legislation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Newhouse), my very good friend and distinguished member of the Committee on Appropriations.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Cole for yielding me time.
Mr. Speaker, over 40 days after the Senate Democrats shut down the Federal Government, we are finally reopening. The result of the shutdown has been thousands of employee furloughs, major disruptions to our air travel, servicemembers going without pay, delayed food assistance for low-income individuals and families, and much, much more.
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, the responsibility of funding the Federal Government is one that I take very seriously, especially in light of our Nation's debt surpassing $38 trillion.
The performative tactics that we have watched over the last 7 weeks have truly been a disservice to Americans. My friends across the aisle should never have put leverage or politics over those people who they represent.
The most important thing right now is that we get back to work, making sure that the Federal Government can provide the essential services that people depend on and that Congress can continue working to pass full-year funding legislation, providing responsible Federal spending and funding those essential services.
Mr. Speaker, we are making significant progress with the inclusion of these three appropriations bills, but our work is far from over. I encourage all of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this deal, vote to end this unnecessary shutdown, and help us get back to the business of hardworking Americans across this country.
Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump and Republicans control the entire government. For 42 days, Republicans shut it down. Why? It was because they refuse to extend tax credits to help millions of Americans afford their healthcare. If that wasn't bad enough, President Trump even withheld food assistance during the shutdown. Hunger should never be used as a weapon.
The CR continues the Republican healthcare crisis. The Speaker has already said he won't hold a vote to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits to reduce healthcare costs for Americans.
Now my constituents are going to have to choose between heating their homes, feeding their families, or taking their children to the doctor. It is a terrible deal for the American people.
Americans deserve an open and transparent government that works for them. They deserve access to affordable healthcare and nutritious food for their families. That is what Democrats are fighting for. I wish the President and Republicans would join us in this fight and share our priorities.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, in the words of Yogi Berra: ``This seems like deja vu all over again.''
Fifty-nine days ago, I stood at this very lectern debating the ranking member and a friend of mine over the continuing resolution to keep our government open.
On September 19, we did our work in this body, but Senate Democrats chose to hold America hostage with the Schumer shutdown. Democrats in Congress, including the minority whip, shamefully admitted they were using the misery they inflicted on the American people as leverage to achieve their leftist wish list of demands, slowly twisting the heads of the American people in a vice.
Tonight, I am relieved to say the misery of the Schumer shutdown is on our doorstep.
Mr. Speaker, this package proves that when Republicans stay united and put America first, we can govern with strength, compassion, and common sense. Tonight, Mr. Speaker, we will reopen the government and liberate the Schumer hostages.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition of this deeply flawed bill because the American people deserve better.
Since Trump returned to office, Republicans have created an affordability nightmare, a mass transfer of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to billionaires.
In my district alone, more than 350,000 people are facing skyrocketing healthcare costs or cuts to critical services. Republicans shut down the government instead of finding bipartisan solutions to keep care affordable and took a 7-week paid hiatus, doubling healthcare costs for working families, cutting off food assistance right before Thanksgiving, and letting Trump spend his days pardoning insurrectionists, enriching billionaires, cozying up to dictators, and building himself a new ballroom, all while taking food away from families in need.
Now Senate Republicans want to reward themselves with a taxpayer- funded handout. It is shameful. House Republicans should be here doing their jobs, not making life harder for working families.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair and not to engage in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), my very good friend and chairman of the House Budget Committee.
Mr. Speaker, the Democrats rejecting a clean CR, shutting the government down, creating all of the havoc, the pain and suffering for our fellow Americans is so obviously disingenuous.
They never vote against clean CRs. For 4 years under Biden, you all didn't reject one clean CR. Chuck Schumer in 44 years never rejected a clean CR.
Mr. Speaker, what is it about? They say policy. They put forward a proposal, Mr. Chairman. They said it is about healthcare, healthcare for illegals. They repeal work requirements for able-bodied adults. That is an 80/20 issue in this country. They put forward a spending bill of $1.5 trillion. That is twice the discretionary budget.
Mr. Chairman, they are spending more money than we have ever spent outside of COVID. That is their counterproposal. It is not only disingenuous. It is unserious.
What is it about? It is about politics. It is about resisting and fighting and undermining Donald Trump. Here is the deal: They are not fighting and resisting Donald Trump. They are undermining the will of the American people that gave Trump the Presidency.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
They undermine the will of the people who overwhelmingly elected President Trump and gave him the mandate of the America First agenda. They are not resisting us. They are posturing and placating the radical left. They are holding back what the American people wanted and that was a new direction for this country.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their comments to the Chair.
Mr. Speaker, I want my colleagues to understand that when the Affordable Care Act was adopted, it was adopted for middle- class people who could not afford health insurance. They had no other option. They had nowhere to go. You just would end up without health insurance.
I have constituents coming to me now crying because their insurance is going from $500 a month to $1,500 a month. That is an increase of $1,000 a month. Who could afford that? No one in the middle class.
At the end of 2024 last year during a Democratic administration, the number of insured Americans was at a record high of about 95 percent. Democrats worked for that. Then Trump comes in and the Republicans with their big, ugly bill, and they make cuts to Medicaid, cuts to hospitals and nursing homes, and no funding to extend the ACA tax credits.
What is going to happen? More and more people have no health insurance. That is the bottom line. They will not have health insurance, and the Republicans don't seem to care. I want you to know that the Democrats care, and we will continue to fight for you.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from Oklahoma for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, Guam is home to 3,372 Federal employees, more than 43,000 SNAP recipients, over 9,000 WIC recipients, and more than 20,000 veterans, all of whom have been impacted by this shutdown. If we continue to put politics over our country, my constituents will continue to suffer.
Simply put, this gets us back on track, ensures funding for those who need it is in place and turns the lights back on. This bill ensures that families receive the assistance they need, veterans have access to care, and our island is reimbursed for the sacrifice we made to keep Federal programs running during this difficult time.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill and to deliver for the American people. The time for deliberation is when the government is open and people have the assistance they need.
Mr. Speaker, the destruction that is taking place in America's healthcare system during these 10 months is unbelievable. They have eviscerated the National Institutes of Health. They have cut back on the Centers for Disease Control and billions of dollars for Medicaid for a tax cut for the wealthy. Wait till you see what is coming to America's hospitals after the next election. It is so contrived they waited until after the election to implement it.
Mr. Speaker, 24 million people are likely to lose health insurance if we
All of this is taking place to justify a tax cut for people at the very top. Here is the real kicker: Our Republican colleagues of fiscal probity borrowed the money for the tax cuts.
In 2017, it was $2.4 trillion. In the last tax bill, almost $4 trillion is borrowed for a tax cut for wealthy people. Whatever happened to the fiscal soundness that the Republican Party used to lecture everybody on.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Cole for his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, if this were a library, we would have the fiction side over there and the nonfiction side over here. The only thing that is not fiction, however, is their consistent criticism of the healthcare system known as ObamaCare that they created. That is what this fight seems to be about, and that is the one end of things that is truthful.
Today, Mr. Speaker, after 6 weeks of lots of pain and no gain, they are going to vote again to keep the government closed. They are going to vote again--they are whipping their votes--so they would not be paying Federal workers and won't be funding essential programs like SNAP and undoing the chaos at our airports.
I spent the last 43 days in my district talking with these groups, talking with SNAP, talking with Head Start, seeing their pain, realizing it, understanding it. Some of my colleagues did the same, but, shockingly, they are still going to vote to keep the government closed and keep this funding from being delivered.
It is time to fix the damage that Democrats have caused. With this vote tonight, Republicans will restore SNAP payments and get TSA, air traffic controllers, and Federal workers paid.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for the additional time.
You know what, Mr. Speaker, yesterday was Veterans Day. Veterans didn't fight for the red. They didn't fight for the blue. They fought for the red, white, and blue. Maybe tonight we can follow their example.
Mr. Speaker, this bill fails to address the fundamental needs of families across our country.
Americans have made it crystal clear that affordability is their number one concern. President Trump and Republicans promised to lower costs on day one, and that has been one big broken promise.
Healthcare premiums are skyrocketing because Republicans refuse to extend the ACA tax credits, causing healthcare costs to go up for everyone.
Over 4 million people will be forced off their coverage next year because it is too expensive. This is on top of soaring prices for food, energy, and housing. That is unacceptable for the wealthiest nation in the world.
Republicans who say they support affordable healthcare should be standing up for their constituents rather than falling in line behind President Trump.
I am going to keep fighting for affordable healthcare and lower costs. The American people deserve better.
Mr. Speaker, throughout this sham and shame of a shutdown, we have heard so many lies from the Democrats. Over the last 45 days, and especially the last 45 minutes, I have heard them say this is an evil bill, that Republicans don't care about the disabled, and that Trump is the worst President in history for children. They have said that Republicans are to blame for the fentanyl crisis, that Republicans shouldn't take photos with veterans. January 6, of course, they mention that. They have said Republicans are corrupt. They have said that Republicans are starving kids.
What they haven't said is the one thing that this bill does, which is to open up the government. Not one Democrat is getting up here saying this bill opens the government.
Let me remind them and my colleagues and the American people that this bill opens the government tonight, and the American people have Republicans to thank for ending this shutdown and opening the government.
I urge a ``yes'' vote. I am proud to vote ``yes.'' I am so disappointed in my Democratic colleagues because, for the life of me, throughout my time in the House, I have heard them talk about how wonderful it is to keep the government open and that a shutdown is so bad and can never happen. Tonight, they won't even admit that this bill opens the government, and this is what we need for this country tonight.
Mr. Speaker, I oppose the Republican spending bill that makes healthcare more expensive for hardworking Americans.
While Republicans were on their 7-plus week vacation, all of our constituents were receiving notices of premium increases. A constituent of mine, a lifelong educator, has been told that her premiums will jump from $383 to nearly $1,000.
Meanwhile, Trump and Republicans can find money for a fancy ballroom. They can give tax breaks to billionaires. They even included millions of dollars in cash payments in this bill for eight Republican Senators. If anyone else in government gave themselves millions in taxpayer money, they would go to prison. For Americans trying to afford healthcare? Not $1 in tax credits.
House Democrats are united against this corrupt bill and will keep fighting to protect America's healthcare.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to reject this bill.
Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it has been an interesting debate.
Frankly, as a couple of my colleagues have suggested, a lot of the rhetoric on the other side hasn't had much to do with the legislation in front of us. My friends chose all on their own to shut the government down 43 days ago.
During that time, soldiers have had to worry about getting paid. The only reason they were paid is because the President of the United States managed to pull a rabbit out of a hat twice or we would have military families completely unpaid.
We have our air traffic controllers. Most of us flew here today, yesterday, or in recent days. They are keeping the skies as safe as they can, but they haven't gotten paid.
We are in this Capitol Building. We are under the protection of the Capitol Police. They do a splendid job. They keep doing their job. They haven't been paid.
We have people who are in desperate need of some of the services this government has promised to give them, SNAP and WIC, at risk unless we pass this legislation tonight.
We can have all of these debates about all of these other issues. As a matter of fact, my friend, the Speaker, his counterpart in the United States Senate, the majority leader, and the President have said when you open the government, we will be happy to talk to you about some of these issues, but you are not going to shut down the government, punish the American people, put people's lives at risk, and think we are going to sit down and negotiate with you under those circumstances. That is not going to happen.
We told you 43 days ago, from bitter experience, government shutdowns don't work. They never achieve the objective that you announce. Guess what. You haven't achieved that objective yet, and you are not going to. We did the same thing twice, so I am not saying that we have clean hands over here. You guys did it on DACA. It didn't work there. It is not going to work here.
The only people who have suffered have been the American people, the people whom we are all here to serve.
Let's keep the focus on getting the government back open.
I would also add--and I appreciate this very much--there have been robust discussions back and forth, and we
The Agriculture bill will make sure that people who rely on WIC and SNAP don't have to worry about another government shutdown between now and September 30 of next year.
The Legislative Branch bill will make sure that the Capitol Police and everybody else who is staff who allows this Chamber to function don't have to worry about getting paid until September 30 of next year.
Obviously, military construction and, more importantly, veterans rely on benefit commitments we have made. Passage of this bill makes sure that we fulfill those commitments between now and September 30 of next year, and we buy the time to sit down to rationally and responsibly negotiate other appropriations bills that we can bring, I hope, on a bipartisan basis to this floor to keep the government open.
I would just ask my friends to reflect on that. I hope some of you feel the weight of that decision. I know you do. I hope you can vote to keep the government open. There is no excuse to shut it down. The United States Senate operated to keep it open in a bipartisan fashion. Now, it took them a long time to do it, but they got there. Let's not follow that example.
When they finally got the job done, they sent us a product. It is not a perfect product. It has some things in it I don't like, but frankly, if we had kept the government open, we would never have been in this situation in the first place.
I would just ask my friends to remember their constituents. I know they think about them. I know they are serious about the points they make. Reopen the government and raise your issues. Let's see if we can come to a negotiated settlement, but let's not punish the American people.
A ``no'' vote on this, again, means soldiers and military families don't get paid. A ``no'' vote means that people in need of SNAP and WIC might not get it. A ``no'' vote means the people who allow us to come here to debate and work won't get paid either.
I can go down the list of horrors. It is pretty simple. This is a vote about two things: opening the Government of the United States, which you willfully tried to shut down. Fortunately, you did not succeed in that in this Chamber, but some of your colleagues, using arcane Senate rules, did manage to do it but finally came to their senses. You ought to pay attention to those people. They said enough is enough. Let's reopen the government.
I urge my colleagues to do that today. I hope it is done in a bipartisan way.
I reserve the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to direct their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. Speaker, Donald Trump said the cost- of-living crisis is fake news, ``a con job by the Democrats.''
Mr. Speaker, 60 percent of Americans can't afford a basic quality of life, 45 percent have had to skip a doctor's appointment or a prescription because they can't afford it, and 41 percent are living with medical debt. The American people are simply not making it.
Not only is that crisis real, it is a crisis that Republicans promised to solve. Voters believed them. Now, after a 54-day hiatus, what are Republicans doing? They are voting to raise the cost of living. They are voting to make it even harder to get by, not by some marginal amount. They are doubling, tripling, and quadrupling monthly premiums.
What is their defense? They are looking people in the eye and flat- out gaslighting them: Costs aren't up; costs are down.
Trump says: ``I don't want to hear about the affordability.'' Well, get used to hearing about it. You are going to hear about it a lot because people are feeling it every single day. People can't make rent. They can't afford their prescriptions. They can't afford to take their kid to a doctor. They can't find childcare. When they find it, they can't afford that, either. Grocery and utility bills are spiking. This is the crisis of our time, and it is about to get exponentially worse because of the GOP's craven allegiance to billionaires over working people.
The cost-of-living crisis is not fake news. It is not a perception issue. It is daily life for the people that we all represent. Let's do something about it. Let's reject this budget. Let's stop the healthcare cuts. Let's stop the premium hikes. Let's stop the hospital closures, and let's stop the billionaire giveaways.
Mr. Speaker, this bill fails to prevent healthcare costs from skyrocketing and fails to address the crisis of affordability. It fails to keep our promise to veterans. It provides a million-dollar jackpot to eight Senators. It fails to protect Congress' power of the purse. I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no.''
Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of yielding 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), our distinguished Democratic leader.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, for yielding and for her steadfast leadership on behalf of working families and hardworking American taxpayers in the great State of Connecticut, and all across America.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to this woefully inadequate spending bill that fails to decisively address the Republican healthcare crisis and fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of Americans.
Mr. Speaker, before I say anything further, let me thank our men and women in uniform, our Active-Duty troops, our hardworking Federal employees, our civil servants, our TSA agents, our Capitol Police, our staff here in the House of Representatives, and our air traffic controllers for their service, their sacrifice, and for the work that they do on behalf of the American people each and every day. It is our promise to all of them that we will continue to work hard to make sure they are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve in a year in which the Trump administration has gone after hardworking Federal employees relentlessly, including firing more than 200,000 Federal employees prior to the start of the Trump Republican shutdown.
Republicans control the House, the Senate, and the Presidency. Donald Trump and Republicans made the decision to shut the government down, the longest shutdown in American history. They would rather do that than provide healthcare that is affordable to working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, and hardworking American taxpayers.
All across the country, I am certain that there are people in America asking the question: Where do we go from here?
House Democrats have a simple answer. We will continue to fight to lower the high cost of living. House Democrats will continue to fight to address the healthcare crisis that Republicans have created, and House Democrats will continue to fight to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for tens of millions of Americans.
This fight is not over. We are just getting started. We will fight today. We will fight tomorrow. We will fight this week. We will fight next week. We will fight this month. We will fight next month. We will fight until we win this battle for the American people. That is our commitment as House Democrats.
There are only two ways that this fight will end. There are only two ways, Mr. Speaker, that this fight will end: Either Republicans finally decide to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits this year or the American people will throw Republicans out of their jobs next year and end the speakership of Donald J. Trump once and for all. That is how this fight ends.
Mr. Speaker, during this painful Trump Republican shutdown, what we have seen is two different philosophies in terms of how to govern for the American people. The Democratic Party philosophy is clear. We are ready, willing, and able to find bipartisan, common ground, anytime, anyplace, to enact spending agreements that actually make life better for the American people.
However, in order to do that, we need to have partners on the other side of the aisle who are actually willing to find the bipartisan path forward. What we have seen from Republicans from the very beginning of this Presidency is a my-way-or-the-highway approach. That has been the Republican philosophy. Jam your extremism down the throats of the American people. That is what we have seen from day one of this Presidency. That is the reason why the government has been shut down by Republicans and Donald Trump for the longest period of time in American history.
What have we seen from Donald Trump and Republicans during this shutdown? A consistent unwillingness to actually find common ground in order to make life better for the American people. Donald Trump, during the shutdown, found the time to play golf week after week after week. Donald Trump found the time to pardon serial fraudsters like George Santos and Rudolph Giuliani. Donald Trump found the time to meet with the Chinese Communist Party. Donald Trump found the time to destroy the east wing of the White House. Donald Trump found the time to extort $230 million from the Department of Justice so he could line his pockets. Donald Trump found the time to bail out Argentina with $40 billion. Donald Trump found the time to rip away SNAP benefits from 42 million Americans.
Mr. Speaker, these extremists are not like us. They are not like us. They have zero interest in fighting hard to make life better for the American people. Their philosophy: My way or the highway. Our response: Get lost.
We are going to continue to fight hard on behalf of the American people in the midst of a healthcare crisis and a cost-of-living crisis that is very real, despite what Donald Trump, the leader of the Republican Party, has to say. He claims there is no affordability crisis in the United States of America.
However, why would anyone believe anything that Donald Trump or Republicans have to say on this issue? Throughout 2024, before the election, Republicans in the House and the Senate and Donald Trump on the campaign trail spent all of their time saying that costs were going to go down on day one.
Mr. Speaker, costs haven't gone down. Republicans haven't done a damn thing to lower the high cost of living. Costs haven't gone down in this country. Costs have gone up. Inflation is on the way up. Housing costs are out of control. Grocery costs are out of control. Electricity bills are out of control. Healthcare costs are skyrocketing and out of control.
In the midst of this affordability crisis, seeing this, Democrats said we have got to fight to make sure we extend Affordable Care Act tax credits so that tens of millions of people--working-class folks, middle-class folks, people in rural America, working-class America, small-town America, the heartland of America, Black and Brown communities all throughout America--don't experience premium increases that in some cases will go up by $1,000 or $2,000 per year.
In many cases, month after month after month, it will go up $1,000 or $2,000 per month. That is tens of thousands of dollars per year. It is unacceptable in this country, the wealthiest country in the history of the world. This is in the midst of a Republican healthcare crisis.
Republicans enacted the largest cut to Medicaid in American history. They ripped health insurance away from 14 million Americans. As a result of Republican policies, hospitals, nursing homes, and community- based health centers are closing all across America including in rural parts of this great country of ours.
Now because of the Republican refusal to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits, tens of millions of Americans are at risk of being unable to afford to see a doctor when they need one. It is happening in this country, the wealthiest country in the history of the world.
It can't be the case that healthcare is simply a privilege for the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected. Mr. Speaker, that is the Republican perspective.
As Democrats, we believe that healthcare has to be a right and a right that is affordable and available to every single American in the United States. That is what this fight is all about, and that is what the fight will continue to be about as we move forward.
Many of my Republican colleagues have suggested that they want to deal with the healthcare affordability issue. They want to address the Republican healthcare crisis that is devastating people all across this country. We have an opportunity for them to do so.
There is a discharge petition connected to legislation that House Democrats have introduced to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits for 3 years. We believe that working-class Americans, middle-class Americans, and everyday Americans deserve the same level of certainty that Republicans always provide to the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected donors. Working-class Americans deserve that level of certainty.
We ask our Republican colleagues to join us in extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits. It is not too late. We are in the midst of open enrollment. The tax credits expire on December 31. We will stay on this issue until we get this issue resolved for everyday Americans.
Mr. Speaker, as I close, I have had the opportunity, as many of us do, to serve in the United States Congress with legendary figures, too numerous to mention. Some of those legendary Members include, of course, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, the great Jim Clyburn, Maxine Waters, Elijah Cummings, and Charlie Rangel.
Our own Marcy Kaptur is the longest serving woman in the history of the United States House of Representatives. We have all had the opportunity to serve with legendary Members like John Dingell. As I said, they are too numerous to mention.
Mr. Speaker, one can't call that roll without calling the name of the great John Lewis. I had the distinct honor of serving with John Lewis for several terms. Many of us here in the House of Representatives did.
I will never forget on my first day in Congress that I had the opportunity to meet John Lewis for the first time in person. He called me over to see him on the House floor. He just asked me a simple question. He said: Are you the new guy?
I said: Yes, sir, Mr. Lewis, I am.
He said: Well, we are colleagues now. You don't have to call me Mr. Lewis. You can call me John.
I said: Yes, sir, Mr. Lewis, I understand.
Then he said to me: You are from Brooklyn, right?
Mr. Speaker, I have to be honest. I was tempted to say that Brooklyn is always in the House. Instead, since my mother, Laneda Jeffries, raised me with some sense, I said: Yes, sir, I am from Brooklyn.
Then he said something to me that I have never forgotten. He said: Well, I hear some positive things about you from your predecessor, but Washington, D.C., young man, can be a rough place. I don't want you to get into any trouble unless it is good trouble.
Mr. Speaker, I wanted to stop by on the House floor to make sure it is clear to the American people that the spirit of John Lewis lives amongst House Democrats. We will continue to get into good trouble to make their lives better. That is our commitment to every single American all across this country, from this day and for every day, moving forward.
It was John Lewis who said to us that ours is not the struggle of one day, one week, or one year. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime and maybe even many lifetimes. Each one of us in every generation must do our part.
Mr. Speaker, we love Mr. Lewis. We were blessed by our opportunity to serve with him. House Democrats are here to do our part. We are in this fight until we win this fight for the American people.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend, Chairman Cole, who has done an extraordinary job in this process.
Mr. Speaker, we all know why we are here. House Democrats voted to shut down the government. It was 54 days ago when we had that vote. It was September 19. Since that time, Senate Democrats have voted 14 times to close the government. Republicans voted a collective 15 times to open the government for the people, and the Democrats voted that many times to close it.
Then they admitted, many of them--and we can name them here, but I am not going to take the time--they admitted they were using the American people as leverage in this political game. They knew that it would cause pain, and they did it anyway. The whole exercise was pointless. It was wrong. It was cruel.
In mere moments, I want everyone to watch the board. They will do it again. I will guess most of our Democrat colleagues will vote again to close the government, again to take food out of the mouths of families who need it, again to deny pay to Federal employees, and again to stall flights and cancel airlines and do all the rest that they have done. We are not going to let them succeed in that gambit. That is right.
While the Democrats keep voting to shut the government down, Republicans are going to vote to open it back up. We are going to get the American Government running again and working for the people, as they deserve.
I am going to close with this. As Speaker, I have the ability to talk as long as I want, but I am not going to do that tonight. We are not going to waste any more time of the people.
I am just going to say this. I think that everybody needs to remember this one simple thing: From the very beginning of this whole ordeal, on the Republican side, we operated in good faith. We offered a clean, nonpartisan CR. We were honest and transparent with the American people from the very beginning. Every single day of the shutdown, we went out and looked right into the camera with a press conference and told the American people the simple truth. We have done for the people what has been right and just and truthful. In the end, that is what God honors always. Don't forget it.
We need to get this government open as soon as possible. The American people demand and deserve it.
Mr. Speaker, there are many flaws in the hastily written Senate Republican Continuing Resolution, before us today. The most egregious is the Continuing Resolution's failure to ``continue'' tax credits for health insurance which have been on the books for 4 years, right at the same time 24 million Americans are enrolling for 2026 insurance coverage in the ACA health exchanges. For millions, the abandonment of premium assistance will result in increases of 100 percent, 200 percent, and even higher. A couple in Enfield, Connecticut, in their 60s, who visited with me last week with their premium notice, are looking at an increase from $300/month to $2,449/ month. The only way they can pay that is to draw funds from their retirement 401k, triggering tax penalties on top of the increased out- of-pocket costs. My office heard from many other constituents with similar shocking increases, whose stories are attached to my written statement.
I also want to alert Members of the House that this new continuing resolution (CR) released this past Saturday November 8, 2025, which funds the government to January 30, 2026, has a serious gap in funding for the Columbia-class submarine program. This program, which has been referred to as the ``number one acquisition priority'' of both the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense, is building new ballistic submarines on a very tight schedule to replace the aging fleet of Ohio-class submarines, who have been on patrol starting in the 1980's. The first two submarines--USS District of Columbia and USS Wisconsin--are under construction and fully funded with appropriations approved by prior Congresses. The third, USS Groton SSBN 828 is ready to start construction, subject to Congress approving the funds.
For this CR, The Navy requested an anomaly for full fiscal year 2026 Columbia program funding to Congressional leadership to keep this program on track. In past years, this has been a normal request in order to make sure production stays on schedule, regardless of late passage of the full Navy budget. Astonishingly, Mr. Speaker, the Senate continuing resolution refused the Navy's request and Columbia program has zero additional funding. This is not a minor bookkeeping concern. The absence of a set aside, or anomaly, to fund construction of SSBN 828, will create serious risk of a halt work order to the production schedule of the Nation's most critical defense program.
The legislative chaos of the last two months, with the House shut down at the Speaker's behest, has suffocated the normal communication and negotiation that would address glaring harm, such as the cut off of health insurance subsidies and steady funding of the Navy's shipbuilding budget. There is a better path, Mr. Speaker, which is to have our chamber exercise its independent constitutional role and protect both the health care and national security of our Nation. Reject this budget and fix these glaring flaws. I include in the Record the following written statements from my constituents:
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this Continuing Resolution. Although I support opening the government after this devastating 43-day shutdown, I will not support a bill that will continue the Republican's assault on Americans and their pocketbooks. At a time when Oregonians and Americans are already struggling with rising costs, this bill locks in devastating cuts to health care and drives up the cost of health insurance--in many cases significantly.
Just a few months ago the Republicans passed a cruel budget in which they paid for tax cuts for billionaires by making the largest cuts to Medicaid and SNAP in history. Now they are continuing their heartless obsession with destroying the Affordable Care Act.
These Republican policies are damaging to the entire health care system, but are especially harmful for rural hospitals and clinics. At home in Oregon, hospitals and health systems have described the consequences of this agenda as `catastrophic.' Staff will be reduced, clinics will close, and we will go back to the day when people without insurance delayed care and ended up in emergency rooms.
These cuts to health care--and the Republican shutdown more broadly-- are further proof that the first ten months of this Trump administration have been chaotic, harmful, and completely out of touch with the needs of the American people. Donald Trump held an extravagant Great Gatsby party at Mar-a-Lago the night before SNAP benefits expired, and the administration and Republicans continue to ignore the needs of working families. That's not governing; it's a cruel and corrupt abdication of their promise and their responsibility to bring down costs and grow the economy. Oregonians and Americans deserve better.
During the shutdown I held three town hall meetings--something most Republicans still refuse to do--and heard from many constituents who are extremely worried about the already high cost of living. The Republican health care cuts and the increased costs the Republicans are locking in with this bill will make life harder, not easier, for the people we represent. The Republicans who crafted these policies might change their minds if they actually showed up to hear from their constituents.
Donald Trump claimed he would lower costs, but this bill, along with his chaotic tariff policies, are making costs rise--not fall. People across this country are struggling to pay for housing, groceries, child care, and other necessities. Too many families have already reached their breaking point, and this will drive them further into debt and despair.
The Republican agenda would dramatically increase premiums for more than 198,000 Oregonians, including my constituent Teresa from Clatsop County. Teresa, a small business owner, runs a small flower and produce farm. Like many small business owners, she purchases her coverage on the Oregon health care exchange. Because of Republicans' refusal to protect health care, her premium will soon be going from $230 a month to $1,077 a month.
This is unconscionable, unacceptable, and unnecessary. Teresa is about to turn 60; she works a tough, physical job. Running a small family farm is challenging even in a strong economy. She won't be able to afford her premium, and yet she can't afford to be without health care. One illness or one injury could threaten her health and her livelihood. Teresa could be forced to close her family business--a business that plays an important part in Oregon's north coast economy.
Teresa is not alone. Americans across the country are receiving similar letters about dramatic premium increases, forcing them to make impossible decisions; if they keep their coverage, how will they pay for food and housing and child care? They can't.
Teresa, and everyone in the United States, should feel secure, not fearful, when they get sick. They deserve better.
I am fighting to make health care accessible and affordable, and I'm asking Republicans to join House Democrats in this important work. We've had weeks to address the rising costs--to consider good-faith proposals that could prevent pushing millions off a health care cliff. But the Speaker of the House closed the United States House of Representatives for business for seven weeks. That's no way to run government.
This Continuing Resolution is a betrayal to the people we represent. Outrageously, at the last-minute Republicans included a provision in this bill that allows certain Republican Senators to sue the federal government for hundreds of thousands of dollars in connection with seizing their phone records regarding Jan. 6, 2021. This provision is a get-rich-quick scheme for Senators who attempted to overthrow democracy. It's the epitome of corruption and has no place in Congress much less in a spending bill. I supported removing the language from the bill, but Republican leadership didn't even let us vote on an amendment to do that.
I invite my colleagues to listen to their constituents, vote no, come back to the table, and join us in the work to make healthcare affordable and accessible for all.
Mr. Speaker, as we take up the Senate- passed bill to reopen the government, I want to clarify that we should be proceeding through regular order before taking any action that could potentially impact the entire hemp industry and affect more than 220,000 American jobs.
Authorizing policy through an appropriations bill is counter to House rules and undermines the jurisdiction of our authorizing committees. Appropriations bills are intended to fund the operations of government, not to rewrite permanent law.
The Agriculture Committee is the proper venue to hear from stakeholders and debate this change. This provision should never have been added to an appropriations bill on the floor of the Senate without input from the farmers and small businesses who will be potentially impacted.
What we need is a measured, transparent approach that prioritizes public safety while preserving a viable path forward for an emerging American industry. Once the government is reopened, I look forward to working with my colleagues to restore certainty and stability for farmers in North Carolina and throughout the U.S.
Mr. Speaker, while I support the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5371, which puts an end to the Democrats' reckless and unnecessary 43- day government shutdown, I strongly oppose Section 781 of this bill, which would deal a fatal blow to American farmers supplying the regulated hemp industry and small businesses, and jeopardize tens of billions of dollars in economic activity.
The 2018 Farm Bill expanded the definition of hemp and established a successful framework for the hemp industry. Under this framework, the hemp industry supports over 320,000 American jobs, generates $28.4 billion in regulated market activity, and produces some $1.5 billion in state tax revenue.
The hemp industry has stepped forward to self-regulate in the absence of uniform federal regulations--uniting behind a framework which restricts the sale and possession of hemp products to adults 21 years and older, standardizes packaging to eliminate ``look-a-like'' products that are appealing to children, standardizes labeling to empower adult consumers to make informed choices, and requires independent third- party laboratory tests for consumable hemp products. They have been asking Congress to pass legislation to responsibly regulate their industry.
Rather than adopt this common-sense regulatory framework to protect children and allow adults to make informed decisions, Section 781 of this bill essentially imposes a national ban of all ingestible hemp products with any ``quantifiable'' level of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), which represents between 90 and 95 percent of hemp products in the marketplace, including the vast majority of non-intoxicating cannabidiol (CBD) products offered in the marketplace.
Section 781 of this bill would needlessly and arbitrarily change the definition of legal hemp rather than responsibly regulating the market, This would effectively turn out the lights on America's legal hemp farmers, preempt the work being done in states to create regulatory frameworks for hemp products, and restrict consumer choice for the tens of millions of Americans who use hemp-derived products.
Approximately 20 percent of American adults report using CBD or a hemp-derived product in the preceding 12 months. These products are here; they are widespread, and they are not going away. As the failed war on drugs has shown, provisions like this drive out responsible actors from the industry and embolden shady, black-market actors who care not for consumer safety or the protection of children.
Rather than have a substantive, open debate on the future of hemp policy in America, prohibitionists slipped this provision into a must- pass government funding bill, forcing Members of Congress to choose between voting their conscience on hemp and paying our military servicemembers. This is wrong.
I opposed this language when prohibitionists tried to insert it into the Agriculture-FDA Appropriations bill last fiscal year, I opposed the language when they tried to insert it into the farm bill, I continue to oppose this language. But I cannot vote to keep this government shut down and force the approximately 35,000 military servicemembers in South Carolina to work without pay.
In the year before this provision takes effect, I will work tirelessly to reverse this harmful language and create a common-sense regulatory framework which protects America's children, ensures product quality, and preserves access to products used by tens of millions of Americans.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 873, the previous question is ordered.
The question is on the motion by the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Cole).
The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it.
