Providing for Consideration of HR 2, American Energy Solutions for Lower Costs and More American Jobs Act; Providing for Consideration of HR 4, Jobs for America Act; and Providing for Proceedings During the Period from September 22, 2014, Through November 11, 2014

Floor Speech

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I thank the gentleman for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the rule and the underlying bills, the so-called American Energy Solutions for Lower Costs and More American Jobs Act--it is H.R. 2--and the Jobs for America, so-called, Act, H.R. 4. Don't let the titles of these bills fool you. H.R. 2 and H.R. 4 won't create any new jobs but would continue to degrade the quality of life and health of the American people.

These bills put more money in the pockets of big industry, corporate welfare, undermine the efficiency of our regulatory activities, and continue to fail to provide opportunities for the middle class, while they continue to enrich international conglomerates and corporations.

Not only are these bills bad, but I should add, Mr. Speaker, the House has already voted on all of these bills that are already included in H.R. 2 and H.R. 4 this session--just another waste of taxpayer time and money here debating and voting on bills that have already been passed. Just as the Republicans have chosen to repeal the Affordable Care Act 53 times, so too we are passing many of these bills for the second time here today if that is the decision the House chooses to make.

Now, I think it is clear, all of us here know, that these bills will not become law, that the Senate did not take them up after the House passed them. There is no indication or reason to believe that in this new configuration and being lumped together in new and more sinister ways that the Senate will react any more positively.

Sadly, it is quite clear that the majority here in the House are either unable or unwilling to bring forth fresh ideas to jump-start the middle class.

These bills instead are bound to political pandering, rewarding of campaign donors and large corporations in advance of elections, instead of taking advantage of our precious few remaining days of session to address the real problems facing our Nation.

I am also dismayed that both of these bills are being reviewed under a closed rule here today. It was fairly recently here on the floor of the House that we celebrated the diamond jubilee of closed rules, 75 closed rules from the Republican Party. H.R. 2 and H.R. 4 are the 76th and 77th closed rules this Congress. Just before this Chamber breaks for a 6-week-long recess, the majority has shut down the process of regular order and not allowed Republicans or Democrats to offer our amendments to improve these bills.

Even though they are not bringing new legislation before us today, we should at least allow--at least allow--Democrats and Republicans to offer their ideas to make these bills better. What is the point in passing the exact same bills without even giving Members of this body the ability to make them better?

I offered two amendments in this bill, which I will speak about later, but, unfortunately, neither was made in order. Other Members of this body also offered great ideas to help improve this legislation, but none were allowed. Instead, we have a restricted rule which has shut out debate from Members on both sides of the aisle. If we can defeat this rule, we can move forward with an open process, encouraging and allowing amendments from both sides of the aisle.

We don't have the precious time left for political posturing. While we were talking here now, I got a text on my phone that votes are, in fact, canceled for tomorrow. I am not sure if my colleague is yet aware of that or if the Speaker is yet aware of that, but this, in fact, may be the last day that we are in session before the election.

And yet instead of dealing with immigration reform, there is a bill to pass of more than two-thirds. Instead of protecting LGBT Americans from being fired from their job just because of who they love or who they are, here we are today bringing forward bills that have already passed in different configurations, that would hurt the quality of life for American families, that would hurt the environment and hurt the health of the American people.

This compilation of bills in H.R. 2 is really an oil and gas industry wish list. Now, of course all of us support responsible energy development on Federal lands and private lands, make sure we balance production with our quality of life and our health. This bill, however, would prioritize development over all other uses of land and all other values that we hold as a country. This bill would also reduce important protections that we have in favor of speculative energy exploration and development.

Now is not the time to pass a massive corporate giveaway bill to the oil and gas industry, an industry that is already very profitable. They don't need more taxpayer subsidies just to add to their bottom line, especially not at the expense of our health, our environment, and the enjoyment of our public lands and our quality of life.

While there are many problematic provisions in the bill, several are particularly concerning. One provision in the bill would streamline pipeline approvals, so would even allow for the automatic approval of natural gas pipeline projects without any impact studies or opportunities for public comment.

This bill would also discourage environmental analysis, undermine agency decisions like curbing carbon pollution, and yet another provision would prevent the Federal Government from overseeing fracking activities on Federal lands, an issue near and dear to the hearts of my constituents in the State of Colorado.

It is particularly egregious that given that this bill has a wish list from the oil and gas industry, that somehow, for those of us who support an all-of-the-above energy approach, it left out the wind energy production tax credit.

The wind production tax credit is a solution that has allowed for rapid scaling of wind power over the past couple of decades. So why would we be doubling down with taxpayer subsidies for the oil and gas industry at the same time we are not even renewing the one important subsidy that wind energy has?

Now, I offered two different solutions for this, and I was hoping either one of them would have been a constructive way to approach this on the floor of the House. I offered an amendment with Mr. Perlmutter to simply extend the wind production tax credit for the next 2 years. Now, that would create jobs, encourage private investment, and allow wind energy to compete on a level playing field with the heavily subsidized oil and gas industry.

I also offered another solution--and I am certainly willing to support either--and that solution would be to eliminate the over $40 billion in taxpayer subsidies to the oil and gas industry. If we had gone that route, again, at least wind and solar energy would be able to compete on a level playing field because we would stop doling out our precious taxpayer dollars as subsidies to the legacy interests in the oil and gas industry.

That too was not allowed to even be debated, not for 10 minutes, not for 1 minute. Instead, apparently having Friday off was more important than allowing Democratic and Republican Members of this body to present their ideas on how to make a bad bill better.

H.R. 4, the Jobs for America Act, is a group of 15 bills that have also been previously passed by the House.

Many of them serve to attack our processes we have in place to keep American consumers safe. The bill empowers polluters, bogs down agencies that are charged with protecting the public health. None of them have become law, having already been passed, and I think all my colleagues here know that none of them will become law in this new and more sinister configuration.

Now, I would love to see a balanced tax extender package that lowers the Federal deficit, strengthens our economy, can actually pass the Senate and be signed into law, but I think we all know that is not the bill before us today.

H.R. 4 would actually add to the deficit by making tax cuts for many special interests permanent. A $574 billion deficit-busting bill on our last day of session, what a great lead-in to the general election for the Republicans to present a massive, Big Government spending, $574 billion subsidy bill for our consideration. I think the American people understand the contrast and the different approaches that are in play this year.

Now, an amendment I offered with Mr. Blumenauer, which I mentioned earlier, would have offset some of that cost by eliminating the oil and gas industry subsidies to the tune of $40 billion. Now, the bill still would have cost $534 billion, but it would have cost $40 billion less if we had eliminated the oil and gas subsidies. But, again, apparently having a Friday off is more important to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle than having a full and open debate of the merits or lack of merits of the proposal I advanced with Mr. Blumenauer.

In summary, I oppose the closed rule in addition to the underlying bills.

Now, we could have shown the American people that Congress could end on a positive note, that we could come together and address our broken immigration system, that we could come together to address our deficit; but instead, we are providing yet another example of why Congress continues to have record low approval ratings: rehashed, repackaged, partisan bills costing taxpayers $574 billion, enriching the special interests in corporations, and then going on vacation. And people wonder why the American people aren't thrilled with the United States Congress.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I thought it was worth a try here to reduce the deficit by over $200 billion, create several hundred thousand jobs for Americans, secure our border and restore the rule of law but, apparently, going on vacation on Friday is more important.

These are likely the last votes that this Chamber will take before the election. Unfortunately, rather than move forward on protecting our borders, rather than move forward on reducing our deficit, rather than move forward on so many of the important national priorities we have, we are simply taking up bills that have already passed, reconsidering them under new and more sinister forms, and sending them nowhere at no time.

These bills are not going to be law. They didn't become law last time. It is even harder for them to become law when they are packaged together in new and different ways. There is a word for this kind of legislative activity, and it isn't ``governing.'' It is called ``pandering.''

Rather than spinning our wheels, we should have taken up the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill. I was hoping that I could have gotten the permission under unanimous consent to bring that up. I am confident we have strong support from Democrats and Republicans in this body to pass that bill and to send it on into law.

Unfortunately, more than a year after the Senate has passed immigration reform, the House still refuses to even allow a vote on our bipartisan immigration reform bill that secures our borders and restores the rule of law, reduces our deficit, and creates jobs for Americans; instead, the only votes the House has taken this year on the entire topic of immigration have been to subject DREAMers--who grew up here and know no other country--to deportation and send immigrant children fleeing violence back to their countries, where they face possible persecution or death.

Rather than continuing to waste the American people's time and taxpayer money debating recycled measures over and over again, I wanted to give this body, through my unanimous consent request, one more opportunity to tackle an issue that will get larger and harder to deal with the longer we wait, and that is immigration.

If there are 10 million people here illegally today, Mr. Speaker, if this body continues to object to every motion we make to bring up a law that would secure our borders and restore the rule of law, there is likely to be 15 million people here illegally in 10 years. You can count on it.

This Nation deserves to have secure borders, we deserve to restore the rule of law, and we deserve to reflect our values as a Nation in our immigration system. I know we have the votes for this bill.

I urge my colleagues to change their plans for tomorrow and, instead, allow us to come back and pass immigration reform so that we can finally solve this issue, reduce our budget deficit, create jobs for Americans, secure our border, and end this Congress on a positive note, a positive note of moving forward on solving an issue that the American people are screaming out for a solution to rather than rehashing and repackaging special interest bills into new and more sinister forms.

Mr. Speaker, if we defeat the previous question, I will offer an amendment to the rule that will allow the House to consider six separate pieces of legislation that are true priorities for jump-starting the middle class: the Paycheck Fairness Act, the Fair Minimum Wage Act, the Bank on Students Emergency Loan Refinancing Act, the Healthy Families Act, the Strong Start for America's Children Act, and the Bring Jobs Home Act.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of my amendment in the Record, along with extraneous material, immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.

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