the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray, god of the universe we give you thanks for giving us another day. we ask your blessing upon those who have worked so hard these past few days to help bring our nation to a level of security. not all are completely satisfied

, but help us all to proceed graciously, remaining vigilant for those values held most dear while being just. in the days that come, help each member to understand well and interpret positively as they are able the positions of those with whom they disagree. grant to each the wisdom of solomon and to us all the faith and confidence to know that no matter how difficult things appear to be, you continue to walk with our nation as you have done for over two centuries. may all that is done today in this people's house be for your greater honor and glory. amen. the speaker pro tempore: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approved.

>> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? mr. wilson: pursuant to clause 1, rule 1, i demand a vote on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the journal stands approved. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and make a point of order a quorum is not present. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question are postponed. the yeas and nays are requested -- the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from michigan, mrs. miller. mrs. miller: please join me and face our flag. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 4 of house resolution 37 a 5, the legislative business is not dispensed with on this day. the chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from -- the gentlewoman from michigan rise? mrs. miller: unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. miller: mr. speaker, today the agreement that we will be voting on is another example of a historic pivot here in washington because never before in history has an increase in our nation's debt limit been tied to cuts in spending. no longer will the debate be about how much more the federal government going to spend. the debate now is how much spending is going to be cut. this legislation will require more than $2.1 trillion in federal spending cuts, puts in place very firm caps to hold

down future spending, both houses of congress must have an up or down vote on a balanced budget amendment. it does not impose any job-killing tax increases. it avoids a default on federal obligation that is would be disastrous to our economy, and it begins a process to put this nation on a path to prosperity. mr. speaker, we have so much more that still needs to be done, but this is further progress in turning the federal government towards fiscal sanity so that we can leave a better america for our children and grandchildren. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey rise? mr. holt: unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized. mr. holt: it seems whenever important decisions are made by a few people inside a room, inside the beltway ordinary folks are not only excluded from the room but seem to be excluded from the minds of the people.

i'm talking about ordinary folks working to keep their head above water. ordinary folks working to keep their mortgage. to keep their homes. retirees living on a fixed income. students hoping to have help in going to college. those who are working to improve people's health and our nation's energy supply. ordinary folks. what makes anyone think that a supercommittee of 12 people operating in a room inside the beltway in november is going to do a better job looking after the interests of ordinary folks? i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask permission to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, this weekend south carolina lost one of its greatest leaders. united states district judge matthew j. perry. judge perry symbolized courage

in leadership and was a telling figure during the civil rights movement of the 1950's through the 1970's. after having served in the u.s. army from 1944 to 1945, as a sergeant in the quarter master corps, judge perry graduated from south carolina state with a b.s. in business. he went on to graduate from law school in 1951. as a young attorney, judge perry established his credibility in south carolina by defending many of the students protesting segregation during sit-in's. in 1976 he was nominated by senator strom thurmond to u.s. military court of appeals in washington. in 1979, he was the first african-american to be appointed as the u.s. district judge for south carolina. he has been the recipient of the order of palmetto, the highest civilian honor of the state of south carolina. our nation has truly lost a legend who has made a difference for all the people of south carolina. in conclusion, god bless our troops. we will never forget september 11 and the global war on

terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon rise? mr. defazio: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. defazio: it's a little different than the reid bill we voted on saturday. it actually increases military spending $78 billion over the bill that we voted on on saturday. and it decreases domestic spending by $80 billion. and it doesn't end the wars unlike the reid bill we voted on saturday. it has one specified cut. student financial aid. that's the only cut specified. what kind of world do you people live in? and of course it doesn't ask a single thing of millionaires, billionaires, corporations that avoid taxes. doesn't close a single loophole. doesn't ask one millionaire or billionaire to go back to clinton era taxes. and it does does nothing about our most serious deficit in this country and that is a jobs

deficit. unless you really believe that tax loopholes, tax cuts, and cutting investment in aviation and surface transportation creates jobs on your planet, this bill creates none here today. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan rise? mr. garrett: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, we are in the midst of a crisis. it's not a crisis of telling ceiling. it's a crisis of debt, of washington spending too much not taxing or borrowing too little. the problem isn't the debt ceiling, it's the debt. mr. walberg: we can no longer continue our theft on our uncontrolled spending habits to our children and grandchildren. luckily the congress has made significant progress in the first six buckets bills in cutting real spending for this upcoming fiscal year. the house republicans have fundamentally changed the debate

in washington. we are no longer talking about job-killing tax increases. we are talking about spending cuts. and long-term spending reform. our goals from day one. mr. speaker, it's time for president obama and the senate democrats to join us in our efforts to control spending before time runs out. we must solve this crisis to encourage job creation and return america to its greatness. america's great people are ready. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from texas rise? ms. jackson lee: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. speaker. it really is about justice for all. the question becomes as we go into our conferences and caucuses, who will this help? will it help the small businesses who are the backbone of america? will it help the students who are now standing at the doors of colleges and seeing them slammed shut? will it help those in nursing homes who now because of drastic

cuts in medicaid will see their place of abode lost? will it help the hospitals who care for the sick because there is no medicare reimbursement or medicaid? we are going to be looking at this to see how it helps or hurts the american people. but i tell you who it helps. big businesses, are they going to now step in and create jobs because when we cut across the board public sector jobs will be cut all across america. it has always been the government that stoops and comes in to raise the american people up when there is a need. are we going to help the returning soldiers, 160-,000 plus who have ptsd? those who want to come into the workplace? will the corporate sector now stand up and be counted? my friends on the other side of the aisle, that's what i believe is justice for all. that's what i believe is bipartisanship on something that has already been done 100 times. the simple raising of the debt ceiling. now on the backs of those who cannot speak for themselves. i yield back.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania rise? >> i ask permission to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> instead of appealing to america's greatest aspirations, hopes and dreams, there are those who appealing to our basis character using fear and envy and greed to prey upon those who are supposed to lead. mr. murphy: we can no longer feed it with despair and all the while weakening the iron will of this nation and plummeting it into mediocrity. we must not attack and mock those who work hard. it is not a path to greatness but a road to mediocrity and servitude while people are encouraged not to reach for the stars but to grab what they can get from the government. those who prey upon the weak insult them twice. we have had enough of unemployment, of the weakening of our nation, the drama of hand wringing, the cowardness of blaming, finger-pointing and

infelix, insult to job creators and the ransom we pay to other nations such as energy, manufactured goods and the massive interest on our massive debt. mr. speaker, it's time for people using leaders as a dirty word. whether -- all work is good and noble and it's time we encourage it, not to criticize the work. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from the virgin islands rise? mrs. christensen: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. mrs. christensen: thank you, mr. speaker. today the senate will begin to debate on the debt ceiling agreement. it's being billed as a two separate approach to hold president obama accountable. to hold the president accountable or to redirect our economies to domestic manufacturing and to clean energy or to help education and health care? to hold the president accountable or to make it hardtory create jobs and to lower the unemployment rate, to hold our president accountable

or to use the forced caps to undermine the affordable care act? in saying there will be no cuts to medicare is a sham because it will reduce beneficiaries access to care. to reduce the discretionary spending since the eisenhower years, we must lose our leadership in the world. yes, we need to reduce our deficit. i didn't like the suggestion of all of the bush tax cuts expire when i first heard it. but as we end them now we could save $.5 trillion over the next 10 years, -- $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years. not a bad place to start. the speaker pro tempore: for what reason does the gentlewoman from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: i ask permission to address the house for one minute, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from north carolina is recognized for one minute. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. at the beginning of the debt ceiling debate, house republicans made it clear that if the president and

congressional democrats want us to pay their bills they were going to have to commit to cutting up the credit cards. the simple truth is that in just seven months house republicans have already changed a broken political system in washington to move away from, quote, how much we can spend, end quote, to focusing on how we can stop spending money we don't have. republicans have saved our children and grandchildren from national bankruptcy. voting to actually shrink the federal government that has done nothing but expand for 40 years. the cuts may be small relative to the size of the problem but the change in that direction is historic. for the first time in the history of modern federal budgeting, house republicans will cut discretionary federal spending for two straight years. president obama wanted a, quote, balanced approach, end quote, to solve our debt crisis. that means historic tax increasing on job creators. we don't need a balanced approach, mr. speaker. we need a balanced budget. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for

what purpose does the gentleman from mare rana islands rise? -- mariana islands rise? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. sablan: mr. speaker, i rise today to pay tribute to the many individuals who founded, developed, and -- in the american islands where the american jurisprudence was liberated in the island in 1944. the world war ii government established a two-tiered government of courts. the pacific islands judiciary was last a three-tiered court system. when the commonwealth was formed in 1978, a commonwealth trial court later renamed the commonwealth superior court was established. during this trial court's infancy, the federal district court for the northern mariana islands retained regional juries decks over local matters n 1989 the commonwealth superior court was created. finally, in 2004, the ninth

circuit was ended and those decisions are -- the history of our court system is colorful and unique as our islands and people. please join me in paying tribute to the many justices who have served our islands with distinction. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from wyoming rise? mrs. lummis: i rise to address the house for one minute. and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. mrs. lummis: i rise today to honor the life and career of one of the finest physicians and yes i have ever met, dr. robert mcguire, of cheyenne wyoming. dr. mcguire's career brought to his attention and to his care thousands of women in my state. and he made their lives better, including my own. through his skill, through his

patience, and attention to the people he was treating, he made the profession of medicine honorable and cherished by the people that he served so well. his career has ended so he may fight his own battles with cancer. i wish him the very best regards in his fight with cancer. i thank him for the difference he made in my life and thousands of women in my state of wyoming. i wish him godspeed, take care, dr. robert mcguire. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. our economy has seen incredibly weak economic growth over the last two quarters. mr. dold: just today we found

out that manufacturing is at its lowest level in the past two years. my district, the 10th district of illinois, is one of the largest manufacturing districts in our nation. and there is no doubt that families are struggling. i am optimistic that washington is finally coming together and finding common ground on this debt ceiling debate. we must, i emphasize, we must move forward. hardworking taxpayers have had enough and i get it. we must have spending discipline here in washington. no more budget tricks, no more accounting gimmicks, no more empty promises. american families have had to tighten their belt and they should expect that washington do the same. now it's time to move forward and focus on jobs. if we are serious about paying down the debt and increasing revenue, we must empower job creators. small businesses in our nation are overburdened by economic uncertainty, government regulations, and red tape. we need to implement commonsense solutions and create jobs and

get our economy moving again. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. culberson: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. culberson: the duty we perform today to cut and cap america's spending to put us on track to a balanced budget, passing a balanced budget amendment to the constitution are vitally important, but pail in comparison to the sacrifices and duties of our armed forces. our men and women in uniform. it's with profound sadness today that i join with the family and the friends and the neighbors of united states first army -- united states army first lieutenant castillo in mourning his loss on june 25, 2011. he was killed in fighting in afghanistan in support of operation enduring freedom. in 2004 it was my privilege to nominate him for an appointment as a cadet to the united states military academy in west point. upon his graduation he was

commissioned in the infantry where he sought out the army's toughest challenges immediately. he graduated from the demanding airborne ranger courses and past the test to get the infantryman badge. while conducting combat operations, he was tragically killed when his unit came under fire by enemy forces. for his heroic action that is day, dimitri was awarded posthumously the bronze star medal and purple heart. though we fourth down his loss, we immensely proud of his accomplishments. and we are immensely proud of the men and women who fight for us every day to take it possible to savor the freedom left to us by our founders. may god help his family. and may they find comfort in the nobility and valor of his deeds. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to

address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. we are in a historic heat wave in this country. i'm talking about the debate on the debt limit, i'm talking about the temperature outside. what's noted is that many leaders throughout this country whether local mayors or governors are saying, if you're poor, get to a cooling shelter. if you're -- stay inside. stay in the air conditioning. well, we are fortunate in this country to have low-cost power. low-cost power generated by coal. in rural illinois the average salaries the average bill is $121 a month. which means they pay about $1,500 a year for utility cost. however in france, they pay 20 cents per kilowatt hour. just think what the cost would be here if we had to double our electricity rates.

talk about how -- a burden on the poor and rural americans are when instead of $1,500 a year they would have to pay $3,000 a year just to seek relief from these hot winters. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from louisiana seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. mr. scalise: as we are dealing with the debate over the debt limit, one thing has become clear as people have followed over the last few weeks is that washington has a spending problem. regardless of the resolution of today's action in the house and senate, i hope nobody thinks that this is the end of this debate. frankly this is just the beginning of the debate to finally cut spending in washington and put real controls in place. i think as we look over the next few months we need to continue to push for a balanced budget amendment to our constitution. because ultimately that's the kind of accountability that we

need to ensure that we change the culture of spending in washington. clearly tax cuts will not solve this problem. they will only make matters worse, but if the problem is spending, why would you want to send even more money up to washington to let them spend more? we got to control spending. we got to start making cuts today. but we ultimately need that accountability that comes with a balanced budget amendment. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the chair will postpone further proceedings today on motions to suspend the rules on which a recorded vote or the yeas and nays are ordered. or on which the vote incurs objection under clause 6 of rule 20. recorded votes on postponed questions will be taken later. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition?

>> i move the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 398, a bill to amend the immigration nationaly act to toll, during active duty service abroad in the armed forces, the periods of time to file a petition and appear for the interview to remove the conditional basis for permanent resident status, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. cloup union calendar number 89, h.r. 398, a bill to amend the immigration and nationality act to toll, during active duty service abroad in the armed forces, the periods of time to file a petition and appear for an interview to remove the conditional basis for permanent resident status, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. and include extraneous materials

on h.r. 398 currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: mr. speaker, i support this bill which provides relief to military service members serving overseas who marry foreign spouses. our nation's military should not have to worry about red tape while they are abroad protecting our freedoms. when a u.s. citizen or permanent resident maris a foreign spouse, that spouse becomes a conditional permanent resident. after two years, the couple files a petition with the department of homeland security for the removal of the conditional status. if the petition is successful, the immigrant becomes a permanent resident. the petition generally must be filed before the second anniversary of the spouses becoming a conditional permanent resident. upon the filing of the petition, d.h.s. interviews the couple to determine whether there was any marriage fraud. the interview must be conducted

unless d.h.s. waives the deadline for the interview or retirement for the interview. this timetable is reasonable in normal circumstances, however what happens when the u.s. citizen or permanent resident spouse is serving overseas and active duty status in the armed forces? it would certainly be a disruption to the military to have a member of the armed forces deployed overseas travel for a personal interview with d.h.s. our military's focus should be on defending freedom not bureaucracy. while it is true that d.h.s. can choose to delay this process in appropriate circumstances, this bill's provision should be standard policy while the spouse is serving abroad. of course the petition and interview would still take place when the spouse is no longer on active duty. this bill is good for our military and i urge my colleagues to support it. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman is recognized. ms. lofgren: i yield myself such time as i may consume. as the author of h.r. 398 i support this bill. it's a small measure to help

support members of our armed forces who are serving overseas. and their families here at home. our troops who take up our country's call to service and volunteer to place themselves in harm's way face uncertainties every day. for countless soldiers, the peace of mind that they get from family back home helps to keep them focused on the important job at hand. for that reason it is critical that we not add to their burdens and instead seize the opportunity to alleviate even the small amount of the anxiety they feel. as the chairman has indicated, there is a conditionality placed on residents gained through marriage. couples are given a 90-day grace period just before the second anniversary of the grant to file to remove the conditions, and then they get only 90 days to appear in person for an interview. now, only after this is done are the conditions removed. and if the conditions -- conditional status is not

removed in this way, the rest dense is terminated and the foreign national spouse could be deported. that means that either spouse and one of our soldiers could be deported or the soldier himself could be deported. it's pretty hard-to-a pier for the interview -- hard to appear for an interview if you are serving in iraq and we certainly don't want our soldiers or spouses to be deported. i support this measure. in 2008 as chairwoman of the house immigration subcommittee i convened a hearing on the immigration needs of america's fighting men and women. at the hearing we heard from members of the armed forces about countless challenges that they face because of our ridged and unyielding immigration system. . i

commend my colleagues, lamar smith, elton gallegly, and john conyers for joining the -- joining me in this bill. this bill may be small but it is important for the few dozen soldiers it will help each year. i urge my colleagues to support the bill.

unless the chairman has additional speakers, i'm prepared to yield back. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 398? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative, the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask for the yeas and nays on that bill. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek

recognition? mr. smith: i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1933 as amended, a bill to amend the immigration nationality act to modify the requirements for admission of nonimmigrant nurses in health professional shortage areas. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 99, a bill to amend the immigration and nationality act to modify requirements for admission of nonimmigrant nurses in health professional shortage areas. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the ewell, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentlewoman from california, ms. lofgren, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five ledge slave it -- legislative tais to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 1233 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: i yield myself such time as i may consume.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: i offer this legislation on maff of myself and representatives way car, hinojosa, roskam, and rush. a numb of american hospitals have great difficulty attracting nurses. these include hospitals that serve mostly poor patients in inner city neighborhoods and some hospitals in rural areas. for example, st. bernard hospital in chicago is the only remaining hospital in the area of over 100,000 people and almost all of its patients live in poverty. st. bernard almost closed its doors in 1992, primarily pause of its inability to attract registered nurses. congress passed the nursing relief for disadvantaged areas act to help hospitals like st. bernard. it created a new temporary registered nurse visa program with 500 visas each year that allowed nurses to stay for tee years.

to petition for a foreign nurse, an plofere had to meet four conditions. it had to be located in a health professional authorityage area, have at least 190 acute care beds and a certain employer of the patients had to be medicare patients and fourth a certain percentage had to be medicaid patients. the h1c program adopted the measures contained in the measure. the hospital has to afree to take timely and significant steps to recruit american nurses and they had to pay the prevailing wage. the h1c program contained requirements such as that foreign nurses couldn't comprise more than 1/3 of the hospital's registered nurses. it was extended in 2006 but expired in december of 2009 though many nurses remain on three-year visas issued before that date. sister elizabeth van straten,

of st. bernard hospital, spoke to me and said because of the sunset nurses are forced to leave our institution and the rate of loss continues to increase this loss cannot be sustained. as the only hospital serving one of the most difficult sections of chicago and perhaps the entire country, we need to extension of the video is a program to survive, end quote. i introduced h.r. 1933 to help st. bernard and other similar hospitals. the bill re-authorized the program for another three years. the numb of video is as that may be issued cannot exceed 300. an alien may be admitted for three years and their stay may extended once for an adecisional three years. it ensures continued care for patients in inner city and rural communities. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation an i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from -- the gentlewoman from california is

recognized. ms. lofgren: i yield myself such time as i may consume. i won't repeat what mr. smith said, i will simply say it was created in 1999 to address shortages in rural and inner city hospitals. the 500 visas for year only go to 14 hospitals in the united states, spread out across america. of course the program has now expired. as chairman smith has indicated, this bill would re-authorize but recuse the number from 500 to 300, create certain other protections as mentioned by the chairman, and allow the maximum stay to go to six years. because the bill would double the duration of h1c status i offered an amendment in committee, accepted by all to make the visas portable among the 14 hospitals authorized to employ h1c nurses. right now they're entirely

dependent on their employers to provide their immigration status. this would level the playing field and allow a nurse to switch employers if there was a problem. i thank the chairman for introducing this bill and working with me to ensure that the nurses are better protected against exploitive situation. i urge my colleagues to support the bill. unless there are additional speakers, i would be happy to yield back. then i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. smith: i have no other requests by anyone who wishes to speak on the bill, so i yield back the balance of my time as well. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1933 as ameppeded. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 being in the affirmative. mr. smith: i request the yeas and nays on that bill. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and yeas are requested.

those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. smith: i move that the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2480rk the administrative conference of 2011 as amended. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 100, h.r. 2480, a bill to amend title 5 united states code to authorize appropriationers in administrative conference of the united states for fiscal years 2012, 2013, and 2014 and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, and the gentleman from tennessee, mr. cohen each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. mr. smith: i ask unanimous

consent that all members have five lennell slative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.r. 2480 as amended, currently under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. smith: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. smith: i offer this bill on behalf of myself, the gentleman from north carolina, and on behalf of the gentleman from tennessee, mr. cohen. lately the need to reform administrative law has become urgent. every day the promised economic recovery seems like amy raj. our top priority should be to create jobs. protecting job creators from regulation burdens will help create jobs resm deucing this burden will hasten our economic recovery. the administrative conference of the united states is a small but important institution.

it is a narrowly focused, nonpartisan body that offers an outstanding form to -- forum to reform law. this is the heart of the conference's historical mission. they've saved taxpayers tens of millions of dollar. the social security administration saved $85 million to -- by adopting a rule to skip an unnecessary step. the federal deposit insurance corporation saved more than $9 million in the first 18 months of a pite pilot ram implementing a reck meppedation to make better use of resolution. they are encouraged to expand use of video hearings. -- they have saved $59 million by doing more hearings by video conference this recommendation

has the potential to save millions more across the federal government. due to a lack of funding they are conference went dormant in 1996. it was revived in the 111th congress and i'm glad that once again it is able to contribute to administrative law reform. the conference is uniquely positioned to generate much savings for very little cost. recommendations for the conference save taxpayer tchar pis helping agencies work more effectively. the conference also helps agencies adopt better and less burdensome regulations to reduce that $1.7 trillion regulatory burden on the economy. additionally the subcommittee on commercial and administrative loss 2006 interim report contains numerous suggested reforms that a.c.s. could exsm. during these difficult economic times, every has to tighten their belts, including federal agencies. if american families had to make tough economic choices, so

should congress. the am authorized by this bill, $2.9 bhl annually for the next three fiscal years was a bipartisan compromise. it reduces the conference authorization level by almost 10% while enabling the conference to perform its most have it call work. the conference has -- the conference's past successes raised the prospect for a high return on the taxpayers' investment. it is a reasonable authorization level in light of the current need to reduce federal spending and i recommend it to my colleagues and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from tennessee is recognized. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cohen: it's been a pleasure working with mr. smith who yields the time, never as much as i may consume, but queeled the time which i appreciate. we worked in a bipartisan way

on this, which i appreciate. each year agencies issue regulations to ensure the food reeat, the air we breathe, the cars we drive are safe. though regulations play a critical role in virtually every aspect of the -- of our daily lives there's only one nonpartisan federal entity that congress can rely on to ensure that they work as intened. the administrative conference of the united states, known as acus, that's the critical entity we have. first established by president john fitzgerald kennedy, it's a nonpartisan, public-private resource that provides guidance to congress about how to improve processes. they are charged with making recommendations for the improvement of agencies and their procedures, particularly with respect to efficiency and fairness. they've helped agencies implement many cost-saving procedures.

just within agency alone, the social security administration, estimates that the conference's recommendations to change that agency's appeal possess yielded $85 million in savings. another recommendation, namely that they use alternative dispute resolution methods resulted in more than $100 million in savings government-wide. several other acus recommendations have increased the efficiency by eliminating duplicative hearings, thereby also resulting in cost savings in the millions of dollars. what is truly is a -- truly a rare and historic example of agreement, supreme court justices steve breyer and antonin scalia have testified before the committee and i've enjoyed both of their comments and friendship. justice briar -- the justices

agreed that acus is an enormous bargain. they can help agencies even more become efficient and effective especially given the present bunnell tear constraints. as reported by the judiciary committee, the re-authorization act of 2011 authorized $2.9 million to be appointed to the conference. with this modest re-authorization, we ensure the conference will continue to return to the taxpayers many multiples of that investment. h.r. 2480 reflects a long history of bipartisan support for acus. once again, i thank the chairman of the committee, llama smith a gentleman and scholar, and howard coble a gentleman and a scholar as well, for working with me on this legislation. i look forward to continuing to work with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to secure final passage of h.r. 2480.

accordingly, i urge my colleagues to support the legislation and i reserve the balance of my time. . soap the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. smith: i have no other questions for time. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back. the gentleman from tennessee is recognized. mr. cohen: i yield back as well. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2480 as amended. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. mr. smith: i ask for the yeas and nays on this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. all those in favor of taking this vote by the yeas and nays will rise and remain standing until counted. a a sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed.

for what purpose does the the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i move that the house suspend the rules and pass the bill h.r. 2715. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 2715, a bill to provide the consumer product safety commission with greater authority and discretion and enforcing the consumer product safety laws, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from california, mrs. bono mack, and the gentleman from north carolina, mr. butterfield, each will control 20 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from california. mrs. bono mack: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on this legislation and to insert extraneous material on the bill. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mrs. bono mack: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. bono mack: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today in support of h.r. 2715, a bill that modifies the consumer product safety

improvement act of 2008, also and provides relief to address a number of unintended consequences that arose after it became law. this bill is a win-win. it's good for american consumers and american businesses as well. it is also a bipartisan bill and i want to thank energy and commerce committee chairman upton as well as ranking member waxman and my counterpart, mr. butterfield, for all of their hard work in getting this important bill to the floor today. we passed it almost unanimously in 2008 and many of its features had advanced the cause of children safety. but there also have been unintended consequences for many businesses, small and large alike. for three years now we have heard the pleas of these businesses asking for relief from the mandates. we have also heard from the cpsc it lacks the authority and flexibility to grant relief where needed. on august 14, the last deadline looms, the final drop down to 0.01% lead content limit.

without swift action we face empty store shelves that have been cleared of perfectly safe products because of what i believe was simply a drafting oversight. the bill makes the august 14 limit prospective in nature permitting retailers to sell their existing inventory so long as it was made prior to august 14 and is compliant with the current lead limit of .03% which was specifically approved by congress for the last two years. in a true spirit of bipartisanship, ranking members waxman and butterfield, agreed to act swiftly to address this situation. while we don't necessarily agree on the best way to address all of the unintended consequences, we moved the bill in response to the enormous threat facing stakeholders in the children's product industry in just less than two weeks. in addition to addressing the immediate deadlines, this bill goes a little farther to address the pain so many of our constituents are facing. a.t.f., blikes, books, things never intended to be covered by the law but were ensnared by the

wide reach will no longer face an uncertain future and exempted from testing requirements. these products were also banned for sale as a result of the 2008 law. thrift stores and retail outlets such as good will industries and even the local church bazaar's were forced to toss anything made for a child under the age of 12 because it is impossible to tell whether an item was made in compliance with the law without original packaging or dated sales receipt. as a result the law essentially made all used children's products contraband. this wasteful result removed perfectly safe products from the reach of individuals to rely on the value and savings such stores provide in order to provide decent clothing for their children. manufacturers of other products will also see relief from the most costly mandate. third party testing and continuing compliance testing. this bill directs cpsc to seek comments within 60 days on how the current third party testing regime can be altered to reduce

costs. small batch manufacturers among the hardest hit will also find relief. these manufacturers are generally stay at home moms with a entrepreneurial spirit or mom and pop retail outlets that handpick unique toys and other ice thames for sale. they got into business because they wanted to ensure their own children had safe toys. almost universally the small businesses have either closed shop or are on the verge of closing shop because the onerous requirements and the costs imposed. the bill directs the consumer product safety commission to address the special situation of these businesses by finding alternative, more affordable testing methods or by exempting these businesses from testing altogether if no other alternative exists. it creates a functional purpose exception process we hope will give the cpsc more possibility to exempt products where there is no health risk. the exemption process created in

the original has failed to admit any exception for any product from the statutory lead limits even in cases where the cpsc determined such products posed no risk to children. we have a narrow window of opportunity to address those mandates that threaten the survival of scores of businesses and the livelihoods of individuals and families whose businesses support and i'd like to thank the ranking member of the subcommittee, mr. butterfield, as well as ranking member of the energy and commerce committee, mr. waxman, as well as their staff for working throughout the weekend to find a compromise we both can support. i urge my colleagues to support this bill and i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from north carolina is recognized. mr. butterfield: thank you, mr. speaker. i i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. butterfield: mr. speaker, i rise today in strong support of this very important bill. almost three years ago president

bush signed h.r. 40e40, the consumer product safety improvement act into law. while that bill passed this house by a vote of 424-1, it soon became evident to all of us that providing some of the extraordinary protections for children in that bill would be a challenge for some businesses, especially our smallest manufacturers. many of them testified before our subcommittee and we heard their concerns. so i have worked very closely with chairman bono mack in crafting this compromise to provide targeted and sensible relief for businesses from some of the requirements without sacrificing the health and safety of our children. i am pleased that we are able to present it to the house today for immediate consideration. the bill is a marked change from where we started with h.r. 1939. and i am pleased with the bipartisan changes reflected in

today's bill. businesses are provided with relief through prospective application of the 100 parts per million lead content limits. that means, mr. speaker, businesses won't have to pull product from store shelves that meet the current legal limit of 300 parts per mill on the effective date of the 100 parts per million limit. we also include an exemption for offroad vehicles like a.t.v.'s, snowmobiles, and dirt bikes from meeting the lead content limit. the safety of our young people is paramount when designing and building offroad vehicles. and constructing strong ridged parts for these vehicles often requires more lead than would otherswise be allowed. further the bill codifies a stay of enforcement by the cpsc with respect to the lead content limit of bicycles until december

31, 2011, and relaxes the ultimate lead content of bicycles to 300 parts per million. this bill, mr. speaker, provides significant relief for small batch manufacturers. i have a tremendous amount of respect for america's small businesses and believe we must do all we can to protect them from overly burdensome regulations. at the same time, though, we have an obligation to protect america's children from potentially dangerous products. the only way to know if those products are safe is to test them. taking the unique circumstances of small batch manufacturers, the bill requires cpsc, the consumer product safety commission, to consider potential economic and administrative burdens to small batch manufacturers when developing third party testing requirements. it further permits the cpsc to provide alternative testing requirements after notice and a

hearing, if the commission determines there is no economically practicable alternative, they can exempt the product from third party testing all together. i am pleased that this bill provides specific relief from testing for ordinary books and magazines. our colleague, mr. towns from new york, has been concerned about ordinary books becoming an unintended consequence of the consumer product safety improvement act. manufacturers of ordinary books and magazines should not be subject to third party testing. still subject to testing will be books that have plastic parts like pop-up books. those with nonpaper based accessories, or anything else that has inherent play value. i strongly support the consumer product safety information data base created by h.r. 4040, and that has been somewhat

controversial. but i support the data base creation. -- it went live earlier this year and has been extremely successful in helping to educate the public about potentially unsafe products. this bill takes some sensible steps to make the data base even more effective. the bill requires the commission, the consumer product safety commission, to seek out more information about the products reported by consumers to the data base. like the product serial number, model number, or photograph of the product in question. i think the more information that is provided, the better and more effective the data base will be for consumers and businesses alike. mr. speaker, as i said earlier i support this bill, i believe that it provides a strong compromise that will reduce burdens on businesses and continue to protect american consumers. again i want to thank our distinguished chairman of the

subcommittee, chairman bono mack, for working with me in a bipartisan fashion to find solutions, commonsense, practical solutions for the american people. i thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the chairman of the subcommittee, the chairman of the full committee, the ranking member of the full committee, all of the stakeholders who had a part in crafting this compromise. with that said, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentlewoman from california is recognized. mrs. bono mack: i yield three minutes to the gentleman from montana, mr. rehberg. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. rehberg: thank you. thank you, madam chairman, for your fine work on this piece of legislation, that is truly overdue. the difficulty we had, a piece of legislation went through this congress with all the right things atatched. we wanted to address lead in children's toys.

true to washington, d.c., form, the bureaucrats carried it to the extent that no longer made any kind of common sense. when it came time for the regulations to be crafted, i started receiving phone calls from my motorized vehicle dealers around the state of montana. those that sold youth motorcycles and a.t.v.'s, being told they had to take them out of their showroom, eat the inventory and no longer sell their parts for repair. why? because there was lead. i don't know if anyone in america allows their children to chew on battery cables and valve stems. but they were determined to be toys. we allow our children in montana to be trained on

smaller units to herd livestock because we don't want them on larger vehicles. try as we might to get the administration to change regulations, they would not do that. today we are dealing with h.r. 2715. it deals with an important issue. kids just want to ride, whether it's a snowmobile, a four-wheeleren or a.t.v., for the specific purpose not just of recreation but in a work setting as well. because we could not make this change, we had to do it legislatively. we were successful in putting riders every year that no money could be spent on this piece of legislation. we will no longer have to do that with the passage of this bill. with a great deal of appreciation, i say to mrs. bono mack, thank you for bringing this piece of legislation forward, thank you to the minority for your kind support as well for helping

move this forward. ultimately we can make the right common sense decision, to remove this aspect of this onerous regulation so once a kid, again -- so once again, children can ride the right vehicles instead of being on the larger four-wheel units, larger snowmobiles and larger motorcycles. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from south carolina. mr. butterfield: i thank the gentleman for working with us, i hope he is satisfied with the a.t.v. component. at this time, i yield such time as he may consume to mr. waxman of california. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. waxman: i rise in support of this bipartisan bill to amend the consumer product safety improvement act of 2008. the 2008 act was a historic

piece of legislation, both because of the landmark health and safety protections in that bill for young children and because of the near unanimous support for that legislation from democrats and republicans. and it has been a success. because of the consumer product safety act, we now have replaced basic safety standards for keeping toxic lead an pthalates out of children's products. new safety standards for cribs, retailers and others have begun testing products before they are on the store shelves. the consumer product safety commission after rears of atrot -- atrophy has become reinvigorated and pk proactive rather than reactive. as a result we've seen a the cline in the number of children's products that have to be pulled from homes an

store shelves. the agency is intercepting more dangerous products at the border. finally, the merp public has, since march, had access to considerable product safety information in a tai ta base that they can review -- in a database that they can review. consumers now have free and open access to information that for too long remained hidden inside the cpsc. but like any law, the 2008 act had some rough edges that needed to be smoothed out. for example, there are some products that require a small amount of lead to maintain their strength and durability and don't pose a serious threat to public health or safety. a.t.v.'s and bicycles are examples of these. some businesses express concern that they could find themselves with inventory that meets current legal limit of 300 part pers million that can no longer be sold when the limb drops to

100 parts per million on august 14, just two weeks away. the smallest of small businesses are worried that they can't bear the cost of complying with these rirments in the way that larger businesses can. this bill addresses these concerns without jeopardizing our children's safety. it's a compromise bill in the best sense. some members on the other side wanted bigger changes to the 2000 act and some members on our side did not believe every provision in this bill is needed but thanks to the hard work of my colleagues, mrs. bono mack, mr. butterfield, mr. barton and mr. dingell and the leadership of chairman upton, we have arrived at a bill we can support and urge my colleagues to join in supporting as well. i think we have struck the right balance. we fixed valid problems and keep in place health and safety protections for children. that's been my primary goal

throughout this process. it was a long road to get to this place and after many hours and many months of tough negotiating, what we have sheer a compromise that ebit pith mieses bipartisanship. neither side got everything it wanted but both sides gave up enough that we were able to come up with something that was sensible and reasonable and that we can move quickly through this body. i hope the senate sees it that way and can move quickly on this bill. we share the belief that american businesses should be able to grow and flourish. i also think we all share the belief that consumers, especially children, deserve safe products. again, i commend chairman bono mack and chairman upton for their willingness to hear us out and work with us. i thank mr. butterfield for fighting for a balanced approach that keeps small and large businesses competitive and continues to keep our children safe from potentially

dangerous products. i also want to thank the other members of the energy and commerce committee that have been active and helped us to get to today, including mr. dingell, mr. rush, ms. schakowsky, mr. markey, ms. degette and ms. eshoo. i want to yield back the time to -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady is reck noozed. ms. boe -- is recognized. mrs. bono mack: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from south carolina. mr. butterfield: we have no further speakers, i'm prepared to close. again, mr. speaker, i want to thank all the individuals, all the members and staff who have played a part in crafting this compromise. it's a good, bipartisan compromise we can all live with. i look forward to the president signing it into law after the senate passes it, hope any very soon, and hopefully our small businesses will be able to continue to be profitable.

with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from california is recognized. mrs. bono mack: i was to echo the sentiments of both of my colleagues who just spoke about the importance of the bill and thank them for their cooperation and the hard work they put into this, over the weekend and again i'd like to thank the staff of both the minority and majority side. i have no further requests for time so i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the yom yields back. the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2715? those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, 2/3 -- mrs. bono mack: i ask for a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentlewoman ask for the yeas and nays. mrs. bono mack: i request the yeas and nays -- the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those in support of a vote by

the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 6 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. pursuant to clause 12a of rule 1rk the house will stand in recess subject to the call of

>> the house rules committee will be taking up the measure. we will have live coverage on not on c-span3. harry reid indicated he hoped the senate would vote today. we could see a house vote this afternoon or tonight. we will be keeping track of this during the day. let's bring you up-to-date on the legislation. the agreement calls for an initial cut of about $1 trillion in spending. the super committee would then work out the second half of about $1.5 trillion. the congressional budget office came out saying this plan would save $2.3 trillion over the next decade. politco has an article on line.

glen is joining this from the vantage point of the white house. are you with us? >> i am now. >> bring us up to speed. j kearney indicated the legislation was messy at times. is the white house satisfied? >> satisfied with the hard way to describe this. this is like the garbage truck leaving the block instead of the train leaving the station. they got the deal extends beyond the 2012 campaign, but they are facing significant backlash from the liberal base. nancy pelosi will have to deliver votes for this. she just came out of her caucus and said she had reservations about the bill. >> there are a number of

headlines calling this a satan sandwich yesterday. >> just as interesting was a member of the progressive caucus who said this was a crossroads for the democratic party. this is a crossroads for the republican party. this virtually assures some level of internal reforms and cut its trade they felt the president sold them out. there is an argument of moveon organizing against the president. the administration has told us he will hit the road to support this. he will have to work to shore up his base. >> we heard the vice president was wrapping up his meeting early with the house democratic

caucus. he met with senate democrats earlier. do you read anything into that? >> when these meetings are short, it tends to be a bad thing. we're hearing positive things out of the senate. the house is a muddied situation. there is this indirect negotiant that occurs between the majorityies. i think john boehner would like to give his members the opportunity to vote no if they choose. it would take more democratic votes. this is like the final level of chess. hoyer said he expected john boehner to come up with at least 150 republican votes. he would have to come up with about 60 or 70 for this to pass. reports thating

may be the case. the republicans could deliver a significant portion of their congress. if we're down to single digits, that may not work out the way congressman hoyer thinks. if the pressure is put on his diplomac and -- nancy pelosi and hoyer, they will have to deliver the votes. there is a sense that if the president pursues his political objectives triangulating against them to get independents. there is a sense that the president is pursuing his own political objectives to moderate

his stance at the expense of his base and it will ill-serve democrats in their attempt to take back the senate. we're told people are still going through the final elements of the deal. if the house and senate cannot hit the timelines, there will have to be some accommodation through the treasury or short- term extension of the deal. one cannot understand -- underestimate the logistical complexity of this. >> vice president biden is behind closed doors. we did get word the meeting may be ending a few minutes early. this is outside with members of the house democratic caucus. we will monitor that. if we hear from the vice president, we will get that to you.

what about mitch mcconnell and john boehner? >> judging from commons, i think there is a general acceptance among the senate minority that they will go along with this. this deal clearly it tilts toward the republicans. they have achieved a lot of their objectives. they've gone beyond a lot of objectives the senate republicans have. in the house, it is a different deal. judging from the presentation speaker boehner gave last night, the notion is that we have gotten as much as we can and have done better than we could have. this is the deal we need to accept. the quest in is whether the tea party members -- the question is

whether the tea party members will go a long war be a big problem. >> what can you expect? it appears the house will take it up first. there could be a senate vote tonight or tomorrow. >> we are told there is the possibility of a house vote by 6:00 this evening. every vote in the house has been delayed by hours or more. we're getting towards the end game. revisions are not fundamentally an option. less can be done. it is factored into the markets that this will happen today. i think you can expect the senate to move swiftly. we're talking about some of support in the 70 range.

>> glenn thrush is following this for a politico and his articles can be found on line. you indicated the president will try to sell this. will we hear from him during the week? >> he has a campaign appearance in chicago on wednesday. he put out a web video through his campaign manager today explaining how this was the best deal he could accomplish. he really has to make that point. democrat dissatisfaction is great. the larger issue is that i have never seen an instance of such disgust with washington. the president ran against washington in 2008. he has to make the casey is a force for positive change in this town.

-- the case that he is a force for positive change in this town. everyone with a hand in this message has got to find a way to clean themselves up. -- everyone with a hand in this mess has got to find a way to clean themselves appeared courthouse will be coming back within an hour. there are three suspension bills on the agenda for the house of senator harry reid was briefing reporters on the latest. >> and that none of you have been standing for two hours. -- i bet that none of you have been standing for two hours. we had a good conversation in the caucus. there was some enthusiasm for the legislation. some were not so enthusiastic. generally speaking, people realize the situation we're in

and the alternative. this legislation is typical for compromise legislation. neither side got what they wanted, but it is the essence of compromise. i am told the house will be voting this evening. i am going to see if we can vote today. we're working on that. it would be nice to get this bill from the house and start the process. there are ways we can work simultaneously. i hope to work that out. in the senate, it takes unanimous consent. i will do all i can to see if i can get that. we need to send this to president obama as soon as we can. it has been a long process. i am confident we did the right thing for the american people. the solution cuts the deficit now and lays the groundwork for congress to do much better work

in the months ahead. it clears the way for us to look up at the bright sunshine and get rid of the clouds of defaults that have been hanging over the country too long. our work is far from done. i am confident we can get this done quickly now. we still have to do things. many people are struggling for essentials like jobs. we have to move to a jobs agenda as quickly as possible. we need to put the debate behind us and put americans back to work. if there's ais need for comprehensive deficit- reduction. the answer is hell yes.

we have made a step forward. that is good. the joint committee was my proposal. i am glad senator mcconnell has put his arms around it. i hope we get something done. cantorust told that rep said revenue could be part of what we do with the joint committee. the deficit is still a problem and will be for the long term. in the last congress, we found ourselves in a hole never seen before. we lost 8 million jobs with the bush administration. president clinton created 23 million jobs. we had a surplus when he took

office of $7 trillion over three years. because of the wars in iraq and afghanistan and other programs, we're now $14 trillion. we have to do more on deficit reduction. >> there has been some concern -- do you have ideas on what you like to see and your timeline? >> senator mcconnell and i have talked briefly. i will be interested to see what ideas he has. i will make the decision at a subsequent time. i have two weeks to do it after the bill is passed. it is important that i pick people willing to make purchases -- hard choices that are not locked in.

it does not bode well for me to choose someone who the world knows how they feel about it before we go into it. i think we need to look at other avenues. i will do my best to pick three people who will work towards a solution of the long-term debt of our country. that should have no bearing. people could vote against this bill and think the joint committee is still a good idea. i am a longtime member of congress. i never count my votes until they are cast. i am hopeful. we will have to see. republicans will have to produce votes. we will have to produce votes. i am not here to declare victory. we have to get this passed.

people who were part of previous commissions or gangs should not be part of this? >> i was referring to people who said the committee was a waste of time and nothing will happen. we have to go into this with people with their eyes wide open and willing to make difficult choices to understand the political reality of the world we're in. i think that is enough. i feel like i am 25, but i am not. [laughter] >> that was a brief statement and a couple questions from harry reid with in the last half-hour. sheila jackson lee was briefing reporters after meeting with vice president joe biden. >> they work against storms and

natural disasters. we will have to make a decision about how we go forward. when we present ourselves as democrats, we have to say that we won this. the american people need to know what was on the table. cutting medicare, social security, and medicaid. throwing students at colleges because pell grants were not protected. the president was in the negotiating room more than anyone else. he had to maintain and battleground form -- a battleground form that said over my dead body will you do this. he had to stand his ground. it was medicare cuts in the form of reform. none of us knew what that would be. all this talk about the idea we needed to get rid of waste,

fraud, and abuse. i would not jump to conclusions that those are cuts. i am nostill reading the propos. it is too early to say how they might vote if they want to be thoughtful about it. i know some members have already characterized their vote and i respect them for that. >> those were the comments of sheila jackson lee, a democrat from texas, after meeting with -- vice president joseph biden. she was referring to one part of the legislation from the congressional budget office that analyzed this piece of legislation. it says a total of $2.3 trillion over the next decade is making

changes to pell grant and student loan programs. the legislation also establishes caps on discretionary spending through 2021. it creates the joint committee on deficit reduction for coming up with a stated goal of budgetary savings over the next decade and establishing automatic procedures or triggers to reduce spending by as much as $1.2 trillion if the legislation does not achieve those stated savings. we have the line for democrats, independents.d, and

the cbo is verifying it would cut the budget by $one. two trillion. a vote could come this evening. that would be followed by a senate vote that could come later tonight or tomorrow. let's begin with a caller from rock springs, wyoming. mary is on the phone. we will try one more time. >> hello. want to do taxes. >> we will go to ginny next in north carolina. go ahead. thoughts about the debt agreement worked out late yesterday? >> i have read some disturbing news a few minutes ago online.

after 26 weeks, it will cut all unemployment. is that true? >> that is not true. if you want to read the legislation, it is available on our website at c-span.org. there is $1 trillion in initial spending cuts. i have not heard that as part of the overall package. the house rules committee met briefly after 1:00 in the recessed. that is the path necessary to get the bill to the house floor. it is not clear when the house will vote. the vote is possible tonight. ben joins us from georgia. >> i am an avid watcher of c- span and love what you do. i think obama moved to the right on the compromise. i am really proud of what he was able to accomplish.

>> tracy is on the republican line. go ahead. >> i am glad something is finally getting done. we did not send these new people down there to obstruct getting something done. we sent them to get something done. i hope something gets done today. if it is filibustered, i think they should make them do it and not just go on the threat of it. >> the next call is on the line for democrats. what is your reaction? are you with us? >> i feel like it is a good package. it is good we're making progress towards reducing the deficit. >> the house is likely to come back in the next 15 minutes or so. here is what happened about 20

minutes ago in the house rules committee. >> the rules committee will come to order. we are here for consideration of s365. at the outset aboutouse se why the chaplain is here.

>> it is because we are not standing in the need of. . >> it was a moving. the chaplain delivered at noon today on the floor of the house. i received a telephone call about 3:30 this morning from mr. halperin. the beginning of his prayer was to express appreciation to all those who have worked hard on this. he very nicely asked if i would like a copy. i said not only would i like a copy, i would like him to describe it to mr. halperin. has been working on it all night. the chaplain is here. i think we should give him a round of applause. [applause] >> does that include miles? he worked hard. >> i do not know what he did.

>> let's hear it for miles. [applause] >> let me just express appreciation. i am glad you did not call me at 3:45 after he called me at 3:30. i went back to sleep. i do appreciate all the effort that has gone into this by lots and lots of people. today we are considering s365. this will be the vehicle for the budget control act has agreed to buy speaker boehner, senator reid, and the leadership of the senate and white house. we're facing a critical junction for our nation and economy. with midnight tomorrow looming, it is important that we act. the measure was placed on line by mr. hopper and at 1:45 this morning on our website. we would have all preferred to have had this document sets out longer.

it is important to react to them. this is an amendment. we're not waiving the three-day layover requirement in the rule that we have. the bill is largely similar to the measure that passed last week. it gives the president a mechanism for raising the debt limit. it gives us meaningful spending caps in the short term. it provides a mechanism for considering important changes to end her life programs -- entitlement programs and provides for a vote on the balanced budget amendment. no one is happy with everything. but it does give us the path forward to raise the debt ceiling. i think everyone agrees that needs to be done. it also does something critically important. we're changing the trajectory we have been on for a long time. we're working hard to rein in

the size and scope of government. it is gratifying to hear the president and the democrats, and republicans talk about the need for us to do that. the chair will be in receipt of a motion. >> i am moving the committee make a technical amendment to the education and sciences reform act of 2002. the rule provides one hour of debate. the committee on rules it's 15 minutes and 15 minutes equally divided and shared by the chair and ranking minority of the committee on the budget for consideration of the bill. it provides the amendment shall be considered as adopted. the bill shall be considered as read.

the rule provides one motion to recommit or without -- with or without instructions. >> we have no questions. >> the question occurs on the motion of the gentleman from dallas. the ayes have it. the motion is agreed to. do you want to be recognized? >> i want to recognize someone in the audience. >> i will announce the vote first. ayes have it. i will be managing for the majority. this slaughter will be managing for the minority. senateoing ahead of the with this vote as you know. the house is in recess right now. there is a republican conference taking place downstairs. i do not know if you have the democratic caucus schedule. >> it started at 12:00. >> it is just finishing now.

ours has just gotten underway. to really planned time yet? -- do we have a planned time it? the series are scheduled for around 2:30. now, i am happy to recognize the gentleman from north carolina. >> i would like to recognize the mcafee family visiting from my district. they are from davie and forsyth counties. >> you are here on an historic day. you are very well represented by miss foxx. we hope you will stay tuned. thank you all very much. i hope everyone has a wonderful

august. this is our last item. we look forward to seeing you after labor day. without objection, the committee stands adjourned. >> in what had to be records before the house rules committee, the legislation now becomes a senate bill. we just heard from the chairman of the house rules committee to take up the legislation with a vote expected later this afternoon. rep. slaughter will be the lead for the minority. david dreier will take the lead for the majority. we have this story about the house leaders seeking votes to pass the debt limit. the senate does have the 60 votes necessary. the house is more cloudy.

we will show you some of the votes in a couple of moments of to they think will vote against it. sheila jackson lee is among those saying they will vote against the legislation. there is a full list. can see gary miller are richard hannah, paul tonko, nell watts, peter welch all saying they will vote against the legislation. this continues to be updated. you can check it out on line at thehill.com. the vote is expected sometime this evening. john boehner is expected to brief reporters. it was supposed to get underway about 11 minutes ago. this is what it looks like from the gallery. we will have live coverage on c- span unless the house comes back before that. in the meantime, your phone

calls. silver springs, md., on the republican line. good afternoon. >> i am in strong opposition to the debt ceiling being raised. i definitely fear my social security checks could be eliminated or drastically cut. the reason why is because i am on ssdi, a disability program by the social security administration. i am afraid any cuts will deeply hamper my budget as far as paying my bills is concerned. this says speaker boehner is trying to thread a needle to get this passed. the vote is expected sometime tonight. george from georgia is joining us on the democrats' line.

>> i have a serious problem with the deal about the debt and raising the debt ceiling. something they raised the debt limit several times under the bush administration. >> it has been raised 78 times under democrats and republicans. that was not 78 times under the bush to administration. that is 78 times in the course of history. i want to say about 45 under republicans and about 25 under democratic administrations. >> the new administration will come in and want to get something new to stop the debt raising situation. you have to go to a vote and try to stop the previous

administration from doing other stuff. i do not understand what is going on with that. i know this president came over for the new order of trying to get the spending under control. we know they have been spending money like no other. they continue to spend and spend. now we are in a debt. i believe the republicans have what is called a tea party. i got a call from the tea party and nra. i do not understand why they would try to stop him from running the second time. i see now he is taking the

responsibility of previous administrations. is that right? >> thank you for your call and comments on a number of different matters. donald is joining us from california. >> my name is donald. i am an independent from hemet, california. , i feel it is putting the burden on the middle class and department of defense by all of these cuts. it is not necessary to raise the debt ceiling. i believe the president should man up and use the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling and make the congress and senate get back to work on fixing the budget. >> ok, thank you for the call. these are live pictures from capitol hill as members of the caucus continue to wrap up their meeting. members are leaving on a

sporadic basis. vice president joe biden has been meeting with members of the caucus trying to get enough support to get across the finish line as the president pushes for passage of the legislation. the president is at the white house making phone calls trying to shore up support in his own party. 60 votes are expected in the senate. get anything through the senate. the house is a little more cloudy. neil joins us from fort lauderdale, florida. >> i am pleased our government has come to somewhat of an accord. my remark is this. as americans, we need to lose the labels. republicans, democrats from independents -- independents.

we're all americans. we need a new sense of patriotism to bomb us together. as far as the economy, the only project that is shovel-ready is the grave site the political parties are digging for this nation. it needs to be filled. paraphrases the gettysburg address, this nation shall not and will not perish from the face of the earth. let's get together in a bond of commonality and patriotism. thank you for your time. >> the next call is from gulf shores, alabama. >> i have done some research back to the 1960's when the democrats controlled everything. they had a general fund for social security. is that true? >> you what, let's listen to the congressman speaking right now. >> we're giving up $200 million

in taxes that the airlines were getting. they did not want anything extraneous in the package. jobs are extraneous lost revenue is extraneous. the package is all about cutting. it is tax cuts and reductions in spending that will not create jobs. we need investment. there is not a penny of investment in this. the next generation cannot get student financial aid. great. >> you can hear the frustration from some of the house democrats following the meeting of the democratic caucus. we will have more as it unfolds. james is joining us fr. we will try one more time for james. carroll is in west virginia. go ahead.

>> i was not sure if you were talking to me or not. i am a disabled veteran in west virginia. i have not seen a cost-of-living increase in three years. they keep saying our electric and water keeps going up. then we have a president that says if you do not what i say, i am going to veto everything. we need to make serious cuts. my mother always told me that if something does not sound right were feel right, do not do it. i am telling everybody that if you are not happy with is put forth, do not go for it. let the rest of the people out there in washington scrape and worry about putting food on their table. let them see what we have to go through. cusack is writing about

nancy pelosi. you have heard some of the frustration. this says the deal has put her in an awkward and powerful position. she has not endorsed the bipartisan accord. without the votes of the least some house democrats, it will not pass the lower chamber. art is joining us from san mateo, california. >> i do not support the debt ceiling. i believe this is not a compromise. i am 41. i have been paying in for 23 years into social security. now you tell me you are going to cut into social security and my future medicaid that i was looking forward to retiring with along with my pension just so wall street can keep their tax cuts.

this is totally wrong. pelosi is the only one who is speaking up for the disabled, the seniors. this is totally bad. this is not a compromise. basically obama has spent over backwards. this is a terrible bill. >> andy is on the independent line. >> my name is andrew. i have been listening to everybody about a social security, medicare, and medicaid. my main concern is i am on up. -- on that. my wife just had a knee replacement done last week. if they cut into that, that will affect us really bad. >> thank you for the call. you can go to cbo.gov for more

information. the estimates are that this will save about $2.3 trillion over the next 10 years. some of the highlights include establishing caps on discretionary spending through 2021 and a joint committee on deficit-reduction. lee joins us from oklahoma city on the republican line. >> i could not be more proud that our senator said what he had to say. he was very fair. he laid the blame where it needs to be, on both parties. this is the fault of both parties. you can go back to reagan, clinton, bush, bush, obama -- everybody knew this was coming. nothing was ever done about it. i am not happy with the bill. i am satisfied something has been worked out. a. to god that people in the house

and senate have the will to see this through for our nation. >> the next call is on the republican line. >> two things. first, they keep bringing up the fact that this has been raised 78 times in the last 50 years. has it ever been lowered? has anybody ever even tried to lower it? >> they would not have to vote to lower it. this dates back to after world war i tried to get a mechanism in place that would keep congress in check. i understand your point. it has never been lowered. >> i have one thing more. they are always bringing up in the arguments this kind of balanced sacrifice or what ever it is.

shared sacrifice is an interesting bit. you have the argument that 51% of the people do not pay any income tax. the other side comes back with most people pay their fica, and sales taxes, and all that. the other 49% of people who pay income taxes also pay all the other taxes. somebody ought to mention that once in awhile. those people not only pay income taxes, but they pay all the other ones, too. >> the senate legislation is the vehicle that will bring this to the house floor. house rules committee has voted. it was a short meeting that took

place shortly after 1:00 eastern time. this now goes to the house floor with an expected vote tonight. the vice president is on capitol hill. the president is working the phones at the white house. we have a live view of the gallery where we do expect to hear from the speaker of the house. people are asking if he has the votes to pass this. does he have the votes in his party and the votes from steny hoyer to pass the legislation? we will bring you live coverage of his comments unless the house comes back into session. the senate is also in session today. we heard earlier from senator harry reid who said the vote will come later tonight or tomorrow. next is a viewer from california?

>> rancho santa margarita. my name is allison. i have been supporting my president all along. he drew a line in the sand. he stated clearly there were certain issues that would not be put on the table for negotiation. for instance, our benefits, social security, what the republicans call entitlements. i call it what i have been paying for all my adult life. then there are the bush tax cuts for the wealthy. they have all gone down the drain. i think he has become more worried about his election in 2012. i think he might have just killed it. i am really hoping for nancy pelosi.

she has said the democratic fight has been one word holon -- medicare. i pray that she stands by her words and this goes down. >> thank you for the call. the president will be traveling to chicago later this week. he turns 50 this week. there will be a series of re- election events scheduled. >> it seems to me like this country has been duping its people. this is going on the third time now. the first time we were duped into invading iraq for weapons of mass destruction. the people cried out to the congressman and said not to make the bailout's for the banks.

they voted it down. they did it behind closed doors. they go ahead and strike a deal and it passed anyway. now they are crying out saying if america defaults, it will mean economic catastrophe. i am mainstream. i own my own company. i employed four people. we've seen demand trickling down the last few years. nobody has any money left to hire us anymore. we are a consumption driven economy. capitalism unchecked -- i hate to say this because i have served in the military and defended our way of life for a number of years -- the older get -- the older i get, i realize the money goes to the top and that is where it will stay. >> the next year is on the republican line from illinois.

>> it is funny that you do not ever hear either side mention this foreign aid. if they would cut out aid to foreign countries and take care of our own, we would be a lot further ahead in the game. we would not have to worry about the mess we're in now. >> we have talked about this before. it is about 1% or less of the federal budget. 2/3 of the budget is medicare, medicaid, social security, and defense. the argument has been if you are going to cut, you need to go where the big items are. >> it would still go a long way for paying down the budget. >> ok, jr., thank you for the call from illinois.

bob is joining us on the democrats' line. >> i am concerned. i have worked all of my life and paid into social security. i am disabled and cannot work now. i did not work long enough of my job to draw attention. all i have >> the president, like you said, is going on a campaign trip now. i wonder, he wants to cut things. is he going to fly air force one out there? see what i'm talking about? everyone wants to cut, but they do not want to do it themselves. i've worked hard. i paid money in. now they say they cannot pay us back. i just do not think it is fair. we have burned our time and now they want the money -- have

earned our time and now they want the money from us. >> we will go to phil. >> to suggest that social security or medicare should be included in deficit reduction is completely asinine. since 1935, the house -- both houses have borrowed no less than $9 trillion from social security. they did not say they were stealing it. they said they were borrowing it. pay it back and keep social security and medicare solvent. >> we are getting reaction to the debt ceiling agreement. the president came out last night announcing the agreement. today, it's a sales job for democrats, republicans, and congressional leaders to sell it to their own caucuses. we expected to hear from the speaker of the house a half an hour ago.

typical on a day like this, so many different moving parts, he is running behind schedule. the first question, does he have the votes necessary to pass this through the house? according to "the hill" speaker boehner needs to thread a needle. chris, republican line. now we are we to take you live to the house of representatives. following order. h.r. 2715 by the yeas and nays. h.r. 348 by the yeas and nays. h.r. 1933 by the yeas and nays. the first two electronic votes will be conducted as 15-minute votes. remaining electronic votes will be conducted as a five-minute vote. the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the the gentlewoman from california, mrs. bono mack, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 2715 on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the bill. the clerk: h.r. 2715, a bill to provide the consumer product

safety commission with greater authority and discretion in enforcing the consumer product safety laws, and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is, will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 421. the nays are zero. two recording present. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the the bill is passed and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business is a vote on the motion of the

gentleman from texas, mr. smith, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 3398. the speaker pro tempore: a bill to amend the immigration and nationality act to modify the requirements for admission and appear for interviews to re-move these conditional basis for permanent residence status and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 426. the nays are zero. 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. the unfinished business is a vote on the motion of the gentleman from texas, mr. smith, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1933, as amend, on which the yeas and nays were ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 99, h.r. 1933, a bill to

amend the immigration and nationality act to modify the requirements for admission of nonimmigrant nurses and health professional -- in health professional shortage areas. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 404.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 407, the nays are 17. 2/3 having responded in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? mr. dreier: i rise that the house -- and ask that the house will be in order. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order.

for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? mr. dreier: i send to the house a privileged report for file under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: report to ap company house resolution 384, resolution providing for consideration of the bill, senate 365, to make a technical amendment to the education sciences reform act of 2002. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? mr. dreier: once again, mr. speaker, the house is not in order. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is correct. the house will be in order. members are asked to take their conversations off the floor. the house will be in order.

the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i call up house resolution 384 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 65, house resolution 384. resolved, that upon the adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill senate 365, to make a technical amendment to the education sciences reform act of 2002. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the amendment in the nature of a substitute printed in the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution shall be considered as adopted. the bill, as amended, shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill, as amended, are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill, as amended, to final passage without intervening motion except, one, one hour of debate with 30 minutes equally

divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on rules. 15 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means, and 15 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on the budget. and, two, one motion to recommit with or without instructions. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized for one hour. the gentleman will suspend. the house will be in order. ask members on the minority side to take your conversations to the rear. the gentleman from california is recognized for one hour. mr. dreier: thank you very much, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, for the purpose of debate only i yield the customary to my good friend, the gentlewoman from rochester, new york, the ranking member of the committee on rules, ms.

slaughter. i -- yield myself such time as i may consume and ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. dreier: all time i will be yielded -- yielding will be for debate purposes only and i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on this resolution. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. dreier: after months and months of debate we have arrived at the ultimate goal of which we are committed, a bipartisan commit to avert the debt ceiling crisis looming right before us. even more important, we have addressed the real underlying challenge of our ballooning national debt. the bipartisan agreement before us today is an historic achievement. mr. speaker, this is the 76th time that we have raised the debt ceiling since 1962. 75 times it's been raised. this is the 76th time. mr. speaker, it's the very first time that we have done so

while making corresponding cuts in spending that exceed the ceiling increase. to most of us, this is just good common sense. it's the only responsible thing to do. and yet 75 times before no connection was made between the debt ceiling and efforts to tackle our debt. with today's underlying legislation, we are fundamentally changing the way business is done here in washington. we're setting a new precedent for fiscal discipline and accountability. this is a tremendous achievement that will have a profound and lasting impact on our budget and our economy in both the short and -- both the short, medium and long term. this is an especially critical point to focus on. today's legislation has dramatic implications for both the budget and our economy. mr. speaker, as you know very

well, the two are length. we don't need a balanced budget for the sake of a balanced budget. we need to balance our budget because job creation and economic growth depend on it. there's a reason why the major credit agencies have said that our a.a.a. credit rating is in jeopardy if we don't dramatically cut spending. multitrillion dollar deficits and a national debt that approaches 100% of g.d.p. are not sustainable. democrats and republicans alike recognize that. if we want to inspire confidence in the u.s. economy and restore our position as the world's most vital and dynamic economy, we absolutely must chart a new fiscal course. the bipartisan agreement that we will consider today does just that. it makes meaningful, immediate

spending cuts. it sets up a process that guarantees votes in both chambers by thanksgiving on an even bigger package that will give us the time necessary to go beyond cuts to sig can't can't -- significant new reforms that includes reforming entitlement programs to keep them solvent and ensure they don't force us back onto a path of spiraling deficits and debt. mr. speaker, by setting up this process, we can responsibly make the hard but essential choices that will restore our economy and unleash its power to create new opportunities for americans. the underlying legislation will also impose additional automatic cuts should congress fail to continue on the path to real reform. mr. speaker, we are all in this together. democrat and republican alike. we all stand to suffer tremendously if we fail to

either raise the debt ceiling or take this opportunity to fundamentally change course. we will all suffer if we fail to continue the process of meaningful reform. but by coming together and enacting real reform by remaining committed to this joint effort into the future, we can all share in the benefits of a resurging economy, of a surging economy and job market. we can't approach a challenge of this magnitude as republicans and democrats first, but as fellow americans who share a commitment to our are prosperity as a nation now and into the future. mr. speaker, today we have the opportunity, i urge my colleagues to support this rule and the underlying legislation and with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california resevens. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: thank you, mr. speaker.

i thank my good friend mr. dreier for yielding the me cust mir 30 minutes and i yield myself such time as i may consume and i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. slaughter: thank you, mr. speaker. after a tense standoff over self-inflicted crisis, i'm extremely disappointed with the solution being proposed today. it's important that we raise the debt ceiling, in fact, it is a duty of every member of congress tone sure we pay our bills. unfortunately, we have reached this point because some on the other side see paying our bills as optional and have asked a king's ransom for doing so. in the process, our democracy is currently dysfunctional. even if we avoid default, the process that got us to this point has already shown the world that the greatest nation on earth can barely keep the lights on. recently, i.m.f. chief -- the

i.m.f. chief told cnn in not in so many words that we are destroying the world's faith in our ability to be the most powerful economy on earth and our ability to pay our bills. this is -- this bill creates a close-door committee a so-called super committee, will 523 represent i haves are told to soint the deadlines an vote up and down when all is said and done. i repeat what i said last week, my constituents did not send me to sit on the sidelines while the most important matter is being decided. 24 prolonged debate resulted in an increase in federal borrowing costs, a fancy way to say that interest rates for car loans and home loans are higher now than they should have or

would have been. furthermore, today's adwreement does nothing to create jobs for the 25 million americans who failed to find full-time jobs last month. on friday, we'll receive a jobs report that will provide even more evidence that while congress has shrugged aside the urgent need to create jobs millions of americans continue to suffer. this bill does nothing to serve them. the majority has steadfastly refused to consider a balanced approach to reducing our deficit, rejecting atells to close tax loopholes. instead, they have decided to only consider the draconian cuts that threaten to reverse whatever fragile economic recovery is under way. on sunday, mohammed al-aryan, the c.e.o. of a major financial firm, spoke of the damage this will cause he said on abc, and i quote, unemployment will be

higher than it would have been otherwise. growth will be lower than it would have been otherwise, and inequality will be worse than it would have been otherwise, end quote. he added, we have a very weak economy. withdraw manager spending at this stable is going to make it even weaker. today's agreement will endanger the potential for new jobs while asking absolutely nothing of our -- of the people in our country who are most well off. democrats will continue to vigorously fight for social security, medicaid and medicare to ensure that not a penny is cut from the checks of seniors and working people who rely on these programs every day. it is a contract. we believe that ultimately, we must take a balanced approach to reducing our testify is the. tax loopholes must be closed. and those who benefited the most in this country must be asked to pay their fair share. and regardless of the outcome of today's bills, these are the

priorities for which i will continue to fig. especially as the debt debate continues, i urge my colleagues to look toward a balanced approach and return this country to its rightful place as a shining example of democracy and equality for which we should once again aspire and i reserve the plans of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves her time. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume to say that this is a very unique moment for us. we have the ability to come together at a time when we are faced with a deadline. that deadline, as we all know, is midnight tomorrow. the commitment that has been made to social security and medicare and our veterans and other programs is one which we as republicans clearly stand by. and i've got to say that we know that since those programs have been put into place, when it comes to social security and

medicare, every american, every working american, has been forced to pay into the medicare and social security funds through their fica tax. by virtue of that contract that we have, we stand here strongly committed, contrary to what many people may say, to ensuring the solvency and strength of social security for today's retirees and future generations as well and i believe that this package that we have here today that will enjoy bipartisan support reaffirms that exact commitment. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves his time. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. rangel. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. rangel: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore:

without objection, so ordered. mr. rain fwell: i'm voting against the rule because in the -- mr. rangel: i'm voting against the rule because in my years in congress, i've never seen this. it's never been this polarized and it's never been risking the whole fiscal credibility of the great united states of america in order to make political gains. clearly when everyone talks about everyone must make a sacrifice, i assume that we're talking about a sacrifice in cutting the budget, not receiving the benefit the protections of some programs and not others. and then on the other side, i have to pause. because i don't see any sacrifice. it's assumed by the yen public that the sacrifice means that maybe if you became wealthy under the great support that you received from this country,

that you'll make some small sacrifice, or maybe that sacrifice could be interpreted as when you received preferential treatment in the tax code for all of these years, that you're willing to say, i don't need it now. you were there when i needed you. but i think it's safe to say that the american people will be making sacrifices and they're making it for a crisis that they're so far away from. the people that enjoyed the crisis in terms of financial gain are not asked even to say, i'm sorry. and the people that really love, respect, and hope and dream that lost their homes an their jobs, their self-esteem, these are the ones that will make further sacrifices, only this time, it won't be the executive branch, it certainly won't be the courts, it will be our own colleagues from the

senate and from the house, a group of super members will go into a room to decide for us what the next trillions of dollars is going to be cut from the budget. if they can't succeed, then there will be an automatic cut, right across the board, regardless of whether or not some programs should survive and others should be abolished. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. mr. dreier: i yield my friend an additional 30 seconds. mr. rangel: i'd like to take this opportunity to thank the patriotism you have shown not only to the committee and the republican party but to this great country over the years and i'm just so sorry on this great occasion that you would take your chairman sthoip produce a rule like this that americans can not see their way clear to say, this has been fair and this has been equal.

i yield bethe plans of my time. the speaker pro tempore: mr. speaker, i will say to my friend, and i'd like to have a discussion with him if i might, i yield 30 seconds and ask him to yield to me, especially if he wants to continue. i yielded time to my friend and asked him to yield to me. mr. rangel: i didn't understand. mr. dreier: i'll yield an additional 30 seconds, i wish he'd continue what he's saying in the first half of the presentation about me rather than the last half. let me scrust say, mr. speaker, that it is very clear that what we have before us is in fact a bipartisan agreement to do exactly what my friend at the end of his statement was saying. we want very much to ensure that people are able to keep their homes. we want to ensure that people are able to see their businesses thrive. we want job opportunities cree

aated for every american. i know my friend agrees that getting our fiscal house in order will be critical to do. i would say to my friend that frankly, we're in a position where 75 times, 75 times since 1962, we've increased the debt ceiling without focusing on the challenge of the debt itself. mr. dreier: may have a few seconds of the time you yielded me. let me take 10 seconds to say, in my -- mr. dreier: the speaker pro tempore: mr. dreier: i think i control the time but i'm happy to yield 10 seconds to you. mr. rangel: thank you. the answer to this problem is three things, jobs, jobs and more jobs. mr. dreier: i want to associate myself with the remarks of my very good friend from new york and say that jobs, jobs, jobs continue to be our top priority and i believe that this bill go

a long way toward doing just that. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. andrews. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. andrews: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. andrews: i thank that my friend from california, the chairman, my friend from new york, the chairman emeritus, have it exactly right. the issue is jobs. that's what this bill on the floor today is about. one of the reasons, for sure not the only reason that our companies aren't hiring and our economy is not growing is uncertainty about interest rates. if you're thinking about adding on a new store or hiring more people to do more r&d and think the interest rates are going trirkse you don't do it. if you're not sure what they're going to do, you don't do it. we have been living under a period of uncertainty for two

reasons. the first is are we going to default on our national onlyations? -- obligations? the house today will and should emphatically say, no we will not. the second question is will uncle sam continue to eat up too much of the entrepreneurial capital in this company to finance every growing federal deficits the house today will and should in my view approve the bill before us that will begin to make a reduction in that deficit. that bill will reduce our projected deficit by anywhere from 25% to 30% and it's important to understand what history tells us about sincere and legitimate deficit reduction. in 1993, president bill clinton's plan was supposed to reduce the deficit by 28%. it did not. it reduced the deficit entirely. that bill was supposed to generate $500 billion in deficit reduction. in fact it generated $1.6

trillion in deficit reduction. that's the elicksor that the american people -- elixor that the american people need now. i do not believe that's the only step we need to accomplish to reduce unemployment but it is an essential step. for that reason i am pleased to join with both republicans and democrats in voting yes for this bill. mr. dreier: will the gentleman yield? mr. andrews: i yield. mr. dreier: i'd like to congratulate my friend for his very thoughtful statement and to say that when we look back at that -- and, mr. speaker, i yield myself one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. dreier: i'd say to the projected $500 billion in deficit reduction and the $1.6 trillion that we obtained we know why it is that came about. it was gross domestic product growth. and my friend and i have been working together for many years, focused on how it is that we can get our economy

growing. mr. andrews: will the gentleman yield? mr. dreier: he'll yield in a second. i believe as we continue to focus on that that we will see benefits beyond those anticipated today when it comes to deficit reduction if we're able to generate -- unfortunately we had 1.3% g.d.p. growth in the last quarter -- if we had get to 3%, 4%, 5% g.d.p., my friend knows we are going to be in position where we will see an even greater reduction to the deficit in years to come. i yield to him. mr. andrews: i agree with him and i think we owe it to the country to find common ground on economic growth. the best deficit reduction plan is full employment. mr. dreier: absolutely. mr. andrews: and it would be one we could come together on. it came too late. it was ugly getting here but i'm glad we got here. mr. dreier: i thank my friend for his very thoughtful remarks. with that, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new york.

ms. slaughter: mr. speaker, i'm delighted to yield two minutes to the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. mr. connolly: i thank the gentlelady, my good friend from new york. mr. speaker, i would point out, however, that cutting spending -- the speaker pro tempore: the chair notes a disturbance in the gallery. in contravenges of the rules of the house, the sergeant at arms will remove those persons responsible for their disturbance and restore order in the gallery. the sergeant at arms will restore order to the gallery. the sergeant at arms will remove the disturbance from the

gallery. the chair notes a disturbance in the gallery and in contravenges of the rule and law of the rules of the house, the sergeant at arms will continue removing those responsible and restore order to the gallery.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the gentleman from virginia is recognized for two minutes. mr. connelly: i had no idea my pending remarks would lead to such a spring of support. i would point out, mr. speaker, in the last -- the conversation between mr. andrews and mr. dreier, spending cuts at this level are not going to create any jobs. the idea that spending cuts and deficit reduction will lead to unprecedented economic

prosperity is absolutely appalled to economic premise. getting our control of our fiscal house to make sure we make productive investments and create jobs will create jobs. with respect to the proposal underlying this rule, mr. speaker, there's plenty for members of both parties to find objectionable and they might be right, but the choice before us is not that between this proposal and some platonic ideal. it is between this proposal and catastrophic default tomorrow. unlike the cynical bill, this chamber passed on a party line vote last week, this bill commits america to meeting its obligations for the longer term. it leaves all options on the table, including revenue, for the bipartisan committee this fall to further reduce the deficit and having triggers painful for both parties as real accountability and strict enforcement. the american people understand

we need a balance to restore fiscal responsibility and to grow our economy. recent g.d.p. in manufacturing numbers are painful reminders, mr. speaker, is the frew jilt of this economy -- and the actions of the house republicans have exacerbated that by pulling back on key investments in infrastructure and innovation. it's time to end the reckless game of chicken being waged here in this house. i commend president obama and other leadership for leading the adult conversation to bring about this compromise. it's not time for us to do the responsible thing and bring a heel the wolf at the door. i yield back to the gentlelady from new york. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i yield myself 30 seconds, it's very interesting as we have come together in a bipartisan way to address the crisis of increasing our debt ceiling, tackling the challenge of reducing the $14.3 trillion

national debt that we have. we had this disruption in the gallery. now, i turn around, mr. speaker, and looked up there and i will tell you -- i don't know if you saw the placard that they were carrying. it had in great big letters across it, "create jobs," create jobs is the message that they had. and, mr. speaker, that's exactly what we are doing, again, working very diligently in a bipartisan way to ensure we do just that. i yield a minute and a half to a hardworking member of the committee on rules, my friend from grandfather community, north carolina, ms. foxx. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from north carolina is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. ms. foxx: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my distinguished friend from california, chair of the rules committee for yielding. i just did a tv interview for one in my district. the question was, what does this mean for the average person in my district? i said to her -- she said,

people are paying attention to what's going on in d.c. i said, that's probably the best thing that's happened out of this whole debate, that people are paying attention. had they been paying attention the last 40 years we wouldn't be in the situation we're in. but i pointed out to her that in today's dollars, federal spending per u.s. household went from $11,431 in 1965 to $29.401 in 2010. that tells us all that we need to know. the federal government is addicted to spending. we need to cut spending, not raise taxes, and this compromise bill does that. mr. speaker, as the distinguished gentleman from california said, we want to create jobs and the best way to do that is to stop taking money out of the private sector, stop overtaxing the people in this country, leave that money in the private sector and allow it to be used to create jobs. this is not a perfect bill.

we all say it's not a perfect bill. both sides of the aisle. that generally means it's a good bill because it's not perfect. and when people want compromise and they hear that, then they know that's right. but the change in direction is historic. we're going from seeing how much money we can spending to how much can we cut. i am intrigued that a lot of my colleagues across the aisle, they've obviously been on the road to demascus, because their whole language has changed in response to this bill. but i am glad they have finally seen the light and i hope in the future they are going to join us in more efforts like this. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the gentlelady from new york. i am pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from california, ms. waters. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized for two minutes.

ms. waters: mr. speaker, i rise to congratulate the tea party for starting a deal made in their image and their image alone. the cuts will be deep. they will be lasting and they will weaken an already depressed economy. what's clear is that the tea party is so ill logically driven to kill government that they're willing to kill the private sector, kill jobs and kill growth in the process. what's more? these cuts will be loaded onto the backs of seniors and the american middle class all while asking the wealthiest among us to sacrifice nothing. once again, the rich will feel no pain and the vulnerable will pay for their spoils. mr. speaker, the process in which we got here has undermined our democratic system. while democrats and the president negotiated in good faith, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle demonstrated a craven

willingness to risk the financial collapse for their extreme demands. as democrats conceded time after time and provential after provision on this bill, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle just continued to issue new demands all the while promizing -- compromising their moral. i am surprised by the supercommittee whose establishment threatens our democratic process with this unconstitutional structure. mr. speaker, i can honestly say if this bill passes it may be the single worst piece of public policy to ever come out of this institution. i cannot support this bill, this rule, and i urge my democratic colleagues not to be complicit in a republican plan to eventually cut medicare, social security, medicaid and investments in our future all while asking the rich to sacrifice nothing. i thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from yields back.

mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i yield myself 10 seconds while i associate myself to most of her colleagues, i'm hard pressed to associate myself with her remarks. with that i'm happy to yield a minute and a half another hardworking member of the committee on rules, the gentleman from lawrenceville, georgia, mr. woodall. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. woodall: i was excited to come here today. when i ran for congress there was a list of a few short things. i am one of these new guys. one of 96 new freshmen. folks back home said we're spending too much. $1,091,000,000,000 is how much we spent in discretionary spending in 2010. this bill that the rules committee brings up forward today brings it down to $1,043,000,000,000, a $50 billion cut from two years ago. not decreasing the rate of growth but actually changing the trajectory of spending in this country.

that's what folks back home said they wanted me to do. number two, i hold my hand to the united states constitution. i turn to the back and in my edition there is a little blank space after amendment number 27. there is space for amendment 28 and for the first time in 15 years this bill guarantees us a vote on a balanced budget amendment. if you don't trust your members of congress, trust your united states constitution and trust that this bill gives the american people a vote that they have not had in far too long. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: mr. speaker, i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york reserves her time. the gentleman from california. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i'm sorry. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york reserved her time. ms. slaughter: i reserved. mr. dreier: all right. mr. speaker, at this point i'm happy to yield a minute and a

half to the gentleman from collinsville, illinois, mr. shimkus. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. shimkus: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. shimkus: thank you, mr. speaker. i'm not coming down here to blame one side or the other for the financial position that we're in because we all have a part to play in this story. but this is a great day. i was also asked earlier about how i felt about today, and i told them i felt relieved. the fray of the credit markets, i was afraid of rising interest rates, whatever recovery we were having, i was afraid it could stem that tide. so i do feel great relief. this is one of the few times, in the 103 times we have actually cut spending when we try to raise the debt ceiling.

we can no longer continue to borrow o42 cents of every dollar we spend. we're going to have discretionary cuts and entitlement reforms. i do like the super committee. bicameral, bipartisan, equally divided. when have we had a committee where we've equally divided the decision making not upon majority and minority side but equally divided, three republicans, three democrats in the house, three republicans and three democrats in the senate. if this committee can't start addressing our entitlement reforms then i'm afraid we're never going to do it. i have great faith in my colleagues who will be put on this committee. we have to make the great choices. i appreciate the rules committee in bringing this to the floor and my good friend david dreier and i hope we continue to move forward and pass the rule and pass the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: i yield myself

30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. slaughter: to comment on the super committee. when was the last time we had a bipartisan group like that. simpson bowles which got nowhere, the gange of six in the senate, which got nowhere. six and six, i can imagine what it will be like trying to get a seventh vote on either side. mr. dreier: let me say there's a big difference between the commissions established in the past and this congressional committee. the gentlewoman is right, these outside commissions that have been there have made recommendations and they've gone virtually nowhere. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentlelady -- ms. slauth -- ms. slaughter: the gng of six was not an outside committee.

let me yield two minutes to the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. engel: i have been urging a clean vote for the debt ceiling, a vote that's taken place 74 times since f.d.r. was president, 18 times under reagan and eight times under bush. ities agree with my freppeds on the other side of the aisle. it isn't just entitlement reform that we need. although we do need entitlement reform. it isn't just government spending less that we need. but what happened to fairness? why are we asking this bill to balance our budget on the backs of the middle class and poor people? why do we not have anything in this bill that makes millionaires and billionaires who can afford to pay a little bit more, pay a little bit more. why don't we close tax

loopholes so big oil and gas and other corporations pay their fair sure? why don't we do any of that whatsoever? this bill was unbalanced to begin with. now we're talking about some super committee, even amounts from the republicans an democrats and even amounts from the senate and house and to me that's a recipe for gridlock. we'll be at the point after thanksgiving where nothing is going to happen, we'll wind up with entitlement cuts that are going to hurt my seniors and your seniors with medical care and graduate medical education in new york which is so important, hurt that, hurt the providers. we're going to cut from the providers and hospitals and think it's not going to impact on patient quality and patient care? what about the doc fix when our doctors say, we're not taking medicare patients anymore? this bill is a pig in a poke and i'm not willing to buy a pig in a poke.

i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, let me first yield myself 30 seconds -- i was engaging in a colloquy with my good friend from rochester, the distinguished ranking minority member, i'd be happy to yield to her in a moment, mr. speaker, but pack to the issue of the joint select committee that is going to be charged with coming up with $1.5 trillion in proposed cuts and their recommendations will be sent to both houses of congress for an up or down vote. mr. speaker, this is unprecedented because unlike the commissions that have been put together, the bowles-simpson commission, unlike this little caucus of senators, the gang of six, there's no legislative authority. i yield myself 15 seconds. there's no legislative authority or power this time, this demonstrates that members of the house and senate will in fact come together and work in

a bipartisan way to ensure that we bring about meaningful spending cuts to the tune of $1.5 trillion and that's the difference that exists with this proposal before us. mr. speaker, with that, i'm happy to yield to my very good friend from moore, oklahoma. how much time? two minutes to my friend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. >> i thank the gentleman for yielding, thank you, mr. speaker. there's no question this isn't a perfect bill. there are a lot of things we would have liked, deeper spending cuts, some entitlement reform in this. mr. cole: we would have preferred to mandate that this house and other body take up a balanced budget amendment and give the people and states an opportunity to render a decision on that. those things aren't in this bill. i know there's things that some of my friends on the other side wanted.

higher taxes, no changes in entitlements, you know, they didn't get everything they wanted either. but this bill does adhere to the principles our speaker laid out at the beginning of the negotiations. first, most importantly, on both -- and both sides agree on this, it avoids default. it avoids the united states not paying its obligations for the first time in 230 years. secondly, it actually cuts spending and links those spending cuts to the raising of the debt ceiling. and there's more spending cuts than there are increased borrowing going forward. that's a good thing. third, no new taxes. that would be a killer on a new economy. and finally, while we don't get a guarantee of the balanced budget amendment, we do get a guaranteed vote. this is what the american people have asked us to do. come together, compromise, work together on their behalf and let them get about their business without creating additional problems for them. this bill, we put the american

people first, we're going to continue to work on their problems. i urge we pass the rule and the underlying legislation. i thank the gentleman for giving me time to speak. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from georgia a member of the financial services committee, mr. scott. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. scott: thank you very much, mr. chairman. this is a challenging day. it's a difficult day. but it is a day that we're making a decision. a big decision. an important decision that the united states of america will not default on its obligations. this sends stability to the financial markets around the world and it realy embellishes our stature as the gold standard that is very important. it also gives us until 2013

fors to be able to rehave it this again as the president of the united states asked. and i think another important thing that it does, it helps us to hurry up and get this all -consuming issue of the debt and the deficit and the raising of the debt ceiling off the front burner so we can immediately put jobs back on the front burner. and so, ladies and gentlemen, we must focus our attention now on jobs. that's what the american people want us to do. on this friday, we're going to have a jobs report. and i want us to carefully look at that jobs report. and especially look at that side of the jobs report that shows the number of jobs we're losing in the public sector. so as we're hear engaging

disease ash -- as we're here engaging in this issue, us cutting $2.5 trillion out of our budget over the 10-year period, it's important to know that there's a cost for this, my friends. that cost is a loss of mick jobs. so as we set this new commission up, this new committee, we've got to make sure that as the cuts go forward, we understand the sensitivity, try to make these cuts away from putting more of our people on the jobless rolls. right now, the greatest contribution the federal government is making to jobs is put manager people out of jobs. -- is putting more people out of jobs. i ask that we take time now, now that we're going to put this issue behind us, to focus like a laser beam on jobs. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. mr. scott: i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from california. mr. dreier: i'm happy to yield a minute and a half to one of the diligent new members of the freshman class, the gentleman from illinois, mr. dold. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one and a half minutes. mr. dold: i want to thank the chairman from california. getting our fiscal house in order is one of the most important things we can do in this body to jump start our economy. just recently, our economy has seen weak economic growth, especially over the last two quarters and just today we find out that manufacturing is at its lowest level in the last two years. in my district, the 10th district of illinois, we have one of the largest manufacturing districts in the country and there's no doubt that families not only in the 10th district but across the land are struggling. today i am optimistic that washington is coming together in a bipartisan way to find some common ground on this debt ceiling debate. we must -- we must move

forward. hardworking taxpayers have had enough and i get it. we must have spending discipline here in washington, no more budget gimmicks, no more accounting tricks, no more empty promises. american families have had to tighten their belt across the land. american businesses had to do the same. they should expect that the federal government should follow suit. now is the time to move forward and focus on jobs. if we are serious about paying down our debt and increasing revenue, we must empower job creators. small businesses in our nation are overburdened by economic uncertainty, government regulations and red tape. we need toimplement common sense solutions and create jobs to get our economy moving again. as a small business owner, mr. speaker, i employ just under 100 families and for me that's an enormous responsibility. we have to move forward, we have to empower job creators, we have to be talking about getting 9.% unemployment down

so we can get our economy going and bring additional revenue into the federal coffers by putting more people back to work. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: i'm delighted to yield three minutes to the gentleman from oregon, member of the budget and ways and means committees, mr. blumenauer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. blumenauer: i appreciate the gentlelady's courtesy. we are facing an artificial republican debt crisis that was a crisis of choice. of their choice. remember, we have repeatedly increased the debt ceiling for republican and democratting administrations and congress years in and year out this proposal moving forward is troubling on several levels. it empowers the most reckless and extreme elements, not just in the house republican caucus today, but it is a blueprint for mischief for either party

in the future. next, we are starting down a path of more budget cuts at too -- at a time when all the experts asure us this will weaken the economy, when instead we should be strengthening, dealing with economic growth, not reducing demand. it's all the more frustrating because there is a path going forward that is clear. the public strongly supports a balanced approach which includes tax reform that would raise money while making the tax code more fair and simple. do we need a commission to implement suggestions, right size the military, both its mission and budget. absolutely not. there are lots of ideas and support on both sides of the aisle that could be enacted to achieve this goalful but the magnitude of the trigger actually invites mischief again when we've seen the republican

take no prisoners attitude. what makes anybody believe they won't do it in this case? most important, we should be revitalizing the economy by rebuilding and renewing america. financed by modest increases in user fees. this has support all across the business community, labor, environment, local government, even some of my republican friends. but they take this off the table. last but not least, one of the most simple things we could do would be to implement agricultural reform to save money and help people who farm and people who eat rather than lavish subsidies for large agribusiness. these are things that we should be doing. these are things that actually could have bipartisan support. unfortunately this agreement, if its about forward, will delay that important work of reform and fiscal

responsibility while it weakens both the economy and the decisionmaking process for years to come. government on autopilot in a slow downward spiral is not a victory in anybody's book. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back his time. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i yield myself 15 seconds to say to my very good friend that i agree with some of the remarks he made on doing things like eliminating agriculture subsidies. i'd say to my friend from oregon, mr. speaker, to my friend from oregon who is now walking off the floor, i say to my friend i agree with his remarks about the need for us to focus on agriculture subsidies and bringing about a reduction there. but i also want to say, mr. speaker, if i could yield myself an additional 15 seconds, i'd say to myself that we are trying to work this out with the spirit of bipartisanship. and my friend began his statement by saying this was a crisis developed by republican

policies and since we're working in a bipartisan way i think the notion that recognizing that 82%, an 82% increase in nondefense discretionary spending over the past four years clearly played a role in getting us where we are. i yield another minute to one of our hardworking new members of congress to the gentleman from little rock, arkansas, mr. griffin. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for one minute. mr. griffin: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you to the chairman for giving me a few minutes here. when i announced and wanted to run for congress, my focus primarily was on the debt, was on the issue of the debt. and the impact that the debt was going to have on my daughter and my little boy. my daughter, mary kathryn, is sitting right here with me today for this historic day. it's critically important to me. a lot of the folks back home that i hear from, when they contact me, they contact me

about the debt and about spending. now, i came up here to do something about it. and i've been watching this debate closely and i've been a supporter of the speaker, both on the plan last week and i'm a supporter of the agreement that is going to come before us today. is it perfect? absolutely not. is it great? absolutely not. it is good. it's a good first step. i'd say this -- if a president and a senate that i agreed with put this type of plan forward, i would reject if out of hand. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield my friend an additional minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one additional minute. mr. griffin: if a deal, an agreement like this came from a president with which i generally agreed and a senate with which i generally agreed i would reject it out of hand.

but that's not what we have. we have divided government. we have this chamber controlled by a different vision for america. so i believe this is about as good as we're going to get, and i am supporting it because it is consistent with my principles, there are no tax increases, controls spending now, controls spending in the future, allows us to vote on a balanced budget amendment. these are all things that i can support. these are the principles that we have been fighting for over the last few months. and i would say this, if this were the only step ever in dealing with the debt, i would vote no, but it's not. it's only the beginning. we didn't get in this mess with one bill or one piece of legislation. it took a long time and a lot of votes, and it's going to take a long time and a lot of battles to get out of it and this is a good first step.

thank you, mr. speaker. thank you, mr. chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. members are reminded to refrain from references of people on the floor of the house. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: mr. speaker, i have no further requests for time. i want to inquire from my colleague if he has more requests. mr. dreier: we have several speaker here's. ms. slaughter: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves the balance of her time. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: i'm happy to yield a minute to the distinguished chairman of the committee on energy and commerce, my good friend from st. joseph, michigan, mr. upton. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for one minute. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. and i appreciate the minute. my constituents are saying, get the job done. vote for the rule. vote for the bill. the president said about a year ago, i want to say it was his state of the union address, the debt today is unsustainable. he's right, and for the first time we are coupling an

increase in the debt ceiling with real reductions in spending. no, this is not' deucing the rate of growth in spending. this is actually reducing spending. in fact, at the end of the day when we look at fiscal year 2012 versus fiscal year 2011 we are going to be spending less money in 2012 than we did in 2011. nobody, nobody is coming to our offices saying, cut our spending, but in fact the american public is saying, federal government, cut your spending. that's what this bill will do. it's going to reduce spending. yes, it's going to increase the ceiling on the debt but it's coupled with real reforms that i think the american public wants and that's why it's going to have some bipartisan support when we deal with this issue a little bit later on this afternoon. so i commend the leadership on both sides of the aisle. let's get the job done. let's get it over with so we can get to the business of running the rest of the government and the country, and i yield back the balance of my

time. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady continues to reserve. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, at this time i'm happy to yield two minutes to one of our thoughtful new members, the gentleman from drexel hill, pennsylvania, mr. meehan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from pennsylvania is recognized for two minutes. mr. meehan: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you for the opportunity to address the chamber this morning. i am pleased to speak on behalf of this bill, a bill that will address the terrible uncertainty that has been taking place over the course of these last few weeks. the seniors, the taxpayers, the small business people who have been speaking to me as i've been making the phone calls and talking with them about concerns that they have in this era of uncertainty. i've heard commentary that this is identified as a crisis caused by republicans when in fact the crisis has been the

business as usual which has been taken place in washington, d.c. this is finally a time in which we looked at the issues that are before us and made the tough decisions to address the long-term unsustainability of this debt. $14.2 trillion in debt that's going to be facing the next generation. i note that there are arguments and somehow policies of big oil, health care, the things that have been republican policies when in fact if you look just at the beginning of this administration there was the commitment to medicare. there were the subsidies to big oil. we were $1.-- with the subsidies, not just the big oil but involved in two wars and the debt was $162 billion. now, it's $1.2 trillion. we must take these kinds of steps, work together. this is a solution that will allow a genuine bipartisan opportunity to address this for

the future generation, create predictability, allow us to get back to creating jobs. i urge members from both sides of the aisle to support the bill. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the gentleman has expired. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: mr. speaker, i am pleased to yield a minute and a half to the gentlewoman from new york, the ranking member in the sbist committee, ms. velazquez -- small business committee, ms. velazquez. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. ms. velazquez: i would like to take the opportunity to thank the gentlelady for yielding. mr. speaker, it is clear that the era of debts and deficits must come to an end. however, in addressing this problem, we must look at what got us here. it wasn't our spending on low-income housing, job training or education, which all stands at historically low levels. it was two unfunded wars and the bush tax cuts which keeps

on giving to america's wealthiest. unfortunately, the legislation before us today keeps every tax breaks for the wealthy and millions more in resources will be used to fund these two wars. we keep hearing how critical this bill is to getting our economy back on track. it is hard to imagine how this legislation will do so. i cannot support any proposal with such deep cuts in education, economic development and job training that will hamper our recovery. while the weeks leading up today, there was a lot of rhetoric for shared sacrifice. unfortunately. what we are considering today places the burden of the fiscal mess squarely on our nation's working families and that is something i cannot support.

i ask my colleagues to vote no on the rule and vote on this ill-conceived legislation. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the the gentlelady has expired. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: mr. speaker, let me say that your superb presiding over this house is only exceeded by the gentlewoman from hinsdale, illinois, mrs. biggert, and i'd like to yield her one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from illinois is recognized for one minute. mrs. biggert: thank you, mr. speaker. it's been a long road and one with uncertainty that the american people should have had to put up with. it's behind us and it's time together behind a realistic deal that will restore strength to the economy and deliver peace of mind to the american people. i believe this is that deal. it's not perfect but with the majority in just one chamber house republicans negotiated a compromise that will be part of a debt solution, not part of a debt problem. it will stop a job-killing

default but cut spending even more. it will hold congress and the president accountable with automatic spending cuts and a guaranteed vote on the balanced budget amendment. most importantly, it doesn't raise taxes, something that would damage our recovery. we have changed the conversation. the president is no longer asking for a blank check. he's negotiating with us to cut spending. this is how we'll end this spiral of debt that is draining our economy of capital, confidence and jobs. i thank my colleagues on both side of the aisle who have contributed to this discussion, and i urge them to support this bipartisan deal. the speaker pro tempore: the time of the the gentlelady has expired. -- the time of the gentlelady has expired. the gentlewoman from new york. ms. slaughter: i am ready to close. mr. dreier: we have more speakers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady will yield. ms. slaughter: yes.

mr. dreier: i yield to clinton township, new jersey, mr. lance. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for 1 1/2 minutes. mr. lance: thank you, chairman dreier, for your leadership on this important issue. i rise in support of the rule and i rise in support of the underlying legislation which is by its nature bipartisan, bicameral and a compromise that avoids default, adds certainty to our economic recovery and puts our nation on a sustainable path toward fiscal responsibility. what we need in america is jobs, jobs, jobs, and this will help that effort forward. this support is consistent with my long-standing efforts to bring fiscal sanity to new jersey and to be among those attempting to bring it here to washington. the main portions of the compromise have been outlined, but for the first time the narrative on capitol hill is no longer how much can government spend but how we can best reduce spending. this new awakening to fiscal

prudence is in the best from of the nation and indeed i believe it is the critical issue of our generation. i commend speaker boehner for his superb leadership on this issue, and i shall vote for the rule and the underlying legislation in the belief that it will help move our nation forward. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from yields back his time. the gentlelady from new york. ms. slaughter: i will continue to reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york reserves her time. the gentleman from california. mr. dreier: thank you very much, mr. speaker. in light of the fact that the gentlewoman from new york has no further speakers, is prepared to close, i'll reserve the balance of my time and i'll close after she. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized, and the gentlelady has nine minutes remaining of her time. ms. slaughter: i thank the speaker and i thank the gentleman. mr. speaker, we should have never found ourselves where we are today. facing a self-inflicted crisis, being asked to vote for a bill that has so many flaws. the prolonged debate that led

us here has caused the world to question our nation's credibility, and already inflicted harm on the u.s. economy. the irony of our situation as the other side claims to bring certainty to the market, but the reality is they have undermined faith in the u.s. government's ability to lead the global economy. throughout this debate, congress has gotten lost in a crisis created instead of the two crisis of unemployment that faces our constituents. nobody, even members of congress, especially members of congress, should have the ability to bring the faith in the american government to its knees. it's high time we address the question of crisis in this country and face the self-inflicting crisis. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from california has 5 1/4 minutes remaining. mr. dreier: i yield myself the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman has the balance of the time. the gentleman is recognized. mr. dreier: thank you, mr. speaker. 224 years ago this summer, the framers of our constitution were in philadelphia at constitution hall and they were working very hard to put together this, what ended up being an inspired document, authored by james madison. and on july 16 of 1787, they actually completed a compromise. it was known as the connecticut compromise. the connecticut compromise is what established a bicameral legislature two. houses of congress that connecticut compromise was also called the great compromise. and i know that the word compromise is seen as a pejorative in the eyes of many, but what we do have before us

is a compromise. it hasn't been easy getting here. when james madison was asked often about the first branch of government, putting together the process of law making, he said that the process of law making is an ugly, messy, difficult process. and mr. speaker, over the last several months, we've seen, as we've been pursuing this day, we've seen an ugly, messy, difficult process. i'm reminded that a couple of summers ago, i was talking with this amazing woman, ellen johnson sirley, first woman to be president any of country on the continent of africa, she's president of liberia. we were talking about the development of parliament in liberia through this great commission that mr. price and i are privileged to lead. when we talked about the ugly, messy, difficult process of law make, the president looked at

me and she said, ahh, david, you have forgotten one thing. yes, it is an ugly, messy, difficult possess, but it works. we have so much time and energy and effort expended on partisan bickering, at the end of the day, this for me is a much, much enjoyable time, when we are able to come together, tackling the serious problems that we as a nation face and for the first time ever taking this issue of increasing the debt ceiling and actually dealing with the root cause of it. i like to say that we don't have a debt ceiling problem, we have a debt problem. $14.3 trillion national debt. we all know that. fingers pointed from both sides of the aisle at the other on a regular basis. and yet today, today is a time for us to recognize that we have come together to keel with

it and for the first time in that 7 -- to deal with it and for the first time in that 75 times since the debt ceiling was increased, we're going to see our colleagues in a bipartisan way from the house and senate, come together to recommend $1.5 trillion in proposed cuts and there are mechanisms put into place, sequestration, which will actually force across the board cuts if they don't come up with recommendations. so we are looking at a very, very good proposal to help us do that. we're increasing the debt ceiling to pay our past obligations. i don't like the fact that we went through an 82% increase in nondefense discretionary spending over the past four years. even though i voted against almost all of it, i've got to say that those bills have to be paid. that's why it is that we're increasing our debt ceiling. and mr. speaker, i want to join in extending congratulations to all those who have been

involved in this process in a bipartisan way. so i'll say again, it has over the past several months been an ugly, messy, difficult process, but with the vote that we are about to have on this rule, and i look forward to working on the underlying legislation itself, and i'm convinced that we're going to have a strong bipartisan vote for it, we will prove as president ellen johnson sirley reminded me, that even though it's an ugly, messy, difficult process, it works. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time and yield back the -- i yield back the balance of my time and move the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. mr. dreier: i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: those in favor of a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 9 of rule 20, this 15-minute vote

on ordering the previous question will be followed by a 15-minute vote on adopting house resolution 384 if ordered and a five-minute vote on approving the journal if ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 242, the nays are 184. the previous question is ordered. the question son adoption of the resolution. as many as are in favor will signify by saying aye. those opposed, no. mr. dreier: i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having

risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 249, the nays are 178 and the resolution is agreed to. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the unfinished business is the question on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal, which the chair will put de novo.

the question is on agreeing to the speaker's journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the their -- the gentleman from california. the yeas and nays are ordered. those in favor of a vote wil rise. a sufficient number having arisen, yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]