jersey and the job they gave mee. all those considerations are the kind of hysteria that goes around this because everybody's in that world gets preoccupied with that job. i am not preoccupied with that job. i'm preoccupied with this one. as you can tell, i got plenty to do. it's not like i got some spare time to spend. because you rolled your eyes and looking very disgruntled i hadn't called on you. i have known brian longer than you. >> new jersey governor chris christie responding to reporter's questions on the apparent political motivations behind the closing of lanes from new jersey into new york city on the new york washington bridge, announcing two of his aides lose their jobs. we are leaving here on c-span. a reminder you can continue to follow it online at c-span.org. we'll also have it for you later on our program schedule. the u.s. house is gaveling in. we take you there live.

be put aside in the place of the spirit and respect and dignity. may your spirit be in all our hearts and minds and encourage us to do the works of peace and justice now and always. may all that we do be done for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker: 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. the pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman

from virginia, mr. forbes. mr. forbes: 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 choir will entertain requests for one minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia rise? without objection. >> suggested the closure of military commissaries in the united states and that may be under consideration by the department of defense. our national defense and the men and women who volunteer to serve are not the cause of our current financial fiscal crisis. proposals asked them to carry the weight of solving it are unacceptable. commissaries are a vital intentional tool.

president obama recognized this fact earlier this year when he visited camp pendle toverpb during a furlough day and sid commissary closures are not how a great nation should be treating its military families. each year commissaries provide an average 31% savings for our military families. additionally by allowing the defense commissary based out of fort lee virginia to purchase products at higher volumes, the 178 commissaries in the united states bring down costs across our commissaries. i urge my colleagues to oppose any effort to close our commissaries, a system that's highly valued by service members and part of the commitment we make to take care of them during and after their time volunteering service to our nation. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from california is recognized for one minute.

>> their benefits go back into our economy immediately for basic needs like food and rent while they look for work. after 27 years an insurance company was let go last may. since then the 53-year-old has struggled to find work. another constituent of mine, louis in fresno, lost his unemployment insurance at the end of december. this father wrote, if i don't find a job in the next couple weeks, then i will not be able to pay my rent or pay for food for my family. with all the talk about restoring certainty to our economy, we cannot forget that american families drive this economy. now is not the time to take money out of their pockets they are also struggling to recover. let's restore unemployment with

a bipartisan effort. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, while home for christmas i respected on the economic challenges america faces and the parallels today's economy has with the one ronald reagan inherit interested jimmy carter in 1981. the both were characterized by high unemployment and low labor force participation. i'll paraphrase some of what president reagan said in his first inaugural address. idle industries have cast workers into unemployment causing human misery and personal indignity. those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalized successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity. mr. johnson: for decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children's future for the temporary convenience of the

present. by the end of ronald reagan's presidency, america's unemployment rate was 5.4%, and our economy was the envy of the world. it's time we learn from history. as president reagan said, government is the problem. individuals, free from the heavy hand of big government to pursue their dreams, they create prosperity. it's time we revisit the simple sacred truth. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. chu: this past month is the first time in months that 1. million out of work americans went to their mailbox and did not find an unemployment check. people like katelyn smith from my state of california, a marine corps vet and mother of two young children, she said she had

been searching for work for months but has not had success. california is starting to recover, but it still has 400,000 fewer jobs than it did before the down turn. it's especially hard to find jobs in the high desert where she lives, but the family can't move because her husband, a veteran of the afghanistan and iraq wars, must remain near the combat center until he's discharged from the marines in july. the loss of her benefits will cut even more deeply into the couple's income. katelyn says the family's already skimping on basics, including heat. she says, i have to keep the house at 55 degrees even though i have two little girls, age 2 1/2 and 1 1/2. for katelyn and others like her, we must extend unemployment benefits and we must extend them now. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one

minute. evise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. this week i went to augusta, georgia, to participate in an oversight hearing with chairman jeff miller of the house committee on veterans' affairs. mr. broun: this visit was the result of multiple deaths and delays in care reported in the augusta veterans hospital. we must find out what exactly went wrong. as both u.s. marine and current medical doctor in the navy reserves, i take reports of poor care for our veterans very seriously. i question hospital staff on how, , when and why these lapses in care occurred, and who is ultimately responsible. while it appears that under new leadership the hospital is heading in a positive direction, this is just the beginning of a full investigation. we have made promises to our veterans.

it is vital that we political these promises. i pledge to work to hold those responsible and the v.a. accountable, and i'm fully committed to making sure that our veterans receive world class health care in augusta as well as in v.a. hospitals across the country. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? without objection, the gentleman s recognized for one minute. mr. mr. higgins:, mr. speaker, the peace bridge facilitates the transport of $30 billion in commerce annually. however, increasing wait times and delays pose a significant threat to our nation's economy. while i am encouraged by the start of the preinspection pilot at the peace bridge for commercial vehicles which would allow trucks entering the united states to be prescreened on the canadian side of the border, i am concerned about staffing levels with custom agents at the border. i have called on customs and

border protection to increase staffing levels at the bridge, to facilitate easier accessibility at the northern border crossing and also encouraging f.y. 2014 homeland security appropriations budget to include full funding for customs and border protection officers' staffing request. the stream line flow of people and goods across the border is critical to the western new york economy and to the nation's economy. i am committed to fighting to preserve and improve our relationship with canada and our economic relationship. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina rise? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: webb -- the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, it's unfortunate enough that obamacare has increased the cost of health care for families across the country. on top of the skyrocketing premiums, limited choices for doctors and coverage and regulatory burdens on small business is worrisome that people's personal information is now being subjected to

potential fraud in the obamacare exchanges. the security problems with health care.gov go far beyond error messages and connection issues and in many cases the people in charge of collecting and processing our most sensitive information haven't been fully trained or vetted and although the administration knew the website hadn't been properly tested, they launched it pace in. mr. holding: leaving american people vulnerable. that's why i introduced h.r. 3652, the no identity theft in health care act, which would increase penalties for those who abuse their access to personal information that americans are forced to submit when signing up for obamacare. to commit identity theft. i also look forward to supporting the health care exchange security and transparency act later this week. mr. speaker, it's unacceptable that people's personal information is at risk and the administration needs to address

this. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute, to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. on december 23, i introduced hrment r. 3804 -- h.r. 3804, legislation to repeal an ill-conceived provision of the budget bill that reduced the cost of living -- the cost of living adjustment for military retirees. as a member of the house veterans affairs committee, i believe our service members, veterans and their families must receive the benefits they have so honorably earned and deserve. ms. brownley: these benefits are owed to them without equivalentcation. we should not balance the budget on the backs of military retirees who served our country so brafle for decades. they should not be punished

because of congress' failure to get our fiscal house in order. that is why i urge speaker boehner to allow a vote today on my bill, h.r. 3804, and repeal this egregious provision. clearly there is substantial bipartisan support to correct this. let's vote on h.r. 3804 for our military retirees today. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina rise? mr. wilson: i ask unanimous consent 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, last october a constituent living in columbia received a friletening phone call from a -- frightening phone call from a gentleman in north carolina. it appeared the constituent's security information was obtained by a stranger while enrolling for health insurance on the government health care website. the american people should not have to worry about personal information being compromised due to the government's inability to keep a website

secure. had the gentleman from north carolina not contacted this south carolinaan, he may have never realized his information was being breached. obamacare is flawed and must be repealed. because the president and senate refuse to join us in these efforts, the house continues to act. tomorrow the house will vote on a bill that requires health and human services to notify individuals when their personal information is stolen or unlawfully accessed. we must continue to work to repeal obamacare by replacing it with a plan to preserve the doctor-patient relationship as long proposed by congressman tom price. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia rise? mr. johnson: to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. i urge my republican colleagues to recognize the devastating

consequences of air pollution, which is causing or at least contributing to greatly the drastic changes in the earth's climate. last year we experienced severe record-setting weather across the country, yet republicans and climate deniers argue that no single weather event can be proven to have been caused by climate change. climate deniers are now using the extreme code snap -- cold snap as evidence to support their cause which is to do away with all laws and regulations that protect our precious air quality. the maddonning denial of the link between air quality and climate change is recless and its a denial of scientific fact. our posterity deserve more. we know and 95% of scientists agree that climate change leads to more severe weather overall and the evidence is overwhelming. now it's the time for real debate on climate change, before another devastating year

of extreme weather that takes lives, destroys communities and wreaks havoc on our community or on our society and our economy. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma rise? >> ask unanimous consent 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. lankford: i rise in january, 2014, being national slave ren' prevention month. an stumented between 100,000 and 300,000 children each year become victims of america. children become victims of hupeman trafficking within 48 hours of leesk home and it is crucial we as americans are aware of our surroundings and immediately contact authorities when we see anything suspicious around children. traffickers can be found in airports, parking lots, schools, malls, and other places where

they search for young victims. two years ago i authored a bill which this house passed, the senate passed, and president signed at the end of 2012 eliminating trafficking on our military bases is around the world and state department facilities around the world. we as americans believe every person has value. every person has rights that are given to them by their creator. mr. speaker, i would encourage every american if they come into contact with someone they suspect is a victim of human trafficking, to contact the national human trafficking hotline at 888-373-7888. let's help our fellow americans. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia rise? mr. moran: unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. moran: mr. speaker, as my colleague previously mentioned, most americans this week felt as though they were living in the north pole. there was a condition that --

called the polar vortex that became part of our common vernacular. normal routines were disrupted, schools closed, water mains ruptured, car batteries failed, and tragically weather related deaths went up. it didn't take long for conservative commentators to offer this cold weather phenomenon proof that the planet isn't warming, this is a hoax or some left-wing liberal ideology. the fact is that we -- scientists have told us the real and measurable decline of arctic sea ice that is the direct result of warmer weather and climate change is creating this polar more text that allows weather conditions that normally remain fixed over the arctic to spin out of control. they slip south and they subject us to arctic-like weather conditions. now, this is a fact that we need to recognize and do something

about or whether -- weather conditions are going to become far more common and severe. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? >> request unanimous consent to address the chair. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. this past week the college football season culminated in one of the best b.c.s. championship games ever played when the auburn tigers took on the f.s.u. seminoles. even though i am a resident of florida i'm a graduate of auburn and rooting for my tigers. i want to comment the coach for taking auburn from worst to first in the s.e.c. and leading his team to play for the national championship game. his efforts were nothing short of incredible. he made believers not only of his players but also believers out of all of us. he showed us the der pissence, discipline and faith in god will lead to success both individually and as a team. mr. ross: i want to congratulate my friend, coach fisher of florida state. coach fisher is not only a great coach but he obviously married

well because his wife is also an auburn alumni. while my heart is always in auburn, my hat goes off to the florida state seminoles for a well-earned victory. congratulations war eagles, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from illinois rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman from is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise to commemorate a milestone in our nation's history, 50 years ago president lyndon b. johnson stood before congress and declared an unconditional war on poverty. ms. kelly: as we respect on this war, i'm inspired by the progress we have made in 50 years. we have expanded economic opportunity and we have made the american dream a reality for millions. but this is not enough. recent events like allowing unemployment insurance to expire remind us that the war is not over. even though our economy is recovering from the recession, 10.9 million americans are still struggling to find work.

meanwhile, 16 million children live in poverty and now the 1.3 million americans who lost unemployment insurance have no means to provide for their family while they look for work. this cannot continue. no child should go to bed hungry and no family should struggle to keep a roof over their heads. 50 years ago we start add war and yes we have won many battles, but it's time to win the war. and we must start by making sure that americans can continue to meet basic needs as they pursue their dreams. i urge my colleagues to stand with me and extend unemployment insurance. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> 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. >> thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise to highlight yet another of the unintended consequences of the democratic health care law. because of the employer mandate in obamacare, our volunteer fire departments and emergency

response organizations are at risk of having their volunteers be considered employees and are therefore being forced to choose between retaining those volunteers and using their precious resources to comply with this mandate or cut those volunteers and the vital services they provide to our communities. as i have heard from people in my district, office of emergency services, the impact would be absolutely detrimental to critical services in rural areas . i ask congress to fix this unfair burden on our emergency volunteers and support h.r. 3685, the protecting volunteer firefighters and emergency responders act introduce bide my good friend, representative louarleta. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from connecticut rise? ms. delauro: to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. ms. delauro: i rise to call attention to the 90th anniversary of the sikorski

aircraft company, a billar of our national defense and the world's premiere helicopter manufacturer. 90 years ago russian born inventor igor sikorski opened the corporation for business on long island. since then the history of this pioneering company has been a string of firsts. sikorski built the first practical helicopter the vf-300 in 1939. five years later a sikorski vehicle performed the first helicopter combat rescue in history, saving soldiers in burma during world war ii. in 1945 a helicopter took part in the first ever civilian helicopter rescue, rescuing survivors from a sinking vessel in long island sound in 1957 devise eisenhower put the first presidential ride in sikorski made marine i. today in my state of connecticut sikorski continues to build the best helicopters in the world,

including the blackhawks so critical to our national security and to move the technology of rotor powered aircraft forward. the u.t.c. leadership and almost 16,000 hardworking men and women of sikorski, congratulations on its anniversary and here's to many more. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois rise? >> unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. address the house for one minute for --. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. speaker, this country has 10.9 million people out of work. many of whom have been out of work for over six months. we can't wait any longer. families want to work. they want a job that will allow them to put food on the table, take family vacations, and save for their children's education. and $300 a week just won't cut it. as we speak, the president has a permit on his desk, one that has been ready to sign for almost his entire tenure in office.

the keystone x.l. pipeline is a rare project supported by labor, business, and the hardworking taxpayers of this country. and one that has been studied and dissected more than most. this project is ready to go and with the stroke of a pen, mr. president, you can create 40,000 good-paying stable jobs across this country that american families want and deserve. all they need is your signature. let's finally create the jobs politicians love to talk about, get families back to work and off unemployment where they want to be. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the the gentlewoman from nevada rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. titus: thank you. as of the new year 1.3 million americans, including 17,600 nevadans are without a critical economic lifeline.

the emergency unemployment insurance that has helped men and women stay out of poverty and keep their families afloat as they look for a job. by allowing this program to expire, those already struggling to make ends meet are now facing even greater hardship as they are left to wonder how to put food on the table, keep a roof over their family's head, or put gas in the car. denying this vital lifeline is not only morally indefensible, it's also economically shortsighted. unemployment insurance benefits not only help the individual and their families who receive them, but they also boost our economy. failing to renew this program will weaken economic growth and cost our country 240,000 jobs, including almost 3,000 in nevada. so for the thousands of nevadans who lost emergency unemployment insurance at the beginning of the year and the 842 more who stand to lose their benefits at the end of this week, inaction is unacceptable.

i urge speaker boehner to bring this to the floor and vote in favor. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i, too, rise to urge the republican leaders to allow a vote on extending unemployment insurance benefits. to the thousands of workers in my central new york district and 1.3 million workers across the country who have lost these benefits. because congress has failed to act, hundreds of thousands of families are not having a happy new year. this important relief provides a lifeline to people who worked hard, they played by the rules, and they are out of work through no fault of their own. mr. maffei: by providing this vital assistance to unemployed workers, this program ensures workers and their families are able to make ends meet during their job searches. extending unemployment insurance should not be a partisan issue. in fact, this program was signed into law by president george w. bush. and has been re-authorized sfrl

times by members of both -- several times by members of both political parties during a time of economic recovery. if there are reforms needed to help people get back to work, let's make those reforms. don't toss out the whole program. mr. speaker, our economy is still recovering. and thousands of hardworking central new yorkers are still struggling to find a job. failure to extend unemployment insurance hurts the economy across central new york and across this country. the senate has already taken bipartisan action on extending unemployment insurance. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. maffei: it's time for the house to do the same. mr. speaker, i just don't understand why we don't have a vote. it would help the economy and would help our families. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york rise? >> unanimous consent 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. crowley: thank you, mr. speaker. for many people a new year marks a time of hope and optimism. millions of americans are instead ging this -- beginning

this year with fear and worry. they are wondering how they are going to make ends meet, pay their rent, or put food on the table. that's because they woke up just a few days after christmas to find that their emergency unemployment assistance had been terminated, cutting them off from a needed life line. that's just about the cruelest thing i can think of happening. it's mean, it's unnecessary, it's kicking people down who are already down. it's just plain shameful. it is shameful. and it's not the kind of america i believe in. shouldn't we be embracing policies like unemployment insurance that keep families afloat? shouldn't we be looking at our communities, our neighbors and saying yes, america will be there for you in your time of need? yes, we should say that. to every one of my colleagues i

say, join us in doing the right thing and restoring these needed benefits today. we need to do the right thing and not the wrong thing. we need to do that now. i yield back the balance of my ime. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives, sir, pursuant to the permission granted in clause 2-h of rule 2 of the rules of the u.s. house of representatives, the clerk received the following message from the secretary of the senate on january 9, 2014, at 9:42 a.m. that the senate passed, without amendment, h.r. 667, that the senate passed senate 1171, signed, sincerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition?

mr. burgess: mr. speaker, i call up house resolution and ask for its immediate consideration. the clerk: house calendar number 79, house resolution 455, resolved, that at any time after the adoption of this resolution, the speaker may, pursuant to clause 2-b of rule 18 declare the house resolved into the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of the bill, h.r. 2279, to amend the solid waste disposal act relating to review of regulations under such acts and to amend the comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability act of 1980, relating to financial responsibility for classes of facilities. the first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. general debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on energy and commerce. after general debate, the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute

rule. and lew of the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on energy and commerce, now printed in the bill, it shall be in order to consider as an original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule an amendment in the nature of a substitute consisting of the text of rules committee print 113-30. that amendment in the nature of a substitute shall be considered as read. all points of order against that amendment in the nature of a substitute are waived. no amendment to that amendment in the nature of a substitute shall be in order except those printed in part a of the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution. each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the house or in the committee of the whole.

all points of order against such amendments are waived. at the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment, the committee shall rise and report the bill to the house with such amendments as may have been adopted. any member may demand a separate vote in the house on any amendment adopted in the committee of the whole to the bill or to the amendment in the nature of a substitute made in order as original text. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening motion, except one motion to recommit with or without instructions. section 2, upon adoption of this resolution, it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill, h.r. 3362, to amend the patient protection and affordable care act, to require transparency in the operation of american health benefit exchanges. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the amendment printed in part b of the report of the committee on rules accompanying this

resolution shall be considered as adopted. the bill as amended shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill as amended are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill as amended and on any amendment thereto to final passage except, one, one hour of debate with 40 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on energy and commerce and 0 minutes equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means. and, two, one motion to recommit with or without instructions. section 3, upon adoption of this resolution, it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill, h.r. 3811, to require notification of individuals of breaches of personally identifiable information through exchanges under the patient protection and affordable care act. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived.

the bill shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except, one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on energy and commerce and, two, one motion to recommit. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for one hour. mr. burgess: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, for the purposes of debate only, i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from colorado, mr. polis, pending which i yield myself such time as i may consume. during consideration of this resolution, all time yielded is for the purpose of debate only. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to i reserve the balance of my time their remarks -- revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, house

resolution 455 provides for the consideration of three important bills which were reported by the energy and commerce committee. h.r. 2279, the reducing excessive deadline obligations act of 2013, h.r. 3362, the exchange information disclosure act, and h.r. 3811, the health exchange security and transparency act of 2014. h.r. 2279 is a bill to address the burdensome and outdated deadlines for certain rulemaking activities conducted by the environmental protection agency under the solid waste disposal act and the comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability act and this provides flexibility for the environmental protection agency in order to stream line a process critical to cleaning up sites contaminated with certain toxic or hazardous chemicals. it further requires the environmental protection agency

to evaluate existing state or other federal financial assurance requirements to determine whether additional requirements are in fact necessary. finally it requires the owner or operator of a chemical storage site to report the presence of such chemicals to state emergency response commissions. it is a commonsense piece of legislation to help clean up areas that have been polluted and allow for the reclamation or development, and this could bring jobs and economic benefits to neighborhoods which have been so affected. as to the two health care-related pieces of legislation, these are targeted bills to address just a few of the massive problems the american public has witnessed over the last few months pertaining to the rollout of the federal healthcare.gov website. the data obtained by healthcare.gov is one of the largest collections of personal information ever assembled.

it links information between seven different federal agencies, state agencies and government contractors. in promising lower costs and widespread health coverage for americans, president obama failed to mention that the affordable care act's mandates and requirements will create a large scale disruption of the entire health insurance market. the resulting cancellation of insurance plans and high costs for employers to continue providing insurance for their workers has left millions of americans with no choice other than to purchase health insurance through the affordable care act's exchanges. subjecting their personal information to the vulnerable security infrastructure. the initial launch of health care.com -- healthcare.gov was plagued with glitches and errors, not only did the administration fail to establish basic functionality of the website, but the initial

problems really only break the surface of the deeper security threats in the underlying law. a multitude of gaps remain in the website's security infrastructure, making the website a wide-open target for hackers and identity thieves. these flaws continue to pose a threat to the security of americans' personal data. mr. speaker, it wasn't that the administration was not alerted to these security concerns on the website prior to the launch. a contractor for the department of health and human services alerted the agency that 19 unaddressed security vulnerabilities plagued the website prior to its launch on october 1. top officials at the center for medicare and medicaid services, including the chief information security officer, teresa frier, along with the website's project manager, both refused to sign the authority to

operate the license that was necessary to actually launch healthcare.gov. despite these known issues, the director of the center for medicare and medicaid services continued the launch of the website. this is much more than a faulty website. this is about the american people who cannot trust their government to certify that their personal information will be safe on a government-run website. the security threat goes beyond just an individual's primary application. once an individual's personal information is entered into the system, the exchange has the ability to access information within the department of homeland security, the internal revenue service, social security and the treasury department. the administration has opened numerous federal agencies to data breaches and unauthorized access. just before the holidays, the entire nation saw firsthand

what a massive security breach looks like. over 40 million target customers, their personal data was compromised by computer hackers who pilfered personal financial information and identification. target has gone out of their way to alert customers of the security breach. but unfortunately the federal government has no such obligation under the law. and this is a point that i don't think most people are aware of. it's not required, it's not a mandate that you have a target charge card or that you shop at target. but it's certainly required and a mandate that you buy your insurance through healthcare.gov. this is a coercive federal policy that now is pulling people into its website and refuses to provide them the very same protection that we demand that the private sector do for a voluntary purchase.

instead of following the same requirements placed on the private sector, the federal government hases gone out of their way to a-- government has gone out of their way to avoid this due diligence. even when a notification requirement was specifically requested during the rulemaking process on the exchanges, the administration just simply refused. in the march 27, 2012, federal register, department of health and human services responded stating, and i quote, we do not plan to include the specific notification procedures in the final rule, continuing to quote, consistent with this approach, we do not include specific policies for investigation of data breaches in this final rule, closed quote. furthermore, state laws require that many of the 14 state-run insurance exchanges, that they do disclose such inrmation. but no such law exists for the federally run exchange and, mr. speaker, i would remind you

that 36 states rely upon the federally run exchange. look, we've spent hundreds of millions of dollars, taxpayer dollars. the american people deserve to know that their personal information is protected and to be notified if that protection lapses. let's be honest. healthcare.gov is the most talked about website in years. the massive amount of personal information that is collected through healthcare.gov and its ability to access multiple government databases creates the perfect environment for targeting by hackers.to the hac into the system have already been reported. not to mention the many stories that have been reported in the press on the mishandling and sharing of individuals' data. identity theft is a threat not only to an individual's credit rating and personal finances, but also to overall united states national security. most americans would be shocked to learn that this level of protection is not already in

place for an initiative the size of the affordable care act. well, today the house is working to correct this injustice, protecting americans when the administration has refused to do so. the obama administration has consistently refused to disclose detailed data on how many americans have actually completed the obamacare enrollment process. now, it is more than three months after the launch of the exchanges and we just simpley do not know how many americans are enrolled in the exchange plan. it was the administration who initially defined success of the exchange as the number of americans who actually enroll in the program. the number of enrollments are the only way to evaluate whether the more than trillion dollars that was spent on this thing by the administration has -- is actually working. the president's commitment to an open and transparent government, repeated so many times during the passage of the

affordable care act, represents yet one more broken promise in a long string of broken promises. when this administration has failed and where it has failed, the bill before us will require the secretary of the department of health and human services to provide detailed weekly reports to the american people about the enrollment number on healthcare.gov. the american people deserve to know, what are they getting for their hard-earned tax dollars that they've spent on the demands of this administration? it is the american people who are suffering because of the mismanagement and failures of this administration. today, today we have the opportunity to provide transparency and protect americans' personal information. . the rule today provides for one hour of debate equally divided between the majority and minority for each of the bills contained in the rule. the minority is further afforded the customary motion to recommit on each piece of legislation.

i want to encourage my colleagues to vote yes on the rule and yes on the underlying bills and stand with the millions of americans who are asking, who are demanding that we protect their privacy. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado se? mr. polis: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. polis: i thank the gentleman, mr. burgess, for yielding me the customary 30 minutes. mr. speaker, i rise in opposition to the rule today under which three bills are being brought to the floor, h.r. 3811rk the health exchange security and transparency act, h.r. 2279, the reducing excessive deadlines obligations act, and h.r. 3362, the exchange information disclosure act. you wouldn't know by their names what these bills actually do. i plan to discuss that and more importantly i plan to discuss, mr. speaker, what these bills fail to accomplish. these misguided and superfluous

bills were brought under a very restrictive process. two are being brought to the floor under a completely closed rule that blocks all efforts by members to improve the legislation. democrats yesterday in the rules committee proposed an open rule for these bills, allowing members from both sides of the aisle to offer their ideas to make them better. and it was voted down in the rules committee on a partisan vote. instead of moving forward and tackling challenges like extending unemployment, which has been talked about, or passing a jobs bill, or infrastructure bill, or fixing our broken immigration system, or reforming our tax system, again we are discussing bills relating to the affordable care act that don't seek to improve the act and make it work better for the american people, but only add more paperwork and bureaucracy and cost to the health care system we already have by putting additional requirements on federal workers

and others that are working hard to ensure that obamacare works for america every day. of the 112 legislative days we have left this year, we need to ensure that we spend them wisely. i don't think that these three bills are a good way for us to use two days of our time. the first bill, h.r. 3362, calls on h.h.s. to publish weekly reports on consumer interactions with health care.gov, including the details of all calls received by the call center. now, much of this information is already available monthly. there are already reliable updates on enrollment numbers, and numerous updates on the websites and issues consumers have encountered. look, it's not the time while you're fixing the website and getting it working, it's not the time to put additional requirements on those that are laboring to ensure that americans can sign up for

affordable health care. again, it's more information about who's calling and what they are doing weekly rather than monthly, will provide an additional workload for those who are trying to make sure that the websites are functioning for america. it will actually make it harder for the websites to function by having to divert some effort if this were to become law simply to building a reporting requirements that were mandated by congress. it's almost as if this bill was designed to make the website work worse, mr. speaker. by moving developers and others without any additional resources away from making the necessary improvements towards building entirely new reporting systems just so people can have information weekly instead of monthly? it would be great to have information weekly, i would love to have information daley, real time. that would be wonderful. you have to weigh the cost and

benefits and say is it worth building into this system real-time reporting? is it worth it to say we want the information weekly instead of monthly? and again if you're building it from scratch and if the, perhaps, if the republicans had offered this as an amendment into the original affordable care act, maybe this could have been incorporated in. three years ago. we could have built a suss tell with either real time or weekly reporting. but here where we are today, clearly the top priority needs to be that this website works well for the american people so they can get affordable health care for them selves and their family. that's what the american people want. let's talk about security and safeguards for consumer information. again, you have the germ of a good idea. there is, of course, when the government has our personal information we need to make sure that there's adequate safeguards that goes for the i.r.s., it goes for military personnel files. it goes for the affordable care

act. just as we want to make sure when the private sector and companies have our personal information that they institute the proper safeguards. and there are examples of failure. mr. burgess mentioned target, a private sector example of failure. we certainly hope and hope that we have the infrastructure and security in place to ensure that there is not a failure of security with regard to the affordable care act, but when we are talking about identity theft and how to address it, we need to look at where the real problem is. what's the leading cause of identity theft? is it the i.r.s.? is it the affordable care act? is it the military? no. one of the biggest causes of breaches of personal information is our broken immigration system. the fact that many immigrants in our country are here with fake paperwork, fraudulent social security numbers they have purchased or stolen, and h.r. 15, the bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform package, which in a very similar form has

already passed the senate, would address this. so if we actually want to reduce identity theft and breaches of security and safeguard, mr. speaker, personal information for the american people, we should address the real problem rather than one of many hypothetical problems. that again is no doubt worthy of discussion, but let's address where identity theft actually occurs. according to the center for immigration studies, which has done a lot of work on identity theft from those who are here illegally, experts suggest that 75% of people who are here illegally and working use fraudulent social security cards to obtain employment. again americans are the victims of this stuff. children are prime targets. their report indicates that in arizona it's estimated that there are thousands of children that are victims of identity theft.

h.r. 15 contains mandatory e-verify, which the center for immigration studies says would curb and stop virtually 100% ever child identity theft. if we are serious, mr. speaker, about doing something, about the fact that drivers licenses, social security numbers are being stolen, well, let's pass immigration reform. let's make sure that people who are working in our country and have a role here have some kind of provisional work permit, some prospect of a pathway to citizenship over many years or decades, and that we have mandatory e-verify mechanism of checking, a way of verifying at the employer level that their paperwork is authentic and it's not, in fact, stolen from an innocent american as it is today. that would address identity theft. that would address fraud. and we have people today that

actually under our current laws are incentivized to steal information, personal information from american people. our immigration system is clearly broken. we need to fix it. h.r. 15, the house's bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill would create a mandatory employment eligibility verification program. currently only 7% of employers in our entire country had enrolled in e-verify to do workplace authentication of those who work here. let's bring this bill to the floor. if that's the issue, if that's the issue we want to address rather than address something that's hypothetically of concern, yes, of course he we care about secure information in the healthcare.gov site, military records, the i.r.s. meanwhile there are hundreds of thousands of identities being stolen every day and that's going to continue because this body refuses to bring h.r. 15 to the floor of the house which would make that number almost zero.

the final bill that this bill -- rule brings to the floor is h.r. 2279, the reducing excessive deadline obligation act. it's a pack and of three bills that would weaken hazardous waste laws like superfund and the resources conservation and recovery act. it would limit the e.p.a.'s oversight to ensure that the american people are safe and healthy. do we need to remind this body that the reason congress enacted these safeguards and superfund is because of tragedies like love canal where a residential neighborhood was built on top of 21,000 tons of hazardous waste, and due to the exposure of the residents, suffered very high rates of miscarriages, cancers, and birth defects. the situation was so dire that the federal government wound up having to evacuate the entire community. that's not the america i want to live in, mr. speaker. i oppose h.r. 2279 because it could lead to more situations like love canal rather than

making sure that the american people are safe and healthy in their homes. mr. speaker, this debate is not really about reporting requirements. it's about making healthcare.gov function less effectively. it's not about breaches of our personal information. we could solve that. a big chunk of it by bringing h.r. 15 to the floor of the house. it's not really about improving our competitiveness by removing unnecessary e.p.a. regulations. it's about risking the health of our families. we need to focus on rebuilding our infrastructure, fixing our broken immigration system, and making sure that we can protect the health of the american people, not jeopardize it. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. burgess: i had he' now like to yield four minutes to the gentleman from georgia, doug collins. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for four minutes. mr. collins: thank you, mr. speaker. it's new year, we come down and

begin this week and i have made a commitment and i think. of us do, resolutions on what are we going to do for the new year, you always try to learn something new. today has been a busy day with meetings and other things i have learned a lot, but i have come to the floor today to learn something from -- that was amazing to me and it was not only that a bill that we are talking about under this rule would actually be designed to make-- accused of making the obamacare website worse, i didn't know that was possible. undoubtedly it can be, but i think it actually helps when we look at what we are doing for the country and what we are doing if we move forward protecting the interest of the people. so it is with that i rise in strong support of the rule and the underlying pieces of legislation and in particular h.r. 311, the health exchange security and transparency act of 2014. even before obamacare was signed into law, pundits and politicians alike have speculated on the impact it

would have on american families. skyrocketing premiums, loss of coverage, poor quality of care were all correctly predicted by many on this side of the aisle. we come here today, however, because americans aren't just faced with the unaffordable health care and broken presidential promises, the security and privacy of our personal information is a great risk due to obamacare. and one of the things that i think is mentioned here an should be noted that protecting the information that is being forced to be given, it should be of our utmost importance and not something that should be -- we should be doing other bills -- believe me i would want to talk about other things, too, but this is something important that's protecting americans' interest, and we need to continue to do so. i believe the best health care system is one that is patient centered and far removed from the flawed policies and obamacare as polcy. over the upcoming months i look forward to debating the merits of the obamacare versus true health care reform with my colleagues on the other side of the aisle.

but today is not that day. today we come to the floor to simply say american families should know about the breaches of personal identical information in the obamacare exchanges, regardless of the level of your political affiliation, wouldn't you like to be notified if the security of your personal information has been grow mized -- compromised? if we get outside the politics of washington, we ask our constituents, i firmly believe that answer would be yes. it would be a he resounding yes. -- it would be a resounding yes. as i come to speak in support of this rule and speebling -- speaking also with the underlying bills and especially when i believe something such as protecting the security of our personal information is so important, i believe it is also important for us to remember as we start a new year that when we come here people listen, people are concerned about their lives, they are concerned about what has gone on, and over the past few months, especially when it comes to health care, and can you go to teachers in georgia right now who have had their health care changed because of the a.c.a. that has just been an

interesting mark everywhere i go in listening to people and what is now a health care system that they used to have, their own insurance is lost into something they are struggling with. or whether it's the identifiable nature of the issues of their information on the website that possibly could be compromised, to just simply saying that we need regulations for our businesses and making sure our environmental projects are the ones that are prioritized and not simply at the whim of a certain administration priority. what we've got to do here is continue to look forward to doing the people's business and in doing so in such a way that matters to everyday americans. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. again, the gentleman said that there's a risk of information being taken from the healthcare.gov site. there's a potential risk from any site. but every day there are tens of

thousands of american identities being stolen because of this body's refusal to fix our broken immigration system now. mr. speaker, i yield as much time as she may consume to the gentleman from new york, the ranking member of the rules committee, ms. slaughter. ms. slaughter: i thank the gentleman for yielding. thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, the majority has passed so few bills into law that it is on pace to become the least productive congress in history and frankly i think they're a little proud of that. the inability to govern is directly related to the closed legislative process the majority has pursued with vigor over the course of the last year. as the beginning here of the second session of the 113th congress, the majority has practically shuttered the doors of every committee, save for the rules committee. it is a rare day when a bill proceeds the regular order from a committee of jurisdiction to the rules committee and down to the house floor. in fact, during the first session of the 113th congress,

major legislation repeatedly originated in the rules committee and was rushed to the house floor for an up or down vote. furthermore, during the first congressional session, the majority relied upon closed rules to shut out the minority and diminish the chance of any compromise. under a closed rule, no amendments are allowed on the house floor. that cuts out, mr. speaker, more than half of the people in the united states of america who voted for democrats. during 2013, the majority set new records by approving 19 closed rules in sage week. and an un-- in a single week. and an unprecedented 11 closed rules in a single day. even those with no interest in or knowledge of legislative process can understand the impact that that closed process has on our ability to govern. every member of the chamber was sent here with a simple duty,

to represent our constituents to the best of our ability. but by closing down the legislative process, the majority is preventing 200 duly elected members of congress from being able to do just that. collectively we members of the minority represent more than 142 million americans. each one of us entrusted to work on their behalf. how can we do that when the majority takes away our ability to participate in marking up legislation, amending bills and having a full and open debate? the rules committee has the unique and powerful ability to open up the legislative process and get congress working again. in our committee with amend bills, improve legislation, set the terms of debate, so every member of the house can participate in the legislative process. that's why i am so dismayed and

somewhat disgusted at the proposed rule the majority in the rules committee has carried to the floor today. before us is a single three bills. under this resolution two of those bills are considered under closed rules, which are not amendable, not discussble, and one is considered under a structured rule. and that one came up two days ago and has had no committee action whatsoever. now the bill being considered under a structured rule tries to revoke virtually all the regulation powers from the e.p.a., the agency that protects our health, our rivers, our air and our lands. at the same time one of the bills being considered under closed rule adds layers of red tape to the department of health and human services, and demands that health care navigators provide everything to the public except their blood type and their family history to congress on an

almost daily basis. it is simply designed to slow up the work of signing up americans for the health care that they want and deserve. it's very clear this bill is not a serious attempt to serve the american people. but it's a tactic to keep health care navigators from doing their work. instead of moving forward with these go-nowhere bills, we should be extending unemployment insurance to the millions of americans struggling to find work and without than you employment insurance, the economy is suffering every single day. now, just before we left for christmas, the last day we were here, the debate on the rule of the budget, we had a vote that we could have done to extend the unemployment during the rules debate on the floor. that was under the previous question. the vote failed, despite the fact that every democrat and some republicans voted for it. and as a result -- by the way, this bill was paid for, already

taken care of by excess payments that we pay in agriculture subsidies. it was an extension for three months. but that was not good enough. so today you're going to have another chance to do just that. to extend the unemployment insurance, and i strongly urge my colleagues to do it. if my colleagues will join me in voting no on the previous question of three-month extension of unemployment benefits, we'll come to the floor for an immediate vote. this is the same bipartisan bill moving forward in the senate, deserves the same consideration here in the house. today more than 1.3 million to icans have lost access the unemployment insurance. soon it will be over two million and by probably the end of march or may, five million. for so many, it's their only source of income and the only way they can pay their heating bills and buy food during these cold winter days. we've got to stand up for the millions of americans struggling to get by through no fault of their own, because you

remember that in order to be eligible for unemployment insurance, you have to prove that you are looking for work. so i strongly urge my colleagues to vote no on the previous question when it comes up, so that we can have an immediate vote to extend unemployment insurance and finally do something in this house and through this rules committee that will benefit the americans and make our constituents know that we count for something. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, may i inquire as to the time remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas has 16 minutes. the gentleman from colorado has 13 minutes. mr. burgess: very well, mr. speaker. i'll yield myself two minutes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, it's often said those who don't remember their history are doomed to repeat it. rules committee is an important

function of this house. an important function of this body. three years ago, prior to three years ago, the rules committee was under the jurisdiction of the democrats. they controlled the rules committee throughout the entirety of the 111th congress. you may recall that was the first two years of the first obama term. in those two years, under speaker pelosi, this was the first congress in history, the first congress in the history of the republic, not to have a single bill considered under an open rule process. now, since republicans resumed the majority, at the beginning of 2011, 31 bills have come under an open rule. track record may not be perfect, but it is better than what preceded it. i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves.

the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. nevertheless, i would remind the gentleman, mr. burgess, that this particular rule has two closed rules on two of the three bills. with that i'll yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. ms. jackson lee: i ask to address the house, unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: i want to join the rules committee and thank members on both sides of the aisle for their hard work. but i want to associate myself with ranking member slaughter for recognizing that we represent millions of people and the constant closed-rule approach for bills that have not even been heard by committee makes it difficult to represent your constituents. so i associate myself with her plea for equity and comedy and i also -- comity and i can also ask that we recognize that 1.3

million and growing to 3.6 million, 4,000 a week, of the individuals who worked and invested in this nation have received letters like my constituent in houston, letters with no offer of assistance, but simply that your unemployment benefit, insurance benefit has been canceled. cancel your life, cancel your housing, cancel your food, cancel your medicine, cancel taking care of your children, cancel your life. so i think it's extremely important that we vote today again and we hope that we will draw bipartisan support to avoid the loss of some 200 thoup -- 200,000 jobs, to avoid the loss of serving 20,000 military veterans, who are in fact beneficiaries of unemployment insurance, 1.3 million americans, two million children impacted, to avoid the

oss to the american economy, $1.55 is generated by this insurance. millions of dollars to be lost. and then i would ask that it is important to be able to have a rule structure, more than a structured rule, more than a closed rule. because the bills that are before us today, the underlying bills, i am opposed to. because my district is impacted by the superfund. the d ask that we -- gentleman's very kind. the three superfund bills, no involvement of the federal government, taking authority away from the federal government, having the states override the federal government on superfunds. there are neighborhoods who are still suffering. and then, with respect to this issue of privacy, i support the idea, but what i would say to

my friends, and thanks privacy with health care.com -- and this is about privacy with healthcare.gov, we cannot continue to chip away at a bill, the affordable care act, where millions of people have received health care. let's work to ensure all of the privacy sites or the sites of the federal government -- let's not pick away at the affordable care act, which has been documented that it is secure. healthcare.gov. if the republicans wish to help make all of the government secure, we're ready to do that. but what i would suggest is that this bill is not going in the right direction. i in fact ask a no vote on the rule and on the underlying bill. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. burgess: i thank the speaker. i tire of going through this history lesson every time we come down to the floor. but may i remind you, when the now affordable care act was passed into law, this is a bill

that came over to the house from the senate. sure enough the house had sent the bill over to the senate in july of 2009, h.r. 3590. it was a bill that dealt with housing. the bill that dealt with housing was amended. the amendment read, strike all after the enacting clause, and insert, and the health care language which was de novo, the health care language was inserted. to be sure, the house had considered health care reform bill, h.r. 3200. h.r. 3200 has gone to the ether of history. h.r. 3590 passed in the senate, 60-vote margin on christmas eve, 2009. and then was thrown over to the house of representatives. did we have a hearing on h.r. 3590 in the committee on energy and commerce? no, we did not. did they have a hearing in the appropriate subcommittee in ways and means on h.r. 3590 as amended? no, they did not. the bill came to the rules committee, it came to the rules

committee, i attempted to offer amendments. i was told no thank you. the bill was perfect the way it is. doesn't need any changes. this bill that affects every man, woman and child in this country for the next three decades in a very unfavorable way was passed without any input from the then minority, the republicans in the house of representatives. so, it is beyond comprehension that we could continue to have these arguments about closed processes. this after all is the granddaddy of all closed processes, and the consequence, the drafting errors, the problems embedded in the structure could not be dealt with during the normal legislative process, which is why so much authority has been transferred to the executive branch, to the agencies and why they are now essentially writing the laws that affect so many americans. i'll reserve the balance of my

time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield two minutes to the gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. connolly: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my colleague. i was listening, as a student of history myself, to our friend from texas, and that little last bit about affordable health care, he left out one little piece of history. which was that the republicans in both the senate and the house, to a person, decided a priority to oppose the health health, though they didn't know what was -- affordable care act, though they didn't know what was in it. to say they weren't given an opportunity to amend something that we decided we were going to oppose, remember the words, if we can defeat this bill, it will be president obama's waterloo, no matter what's in it. we need to remember history in its full context. and speaking of history, knowing of my distinguished friend's love of it, it was almost 35 years ago when the 96

-- 1996 congress answered the cries of communities across the country facing the life-threatening affects of hazardous toxic waste. who can forget, speaking of history, love canal disaster in new york or the valley of the drums in kentucky, the unexplained increases in the incidences of cancer, birth defects and miscarriages? in an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort then that congress did the right thing, by creating the superfund program, offering communities a way to remediate contaminated sites to protect public health and hold polluters accountable. the success of the superfund is clear. according to the e.p.a., as of april last year, remedial actions have been completed at more than 1,145 national priority list sites and an additional 365 have been completely cleaned up and deleted from the list. that's called success. that's called a program that's

working. that's 70% of the sites that has been added to the priority list. today, human exposure is under control. at 1,361 priority sites and contaminated groundwater under control at 1,069 sites. mr. polis: i yield additional 30 seconds. connell knl despite that success, -- mr. connolly: despite that success, with communities still in need, the house majority wants to peel back that process and repeal what we've been done. can the superfund be approved? the answer isn't letting industry off the hook and leaving families exposed to hazardous waste and high cancer rates. i urge defeat of this bill and i thank my colleague for giving me the extra time. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from texas. mr. burgess: i yield myself a minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. burgess: i would point out this bill before us today does not, does not change the

superfund but it does allow states the flexibility to deal with problems in their states as they see fit. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from colorado is ecognized. mr. polis: mr. speaker, on this 50th anniversary of the war on poverty, 1.4 million americans have lost emergency unemployment insurance and thousands more stand to lose it each day, each week that congress fails to act. i'll offer an amendment to the rule that will allow the house to consider legislation that's identical to the bipartisan measure being considered in the senate and would restore unemployment insurance to those who lost it to discuss our proposal. -- and to discuss our proposal, i yield two minutes to mr. kill key. -- mr. kildee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized for two minutes. mr. kildee: thank you, mr. speaker, and thank you, mr. polis, for the time. i urge my colleagues to join me in defeating the previous question. as my colleague said, so we can

immediately take up the question of the extension of emergency unemployment to millions of americans who have lost their job and who are seeking to find their next opportunity to contribute to our economy and to support their families. you know, i'm part of the freshman class. we just began our second year in congress, and something about the 2012 class that i think defines us is that we believe that we were sent here by the electorate of 2012 not to posture but to get things done, to take action, to solve problems. and that's why myself and the rest of the democratic freshman class yesterday sent a letter to speaker boehner asking he immediately bring up an extension to the unemployment compensation for so many americans. let's be clear about something, though. unlike what i have heard from so many on the other side, being unemployed is not a

choice. it is not a lifestyle to be sought. it is a condition that is often unanticipated and it is one that nobody in my district that i know of who's unemployed that would seek to try to ever maintain. now, i can only speak to the people i represent, but i suspect this is true of my colleagues. folks that we represent back home that are out of work would gladly today trade unemployment compensation for a job that puts them to work and gives them the dignity of work and the obligation -- the ability to meet their obligations to their family in their community. it's about survival. it's about making your rent payment. it's about being able to pay your car payment, to put food on the table for your kids. it's about being able to keep the house warm. it's not a lifestyle to be sought, and i think the notion that somehow people who are unemployed want to be there --

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. kildee: it's offensive. i urge my colleagues to join me in defeating this previous question so that we can immediately take up the work that the american people are asking us to take up. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. kildee: if i could have additional 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. kildee: to make sure that 1.3 million americans have a chance to support their families until they can find meaningful work. 11 million people since 2008 have been saved from poverty because of unemployment compensation. that unemployment extension was supported by the vast majority of members of this house, signed by president bush with no strings attached. what is different about 2014 than what was experienced in 2008? nothing. except we have the same obligation to those same americans to make sure that they don't go broke, that they don't lose their house, that they don't lose their car, that they don't lose their family as a result of the lack of basic decency. i yield back.

thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. burgess: reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: well thank you, mr. speaker. i am proud to yield three minutes to the gentleman from maryland, the democratic whip, mr. hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for three minutes. mr. hoyer: i thank the gentleman for yielding. i appreciate this opportunity to comment not only upon this rule, which provides of course for mostly closed rules, no amendments, no ability to change or modify, particularly two bills that had no hearings, went to no committees and were reported out, doing stuff that did for 2013 almost without exception. but what i really rise to say is that i want to urge every member to vote for -- against

-- excuse me -- the previous question. now, mr. speaker, i know the american public will hear previous question. what does that mean? the previous question, if defeated, will give us the opportunity to put on this floor what the overwhelming majority of american people want on this floor which i understand the gentleman from michigan, as i just was walking in, he just was talking about, and that is to deal with the most pressing issue confronting this country right now, today. and that is we have 1.3 million americans who have simply been dropped through whatever safety net we thought we had instructed. -- constructed. now, so, mr. speaker, the american public understands the

previous question will give us the opportunity, if it's defeated, to put that legislation on the floor now, to extend for those 1.3 million people the help of the american people who want to do it. in every poll they say, no, we ought to have this help. and when george w. bush was president of the united states, five times we extended unemployment insurance for long-term unemployed, five times without paying for it. if the previous question is defeated, and make no mistake about it, the vote on the previous question is whether or not you want to give long-term unemployed who have lost their insurance and having trouble putting food on their tables, if you want to give them help, you will vote no on the previous question.

don't hide behind a procedural issue. this is a substantive issue. this is an issue of whether . 're going to give help now so the american public that's for this ought to be looking at it, and every member who votes yes on the previous question is voting not, not to give help to hose folks, 1.3 million of them, 20,000 veterans -- do you have any more time? mr. polis: i yield an additional 30 seconds to the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. hoyer: 20,000 veterans who can't find a job and there's only one job available for every three people that are looking for a job. that's why george w. bush extended unemployment. that's why we ought to do it. we can do it. we have the ability to do it. vote no on the previous question.

it is a substantive vote on whether or not you want to help the long-term unemployed who have lost as of december 28, three days after christmas, the season of giving and caring, whether you want to give them the unemployment insurance that they count on to feed themselves and their families and have their heads above water and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. burgess: reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from colorado is recognized. mr. polis: mr. speaker, i yield one minute to the gentleman from rhode island, mr. cicilline. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from rhode island is recognized for one minute. mr. cicilline: nearly 1.4 million americans have been cut off from their unemployment benefits and thousands more americans will lose their benefits every week without congressional action. it is unfore give that this congress will -- unforgiveable that this congress will adjourn tomorrow without addressing this crisis. instead of addressing the solution of extending unemployment benefits, this

rule will not allow us to address this critical issue of extending unemployment insurance. the more serious it will become for the long-term unemployed and their families. punishing long-term unemployed and their families who have been hit hard in this recession through no fault of their own is just plain wrong. my own senate, jack reed, has offered a proposal in the senate. it will preserve this critical lifeline while we work on a long-term solution and we should do the same thing here. surely my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want the opportunity to vote on extending unemployment insurance. so i urge my colleagues to vote no on the previous question, to defeat the previous question so we can take up the issue of extending unemployment insurance for many rhode islanders and americans across this country who desperately need these benefits. thank you and i thank the gentleman. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado reserves. the gentleman from texas is recognized. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, if i could inquire as to if there

are any other speakers on the other side, i'm prepared to close. mr. polis: i'm prepared to close. mr. burgess: i'll yield for closing. mr. polis: i ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment immediately prior to the vote on the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. polis: mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to vote no and defeat the previous question. the senate has passed a bipartisan conference immigration bill. the senate is debating unemployment insurance. meanwhile, the house has not dedicated a single minute, single second to legislative floor time to any immigration reform bill that would address identity theft. let's move forward, pass bills that matter to the american people rar than political -- rather than political bills that aren't going anywhere. i urge a no vote on the resolution and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas. mr. burgess: thank you. i yield myself the balance of the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. burgess: mr. speaker, one of the questions for people who have been watching this debate, i'm sure one of the questions they have, is there any

difference as to how the private sector is treated when -- if and date a breach occurs versus a federal agency? the simple fact of the matter is there is a difference. private sector is governed under state laws and, yes, some federal regulations as well. in fact, earlier this month in the publication called "the hill," titled, "date of breach sparks calls for action," significant discussion about perhaps more activity on part of the federal trade commission in protecting consumers who have been exposed to a data breach. well, what other protections -- what are the protections for those for data breach for those in the federal government? there is not legislation, there was not a law that was signed by any administration, but there is an executive order of the president dating from may 22, 2007, a so-called o.m.b.

circular. the o.m.b. circular dealing with data breaches under the section titling, notification reads, agencies should provide notification without unreasonable delay following the discovery of a breach consistent with the needs of law enforcement and national security and any measures necessary for your agency to determine the scope of the breach and if applicable to restore the reasonable integrity of the computerized data system compromised, decisions to delay notification should be made by the agency. and so you get the impression that this is perhaps a rather open-ended or distuesday or poorly defined timeliness for notification for our constituents who are harmed by a data breach by a federal agency. so that is one of the problems that we are here today to correct. today's rule provides for the

consideration of a critical jobs bill, critical security bills to clean up our environmental, and to protect americans' personal data. i certainly want to thank mr. gardner, mr. terry and chairman pitts for their thoughtful bills. i urge my colleagues to support both the rule and the underlying pieces of legislation. for that reason i yield back the balance of my time and i move the previous question on the resolution and urge an aye vote on the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. mr. polis: mr. speaker, on that i request the yeas and nays. 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 sufficient number having arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 9 of rule 20, the chair will reduce to five minutes the minimum time

for any electronic vote on the question of adoption. 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 226. and the nays are 191. the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. mr. polis: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado. mr. polis: on that i request a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote is requested. those favoring a recorded vote will rise. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is 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.]