the senate has separated the two measures now. the republican leaders -- republicans met this morning and boehner -- speaker john boehner told reporters, i'm waiting for the senate to act, referring to the department of homeland security spending measure. earlier in the week, the majority leader in the senate, mitch mcconnell had separated the two by looking for a clean bill on homeland security spending and also a measure that would block the immigration orders that president obama has issued in 2014. still unclear as to how -- as to how they will move forward with homeland security spending, set to expire, the current measure set to expire at the end of the week. well, as we mention, the house is gaveling in momentarily. education is the topic today. two bills. one dealing with the expanding the 529 education savings program. another would begin work on authorizing the k-12 education programs that includes a number of changes to the current no child left behind law. live coverage of the house here

on c-span. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ash, national chaplain for the american legion. from long beach, south carolina. the chaplain: let us pray. almighty and everlasting god, in whose name we trust and pray, it is fitting to pause if but momentarily to recognize you, the one in whom does finally reside all authority and power and by whose grace we are allowed to exercise that which you have committed to us. accept our homage, o lord, and hear us when we pray for wisdom to lead with integrity, compassion and conviction. we are mindful that around the world today our soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines and coastguardsmen are standing the watch to safeguard our peace

and liberty. grant to all who serve and their families your blessings. accept, o lord, these prayers and may we perceive and know what things to do and receive grace and power to fulfill what is expected of us. we commit our best efforts and our nation to your keeping. amen. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval theof. pursuto au le thjonastdsppve the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant pursuant -- pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1 the journal stands approved. for what purpose does the gentlelady from north carolina rise? ms. foxx: pursuant to clause 1, rule 1 i demand a vote on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. the speaker: the question is on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. the journal stands approved. ms. foxx: mr. speaker. the speaker: the gentlelady. ms. foxx: i object to the vote on the grounds that a quorum is not present and i make a point of order that a quorum is not pnt. the speaker: pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question are postponed.

the pledge of allegiance will be led by the gentleman from texas, mr. johnson. mr. johnson: please join me. 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: without objection, the gentleman from north carolina, mr. mchenry, is recognized for one minute. mr. mchenry: mr. speaker, thanks so much. please join me in welcoming to the house of representatives today our guest chaplain, my constituent and fellow resident lincoln county, north carolina, reverend randy cash. a native north carolinaian, was commissioned as navy chaplain in 1980. during his 26 years of active duty,ess weigh done -- he's done tours supporting the navy and marine, in liberia the congo, in operations desert

shields and storm and operation enduring freedom. reverend cash has served as deputy chaplain to the u.s. marine corps and multiple roles for the naval chaplain school including commanding officer. he's visiting washington this week for the 55th annual conference of the american legion for which he currently serves as national chaplain for that fine organization. please join me in welcoming reverend cash to the house of representatives and for his years of dedicated service to our men and women in the military and to our veterans. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair will entertain up to 15 further requests of one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. for what purpose does the gentlelady from north carolina seek recognition? ms. foxx: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. foxx: thank you mr. speaker. i believe in an opportunity society where hard work education, innovation and risk are rewarded and we empower

individuals not government. unfortunately, washington's broken reflex these days is, when in doubt regulate. that type of thinking must cease if we are to reach this nation's full potential. one of the clearest examples of unnecessary and unsuccessful federal intervention is the law currently governing our k-12 education system. this week the house will consider the student success act, which empowers the people closest to students with the authority to make education choices in their respective states and communities. local control always delivers programs and services more efficiently and effectively. by scaling back washington's one-size-fits-all micromanagement of classrooms, this legislation takes positive steps to ensuring local educators have the flexibility required to meet the diverse needs of their students. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from new hampshire seek recognition?

ms. kuster: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the gentlelady is recognized fo one minute. ms. kuster: thank you mr. speaker. the department of homeland security is charged with safeguarding our nation from acts of terrorism, drug trafficking and many other serious threats. whether they demb serve in the coast guard, border -- whether they serve in the coast guard, border patrol, customs and border protection the men and women who work for the department of homeland security in my home state of new hampshire and across this country play a vital role in keeping our families safe. yet, congress' poised to shut down d.h.s. this friday for partisan political reasons. this would undermine our security and impact hardworking men and women from across my district like darrell who serves in the coast guard and lee, another granite stater who works for customs and border

protection. she wrote to me recently and said no one wins if this political standoff continues. i agree. we were elected to work together in the best interests of those we represent, not to play partisan political games. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill that would keep the department of homeland security open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: under guidelines consistently issued by successive speakers, as recorded in section 956 of the house rules in manual, the chair is constrained not to entertain the request unless it's been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships. the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognize snigs -- recognition? without objection the

gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: mr. speaker, my constituents and a majority of americans oppose president obama's executive amnesty. his amnesty is unconstitutional, which is why i'm pleased that the u.s. district court judge andrew hannon has blocked obama's amnesty from going into effect. not surprisingly, the administration is now appealing. as the legal process works its way through the courts, congress must continue to stand strong and fight the president's unlawful amnesty. just this month, i exposed obama's empty words that illegals getting amnesty would be paying taxes. you know, the i.r.s. commissioner confirmed that obama's amnesty will in fact allow the i.r.s. to give illegals thousands of dollars.

these tax refunds aren't refunds in the usual sense but amnesty checks from the i.r.s. this is wrong. i'm working on legislation to stop it. law-abiding and hardworking american taxpayers deserve nothing less. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york seek recognition? without objection. mrs. maloney: mr. speaker the republicans are playing politics with the security of the american people and the american people deserve better. what was absolutely laughable a few days ago, it now appears that they are prepared to shut down the department of homeland security. they won't budge, even though they have known all along that house version of the bill will

never pass the senate, and if it did the president would surely veto it, as he should. they are willing to burden this entire country with all the dangers and disruptions that a funding lapse would bring. they're willing to shut down funding for the security in the new york city rail system communications equipment in los angeles, bomb-sniffing dogs in massachusetts and firefighter positions across this nation just so they can put on another hallow, pointless political show. -- hollow pointless political show. this is failure by design. i find it scandalous that the islamic terrorists are fully funded yet the department of homeland security that protects our citizens may not be. i urge a vote on a clean homeland security bill for the protection of our citizens. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition?

mr. wilson: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. wilson: mr. speaker, during the presidents daybreak, i met with leaders of afghanistan, jordan and iraq. each was grateful for the support given in their fight against terrorists who seek mass murder against innocent civilians. the arab chance lakes of isil has spread as a cancer across the region and threatens to attack the american people. president obama's failing policies are weakening defense and he needs to change course as he did with the 2009 afghan surge. in sear yarks the president's strategy has set the stage for -- in syria, the president's strategy has set the stage for dash to expand. the attack on libya has led to a failed state. the pitiful negotiations with iran puts america at risk. in his claimed -- and his claimed success in yemen is not. they have declared war on the west and seek to destroy modern

democratic civilizations. the first mass murders have been at muslims in mosques. safe havens anywhere are a threat to americans everywhere. may the president by his actions 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 michigan seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. kildee: thank you, mr. speaker. well, there are only three days left until the department of homeland security shuts down, forcing thousands of t.s.a. customs -- t.s.a. customs border patrol, secret agents to put their lives on the line, protecting u.s. citizens without being paid. this has gone on too long. we've taken weeks on the floor of this house waiting for what we know ultimately will be passed and that is a clean

homeland security bill. every democrat has co-sponsored legislation to fully fund this department without trying to overreach and get through the appropriations process that which the majority is unwilling to do legislatively. if you were so interested in immigration policy, the majority would long ago have brought comprehensive immigration reform to the floor of the house. have we seen that? no. neither have we seen any legislation that the american people are really looking for, legislation that would put america back to work, build new infrastructure, create jobs in this country. this has gone on far too long. we've got to get this essential function of government fully funded and get back to the business that american people sent us to do. mr. speaker -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. mr. kildee: i'd like to ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill that would keep the department open so it can carry out its

essential -- the speaker pro tempore: as the chair previously advised, that request cannot be entertained absence clearance. the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from seek recognition? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to -- the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania seek recognition? mr. thompson: mr. speaker, request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. thompson: in both the house and the senate, the president vetoed the keystone pipeline project in the name of political expediency. rather than listening to a majority of the american public, the president's veto cal to yous to a vocal minority of extreme environmental groups. mr. speaker, the president's decision yesterday is a giant leap backwards on a road to energy independence, effectively saying no to the creation of over 40,000 american jobs and lower energy prices for businesses and familiar lice. mr. speaker, president obama had the opportunity to stand up and show true leadership but unfortunately he chose to once again hide behind political

motives. and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from nevada seek recognition? ms. titus: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. titus: just this morning nevada attorney general laxalt testified before the house judiciary committee claiming that implementation of dapa an extension of daca, would cause undue economic hardship for our state. well i'd like to see his evidence because data show that granting administrative relief to qualified undocumented immigrants would actually contribute to economic growth. thanks to these executive actions, the legal work force will expand and average wages for all workers will increase by $170 a year. the federal deficit will be reduced by $25 billion and g.d.p. will grow from $90 billion to $210 billion over the next decade. furthermore, it's estimated that expanding daca and dapa will increase nevada's g.d.p.

from $700 million to $1.7 billion over the next 10 years and lead to $21 million in additional tax revenue for the state over the next five years. so in short, general, not implementing the president's actions is not only morally indefensible but also economically foolish and i might add holding up d.h.s. funding for this purpose is a shameful pliptcal act that puts americans at -- political act that puts americans at risk. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recni . >> thank you mr. speaker. i rise today to stand up for the rights of law-abiding americans, take their homes. i'm standing in opposition to the bureau of alcohol and tobacco and firearms and explosives' unreasonable proposal to ban entire classes of ammunition. as an american, i personally use this ammunition to defend my home and my family. mr. scott: and that's my constitutional right. i find it ironic that the

president of the united states continues to say, if we would just arm the people of other countries, then isis wouldn't exist. while he uses each and every means possible to violate our second amendment rights to protect ourselves. mr. speaker, i appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight and i look forward to meeting with the a.t.f. and discussing their budget and making sure that they don't have the legal authority or the funding to take away americans' constitutional rights to keep and bear arms and ammo. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentlelady from connecticut seek recognition? without objection. ms. esty: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, in three days the department of homeland security will needlessly run out of funding. yes three days. shutting down the department of homeland security will jeopardize local disaster

relief grants, it will justify and stall critical safety training for firefighters and first responders. and will force thousands of border control agents, active duty coast guard service members, and airport security screeners across the country to work without pay. house republicans are threatening the safety and security of our nation and our families by refusing to pass a clean security funding bill and instead pushing for anti-immigration amendments. this is unwise this is unnecessary and this is wrong. we should not play partisan politics when our nation's security is on the line. we must pass a funding bill that does not include harmful provisions so that our nation remains safe and secure. that is why i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill that would keep the department open so it can carry

out its essential mission of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: as the chair previously advised, that request cannot be entertained absent appropriate clearance. the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? without objection. >> mr. speaker, i rise in support of h.r. 529, a bill i've co-sponsored that strengthens tax-free 529 college savings accounts. the cost of higher ed has increased by more than 500% since 1985. mr. marchant: yet the president recently proposed a tax hike on 529 savings of students and middle class families. there's a big difference between being able to afford college and being able to pay for it. 529's helped bridge that gap more millions of working americans -- for millions of working americans who make too little to cover tuition, but just enough to be ineligible for financial aid.

our nation's long prosperity depends on our ability to prepare the next generation for success. let's start now by passing h.r. 529. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. for what purpose does -- the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for whapudohe gentlfr lnise reio without objection. mrs. capps: mr. speaker, i rise today to demand a clean straightforward department of homeland security funding bill that be brought to the house floor for a vote immediately. after today there are only two more days until the entire department of homeland security is shut down. two days until the men and women who work to protect our national security stop receiving a paycheck. two days until the doors are shut at the department responsible for ensuring america's safety. if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle want to debate the merits of immigration reform, then bring an immigration bill to the

floor. we would welcome that debate. we are ready to work on a comprehensive bill to fix a broken system. in the meantime don't play games with our national security. again, i urge the house leadership to bring a clean funding bill, it's h.r. 861. we need to keep the department of homeland security open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe and we need to be able to move forward, to work on the pressing matters facing our country. i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? without objection. mr. davis: mr. speaker -- >> mr. speaker, the american people expect to us deliver solutions and fix problems. they expect us to act responsibly and to govern. we can do this by working together aye and averting a shutdown -- and avertinging a shutdown of the department of homeland security. mr. dold: shutting down the department of homeland security should not be an option and i'm

adamantly opposed to letting this happen. our first and foremost responsibility, mr. speaker, is to protect our nation. ever since the attacks of september 11 2001, the need for the department of homeland security became clear. and the department of homeland security has proven vital to keeping the american people safe amid an ongoing war against terror. terror threats do not just go away until washington is able to come to a compromise. there's certainly broad disagreement mr. speaker, in this country over the president's executive actions. by shutting down d.h.s., it only makes us more vulnerable to attacks. it is absolutely the wrong approach to addressing this disagreement. there is no room for political brinksmanship when the security of the american public is at stake. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from delaware seek recognition? without objection.

mr. carney: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to honor the 50th anniversary of the voting rights march from selma to montgomery and to urge my colleagues to pass voting rights legislation in congress. in 1960 there were only 66,000 african-americans registered to vote in alabama. in 1965 there were 15,000 black residents where selma is located, but fewer than 200 were registered to vote. african-americans who attempted to vote faced intimidation discrimination and worse. the voting rights act of 1965 and the unrelenting efforts of heroes like our colleague, john lewis helped correct these unjustices. but the fight isn't over. state legislation, ballot initiatives and court cases across the country in recent years have jeopardized the voter registration protections that john lewis and others fought so hard for. so we need to stay vigilant and

we need new legislation today. so as we celebrate black history month, let's recognize how far we've come let's pass voting rights legislation in this congress for the good of the country. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, for more than six years, the president has called for taxpayer funded infrastructure projects. in the first year of his administration, he squandered nearly a trillion dollars on so-called shovel-ready projects that he later joked weren't shovel-ready at all. mr. mcclintock: a trillion dollars is $,000 taken from every family in -- $000 taken from every family -- $8,000 taken from every family in america on average. now along comes the keystone x.l. pipeline. it promises $8 billion of private investment at no cost

to taxpayers. that major infrastructure project would have produced 42,000 construction-related jobs and when finished, more than a half million barrels a day of canadian crude oil entering the american economy. that's what he vetoed. after it was sent to him with bipartisan votes out of both houses. he calls this middle class economics. the reality is, it is a war on the middle class and that's no joke. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? without objection. mr. veasey: mr. speaker, i rise today to talk about the eminent danger our country faces -- imminent danger our country faces in three days. right now republicans have decided that it's more important to listen to the tea party and their had extremist views rather than funding the department of homeland security

. and i don't want to hear this mess from republicans about, oh the workers are still going to get paid. let me tell you something. when you talk about a quarter of a million essential employees that could go without pay that are airport screeners and doing important things like keeping us safe and sending them to work without pay, where they don't know how they're going to make their car note, they don't know if they're going to be able to pay their mortgage or bring groceries home, that is puttinging america at danger -- puttinging america at danger. we need -- putting america at danger. we need to stop playing this reckless game because it is the duty of congress to keep american families safe and govern responsibley. republicans need to realize that the only -- responsibly. republicans need to realize that the only path through this is having us do a clean d.h.s. bill. it's time for republicans to join 192 house democrats that have already signed up and we need to do the right thing. i'm asking unanimous consent that we -- that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean

department of homeland security funding bill, that would keep the department open so we can carry out its mission -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. as the chair has previously advised, that request cannot be entertained absent appropriate clearance. for what purpose does the gentleman from indiana seek recognition? without objection, so ordered. >> mr. speaker, over the last several months islamic state has shown how barbaric they can be. they're willing to kill and torture innocent people in the most savage ways to intimidate the united states and the civilized world. mr. stutzman: with the recent beheadings in the middle east and the multiple shootings in europe it is very clear that terrorism is a problem that only continues to grow. islamic state might be the most well-trained, well-equipped and well-financed terror group we have seen. and if an international coalition is not willing to stop them, no one will. i have supported president obama's use of air strikes since they began several months

ago, to push back on islamic state. and still strongly believe that we should continue these strikes with our air partners. throughout our history, we have shone that we can overcome any obstacle -- shown that we can overcome any obstacle and defeat any enemy if we're willing to stand up to it. however, i've so far been disappointed that the president has asked for an authorization of military force without articulating a clear strategy on how to ultimately defeat the enemy. if president obama would present such a plan, i believe both republicans and democrats in both chambers would stand with him and show the world that we are united in confronting this dangerous enemy. i hope the president takes this opportunity to lead and unite the american people towards defeating our latest adversary in the war on terror. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? without objection, so ordered. ms. waters: there are only three days until the department of homeland security shuts

down. forcing more than 50,000 t.s.a. airport security screeners and tens of thousands of customs and border protection officers to work without pay. many of these dedicated public servants work at los angeles international had airport that is l.a.x. in my congressional district. they screen the passengers and examine the cargo to keep the airports secure. l.a.x. is the busiest -- the sixth busiest airport in the world and third busiest in the united states. in 2013 l.a.x. served more than 66 million passengers and processed more than 1.9 million tons of cargo with a value of over $91.6 billion. the security of l.a.x. is critical for the people of los angeles and the entire country. and the public servants who work hard every day to keep our

airports safe deserve to be paid for the work that they do. let's fund d.h.s. now. i ask unanimous consent that the house had bngp r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill, that will keep the department open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: as the chair has previously advised, that request cannot be entertained absent appropriate clearance. for what purpose does the gentleman from michigan seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> mr. speaker, today as we consider many issues surrounding the education of our nation's youth, i rise to draw attention to the importance of career and technical education. having raised five kids, i understand how it is critical to ensuring that every child has an opportunity to achieve their potential. mr. benishek: that's why i worked to support career and

technical education and teach students the relevant skills they need to get a good paying job. often referred to as vocational or voced, they often jaufer on-the-job training that turns into employment after graduation. that means more education for students and less debt. sheboygan area high school was named one of the top schools, an achievement which they should be justifiablely proud. it's my hope that students in northern michigan and all across the nation will help further their careers and continue to grow our economy. i look forward to supporting measures that help to return control of education to states and parents allowing families and educational program that fits their -- an educational program that fits their needs. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? ms. hahn: i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute.

the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. hahn: thank you, mr. speaker. i along with the rest of the country are breathing a sigh of relief that the full-time work has resumed on our west coast ports. i wanted to publicly thank the iowu and the p.m.a. for staying at the table and finally reaching an agreement. and i wanted to thank president obama and our labor secretary perez for their help in bringing about a resolution. many of my colleagues here in congress were calling me daily for updates because the workers, the farmers, the businesses, the consumers in their districts were also impacted by what happens on the west coast ports. i represent the men and women who work on those ports so our economy in the harbor area was greatly affected but we really realized that these ports areage economic engine for our entire country. our west coast ports support millions of american jobs and provide a vital length to global commerce.

so today i'll testify before the budget committee to remind congress that we should fully fund all the ports in this country because they are such an important link to our economy. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from tennessee seek recognition? mrs. blackburn: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mrs. blackburn: thank you mr. speaker. as you can see we have quite a variety of issues we are talking about today. whether it is the president's executive amnesty and overreach, the overreach of the d.h.s. or the veto of the keystone pipeline people are concerned about what is happening. i want to turn our attention to another issue, the takeover of the internet by the federal communications commission. we just completed a hearing at energy and commerce committee on this issue, and i tell you there is great concern about

what the f.c.c. would do with the internet. you know, the internet is not broken, and it does not need the federal government to fix it. so people are rightfully concerned about that. the f.c.c. in taking control of the internet, would do a couple of things. first of all, it would be a loss of some of our freedoms because the f.c.c. would reclassify the internet to title 2. now, title 2 of the communications act is the 1930's-era law that regulate telephones and telecommunications. it would thereby subject the internet which is an information service to a host of taxes and regulation and international consideration. this is not the direction we want to go with the internet. let's not use 1930's-era laws.

let's make sure they delay their net neutrality order and we work together to keep the internet open and free. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from minnesota seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. >> mr. speaker, as i stand before this body today, it is with a tremendous amount of concern for the brave men and women who are protecting our country and who work for the department of homeland security. mr. ellison: you know, we are only about 48 hours or so away from a potential shutdown and i'm concerned that these people who are going to have to continue to work because they're dedicated loyal, patriotic americans but won't be getting paid if we allow this government to shut down. now, all we have to do in this house of representatives is to bring up a clean homeland security funding bill. that's all we have to do.

the senate majority leader said he would do that. and so we can get this problem solved right away. this situation is being handled in the courts and in body of ours, this house of representatives is no place to try to work out some sort of ideological partisan divide around immigration. this is an occasion for us to look out for the safety and security of the american people and to fund and pay the salaries of the workers who guarantee that security not a time for partisan, ideological -- and i ask that the house -- of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: as the previous -- chair previously advised. this cannot be entertained until absent appropriate clearance. the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from pennsylvania

seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to shed light on an issue that many constituents brought to my attention. tax day is right around the corner and as many folks prepare to file their taxes, they're having issues locating the proper forms. the i.r.s. has notified local libraries and even congressional offices like mine that it does not have the money to distribute enough tax forms and instruction booklets so the taxpayers can file their returns accurately and on time. mr. costello: as a result seniors and those without access to the internet are scrambling to find 1040 instruction booklets and tax schedules they need to timely and accurately file their taxes. my office distributed 40 instruction books during a recent community office event and lebanon. the i.r.s. claimed they can no longer afford to send tax forms to local libraries due to

budget cuts is disingenuous and while needing 40 pages of instructions to complete the least complicated tax return is proof enough for sifrlfying the tax code. it's no excuse for the i.r.s. to make paying your federal taxes an even bigger headache by making it more difficult for my constituents to get the documents they need. let's get our tax forms where they're needed. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. hastings: thank you. mr. speaker, you know, one of the privileges we have here in the house of representatives is to speak to any issue during this period of time. regrettably, i rise today to speak to the death of an iconic figure, dynamic force for social justice, georgia jones ires, who was not from my congressional district, but from congresswoman frederica

wilson's district, and i am sure that two of us will add additional remarks. but i also happily today come to the floor to congratulate the bill ard high school girl's basketball -- dillard high school girl's basketball team. dillard and the coach have had such a consecutive run that they are becoming a real force nationally as well as locally. and palm beach county took theirs as well. so i'm fortunate that i have girl's basketball teams that are champions and i proudly congratulate them. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new hampshire seek recognition? mr. guinta: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. guinta: mr. speaker, i rise today on behalf of the estimated 12 million americans in the middle class who are paying more than $1,000 extra

per year because of the excise tax on health care plans included in the obamacare legislation called the cadillac tax. this legislation is set to take effect in 2018. however, employers, labor unions, municipalities all back home are already preparing for this devastating tax. in order to comply with this 40% penalty on health care plans employers and municipalities are looking at increasing deductibles, reducing benefits and shifting costs to consumers as well as property taxpayers. in fact in manchester, our state's largest city, an anticipated cost of $5 million to $6 million alone will impact the property taxpayer. this will undoubtedly result in an increase in our local property taxes, which as every granite stater knows, is already sky high. americans simply can't afford this tax which is why i introduced a repeal bill, and i

look forward to working with republicans and democrats to get this bill passed, and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman omenylnia seek coit >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to honor a great leader and visionary in my community, sister clara cardey, who passed away saturday, february 14, at the age of 78. mr. fitzpatrick: sister claire was born in philadelphia, entered the sisters of st. francis in 19 45, beginning her career as an elementary teacher. in 1980 she joined the medical team as an assistant administrator where i worked as a pharmacy clerk. i will never forget her kind interaction with her staff. nobody was more proud of the colleagues, physicians and volunteers at st. maries that sister claire. in 1982, sister claire rose to the rank of president and c.e.o. of st. mary and it led

to the development of one of the first community hospital open heart surgery programs in the area, as well as the establishment of the only trauma center in my home community of the county of bucks. after two decades of work, sister claire left st. mary to serve in the development of health services for catholic east. she devoted her time to the sisters of st. francis. st. clair was instrumental in the establishing of the mother bachmann maternity center children's health center, family resource center and the bucks county home project. you won't meet anybody with the passion, character and leadership of st. clair. she touched and improved not just the medical center but our entire community. i celebrate her life and her legacy our faithful example and leadership. i was grateful to know sister claire and thankful for everything she did for the people of pennsylvania and all of those that she served. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back.

the clerk will report the resolution. for what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition? mr. woodall: mr. speaker, by the direction of the committee on rules, i call up house resolution 121 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 10, house resolution 121. resolved, that upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h.r. 529, to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to improve 529 plans. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on ways and means now printed in the bill 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 further 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 ways and means, and two, one motion

to recommit with or without instructions. section 2 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. 5, to support state and local accountability for public education, protect state and local authority, inform parents of the performance of their children's schools, and for other purposes. 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 education and the work force. after general debate, the committee of the whole shall rise without motion. no further consideration of the bill shall be in order except pursuant to a subsequent order of the house. section 3, the requirement of

clause 6-a of rule 13 for a 2/3 vote to consider a report from the committee on rules on the same day it is presented to the house is waived with respect to any resolution reported through the legislative day of march 2, 2015, relating to a measure making or continuing appropriations for the department of homeland security for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2015. section 4, it shall be in order at any time through the calendar day of march 1, 2015, for the speaker to entertain motions that the house suspend the rules as though under clause 1of rule 15, relating to a measure making or continuing appropriations for the department of homeland security for the fiscal year ending september 30, 2015. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia is recognized for one hour. mr. woodall: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, during consideration of this resolution, all time is yielded for the purpose of debate only. and i'd like to yield the customary 30 minutes to my

friend from florida had, the gentleman, mr. hastings pending -- florida, the gentleman, mr. hastings, pending which time i yield myself such time as i may consume and i ask that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. woodall: there's a lot going on in this rule today, mr. speaker. a lot to be proud of. i'd like to start by thanking the folks on the parliamentarian staff and people on the rules committee. folks don't pay a lot of attention what goes on down here sometimes. what goes on behind the scenes to bring a bill to the floor. we did a little extra work this time around. i'm thankful to folks for working with me to get that done. house resolution 121 is a closed rule but it makes in order the consideration of two bills, one is h.r. 529, a bill that passed by unanimous consent out of the ways and means committee, that goes into these college savings plans and corrects some provisions that made it difficult for folks to redeposit money into those

plans. again, all about trying to educate our children, make sure they have the opportunities that we would want for them. the second provision made in order by this rule is the general debate of h.r. 5, the student success act. folks may not know the student success act yet, mr. speaker. though they will. it will become as normalized of a term as no child left behind. that was the last time we re-authorized the elementary and secondary education act mr. speaker. i don't believe we will find much disagreement in this chamber about the need to go back into that language now 13 years later and make some improvements in order to better serve our children. we might disagree about what those improvements are. but we know that it's time to go back and get into that language and really try to make a difference for those families, students, schools back home. h.r. 5 intends to do just that. and this rule also provides suspension authority for any time through march 1 to bring

up a resolution that's eith -- that either makes appropriations for or continues appropriations for the department of homeland security. you heard a lot about it during the one-minutes this morning mr. speaker. what we have is the department of homeland security funding, which as you know funds so much of the immigration services function of our government. as you know a federal judge has said that the plans the president has laid out cannot be completed lawfully. this house went forward and said, if we can't do those things lawfully, we're certainly not going to fund them in this bill and now the senate has not even been able to bring that bill up for debate. blocked on the senate side from any discussion whatsoever. so we are going to hopefully find a resolution between now and the end of this week. i don't know when that resolution's going to come and when that resolution comes i don't want to see this house delay in bringing that resolution to the floor. we've already done our work.

my hope is the senate can pass that bill. we can send it directly to the president's desk. but whatever those machinations need to be, this rule makes bringing an additional provision in order as soon as that language becomes available. that is maximum flexibility to do what i think folks on both sides of this chamber want to do and that's to ensure the steady, continuous, deliberate functioning of this government. mr. speaker, no child left behind, it was passed by a republican house and a republican senate and sent to a republican president for his signature and today that same republican house is bringing forward a rewrite of that bill. because as much as we all have a love and affection for children, as much as we want public education in this country to succeed, sometimes we don't get it right. and again i want to celebrate the bipartisanship in that. it's not everybody just looking to find somebody to blame.

i think folks went into that process trying to do the very best that they could. but in fact we ended up with some top-down solutions that did not serve our districts, as well as we would have hoped. i'm fortunate, mr. speaker, i come from a district with wonderful public schools. just wonderful public schools. in fact, we are the fastest growing congressional district in the state of georgia. and it's not because of any particular strong business presence, though we have a tremendously strong business presence. it's not because of our location in some pleasant area, though it is a particularly pleasant area. it is because our school systems are second to none. it's hard when we have to have these conversations about funding for local schools because the money that i spend on these children is money that i am borrowing from these children. it has to be an investment in these children. it has to be something that enables them to succeed even more tomorrow than they are today. because i'm borrowing it from their future.

i'm mortgaging their future in order to invest in them today. we all want those dollars to be used as well as they can. it would be easy to have a conversation about funding children to say well, if $1 is good, then $2 must be better and if $2 is good, then $4 must be better. if $4 is good, then $1 million must be better and if $1 million is good, $1 trillion must be better. i would dispute the attestation of any colleague that can find that direct correlation between dollars and performance. dollars are critically important and this bill provides those. but performance is tied to parents it's tied to teachers, it's tied to principles -- principals, it's tied to communities. we cannot mandate that performance. we can only try to help those local folks succeed. i know a lot of my colleagues are concerned that unless we mandate a solution from washington, we will allow local

communities to fail. i know that concern is heartfelt. i don't come from one of those communities. the community i come from says washington's not getting it so right but, trust us, we'll take care of children down here because no one in washington loves our children more than we do. again we see that. there's no question, mr. speaker, that children are going to succeed in this country. but there is an achievement gap. there is a gap mr. speaker, between -- depending on what your zip code is, between what success we expect to come from your family and what success you can actually attain. i come from a county mr. speaker, that is widely diverse. that has all the economic challenges you can imagine. and all the economic successes that you can imagine as well. and we come together to make sure that no child is left behind. and to make sure that no child is held back. we have both schools that are succeeding in ways that i could

stand on this floor and bragging about for hours. takinging students from which the system -- taking students from which the system expects so little and creating an opportunity for them to succeed so extraordinarilyy. i'd like to see that rep -- extraordinarily. i'd like to see that replicated in school district it's across the nation. i see that -- districts across the nation. i see that back home at my schools. but we also have the third best high school in the united states of america. i of course think u.s. news and world report got it wrong. we're the absolute best high school in the united states of america. a majority of that student body, mr. speaker, minority students. majority of that student body had an opportunity to go anywhere in the county they wanted to go. but they stood in line hoping to win the lottery to get out of a school that was already performing well to get into this school where they could be exceptional. mr. speaker there are children

standing in line across this country waiting to be exceptional. this bill ames to clear that line away -- aims to clear that line away and allow every child in america to achieve the excellence that you and i both know they deserve. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: thank you mr. speaker. i'd like to be able to accommodate the ranking member of the appropriations committee, mrs. lowey. she was going to be scheduled to speak earlier and i'm going to allow that she go forward now to discuss something that's very important and then i'll proceed with my opening, if the speaker will allow. there are only three days left until funding for the department of homeland security -- before it expires. which will shut down many of the crucial operations that keep our country safe. mr. speaker, if we defeat the previous question, i'm going to

offer an amendment to the rule that will allow for consideration of a clean department of homeland security funding bill. with such serious consequence, it's fine to put poll -- time to put politics aside and prioritize the safety and security of the american people. to discuss that particular aspect of the proposal, i'm very pleased to yield three minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from new york, my good friend, the distinguished ranking member of the appropriations committee, mrs. lowey. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from new york is recognized for three minutes. mrs. lowey: thank you mr. speaker. i rise today to urge this house to immediately take up and pass a clean funding bill for the department of homeland security. delaying the full year bill limits the department's ability to advance the secretary's unity of effort initiative designed to improve coordination on security missions, limits the ability of

the secretary to move ahead with the southern border and approach campaign, creates uncertainty regarding isis capacity -- isis' capacity to detain and deport dangerous criminals, complicates the department's ability to deal with another influx of unaccompanied children at our border stations. delay delays implementations of security upgrades at the white house and hiringing increases of the u.s. -- hiringing increases of the u.s. secret service. this delays response grants for state and local public safety personnel and from fusion centers. i understand that many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle feel quite strongly about the president's use of executive orders on immigration policy. but do they have the courage of their convictions to look the first responders they represent in the eye and tell them that

they're holding up critical assistance to firefighters law enforcement e.m.t.'s emergency managers because of a fight that is ideological over immigration? this is disgraceful. the homeland security bill should never have been held hostage, with only three days left until the republican shutdown hasn't this gone on long enough? isn't it time to abandon this failed strategy and pass a clean homeland security bill? to that end, i urge this whole house to join me today in defeating the previous question so that my colleague, mr. hastings can offer an amendment to provide a clean full-year appropriations bill for the department of homeland security. and i yield back and i thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings:r.er thank u so very much. mr. speaker, i thank my friend,

the gentleman from georgia, for yielding me the 30 minutes. and i rise obviously in opposition to the rule and underlying bills because neither of these measures will keep the department of homeland security from shutting down in three days. now, something that i'm sure that is of vital interest to my friend from georgia, who is an advocate, continuously and has been since being on the rules committee and here in congress, of having an open process. i would only urge that we understand that the last congress 113th, was the most closed congress in the history of all of the house of representatives. yet at this point in this, the 114th congress, we find ourselves in this position. in the last congress, 38% of

the rules were closed at this point. six out of 16. but as of today this house has approved 75% of its rules that are closed. in other words, this congress is on a path to be twice as closed as the last closed as the last in which the most in history were closed rules. now, my friend, mr. woodall, certainly understands that. a lot of times our constituents hear us and it sounds a whole lot like washington speak. but the fact is is simple that that when a rule is closed as this one is with the exception of one portion that is open for yet another provision in the measure, h.r. 5, but when a rule is closed that means all

of the other members, all of your constituents who do not have an opportunity, if they so choose precluded from offering an amendment to the base bill that is being discussed. if congress has three days to act before we shut down, and truthfully i don't believe that my friends on the republican side are crazy enough to shut down the government at this point, so i think something's going to happen. i don't know what. but it's not like this debacle caught us by surprise. . when the congress funded the rest of the government for the year but funded d.h.s. for only a few months yet each week my republican friends continue to consider bills that will do nothing and go nowhere. and now without a road map of

this quagmire, my republican friends are threatening to double down on their politics by shutting down the agency responsible for our national security. yet somehow we find ourselves talking about completely unrelated measures. you can disagree with the president, and many of you do, and sometimes some of us do. great. it's a beautiful free country that we live in but don't put our national security at risk to do it. i have heard my republican colleagues' talking point. don't worry about national security. most of the d.h.s. employees will still work and very little will change. but that's just a gaffe because those employees will be expected to work without pay. among those who are expected to work without pay are more than 40,000 border patrol agents and customs and border protection

officers. more than 50,000 t.s.a. aviation security screeners. more than 13,000 immigration and customs enforcement, law enforcement agents. and officers. more than 40,000 active duty coast guard, military members, and more than 4,000 secret service law enforcement agents and officers. footnote right there. very occasionally when we are talking budget matters and we are talking authorization and appropriations, we talk about the need for certainty for the agencies that have to implement the measures that are before them. that could not be truer at any point anymore than with d.h.s. needing that certainty as well. to add insult to injury, when all of this gets fixed and it will need to be fixed, we will need to pass another measure to

retroactively ensure that they receive their paychecks. but until then, there's no way for them to know when they will be paid. that kind of gamble is not the best way to ensure the stability of our national defense, and it is not fair to ask of the men and women keeping us safe. we talk a lot about job creation here in this institution. my friends across the aisle gut clean air and water protections in the name of job creation. in the name of job creation, my friends hack away at the policies implemented to keep big banks families with jobs taken away. who knows how long a shut down will last. we've already had months to address this lapse in funding, and why do we do this? why is it every time we get ready to do something important we play brinksmanship.

we come up until the day of? it is really the kind of holding up our process that is deleterious to the good of this contry. just because d.h.s. employees are furloughed or not being paid but still must go to work that doesn't mean their mortgage payment or car payment or any other bills are going to go away. what are they supposed to say? don't worry i'll pay you retroactively? you can't run your household that way, and we certainly should not be running our government that way. for the life of me i cannot understand why my republican friends will not join house democrats in supporting clean legislation to fund the department of homeland security. so after all that, what do these two education bills that are in this particular rule have to do with keeping d.h.s. open?

i have no idea. i consider them to be important but they don't have anything to do with what is the mostis more affordable, there's no reason to focus on provisions used by only 3% of families. we need to make higher education more affordable for all americans. moreover, my friends have yet to explain what makes these 3529 provisions so important that -- 529 provisions so important that they are willing listen carefully, to add $51 million to the deficit for these particular measures. $51 million added to the deficit that they talk so much about. the other measure, h.r. 5, makes even less sense. it would have catastrophic consequences for our nation's most vulnerable youth and their educators. i respect my colleague from georgia immensely.

i respect his intellect immensely. i am proud that his schools are doing extremely well in the community that he's privileged to serve. but i can tell you based on what i know that any changes to the no child left behind program must adhere to the spirit of the law. in florida, we didn't only leave children behind, we lost them and couldn't find them. somehow or other we keep changing these things without having the accountability and transparency. we cannot and we should not leave any child in america behind. children with disabilities, english learners families with less financial resources, and those from racial and ethnic minority groups of underserved communities all deserve quality education and our nation would be better for it if they all received quaflt education. these two bills are -- quality education.

these two bills are distractions from the main event. sideshows for the center ring of the circus. it's time for congress to focus on the things that matter because even as our economy grows stronger, we still have plenty of real work to do. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. woodall: mr. speaker, i yield myself one minute just to be clear we are down here talking about education today. i share my friend's passion for proper funding of this government. this house passed its funding bill for the detcht homeland security on january 14 -- department of homeland securitier on january 14. this isn't something that happened to us this week. january 14 the house did its business. the senate has tried over and over and over to bring up a bill and the democrats haven't allowed them to even have the debate on the bill. this all being said, this is a bill that refuses to fund what a federal court said would be

illegal to do. how in the world we have been able to define the house work product that refuses to fund what the court said it would be illegal to do as somehow the wrong bill to bring to the floor is a testimony to the messaging machine that my friends had. i wish we had more of that machine here. with that, mr. speaker, i'd like to get back on the topic of the day. what does matter to our children back home. i'd like to yield four minutes to the gentleman from tennessee mr. duncan. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for four minutes. mr. duncan: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of the rule and of both of the bills that this rule brings to the floor. h.r. 529 and the student success act. i want to thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. i' especially pleased that -- i'm especially pleased that the student success act is a major rewrite of the no child left behind law. i was the only member from the tennessee delegation, 11 member delegation in the house and

senate, and i think one of 45 in the house to vote against the original no child left behind laup which was a failed -- law which was a great overreaction to failed school systems in a few of our nation's biggest cities. and we certainly didn't need it in easttown tfpblet much to my surprise turned out to be one of the most popular votes i ever cast among public schoolteachers in east tennessee. i'm here primarily today to speak in support of h.r. 529, which this rule also includes. richard vetter an economist from ohio university, prote a few years ago called -- wrote a took a few years ago -- book a few years ago about going broke by degree. around the same time "u.s. news and world report" came out with a report that college educations were almost becoming out of reach for most middle class families. we need to do everything we can to help families pay for college education. and we certainly don't need to be encouraging students to go

further into debt. it shocks students at the university of tennessee when i tell them that it cost me $90 a quarter my first year at the university of tennessee. $270 for the whole year. i heard the minority -- respected minority leader mr. hoyer give a speech one time and he said his first year at the university of maryland it cost him $87 a semester. but then in the mid 1960's the federal student loan program came in and the colleges and universities around the country started using that as a way to tamp down any opposition to tuition or fee increases, and college tuition and fees have just gone out of sight since that time. i have been speaking out for years about how harmful the federal student loan program has become for college students and their families. now many others are saying the same thing. kathleen parker writing in the "washington post" in january of 2013 said, since 1985 the cost of higher education has increased 538%, while the

consumer price index, inflation over the same period has gone up 121%, 4 1/2 times as much on the increases in education. floid norris writing in the international -- floyd norris writing in the international "new york times" last february said student loans are creating large problems that may persist for decades. that will impoverished some brotherers and serve as a drain on economic activity. hedge fund manager james wrote, quote, that we are graduating a generation of endentured students. and i can tell you when i went to the university of tennessee people could work part-time, as i always did, to pay all their tuition and fees. almost no one got out of school with a debt. now almost everyone does. and total outstanding student loan debt is now well over $1 trillion. i think it's $1.3 trillion. some people think it may be one of the next bubbles to burst. what does h.r. 529 do? it makes it easier for families

to save for college education. we need to do this. we also need to give the universities to hold their tuition and fees below the rate of inflation, we need to give them bigger grants and so forth and incentivize the universities to stop raising their tuition and fees at four and five times the rate of inflation. until we do that h.r. 529 is the least we can do to help out the middle class families of this country that are having so much trouble paying for their students, their children to have college educations. i thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. i support these two bills. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: thank you very much, mr. speaker. would you be kind enough to tell both of us how much time remains? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida has 17 minutes. the gentleman from georgia has 17 as well. mr. hastings: thank you very

much, mr. speaker. i'm very pleased at this time to yield two minutes to the distinguished woman from ohio, good friend of mine, a member of the committee on financial services, mrs. beatty. miss the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. mrs. beatty: thank you, mr. speaker. thank you to my colleague from florida for allowing me this time. mr. speaker, i rise today in opposition to h.r. 5, student success act. this bill would continue unnecessary and arbitrary k through 12 education funding cuts and erode accountability for historically underserved students. we should be preparing the next generation, but this bill is a step backwards in achieving academic excellence for 90% of the nation's students. mr. speaker, diverse organizations across not only my state, the great state of ohio, but across this nation, educational organizations educational funding

organizations parents and lawyer advocacy groups, business leaders and groups disability and exceptional children's group, and the naacp, and civil rights organizations are against this and very concerned about this bill. mr. speaker, the way we fund all of our schools and educate all of our young scholars is a reflection on our values and commitment to equality. access to education is a civil right. it is the key to the middle class and to a prosperous nation. this bill would constrain educational opportunity and equality. we need an education bill that improves education and invests in all of our children. h.r. 5 fails our children, mr. speaker, and h.r. 5 fails our nation. thank you to the gentleman from

florida, and, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. woodall: i yield myself 30 seconds to say to my friend i can feel her heart in those words. i'm tremendously proud to serve in a place where people really do care about the next generation. making sure that we are able to achieve those goals. i regret that we are not finding the agreement on that today, but i'm certain that as long as there are folks here who believe in achieving that goal together, as my friend does, we will get there. mr. speaker i am honored to be joined today by a freshman member from the georgia delegation and credibly hardworking member, i'm pleased to yield four minutes to the gentleman from georgia, mr. allen. . mr. allen: thank you mr. chairman. i appreciate the opportunity here to come before you and talk about and support h.r. 5, the student success act.

this is legislation to replace no child left behind, restore local control over education and empower parents and local education leaders to hold schools accountable for effectively teaching students. i spent last week in my district and i visited elementary and high schools. specifically schools that would be affected by the student success act. these schools were located in some of the most impoverished areas of my district. i listened in classrooms, held forums to hear from parents, and local education leaders and spoke to teachers and administrators about challenges they're facing. what i heard across the board was that the federal government and their compliance issues in the classroom are holding back our educators from effectively teaching our students. top-down education mandates have failed to help students and forced educators to waste

valuable time and resources filling out paperwork and worriesing about compliance from federal -- worrying about compliance from federal requirements. instead of this one-size-fits-all approach, we need policies that enhance teachers' abilities to focus on the individual needs of students. we need bottom-up reforms to give authority to the parents teachers and local education leaders who work with their children and students every day and know them best. h.r. 5 includes a number of conservative reforms to push back against the growing reach of the federal government into schools and restore local control. it replaces the current national accountability system for school performance and replaces it with state-led performance standards. it gets rid of more than 65 unnecessary or ineffective federal education programs, repeals federal requirements for teacher quality and protects local and state autonomy over decisions in the classroom. h.r. 5 returns responsibility

to parents, states and local leaders to include schools' accountability instead of washington bureaucrats. i saw that example work, i saw it in one of the cities, in the most impoverished areas of our district, where parents actually lined up at 3:30 in the morning enroll their students into theme schools. each elementary school was broken up into a theme and the superintendent there had no idea that parental involvement would be that significant. treo tns e success ts theme sc concept and i'll tell you, i asked, i said, where did this idea come from? it did not come from washington. it did not come from the federal government. it came from the creativity of the teachers and the input of the parents and the local administrators. mr. speaker no one knows the needs of students better than the people who work and spend time with them every day.

by empowering parents teachers and local education leaders hrmentrrment -- h.r. 5 takes strong steps forward toward putting control of education back in the right hands and helping provide every student with the opportunity to receive a good education. there is no debate today that every child deserves a good education. the debate is whether the federal government is in charge or whether we put and empower our local citizens to get the job done. i yield back the balance of my time. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from georgia reserves. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mrhain: . ea at this time i'm very pleased to yield to the distinguished gentleman from michigan, mr. kildee, for a unanimous consent request. mr. kildee: thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. kildee: i thank my friend for yielding. mr. speaasim consent atheou bngp h.1,le daren of homeland security funding bill that would keep the department open so it can carry

out its essential mission of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: the chair would advise that all time has been yielded for the purpose of debate only. does the gentleman from georgia yield for purposes of this unanimous consent request? mr. woodall: mr. speaker, i continue to yield for the purpose of debate only. if we can pass this rule this rule makes for the immediate consideration -- rule, this rule makes for the immediate consideration of any funding bill that comes before this house. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia does not yield. therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. mr. hastings: i yield 15 seconds to my friend from colorado. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from colorado is recognized for 15 seconds. mr. poliquin: this is pretty immediate. we -- mr. polis: this is pretty immediate. we need to get this done this week. so therefore i would ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861 that will keep the department open so we can keep the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman from georgia yield for purposes of this unanimous consent request? mr. woodall: mr. speaker, if i understood my friend, he's asking that we bring up a bill that will fund what it is that

a court said would be illegal to fund. i cannot yield for that kind of request. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from florida -- or the gentleman from georgia does not yield, therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. mr. hastings: mr. speaker i yield 10 seconds to the gentlelady from ohio. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from ohio is recognized for 10 seconds. ms. kaptur: yes mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill, that would keep the department open so it can carry out its vital mission of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman from georgia yield for purposes of unanimous consent request? mr. woodall: mr. speaker, i'm prepared to yield back my time when my friend is, as soon as we pass this bill, it will be in order to bring up any additional funding bills that come before the house today. but i cannot yield during this time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia does not yield. therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i yield to the distinguished

leader of the democratic caucus for purposes as she sees fit. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is recognized. ms. pelosi: i thank the gentleman for yielding. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous con -- consent that the house bring up h.r. 86 1, the clean department of homeland security funding bill that will keep the department open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the chair understands that the gentleman from georgia has not yielded for that purpose. therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i yield to the gentleman from california for purpose of a request. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. desauliner: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask that the house bring up h.r. 861. the speaker pro tempore: the chair understands the gentleman

from georgia has not yielded for that purpose. therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: i yield to my classmate and good friend, ms. roybal-allard from california for unanimous consent request. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from california is rozzes -- is recognized. ms. roybal-allard: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill, that would keep the department open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: the chair understands that the gentleman from georgia has not yielded for that purpose. therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i at this time yield to the distinguished gentleman from minnesota for a purpose of a unanimous consent request. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from minnesota is recognized. >> mr. speaker, -- mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill, that would keep the department open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: the chair understands that the

gentleman from georgia has not yielded for that purpose. therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: mr. speaker i yield to the distinguished gentleman, my classmate and good friend, mr. green, for a unanimous consent request. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. green: thank you, mr. speaker. members, i ask unanimous consent that the house bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill that will keep the department open so it can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe. the speaker pro tempore: the chair understands that the gentleman from georgia has not yielded for that purpose, therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i'm very pleased that the time to yield two minutes to the distinguished jo from michigan a new -- jentslewoman from michigan, a new member of congress, mrs. lawrence, who is on the oversight committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. lawrence: mr. speaker i stand here today, i rise to oppose h.r. 5 the legislation represents a significant

backward step in the efforts to help all of our nation's children and their families prepare for their future. mr. speaker, i speak as a parent, a grandparent and a past school board president. h.r. 5 abandons the historic federal role in education and elementary and secondary -- in elementary and secondary levels. censuring the educational process of all american students, including students from low-income families stublets with disabilities -- students with disabilities, english learners and students of color. it also fails to maintain the core expectation that states and school districts will take serious sustained and targeted actions when necessary to correct achievement gaps and reform low-performing schools. additionally, h.r. 5 fails to identify opportunity gaps or

correct inequities in access to resources and supports students' needs to succeed. such as challenging academic courses, excellent teachers and principals after-school enrichment and expanded learning time and other academic and nonacademic support. the bill caps on federal education spending would lock in recent budget cuts for the rest of the decade. and the bill would allow funds currently required to be used for education to be used for other purposes such as spending on sports stadiums or tax cuts for the wealthy. finally, h.r. 5 fails to make critical investments for our nation's students, including high-quality preschool for our american children, support for american teachers and principals and investment in innovative solutions for the public education system. for those reasons, i oppose

h.r. 5 and will deny federal -- that will deny federal funds to the classrooms that need them the most and fails to assure parents that policymakers in education will take the actions students need when they are not learning. i yield my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. mr. woodall: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. i have not had an opportunity to meet the gentlelady from michigan but because i serve on the rules committee, i had the opportunity to see all of the amendments that she submitted for this bill. and i know one of those amendments that she submitted is to make sure that all of our learning plans take special note of foster children -- children in foster care, make she's thorough folks are not forgotten. i'm thankful for her to that attention on that issue. i would ask my friend from florida if he has any further speakers remaining. mr. hastings: i do. mr. woodall: then i'll reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: pas tt the timeo eld two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from minnesota a member of the financial services committee,

mr. ellison. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. ellison: mr. speaker, i want to thank the gentleman for yielding and thank the gentleman for his long service. the passage of the elementary and secondary education act of 1965 was created to address the enormous inequality in america's educational system. which created widespread poverty and segregation. today we know that we are still not educating black and latino students at the same level we educate white students. 50 years after the enactment of the elementary and secondary education act, educating all children, regardless of their to background, is still one of the most important challenges we face as a nation. that's why equity must start at the heart of any attempt to overhaul our education system. but the student success act does little to help kids in minnesota who are struggling in schools with too few resources. rather than eliminate the disparities in our educational

system, the bill today will only increase the achievement gap and leave behind students from low-income neighborhoods and students with disabilities. education matters. far beyond the individual talent, 3/4 of the return on early education goes back to the community. and ensures a healthier society and a more stable economy. one of the biggest gaps in literacy in the u.s. is between children of college educated and noncollege educated parents. we must be more committed to maximizing the potential of all students. our students and teachers deserve better and i urge that we all oppose h.r. 5 so we can create education reform legislation that ensures every student can realize their goals and dreams. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. -- the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from florida is recognized. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i'm grateful to the chair for permitting me earlier to allow

for mrs. lowey to speak to the previous question. as i indicated, if we are not successful in defeating this measure, then i am going to ask unanimous consent to insert in the text of the amendment and the record along with extraneous material immediately prior to the vote on the previous question if i may. and, mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to vote no when we get to this, but at this time i'm very pleased to yield five minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from california, my classmate and good friend, ms. roybal-allard. . ms. roybal-allard: i rise again to urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question on the rule, amend it, and make in order h.r. 861. we are just three days away from the department of homeland security being without the funds it needs to protect our nation.

secretary johnson and agency heads have warned us that if the continuing resolution to fund the department expires, national security operations will be disrupted and essential personnel will be required to work without pay. they also warn that passing another c.r. would not address the uncertainty of being able to meet our long-term national security needs. democrats have a responsible solution. two weeks ago appropriations committee ranking member, nita lowey, and i introduced h.r. 861 which contains the precise language of the november 2014, bipartisan bill negotiated in good faith by the chairs and ranking members of the house and senate homeland security

appropriations subcommittee. h.r. 861 is co-sponsored by every democrat. this bill would pass the house, pass the senate, and be signed into law by the president. all it needs is the republican leadership to do the responsible thing and bring h.r. 861 to the floor for a vote. by doing this, we will demonstrate to the american people that we know our nation's security takes priority over politics and unrelated policy debates. to let funding for homeland security expire, or instead of a full-year funding bill take the easy way out by kicking a viable solution down the road with a continuing resolution, is to fail the american people and the trust that they have placed in us as members of congress to

protect them and our country from harm. let's pass h.r. 861 today. i yield back. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i'm prepared to tell my friend at this time that i'm prepared to close. mr. woodall: as many i. i yield to my friend. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ga yields to the gentleman. mr. hastings: thank you very much. mr. speaker, there are three days left until the department of homeland security would shut down. as i said earlier, i don't believe that's going to happen. i believe my friends will be about the business of making sure that it does not occur. i hope they do because our country needs to make sure that we are not in any insecure

position going forward. but notwithstanding that, the brinksmanship continues and we are here considering two bills that will go nowhere. and that to me is the state of playwright now. if our friends want to pass these education measures, they need to take care of business first. it's time to quit messing around. mr. speaker there are a list of extraordinary organizations in this country that are against h.r. 5. a list that i ask unanimous consent to have inserted into the record -- the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. hastings: the names of the congressional tricaucus, the american association of people with disabilities, the american association of university women the american federation of teachers, the american

foundation for the blind, the association of the university centers on disabilities, the autism national committee. the center for american progress. the children's of defense fund. the disability rights and education and defense fund. easter seals that most of us contribute to. the gay, lesbian, and straight education network. the naacp. the naacp legal defense and educational fund. the national association of school psychologists. the national down syndrome congress. disability plays a major role in this particular legislation. and the fact that all of these organizations are standing up saying that they are opposed to it should get our attention. in addition, the united negro college fund, the leadership conference on civil and human

rights, and the united states chamber of commerce. all of these people are opposed to this measure, and yet we find ourselves going forward. it's time for us to get real in this congress, stop having closed rules, and let all of the members in this body participate in the decisional process as we argue measures that are needed on behalf of our country. this is a great institution, and the people that serve here are absolutely wonderful people. but somehow or other we have gotten stuck and by getting stuck we are not able to do the things that are vital for the nation. we need to unstick it and get on with the business knowing that we can sit in a room together and come to conclusions not only about education but about energy. but about every aspect of american life that we have a responsible for --

responsibility for. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields ba t bala het t gentlen omeoia is recognized. mr. woodall: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. m woodall: i have lots of agreement with my friend from florida. always do. i'm always a little surprised by how much i agree with him when he comes down here to talk, but we do need to unstick this place. we are talking about an issue today -- two issues today. one, the h.r. 5 student success act, where every member in this room wants to see our children succeed. every member in this room wants to see the achievement gap closed. yet we grapple with how to achieve that goal together. we have also in this rule, mr. speaker, h.r. 529, now that measure passed unanimously out of the ways and means committee. we found a problem. we found a solution that we could agree on together to move it forward. it's moving forward. in the tradition of being unstuck, i am told that here just in the last few minutes

that the senate has found a pathway to move forward on a d.h.s. funding bill. again we passed that bill back on january 14. the senate has been struggling to find a pathway forward. i don't mean a pathway to pass t i mean a pathway to debate t apparently we have seen that law be broken down here in the last few minutes and i'm glad to hear that. there's a role to be played, mr. speaker. there's a role for this house to play in our constitutional republic. there is a role for the senate to play. and there is a role for the white house to play. that's true when we are talking about federal education policy. it's true when we are talking about homeland security policy. it's true when we are talking about immigrationpolicy. -- about immigration policy. i'm not always satisfied with how well we in the house defend that constitutional prerogative. again, we are here today to talk about h.r. 5 that's going to fix a bill passed by an entirely republican infrastructure here in congress that today

republicans disavow as being a terrible mistake. they wish we could have done better. i'm glad we are striving to do better. it's not a republican issue. it's not a democraticish shue. it's an american issue. what could be more american than trying to help our public schools succeed. you hear a lot of worry in this chamber mr. speaker. you hear folks worry if we change this provision or that provision, what will be the impact on those children who right now are threatened by a substantial achievement gap in this country? but in the same moment, mr. speaker, someone will stand up on the other side of the aisle talking about those very same children and say, if we do not change these provisions today, we will sentence these children to a lifetime of under performance. not being able to meet their full potential. i don't question anyone's mowive on this floor. in fact, i'm grateful for the passion folks have on this floor. this rule is only step one of h.r. 5, mr. speaker.

i'm glad for that. when my colleague from florida spoke earlier about the closed nature of the process and how much better and brighter this institution is when the process is open, he's exactly right. he's right every time he says it and i'm right every time i say t it's absolutely true. it's not fast. it's not efficient. arguably sometimes it even borders on dysfunctional. but it's the right thing to do in order to end up with the best product that we can at the end of the day. and to the degree that we are able to do that mr. speaker, i believe we will continue to strife to do that. this bill will do that. just so folks know what they are coming to vote on doesn't deal with the amendments to the student success act. we'll plan to go back to the rules committee this afternoon for a committeely new hearing to make as many amendments as we can available to the underlying bill. this bill is only to have general debate on h.r. 5, before the amendment process begins.

and to have debate on h.r. 529 that bill that passed unanimously out of the ways and means committee. so often we have come down here and we are talking about divisive issues, mr. speaker. i'm glad to be down here today talking about something on which we can agreement good bipartisan bill coming out of ways and means. opportunity to open up the process and have voices be heered on h.r. 5 -- heard on h.r. 5 today and tomorrow. the gentleman from florida had it right mr. speaker. i'm blessed to be from a part of the country where folks understand that education isn't just something, it's everything. don't talk to me about loving opportunity in this country. if you don't have a commitment to education. don't talk to me about lifting folks up from this rung of the ladder to this rung of the economic ladder if you don't have a commitment to education. and don't talk to me about taking somebody else's dollars and spending them on education and thinking that alone is going to create better outcomes for

that child. you need money, absolutely you do. but you need that commitment locally. you need the commitment of teachers. you need the commitment of principles. you need the commitment of mothers and fathers, of communities. and we have yet to figure out how to mandate that commitment from washington, d.c. i'm grateful i live in a community where we figure out how to grow it from within. you can walk into the worst school in my district, mr. speaker, and you'll find folks headed off to stanford on scholarships first generation americans. you'll find folks headed off to university of chicago on full scholarships, folks who come from generational poverty. you'll find folks headed off to the university of georgia to the finest institution in the united states because they want to be close to their family. they want to invest in the community that has been so good to them. hope lives there. opportunity lives there. i'm grateful that chairman kline and folks on the education

committee for doing what they can. it's not all that i would like to see, but to do what they can to get out of the way of those innovators in my community. to do what they can to allow folks to experiment with some things, find out what works as we have and take those local ideas, spread those ideas locally. do what they can to prevent the federal government from saying we know best how to educate children. and instead turning the federal government just into a funding stream where we can to say you know how to educate children. we trust you. so often we conflate issues in this body, mr. speaker. the shishe is -- issue is not that children can't learn they k the issue is not that public schools can't teach. they can and they do. but there is an issue with generational poverty. there is an issue with an achievement gap.

i'm not sure that h.r. 5 no matter who crafted it and how long we work to do it, i'm not sure that we could solve that problem with h.r. 5. in fact, i don't believe that we could. not with any elementary and secondary education act bill. we are doing what we can today. i hope we will be back in this institution tomorrow to do more. goodness knows we do a lot of things in this town to disadvantage that next generation of americans. i'm proud today to be working on at least one bill that will do something to advantage those young people and their future. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back the balance of my time. i move the previous question. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from georgia yields back his time. the previous question is ordered. the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. mr. hastings: mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: gentleman from florida. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, 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 arisen, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. pursuant to clause 8 and clause 9 of rule 20, this 15-minute vote on ordering the previous question will be followed by five-minute votes on adopting house resolution 121, if ordered, and suspend the rules and passing h.r. 1020. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of reentis. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly phitebyhs.ou o repreat

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 240. the nays are 176. the previous question is ordered --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 241. the nays are 181. the previous question is ordered. the question is on adoption of the resolution. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

in the opinion of the chair, the -- the gentleman from florida. mr. hastings: mr. speaker, i ask for a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote having been requested, those favoring a 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.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 243. the nays are 178. the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from texas, mr. smith to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 1020, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 1020, a bill to define stem education to include computer science and to support existing stem education programs at the national science foundation. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes i will electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. -- 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 o rseates. 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: 2/3 of those voting having responded in the affirmative being in the affirmative, the rules are speedthbis passed, and without objection the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table.

for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? ms. jackson lee: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that the house now bring up -- i ask unanimous consent that the house now bring up h.r. 861, the clean department of homeland security funding bill to protect america that would keep the department open so that we can carry out its mission of keeping the american people safe and as well protecting our national security over political security. i ask unanimous consent. the speaker pro tempore: under guidelines consistently issued by successive speakers as recorded in section 956 of the house rules and manual, the chair is constrained not to entertain the request unless it has been cleared by the bipartisan floor and committee leaderships. the request is denied.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from kansas seek recognition?

ms. jenkins: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 121, i call up the bill h.r. 529 and ask for its immediate consideration in the house. the the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 17 h.r. 529 a bill to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to improve 529 plans. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 121, the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on ways and means printed in the bill shall be considered as adopted and the bill as amended shall be considered as read. the gentlelady from can a. ms. jenkins, and the gentleman from illinois, mr. davis, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from kansas, ms. jenkins. ms. jenkins: i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on h.r. 529, to amend the internal revenue code of 1986 to

improve 529 plans. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. ms. jenkins: mr. speaker i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from kansas is recognized for as much time as she wishes to consume. ms. jenkins: thank you, mr. speaker. i would like to thank chairman ryan for his leadership on this critical and timely issue and my colleague, congressman kind of wisconsin, for four years of bipartisan efforts to encourage families to invest for their children's future. i rise today in support of h.r. 529, my legislation that reaffirms congress' commitment to not only preserving but strengthening expanding, and modernizing 529 college savings plans. currently there are nearly 12 million 529 accounts opened in all 50 states, considering there were only one million accounts opened in 2001, the growth and popularity of these accounts is truly remarkable and is still on

an upward traject torery. the popularity of 529 accounts among american families is no mystery. higher education costs across the country are rising at a pace that exceeds the rate of inflation and folks are looking for waste to plan -- ways to plan responsibly for the future. a 2014 gallup poll of america's top financial concerns showed that among adults between the ages of 30 and 49 not having enough money to pay for your children's college is a top concern for families trailing only retirement concerns. so it is natural that folks would turn towards 529 savings accounts. these accounts are easy to set up and use. an account holders can make a monthly contribution as small as $10 to invest for their children's future. -- future on a tax deferred basis. the 12 million 529 accounts today have an average balance of

around $20,000 which will go a long way toward helping families offset college costs and helping students to begin their careers with a lighter debt burden. when the president proposed a plan in his 2016 budget to tax future contributions from 529 savings accounts members on both sides of the aisle were appalled. his billion dollar tax proposal on families, savings for college would have completely eliminated the purpose of saving responsibly for higher education in the first place, and would have inevitably moved more students towards student loans and other sources of financial aid. we fundamentally disagree with the direction of the president's policy proposal, and instead we want to make 529 college savings plans more consumer friendly and reflective of the realities faced by students today. this legislation will make

computer purchases with 529 plans a qualified expense. computers are an essential part of higher education and the laws should be updated to reflect that. a pew research center report in 2011 found that a vast majority of undergraduate, graduate, and community college students use some sort of computer to participate in a college experience that now features online corresponds, class work, and e-textbooks. i believe this is a commonsense modernization measure. the bill will also remove distribution aggregation requirements which are an outdated burden on 529 plan administrators and states. when 529 college savings plans were originated back in 1996 the funds were taxed before they were deposited into the account, and then taxed a second time when they were used to pay for higher education expenses. at that time it made sense for plan administrators to aggregate

accounts for beneficiaries with multiple 529 accounts in order to determine the taxable dollars disbursed among the accounts. however, the law's changed. back in 2001 so that 529 savings are only texted once now. before they are put into the 529 account. the overwhelm taxable funds at disbursement are for nonqualified expenses. according to a g.a.o. report from 2012, that has the most recent data on the topic nonqualified distributions from 529 plans only made up 5.3% of total distributions in 2010. because of the past changes to tax treatment of 529s, it no longer makes sense for plan administrators to aggregate these accounts for tax purposes. it represents an undue burden which could potentially raise the administrative costs for operating these plans. this is why this legislation

will remove these requirements. finally, the bill will allow a student who receives a refund on any 529 qualified expenses to redeposit those funds into their 529 without penalty. refunds of 529 dollars could happen for any number of reasons. a student may withdraw from a certain course, may receive a scholarship offer or other financial aid after their 529 plans have already been used or may have to withdraw from school because of an illness. whatever the reason subjecting these funds to a penalty works against the spirit of 529 college savings plans, and this bill will correct that. these are sensible yet important improvements to 529 college savings plans that should receive resounding support from both sides of the aisle as we continue our work in the house to empower hardworking families with bottom up solutions, i urge my colleagues to support this passage of this bill. thank you, mr. speaker. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from kansas reserves her time. the chair recognizes the

gentleman from illinois, mr. davis. mr. davis: thank you very much, mr. chairman. mr. chairman i am -- i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. mr. davis: i am a strong supporter of 529 college savings plans. when i co-chaired the education and family tax working group with representative dianne black from tennessee during the 113 congress, we heard from education stakeholders that education tax benefits should reflect a three-legged stool. with one leg helping families save for college. one leg helping families pay for college. and one leg helping families repay college. college is indeed, expensive. and it is a wise public

investment to use federal incentives to encourage families to save for college. h.r. 529 makes three important improvements to 529 accounts. one, it makes computer technology an allowable expense. two, it improves the calculation for taxing distributions to better reflect one's earnings. and three it allows distributions that are refunded by a college upon a student's withdrawal to be reinvested in 529 accounts within 60 days without being subject to a tax. i support these important improvements to 529 education plans. in addition, i hope that the republican leadership will advance the improvementtos bill, the savings enhancement for education and college act, which

was h.r. 529 in the last congress, and also championed by representatives jenkins and kind. this former h.r. 29 bill includes the two substantive improvements to 529s that advocates explained would best help middle income families save more for college. we know that low and moderate income families have a harder time saving for college because they have less extra cash available to put away in a savings account. the savings enhancement for education act would substantially help low and middle income families save by allowing low-income taxpayers to take advantage of the safest credit and allow employers to match up to $600 per year in 529 contributions. i think that these provisions are excellent.

the savers credit currently helps offset part of the first $2,000 that low-income workers voluntarily contribute to i.r.a. and 401-k plans. extending this tax benefit to 529 plans is a commonsense way to help increase college savings by low and moderate income families. further, i think that the employer match is an especially promising tool to improve college savings by lower income americans because it adds $600 of family -- a family didn't have for college before that can grow and support education over time. these two improvements are needed because the savings data show that 529 savings have dropped tremendously since 2009. from 2005 to 2009, around 60% of the accounts saw contributions.

however, in the last few years the account contributions have been closer to 45%. i am a bit surprised that these substantive improvements are not included in the bill before us today and i truly hope that republican leadership will advance these 529 provisions that would tremendously improve savings for lower and middle income americans. in the interest of fairness, i also hope that we make computer technology an allowable expense for the american opportunity tax credit. currently computers and software are not qualified expenses for the aotc, and i think that the definition of qualified expenses should be uniform across 529s and a.o.t. benefits. these are all great improvements that have, in fact, been made. i thank you, mr. speaker.

i reserve the balance of my time. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois reserves his time. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from kansas. ms. jenkins: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield to the gentleman from wisconsin, the chair of the house ways and means committee, mr. ryan, for as much time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. mr. ryan: thank you mr. speaker. it won't be all that much time. i want to congratulate the gentlelady from kansas on bringing this legislation forward. we brought this out of committee. we had no resistance because this is just a commonsense bill. this upgrades the law to reflect the realities of a college education. you ought to be able to buy a computer you ought to be able to buy software for your college savings dollar because it's essential to your education. more importantly if a person gets a refund, if they cancel a class if for some reason you get it you should be able to put it in your college savings plan.

this is commonsense ideas that makes it more workable and reflects the common problem people have in this 21st century. it's important that we give them the flexibility to save for an education. we believe in the 529 plans. 529 plans are going to stay. they're a good thing. we're not going to attack them. we're going to develop and grow them. with that, mr. speaker, i'd like to yield back to the gentlelady, the author of the legislation, the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin yields his time back. the gentlelady from kansas reserves, and the gentleman from illinois is recognized. mr. davis: thank you very much, mr. chairman. and i am pleased to yield four minutes to the gentleman from wisconsin, who's the co-sponsor of this legislation and a tireless advocate for education, mr. kind. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from wisconsin is recognized for four minutes. mr. kind: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman from illinois for yielding me the time. i want to thank my partner in crafting this legislation,

representative jenkins. this has been the product of a few years of hard work, of listening to various outside groups and trying to understand the difficulty of saving for higher education that many working families are experiencing today. the legislation before us, h.r. 529, as the chairman of the committee just pointed out, is a commonsense proposal with some reasonable technical corrections to the 529 savings plans that already exist in all 50 states. allowing for the qualification expense for computers and software which is a new learning tool that sometimes is required in the classroom for higher education. it allows for the refund of tuition and expenses if you had to withdrawal for college for some reason. and it also reduces and minimizes the unnecessary bureaucratic and administrative paperwork. in that respect there are some commonsense steps that we can do to modernize the 529 program and make sure that it's working for more families.

i do agree with my colleague from illinois that we have a challenge of trying to democratize these programs a lot more. we have roughly 3% participation rate in 529's throughout the entire nation. we've got to figure out a way to do a better job of increasing those savings opportunities for more families, but especially lower income families that don't have the disposable income right now in order to participate in these programs. whether it's a tax credit that representative davis was talking about employer matches. by thinking creatively how we can democratize these so more families can take advantage of it that's going to be crucial. because in wisconsin alone, we got roughly 257,000 accounts in the state program and 529 plans. the families saved about $3.7 billion for college or their technical schools, reducing the need for greater student loans, helping them access college. these programs not only encourage savings for college

but help middle-class families get in the habit of saving for other important life events such as retirement, that we have to do a better job in. but i also think given that the congressional budget office has a cost associated with it, just roughly $5 million a year, not a lot in federal budget terms, there's no reason at all why we couldn't have brought this legislation to the floor today with an acceptable pay-for, so we're not adding any deficit to future generations. again, representative davis offered during the committee markup a responsible amendment that would have done a better job of means testing the 529 contributions and cutting it off to families that earn up to $3 million. now, to put this in perspective, the top 1% of income earners in wisconsin earn less than $1 million. so it was still a very generous high threshold but it was enough money to pay for the $51 million expense over the next 10 years that the congressional budget office scored this at. there's no reason why we can't

be making these tough decisions as well when it comes to policy changes that makes sense for working families and act in a more fiscally responsible manner. but i think these 529 accounts have been established, they do work well for those who can participate and this is especially important for a state like wisconsin today whose governor just submitted a budget proposal calling for a cut of over $300 million out of our university system, a university system that's really the pride and joy for the state of wisconsin, which has given us a competitive advantage in the upper midwest where we had some of the top scholars and researchers come there to do their work, students wanting to stay in the state so they can participate in these u.w. system colleges and universities that we have. obviously the governor wants to take it in a different direction. $300 million worth of cuts gets into the bone so, again, we got to think creatively of how we can make it affordable for families to be able to send

their kids on to schools. this is one way to do it savings in 529's. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. kind: i thank the gentleman. but we no othtaanalid programshaescipe to sgsnes iome children. pell grant program, work study opportunities on and off campus to this, too, helps many students, including myself, who is first generation that went on to school to be able to afford higher education so we are not driving these kids deeper and deeper into debt. $28,000 worth of debt, the second largest worth of debt in the nation behind mortgages at $1.2 trillion. it exceeds all credit card debt. so 529 is another vehicle to try to alleviate that student indebtedness that's affecting more and more throughout the country. we should fix it by making to pay for. this is necessary policy

change. i ask my colleagues to support the legislation and i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from illinois reserves. the gentlelady from kansas. ms. jenkins: mr. speaker, i'd like to yield to the gentleman from illinois an esteemed member of the house ways and means committee and subcommittee chair of the oversight subcommittee mr. roskam, for as much time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from illinois is recognized for as much time as he wishes to use. mr. roskam: thank you mr. speaker. i'd thank the gentlelady for yielding. mr. speaker, do you notice something? did you notice that as speaker and the person who's presiding over this chamber today oftentimes you hear a great deal of difficulty between the two parties and a lot of wrangling and a lot of different positions and so forth that manifest itself in arguing and so forth, but did you notice something? you're hearing both sides of the aisle coming before you and coming before this house and saying the same thing and that

is we ought to move h.r. 529, and there's a recognition and i think my constituency in suburban chicago is breathing a collective sigh of relief right now because they're saying hey, people are paying attention to things that matter to me and matter to my future and matter to my children and that is they are taking a bill, a provision in the law that's been successful and they're improving it, they're bringing it up to date under the leadership of the gentlelady from kansas, ms. jenkins and she's joined by mr. davis my colleague from illinois, and everybody's coming together around that idea that says 529's need to be protected and defended and we need to make sure they are kept up to date because back home this makes all the difference in the world. so i think this is one of these types of moments that's very significant and that we can build on. i thank the gentlelady for her leadership. i thank mr. davis for his and i rise in strong support of this measure and yield back the

balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlelady from kansas reserves. the gentleman from illinois is recogniz. mr. davis: thank you mr. speaker. and i am pleased to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from texas, representative sheila jackson lee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized for three minutes. ms. jackson lee: i thank the gentleman from illinois. i thank the gentlelady and i thank the speaker. it is good news to be able to come on the floor of the house and be able to speak to hardworking parents and the basis of all of our joy when we are giving an opportunity for our young people to be able to participate in higher learning, in this instance, college education and the 529 fix, if you will, deals with the savings accounts with tax-free dispersements for the purpose of purchasing college expenses and i do want to add and join

my colleague from wisconsin that the idea of other equipment dealing with the new technology special needs services is crucial. and i want to thank mr. davis for his astute work in the committee looking to make this a little bit more balanced. srnl we are appreciative of those who have been successful -- certainly we are appreciative of those who have been successful and enjoy financial success. i do enjoy that. i do think with our concern of a deficit which, by the way, has been reduced substantially by president obama, that this idea that mr. davis had would have been a worthy inclusion into this legislation. however, i am grateful again, that we are now high tech, and the 529 accounts include computers and software as qualified educational expenses. it would also allow for refunded tuition, educational expenses, particularly if a student withdrawals due to illness. you know, i was talking to one of my young people, college

students and also my husband is a part of the team of higher education and sees it all the time where youngsters leave because they're illinois and fail to let to let the professor know and all of a sudden they're running up a bill. but i do want to say that this fix is urgent becausee ed hp op se,utt also urgent mr. speaker, that we immediately move to put the homeland security funding on the floor of the house. i had asked yesterday for it to immediately be put on the floor today in order to do our duty and our duty is to ensure the safety and security of this nation. it is sad for me to note that those, like border patrol agents and i.c.e. agents and t.s.o. agents will be unpaid. they're essential and we'll go past them and thank them for their service, as i often do in airports across america but yet

we will stand here and not have a resolution and a solution to pay them for their money. we had a hearing today in judiciary -- and i was very glad to note that the weight was on the side of the president that you had constitutional authority, that he's not rendering any immigration status, that he's doing what he's allowed under the law. the attorney general is allowed to give -- have discretion as to employment status. no benefits will be conveyed on these individuals and frankly we have an emergency and we need to pass that bill. let me conclude by saying -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. mr. davis: i yield an additional two minutes to the gentlelady from texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady from texas is recognized for two minutes. ms. jackson lee: i won't take that. we appreciately are on the floor dealing with -- we appropriately are on the floor dealing with 529. i thank the ways and means committee ranking member as well as the ranking minority member and chairman of the full committee. as we frame the work this congress must do, i don't know how we stand here on wednesday, 24, 48 hours out from a

collapse of the department of homeland security, no funding and actually are here and looking out at the face of first responders and those who are on the front lines of borders, airports, f.a.a. i.c.e. officers and we would stand and hold hostage these hardworking americans who in this climate that we are looking to malls or hearing -- seeing videos and various charges of those who want to do harm that we would not want an orderly process for five million people who have about 14 items 14 items they must comply with to even be eligible but five million people who simply want us to know they are here and they're here to do good and not to do harm, that is an orderly process for knowing how to secure this nation. again, i thank the gentleman from illinois. with that i ask for a vote for 529 and a vote for h.r. 5 -- the funding of the homeland security. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentlelady from texas yields back her time. the gentleman from illinois reserves his time. members are reminded not to traffic the well while another member is under recognition. the chair recognizes the gentlelady from kansas. ms. jenkins: mr. speaker, i would like to yield to the gentleman from california, our majority leader, mr. mccarthy, for as much time as he may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. mccarthy: well i thank the speaker and i want to thank the gentlelady for yielding and for her work on 529 and bringing this bill to the floor. you know, during his speech at the state of the union address, the president, president obama presented what he called middle-class economics. it didn't take long for people to realize that president's plan meant taxes middle class to pay for bigger government and pipe dream projects. nothing demonstrated this anti-middle class agenda more than the president's plan to attack education opportunity for middle-class families by

taxing 529 savings accounts. now after families cried out against the president's plan, he dropped it, and i'm happy about that. . the president has chosen not to do harm but should work with the house to do positive good. my wife and i have two children, connor and megan. connor is in college today and megan is a senior about to enter college. when we found out the joy that we were to have children, we didn't have much great wealth, but