mr. mcgovern: mr. burgess. mr. burgess: thank you, mr. chairman. thank our witnesses for being here today. just on the issue of the process . a little less than two years ago, we had a committee hearing in our energy and commerce committee dealing with health care. people were really excited about it. we had a lot of amendments offered and we went straight through some 29 hours, at the same time the ways and means committee went through 18-20 hours in the markup. my former colleague, ralph hall, ralled to me that the markup of the clean air act took eight months. so it's truly important public policy. it can take longer than a day's work. oftentimes we don't have that process in the committee. we are bound where the rest of e congress is -- if we short kirkt it the rett of the circuited. short let me ask a question, you introduced a bill that creates a fusion center focused on preventing violence through proactive information sharing. was that something you thought of offering as an amendment to this bill? >> we have and offered several things in c

mr. mcgovern: i want to thank my good friend, the gentleman from georgia, for his kind words. great deal of respect for him as i do for the ranking member, mr. cole. i'm hoping this week, maybe we will have a bipartisan moment when we all stand together and keep the government open and prevent another shutdown. but on this bill in particular, the bill we are taking up here, is virtually identical to the bill that passed the united states senate last year with a bipartisan vote. and that bill that passed the senate last year was prevented by the then republican majority from even being considered on this house floor on at least two occasions. and so i could appreciate the fact the gentleman may not agree with the statement we're trying to make today or the bill we're putting forward today, but the process i think has been pretty good. it just had a hearing in the committee of jurisdiction. it had a markup. we had a long hearing in the rules committee. all the germane amendments were made in order. a bipartisan amendment and republican amendment. we're going to debate it here tod

mr. mcgovern: mr. woodall. mr. woodall: i take your point that it might be too soon about my righteous indignation about the process. but it's not too soon for you to put eight years of your ravens indignation to work here. there's no reason to delay fixing what folks have accurately described as a problem. i've been focus odd then all year. i think the majority is making a terrible mistake taking things that could be bipartisan and turning them into partisan bills and i put the trying to fix the nics system into that category. mr. mcgovern: under the rulesing hearings and markups aren't even required. but in this instance they were complied with and this is a bipartisan bill. mr. thompson was here from california is the author, i think mr. king of new york is the -- five republicans. mr. woodall: i thought about bringing my countdown clock about when the rule will go into effect. mr. mcgovern: we're not doing so bad. mr. woodall: i have given the chairman credit for that over and over again, i think it's a wonderf

mr. mcgovern: madam speaker, our policy toward cuba should be one area where democrats and republicans can find common ground. there are not many communist countries left, but let's consider that when it came to the old soviet block or china and vietnam today, we have agreed on the basics. we all differ with their human rights practices and we say so. we stand up for our security interests. we cooperate when we can. we support trade and citizen contact because they are good for our economy and they increase our influence. in this vain, let me praise a few republicans. president nixon, for opening to china. president ford for the helsinki accords and for the principle that information and people should flow freely across borders. president reagan for vastly expanding engagement with the soviet union and its people. these are big achievements, none of them terribly controversial, but cuba is an exception. only with cuba do we regulate our own citizens' contact. only there do we have a trade embargo that limits trade and investment. six decades of embargo, a virtual lifetime of foreign policy

mr. mcgovern of massachusetts. the speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to section 2 of the migratory bird conservation act and the ord ore they have house of january 3, 2019, of the following member on the part of the house to the migratory bird conservation commission. the clerk: mr. thompson of alifornia. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leave of absence requested for mr. defazio of oregon for today and mr. katko of new york for today and the balance of the week. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2019, the gentleman from arizona, mr. biggs is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. biggs: thank you, madam speaker. before i begin i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on the topic of my special ord

mr. mcgovern. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for 2 1/2 minutes. mr. mcgovern: i thank the gentleman from maryland mr. raskin for yielding me time and thank him for his leadership on this important issue. let me remind my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are opposing this legislation that people are watching this debate. i know many are scratching their heads wondering what's going on because what we're trying to do here is close loopholes that allow violent criminals to get access to guns. not create more loopholes. mr. speaker, last thursday i spoke at a town hall sponsored by students at bancroft high school in worcester, massachusetts. those young people commanded -- demanded action on gun violence, not unlike other young people across my district and this country. they are terrified and tired of seeing one massacre after another after another after another and they are sickened by the unacceptable high rate of gun violence in this country. w

mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i send to the desk a privileged report from the committee on rules for filing under the rule. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title. the clerk: report to accompany house resolution 122, resolution providing for consideration of the joint resolution, house joint resolution 37, directing the removal of united states armed forces from hostilities in the republic of yemen, that have not yet -- that have not been authorized by congress, waiving a requirement of clause 6-a of rule 13, with respect to consideration of certain resolutions reported from the committee on rules and providing for consideration of motions to suspend the rules. the speaker pro tempore: referred to the house calendar and ordered printed. the house will please come to order. the house will please come to order. members should take their seats. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. hoyer: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that the committee on house admi

mr. thompson from california was here. just pull up another chair. >> chairman mcgovern and ranking member mr. cole, i appreciate the opportunity to speak to regarding the amendment to hr 8. our community space tragic instances of mass violence, my wife susan diane dye hold the victims of violence and their families in our prayers and we need to work together to combat all forms of violence. hr 8 seeks to be a solution and i appreciate that and i don't believe it solves anything, however. we already have strong transfer guidelines and this has law- abiding citizens in the crosshairs. simply put, it's a bill that is irresponsible at the attempt to criminalize lawful gun owners. hr 8 is another example of a washington approach that ignores the realities that folks in our rurally communities face. my amendment allows farmers and ranchers to transfer firearms to employees or neighbors for the purposes of ranch activities. these activities include pest and creditor control, hunting, target practice and firearms safety courses. in many of these coaches, we have more cattle than we have people. many

mr. khanna: thank you, madam speaker. thank you, chairman engel, for your extraordinary leadership to help bring a war in yemen to an end. i want to thank you and chairman mcgovern, speaker pelosi, and majority leader-hour for finally speaking up for the millions of yem knees who are on -- yemenis who are on the brink of starvation. this is not a complex issue. for the last two years, we have been assisting the saudis in bombing yemenis civilians and the reports say there are 14 million yemenis who face starvation. 14 million. let's put that in context. 800,000 people died in rwanda. 100 in bosnia. -- 100,000 in bosnia. and 14,000 face famine in yemen. it's because there is a systematic bombing preventing the food and medicine to get in. we want to send the food. we want to send medicine. but the saudis aren't allowing that food and medicine to get in. and what do we know about saudi arabia? we know that they were responsible for the murder of khashoggi. we know recently that m.b.s. admitted he wanted khashoggi dead. we know that they, the saudis, are supplying arms to al qaeda in yemen who are fighting our troops. the saudis are giving arms to the very people w

mr. khanna: thank you, madam speaker. thank you, chairman engel, for your extraordinary leadership to help bring a war in yemen to an end. i want to thank you and chairman mcgovern, speaker pelosi, and majority leader-hour for finally speaking up for the millions of yem knees who are on -- yemenis who are on the brink of starvation. this is not a complex issue. for the last two years, we have been assisting the saudis in bombing yemenis civilians and the reports say there are 14 million yemenis who face starvation. 14 million. let's put that in context. 800,000 people died in rwanda. 100 in bosnia. -- 100,000 in bosnia. and 14,000 face famine in yemen. it's because there is a systematic bombing preventing the food and medicine to get in. we want to send the food. we want to send medicine. but the saudis aren't allowing that food and medicine to get in. and what do we know about saudi arabia? we know that they were responsible for the murder of khashoggi. we know recently that m.b.s. admitted he wanted khashoggi dead. we know that they, the saudis, are supplying arms to al qaeda in yemen who are fighting our troops. the saudis are giving arms to the very people w

i'm joined by alison mcgovern a prominent supporter of the peoples vote. how do you read mrnd press for the decision to go back to the public and that is where we are now. so we can get into the terminology of who said what but in the end this is very simple, either there is a deal that labour mps can vote for or we have to press for it to be a public vote. let me put it to you that one consequence of what appears to be jeremy corbyn's weathered diffident approach to another referendum is that the labour mps hostile to the ideal will think never mind party policy, the leader is not keen on it, therefore i can vote against it. the labour party needs to stick together because we are at our strongest when we stick to the policy that we decided that our september conference, and i know that there are some of my colleagues who have got concerns and rightly so. when in the country to come together at a town that has been very difficult for us. this is why we keep putting forward a version of brexit that would be acceptable, some sort of compromise, but what can we do if the tories