mr. cuellar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for five minutes. mr. cuellar: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank chairman roybal-allard for her leadership on homeland security and for her ideas on how we secure the border. also, want to thank the ranking member, my friend from tennessee, also. of course, the full committee ranking woman, kay granger, also for the work she's done. of course, our leader, chairman of the full committee. i rise to reopen the department of homeland security. as we said all along, we must first open up the government and we can negotiate. we've always done that. we've always kept the government open and then we negotiate and then we're doing this so the federal employees do not suffer. it's been 34 days since the government shut down. far surpassing any previous record. that means 34 days that 800,000 federal employees have not received pay. i live on the border. i don't just go and visit the border. i drink the water, i breathe the air, i talk to border patrol agents almost every day. i talk to c.b.p. officers every day

mr. cuellar: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the chairwoman for yielding to me. everybody talk about the border and how violent it is, but if you look at the latest f.b.i. statistics, whether it's rape, murder, or assault, the border crime rate is lower than the national crime rate. i can pick any city you want to and you will see that none of the most dangerous cities in the country are on the border. none of them. none of them are. in fact, if you look at my hometown of laredo, the murder rate in the border and you compare it to washington, d.c. where we're at, it's about three or four times higher here in washington, d.c. so if people are worried about the crime, start out with washington, d.c. that's what you all want to do. the wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century issue we have. we want to see border security. i live on the border. i don't just go for a second or an hour and say i know the border better. i know what works down there. the wall is a 14th century solution. if you want to spend billions on the wall i'll spend $100 on a ladder that w

mr. cuellar. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas is recognized for five minutes. mr. cuellar: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank chairman roybal-allard for her leadership on homeland security and for her ideas on how we secure the border. also, want to thank the ranking member, my friend from tennessee, also. of course, the full committee ranking woman, kay granger, also for the work she's done. of course, our leader, chairman of the full committee. i rise to reopen the department of homeland security. as we said all along, we must first open up the government and we can negotiate. we've always done that. we've always kept the government open and then we negotiate and then we're doing this so the federal employees do not suffer. it's been 34 days since the government shut down. far surpassing any previous record. that means 34 days that 800,000 federal employees have not received pay. i live on the border. i don't just go and visit the border. i drink the water, i breathe the air, i talk to border patrol agents almost every day. i talk to c.b.p. officers every day

mr. cuellar' presentation of the 700 and a lot of it does not let the cars go by and some is about that and the rest of it. thank you all very much. host[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> house democrats are postponing their annual retreat which was scheduled to take place february 13-15 in leesburg, virginia. it conflicts with the new government funding deadline of the friday the 15th and the house is in today at noon eastern for a pro forma session with no legislative work expected. live coverage is coming up at noon on c-span. and later, a forum on the u.s. policy in the middle east posted by the washington institute scheduled for 12:30 p.m. eastern. then former defense secretary ashton carter and former health and human services secretary sylvia burwell take part in a discussion about technology and national security. it's hosted by the aspen strategy group live at 3:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. over the last year, the world has

mr. cuellar for leading this message. you know, growing up in texas, i dealt with our mexican counterpart, largest trading partner, done a lot with mexico. when i was in the attorney general's office, i met with mexico periodically, and also as a member of congress. this is an important relationship between our countries. while there have been moments of disagreement, i think it's important that our countries remain allies and friends and our neighbors to the south. with that i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from texas yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from new york is recognized. mr. engel: mr. speaker, i want to close by, again, emphasizing the importance of the u.s.-mexico relationship. 20 years ago it would have been hard to imagine coming to the house floor in support of a bipartisan bill on educational exchanges with mexico. now a bill like this will glide through the house with little, if any, opposition, just as it did last year. but we cannot take cooper

mrs. lowey: thank you. congressman cuellar. mr. cuellar: first of all -- working with you and some of my former colleague also. senator tester. i feel very optimistic as an appropriator. i know we can work this together. but let me give you my perspective, as i think the only member from the border that represents the border. i drink the water, breathe the air. i'm there. i just don't go visit for a few minutes and say, i've seen the border. let me give you the state of the border when it comes to trading truism first. every day between u.s. and mexico there's 1 -- $is.3 billion of trade. every day. that's -- $1.3 billion of trade. every day. it touches everybody's states when we talk about trade. mexican visitors consist, out of every four visits that are we get in the united states, someone from mexico. couple years ago we had almost 19 million mexicans that came over, that spent over $20 billion, hotels, restaurants, name it, they come and spend a lot of money. so it's a dynamic place that we're at. crime at the border, let me sa

mr. cuellar: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the chairwoman for yielding to me. everybody talk about the border and how violent it is, but if you look at the latest f.b.i. statistics, whether it's rape, murder, or assault, the border crime rate is lower than the national crime rate. i can pick any city you want to and you will see that none of the most dangerous cities in the country are on the border. none of them. none of them are. in fact, if you look at my hometown of laredo, the murder rate in the border and you compare it to washington, d.c. where we're at, it's about three or four times higher here in washington, d.c. so if people are worried about the crime, start out with washington, d.c. that's what you all want to do. the wall is a 14th century solution to a 21st century issue we have. we want to see border security. i live on the border. i don't just go for a second or an hour and say i know the border better. i know what works down there. the wall is a 14th century solution. if you want to spend billions on the wall i'll spend $100 on a ladder that w

mr. cuellar of texas, chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to 22 u.s.c. and the order of the house of january 3rks2019, of the following member on the part of the house to the canada-united states interparliamentary group. the clerk: mr. higgins of new york, chairman. the speaker pro tempore: the chair announces the speaker's appointment pursuant to 22 u.s.c. 1928-a and thed orer of the house of january 3rks2019, of the following member on the part of the house to the united states group of the nato parliamentary assembly. the clerk: mr. connolly of irginia, chairman. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2019, the gentleman from north carolina, mr. walker, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. walker: i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and introduce extraneous material into the record on the top thoisk special order. the spe

years ago, with congressman henry cuellar, my good democratic friend from laredo, we sponsored and passed the bill that led to the repeal of the ban on crude oil exports, mr. speaker. at the time people kind of poopooed that bill but as i stated -- as i stand here on the house floor this evening in this month of december, 2018, there are going to be day this is month that we export more crude oil than we import. and that is a huge, huge accomplishment. and we're doing it based on market principles, the u.s. is now the number one producer of crude oil in the world, surpassing saudi arabia, and ussia. we're producing in the neighborhood of 12 million barrels of oil a day, that number is going to go up, literally the sky is the limit. the lord has blessed the united states of america with great natural resources and with the energy legislation that i have helped to lead the fight on and to help get passed, we have human resources and capital resources and natural resources that the united states is going to be the leader in energy production and energy innovation for the foreseeable future. you know, next 40, 50, 60 years. and i'm very proud of that. mr. spe