my chairman, richie neal, would say some of the things we can do and did successfully in the stimulus build, build america bonds. we got democratic and republican mayors came to us and said we have a lot of that because the interest rates are low and now even more so, so we could use build america bonds. we have to be entrepreneurial, transformative in our thinking of how we pay for it. but we have to pay for it and we have in the past. this is nothing new, but it's not usually political. we agree to this big plan, not agreeing on a pay-for yet and we didn't have it two different points of view, we just hadn't come to and clution. $200 ey sent us over -- billion bill and this is what we was painful. it was so small. it wasn't meeting the challenge in any way and wasn't even a trillion dollars. and in it, they reversed the formula. 20% d to be 80% federal, state or local. they reversed that formulation and said it is going to be 80% outside and 20% federal. again, i'm a budget hawk. i want to reduce the deficit, but who is going to come up with 80 to get the job done unless it is a sma

i've had several meetings with richie neal to see if we can find certain ways to work together on a bipartisan way. >> the president actually mentioned the barrasso bill which my staff and i helped to write during his state of the union address. i actually held up, when he talked about the need for transportation infrastructure, i held up my wallet, he didn't see it, to remind him that it's not enough to say we're going to do stuff, we actually have to figure out how to pay for it. >> agreed. i was encouraged, i believe it was passed 24-0. >> the last thing i want to ask, tax policies that pay for themselves, when we adopted the tax package a year ago, two years ago, we said it was going to pay for itself. whether, as the cbo, any number of entities have said it doesn't really pay for itself, that one hasn't pay for itself and it's not going to pay for itself. do you have a rebuttal for that? the numbers are rather staggering. i think cbo said it estimated the so-called tax cuts added an additional $228 billion to the deficits for 2019. how do you respond to that? >> sure. well, let me just co

richie neal, thank you for the role that the ways and means committee played in this as well. i want to acknowledge mr. tom suozzi anti-work he did on the tax piece. thank you. -- and -- and the tax the work he did on this tax piece. thank you. and karen bass, the chair of the congressional black caucus . when people ask me what are the three most important issues facing the congress, now for 30 years or so in congress, i have always said the same thing, our children, our children, our children. their health, their education, the economic security of their families, safe clean environment which they can thrive, a world in peace which they can reach their fulfillment. it's all about the children, it's all about their future. today i rise to join my colleagues to take urgently needed action to confront the growing youth tobacco crisis which is in the words of a u.s. surgeon general, a epidemic. this is legislation to protect our children. and i thank mr. pallone and mr. neal for their leadership here. . today, corporations have a campaign to addict our children e-cigarettes. las

i thank our distinguished chair of the ways and means committee, richie neal, for his leadership in having this part of the package. sadly there are some who have some obstacles defending this emergency money to puerto rico following the earthquake. as members of congress we have a responsibility to act because our fellow americans deserve to know that their government will be there for them without question or hesitation. might i say -- so many people in the country don't realize puerto ricans are american citizens. many of them, if you visit there, you visit veterans centers where so many of them come together, american patriots, who have helped our country, we are so proud of them and we salute them, and in this time of knee need want to help them. i urge a strong vote to provide healing and hope for puerto rico. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the spouse yield back her time -- the speaker of the house yield back her time. the gentlewoman from texas is recognized to close. miss fletch every: i thank my colleagues for collaboration in this bill. i thank mr. crenshaw for w