September 26, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 156 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
All in House sectionPrev53 of 117Next
U.S. BORDER PATROL MEDICAL SCREENING STANDARDS ACT; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 156
(House of Representatives - September 26, 2019)
Text available as:
Formatting necessary for an accurate reading of this text may be shown by tags (e.g., <DELETED> or <BOLD>) or may be missing from this TXT display. For complete and accurate display of this text, see the PDF.
[Pages H8038-H8041] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] U.S. BORDER PATROL MEDICAL SCREENING STANDARDS ACT The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 1(c) of rule XIX, further consideration of the bill (H.R. 3525) to amend the Homeland Security Act of 2002 to direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to establish uniform processes for medical screening of individuals interdicted between ports of entry, and for other purposes, will now resume. The Clerk read the title of the bill. Motion to Recommit Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is the gentleman opposed to the bill? Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. I am in its present form. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Clerk will report the motion to recommit. The Clerk read as follows: Mr. Green of Tennessee moves to recommit the bill, H.R. 3525, to the Committee on Homeland Security with instructions to report the same back to the House forthwith with the following amendment: Add at the end of section 3 the following: (c) Effective Date.--This section shall take effect on September 30, 2027. [[Page H8039]] The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from Tennessee is recognized for 5 minutes in support of his motion. Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, many of us made the trip this summer to Normandy to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. It was an amazing opportunity. Standing among the rows of crosses and Stars of David in the U.S. cemetery, I was reminded of the sacrifices of our incredible American warriors. Standing there ignited my memory of 24 years of wearing the uniform. I was reminded of my driver when I was a young second lieutenant. He was 4 foot 11 and had a heart the size of his home State of New York. I recalled my radio telephone operators, both from California. When I was a commander in the 82nd Airborne Division, they stuck to me like glue and would try so often to sneak food in so that we could eat while we were all rigged up in our airborne gear before an airborne operation. Of course, my friends from the war flashed into my mind. I will never forget watching the flag-draped coffin of a fellow Army Ranger carried into the back of a C-17 in Bagram, Afghanistan for his last trip home. Our veterans deserve everything that we can give them. However, in the past few years, despite improvements in the VA electronic health records system, problems and delays still remain. For example, the very benefits that Congresswoman Underwood in this bill advances for illegal aliens flooding across our southern border, our veterans don't have those benefits. Let me say that again: This bill, without the amendment I am asking this body to consider, advances healthcare services to illegal aliens before it does to our American heroes. The VA Secretary testified before Congress that it will take his department 10 years to fully deploy this new system. Mr. Speaker, I have the deployment schedule for the VA from their website, and I will include this in the Record at a later date. Mr. Speaker, this timeline states that our veterans will not get an interoperable electronic health record at all VA healthcare facilities until September 20 of 2027. VA medical facilities serving veterans in Virginia won't get it until 2024. Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and New England won't be fully operational until 2026. It won't be until 2027 that VA medical facilities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois are fully operational. Veterans in my home State of Tennessee won't benefit from interoperable electronic health records until 2023. Yet, without this amendment, without my amendment, we are going to give it to illegal aliens within 90 days. Mr. Speaker, these are the same men and women who, when they raised their right hand and took that oath, wrote a blank check for America, for every person in this room, that was cashable, redeemable, all the way up until their life, their very life. I think our constituents across this great country would find it appalling that we are about to give this health record system to illegal immigrants before our veterans receive it. All this amendment does is ensure that our veterans get this service first. If you vote against this motion to recommit, you are giving an electronic health medical record to illegal aliens before our veterans. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. Ms. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the motion to recommit. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Illinois is recognized for 5 minutes. Ms. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues in this body, medical experts, and our neighbors and constituents all agree the humanitarian and medical situation at our southern border has reached crisis levels. During my conversations with health officials at the border, including with the Department of Homeland Security, they told me that one of the most urgent solutions they need is an electronic health record that can be used by everyone providing medical care at the border. DHS recognizes this, too, and has already taken steps toward implementation, but it is not moving fast enough. So this legislation directs that process, setting an aggressive but achievable timeline that reflects the urgency of the humanitarian situation. The children and families in our care can't afford any further delays. Now, let me be clear: As a nurse, and a member of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, providing world-class care to our veterans is a top priority. I have introduced a number of proposals to improve healthcare delivery to our veterans, and I am working on a slate of others. I welcome the input of my colleagues from across the aisle who want to work with me on modernizing the VA to better serve women veterans, improving mental healthcare access and quality, ending the veteran suicide epidemic, or any other way to serve our country's heroic veterans. But where I am from, in northern Illinois, we can walk and chew gum at the same time because we also have a moral duty to ensure that children in our government's custody receive the basic medical screenings and services needed to ensure lives are not lost on our watch. It is simple, and we can do both. That is what we are debating here today. Children are dying of preventable causes in our care for the first time in a decade. We all agree that the humanitarian situation at our southern border presents a complex set of challenges. Congress has a duty to address those challenges by providing, as appropriate, both resources and oversight. Oversight is ongoing through the excellent work of our committees, in addition to inspectors general. We have repeatedly met requests for additional humanitarian funding as needed, most recently with the approval of almost $5 billion in supplemental funding this summer. But this Congress is choosing, rightly, to provide that funding along with additional guardrails and directions for how to spend it in a way that is consistent with American values because the status quo is unacceptable. Children are dying of preventable causes in our care for the first time in a decade. My bill, along with Congressman Ruiz's and Congresswoman Escobar's, provides the guardrails and direction to reverse course. Let's be clear: This is not some gold-plated package. What these policies do is establish minimum, consistent standards that ensure that we can effectively provide the most basic medical screenings and care. What we are doing is making sure that children and families in our care are asked questions like, ``Do you have a fever? Do you have your inhaler? Could you be pregnant?'' and that their answers are recorded and used to make sure that they are provided basic care. These changes are urgently needed. Children are dying of preventable causes in our care for the first time in a decade, children like Darlyn, Jakelin, Felipe, Juan, Wilmer, and Carlos. Medical care for these children has huge, unacceptable gaps. We have a responsibility to implement commonsense, effective policies that we know will fix that because children should never die from a preventable cause in our care. We have a responsibility to ensure that the Department of Homeland Security is better prepared for future challenges to ensure the failures that contributed to these deaths are never repeated. Children in our care have been separated from their families. They have been denied toothbrushes and blankets. They have been saddled with trauma that can affect them for their entire lives. We must make sure that these children and their families have access to basic medical care and screening while in custody. That is why we have to reject this procedural gimmick, which could delay essential tools and resources from getting to officials at the border who need them. I urge all my colleagues, vote ``no'' on the motion to recommit and vote ``yes'' to pass this bill. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the distinguished majority leader. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, read the bill, read the amendment that they offered. Eric Cantor called MTRs a gimmick. This is the gimmick of gimmicks. It [[Page H8040]] does nothing for veterans' healthcare, not a single thing. You know it. I know it. Everybody in this House knows it. All it does is try to delay this bill for 10 years, and they are going to all vote against the bill. Mr. Speaker, this does nothing for veterans' care. If the gentleman cared about veterans' care, he would have offered it. Ms. UNDERWOOD. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit. There was no objection. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to recommit. The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the noes appeared to have it. Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 9 of rule XX, the Chair will reduce to 5 minutes the minimum time for any electronic vote on the question of passage. This is a 5-minute vote. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 202, nays 213, not voting 18, as follows: [Roll No. 551] YEAS--202 Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Axne Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bergman Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Bishop (UT) Bost Brady Brindisi Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Byrne Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Cline Cloud Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Conaway Cook Crenshaw Cunningham Curtis Davidson (OH) Davis, Rodney Delgado DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Ferguson Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foxx (NC) Fulcher Gaetz Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert Golden Gonzalez (OH) Gooden Gosar Gottheimer Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Hartzler Hern, Kevin Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Hill (AR) Holding Hollingsworth Horn, Kendra S. Hudson Huizenga Hunter Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger Kustoff (TN) LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta Lesko Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Marchant Marshall Massie Mast McAdams McCarthy McCaul McClintock McKinley Meadows Meuser Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Mullin Murphy (FL) Murphy (NC) Newhouse Nunes Olson Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Peterson Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Riggleman Roby Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose, John W. Rouzer Roy Rutherford Scalise Schrader Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Sherrill Shimkus Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spanberger Spano Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Stivers Taylor Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Tipton Torres Small (NM) Turner Upton Van Drew Wagner Walberg Walden Walorski Waltz Watkins Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Wright Yoho Young Zeldin NAYS--213 Adams Aguilar Allred Amash Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson (IN) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Engel Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gomez Gonzalez (TX) Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Haaland Harder (CA) Hastings Hayes Heck Higgins (NY) Hill (CA) Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Lujan Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Matsui McBath McCollum McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Moore Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Richmond Rose (NY) Rouda Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Speier Stanton Stevens Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Visclosky Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NOT VOTING--18 Abraham Boyle, Brendan F. Cheney Crawford Cummings Escobar Gallagher Higgins (LA) Himes Hurd (TX) Johnson (LA) Kind McEachin McHenry Norman Ratcliffe Rooney (FL) Walker {time} 1712 Mr. MAST changed his vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.'' So the motion to recommit was rejected. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the bill. The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that the ayes appeared to have it. Mr. GREEN of Tennessee. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays. The yeas and nays were ordered. The SPEAKER pro tempore. This is a 5-minute vote. The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 230, nays 184, not voting 19, as follows: [Roll No. 552] YEAS--230 Adams Aguilar Allred Amash Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Boyle, Brendan F. Brindisi Brown (MD) Brownley (CA) Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson (IN) Cartwright Case Casten (IL) Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu, Judy Cicilline Cisneros Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Clay Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Cox (CA) Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Cunningham Davids (KS) Davis (CA) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Engel Eshoo Espaillat Evans Finkenauer Fitzpatrick Fletcher Foster Frankel Fudge Gabbard Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Golden Gomez Gonzalez (TX) Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Haaland Harder (CA) Hastings Hayes Heck Higgins (NY) Hill (CA) Horn, Kendra S. Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Kennedy Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster (NH) Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lewis Lieu, Ted Lipinski Loebsack Lofgren Lowenthal Lowey Lujan Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Matsui McAdams McBath McCollum McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Moore Morelle Moulton Mucarsel-Powell Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Richmond Rose (NY) Rouda Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Serrano Sewell (AL) Shalala Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stanton Stevens Suozzi Swalwell (CA) Takano Thompson (CA) [[Page H8041]] Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres Small (NM) Trahan Trone Underwood Upton Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Visclosky Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Wilson (FL) Yarmuth NAYS--184 Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bergman Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Bishop (UT) Bost Brooks (AL) Brooks (IN) Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Byrne Calvert Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Chabot Cline Cloud Cole Collins (GA) Collins (NY) Comer Conaway Cook Crenshaw Curtis Davidson (OH) Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Ferguson Fleischmann Flores Fortenberry Foxx (NC) Fulcher Gaetz Gianforte Gibbs Gohmert Gonzalez (OH) Gooden Gosar Granger Graves (GA) Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Hartzler Hern, Kevin Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Hill (AR) Holding Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Hunter Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) King (IA) King (NY) Kinzinger Kustoff (TN) LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta Lesko Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Marchant Marshall Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClintock McKinley Meadows Meuser Miller Mitchell Moolenaar Mooney (WV) Mullin Murphy (NC) Newhouse Nunes Olson Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Peterson Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Riggleman Roby Rodgers (WA) Roe, David P. Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose, John W. Rouzer Roy Rutherford Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sensenbrenner Shimkus Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spano Stauber Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Stivers Taylor Thompson (PA) Thornberry Timmons Tipton Turner Van Drew Wagner Walberg Walden Walorski Waltz Watkins Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Woodall Wright Yoho Young Zeldin NOT VOTING--19 Abraham Aderholt Brady Cheney Crawford Cummings Escobar Gallagher Higgins (LA) Himes Hurd (TX) Johnson (LA) Kind McEachin McHenry Norman Ratcliffe Rooney (FL) Walker {time} 1721 So the bill was passed. The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. A motion to reconsider was laid on the table. PERSONAL EXPLANATION Mr. GALLAGHER. Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 550, ``yea'' on rollcall No. 551, and ``nay'' on rollcall No. 552. Personal Explanation Mr. McHENRY. Mr. Speaker, due to a family obligation, I unfortunately missed today's vote series. Listed below is how I would have voted had I been in attendance: Previous Question--``Nay''; Adoption of the Rule Providing for Consideration of S.J. Res. 54--``Nay''; Republican Motion to Recommit--``Yea''; and Passage of H.R. 3525--``Nay''. ____________________
All in House sectionPrev53 of 117Next