June 13, 2019 - Issue: Vol. 165, No. 99 — Daily Edition116th Congress (2019 - 2020) - 1st Session
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LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 99
(House of Representatives - June 13, 2019)
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[Pages H4670-H4673] From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov] LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM (Mr. SCALISE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.) Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I rise for the purpose of inquiring of the majority leader the schedule for next week. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), the House majority leader. Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman, Mr. Scalise, the Republican whip, for yielding. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12 p.m. for morning-hour debate, and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. Members are being advised that debate on amendments to H.R. 2740 will begin at 3 p.m. on Tuesday. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for morning-hour debate and 12 p.m. for legislative business. Members are reminded that when the House is considering appropriation bills, votes will occur after 7 p.m. On Friday, the House will meet at 9 a.m. for legislative business. Last votes on Friday may occur between 2 and 3 p.m. We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business tomorrow. The House will continue consideration of H.R. 2740, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020. The House will also begin consideration of H.R. 3055, which is the Commerce, Justice, Science, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, Interior, Environment, Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act. This will be the second minibus that will be coming to the floor over this work period. It is my intention, Mr. Speaker, to pass all 12 appropriation bills in this work period. This package is yet another step toward the House doing its work to avoid another shutdown, which has such a negative effect on the Nation and a negative effect on the morale of those who work for the American people in the Federal Government. Hopefully, it will result in an agreement between the House and the Senate, and a signature of the President, which will preclude a repeat of the shutdown. Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I know we have been starting and going through the appropriations process. I would like to ask the majority leader about the conversation we have been having for weeks and weeks, going back to May 1, when the President submitted a supplemental emergency spending bill to address this serious humanitarian crisis at our southern border. We have had this conversation multiple times in the colloquy. I continued to ask the majority leader when we are going to see a bill on this House floor to address this serious crisis. Each week, we have not been given an actual timeline. In fact, as the majority leader just went over the schedule, there is still no mention of a supplemental bill to deal with this crisis. I know we have been seeing multiple attempts by Members from our party. I would hope that there are some from the gentleman's party that have recognized that we have to deal with this. We can't keep putting it off. If the gentleman would look at The New York Times just this week, the headline is: ``When Will Congress Get Serious About the Suffering at the Border?'' I want to read a couple of statements from it because it contains some things that we have been saying that are just not getting enough coverage across the country. More and more now, we are seeing how serious this is. This is about to come to a head, not in months, not in years, but in days. We are talking about young children who are right now in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security, many of whom are coming over with health diseases, serious diseases, who they are able to turn over right now to Health and Human Services to care for their needs. They are about to completely run out of money. This isn't a new development. They have been saying this over and over for weeks. The Presidential supplemental request came out on May 1. On May 3, at our colloquy, I inquired of the majority leader: When will this happen? We never got a timeline. On May 10 in our colloquy, I asked the majority leader: When will Congress address this? Still no timeline. Just last week, I brought it up again. I want to read what The New York Times said in their description of how serious this is, they said: ``It's time to cut the squabbling and pass an emergency relief package.'' Here is a comment from John Sanders, who is the Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, ``We are in a full-blown emergency, and I cannot say this stronger: The system is broken.'' Just in this fiscal year, HHS has taken charge of nearly 41,000 unaccompanied children. On average, every single day, over 200 young children are referred to HHS for medical needs. HHS is about to run out of money in a matter of days, and Congress has still not taken action. There is a letter that I will be happy to enter in the Record. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Dear Member of Congress: We continue to experience a humanitarian and security crisis at the southern border of the United States, and the situation becomes more dire each day. On May 1, 2019, the Administration requested $4.5 billion in emergency appropriations for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice to address the immediate humanitarian crisis at our southern border. We write today to ask that you appropriate this funding as soon as possible. We cannot stress enough the urgency of immediate passage of emergency supplemental funding. This funding will provide resources that our Departments need to respond to the current crisis, enable us to protect the life and safety of unaccompanied alien children (UAC), and help us to continue providing the full range of services to the children in our custody. While Congress has been considering the request, the average daily number of UAC in U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody has grown from nearly 870 on May 1 to more than 2,300 today. This is because the number of arriving children greatly exceeds existing HHS capacity. As of June 10, 1,900 processed UAC were in CBP custody awaiting placement in HHS care. However, HHS had fewer than 700 open beds in which to place them. HHS has significantly increased the rates at which we are discharging children to sponsors, but UAC are waiting too long in CBP facilities that are not designed to care for children. This is a direct result of the unprecedented number of arriving children. As of June 10, DHS has referred over 52,000 UAC to HHS this fiscal year (FY), an increase of over 60 percent from FY 2018. Preliminary information shows nearly 10,000 referrals in May--one of the highest monthly totals in the history of the program. If these numbers continue, this fiscal year HHS will care for the largest number of UAC in the program's history. HHS continues to operate near capacity, despite placing UAC with sponsors at historically high rates. HHS is working diligently to expand its bed capacity to ensure that it can keep pace, and based on the anticipated growth, HHS expects its need for additional bed capacity to continue. On May 17, the Administration notified Congress of an anticipated deficiency in HHS's Office of Refugee Resettlement's (ORR) UAC program, as required by law. Absent an emergency appropriation, HHS anticipates running out of funding as soon as this month. The Anti-Deficiency Act, which is a criminal statute, requires HHS to take actions to minimize the deficiency and only to fund operations that are essential for the safety of human life and protection of property--similar to those activities allowed during a government shutdown. In the last few weeks, because of rapidly depleting funds caused by the border surge, ORR was required by law to scale back or discontinue awards, and had to instruct grantees that new awards cannot be used for UAC activities that are not directly necessary for the protection of life and property, including education services, legal services, and recreation. This was done solely to ensure full compliance with the Anti-Deficiency Act and stretch existing funds as far as possible for the life and safety of children. [[Page H4671]] ORR would not have had to take these actions to preserve essential operations if requested supplemental funding had been provided. lf Congress acts quickly to provide the requested supplemental funding to address the border surge, ORR will be able to restore these services. Until such funding is provided, ORR will only be able to pay for essential services to protect life and safety. It is unprecedented for a critical child welfare program to run out of funding, and ORR is in close contact with grantees about expected impacts. Once the UAC program is entirely out of funding, grantees will have to care for children with no federal reimbursement until an emergency appropriation is enacted. It is unclear if grantees would be operationally able to continue caring for UAC, as many are small nonprofit organizations. This funding lapse could also negatively impact grantees' willingness to care for UAC over the longer term and ORR's immediate ability to add new child care facilities to address the overflow of children in DHS border facilities that were not designed for children. Our valued federal employees in ORR who care for children and place them with sponsors would be required to work without pay. It is not only the UAC program that will be impacted. On May 16, HHS notified Congress that the Anti-Deficiency Act requires HHS to reallocate up to $167 million from Refugee Support Services (RSS), Victims of Trafficking, and Survivors of Torture to the UAC program if activities do not meet the criteria in 31 U.S.C. Sec. 1515(b)(l)(B). Last week, HHS informed the state refugee coordinators and refugee resettlement grantees in 49 states and the District of Columbia that ORR was withholding third quarter funding for those programs. The RSS program addresses barriers to employment for refugees such as: social adjustment, interpretation and translation, day care for children, and citizenship and naturalization. Again, this was not a decision that ORR wanted to make, or took lightly. HHS's hand was forced by the current funding situation and the law. HHS must ensure that it is fully compliant with the AntiDeficiency Act and that HHS stretch its existing funds as far as possible to protect the life and safety of children who are presently, or should be, in HHS care. While the primary concern of both of our Departments is the safety of children in our care, DHS faces changing dynamics at the border that continue to stress its ability to respond. For example: More groups are illegally entering the United States, and they are getting larger. On May 29, U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents apprehended over 1,000 migrants illegally crossing from Mexico as one group, overtaxing border operations. Over 400 migrants were apprehended within five minutes only two weeks before. The number of migrants has escalated. with more vulnerable populations arriving. In May 2019, an average of more than 4,650 people daily illegally crossed into the United States or arrived at ports of entry without proper documentation. In May 2017, the daily average was under 650 illegal crossings per day. May 2019 experienced more than 144,000 total enforcements on the southern border, a 32 percent increase over the previous month and the highest monthly total since March 2006. This follows two months exceeding 100,000--sustained levels not seen in over 12 years. As of June 10, 2019, more than 17,000 people are in CBP custody, including over 2,500 UAC. The USBP apprehended nearly 85,000 individuals in family units in May 2019 along the Southwest border. An additional 4,100 individuals in a family unit were deemed inadmissible at Southwest border ports of entry. The vast majority of these individuals have been released into the country due to a lack of space and authority to detain them. By comparison, in all of FY 2012, USBP apprehended just over 11,000 individuals in a family unit. Border Patrol agents are spending more than 50 percent of their time caring for families and children, providing medical assistance, driving buses, and acting as food service workers instead of performing law enforcement duties. Border Patrol agents are making on average 70 trips to hospitals every day to urgently get care to these individuals, further diminishing their ability to perform their official duties. The Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, and other CBP facilities have experienced outbreaks of flu which has required standing up separate quarantine facilities to reduce the risk of further exposing children and other vulnerable populations to infectious disease. While agents are providing the best care possible, these groups need more appropriate care, and they need it now. If DHS does not receive additional funding, it will be forced to take drastic measures in August that will impact other critical programs that support DHS missions throughout the country. All DHS components, including the Transportation Security Administration, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the Coast Guard, and portions of CBP supporting legal trade and travel will be required to redirect manpower and funding to support measures to address the crisis. In addition to the supplemental, it is clear that we need bipartisan legislation to address the causes of this crisis. We urge Congress to take swift action to provide the necessary funding to address the severe humanitarian and operational impacts of this crisis and to enact reforms to the root causes of these problems so that they do not persist into the future. Thank you for your most immediate attention to this matter. A copy of this response will also be sent to your state's executive leadership. Sincerely, Alex M. Azar II, Secretary, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Kevin McAleenan, Acting Secretary, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I know the majority leader received this letter, as has the Speaker, from the Secretary of HHS and the Secretary of Homeland Security earlier this week, saying: ``We cannot stress enough the urgency of immediate passage of emergency supplemental funding. This funding will provide resources that our Departments need to respond to the current crisis, enable us to protect the life and safety of unaccompanied alien children, and help us to continue providing the full range of services to the children in our custody.'' They are trying to take care of health and life needs. This is life and death we are talking about. In a matter of days, they will run out of money. This has been going on for weeks and weeks, and Congress hasn't taken action. I would ask the majority leader if we can get a commitment that this House will take up this legislation that has been sent weeks ago. The majority has had time to review it and hasn't addressed this serious problem. When are we going to see action from the House? I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer). Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comments. First of all, I think there is broad agreement that there is, indeed, an emergency, that we need to act, and we need to act as quickly as possible. As the gentleman probably knows because it was reported in the press, we had a leadership meeting with the appropriators yesterday, urging the swiftest action possible. I will tell my friend, to put this in context, the gentleman indicates the system is broken. I would agree with that. I think everybody agrees with it. The Senate tried to fix it in 2013. We have urged for the last 6 years for a bill to be put on the floor on comprehensive immigration reform. While it may not have totally solved this issue, it certainly would have addressed this issue. Notwithstanding that historical perspective and context, it is clear that there is an emergency and that we need to respond. I would hope that my friend would say that we would respond in the sense of the emergency that exists. I think both sides believe that we ought to deploy emergency resources to deal with the emergency. If we can limit it to that, I suggest to my friend, we will have a lot better opportunity to get a consensus. Now, what I am saying is, I frankly think the administration conflates border enforcement and some of the things it wants to do on enforcement and humanitarian relief. If we can pass a bill that is limited to humanitarian relief, I hope that we could pass it as soon as possible, meaning next week. I will tell the gentleman that Ms. Roybal-Allard has been working very hard to reach a consensus not only within her committee but reach a consensus with those who have a particular focus on it. The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as you know, is very concerned about the humanitarian situation at the border, as we all are. The New York Times editorial, which I brought to the attention of my Members, and they had already seen it, I think The New York Times' premise is correct. We need to act. We need to act quickly. We are working toward that end. I would hope that we could move as early as next week. I can't promise that, but I am hopeful that we can reach a consensus. It would be nice if we could reach a consensus between the House and the Senate. I know the Senate talked about acting next week. We will see what they do. [[Page H4672]] I guarantee that this week, over the weekend, or the beginning of next week, Ms. Roybal-Allard and others are working to get a bill together that we believe could get a majority of the House and a majority of the Senate and the signature of the President because we need to act. The gentleman is absolutely correct. Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I would reiterate the urgency of acting next week, not trying to act next week. {time} 1400 I don't have an opportunity to do this often, so I will quote The New York Times again because it is not something I am normally used to doing. But to quote them: ``It's time to cut the squabbling and pass an emergency relief package.'' I know there might be differences over some of the details. There is no wall funding in the request for the President. The big battles that we had last year, this year, I am sure, will continue on how we can actually secure the border. I would hope we, over the next few months as we debate the appropriations bills, keep coming to an agreement on how to secure America's southern border. The magnitude of this problem can't be overstated. Just in the last month, over 144,000 people came across illegally that we apprehended. Those are just the ones we know about. This is 3 months in a row now we have had more than 100,000 people coming across illegally. The average is over 3,000 people per day. And when we look at the amount of young children who are coming across sick, again, more than 200 children every single day are being referred to HHS for healthcare needs. That is the crisis that we want to address today. This isn't the bigger debate on wall funding, and so I hope we can separate those two, but recognize the President's request did not include a dime for wall funding for this humanitarian crisis. I would hope we would treat it in an isolated way, as it was submitted. I would just refer to the gentleman when Barack Obama was President and we were in the majority. While we had differences with President Obama, including on immigration, he sent out a request in 2014. His request was for $3.7 billion for an additional border supplemental to address the crisis at the border. We still had a crisis back then. We have a worse crisis today. But when President Obama submitted that request for $3.7 billion, we didn't squabble over it. I am sure we might have had some disagreements, but in less than a month, we, this Republican House, passed the full amount that Barack Obama requested when he was President and sent it back out of the House. That was quick action. I am just urging we have the same kind of quick action. We can disagree on the wall funding. Again, this isn't that disagreement. This is a request from the President that was made in May and that is literally coming to a head in days, where HHS has told all of us--nobody is disputing it--HHS completely runs out of money and has no ability to take, safely, any more children who are being sent to them. And they are coming over at more than 200 kids a day not who are coming across illegally, but as Homeland Security receives them, over 200 a day have serious enough health needs that they are sending them to DHS or HHS. HHS has told us clearly that they will run out of money in a matter of days. I hope it is in a matter of days that we take up the request. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman. Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments, and I understand the deep concern. We have deep concern on this side of the aisle about the administration's attitude, for instance, when they take children from their parents and send them to far-off places and don't keep sufficient records to reunite those children. So, yes, we share the concern about the humanitarian crisis, but we are also concerned that the administration that has done some of the things that it has done and that has made it much more difficult for people to pursue asylum to which they may be entitled under American law, we want to make sure that, in fact, we are dealing with humanitarian issues that the gentleman raises and not issues that seem to be related by this administration. We have cause for concern and we have cause for caution, but I am hopeful, as I said, that we can get this done, because I don't disagree with the gentleman, and The New York Times and we don't disagree. There is a very serious challenge at the border to make sure that people are safe, kept in places where they are warm and out of the elements and where they can be treated in a way that Americans would want to treat others and would want to be treated themselves. So I am hopeful that we will get this done sooner rather than later. But Mr. Obama asked for that supplemental. The other thing he asked for for many, many years was let's get a comprehensive immigration bill passed. In my view, had that been put on the floor, it would have had a majority of votes in the House. It was never put on the floor for years--not months and not days, for years. That is part of the solution. Irrespective of that, we need to act as soon as possible, hopefully, within the week. Much work is being done on this to resolve the concerns of those who have some of the most knowledge, and that is members of our Hispanic Caucus who live on the border, who interface on the border and who see, every day, the consequences of what is happening. They want to make sure that, yes, there is humanitarian assistance and people are treated humanely, safely, and with respect. But they don't want that money used to treat other people who are in this country in an arbitrary and capricious way. So I want to join the gentleman, Mr. Speaker, and assure him that I share his concern. We are urging everybody to work as hard as they possibly can to get to an agreement, and I am hopeful that we can do that in the very, very near future. I am told leaving here without doing that would not be acceptable. Mr. SCALISE. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, I know when we talk about the broader immigration problem, President Trump has been very clear that he wants to work with Congress to solve the problem, the bigger problem, not just a wall, but full border security and closing those loopholes. In fact, Mexican officials have even pointed out that America's broken asylum law is one of the biggest magnets that is drawing people through their southern border, up to our southern border, and into our country. They even acknowledge it. We need to fix that. We need to work together as a Congress to fix that problem. President Trump offered to solve the DACA problem. He still hasn't found a willing partner. We need to keep working at that. We have just had testimony in a committee earlier this week where it was pointed out that, as people come over, unfortunately, they abuse children over and over again because young children are a ticket into the country much quicker than other illegal means, and so they abuse these children over and over again. It is one of the many reasons why we need to solve that problem. But when they get that asylum ticket, then they are sent into the interior of the country and are told to come back and see us in years, sometimes, for their court date. Ninety percent of those people who get that court date don't show up. We don't know where they are. That is how broken the asylum law is. We need to fix that. Again, that is not this request. We can have that debate another day. We need to have that debate another day. When my friend's party was in the majority last time, when Barack Obama took office and when Speaker Pelosi was first Speaker and there was a supermajority in the Senate on the Democratic side, there was never an attempt to bring a bill through Congress to solve the immigration problem. I would like to see us come together and do that. We need to do it. But today, we need to solve the immediate crisis. We will have that broader debate later. Hopefully, by next week we can get that done. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman. Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I want to place in historical context, again, this House [[Page H4673]] passed a DREAM Act, and we sent it to the Senate and the Senate didn't pass it. So this House, when we were in the majority, did do that, but we couldn't get 60 votes in the Senate. We know that problem. It so happens we were in the majority, but we couldn't get 60 votes for that at that point in time. We could go on a long time about pointing fingers at who has done what and when, but the fact of the matter is we have some people in real distress. We have some Federal employees who have a responsibility who are being greatly challenged. We need to address that, and I am urging that we do that as quickly as we possibly can. Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, hopefully, we can continue that work through the weekend and get that done next week. I know there is other work the House is getting ready to take up on the appropriations bills. On one final note, as we approach Father's Day on Sunday, I would also like to wish the gentleman from Maryland a happy birthday tomorrow. So, hopefully, the gentleman has some fun events planned this weekend, maybe go eat some Maryland crabs. If my friend is really lucky, we will give him some gulf crabs from the Gulf of Mexico. I won't sing ``Happy Birthday'' to the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman. Mr. HOYER. We are about to deliver a chit, if you will, for a dinner for four at one of the famous crab houses here in Washington as the result of Louisiana's not treating the University of Maryland nearly as thoughtfully as they could have, and I lost that bet. But I appreciate my friend's wish for a happy birthday. God has been very good to me, and I am looking forward to celebrating that birthday. My daughters were a little premature. We celebrated it last Saturday, too, so we are going to have a number of celebrations on this birthday, and then hopefully everybody will forget it, including me. Mr. SCALISE. Mr. Speaker, I will be happy to give the gentleman a review of the restaurant. I am sure it will be really good. I wish the gentleman well, and I wish all fathers a happy Father's Day this weekend. I look forward to seeing the gentleman back in a few days, and with that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time. ____________________
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