E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 114 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 161 WASHINGTON, MONDAY, JUNE 15, 2015 No. 95 House of Representatives The House met at noon and was rhetoric and convoluted voting on the We could have representatives from called to order by the Speaker pro tem- recent trade package is the latest ex- State and local government, transit pore (Mr. MESSER). ample. Wouldn’t it be great if we could agencies, the environmental commu- f take a step back and find ways to unite nity, safety advocates all joined at the us to solve a major problem? same table. We could have the elo- DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO Well, we have got a major problem quence of Governor Bill Graves, who is TEMPORE that is staring us in the face right now. currently president of the American The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- We are in the midst of the 33rd short- Trucking Association, but he was Re- fore the House the following commu- term transportation funding extension publican Governor of Kansas, who nication from the Speaker: that is a result of our inability to pay raised the gas tax not once, but twice. for 2015 infrastructure with 1993 dol- He could be joined by the American WASHINGTON, DC, lars. That is because of our inability to June 15, 2015. Automobile Association, which has I hereby appoint the Honorable LUKE raise the gas tax since 1993. come out strongly in favor of a gas tax MESSER to act as Speaker pro tempore on The demands for transportation solu- to be able to meet the needs of the mo- this day. tions grow, and the harm inflicted on toring public. Why wouldn’t we want JOHN A. BOEHNER, families occurs every day. It costs those people there? Speaker of the House of Representatives. them over $300 a year just in damage to We could invite State legislators f their cars from road maintenance that from six very red Republican States— has fallen apart. We are paying a $125- Idaho, Utah, Georgia, South Dakota, MORNING-HOUR DEBATE billion-a-year penalty for congestion. Nebraska, and Iowa—that all raised the The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Americans, make no mistake, are gas tax this year. They didn’t just talk ant to the order of the House of Janu- paying the price for this dysfunction, about it; they acted. Six red States ary 6, 2015, the Chair will now recog- and the people who are partners at the raising the gas tax already in 2015. nize Members from lists submitted by State and local level and in the private I am optimistic that we can cap- the majority and minority leaders for sector are having great difficulty doing italize on the glimmers of life we are morning-hour debate. their part without the certainty of the seeing. If we can just listen to the peo- The Chair will alternate recognition Federal partnership that has been the ple at the State and local level, the pri- between the parties, with each party bedrock, that has been the foundation vate sector, organized labor, people limited to 1 hour and each Member of national transportation policy since who build, maintain, and use our trans- other than the majority and minority President Eisenhower. portation system, they could be part of Now, there is a little hint of sunshine leaders and the minority whip limited that deliberative process. I am con- here because this week, on Wednesday, to 5 minutes, but in no event shall de- fident that we, in Congress, could de- we will be having the first hearing on bate continue beyond 1:50 p.m. velop a united front on an issue that transportation finance since my Re- has been controversial in the past but f publican friends took control of Con- is no longer. TRANSPORTATION FUNDING gress 56 months ago. When people step up, when they ac- What if we took advantage of that cept responsibility and work coopera- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The daylight to expand the scope of the dis- tively, we can do what was done in Chair recognizes the gentleman from cussion? What if we were able to have Idaho, Georgia, Utah, Iowa, South Da- Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 min- at the same witness table the president kota, and Nebraska. Congress can do utes. of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Tom that. And after all the acrimony and Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, Donohue, and the president of the bad feeling and partisan division that the strange kaleidoscope of this con- AFL–CIO, Richard Trumka, who don’t has lingered, wouldn’t this be the right gressional session began with the pro- much agree on anything, but they are time to do so? posed shutdown of Homeland Security united in their firm belief that raising f but moved on to the bipartisan action the gas tax, getting the transportation to fix the vexing SGR-Medicare fund- funding to rebuild and renew America, PIVOT TO AMERICA ing formula, the so-called ‘‘doc fix’’ to is absolutely essential? The SPEAKER pro tempore. The prevent dramatic cuts to providers. We could be joined by people who un- Chair recognizes the gentleman from Yes, it is still hard to overcome deep derstand that hundreds of thousands of Oklahoma (Mr. RUSSELL) for 5 minutes. divisions, philosophical difference, and family-wage jobs would be possible if Mr. RUSSELL. Mr. Speaker, Con- some real serious politics. The heated we met our transportation obligations. gress has a chance this week to turn b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H4347 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:38 Jun 16, 2015 Jkt 049060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A15JN7.000 H15JNPT1 smartinez on DSK4TPTVN1PROD with HOUSE H4348 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE June 15, 2015 the President’s pivot to Asia into a outside the regular court system just for for- need to make sure our manufacturing pivot to America. The question is: Will eigners can go wrong in many ways. is up to par and can compete with any we listen to the American people, or I would add, from my own reading of country on Earth. We have a vanishing will we double down on a watered-down the TPP, without divulging the details, middle class, which is very devastating policy that has divided both the Demo- concerns about private rights in dis- to our country. We have a crumbling cratic and Republican sides of the putes; the transnational panel empow- infrastructure. We also need to work aisle? To stop the TPA, we must hold ered with a living agreement even after on our educational system. But I can firm. the accord is signed; and possible ex- tell you, it is very difficult to attack Republicans and Democrats all want ceptions granted to Brunei, whose legal any of these problems in a serious way trade barriers to be removed, but we system is not to the same standard as with the current system of campaign are at a crossroads because both par- other nations. financing. ties have voiced a lack of trust in the So, one says, What solutions do you So let me go over some of the prob- President’s ability to be able to nego- have? Well, here are a couple: lems with campaign financing in our tiate what is best for America. That is First, listen to the American people. current system: why we are still fighting to stop the If the majority of Americans com- First of all, you can see on the list trade promotional authority, better pletely across the political spectrum here, campaign financing makes elect- known as fast track. have voiced concerns against TPA, ed officials less effective because of the Fast track will not be the panacea of then our actions this week will truly amount of time that we must spend all ills. In fact, if granted, we could see reflect if we are being representative of raising money for the next election, that voice. President Obama move swiftly on the which leaves less time to work on the Second, the President must dem- Trans-Pacific Partnership that will issues that need to move our country onstrate he can lead on foreign policy. forward. likely not deliver the goods and have He has yet to do it. Granting fast track The campaign money fuels negative harmful secondary effects in multiple to negotiate with 40 percent of the campaign ads that turn off voters and areas. world’s economy should be based on suppress vote turnout. Dr. Aurolyn Luykx, from the Univer- how well he has handled foreign policy. Campaign financing causes wasteful sity of Texas at El Paso, makes this Have we forgotten the handling of analysis: ‘‘I think the consequences Syria, ISIS, Iraq, Crimea, Ukraine, and government spending on programs that could be very dire. We already saw Iran? I can go on, but the question is, big donors want to see out there. under NAFTA how so many jobs left Why are we? The President must show The threat of negative campaign the United States and, also, went from us some deeds, not words. He should adds—and this is very corrosive— Mexico. Then we saw, as well, tens of start by negotiating a bilateral agree- causes elected officials to avoid taking thousands of low-income Mexican fami- ment with our ally Japan.