E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 113 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 159 WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2013 No. 124 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was mate change and the future of the ance, which totaled almost $2 billion called to order by the Speaker pro tem- planet, but Americans don’t have that last year. pore (Mr. SMITH of Missouri). luxury. Farmers in Iowa and elsewhere are f Between this summer’s wildfires in working to be part of the solution, but the West, last year’s drought, what they can’t afford is for Congress DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO Superstorm Sandy, and the recent hor- to continue wasting time with debate, TEMPORE rific flooding in Colorado, Americans ignoring science, and spending billions The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- are seeing the impact of climate of dollars on disaster relief. They want fore the House the following commu- change. Tuesday, Matt Russell, a fifth- us to spend money upfront, not just to nication from the Speaker: generation Iowa farmer, gave a quick save money in the long run, but the WASHINGTON, DC, history of what climate change looks lives and, indeed, the environment for September 19, 2013. like in Iowa. all of our families to enjoy. I hereby appoint the Honorable JASON T. In 2008, they suffered a 500-year flood. Listening to America’s farmers or SMITH to act as Speaker pro tempore on this In 2010, there was another series of 100- just looking out of the window and day. year floods. The next year, the Mis- paying close attention to the news tells JOHN A. BOEHNER, souri River wiped out thousands of Americans all they need to know. The Speaker of the House of Representatives. acres of farm land, some of which will science is real, and the time for action f never be farmed again. In 2012 was the is now. Farmers, small business, utili- MORNING-HOUR DEBATE catastrophic drought. In half a decade, ties, insurance companies, universities, Iowa saw the worst flooding and the colleges, we all should insist that Con- The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- worst drought in over a century of gress stop playing games with the ant to the order of the House of Janu- record-keeping. budget, threatening the global econ- ary 3, 2013, the Chair will now recog- This is what climate change will look omy with debt ceiling blackmail and nize Members from lists submitted by like, and it will get worse and more ex- the future of the planet. the majority and minority leaders for treme, which is exactly what’s hap- f morning-hour debate. pening this year. On May 4, there was The Chair will alternate recognition a foot of heavy wet snow, the most DEALING WITH MENTAL HEALTH between the parties, with each party snow ever recorded in Iowa in May. ISSUES limited to 1 hour and each Member Then it began raining, the most rain The SPEAKER pro tempore. The other than the majority and minority ever recorded in the month of May in Chair recognizes the gentleman from leaders and the minority whip limited Iowa. Then it was drought. Last month Pennsylvania (Mr. MURPHY) for 5 min- to 5 minutes each, but in no event shall was the driest August on record, even utes. debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. drier than last year’s epic drought. And Mr. MURPHY of Pennsylvania. Mr. f in between, July was one of the cold- Speaker, this week America was once est, on record with temperatures in the again shocked by the tragic shootings CLIMATE CHANGE thirties. Now they’re experiencing one at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., The SPEAKER pro tempore. The of the hottest Septembers on record. and once again, it raised the issue of Chair recognizes the gentleman from The hottest days in 2013 came after how we’re handling mental health to Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 min- Labor Day, multiple days of over 100- stop this terrible violence. utes. degree temperatures. This is what cli- When you look at the background Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, as mate change means: the wrong weather that was reported in the general media the House Republicans prepare to shut at the wrong time. about Aaron Alexis, who is responsible down the government and threaten the Their joke is that February came in for the shooting at the Navy Yard, we global economy with debt ceiling May, along with all the rain for the see a record of being arrested multiple blackmail, it’s ironic that they refuse summer; and September came in July times; receiving treatment at a vet- to allow their Members to vote on their and July came in September, and now erans hospital; law enforcement offi- own spending bills. They even refused they wonder what month is going to cials in Rhode Island were called upon to allow a conference committee with show up in October. But it’s not a joke because he had been hearing voices in the Senate to resolve the budget im- for the people who are trying to farm. his head; he was worried and ‘‘had sent passe. I suppose it should be no sur- It’s not a joke for the taxpayers who three people to follow him to keep him prise that their denial extends to cli- are picking up the cost of crop insur- awake by talking to him and sending 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. H5657 . VerDate Mar 15 2010 02:54 Nov 11, 2014 Jkt 079060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\RECORD13\RECFILES\SEP2013\H19SE3.REC H19SE3 bjneal on DSK2TWX8P1PROD with CONG-REC-ONLINE H5658 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE September 19, 2013 vibrations to his body’’; he checked son may wait an average of 110 weeks just manage a business for a few into multiple hotels to avoid the before they get into treatment. months at a time, but you plan for the voices; he also had episodes of shooting In addition, we need more research long term. firearms. on medications. There are 11.4 million Businesses and families deserve a Recently, there was also a case in American adults that suffer from seri- long-term budget that provides them Georgia where Michael Brandon Hill ous mental illness, including schizo- with the visibility needed to plan for clutched a butcher knife over his par- phrenia, bipolar disorder, and major de- the future. Every day we fail to do this, ents’ bed; attempted to set the home pression, but 2 million are not being Congress is harming the economy. on fire; made deadly threats through treated. We need more effective re- We must take a balanced, long-term social media; was bipolar, had atten- search. approach to the budget and end the ir- tion disorder, was schizophrenic; told Three, Federal laws, which are meant responsible across-the-board cuts that police he was off medication; had sto- to protect confidentiality, such as were triggered by sequestration. len a firearm; had 498 rounds of ammu- HIPAA and FERPA, otherwise known We must act now to prevent a gov- nition when he entered a school. Luck- as the Family Educational Rights and ernment shutdown. ily, no one was harmed. Privacy Act, have frustrated the ef- I remain committed to working with What America has done in dealing forts of physicians and family to share my colleagues on both sides of the aisle with people with mental illness is so information. Many times doctors and to pass a budget that reduces the def- far short of what we should be doing, other officials cannot get to the very icit and creates jobs. We must come to- it’s not surprising we are still failing people who can prevent problems and gether now to get this job done. the system. America has replaced its get the person in treatment. Colleges f psychiatric hospitals with prisons and and high schools do not share informa- SECRETARY LEW bridges for homelessness. Pennsylvania tion with parents because they’re afraid of getting sued. Mental health The SPEAKER pro tempore. The some years ago had 20 psychiatric hos- Chair recognizes the gentleman from pitals and 8 jails. Now we have 20 jails professionals hold on to information, and they wish they could talk more New Jersey (Mr. GARRETT) for 5 min- and 8 psychiatric hospitals. One out of utes. five men has mental illness, and one with parents. We need to clarify these boundaries. Mr. GARRETT. Mr. Speaker, promi- out of every two women in those jails nently featured on the White House has a mental illness. Four, law enforcement officials need more training. Police officers are on Web site, President Obama issued the Why don’t we use such things as con- following memorandum to all heads of sidered background checks for those to the frontline of dealing with the vio- lent mentally ill. They need to under- executive departments and agencies: obtain guns? In 2010, when 14 million My administration is committed to cre- attempts were made to purchase weap- stand how to identify and handle men- tal health emergencies. In addition, the ating an unprecedented level of openness in ons, there were 72,000 denials because government.