Transcripts For CSPAN Public Affairs Events 20171011

Arizona and america has the opportunity to deliver up to their godgiven potential. O matter where they live, kids deserve to grow up healthy with every chance to succeed. That is why it is beyond unacceptable that for the first time ever, congress missed the deadline to reauthorize the Childrens Health Insurance Program. For decades, chip has been a Bipartisan Program and has been reauthorized with broad support until now. It has now been 11 days since chip expired. This is an outrage for children across the nation who depend on the dependable Affordable Care they receive thanks to chip. It is especially troubling for arizona. Arizona has had the unfortunate distinction of being one of the worst states for access to health care for children. Until last year, it was the only state in the entire nation without an active Childrens Health Insurance Program. Arizona froze kids care in 2010. At its height, the waiting list for coverage after the freeze topped 100,000. I repeat, 100,000 because of a freeze put on by the state of arizona. Two years ago, congress reauthorized chip and included enhanced matched rate funding for states under the Affordable Care act. Thanks to advocates on the ground and with bipartisan support and our state legislature, this enhanced funding finally paved the way for our state to reopen kids care. Ast year kids care enrolled 23,000 so far and just begun the hard work of educating and reaching out to the families who equal any for coverage. Arizona is one of the handful of states as you can see here in this chart in blue, would run out of federal funds to cover children by december of this year absent congressional action. Families in these states are the most at risk for losing critical access to care until Congress Steps up to the plate and passes a robust reauthorization with enhanced rate funding. I have met and heard from many of these families. And their providers, and i know whats at sfake for them. Kate is a mother from tucson, arizona, whose eightyearold son, zachary, was approved for coverage through kids care last month. This is a huge relief to kate, who recently moved to arizona with her husband and works at a local elementary school. Kate said, its important for me to know that if i need to take him to the doctor, i will be able to take him. As a parent, your kids are always your biggest priority. I think every parent wants to make sure their kids are healthy. Kate, i couldnt agree with you more. And kids like zachary deserve to know that their elected first here in congress are looking out for them. Garcia is a working single mom who lives in phoenix. Her 17yearold daughter who suffers from high Blood Pressure relies on kids care coverage. She asks, i just pray everybody who is behind chip to think about it. They dont know how hard it is sometimes when you are a parent and you dont know what to do. Should i put a plate of food on the table . Or should i take my kid to the doctor . These are questions no parent in arizona or in america should have to ask themselves. And doctors in our communities agree. A pediatrician practicing in gilbert, arizona, shared an important story with us about a family of five children, in her practice. The father works as a grosser, but makes 20 too much to qualify for medicaid. One of the children has significant developmental delays and another child has a serious neurological disease. After the youngest child was born, it became clear that he most likely had the neurological disease as well. The doctor referred this child for evaluation. But the family was unable to take him to the neurologist because they could not afford the Office Visits and diagnose gnostic testing necessary. Had kids care been open at the time, the family could have applied for coverage since they qualified based on their income. This story and our experience in arizona should be a cautionary tale for the rest of the states who may freeze their program if Congress Fails to reauthorize chip now. No family should be put at risk when they need help for their kids. Working families, like these, are doing their best, to make ends meet and raise healthy kids. Reauthorizing chip isnt just the right thing to do morally, but the smart economic decision for our communities. I understand that when i was when i was a republican state legislationor and fought for kids care and i understand it now here in congress. We all know when children have meaningful access to quality, affordable, comprehensive Health Care Coverage, that our schools, our families and our states bottom line will win. Health kwli kids have a better shot in school and grow up to be healthy adults. When we invest in them, we invest in their families and we are investing in their futures and in our future. We must do better. Instead of playing partisan games and spending time on bills that make coverage and affordability worst for americans, we need to make chip reauthorization front and center of our focus. While im pleased that the Senate Finance committee and energy and Commerce Committee have taken up action, its past time to get a robust bill to the president s desk. Chip has been a Bipartisan Program and i will keep working with anyone regardless of office or party to make sure our kids have the care they deserve. They are counting on us. We cannot let them down. And i am pleased to be joined this evening by my colleagues who are committing to fighting for kids in our community. I thank them for joining in this pecial hour and a join us in a strong reauthorization process. Mr. Speaker, i yield five minutes to the gentleman from rhode island, david cicilline. Mr. Cicilline i thank the gentleman from arizona for yielding. And i thank him for his leadership in organizing this special order hour. There is no more sacred responsibility that we have than to ensure that the children in this country have access to quality, Affordable Health care. And so i rise this evening to speak in support of the vital Childrens Health Insurance Program, also known as chip. As you know, mr. Speaker, chip authorization expired on september 30, 2017, this past september. This program ensures that 9 million children including 27,000 children and pregnant women in my home state of rhode island are provided with lowcost Health Insurance which covers essential services such as checkups, doctor visits, prescriptions, dental and vision care, inpatient and outpatient hospital care, laboratory and xray services and emergency services. This historically Bipartisan Program has been successful in lowering the percentage of children who are uninsured from merely 14 when it started in 1979 to 4. 5 . Historic achievement. If not extended by congress soon, many states will no longer be able to fund the program and will be limiting coverage from as early the end of this year. The Kaiser Family foundation recently concluded that without the extension of chip and i quote, states would face budget pressures and children would lose coverage and increased costs and administrative burdens for states as well as confusion for families. If not extended by congress, states will no longer be able to fund the program. Congress must also act with urgency to reauthorize the other programs that were enacted in the medicare and chip reauthorization in 2015 extending coverage for Community Health centers and education programs, rural and medical programs, Teaching Health centers, maternal and Home Visiting programs and special diabetes and for indians. These critical programs are vital to the American Health care system. I want to thank the gentleman from arizona for providing this time. This is an urgent and should be an urgent priret for the congress of the United States to reauthorize this program and absolutely insist that children as i said, 9 million children have access to quality, Affordable Health care and 27,000 children and pregnant women in my home state. Reauthorize this bill immediately so the families who are so anxious about whether or not they will have the ability to Access Health care can ress and know this work is done. I yield back and i thank the gentleman for his leadership and yielding to me on this important issue. Mr. Ohalleran i thank the gentleman from rhode island. And i would like to yield five minutes to representative gwen moore from wifpk. Ms. Moore i thank you the gentleman from from arizona. I think it is a new low for this congress to allow the critical and bipartisan Childrens Health Insurance Program to expire. This program is what, 20 years old . And this has never happened where we have allowed the basic safety net, Health Care Program for children, to expire. And you know, we hear over and over and over again, mr. Speaker. Lazy r you talk about the ones of our constituents, who are poor and dont want to work, but, mr. Speaker, these are children. These are children ineligible for work and unable to take care of themselves. And we are destroying the Health Safety net for children. But its not that we havent had time to extend chip. I mean, weve renamed post offices. Weve renamed a highway. Weve advanced the house budget reconciliation riddled with unpaid tax cuts tore the wealthy. But we have had the money, including the repeal of the state tax, which would alone increase our deficit by 169 billion by 2025. That is billion with a b. Our republicans in this body trying to solve the budget crisis and our deficit problem by cutting chip . I dont think so. Even more, mr. Speaker, last week, we spent a considerable amount of time debating the 20week abortion ban. We heard passionate speeches about how important it was to preserve the life of fetuses and spent all this time, speaker after speaker after speaker making emotional demands on this body that we restrict womens dy autonomy but spent no reauthorizing the program, the basic health care that children need exiting the womb. Simply put, it is hypocritical, mr. Speaker, for you to say that life ends as soon as the umbilical cord is cut and your Actions Prove it. Im the mindset of one of our omp reporters, rachel madd w, watch what you do and not what you say. Nine million children depend on this health care, who will lose ccess to vaccinations, routine checkups, dental care, Mental Health care and prescriptions and some of these children are profoundly disabled. Mr. Speaker, what is going to happen to the 24 of the children enrolled in chip that have special health care needs, including asthma and disabilities . The health of our children depend on this program. And yet, mr. Speaker, all you can do to muster up a reauthorization for the chip program is to fund it by increasing medicare premiums medicare, a Program Designed for people over 65 and cutting the prevention and Public Health fund. All you can do, mr. Speaker is to pit old people against our babies. In order to provide basic health care to our children. If this sounds really faustian and its unimagineable, yet this is the reality that were working with. Mr. Speaker, its now time to put these politics aside. And to reauthorize chip now. For five years. This is a disgrace not only in this nation but internationally. I as an american dont want to be judged by putting our kids last. Mr. Speaker, i would yield back to the gentleman from arizona. I want to thank the gentlelady from wisconsin for her comments. Mr. Speaker, im kind of new to this body. Mr. Ohalleran but when i came here i came with the same intention did i when i first got into the Arizona State legislature. One of the first issues i worked on was this program. A program that helped kids stay healthy. A program so that they could be successful at school. A program that is imperative. Yet today millions of people around this country, millions of families around this country , are saying to themselves, what are they going to do about my Childrens Health . What is going happen, who is going to be there for my child . Now, i have when i was a Police Officer i had, sadly, the ability to see people in poverty. Day in and day out. What it meant to their families. But especially what Sick Children look like. What it means to see children taken out of homes in ambulances instead of having preventive care. What it means for a child to have to be in a hospital instead of having had the ability to have preventive care. What it means to a child with disabilities, to have to go not h that process and have the physical therapy thats needed. This happened time and time and time again. Before the chip program became a reality. I dont think america wants to go back there. I think america wants to move forward and make sure our children are healthy and able to with stand withstand the issues in our society that lead s to make sure that they do. I cannot understand for the life of me why we would keep these families, its 11 days now, its going mean many more, we will have to find some level of agreement. And yet, as was just mentioned by the gentlelady from wisconsin, we are funding this by taking money away from the elderly. From those also at need. From those also at risk. I have to say that when i patrolled the streets of sure , i did so to make. Hat people were safe and i cant believe that ive come to this body and found out that we are willing to keep these families waiting. We are willing to sit back and not understand the core issues of what it means to those families to have to suffer through this process of the childs future health care. Their childs future health care. I have to say that this is an issue that most americans and most of this body agree on. I dont know why weve got down this path of taking money or thinking of taking money away from the elderly. Its wrong. But i do know that we should get this dealt with quickly and make sure the families in america that need it can provide for their Childrens Health. Mr. Speaker, with that i yield five minutes to representative langevin, the gentleman from hode island. Mr. Langevin thank you. And i want to thank the gentleman for yielding. I appreciate all the time and effort youre putting into bringing attention to this vital issue. And its an honor to join you this evening as we highlight the imminent need to pass a full reauthorization of the Childrens Health Insurance Program. I represent the great state of rhode island. A state with over 27,000 children and pregnant women at risk of losing health care if chip is not fully funded. Its deeply troubling to me and many of my constituents, my colleagues in government. And we fought hard over the years to make sure that we did better by our young people. And by the most vulnerable. By pregnant women. And making sure that they had the Health Care Coverage that they need and they desperately need and deserve. Rhode island, the lack of a reauthorization endangers 26 million in federal funds that support this vulnerable population. Many of whom will not otherwise have comprehensive coverage. This is particularly frustrating because Congressional Republicans knew the chip funding would expire on september 30. They had ample time to fix this problem in a bipartisan way and have chosen not to. Instead of proactively crafting legislation to ensure nine million lowincome children and families maintain access to affordable, highquality health care, republicans focused their efforts on gutting the Affordable Care act, to the exclusion of everything else. In the service of their political priority, to eliminate coverage for 23 million, they passed on an opportunity to govern on multiple health care fronts. Rather than work to find meaningful bipartisan solutions, republicans still seek ways of systemically unraveling a. C. A. Protections and have only offered untenable, untenable options to offset the costs of chip. Thats no way to govern responsibly or even remotely do it in a bipartisan way. Which they could do. Their plan to pay for health care for one population by stripping access to health care from another. Its wrong. This approach of robbing peter to pay paul does nothing to build the foundation of a healthier future, for this does it protect the communities norr does it protect the community nor does it protect the communities without access today. Creating a greater financial burden on seniors by suggesting destructive medicare changes are not acceptable ways to bring democrats to the table and pass the chip reauthorization with bipartisan support. Which by the which im sure my colleagues have by the way im sure my colleagued have mentioned, when chippewas First Authorized it was done collaborate chip was authorized it was done collaboratively. But they found a way to do the right thing for vulnerable individuals, particularly our children. And we need to come together again. We have a responsibility to move quickly, to ensure children continue to have access to highquality, affordable coverage. Kids in rhode island deserve to now that we will support providing children in the state. The Health Professionals that treat these children deserve more certainty and, most importantly, the children who benefit from chip deserve much better than to be threatened with coverage termination because my colleagues in the majority cant set aside their political ambitions and goals. Mr. Speaker, i just want to ain thank my colleague for raising the alarm bell on this issue. Calling attention, focusing the American People on the need to reauthorize the chip program. We take great pride in rhode island that over the years we have built a very Strong Program to cover Vulnerable Children and pregnant women. Weve been leaders in the country in having a very low rate of uninsured. Going back even before the a. C. A. Was enacted, we had a Model Program with a right share and right care program. There were hardfought battles that moved the ball forward, in providing better and responsible health can coverage for people who need Health Coverage for the people who need it the most. We need to come together now in a bipartisan way to make sure that chip is reauthorized. We cannot let this program fail. We cannot fail our children, our most vulnerable populations. We can come together in a bipartisan way. Democrats stand ready to do just that. Come together in a bipartisan way to reauthorize the chip program, just as it had been authorized in a bipartisan way when it was first created. I know that there are many of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who care as passionately about covering lowincome children, providing Affordable Health care, doing the right thing by our children. And i look forward to reaching out across the aisle to do just that. Lets do this in a bipartisan way. Lets do the right thing and put partisan politics aside. And cover our children. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I thank, again, mr. Ohalleran for his leadership on this vital issue. And i look forward to continuing to work with him as we reauthorize chip. Hopefully in the very near future. Again, we have to do this together. Thank you. I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Ohalleran i want to thank the gentleman from rhode island. Not only for his discussion today, but also for all his work on behalf of the children of america. I think that his record speaks for itself and its obvious that what we just heard came from his heart. O thank you very much. I ask my fellow colleagues, when they start to work on this bill again, hopefully they do it in a speedy fashion, that when they wake up in the morning they think of what it means to have their child potentially without health care. What it means to have the unknown, that we dont know if next month or the month later they will lose that coverage because of congress. Because congress has failed to address the issue that theyve all agreed on for 20 years. We have to and we must find a way to come to agreement. Mr. Speaker, with that i yield ack the rest of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Gohmert, for 30 minutes. Mr. Gohmert mr. Speaker, at this time i would like to yield to my friend, mr. Higgins from louisiana, for such time as he may consume. Mr. Higgins i thank my colleague for yielding. Some moments of his time. Mr. Speaker, i rise unscripted to bring to the attention of the entire nation the plight of the good citizens of louisiana who are impacted by who were impacted by harvey last month. Beside Hurricane Harvey last month. Beside me at this graph shows the rainfall, the water event of Hurricane Harvey as it impacted texas and louisiana. S anyone can see, it was a tremendous water event. Unprecedented rainfall that overwhelmed any Water Management system. And as anyone can see, the parishes of southwest louisiana were impacted as well as many counties in texas. And yet as we discussed Disaster Relief, louisiana is absent from our conversation. I point out to all those who choose to witness, the state line of louisiana as defined by e sabine river and impact of Hurricane Harvey. Mr. Speaker, Hurricane Harvey did not recognize the artificial state boupped dries that we have created as a republicic and nor should we as we provide Disaster Relief for our citizens. After Hurricane Harvey impacted texas and louisiana, my office drafted a letter to the executive branch to the president that i admire and respect, advising him of the impact and begging his expedited approval of disaster status once the formal request had been submitted by our governor. Sometime later, just two weeks ago, that formal request was submitted by the governor of our state. Just after that submission, our office drafted and submitted a second letter requesting expedited approval for these citizens of louisiana who were clearly just as impacted of this storm as many citizens in texas. Tomorrow, we shall send a third letter, this time signed by the entire louisiana delegation. I ask that the nation recognizes the plight of the people i represent, the good and patriotic citizens of southwest louisiana are suffering. I respect and admire our president. I support him. I supported him since day one. And i support him still. But it is important that we as representatives of we the people communicate clearly our intent and our service and i beg that the leaders of the executive branch level would witness this clear evidence of the need for disaster declaration of the parishes of southwest louisiana and i beg that this message is received with the spirit with ich its delivered, which is respectful and yet in determined service of the citizens that im sworn to represent. I thank you, mr. Speaker. For allowing me to address and i thank my colleague for yielding hese precious moments. The speaker pro tempore thank you. Mr. Gohmert had some interesting days here, but over the weekend being back in texas and hearing the cries from people all over east texas you know, theres a small number that said hey, im not making much and im getting subsidies from the government. So im oak on my health care. Im young, got no health problems, and thats fine. But over and over, theres a cry going out around america which says, we elected republicans in the majority in the house and majority in the senate to help us with our health care, really, Health Insurance. Everybody can get health care. You can go to the emergency room, whether youve got money or not. But this is really more about Health Insurance. And some of us have not wanted Health Insurance to make our ajor decisions for us on our own health care and havent wanted the government to make major decisions on health care, but both are making those decisions for people across the country today. And unform, people are telling 20 yesterday ying 20,000 for the familys insurance and got a 12,000 deductible and they cant afford either one. They expected help. Not the trump, hes congress. He has pushed, shoved, ca joeled and did everything he could to get congress moving. And the house after back and wasntwe got a bill that perfect by any stretch, but at least it would have given people relief from high premiums. St americans hopefully republicans wont misrepresent the truth. Some people just flat lied about obamacare. People that said, if you like your insurance, you can keep it, they knew it was a lie. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. They knew that was a lie. And people are suffering the consequences of trusting people in government that lied to them. They were deceived, but even with all the deception, most of the time it appeared that a clear majority of americans did not want what was fraudulently called the Affordable Care act. There was nothing affordable about it unless you didnt have any Health Care Problems at all. People that are bearing and carrying the weight of the taxes in this country have needed help. Hey counted on us to provide legislative changes, repeal of obamacare, lets put a system in place where people can make. Heir own Health Care Decisions and we sent a bill to the senate. And i still we still should have been demanding more of the senate every day. And i know a lot of people say, republicans cant lose the majority in the senate, because there are a bunch more democrats who whose seats are up this time instead of republicans. But yes, we can lose the majority even when there are more democratic seats up for reelection. Thats what happens when you are disappointed. Many stay home and own people get elected when too many stay home. Is still true. Whether anybody liked or disliked president obama as our president and for those who like to term out the term hater, i dont hate anybody, but i can certainly disapprove of conduct. But for eight years, america deserved ba rahm Hussein Obama and before that, whether you ke him or not i like him america deserved joverage w. Bush. There was hat, and william clinton. And before that, four years of george h. W. Bush and before that, eight years of Ronald Reagan and im very pleased that america deserved donald trump over Hillary Clinton last november. Its interesting, though, being in hearings today and people demanding action from this department, that department, its taking too long, while at that very moment, Democratic Senators at the other end of this building are doing everything they can to prevent confirmation of president trumps appointees to those departments so they Committee Start getting things done. Amazing when when one party like that can hold the ability because of the if anything buster rule and requirement of 60 votes and able to hold up appointees. Its amazing to say, you know what . You are demanding action from people that you have not con firmed yet . So we arent going to let you play that game anymore. Oh my goodness, these decisions arent getting their work done and all the while you are holding them back by not confirming the people that need to be doing that work. The senate ought to say, we arent letting you play that game. We are going to call the game off and were going to get serious about americas problems and we are going to confirm president trumps nominees with 51 votes. Not just judges. We are going to confirm his nominees with 51 votes. We cannot tolerate people fraudulent activity hold back the nominees from being confirmed and thn villify the administration for not getting the work done that those ominees the senate needs to respond. The senate did not respond to the bill we sent to them. That was quite interesting. My 12 years here, i never seen a situation like that, mr. Speaker, where some of us got calls from people in the senate that dont normally get calls and that included people in the tuesday group, freedom caucus, Republican Study Committee, you know, Republican Leadership and all were asking is the same question. Would you please promise us that if we pass this Health Care Bill in the senate, that you will not take it up and pass it in the house. Because its only if you guys promise us, you wont pass the bill, that we have down here apparently it was so bad that well let it go Toll Committee or youll amend it. But just promise us you wont pass the bill if we pass it. As far as i know, everybody i talked to gave reassurance to the senators who called them and said, we proposal his, we wont pass your bill, its terrible. We wont. We assure you. And even with those assurances, just the effort to get something passed so we could come together in a conference between house conferees and senate conferees, just for the chance. This bill that the senate was taking up to have some skinny repeal they called it of obamacare and at least some measure of change to the suffering that people are enduring right now and they still couldnt get 51 votes, which is all they needed under the reconciliation process. Even when they were assured, we promise you, we wont pass this bill. Youll get another chance to vote. Just help the process. Lets get it to conference so we can get some relief to the American People who are suffering, suffering so much that they would go so far as to give us the majority in the senate after they have given us the majority in the house and give us the white house as a republican party. Incredible. The American People are still suffering. And the budget apparently does not provide for health care to be for obamacare to be repealed and replaced under reconciliation for the next 12 months. So unless the senate feels enough heat from the American People the republicans, that s theyre not going to do anything about obamacare that they promised to repeal and replace. Apparently its going to have to get pretty hot in the kitchen down in the senate to get people down there worked up enough to finally give the American People the relief that the Senate Republicans promised. I dont like talking about this. Despite what some may think. Its much nicer to get along and go along. But people are suffering because we havent kept our promise. The senate couldnt pass anything that would get the American People some relief from all the suffering from obamacare. And for those that are not aware, yes, there were bailouts for the monopoly insurance , that some made record profits. And yet theyre still, under obamacare, the way it was written, going supposed to get bailouts. And so it appears pretty clear e design of obamacare was to make it fail. And apparently people at the top of some of these Insurance Companies have fat been smart enough to figure out that not been smart enough to figure out that they signed their own death warrants when they embraced obamacare. But it appears it was designed to make people so angry at the health llegedly corrupt Insurance Companies. I dont think theyre corrupt. But there sure was a lot of agreed there. Between some of the pharmaceutical companies and e Health Insurance companies signing on. Some of them tried to say, but we needed to be at the table. Im going, not if youre on the menu you didnt want to be at the table. But im sure the executives that have their golden parachutes, leave the Health Insurance companies after five years, six, seven years, before the end comes for them. But the design was the Health Insurance Companies Make a fortune, peoples premiums kept oing through the roof. Deductibles kept going through the roof. Bailouts were provided to Insurance Companies that had record profits. And then the design ultimately would be the American People getting so angry that they would lash out and say, enough already, i never thought id got to , but anythings be better than these Insurance Companies, the handful that are left. So lets just let the government take care of everything. And then we get a system thats twice as bad as the v. A. , for all americans. So all americans can suffer fairly equally, instead of getting what used to be some of the best health care ever in he history of the world. We have another issue i want to touch on. Our taxed enough already caucus had a meeting yesterday and luke rosiak thats done more investigation on the i. T. Scandal here on capitol hill. Apparently done more investigation than anybody at the f. B. I. You know, we keep hearing rumors that the f. B. I. s reporting theres nothing to this, nothing to this. Kind of like the clinton scandal, the money they got, the Clinton Foundation got from the stockholders of uranium one. She approves the sale of 20 , 25 of americas uranium production. It ends up going to the russians. That il scandal obviously there were efforts to destroy and destroy evidence that was being sought. And comey went out of his way mrs. Clinton. You know, theres just so much there that needs to be investigated. The attorney general apparently cant investigate because of his own recusal. And rosenstein is sure not going to investigate it. And thinks mueller will do it. Mueller is disqualified from doing it. He ough hes such a problem will not disqualify himself. Comey is a material witness, should be, in the investigation. And as the washingtonian reported back in 2013 in this long expose they did on glorifying mr. Comey and mr. Muellers relationship, that, you know, comey knows that basically, in essence, if the world were on fire, that one person that would be there with him, protect him, standing with him would be mr. Mueller. Mueller cannot investigate anything in which comey is a witness. He cant. So what does he do . Comey goes and hires more lawyers. Hes already had more lawyers than anybody that im aware of ever. Hes already exceeding the very general charge he got, going back years before he needed to. I mean, this is just incredible. There was a problem 10 years agoment then the Obama Administration had eight years ago. Then the Obama Administration had eight years to get into. It mueller as f. B. I. Direct heir plent into it. Mueller as f. B. I. Director had plenty of time to get into it. So theres only one thing were looking at and thats a vendetta from mueller against certain people. Hes clearly disqualified. Comeys in it up to his eye balls. Weve got to have a special prosecutor that will look into the matters that should be investigated. And then we have this issue on capitol hill. E need to know how compromised our Computer System, our i. T. System on the hill has been. Had a guy named emran working on capitol hill. Starting working with democrats Computer Systems 12 years or so ago. Before he was not even an merican citizen at the time. Apparently, if there has ever been a background check on him, it certainly was not adequate. And could his family he horts, youve got cohorts, youve got bankruptcy, ouve got mass indebtedness. There was money received by one of the team, 100,000 or so, from a known consort with hezbollah. And then we find out yesterday or i did, id not heard of this emran ewan, that for parts of the year would not even be here in washington. He would be in pakistan rvices up to dozens of our democratic colleagues Computer Systems from pakistan. Making the maximum that somebody working on capitol hill could, by working for different members of congress. And then you add the partial salaries together until you get around 160,000. And we heard yesterday that as he would get one person up to 160,000 working for different offices, then theyd add another to the payroll and get. Hem up to 160,000 one of the group owed another individual 100,000. So with no indication that that individual that was owed 100,000 ever even came to capitol hill or did any work here, he got put on the house payroll and made a couple hundred thousand dollars in return for the 100,000 that he had loaned to one of the ewan team. And its just almost inconceivable that we would have someone working with some of the highest privileged material. Seems to me the courts make it clear, the speech and debate privilege, to protect constituent information, information that people provide to us as whistleblowers, that that is probably more constitutionally protected than the attorneyclient privilege. Its that important. There are wing countries, there are companies that would pay large amounts of money to know some members of congress schedule, have access to all their emails, see what theyre saying about different bills, what they want to do, thats some valuable stuff. And yet in some years we found out yesterday, we were told yesterday, that there are more than that emran ewan was servicing capitol hill computers from pakistan. I dont know how secure the pakistani internet systems are, but its kind of hard to believe that the american interests would be as protected in pakistan, and the capitol congressional Computer System would be protected as its going through the pakistani internet to be serviced. Emran ewan d that from some of the emails that wikileaks put out, we dont know if he worked for the Democratic National committee when they were hacked, but we know there was emails where someone was we need to get into the chairwomans laptop, we need her password, oh, well emran ewan has all of those pass all of her passwords. So check with him. So we dont know the extent that he could have compromised things. But with all the indebtedness he had and the car dealership that never reported were reported required to report anybody that makes over 120,000 from capitol hill has to report any outside income. He never reported those things. And in fact it was it appears to be a crime when he failed to even report that he had his wife on the payroll making money on capitol hill. In those Financial Disclosures he filed. And we also know that he had some history of violence, complaints. And his stepmother complained of being kidnapped by him and forced to sign over documents, sign documents that would turn that ney and property emrans father supposedly had coming. We know that hes now been indicted simply on a bank fraud charge for lying, in order to get a bank loan. The money from which was shipped was sent overseas. And we also learned that, gee, they were sending technological equipment over to pakistan. They were forging, fraudulently filing vouchers, showing that 800 ipads only cost under 500 so they wouldnt have to be listed on inventory. That obviously makes things mauricey to steal. And more easy to steal. And in fact it was reported by the person that rented his house when he and his wife appeared to flee, he was trying to flee when he was stopped at the airport. Hard drives, all kind of things. We know that he and possibly some of those working, maybe they didnt work, maybe we dont know. But 6 million to 7 million was paid to him and his family, cohorts, during the time they were working here. Nd yet he was downloading from members of congress clouds or , all of own servers their information into a spot where people that werent authorized to access those members of congress accounts this has got to be investigated more thoroughly than it has been. Yield back. The speaker pro tempore under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2017, the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. Soto, for 30 minutes. Mr. Soto thank you, mr. Speaker. Its hispanic heritage month. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Its hispanic heritage month and i wanted to take this time to honor some great hereo heros in my district of hispanic descent who range from reporters to civil rights heroes, to Community Organization organizers, to business men and women. And im just proud to be here tonight to be able to do that. The first gentleman i wanted to talk about is daniel barajas, the executive director of the Young American dreamers. Daniel barajas was born in winter haven, florida, to a family of migrant workers. Growing up he worked in the orange groves of florida. There he witnessed firsthand how farm workers were exposed to dangerous pesticides while working for poverty wages. He also learned about the longterm effects of failed immigration policies, seeing hoins father be deported during operation during a local operation. He joined gangs. He joined this path but was dubbed lucky because he survived. 2001. Ed a g. E. D. In he noticed that inmates had no access to books and he founded the library of library of hope. His younger sister founded the Young American dreamers in 2010 to help local youth. Maria passed away in a car accident in 2012 and to honor her legacy, daniel joined y. I. D. And voted executive director. He also continued to fund raise for local students and participate in philanthropic events. Daniel now speaks to high schools and talks to students about his life and one is not dwiped by their past and breaking down barriers and he works with registering voters and pass out applications. Daniel is an example who could turn his life around and works with the Mexican Consulate in orlando to teach immigrant families of their constitutional rights. Dmp a. Erica gomez teja florida chapter, Civic Engagement coordinator at 32. J. Erica came from colombia to the United States with her mom and moved by her commitment to her birth country, erica moved to colombia in 2009 and began a masters in theology. Upon her return to the u. S. , she moved to florida and legitimated Vice President of s. I. I. U. Local 1199, United Health workers east representing homeworkers. In 2014 under the republic of 32 b. J. President , erica returned to the local as Deputy Director the 12,member new york City Security division. The first citys wide contracts. He moved back to florida and became the Civic Engagement coordinator of ba mmp arch mp s th 40 of the orange county, florida parents and teachers and students and organizations successfully worked with the original county Public Schools to ensure that parents get information and orientation and translation. The coalition is focusing on offering immediate lifesaving resources to puerto rico and the cancellation of krimming debt and so they can use their knowledge and skills to integrate and contribute to the local economy and society from the day they arrive. Ext i would like toes tore ban garcia, Florida State director. Dress the florida operation managing strategies, operations, local policy development, campaigns, Civic Engagement, organization efforts. A to bans career was set as ictim of landlord abuse. He has an interest in social justice and he organized then electoral organizations. He joined the organization in 2015 to continue to work positive change he was the Immigration Campaign director for local 615. Next i would like to honor frank lopez of the Hispanic Chamber of commerce of central florida. Frank lopez and josephine is currently a visiting assistant professor teaching in the social sbrurel major and has the honor of being a part of rollins college. Her greatest honor is receiving two Teaching Awards from a Student Government association faculty award and walter e. Barton. Throughout each of her classes, she makes sure to engage in her local community by legal her professionals as guest speakers. He professor is a practicing attorney and u. S. District court. In may of 2017, the Florida Agricultural and mechanical university, college of law presented her office with the distinguished Alumni Awards and professional excellence awards. Solo practitioner and a Community Rights staff attorney for the center for earth jurisprudence. During the summer she is a professor at a school of law teaching sustainability in business. The professor worked as an assistant attorney and worked for a food safety regulatory safety group. She is actively involved in the local community ap advocating as an avid speaker on environmental justice, sustainable development, climate change, food and social justices. Thank you for your contributions. Would like to honor an attorney, active it. Louise was born in puerto rico and received his degree from the university of puerto rico while at the same time are being commissioned from the army r. O. T. C. As the second branchant in the utility and many years later came full circle and a distinguished professor at the orlando campus. Louise served in the army for 20 years. He was with the Vietnamese Regular forces as an adviser in the mountains of vietnam and adviser to the spanish army for a couple of years in spain. After retirement, he began to pursue law at the university of puerto rico. His work in banking as Vice President for investments of the Cooperative Bank as a general manager for a newspaper in san juan he was director of finances for the Popular Democratic Party Executive director of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration for the southeast United States and now professor oflaw with a bachelor degree the campus. He published five books all honoring his roots. Thank you, louise for his contributions. Building farmworkers to participate indecision processes and racing consciousness about advocating. Thank you for your contributions. I would like to honor spanish radio host, identified as a consistent Community Leader and insightful journalist. His passion to help fellow citizens and life schedules is then evidence in the last 28 years of his residency in central florida. And who listen to him and read his articles. A native of venezuela. He developed a natural way to show humanitarian causes. William was the recipient of a scholarship that brought him to the United States to obtain his postgraduate diploma in 197 , the university of texas, austin, gave him a masters degree. When ed as a diplomatic he was designated as general coordinator of the g. M. A. And to the venezuela embassy. Founder and president in his native country in 1989, he brought his experience to the. S. He was specifically advying new nonprofit organizations. At this time, william is full time with his radio show which broadcasts in in 18 different counties. Founder of casa de venezuela, which gathered most meaning it takes 2 3 of those present and voting to pass it, but wont get any chance at amendments for this bill. And mark walker, the chairman of the Republican Study Committee calling a dear colleagues letter calling for allowing amendment debate, why is he concerned about that . Well, he looks at this and says this is pretty complicated and has a lot of new stuff in there, authorizing language, et cetera. So he wants amendments to increase the transparency and also to provide offsets to some of the spending. A lot of republicans would like to see offsets, but most are probably going to vote for it without offsets. You mentioned there would be additional requests for funding all based on the hurricane and the wildfires in california . Right. Right. Those should be coming in the future. Our budget reporter and senior budget reporter with c. Q. Roll call looking for ecial requests for special appropriations. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org some of our live coverage includes ben carson testifying at an oversight hearing before the House Financial Services committee. Live coverage begins in the morning at 9 30 eastern on cspan 3. And secretary rick perry testifies before an oversight hearing live at 10 00 a. M. And watch both hearings online at cspan dorgan listen on the free cspan radio app. Tomorrow, we are live in nashville, tennessee, for the next stop on the crmp span bus 50 capitals tour. The former governor will be our guest starting at 9 0 discussing the top policy issues and join us tomorrow for the entire washington jourm starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan. Texas representative revealed articles of impeachment to force a house vote. Congressman green told the hill he didnt want a vote on impeachment because he wants members to see the text. He may try to force a vote later