All time shall be equally allocated between the parties and in no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. Each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the majority and the minority whip shall be limited to five minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. Rohrabacher, for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Speaker. And i ask permission to address the house and to revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Mr. Rohrabacher mr. Speaker, on his recent trip to asia, President Trump reminded us and our International Trading partners that our commercial agreements must be honest, fair and reciprocal. This admonition with this admonition he called on our asian friends to build automobile plants that would employ American Workers. Three cheers for him doing that. The United States already has experienced the benefits and the liabilities of foreigncontrolled multinational Automobile Companies manufacturing in our country. These companies have provided good jobs for americas working people. But having these Foreign Companies here hasnt always worked. A few years ago we discovered that one of the worlds preeminent car manufacturers, volkswagen of america, had engaged in an illegal strategy emissions t u. S. Laws. Vokes wagan has a long standing relationship with United States. My first car was a volkswagen beetle. Despite that, volkswagen of america intentionally did us wrong. Volkswagen intentionally violated our emissions regulations, and by many accounts they even engineered their systems to falsely indicate that they were complying with the emissions standards. With this this was nothing more than pure arrogance and a hostile intent and an egregious violation of our best legislative efforts to regulate our way to clean air. Unfortunately, this issue with volkswagen has not been totally dealt with and put behind us. The deal with the German Government that got them off the hook remains cloaked in mystery and left many questions unanswered. We do not know yet, for example, whether volkswagen will compensate americans in a full and just manner. Those uncompensated americans may include the owners of the bogusly engineered cars as well as auto importers as well as perhaps service stations who officially are authorized to repair volkswagen. The deal between the Obama Administration and the merkel government needs to be revisited with a full erring of the details. We need to make sure that wolfgang porsche, the family that owns 52 of volkswagen and he was chairman during this time of the emissions scandal as well as muller, c. E. O. Of volkswagen of america, they need to be put on the record what the details of this subter huge of american law was subterfuge of law mearn law was all about. We need to send a message to all the Multinational Corporation executives when they do business in the United States of america, they have to play by our rules. And i applaud the president for trying to encourage people to invest in building factories here but that means all of us must make sure that works out for the best for the American People. And i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. Blumenauer, for five minutes. Mr. Blumenauer thank you very much, mr. Speaker. After spending a bizarre week in ways and means with a moving target from the republican tax plan, we find out amazingly that its actually getting worse and worse. Weve just discovered that the senate is going to repeal the individual Health Care Mandate to try and provide funding for more tax cuts for americas wealthy. And the cost of that, there will be 13 million additional uninsured americans, and everybody in the individual market will see their premiums increase another 10 next year. Well, tomorrow trump is going to come to capitol hill to hold a rally with republican members to try and make some of these nervous people feel a little more comfortable. And no wonder donald trump is eager to see this bill pass. It is designed for donald trump. First, hes the selfproclaimed king of debt. Well, you got it in spades with this bill because the republicans have raised the debt ceiling 1. 5 trillion to finance these tax cuts for people who frankly dont need them. And because you have to pay interest on that, its 2. 3 trillion additional burden on our children and grandchildren. It eliminates the alternative minimum tax. Even though trump refused to honor his commitment to release his tax returns, one was leaked to david k. Johnson and it showed the only reason he paid substantial taxes in 2005 was because of the alternative minimum tax. Getting rid of that would save him 31 million. Theres a special break for passthrough entities. Its theoretically for Small Businesses, but many of the passthrough entities are not Small Businesses. Theyre hedge funds. Donald trumps disclosure form lists hundreds of passthrough entities. Thats how he does business. And, of course, the biggest and most outrageous loophole is to completely eliminate the inherentans tax over the next 10 years. Inheritance tax over the next 10 years. This will save extraordinarily wealthy people from 172 billion that would otherwise come to the government to be able to Fund Programs for our veterans, deal with the opioid crisis. Donald trump will be able to pass off hundreds of millions, maybe a billion or two taxfree, and remember most of that money had never been taxed in the first place. You dont become a billionaire on w2 income. The is all appreciated untaxed capital. Well, its also shatters a bipartisan agreement for alternative energy. Donald trump is doubling down on energy in the past trying to breathe life into a failing coal industry, and their bill would break a bipartisan agreement for wind energy, which we carefully negotiated on a bipartisan basis and the industry has gone ahead and pledged billions of dollars. Eliminating that agreement, the only retroactive provision in the bill, puts at jeopardy billions of dollars of investment and tens of thousands of jobs. Score one for donald trump. But the worst element of this bill, i think, and thats a lot to choose from, is its alzheimers tax. It would deny the medical exemption to over nine million middleclass families to be able to deduct extraordinary medical expenses. Think of a family thats trying to cope with the challenges of a member with alzheimers. This costs them tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in a year. It takes away the Tax Deduction from them. This is an outrage. It is made for donald trump and large corporations, but sadly it increases taxes on many middleincome americans, especially with the alzheimers tax, denying some of the middleclass families in the most difficult circumstances a little tax relief. It is inexcusable. They couldnt defend it in committee. Lets see how the republicans defend it on the floor of the house. But more important, lets see how they defend that to nine million american families. Thank you and i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. Bost, for five minutes. Mr. Bost thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to lend my support to the Flood Insurance reform legislation that we considered on this floor yesterday and passed. Let me tell you the reasons and the importance of that particular legislation. One is is the problems that it deals with is femas floodplain maps can be inaccurate and are based on old technology. Property owners in the insurance floodplain plan are required to pay Flood Insurance premiums even though they may not be at risk under the old maps when you look at it. For example, today, i brought a map from my district, one of the places in my district where these maps are wrong. This is actually carterville, illinois, and if you notice as the floodplain comes down here from the north, actually thats really unique because if youll notice right beside it out of the floodplain is the creek that actually flows and the ditch that is the creek and the floodplain is not in that but yet its over in the other area here where it effects homes that are actually charged larger amounts of money on their Flood Insurance when theyre not even in the floodplain. Yet, it never even continues to flow on down to crab orchard ke where the natural water flow goes. According to this mapping. You know, the flood zone maps heres the problem. Property owners can challenge the map under existing law before we sent this over, and you can challenge it but it would cost you 2,000 to challenge that. Or if you wanted to participate with your city, the city taxes would then be charged 17,000 to challenge the map. Flood insurance is vitally important and necessary to the people around this nation and the security that it gives to others that are not in floodplains for not having the cost dropped on them. But the accuracy of these maps are vitally important. One thing that the legislation the two things the legislation did that were vitally important its easier and more affordable to appeal fema about their maps and whether or not somethings in a floodplain. It also uses its Higher Technology to truly draft the loodplain maps in a way that theyre fairer and the costs are not unbearable to many homeowners. Mr. Speaker, with that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from california, ms. Eshoo, for five minutes. Without objection. Ms. Eshoo thank you, mr. Speaker. The tax bill being considered, h. R. 1, is a frontal assault on the middle class and it will do lasting damage to our country. The bill is a dishonest bait and switch for the 36 million middle and lower middleclass families who will see their taxes increase under this plan to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 of americans and large Multinational Corporations. Its paid for by eliminating the few remaining benefits in our tax code for the middle class and charging 1. 7 trillion to the National Credit card, leaving our children and our grandchildren to pay for it. This bill lets the middle class down at every turn, and it should be defeated. It eliminates the deduction for medical expenses, which over nine million middleclass americans claimed in 2015, including over one million taxpayers in my home state of california. This is especially harmful to Older Americans struggling with high medical costs and serious illnesses like cancer and alzheimers and americans with disabilities. It takes direct aim at College Students across the country, raising the future costs of igher education by 65 billion over 10 years by eliminating the deductibility of interest on Student Loans. It taxes employer Tuition Assistance benefits for students, and tuition waivers for graduate students by treating this as income, making it more expensive for future scientists, medical professionals, educators and other leaders to get an education. It eliminates the Lifetime Learning Credit and the deductibility of interest of Student Loans at a time when Student Loan Debt in the United States just reached 1. 5 trillion. This is a bitter bill to ask our nations student borrowers to swallow. Very importantly for my constituents, this bill bulldozes the state and local Tax Deduction. Almost 200 of my 200,000 of my constituents claimed an average state and local tax 2015. On of 31,193 in. Under this plan businesses can still claim this deduction. For example, the National EducationAssociation Estimates are that 250,000 education jobs will be put at risk because of this lack of deductibility. And just yesterday the fraternal order of police spoke out in opposition to this bills dismantling of this deduction noting that their salaries and the equipment that they use are paid for by state and local taxes on property sales and income. The institute on taxation and Economic Policy found that california stands to be the biggest overall loser in this plan. Tax ces a 12. 1 bill increase in 2017 alone. The bill also takes aim at the of val it valuable asset the most valuable asset of the middle class. Their home. Takeway the mom house report deduction and these unfair. Californians just experienced the worst wildfires in our States History with over takew 14,000deduction and these homes lost. Was this bill what does this bill do . It removes the deductibility for operty losses due to natural disasters. Disasters. I find this to be especially cruel. What the bill does do is take special care of the 14,000 weal 5,500 estates in this country by doubling the estate Tax Exemption to 22 million and then repealing it, removing the whole thing, by 2024. Finally, the bill has terrible implications for the future of medicare and the guarantee it provided for americans over 50 years. Without budget changes to offset the 1. 2 trillion increase to deficits over 10 years, the bill will trigger automatic spending under the statutory payasyougo. The republican majority and the administration claim that this tax plan people. In education. In job creation. In infrastructure. These are critical areas that always expand our economy. This house should reject this unfair, unbalanced fiscally irresponsible plan that dims the future of our country by attacking the middle class. The speaker pro tempore the chair recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. Thompson, for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, this is a pretty incredible week here in washington, d. C. Incredible week for the American People when you look at the things that we accomplished this week. We have historic tax reform. Long overdue. This is a break for hardworking iddle class american families. The facts are just encourage folks to check out the facts about for themselves on exactly what happens. Its not just the only thing thats done. Already this week we passed a conference report on the National Defense authorization. Largest raise for our military in over 10 years. Providing them the resources they need to be safe, to be effective. Lethal. Be and to be able to return home at the end of the day. And to have their needs met. Then we did something very important for a state like pennsylvania where we have almost 90,000 miles of streams, we did historic Flood Insurance reform where we really separated and looked at inland, the needs there, versus mixing things together. Allowing local municipalities, to be able, as long as they comply with the fema processes, to be able to determine where the actual flood risk is. We havent had that in the past. Ts all been done from washington. Been done rather poorly. But its more than that. This week is also National Apprenticeship washington. Been done rather week, mr. Speaker. I rise today to highlight the apprenticeships and apprenticeships is a part of career and Technical Education, a pathway to familysustaining careers and wages. Apprenticeships provide an alternative path to a highpaying job by providing opportunities to gain real world skills while earning a paycheck. Mr. Speaker, as cochair of the current Technical Education caucus, i know a huge gap exists nationwide. There are goodpaying jobs out there, but the unemployed are either ill prepared or lack the appropriate education to fill these vacancies. Thats why im proud the house did pass my legislation, the career and Technical Education for the 21st century act earlier this year. To pass unanimously out of this Technical Education for body. The bill aims to close the skills gap by modernizing federal investments in career and Technical Education programs educators with industry stakeholders. Career and Technical Education apprenticeship programs open the door for so many educators amer proudly President Trump signed an executive order earlier this year to expand apprenticeships and skillsbased Education Programs and put more americans back to work in the trade. We have seen too many students push down the college for all pathway that just doesnt work for some people. Obtaining apprenticeship or career in Technical Education is a viable path that many high achieving students can choose and pursue industry certifications and handsobject skills that they use handson skills that they use right out of high school. Mr. Speaker, we have all met young people who havent been inspired in a traditional classroom setting. We all know people who have lost jobs who are underemployed working multiple parttime jobs. And they are looking, desperately, for a goodpaying, job. Y sustaining we all know people aspiring for a promotion but keep falling short year after year. Mr. Speaker, i think we all know families that have been trapped in poverty for generations. But an apprenticeship can change that. A career in technical job. We all know people aspiring for a education can change that. Mr. Speaker. By the year 2020 its estimated more than six million jobs will go un