Department. C of rule 19, further consideration of h. R. 1 will now resume. The clerk will report the title. The clerk Union Calendar number 302, h. R. 1. A bill to provide for reconciliation pursuant to title 2 of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018. The speaker pro tempore when proceedings were postponed earlier today, 29 1 2 minutes of debate remained on the bill. The gentleman from texas, mr. Brady, has 17 minutes remaining. Without objection, the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Neal, has 12 1 2 minutes remaining. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. Brady. Mr. Brady thank you, mr. Speaker. Im pleased to yield two minutes to the gentleman from alaska, mr. Young. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from alaska is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Young thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Congress established Alaska Native Settlement trust in 1988, to provide Permanent Health ed health, education, and Welfare Benefits to alaska natives who were among the most economically disvanged population in the United States. Unfortunately, mr. Chairman, the tax code has many cases impeded the creation and funding of the settlements. As a result, Alaska Native Settlement trust have not been able to function in the Manner Congress originally intended, to provide benefits for alaska natives. To remedy some of these tax issues, i have sponsored h. R. 3524, which permits Alaska Native Corporation to deduct contributions to the settlement trust. The provision of h. R. 3524 were not included in h. R. 1 and the tax bill also adversely increases the tax rate from 10 to 12 . This would make it more difficult for the alaska native trust to provide longterm benefits to alaska natives. I request that you include the provision of h. R. 3524 in the final conference report that results from the conference committee. Mr. Brady. Mr. Brady if the gentleman would yield. I am pleased to work with the gentleman from alaska on this important issue. The alaska native community. Under the bill, Alaska Native Settlement trust would be unintentionally subject to slightly higher tax rates. I thank you for bringing this to my attention. I assure you i will focus on this in conference as we finalize individual rate struck turs between the house and senate structures between the house and senate, and i look forward to working with you to advance provisions of the bill in this area. Mr. Young thank you. I thank you for your commitment and inclusion of h. R. 3524 and maintain existing rates and law with regard to Alaska Native Settlement trust. And more generally, for your support of the alaska native community. Thank you. Mr. Brady thank you, sir. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from alaskas time has expired. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentleman from massachusetts. Mr. Neal meerks i yield myself four minutes mr. Speaker, i yield myself four minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. Mr. Neal thank you, mr. Speaker. As we wind down this debate on tax reform or what we should really call it, a tax cut, i think that we should tabulate this as a missed opportunity. This could have been done between the two parties. Instead much of this was constructed without any democratic input. Reminder, in 1986, the historic Tax Reform Act included president reagan and speaker oneill, chairman rostenkowski, Dick Gephardt and bill bradley. And in this instance here, 32 years later, not one hearing was held on this tax bill that is about to be voted on in the next 45 minutes. The significance of that is that there was never any back and forth. And in 1986, expert testimony was sought from 450 witnesses. Who not one witness commented on the legislation. Its been advertised as a middle class tax cut. How can you say that this is a middle class tax cut and compare that to repeal of the estate tax . How many middle class people in america pay the estate tax . Thats how many people pay the estate tax. No middle class american pays the estate tax. There is no such thing as a death tax. In addition to which a middle class tax cut is described as doing away with the alternative minimum tax. 4. 5 million million families pay alternative minimum tax in america. Thats it. I fixed the problem years ago for the middle class and 27 Million People stopped paying a. M. T. So now were down to people at the very top. So how are we paying for this . How are they paying for it . Theyve decided that that teacher who used to have 250 that they could deduct on their income taxes, thats going to be abolished. So if you have alzheimers and you exceeded 10 number in terms of in of cost of your health care in loving for that loved one at home who is sick or has dimension yarks thats how theyre going to pay for the tax cut. Theyre going to take that away. State and local property taxes . Theyre going to take them away. The deduction. Theyre going to pare back the mortgage interest deduction. All of this advertised on the basis of a middle class tax cut . People at the bottom end are not going to get much from this tax cut. I want to take you back again as i have repeatedly, because ive cast three great votes in this house during my 29 years. Against the iraq war, and there werent many of us. And against the cuts in 2001 to the tax system and 2003. All advertised as progrowth economics. There was no Economic Growth from the tax cuts of 2001, which toe at that totaled by the way 1. 3 trillion. For everybody who says at the time, everybody gets a tax cut, they were correct. You look at the tables seerks what people got at the top and then what people got at the bottom. And then we came back in 2003 and cut another 1 trillion in taxes. Advertised as progrowth economics. Zippo growth occurred. Then by the way, the grand daddy of them all, how about repatriation. Repatriation, bringing back those earnings to the United States for investment in job growth. At by the way 5. 25 was the tax burden they carried. All based on job growth. It was for stock buybacks, dividends and layoffs. We had a chance here to do something historic. We had a chance here in this debate and discussion because theres a genuine of aability on that committee. We had this opportunity to take the tax code and transform it for the gig economy and the modern age. We didnt do that, though. Four days we had to examine this tax proposal. With no hearings. Not one chance for a democratic amendment. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Neal to proceed. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from texas. Mr. Brady thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself as much time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Brady mr. Speaker, this historic legislation before us today represents a crucial step in fulfilling our tax reform promise to the American People. But its not the final step. Were republican. We believe the tax code doesnt belong to washington, it belongs to the American People. Well continue to work to make it better and improve at every step of the way. And before i make final remarks, i want to thank all of our ways and means members who have done so much and worked so hard, as well as every member of this house who helped make this opportunity real for the American People. I also want to thank say how grateful i am to everyone at the nonpartisan joint committee on taxation and the house office of legislative council. Their work, careful analysis, contributed so much to this bill. Finally i want to give special recognition to barbara anges, our chief counsel, and all of our staff on the committee. They put their hearts and souls and many sleepless nights in the development this bill. I cant thank them enough. For the hard work and dedication. Mr. Speaker, the house of representatives is by its very design the chamber of congress closest to the American People. Today this house, the peoples house, will pass historic legislation to improve the lives of americans nationwide. For too long this broken tax code has put the needs of the people second. Propping up Washington Special interests at the expense of hardworking americans. For too long this broken tax code has rewarded companies for outsourcing american jobs instead of encouraging them to create jobs here at home. For too long this broken tax code has eroded americas Economic Leadership around the world. This country used to be the standard worldwide for competitive tax system. Not anymore. Now the United States is barely a speck in the rearview mirrors of so many of our International Competitors. In our businesses, our workers, our made in america products, which are the best in the world, are bearing the consequences of washingtons failure to act. That stops now. And it stops with the tax cuts and jobs and jobs act with this historic bill, well provide real systemity for every taxpayer. Well deliver real fairness turnover hardworking american. Well be more competitive than ever. We will win worldwide and here at home as well. And well siebert jobs and bigger paychecks in every community of this great nation. So people can keep more of their hardearned dollars. With this bill we will deliver a new tax code built for a new era of american prosperity. So, to Washington Special interests who are now being propped up by absurd carveouts and loopholes, get ready to stand on your own. To our International Competitors who are now leading the pack, get ready to have some company. And to the American People who have waited years for tax reform, get ready for the tax relief you deserve. Today this house, the peoples house, is taking action on the most transformational tax overhaul in a generation and were taking action today. Its time for this old, broken tax code to go. Its time to put the American People first. Mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. The gentleman from massachusetts is recognized. Mr. Neal meerks i yield myself the mr. Speaker, i yield myself the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Neal 2 1 2 minutes, i believe, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore 8 1 2. Mr. Neal well, 2 1 2 to me im going to yield then. The speaker pro tempore thats fine. The gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Neal let me ac nodget superb democratic acknowledge the superb democratic staff that are here as well. Payton, deva, deep and susan. They did a magnificent sent job. Were all much dependent on the good staff work, particularly on the ways and Means Committee. So i spoke earlier of the missed opportunity that we had here. We have a real problem in america with Labor Participation rates. Six million jobs go unanswered every day now in america. 18,000 Precision Manufacturing jobs in new england, one million tax jobs. Because skill sets dont align with the Job Opportunities that are out there. Two million americans sit home with opiate addictions that should be in the work force. This was a chance to invest in Human Capital as well. To invest in our community colleges, to invest in apprenticeship programs. And, yes, the other challenge that we have in america is clearly to invest in vocational education. For many of the jobs that are available. Instead we pushed that all to the side and decided that once again, if we just had tax cuts, that all of these challenges and problems would go away. The idea of investing in the human side of American Opportunity is people do what we would like them to do in terms of home buying and raising families and caring for neighborhoods and practicing an art if an art form of citizenship. What were witnessing today, and we need to be alarmed about it, is the greater and greater concentration of wealth in america. Now, i understand its complicated. It has to do much with technology and globalization. But its also about the gig economy and we today reward capital more than we reward labor. And when we get done, if they are successful on the other side, we are going to further concentrate wealth amongst those few families in america. We serve here in the house of representatives. Not in the house of lords. This is not about peerage where youre entitled to a see the in this house of representative seat in this house of representatives. Thats whats wrong. Thats what jefferson and madison envisionhood they signed the declaration of independence and the american constitution, to break with europe. We dont practice divine right here. I wish the outcome here today, mr. Speaker, would have been more genuine and it would have been different. Thank you. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is now recognized. Mr. Brady mr. Speaker, im proud to yield three minutes to our majority whip and a tremendous leader in tax reform, the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Scalise. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from louisiana is recognized for three minutes. Mr. Scalise chairman brady has done an incredible job in bringing this tax bill to the house floor. This is a historic day for families saying we want to pay less in taxes. When youve heard the complaints as myself and so many others have every time we see a company move more jobs overseas, good highpaying jobs overseas because america has the highest tax rate in the industrialized world, we do something about that today, mr. Speaker, by cutting the corporate rates so we can be competitive again and bring those jobs back home. Lets talk about Something Else that is going to be a benefit to hardworking families, we simplify the tax code that over 90 frs of families will do their taxes on a post card and think how much that is going to say because the code is so complicated and so massive that nobody can figure it out. We simplify the code. We lower tax rates. Everybody is going to see lower tax rates at every income level. We double the standard deduction. Rom 12,000 to 24,000 that double standard deduction is going to be a big win for hardworking families that are struggling. We eliminate special interest loopholes. You might hear complaints about people getting a piece of the tax code. Every time someone gets a special interest loophole, it costs the rest of us, now we get rid of those loopholes so everybody can pay less. Thats a big win. Mr. Speaker, in our bill, we completely repeal the death tax. Probably one of the most immoral parts of our code where Small Businesses, family farms, if dies. D one dice immediately after that, they get a big tax bill that forces them to sell their Small Business instead of passing it on to their family. Thats part of the american dream. We repeal the death tax and deliver a much fairer code, mr. Speaker. What this bill is about is putting more money in the pockets of hardworking families and getting our economy moving again and creating jobs. When people see the highest Corporate Tax rate, tens of thousands of jobs going to ireland and canada. I love ireland and i love canada. I dont want them to have tens of thousands of our good jobs. Lets bring those jobs back. In our bill we do that, mr. Speaker. This is a win for hardworking families and puts money back in the pockets for people who have been struggling so long and wages will finally increase after 10 years of a stagnant economy and about time we answer the call that millions of americans have been asking us to do, mr. Speaker. Lets pass the tax cuts and jobs act and get our economy moving back again. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from texas reserves. The gentleman from massachusetts is now recognized. Mr. Neal i yield five minutes to a very capable legislator, the democratic whip, mr. Hoyer, for five minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from maryland is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Hoyer i thank the gentleman for yielding. In is the most irresponsible bill that i will have been confronted with in the 37 years that i have been in the congress of the United States. This bill, mr. Speaker, is both reckless and if he canless. It is reckless because it would add 1. 7 trillion, the chairman ys 2 trillion in a shameful act of hypocrisy for its supporters, who, for years, have called for fiscal responsibility. Because its ought thors wrote it with an eye towards politics, not policy. Here is no courage in voting for this bill. It is easy to vote for a tax cut. What is hard to do is paying for what we buy. And neither side does that particularly well. There is no courage in voting for this bill. Only a suspension of common sense and their now abandoned commitment to fiscal sustainability. Furthermore, my republican friends call this bill a tax cut. The gentleman who just spoke, the whip said, its a reduction in rates. But 36 million working americans will receive a tax increase under this bill. So it was a very careful arctic can you lation of reduction of rates. A tax on 36 million americans. Furthermore, they call this bill a tax cut. Its not a stretch of the imagination to presume that given republicans urgency to reject bipartisan compromise and deflect public input, the members of this house will be asked to accept whatever version of the tax bill can pass the United States senate. Yesterday, the Senate Finance committee listen to me, my colleagues, the Senate Finance mmittee rejected this bill 360. The Senate Finance committee, headed by republicans, rejected this bill 360. Im