Signed, john a. Boehner, speaker of the house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to the order of the house of january 6 2015, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip limited to five minutes, but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. Gutierrez, for five minutes. Mr. Gutierrez id like to congratulate the speaker and the republican majority for coming to their senses and allowing the house of representatives to pass a bill funding the department of Homeland Security for the rest of the fiscal year. Seems odd i would have to come to this well to congratulate the majority for funding one of the largest and most important departments in the u. S. Government. And i could not congratulate the majority alone because the bill funding the department of Homeland Security was passed largely on the strength yes, of democratic votes. The vote was strong 57167, but 182 of those votes came from democrats. In fact, every democrat who voted voted to keep the department of Homeland Security open and protecting america until the end of the fiscal year. 100 . Only 75 republicans supported paying our Border Security and Airport Security professionals. Mr. Speaker, it should never have come to this. On the one hand, it should never have come to this because members of congress should never play around with the paychecks of our fellow Government Employees and threaten them with furloughs in order to score partisan cheap political points. The real people with real lives who work at ohare and midway and at ports airports, border crossings, the real people with mortgages, car notes and tuition bills who provide the security our democracy depends on do not deserve the way they are treated by this congress. Lurching from Funding Crisis to shutdown to lastminute votes is no way to run the greatest democracy the world has ever known. We know theres a sensible bipartisan majority thats willing to compromise and do what has to be done to keep the basic functionings of government operating. That group voted yesterday, and the leadership should find a way to let that sensible majority govern despite those who take every opportunity to make governing next to impossible in this body. Secondly, it should never have come to this because the premise on which this funding and shutdown crisis rested was never logical or necessary. Those who oppose the president exercising powers granted to him by the congress have filed a lawsuit in federal court. They picked a sympathetic judge and won a temporary injunction on the implementation of the executive actions the president announced last november. If they really believe in the strength of their case, this threat of a partial Government Shutdown was unnecessary. Clearly they agree with me that their case is weak and that courts will eventually overturn the temporary injunction. But the logic was always sideways. The very president ial actions that some in the Republican Party object to are not even funded by the appropriations made by congress. The criminal background checks, the adjudication of each persons application is paid for in full by the fees of 465 for each immigrant. So this was never a logical funding matter. With or without funding for the department of Homeland Security, the premise that the congress could have deportees who grew up in the United States or who are the parents of u. S. Citizens never held water. Even if people cannot come forward to apply and pass a criminal background check and get to the back of the deportation line, the basic way the president and the secretary of Homeland Security prioritize deporting criminals, drug dealers, drunk drivers over moms, dads and dreamers, that would not change. Think about it. It is as if the republicans were saying they are so upset about their obsession with Border Security and their conviction that president is not doing enough about Border Security that they were willing to defund Border Security in order to make their point. Jon stewart cant right that stuff that good. He doesnt have to. And heres the biggest reason why it didnt have to come to a shutdown showdown. Republicans in the house could have taken action last year to fix our broken immigration system so that we dont have to continue this fiction about deporting 11 million undocumented workers. They could have had a vote to reform our immigration system so people can apply for visas and come legally in the first place rather than being forced in the black market where there are smugglers. They could have allowed a vote to put everify in place, put serious jail time for employers in place and target our enforcement resources on felons, not families. I stood here nearly every week last year and said if the republicans failed to act, the president would be forced to act within the limits of current law to rescue American Families and target our enforcement resources on criminals. I was right and for the record i told you so using a countdown right here on the house floor. The coalition to pass reform, which is made up of almost all of the democrats and about a third or more of the republicans, the same coalition that enacted the bill to fund the department of Homeland Security in yesterdays votes existed then and it exists today if our leaders are willing to Work Together to address Immigration Reform. Its not too late and i predict that Republican Party will continue boxing us into a corner until they address this important american priority. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. Mcgovern, for five minutes. Mr. Mcgovern i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. Mr. Speaker, later this morning i will be joined by my republican colleague, congresswoman lynn jenkins of kansas at d. C. Central kitchen to officially relaunch the house hunger caucus. I couldnt be happier that we are continuing this important bipartisan caucus in the 114th congress. Im thrilled to have her partnership in this caucus and i look forward to working with her. Mr. Speaker several years ago my good friend and former colleague republican congresswoman Jo Ann Emerson and i founded the house hunger caucus as a forum for members to discuss advance, engage and work on issues related to domestic and International Hunger and Food Insecurity. Over the years the house hunger caucus has hosted a number of briefings on topics ranging from introductions to the major domestic and International Hunger programs, to food deserts in rural and urban america, to Global Agriculture and farmertofarmer initiatives to International School feeding and child nutrition programs, just to name a few. And the caucus just doesnt look at existing programs. It also gets involved in emergency responses as they are unfolding. In 2011, during one of the worst droughts in recent memory, the hunger caucus held timely briefings on the u. S. Response to the famine in the horn of africa. Members and staff were able to hear directly from those on the ground providing assistance to deal with this unprecedented crisis. One of the most important objectives of the hunger caucus is to foster Better Communications among antihunger advocates by bringing together stakeholders from federal agencies state and local governments nonprofits faithbased organizations academia and business to discuss longterm strategies for ending hunger. The caucus also serves as a vehicle for antihunger organizations to communicate directly to congress about hunger and Food Insecurity issues. You know one of my Top Priorities for the hunger caucus this year is to make sure we hear directly from those who have experienced hunger and poverty firsthand. We need to make sure that their voices are heard in the discussions here in washington. One of the greatest assets of the house hunger caucus is that it is bipartisan republicans and democrats. It is a way for members to come together to work to end hunger. Mr. Speaker, there was not a Congressional District in the United States of america that is hungerfree. Not a single one. According to the usda, more than 17. 5 million american households were food insecure in 2013, meaning that their access to adequate food was limited by a lack of money or other resources. 5. 6 of households were considered to have very low food security. In other words, those households were hungry. Hunger disproportionately affects the most vullmerble among us, vulnerable among us, children, seniors. One in five children experienced hunger and increasingly veterans and military families are experiencing hunger. On the International Side about 805 Million People in the world or one in nine suffer from hunger, according to the most recent u. N. Reports. This is a decrease of 100 million over the past decade and 209 million since the early 1990s. The u. S. Can be proud of its leadership in reducing Global Hunger and addressing the root causes of Food Insecurity. Through partnerships with other Nations International organizations and our own farmers n. G. O. s and private sector communities, we are advancing Agricultural Development increasing child nutrition reducing malnutrition among infants and children, empowering Small Farmers around the globe especially women, and providing nutritious meals in school settings. While the journey is long, we have a coordinated and proven set of programs that effectively address hunger. As we reestablish the house hunger caucus, i cant think of a better place to show it than the d. C. Kitchen. Which has 80 nonprofit partners. One of d. C. Central kitchens greatest strengths is the culinary jobs program where people faced homelessness, addiction or incar ration, participate in rigorous job training in a rigorous job training program. As part of our kickoff this week, the house hunger caucus will host a briefing for house staff entitled domestic hunger 101 tomorrow at 1 00 p. M. The briefing will be given by c. R. S. Experts and is intended to present a broad overview of the major domestic antihunger programs. I look forward this important work with congresswoman jenkins. I encourage my house colleagues to join the house hunger caucus. As members we dont have to agree on everything but to agree on something and ending hunger is something we can agree on. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman has yielded. The chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky, mr. Barr, for five minutes. Mr. Barletta mr. Barr thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, today i rise to discuss the negative consequences of the doddfrank law as well as reforms to the law that would represent muchneeded solutions for middleclass families in kentucky and across the country. When this act was signed into law nearly five years ago, its supporters made many promises. President obama claimed it would, quote, lift the economy, and it would help protect main street not wall street. In both of these instances, the opposite has proven true. While the president is claiming victory on the economy, many kentucky families and families across america are still hurting. Last year the u. S. Economy grew at an anemic 2. 4 . The ninth year in a row of growth below the postwar average of about 3 . President reagan also inherited a very difficult economic situation. However if this recovery had progressed at the same rate as the reagan recovery of the 1980s, the economy would be about 2 trillion larger, which works out to be about 1,500 more per family per year. This is hardly the boom that the president talks about. Growth this low for this long is simply not fast enough to lift incomes for most americans. A primary cause of the weakness of this recovery is the avalanche of red tape coming out of the Obama Administration, including the nearly 400 new rules and regulations arising from doddfrank that are crushing small communities around the country. Doddfrank imposes costly and burdensome restrictions on Community Banks and Credit Unions that limit their ability to loan money to their customers which is hindering Economic Growth and hurting low and middleincome americans the hardest. A Community Banker in my district told me that before doddfrank, lending decisions were often made based on a business judgment about the character and the credit worthiness of their customers. People in small towns across america, they know each other and local banks and Credit Unions are in the business of helping their neighbors. These institutions assume the consequences of their decisions at no risk to the Financial System or to taxpayers who have been on the hook for bailouts. And so theyre willing to take a risk, both in terms of how to best help their customers achieve his or her dreams and provide a reasonable return to the shareholders of the bank or members of the credit union. But that same banker told me that after doddfrank, the government, the government is making the decisions instead of the shareholders or the bank board. Imposing a onesizefitsall, topdown mandate on local Financial Institutions. Rather than working with people, this Community Banker now deals with mountains of paperwork and federal regulators. The result has been a disaster. The number of Community Banks has declined by 9. 5 . There have been far fewer new Community Bank charters and less services and products now offered to customers. It has bureaucracies on top of an overly complex financial regulatory system. New accountable bureaucracies like the Consumer ProtectionFinancial Bureau and the Oversight Council operate largely out of public view and are subject to almost none of the checks and balances imposed on other government agencies. For example, the bureau deemed bath county kentucky, with a population of 10,000 people as nonrural. Making it even more difficult for people to secure loans from Community Banks and Credit Unions. Think about this, the ridiculous scenario of washington, d. C. Bureaucrats labeling one of the most rural parts of america as nonrural and hurting the people as a result. Shockingly, this Unaccountable Agency provided to valid justification for how they came to this conclusion, nor any means to challenge this arbitrary determination. After i introduced legislation along with members of both parties to address this issue, the agency after more than a year of delay finally relented and expanded its definition of rural to include bath county. While this is a positive development for this kentucky county, the process remains opaque, arbitrary, and not subject to appeal, and our Rural Communities continue to struggle with onesizefitsall regulatory approaches for which they lack the resources to comply. This week i would reintroduce the helping expand lending practices in Rural Communities act which would give individuals an appeals process by which to contest this designation. Doddfrank includes other rules which are holding our economy back. It is harder for creditworthy low and moderate income americans to buy a home. The volcker rule has made u. S. Capital markets less competitive internationally creating unnecessary obstacles for u. S. Companies to raise the funds they need to grow their businesses and create jobs. Despite the stated intentions of this law, Community Banks and Credit Unions have been left to comply with onerous new regulations intended to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis they did not cause. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Million barr thank you, mr. Speaker. Lets join together, cut red tape and unnecessary regulation that is are holding our communities back. We can create real opportunity the speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. Mr. Barr by repealing this law and starting over. Thank you, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore members are reminded to heed the gavel. The chair recognizes the gentleman from tennessee, mr. Cohen, for five minutes. Mr. Cohen thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise today to honor a great baseball player and baseball player befriended me and a great human being who passed away on sunday. Mini minoso. The cuban comet, mr. White sock. Minnie was born in 1925 on novemb