The publication is reproduced in full below:
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 85, I call up the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 11) establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2021 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2022 through 2030, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.
The Clerk read the title of the concurrent resolution.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 85, the amendment printed in part C of House Report 117-3 is adopted, and the concurrent resolution, as amended, is considered read.
The text of the concurrent resolution, as amended, is as follows:
H. Con.Res. 11
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring),
SECTION 1. CONCURRENT RESOLUTION ON THE BUDGET FOR FISCAL
YEAR 2021.
(a) Declaration.--Congress declares that this resolution is the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2021 and that this resolution sets forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2022 through 2030.
(b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for this concurrent resolution is as follows:
Sec. 1. Concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year
2021.
TITLE I--RECOMMENDED LEVELS AND AMOUNTS
Subtitle A--Budgetary Levels in Both Houses
Sec. 1101. Recommended levels and amounts.
Sec. 1102. Major functional categories.
Subtitle B--Levels and Amounts in the Senate
Sec. 1201. Social Security in the Senate.
Sec. 1202. Postal Service discretionary administrative expenses in the Senate.
TITLE II--RECONCILIATION
Sec. 2001. Reconciliation in the House of Representatives.
TITLE III--RESERVE FUNDS
Sec. 3001. Reserve fund for reconciliation legislation.
Sec. 3002. Reserve fund for deficit-neutral legislation.
TITLE IV--OTHER MATTERS
Sec. 4001. Enforcement filing.
Sec. 4002. Budgetary treatment of administrative expenses.
Sec. 4003. Application and effect of changes in allocations, aggregates, and other budgetary levels.
Sec. 4004. Adjustments to reflect changes in concepts and definitions.
Sec. 4005. Adjustment for changes in the baseline.
Sec. 4006. Limitation on advance appropriations.
Sec. 4007. Exercise of rulemaking powers.
TITLE I--RECOMMENDED LEVELS AND AMOUNTS
Subtitle A--Budgetary Levels in Both Houses
SEC. 1101. RECOMMENDED LEVELS AND AMOUNTS.
The following budgetary levels are appropriate for each of fiscal years 2021 through 2030:
(1) Federal revenues.--For purposes of the enforcement of this resolution:
(A) The recommended levels of Federal revenues are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $2,303,274,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $2,768,717,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $2,971,083,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $3,092,643,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $3,236,199,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $3,514,253,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $3,762,577,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $3,883,209,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $4,007,991,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $4,121,665,000,000.
(B) The amounts by which the aggregate levels of Federal revenues should be changed are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: -$15,670,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: -$17,390,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $102,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $226,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $216,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $181,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $98,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: -$106,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: -$121,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: -$128,000,000.
(2) New budget authority.--For purposes of the enforcement of this resolution, the appropriate levels of total new budget authority are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $6,020,543,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $4,091,342,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $4,011,132,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $4,072,784,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $4,267,538,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $4,449,047,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $4,642,875,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $4,960,846,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $5,082,932,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $5,471,756,000,000.
(3) Budget outlays.--For purposes of the enforcement of this resolution, the appropriate levels of total budget outlays are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $6,140,857,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $4,298,244,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $4,070,343,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $4,070,242,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $4,250,436,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $4,425,376,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $4,606,887,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $4,950,170,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $5,019,083,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $5,419,949,000,000.
(4) Deficits.--For purposes of the enforcement of this resolution, the amounts of the deficits are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $3,837,583,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $1,529,527,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $1,099,260,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $977,599,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $1,014,237,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $911,123,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $844,310,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $1,066,961,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $1,011,092,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $1,298,284,000,000.
(5) Public debt.--Pursuant to section 301(a)(5) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 632(a)(5)), the appropriate levels of the public debt are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $29,943,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $31,647,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $32,911,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $34,102,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $35,262,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $36,311,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $37,261,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $38,443,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $39,652,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $41,068,000,000,000.
(6) Debt held by the public.--The appropriate levels of debt held by the public are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $24,081,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $25,818,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $27,153,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $28,380,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $29,610,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $30,730,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $31,882,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $33,333,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $34,768,000,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $36,518,000,000,000.
SEC. 1102. MAJOR FUNCTIONAL CATEGORIES.
Congress determines and declares that the appropriate levels of new budget authority and outlays for fiscal years 2021 through 2030 for each major functional category are:
(1) National Defense (050):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $762,552,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $748,719,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $776,986,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $766,960,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $792,882,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $773,777,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $810,362,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $782,210,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $828,950,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $804,311,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $847,993,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $821,641,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $868,011,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $840,472,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $888,637,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $865,412,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $909,676,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $874,729,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $931,654,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $901,459,000,000.
(2) International Affairs (150):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $85,042,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $47,310,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $64,249,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $58,941,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $60,410,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $60,004,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $61,722,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $59,578,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $63,114,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $60,371,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $64,518,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $61,851,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $66,053,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $63,271,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $67,608,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $64,814,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $69,140,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $66,100,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $70,703,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $67,498,000,000.
(3) General Science, Space, and Technology (250):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $38,543,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $35,563,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $38,029,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $37,267,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $38,791,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $38,167,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $39,609,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $38,841,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $40,471,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $39,604,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $41,342,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $40,432,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $42,249,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $41,291,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $43,169,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,181,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $44,096,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $43,095,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $45,065,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $44,035,000,000.
(4) Energy (270):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $4,057,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $5,280,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $6,050,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $5,076,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $5,730,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $4,542,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $5,834,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $4,760,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $5,948,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $4,857,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $5,819,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $4,810,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $5,928,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $4,886,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $7,846,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $6,806,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $8,318,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $7,337,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $8,502,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $7,601,000,000.
(5) Natural Resources and Environment (300):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $50,042,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $47,053,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $51,243,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $49,042,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $53,061,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $50,890,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $54,116,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $52,475,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $55,219,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $54,269,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $54,734,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $55,807,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $55,899,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $57,090,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $57,141,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $58,098,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $58,378,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $59,056,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $59,616,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $59,946,000,000.
(6) Agriculture (350):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $49,067,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $50,970,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $28,047,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $28,576,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $28,130,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,794,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $27,909,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,424,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $27,496,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $26,898,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $27,675,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,055,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $27,535,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $26,873,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $27,715,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,072,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $27,752,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,083,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $28,058,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,392,000,000.
(7) Commerce and Housing Credit (370):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, -$242,699,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $327,529,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $19,497,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $36,392,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $20,198,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $18,376,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $21,159,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $18,015,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $20,943,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $16,507,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $21,827,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $15,783,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $22,117,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $15,520,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $21,953,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $16,174,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $22,222,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $15,056,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $21,683,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $13,389,000,000.
(8) Transportation (400):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $206,391,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $185,619,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $104,160,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $119,664,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $104,738,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $112,309,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $105,569,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $105,989,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $106,120,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $108,527,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $107,067,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $111,187,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $108,278,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $113,982,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $109,339,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $116,164,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $110,222,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $118,680,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $111,372,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $121,056,000,000.
(9) Community and Regional Development (450):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $127,525,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $98,043,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $32,000,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $51,963,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $32,624,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $48,433,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $33,318,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $45,776,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $34,031,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $43,758,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $34,763,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,053,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $35,520,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,217,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $36,283,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,162,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $37,048,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,100,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $37,843,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,189,000,000.
(10) Education, Training, Employment, and Social Services
(500):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $372,350,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $160,006,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $115,812,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $178,392,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $116,259,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $154,773,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $118,661,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $150,171,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $121,803,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $144,105,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $125,194,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $134,645,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $128,638,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $130,729,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $132,003,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $131,492,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $134,674,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $132,652,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $137,812,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $135,558,000,000.
(11) Health (550):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $943,093,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $882,818,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $748,503,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $797,760,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $713,126,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $722,016,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $720,847,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $730,335,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $754,383,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $753,709,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $790,057,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $785,131,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $825,982,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $820,641,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $858,454,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $858,986,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $900,409,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $901,525,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $955,814,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $946,672,000,000.
(12) Medicare (570):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $766,853,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $766,005,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $745,579,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $745,556,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $838,359,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $838,200,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $851,671,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $851,452,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $958,756,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $958,451,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $1,026,856,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,026,484,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $1,098,460,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,098,027,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $1,244,688,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,244,201,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $1,184,583,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,184,048,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $1,331,736,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,331,161,000,000.
(13) Income Security (600):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $1,845,601,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $1,779,410,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $770,908,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $805,014,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $619,246,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $628,956,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $620,759,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $612,726,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $623,210,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $624,207,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $640,597,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $638,103,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $633,758,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $627,362,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $645,839,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $643,707,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $641,962,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $627,556,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $657,398,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $648,615,000,000.
(14) Social Security (650):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $40,594,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $40,598,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $42,633,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $42,633,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $45,486,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $45,486,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $48,621,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $48,621,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $52,151,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $52,151,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $62,223,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $62,223,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $68,685,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $68,685,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $73,712,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $73,712,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $78,912,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $78,912,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $83,948,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $83,948,000,000.
(15) Veterans Benefits and Services (700):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $258,560,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $250,738,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $243,210,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $267,893,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $249,723,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $251,696,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $256,945,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $244,770,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $264,708,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $263,284,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $272,216,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $270,636,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $280,109,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $278,409,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $288,040,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $299,629,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $296,740,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $281,467,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $305,496,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $303,520,000,000.
(16) Administration of Justice (750):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $72,961,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $74,900,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $76,879,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $73,320,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $74,336,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $73,557,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $75,600,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $75,011,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $76,413,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $76,155,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $78,161,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $77,827,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $80,010,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $79,533,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $81,961,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $80,963,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $83,994,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $82,930,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $92,786,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $91,769,000,000.
(17) General Government (800):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $375,971,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $376,468,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $24,837,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $24,899,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $24,888,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $24,787,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $25,205,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $24,961,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $25,885,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $25,481,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $26,483,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $26,036,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $27,170,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $26,711,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $27,869,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $27,402,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $28,621,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $28,137,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $29,416,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $28,918,000,000.
(18) Net Interest (900):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $365,131,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $365,131,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $345,959,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $345,959,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $336,379,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $336,379,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $332,881,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $332,881,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $341,018,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $341,018,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $367,269,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $367,269,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $418,442,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $418,442,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $502,412,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $502,412,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $605,086,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $605,086,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $727,019,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $727,019,000,000.
(19) Allowances (920):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, -$25,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $0.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, -$33,933,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$27,630,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, -$34,686,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$31,376,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, -$35,495,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$33,380,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, -$36,367,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$34,806,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, -$37,240,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$35,938,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, -$38,152,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$36,942,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, -$38,991,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$37,890,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, -$39,927,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$38,847,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, -$40,906,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$39,817,000,000.
(20) Undistributed Offsetting Receipts (950):
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, -$101,066,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$101,303,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, -$109,306,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$109,433,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, -$108,548,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$108,423,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, -$102,509,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$102,374,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, -$105,714,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$112,421,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, -$108,507,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$107,659,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, -$111,817,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$110,312,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, -$114,832,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$113,327,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, -$118,974,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$117,619,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, -$123,259,000,000.
(B) Outlays, -$121,979,000,000.
Subtitle B--Levels and Amounts in the Senate
SEC. 1201. SOCIAL SECURITY IN THE SENATE.
(a) Social Security Revenues.--For purposes of Senate enforcement under sections 302 and 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633 and 642), the amounts of revenues of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $898,089,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $930,023,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $996,745,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $1,040,533,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $1,085,441,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $1,133,139,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $1,182,469,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $1,231,717,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $1,279,075,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $1,326,172,000,000.
(b) Social Security Outlays.--For purposes of Senate enforcement under sections 302 and 311 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633 and 642), the amounts of outlays of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021: $1,101,575,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022: $1,158,817,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023: $1,222,448,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024: $1,292,270,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025: $1,365,124,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026: $1,434,051,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027: $1,506,794,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028: $1,586,096,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029: $1,666,850,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030: $1,750,666,000,000.
(c) Social Security Administrative Expenses.--In the Senate, the amounts of new budget authority and budget outlays of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and the Federal Disability Insurance Trust Fund for administrative expenses are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $5,650,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $5,665,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $6,345,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $6,318,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $6,502,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $6,462,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $6,672,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $6,629,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $6,856,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $6,808,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $7,048,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $6,998,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $7,247,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $7,195,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $7,458,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $7,403,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $7,678,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $7,621,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $7,908,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $7,847,000,000.
SEC. 1202. POSTAL SERVICE DISCRETIONARY ADMINISTRATIVE
EXPENSES IN THE SENATE.
In the Senate, the amounts of new budget authority and budget outlays of the Postal Service for discretionary administrative expenses are as follows:
Fiscal year 2021:
(A) New budget authority, $267,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $268,000,000.
Fiscal year 2022:
(A) New budget authority, $282,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $282,000,000.
Fiscal year 2023:
(A) New budget authority, $289,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $289,000,000.
Fiscal year 2024:
(A) New budget authority, $298,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $298,000,000.
Fiscal year 2025:
(A) New budget authority, $308,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $308,000,000.
Fiscal year 2026:
(A) New budget authority, $317,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $317,000,000.
Fiscal year 2027:
(A) New budget authority, $328,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $328,000,000.
Fiscal year 2028:
(A) New budget authority, $338,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $338,000,000.
Fiscal year 2029:
(A) New budget authority, $350,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $349,000,000.
Fiscal year 2030:
(A) New budget authority, $362,000,000.
(B) Outlays, $361,000,000.
TITLE II--RECONCILIATION
SEC. 2001. RECONCILIATION IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.
(a) Committee on Agriculture.--The Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $16,112,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(b) Committee on Education and Labor.--The Committee on Education and Labor of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $357,926,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(c) Committee on Energy and Commerce.--The Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $188,498,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(d) Committee on Financial Services.--The Committee on Financial Services of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $75,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(e) Committee on Foreign Affairs.--The Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $10,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(f) Committee on Natural Resources.--The Committee on Natural Resources of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $1,005,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(g) Committee on Oversight and Reform.--The Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $350,690,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(h) Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.--The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than
$750,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(i) Committee on Small Business.--The Committee on Small Business of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $50,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(j) Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.--The Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than
$95,620,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(k) Committee on Veterans' Affairs.--The Committee on Veterans' Affairs of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $17,000,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(l) Committee on Ways and Means.--The Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives shall submit changes in laws within its jurisdiction to increase the deficit by not more than $940,718,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
(m) Submissions.--In the House of Representatives, not later than February 16, 2021, the committees named in the subsections of this section shall submit their recommendations to the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives to carry out this section.
TITLE III--RESERVE FUNDS
SEC. 3001. RESERVE FUND FOR RECONCILIATION LEGISLATION.
(a) In General.--In the House of the Representatives, the chair of the Committee on the Budget may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for any bill or joint resolution considered pursuant to section 2001 containing the recommendations of one or more committees, or for one or more amendments to, a conference report on, or an amendment between the Houses in relation to such a bill or joint resolution, by the amounts necessary to accommodate the budgetary effects of the legislation, if the budgetary effects of the legislation comply with the reconciliation instructions under this concurrent resolution.
(b) Determination of Compliance.--For purposes of this section, compliance with the reconciliation instructions under this concurrent resolution shall be determined by the chair of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives.
(c) Exception for Legislation.--The point of order set forth in clause 10 of rule XXI of the House of Representatives shall not apply to reconciliation legislation reported by the Committee on the Budget pursuant to submissions under section 2001.
SEC. 3002. RESERVE FUND FOR DEFICIT-NEUTRAL LEGISLATION.
The chair of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, or conference reports by the amounts provided in such legislation, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit for either of the following time periods: fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2025 or fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2030.
TITLE IV--OTHER MATTERS
SEC. 4001. ENFORCEMENT FILING.
(a) In the House of Representatives.--In the House of Representatives, if a concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2021 is adopted without the appointment of a committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses with respect to this concurrent resolution on the budget, for the purpose of enforcing the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 621 et seq.) and applicable rules and requirements set forth in the concurrent resolution on the budget, the allocations provided for in this subsection shall apply in the House of Representatives in the same manner as if such allocations were in a joint explanatory statement accompanying a conference report on the budget for fiscal year 2021. The chair of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives shall submit a statement for publication in the Congressional Record containing--
(1) for the Committee on Appropriations, committee allocations for fiscal year 2021 consistent with title I for the purpose of enforcing section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633); and
(2) for all committees other than the Committee on Appropriations, committee allocations consistent with title I for fiscal year 2021 and for the period of fiscal years 2021 through 2030 for the purpose of enforcing 302 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633).
(b) In the Senate.--If this concurrent resolution on the budget is agreed to by the Senate and House of Representatives without the appointment of a committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses, the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may submit a statement for publication in the Congressional Record containing--
(1) for the Committee on Appropriations, committee allocations for fiscal year 2021 consistent with the levels in title I for the purpose of enforcing section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633); and
(2) for all committees other than the Committee on Appropriations, committee allocations for fiscal years 2021, 2021 through 2025, and 2021 through 2030 consistent with the levels in title I for the purpose of enforcing section 302 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633).
SEC. 4002. BUDGETARY TREATMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE EXPENSES.
(a) In General.--Notwithstanding section 302(a)(1) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633(a)(1)), section 13301 of the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 (2 U.S.C. 632 note), and section 2009a of title 39, United States Code, the report or the joint explanatory statement, as applicable, accompanying this concurrent resolution on the budget shall include in an allocation under section 302(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633(a)) to the Committee on Appropriations of the applicable House of Congress amounts for the discretionary administrative expenses of the Social Security Administration and the United States Postal Service.
(b) Special Rule.--In the House of Representatives and the Senate, for purposes of enforcing section 302(f) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 633(f)), estimates of the level of total new budget authority and total outlays provided by a measure shall include any discretionary amounts described in subsection (a).
SEC. 4003. APPLICATION AND EFFECT OF CHANGES IN ALLOCATIONS,
AGGREGATES, AND OTHER BUDGETARY LEVELS.
(a) Application.--Any adjustments of allocations, aggregates, and other budgetary levels made pursuant to this concurrent resolution shall--
(1) apply while that measure is under consideration;
(2) take effect upon the enactment of that measure; and
(3) be published in the Congressional Record as soon as practicable.
(b) Effect of Changed Allocations, Aggregates, and Other Budgetary Levels.--Revised allocations, aggregates, and other budgetary levels resulting from these adjustments shall be considered for the purposes of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 (2 U.S.C. 621 et seq.) as the allocations, aggregates, and other budgetary levels contained in this concurrent resolution.
(c) Budget Committee Determinations.--For purposes of this concurrent resolution, the levels of new budget authority, outlays, direct spending, new entitlement authority, revenues, deficits, and surpluses for a fiscal year or period of fiscal years shall be determined on the basis of estimates made by the chair of the Committee on the Budget of the applicable House of Congress.
SEC. 4004. ADJUSTMENTS TO REFLECT CHANGES IN CONCEPTS AND
DEFINITIONS.
(a) House of Representatives.--In the House of Representatives, the chair of the Committee on the Budget may adjust the appropriate aggregates, allocations, and other budgetary levels in this concurrent resolution for any change in budgetary concepts and definitions consistent with section 251(b)(1) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)(1)).
(b) Senate.--Upon the enactment of a bill or joint resolution providing for a change in concepts or definitions, the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may make adjustments to the levels and allocations in this resolution in accordance with section 251(b) of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (2 U.S.C. 901(b)).
SEC. 4005. ADJUSTMENT FOR CHANGES IN THE BASELINE.
The chair of the Committee on the Budget of the House of Representatives and the Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may adjust the allocations, aggregates, and other appropriate budgetary levels in this concurrent resolution to reflect changes resulting from the Congressional Budget Office's updates to its baseline for fiscal years 2021 through 2030.
SEC. 4006. LIMITATION ON ADVANCE APPROPRIATIONS.
Notwithstanding subsection (d) of section 203 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-37; 133 Stat. 1052), such section 203 shall continue to have force and effect in the House of Representatives during fiscal year 2021.
SEC. 4007. EXERCISE OF RULEMAKING POWERS.
Congress adopts the provisions of this title--
(1) as an exercise of the rulemaking power of the Senate and the House of Representatives, respectively, and as such they shall be considered as part of the rules of each House or of that House to which they specifically apply, and such rules shall supersede other rules only to the extent that they are inconsistent with such other rules; and
(2) with full recognition of the constitutional right of either the Senate or the House of Representatives to change those rules (insofar as they relate to that House) at any time, in the same manner, and to the same extent as is the case of any other rule of the Senate or House of Representatives.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The concurrent resolution shall be debatable for 3 hours, with 2 hours equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member on the Committee on the Budget, and 1 hour on the subject of economic goals and policies, equally divided and controlled by the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Beyer) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) or their respective designees.
The gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth) and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Smith) each will control 1 hour, and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Beyer) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) each will control 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Kentucky.
General Leave
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Con. Res. 11.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from Kentucky?
There was no objection.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, it has been roughly 1 year since the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in the United States. Since then, more than 26 million Americans have been infected, and more than 440,000 have lost their lives.
Millions of Americans remain out of work as families are pushed to the brink of devastation. Our economy faces lows unseen since the Great Depression.
Food insecurity is climbing. Widespread school closures threaten to derail our children's education. And our most vulnerable communities are being forced to bear the brunt of these twin crises as underlying health and economic inequities grow worse.
Congress has previously come together to pass relief packages, but COVID is getting worse, not better. Our recovery is painful and the most unequal on record. We are still deep in the trenches. We have to do more, a lot more.
As chairman of the Budget Committee, I promised that we would do everything our committee could do to support our recovery, which is why I introduced the 2021 budget resolution being considered today. This budget resolution was designed solely for one task: providing Congress with the option of using reconciliation to implement the American Rescue Plan and deliver the critical relief we need.
President Biden's American Rescue Plan lays out an aggressive legislative package to change the direction of these crises, including a national vaccine program; testing and tracing, paid sick leave to stop the spread, an extension of lifeline unemployment benefits that are set to expire in March; direct financial support for families; and support so schools can operate safely.
Our country desperately needs this relief, and economists across the ideological spectrum agree. Past crises have made it clear that doing too little will cost us far more. Weak support will lead to a weak, prolonged, and K-shaped recovery, posing more severe risks to our economic and budget outlooks than any deficits we might incur.
Without the American Rescue Plan, CBO estimates that it will take at least 3 years before employment returns to prepandemic levels. But with this vital support, economists estimate that we can bring the economy back to near full employment in a little over 12 months.
We have the plan and the ability to do this. And, thankfully, we can also afford to do it. Interest rates and inflation are at historic lows, lower today than even before the pandemic, and the return on smart investments in the economy has never been higher.
Economists of all stripes are telling us, begging us, to use the fiscal space we have. They are warning that if we don't go big, we will be responsible for a long, painful, and unequal recovery, one that will cost more lives and more jobs, that will cause more businesses to close and result in more damage to our Nation's economy, both in the short- and long-term.
The resolution's budget reconciliation framework sets a budgetary target of up to $1.9 trillion, the estimated cost of the American Rescue Plan, allocated across the 12 committees that have jurisdiction over some portion of the plan. The resolution instructs these committees to report legislation consistent with these budgetary targets to the Budget Committee by February 16. The Budget Committee will then combine the legislation and prepare it for floor consideration.
There will be plenty of opportunities for my colleagues across the aisle to engage in this process and offer amendments, but we cannot afford to slow down our response to these urgent crises while Republicans decide if they want to help or not.
The American Rescue Plan can be the difference between getting a vaccine or a virus, advancing to the next grade or falling behind, keeping the doors open or shutting down businesses for good.
The choice is clear. I look forward to passing this resolution and ensuring Congress delivers the American Rescue Plan to the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the so-called budget before us ``squanders the opportunity to start this new Congress working together to address the concerns and priorities of the American people in a constructive and bipartisan manner.''
Mr. Speaker, those are not my words. That is what was said at this very same moment in 2017 by my colleague across the aisle who is now chairman of this committee. You see, he found the very same process they are starting today to be so objectionable, so one-sided, so partisan, such an abuse of power, that he spoke in opposition for an hour to the very same thing the House Democrats are doing now.
The truth is, I look forward to the time my colleague on the other side and I can actually formalize our committee, welcome our members, organize, and develop an oversight plan for the new administration, but that has yet to happen.
{time} 1315
But here we are on the floor with a bill already; a so-called budget resolution; a resolution which, in reality, isn't any sort of budget. It is simply a mechanism for the Democrat leaders to enact a radical agenda rejected by Americans this fall. They know it. It was rejected because their caucus is much smaller now today than it was before the election.
So why are they doing this?
While five different COVID stimulus packages were negotiated and ultimately signed into law on a bipartisan basis over the last year, they apparently now need a more one-sided approach, one which is much more partisan and bends the rules to radicalize this Congress and the policies it produces. Quite the opposite of the speech we all heard from out in front of this building 2 weeks ago today.
The power of our example, isn't that what we were told?
Well, what is the example here?
That the unification, the bipartisanship, and work-together attitude that the President called for were just empty words for the House majority. Though I suppose with this partisan process, our House Democrat colleagues are, in a sense, following the example of President Biden from his first days in office.
President Biden has spent his first few days signing one executive order after another and pushing policies that will destroy American jobs, make our country less secure, and raise the cost of living for American families. I will just name a few:
Canceling the Keystone XL pipeline directly eliminates an estimated 11,000 jobs, including 8,000 union jobs.
Enacting a 60-day moratorium on new mining, oil and gas leasing, and permitting on Federal lands will cause severe damage to America's economy and energy independence, and will result in the loss of over 100,000 jobs.
Mr. Speaker, 100,000 Americans are fired by the stroke of a pen.
Returning the U.S. to the failed Paris Agreement of 2015 will reduce U.S. competitiveness in manufacturing and next-generation technologies, as industries move to China.
Terminating a national emergency declaration which immediately stops all wall construction at the Southern border leaves American taxpayers with an incomplete government project and the loss of thousands of jobs.
Mr. Speaker, thousands of Americans are, once again, fired, again, by the stroke of the President's pen. That is a powerful example by the President of how to make life harder for the working class and to weaken America.
Again, I come back to: Why is this happening today?
I think the American people deserve to know, and the answer is simple: Democrats in Washington are setting up a partisan process to have the Vice President cast the decisive vote in the Senate on an array of radical policies.
At worst, their plans are to try and use this pandemic to seize more government control of your life; to grow government power over your healthcare choices; to place new rules, mandates, and regulations on your small businesses; and to grant citizenship to millions here illegally.
At best, their plan is to actually award hundreds of billions of dollars to the very same State governments which are shutting down our schools, telling restaurants they can't open, and keeping families locked inside. They want to bail out their political allies who are telling small businesses they can't open, who are blocking Americans from going into their houses of worship, and who are ruining more families by the day.
America is suffering right now, but they are suffering because of the choices, the mandates, and the lockdowns being put in place by government. We all know the quote from President Ronald Reagan: ``The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: `I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.' ''
Well, I think there are about 3,800 more families who have loved ones in New York nursing homes, who would agree with that statement right now.
Government harm has gone on long enough. It needs to stop, yet we are setting up a process today to give hundreds of billions more to those very same State governments. The numbers don't lie. Adding in the President's $2 trillion proposal from earlier this month, we will have spent $6 trillion in less than 1 year in so-
called COVID-19-related stimulus. That is larger than the GDP of every country on Earth other than the U.S. and China. It is the equivalent of
$17,000 per every American and $70,000 per household.
Do families really feel like they have gotten $70,000 out of their government in the last year?
No way.
What is worse is we have now crossed over. Government policies are now making the crisis worse, resulting in millions of needless deaths. Suicide rates among adults and children are way up. The U.S. National Bureau of Economic Research, just this past month, said that, over the next 15 years, more than 890,000 Americans could die as a direct result of the unemployment caused by COVID-related lockdowns.
Here was the headline in The New York Times last week: ``Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen.''
Lockdowns, mandates, closures, virtual: It is unrealistic, not sustainable, and not the way.
Under remote virtual learning, students are not getting the instruction they need, especially those who may not have access to reliable broadband. Not to mention the mental health and emotional development needs that are not being met.
If we want to support families and communities, let's follow the science and let's reopen our schools. Our country is about giving Americans the power of information and letting them decide what is best for their family and for their loved ones, not government telling them: Stay indoors; don't see your family; and I am going to destroy your job, small business, and everything you have spent your life building.
So here we are, setting new precedent under the Democrat-controlled House. In more than 30 years, Congress has never voted on a House-
originated budget that has not first gone through committee.
For what?
To bail out the very governments who are the ones costing families everything right now.
Is this how the Democrats intend to govern: to put Government ahead of the people?
I remind my friends that the power of the majority is a fleeting thing, and the American people are watching.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I listened with great interest to the passionate words of the ranking member, and I failed to hear one instance in which he expressed concern or any ideas about how to help the hundreds of thousands of Americans who will die if this government does not act quickly and aggressively; or the hundreds of thousands of businesses that will close; or the schools that he wants to reopen, which we all want to reopen. We are looking for ideas, but so far all we have had is resistance and obstruction.
The President this week actually met with 10 Republican United States Senators in an effort to get a bipartisan approach to the crisis we face. I would still hope that we can do that, but we can't afford to wait for that to happen. That is why this process is in place, giving plenty of opportunity for the Republicans in both the House and Senate to participate and to help us find a better plan to move forward.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal), who is the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee.
Mr. NEAL. Mr. Speaker, I want to acknowledge Mr. Yarmuth here for the clarity and the speed with which he has proceeded.
A reminder in support of this resolution here to the previous speaker, the gentleman from Missouri: this is the opening salvo in a process. This is not the conclusion. To talk to the President of the United States this morning without any incendiary rhetoric and no divisive tone, but for him to reiterate good suggestions will be entertained as good suggestions as the process goes forward.
The COVID-19 crisis is far from over. Record numbers of deaths--look at the numbers in front of us, Mr. Speaker.
What has happened?
The number of people who are projected to die by the next quarter, 500,000 Americans dead, 25 million infected, 19 million Americans receiving unemployment insurance.
And we are going too fast in this process?
President Biden and his American rescue plan contains the kind of bold policies that we have sought to advance here for months. We understand that the economy will not recover without first crushing the virus. Mr. Speaker, we will not get the economy back up and running until we defeat the virus and restore safe working conditions, as previously noted.
This public health emergency requires aggressive, science-based action, and it is going to take time. In addition to passing measures to eradicate the pandemic, we must ensure that families and jobless workers are able to afford life's basic necessities, or, as we might say, liquidity and cash flow in the system.
Accomplishing these goals requires us to go big. Economists left, right, and center have all said the same thing in this chorus: Go big.
The Ways and Means Committee is ready to meet this challenge. We are going to beat this virus and we are going to put money into the hands and pockets of the people in America who really need it, extending unemployment assistance, combating child poverty, supporting hard-hit families, the retention tax credit, and the earned income tax credit. We are going to give some help to people in America who, again, really are in harm's way. Passage of this resolution will provide us with an additional pathway to swiftly advance these priorities.
By the way, as of this morning, 76 percent of the American people agree with what we are doing.
In times as desperate as these, we need to prepare our mechanisms so they are ready at our disposal to get the American people the relief they need.
Mr. Speaker, for millions of lives and livelihoods that are at stake, I urge all of my colleagues today, regardless of their party, to support this critical measure.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Massachusetts. I will remind him that the government there in his State has already received $7.5 billion in bailouts and, under this plan, would receive an additional $7 billion. During the lockdown there in his State, more than 2,500 small businesses have been closed and the death rate has been more than the top five in the Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from the great State of Colorado (Mrs. Boebert), who understands what it is like to run a small business and the burdens that government places on them.
Mrs. BOEBERT. Mr. Speaker, I have to hand it to my colleagues on the other side. In the infamous words of Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, they ``never let a crisis go to waste.''
When the unemployment rate is up and incomes are down, when the job openings are few but the food lines are many, when the American people need their Representatives to put aside partisan politics, my colleagues on the other side put forth this boondoggle proposal.
This partisan $1.9 trillion bill is being forced through Congress when more than $1 trillion from previously passed laws remain unspent.
How about let's get that $1 trillion out the door before we come back to the trough?
Mr. Speaker, they can't let this crisis go to waste, so they are going to force-feed leftist policies to the American people and do their best to disguise it as COVID relief.
My constituents back home are asking me: How does killing more jobs by doubling the Federal minimum wage help reopen our economy? What do climate change policies have to do with stopping the spread of COVID? How does expanding ObamaCare help reopen our children's schools?
The answer is none of these policies have anything to do with stopping or addressing the China virus. They are unnecessary and radical. This budget is just Democrats doing what Democrats do, trying to score political wins on the backs of Americans in crisis.
So we will vote on this bill, Democrats will claim their political wins, and America will go further into debt. But the real relief that Americans need, the relief of a job, an open school, and a thriving economy, will once again go unaddressed.
I urge my colleagues to get real and scrap this pipe dream.
I urge a ``no'' vote on this bill.
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Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to respond to the notion that this is a radical plan. The radical, very radical chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers under President Trump, Kevin Hassett, said:
But I think we need to be risk-averse and pass another relief package. There are so many businesses treading water, barely hanging on. Now they are getting hit by another shock. You could end up in a negative spiral for the economy.
January 22, 2021, the radical Kevin Hassett.
Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva), the distinguished chairman of the Natural Resources Committee.
Mr. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the budget resolution and reality that is before us today. This resolution provides relief to the American people that has been needed and required for over a year.
I want to thank Speaker Pelosi, leader Hoyer, whip Clyburn and, of course, Chairman Yarmuth for the fine work he and his committee did in preparing this resolution to respond to the urgency before the American people.
As we have seen in the Natural Resources Committee, the effects of the pandemic, COVID-19, have been devastating to many populations across this country. It has particularly and severely impacted indigenous people and Tribes across this country disproportionately, four times higher than the national average in people that have been infected, and the mortality rate is reflected in the same way.
This resolution provides $20 billion for Tribal Governments, $5.8 billion for Indian Health Service, $900 million to assist Tribal Governments to develop culturally and linguistically appropriate programs for their communities, and provides adequate and necessary funding to Indian Health Service and providing a level of equity to the question of relief that has to be central in everything we do.
In addition, at the recommendation of the House Natural Resources Committee, to ensure that we can deal with a pandemic in the making, the package contains funding for tools to limit dangerous wildlife trade and monitor wildlife-borne diseases at home and abroad.
I urge a ``yes'' vote, and I thank the chairman for the time and his hard work.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cline), who proudly represents their Sixth District, a wonderful new addition to the Budget Committee.
Mr. CLINE. Mr. Speaker, I would agree with the gentleman. Our families are hurting. Our farmers are suffering, and our small businesses are failing from the shutdown policies of Democrat governors like mine in Virginia. They need our support as we manage through this pandemic.
But what they don't need is a $1.9 trillion package packed full of Democrat wish list items that will cripple our economy, including a minimum wage increase that would destroy 1.3 million jobs, according to the CBO, and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to bail out poorly run State governments.
Mr. Speaker, 1 month ago the last COVID relief bill, nearly $1 trillion, was signed into law and, together with previously enacted stimulus laws, over $1 trillion remains unspent. In fact, the CBO, just this week, announced that they project our economy to bounce back over the next several months, without trillions of dollars in additional stimulus aid from Congress, and that much of our recovery hinges on the removal of these shutdown requirements and the pace of vaccinations. That is where our focus should be, ensuring that those who want to be vaccinated receive it, and ensuring that we reopen our businesses and schools as soon as possible.
As a new member of the Budget Committee--or I hope to be a new member of the Budget Committee; we haven't even organized yet for this Congress--I am outraged by the slipshod way this resolution is being rammed through the House. It is like being a member of the Judiciary Committee and having impeachment rushed directly to the floor without hearings. Whoops, did that.
I see the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee still here. I don't know that he would like it so much if we had tax bills that came directly to the floor without going through Ways and Means.
What is next, a farm bill that doesn't go through the Agriculture Committee? A transportation bill that doesn't go through the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee?
You know, the circus being run by House leadership gives a bad name to circuses everywhere.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Meeks), the distinguished chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Mr. MEEKS. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this COVID supplemental package. This has been a dark and difficult past year for our world. More than 2 million people have died around the world, including more than 400,000 in our great country. Economies are in crisis around the globe, and over a billion children are out of the classroom.
Our country's health and economic challenges require a bold response in scale, and more delay is not an option. We must work to beat back this virus, shore up our economy, and ensure the most vulnerable are prioritized and protected.
But we cannot solve this problem without addressing the outside world also. Pandemics do not respect borders, and they don't care about nationalities.
As chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, I firmly believe that the health and economic wreckage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will only end once it ends everywhere. We are currently addressing the monumental task of vaccinating our country, but afterwards we must turn our attention to the remainder of the world. Only then can we fully put this worldwide pandemic behind us and put ourselves back on the path to economic prosperity.
Crucially, this package includes support for global health efforts as well as lifesaving humanitarian assistance. This means support for vaccine procurement, vaccine delivery, and sustained engagement to build the capacity of health systems throughout multilateral engagement. It means supporting organizations like the World Food Program, UNICEF, and the WHO, that the United States must partner with in order to succeed.
COVID-19 did not begin on our shores, but American innovation and global health leadership can end it. The cameras of history are rolling. The time to act is now.
We must join with what Chairman Yarmuth is doing and make sure that we help those who have suffered as a result of this pandemic. Extending unemployment insurance, helping those who can't pay for their rent or mortgage, putting our children back into schools, helping our small businesses; this is what this bill does. This is why we have to do it, and we have to do it now because this is the emergency of our time and it takes bold moves.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from New York. I will remind him that his State government has already received $28.5 billion in bail-out money and, under this proposal, would receive $20.5 billion under the plan; while that very same government has enacted some of the strongest lockdown policies in the Nation, resulting in the closure of more than 6,500 small businesses in the State of New York, with an unemployment rate currently at 8.2 percent. And the State of New York also has the second highest COVID-
related deaths per capita in the Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Obernolte), an entrepreneur from California, a leader in his State legislature on budgetary issues, and a new member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Speaker, the House Budget Committee was constituted in 1974, and since then, not a single budget resolution has passed out of this Chamber without hearings and reasoned debate, until today.
Should H. Con. Res. 11 pass, it will be the first budget resolution in almost 50 years to pass this Chamber without a single hearing, without a single vote, without a single witness. We are being told that the reason for this is the need for quick action in response to additional stimulus and relief for the coronavirus crisis.
But Mr. Speaker, I have read this resolution. It is 55 pages. I can't find a single item in this resolution related to the coronavirus crisis.
Now we are being told that might be true. You see, this is just a shell that we pass this to the Senate, which triggers a lengthy and complex process of budget reconciliation.
But, Mr. Speaker, if our intent is to pass quick relief, and I think it should be, we could do that today. This Chamber has passed in the last 12 months almost $4 trillion of relief. Mr. Speaker, of that, over 25 percent, over $1 trillion, remains unspent. We could fix that today. We could fix that now, instead of relying on this lengthy and complex process of budget reconciliation.
Mr. Speaker, this is a serious topic. It deserves serious consideration, and not the violation of almost 50 years of protocol and procedure in this Chamber. I urge a ``no'' vote.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I welcome the gentleman from California to both Congress and the Budget Committee and I look forward to working with him. I will advise him that in just a few weeks he will have the opportunity, as a member of the Budget Committee, to go through a markup, offer amendments to the plans that will be proposed in another budget resolution that will actually come to the floor. So I look forward to that discussion and hope that will satisfy the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio), the chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
I know Mr. Obernolte is a new member of the committee; he might even be brand new to the House. But he said he couldn't find a single thing in this package that related to COVID?
Oh, well there is $110 billion for vaccines, for testing, which has been pathetic under the Trump administration with no help. Oh, and personal protective equipment, but I guess those things don't have anything to do with COVID and the pandemic.
Now, let's get real here. The first gentleman spoke and said, We want to help schools, and this bill doesn't help schools.
Well, actually, yesterday they tried to cut our funding for schools. We are putting in $170 billion to reopen the schools. It is going to be very expensive, new HVAC systems, a whole bunch of new furniture, all sorts of stuff to get kids safely to school for this and future pandemics, to be ready, to prepare. And they wanted to cut our 170 to
$54 billion. But they are for schools and we are not.
Oh, by the way, they didn't do anything for childcare assistance which is a huge problem for people during this pandemic.
Now, let's talk about a few things that are in here: Cash payments promised by President Biden and the two people who helped us flip the Senate, they are in here.
Extended unemployment, if we don't do that--you don't want to do it--
20 million Americans will have no income and no job on March 14; 100,000 people in my State.
Assistance for small businesses. Food, well, I think that is pretty critical stuff on a day-to-day basis.
Rental assistance, and that is something else the Trump political hack running OSHA wouldn't do.
We are going to have standards for protection of workers. We have had huge outbreaks in meatpacking plants and in transportation--people have died--and everywhere else because there are no Federal standards to protect workers. We are taking care of that in this bill and with some funding.
And they say this is unprecedented. You used reconciliation for $3 trillion of tax cuts for the wealthiest among us and the biggest corporations in the world, to drill for oil in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuges, and then you used it again to try and take away healthcare from tens of millions of Americans and their protection for preexisting conditions and other things. Yeah, unprecedented. Malarkey. Let's talk about the issues and cut the BS.
{time} 1345
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to respond to the gentleman from Oregon saying that this is unprecedented. What is unprecedented is that this is the first time that a budget resolution that originated in the House bypassed the Budget Committee.
Reconciliation has been used numerous times, but this is the first time in the history of this country that the Democrats bypassed the Budget Committee in a budget resolution that originated in the House. The people are watching, Mr. Speaker.
I also appreciate the gentleman from Oregon. I will remind him that his State government has already received $4.5 billion in bailouts, and they will receive another $4.5 billion in bailouts while their State has locked down small businesses, costing more than 1,000 small businesses to close their doors.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Carter), a true defender of commonsense, conservative values and a good friend.
Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the budget resolution.
The American people have suffered. They have suffered greatly from this pandemic, and this body has taken action to support those efforts.
It should be noted that Republicans have voiced support for targeting relief where it is needed. Mr. Speaker, we get it. We know there are still needs out there. We know there are still people hurting. We understand that, and we agree that we need to have targeted relief.
Thus far, Congress has passed nearly $4 trillion in COVID relief funding on everything from the PPP program to direct payments to money for testing and for vaccinations.
However, a significant amount of funding has yet to be utilized, with more than $1 trillion of available resources waiting on the sideline to be spent. Of that $1 trillion, there is $280 billion left in the PPP program, $239 billion in health spending, $172 billion in unemployment insurance assistance, and $58 billion in State and local aid, to name a few areas with leftover funding.
Now, we are discussing ramming through this budget resolution so that the Democrats can pass a $1.9 trillion COVID package without any bipartisan input or work. After weeks of talk of increasing bipartisanship and working together on big issues for our country, this resolution runs contrary to that. Not only does it do our budget process a disservice, but it moves forward with the idea that the bipartisan consensus of Congress should be cast aside.
As I said earlier, there is more than $1 trillion that has been passed in COVID relief that is just sitting there unused. Unfortunately, this budget resolution doesn't address that point or build upon that point.
For that reason, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to oppose this resolution.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Johnson), the distinguished chair of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee.
Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, when the COVID-19 crisis hit, the National Science Foundation rose to meet the challenge. The agency has already invested $200 million in research to understand the coronavirus, understand and model how the virus spreads, and enable approaches that lessen the harm of COVID-19 to public health, society, and the economy.
The additional funding provided for in this budget resolution will enable our Nation's best and brightest researchers to continue to help us through this crisis and will contribute to better preparedness for the next one.
Similarly, the National Institute of Standards and Technology reacted quickly as the pandemic unfolded, asking Manufacturing USA institutes to submit their best proposals for rapid, high-impact projects to help with the crisis. Several institutes had already redirected their efforts, but more funding was needed.
Congress provided $10 billion in the Cares Act. The additional funding provided for in this resolution will support important manufacturing innovations across a range of needs, including therapeutics, accelerating production of critical supplies, and ensuring supply chains for the pandemic response.
The Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which I chair, held numerous hearings, briefings, and roundtables last year to discuss the role of the National Science Foundation, NIST, and other science agencies in helping the Nation through this pandemic. $750 million represents just a fraction of what is needed, including to recover all the science and, more importantly, the talent that is hemorrhaging from the STEM pipeline as a result of this crisis. I will continue to push for such funding as part of the stimulus discussions.
Finally, while I do support the entire package, I want to lend my voice in particular to the support of vaccinations and immunizations, another topic my committee has spent considerable time on. We will not begin to move beyond this crisis until we have widespread immunization and vaccination.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman from Texas. I will remind her, as we debate how to improve the economy, the administration's hostility to the energy industry, as demonstrated by his executive orders, threatens at least 120,000 jobs in the State of Texas.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Iowa (Mr. Feenstra). As a freshman, he has already shown leadership as a true defender of conservative principles.
Mr. FEENSTRA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the H. Con. Res. 11, which paves the way for our national deficit to increase by
$2.1 trillion.
Our current debt is $28 trillion. Let's put that in perspective. This budget that we are looking at here will never balance. It will push our national debt to $41 trillion by the end of its forecast. Let me say that again: $41 trillion by the end of its forecast.
This out-of-control spending is jeopardizing the very future of Social Security and Medicare. Every senior should be deeply concerned about the possibility of losing Social Security based on this out-of-
control spending by the Democrats.
Currently, our country pays about 2 percent on the debt that we have. It will not stay at 2 percent because 2 percent is currently low. If our interest rate increases, we are going to struggle to try to fund our discretionary programs like defense and infrastructure because the money will go toward interest. This is dangerous, fiscally irresponsible, and reprehensible.
Just like a business or a family, when the credit card bill comes due and there is not enough money, you have to cut. The Democrats have put our Nation in a perilous situation with this out-of-control spending.
We must take our growing national debt crisis seriously and not look at this laundry list of progressive ideas put forth by the Democrats.
We are saddling our children and their grandchildren with this debt, focusing on the politics of today, and not worrying about our Nation's future. This budget must be stopped.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, once again, I welcome the gentleman from Iowa to the House of Representatives, and I will correct him.
There is no 10-year budget outlook in this budget. This is a single budget resolution, only for this fiscal year, designed to facilitate the use of the reconciliation package to implement the President's American Rescue Plan, which, by the way, he campaigned vigorously on throughout his campaign.
While Republicans were saying, ``Oh, it is too early to do something. Let's pause. Let's wait. Let's do this,'' the President was aggressive. The President was creative, forceful, and the American people rewarded him with a victory.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Brendan F. Boyle), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. BRENDAN F. BOYLE of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I was struck about 15 minutes ago when one of the speakers on the other side made the claim that the Democratic agenda was rejected by the American people in November. It was so rejected, Democrats won the House, the Senate, and the White House for the first time in a dozen years. That is rejection I can take.
The reality is, the American people put us in charge because the previous administration's response to COVID was so weak and so ineffective.
It is a sad fact that more than 400,000 Americans have died from COVID. This is now one of the four most deadly events in American history. We have 20 percent of the COVID deaths and 20 percent of the COVID cases worldwide.
To deal with the enormity of the crisis, we need a big, bold plan, such as the Biden 1.9 plan.
Mr. Speaker, economists are famous for not agreeing. Because economists were so famous for saying, ``Well, on the one hand, or on the other hand,'' Harry Truman, when asked, said the one thing he wanted was a one-handed economist. So it is striking that economists all across the ideological spectrum--liberal, centrist, conservative--
all favor going big in this moment. That is what this plan does.
I am also struck by the fact that there must be a Democrat in the White House because the other side is suddenly talking about the deficit and the debt again. When there is a Republican in the White House, it is not a big concern.
Again, Mr. Speaker, economists agree: This is not a moment that we should be concerned about the deficit and the debt. This is a moment when, once and for all, we need to finally tackle this pandemic.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Pennsylvania. I will remind him that his State government has already received $14 billion in bailouts. They will receive another $13.5 under this plan while that very same State government has enacted lockdown policies, causing the closure of more than 3,000 of their small businesses.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Donalds), a great addition to the Budget Committee and a true leader.
Mr. DONALDS. Mr. Speaker, as I walked onto the House floor today, I heard the talk from the other side, talking about wanting to share in good ideas. But what is interesting is, as this budget resolution has come forth, there has been no sharing of ideas.
We have seen a general framework coming from the Biden administration calling for $1.9 trillion, but that completely flies in the face of the fact that there is $1 trillion that this very body, the last Congress, appropriated last year that is still unspent. That money has not gone out the door. Yet, we are talking about solutions to help our country through COVID-19.
Now, my career before politics was actually in finance and economics. I spent 17 years in that field. If you are going to talk about stimulating an economy, the first thing you want to do is actually study the current state of your economy. One of the metrics we always like to use in financial services is the unemployment rate. It is a pretty popular statistic.
Let's take a look at the unemployment rates going on around the country. In my State of Florida, it is 6.1 percent. In Alabama, it is 3.9 percent. In South Carolina, it is 4.6 percent. In Texas, it is 7.2 percent.
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Compare that to blue States in our country, New York and California, where they soar over 8 percent.
Why is that happening?
Because their governors and their mayors have refused to reopen their economies.
If you want to stimulate something, actually let the American people get back to work. Let them run their businesses, and you would be surprised at what actually would happen in our economy.
Let's talk about the $15 minimum wage, which is in the Biden plan. I don't know how a $15 minimum wage is going to help struggling small businesses continue to thrive in the current environment. Furthermore, what we have already seen with the $15 minimum wage is that it has led to workers actually getting less hours, less hours at the jobs that they have. I don't see how that is actually helping anybody stimulate an economy.
Let's talk about education. In this plan, right now there is $170 billion, give or take, to go to local school districts to reopen.
But guess what? If they are picketing outside of the school district's school board in Chicago to not go back into the classroom, what is this additional money actually doing?
In Florida, we have been open in our schools. We have done this. There are tens of billions of dollars already available to help school districts reopen. All they need is leadership. They don't need more money.
The last thing I want to add is with respect to State and local governments. Every State government and every local government either gets their money from income taxes, sales taxes; like in the great State of Florida, property taxes on the local level. This is typically how you get your revenue. If you want to help State and local governments take care of their revenue problems, they should open up. They should not come back to this Capitol and get money.
Why should Florida pay for New York?
Except for the fact that the only thing New York has done is help the real estate markets in Florida because New Yorkers are fleeing New York to come to the great State of Florida.
Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. This budget resolution is not about economics. It is not about COVID-19. It is not about helping our schools reopen. This budget resolution is purely politics. It is an opportunity to push through an agenda through budget reconciliation where, if you actually studied our economy and studied the fact that now close to 40 million Americans have been vaccinated with the vaccine from the previous administration, we are on track to getting reopened. We should study this. We should be more targeted. We should not be putting forward a massive spending bill where no study has ever been given.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, once again, I welcome the gentleman from Florida to the House of Representatives. I really think that we ought to stop talking about States bailing other States out. The next time that a major hurricane hits Florida, we are not going to say that New York and California don't want to help them. That is not the kind of body that I hope we are.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Virginia
(Mr. Scott), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor.
Mr. SCOTT of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the budget resolution. The COVID-19 pandemic is continuing to inflict widespread harm across our communities. In addition to the thousands of people who are dying every day from this virus, millions of workers remain unemployed, students are falling further behind, and an unprecedented number of American families are facing hunger and homelessness. Anyone who doubts the need for urgent and immediate COVID-19 relief is not paying attention to the multiple ongoing crises affecting people across the country.
We will continue working with our Republican colleagues to find areas of agreement so that we can provide our constituents with the support they desperately need, but we can't put the label of bipartisanship ahead of the urgent needs of our communities. Our constituents don't want us to say that we could have provided relief checks in the amount of $1,400, but we needed to work with the Republicans, and now they are only $1,000.
The upcoming COVID-19 rescue package must extend assistance for the unemployed Americans, protect all workers from COVID-19 infections, and support frontline workers who have cared for our loved ones and kept food on the table during the pandemic.
The rescue package must also provide schools the necessary resources to open safely, to help institutions of higher education cope with severe financial strain, and to keep childcare providers afloat. We must also expand nutrition assistance to ensure that our children and families do not go hungry.
Finally, the COVID-19 rescue package must help close the massive State and local budget shortfalls, which will inevitably force painful cuts to education and other public services if left unaddressed.
Mr. Speaker, we are at a critical moment in the fight against COVID-
19. We have the responsibility to do everything in our power to meet the basic needs of the American people. This budget resolution gives Congress an additional tool to pass a COVID rescue package that will confront the pandemic and deliver the immediate relief that our constituents deserve.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the resolution.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Virginia. I will remind him that his State government has already received $6.5 billion in bailout money, and they will receive another
$9 billion under this plan while that very same government has enacted lockdown policies directly leading to the closure of more than 2,000 small businesses.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from the great Commonwealth of Virginia (Mr. Good), who already is a leader in this conference.
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to H. Con. Res. 11, the House Democrat budget for fiscal year 2021.
Mr. Speaker, in response to a previous speaker, it is always time to talk about the deficit. Our national debt has already climbed to $28 trillion, representing about $85,000 per American citizen. This is over
$200,000 per American family or household.
How can we ever hope to repay that?
The spending on our interest payments alone on this debt, even with the current artificially low interest rates, amounts to about 8 percent of our annual budget as recently as fiscal year '19. It is projected to rise to 26 percent of our budget over the next 30 years or by fiscal year `50.
This path of fiscal insanity is simply not sustainable. Without our currently artificial rates, we simply couldn't even afford to pay our existing debt right now. Our national debt and current fiscal situation truly represents one of the greatest threats to our country. The science, as we like to say, or more specifically the math, confirms this reality because a day of reckoning is coming.
We are the first generation to ever leave a legacy of debt to our children and grandchildren. The Greatest Generation, the World War II generation, who also faced down the Great Depression crisis, didn't even do this to us.
So where do we find ourselves today?
We are contemplating a $2 trillion spending package that will cost every American citizen an average of about $6,000 apiece, or $15,000 per family.
For what? What will they be getting for their share of this new debt?
Some will get a $1,400 check in return for their $6,000 share of the debt. That is not a very good deal.
This proposal comes from the same folks who continue to unjustifiably clamp down on our freedoms, economically and otherwise. In fact, in my own home State of Virginia, 25 percent of businesses have permanently closed since the lockdowns began. There is simply no substitute for the American economy, and no relief or spending package will ever be sufficient.
When has government spending ever truly fixed a problem or not made it worse?
We have to turn the American worker, the American businessperson, and the American economy loose. We have to stop spending our citizens' futures.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman from Virginia.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman will put his mask on.
Mr. GOOD of Virginia. We have to stop spending our citizens' financial future. Instead, we have to empower them to chart their own economic destiny.
To paraphrase the words of a famous young environmentalist: How dare you? And how dare we?
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I know it is fascinating, and I have heard this argument now year after year after year talking about how much every individual in this country has owed because of the debt--the national debt. We have been accumulating debt in this country for most of our 240-year history.
I ask the gentleman: Has there ever been one American citizen or one American citizen's ancestor who has ever paid any of that debt or who has ever been asked to pay for that debt?
Of course not. That is because we are a sovereign currency nation. We don't pay attention to that.
And just to clarify one thing he said, he said spending money has never helped in a crisis. Well, you will find virtually no economist who will not say that what we did last spring when we passed the CARES Act helped us mitigate the very first few months of this disaster. We didn't do enough then. We can't make the same mistake now.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Takano), the distinguished chair of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Kentucky for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, I am painfully aware of the toll this pandemic has taken on our Nation's veterans. I hear from veterans who are struggling to find work as unemployment numbers rise. I hear from veterans who have had their critical compensation and pension exams postponed, delaying much-needed benefits.
Sadly, we have lost over 8,900 veterans and 120 VA staff to the pandemic so far.
Across the Nation and at the height of the pandemic, veterans have stepped up to serve their country, a trait not uncommon for the thousands of veterans whose services continue even after they pack away their uniforms. Their service as first responders and healthcare workers battling COVID-19; as essential employees keeping our economy moving, packages delivered, and hospitals sterilized has served as an example of how strong America can be when we act together.
Despite all of the setbacks our Nation has faced, it is our duty to be optimistic. Our veterans have shown the way.
Mr. Speaker, VA has responded to crises across the country through its Fourth Mission, even landing on the Capitol Grounds yesterday to deploy mobile vet centers to support U.S. Capitol Police, members of the National Guard, and the congressional staff after the insurrection on January 6.
Throughout this pandemic, veterans and VA have continued to step up and serve their communities, not just their fellow veterans.
The time for decisive action is now. Passing this resolution does not negate the need for bipartisan cooperation. The need now is real, and the pain caused by this pandemic is deep. The best way to provide direct relief to the American people and continue serving all those who have served is to act fast and to do it now. We cannot afford to wait for higher case counts, for additional variants of the virus to emerge, for more Americans to go without work or watch their savings dwindle. We must act fast, and that is why we are here today.
I just will say to the gentleman from Missouri that I know that we have billions of dollars that came to the State of California, but I would like to remind the gentleman that California is a net donor State, including money that I am sure has gone to the State of Missouri.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from California. I will remind him that his State government, yes, indeed, has already received $43 billion in taxpayer bailouts and will receive another $42 billion in taxpayer bailouts if this bill passes.
But let's talk about California. This is the State that has some of the most stringent lockdowns in the entire country. In fact, their lockdowns are so significant that more than 16,500 small businesses will never open their doors again. That is government that believes that it is okay to deny you to go to your house of worship and to eat out in an outdoor restaurant, but you can go to a strip club or get a tattoo. That is California.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from the great State of Georgia (Mrs. Greene), a small businessowner who proudly represents the people of the 14th Congressional District.
Mrs. GREENE of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the blue State bailout budget. The Democrats know they don't have the votes to pass these radical policies in the Senate, so they are doubling down on reconciliation to destroy our economy with a $2 trillion taxpayer-funded spending spree.
Democrats are using reconciliation for the exact opposite purpose for which it was created. With this budget, Democrats are bailing out failing Democrat-run States like Illinois and New York, expanding the welfare state, exploding the deficit, groveling to teachers' unions and teachers who refuse to go to work, and hiking taxes on businessowners who don't comply with the higher minimum wage standard. This is just the beginning.
They want to pay people more money to stay home rather than allowing them to go back to work and earn a paycheck. They are fine letting schoolchildren and parents suffer while teachers' unions ignore them and still collect taxpayer-funded paychecks.
American politicians sent millions of children and young adults home, closed their schools, and banned them from going to their jobs. They forced them to stay in isolation from their peers. They canceled prom, canceled sports, and canceled graduation.
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They claim this was for their safety, but the results have been horrific. Suicide and depression have been on the rise. Do you think any family will feel like a consolation prize of $1,400 will make them feel good about their teen that committed suicide because of the shutdowns? I don't think so.
Democrats are trying to raise the minimum wage for jobs that they won't even let people go to work in. Democrats closed their States while Georgia stayed open. Why are we supposed to bail them out? Why are my hardworking constituents being punished for wanting to go to work and support their families?
Democrat Governors have run their States like tyrants of third-world countries, not like free Americans. They are oppressing the American people and reaping the benefits.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
The gentlewoman from Georgia said that this plan is going to destroy the economy. I think it is interesting that the American Rescue Plan has received praise from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable, the National Retail Federation, among other business groups, and top economic advisers from the last four Presidents: Kevin Hassett, who I mentioned earlier from the Trump administration; Gene Sperling; R. Glenn Hubbard; and Alan Blinder have all said that additional spending is needed to rescue the economy.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pallone), the distinguished chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee.
Mr. PALLONE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation which will give Congress the ability to swiftly enact President Biden's American Rescue Plan. Our Nation and our people are hurting. While we have made historic progress developing lifesaving vaccines in record time, we are now in a race to get these vaccines into the arms of Americans as new variants of the virus spread.
Unfortunately, the Trump administration left President Biden a mess to clean up. President Trump refused to develop a national strategy to crush the virus and said it was the responsibility of the States. This led to a sluggish and flawed vaccine rollout, a disjointed patchwork of State testing plans, and supply chain constraints on essential medical supplies and personal protective equipment.
In December, Congress made a down payment to help jump-start our Nation's recovery. However, our work is far from done. Congress must provide the new Biden administration the additional resources and support necessary to implement a national strategy. The American Rescue Plan is a comprehensive, multipronged national approach. It is robust because we need a big plan to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.
The American Rescue Plan will invest billions to speed up the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the country. It will support the development of community vaccination centers, as well as mobile vaccination units that can go into hard-to-
reach areas that are often underserved.
The American Rescue Plan invests in a national testing strategy with funding for rapid tests, expanding lab capacity, and assisting States. Expanded testing will ensure that schools can support safe reopening, that vulnerable settings like long-term care facilities can regularly test their populations, and that any American can get a test for free when they need one.
Mr. Speaker, we will also provide specific funding for health services and underserved communities. This includes funding to hire 100,000 new public health workers. They will perform vital tasks like vaccine outreach and contact tracing for underserved populations. The American Rescue Plan provides additional investments in community health centers and health services on Tribal lands, and these funds will support the expansion of COVID vaccinations, treatment, and care to underserved populations.
Mr. Speaker, this plan delivers bold relief to the American people. It deserves strong, bipartisan support here in the House. I urge my colleagues to act with the urgency of the moment and support this resolution.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from New Jersey, and I wanted to remind the Chamber that his State government has already received
$9.5 billion worth of taxpayer bailouts and under this proposal, would receive an additional $9.5 billion under this plan, while that very same government has enacted lockdown policies directly leading to the closure of more than 3,000 small businesses.
And that State, very sadly, actually has the highest per capita death rate of all States in the United States.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Arrington), who represents the 19th Congressional District and has been an active participant in the budget process for as long as I have known him, a true defender of fiscal responsibility.
Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, thank you to my friend from the Show Me State and the ranking member and our fearless leader on budget.
Speaking of show me, I would like for somebody to show me why this is good for the American people, Mr. Speaker.
We all want to help our fellow Americans. We all want to help our country get back to its feet from this pandemic and the unintended consequences from government actions, but this resolution is a disaster in and of itself on so many levels, Mr. Speaker.
Let's start with this spirit of unity and peace and bipartisanship. This President, one after another, has taken more executive actions than all three Presidents combined that have killed jobs, that have undermined the security of the American people, and now, the first major legislation is to use reconciliation to ram this through.
This isn't about relief and recovery, Mr. Speaker. This is about a Trojan horse to sneak policies that would not otherwise go anywhere in this Chamber because it couldn't. There are Federal wage mandates, when our small businesses are sucking air trying to get on their feet, make payroll, provide a service. And we want to kill 4 million more jobs. That is a CBO estimate. That is in healthy times. That is in good times.
This isn't a recovery relief bill. It is a massive bailout and a windfall to poorly managed cities and States. My colleagues are asking
$350 billion. Census data shows that we have lost State revenue to the tune of $37 billion. What is the $350 billion going to go to, Mr. Speaker? I ask my colleagues.
It is to bail out cities and States with poor management who have been reckless and irresponsible in their behavior and they want the taxpayers to bail them out.
They are asking 10 times the amount of what they need. It is irresponsible. This is a series of bad policies. These are barriers, not incentives, to recovery.
There is $500 billion, a massive redistribution of wealth to people who are unaffected by COVID, to people who are in this country illegally, Mr. Speaker.
This resolution increases the unemployment insurance so that 80 percent of the people are actually being paid more on unemployment than at their previous job. Are you kidding me?
Please, tell me this is not a recovery bill, Mr. Speaker. Look, we don't need another job-killing Federal mandate, reckless spending, liberal, partisan wish list. We need to open up this great country's economy, get our kids back to school, and bring America back.
Please work with us to do that for the sake of this country.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the comments from my friend from Texas, and I remind him that this, as I said in my opening statement, is plan B. We would prefer not to do this. We would prefer to have a bipartisan, regular order solution to this. We could do it actually more expeditiously than the reconciliation process.
But when Republicans, in an effort to be supposedly bipartisan, offer
$600 billion--when virtually everyone says we need relief and rescue money approaching the $1.9 trillion figure--it is not genuine, bipartisan, good-faith negotiation. That is posturing.
We will have several weeks to reach a bipartisan agreement. I hope we can. But this is plan B. And we will proceed with it because the American people can't wait as long as the Republicans seem to be able to.
Mr. Speaker, I am honored to yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. David Scott), the distinguished chairman of the Agriculture Committee.
Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, let me tell my Republican friends this: All you have to do to know why we have got to go big for the survival of our Nation is look at the news recently. Have you seen the lines of cars? Some have been in line since 4 and 5 in the morning. And our community food banks are there.
Why do you think that they are there? They are hungry. We have got 17 million of our children going to bed hungry every single night because the American people don't have the money to go buy groceries. And you know, what? One of the fastest growing groups of those out there hungry, who are starving, who are dying under the viaducts, who are committing suicide in record numbers, are our veterans.
That is why we need to go bold, to go big. You talk about bipartisanship. That is what the American people want, bipartisanship to get money in their pockets.
And look, friends, I am chairman of the Agriculture Committee. I am a businessman. I graduated from the top school of finance in the world, the Wharton School of Finance. I can speak on this economy. The basic tool of growth in economy is getting money in the pockets of people who are spending. That is how you keep your community going. They are not going to sit on that money. They are going to buy, go into Kroger and Publix and get food.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentleman has expired.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield the gentleman from Georgia an additional 30 seconds.
Mr. DAVID SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, now is the time. We can't afford more delays. The time for us to be bold is now. This is the time to be decisive, to move confidently, and most importantly, to move Democrats and Republicans together to save our great Nation; not tomorrow. The time is now.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to highlight that just in the last couple of days, the Congressional Budget Office released a report that, in fact, the economy will strengthen, grow, and recover without any additional stimulus dollars by the middle of 2021. You are looking at in just 5 to 6 months, the Congressional Budget Office said that the economy will recover without one single penny being spent of stimulus money.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), a leader on the Budget Committee.
Mr. McCLINTOCK. Mr. Speaker, $2 trillion in revenues, $6 trillion in spending. This is madness. This is how countries commit fiscal suicide: force the economy to shut down, and then hand out government checks.
The problem, of course, is that the government does not finance the economy. It is the economy that finances the government.
And when you wantonly destroy millions of jobs by forcing small businesses to shutter, by canceling construction and energy production across the country, when you flood the labor market with millions of illegal immigrants at a time when millions of Americans are out of work, you shut down the economy, and you shut down the tax revenues that the economy produces and that the government spends.
And so we borrow instead. Now, this budget requires $4 trillion in borrowing. Now, where will it borrow this $4 trillion from? The future earnings of your family, of course.
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Let's add this up. There are 129 million households in the United States. $4 trillion comes to $31,000 added to the debt of every household in America, at the average.
Now, this isn't theoretical. That is real money that will be repaid by every family through its future taxes, tax-driven price increases, lower wages, and inflation. That is the future for our families that the Democrats set in motion today while they promise to help us through these tough times with this sorry excuse for a budget resolution.
Mr. Speaker, it is not just our future that is being robbed. That money must be repaid in the future, but it must be borrowed in the present from the same capital market that would otherwise be available to loan to consumers seeking to make consumer purchases that drive two-
thirds of our economic growth, or businesses seeking to recover, or to home buyers seeking to buy homes. That money will not be there for them because the government has borrowed it instead.
Now, remember, the government cannot put a single dollar into the economy that it has not first taken out of that very same economy. If I take a dollar from Peter and give it to Paul, it is true, Paul has an extra dollar to spend. That is what the Democrats are calling stimulus. But it is equally true that Peter now has one less dollar to spend in that same economy, which is why these stimulus schemes never work in the present and always diminish our future.
Mr. Speaker, our country is in desperate condition because of government-mandated lockdowns that have failed to slow the coronavirus while they have laid waste to our economy and the livelihoods of millions upon millions of Americans.
There is only one relief measure that will rescue our Nation from this dystopian nightmare: End the lockdowns.
History is screaming this warning at us. Countries that bankrupt themselves and destroy their economies simply aren't around very long. Let that not be the epitaph of the United States of America.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Velazquez), the distinguished chair of the Committee on Small Business.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this budget resolution because small businesses need help now. This pandemic has already darkened hundreds of thousands of storefronts on Main Streets throughout America. A recent study found that 800 businesses closed daily between April and September last year.
Every day without Federal relief, this pandemic shutters businesses, destroys lives, and wipes out good-paying jobs. COVID is devastating Black and Latino entrepreneurs, dropping the number of businesses by 41 and 32 percent, respectively. Small businesses do not have time for drawn-out negotiations nor debates over process. They need help immediately.
Mr. Speaker, today's budget resolution gives us a critical tool to deliver urgently needed aid to small firms and the American people by passing President Biden's American Rescue Plan.
This resolution will grant us the means to provide small businesses, particularly those that are underserved, with billions in new funding for loans, grants, and support programs.
This resolution will enable us to appropriate desperately needed funds for the national strategy to crush the virus.
This resolution would allow us to make a difference in the lives of millions of Americans who have lost their jobs by expanding unemployment benefits and extending the eviction moratorium.
I welcome Republican support for these efforts.
Mr. Speaker, what we are proposing are commonsense measures to offer a lifeline to struggling Americans. We must prepare to move forward. The price of inaction is too steep. The longer we wait, the more lives COVID will take. The longer we wait, the more businesses this pandemic will destroy. The longer we wait, the more people in my district suffer.
We need a big, bold package. That is why I strongly encourage my colleagues to support this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I wish that the other side would care about the $2 trillion tax cut package.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentlewoman.
Ms. VELAZQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, when we look at how much businesses in this country are suffering today and how many businesses are shutting their doors, it is our responsibility to help them get whole. The only way that consumers are going to go into the malls and the restaurants is when they have peace of mind that we have done everything to protect them.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentlewoman's comments, and the best way to help her constituents and to help those small businesses in the State of New York is to stop the lockdowns.
Mr. Speaker, we have more than $1 trillion that is lingering out there that has been appropriated to help these small businesses, to help healthcare professionals, to help with vaccinations. They are still hurting, but the money is still there.
Mr. Speaker, what is happening so bad in the State of New York is that they are not using science. They are using arbitrary items that have shut down more than 6,500 small businesses in the State of New York. Open up the State of New York so small businesses can operate and grow.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Banks), a distinguished Navy veteran, our leader on the Republican Study Committee, and a rising podcast star.
Mr. BANKS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the ranking member, and I congratulate my friend in his new leadership role in addressing what is one of the most important issues in our country today, which is fiscal irresponsibility and a now nearly $30 trillion national debt. I appreciate his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, that is why today I rise in opposition to this, the Democrats' sham $2.1 trillion parody of a budget. Democrats, in their own words, having failed again to pass a budget last year, now say:
``The 2021 budget resolution has a single purpose. It gives Congress the option of using a budget reconciliation.''
However, this is a very different tune than what my Democrat colleagues said just a few years ago. In August 2017, Senate Majority Leader Schumer said reconciliation is ``the wrong way to do the business of the country,'' and he demanded a bipartisan solution instead.
Democrats are once again shirking their duty to produce a budget while intending to ram a partisan spending bill down the throats of the American people.
However, in 2019, the Republican Study Committee, which I chair, produced a budget that balanced in 6 years. It reduced tax burdens on American families, limited the Federal Government to our core constitutional responsibilities, and prioritized individual liberty.
Speaker Pelosi once infamously said: ``Show me your values. Show me your budget.''
Well, now we know what those values are. At a time when most small businesses are fighting for their lives, they would proudly impose minimum wage hikes and Green New Deal sanctions that would starve our economy.
What they won't tell you, though, is where they plan on getting this money from--from American workers, American families, and robbing future generations. That is where.
Mr. Speaker, every dollar taxed, borrowed, or printed by the government is a dollar taken from a hardworking family. It is a credit on a small business, or it ends up creating price bubbles that wipe out a lifetime of savings.
Mr. Speaker, we know these are their values, but I ask: Are these America's values?
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Waters), the distinguished chair of the Committee on Financial Services.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, I happily rise in support of this joint budget resolution for fiscal year 2021 to enact our President Biden's American Rescue Plan and provide urgently needed COVID-19 relief.
Thank God for President Biden. We have been without a plan with a President who was busy trying to steal votes and abandon the American people when he knew that we were suffering.
Communities across the Nation continue to suffer during this pandemic crisis. Congress has a duty to act and come to the aid of struggling individuals, families, and small businesses.
Mr. Speaker, this is not about giving tax breaks to the richest people in America the way the past President and the Republicans are intent on always doing.
President Biden's plan provides the relief that America needs so badly. The plan increases the stimulus payments to individuals in December to $2,000, adding $1,400 for every individual; extends enhanced unemployment assistance; and provides nutritional assistance to address growing hunger.
Mr. Speaker, people are hungry all over America. They are hungry in the cities, in the little towns, in the rural areas. This plan provides nutritional assistance to address this growing hunger and includes $350 billion in funding for State, local, Tribal, and territorial governments.
Mr. Speaker, as chairwoman of the House Committee on Financial Services, I have been sounding the alarm about the urgent need for emergency rental and homeless assistance during this crisis, as millions are at risk of losing their homes. They don't care on the other side whether families will be set out on the sidewalks with their children. The past President turned a blind eye to the fact that people have not been able to pay their rents since March.
Mr. Speaker, pursuant to this resolution, my committee will quickly consider an additional $25 billion to support renters and their landlords, including by funding emergency housing vouchers, Tribal housing assistance, and rural housing. We will provide another round of funding for people experiencing homelessness, who are often the most vulnerable to the pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, my committee will also quickly respond to the urgent needs of small and minority-owned businesses by establishing programs used successfully during the financial crisis to promote growth in the economy.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentlewoman.
Ms. WATERS. Mr. Speaker, importantly, my committee will support our President's effort to roll out a comprehensive Federal plan to address the pandemic by considering how to bolster the authorities under the Defense Production Act to ensure our frontline workers have the medical equipment and supplies they need to fight this pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, I am so pleased we finally have a plan for America.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, the last 2 weeks, working-class Americans have faced a great target on their backs from the new President. By the stroke of a pen--47 different executive orders and actions--he has fired hundreds of thousands of American workers.
Mr. Speaker, by the stroke of a pen, in the last 2 weeks, the sitting President has fired hundreds of thousands of American workers who are wondering where their next paycheck will come from, who are wondering how they are going to pay their mortgage, who are wondering how they are going to survive in South Dakota, North Dakota, Texas, Wyoming, Colorado.
Just because this President was trying to unify his liberal base, he fired hundreds of thousands of American workers. It is war on the working class.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Iowa (Mrs. Hinson), a distinguished journalist.
Mrs. HINSON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Missouri.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to this sham budget resolution. When I came to Congress, I said I would work with anybody to get things done and deliver for Iowans. I know there will be opportunities to do that, and I hope there are across the aisle.
But today, I have to say I am disappointed that we are debating a hyper-partisan resolution instead. It is a disgrace to taxpayers. It was crafted in the back rooms. And Iowans' seat at the table was taken away through this process today.
As a result, this budget resolution will allow major legislation to move along partisan lines, including President Biden's $1.9 trillion spending plan.
Mr. Speaker, this plan isn't about COVID relief at all. It is about jamming through a liberal agenda, including a $15 minimum wage mandate.
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This would absolutely decimate our rural economy in Iowa and would destroy livelihoods across my district.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that a $15 minimum wage would kill at least 1.3 million jobs. So let's talk about the real people here, the workers, the Iowans who make up these statistics.
Cubs Auto Shop is a small business in Brooklyn, Iowa, in my district. The owner built his business from the ground up, and he told us that a
$15 Federal minimum wage would make it hard to expand his business at all.
We need economic growth now more than ever before. He is just one of my many constituents who have told me they would have to lay off workers, raise prices, or even shut down permanently if a $15 minimum wage becomes a reality. This might be right for California and New York, but one-size-fits-all Federal minimum wage mandates would destroy small businesses and rural communities in my district.
It is unacceptable that the budget would be used to push this through. Instead, we should be using it to stop Washington's pork spending.
So, today, I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to oppose this faux budget resolution and stand up for taxpayers.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I want to welcome the gentlewoman from Iowa to the House of Representatives and just remark that when she said that this is a plan that was crafted in secret, this plan was crafted during the 2020 campaign. It was part of President Biden's agenda, and every American voter had a chance to register his or her support for that plan.
Mr. Speaker, may I inquire from the Chair as to how much time remains on both sides.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Suozzi). The gentleman from Kentucky has 20 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Missouri has 13 minutes remaining.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Higgins), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. HIGGINS of New York. Mr. Speaker, the past year has tested America's resolve and steeled our character. We enter a new year optimistic with still much work before us.
The pandemic has taken much from us, but it has also shown us the best of our country: Americans helping one another through acts of charity and kindness; health workers going nonstop to treat, test, trace, and vaccinate; teachers, firefighters, police, and sanitation workers serving the public at great risk to their own health.
Vaccines are being distributed and administered. Hope is in sight. But many Americans are still in peril, and Congress must act.
President Biden's American Rescue Plan is the bold initiative which meets this critical moment. Now is the time to go big, to guarantee every family has food and shelter over their heads; to safely get our children back into the classrooms; to protect our small businesses, restaurants, and workers who braved this pandemic; and to invest in our State and local communities that have fought this virus on the front lines.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support this budget resolution. Only through bold action can we crush this virus, return to normal, and build a stronger Nation.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. KILDEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this budget resolution, which gives Congress the additional legislative tool it needs to pass the urgently needed coronavirus relief for our constituents and for our communities. I am very pleased that President Biden has made defeating this virus his top priority.
This pandemic is not over. COVID-19 continues to pose both a health and economic crisis, so we have to respond with solutions that are scaled to the size and scope of this problem. By passing this resolution, Congress will be able to get relief to people more quickly: more resources for vaccine distribution; more aid to reopen schools safely; additional support for families, for seniors, for small businesses that are hurting.
I know that Republicans and Democrats share these common goals. In fact, they are speaking up all across the country. Republicans and Democrats support this big and bold approach.
We should work together in this body to manifest that and pass this legislation, so we get the people the help they need.
Doing nothing is not an option, and neither is doing too little. In fact, we have heard so much about the long-term economic impact. The truth of the matter is, doing nothing or doing too little will cost us more money, an estimated 4 million jobs that could be lost. The impact on families, the impact on all of us, would be tremendous if we fail to scale the response to the size of this problem.
Mr. Speaker, my Republican colleagues were very quick to use this very same process to pass legislation that we received the day before we voted on it, to give massive tax cuts to the very people at the very top of the economy. Now, when we see a crisis that literally is threatening the lives and the livelihoods of Americans, we have to use every tool we can to get them the help they need.
I support this resolution, and I urge my colleagues to do so as well.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Michigan, and I will remind him that his State government has already received $10 billion in taxpayer bailouts and will receive another $10.5 under this plan.
However, if President Biden wouldn't have done 1 of his 47 executive orders, his State would have received another $230 million. But the President shortchanged the State of Michigan by $230 million because of one of his 47 strokes of the pen in the last 2 weeks. So, I think the gentleman would be a little upset with his President for that action.
Also, because of the lockdowns, the State of Michigan has lost more than 3,500 small businesses. Such a shame.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jacobs), a great addition to the Budget Committee.
Mr. JACOBS of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the budget resolution put forth by the majority.
Rather than seek bipartisan consensus, Democrats are effectively shutting out Republicans through this reconciliation process. The Democrats are proposing to spend $1.9 trillion, one of the largest single expenditures in U.S. history.
They will be funding this historic expenditure by dramatically increasing our national debt, and these unprecedented and historic obligations are being undertaken without engaging in the Budget Committee at all.
Just because the Democrats have control of both Houses and the Presidency does not mean they should be abusing this power, bypassing the important and deliberative role of the legislative process instead of working in earnest with the Republican Members.
In the 116th Congress, we were able to find bipartisan consensus on COVID relief, and I believe we can do the same here now.
This go-it-alone approach is very unfortunate because there are many provisions in President Biden's proposal that I could support. I have been calling for additional aid to local governments since I arrived here in Congress this summer. Further, we most definitely need more resources to ensure a more robust deployment of vaccines throughout the Nation.
This partisan approach to relief legislation is damaging and unproductive. I hope the majority will reconsider this process.
I want to believe President Biden's calls for unity, bipartisanship, and cooperation. I was encouraged to see the talks between the White House and the Senate Republicans. This is exactly how we should be working to address the needs of the American people.
During these very challenging times, I stand ready and willing to work with the Biden administration and any of my colleagues across the aisle to help the American people.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Horsford), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. HORSFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Con. Res. 11.
And before I start, I want to just let the ranking member know, my job is to get as many resources to my State as possible from this COVID relief. So, I hope you report how much money my State has received, and please say ``Nevada'' correctly when you do it.
That money is needed to help workers, families, and small businesses who are struggling during the worst pandemic that we have experienced in a generation.
Now, 3 years ago, Republicans pushed through the biggest tax cuts in American history for the wealthiest Americans and the biggest corporations. Those tax cuts added nearly $2 trillion to the national debt without a whisper about fiscal conservatism from my colleagues on the other side.
Now, in the middle of a pandemic, one that has resulted in more than 400,000 deaths of our fellow Americans, millions of jobs that have been lost, and countless small businesses that have been shuttered, my colleagues on the other side want to talk about the deficit.
Well, I am calling your bluff. This isn't about the deficit; it is about obstruction. And if Republicans would rather watch their constituents--to the ranking member, you have the same constituents. You have talked to me about the fact that your district is one of the poorest districts in the country. You and I have talked. You are also a member of the Ways and Means Committee. I have relatives in Missouri, so I am just as concerned about those workers, those families, and those small businesses.
We want to crush the virus, but in my home State, we can't recover and reopen our economy until we crush this virus. So, I need you to work with us. There is nothing in this resolution that says Republicans can't join on board. The President said today that he is willing to entertain suggestions on how to move forward.
But my vote for this resolution is a call to my colleagues to work with us to get this done because our constituents are counting on us, not blue State constituents or red State constituents but American constituents.
I represent rural parts of my district that are conservative, and I have urban parts of my district that are not. I am fighting for all of them.
I am taking a stand, and I am asking you to work with us to pass this American Rescue Plan for all families, for all workers, and for all small businesses that have suffered for far too long. I know that these are divided times, but bipartisanship can change that.
Mr. Ranking Member, I am asking you to work with us, not in the majority, but as colleagues to do the right thing on behalf of all of our constituents because that is why each one of us was elected. Courage is what American people deserve most, Mr. Speaker.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Nevada for his comments and how we are eager to work in a bipartisan approach in this package. That is why we are kind of frustrated, because our committee has not even organized so that we could even have a discussion on a bipartisan approach.
Instead, the majority's side decided to force through this reconciliation without even going through the Budget Committee because they have not even organized.
So, I would love to work with them, but you have already closed the door. Hopefully, you will reopen it so we can discuss this, and I would love to work with him.
Also, in my State, in my congressional district, we have operated under what I believe are the best processes in fighting COVID, not locking down and shutting the doors on your small businesses.
We have some of the lowest unemployment rates in the State of Missouri, thanks to the leadership of Governor Parson. Also, we have the lowest death rates of COVID in our State, thanks to the leadership of Governor Mike Parson.
I wish the States of Nevada, California, and New York, and a lot of other States, would open up and stop the lockdowns and follow the science. Then, there wouldn't be bailout pieces of legislation to go to the States that have made the wrong choices.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to address their remarks to the Chair.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Indiana (Mrs. Spartz), a true patriot.
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Mrs. SPARTZ. Mr. Speaker, as a finance professional and CPA who spent over a decade working in advanced finance, as former accounting college faculty, and as a mother of two young daughters, I am appalled at how reckless, irresponsible, and broken our budgeting process is.
The Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and the intent of fast-track reconciliations has been completely misused, often by both parties. These budgeting gimmicks are unacceptable. We must reinstate the deliberative process in our House and restore transparency, accountability, and basic principles of budgeting.
I hope my Democrat colleagues will express similar concerns to their leadership, since we all care about the future of our children and our country.
As their fellow Democrat Senator once said: We are in the process now of seeing the Pandora's box, which has been opened to the abuse of the reconciliation process.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Doggett), who is a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. DOGGETT. ``Reconciliation'' defines not only this budget process, but, to most Americans, it simply means that you come together to overcome prior differences. President Biden has made clear his desire to reconcile, to come together. We welcome Republican proposals, but we steadfastly reject Republican delay. Too many Americans are struggling to let these filibustering Republican Senators repeat what happened last year. You remember, Mr. Speaker. We waited, we waited, and we waited more than seven months, and, finally, they yielded at the edge of Christmas and gave us too little, too late.
After so much dithering, today represents an opportunity for Republicans to reconcile. They need to reconcile with the truth. They need to reconcile with the facts--not phony ``alternative facts,'' but reality; to come together, with us, for American families who never received those 100 million vaccines that President Trump told us would be here last year, to reconcile with the reality of anxious Americans today who are out there calling, standing in lines, and trying anxiously to get some protection from this pandemic that wasn't provided last year.
When the Senate is permitted to become a graveyard for important legislation for American families, too many Americans are sent prematurely to the graveyard.
Could anyone have imagined here a year ago that Trump Republicans who refused to prepare and respond to this pandemic--remember when they claimed that the virus would simply just disappear like a miracle?
Could anyone have imagined that now as a result of their approach, almost half a million Americans are dead and more to come from their vanishing virus?
As that virus has evolved to become more transmittable, cannot our colleagues evolve to hear the need for vaccine, for food, and to not having people sleep under bridges?
Let's reconcile, let's make amends, and let's deliver relief now.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman from Texas, but I would like to remind this Chamber again that the administration's hostility to the energy industry has demonstrated by just the stroke of a pen his executive actions have threatened at least 120,000 jobs in the State of Texas.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from the great State of Wisconsin (Mr. Grothman), who is a veteran of the Budget Committee, whom I am glad to have back.
Mr. GROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I know normally Congressmen take this opportunity to talk about some hot-button issue; therefore I feel a little regret that I am going to have to delve into what the great English historian Thomas Carlyle called the dismal science. I am going to have to address economics.
I am going to talk about two issues. I am going to talk about the monetary supply, and I am going to talk about inflation. It is a little bit boring, but they are both very important.
First, the monetary supply. If you wonder where I get these numbers, Mr. Speaker, you can google John Williams' ``Shadow Government Statistics.'' I am going to talk about M1 and M2.
M1 is a narrow definition of the monetary supply. We are now up rocketing at over 65 percent increase. You can go back 20 years and the highest prior increase is under 20 percent. So when you have this much of an outlier, look out.
Some people would say M2, which is a more narrow definition, including things like certificates of deposit, is better; but even that amount is shooting up 25 percent a year. The previous high in the last 20 years was 18 percent in 2008. And you remember what happened after 2008.
As the great James Garfield, Republican President--oh, how we wish he had a full 4 years--said: ``He who controls the money supply of a nation controls the nation.''
Please, I beg the chairman of the Budget Committee, before proceeding forth here, hold a hearing on the money supply.
Secondly, I want to talk about inflation a little bit. Sometimes it is forgotten that in both 1980 and 1990, we changed the definition of inflation. But I am old enough to remember the Jimmy Carter years and how devastating it was when we used to have inflation of over 15 percent.
Right now, if you had that definition back then, inflation would already be running at about 10 percent a year. Even if you looked after 1990, when, again, the definition changed, we ran inflation at about 5 percent a year. Now, you can only imagine what would happen if we throw another $2 trillion of money and the amount of inflation will go up.
Look at the cost of housing in the supposed economic downturn. Already the cost of housing is going up. That should be a danger sign for everybody.
I was critical of the past administration on a variety of things. I was opposed to President Trump's $2,000-a-person thing for this reason. I think there is still time to turn back before we have a huge problem with the money supply and the overall stockmarket, and we can still show that this Congress has a little bit of fiscal responsibility.
I again beg: Please have a hearing not just on the monetary supply, but a hearing on inflation.
As Herbert Stein, an economist of some fame and even more famous as Ben Stein's dad, said: ``If something can't go on forever, it won't.''
I ask the chairman to please have a hearing on monetary supply and inflation.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Jeffries), who is the chairman of the Democratic Caucus and a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished chair of the Budget Committee from the Commonwealth of Kentucky for yielding, as well as for his tremendous leadership in connection with this resolution and the effort to deal with this moment that we find ourselves in this country.
These are challenging times in the United States of America, filled with pain, suffering, and death. More than 425,000 Americans have died. Over 26 million Americans have been infected by the coronavirus. More than 100,000 small businesses have permanently closed. Tens of millions of Americans have been grappling with unemployment or food insecurity. Many are on the brink of homelessness.
These are challenging times in the United States of America, filled with pain, suffering, and death. Now is not the time for obfuscation or moderation. Now is the time to go big and to decisively deal with the problems that everyday Americans are confronting.
COVID-19 is a once-in-a-century pandemic. It requires a once-in-a-
century, comprehensive, continuing, and compassionate congressional response. That is what the American Rescue Plan put forth by President Biden is all about.
We must crush the coronavirus through testing, tracing, treatment, and vaccinations for every single American. We must provide direct relief to everyday Americans by increasing survival checks to $2,000 per person. We must lay the foundation to supercharge our economy so we can build back better for the people. That is what the American Rescue Plan is all about. That is what today's vote is all about.
Vote ``yes'' so we can move America forward and put this virus behind us once and for all.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Roy), who is a true defender of conservative principles.
Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Missouri for yielding. I enjoyed working with him on the Budget Committee the last 2 years. I wish I was this time. Maybe we will do it in a couple of years.
I enjoy working with the distinguished chairman from Kentucky, but I find it interesting that after 2 years on the Budget Committee I am finally seeing a budget resolution, because I sure didn't see one for the last 2 years.
But here we are. We are on the floor of the House of Representatives, allegedly the people's House.
Do I get to offer an amendment? Do I get to say a single word about what is in this $2 trillion bill?
No, because this is fake.
The American people are looking at the people's House. They are asking: What are we doing?
We are surrounded by fences and razor wire. We are going through magnetometers. I am sitting here on the floor of the House with a $2 trillion bill larded up for political purposes that I never had a chance to amend, debate or have any discussion about besides 2 minutes or 3 minutes here with a prepackaged bill done in smoke-filled rooms, brought to the floor, and I am told to vote ``yes'' or ``no,'' push the green button, push the red button.
That is what we have taken the people's House and reduced it to.
We have $4 trillion that we have spent on COVID relief. With all due respect to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who are saying go big, we have spent $4 trillion.
I have worked on a bipartisan basis with my friend, Dean Phillips, to pass the PPP Flexibility Act. We are all working hard to help the American people, but this resolution is a sham.
When are we going to get in committee and vote and debate and roll our sleeves up and offer amendments? When are we going to do the work that we were sent here to do?
The distinguished leader from Maryland has been here a while, respectfully. This place has changed. The gentleman from Maryland and I have talked about this.
When are we going to offer amendments? When are we going to debate and vote on those amendments?
That is what bipartisanship is, not throwing a $2 trillion reconciliation measure to use as pressure with the Senate to play games so that you can try to force the hand of the Senate to get the 60 votes, and then come down here and say: Oh, yeah, we have done something great with some budget reconciliation.
Have we had any debate down here about what is actually affecting the people of this country? Or do we have a bunch of show speeches?
When are we going to turn this body back into the people's House? When are we going to turn this into something the American people can be proud about, that we are sitting here debating something serious?
Should we have $300 billion for local governments? Should we have some help for small businesses? Should we have something?
Let's debate this out. No one over here wants to see their people suffer in the States that they represent. But we want businesses open. We want economic growth and opportunity. We don't want to point fingers. We have 30-something million vaccines distributed. Let's not point fingers. Let's take the work that has been done by the previous administration, by this body on a bipartisan basis, and let's move forward and get this country working again.
China is about to roll right over us if we don't do our job, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to respond to my friend from Texas, to say that, in about 3 weeks or a little less, the Budget Committee will have a piece of legislation which actually goes into the details of the American Rescue Plan and includes those. There will be a markup. The gentleman will have every opportunity to offer amendments, and then that bill will come to the floor as well. So don't give up hope.
Mr. ROY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. ROY. I am no longer on the Budget Committee. So will I have the ability to offer amendments?
Mr. YARMUTH. We will have a floor debate as well. In regular order, the gentleman will go through the Rules Committee.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer).
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Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, Mr. Roy is walking off the floor, but I am one of those Members that has sympathy for his frustration. I have sympathy for his frustration because I have served here for a long time when we did things in a bipartisan, regular order way.
But I hope the gentleman shared the same frustration when we passed a tax bill that did $2 trillion, at a time when the economy didn't need a tax cut and the people who got the tax cut clearly did not need it. And I had the same frustration the gentleman has expressed.
As the gentleman who chairs the committee pointed out, this is the first step, however, in giving instructions on what committees ought to do, and doesn't tell them exactly how to do it. Next week is going to be an entire committee week in which 12 committees will consider how to achieve the objectives set forth in the budget resolution. But I do share, and we ought all share that we don't act in the bipartisan fashion in which we ought to.
The President met with 10 Republican Senators. They are pretty far apart. I am going to speak a little bit about the substance of this, but I want to assure the gentleman that I am a big supporter of regular order. I think we ought to pass all 12 appropriations bills and not do these omnibus bills that nobody knows what is in them: not you, not me. I am the majority leader. You think, well, he knows all that is in there. I don't. Why? Because they are so massive that you really don't have an opportunity and we don't debate them fully. So I want to say that I share the frustration.
On this, I think we need to move quickly, and I am going say why in the comments that I make. But I didn't want the gentleman to go off the floor thinking that everybody was simply dismissing, not so much the substance, but the frustration he feels, I feel, and I think so many of our Members feel about the process being either too quick or too slow, too comprehensive, too incomprehensible. So I just wanted to say that to the gentleman.
Mr. ROY. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. HOYER. I yield to the gentleman from Texas.
Mr. ROY. I would just ask if we might be able to at least meet in private and have discussions about how to restore regular order and offer amendments on the floor because to the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee that is great to debate it in committee, but I am no longer on the Budget Committee, so I would love to have the ability to debate on the floor and have regular order. And I just think if we could just have a conversation, sit in a room and figure out how we can do that going forward, no matter who is in charge of the Chamber.
Mr. HOYER. Reclaiming my time, Mr. Speaker, we have passed four major pieces of legislation. They weren't partisan pieces of legislation. They weren't rushed through by Democrats and, in fact, a Republican President had to sign all four of those bills. The first one, an $8.3 billion bill, four times what the President asked for, but ultimately, he said, yes, we need that much, and that was way, way, way too little. But we thought it was a huge sum of money at that point in time. It passed 415-2.
On March 14, we passed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, 363-40.
On March 27, just a few days--this is all within weeks of one another, we passed the CARES Act, about $2 trillion, voice vote, $2 trillion, about the same amount as this bill suggests. Frankly, since that time, we have had hundreds of thousands of Americans die from COVID, and our economy go up and down, but now it is tanking, and we are all concerned about that.
George Bush came to the House when I was majority leader the first time and said, we need $700 billion, actually, a little more than that,
$700 billion to loan to big banks. Loan to big banks? And Ben Bernanke, then the chair of the Federal Reserve said, if you don't do it, we are going to go into a depression.
So what happened, Mr. Speaker, was Democrats carried that bill for George Bush, a Republican President, and Republicans gave him one-third of their votes, their President--he was our President, but theirs in the sense he was a Republican.
So I am a little frustrated when I hear, well, we can't do this because we passed the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, very controversial, a big bill, 388-5. Now, what does that tell you? What does it tell the American people? That there was a consensus that it is a crisis in America that there is no example for it in the past. And so we need to move.
We had an election. The President of the United States said we had to move, and we passed a $900-plus billion bill, and the President said, by the way, it wasn't enough. He wanted to see more. He wanted to see substantially more in payments to the American people because they were struggling.
So, Mr. Speaker, this is a continuation of what has, throughout the year--we are not yet at the year, the first year of COVID, and so far, we have dealt with it in a bipartisan way, and robustly, because of the magnitude of the challenge.
People are suffering from the most severe public health emergency in our lifetimes and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and they are looking to Washington for help.
After we enacted, Mr. Speaker, the CARES Act in March 2020 to get American workers, businesses, and communities through the spring and summer months, the Trump administration and Republican-controlled Senate hit the pause button.
We passed the Heroes Act May 15. We then waited and waited and tried to negotiate. Mr. McConnell said, no, let the States go bankrupt. And Mr. McCarthy said, let's see what happens. And tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people died, and the economy has regressed.
That pause crippled our Nation's response, both to the public health emergency and the economic one as supports authorized by the CARES Act faded.
While we were finally able to reach bipartisan agreement on COVID-19 relief at the end of December, December 16, to be exact, much damage had been done and we knew, we knew, we all knew that the December legislation would not be enough, Mr. Speaker, and that we would have to act again. Now we are doing so.
Now, very frankly, when we were at the greatest recession, not depression, in December of 2007, and then 2008, and then when we took over and could act on a relief bill, we passed a $787 billion bill, relatively small by the kinds of sums we are talking about now, and it saved us from depression, and not a single Republican in the House of Representatives voted for that.
Now, remember, 172 Democrats voted for George W. Bush's TARP legislation. Not a single Republican stepped in to help the American economy, not one. So when I hear about bipartisanship, I think to myself, gee, I am for bipartisanship, and we will all be for it. And I will tell you, the proof of the pudding is those 172 votes that voted for TARP; and without TARP, I think the country would have gone into depression.
Now, President Biden has outlined the next steps we need to take as part of the American Rescue Plan. The budget resolution before us today provides us with one path to put that plan into action with the next round of major relief for our people.
The gentleman from Texas lamented, well, this is a farce. Let me tell you, if this farce passes, millions of families are going to get thousands of dollars to support themselves and buy food and pay their mortgage and pay their rent. This is very real.
Now, this is not the only path. Let me be clear, Mr. Speaker, we want this to be a bipartisan endeavor. Joe Biden's entire career, which is an extensive career, shows his bipartisanship, and I hope the discussions between the President and a small group of Senate Republicans will lead to a responsible and actionable bipartisan compromise that can pass the Senate with 60 votes and get to the President's desk in the coming weeks.
But make no mistake; we will not seek compromise at the expense of necessary action. The American people cannot wait for Republicans to work their way through another pause.
Democrats are taking this step today to ensure that we have all the procedural tools necessary to move forward with the relief so sorely needed for the American people in case the preferred path of bipartisanship is unsuccessful, particularly because expanded unemployment benefits expire on March 14.
So, Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to join me, to join the chairman in a bipartisan way in voting for this resolution so we can assure the American people that Congress is moving forward with the relief they need and in the timely manner they ought to expect.
If we care about American families, if we care about children who are going hungry, if we care about renters who can't pay rent and landlords who need that rent to pay their bills--now, some of them may be giants, but most of them are small--this bill cannot wait. This bill needs to pass as soon as we can possibly pass it.
I urge all my colleagues, vote for this resolution, and let's take a first, critically important step to passing this bill that will be constructed by 12 different committees here, committees in the Senate, and put together, as the chairman has just pointed out, and we will have to vote on it again as a final product, for the people.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 8 minutes remaining.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee for the masterful way that he has led the Budget Committee and the masterful way that he has led this debate.
In the next couple of months, close to 600,000 Americans will die; loved ones will be forbidden from going to their bedside; and some of them will find themselves lodged in refrigerator trucks.
Individuals in our districts, like the woman in my district, will report that she has $8 in her bank account and the potential for being evicted.
Mr. Speaker, what we are doing today is a rescue mission, like we needed to do for the fires in California, or Hurricane Harvey, or like we needed to do when I fled the United States Capitol as the planes were hitting the Pentagon in 9/11. This is a rescue mission.
And I will not take a back seat all the years that I have known President Biden to ever deny his sincerity about bipartisanship. I have worked alongside of him. He is the leader who brought us out of the depths of depression with the automobile collapse. He is the one that led us in the recovery act after the debacle of the collapse of Wall Street in 2007 and 2008.
I was here when the Secretary of the Treasury said, America will not be the America that it was, we are going down. And so, we need to go big. The Secretary of the Treasury says--a renowned economist--says we need to go big.
This is a time for our friends to listen to Abraham Lincoln: ``The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.''
Our case is new. We are needing the $1,400. We are needing the eviction moratorium. We are needing unemployment extension.
And finally, let me say, Mr. Speaker, we are needing to ensure that this work is done on behalf of the American people. We need a rescue mission and we need it now.
Mr. Speaker, as a senior member of the Committees on the Judiciary, on Homeland Security, on the Budget, and as the Member of Congress for a congressional district that has experienced the worst of COVID-19 as a public health emergency and economic catastrophe, I rise in strong support of H. Con. Res. 11, which reorders budgetary priorities to provide $1.9 trillion to allow Congress to take immediate and decisive action to crush the virus and vaccinate our people, build the economy back better, reopen schools, and provide needed support and assistance to state and local governments that have been asked to do too much with too little for far too long.
So if our Republican colleagues are amenable to reaching an agreement on a legislative response that is commensurate to the challenge facing Americans, nothing in the legislation before will preclude that from happening.
But have no doubt, if they refuse to be part of the solution, the unified and bicameral Democratic congressional majority, in coordination with the new Democratic Administration, will take the lead and act boldly to address and overcome the present crisis.
I would urge my Republican colleagues to heed the words of the Republican Governor of West Virginia who said colorfully just a few days ago, ``At this point in time in this nation, we need to go big. We need to quit counting the egg-sucking legs on the cows and count the cows and just move. And move forward and move right now.''
The same sentiment was expressed more eloquently by Abraham Lincoln in 1862 when he memorably wrote:
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.
Mr. Speaker, the bipartisan action we took last December was a step in the right direction but only a long-delayed down payment; we cannot afford any more delays, especially since Republican stalling already caused a painful lapse in critical unemployment assistance last year, and additional unemployment assistance is set to expire in March.
That why this resolution, which creates a failsafe alternative to debating, voting, and passing the American Rescue Act, is absolutely crucial and the right thing to do, right now.
The American Rescue Plan proposed by President Biden takes a multiprong approach to tackling the public health and economic crises stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Speaker, by an overwhelming margin (79 percent), the public wants and is demanding that we act to provide more economic relief to address the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents believe an additional relief package is necessary, while more than nine in ten (92 percent) Democrats and Democratic leaners say more coronavirus aid will be needed.
Even the most conservative Republicans favor more relief by a 56 percent-44 percent margin.
Nearly nine in ten of all adults (88 percent) in lower-income households say an additional package is necessary, while 81 percent of Republicans in lower-income households (81 percent) say additional aid is needed now.
Let me make clear at the outset Mr. Speaker, that nothing in this resolution precludes the reaching of a bipartisan and bicameral agreement to pass and fund the President's America Rescue Plan, which in nearly all material respects mirrors the Heroes Act passed by the House Democratic majority on May 15, 2020, nearly nine months ago, only to languish on the Republican Senate Majority Leader's desk while hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans succumbed to the virus and millions of others lost their livelihoods and businesses, and everyone faced an uncertain future.
It would send a powerful signal to the American people if our colleagues across the aisle would join us in this effort because nothing would better show them that elected representatives can put partisanship aside and put America first.
And that bipartisan achievement would portend success for similar initiatives in the area of infrastructure, energy, national and homeland security, and criminal justice and immigration reform, all of which I am ready and willing to reach across the aisle to find common ground.
To beat the virus and safely reopen schools, the plan will mount a national vaccination program that includes setting up community vaccination sites nationwide and makes the investments necessary to safely reopen schools.
It will also take complementary measures to combat the virus, including scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of personal protective equipment and other critical supplies, investing in high-quality treatments, and addressing health care disparities.
The American Rescue Plan delivers immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of the crisis by providing $1,400 per person in direct cash assistance to households across America, bringing the total (including the $600 down payment enacted in December) to $2,000.
Additionally, the plan will also provide direct housing and nutrition assistance to families struggling to get by, expand access to safe and reliable child care and affordable health care, extend and expand unemployment insurance so American workers can pay their bills, and give families with children as well as childless workers a boost through enhanced tax credits.
Mr. Speaker, the American Rescue Plan provides much needed support for communities struggling with the economic fallout, including hard-
hit small businesses, especially those owned by entrepreneurs from racial and ethnic backgrounds that have experienced systemic discrimination.
Finally, the plan also provides crucial resources to protect the jobs of first responders, frontline public health workers, teachers, transit workers, and other essential workers that all Americans depend on.
The 2021 budget resolution is not a comprehensive fiscal blueprint for the next 10 years; it is designed solely to provide the option of using reconciliation to deliver critical relief and achieve the goals of the American Rescue Plan.
As such, the total spending and revenue levels in the resolution simply reflect current-law projections adjusted for the estimated costs of the American Rescue Plan.
Once the American Rescue Plan becomes law, Congress will begin its work on a forward-looking, comprehensive budget resolution for 2022 that will provide urgently needed economic support and address longstanding deficits in our communities and underlying inequities in our society, which have been so starkly revealed and exacerbated by COVID-19.
I strongly support this legislation and urge all Members to join me in voting for its passage.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I am privileged to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I am so proud. Only 2 weeks into the new Presidency, we are now moving ahead, right now, boldly, to answer the cry of the American people and to ultimately pass and implement the American Rescue Plan. If you don't hear the cry of your constituents, then you aren't listening.
I want to focus on our communities, our States, our counties, our cities, large and small, that are in a crisis situation right now. They are starving for help to cover the basic costs that they have, and we have an opportunity to give them $350 billion in relief and flexible aid that can be used to make sure that our communities stay strong.
It is not just about budgets, and it is not just about employees. It is about our constituents who will find that if we aren't able to fund the essence of what our communities need, then we are going to see firefighters lose their jobs; we are going to see paramedics and police and nurses and teachers and sanitation workers not available for our communities; and we will see towns and counties not able to fund their transportation systems.
It is time for us to act. It is past time for us to act. Let's do it.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Sires), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Mr. SIRES. Mr. Speaker, this resolution is a critical tool that we can use to provide relief to millions of Americans by passing President Biden's American Rescue Plan.
COVID-19 has impacted every corner of our Nation, taken loved ones from us, sickened millions more, shuttered small businesses, and pushed hardworking families into dire straits.
As we look at the toll this pandemic has taken, we must pass an aggressive, large-scale response. We cannot continue in piecemeal relief that falls short of addressing the needs of communities in every congressional district.
By setting a reconciliation framework across numerous House committees, we can craft a plan that will expand testing and vaccination efforts; extend critical lifelines for those who have lost their job; support schools, local small businesses, and first responders; and send direct aid to those who are struggling.
The burdens that our Nation has endured over the last year are far too high for continued inaction, and I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting this resolution.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Chu), a distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of getting the American people the help they need and getting it to them fast.
The budget resolution before us today is simple. It allows Congress to act quickly to deliver much-needed assistance to the American people so that we can defeat this pandemic. That means more survival checks, enhanced unemployment benefits, new grants and loans for small businesses, State and local aid, education funding, faster vaccinations, and much more.
This winter has been the most challenging period of the COVID-19 crisis. People have been driven to desperation with skyrocketing cases, hospitalizations, and 440,000 deaths nationwide. But now we see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Every day, over a million more Americans receive safe and effective vaccines, and that rate is increasing. That means that it is absolutely crucial for Congress to act now to provide enough stimulus and support so that our economy, healthcare facilities, local governments, and schools have the resources needed to survive and begin to recover.
The urgency can't be overstated. Last year, Republicans allowed unemployment benefits to expire and pushed 8 million Americans into poverty. By acting now, we can avert a repeat of this disaster when benefits expire again in just 6 short weeks. We can make substantial improvements to make sure that we have a more inclusive recovery that includes low-wage workers and immigrant families.
Let's pass this bill and truly help the American people.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee), another distinguished member of the Budget Committee.
Ms. LEE of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Yarmuth for his leadership in putting forth this budget resolution.
COVID continues to ravage our communities. Black and Brown people have been disproportionately impacted the hardest. Now that vaccines are being distributed, the disparities in who has been vaccinated are quite shocking.
On top of this health crisis is an economic crisis. Eight million more families have fallen into poverty since May. Food banks have lines around the block, and 12 million children are going hungry. Enhanced unemployment insurance expires next month; small businesses are going under; and our State and local governments are struggling to make payroll for millions of essential workers.
Our constituents and communities can't wait. We have to go big, and we have to move fast.
The relief package enabled by this budget resolution is the rescue needed to keep people from falling off the cliff. It will also allow us to address the glaring racial and ethnic disparities in our pandemic response.
Let me tell you, I am one who believes we should provide ongoing payments until the end of the pandemic. Through no fault of their own, people's lives and livelihoods have been shattered, but we do provide in this package and in this budget enhanced unemployment insurance and direct payments.
We don't have the luxury of time, nor of nickeling-and-diming our constituents. We must deliver for the American people a rescue package that matches the scale and the scope of the pain in our country.
Remember, a budget is a moral document that reflects our values, which, of course, means we must put people first, regardless of party affiliation.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of Missouri. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, if this Chamber really cared about helping the working class, we would first call on the schools to reopen immediately; end the small business lockdowns so Americans can get back to work; and stop the President's job-killing executive orders, which are firing hundreds of thousands of Americans.
I stand ready, with my colleagues, on policies that will help support the working class. I look for the opportunity that we actually come into the Budget Committee, where we can work together and help the working class.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Beyer) and the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Schweikert) are recognized for 30 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Virginia.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Yarmuth), the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee.
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the names of the Budget Committee staff who worked so tirelessly and competently on this piece of legislation.
Budget Committee Majority Staff List
Erika Appel
Ellen Balis
Samantha Carter
Edward Etzkorn
Jose Guillen
Jocelyn Harris
Emily King
Sarah Lee
Sheila McDowell
Diana Meredith
Kimberly Overbeek
Barbara Pike
Katie Raymond
Scott Russell
Laura Santos
Raquel Spencer
Greg Waring
Alexandra Weinroth
Christie Wentworth
Jennifer Wheelock
Ted Zegers
Grady Stevens (intern)
Mr. YARMUTH. Mr. Speaker, for the record, nothing in this proposal should come as a surprise. The resolution's budgetary target matches the estimated cost of the American Rescue Plan, every detail of which was put forward during President Biden's campaign. Further, many of these provisions have already passed the House but languished on Senator McConnell's desk.
Nothing we are doing here precludes a bipartisan deal. But let's be clear, the American people overwhelmingly support President Biden's plan.
And I can assure you they couldn't care less about House procedures. They want us to act and get them the relief they need now.
January was the deadliest month yet for COVID. Every 28 seconds, an American died from the coronavirus. At that rate, more than 385 Americans will have died while we are debating this resolution.
We cannot afford to slow down. We need to hurry the hell up.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I want to begin by recognizing Chairman Yarmuth, whose leadership of the Budget Committee is so routinely remarkable that we take it for granted.
The budget resolution we are voting on today will set us on a path to defeating the virus and providing urgent relief for millions of Americans.
It is a big moment for this country, and this Chamber and Chairman Yarmuth have handled it with characteristic skill and grace.
I also want to thank Speaker Pelosi for her extraordinary leadership, guiding the House through all the challenges since this pandemic began and now bringing up legislation that is urgently needed and will ultimately sustain millions of Americans during this crisis.
President Biden has called for a package that meets the moment, and Speaker Pelosi has laid out a path that gets us there. The Speaker has guided this Chamber brilliantly as we passed the Cares Act; provided additional support to families and businesses in the spring and fall; and now, as we begin the expeditious process to beat the virus, get the American people the relief they need and deserve.
I am honored that she has asked me to lead the Joint Economic Committee this Congress as our country recovers and rebuilds. I look forward to partnering with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle on the full range of economic challenges and opportunities before us. There is so much work to do.
This legislation will save American lives and give tens of millions of Americans the help they need.
Mr. Speaker, I am a businessman. One of my favorite ideas is: Don't show me your values; don't tell me your values; just show me your calendar.
Well, budgets are a statement of values. If you want to know what a person or a party really believes, look at how they allocate their resources. Show me your budget.
Four years ago, the Republicans held the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. Their signature legislation was a $1.9 trillion tax cut bill, which overwhelmingly favored the wealthy, the top 10 percent. That was a statement of their values.
Today, Democrats have the responsibility of governing, with Joe Biden in the White House and majorities in the House and Senate. We declare different values. The most important value is to save American lives. The second most important value is to restore American prosperity.
The budget resolution we consider today is a critical first step to achieving both overarching goals. We have to act quickly because those aren't the only overwhelming goals that we are facing.
Climate change. Secretary Yellen, in her confirmation hearing, called climate change an existential threat facing the globe. She is right, and we can't waste any more time. Temperatures are rising. Glaciers are melting. The frequency of forest fires is increasing, as is the frequency of once-in-a-hundred-year storms. Carbon emissions are out of control.
Soon, scientists say, we will reach a point of no return. Many believe we may already be there, and it doesn't help that the previous administration spent 4 years pretending that climate change didn't exist.
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And infrastructure: Despite years of ``infrastructure weeks,'' we haven't moved the ball on infrastructure at all.
This harms our country in countless ways, not the least of which it makes the United States less competitive around the world. Bad for business, bad for consumers, harmful to the next generation.
Our roads are filled with potholes. Our bridges are falling down. Broadband doesn't reach millions of Americans and is priced out of reach for millions more. And on and on.
We have the opportunity to build back better a more equitable, inclusive, sustainable, and green economy. But we need policies that are aligned with the priorities and the needs of middle-class families, not geared toward the wealthy and the well connected.
This budget resolution reflects deeply held American values, preserving lives and health, and creating prosperity for every American. It reflects who we are, all Americans, and it deserves our complete support.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, first, because I don't get the chance to do this very often, this is the Joint Economic Committee. We are basically here to talk about the economic impact of this piece of legislation. I am joyful to have Mr. Beyer as my opposite. He is someone who I truly respect intellectually. If he suggests you read a book, grab it.
But this is one of those occasions where, having sat through the Committee on the Budget's testimony discussion, I am both frustrated and a little heartbroken on the number of things that were said that actually weren't mathematically true or policy true or accurate. I am hoping that those of us on the Joint Economic Committee can actually raise the level of this argument and this discourse to being hyperfactual because we need to get this right.
Do understand that a $1.9 trillion bill, if you do the interest, is
$2.4 trillion to $2.5 trillion. So we need to start getting our understanding of the types of dollars we are talking about.
Mr. Speaker, I don't intend to stand here and just do a bunch of responses, but here's the quarterly from the Census Bureau about State and local revenues and resources: A 17.7 percent increase in receipts.
Now, your State might not be that, but 17.7 percent from the Census Bureau, their latest document.
And if you have one of the municipalities that is hurting, that has a shortfall, there is still $58 billion sitting in the account that hasn't been spent, yet we are talking about adding another $1.9 trillion in spending.
Until we also take a moment and understand the almost $1 trillion still sitting in the accounts that haven't been released or spent, part of this argument we are having today is absolutely absurd.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I have a quick response to my dear friend from Arizona. While we acknowledge that many of the States actually had increased revenues last year, virtually no locality did. I represent Northern Virginia, a fairly wealthy part, yet every one of our local governments is getting creamed. We had 1.3 million job losses in State and local government in 2020. That is not nothing.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Pocan), the immediate past chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the most distinguished magician in the U.S. House.
Mr. POCAN. Mr. Speaker, the American people are hurting, and they need our help now. Millions have lost their jobs over the past year through no fault of their own, and more than 100,000 small businesses have been forced to close forever due to COVID-19. The House has tried to do the right thing. We passed multiple relief packages last year that began to approach the scale needed to address the suffering in our communities, only to meet resistance from Mitch McConnell's Senate and the Trump administration.
Let's be honest, the Federal Government's handling of this pandemic has been largely inept. The previous administration said it was just the flu, that it would pass before we knew it, that injecting ourselves with unproven substances would take care of the problem.
Extend that magical thinking to testing and vaccine distribution and it is easy to see why the American people and the economy are in crisis today. Now those same magical thinkers tell us that more aid for people suffering across the Nation is not needed.
The Congressional Budget Office told all of us on Monday that the Nation's unemployment rate will not return to prepandemic levels throughout the rest of this decade. This decade.
Let's stop nickel-and-diming our response to this once-in-a-century pandemic. Let's follow the advice of almost every major economist who has urged us to act big. Doing too little is the real threat we face.
State and local governments have been providing tests and assisting in vaccine distribution, all while losing tax revenue. They need our help.
The unemployed are at risk of losing their homes, and working people are going hungry. They need our help. Small businesses have lost demand at a time they need it most to keep people employed. They need our help.
I am proud to support additional direct payments to individuals, aid for schools, aid for State and localities' public health programs. I am proud to support more aid for struggling small businesses, addressing our longstanding need for widespread broadband access, and minimum wage that ensures no full-time worker in America lives below the poverty line.
Let's do this. I urge all of my colleagues to support the resolution before us.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, just a couple points. There is still
$280 billion sitting in the payroll protection account. There is still
$239 billion sitting in the health spending account. I am someone who, on a personal level--and I believe our Republican side of the Joint Economic Committee--believes we need to probably spend more, but it needs to be properly targeted so we get the impact.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California
(Mrs. Kim).
Mrs. KIM of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because people are hurting, small businesses are struggling to keep their doors open, and livelihoods are on the line.
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken more than 440,000 lives to date. It has taken the life of my mother-in-law, and I am sure many of my colleagues' loved ones, too.
Now is the time for unity. Now is the time to come together. Now is the time to put down our partisan words and show that Congress can work together for the American people.
Bypassing the chance for bipartisanship is not the way to bring relief to the American people or to bring unity. I came to Congress to break the partisan gridlock, but the reconciliation process drives us farther apart.
We should strive to focus on issues that we all can get done, like providing $160 billion targeted funding for vaccine distribution and to reopen our schools safely, not a wish list to advance our other priorities unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Federal Government has also yet to spend about $1 trillion provided by the COVID-19 relief bills passed last year. Think about that: $1 trillion unspent.
So I ask my colleagues, before we rush through more trillion dollars, let's first have a real bipartisan discussion so we can ensure that our communities with the most need are getting the relief right away.
Instead, Democrats are throwing away the chance to work with Republicans to get things done, provide our constituents with relief, and bring our country together. The only way we will get through this pandemic and get things done is by working together.
Our constituents, the Nation, and the world are watching.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, let me just point out that we are not throwing away our chance to work with Republicans. We would love to have a bipartisan bill, but if it's not possible, we have to have this reconciliation process in place because it takes weeks to unfold.
Mr. Speaker, we are in a deep hole. To build back better, we have to crush the virus, as Speaker Pelosi so beautifully captured. But make no mistake, the COVID-19 pandemic has plunged us into a very, very big hole.
Last week, we got the advance--or first--report on 2020 GDP, and it was ugly. The economy shrank by 3.5 percent last year, the worst economic performance since 1946. Very few of us were even born the last time our economy declined by this much. Let me say it again, the U.S. economy is the weakest it has been since the end of World War II.
It could have been worse. It could have been much worse but for the actions we took in a bipartisan way in this Congress. We passed the CARES Act in May, and instead of the 5.6 percent decline the CBO had forecast, we only got 3\1/2\ percent. Just imagine if the Senate had taken up the Heroes Act that we passed. Unemployment insurance alone, which was strengthened with the $600 supplemental payment and the creation of pandemic unemployment assistance, accounted for more than
$550 billion in personal income in 2020. These payments were a lifeline to individuals, and they bolstered the economy.
We lost huge amounts of ground in the spring when second quarter GDP declined at a record 31.4 percent rate. That 4 percent in the fourth quarter helped, but not nearly enough to get us out of the hole.
As Fed chair Powell and others have made clear, the risk isn't doing too much. The risk is doing too little. This budget resolution before us recognizes that reality and uses it as a starting point.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Ohio (Mrs. Beatty), the distinguished chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, a member of the Joint Economic Committee, and my dear friend.
Mrs. BEATTY. Mr. Speaker, what I am going to say is for the American people because, for the past year, American people's lives and livelihoods have been turned upside down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whether contracting the virus, losing their jobs, working on the front lines, at the risk of eviction or struggling to keep their businesses open, many of my constituents--Republican constituents, Democrat constituents--have been forced to make unimaginable decisions and sacrifices.
In response, Congress passed the strong bipartisan CARES Act. However, 10 months later, the virus is still wreaking havoc on our way of life, in large part due to the failures of the prior administration.
So we are here to right the wrongs, and under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi and the Biden-Harris administration, we are doing just that. We must meet the moment and bookend this pandemic with a big, bold package to ensure workers, families, and small businesses have the support and resources to break through the dark winter and start the process to build back better.
Think about this, Mr. Speaker: The budget reconciliation will pave the way to doing just that.
Who is against extending emergency unemployment? Who is against providing another round of direct stimulus? Who is against offering rental assistance to ensure that no family is forced to live on the streets? Who is against instituting a quicker rollout and production of vaccines after the disastrous rollout, or lack thereof, by the previous administration? Who is against expanding funds for child care and increasing the child tax credit? Who is against giving aid to the very States that we represent and localities?
So I say to my colleagues: Think about what your constituents have called for. Think about what they are losing, and let's give our constituents hope. Let's join together to meet the moment; not for us, but for the American people, for the economy, and for the future.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that Congresswoman Beatty has a great mask. It is wonderfully sparkly.
I did want to share one thing very, very quickly. This is our CBO projection of where we are at right now. With the moneys that have already been authorized right now, by the end of this year, we will be close to a 4 percent GDP growth. So last quarter wasn't anywhere where we wanted it. The quarter before that was miserable. But you have to understand that this is where we are at.
We keep hearing our fellow Members make comments, saying the economists said, ``Go big.'' But if you actually listen to their second line, multiple economists said, ``Go big, but go targeted.''
This document isn't targeted. It is all over the board.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Estes).
Mr. ESTES. Mr. Speaker, in addition to treating and vaccinating for COVID, our main priority should be getting people back to work. This legislation doesn't do that. It is full of job-killing mandates and liberal special interest handouts. So it keeps schools closed. Operation Warp Speed was such a great development to get the vaccine rolled out there so we can get the economy going.
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But one of the things that this resolution does, it bails out States that help top off their tax revenue for 2020. However, in my State of Kansas, the 2020 revenues are already higher than the 2019 revenues, including in our just completed month of January, 10 percent higher than a year ago.
So the States aren't suffering through the revenue loss because of the ability for people to still continue to grow and work as they can.
But the resolution does raise expenses for Main Street, nearly doubling the Federal minimum wage at a time when thousands of small businesses are already struggling to keep the lights on. This legislation also fails to recognize, as mentioned earlier, that there is nearly $1 trillion left from the previous COVID bills that Congress has already passed.
By the way, these were five bipartisan bills that were passed in 2020 in order to make sure that it addressed all of the issues that we reflect across our country. The Biden administration should instead be focused on families who are hurting the most, targeting, particularly, the more than 8 million people who have lost their jobs due to COVID.
Workers, families, and small businesses don't need more Washington regulations or mandates. They need to have the economy up and running again. Republicans believe we must increase wages and job opportunities for all workers, and we have gotten real results with tax and regulatory reforms, achieving historic surges in jobs and wages.
Unfortunately, this legislation does not build off of that successful playbook, but, instead, shows that the Biden administration is far more interested in advancing a radical leftwing wish list over our common economic policies that will help our Main Street businesses and families.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
I would agree with all of those economists who say go target, go big, and go targeted. In fact, that is what Joe Biden has said again and again.
I think his speech on the American Recovery Act was extraordinarily targeted, and while this budget reconciliation bill is the big picture, we all know that by the time we pass those individual budgets, they will be targeted at the most granular level.
And to my friend, Mr. Estes, with whom I serve on Ways and Means, I am glad that Kansas is doing well. I don't know the answer to this, but I would go back and see how it is going in Wichita and some of those local governments.
I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline), one of the leaders in so many different ways of the U.S. House of Representatives, the former mayor of Providence.
Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in strong support of the budget resolution for fiscal year 2021.
It has been said that a budget isn't just a series of numbers on a sheet of paper, it is a statement of your values. Well, if that is true, then this budget is a bold statement of our values as Democrats. This budget paves the way for a landmark COVID-19 rescue plan. It delivers a simple message to the American people: Help is on the way.
Mr. Speaker, since the start of this pandemic, tens of millions of Americans have been infected. Nearly half a million have died, with almost a quarter of all deaths happening in the last month alone. Millions of Americans can't find work. It is getting harder and harder to pay for food and housing. Schools are closed. Kids are being left behind. The American people can't afford any more delays or half measures.
This is a time for bold action. That is why we have to pass this budget resolution and pave the way for President Biden's American Rescue Plan, an aggressive proposal that tackles our public health and economic emergencies.
The President's American Rescue Plan meets the crisis before us. It includes nearly $2 trillion for a new round of survival checks; a national vaccination program; the resources cities and towns need to safely reopen schools; direct housing and food assistance; expanding access to healthcare and safe and reliable childcare; extended and enhanced unemployment insurance; paychecks for the first responders, public health workers and teachers who are still on the front lines of this crisis; and critical support for the hardest-hit small businesses.
During this historic crisis, the American people deserve to know that help is on the way. This resolution does just that. We all know from listening to our constituents how much suffering is happening in this country, and that we need a response that responds to the gravity of the economic healthcare crisis that this pandemic has created. This resolution does it. Join us in this effort. Respond to the cries of the American people.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Once again--and I am probably going to keep making this point over, and over, and over--I care deeply and am desperately concerned particularly for the poor and the working poor in this country. And this document, if we are going to be honest about it, does not target their suffering.
I will show a couple of boards here where, once again, we are going to be sending stunning amounts of money to places that it is just going to sit in a bank account. It is going to go to places where it is not actually creating that velocity, that multiplier effect of helping those who are suffering.
And do understand--this is important--there is still $172 billion sitting in the disaster loan accounts. There is another $172 billion still sitting in the unemployment insurance accounts from things we have already done together.
In that case, it is not completely--I don't want to use the word
``disingenuous''--but some of the things we are saying here that, yes, there is a crisis out there, and, yes, there is actually money sitting in the accounts. Get that damn money out of those accounts to where the suffering is.
And with that I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Pfluger).
Mr. PFLUGER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today for the first time as a Member of Congress in complete opposition to the budget reconciliation act.
Today, adding almost $2 trillion to the national debt and eliminating 1.3 million jobs is up for a vote.
This partisan budget reconciliation package allows President Biden to shove $1.9 trillion of stimulus spending through Congress without any Republican consent. It is a blue State bailout to States who have shut down their business, closed their places of worship, and prevented families from earning an honest living.
We don't need bailouts. We need to get back to work. Taxpayers in States like Texas should not be left holding the bag for the failing governments in New York, California, and others who chose to close their economies.
Congress just passed a $900 billion stimulus package in December, and over $1 trillion in COVID relief has yet to reach its intended recipients. The U.S. is already over $26 trillion in debt and counting.
This is totally unsustainable and will have a disastrous consequence for our economy and future generations. We are talking about the future of our children and our grandchildren. Nothing could be more important in this decision.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I would first like to welcome our new colleague from Texas to the floor. An excellent speech.
I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters), a member of the Joint Economic Committee and a distinguished businessperson in his own right.
Mr. PETERS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
When Congress passed the emergency COVID bill in December, we knew more resources would be needed to fight the virus and provide additional relief for many Americans who have been devastated financially. Now we are working to accomplish that by March 14 when the enhanced unemployment benefits will expire.
I fully support the beginning of the process of budget reconciliation because we need to start the clock. In my experience in Congress, and yours, too, we all know that this place works much better with a deadline.
However, I would hope that we can respond to this challenge in a bipartisan way as we did last March and again in December, and maybe this proposal could be better targeted.
I am encouraged by the $600 billion proposal of 10 Republican Senators. Some have scoffed at this offer, called it an insult, or dismissed it as not serious. I don't agree with that. $600 billion is a lot of money, but it is not adequate for the task at hand. We need more help to open schools and to keep people housed. State and local governments need assistance to prevent more layoffs and make up for lost revenue, and we should stop guessing how long we will need unemployment and food assistance.
As the New Democrat Coalition has advocated from the beginning, we should enact automatic triggers to keep them flowing and then shut them off according to economic conditions.
Our biggest challenge as a nation is not one particular issue, but the deep division among us here in Congress and among citizens across America. Bipartisanship has intrinsic value and we should prioritize it. But today's action will ensure that we have a relief package on time no matter the politics. This is a step we have to take.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, maybe I am going to break protocol, but I am finding that this will be the second time I think I have complimented someone on the Democratic side. Triggers make a lot of sense in this type of mechanism when you have, functionally, $1 trillion still sitting in the accounts, and we are seeing projections from CBO saying, functionally, by the fourth quarter--I am sorry, I didn't have a chance to print this large--but by the fourth quarter, unemployment--look, I am one of those who believes full employment is always the ultimate goal--but unemployment will be back to where basically we were in 2015-2016.
Can we do better? Absolutely. But to do better, it is going to require thoughtful, targeted, well-designed spending, of our resources, our statutes. And one of the reasons I talk about that is there is something very unique going on. And I hope our chairman of the Joint Economic Committee will actually think about this because we haven't figured out how to turn this one into being partisan yet. I am sure we will figure it out.
But right now, this is the sort of thing we should be talking about. There is this crazy renaissance going on in this country of people starting new businesses, filing new LLCs, starting new concerns.
Now, it may be because of the tragedy of the business they have right now which has been crushed by the shutdowns and the virus, but there are a remarkable number of new concerns beginning.
Wouldn't it be both elegant, but also very powerful, as we watch unemployment, to find ways to access capital; access to streamlined permitting, licensing; crazy things like allowing someone to do a microbusiness out of public housing, things that actually have impact.
And it turns out, those aren't the sort of things you find in a $1.9 trillion--functionally $2.5 trillion if you are going to be honest about the real cost--spending package. And I understand this is a piece of legislation that if you actually look at it, it is just line, after line, after line, after line of numbers.
If this passes--which it probably will, you know, the Democrats are in the majority--the ethical, moral obligations we have heard from multiple speakers here that a budget is your values, is the value the fact you can spend stunning amounts of money even when there is $1 trillion still sitting in the bank unspent, or is the value that you are going to do it in a way where we impact the working poor; where we impact those who are truly suffering, and not crushing someone like my 5-year-old daughter who is the one who is ultimately going to be paying this back.
So if we are going to make the moral argument, I hope we think about the whole, shall we say, continuum of what we do here, what is moral, what is right.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, can I ask how much time is remaining on our side.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Cuellar). The gentleman from Virginia has 15 minutes remaining. The gentleman from Arizona has 17 minutes remaining.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, to my new friend from Texas, I would point out that Texas and California and New York--two of the bluest States around--are all net exporters of Federal dollars mostly to red States.
Now, it tends to be the blue States who are helping out the red States in terms of our Federal allocations. I would also like to compliment the ranking member on the Joint Economic Committee for his optimism in having a 5-year-old daughter.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib), the distinguished Member who spent her life lifting people out of poverty.
Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, this pandemic has taken the lives of nearly 16,000 Michiganders with 25 percent of the deaths from Wayne County and the city of Detroit.
Our communities are forever changed. The U.S. is on a course to reach 500,000 deaths by February 20. That is a half a million lives lost.
And in response to this record death toll, Congress has sent out one
$1,200 check almost a year ago and another $600 check, for a total of
$1,800. That is an average of $163 per month.
Mr. Speaker, there is not a single person in this Chamber or in my district who can survive on that little per month. My residents cannot afford to wait. The bills don't stop after 1 month; neither should the checks. The budget resolution ensures that we can do the work of delivering urgent relief to our families and every single district across the country.
{time} 1615
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, in many ways we are all saying the same thing. It is just, once again, trying to make the argument, if we do this smartly and well-targeted, we can do it for a dramatically more efficient cost and actually help more of the poor that we know are suffering, more of the people who have been crushed, more of the small businesses.
And a simple example, Opportunity Insights has predicted that, with a
$2,000 check to functionally every household that makes less than
$46,000, only $420, functionally, of what they receive will get spent. The rest goes in the bank. Maybe that is a good thing. Maybe that is the audience you want to target. But when you start doing the same thing to populations, and for some reason they use $78,000, only $105 gets spent. So think of that.
Mr. Speaker, increase the check another $1,400, a population that makes $78,000 or more, they are only spending $105. The rest is going in the bank account. Maybe that is wonderful, but that is not what we are debating. We are trying to create a multiplier effect of some stimulus in our society to get the economy going so we see those GDP numbers go up; the unemployment go down; and we get back to the miracle we were at in 2018 and 2019, where income and equality actually shrank for the first time in 2 years, where food insecurity shrank for the first time in decades and decades and decades, where the working poor actually were doing better than they had in decades and decades and decades.
How do we get back to, functionally, what was the miracle of 2018 and 2019?
And my argument is, the model that we are reading in this resolution, isn't it. It doesn't get you there. If we truly have the same goal, I desperately hope our friends on the left and those of us on the right, who actually want to look at this almost like an economist of a laser beam, are saying: Let's find those who are hurting and find out how to get the resources that are already appropriated and get those to them, and then appropriate more where necessary.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, last summer, when Donald Trump was pressuring governors to ignore the advice of health experts and reopen their economies, he was predicting we would lead to a ``V-shaped'' recovery, in which the recovery would be as steep as the catastrophic decline.
Others predicted a ``U-shaped'' recovery, a more drawn-out version of the ``V.'' And even others predicted a ``W-shaped'' recovery, an uptick, followed by another drop due to a probable second wave of the coronavirus, and then hopeful improvement. Even Ian Bremmer talked about a scalloped recovery.
Mr. Speaker, there has been recovery, but with two big caveats. It has been a ``K-shaped'' recovery. It has come at the cost of over 440,000 American lives.
As the Trump administration pressured States to relax measures needed to control the coronavirus, the virus exploded. And this does have incredibly long-term cost on families, on generations in the economy.
But this ``K-shaped'' recovery, which has really come into vogue right now, is some are doing quite well and some are doing pretty poorly. High-income workers have been able to work from home and save record amounts of cash--I think a 33 percent savings rate in the second quarter.
The savings rate has gone through the roof because the paychecks, the stock gains, have kept coming in for those folks; but they can't spend it on restaurants or movies or travel, flights, entertainment.
American billionaires picked up $1.9 trillion in net worth in 2020. Just the increase in billionaires' net worth alone would pay for this package. The personal savings rate more than doubled in 2020. Housing prices climbed 10 percent in the last year. Stock market went up about 15 percent in the midst of the crisis. But, remember, the wealthiest 10 percent own 84 percent of the stocks. So they walked away with a vast majority of the stock gains last year, as they do every year.
These factors probably explained why households of more than $75,000 in income saved their $600 payments from December rather than spent them, as revealed in recent Opportunity Insights' data.
On the other side of the coin, low-wage workers have seen unemployment drop by 20 to 25 percent, and the unemployment rates for Black and Hispanic workers exceeds 9 percent. The rich have gotten richer. The poor have gotten poorer. And the American Dream has become ever-less attainable for too many Americans. A ``K-shaped'' recovery is unacceptable.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), my friend of almost 40 years, my godfather.
Mr. CONNOLLY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my dear friend for yielding to me and for his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, when I served in local government, I helped write and pass 14 consecutive budgets--all balanced. And what the budget writing process taught me was that a budget is a values document.
So what does the budget reconciliation process tell us about our respective values?
Well, the last two times the budget reconciliation process was used by Republicans, they used it on a $2 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthiest Americans and corporations and to take away healthcare for more than 20 million Americans. That was their value.
The budget we are debating today shows the Democrats in Congress are going to use every bit of a fight we have in us to take decisive and comprehensive action to finally end this pandemic and alleviate the economic pain Americans are experiencing.
We will not wait and see if another 100,000 Americans die in a single month in order to deliver vaccines and testing that we need. We will not wait and see if the United States loses another 20 million jobs, or if the American economy experiences another record-breaking year of GDP contraction. We will not wait and see if the U.S. loses another 10 million jobs, or people continue to go hungry at record numbers.
We will enact an American rescue plan that saves lives and livelihoods. Those are our values.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, once again, back to facts over feelings: After the tax reform, what did we see in our society?
It was the first 2 years that we actually saw income and equality shrink in modern economic times. I thought that was the Holy Grail.
Did you see what happened to Hispanics, African Americans' incomes, working poor incomes?
The fact of the matter is, if you tell the truth about the post-tax reform model--just maybe because I was in the room--the top 10 percent actually were paying more of the Federal income taxes than prior. Yet that somehow isn't the folklore that we so often hear from this floor.
Mr. Speaker, there are couple other points I would like to make. And a couple of this is important because Chairman Beyer actually did a terrific job touching on some of this. And he was making a very powerful point. And, actually, I hate to say this, he was reading part of my script, which actually is a little creepy.
The total deposits in commercial banks, if you take a look at this line, have gone up dramatically. It is because too much of the money that we have done bipartisan in the last year to help stimulate and save the economy ended up in pockets of those very, very wealthy, or even medium wealthy, and it ended up sitting in the bank and not circulating, rotating in the economy and helping the workers, helping the working poor, helping those who are just trying to survive.
My fear is this budget reconciliation document is going to be just a lot more of this, if you actually look. The other thing is--this is a tough one, and this is one I am hoping that the placeholder in this document isn't what the Democrats really are heading towards because, if it is, you are going to hear those who are on our side scream that this is a payoff to, shall we say, a constituency that is very supportive of the Democrats.
Mr. Speaker, not been a great year--the year 2000, about 350,000 State municipal workers lost their jobs. This budget reconciliation bill has about $350 billion in the line item for that population. You do realize that's $1 million a job. And if you do the total number, it is still $350,000 a job.
Is that compassion? Or is that lunacy?
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, to add to my friend's charts, let me point out that the Congressional Budget Office has estimated, without additional resources, investment into the economy, it will take until 2024--3 more years--just to get back to where we were at the prepandemic level 1 year ago.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green), and not the singer.
Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, in 2017, when my Republican friends had control of the House, the Senate, and the Presidency, they passed an approximately $1.5 trillion tax break for the very wealthy.
Mr. Speaker, the wealthy weren't suffering. There was no pain. They were not about to be evicted. There were no mortgage payments behind. But they got $1.5 trillion approximately in tax breaks.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my dear friends on the other side to see this, if they will: As a tax break for the working class, let's let people who are making $75,000 a year have an opportunity to acquire some money to help them. If it goes into a bank account, it will come out. They are not wealthy. At some point we have to realize that those who are among the working class cannot do more with less, while the wealthy need more to do more.
Mr. Speaker, it is time for us to save this country, save these people who are suffering. I will vote for this resolution. I will vote for reconciliation.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I will tell you this: Mr. Green also can sing, and he is one of those I consider a friend. He and I have done a number of pieces of legislation, and he and I have a running discussion of what actually helps the working poor. We have different views, but we know we both have a passion of it.
Mr. Speaker, let's actually take sort of the theme that has been offered here. I believe it is absolutely mathematically wrong, but an argument that, Hey, so much of this has helped the wealthy in tax reform and those things. Great.
Mr. Speaker, if someone on the Democratic side can promise me that when I am looking at this budget resolution, this is not creating a policy box for the Committee on Ways and Means to turn around and re-implement policy where, functionally, the benefit goes mostly to the very, very wealthy.
So when I see the box here that looks like it would allow for certain revenues to be raised, and then it goes to possibly a SALT--a State and local tax deduction, which we all know the top 1 percent gets 57 percent of the value of it, the bottom 80 percent of our society only gets 4 percent of the value--that would be, actually, a tax break. Actually, I think I have been quoted as saying, ``It is the most regressive tax break that you can think of in our society right now that is in play.''
I am just desperately hoping that isn't what I am reading in some of these pages as part of that setup. And I would love someone on the left to basically promise me that we are not seeing a setup here to, once again, subsidize the rich.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I had the great honor of attending the Arlington funeral service for Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. It was moving and very sad, eloquent. I only bring this up because I was transported with my friend, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, to the cemetery and back with two Capitol Police Officers who were talking about how much they love their job but how exhausted they were at ages 40 and late 20s.
I asked them, ``What is your job?''
They said, ``We are security for the Speaker.''
And she is indefatigable, tireless, works around the clock, and, to my mind, is the best Speaker America has ever had.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Pelosi), the Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Ms. PELOSI. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I thank him for his great leadership of the Joint Economic Committee, a place where we can really think in a way that is entrepreneurial and successful for the American people. His private sector experience, as well as respect for the public sector and the nonprofit sector, equips him well to lead that important committee and to take us to the floor on this bill, following the Budget Committee, under the leadership of John Yarmuth, a tireless worker for the budget and this resolution.
Mr. Speaker, I believe that a budget should be a statement of our national values. What is important to us as a nation should be reflected when we put a budget together.
It is curious to me to hear the distinguished gentleman on the other side of the aisle. It would be ludicrous if it weren't so deadly serious.
Mr. Speaker, $1.9 trillion, the President of the United States has determined is necessary to meet the needs of the American people at a time of a pandemic, at a time of consequences to our economy that are drastic--and I will go on to that in a moment. $1.9 trillion, which is almost exactly the cost of the Republican tax break that they gave to the richest people in America; 83 percent of the benefits went to the top 1 percent.
{time} 1630
This legislation, which helps meet the needs of the American people, to be considered a tax break bill for the rich, it is pathetic. It is pathetic. The fact of this Congress is that somebody can say things that aren't true on the floor, but if you say that they said something that was untrue, you would be called out of order.
But I would just say, the facts are these. $1.9 trillion, when you add in the interest--Mr. Green from Texas referenced this--if you add in the interest, $1.9 trillion, $2 trillion, added to the national debt, with no stimulus for our economy, only debt for our children.
Instead, here today, we have a bill that meets the needs of the American people. In the election, the American people cast their ballot for big, bold action and decisive leadership to turn the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis around. Since then, the need has accelerated drastically. The time for decisive action is now.
Mr. Speaker, that is why, today, we will pass a budget resolution to pave the way for a landmark coronavirus rescue, a rescue plan, which will do what is needed to save lives and livelihoods.
We hope that Republicans in Congress would support a legislative package that will bring real relief to people and to our communities.
Passing this budget does not preclude reaching a bipartisan agreement. I would rather not work under reconciliation, but if that is the way we have to work in order to get results for the American people, we must use every option at our disposal. But I am hopeful that we can have bipartisanship.
That does not ensure that Congress can move forward and meet the country's needs. The need for this action could not be more urgent, and Americans cannot afford to wait. They cannot afford any further delay.
Tens of millions of Americans have been infected. Nearly half a million have died, with one-fifth of those deaths occurring over the past month.
Meanwhile, tens of millions of workers are jobless; food and housing insecurity is skyrocketing; and school closings threaten our children's education. And our most vulnerable communities are bearing the brunt of these crises, as the underlying health and economic disparities continue to grow.
President Biden's American Rescue Plan will take a comprehensive, strategic, and science-based approach to tackling the public health and economic crises. Here is what it will do.
It will put money in the pockets of the American people. It will put vaccines in the arms of the American people. It will put children back in school and workers back to work.
It will crush the virus and help us safely reopen schools, mounting a national vaccination campaign that includes community vaccination sites, ramping and scaling up testing and tracing, addressing shortages of PPE, investing in high-quality treatments, and addressing healthcare disparities.
It is sinful, Mr. Speaker, to see how few people in our communities of color have had access to vaccines up until now, but that will change under President Biden and with this legislation.
It will deliver immediate relief to working families bearing the brunt of the crisis, providing $1,400 checks per person to households across America and providing housing and nutrition assistance. Tens of thousands of people are food insecure in our country. Maybe 17 million children are food insecure in our country.
Access to safe and reliable childcare--let me say it again, safe and reliable childcare--and affordable healthcare, expanded unemployment insurance, and enhanced tax credits for families, low-income working families.
Finally, the plan will support communities struggling with the economic fallout, providing a lifeline for the hardest hit small businesses, especially those owned by minorities, and honoring our heroes. Yes, $350 billion to honor our heroes, about one-fourth of what you were giving to the top 1 percent in our country in your tax bill.
Why is that important? Because these are the entities, State and local county governments, townships, and the rest, that provide the services that the people need: healthcare workers, first responders, police and fire, transportation, sanitation, food workers, our teachers, our teachers, our teachers. They need the State and local governments to be funded. That is very important. In a bipartisan way across the country, it has bipartisan support. So, yes, it is $350 billion.
Again, it is to meet the needs. These people risk their lives to save lives, and now they may lose their jobs because of the cost of the coronavirus and the lost revenue from the pandemic.
Finally, the plan would support communities struggling with the fallout, again, providing a lifeline--that is this point I am making now--for hardest hit small businesses, as I mentioned, that are owned by minorities, frontline health workers, teachers, transit workers, and other essential workers risking their lives to save ours. It bears repetition.
The cost of inaction is growing by the day. If we don't enact this package now, we could end up with 4 million fewer jobs this year, and it could take a year longer to return to full employment. An entire cohort of young people may have lower lifetime earnings because they were deprived of another semester of school.
Millions of parents, particularly moms, can be forced to stay at home, reducing their wages and future job prospects. I believe the figure is 100 percent. But just about 100 percent of the jobs lost in December were women.
But if this package is passed and enacted in full by March, economic growth is projected to jump by nearly 8 percent this year and then by an additional 4 percent next year. At that pace, we will create 7\1/2\ million jobs this year alone and a total of 10 million jobs by the fall of 2022, reaching full employment.
But don't take it from me. Experts agree that this bold action is needed, especially as interest rates are at historic lows and the return on small investments has never been higher.
As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, of whom we are very proud, stated:
Without further action, we risk a longer, more painful recession now and long-term scarring of the economy later. Right now, with interest rates at historic lows, the smartest thing we can do now is act big. In the long run, the benefits will far outweigh the costs.
Mark Zandi, the chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said just last week:
It is better to err on the side of too much rather than too little. Interest rates are at practically zero, inflation is low, unemployment is high. You don't need a textbook to know that this is when you push on the fiscal accelerator.
Also last week, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, stated:
I am much more worried about falling short of a complete recovery and losing people's careers and lives that they built because they don't get back to work in time. I am more concerned about that and the damage that will do.
Reconciliation bills have passed on a bipartisan basis 17 times in recent years, including one that I participated in to pass the Children's Health Insurance Program, CHIP, which delivered lifesaving healthcare to nearly 10 million children.
As I said, the need for action could not be more urgent. Americans cannot afford further delay.
Listen, listen, listen to your constituents. We should all be listening to our constituents. They are our bosses. We must meet their needs.
Listening to our constituents, respecting President Biden's proposal to meet their needs, we must work together to save their lives and their livelihoods.
I wish we could have a strong bipartisan vote on this budget bill because, as I said, this budget is a statement of our values, and our values are that we are here to meet the needs of America's working families. It is about our children, their health, their education, the economic security of their families, a safe world for them to thrive, a world at peace in which they can reach their fulfillment. It is always about the children.
It is not about heaping mountains of debt on them, as they did in their tax scam that they passed, and then to have the nerve to call this a tax break for the wealthy when it has low-income tax credits, childcare tax credits, refundability, billions of dollars for the working poor in our country.
Economists and the Treasury Secretaries of both parties have said, if you really want to turn the economy around, help the neediest the most, help the neediest first. We do this in this legislation as we bolster the middle class and crush the virus.
Mr. Speaker, I urge an ``aye'' vote.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, the comment of ``look at this budget and see a party's values,'' this may be a little ethereal, but have you all heard the term ``blank check company''? It is one of the rages on Wall Street right now. Take basically a shell, have a bunch of money put into it, and then they promise, saying, we are going to find something to spend the money on.
This is essentially a blank check budget reconciliation with actually none of the very elegant and persuasive words said.
There is also one other thing, and I want to say this as respectfully as possible, so I am going to read someone else's words. The well-worn and misleading talking points is 83 percent of the tax cuts go to the wealthiest 1 percent. Just not true. Since the day of tax reform until 2025, the wealthiest, and maybe it is too much, get 25 percent. At the very end of tax reform, when many of the different tax breaks and those things are expiring out, there is an anomaly in the year 2027. It is not 83 percent.
Please, I beg of my friends on the left, I know we like our talking points, but there is a reason the public is so enraged with us. It is because we have this bad habit of getting behind these microphones and playing some real games with the facts, and the facts are the facts.
Once again, the blank check company concept, this is now the blank check budget.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, may I ask how much time we have remaining.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Virginia has 6\1/2\ minutes remaining. The gentleman from Arizona has 8\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), the distinguished chairman of the Trade Subcommittee on Ways and Means and, in my opinion, the most thoughtful Member of the House.
{time} (1645)
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the gentleman's courtesy and his leadership.
Mr. Speaker, the hardest hit sector of our economy is the 500,000 independent restaurants and their 11 million employees. That is why there are 2.3 million of those employees unemployed. And one out of six restaurants has closed permanently, with the prospect of up to 85 percent being lost in the year ahead. Sadly, the impact has been disproportionately on women, minorities, and immigrants.
The PPE program didn't work for restaurants. They don't need complicated loans. They don't know, in many cases, whether they are going to be open in 2 or 3 months.
The restrictions across the country are such that most restaurants simply do not have a viable economic model. That is why I introduced the Restaurants Act. I am pleased that $50 billion has been designated for small business in this resolution, and I hope at least 50 percent of that will be dedicated to the bipartisan and bicameral Restaurants Act that we have introduced. It has over half the Members of the House of Representatives cosponsoring and over half the Senate.
We have an opportunity to move this forward in a way that will give a lifeline to our restaurants that are the cornerstone of our community. We give them that lifeline, and next year at this time most of it will be back to normal. They will be vaccinated, the weather will change, and we will be able to return to that vibrant part of our communities. But they need the lifeline.
So I strongly urge support for the Restaurants Act which will be reintroduced and part of the reconciliation process that will make it possible to provide that necessary support to keep them afloat.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Beyer) for his courtesy.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, there is one other thing I wanted to share. First, the Restaurants Act is a good piece of legislation. I think there are many of us on Ways and Means who look forward to it or something very, very close to it.
Also, one other comment, Madam Speaker spoke earlier, I was actually somewhat enthused about her focus on kids in school. As Mr. Beyer teased me, I am 58, my wife is 58, and I have a 5 year old. That is the ultimate definition of being optimistic for the future. That is funny.
But the fact of the matter is, I desperately hope that Madam Speaker will use her influence on the teachers' union to encourage getting these kids back to school. I have some charts--but I am not going to show them to everyone because I may save them for evening floor time--
on the devastation--and the Speaker actually just spoke about this, which is a great irony--of what we are doing to the future earning power of everyone from the parents to the children themselves.
How many saw the story, I think in The New York Times, this last week about children suicides in Nevada?
It rips your heart out. But I don't see it in this budget document. It is not in there.
If that is where we are heading, great. As Republicans we are going to help make good things happen, getting these schools open, but we actually need the influence from the left, particularly with the teachers' union to make that a possibility.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia).
Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it has been almost 1 year since COVID hit the U.S., and the sick are still splitting pills, diabetics are still rationing their insulin, and families are doubled up in homes to keep relatives off the streets. I saw it in 2008, and I am seeing it again. Up and down the streets of my neighborhood on the southwest side of Chicago businesses are closed. Every week I am attending another wake. It is happening across this country.
This has been a failure of the American Government. But finally, we have a President willing to move a significant relief bill. Congress needs to pass this legislation and get people the relief that they need now.
Transit, stimulus checks for working people and immigrants, rental assistance and small business grants--we can't nickel and dime our way out of this pandemic. Let's do our job. Let's get the vaccine out, and let's save our economy. We need to pass the $1.9 trillion budget and get the American people back on their feet now.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close.
Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, this has been actually a reasonable conversation. I desperately hope we are going to have more of this.
But back to some of the principal points from the Republican side we are trying to share about this budget resolution is the SBA paycheck protection. There is still $280 billion sitting in the account that hasn't gone out the door; healthcare spending, still has $239 billion sitting in the account that hasn't gone out the door; economic injury disaster loans, $172 billion still sitting in the account that hasn't gone out the door; unemployment insurance expansion, another $172 billion still sitting in the account; education funding, $59 billion sitting in the account; assistance to State and local, $58 billion; stimulus checks, there is still $52 billion sitting in there; food stamps, there is still $33 billion; childcare and development block grants, there is $10 billion sitting in that account; agriculture assistance, there is still $29 billion sitting in the account. That is
$1 trillion.
Is there a need for more help in our society?
Absolutely.
Does this document actually target it to those who are hurting, to the working poor, and to those who actually haven't gained great wealth with the stock market? Are other dollars in their accounts?
I just don't see it in there.
And functionally, this is $2.5 trillion of spending. When we authorize $1.9 trillion and then do the interest on it, I think that is a fair interest calculation.
I beg of us that as this moves forward and we actually get to put some policy behind these incredibly broad numbers, will those of us who actually care about math--because the running joke in our family is that Daddy works in a math-free zone. Somehow, I thought it would get a laugh.
I desperately ask all of us, this is a stunning amount of money. I understand the need for the administration and the Democrat majority to act like individuals of action.
But what happens when that action is theater?
On the conservative side we want to help, but $1.9 trillion isn't the help. It is figuring out where the needs are and getting it to them. Instead--and I'll show some of the charts--some of the dollar amounts that are in this document are absurd and still don't get us what we know we need in our society.
So as part of my closing here, we have $1 trillion already still sitting in the accounts that haven't gone out the door.
What are we doing to get those resources to those who need it?
Because this is something that we could do instantly. The cash is already sitting there. It is already authorized.
But also, what could we do as those of us in the Joint Economic Committee try to work on math saying: Here is how we get the maximum amount of stimulus to help those who are hurting?
How do we get back to--forgive my cheat sheet--how do we get back to an environment where, once again, like we had in 2018 and 2019, income inequality actually shrank for the first time?
How do we get back to where food insecurity was shrinking and where the working poor were getting substantially less poor?
I know there is a great difficulty for my brothers and sisters on the left to extend tax reform and regulatory reform any credit. Then don't give it credit. But do at least accept we had some amazing things happening there for a couple of years for the very populations we come behind these microphones and say that we care about.
Is there a way that on this left budget document--which is functionally a blank check company--being authorized to drop $1.9 trillion in immediate cash with an ultimate cost of about $2.5 trillion, could we actually take a look at what was working in our society before the pandemic and figure out how to do more of what was working and take a look at what was done in the previous years where we spent lots of money and we had almost no multiplier effect, none of the folks we were trying to help were getting help, and do less of this?
Because this document reads very much like we are going back to the bad old days of spend lots of money, do some great virtue signaling, and, ultimately, the very people we talk about are no better off.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, how much time do I have remaining?
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman from Virginia has 3\1/2\ minutes remaining.
Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend, the ranking member, for this hourlong discussion. I will point out that all those billions and maybe trillions of dollars that apparently are still in coffers, one of the best things we can do is get new management at the executive level who will actually spend the money allocated by Congress, and I think the Senate is working on those confirmations right now.
There is nothing that has the sense of theater about the children in Virginia who are three times as food insecure as they were a year ago. We have millions of Americans out of work. We have this remarkable chart that shows that our unemployment rate hit an official 14.8 percent back in the spring, and we knew that was undercounted by all the people who left the workforce who weren't counted at all. They said it was probably closer to 20 percent, the highest since the Great Depression.
Now, we are formally down to 6.7 percent, but, once again, that is double the pre-pandemic level and doesn't capture the nearly 5 million workers who have given up looking for a job and left the labor force since February. That would push the unemployment rate almost at 10 percent. We cannot afford to be passive.
My friend, Mr. Schweikert, talks about the multiplier factor, and I am a huge fan of the multiplier effect. But the multiplier effect means putting money in the hands of people who will spend it. So we are in defense of our $15 minimum wage. That is money that will go into the hands of people who will spend it that day, that Friday, that weekend.
Alan Blinder and Mark Zandi, two prominent economists, found that fiscal monetary responses in 2008 and 2009 substantially reduced the severity and length of the Great Recession. Our wonderful chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jay Powell, a Republican, has said that monetary policy has gone as far as it can. Interest rates are near zero. It is up to us now, those who control fiscal policy, to make this comeback.
The Hamilton Project found that the Biden proposal would return us to the CBO's pre-pandemic projections after the third quarter of this year, not 2024 which would be where we were without it.
We face a once-in-a-generation challenge: a public health crisis caused a massive economic hit worse than the Great Recession, and responding to either one of these crises, the COVID or the economy, requires a smart, multifaceted, comprehensive approach. It is not a blank-check approach. We have outlined piece by piece by piece how this money would be spent, and we still have much granularity to go. We have don't have the luxury of choosing which crisis we respond to. We have got to overcome both of them to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans and ensure the livelihoods of millions more.
Another luxury we don't have is time. We can't waste months and months and months trying to figure out whether we are actually going to spend that money in those coffers or whether bipartisanship will work. We have to set the structure up so that if reconciliation is necessary--the same reconciliation my Republican friends used on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act--it is ready to go.
The American people--Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and those who don't fit in any of those groups--want us to take action. Giving shots in people's arms, ramping up testing and tracing, ensuring unemployment benefits don't expire on March 14 and that they are there when they are needed most--I thank the gentleman, by the way, Mr. Schweikert, for piling on automatic stabilizers, almost every economist I know thinks that is a good idea--and helping families put food on the table. This is what Americans want. We need to move now to get our country and our economy back on track, and this budget resolution starts the process.
Today, we are taking a very important step for the American people.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the resolution, and I yield back the balance of my time.
Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this Budget Resolution.
The pandemic has left millions of Americans hungry, homeless, or unable to make rent and mortgage payments. This resolution would provide critical support that is, quite literally, life or death.
It's a time to make life better for Americans who are hurting, using every tool available to us.
From extending eviction and foreclosure moratoriums, to supporting public transit like the Metropolitan Transportation Authority so my constituents can still get to work and healthcare appointments, we must act holistically.
Upon passage, the Oversight Committee will immediately get to work on one of the most important aspects of this package--providing desperately needed funding for states, local governments, tribes, and territories.
This money will allow these governments to help distribute vaccines, expand testing, keep frontline workers employed, and maintain vital services. It will also keep our economy afloat by allowing states, local governments, tribes, and territories to avoid laying off their employees en masse.
The Committee will include expanded emergency paid leave for federal employees, available for those who need to quarantine, isolate, or need to provide care due to the coronavirus.
We also will include funding for oversight and transparency efforts to ensure every taxpayer dollar included in this package is spent on its intended purpose.
The President's American Rescue plan would deal a decisive blow to this devastating pandemic, providing the resources that our families, communities, and economy need to survive.
We must do everything we can, as fast as we can, to get vaccines in arms, to get resources to struggling communities, and to get Americans back to work.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
Pursuant to House Resolution 85, the previous question is ordered on the concurrent resolution, as amended.
The question is on adoption of the concurrent resolution.
Pursuant to clause 10 of rule XX, the yeas and nays are ordered.
The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 218, nays 212, not voting 1, as follows:
YEAS--218
Adams Aguilar Allred Auchincloss Axne Barragan Bass Beatty Bera Beyer Bishop (GA) Blumenauer Blunt Rochester Bonamici Bourdeaux Bowman Boyle, Brendan F. Brown Brownley Bush Bustos Butterfield Carbajal Cardenas Carson Cartwright Casten Castor (FL) Castro (TX) Chu Cicilline Clark (MA) Clarke (NY) Cleaver Clyburn Cohen Connolly Cooper Correa Costa Courtney Craig Crist Crow Cuellar Davids (KS) Davis, Danny K. Dean DeFazio DeGette DeLauro DelBene Delgado Demings DeSaulnier Deutch Dingell Doggett Doyle, Michael F. Escobar Eshoo Espaillat Evans Fletcher Foster Frankel, Lois Fudge Gallego Garamendi Garcia (IL) Garcia (TX) Gomez Gonzalez, Vicente Gottheimer Green, Al (TX) Grijalva Haaland Harder (CA) Hastings Hayes Higgins (NY) Himes Horsford Houlahan Hoyer Huffman Jackson Lee Jacobs (CA) Jayapal Jeffries Johnson (GA) Johnson (TX) Jones Kahele Kaptur Keating Kelly (IL) Khanna Kildee Kilmer Kim (NJ) Kind Kirkpatrick Krishnamoorthi Kuster Lamb Langevin Larsen (WA) Larson (CT) Lawrence Lawson (FL) Lee (CA) Lee (NV) Leger Fernandez Levin (CA) Levin (MI) Lieu Lofgren Lowenthal Luria Lynch Malinowski Maloney, Carolyn B. Maloney, Sean Manning Matsui McBath McCollum McEachin McGovern McNerney Meeks Meng Mfume Moore (WI) Morelle Moulton Mrvan Murphy (FL) Nadler Napolitano Neal Neguse Newman Norcross O'Halleran Ocasio-Cortez Omar Pallone Panetta Pappas Pascrell Payne Perlmutter Peters Phillips Pingree Pocan Porter Pressley Price (NC) Quigley Raskin Rice (NY) Ross Roybal-Allard Ruiz Ruppersberger Rush Ryan Sanchez Sarbanes Scanlon Schakowsky Schiff Schneider Schrader Schrier Scott (VA) Scott, David Sewell Sherman Sherrill Sires Slotkin Smith (WA) Soto Spanberger Speier Stanton Stevens Strickland Suozzi Swalwell Takano Thompson (CA) Thompson (MS) Titus Tlaib Tonko Torres (CA) Torres (NY) Trahan Trone Underwood Vargas Veasey Vela Velazquez Wasserman Schultz Waters Watson Coleman Welch Wexton Wild Williams (GA) Wilson (FL) Yarmuth
NAYS--212
Aderholt Allen Amodei Armstrong Arrington Babin Bacon Baird Balderson Banks Barr Bentz Bergman Bice (OK) Biggs Bilirakis Bishop (NC) Boebert Bost Brady Brooks Buchanan Buck Bucshon Budd Burchett Burgess Calvert Cammack Carl Carter (GA) Carter (TX) Case Cawthorn Chabot Cheney Cline Cloud Clyde Cole Comer Crawford Crenshaw Curtis Davidson Davis, Rodney DesJarlais Diaz-Balart Donalds Duncan Dunn Emmer Estes Fallon Feenstra Ferguson Fischbach Fitzgerald Fitzpatrick Fleischmann Fortenberry Foxx Franklin, C. Scott Fulcher Gaetz Gallagher Garbarino Garcia (CA) Gibbs Gimenez Gohmert Golden Gonzales, Tony Gonzalez (OH) Good (VA) Gooden (TX) Gosar Granger Graves (LA) Graves (MO) Green (TN) Greene (GA) Griffith Grothman Guest Guthrie Hagedorn Harris Harshbarger Hartzler Hern Herrell Herrera Beutler Hice (GA) Higgins (LA) Hill Hinson Hollingsworth Hudson Huizenga Issa Jackson Jacobs (NY) Johnson (LA) Johnson (OH) Johnson (SD) Jordan Joyce (OH) Joyce (PA) Katko Keller Kelly (MS) Kelly (PA) Kim (CA) Kinzinger Kustoff LaHood LaMalfa Lamborn Latta LaTurner Lesko Long Loudermilk Lucas Luetkemeyer Mace Malliotakis Mann Massie Mast McCarthy McCaul McClain McClintock McHenry McKinley Meijer Meuser Miller (IL) Miller (WV) Miller-Meeks Moolenaar Mooney Moore (AL) Moore (UT) Mullin Murphy (NC) Nehls Newhouse Norman Nunes Obernolte Owens Palazzo Palmer Pence Perry Pfluger Posey Reed Reschenthaler Rice (SC) Rodgers (WA) Rogers (AL) Rogers (KY) Rose Rosendale Rouzer Roy Rutherford Salazar Scalise Schweikert Scott, Austin Sessions Simpson Smith (MO) Smith (NE) Smith (NJ) Smucker Spartz Stauber Steel Stefanik Steil Steube Stewart Stivers Taylor Thompson (PA) Tiffany Timmons Turner Upton Valadao Van Drew Van Duyne Wagner Walberg Walorski Waltz Weber (TX) Webster (FL) Wenstrup Westerman Williams (TX) Wilson (SC) Wittman Womack Young Zeldin
NOT VOTING--1
Wright
{time} 1753
Mrs. DINGELL changed her vote from ``nay'' to ``yea.''
So the concurrent resolution was agreed to.
The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
MEMBERS RECORDED PURSUANT TO HOUSE RESOLUTION 8, 117TH CONGRESS
Axne (Stevens) Barragan (Beyer) Bowman (Clark (MA)) Buchanan (Arrington) Cardenas (Gomez) Carson (Butterfield) Cohen (Beyer) Cooper (Clark (MA)) DeSaulnier (Matsui) Deutch (Rice (NY)) Fallon (Nehls) Fleischmann (Kustoff) Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA)) Gallego (Gomez) Gonzalez, Vincente (Gomez) Gosar (Wagner) Grijalva (Garcia (IL)) Hastings (Wasserman Schultz) Jayapal (Clark (MA)) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Langevin (Courtney) Larson (CT) (Courtney) Lawrence (Kildee) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lieu (Beyer) Lofgren (Jeffries) Long (Wagner) Lowenthal (Beyer) Lynch (Clark (MA)) Maloney, Carolyn B. (Jeffries) McEachin (Wexton) Meng (Clark (MA)) Mfume (Brown) Moulton (Beyer) Napolitano (Correa) Payne (Wasserman Schultz) Porter (Wexton) Price (NC) (Butterfield) Roybal-Allard (Correa) Ruiz (Aguilar) Rush (Underwood) Speier (Scanlon) Titus (Connolly) Trahan (McGovern) Vela (Gomez) Watson Coleman (Pallone) Wilson (FL) (Adams)
ELECTING MEMBERS TO CERTAIN STANDING COMMITTEES OF THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
Mr. JEFFRIES. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Democratic Caucus, I offer a privileged resolution and ask for its immediate consideration.
The Clerk read the resolution, as follows:
H. Res. 92
Resolved, That the following named Members be, and are hereby, elected to the following standing committees of the House of Representatives:
Committee on Agriculture: Mr. Panetta.
Committee on Education and Labor: Mr. Yarmuth, Mr. Espaillat.
Committee on Natural Resources: Ms. McCollum, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Tonko, Ms. Tlaib.
Committee on Veterans' Affairs: Ms. Lois Frankel of Florida, Mr. Brown, Ms. Slotkin, Mr. Trone.
Mr. JEFFRIES (during the reading). Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the resolution be considered as read and printed in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentleman from New York?
There was no objection.
The resolution was agreed to.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
____________________
SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 20
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