the speaker pro tempore: on this vote, the yeas are 212. the nays are 217. the motion is not adopted. the question is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

the ayes have it. >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kansas seek recognition? >> question the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 3-s of house resolution 8, the yeas and nays are ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? mr. quigley: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. rush of illinois, pursuant to h.r. 8, i inform the house that mr. rush will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member

designated by mr. fulcher, i inform the house that mr. fulcher will of idaho -- of idaho will vote nay on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by ms. speier, i inform the house that ms. speier will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from indiana seek recognition? mrs. walorski: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. baird of indiana, i inform the house that mr. baird will vote no on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. neumann of illinois, i inform the house that ms. neumann will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from alabama seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. moore of utah, i inform the house mr. moore will vote no.

as the member designated by mr. hagedorn, i inform the house mr. hagedorn will be vote nothing. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. swalwell, i inform the house mr. swalwell will vote aye #. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from indiana seek recognition? mrs. spartz: i inform the gentlewoman will vote. no. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. correa: mr. speaker, as the member designated by congress member napolitano, pursuant to h.r. 8, i inform the house that congress member napolitano will vote yes on h.r. 5314.

>> as the member designated by mrs. lesko of arizona, form form mrs. lesko will -- i inform the house mrs. lesko will vote no on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from virginia seek recognition? ms. wexton: pursuant to h.r. 8, i inform the house that ms. porter, ms. porter will vote yes. mr. connolly: as the member designated by mr. higgins of new york, i inform the house that mr. higgins will vote aye. >> mr. speaker, as the member

designated by mr. reschenthaler of the commonwealth of pennsylvania, i inform the house that mr.s remain that allen will be vote -- mr. reschenthaler will be voting no. mr. evans: as the member designated by mr. m fumy, i inform the house that -- m fume, i inform the house that mr. m fume will vote yes on h.r. 5314. as the member designated by mr. lawson, i inform the house that mr. lawson votes yes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. chris smith of new jersey, i inform the house that mr. smith will vote no on final passage of h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? mr. soto: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. crist, i inform the house that mr. crist will vote yea on h.r. 5314. >> as the member designated by ms. granger of texas, i inform

the house that ms. granger will vote nay on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new jersey seek recognition? mr. pallone: mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. sires, i inform the house that mr. sires will vote yes on h.r. 5314. as the member designated by mr. donald payne, i inform the house that mr. payne will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from georgia seek recognition? mrs. greene: as the member designated by mr. hice of georgia, i inform the house that mr. hice will vote no on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. green: and still i rise, mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. henry cuellar of texas to inform the house that mr. cuellar will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. fallon of texas, i inform the house that mr. fallon will vote no on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for

what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition? >> as the member designated by ms. underwood, i inform the house that ms. underwood will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. buchanan of florida, i inform the house that mr. buchanan will vote nay on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. huffman, i inform the house that mr. huffman will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. loudermilk of georgia, i inform the house that mr. loudermilk will vote nay on h.r. 5314. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition? >> thank you, mr. speaker. as the member designated by mr. smith of washington, i inform the house that mr. smith will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition?

>> mr. speaker, as the member designated by mr. guthrie from kentucky, i inform the house that mr. guthrie will vote no on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from california seek recognition? ms. brownley: as the member designated by ms. bass of california, i inform the house that ms. bass will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. garr been a doctor mr. barragan, i inform the house that mr. barragan will vote yes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. garamendi of california, i inform the house that mr. garamendi will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from north carolina seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. posey, i inform the house that mr. posey will vote nay on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mr. veasey, i inform the house that mr. veasey will vote yea on

h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? mr. jeffries: as the member designated by chairwoman zoe lofgren, chair lofgren will vote yea on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from connecticut seek recognition? mrs. hayes: as the member designated by ms. wilson, i inform the house that ms. wilson will vote yes on h.r. 5314. as the member designated by mr. courtney, i inform the house that mr. courtney will vote yes on h.r. 5314. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition? >> as the member designated by mrs. kirkpatrick, i inform the house that mrs. kirkpatrick will vote yes on h.r. 5314.

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 220, the nays are 208.

the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from michigan seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. >> today my michigan colleagues and members of the black caucus rise in honor of the life and service of congresswoman barbara rose collins. she dedicated her life to community and broke countless barriers. madam speaker, i ask that everyone rise for a moment of silence in the honor the congresswoman barbara rose collins.

thank you. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? mr. raskin: madam speaker, i ask that in the engrossment of h.r. 5314, the clerk be authorized to correct section numbers, punctuation errors and to make other technical changes as may be necessary to reflect the actions of the house. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from pennsylvania

seek recognition? >> madam speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, madam speaker. another week, another week of gun deaths. no matter where you live, oxford, michigan, philadelphia, pennsylvania, or most recently in my district, no matter where you are, a school, a place of worship, your parked car, gun violence hunts down far too many innocent americans and quite frankly can find any one of us. ms. dean: our inaction on gun safety has created a tragic version of ground hog's day. too often we and our children wake up to another headline about senseless, needless gun violence. one slaughter bleeding into the next. last week oxford high school became the 30th school shooting in 2021. four dead, seven injured. 30 times this year alone. these are not isolated incidents. they join a long history of our nation's failure to have an

honest discussion on guns and gun violence. lawmakers have the responsibility to legislate and to protect our children and our neighbors from gun violence. when will we wake up to a new day? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. could i ask the speaker pro tempore: could the conversations be taken to the outer chambers. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from north carolina seek recognition? ms. foxx: i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. the gentlewoman is recognized. could conversations, please, be taken off the floor. the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. foxx: the federal government cannot be given the ability to

police innovators who create life-saving products. top-down government pricing would jeopardize cures and lead to socialized medicine. the united states invents 2/3 of the world's medicines. our system encourages private investments which spur innovation. this is something we should be proud. under the democrats' build back better act, new drugs and cures for cancer and diabetes would be reduced. price controls will lead to reduced access to patients and will set a dangerous precedent. if the federal government has the the authority to dictate the price of prescription drugs, what else will it set prices for? i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek

recognition? ms. kaptur: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. without objection. ms. kaptur: i rise today regarding the ongoing threat posed by covid-19 after 22 months of this pandemic, we cannot be complacent. in order to prevent further spread of the virus, either someone has to die, which i don't consider a good alternative or everybody else who isn't vaccinated ought to get vaccines. by doing so, you prevent more suffering and death-n ohio, covid-19 is ripping across the state. our emergency rooms are full of patients and our i.c.u. staff are overworked. 95% of covid hospitalizations are among unvaccinated individuals. this is costing our health care system billions of dollars and

wear and tear on our medical professionals. 61% of our ohio residents have received a first dose and the majority aren't pulling with the crew. i urge all of us to think about the safety of our family and friends and neighbors do what we must to assist those who are working overtime for almost two years. we all have a duty to be patriotic. and that means saving lives and not taking them and making sure you get your vaccine. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? >> i seek unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. without objection. >> this holiday season most americans are using the conventional shopping method and pay it at the store. other things are doing a different approach, match and

grab robberies, breaking windows and destroying store property and walking out with the merchandise. robberies are on the rise in liberal cities like san francisco and chicago. store robberies in democrat high run. criminals in these cities figured out there is no consequence walking out $1,000 of merchandise. in california, people can steal up $950,000 without be charged with out a felony. and unform many democrats are willingly ignorant of this trend and attribute it to the coronavirus. they keep pushing their anti-police policies to hard-working business owners pay

the price. let's not close the barn door after the cows have already left. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? >> i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> we know 1.5 uyghur muslims have been detained in re-education camps and products have been made with forced labor, in other words slavery. the house considered the act led by chairman mcgovern that would ban goods made by forced labor. and this is ethnic cleansing happening here. the world cannot look away from one of the most egregious and deadly incidents of ongoing islam phobia, genocide and slavery. i was proud to vote yes on this

legislation and hold china accountable. thank you, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time the gentleman from georgia. mr. carter: i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. mr. carter: i rise today to pay tribute to michael shernick with the southeast georgia health care system. after two decades to the residents, michael will retire as c.e.o. of the southeast georgia health system. in 2003, he became senior vice president. and 2015 and was named president and c.f.o. without mike's tireless advocacy, the southeast georgia health system would not be the top entire system it is today.

and mike's extraordinary leadership allowed the health system not just to survive but to thrive. while we know mike is looking forward to retired life, we are sad to see him go. mike is leaving the southeast georgia health system better than he found it and future c.e.o.'s will be inspired by his lasting legacy. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? mr. lamalfa: i request unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. lamalfa: i'm here food to

recognize the work of a fellow rice farmer and named the u.s. rice farmer of the year. she is a third generation rice farmer in northern california and serves as president and c.e.o. of her farm. america's rice farmers have a advocacy to protect the rice. she makes time for her passion in promoting the u.s. rice industry and previously served as the rice board of directors and solved difficult policy issues. u.s. rice farmers use less land, energy and water while providing habitats for many species. leaders like her continue to serve as leaders in farming by

producing a very healthy conservation product that promotes jobs. congratulations, nicole, on this great honor. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the gentleman from connecticut, mr. larson, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. mr. larson: i rise this afternoon to use this hour to discuss social security 2100, a sacred trust or as martin luther king would remind us, the fierce urgency of now.

and congress' need to act on social security. let me start with the fact that social security is the nation's number one insurance program. the number one insurance program that some on the other side call an entitlement. there is nothing further from the truth. and this is easily verifiable. all you have to do is look at your pay stub. it says fica and stands for federal insurance contribution. whose contribution? every citizen in the united states who pays into the program. it is an earned benefit and one that is never missed a payment. it is a guarantee.

and that's why it is so vitally important to every american citizen. and congress has been negligent. it has been 50 years since there has been an enhancement to the program. it has been more than 38 years since there was an attempt at solvency. and yet 38 years ago, congress enacted a cut that will take place this january. the time to act is now. no more pro cast tinnation. so for all of our c-span listeners, make sure that you contact your member of congress in both houses. we are pleased that 200-plus people are organization

co-sponsors -- original co-sponsors of the bill and you will hear from some of them today. and we are taking the liberty to point out to every member of congress how many people in your district receives social security benefits and what that brings into your district on a monthly basis. i assure you, there is no more greater economic development plan for your district than what happens on a monthly basis to those who need it most. let me reiterate again, social security is the number one anti-poverty program for the elderly and the number one anti-poverty program for children as well.

i have here, madam speaker, something we have done for every member of congress and in this case, we are illustrating our great leader, representative jim clyburn, who is a proud co-sponsor of this bill. in his district in south carolina 6, there are 149, 133 social security recipients who receive 189 million dollars in monthly benefits. and there are 1.2 million social security recipients in south carolina who receive $1.7 million in monthly benefits as well. for about half of senior beneficiaries, social security provides a majority of their income. now imagine that. for half the seniors in the country, social security

provides the majority of their benefits and yet there hasn't been environs enhancement in over 50 years or a cola that doesn't come remotely close to what people need? for more than a quarter of our seniors, it provides 90% or more of their income, 90% for a quarter of our seniors. there are five million of our fellow citizens in the wealthiest nation in the world at a time when the wealth disparity is the greatest it has ever been in the country, five million of our fellow americans, mostly women, receive a below-poverty level check from their government. why? because congress hasn't acted. this isn't something that the

president can do through executive order nor is it something that the supreme court is going to adjudicate. this is the responsibility of the united states congress. i am proud we had a hearing the other day in the ways and means committee that we will bring to a markup and to the floor of this house, a social security 2100. and the president of the united states refers to social security as a sacred trust, a sacred trust between the government and their people and social security has never failed. it has never missed a payment. it it used to be that we would go back to 1935 to explain why roosevelt, back then in the midst of the depression, put forward social security. because of the devastation that

had taken place in 1929 during the great crash. but members on this floor, members in this congress understand all too well that we only have to go back to 2008, it 2009, during the great recession, when people saw their 401-k become a 101-k. where people lost their benefits. and that, coupled with the great pandemic, this rollercoaster of a pandemic that we're living through now, has only further underscored the need for us to enhance the nation's number one insurance program. and during that same time, during that recession that they witnessed their funds depleted and devastated or lost

altogether, or during layoffs that occurred through no fault of their own, social security has never missed a payment. not a pension payment, not a spousal payment, not dependent coverage nor disability. it might surprise, madam speaker, some of our viewers and listeners that more veterans depend on social security, disability than they do on the v.a. and it's because social security provides these benefits, and especially for our veterans. people in this chamber, in the senate, take great pride of talking about our veterans on memorial day and veterans day and rightfully so and saluting them and saying what a grateful nation they are. well, if we're truly a grateful

nation, then it's time that we end the more than 50 years of neglect and make sure that our veterans are able to get the benefits that they richly deserve. without five-month delays. and making sure that they have disability that they know that they can rely on that works for the times that we are living through currently. children continue to rely on social security and it is the number one poverty program for children. and you know what, 10,000 baby boomers a day become eligible for social security. and millennials will need the benefit more than baby boomers. and millennials have been put

into the position where they have less money to be able to afford private pensions, where they have been burdened with college loan debt, where they're unable to get the kind of mortgages their parents enjoyed and in fact have incomes that are below that level. and so social security becomes their salvation. but it can't be their salvation if they're locked at the bottom and we're not making the benefit increases that will provide that opportunity for all generations to enjoy. madam speaker, we are pleased also that what this does, what social security 2100 will not only lift benefit as i cross the board, but will -- a-- benefits across the board, but will make sure no one can work all their lives, pay into a system, and retire into poverty. more than five million americans

get a below poverty level check from the government, having paid in all their lives. that is unfair, that is unjust. that is flat-out wrong. when we're a body that can pass out trillions of dollars of tax cuts to the nation's wealthiest 1%, and yet we can't take care of people who have paid into the system because congress has not fulfilled its obligation and responsibility. now is the time to act. and under democratic leadership that will take place. people say to me often, what's different? what's different is we have a democratic house, a democratic senate and, most importantly, a president who believes that this is a sacred trust. a president also, as matt cart wright knows, that is --

cartwright knows, that has said, look, we're going to end g.p.o. for your listeners and viewers, what that means, for school teachers, firefighters, for your police officers, for your municipal employees that were personalized -- penalized under a system, that worked hard and played by the rules, the president has called for its repeal and that means benefits flowing to people that should -- who rightfully deserve and should rightfully get them. i would add that's been a bipartisan support here in the congress and we do have bipartisan support for this bill across the nation. no one yet on the other side has signed up. but yet all across the nation, in large numbers, more than 80% of democrats, more than 68% of republicans and more than 74% of independents all favor

increasing benefits because they know of the security and the promise and the necessity of social security. i want to recognize the gentleman from pennsylvania who is an original co-sponsor, madam speaker, of this, as are you, who understands how critical this is to pennsylvanians and everyone across the nation. >> i thank the gentleman. mr. cartwright: i thank the gentleman particularly for not only authoring and helping out all the rest of us co-sponsor this important legislation, but in particular for mentioning the commonwealth of pennsylvania here late this afternoon. it was pennsylvania that was instrumental in actually passing the social security administration, the social security act, back in the 1930's.

it was a huge fight. it was a time when republicans called the concept of social security, madam speaker, communism. they called it that. they said it would lead to horrible things. they said it would be the ruination of the american economy and the american democracy and it was communism. that's what the republicans called the whole idea of social security, when the roosevelt administration came up with it. and the roosevelt administration was having a huge fight with the republican-dominated supreme court of the united states. and they were against it. and they kept ruling that roosevelt's programs, national labor relations act, all of these programs that roosevelt -- securities and exchange commission, all of these programs that roosevelt came up with to try to work our way out of the great depression, the

supreme court was invalidating as unconstitutional under the commerce clause. and it was actually a member of the united states supreme court, a republican member, named owen j. roberts who saved the day. he saved the day because he changed his mind about the commerce clause and how it applied to the social security act. owen g. robert was a terrific, terrific trial lawyer for philadelphia. he was a prosecutor, he was in the u.s. attorney's office and he personally handled the teaport dome scandal -- teapot dome scandal. he prosecuted the criminals who perpetrated the teapot dome scandal back in the 1920's. and his career flourished and he started a law firm where i actually practiced for two years myself in philadelphia.

and owen j. roberts went on to join the supreme court of the united states as an associate justice. and he was one of the republican members and there was a great controversy about whether social security would be ruled constitutional. roberts thought about it and to his great and everlasting credit, and to the credit of the commonwealth of pennsylvania, he changed his mind. he changed his mind. and he validated the social security act. and as a result it was signed into law and it was held constitutional. and the social security administration took off and all of a sudden american life included this promise, as the gentleman stated, a sacred trust. this promise that if you work your whole lives, you pay into the system, you pay your fica

taxes all the way through, you continue to pay every quarter, all the way through your career, the promise that when you retire, you will not be left destitute. you will not be relegated to poverty and to deprivations. that you will have food on your table and a roof over your head because you'll have money coming in that is your money. it's your money. you paid into it, it's not the government, it's an insurance program. as the gentleman from connecticut astutely noted. and it's a promise that has been kept every day, every week, every month since the 1930's. we're talking about 80 years of keeping a promise for social security. in my district, it makes a very big difference. the gentleman from connecticut is right. there's an awful lot of people who are over the age of

retirement, who are depending entirely on social security checks to survive. yes, some places it's around 25%. that might be the average. but i can tell that you there are places that are hurting in this country, where the people surviving on social security checks and nothing else coming in approaches 40% or 50 3-rs -- 50%. you can see who it is. and you feel for them. and you know that every year they see what they call the cola increases. the cost of living adjustment increases. and it's all worked out by a mathematical formula. and it's called the -- it's called c.p.i. and it's the consumer price index. and it rises in accordance with what formula is used. you know, over the years social security has been attacked by republicans.

it was attacked savagely at the outset as communism. you know, in the first decade of this millennium, the republicans wanted to privatize social security. make it so that the money went into the stock market. imagine that. into the stock market. and then when we had this enormous stock market crash in 2008, the retirement savings of all of these people who paid into this wonderful insurance program for retirement would have been wiped out. but it was democrats who fought day in and day out in that time. you were there, mr. larson. i yield for a question, yes, mr. mr. larson: during that time our current speaker led the fight, when george bush said he was going to use his political capital that they had just gained and were in control of the house, the senate and the

presidency, they were going to privatize social security. and it was nancy pelosi and people like marcy kaptur that led the charge in the fight that prevented the privatization of ocean security. to your point, had that gone into effect, people's total savings and everything that is a guarantee under social security would have been lost in 2008. we're beyond 2008 now, but we're still dealing with all of those things that people don't necessarily -- can prepare for. whether it's a pandemic or whether it's a great recession or whether it's the stock

market. these are the things that people who work hard and play by the rules are subject to. and that's why this is a sacred trust. because in the united states we will not let that happen to our citizens because nobody deserves to work all their lives and retire into poverty. and i thank the gentleman for his leadership in this area. mr. cartwright: it was an attempt to privatize social security in those years and only by the social security system by the democrats, democrats present here in this chamber today who did that and fought it off and thank god they did, because it's true, the stock market crash of 2000 would have thrown millions and millions of seniors right into poverty if the republicans

had privatized social security. and it didn't stop there. i was not in congress in those years, but i came into congress -- i was elected in 2012 and 2013, i was sworn in for the first time and here i am a freshman democrat and four months into my very first term, something happened. the republicans were pushing this scheme called chained c.p.i. and chained c.p.i. was $50 expression which means lower cost-of-living adjustment, lower increases year after year and the idea was we have to make ends meet at social security, so let's cut increases for seniors. that was their plan and they called that chained c.p.i. there was a big fight over that, of course.

at least at that point they weren't calling it communism but were trying to cut it for seniors and that's no good. and the democrats fought hard back against that. and long comes 2013. and president obama at the time, he wanted to extend an olive branch to the republicans. and president obama incorporated this chained c.p.i. notion and put it in his budget. i wasn't having it. i joined a bunch of people -- i think the congressman from connecticut was with me. we went out on the lawn of the capitol to protest against the democratic pro president of the united states by putting this chained c.p.i. in his budget. we were protesting against a

democratic president, trying to get along with the republicans. in the end and to his everlasting credit, he withdrew that offer and never brought it up again. and now under social security 2100, there is a real cost-of-living adjustment in there and takes into account that seniors have to buy and can't afford unless they get the increase, the things that seniors need to live in any kind of reasonable style of living. there is a reasonable cost of living adjust in social security 2100. workers paid into this fund. it's their money and it's not that you'll get some money, the promise is you will get enough

money to get out of poverty in your retirement. if you have things, fine. there are people who rely on the social security checks they get. in my district, 140,000 people relying on those social security checks coming in and my suggestion, madam speaker, this evening, as we talk about social security 2100, let's pass it and keep the promise. yield back. mr. larson: i thank the gentlemanfrom pennsylvania for joining us this afternoon. i would like to point out a couple of things, madam speaker, something the gentleman knows and we have been joined by the gentlelady from illinois, but a number of groups that are

endorsing social security 2100, the national committee to preserve social security and medicare, social security works, the alliance for retired americans, the paralyzed veterans of america, the naacp, the national organization of women, latinos for a secure retirement, the national education association, the american federation of teachers, national retirees' legislation network, the gray panthers, american family voices, the senior citizen league, and the list goes on and on and on, because everybody understands the importance and significance of this. i'm going to recognize the golg from illinois who has worked tirelessly on behalf of seniors

across this country and has headed a task force for more than a decade now that was instrumental in providing us with all the detailed information with the over 17 proposals that are included in social security 2100, a sacred trust. but we make this point often and i want to make it here tonight, madam speaker, because you are well aware of this as well. that in legislative parlance the bill is called h.r. 5723. but what i want our viewers, our listeners and most importantly our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to understand, this is about your parents. this is about your brothers and

sisters. your aunts and uncles. this is about your next-door neighbor, your co-worker, the people that you worship with. this is not just legislative parlance, but this is the reality they are living and the disparity that are exists today, the gap that exists, can be closed if congress does a job that it has neglected for more than 50 years in terms of enhancing a program that is a necessity for your parents, for your brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles. all you have to do is ask them. it confounds me that anyone can look their constituents in the eye and say that we are doing

enough for you or that you're ok, because we all know -- and i heard jan say this many times, i know my mother said it, i just care that my children are ok, and i just don't want to be a burden. of course people feel that way. it's their humility and kind of generation. no one wants to be a burden and i assured my mother she was not a burden, but an inspiration. and for us to stand by in the midst of this, the wealthiest nation in the world and not do our responsibility as a congress, then vote. the president can't do it by executive order, nor will the supreme court adjudicate it.

it's only congress and thanks to the efforts of gang schakowsky and i now recognize the gentlelady from illinois. ms. schakowsky: when i came to the congress elected in 1998 to be here, but i want you to know that i have been working on issues of social security since the 1970's, well before i was eligible for social security, when i was an organizer in chicago, my first -- one of my first organizing efforts, metro seniors in action, an organization in the city of chicago of older americans. i tell you what, john. i learned a lot. one of them is courage to stand up to power, to not be afraid of the old mayor daley and to stand

up for rights. and one of those priorities then as well, was making sure was social security was solid. i also was -- and you talked about the alliance for retirement americans. i was the executive director of the chapter of that in the state of illinois throughout most of the 1980's and i ran for the legislature in 1990. and again, we were fighting. i remember well, to protect social security. well, guess what? we are not just talking about protecting social security. when george w. bush when he thought that privatizing social

security was a good idea, well, all over the country, seniors organized, the democrats organized to make sure that privatizing social security which would have jeopardized the security of those benefits -- let me correct that for a minute. many people call it an entitlement. you know, this is something that people in teaser paycheck that they have had is paid for. this is a program that is paid for out of the pocket of workers and has to be there when they retire. this is not some sort of a gift from the american people. this is something that has been earned by the american people.

but we won that battle with george w. bush, because that was not the direction that the majority of americans, democrats, republicans, rural, urban wanted. they wanted to make sure that social security was rebelie there. but any way, it was there to protecter social security. and now, thank you, john larson, because now we are talking about improving social security benefits. and isn't it about time. right now the majority of americans get more than half of their income from social security. you know, and when it was -- when franklin d. roosevelt first talked about social security it was thought of as three-legged stool. did you talk about that already?

ok. the first was peoples' savings. you know what? there is hardly any savings anymore for the elderly. and actually for most of americans hardly have any money that has been been put away because average wages have gone down. the second was pensions. remember that? there were pensions. people would have that guaranteed benefit. those are largely gone. and then social security to help along. well, now, it is mostly now about social security. more than half of americans rely on social security for more than half of their income, and a quarter of seniors now rely on social security for 90% or more of their income. you need social security to

survive. let's talk about what survival is. the average monthly social security check is $1, 543 per month. who can live on that? that is a struggle to even make it. that's it. $1, 543 a month. so your legislation is so incredibly important. and you talked about grandparents. plenty of us in the congress are social security eligible and those who are not are thinking about their parents and loved ones. but i want to point out that two of my grandchildren benefited from social security because sadly their mother had died and so they were eligible for benefits that helped them to be able to continue with their education.

so it is a family plan. social security is a necessity. for a long time, we have also been talking about women, people who have left the work force to become caregives but there is no help for them even though they haven't been able to pay into social security and i now understand that there will be a provision for a caregiver credit. huge, thank you so much for people who have taken time out of the workplace. we have heard from public employees including school teachers who have lost social security benefits due to the so-called windfall elimination provision that has meant unfairly that they have lost social security benefits.

finally after years and years and years of fighting, that unfairness will be gone because of your legislation. mr. larson: let me say that this has been bipartisan. a social security recipient, the chairman, he lost his father, he lost his mother. his grandmother was then raising him and he lost his grandmother. tom reed, the ranking member on social security subcommittee, and tom rice both lost parents and were raised on social security as well. mr. davis has put a bill in and had sponsored a bill for a number of years to eliminate the windfall elimination provision. but finally, president biden said, we're going to repeal this

in its entirety. and so it shows that there is an ability, a bridge to come together and so many of these things, including caregiver opportunities, are bipartisanly sponsored within this bill and included as part of the bill. we have yet to have anyone endorse and support the bill, but that's a matter, i think, of voting and getting beyond what happens in this chamber and in discussions between here and the senate is that there's an awful lot of talk about helping veterans, but nobody actually votes one way or the other. there's an awful lot of talk about understanding what we have to do but then nobody votes. the time for reckoning, and this is a point president biden makes all the time, and i know, madam speaker, you understand this as

well. our very democracy and our republic is at stake here because is government in an entrepreneurial, capitalistic system like ours, where there has to be by the nature of the system risk that is taken, well, that's important and good, but by the same token what roosevelt and subsequent presidents, including eisenhower, including nixon, and including reagan, recognized is, yes, but we need that safety net there for people who work hard and play by the rules. and now president biden has said, yes. this is a sacred trust. martin lutherking came to washington, d.c., -- martin luther king came to washington, d.c., in 1963 during the famous march and gave us the phrase, the fierce urgency of now.

he was talking at the time about segregation and about the need for voting rights. but the fierce urgency of now applies to all of our citizens that you have addressed in your remarks who need this now, who are suffering, receiving below poverty level payments from their own government. after they've paid in. and this at a time when we gave the nation's wealthiest 1% 83% of a tax cut. god bless them. but, you know what, it hasn't trickled down to everybody else. and that's why we have the system that we do, to take care of. it's government's responsibility. and if a democracy is going to

work, if we're not listening to what, as all the polls say, we've accompanied more than six different polls talking about where the american people are, this is not partisan. this is totally bipartisan in terms of people's understanding what their needs, their belief in a system they know that has never failed for them. dr. martin luther king said now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. now is the time to make good on the promise of the federal government. that's what joe biden has said and what he so eloquently has called a sacred trust. now is the time for us.

this is beyond urgent, though it is the fierce urgency of now, it is shameful that this body, the world looks in on this great nation, this great democracy that we have, it looks how we treat our people, how we treat our veterans, how we treat our children. the statistics that you've rallied -- rattled off about what's going on in this country and how they're depending on it and then realizing that congress hasn't done a thing in 50 years? this is not anything that can be done. and i repeat this again by executive order or by adjudication from the supreme court, this is the responsibility of every man and woman in this chamber.

of 535 of us overall, but it's our responsibility and the time to vote is long overdue. i yield back to the lady. >> thank you. let me just close with. this. ms. schakowsky: we're going to hear, oh, well, too much money, we can't afford to increase the benefits. i think it's important to remeaned people -- to remind people, social security was born during the greatest depression that this country had ever seen. and it was from the understanding of the president of that time, president roosevelt, who understood that we can't have poor houses for older americans. that this country, if we can't afford to do that, then we don't -- can't call ourselves a real democracy. a country that really cares for

people. at this point we are the richest country in the world, the richest country ever on the planet. and now is the time when we need to do this. there is absolutely no excuse. you've said about the urgency of now, this is a moment of opportunity. and we should not make the mistake of overlooking it. and so we've got everything in place, we've got your bill, we've got a president and it is time now to engage everyone in this country to say yes. let's make improvements to one of the greatest things that ever happened in the united states, the greatest treasures that we have, and that is social security. let's make it even better and god bless you for leading the way on this. i am so proud to be helpful in

any way that i can, to be a partner with you. we can do this. mr. larson: we can do this. and i think martin luther king also coined a phrase as well. and he said in his remarks, i'm paraphrasing here, but this is not the time for the tranquilizing drug of ground ballism -- gradualism. this is not the time in the face of so much inequality and inequity. that's when problems happen in society, when the people see that their government has not lived up to its responsibility. as you noted, jan, they pay into system weekly, biweekly, or

monthly. our good colleague and friend, john lewis, said, this is not only an important issue in terms of our people, this is a civil rights issue. and he said and believed that with every fiber in his being because what he saw is the people that were discriminated against were the low-wage earners. and unfortunately as you know and have spoken eloquently on, most of them are women, and specifically women of color. and so, to whether you had a job as a waists remain -- waitress or seamstress or a caregiver that everybody relies on or whether because you had to go home to provide care for your family, and you didn't pay into a system or your wage level long

before pay equity was far lower than your male counterpart, this is not a reason you should live out your remaining days in poverty. and for five million, five million americans this happens. in the blink of an eye we can do a tax cut. in the blink of an eye we can pass a defense bill. and i support both. but i fervently support the fact that we have to take care of our citizens. and it's this body's responsibility, it is congress' responsibility and we cannot walk away and every citizen in this country ought to make sure that they're holding their congressional delegations

responsible for doing their job. this is nothing that should be kicked down the road again. or put off to some gradual dealing with the subject matter or yet another study that we're going to try to look into this on. we don't need to study this. we know what the issue is here. we've looked in the mirror and the problem is the united states congress. it is the body that votes and changes the policy and the direction. with that, i thank the gentlelady for joining us. i wanted to make sure, madam speaker, and i should have said this at the very beginning, that i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks

and include extraneous material on the subject of our special order today, social security 2100, a specialty. i want to especially thank, madam speaker, as well the president of the united states for having the temerity not only on the campaign trail, but to speak directly to the american people and let them and ensure them that we understand that this is a sacred trust. a bond that will not be broken, not on our watch. and that we will fulfill that promise and make sure that they're receiving the kind of benefits that they have paid into a system for, and are, yes,

entitled to receive. because there is no greater nation in the world than the united states of america and when this body sets its mind to it, as witnessed how bipartisan the public feels about this on the outside, and a number of the great inclusions that both democrats and republicans feel about, now is the time for us to act on behalf of the citizens we're sworn to serve. thank you, madam speaker. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. without objection, the gentleman's remarks and extraneous materials will be entered into the record. under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the gentleman from kansas, mr. estes, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. estes: thank you, madam

speaker. i ask unanimous consent for all members to have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject for this special order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. estes: lying in state in the rotunda is bob dole. he is an american statesman, a former member of this house of representatives, a former u.s. senator, a world war ii veteran, a tireless fighter for what's right and last but not least a kansan. tonight, we want to reflect on and honor the actions and accomplishments of this great american hero. today, i'm here with my colleagues from the sunflower state and other members of the house of representatives to honor robert joseph dole, one of the finest americans to ever

serve in this institution. bob dole has a record of devotion and service to this country. a world war ii hero, the majority leader of the senate, and a republican nominee for president. but to truly understand the man bob was, you have to know a bit about where he was from, because out of all the things bob did and accomplished throughout his long life, i know bob always epitomized what it meant to be a son of kansas. our state is situated in the very heart of our great nation. more than 1,000 miles west of washington. it has a strong case of freedom with great compassion for our fellow man. the vivid sunsets of amber waves of grain are a constant reminder of the beauty and grace that only come from a loving god. and our climate, which can include some of the harshest winters or cloudless summers produce a hearty people who are quick to adapt to any challenges they may face. it's from kansas where bob dole first entered the world in the summer of 1923.

a natural athlete, he was recruited by fame basketball coach allen and was a jayhawk basketball player, a football player, and ran track at the university of kansas. but the grave threats against our freedom and our nation called bob away from his studies at k.u. and placed him in battle overseas during world war ii. his enlistment in the united states army would take him far from the flat plains of kansas to another couldn't tent and he returned -- continent and he returned to the shores with a bronze star, a purple heart and scars of war. permanent damage would restrict him to a hospital to more than a year and limit the mobility in his right arm for the rest of his life. bob dole's service to our country during world war ii is more than most of us would ever give back to our country in our entire life lyme. but bob -- lifetime. but bob wasn't done yet. he served in the kansas house of representatives and then as russell county attorney. in 1961, bob dole brought his

grit, optimism and wit to the chamber we're standing in today, having been elected by kansans of the sixth district and then, again, by the first district after redistricting. he represented kansas in the people's house for eight years before the entire sunflower state sent him across the capitol to the senate. his passion for the united states, ability to bring colleagues together, and sense of humor, elevated him to lead the republican party. but dole would also seek to serve the american people from 1600 pennsylvania avenue. he was the runningmate to president gerald ford and eventually earned the respect to become republican nominee for president. it was at the time he left the senate. the next chapter would be in the white house or back to kansas. as the votes were tallied in 1996, it became clear that russell, kansas, would welcome

their son home. i can tell you with certainty that his commitment to the united states did not end with electoral defeat. as he continued to stay active in the causes he fought for as a public servant and remained a critical activist in kansas politics. madam speaker, most of the representatives in this chamber are familiar with bob dole as a war hero, the statesman, and the presidential nominee, but i had the privilege of traveling throughout kansas with him. while the country's got to know bob on the senate floor or the campaign trail, i saw bob in small towns and coffee shops, with small business owners and farmers. my wife, susan, and i were blessed to have known bob and his wife, elizabeth, another dedicated public servant, and to witness his genuine warmth and devotion firsthand. in his farewell address to the senate on june 11, 1996, senator dole quoted the opening verse, to everything there is a season. he went on to say that his season in the senate was about to end.

today, we recognize that another season for bob dole has come to a close. the scripture that bob started to read from continues saying, a time to be born and a time to die, and later it says, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. this week is a time for mourning. we grieve the loss of our friend, and we pray for his beloved wife, elizabeth, and daughter, robin. this is also a time to honor, which is why my colleagues and i were humbled to introduce the resolution that formally allowed for bob dole to lie in state at the united states capitol rotunda. during his nearly four decades of service in the house and senate, i know bob dole walked through the rotunda with kansans and colleagues working to protect our liberties and make our country better for all americans. it's fitting that he be honored in that spaced too. i can think of no other person right now who deserves to lie in state more than my friend and fellow kansan, senator bob dole, and i believe it will be a long

time before we see someone of his stature again. in the meantime, it's up to the rest of us to carry on his legacy. advance freedom, and maybe even provide some humor to our nation and our world. with that, madam speaker, i'd like to recognize and yield five minutes to my friend and colleague from kansas, the current representative of senator dole's hometown of russell, kansas, mr. mann. mr. mann: congressman, i want to thank my friend and congressman mr. estes: for -- congressman estes for hosting this tonight. bob dole's passing leaves a void for america. i think maybe especially those of us from kansas hits especially hard. america has lost a statesman, a war hero and a kansan who never forgot where he came on. he died peacefully at the age of 98 leaving his district, state, and country better off for his

many contributions over 79 years of public life. my prayers and gratitude for the senator will go out to his family. he was struck in the back and nearly killed by a german shell months before the war ended. he called it a sting in the shoulder. the first thing he thought about was his home, russell, kansas. he was expected to die in the hospital but he lived. he was told he would never recover from his injuries, which included paralysis from the neck down but his spirit carried him through. he simply refused to take no for an answer and chose to fought for his life in recovery, the scars which he carried with for the rest of his life. he was awarded two purple hearts and a bronze star. before becoming a united states senator, he was the congressman serving the first district of kansas. kansans sent him to the united states senate where he served for 27 years, acted as majority leader twice, and became his party's nominee for the highest

office of the land in 1996. it's inspiring and humbling to stand on the shoulders of such greatness. a few weeks ago i was blessed to spend time for senator dole. his love for kansas and his people were on display. on that day, he was thoughtful, committed, and energetic champion for our nation and our way of life in rural kansas. he always treated others with respect and kindness, especially his fellow veterans. as he attended nearly every honor flight that came to d.c. to tour the world war ii memorial. he was a fierce advocate for his political views but equally committed to cross-aisle friendship and camaraderie. in our meeting he spoke of the kansas approach. the markers of which he identified as honesty, hard work, respect for your roots, common sense, service, simplicity, and genuine thoughtful care for people. i left our time as senator dole made it clear we must never

forget where we come from. he knew deep down that the heartbeat of our nation lies in hometowns like his russell, kansas. i know we are all working actively for ways -- on looking for ways to honor bob dole's legacy. and that is to support the child nutrition program which aims to address childhood hunger, improve literacy, train teachers, and make the world a better place for young people across the globe. the program is named in part after senator dole to honor his work towards eliminating chillyhood -- childhood hunger. i offered an appropriation question to the mcgovern-dole program. in another effort to honor his legacy, i introduced a legacy to name the post office in russell, kansas, the robert j. dole memorial post office, quickly joined by our other colleagues from kansas. senator dole stayed true to his roots in rural kansas and embodied his core values of faith, family, and freedom.

naming a post office after one of kansas's favorite sons in a town that he grew up in is a small but meaningful way to pay tribute to this kansas giant and american hero. i look forward to this resolution's swift passage commemorating the life of senator dole. i talked to my 8-year-old son austin about senator dole. after i finished sharing stories about his wife. he said, dad, i think god had a special plan for bob dole. that is so true and god had a special plan for all of us when he gave senator dole the faith, values, longevity, and leadership platform that he stuarted so well. i want tosh stewarded so well. he said, quote, i offer a willingness to work hard, to hang tough, to go the distance. i offer the strength and determination molded in america's smalltown heartland and tempered during a career of public service to bring commonsense answers to complex problems facing america, end

quote. his legacy will echo into the future and his spirit serves as a benchmark for anyone who believes our brightest days are yet to am co. thank you -- yet to come. thank you, senator dole, for working tirelessly to make the world a better place. may you rest in peace. thank you, congressmanestess, and i -- congressman estes, and i yield back. mr. estes: it's great to have you here to be able to speak as a fellow kansan and representative for bob's hometown. and now i'd like to call on one of my other fellow colleagues from the state of kansas, who represents the second congressional district and was a former state treasurer, as i was before i came to congress, congressman jake laturner. i recognize him for five minutes. mr. laturner: thank you, congressman estes. madam speaker, i rise today to honor, remember, and celebrate

the life of a true american hero who was the very per sonification of -- personification of service. i'm proud and humbled to stand in for the over 700,000 kansans in my district that wish they could be in the capitol today to pay tribute to senator bob dole. senator dole grew up in a small town called russell, kansas. at a time when many hardworking families were being burdened by the great depression and the dust bowl. and the doles were not immune to these hardships. living in their basement so they could rent out the top of their house to make ends meet. bob dole attended the university of kansas where he was a star athlete, playing under the famous fog allen at the jayhawk basketball team and began his service when he enlisted in the service, like many of his greatest generation, bob dole dropped everything at the age of 21 when called to active duty and shipped off to italy to fight for freedom across the

world. towards the end of the war, senator dole was struck in the upper back and right arm from shrapnel from a shell and was paralyzed from the neck down. he was sent to the percy jones army hospital in battle creek, michigan, where he met some fellow soldiers that would have an impact on the rest of his life. they ended up calling themselves the percy jones alumni caucus, which consisted of senator dole, the words ranking officer, colonel philip hart, who later became senator phil hart, and long time friend of bob dole, daniel inouye, who represented hawaii in the united states senate. many doctors, like a doctor in chicago, medical professionals, thought senator dole wouldn't survive his injuries, and he did. they thought he would never walk again, but he proved them wrong. the hospital was turned into a federal building and renamed the

hart-dole-inouye federal center in 2003. senator dole spent the rest of his life fighting for veterans and those who served our nation and was instrumental in making the world war ii memorial in washington, d.c., a reality. after being awarded two purple hearts and a bronze star for his selfless service in world war ii, senator dole served in the kansas state house and as county attorney before being elected to the house of representatives where he served for eight years. he then moved across the capitol to represent all kansans in the united states senate for almost three decades, serving as republican majority leader twice and becoming the republican nominee for president in 1996. senator dole was a giant in congress. he fought to preserve freedom and democracy while also working across the aisle to champion legislation that has impacted millions of americans from all walks of life. many americans know and

recognize his major legislative achievements such as the americans with disabilities act and the mcgovern-dole international food for education program. many do not realize the impact he had on passing legislation that his name was not on at all, and how good he was at getting things done and moving the ball down the field for kansas and for our nation. bob dole truly embodied what it means to be a statesman and never waivered from his passion -- wavered from his passion for a better and stronger america. i urge my colleagues to join me in praying for his wife, elizabeth, his daughter, robin, and the entire dole family as they mourn the loss of not just one of our nation's greatest public servants but also a devoted husband and father. . i want to close on something that senator dole once said. he said, it's not who you are, it's whether you make a difference. may we all remember that every

single day in this building and across this country. senator dole will be dearly missed. thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back. >> thank you, my friend, congressman laturner. it's great to have you here to talk about our fellow kansan and such a great american hero. thank you. mr. estes: now at this time, madam speaker, i'd like to recognize the gentlewoman from california, the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, for five minutes. the speaker: thank you, madam speaker. i thank the gentleman for his recognition. i thank him for hosting us this evening in this special order to honor a real hero in our country, bob dole. thank you for you what did for the bereavement resolution,

enabling us to have the use of the rotunda, which takes an act of congress, an act of congress to use the rotunda and to have the kind of thing that was constructive for abraham lincoln to lie on so bob dole could lie on that. true here o'for our country -- hero for our country. i take great pride in the fact that senator dole served in the house of representatives, as his first step in the congress of the united states. i was cheesed by some of the senators saying you're laying claim to him, he was only there four years, he was in the senate over 24 years. and yet we do. because he, again, his service here is a source of pride to us. but not only that, when he turned 90 we had his birthday party in statuary hall, on the house side of the capitol. and so many of his friends and colleagues that served with him and friends and staff who had served with him came and i was

happy to be invited by him to participate in the ser moeun -- in the ceremony and it was his 90th birthday, fully pledging to be there to honor him for his 100th birthday. we made it to 98 and nearly a half. 9 # and nearly a half -- 98 and nearly a half. a great life beautifully lived. one that is justified by his lying in state and as i said today at our ceremony, wrapped in the american flag, it's hard to think of anyone who deserves that honor more than bob dole. he fought for our freedom in world war ii, has been a champion for our men and women in uniform ever since. along with elizabeth dole, senator dole also, senator elizabeth dole, who took up the cause of hidden heroes, those who care for our men and women

in uniform when they come home, and need care. the beautiful love between the two of them is a tribute to those who know and love them in the present. they are prayerful, patriotic, lovely americans. indeed, it was just four years -- almost four years ago, we gathered under the very dome, where we were in the rotunda, to present him with the congressional gold medal. the highest honor that congress can bestow. we knew then as we do today that bob dole belongs among the pantheons of patriots memorialized in the rotunda. and i couldn't help but thinking, watching him lie in state, he looked very comfortable, very comfortable under the dome of the capitol, where he spent so much time, but time beautifully spent in leadership, making a difference, as his kas kell lies -- casket lies in this temple of democracy

right now, draped in the american flag, we're so proud. for his heroism in world war ii to his leadership in the house and the senate, he served with legendary courage, dignity and integrity. duty, duty was a word that sort of guided his actions, his duty to a country and military and office and an elder statesman. because he was greatly admired on both sides of the aisle, on both sides of the capitol and across the country because he was a person of integrity, a person of his word. he works in a bipartisan way, whether it was addressing hunger in america, respect for people with disabilities, and advocates for troops, veterans and our hidden heroes and of course he took great pride in his work on social security.

continued his powerful legacy beyond his retirement from congress alongside, again, his lovely wife, and prayerful partner, senator elizabeth dole. his life and legacy will forever be worthy of him. we shouldn't try to change the ideals of our country, we should try to be worthy of them. may it be a comfort to his moved wife, elizabeth, his dear, dear daughter, robin. his long-time colleagues and friends, the people of kansas, that a great naval joins them -- greatful nation joins them and prays for this -- grateful nation joins them and prays for them at this time as they mourn for him. may he rest in a very deserved peace. thank you, senator dole, for your leadership to our country, for being a leader, one that everyone would want to be like. we're going to miss him.

his humor. he was very funny and very serious and very patriotic. i thank you, mr. estes, for bringing us together to save some more -- say some more words about senator robert dole. such an honor to have him lie in state, under the rotunda, an honor shared by very few people, but one very much deserved by senator dole. thank you so much. mr. estes: thank you, madam speaker. i appreciate you saying those kind words about the son of kansas and a fellow american hero. that we appreciate so much. thank you. you know, we spent a lot of time tonight talking about all the great things about bob dole and his relationship with kansas. but he has a bigger impact on people across the country.

including his relationship with his wife, elizabeth, and all the relationships there. right now i'd like to yield three minutes to a former policy advisor for senator elizabeth dole, my friend and the gentleman from north carolina, mr. rouzer. mr. rouzer: i thank the gentleman. madam speaker, i rise today to honor the life and legacy of senator bob dole. one of america's greatest. i have so many different memories over the years that it's hard to know where to start or where to finish. though i first came to capitol hill when senator dole was still in the u.s. senate, my first extended interaction with him was when his wife, elizabeth, was running for the u.s. senate to succeed my current boss at the time, u.s. senator jesse helms who was retiring. there was one day i remember so well. i had taken time off from my work to help with elizabeth's campaign and of course bob dole, no stranger to north carolina, came to town several times to

campaign for her. on this particular occasion, we had lined up a number of visits for bob dole that included a stop at a tobacco receiving station in smith fields and then -- smith yn field -- smithfield, and then on to several other stops. there was little down time, which is just how bob dole liked it. he had a real knack for retail campaigning. he was never at a loss for words, always had a quip and always left everyone laughing. as i recall, it was about 11:30 a.m. that day and we had just finished up the stop at the tobacco receiving station where we met with a number of tobacco farmers. now we were on our way to golds bro -- goldsboro. i wasn't that hungry, but i could tell the campaign staffer driving bob dole was ready to find lunch somewhere. bob dole was hungry too but had a different idea about it. once we leave to the tobacco receiving station, he directs the young man to stop at a local

convenience store. bob dole goes in, talks it up with the lady running the cash register. buys a krispy kreme doughnut and comes back out. sensing this was the only lunch stop bob dole wanted to make, the young staffer turned to him and said, senator, don't you want to stop and get a real lunch somewhere? the senator replied, bob dole doesn't eat lunch until after the election. as only bob dole can say it. and of course he often talked in third person. i would seek bob dole from time to time after that election, but i didn't get to really know him until i came to washington as a new member of this house of representatives. he would call from time to time to talk about my campaign, to see if i had an opponent, to talk about what was going on in the house and the senate, or just to talk life and politics in general. i will always cherish those conversations. the great kansan from humble roots, senator bob dole answered

the call to serve his country, fighting for liberty for 79 years. it wasn't long ago that i got to visit the site where he was so badly injured in italy. as i looked around the landscape of that area, that spot where he was wounded, so far from home in a foreign land, here was this very young man and so many others like him facing evil head-on. several years previous to that trip, i had gotten the opportunity to travel abroad it take a look at implementation of our country's food aid programs. i will never forget being in a very remote area of ethiopia, looking at thousands of children who were eating porridge during lunch at school, and only because of the mcgovern-dole international food for education and child nutrition program. it was the only real meal those children received during the day. through his final years, months and even until his final days, senator dole remained so

involved and passionate for the principles that made this country great, while caring for our most vul nernl. -- vulnerable. the number of veterans and their families he greeted at the world war ii memphis during his final years would be far too many to count. and that is just a tiny glimpse of what did he to support -- he did to support, lift up and encourage others. there's no way to proper measure his impact. not just in america, but around the world. he was the embodiment of the american spirit and what it means to be a true patriot and statesman. his lifetime of commitment, dedication and perseverance for this country was and is unmatched. his legacy of service and statesmanship will only grow greater through the prism of history. madam speaker, there are those special individuals you get to know in life who help you keep it all in perspective. i will always be so appreciative of bob dole, the man.

and what a giant of a man he was. may god's peace and grace embrace his wife, elizabeth, and daughter, robin. as well as the rest of his family in the hours, days and months to come. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: thank you, mr. rouzer. it's -- mr. estes: thank you, mr. rouzer. it's great to have broader reflections on bob dole and all the people he's touched. he served only a long time in the senate, including as majority and minority leader. with his wife, elizabeth, as well. i have calm of quotes from -- a couple of quotes from our current senators from kansas. wanted to just mention those as part of this special hour tonight. you know, the senior senator from kansas, jerry moran, said, whether it was on the battlefields, in the halls of congress or in his everyday life, senator dole's passion and dedication to his fellow kansans

and to his country was a steady reminder that a single person can make a difference and change the world. he held an unmatched patriotism borne out of wartime sacrifice that marked every day of his existence. yet rather than ask for help, he offered it. senator dole used his horrific wartime experience to be a champion every day for those with disabilities and for veterans and i thank him for his service to kansas and to this country. senator marshall shared, as one of the heroes from our greatest generation, you would be hard-pressed to find somebody with a bigger heart and more resilience than senator dole. he was an american hero, a statesman of the highest order, and one of the greatest legislators of all time. while he had incredible negotiating skills and was as tough as nail, it was his big heart and ability to work across the aisle that constantly led the way and delivered results for all americans. and now, madam speaker, i'd like to yield three minutes to u.s.

army veteran and a friend of mine, the gentleman from michigan, mr. meijer. miej miej thank you -- mr. meijer: thank you. this week we pay tribute to bob dole. not only a decorated war hero who exemplified the very best what have it means to be an american, but also someone who set an example for others with a commitment to pragmatism, bipartisanship and governing in the best interests of the american people. after being after being wounded in combat, bob dole recuperated in our district in michigan at the percy jones army hospital. that facility no longer exists in that form, and i'm proud to say today it is the hart-dole-inouye federal center, a long lasting testament to not

only his wartime service but also his connection to west michigan whereas my colleague, mr. laturner mentioned, his survival was questioned and his recuperation was long and lengthy, but also where he built friendships and ties, especially with mr. inouye, that would go on to last for over a half century. during those nearly three decades that he spent in the united states senate, senator dole was a voice for the veterans' community. his career-long efforts to help the men and women who serve in uniform, they culminated in office with the veteran benefit improvements act of 1996, but he also did not forget, even after he left office, that he attended college on the g.i. bill in the post-world war ii period, and he helped a young upstart organization that i volunteered with called student veterans for america, and many campaigned for the post-9/11 g.i. bill so our generation of veterans could receive the same educational benefits that he had.

he made tangible improvements to the lives of our veterans through focusing on substance and throughout his career, he never lost sight of the job he was sent here to do. his service is an example of how government can truly function and serve when we're committed to prioritizing results over politics. so tonight, my wife, gabriella, and i extend our heart-felt condolences to his wife, senator elizabeth dole, and all those who grieve senator dole's passing. his memory and legacy will live on in the contributions he's made to our republic. thank you. mr. estes: well, thank you, mr. meijer. i appreciate you bringing it up. as we talk about different stories about bob dole, obviously his time in the hospital, he spent 39 months going through and recovering from his injuries. it was -- obviously, there are some in-depth stories of his time in the michigan hospital as well as others. and now at this time, i'd like

to yield three minutes to the gentleman from georgia, my friend, mr. carter. mr. carter: i thank the gentleman for yielding and for doing this tonight. very, very special. madam speaker, i rise today to remember the life of a political giant, an american icon, and a world war ii hero, senator bob dole. senator dole was a remarkable man and a driven public servant who i personally strived to immolate. and why wouldn't we? what a great example he set for all of us. i had the pleasure of spending some time with senator dole who even in his old age would brave the cold d.c. winters to sit out front of the world war ii memorial and thank those there to pay tribute to fallen soldiers. i remember being over there and they would set up a stool -- and it was cold and they would set up a stool for senator dole to

sit on. he would sit there and draped in blankets and he would not leave until every veteran came by and he spoke to them and he thanked them and he shook their hand. that had to be so special to them. there are not many people, let alone those as accomplished as a senator who can set aside their ego to thank perfect strangers, but he did. he did just that. he left an unforgettable impression, not only on those that knew him or those that he served, but on this entire country. senator dole was a generational leader and a voice that was heard by all, even those across the aisle. his zest for life and making our country better was infectious. not everyone can curry favor of those with a different political ideology, but senator dole was not like every other member of

congress. when describing his time in the senate he quipped that if you're hanging around with nothing to do and the zoo is closed, come over to the senate. you'll get the same kind of feeling and you won't have to pay. didn't we love his humor? i imagine he felt the same about his eight years in the house of representatives, and i can almost attest to that myself. senator dole set an example of conservatism and of bravery. there's no one more deserving of the honor of lying in state at the u.s. capitol than senator bob dole, an outstanding example of what a public servant should be. his loss devastates all of us. my thoughts and prayers are with his wife, elizabeth, senator dole, his daughter, robin, his family and friends, as well as this country as we all come together to mourn this

tremendous loss. thank you, madam speaker, and i yield back. mr. estes: well, thank you, mr. carter. i appreciate you. it just goes to say that, you know, even though as a fellow kansan, bob dole was able to reach out and have such an impact on so many people's lives across the country and in some cases across the world. i do want to make one comment about one of the other people that bob dole actually touched in his life. there's countless kansans that worked for bob dole and the people of kansas that were involved in the work that he did in the house and the senate during his time there. it's amazing the number of people around d.c. or back in kansas or elsewhere in the country. one particular staff member, david spears, served for three years in senator dole's d.c. office as an ag legislative

assistant and state director in kansas. he wrote me saying it was an honor and privilege of a lifetime to serve on senator dole's staff and to serve the constituents of kansas. i learned many leadership lessons from him that carried over into my additional years of public service as well as my career in the private sector. senator dole provided great examples of strong leadership that included listening to all sides and an ability to build a consensus on very difficult and divisive issues. he was a statesman and a great american. he made a huge difference in my life and will be missed. and now at this time, i'd like to recognize the gentlewoman from new york, my friend, ms. tenney, for three minutes. ms. tenney: thank you, mr. estes, for holding this. we really appreciate your remembrances and so many members remembering senator robert dole. as his body lies in state in our nation's capitol. this is an honor we reserve for

only the most deserving americans who have rendered such great service to our country. senator dole was rightfully earned -- has rightfully earned this honor. bob dole's life displayed courage at the highest order. he was wounded in northern italy. he carried his wounds for the rest of his life with grace, dignity, and great compassion. bob dole became a champion for veterans and those also living with disabilities. the shadow of senator dole's political career looms large. his tremendous influence on american political life over the last half century does not need to be restated for now i will just say this. that from a presidential campaign to the senate floor, bob dole was an unyielding opponent, a steadfast ally, a fearless leader and also a person with tremendous sense of humor. even in that generation, we call the greatest generation, bob dole stood above the rest. he was a paragon of courage, class, and patriotism, as a

stalwart conservative, he was able to work with both democrats and republicans to enact positive legislation that improved life for all americans. senator dole's campus was never -- compass was never suede by popular opinion. he stayed the course and kept his focus on the principles our founders set forth, principles of liberty, integrity and dignity. his unwavering commitment to these principles propelled him to great heights on the national and world stages. but this humble kansan never allowed himself to grow self-absorbed. if anything, his historic career only made him even more modest. this week we lost senator dole at the age of 98. his body lies in the capitol rotunda and it is fitting for us to honor him in this sway. his death is a reminder that each of us in this body must do what we can to carry on the work of protecting and defending the united states with integrity, compassion, courage, and honor. bob dole was a patriot, a public servant, and a gentleman.

and this nation will always be grateful for his -- for the incredible life he led. world war ii veterans are also special in my heart, particularly in my community where i had the privilege of being involved with bringing veterans to the world war ii memorial in many trips we had in the early 2000's when president bush was in office. we took them to the world war ii memorial where i know that bob dole greeted them. we also took them on a nice dinner cruise in the potomac which they enjoyed and also visits to the white house. and like all of these wonderful world war ii victims, they were much like senator dole. really, truly of the greatest generation. so i want to just say to senator dole, we salute you. may god rest your soul. may god bless your family. and this great nation. i yield back. mr. estes: well, thank you,

claudia 10, ms. -- claudia, ms. tenney, i thank you. ms. tenney: thank you so much for doing this. mr. estes: you know, bob dole touched so many people's lives around the country and around the world. i do want to just mention some of the folks that we have some comments from and so i'll refer to some of those. kansas is an agriculture state. senator dole served as the ranking member on the senate agriculture committee from 1975 to 1978. kansas association of wheat growers president justin said in part, wheat farmers across kansas are pausing to reflect and honor the life and legacy of senator bob dole. a lifetime friend to kansas wheat growers, wheat fields planted to the variety baring his name will carry extra significance this season as i

and other farmers tend to them along the journey to producing grain to feed and nourish people. senator dole was an endless champion for farmers and also for those who were food insecure. and solved the potential and connect grain from kansas wheat fields from those around the -- around here and those around the world. when we talk about senator dole, obviously, we talk a lot about his involvement during world war ii. and as a world war ii veteran, bob dole spent a great deal of time thanking to assist the men and women who sacrificed for our country. the paralyzed veterans of america president released a statement, we mourn the passing of senator dole and extends our heart-felt prayers to senator elizabeth dole and the entire dole family. prior to becoming one of america's longest serving u.s. senators, he served in the u.s.

army and later became a decorated world war ii veteran and two time purple heart recipient. a champion of the americans with disabilities act, he devoted his entire life to advancing the causes of people with disabilities as well as advocating for service men and women who sacrificed their lives for this nation. following his tenure in congress, dole worked tirelessly on seeking u.s. ratification of the convention on rights of persons with disabilities. you know, the effects of war left senator dole with lasting challenges in his life. something that strengthened his resolve to help americans with disabilities. maria town, president and c.e.o. of american association of people with disabilities, said in a statement -- the world as we know it today is more accessible and inclusive for people with disabilities because of senator bob dole. senator dole worked to elevate the voices and perspective of people with disabilities, encouraging greater leadership, opportunities for disabled people, and sharing his

experiences of disability with his colleagues to build bipartisan consensus for disability policy issues. his passing represents an enormous loss for a.p.d. and the disability community at large and the nation. you know, senator dole, through all of his work and his life activities has earned respect of countless leaders, including our former presidents from both sides of the aisle. former president donald trump released a statement saying -- bob dole was an american war hero and true patriot for our nation. he served the great state of kansas with honor and the republican party was made stronger by his service. our nation mourns his passing and our prayers are with elizabeth and his wonderful family. former president barack obama said in part, his sharp wit was matched only by his integrity and he lived his life in a way that made it clear just how proud he was to be an american and how committed he was to making this country everything

he knew it could be. and many of us recall the moving moment when former president george h.w. bush was lying in state and senator dole stood and saluted his friend. it was a moment that reminded us of patriotism, camaraderie, and devotion. his son and former president george w. bush said, laura and i are saddened by the passing of a great patriot, senator bob dole. this good man represented the finest in american values. he defended them in uniform during world war ii. he vanlsed them in the -- advanced them in the united states senate, and he lived them as a father, husband, and friend. our my entire family benefited from that, including my late father. i will always remember bob's salute to my father in the capitol and now we salute him.

laura and i send our heart felt condolences to elizabeth and join in prayers for her comfort. former president clinton, his political rival who would later honor the late senator with a presidentialed me oofl freedom, said, bob dole dedicated his life to serving the american people. from his heroism in world war ii, to his 35 queers in congress, after all he gave in the war he didn't have to give more but he did. his example should inspire people today and for generations to come. tonight, i and a lot of speakers here talked a lot about the life of bob dole. we talked about different things regarding his life in russell, kansas, the small town he was born in and grew up in. and you know, his early outlook as a football and basketball and track star before the war cuts that plan short for him. talked a lot about his war

service, talked a lot about how he was injured. and injured in the line of duty trying to rescue somebody else and suffered consequences of war. and the time it took for him recover the hospitalization, his small town of russell, kansas, started a crowd funding process to help him with his recovery. there was a cigar box that friends, family members, made donations to help with the 39 months it took for bob to go through his hospitalizations and his recovery. we talk tonight about his years of service in the house and the senate. we've talked some about his involvement with the world war ii memorial and how he was a big driving force on making sure that that memorial got implemented, got available for

us as a country to see and recognize the work that the greatest generation did in keeping and providing the freedoms for us. we talked some about the honor flights and the effort that bob took even when the weather wasn't good, even when he may not have been feeling well himself, he would come out and greet all these world war ii veterans. and veterans from other wars. who were coming to the memorial that he had helped implement. and my father, before he passed away, was one of those veterans who was able to come and attend an honor flight and participate in a process. and it meant so much to watch those veterans as may come through that process. they're actually like little kids again when they get off the bus and tour through the monuments. and in some cases relive some

past life and in other cases just reconnect with their brothers in arms. we talked some about kansas, talked about the friends and family of bob cole. one of his favorite sayings was, remember where you'refrom. that's important for us, particularly as kansans, to remember that where we're from and what we should do and what we should stand up for and be responsible for. i had the honor as state treasurer to participate in a lot of the stops through the counties that bob dole participated in. and it was a time for him to reconnect with old friends and it was amazing to see the respect and admiration that came from his fellow kansans as they sat down and talked with their friend bob. the funny thing about that or the inspiring thing maybe is a better word for me to use, was

just to watch his interaction with fellow cappsians. people that he may not have seen for years, in some cases decades, but he could talk about the same issues with them. he could talk about their family members, be able to connect with the stories they had. people would ask questions about, now do you still have that big rock on the hill that was in the way when you were trying to work through with the crop land? and it's an interesting life to be able to watch and watch him lead. you know, he's had an impact on not just kansas but americans an internationally. influence on people that he's been able to touch throughout his life will never be known by all of us but his engagement, his ability to win friends, his ability to help lead and solve problems will be forever admired. there's maybe a small army if you want to call it that of

people that have worked with senator dole throughout his life and were engaged in him either as an intern or a staffer in his office or connected with one of his campaigns or connected with one of his cause he is got engaged in. it's important that all of us recognize the value that he has created for the world today. and last but not least, let's not forget his humor and wit. we talk about all the common tear and sthoaferl -- common tear and several of -- congressmentar -- commontary and several of the remarks tonight that talk about what kind of man he was. in closing, mr. speaker, i'd just like to say, may god bless bob dole and car fir his wife elizabeth and daughter robin.

kansans, americans, and people throughout the world will miss you. but are better off for knowing you and for your years of service you provided to us. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the chair recognizes the gentleman from arizona, mr. schweikert, for 30 minutes.

mr. schweikert: this is the hazard of when you use far too many boards. i want to do a couple of things this evening. first i'm going to offer a solution because i believe, particularly my brothers and cyst thorns left, the administration are in a very bad place on one issue. i think there's a genuine solution coming, maybe within the next couple of weeks. then we're going to spend some time talking about something that's often uncomfortable around here and that's the debt ceiling. and the reality of the math and

why it is a sin that we're not going to actually engage in the stressor and use that stressor which is the debt ceiling to make a couple of steps toward reality on what the math looks like. so first off. this is going to come off a little bit sarcastic because i mean it to. but what happened? a year and a half ago two years ago, when covid came to our shores, came to the world, we had discussions here, often on zoom. we were going to do the science. we were going to follow the facts. and also accept that what we know today will be different tomorrow. we were going to slow down the spread. not because we thought we could avoid the virus but because we were worried about emergency rooms and o.r.'s being -- excuse me, emergency rooms and others being overflow with our brothers

and sisters who are sick. here we are approaching almost two years later, we have multiple vaccines. we have antibodies. and you saw the data, particularly on the fizer anti-viral therapeutic pill. there is a pill coming. if the data is real, what we read is real, is about 89% effective. it's a lot of pills you have to take over five days but there's a therapeutic coming that you can take at home. so we have home test kits. and if you will go back to our own rhetoric and the conversations with the scientists and the experts, it was always we don't have a therapeutic. if it's true in about three weeks we're going to have an inhibitor that if you read the science on it, it's neat how it snips the protein, keeps it from

attaching into the cell, it's remarkable science. also going to help us on all sorts of other future viruses. but the ultimate anti-viral is almost here. if this is almost here why isn't it time to have a simple policy discussion saying wasn't this the standard that we were all hoping and waiting for? the technology, the belief in science. that would allow us to declare the pandemic over? and by doing that, the distaupian sort of fight that's going on in our society where the senate yesterday said no vaccine mandates, where now five different federal courts have said it's unconstitutional. brother after brother, sister after sister, neighbor after neighbor, republican versus democrat, now we've turned it into an article of faith. the left lives in a ball of fear over the disease. the right lives in a frustration and anger that they believe freedoms are being tripped a--

stripped away in the country. how about we embrace science. the fact of the matter is, go back a year and a half ago, this was the miracle we were waiting for. it's almost here. why wouldn't we pass a simple piece of legislation that functionally says hey, when the f.d.a. says that we have successful therapeutic, anti-virals, that's really effective, let's declare the pandemic over. let's get ourselves away from this distaupian polarization that's not based on science anymore. we've turned it into a religion. i think we're better than this. and the fact of the matter is, we dropped a piece of legislation weeks ago that basically said that. it basically said, when science is victorious, we will embrace the science, declare the pandemic over.

that doesn't mean the virus goes away. doesn't mean some of our brothers and sisters aren't going to get sick. the fact of the matter is the math is the math. we've had more of our brothers and sisters die this year than we did last year. do you remember the political rhetoric? maybe i shouldn't go there. but maybe it really is the moment to consider this to my brothers and sisters on the left. i'm extending you a lifeline. i'm giving you a chance to back away from a society of fear and hate to a society that says we conquered. so please. for anyone who is listening, for my brothers and sisters here in congress, mr. speaker, yourself, give it a consideration. has science won? and if it is let's embrace it.

let's declare this pandemic over. because it stops the cascade effect of removing troops that want to serve to the chaos around here of, you know, we play this fake virtue signaling game where there's hundreds and hundreds of us sitting here for hour, wearing masks but sitting right next to each other, talking, pulling our masks down to to have a drink of water. it's theater. let's get back to science. all right. a few years ago, i remember being here on the floor and the then-democrat leader got behind the microphone and basically called those of us who made it very clear we would not vote for a clean debt ceiling arsonists. and that has bothered me ever since. because i think actually in many ways those of us who did not believe in a clean debt ceiling,

raising the debt ceiling once again without some attempt to slow the chaos, slow the spending down, i actually think those of us who wanted to bend the debt curve, we weren't the arsonists. we were actually in some ways the fire prevention crew. we were trying to save the country. save the society. does everyone understand how bad the mathis? we are borrowing 37,000 every second. we bore $2 million a minute. ok? i'm going to speak for half an hour, $2 million is $84 million in an half an hour. it will be board in the half an

hour i speak. but we are borrowing $400 billion. and down understand in a decade, that number almost doubles. it almost doubles. and for -- back to the rhetoric of arson, go back over our history over the last 50 years, the only time -- except for one where in the 1980's and took on the shortfalls and social security and you look at the yields, every one of them was associated with the debt ceiling. we have heard over and over and over, congress will not do something unless they feel there

is a crisis and unless they are up against the wall and the game here, let's change the rules and make it 50 votes and pass this and don't have to do the reality of peoples' retirement and destroying my little girl's future, but the fact of the matter is almost every agreement we have had is associated with the stressor. gram refund man. and debt limit increase associated with it. and automatic spending reduction. pay-go. i can't tell you how many democrats preach to me on pay-go and it doesn't fall under the

pay-go rules. the pay-go rules, four times was associated with changing the borrowing limits of the country, the debt ceiling. it was supposed to create deficit reduction. spending decreases and that is the change that pay-go produced. but remember, it came about because of a debt ceiling, multiple debt ceiling fights. budget control act. you remember how controversial. another thing associated with this, but, the budget control act, the frustration that came with it, if you look at it, was the most successful in modern

times. we all know the fraud around here is discretionner is now down to, what, 10% or so -- no, 15%, nope, military is 10% and the other 70-plus percent is on auto pilot. but this is the truth. and once again, the left -- democrats control the white house, senate and house. bless their precious hearts. but we could have used this as a stressor and there would have been lots of oh, i'm worried about the stock market and wimping, wink, nod, nod. and use it as an excuse even if we have to tell our constituents. because remember, the lobbyists

in this town aren't to reduce spending but wanting more spending. this place is designed to get everything you can and hell be damned when we hit that. and you saw it today, it wasn't a big deal but today's bond auction was unsubscribed. i'm not saying it was a can ari in the mine, but the can ari had a call. so what we are going to do today. we are going to do a debt increase and come back, what, on tuesday? and we don't know what the number is going to be. will there be any deficit reduction, any attempt, anything to force rational math of what's

on going? no, because it's uncomfortable, because we have to tell the truth about the drivers of our debt. and what are the drivers of our debt? i have said this over and over and over. the left will say, oh, it's military. it's rich people not paying enough taxes. the right, we have our since, too. we will say it is foreign aid. oh, it's waste and fraud. no, it's not. the primary driver is we are getting old. it's demographics and it isn't republican or democrats but it's math. and see how sharp this curve is. here's 2022. we are functionally, let's say 17% of our population is over

65. we get up to our population being over 65. this is the driver of our debt. realm the math and doing it a couple times and i'm sorry it upsets people. the primary driver is medicare. simply medicare and then social security. to the next 30 years, the budget is in balance. if you ran for office around here that you were going to protect social security and protect medicare, letting it be buried in debt, tell the truth and there are solutions. i come behind this mic and said there are things that we do to grow the economy and everything should be fixated on what

maximizes and the left moves their build back better. we will be poorer and smaller and the workers will be poorer at the end of the decade because of the way they designed their social spending legislation. we are doing it backwards. if you lay out the theory, the integrated model, you have to fix immigration, you focus on immigration about maximizing and adoption of technology that maximizes people that cures, cures. remember last week we talked about the miracle from last week like type one diabetes. 31% of our spending in medicare is type 2 diabetes. what if you do it and you get

amazing benefits on our debt. the reaction you will get, schweikert wanted to cut entitlements. no. i'm trying to find a way to save them. but save them by changing the cost curve and this is the first step to admit you have a problem. this place can't make it to step one. so let's do a little math. and i'm sorry i do this over and over and i continue to be shocked about the number of staff will grab me and say this number real? is this real? and you say this is the single biggest issue facing this country and will face shiny objects.

we will have discussions about there is a data base and you realize that is a calm and they say look at the shiny object. reality. and this number is worst today and this is based on last year's math, $112 trillion public borrowing in 29 years. 112 trillion of borrowing will be our publicly-held debt in 29 years. 77.7 of that is just medicare. 34.8 is social security. the rest of the federal government is in balance. this is demographics. this is crashing the price of health care.

this will drive every bit of public policy and it's coming very fast if you look at our borrowing curve-n a decade where we will be borrowing $1 trillion a year, the debt and the borrowing will and the interests will drive all policy and and this place is worried about how to get re-go elected. do you understand, do you understand a two-point increase in interest rates, from nominal interest rates. go up 2% and getting us closer to what the historic mean is. in 2051, 100% of revenues, 100% of revenues, 100% of revenues

goes to pay interest. how come this isn't the number one discussion here? the left may have a different discussion and you would think this is all we could talk about and it is avoided around here like it is a virus but haven't put a mask on it and avoid social distinct and for my brothers and sisters on the left, the number of times i will try to sit down in working groups with my democrat colleagues and their heart may be in the right place, they don't own a calculator and mathis nt there but we make it because it feels good and has a great title and judge by our

intentions, not by our outcomes. this is incredibly dangerous. so think about some of the rhetoric. this board -- and i have done presentations where i walk through every single revenue and we see generating proposals from the left. and if you did all of them and pretended they had no economic effect or secondary effect, you can't come close to raising enough revenue. 100% of revenues could not come close to the budget. you could take the money and all the revenues and take every dime, this is a percentage of g.d.p. number. you start doing the percentage.

we are headed towards 15% of g.d.p. being borrowing. if you take every dime, you only get about 5% of g.d.p. we're crude. and i'm sorry, i know that is craft, but i don't know how to get folks to pay attention to it. this is the single most important thing on going here, if you care about education, if you care about health and science and the quality, when there is no more money, when every dime of resources go to wrl we survive and god forbid and interest rates spike do you have any idea how fragile we

have made our society. this isn't the future. this is today. we will kiss up to $30 trillion in borrowing over the next few months. these are these are unthinkable numbers. it's based on a simple concept. there's going to be no more wars, there's not going to be another pandemic, there's not going to be a mortgage collapse, we done this to ourselves. and then the left comes here and we do things like the build back better, the social spending bill, which ultimately and we have different number because god knows what the senate is going to do but the simple scoring from c.b.o. basically said year 5 is borrowed another $800 billion. by the way, wink, wink, nod,

nod, after year 5 we'll stop all these programs and start to raise revenues. to pay it off. we're functionally going to add another $4 trillion plus from borrowing. mr. speaker, may i ask for the time? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has six minutes remaining. mr. schweikert: thank you, mr. speaker. the social spending bill. at the end of the decade, you realize the economy will have missed tremendous amounts of economic growth. some of the best models coming from the tax foundation, we're making ourselves poor because of the design of the spending. when you tell people i'm going to send you a check but you don't to work. when i'm putting money into things that don't create productivity. what are the two ways you pay people more money in inflation that doesn't get you anywhere, or productivity. that was one of the miracles of the end of the 2017 tax reform.

the resources that went for companies to buy equipment to be more productive so they could pay their workers more. and you saw it. you saw a miracle of employment and wage growth. and then the cynicism that when 2/3 of millionaires get tax cuts under the democrats' build back better plan, so you tell us the rich need to pay their fair share and then you design pieces of legislation that give hundreds of billions of dollars to rich people. and then you tell us, oh, by the way, we should put state and local back into it but the most of it goes to really rich people. i mean, come on. if you want to do something, ok, you want revenues. we did a whole presentation here a few months ago that said we can show you over 10 years $1.4

trillion you can get. stop subsidizing really, really rich people. instead, the left does a piece of legislation to subsidize them more. i guess my intense frustration is, we are heading, it may not be the bubble where the economy blows up, but we are heading to a top of rot because so much of this nation's resources will be used to survive the amount of debt we have filed up -- we have piled up. and then we're adopting policies that don't create any kind of philosophy of we're curing diseases that drive the debt because most of the debt is created by health care. we're doing investments in things that grow the economy. we're getting immigration codes and other codes to maximize economic opportunity because we actually give a darn about poor people. we give a darn about the working

poor. we give a darn about people who are heading toward retirement. we give a darn about young people having a future. and not one of those things is actually in the math. it's in the rhetoric. people spin some great stories here. but it's not in the math, mr. speaker. it's just not in the math. it's not in the economic analysis. the universities that have looked at what's going on right now tell us at the end of the decade the poor will be poorer. come on. what type of economic violence is this place willing to subject the working poor, the middle class. to we're better than this. and there is a path. not going to pay off the debt, mr. speaker. but we could adopt enough policies to flatten the curve that my 6-year-old daughter actually has a future. doesn't she deserve one? with that, i yield back, mr. speaker.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 4, 2021, the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. roy, for 30 minutes. mr. roy: i thank the speaker. i want to thank my friend from arizona for being willing to stand on the floor of the united states house of representatives when unfortunately so many of my colleagues are not this evening, to talk about the danger facing our country. the gentleman outlines, i believe if i'm correct, we'll be facing $112 trillion of debt come 2050. if we do not change course, we do not take the steps necessary to make changes with respect to our health care spending and make wise policy choices. like any family, any budget that you have to maintain if you're running a business, a nonprofit, university, virtually everybody in the world or at least

everybody in this country except nor body right here that has to maintain and balance a budget and make determinations and make tough choices. if the gentleman would indulge me for a minute or two for a cup more minutes on the floor, when was the last time the gentleman recalls we've had the ability to amend a piece of legislation on the floor of this body? truly amend it? does the gentleman remember? mr. schweikert: will the gentleman yield? i cannot actually think of a time where there was a collective idea from my brothers and sisters on the left or the right that there was actual intellectual battle here where we made something better. this place is functionally an intellectual dictatorship. mr. roy: would it surprise the gentleman that it was may of

2016 the last time and amendment was offered on the floor of this body in open debate? to be clear that's an assessment of leadership in both parties but how on earth can we solve the problems, i ask the speaker if we don't come down and sit at this table, stop looking at the c-span cameras, sit around this table and start with a budget like any family or any business and say here's how much money we have. here's how we can responsibly spend for the betterment of the people, have disagreements about what those priorities are, and make choices. when was the last time we have done that? it's a rhetorical question but i know one data point is that may of 2016 was the last time any member of this body was able to walk onto this floor and offer and amendment. that wasn't precooked up in rules, previously and already set up by the leadership structure of either party. would the gentleman agree that

that is no way for the people's house to operate? mr. schweikert: if the gentleman will allow may quick colloquy with him. the process is broken. it's why i come here almost every week and you do too and we try to just focus on what's ahead of us. look, i just spent a half-hour focusing on debt and deficit. that's not republican or democrat. it's what's ahead of us. you've been here a few years. how many actual real discussions other than theater of, we should do a study commission, we should write a strongly worded memo, the theater of this place instead of doing what's really hard. and understand, you can't just do one thing. that's the great fraud now. we've gotten ourselves in such a difficult position it's got to

be everything. you know. a couple of years ago i came here, we brought in 19 attributes you had to do almost with the exact same time to maximize enough economic growth, enough technology disruption all the things, to make it work. you actually helped me on some of that. but my fear, those are really uncomfortable, to have an army of lobbyists really unhappy with you when you tell the truth about the math. mr. roy: the gentleman is correct. there is no debate about that. you want to have a conversation about solving the medicare crisis driving $112 million, then you have to have a conversation about solving the health care crisis. to solve the health care crisis you need to be willing, both sides of the aisle, to take on the army of lobbyists representing the insurance companies, the hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, all minting money right now, by the way, literally minting money, and you got to be willing to have a conversation about that to actually figure out how we can trandz form our health care

system to be patient centered, doctor-centered and not have to go to an insurance bureaucrat or government impure bure contract to figure out what your health care looks like and then get competition, transparency and drive down prices. if you drive down prices we can actually solve the medicare crisis. mr. schweikert: the gentleman knows in many quarters i'm a bit of a heretic on this. i believe we're on the cusp of miracles. if it's true that we just found a cure for type i diabetes. if it's true -- if the math is true about one third of all u.s. health care spending is just type two diabetes. from my native american populations, for my urban poor, for my rural anglo poor. the amount of diabetes, the misery, the suffering. wouldn't it be one of the most elegant, noble things to do to say screw this noise we're doing, we're going to do our operation warp speed. we see there's a stem cell to an

eye let producing insulin, there's a path but it requires intellectual discipline, telling the truth and say nothing to a lot of people who are going to beup set because a cure ends the misery, it also ends the manipulation. mr. roy: i agree with the gentleman. i hope we can reach a point where, to your point, you asked me a question about how many times have we had a real, substantive debate, the closest i remember, i steny -- the gentleman from maryland, the leader, said i wish we had more debate on the floor. i say to the leader, let's do it. let's start. let's drop a bill on the floor instead of a 2,000-page monstrosity that cost x trillions of dollars that would pass on rule, brought to the floor, that with then offer and m.t.r. and we go give press

conferences about why we can't support it. that's no way to actually do the work of the people. let's drop a bill here on the floor that starts, like the ndaa here. put a bill on the table. and then let's offer amendments. right? we had a whole fight about draft our daughters, vaccine mandate, all these things. just start with the ndaa and offer some amendments. let the votes work. let the people speak. mr. schweikert: chip, you're a heretic. mr. roy: i am. i am. mr. schweikert: before i leave, i'm still hopeful. i think there's a path, but the window for that escape is getting very narrow. shrinking. the speed of debt accumulation, the unwillingness to deal with complex problems work complex solutions, because that's reality, is closing fast on us. and the number of members who are like you, who are willing to come to the floor and say very

difficult things that are truthful are becoming rarer. thank you for the colloquy. mr. roy: yes, sir. god bless you. see you next week. i appreciate your steadfast commitment to speak the truth and try to speak to the american people. unfortunately too often to an empty chamber. i appreciate that my colleagues, many of whom were able to get a flaight and go home, god bless them, we have problems to solve. we ought to be here debating in this chamber rather than posturing. i would note that previous my colleagues were eulogizing and remembering senator bob dole. as ewe all know, he was a world war ii veteran, injured in combat. a man of great distinction who served in public life. pretty much since his service in world war ii. and he is rae minder as we all know of losing that generation.

there are precious few remaining. both of my grandfathers have passed who served. in world war ii. we lost senator dole this week. i was on a flight from austin, texas, earlier this week on monday with an honor flight with eight veterans of world war ii who came up for pearl harbor day. on december 7. none of those eight had been present at pearl, two of them were over 100 years old. one of the men i sat meek to him on the plane flying up to d.c. had served and been in combat in iwo jima. there's only a few of these folks left. what i want to spend a minute focusing on as we're heading out and i know we'll be back next week for a day but we're getting close to winding down and

heading home for christmas. i want to remember what that generation did. the story from a couple of years ago, jim schwartz remembers the frigid cold they survived in the ball of of the bulge. ice, wind, snow, frozen ground, frostbite, amputations, pneumonia, americans dieing from hypothermia in a land far away from their homes. one million forces endured the conditions during a flight that lasted from december 16, 1944 until january 5, 1945, which was around christmas. germans making their last strike on the western front during world war ii. 90,000 of them wound up dead.

now i think 77 years later, when recalling the conditions, schwartz looked at his hands trying to warm them. i have something to show for it, he said, when sharing his experiences. my hands are almost to the place where they are useless from the frostbite. he couldn't drink the water because of dead bodies in the water and some of the guys couldn't get to the water. they ate the snow to keep their body liquified. and you tried to dig holes in the ground to sleep. the grouped was so hard, you couldn't dig a hole. what you did, you got pine branches and laid them on the ground and that's how you tried

to keep warm. a fellow soldier was wounded. he was better than i was. he was shot in the back. i ran and got his jacket off and when i put it on, it was an overcoat and i pit yessed the poorly guy, but it was so cold. at that time, in 1944, was the famous exchange and happened when the german commander wrote, our commander, basically saying, battalions are ready to i nile eat the u.s. troops. the order will be given in two hours term. the germ replied, nuts. and they fought on and battled on. many of the soldiersp spent

christmas 1944, the best they could. american sold years, they were held by the chaplain and they went and visited with others and we found this farmhouse. a man and a woman and the wife gave us some soup and plaque bread. the war was on going fiercely outside and the farmhouse never got hit. we were there. we sang christmas songs and sang "jingle bells" and "silent night." the thing that strikes me, we think about what they did in world war ii and enlisting and going out to the pacific and going out to europe to stand up

against tyranny around the globe and defend our country and others around the world for something bigger than they. they signed up withoutal question. and churchill famously observed that once we were bombed by the japanese in december of 1941 that caused president roosevelt to come in this room and give that speech, churchill observed that the war would be won. a sleeping giant had been awakeend, because the world knew who we were. the world knew what america stood for. it knew that that sleeping giant

had been awakeend. and nothing could be assumed. it took a massive ramp up and sacrifice, women enlisting to rosey the rivettedder going across 40,000 dead at that memorial here on the mall. that the world knew what we would do. question i would ask my colleagues today, does the world know what we would do today? does the world know who we are? does the world know what we will do as we watch china on the rise, russia rattling against ukraine, iran rattling about

nuclear capability? cartels and violence and unrest on our southern border. does the world know whether we have the resolve to stand up in defense of the rule of law and in defense of freedom and against tyranny around the globe but with the resolve necessary to win it? when president reagan stood against the soviet union and talked about peace through strength and told mr. gosh comef to tear down these walls, the world knew our resolve. do they today and can we accomplish the objectives in defending this country in

standing up in the world when we refuse to do the basic job of managing our own affairs and our own country response apply? we amass a mountain of debt in world war ii. 125% of g.d.p. by 1946. coming out of the depression, but we got back and we grew out of it and got that down. but we are sitting here today in relative peacetime with $30 trillion of debt as my colleagues articulated to an empty chamber minus myself and the speaker, and we are doing

nothing about it, nothing, literally. just last night, there was wailing among our colleagues because we voted on 30 suspension votes. oh, know, we might miss a christmas party and we might not catch our flight home. $2.7 billion were authorized last night in suspension votes. all bills that will sound good in the headline, three of us voted against a bill that would provide $500 million over five years to support research and funding for therapist for a.l.s. do you think i want to go back and talk to people and families

that are afflicted by a.l.s.? but where are the rest of my colleagues in explaining where that $500 million is going to come from? because when we are faced with a conflict like our forefathers were and hitler was on the march and we resolved to fight because our economy and disciplined enough to do the right thing, are we able to do that today, when we are not disciplined enough to sit here and figure out how to figure out the budget of the united states so we don't drive our country into bankruptcy and destroy it for our kids and grandkids. well, it's just some votes.

some people were getting in trouble because it might be used by one of our democratic colleagues because they managed to pass some bill the votes. oh, no, don't give someone a political weapon. nowhere was there concern just passed through on suspension bills. do we hardly debate it? when we talk it and talk about bob dole and we talk about and look at our grandfathers who sat there in the frigid cold or stormed the cliffs of normandy, can we fight those fights

tomorrow? are we capable of it? do we have the resources to do it, much less the resolve if we can't resolve in this body to preserve and protect the actual foundation of this country to economically firm and stable? if we don't resolve the 435 members of this body to do the hard work, as my colleague of arizona was talking about about medicare and social security and the discretion area spending and the national defense authorization act that we through at them with no reforms with how they spend money, how are we going to save this

republic. i said this is the united states house, free stuff, that's what it has become. it has become an entity to dole out money because it feels good and that is it. $500 million for a.l.s. research. god bless them. someone has to sit on the floor of the house and say, where are we going to get the money? not jupes print it. i can't go next door to my neighbor and knock on the door and say, hey, it's time for you to give me check. the check for a.l.s. well, what do you mean? well, it's a good cause. i'm a cancer for and whatever it

might be. not one of us has a right to knock on our neighbor's door and say give me a check. you wouldn't do that. but through the power of this body as a whole, we print money, bore money and then dole it out for political benefit. and nothing more. and it is cowardly and it is embarrassing and it is destroying the republic. thread by thread, the flag is being at that timerred because we refuse to do the hard work of making tough decisions top sustain this republic.

we'll come back in next week, the debt ceiling will get raised. that is true as the sun coming up in the east and not a thing will be done to right the ship of the massive amount of debt piling up around the ears of our kids and grandkids. nothing will be done next week to solve that problem. republicans will blame democrats, passing a bill tore plow up the filibuster to allow the filibuster to raise with a 51-vote threshold so they can go back to the american people and say i didn't vote to raise the debt ceiling, but you did. don't let them hide. they did. they concocted the scheme.

and voted to make sure that happened and the debt ceiling will be raised and not a thing will change about how we carry out our work. nothing will be done to make this country fiscally sound again. may i ask how much time i have left? the speaker pro tempore: five minutes. mr. roy: i thank the speaker. i take a minute to thank the staff, the floor staff, we've come down here, we speak, we speak in the late hour we have votes like last night that go to 9:00 of 10:00 because some of us forced some votes. appreciate all of y'all's hard work and former staffer, i know it's not easy. the american people are a great people. the american people want this

body and the senate and their leadership in washington to actually represent them again. i'm going to keep giving this speech over and over again and i'm going to keep calling for this body to do the hard work of representation. we don't govern. we represent. those men who sat in the freezing cold and frostbite and amputations and pneumonia and death and picking up jacks off of their fallen compatriot to stay warm, to defeat hitler's germany, those men that responded to pearl harbor, 80 years ago this week, president washington overlooking this chamber here in the portrait, crossing the delaware, christmas

eve night, 1776. what will we do to honor their memories? what will we do to carry forward this republic that they fought, died, bled, lost limbs, senator dole carrying a pen in his crippled hand. what will we do to honor that sacrifice? that sour calling as we embark on the second half of this congress. i don't accept that just because my party is not in control of this chamber for the next year that we can't find a way to actually do the hard work of

representation. i ask of the speaker, the leader, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, my colleagues on this side of the aisle, restoring reorder on this floor. bring bills to the floor and allow us to vote, debate, amend. and do the work the american people expect us to do. it is the least that we can do to honor the memory of those world war ii veterans who we are losing by the day and all of those who sacrificed to defend this country, and all of those who sat there on that christmas eve day singing christmas carols hoping to get back to this great country. let's fight to save that great country. i yield back, madam speaker. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to section 11-b of

house resolution 188, the house stands adjourned until 12:30 p.m. on monday, december 13, 2021.