Volume 163, No. 124 covering the 1st Session of the 115th Congress (2017 - 2018) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“FAILURE TO GOVERN: THE FIRST 6 MONTHS UNDER REPUBLICAN CONTROL” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H6202-H6207 on July 24, 2017.
More than half of the Agency's employees are engineers, scientists and protection specialists. The Climate Reality Project, a global climate activist organization, accused Agency leadership in the last five years of undermining its main mission.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
{time} 1945FAILURE TO GOVERN: THE FIRST 6 MONTHS UNDER REPUBLICAN CONTROL
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2017, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Ms. Plaskett) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
General Leave
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include any extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands?
There was no objection.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise today to anchor the CBC Special Order hour.
For the next 60 minutes, we have a chance to speak directly to the American people on issues of great importance to the Congressional Black Caucus, Congress, the constituents we represent, and all Americans.
Led by our chair, Cedric Richmond from Louisiana, it is our duty, we feel, as the conscience of the Congress, to speak to all people in this hour on the issues that we deem are important and that our constituents have told us are important.
For this Special Order hour, we will spend this time to talk about Failure to Govern: The First 6 Months Under Republican Control.
President Trump's first 6 months have been defined by his often angry and personal tweets, his efforts to denigrate and undercut the multiple investigations into Russian influence in the 2016 election, and most importantly, the stalemated legislative battle to repeal and replace ObamaCare.
President Trump has signed dozens of executive actions and Presidential proclamations. Some have fared better than others. His travel ban plan, for instance, first caused chaos and was effectively shut down by a series of legal challenges. But the second effort, which also faced a flurry of lawsuits, was ultimately allowed to take effect on a limited basis by the Supreme Court.
In all, our President has signed 42 bills into law. But when it comes to big ticket items, like infrastructure, tax reform, and a repeal and/
or replacement of ObamaCare, President Trump is sitting on zero. With healthcare seemingly on ice, tax reform is expected to be the big challenge next on our agenda.
Budgets are about priorities, and this President's priorities are clear. His budget hollows out our economy, endangers working families all across this country, in my district of the Virgin Islands, and the other districts that we all represent.
The $2.5 trillion in cuts to entitlement programs, which include $192 billion to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, otherwise known as SNAP, and the $800 billion to Medicaid, will devastate localities like the Virgin Islands and elsewhere, where one in five children are covered under Medicaid and one-fifth of our population receives SNAP benefits.
The President has a budget with massive cuts that would shred social safety nets and cripple longstanding governmental functions. This administration has created uncertainty in the Nation's healthcare system by sending inconsistent administrative signals and supporting legislation that could deprive millions of people of health insurance coverage, undermine Medicaid health support for low-income Americans, and give wealthy taxpayers a massive tax cut.
He has mismanaged the Federal Government by failing to fill top spots. He has expanded the policy of deporting dangerous and illegal aliens by including many people with minimal records, stable jobs, and American families.
Most recently, we saw this with the Secretary of Homeland Security ordering the 50,000-plus Haitians here under protective status, due to the devastating natural disasters in Haiti, to leave. These are decent, hardworking people who are sending money back home, supporting an economy which is faltering under collapse.
We have seen a reversal of decades of bipartisan cooperation in extending environmental preservation of national landmarks. He has hired foxes to watch the chicken coops by filling his administration with arch-conservatives, many with records opposing the very agencies with which they work, and curbing civil rights and environmental enforcement.
All of these things we have seen in these first 6 months, and we will hear more.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Payne), to speak on behalf of what we have seen in these last 6 months.
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, let me first thank the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands, who has demonstrated great leadership in leading these CBC Special Order hours. It is not an easy task, but she has done remarkable work in terms of finding topics that are important to our communities and our Nation.
As the gentlewoman stated, Mr. Speaker, this month we marked 6 months of the Trump Presidency and 6 months of congressional Republican inaction.
Republicans made promise after promise to the American people. The President called himself the ultimate dealmaker. I wonder if we are witnessing the first Manchurian President. Instead of the promise of jobs, infrastructure, and a new and improved healthcare plan, we get chaos and seemingly never-ending controversies.
Where is the Republican agenda? Where are their accomplishments? Where are all those wins?
Let's take a look at the numbers. President Trump has a job approval rating of 36 percent, the lowest of any President ever at this point in their Presidency. Republicans can point to zero legislative accomplishments. The President has no plan to lower healthcare costs, no jobs bills, no infrastructure bills, no tax reform, and no clean budget. These simply are the facts.
Instead of doing what is right for the American people, it appears that Republicans are more occupied with taking away healthcare from millions of our constituents to give tax cuts to the wealthy, or defending the administration's most recent controversy.
This week, we will vote on a dishonest security spending package that will force American taxpayers to pay for the President's border wall. Who is going to pay for it? It looks like the American people.
During his campaign and the rhetoric that we heard up until this point, Mexico was going to pay for the wall. Now, here we are, with our Republican colleagues supporting an effort that says that the American people will pay for the wall. Well, we will get the money from Mexico later. Yeah, all right.
As a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I am alarmed by President Trump's and the congressional Republicans' determination to further break down our alliances and ignorance of matters related to the security of this Nation.
Instead of funding the border wall, we should focus on building strong transportation and infrastructure systems that will create good-
paying jobs and lay a foundation for a strong economy. Instead, we are weakening America. Let's build America with a strong infrastructure bill and adequate training and apprenticeship programs that will benefit our constituents.
Make it in America is something I heard last week, which sounds magnificent, if we could do it. But if you are going to be the leader of this country and make such pronouncements, you have to live by what you are talking about.
Make it in America is to strive to make sure that we do everything in America. We hear of two buildings Trump erected in Chicago that used Chinese steel or steel from outside the United States. If you look at his ties, his shirts, his suits, the soap in his hotels, nothing is made in America. Who are we trying to kid with this? There is nothing.
Maybe his daughter. Well, no, her shoes aren't made in America. Her dresses are not made in America. Who are we kidding? Who are we fooling?
The American people have to open their eyes and see the sham that is going on. How this President says one thing and does absolutely the opposite is an atrocity. Make it in America? He stood up there in front of the American people and said that, with the suit, shirt, and tie that he had on? Absolutely unconscionable.
Where are the jobs? I am going to be the best job creator you have ever seen. When? You are going to win so much, you are going to get tired of winning. When? The American people deserve better.
The American people deserve better than a Congress that cares more about pushing an agenda that puts wealthcare in front of healthcare. The American people deserve better than a Congress that will pass legislation that will harm our environment, contaminate our air, and pollute our waterways.
The American people deserve better than a Congress that continues to ignore important issues that disproportionately affect African-American communities, such as criminal justice reform, gun violence prevention, and voting rights.
While this administration and congressional Republicans turn their backs on the American workers, we will continue to demand real action to create jobs, raise wages, and create a brighter future for American families.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, when the gentleman was talking about what has happened in these last 6 months, it reminded me of when the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Cedric Richmond, on March 22 went with the executive members to visit with the President to speak with him specifically about those things that African Americans and the people who we represent--the 17 million African Americans and the 20-
plus million Americans that members of the Congressional Black Caucus represent--to outline for him in a very succinct and systematic manner those issues that are important to us.
You mentioned criminal justice reform. You talked about expansion of voting rights, jobs creation, support to small businesses, infrastructure. These are the things that the President said he was interested in.
These are the things that the Congressional Black Caucus said: We are willing to work with you. We have an agenda. We have specific language, specific legislation that we would like to have a discussion with you. And not a photo op, but really to sit down around a table and discuss actual legislation and how we can be supportive of an agenda that supports the people we represent.
And what have we gotten out of that? Zero to date, 6 months in.
Mr. PAYNE. Will the gentlewoman yield?
Ms. PLASKETT. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey.
Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Speaker, to the gentlewoman's point, I believe there was a document that was created to give to the President on those issues, and we are still waiting to hear back from the administration in reference to anything that was in that document.
We don't need photo ops. We don't need to go to the White House and be trucked up there and lollygag and use us for whatever they deem proper for them. We need help for the American people. We need an administration that is going to look at these issues, be serious about them, and continue to move this country forward, as it was in the previous 8 years.
{time} 2000
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania
(Mr. Evans), the freshman who is not a freshman, who represents Philadelphia, who has been a legislator for many years and comes here. He is so thoughtful. He is very quiet just like yourself, Mr. Payne, and he sits back and is really more observant but is ready to do the work.
He is about policy, is discussing--on a regular basis I hear him talking about middle communities, middle America, those communities that are on the edge. There are places in Newark, New Jersey, and other places that you represent, in neighborhoods in my own district in the Virgin Islands where working class, hard working class people are there but they are on the edge of losing those homes, losing their health insurance, neighborhoods which they have worked so hard over 20, 30 years to create to be vibrant areas in this country that may be lost under this administration and the lack of action.
So I yield to Congressman Evans this evening to discuss what he has seen happen in these last 6 months of this administration and how it speaks to those individuals that we represent.
Mr. EVANS. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from the Virgin Islands for her leadership in terms of being provided this opportunity that she has demonstrated clearly that she has been leading these efforts for the Congressional Black Caucus. So I want to again compliment her for all that she has done not just through words, but through action. And then my neighboring legislator from New Jersey, he and I worked very close together and I have known him an awful long time. So I thank both of you.
I have always said there is a big difference between campaigning and governing. I will say that again. There is a big difference between campaigning and governing. President Trump, it is time to govern.
When I talk to people in my district, they are scared about what President Trump and the Republicans are doing when it comes to their healthcare. They know that the Republicans want to take away their healthcare, and they do not know where to turn. We know that the Republican healthcare bill does not protect our family members and friends from preexisting conditions.
Mr. Speaker, I want to tell you the story of a small businessowner in my district named Andrea. Andrea owns a small pet store, Spot's--The Place for Paws, in Narberth, Pennsylvania. Andrea left her Philadelphia law practice to pursue her dream of owning a small business. Andrea has type 1 diabetes, and without the ACA, she would not be able to get the well-priced coverage that covers her health expenses and medication and allows her to keep her shop open.
We are talking about passing a bill that will make life harder for those trying to get ahead. That is wrong, and that is a risk we cannot take.
Even though the President has yet to deliver on a single promise in 6 months, Pennsylvanians are still anxious and fearful of his plans for the future. President Trump has been in office for 6 months, and we have had 6 months of court cases, stalling, and tweets. Let me repeat that. We have had 6 months of court cases, stalling, and tweets.
The Trump administration is still clearly not ready for prime time. From healthcare to the Russians, to the budget, the Republican party has left the American people with nothing but broken promises.
Philadelphia and Montgomery County residents in my district deserve better. The American people deserve better. For 8 years, the ``Party of No'' constantly criticized President Obama. Yet, even with control of the House, the Senate, and the White House, they have yet to deliver on a jobs plan, healthcare, tax reform, and the list goes on.
Our Federal workers who help secure our Nation's borders, protect and monitor our food supply, and support businesses through agencies like the SBA should not have to wait for Republicans to continue to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the country.
Our neighborhoods have a lot to lose if we don't stand united and fight for what is right. It is time to roll up our sleeves and work across party lines to fight for sound economic policies that give our schools and students and our small businessowners and entrepreneurs, our seniors, and our veterans the resources they need to prosper and build stronger neighborhoods block by block,
It is time for a better deal. We deserve a better deal and a better opportunity. It is clear to me that we need to build on that opportunity for the future, and the only way we can do it is we have to stop campaigning, Mr. President, and we have to begin to govern.
The over 300 million Americans deserve all of us functioning together, and the Congressional Black Caucus, the conscience of this body, is prepared to lead.
My colleague, who has been leading this effort, she has been demonstrating over and over again a message of hope and optimism. She, too, knows that we can have a better deal, and that better deal is an optimism of people working together.
So I thank you, Mr. Speaker, for your leadership and what you have demonstrated.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Evans so much for talking about the optimism of the American people. There is a better deal that is out there, and there is a better way that we all, as Members of Congress, need to demonstrate.
I was looking at a fact Street Sheet that was put together talking about the 200 days of the 115th Congress by the numbers. This is a Congress that is controlled by the Republicans in the House, the Republicans in the Senate, and the Republican administration. You would think that so much legislation could get done, and we are a stalled body at this time.
That is not what the American people brought us to Washington to do. We all represent people who are looking for a better deal, looking for an expansion of the American Dream, a realization of the American Dream in their own lives, and having security for their own children and their grandchildren to be able to realize that dream.
When I looked at these numbers, I was aghast at what has not been done in this Congress and flabbergasted at the things that have been done by this Congress. Zero number of bills to create jobs have been brought to the House floor by House Republican leadership. Zero number of bills that have been considered under an open rule so far this Congress.
The same open rule that, Mr. Speaker, you said that you would exact when you were a young gun coming to Washington, you said that you would use the open rule, but we have not seen that done in this 115th Congress.
Three times, House Republicans blocked a vote on H.R. 685, Bring Jobs Home Act, which ends tax breaks for corporations sending jobs overseas and creates new incentives to create good-paying jobs here in the United States.
There have been zero times that Speaker Paul Ryan has spoken out in opposition to President Trump's dangerous and unconstitutional Muslim and refugee ban. Zero votes on the expansion and correction to the Voting Rights Act.
234 Republicans blocked a vote on H.R. 2933, a critical bill that promotes effective apprenticeships that gives students and workers the skills they need to find good-paying jobs.
Twice, House Republicans voted against Made in America amendment requiring that specific infrastructure and construction projects use materials and equipment made in the USA.
Mr. Speaker, 229 Republicans voted for a GOP antiworker, bait-and-
switch bill that undermines the existing right to hard-earned overtime pay, giving employers the flexibility to substitute overtime pay with comp time while giving employees no guarantee that they can use their comp time when they need it.
Mr. Speaker, 217 Republicans voted for the disastrous TrumpCare bill, which would result in 23 million Americans losing their health insurance coverage, raises out-of-pocket healthcare costs for millions of American families, imposes a crushing age tax on those 50 to 64, shortens the life of the Medicare trust fund, and guts the protections for people with preexisting conditions.
Mr. Speaker, 233 Republicans voted to gut the Dodd-Frank Act, Wall Street reforms, rolling back key consumer protections, and take us back to pre-2008 era of unchecked risky financial market abuses that resulted in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
There have been zero amount of funding in President Trump's budget for Social Services Block Grants, which provide States with funding for services such as childcare and adult care programs. And there are 1.6 million school-age children that would lose afterschool and summer programs as a result of the President's budget.
When we talk about the President's budget, we need to discuss exactly what those numbers mean and how it is going to affect the American people--people, Mr. Speaker, that we say we represent, but that we are not standing up for against this administration.
The budget would cut SNAP funding by over 190 billion--with a ``B''--
over the next 10 years, jeopardizing benefits for an estimated 44 million Americans and reduce nutritional foods for women, infants, and children, the WIC program.
The budget also includes SNAP policy changes that would charge food stores using USDA approval to accept food stamps, which could drive smaller food retailers out of the program.
Why is this important?
Because many people in urban areas that are using food stamps are doing so in virtual food deserts. They do not have transportation to go to the large suppliers, the large grocery stores. They go to these smaller grocery stores. They go to these small places to use the food stamps to be able to provide food for their families. These changes would cap benefits, require localities to pay 25 percent of benefits, and limit local waivers for Federal work requirements that many communities are not appropriate because there are no jobs, because we also are not supplying individuals with the job skills, the work skills to be able to find employment in some of these areas.
The budget would reduce Education Department investments by $9 billion, including through the elimination of preschool and afterschool programs, literacy grants, and funding to improve teacher and principal quality. It also proposes cuts to higher education programs, including elimination of grants for lower income students, low-interest Perkins loans, and cutting by half a program that helps students work to pay off their loans.
The budget also calls for the elimination of NASA Space Grant education programs that prepare students, such as in my district at the University of the Virgin Islands, for careers in science and technology industries.
The budget would reduce USDA Rural Development funding by $9.2 million, approximately 30 percent. This is vital in areas like my district in the Virgin Islands with the elimination of rural business cooperative services and rural water and wastewater disposal programs.
The budget would zero out important rural housing assistance, such as single-family housing direct loans; would slash funding for rural broadband, distance learning, telemedicine, and needed community facilities improvement.
Mr. Speaker, these are in rural areas that President Trump won in the election. You would think that he would want to support these rural communities in areas of housing, the most American of American ideals, home ownership.
In the Labor Department, the budget would reduce Labor Department investments by $2.4 billion, including large cuts to Job Corps. Job Corps, a place that would allow young people to have training for jobs, activities meant to prepare disadvantaged youth, the same youth that we say we are concerned about being on the streets in these urban areas that are so dangerous, those are the individuals going to Job Corps, looking to be prepared for the workplace, and we are going to reduce that by $2.4 billion? That doesn't make any sense.
The budget request for the Department of Energy would slash research funding and move away from investments in renewables, including a 70 percent cut to the Department's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy and zeroing out its weatherization assistance in State energy programs that aid low-income families with reducing energy costs.
{time} 2015
The Department's Office of Science would be cut by 17 percent. That budget slashing to NOAA coastal science programs includes eliminating NOAA's Sea Grants program, coastal research at our university, and the coastal zone management grants that aid with climate change mitigation--climate change mitigation--which is needed in areas that I live in, like the Virgin Islands, Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and in coastal areas that are seeing a tremendous loss of economy and loss of homes because our environment is, in fact, changing.
The Environmental Protection Agency would be cut by approximately 30 percent, partly through elimination of all EPA climate change programs, lead control programs, the Energy Star program that encourages energy-
efficient consumer products, and the environmental justice office that investigates the concentration of pollution in low-income communities.
Now we want people to be in communities where pollution is greatest, those inner cities that our President has said he wants to fight so strongly for. We are going to keep them in polluted areas because we are cutting out EPA funding in some of those places.
In transportation and housing, the budget would eliminate $500 million per year in TIGER grants, Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, which has been important to ports and transshipment projects around this country, in the Virgin Islands, and the Community Development Block Grant program that provides grant funding to localities for economic development activities.
The Department of Housing would be cut nearly 20 percent, including elimination of several housing assistance grant programs and slashing its core rental housing program, Section 8 housing choice vouchers, which assists private rental housing, which is a win-win program. You allow individuals who have private homes, who are renting those out, to receive a voucher to support individuals who are looking to be placed in those homes.
An estimated 250,000 housing vouchers would be taken away over the next fiscal year, vouchers which primarily benefit seniors and individuals with disabilities. Support for local public housing authorities would also see cuts.
The budget would eliminate Commerce Department subdivisions that support businesses and entrepreneurship, such as the Economic Development Administration, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership program, and the Minority Business Development Agency.
Healthcare, of course we could go on for forever, but the budget calls for phasing out enhanced Federal matching funds for expanded Medicaid populations by 2020 for people living in territories and in other areas that are heavily relying on Medicaid. It would be far more expensive for those localities to cover individuals, and our hospitals would be faced with even more uncompensated care costs.
The budget also proposes cuts of $1.3 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, and more than $7 billion from the National Institutes of Health, NIH. In the alternative, stronger budgets for NIH and CDC would benefit in preparation for public health threats and pandemics.
These are the things that we, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, are seeing that are happening in these first 6 months. We are concerned. We are not here just to bash the President. That is not the objective with bringing these issues out.
The objective is to make the American people aware, to call on our colleagues here in this House, in the House next door to us in the Senate, to be better stewards of what the American people have given us: the ability, the right, the job of legislating, the job of being a check and balance to an administration which has been caught in a morass of ineffectiveness and inaction to support the American people of this great country.
We are asking, Mr. Speaker, that we would wake up to what is happening, see with clear eyes, not with fake news, not with our own vision of what we would like things to be, but what things are and where this is taking us now, the people who are going to be left behind, that a better deal needs to be made for the American people who have sent us here to Washington to do what is right, to do what is good for them, to represent all the people, not the wealthy.
Listen, I was raised in New York, and I don't have anything against New Yorkers, of course, but we can't just be looking out for those people who are living on the Upper West Side, the Upper East Side, in Tribeca and SoHo, the fat cats of Wall Street. We need to be for all Americans.
I know that each one of us is here sent by the people who have sent us not just for ourselves and not just for our constituents, but for all Americans: those who can't vote, those who rely on us to be the stewards of this great legacy--the Constitution and all that America represents, the land of opportunity. People will be losing that opportunity based on what we have seen in these last 6 months.
We, the Congressional Black Caucus, as the conscience of Congress, are relying and awakening the conscience of this Congress to wake up and see what is happening, to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves, and to do the right thing, to make a better deal with the American people--not with Pennsylvania Avenue, not among ourselves, not in our private little meetings, not with what can be done for us and for our small group, but for all Americans, those Americans that are going to be left behind by those billions and trillions in tax cuts that are coming to the social safety net of this country.
It cannot be relied on by many of the States. Many of the States do not have the wherewithal to pick up that slack. And there will be even greater--greater--demise to this country if we continue to allow it to work this way.
We have got to take up the call of those people who cannot speak for themselves and do what is right and tell our President that these 6 months cannot continue for another 3 years. We cannot have it. We will not tolerate it. You must awaken to what is the best deal for all Americans, not just those within your inner circle.
Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague Congresswoman Plaskett for hosting this special order for members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) to speak about the first 6 months of Republicans' failure to govern in the White House and in Congress.
Today marks 185 days since the inauguration of Donald Trump, and 203 days since the start of this Republican Congress.
Despite the countless promises Trump made to the American people, the Trump presidency has been defined by chaos and incompetence from Day 1.
In addition to being mired in controversy, Trump lacks an agenda and has no major accomplishments to tout after six months in office.
Following in the footsteps of their leader, Republicans in both chambers of Congress have utterly failed to produce legislation that actually improves the lives of everyday Americans in any meaningful or measurable way.
Of the 43 bills that have been signed into law, 58 percent of these were noncontroversial suspensions and 33 percent were partisan GOP special-interest bills that strip vital protections away from the American people.
The Republican leadership has demonstrated a remarkable incapacity to actually lead their respective majorities in the House and Senate; instead their ``leadership'' has been marred by empty legislation, regressive policies, and damage control to rein in each new scandal spiraling out from the White House.
On January 20, 2017, Trump restated his trademark campaign promise to the American people: ``Together we will make America great again.''
Six months later, and that slogan rings hollower with each passing day.
Six months later, he has forged virtually no deals; he has not achieved his goal of ``insurance for everybody,'' nor has he put forward a single jobs or infrastructure bill, nor has he achieved tax reform, nor has he negotiated a single trade agreement.
Donald Trump promised that his extensive business experience would lead to better deals for the American people, and that he would be the
``greatest president for jobs that God ever created.''
Six months later, he has taken no action to support job creation or grow the economy.
Instead, the Trump budget includes draconian cuts to education, research, infrastructure, and other key areas that support job creation and the American economy.
Before he entered office, Trump showed off his infamous ``deal-making skills'' when he promised to make Carrier Corp. keep their furnace factory jobs on American soil.
On the 6-month anniversary of his inauguration, Carrier announced plans to cut 632 workers from the very Indianapolis factory Trump visited last December.
These manufacturing jobs will move to Monterrey, Mexico, where minimum wage is $3.90; the White House has not addressed this failure of Trump's strong-man, isolationist economic policy.
During his campaign, Trump claimed that he would save the coal industry--a sector that only employs 0.03 percent of the economy--and in June, 2017, Scott Pruitt of the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) declared that the U.S. had miraculously created 50,000 coal jobs since 2016.
This staggering figure turned out to be a staggering lie; according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the coal sector has added about 1,000 jobs since October, 2016; it appears as though Mr. Pruitt
``miscalculated'' his estimate by 5,000 percent.
Not only have Trump's predictions for unparalleled job creation and economic growth proved to be pipe dreams or outright lies--the White House's budget proposal cruelly imposes drastic cuts to food stamps, student loans, and disability payments among a host of critical programs.
Trump promised that there would be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid--that everybody was going to be taken care ``much better than they're taken care of now.''
Six months later, the Republicans do not have a plan that would ensure all Americans have access to affordable, quality healthcare.
Six months later, the existing Trumpcare plan, which has completely stalled in the Senate, would make 23 million Americans lose their health coverage and increase costs for millions more.
Trumpcare cuts Medicare and Medicaid, and his budget proposal cuts Social Security.
Trumpcare would allow discrimination against Americans with preexisting conditions and imposes an age tax on older Americans.
Thousands of Americans--both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals, old and young, healthy and sick--have cried out to their Congressmembers to keep the Affordable Care Act and to prevent Trumpcare from ever seeing the light of day.
Americans oppose Trumpcare by a three-to-one margin, but this overwhelming majority sentiment seems to have fallen on deaf ears for Donald Trump and the Republican leadership.
Trump also promised clean air and water in America.
Six months later, the Trump Administration and G.O.P. Congressmembers are rolling back vital environmental protections.
In a move that drew universal ire from the international community and concerned Americans, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement.
He has signed executive orders rolling back the Clean Power Plan and Clean Water Rule, and 37 Congressional Review Act bills, several of which roll back environmental protections.
His budget proposal would seek to inflict a 31 percent cut to the EPA and eliminates clean water programs for the Great Lakes and Chesapeake Bay.
On the campaign trail, Trump made repeated declarations about restoring national security and being ``tough on Russia.''
Six months later, Trump has failed to put forward a plan to defeat ISIS or strategies to address the situations in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, or Yemen.
Every week, a new report indicating collusion between the Trump Administration and the Russian government seems to come to light.
American citizens and lawmakers alike have responded to this growing list of scandals with growing anxiety, animosity, and exasperation.
In this and a few other respects, Trump has excelled.
For instance, he racked up 991 tweets since his inauguration; even more impressive, he has made 836 false or misleading claims according to the Washington Post's Fact Checker team.
He has spent a record 40 days at his own golf properties.
His approval rating is without equal at 36 percent--the worst of any president ever at the 6-month mark.
To recap, Trump's legislative accomplishments total at exactly zero:
No plan to lower healthcare costs;
No jobs bill;
No infrastructure bill;
No tax reform;
No plan to avoid defaulting on our debt;
And no budget.
By stark contrast, former President Obama had made great strides at this point in his presidency.
By the 6-month mark, Obama had:
Signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act into law to improve protections for the American worker;
Outlined an extensive new energy policy;
Published an op-ed piece in 30 global newspapers simultaneously to discuss the growing economic crisis;
Passed an historic climate change bill through Congress;
Set out a new approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan;
Announced a new auto emission policy aimed at getting greener cars on the road;
Launched his successful campaign to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system;
And much more.
Americans want a President who can inspire them; they want a President who can lead effectively, with all the dignity and tact befitting the most powerful office in the world.
To our collective dismay and frustration, Trump and the Republicans have been their own worst enemy in preventing major, commonsense legislation from being voted on or signed into law.
I commend my colleague, Congresswoman Plaskett, for hosting this special order examining the disastrous results that have resulted from 6 months of Republican control over our federal government.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, as Congress draws closer to the August recess, we are no closer to considering comprehensive legislation to shore up our nation's crumbling infrastructure remains than we were when Republicans took control of Congress. Republicans in Congress have had control over both chambers since January, yet the American people are still left waiting more for a plan to repair our roads and bridges, bolster funding for the Highway Trust Fund, and provide stable funding to local communities for transportation projects.
The costs of Congress' inability to act are staggering. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates that every American household will lose $3,400 each year between 2016 and 2025, due to infrastructure deficiencies. Our failure to act will cost the U.S. economy nearly $4 trillion in GDP by 2025 through diminished productivity, lost jobs, and the increased cost of goods. The longer we wait, the more expensive it will be to repair our roads, electricity grid, and water and wastewater infrastructure.
The Republican House has been in session for 110 days. I am deeply disappointed that the Republican leadership has chosen to ignore important bills that I have supported, such as H.R. 1664--the Investing in America: A Penny for Progress Act. H.R. 1664 would shore up the Highway Trust Fund through new Invest in America bonds and a modest increase in the fuel excise tax. Another bill, H.R. 1265--the Rebuilding America's Airport Infrastructure Act, would eliminate the cap on passenger facility charges, allowing local airports the ability to raise additional funds in order to build up more airport infrastructure such as new terminals and runways. H.R. 2510--the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2017 would help bolster financing for new water and wastewater infrastructure projects all across the United States. These are real bills already introduced in Congress that we could consider today.
Mr. Speaker, we cannot afford to wait. There are a number of solutions already before us that this chamber could consider. It will take a display of political will by the Republican Party to consider these practical solutions to our nation's infrastructure woes. The American people are demanding that we act swiftly on these policies so that we can focus on what is most important--the efficient movement of the people, goods, and services which drive our economy forward. The time to act is now. I strongly urge my colleagues to support a comprehensive plan to shore up our nation's infrastructure.
Ms. PLASKETT. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Dunn). Members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the President.
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