| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady from North Carolina has not yielded for that purpose, and therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. | |
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois, Mr. Schneider, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. | |
| The gentlelady from North Carolina has not yielded for that purpose, and therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island, Mr. Magaziner, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. | ||
| The gentlelady from North Carolina has not yielded for that purpose, and therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Massachusetts. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Kassar, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make in order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. | |
| The gentlelady from North Carolina has not yielded for that purpose, and therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona, Mr. Stanton, for the purposes of a unanimous consent request. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make an order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid or SNAP. | ||
| The gentlelady from North Carolina is not yielded for that purpose, and therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield to the distinguished gentlewoman from California, Ms. Pelosi, for the purpose of a unanimous consent request. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady from California is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to amend the rule to make an order the amendment at the desk that protects against any cuts to Medicaid and SNAP. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady from North Carolina has not yielded for that purpose, and therefore the unanimous consent request cannot be entertained. | |
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, over 100 Democratic members just asked to allow an amendment to protect Medicaid and SNAP just to give us a vote. | ||
| That's all we ask. | ||
| And I will say we are here standing up for the American people no matter where they live. | ||
| And this is what it looks like to fight for the American people, to make sure that this administration and this Republican Congress doesn't rip away their health care and their food benefits. | ||
| That is disgusting. | ||
| Then the gentlewoman from North Carolina's district alone, 142,000 of her constituents would lose some or all of their SNAP benefits. | ||
| And five rural hospitals are at risk of closure. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're here to help people, not to screw them over. | |
| I reserve my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman's time is reserved. | |
| General Lee from North Carolina. | ||
| General Lee from North Carolina. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Wow, that gambit was riveting. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady reserves her time. | |
| We'll advise both sides of the time remaining. | ||
| The gentleman from Massachusetts has seven minutes remaining. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlelady from North Carolina has seven and three-quarters minutes remaining in the debate. | |
| The gentlelady has how many minutes? | ||
| Seven and three-quarters for the majority. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Seven for the minority. | |
| Gentleman, reserves. | ||
| Gentlelady from North Carolina. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I give one minute to the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Fine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Florida is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As I sat here and listened to that panoply of speeches or motions over the last few seconds, I was reminded of the fact that when we say there should be no cuts to Medicaid, we are saying there should be no cuts to illegal immigrants that are getting Medicaid. | |
| Now, we live in a world where we spend more money than we bring in, and it is not fair to actual Americans to be forced to take on additional debt to give benefits to people who are not in this country legally. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And I would note that neither that the Democrats have not proposed a solution that would allow us to continue to give benefits to people who shouldn't be here anyway and pay for them without our children going into future debt. | |
| We must keep that in mind. | ||
| We are here to fight for Americans, and that is what this bill does. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I don't know if the gentleman's ever read the Medicaid statute, but undocumented immigrants are not entitled to receive Medicaid benefits, and they don't. | ||
| And our solution to make sure that our children are not saddled with debt is to not give billionaires and millionaires and corporations big tax cuts. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jeff Bezos doesn't need a tax cut. | |
| And why don't you come down here and explain to people why it's so important that you protect his tax cuts? | ||
| We tried to go after the billionaire tax cuts in the Rules Committee last night, and every single Republican voted no. | ||
| So that's how we're going to do it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're going to invest in people who need help. | |
| We're going to make sure people have health care. | ||
| We're going to make sure people have food assistance. | ||
| We're not going to screw them over. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield one minute to the gentleman from California, Mr. Sonye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He's recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for yielding. | ||
| This bill would cause household resources for the poorest Americans to decrease while the obscenely rich will get richer. | ||
| I offered two amendments at rules, one to prevent people with disabilities from being kicked off Medicaid and one to help low-income students afford an education that they earned. | ||
| Unfortunately, Republicans refuse to consider them as they yet again work through the dead of night to rip off hardworking Americans and give tax breaks to the richest Americans who don't need them. | ||
| And even Fox News reports that it is projected to increase the federal deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade. | ||
| This bill is nothing more than a vanity project for the president, and it betrays the American people. | ||
| I strongly oppose this reckless legislation and urge my colleagues to do the right thing. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentlelady from North Carolina. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield one minute to the distinguished gentleman from Texas, Mr. Babbin. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Texas is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in very strong support of H.R. 1, President Trump's one big beautiful bill. | ||
| Here we are, despite months of my Democrat colleagues' best efforts to delay, to fear-monger and mislead the public about this bill, and we're ready to deliver for the American people. | ||
| But here's the thing about fear-mongering: you can only say the sky is falling so many times before folks start waking up and looking and seeing for themselves exactly what's going on. | ||
| The one big, beautiful bill secures our border. | ||
| It prevents the single largest tax increase in American history. | ||
| It refocuses safety net programs for those who truly need them, not the ones shamming. | ||
| And then it reinvigorates our armed forces, where we saw a diminution for four long years under the Biden administration. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, it is high time that we deliver this to the President's desk for his signature. | ||
| This is promises made and promises kept. | ||
| And I'm very proud to support this bill and yield back. | ||
| Gentlemen from Massachusetts, the big, ugly bill is going to throw 16 million people off of health care and give people like Jeff Bezos, Millionaires and Billionaires, a tax cut. | ||
| If that's what you're about, I hate to tell you, that's what the American people voted for. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Riley. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from New York is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Where I come from, we make things. | ||
| Generations woke up before the crack of dawn, went off to the factory, punched a clock, worked their hands to the bone, came home and counted nickels to make sure they could keep a roof over the kids' heads, keep food on the kids' tables. | ||
| We've kept our heads down, we've kept our sleeves rolled up, we've kept our shoulder to the wheel, and all we've asked for is a fair shot and for this place to stop screwing us over. | ||
| But you can't help yourselves. | ||
| You got us into terrible trade deals that made Wall Street rich and shipped all of our jobs overseas. | ||
| You bail out the banks while neglecting rural America. | ||
| You've rigged the economy so the corporate PACs that are funding your campaigns make huge profits, jacking up costs on folks who can't afford it. | ||
| And now this, this bill will kill good blue-collar manufacturing jobs that we need to rebuild the economy in this country. | ||
| It closes rural hospitals. | ||
| It defunds health care, all to give trillions of dollars in tax cuts to your cronies. | ||
| Don't tell me you give a shit about the middle class when all you're doing is shitting on the middle class. | ||
| Good job. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chair would remind both sides of two things. | |
| Please direct your remarks to the chair. | ||
| That is a house rule. | ||
| And to avoid vulgar speak, we do have families in the gentleman who will not be recognized. | ||
| Gentlelady from North Carolina. | ||
| Gentlelady from North Carolina. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for reminding us of the language we should be using in this chamber and iReserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from Massachusetts with four and one-half minutes remaining. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I hope that when the President comes here next, you'll admonish him for the language he uses. | ||
| But I'd now like to yield one minute to the gentlewoman from Delaware, Ms. McBride. | ||
|
unidentified
|
She's recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to this big, ugly bill. | ||
| And let's be clear, this bill is Trump care. | ||
| And Trump care means 17 million more Americans uninsured and all the rest of us paying higher costs and driving further to get care. | ||
| Over the last several months, I've met with hundreds of Delawareans, parents, patients, providers, hospital leaders, teachers, nurses, people across the state of Delaware. | ||
| Everyone asking us, pleading with us to kill this bill. | ||
| Are my Republican colleagues meeting with their constituents? | ||
| Are they ignoring them? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do they even care? | |
| Every yes vote shows very clearly that they don't. | ||
| This bill is trickle-down cruelty, and people will die because of it. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady from North Carolina. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| As the President has said numerous times, there'll be no cuts to Medicaid. | ||
| The One Big Beautiful bill protects and strengthens Medicaid for those who rely on it. | ||
| Pregnant women, children, seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families, while eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse. | ||
| The One Big Beautiful bill removes illegal aliens, enforces work requirements, and protects Medicaid for the truly vulnerable. | ||
| And for our colleagues on the other side who say illegal aliens are not receiving this, we understand that 1.4 million people do not meet citizenship and immigration status requirements for Medicaid enrollment, but would be covered under current law and programs funded by the states. | ||
| And we know that because we have a CBO score. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady's time is reserved. | |
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the gentleman from California, Mr. Connor. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I never want to hear the Republicans lecture about fiscal responsibility again. | ||
| The last president to actually balance this budget was Bill Clinton. | ||
| And today, Bob Rubin and Larry Summers wrote an op-ed in the New York Times that every American should read. | ||
| Their budget will take the deficit up to 8% of GDP. | ||
| It is historically unprecedented in the history of our country during peacetime. | ||
| We've never had a more reckless deficit exploding bill than what they're posing. | ||
| The Democrats have a proposal to bring the deficits back down under 4%. | ||
| Bob Rubin and Larry Summers were the last ones who've done it. | ||
| Hakeem Jeffries is leading with a sensible proposal to lower deficits. | ||
| If you care about debt in this country, if you care about our grandkids being burdened with debt, if you care about a bond market devastation, then you need to recognize that this bill hurts America and you need to support the Democratic plan for deficit reduction. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady of North Carolina, with four and three-quarter minutes remaining. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. Barr. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Kentucky is recognized for a half minute. | |
| With the One Big Beautiful Bill, President Trump is once again keeping his promises to the American people. | ||
| He promised he would stop the largest tax increase in American history. | ||
| He promised he would make the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. | ||
| He promised he would deliver the largest tax cut for hardworking taxpayers in American history. | ||
| And he promised to eliminate tax on tips, overtime, and Social Security benefits. | ||
| President Trump is keeping his word. | ||
| He is delivering much-needed relief for the American people. | ||
| And this will produce an investment surge, driving real median incomes up by $10,000 relative to the scenario in which the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act is allowed to expire. | ||
| And to my friend from California, if he cares about fiscal responsibility, stopping a $4.5 trillion tax increase stops a recession. | ||
| You cannot balance the budget without growth. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we have like a million more speakers over here, but we're out of time, so I'm prepared to close. | ||
| So I don't know how many more speakers the gentlelady has. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, we're preparing to close also. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Looks like both sides are prepared to close. | |
| Gentlemen from Massachusetts, you have two and one-half minutes for me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't want to close, but I'm prepared to close. | |
| Mr. Speaker, this bill is a moral failure. | ||
| It rips health care away from millions. | ||
| It pushes more families into hunger. | ||
| It leaves seniors stranded. | ||
| Also, billionaires can keep more of what they'll never spend. | ||
| Republicans say lose your job? | ||
| Too bad. | ||
| Hospitals shut down? | ||
| Good luck. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can't afford groceries or insulin? | |
| Figure it out. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But if you're a big oil, a CEO, or a trust fund baby, don't worry. | |
| You know, we've got you covered. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This bill is about who matters and who doesn't. | |
| And guess what? | ||
| Working people didn't make the cut. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I want my Republican colleagues to know they don't have to do this. | |
| They don't have to sell out their own communities. | ||
| They don't have to vote for a bill that goes against fundamental things they claim to believe in. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Crazy as it sounds, they don't have to hurt people to keep Trump happy. | |
| Find a spine. | ||
| Find a conscience, for God's sake, because the American people are watching. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They know the difference between real leadership and bootlicking. | |
| A vote for this bill is a vote for cruelty. | ||
| It's a vote for fiscal irresponsibility and a vote to screw over your constituents to give more to the ultra-wealthy. | ||
| This bill is a middle finger to working people. | ||
| Now, we can still stop this. | ||
| We can still do the right thing. | ||
| Vote no. | ||
| Go back to the table. | ||
| Work with us on tax relief for people who are not making millions and billions of dollars. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Don't let this be your legacy. | |
| That so many of you are blindly going along with this just to please the guy in the White House is shameful. | ||
| You have a responsibility to care for the people in your districts. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And you're voting for a bill that's going to throw millions off of health care and rip food off kitchen tables all across the country. | |
| It's shameful. | ||
| It is shameful. | ||
| I'm disgusted that we are here debating this trash. | ||
| And with that, I urge a no vote on the roll and a no vote on the bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A vote here to approve debate rules for Republican tax and spending cuts legislation, which President Trump calls the one big beautiful bill. | |
| It would permanently extend expiring individual and business tax cuts enacted in 2017 by the previous Trump administration. | ||
| It appropriates $153 billion for defense, $89 billion for immigration enforcement, and nearly $90 billion for border security. | ||
| The legislation also raises the statutory debt limit by $5 trillion and makes cuts to Medicaid and food stamp programs. | ||
| Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have been working hard to deliver the bill ahead of the July 4th deadline President Trump has set, which is this Friday. | ||
| Speaker Johnson continues to meet with a number of Republican holdouts, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who have also been in meetings at the White House. | ||
| Republicans can only lose a handful of votes with such a slim majority. | ||
| One of the reasons the vote just before this one was held open and action on the floor frozen for several hours. | ||
| The bill passed the Senate Tuesday, 51 to 50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. | ||
| If approved by the House in its current form, it would go to the White House for President Trump's signature. | ||
| However, if the House approves any amendments or changes to the bill, it would need to go back to the Senate for another approval vote. | ||
| We are here today united as House Democrats to make clear to the American people that every single House Democrat will stand up for your health care. | ||
| Stand up for your Medicaid. | ||
| Stand up for your Medicare. | ||
| Stand up for the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| Stand up for nutritional assistance for our children, our seniors, and our veterans. | ||
| Stand up for our hospitals. | ||
| Stand up for our nursing homes. | ||
| Stand up for our community-based health senates and stand up against massive tax breaks for GOP billionaire donors. | ||
| And that is why every single House Democrat will vote hell no against this one big, ugly bill. | ||
| And all we need are four House Republicans to join us in defense of their constituents who will suffer mightily from this bill. | ||
| Children will be hurt. | ||
| Families will be hurt. | ||
| People with disabilities will be hurt. | ||
| Women will be hurt by what is an all-out assault on the health care of the American people. | ||
| An unprecedented assault, ripping health care away from more than 17 million Americans. | ||
| Premiums, copays, and deductibles for other people on private insurance will go up all across the country. | ||
| Hospitals will close. | ||
| Nursing homes will shut down. | ||
| Community-based clinics won't have the ability to operate. | ||
| And as a result, people are going to die connected to this one big, ugly bill. | ||
| Tens of thousands of unnecessary American deaths per year. | ||
| Shame on Republicans for even bringing this bill to the House floor. | ||
| So all we need are four Republicans to join us in support of their constituents to have John McCain level courage and stand up in defense of the health care of the American people. | ||
| What type of party would bring a bill to the House floor that rips away Medicaid from those in need? | ||
| What kind of party would bring a bill to the House floor that literally robs food from the mouths of children, veterans, and seniors? | ||
| And all of this is being done to provide massive tax breaks to their billionaire donors. | ||
| It's unconscionable. | ||
| It's unacceptable. | ||
| It's un-American. | ||
| And House Democrats are committing to you that we're going to do everything in our power to stop it. | ||
| And all we need are four Republicans, just four, to show John McCain level courage. | ||
| Just four. | ||
| There are 220 of them. | ||
| All we need are four. | ||
| And so all we have to do as a Congress is act in a manner consistent with the better angels of this country. | ||
| Stand up for everyday Americans, not the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected. | ||
| That's what Republicans are doing in bringing this one big, ugly bill to the House floor. | ||
| Why would anyone vote for this dangerous and extreme bill? | ||
| Why would Rob Bresnahan vote for this bill? | ||
| More than 30,000 people would lose access to their health care in his community in Pennsylvania. | ||
| Almost 60,000 households could lose access to food assistance in his community at risk of going hungry. | ||
| Why would Rob Bresnahan vote for this bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why would Scott Perry vote for this bill? | |
| Almost 25,000 people in his community will lose access to health care. | ||
| In his community in Pennsylvania, almost 40,000 households would lose access to nutritional assistance. | ||
| They're at risk of going hungry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why would Scott Perry vote for this bill? | |
| You see, the difference between them and us, they work for the special interests, for the rich and the shameless, for the wealthy, the well-off, and the well-connected. | ||
| House Democrats work for the people. | ||
| And that's why we will continue to do everything in our power to stop this bill in its tracks. | ||
| Every single one of us will stand up for the health care of the American people, for the nutritional assistance of the American people, for efforts that actually should be designed to improve their quality of life, not hurt it, to lower the high cost of living, not raise it, to bring people together, not tear us apart. | ||
| John Lewis, who we all had the opportunity to serve with and continue to draw inspiration from, would always remind us that even in the face of what appears to be insurmountable odds, that we have a moral responsibility, and that certainly is the case right now, to show up and stand up and speak up for what we know is right with every single fiber in our body. | ||
| That's what we are going to do. | ||
| Show up today, show up tomorrow, show up this week, show up next week, show up this year, show up next year, show up until we end this national nightmare in the United States of America and continue our march toward a more perfect union. | ||
| Now, my honor, to yield to our distinguished whip, Catherine Clark. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Leader, and good morning. | ||
| This week we will celebrate our nation's independence. | ||
| We will celebrate our freedom, the fact that we are not ruled by a king, but that the power belongs to the people. | ||
| We will celebrate the fundamental promise of the American dream, the idea that if we work hard, we can provide for our families. | ||
| We can have a life of dignity, a fair shot. | ||
| So it's especially shocking that the Republicans are rushing to sign this cruel bill by the 4th of July. | ||
| The largest cut to health care in our history. | ||
| The largest transfer of wealth from working families to the billionaire class. | ||
| A bill that makes Americans sicker and poorer. | ||
| A bill that takes food from the hungry. | ||
| There is no freedom in this bill. | ||
| Unimaginably, this bill is worse than when it left the House. | ||
| It cuts Medicaid by $1 trillion. | ||
| It kicks 17 million Americans off of their health care. | ||
| It threatens hundreds of hospitals with closure, along with a quarter of all nursing homes. | ||
| It hikes the cost of electricity. | ||
| It hands a 3% pay cut to hardworking people of this country and hands their children $5 trillion in debt. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does that sound like freedom to you? | |
| No. | ||
| Or does that sound like a government of, by, and for the rich? | ||
| So who would vote for this bill? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Why would David Valladea vote for this bill? | |
| Over 65,000 people in his district will lose access to health care if this passes. | ||
| 60,000 households will lose access to their food assistance. | ||
| And over 3,600 energy jobs will be lost just in California 22. | ||
| But why would Young Kim in California 40 vote for this bill either? | ||
| Over 31,000 people in her communities will lose their health care, and 15,000 households could lose access to food assistance. | ||
| Why indeed? | ||
| But we've been told exactly where we stand. | ||
| The vice president said these cuts are immaterial. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mitch McConnell says people will get over it. | |
| Joni Ertz reminded us we're all going to die anyway. | ||
| So at a time when most households are struggling to afford the basics, Republicans have a clear message for American families. | ||
| You don't matter. | ||
| The people that power America are nurses, our first responders, our small business owners, our veterans. | ||
| Under this bill, the Republican Party views you as expendable and that opportunity is reserved for the elite. | ||
| Freedom isn't something abstract. | ||
| It's something you do. | ||
| It's something you empower people to do. | ||
| You cannot shackle opportunity for the American people. | ||
| You cannot restrain their ability to be free and then drape yourself in the American flag on Independence Day. | ||
| So this 4th of July, House Democrats are going to stand in unity with millions of people across this country. | ||
| We are going to do what Americans have done for 250 proud years. | ||
| We are going to defend our freedom. | ||
| We will defeat its enemies and we will put the power with the people. | ||
| And now it is my great pleasure to welcome Ranking Member of Energy and Commerce, Frank Pallone. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Catherine. | |
| I just want everyone to understand why we as Democrats are so mad about this bill, because it's cruel. | ||
| Some people have called it beautiful. | ||
| Some have called it ugly. | ||
| I call it cruel. | ||
| It is the cruelest bill that I've ever seen since my tenure in the House of Representatives. | ||
| Now, why is that the case? | ||
| Because so many people will lose their health insurance. | ||
| And because of the lack of affordability, that's going to increase costs in so many ways for the average American. | ||
| Look, the bottom line is every time this bill moves forward, energy and commerce, 13.5 million people lose Medicaid. | ||
| And then it goes to the House floor, 15 million people. | ||
| Now, the CBO says the Senate bill, 17 million Americans lose their health insurance. | ||
| And what happens when they lose their health insurance? | ||
| The hospitals have uncompensated care, the nursing homes have uncompensated care, and they have to push those costs on to everyone else. | ||
| And so premiums go up, co-pays go up, and people do not cannot afford their health insurance. | ||
| The same thing is true with the ACA. | ||
| You know, we as Democrats started years ago trying to make sure that so many Americans that didn't have health insurance did. | ||
| That was what Obamacare was all about. | ||
| And then we enhanced the tax credits and the subsidies. | ||
| So we got up to something like 95% of Americans had health insurance because of what we did. | ||
| But this is reversing that completely. | ||
| It is reversing that completely. | ||
| Because the average person now, without enhanced Medicare, without the ACA-enhanced subsidies, which they did not include in this bill, they could easily go from paying $100 a month for their ACA coverage, $1,200 a year, to something like $5,200 because they lose that $4,000 subsidy. | ||
| So I just want to say one more thing. | ||
| I know the Republicans are saying constantly that nobody's going to lose their health insurance if they work. | ||
| That is a complete lie. | ||
| That is a complete lie. | ||
| If you look at this bill, whether you're disabled, whether you're caring for an elderly, whether you're caring for your children, you are not going to qualify for the exemptions and you are going to lose your health insurance. | ||
| And the same thing is true with regard to affordability for the energy provisions. | ||
| We worked very hard to move towards clean energy because we knew it would be cheaper and they're getting rid of it. | ||
| We worked very hard to have environmental protections in place because we're worried about people's health and safety and they get rid of all the major environmental protections. | ||
| That is what the Republicans are about. | ||
| Cruelty. | ||
| This is unacceptable. | ||
| No one should vote for it. | ||
| It's the cruelest bill that I've ever seen. | ||
| And now I'd like to introduce the chairman of our ranking member of our Ways and Means Committee to talk to you about the tax issues, Richie Neal from Massachusetts. | ||
| Thanks, Frank. | ||
| So this is the worst tax bill that I've seen in all my years in Congress, and that says something. | ||
| So let's look at the numbers. | ||
| After the rejection of expertise, the Joint Committee on Taxation has scored it. | ||
| The Congressional Budget Office has scored it. | ||
| And now the attack turns to the Federal Reserve Board. | ||
| Do you know what that's about? | ||
| That's about the idea that they are going to borrow by raising the debt ceiling an additional $5 trillion to pay for a tax cut, as they did in 2017 when they borrowed $2.3 trillion. | ||
| The reality here is this. | ||
| If you made a million bucks last year, you're getting about $81,000. | ||
| If you made under $50,000, you're getting $0.68 a day. | ||
| A day. | ||
| The attack on the Federal Reserve Board is clear. | ||
| They want to raise the debt ceiling to borrow money, but they want the Federal Reserve Board to cut interest rates so they can say that this is about deficit reduction with lower borrowing costs. | ||
| Rural hospitals that we all have, they're going to close. | ||
| They're up against it. | ||
| Many of the hospitals I have, 68% in some cases, 75% in others dependent on Medicare and Medicaid, the disproportionate share hospitals. | ||
| This is where middle-class people get health care as well as the working poor. | ||
| Understand that this idea that they have today, they haven't thought through because they're all in subservience to getting it signed on July 4th. | ||
| They have no idea what they did in the Senate. | ||
| They have no idea what they're about to do here in the day because they haven't seen the particulars of this bill. | ||
| When you look at this, as earlier noted, 17 million people lose health care to provide a tax cut to the billionaire class. | ||
| Stand with all of us today and reject not only the health care policy here, but the economic policy as well. | ||
| He might be the ranking member on the budget committee, but we know him as a member of the Ways and Means Committee, Brendan Boyle. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Well, this is it. | ||
| Today is the day. | ||
| If Republicans and Donald Trump succeed today, it will produce the largest loss of health care in American history. | ||
| 17 million Americans will lose their health care. | ||
| The biggest cut to Medicaid in American history. | ||
| Millions taken off the Affordable Care Act. | ||
| And that's not all. | ||
| We have discovered half a trillion dollars worth of cuts to Medicare as well. | ||
| Again, all told, the largest loss of health care in American history. | ||
| And for the rest of us who maybe aren't on Medicaid, not on Medicare, not on the ACA, the quality of our care will go down while the costs go up. | ||
| So everyone will pay. | ||
| And why? | ||
| Why are they doing this? | ||
| To provide billions in tax cuts to billionaires. | ||
| That is not just bad economics. | ||
| It is immoral. | ||
| That alone will be bad enough. | ||
| But you heard others speaking before me about some of the other cuts that are in this bill. | ||
| Cuts to energy, cuts as they relate to construction. | ||
| More than 1 million jobs will be lost as a result of this bill, so it's also a job killer. | ||
| And again, why? | ||
| So the top 110th, 100th, 1,000th of 1% can get more money. | ||
| Congratulations, Jeff Bezos. | ||
| This crowd's about to give you a great big wedding gift you don't need. | ||
| And it's going to be paid for by taking away health care from millions of Americans and making costs for the rest of us even more expensive. | ||
| So we asked, we asked the official scorekeepers, the Congressional Budget Office, okay, all told, with all the provisions in this bill, how do people do? | ||
| And what the Congressional Budget Office found was this. | ||
| If you're in the bottom third of households, that's everybody makes under $55,000 a year, you will be poorer as a result of this bill. | ||
| If you're middle class, you get nothing. | ||
| And if you're in the top 1%, you get the biggest benefit of all. | ||
| So under the Republicans bill, the poor get poorer, the rich get richer, and the middle class is left behind. | ||
| say hell no. | ||
| It is now my honor to introduce a great ranking member from Minnesota, Angie Craig. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| This legislation is nothing short than a betrayal of the American people, plain and simple. | ||
| The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, SNAP, helps Americans meet their basic needs by making food just a little bit more affordable for families. | ||
| It's a program that provides $6 a day in help to those who need just a little bit of assistance. | ||
| The majority of people who need this food assistance in this country are children, seniors, and people with disabilities. | ||
| Cutting $200 billion from the SNAP program not only takes away food from our nation's children, but it also decreases revenue for our nation's family farmers. | ||
| All of this is to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest among us. | ||
| It is a betrayal that will have long-term consequences on the health of this nation. | ||
| And why would Republicans vote for this national betrayal? | ||
| Why would Marionette Miller-Meeks of Iowa's first congressional district vote for this bill? | ||
| 25,000 people would lose access to their health care in Iowa 1. | ||
| Almost 29,000 households would lose access to their food assistance in Iowa 1. | ||
| 1,300 energy jobs could be lost, and at least one rural hospital. | ||
| This is a betrayal of the American people. | ||
| It's a betrayal of the middle class, and it's a betrayal to the most vulnerable people in our nation. | ||
| The Senate's version of this bill, which House Republicans are now all too eager to pass, goes a step further by targeting our nation's veterans, our nation's former foster youth, and people experiencing homeless in this nation as well. | ||
| Veterans like Yolanda Gordon of South Carolina. | ||
| Yolanda served our nation proudly in the Army. | ||
| When she transitioned back to civilian life, there was no daycare in Yolanda's rural House home care community. | ||
| Nothing that was equipped to meet her child's special needs so that she could only work part-time while caring for that child. | ||
| SNAP helped Yolanda keep her child safe, healthy, and fed. | ||
| Yolanda served our nation selflessly, and then she returned to serve the needs of her child. | ||
| And now Republicans in the Senate version take away all of the hard-fought negotiated exclusions for our nation's veterans to have those work requirements. | ||
| Now they want to take the dignity and respect away from Yolanda and veterans like her across this country. | ||
| You know, higher costs are already squeezing American families in Minnesota and across the country. | ||
| Too many Americans are just one paycheck away from disaster. | ||
| Instead of taking food away from tens of millions of Americans, we should protect and strengthen basic needs programs like SNAP so that food assistance is always there when we need it. | ||
| You know, we just need four patriots in the Republican Party. | ||
| Four patriots in the Republican Party. | ||
| Do we have four patriots left in this Republican Party in the United States House of Representatives? | ||
| We have four Republicans who represent my home state of Minnesota. | ||
| Our delegation is evenly divided, four Democrats, four Republicans. | ||
| I challenge my Republicans from the state of Minnesota to be the patriots we are looking for in our nation. | ||
| The families I represent in Minnesota, the elderly neighbors living on fixed incomes, the children whose parent is working two low-wage jobs, cannot afford this terrible bill. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no. | ||
| And with that, I would like to introduce the closer, Chairman Aguilar, to close. | ||
| Thank you, Angie. | ||
| Donald Trump promised the American people that he would cut costs on day one. | ||
| Republicans in Congress swore up and down that their policies would fight inflation and make life easier for everyday Americans. | ||
| More lies. | ||
| But we've all seen under this president and this Republican majority, the prices continue to rise and the American dream slipping further from reach. | ||
| Today marks the culmination of Donald Trump's betrayal of working people across this country. | ||
| Because of this bill, your health care is going to go up. | ||
| Your electric bill is going to be more expensive. | ||
| The clothes and groceries that you buy are already rising due to his reckless tariffs. | ||
| The only people who make out in this bill are people who can already afford to pay a little bit more at the checkout line. | ||
| But that's not the reality for most people in this country. | ||
| This bill isn't for the American people. | ||
| It's a reward to the mega-rich campaign donors that bankroll Republican campaigns. | ||
| Why would Gabe Evans in Colorado vote for this bill? | ||
| 29,000 people will lose access to health care in his district. | ||
| 30,000 households will lose access to food nutrition programs. | ||
| And almost 1,000 energy jobs will be lost. | ||
| No one asked 17 million people to lose their health insurance. | ||
| No one asked for hospitals to close or nursing homes to be shuttered because billionaires want more tax breaks. | ||
| Where I'm from, that's not big or beautiful. | ||
| That's small and ugly. | ||
| No one asked for food assistance to be taken away from children to give handouts to the same corporations gouging the American people. | ||
| House Democrats believe that this bill fundamentally is un-American. | ||
| We're going to fight to make sure billionaires and wealthy corporations pay their fair share so that we can build an economy that works for everyone. | ||
| We're going to fight to make America less expensive, and we're going to fight to give working-class people more breathing room and opportunities to get ahead. | ||
| I want to thank my House colleagues for standing with us in this time against this bill. | ||
| I want to thank the community members who have joined us as well. | ||
| And members and members of the faith-based community, we're not here in a partisan exercise. | ||
| We're here because the American people don't deserve this suffering. | ||
| Now, we did take a little bit of liberties when we say hell no. | ||
| We didn't ask them, members of the clergy. | ||
| But we stand in unison against this dangerous bill. | ||
| And today, however long it takes, we will continue to vote against this bill. | ||
| We will do it together, and we will do it with the American people in mind. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| A vote here to approve debate rules for Republican tax and spending cuts legislation, which President Trump calls the one big beautiful bill. | ||
| It would permanently extend expiring individual and business tax cuts enacted in 2017 by the previous Trump administration. | ||
| It appropriates $153 billion for defense, $89 billion for immigration enforcement, and nearly $90 billion for border security. | ||
| The legislation also raises the statutory debt limit by $5 trillion and makes cuts to Medicaid and food stamp programs. | ||
| Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have been working hard to deliver the bill ahead of the July 4th deadline President Trump has set, which is this Friday. | ||
| Speaker Johnson continues to meet with a number of Republican holdouts, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who have also been in meetings at the White House. | ||
| Republicans can only lose a handful of votes with such a slim majority. | ||
| One of the reasons the vote just before this one was held open and action on the floor frozen for several hours. | ||
| The bill passed the Senate Tuesday, 51 to 50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. | ||
| If approved by the House in its current form, it would go to the White House for President Trump's signature. | ||
| However, if the House approves any amendments or changes to the bill, it would need to go back to the Senate for another approval vote. | ||
| Greetings, everyone. | ||
| I'm Congresswoman Yvette DeClark, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and proud representative of New York's 9th Congressional District, located in central and southwest Brooklyn. | ||
| I want to say thank you to First Vice Chair Carter, Congresswoman Hayes, Congresswoman Moore, and Congresswoman Kelly, as well as all of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus here present for joining me at this critical and pivotal moment for our nation. | ||
| We all know why we're here today. | ||
| We all know that it is to stand in opposition to Donald Trump's one big ugly bill. | ||
| As it turns out, we're not the only ones who have problems with it. | ||
| Only moments ago, Republicans failed to pass the vote they needed to get the big, ugly bill to the House floor. | ||
| They failed because House Republicans are ceaselessly paralyzed by their internal chaos and addiction to dysfunction. | ||
| It's an embarrassment, but I digress. | ||
| So let's discuss the facts. | ||
| If this bill passes through our chamber, then we will see Medicaid ripped for more than 15 million Americans. | ||
| We will see food ripped out of the hands of children through nearly $200 billion in SNAP benefit cuts, which will impact as many as 6 million black children and teens across this nation. | ||
| We will see the deficit balloon by $3.3 trillion. | ||
| That's trillion with a T over the next decade. | ||
| Hospital and health care centers in diverse and rural communities will close. | ||
| 5 million children, 51% of all black children will lose eligibility for the full child tax credit. | ||
| And so many other atrocities that have been hidden within the 1,000-page mega bill will rise out of the woodwork and strike American lives. | ||
| Make no mistake, Trump's bill is going to tear apart the social safety nets millions of Americans depend on just to live, and that pain will not discriminate. | ||
| Black or white, Republican or Democrat, this bill is coming for you and your family. | ||
| And it's a simple truth that contempt for working families is hardwired into the administration's DNA. | ||
| And their budget reflects that with stunning clarity. | ||
| But I assure you, the conscience of the Congress is clear. | ||
| We recognize the villainous budget for what it is, just as we recognize those who support it for the villains they are. | ||
| So do the American people. | ||
| They've called on the House to stop this legislation in its tracks. | ||
| And we can stop it. | ||
| Four Republicans take a stand. | ||
| Let me reiterate, four Republicans out of 220 are all that we need to block the big, ugly bill. | ||
| Unfortunately, I have my doubts that anyone beyond the usual suspects, let alone four Republicans, have the moral or intestinal fortitude necessary to do so. | ||
| We have seen this story play out too many times before. | ||
| And so I am certain we'll find out shortly just how many congressional Republicans would rather steal health care and food aid from millions of Americans, blow up the federal deficit beyond repair, betray every principle they need to stand for those, stand for than oppose Donald Trump's will and that of his billionaire donors. | ||
| We will find out how many of them would choose to hurt their communities instead of hurting the president's feelings. | ||
| We'll find out who among them are public servants and who are Donald Trump's servants. | ||
| Well, they may be scared of him, but we are certainly not. | ||
| We are going to the floor and we are going to fight this bill and if it passes, we're going to tell the American people exactly who hurt them. | ||
| It's been a long, long list. | ||
| And with that, it's my honor and privilege to ask the first vice chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Troy Carter of Louisiana, to bring his comments at this time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| Thank you to all of my courageous colleagues for standing at a time when America needs us most. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to thank you all, press, for joining us. | |
| Thank our illustrious chairwoman for convening us today for this important conversation about Republicans' harmful one big, ugly bill. | ||
| The bottom line is that this legislation will hurt Americans across the country, Republicans and Democrats, but our colleagues don't seem to realize they're not strong enough, bold enough, or bad enough to stand up against Donald Trump, even when it means their own people will suffer. | ||
| How pitiful is that? | ||
| I'm deeply concerned about the devastating impacts this bill will have specifically on Medicaid. | ||
| Medicaid is more than a program. | ||
| It's a lifeline for millions of Americans, children, mothers, and people with disabilities, seniors, and many of whom are black in our community and rely on the essential health coverage that Medicaid provides. | ||
| Yes, this bill threatens to slash Medicaid funding in historic ways, causing irreparable harm. | ||
| Let me be clear. | ||
| This bill is a billionaire's boondoggle. | ||
| The top 0.1% will gain on an average of $309,000 in 2027. | ||
| That's $847 every single day. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did I mention that SNAP benefits are only $6 a day? | |
| They get a break of $847 a day. | ||
| Millionaires will see their pockets lined with an average of $96,400 per year. | ||
| Meanwhile, families earning less than $50,000 get a laughable $247 annually, less than $1 a day. | ||
| This tax cut is for billionaires. | ||
| Health care cuts for families. | ||
| Billionaires get tax cuts. | ||
| Poor people just get cut. | ||
| What's wrong with that picture? | ||
| The Congressional Budget Office estimates some 17 million Americans will lose their health care because of this ugly bill. | ||
| Medicaid snap and ACA marketplace cuts total $1.3 trillion, the exact amount to enrich those making over $500,000 a year. | ||
| This could have funded and expanded child tax credits, universal family leave, and kept millions insured. | ||
| But the Republicans in this White House chose to lean toward the richest of the rich and to have a reverse Robinhood, to steal from the poor and give to the rich. | ||
| Yesterday, I introduced a simple amendment to this bill. | ||
| It simply said, 100% of any Medicaid savings must be invested back into the program. | ||
| Since my colleagues seem to think that there's so much waste, fraud, and abuse, and we all firmly stand against waste, fraud, and abuse, if you find it, put it back into Medicaid since you say that you want to strengthen the program. | ||
| This money should help children, mothers, seniors, and people with disabilities, not pay for billionaire tax scams. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But as you might imagine, Republicans shot it down. | |
| Why? | ||
| Because they never, ever cared about Medicaid. | ||
| They never cared about strengthening the system. | ||
| They never cared about making it better for generations to come. | ||
| They only saw it as a honeypot to find money to give tax breaks to the riches of the rich. | ||
| This was the low-hanging fruit in their estimation. | ||
| And poor people once again took it on the chin. | ||
| My Republican colleagues say they want to protect the vulnerable populations and face and fight waste, fraud, abuse. | ||
| But this bill rips health care away from the very people Medicaid was intended to serve. | ||
| It will shutter nursing homes, close rural hospitals, and blow up state budgets. | ||
| In my home state of Louisiana, a Republican-led House and Senate passed unanimous resolutions saying this bill will kill Louisiana. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is the home of our Speaker, our majority leader. | |
| This is a legislature that the Speaker served in along with me, along with majority leaders, Leader Scalise. | ||
| We all came out of this very body in Louisiana. | ||
| This body had the wisdom to say, no, this is bad. | ||
| This is bad for all Louisianians and bad for all Americans. | ||
| Wake up. | ||
| Push back. | ||
| Find that intestinal fortitude to do the right thing. | ||
| Donald Trump's big, ugly bill is a betrayal of working people, leaving millions hungry, uninsured, and worst of all, all to fund massive tax breaks for the richest rich. | ||
| We stand here today unified. | ||
| We invite others to join us, just four more, to come and be brave enough to say that my oath of office is to the people and to the Constitution, not to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and not to any one president. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We stand firm. | |
| Next, I will bring up Representative Gwen Moore. | ||
| So, Gwen. | ||
| Thank you so much, Madam Chair and Troy Carter, and all of my colleagues from the Congressional Black Caucus, the conscience of Congress. | ||
| The Republicans have jammed their bill, renamed the Act, because the parliamentarian decided that one big, beautiful bill did not meet the guidelines. | ||
| It didn't pass the bird bath, the bird rule. | ||
| Even the parliamentarian realizes that this nomenclature is inappropriate for this big, ugly bill. | ||
| I'm a member of the Ways and Means Committee, so I want to talk to you about the math and the budget gimmicks that they have used to sell this to their caucus and to buoy the lies that they have been telling the public. | ||
| First of all, this bill came back from the United States Senate with $4 trillion worth of debt equaling zero. | ||
| I don't know how I'm explaining that to my great-grandchildren when I try to teach them math. | ||
| I don't know how I'm going to do it. | ||
| But they've somehow been able to convince their caucus so far that $4 trillion worth of debt is equal to zero so that they can meet the budgetary requirements of this budget resolution. | ||
| I tell you, while they're killing Sesame Street and Big Bird, because all of us and our children who were taught through Sesame Street know better than this, that this math just don't work. | ||
| This bill will add trillions of dollars to the deficit. | ||
| As a matter of fact, over the past, I would say since the beginning of this century, the debt has primarily occurred because of unpaid for tax cuts. | ||
| Not because we have spent money on taking care of our people, but because of unpaid for tax cuts. | ||
| So, while many of the committee members that you see here on the Energy and Commerce Committee that dealt with Medicaid, you know, on the, and also energy credits, you saw people on the Education Committee deal with their mark. | ||
| Our committee, the Ways and Means Committee, was told to, instead of cutting, they have asked us to add $4.5 trillion to the debt. | ||
| And boy, I'm telling you, Republicans met their mark and turned the American people into their mark. | ||
| Instead of using the trifecta, the House, the presidency, and the Senate to lift up not only low-income workers, but middle-class Americans, Republicans chose to prop up the wealthy. | ||
| And despite the lies that they have told you, the distribution tables prove it. | ||
| That the majority of these dollars go to the most wealthy. | ||
| I'll reiterate some of the numbers, but I'll just tell you 60%, 66, two-thirds of the benefit of the tax cuts will go to the top 20%. | ||
| How many of y'all in the top 20%? | ||
| All right, we're not going to wait for you to raise your hands because we are not going to get any. | ||
| None of these people are in the top 20%. | ||
| And as Mr. Carter pointed out, that the top 110th percent, not 1%, 110th percent gets a $309,000 tax break while people making under $50,000 get drumroll $247. | ||
| And I'm telling you, Republicans have panicked. | ||
| They've thrown in stuff like no tax on tips. | ||
| Of course, you'll still be paying FICA. | ||
| You will be paying tax on those tips. | ||
| They're saying that they will not tax seniors on Social Security. | ||
| That's a lie. | ||
| You're going to get taxed on Social Security if you earn more than a certain amount. | ||
| All they're doing is putting a little temporary supplement in to fool you. | ||
| And, you know, the swamp math just doesn't work. | ||
| And the biggest thing that they've done, the biggest lie, you know, that, you know, the low-income people are going to realize $11,000 increase in their taxes and 72, I don't know where they get these numbers from. | ||
| They get it because the White House and the Republicans in Congress have agreed that we're going to have never before seen growth from these tax cuts. | ||
| Well, I'm old enough to know that in the last 45 years of trickle-down theories that we ain't seen one drop of trickle. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And this bill is no different. | |
| Tax cuts do not pay for themselves. | ||
| Every credible economist will tell you that. | ||
| They, Republican economists, will tell you that they don't. | ||
| And how do we pay for this? | ||
| You'll hear in more detail from other members. | ||
| How in the world do we pay for it? | ||
| We pay for it number one, by fuzzy math. | ||
| Number two, by demonizing recipients of Medicaid, really calling them waste, fraud, and abuse, where people on Medicaid are, a 64-year-old woman is gonna be required to work. in order to get Medicaid or SNAP. | ||
| And if she's not been determined to be disabled by the Social Security Administration, she'll automatically be deemed to be able-bodied. | ||
| Okay, I'm coming. | ||
| Who's gonna pay for this cost when we gut SNAP Medicaid and ACA? | ||
| The veterans, foster youth, seniors, children who are going to lose school lunch, 17 million Americans who lose health care. | ||
| And, you know, this bill is just morally irresponsible. | ||
| And I really thank my colleagues for the opportunity to share. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Sweden. | |
| And I would now like to yield to the person in our caucus. | ||
| She is a PhD, actually, Dr. Robin Kelly, who is the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus Health Brain Trust. | ||
| All right, thanks. | ||
| Thank you very much, boys. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's give it up for one, y'all. | |
| Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you so much for being here today. | ||
| Thank you to Chairwoman Clark for organizing this press conference as the CBC speaks up and out against this bill. | ||
| As my colleagues have already said, this bill is cruel and evil. | ||
| It was ugly when it first passed the House, and then the Senate Republicans made it worse. | ||
| The big, ugly bill will cost people their lives. | ||
| That's the bottom line. | ||
| As you've heard, 17 million Americans will be stripped of their health care. | ||
| When people lose health care, yes, people die. | ||
| That's not hyperbole, that's fact. | ||
| And we know who will be most impacted, black people. | ||
| 13.3 million black people rely on Medicaid. | ||
| That includes 5.7 million children. | ||
| And if that isn't bad enough, the consequences of this bill go beyond the individual person. | ||
| It will impact hospitals, which in turn affect everyone, even if you aren't covered by Medicaid. | ||
| Emergency rooms will be flooded, or more flooded, I should say. | ||
| Wait times will increase. | ||
| Life-saving care will be delayed. | ||
| Hospitals and health care centers will be overwhelmed. | ||
| This Republican bill will lead to $1.3 billion in uncompensated care costs for hospitals across my home state of Illinois, threatening nine at-risk rural hospitals across the state. | ||
| Over 330 hospitals across the country can close. | ||
| It is never a good time for a hospital to close. | ||
| But right now, our country is in the middle of a black maternal mortality crisis. | ||
| Medicaid covers 65% of the births to black women. | ||
| Where will black women go if they don't have health insurance and there are no hospitals? | ||
| For many black women, the answer would be a local health clinic like Planned Parenthood that provides cancer screening, birth control, STI testing, and more. | ||
| But Republicans have long sought to end Planned Parenthood, and they're using this bill to defund it. | ||
| Nearly half of black women have received care at one of their clinics. | ||
| When I was in college, I was one of those black women. | ||
| I had moved from New York City to Peoria, Illinois, and I didn't know where else to go for a simple annual checkup. | ||
| I knew that Planned Parenthood was reliable, affordable, and accessible. | ||
| Sorry if that's too much information. | ||
| Our country is also in the midst of another public health crisis, gun violence. | ||
| Guns have been the leading cause of death for all children and teens since 2020. | ||
| But guns have been the leading cause of death for black children since 2006. | ||
| Instead of protecting children, President Trump shut down the Office of Gun Violence Prevention on day one. | ||
| They are ending grants for community violence intervention. | ||
| Republicans are protecting guns, not children. | ||
| The big ugly bill eliminates restrictions on gun silencers and short-barreled rifles. | ||
| Gun silencers are not something out of a movie. | ||
| They create real harm to communities. | ||
| It should be common sense to regulate such dangerous weapons. | ||
| But Republicans have made it clear they do not care about black people or black lives. | ||
| Republicans are stealing our health care. | ||
| They are closing our hospitals and health clinics. | ||
| They are exacerbating gun violence and maternal mortality. | ||
| Simply put, this bill is deadly. | ||
| I'm still voting no. | ||
| Hell no. | ||
| And with that, I'd like to introduce my colleague from Connecticut, Johanna Hayes. | ||
| Teachers of the year. | ||
| Every year. | ||
| Thank you, and thank you for being here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I find it hard to believe when I read articles that say that there's a huge percentage of the American public who doesn't even know what's in this bill because everybody should be paying attention to the profound impact of what is about to happen. | |
| For me, the things that I am focused on are the cuts to nutrition and education, programs that our children rely on, all in order to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals who don't even need it. | ||
| This Republican-led reconciliation bill proposes direct attacks on our youngest generation. | ||
| The bill is the largest cut ever in history to the SNAP program. | ||
| Nearly 27% of black families are recipients of SNAP. | ||
| For those families who are already disproportionately affected by food insecurity, these cuts will further deepen those hardships. | ||
| When kids lose SNAP benefits, they often lose access to free and reduced lunch at school. | ||
| There's something called community eligibility provisions where schools get reimbursed for their students who receive SNAP benefits. | ||
| So when they lose food at home, they're also losing food at school. | ||
| This is going to hurt our most vulnerable students and the ones who need it most. | ||
| Beyond nutrition, this bill targets education. | ||
| Oh wait, before I even move to education, there's a provision in this bill that is so incredibly cruel. | ||
| One of my colleagues referred to this as trickle-down cruelty yesterday. | ||
| So for families who have children, the age of a minor child went from 18 to 9 in the House version and 14 in the Senate version. | ||
| So on a child's 14th birthday, instead of their mother or their father serving them a birthday cake, which by the way, my colleagues don't want them to be able to buy with SNAP, they need to be out looking for a job. | ||
| They need to be out finding alternative employment to add to the one, two, sometimes three jobs they already have because they're about to lose their SNAP benefits. | ||
| It's beyond cruel. | ||
| This bill also targets education. | ||
| I am a teacher. | ||
| That is what brought me to Congress. | ||
| And the proposed cuts to the Department of Education would have prevented someone like me from pursuing a higher education and going to school. | ||
| About 60% of black students rely on Pell Grants. | ||
| This bill makes it harder for students to access Pell Grants, makes student loans more restrictive. | ||
| It even eliminates parent-plus loans and graduate-plus loans. | ||
| This is particularly concerning for black students and families who historically rely on these loans to put their kids through college. | ||
| Yes, we all believe in career and technical education. | ||
| We all believe that we need a skilled labor force. | ||
| But we also know that in our poorest communities, we have students, black students, who are extremely bright, and they want to go to college. | ||
| They want to pursue degrees and go back and help their communities. | ||
| The changes in this bill would limit access to higher education and professional careers, like nurses, engineers, doctors, dentists, and even teachers, perpetuating cycles of economic disadvantage in our most vulnerable communities. | ||
| We do not need to make this choice. | ||
| We can afford to feed children in the United States of America, and even more, we can afford to educate children in the United States of America. | ||
| These policies are intended to take food out of the mouths of children, to strip away their educational opportunities and reward billionaires. | ||
| Hungry kids don't learn. | ||
| It's that simple. | ||
| The two go hand in hand. | ||
| You can't be a good teacher without worrying about what's in a kid's belly. | ||
| You can't only focus on their brain without focusing on their belly. | ||
| Imagine a child hungry and unable to learn. | ||
| Now imagine that same child with a brilliant mind who just needs a shot, who just needs the adults in power to move the obstacles that could make their dreams a reality. | ||
| Republicans are not just cutting budgets, they're cutting futures. | ||
| They're cutting off the right of every child in this nation to dream big. | ||
| They're cutting off the rights of black children to achieve their highest aspirations. | ||
| This bill is an act of malice. | ||
| I reject this irresponsible legislation. | ||
| I will vote no because I will never use my voice, my vote, or my privilege right now of serving in Congress to hurt children. | ||
| We have a moral responsibility to ensure that every child has access to nutritious food and a high-quality education. | ||
| And if you think this doesn't affect you, wait five minutes. | ||
| Your neighbors, your friends, your communities, your families will be decimated by the effects of this reckless, irresponsible piece of legislation. | ||
| In this country, no child, no senior, no veteran, no person who works every day should go to bed hungry. | ||
| And in this Congress, we have the ability to make sure that that does not happen. | ||
| So stick around. | ||
| I don't know how long this is going to take. | ||
| I don't know if we're going to be here for the 4th of July, for Labor Day, for Thanksgiving, but I'll stay as long as it takes because I will not put a card in that machine and vote to take food out of the mouths of hungry children. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Ms. Kamlagerdava. | ||
| Hello, everybody. | ||
| My name is Sidney Kamlagardov. | ||
| I'm the Congresswoman for the 37th Congressional District. | ||
| I am standing here with my colleagues from the Congressional Black Caucus. | ||
| We are the Congressional Black Receipts Caucus because we are bringing receipts about what is in this bill. | ||
| Let me tell you something. | ||
| There is no Republican Party bus coming up here to the Capitol because they know that they are being charged with selling snake oil that's coming out of the White House. | ||
| We have a president that is more committed to selling fragrances than he is to telling the truth. | ||
| And they are negotiating with this person about bending the knee to him rather than bending the knee to the constituents. | ||
| And in our district, in every single district across this country, 85% of voters in every single district want Medicaid, want SNAP, want these programs that they are cutting. | ||
| And these Republicans should be listening to their constituents. | ||
| Earlier today, every single member of the Congressional Black Caucus stood up to ask for unanimous consent to strip away the amendments to Medicaid and SNAP. | ||
| And Virginia Fox didn't even have the decency or the integrity to stand up with each request and deny it. | ||
| She sat there like a tumor. | ||
| But over 100 members, over 100 members led by the Congressional Black Caucus got up and raised the issue because Medicaid and SNAP are too important, not just to our communities, not just to our constituents, but to this country. | ||
| This administration wants to separate us by race so they can divide us by class. | ||
| But let me tell you something. | ||
| If you cut Medicaid, you're going to close hospitals. | ||
| You're going to close urgent cares. | ||
| You're going to close community clinics. | ||
| And folks, even if they get sick, when they get sick, they are going to show up to those places. | ||
| And if they are open, it's going to cost everyone who doesn't have Medicaid more. | ||
| And if they do close, they are going to find their way to an emergency room near you and drive up your costs. | ||
| So why don't we recognize that we're all connected? | ||
| I'm going to tell you something. | ||
| This administration is lying when they tell you they have a provision that says no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security. | ||
| Let me tell you something. | ||
| It's not about zero taxes. | ||
| It's a minor deduction. | ||
| And I've been up for many long hours. | ||
| So I'm a little fuzzy. | ||
| But what I can tell you is his math is equally fuzzy. | ||
| And it is so fuzzy and complicated that working folks who rely on tips, who rely on overtime, might only end up taking an additional $10 home. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How is $10 going to help you? | |
| It's not, especially when the richest of the rich are getting tax breaks of up to $300,000. | ||
| I had an amendment that say, if you really care about the working people, then make this tax cut permanent rather than temporary, only for the time that you're in office, Donald Trump. | ||
| But Republicans don't want to support that. | ||
| Make no mistake, this bill is going to make America more sick, more broke, and more hungry. | ||
| While the top 1%, 0.1%, walks away with over $300,000 in tax breaks every year. | ||
| And the average American will take home less than $250. | ||
| And $250 doesn't mean shit to somebody on a tight budget trying to decide how much of the utility bill can they pay, if they can pay all of the rent and buy all of the food and get the diapers. | ||
| and the incidentals and the emergencies that crop up. | ||
| And Donald Trump doesn't know what it means to hope for an extra $250. | ||
| It doesn't go very far when you have a family of four that you have to feed. | ||
| I'm going to say it again. | ||
| Over 85% of voters in every single district want Medicaid, want SNAP. | ||
| And now the new provisions in the Senate version that we have to vote on will also cut into Medicare. | ||
| I'm going to say it. | ||
| I'm going to say this. | ||
| Elections have consequences. | ||
| And we are dealing with the consequences of what happened in 2024. | ||
| But mean it when I tell you that the black caucus is turning into the receipt caucus because we want everyone to know what is in this bill. | ||
| We want everyone to know how they will be impacted. | ||
| We want everyone to know how more broke, how more hungry, how more sick they are going to become. | ||
| And we need to be holding these receipts up to and through 2026 and holding these Republicans accountable. | ||
| Why aren't they here with balloons and megaphones touting how beautiful this thing is? | ||
| Because they know it stinks just like the cologne that they are selling in the White House. | ||
| I'm going to bring it back to Chair Clark to follow. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, let me again just thank all of my colleagues, their expertise, their understanding of what's in the big ugly is what we want to share with the American people. | |
| At this point, I want to open the floor to any of our reporters who have any questions. | ||
| Yes, and just state your name and your outlook. | ||
| Michael Johnson from Once Upon the Health. | ||
| Thank you, Chair Clark, for doing this. | ||
| The Senate added a $50 billion hospital fund for rural states and districts to mitigate some of the concerns that senators had about the cuts to Medicaid to their rural constituents. | ||
| Obviously, there are a lot of health disparities that you all deal with in some of your suburban and urban districts and states. | ||
| Can you just speak about how, are you concerned that those constituents will be left behind if the House is successful in passing this bill that includes this $50 billion? | ||
| This is a very dangerous bill. | ||
| Yeah, they're going to try to sweeten the pot with all kinds of gimmicks. | ||
| At the end of the day, rural, suburban, urban, all of our health care institutions are at peril under this bill. | ||
| But they would indeed $50 billion a year. | ||
| $50 million to address $50 billion. | ||
| $50 billion is still woefully short. | ||
| When you talk about rural hospitals throughout the country, I will give you my home state as a test case. | ||
| When I was in the state senate, we expanded Medicaid. | ||
| We instantly started opening rural hospitals. | ||
| People started getting on the roads. | ||
| The same will be true in reverse. | ||
| That $50 billion will not even scratch the surface throughout our entire country. | ||
| It is nothing more than window dressing and used to allure and to entice those voters who, those members of the Senate who had the courage for a moment to stand up, they've been throwing a little piece of red meat to sell out the rest of the country. | ||
| It will not do the job. | ||
| People will still die. | ||
| Hospitals will still close. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Any more questions? | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Can you talk? | ||
| Can you comment on? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I saw the CPC did the Congo line with the Congo line. | |
| We did a conscience line. | ||
| I hear you. | ||
| So are you going to do any? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is there anything else you can do to delay this? | |
| Was that pretty much it under the rules of the House? | ||
| Can you talk about that? | ||
| First of all, we will continue to protest what is taking place under the Trump administration. | ||
| We will do everything within our power within the procedures of the floor to make sure that the American people are educated, informed, and understand where this harm is coming from. | ||
| Our colleagues on the other side of the lot, of the other side of the aisle, as Congresswoman Kamlaga Dove has said, have been lying through their teeth to make sure that they can benefit the billionaire class in America. | ||
| At the end of the day, the vast majority of Americans will be devastated if this bill were to pass. | ||
| But also, can I say that? | ||
| Hold on, one moment. | ||
| Joanna Hayes. | ||
| They're their own problem, we good, we've all voted. | ||
| We're here. | ||
| We're doing what we have to do. | ||
| We got a procedural amendment, an easy vote. | ||
| This isn't even the hard vote that's been open for 103 minutes because they can't get their members to vote to add an amendment about debate. | ||
| So the question, I guess, needs to be directed at them. | ||
| They can't even, if this bill is as beautiful as you say it is, if you have a mandate and an assignment, then turn it in. | ||
| We're here. | ||
| All these members have come back. | ||
| Every Democrat is on record having voted. | ||
| Tally, Democrats, 212. | ||
| We're here. | ||
| I don't understand how in between votes they lose 20, 30 members and then have to rally them back. | ||
| So we understand the assignment and we're here doing what we have to do. | ||
| They're their own problem right now. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| Let me check. | ||
| I'm going to say this. | ||
| We have to manage people's expectations. | ||
| There are only certain tools in the toolbox, but one of the tools we do have is telling the truth. | ||
| And the truth is, every single person will be impacted if this bill is passed. | ||
| And we know that he is twisting people's arms, but we also know that Medicaid, that health care fuels economies. | ||
| And when you're cutting health care, when you're cutting Medicaid, you're also cutting jobs. | ||
| That's why folks are up in arms. | ||
| They're trying to figure out how to square the circle. | ||
| And the circle does not square with this mask. | ||
| The circle does not square. | ||
| So we're here. | ||
| We're going to vote. | ||
| They're running. | ||
| They're in their offices. | ||
| They're drinking whiskey. | ||
| They're at the White House. | ||
| They are trying to figure out how to switch the narrative so that they can pivot away from the truth. | ||
| But the truth is, every single person will be impacted. | ||
| You will either have your health care cut or you will have your costs go up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you all very much. | |
| Thank you for enduring the heat and getting our message out today. | ||
| We appreciate it. | ||
| Enjoy the rest of the day. | ||
| A vote here to approve debate rules for Republican tax and spending cuts legislation, which President Trump calls the one big beautiful bill. | ||
| It would permanently extend expiring individual and business tax cuts enacted in 2017 by the previous Trump administration. | ||
| It appropriates $153 billion for defense, $89 billion for immigration enforcement, and nearly $90 billion for border security. | ||
| The legislation also raises the statutory debt limit by $5 trillion and makes cuts to Medicaid and food stamp programs. | ||
| Republican leaders in both the House and Senate have been working hard to deliver the bill ahead of the July 4th deadline President Trump has set, which is this Friday. | ||
| Speaker Johnson continues to meet with a number of Republican holdouts, including members of the House Freedom Caucus who have also been in meetings at the White House. | ||
| Republicans can only lose a handful of votes with such a slim majority. | ||
| One of the reasons the vote just before this one was held open and action on the floor frozen for several hours. | ||
| The bill passed the Senate Tuesday, 51 to 50, with Vice President JD Vance casting the tiebreaking vote. | ||
| If approved by the House in its current form, it would go to the White House for President Trump's signature. | ||
| However, if the House approves any amendments or changes to the bill, it would need to go back to the Senate for another approval vote. | ||
| Republicans stand ready to deliver H.R. 1 directly to the President's desk for his signature. | ||
| Late last year, the American people rallied en masse behind the Republican vision for a renewed nation. | ||
| A nation no longer blighted by the cataclysmic failures of the previous administration. | ||
| A nation primed and ready to enter the golden age. | ||
| One of the many strong reinforced byproducts of our Republican vision is the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. | ||
| It is one of the most consequential pieces of legislation that any party has ever passed, and for good reason. | ||
| The provisions interwoven in this legislation are monumental. | ||
| They are what the American people voted for in November: historic tax relief for working families, massive investments to secure our nation's borders, capturing generational savings, slashing waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs so that they may run more efficiently for those who truly need them. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I could opine at length about the wins that Republicans have secured in this bill. | ||
| Wins that we've been highlighting to the American people for months. | ||
| Meanwhile, our Democrat colleagues have resorted to fear-mongering and wailing from their bully pulpits in the hopes of deceiving the American people. | ||
| For months, we've heard Democrats claim that the sky was falling, that all hope is lost because H.R. 1 will bring about the end times, and a litany of other outlandish and absurd claims. | ||
| They are so desperate to smear H.R. 1 and deny the American people the policies that the American people overwhelmingly voted for in November. | ||
| But let's again focus on what this bill accomplishes. | ||
| It yields the single greatest cut in wasteful government spending in congressional history by slashing far more than a trillion dollars of bloat. | ||
| It preserves the greatest battle-tested set of tax cuts for working families that our nation has ever seen or our economy has ever realized. | ||
| It doubles down on the border priorities of the most successful enforcement efforts by a president in our nation's history. | ||
| It realigns our economy in defense of American workers, American energy, American businesses, and American job creators to unleash the engines of our economy, raise the tide of our economic standards, and bring a new definition of American greatness to the world. | ||
| Perhaps the reason why Democrats are so desperate to smear this legislation is because they are caught in their own self-inflicted malaise of denial. | ||
| Perhaps they still can't accept that Americans chose Republicans to lead the nation instead of them. | ||
| That said, Mr. Speaker, Republicans are not distracted by that fear-mongering and doom saying of those who want H.R. 1 to fail. | ||
| The facts are on our side, and we've been cutting through the noise by bringing those facts to the American people for months. | ||
| So that the record is clear. | ||
| A vote against this legislation is a vote to greenlight the largest tax increase in American history being levied against everyday men and women. | ||
| Decimate decimation of millions of jobs across America. | ||
| Kneecap the capabilities and readiness of the nation's military. | ||
| This is not fear-mongering like what our colleagues across the aisle have been engaging in. | ||
| These are just facts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, the pathway forward is crystal clear. | ||
| The House must pass this rule and pass the Senate amendment to H.R.1 so that more wins can be delivered to the American people. | ||
| The American people deserve to keep winning, and to deny them that opportunity is a flagrant disservice. | ||
| This legislation is the embodiment of the America First agenda, and we would all do well to remember that. | ||
| Failure at this critical juncture is not an option. | ||
| This clock is ticking. | ||
| The President and the American people are waiting. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
To balance our time, gentlemen from Massachusetts. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I want to thank the gentlewoman from North Carolina for yielding me the customary 30 minutes, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen's recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, this process, an abomination, legislative malpractice. | ||
| Final text of this bill came out less than 24 hours ago. | ||
| We met in committee an hour after it was posted. | ||
| And now we're here considering a rule that only allows for one hour of debate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This bill is within the jurisdiction of 12 different committees. | |
| One hour is ridiculous. | ||
| And every minute we're finding out new things that were snuck into the bill, a tax cut for whalers, and now we're learning about a gambling tax. | ||
| Republican leadership and the White House are jamming this bill down our throats. | ||
| And for what? | ||
| We are not on a deadline, no looming crisis. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're here because Donald Trump wants a 4th of July party to celebrate this garbage bill. | |
| He wants fireworks and flags and cameras, not for this country, but for himself. | ||
| So he says, close your ears, close your eyes, and vote for this bill. | ||
| Honestly, sounds more like a cult than a Congress to me. | ||
| Some Republicans promised their voters no cuts to Medicaid, no new debt. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Now they're flipping faster than pancakes at a campaign breakfast. | |
| The House passed it hoping the Senate would kill it. | ||
| The Senate passed it hoping the House would grow a spine. | ||
| Everyone is playing a game of legislative chicken, voting for a bad bill and thinking the other chamber will be the one to fix it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is nuts. | |
| And Trump says, have fun and vote yay. | ||
| Have fun gutting Medicaid? | ||
| Vote yay on taking away food from poor families? | ||
| Are you serious? | ||
| This bill is catastrophic. | ||
| It is not policy. | ||
| It is punishment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's talk facts. | |
| It slashes Medicaid, cuts Medicare, dismantles the ACA. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It shutters rural hospitals, closes nursing homes, wipes out health centers. | |
| It takes food off kitchen tables, throws clean energy workers out of jobs, spikes utility bills. | ||
| And why? | ||
| So billionaires and oil companies can cash in. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Big oil gets handouts. | |
| Billionaires get tax breaks. | ||
| Working families get scraps, if bad. | ||
| Jeff Bezos just had a $50 million wedding in Venice, and they want to give him another tax break. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Meanwhile, families making under $50,000 a year, well, they get less than a buck a day in tax cuts. | |
| You can't even buy a cup of coffee with that. | ||
| And the cost, over $3 trillion added to the debt and a $5 trillion debt ceiling raise, brought to you by the very people who won't shut up about so-called fiscal responsibility. | ||
| This isn't tax reform to relieve the middle and working class. | ||
| It is a robbery that will result in the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich our country has ever seen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So let's not lie to the American people. | |
| This is about taking from the most vulnerable to pay off the already powerful. | ||
| It is about pleasing one man who's holding this Congress hostage with primary threats and social media tantrums. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This bill is cruel. | |
| It is cowardly. | ||
| It is a betrayal of everything this country is supposed to stand for. | ||
| I reserve my time. | ||
| General Reserves balance of his time. | ||
| Gentlemen, gentlewoman from North Carolina. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I'm proud to yield three minutes to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Langworthy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen is recognized for three minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Madam Chairwoman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I rise today in strong support of the rule to consider HR1 the one big beautiful bill, because the stakes for the American people could not be higher. | |
| We are rapidly approaching a fiscal cliff. | ||
| If we do nothing, the Trump tax cuts, the most pro-growth tax reforms in generations, will expire. | ||
| That means higher taxes on nearly every American. | ||
| That means a gutted child tax credit. | ||
| That means small businesses losing the tools they need to survive and to thrive. | ||
| That means less take-home pay for working families already that have been crushed by the Biden-era inflation. | ||
| This isn't some hypothetical scenario. | ||
| This is the Democrats' game plan. | ||
| They want to raise taxes. | ||
| They want to punish success. | ||
| They want more people dependent on government and fewer people building independent lives. | ||
| And Republicans will not let that happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
With HR1, we're stepping to lock in the Trump tax cuts permanently and to provide targeted new relief to the workers and to the families who keep this country running. | |
| Seniors, tipped workers, and those putting in overtime to get ahead. | ||
| But Mr. Speaker, this bill also takes a critical step to protect and to strengthen Medicaid, a vital program for millions of Americans. | ||
| And let me be very clear about something. | ||
| This isn't anything radical. | ||
| We're restoring the same common sense work requirements that President Bill Clinton signed into law into the 90s, one of the most popular things he did. | ||
| And back then, a Democratic president worked with a Republican Congress to say that if you're able-bodied an adult without dependents and you're receiving government assistance, you should be expected to work, train, or volunteer and participate in the economy. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, it worked. | ||
| Poverty dropped, employment rose, and millions of Americans moved from welfare to work and independence. | ||
| But Democrats today have abandoned that model. | ||
| They want permanent government dependency. | ||
| They'll oppose any form of accountability. | ||
| And they'll vilify anyone who dares to suggest that opportunity should come with responsibility. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Republicans are standing up for what works and what's right. | |
| And we're saying Medicaid must remain a lifeline for the truly vulnerable, children, seniors, the people with disabilities, and low-income parents. | ||
| But for able-bodied adults without kids, yes, you should try to work, just like in the 90s, just like under President Bill Clinton. | ||
| This isn't extreme. | ||
| It's not partisan. | ||
| It's proven policy that respects both taxpayers and lifts people up. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this bill delivers economic relief, fiscal sanity, and basic fairness. | ||
| And it secures the future of our economy and our safety net. | ||
| Let's choose the path that's been tested and proven to work. | ||
| Let's approve this rule. | ||
| Let's pass one big, beautiful bill, and let's get this country back on track. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Gentleman yields back the balance of his time. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to alert all members to something about this rule. | ||
| It has a mistake in it. | ||
| Republicans have rushed this process from the very beginning to meet Trump's artificial July 4th deadline, and this rule is no exception. | ||
| We found an error in the rule at 2 a.m. this morning after the rules committee reported the rule. | ||
| This is going to sound a little in the wheeze, but they forgot to do something called considering the previous question as ordered on their big, ugly bill. | ||
| Now, let me put that in English. | ||
| What that means is they won't have an escape hatch once they start debate on this bill. | ||
| So if they start it and they realize they don't have the votes, they still have to take the embarrassing vote. | ||
| There are also other consequences, but this Speaker's timeout authority is the one Republican leadership is most afraid of. | ||
| Now, I expect they'll try to fix this with an amendment, but I have a question for members. | ||
| If this Republican leadership cannot get a one-paragraph rule right, can we really trust them to get an 870-page bill right? | ||
| Not only are we going to find things that were snuck into this bill, we're going to find massive mistakes that have unintended consequences for people and industries across this country. | ||
| This whole process has been lousy, and this rule is no exception. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlewoman from North Carolina. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield two minutes to the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Scott. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Georgia is recognized for two minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I appreciate the opportunity to address the American citizens for just a couple of minutes. | ||
| I know many of you are concerned about some of the language in the bill, and I think maybe the reason you're concerned is because the people that are telling you what's in the bill never bothered to read the bill. | ||
| So I thought I would just read to you the part. | ||
| If you've read this, then you're lying to the general public. | ||
| Exceptions, and this is on the SNAP: exceptions. | ||
| Paragraph two shall not apply to an individual if the individual is under 18 or over 65 years of age, medically certified as physically or mentally unfit for employment, a parent or other member of a household with responsibility for a dependent child under 14 years of age. | ||
| So when the Democrats are telling you that we're kicking disabled people off of SNAP or we're kicking disabled people off of Medicaid, it is an absolute lie. | ||
| Page 16, page 17 of the legislation, it will take about 60 seconds to read it. | ||
| That's exactly what it says. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And I yield the remainder of my time to the gentlelady from North Carolina. | ||
| Gentleman Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, there's a lot of low energy on that side, but I now want to yield to one minute to the gentleman from New York, the distinguished ranking member of the House Committee on House Administration, Mr. Morelli. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen, recognize for one minute. | |
| Thank you to my good friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts, the ranking member of the Rules Committee for Yielding. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, as we reach the apparent conclusion of this absurd exercise, it's worth asking: what's the purpose of this bill? | ||
| This bill that will strip away health insurance from nearly 17 million people, devastating communities like mine in Rochester, New York. | ||
| This bill that will recklessly eliminate food assistance for nearly 3 million Americans, including nearly a million senior citizens. | ||
| This bill that explodes the deficit by $3.3 trillion. | ||
| But for what? | ||
| Well, Mr. Speaker, sometimes the simplest explanation is closest to the truth. | ||
| We all saw the gaggle of billionaires sitting behind Donald Trump on Inauguration Day earlier this year. | ||
| The driving force behind this entire legislative effort has been to grant handouts to those same billionaires and special interests, all at the expense of hardworking families. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I hope my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will stop and think again before voting for the worst piece of legislation in generations. | ||
| But I know one thing for certain, House Democrats will never stop fighting for American families. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. McDowell. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen, Director Nash for two minutes. | |
| Thank you, Madam Chair. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today we take another big step towards delivering a course correction for our country. | ||
| The American people sent us here with a mandate to fight back and deliver on a promise. | ||
| That is what the One Big Beautiful Bill is. | ||
| Americans should first know what my colleagues in opposition to this legislation are voting for and what they are voting against. | ||
| Not passing this bill means a $1,700 increase in taxes for the average American family of four. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, that might not be a big deal to the elites in Manhattan or San Francisco, but it does mean a lot to the people of my district in North Carolina. | ||
| Not passing this bill means our Border Patrol officers and our Coast Guard won't have what they need to secure the border and stop the flow of deadly fentanyl. | ||
| It doesn't stop there, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Opposing this bill also means protecting waste over purpose, fraud over fairness, and foreign interests over American strength. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I want to make sure voters in my district know what passing the One Big Beautiful Bill will mean for them. | ||
| It means you get to keep more of your hard-earned money. | ||
| It means that small businesses can spend more money on your employees instead of sending it to Washington. | ||
| This bill will make our communities safer by making a historic investment in our border security. | ||
| No more dangerous, illegal aliens parading around with no consequences. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, this legislation is one of the most consequential items we will vote on. | ||
| It is President Trump's agenda, and it is what we all told the people back home we would do. | ||
| Now, the House must get it done, and I urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this rule. | ||
| Let's choose our country over comfort and get the big, beautiful bill to the President's desk. | ||
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unidentified
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With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | |
| Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from North Carolina, I know a senator from North Carolina who disagrees with everything he just said, including a lot of hospitals in North Carolina that disagree with what he just said. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentleman from Maryland, the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on the Judiciary, Mr. Raskin. | ||
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unidentified
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Director Nash, for one minute. | |
| I thank the gentleman. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I found the preamble to this big, ugly bill. | ||
| We the billionaires in our king, in order to deform and sicken our union, establish injustice, ensure domestic servility, weaken our people's defenses, undermine the general welfare, and reserve to ourselves and our posterity staggering debt servitude for eternity, do hereby instruct the Republicans in Congress to strip 17 million people of their health care, increase co-pays, deductibles, | ||
| and premiums for everyone else, cut 42 million people off of nutritional assistance, increase the national debt by $4 trillion, trash renewable energy systems, increase our electric bills for the carbon kings, all to weaken and destroy the Constitution of the people of these United States of America. | ||
| Please include this preamble in the legislative record. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentlewoman from North Carolina. | ||
| I reserve, Mr. Speaker. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlewoman Reserve, gentleman from Massachusetts. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the gentleman from California, the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Mr. Garcia. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen, recognize for one minute. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Now, my Democratic colleagues and I believe in a country where we take care of our fellow Americans and the wealthiest pay their fair share. | ||
| But Republicans are fighting for the biggest ripoff in American history and the biggest attack on our social safety net in decades. | ||
| If this bill passes, 16 million people are going to lose their health insurance. | ||
| They will take away basic food assistance from millions of veterans, seniors, and kids. | ||
| Because of this bill, the poorest 10% of Americans are going to lose $1,600 per person on average, while the richer only get richer. | ||
| It's a transfer from the poor and the middle class to the wealthiest. | ||
| And it does all of this while increasing debt over $3 trillion. | ||
| What happened to fiscal responsibility? | ||
| That means that our grandkids will fund a tax cut for Elon Musk. | ||
| Now, while I'm proud that we are defeating a number of extremely concerning provisions in this House bill, this is our last chance to stand up for our values. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no on this big BS bill. | ||
| The American people are watching, and I yield back. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlewoman from North Carolina. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield two minutes to the gentleman from Florida, Mr. Haradopoulos. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen, recognize for two minutes. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Promises made. | ||
| Promises kept. | ||
| Voters wanted change for one simple reason. | ||
| It was too expensive to live in America the last four years. | ||
| Gas prices, rent prices, food prices up radically. | ||
| So this bill is designed to help those very people hurt the last four years. | ||
| People who earned tips, who earned overtime. | ||
| People who earned Social Security get the big tax cut. | ||
| And let's be clear here so the American public hears it loud and clear. | ||
| The current tax rate on the wealthiest Americans is 37 percent. | ||
| Under this bill, it remains at 37 percent. | ||
| And at the same time, we're protecting the most vulnerable. | ||
| Please read the bill. | ||
| You'll see that seniors in nursing homes unaffected. | ||
| You will see that persons who are disabled, unaffected. | ||
| Pregnant women on Medicaid, unaffected. | ||
| And low-income kids because their parents aren't making much, unaffected. | ||
| Isn't it nice to see that Washington actually keeps its promises from the campaign trail? | ||
| This is a welcome change because Donald Trump said we're going to bring America back by putting more money back in their pockets instead of sending it up here to Washington, D.C. | ||
| And he promised to secure border. | ||
| 99% reduction in the number of people coming across the border illegally. | ||
| That is action. | ||
| And what are we putting in this bill? | ||
| The money needed to make sure it stays that way. | ||
| I'm proud to support this bill because I went to Washington for one reason. | ||
| Make promises, keep promises, and prove that the Republicans can lead and are willing to make sure that the great American comeback continues. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Come on, yields back to the balance of his time. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Yeah, Mr. Speaker, I read the bill too, and I want to know why Jeff Bezos and multi-millionaires and billionaires are getting tax cuts. | ||
| Last night, I offered an amendment to let Trump's tax cuts expire only for people earning more than a billion dollars a year. | ||
| And every single Republican voted against it. | ||
| I mean, what's that all about? | ||
| Follow the money. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I now yield one minute to the gentleman from Mississippi, the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Homeland Security, Mr. Thompson. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen, recognized for one minute. | |
| Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker, and I thank the gentleman from Massachusetts for the time. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Republicans are openly bragging about how the bill kicks children and the elderly off Medicaid, nutritional assistance, and more, all to pay another tax break for wealthy Republican donors. | ||
| But my Republican colleagues are not talking about the trillions and trillions of dollars their political giveaway is going to cost. | ||
| In fact, Mr. Speaker, Vice President Vance has said historic levels of Homeland Security funding in the bill sweetens the deal for the devil. | ||
| This bill means billions of American tax dollars to build a wall Trump promised Mexico would pay for. | ||
| Billions of dollars for mask ICE agents to terrorize immigrant families who've been contributing to our country for decades, including law-abiding Marines and even American kids. | ||
| And billions of dollars for DHS to continue obstructing Congress and denying due process to legal immigrants. | ||
| My Republican colleagues may be fooled by one big ugly bill, but the American people are not. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no on the rule and the underlying bill, and I yield back. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman from North Carolina. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield two and a half minutes. | ||
| The gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Alford. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentlemen's recognized for three and one-half minutes. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Chair, for your work on this. | ||
| I raise today in support of the rule and in strong support of HR1, President Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. | ||
| Today, Mr. Speaker, we face a watershed moment for the American people. | ||
| This Republican majority was given a clear mandate by the American people, the America First Agenda. | ||
| This bill is our opportunity to deliver on that agenda. | ||
| H.R.1 stops the largest tax increase in U.S. history while providing the largest tax cut for working and middle-class families ever. | ||
| With no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, and tax breaks for seniors. | ||
| HR1 protects the 87,000 Missouri farms and countless family-owned small businesses from double taxation by expanding the death tax exemption. | ||
| The One Big Beautiful Bill reverses four years, four long years of Biden's open border policies with a generational investment in border security, including funding to complete phase two of the border wall. | ||
| The One Big Beautiful bill modernizes our armed forces for 21st century threats by properly preparing our military and funding the Golden Dome. | ||
| HR1 ends the progressive less war on America energy by unleashing domestic oil, natural gas and nuclear energy production, lowering energy costs, ensuring reliable and stable energy sources, and renewing not just energy independence, but making us energy dominant once again. | ||
| Finally, HR1 restores fiscal sanity by cutting almost $2 trillion in federal spending, rescinding billions in green news scam funding, and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse from numerous federal programs. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, this is a time for choosing. | ||
| We can choose to side with the illegal aliens, unelected road bureaucrats, and fear-mongering from the America left, or we can choose to side with the American people and deliver on the mandate that they gave us back in November. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to put America first, support the rule, and pass the one big, beautiful bill. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Gentleman from Massachusetts. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, cult much. | ||
| You know, I mean, that gentleman's poster says it all. | ||
| It's not about American families. | ||
| It's about one big party for Trump. | ||
| It's about swelling up his ego. | ||
| I now yield one minute to the gentlewoman from California, Speaker Ms. Pelosi. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you very much, Mr. Gentlewoman's recognized for how much? | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| One minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you for your leadership, Mr. McGovern. | |
| The gentleman just ended by saying to vote for this big, beautiful bill. | ||
| This big, beautiful bill? | ||
| Well, if beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then you, GOP, you have a very blurred vision of what America is about. | ||
| Is it beautiful to cut off food from seniors and children? | ||
| Is it beautiful to cut off 17 million people from health care? | ||
| Is it beautiful to do this to give tax cuts to billionaires in our country? | ||
| Is it beautiful to take money from education and the rest? | ||
| The list goes on and on. | ||
| Dr. King, nearly 60 years ago, said, of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death. | ||
| We come to this floor with the moral force of Dr. King's words in our heart. | ||
| Let us not, with this bill, turn the American dream he talked about in a nightmare for America's seniors, the disabled, our children, our children, our children. | ||
| Let us vote no on this shameful bill and throw a punch for the children. | ||
|
unidentified
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Gentlemen, time has expired. | |
| Gentleman from North Carolina. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
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unidentified
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Gentleman Reserve, gentleman from Massachusetts. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I yield one minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from California, the distinguished ranking member of the Committee on Financial Services, Ms. Waters. | ||
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unidentified
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Thank you very much. | |
| This big, ugly bill straps health care from 17 million Americans, shutters hospitals, and will starve 12 million people by taking away their food stamps. | ||
| These cuts add up to $1.3 trillion, the exact costs of the tax cut Republicans are handing out to the richest 1% of Americans. | ||
| But that's not all. |