lease is a bellwether of where the market is going. >> that is what i was going to suggest. >> we do have to leave the house ishere, the about to gather in. members are able to speak from to five minutes on any topic. the house a communication from the speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. march 13, 2018. i hereby appoint the honorable daniel m. donovan jr. to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 8, 2018, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate.

the chair will alternate recognition between the parties. all time shall be equally allocated between the parties and in no event shall 2008 continue beyond 1:50 p.m. each member other than the majority and minority leaders and minority whip shall be limited to five minutes. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from connecticut, mr. courtney, for five minutes. mr. courtney: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, almost exactly a year ago when the trump administration came into office and the new republican majority again elected its leaders, they promised to focus on the forgotten american. the middle class families that have been left behind, according to the speeches that were given at that time. well, there is no issue i think resonates more powerfully with middle class families than the unrelenting rise in the cost of college and higher education. again, the numbers surround us,

$1st3 trillion in student loan debt according to the federal reserve board. just a few weeksing a some colleges and universities, flagships of our nation, harvard, yales, announce tuition, room, and board now will exceed $70,000 a year. not every college charges that much, unfortunately if you look historically as those colleges and universities surpass these unfortunate milestones, most colleges follow right in the wake. we need action. we need change in terms of making sure that that ticket to success, whether it's in science, technology, engineering, and math for young americans is actually going to exist in this congress -- and this congress has neglected and failed to move forward. just within the last month what we have seen is the following. the i.r.s. just issued their follow-up rules to the republican tax bill which clarifies that families can no longer deduct home equity loans to pay for college. so for a family who is

diligently paid their mortgages, whose kid has been accepted to a college and university, who doesn't qualify for pell grants, who's exhausted their stafford loans, those are capped, and who wants equity in use the their house to help pay for college, they can no longer deduct the interest on those payments. equity in heir house thank you very much to the republican tax bill which, again, took great care of people who earn over $400,000 whose top rates were drastically cut or corporations whose rates were drastically thank you cut, but middle class families are again now being asked to bear a higher cost for college by cutting off that avenue. that again families, millions of families have used over the years in terms of using their home's equity. in addition, the secretary of education, betsy devos, 400 days in office, has never stepped foot in the education and work force committee which i sit on. last friday issued a rule that basely preempted the abilities

of states attorney generals to issue rules and regulations to protect students and families from unscrupulous loan servicers. again our offices get flooded with calls with frustrated students who graduated and again have loan servicers who lose documents, who lose payments, and again, what was happening at the state level, both republicans and democratic attorneys were putting in place rules and regulations to protect those people caught in these predicaments. on friday the secretary of education, a republican who supposedly believes in states' rights, told those states they'll be issuing rules preempting states from protecting those people caught in these situations. unbelievable. and lastly, last week, the unspecter general's office, a nonpartisan arm of government, its job is to look at government negligence and malfeasance and problems, issued a warning that the

republican higher education bill, reported out in december, the misnamed prosper act, will again lift all the regulations on for-profit college, which again take advantage of students overpromising skills and degrees that turn out to be worthless at the end. we know about i.t.t. tech. corinthian college shut down by the last administration because of the outrageous practices that they were involved in. the prosper act basically lifts all those controls that the department has over them and again just -- it's open season in terms of students that are going to be subject to that kind of environment. by the way, the group that is probably the most vulnerable are veterans because their g.i. bill is so rich in benefits those are the one that is for-profit colleges target. why do i know that? holly, general david petraeus' wife, in charge of again warning veterans about these problems, a couple can years ago, the term that she used is for-profit colleges see service

members as nothing more than dollar signs in uniforms has warned us this sector of the higher education community needs more scrutiny in terms of making sure that there is real gainful employment for people who go through these colleges and make sure those colleges actually do not, again, siphon off precious g.i. bill dollars, pell dollars and stafford loans. again, it is time for this congress to wake up and respond to what was one of the most powerful issues in 2016 about the cost of colleges drowning middle class families but just again in the last month we have seen this republican administration and this congress go exactly the opposite direction. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes the gentleman from louisiana, mr. abram, for five minutes. -- abram: mr. abraham: thank you, mr.

speaker. barbara brown passed away on february 10, 201 n. lake providence, louisiana. born on march 8, 1934, he was the son of the late william dennis brown jr. and martha wily brown. during college at the age of 19, he and his younger brother were given 48 acres of land to farm rice on during their summer break. that year they made $800 profit and immediately spent it on an airplane. buzzy had a plane for sale and they bought it. with the agreement that he teach them to fly. he did. he gave them about five hours of instructions and sent them on their way. they landed teach them to fly. he on their own front yard as proud they could be to show their parents the new purchase. steve did give them official flight lessons, and both received their pilots license. after graduation from l.s.u., he joined the naval aviation officer candidate school. he spent the next four years lying fj-3's fj-4's.

f-8 u 1 and f 8 u 2's. he had two mediterranean tours. one north american tour. and three months tour off the coast of cuba. he made over 400 carrier landings both day and night during his time in service. his father died in 1961 so he decided to resign his regular commission and return to manage the family farm. in 1966, his cousin came home from college with her roommate, jeanie, barbara and jeanie were married year later and they have three children today. he was always involved with the children's activities. he was president of the st. patrick's school board for 12 years. baseball coach, flight instructor, hunting guide, and more and more. he not only taught both his sons to fly, but nephew, too. he was very proud of them. he was a entrepreneur, he was a first farmer in the area to

utilize second growth farming. he always came up with new projects. in 1983 he decided to start a new business. making his mother's breakfast recipe for her famous hot sauce. the idea was to employ his farm workers during the winter season. creating jobs was his passion. it was his specialty in the lake providence, louisiana area. he was on many councils and committees and received numerous awards. he served as the louisiana rice council for many years and actively involved in the louisiana l.s.u. rice research station. he was a lifelong member of st. patrick's catholic church where he was on the building committee, parish council, finance council, and active member of the knights of columbus. and s also a lector, eucharistic minister. in 2003, he received the louisiana small business award. in 2005, he was asked by the

governor to travel to cuba with her delegation to promote louisiana agriculture. . had seven grandchildren all very proud of every one of them. he loved his grandchildren. his legacy is that he taught his family how to be good christians. he taught them all about goodness, kindness, patience, peace, hospitality, generosity, joy, faithfulness, self-control, and most of all love. he was the epitome of the southern gentleman. he will be sorely missed. i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. farenthold, for five minutes. thank you, mr.

speaker. my office is now accepting art work for the 2018 congressional art competition. each spring the congressional institute sponsors a nationwide high school visual arts competition to recognize artistic talent in the nation and each congressional district. in 2017 the winning entry was drawn by drew scott of rock port fulton high school. her piece, complementary calico, along with the other 2017 winning entries from other districts, currently hang in the cannon tunnel, the walkway that connects the u.s. capitol to the house office buildings. the congressional art competition is a great way to encourage artistic abilities and reward talented students for their efforts and gives them an opportunity to compete. since competition began in 1982, more than 6,500 high school students have participated. students from the district i represent, the 27th district of texas who wish to participate,

may smith up to two pieces of art work to my office by friday, april 6, 2018, in order to be considered. i wish all the talented high schoolers of the 27th district of texas the best of luck. mr. speaker, today i'd like to congratulate joyce, a 17-year-old from corpus christi who recently won a bronze medal in the international bucker trap at the world shotgun competition in moscow. she has been named a member of the elite four person texas state national 4-h shotgun team and in june of last year her teammates and her competed in the national championships in grand island, nebraska, where they took home first place in team skeet and sporting clays, third in trap, and earned the title of national champions for 2017.

joyce also competed in won the junior women's gold medal in the 2017 state junior olympics trap competition last year. joyce then advanced to the 2017 national junior olympic championships in colorado springs where she took home a bronze medal in the junior women's international trap event and was selected to represent the united states as a member of the 2017 junior world cup team. congratulations, joyce, on all your hard work and success that is you are enjoying as a result of it. keep up the good work. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from connecticut, ms. delauro, for five minutes. ms. delauro: mr. speaker, i want to share the words of geneva cunningham, 15 years old. she's a ninth grader from the hopkins grammar school in new haven, connecticut. witnessed the sandy hook

elementary school massacre when she was only in the fourth grade. her father gave me her poem in the wake of the parkland florida school shooting. though geneva wrote it days before, just a few days before shooting occurred.andy hook and this is what she wrote. pure, a mother called her child kissing his forehead on his way to school. for the boy, it was a normal day until the darkness came and swept the light away. we did not ask for this. we did not ask to hear gunshots and slamming doors and dropping books. we did not ask to witness the murders of the children we played with at recess. we did not know that our teacher had taught us our final lesson. and we believed her when she said the red spilling from her foot was only paint. sweet ignorance, the honey in our poison tea, the salt we

mistook for sugar. but where do we draw the line between knowledge and ignorance? when do we know to cover our eyes when the darkness begins to swallow us whole? we united this country by stating we're one and on that principle our forefathers said you may bear arms to fight against them. you may defend against them. . if we are one who are we fighting against? if we are one, who are we defending? if we are taking the lives to begin with because killing is still killing. the number of lives lost is no victory on our own soil or on any soil. we say we are equals so who gets the power to decide who lives and who dies? because by giving open access to these weapons, we are giving

power to trembling hands and these hands are the ones that want to take the life of a little boy the day he was learning how to read. these machines were not designed for play. they were designed to kill. if we use them on the battlefields, if they can take a life, then they are not worth it. because i promise you, a life is worth more than any machine used for fun. yet, we bear these weapons, we claim we enjoy the crack at the end of the rifle. yeah, it may seem fun on the other side but what if you are on the opposite end begging, pleading, crying out for your life, for the lives of your friends, for the lives of your classmates, for the life of your teacher? we must be sure whose fingers we can trust on the trigger.

because that choice may determine your life, the lives of your friends, the lives of your family and the lives of those you love. this is a voice of a child who has witnessed murder. how have we allowed this to become normal in america? geneva's poem is beautiful and she never should have had to write it, but this is the world we live in, a world where n.r.a. dollars drive decisions, sales for bulletproof backpacks are soaring and 14-year-olds have seen their teachers and friends die at school. we must ban assault weapons. they have no place in our society. and we must ban high-capacity magazines. we need to hold gun manufacturers accountable for crimes committed with their guns and end the de facto ban on gun research. these are commonsense reforms. s marjory stoneman douglas

student said, we are going to be the kids you read about in textbooks, not because we are going to be another statistic about mass shooting in america, but because we are going to be the last mass shooting. i pray that she is write but it is the congress that needs to provide more than thoughts and prayers for a change. we must take action. that is our moral responsibility. thank you and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. arrington, for five minutes. mr. arrington: thank you, mr. speaker. e year -- in the year 1776 marked the turning point, not only in american history but in human history. while brave patriots here in america were affirming their right to equal representation

and ultimately revolution, a scottish philosopher named adam smith was revolutionizing the way we think about economics, the wealth of nations, was the book he wrote where he extoled the thoughts of free market and free trade showing how all benefit from robust competition and an open marketplace. mr. speaker, because of tax cuts and regulate reform, returning to freer markets in this country, we have this economy off high center and growing at a rate we haven't seen in over a decade. while some of my friends across the aisle would like to dispute this, the results speak for themselves. just last month our economy added over 300,000 new jobs and over 800,000 people joined the labor force, the largest one-month jump in over 30 years. mr. speaker, people are looking for work and they're finding

work with the stock market, business and consumer confidence and the labor participation rate at all-time highs and the unemployment at a 50-year low, the last thing that we need and want to do is impose a new kind of government intervention to diminish the great economic progress we've made. i'm concerned, mr. speaker, about these tariffs that the white house and others have talked about, if not appropriately targeted could do this, could have unintended negative consequences on the american economy, on american consumers, and on hardworking american families. the texas delegation has a unique stake in this issue. for 16 consecutive years, texas has been the top exporting state in the country with over $264 billion in exports for

2017. trade policy has a significant impact on our constituents. that is why last week my colleagues and i sent a letter authored by ways and means chairman kevin brady to the president urging him to take a more measured and surgical approach in imposing tariffs, and i'm glad it looks like that the white house and the president have heard and have heeded our pleas. i believe in free trade, mr. speaker. i believe in open global markets, and it's improved standard of living for everyone. however, free trade only works if everybody plays by the same rules. that is free trade and fair trade go hand in hand, and for years china has been gaming the system by dumping their product, infringing on our intellectual property rights, manipulating their currency and circumventing trade agreements for years.

president trump was right to call them out. he was right to hold them accountable, and i'm confident that we can work with the white house so that tariffs ensure fair competition and protect our national security interests while also making sure we don't harm consumers here at home. mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. jeffries, for five minutes. mr. speaker, throughout the years, artists such as elvis presley, frank sinatra, and bruce springsteen have been recognized on the floor of the house of representatives. today i rise to honor the top

emcee-hip-hop collaborations of all-time. number 10, eve. my chick bad. number nine, moni love, my buddy. number eight, missy elliott, "hot boys." "ante seven, remi ma, up remix." number six, lauren hill, "ready or not." minaj, "up nicki all night." umber four, the brat, "the b side." "g r three, lady of rage, funk intro."

boogie brown "ain't no." number one, representing b.k. o the fullest, lil' kim, "quiet storm remix." these extraordinary emcees, along with legendary pioneers ch as queen latifah, m.c. lyte and salt n pepa shattered hip-hop's glass ceiling with heir skill, talent and lyrical ability. as we celebrate women's history month here in the united states congress, these dynamic women are worthy to be praised.

i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the entleman yields. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess