5 million, predominantly women of color, none the less it is 5 million americans in the poverty level. 12,000 800,000. how do you live in under 12,800? host: do you take speaker mccarthy at his word when he said that cuts to social security are off the table when it comes to what may happen here in a negotiation about the debt limit and possible spending cuts? host: we know that president trump -- unfortunately, i hope the speaker is correct. social security should not be held hostage by the debt ceiling. overly their negotiations today proved to be fruitful. i think with the president is going to ask in that what i think everyone should ask speaker mccarthy, where is your

plan. when they produced this >> we'll leave this program here to keep our over 40-year commitment to live coverage of congress. and now -- er. ordering the previous question on house resolution 83 and adoption of the house resolution 83, if ordered. the first electronic vote will be conductedded a a 15-minute -- conducted as 15-minute vote. pursuant to clause 9 of rule 20, the remaining electronic vote will be conducted as a five-minute vote. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on ordering the previous question on house resolution 83, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 2, house resolution 83. resolution providing for consideration of the concurrent resolution, house concurrent

resolution 9, denouncing the horrors of socialism, and providing for consideration of the resolution, house resolution 76, removing a certain member from a certain standing committee of the house. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on ordering the previous question on the resolution. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a 15-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 217, the nays are --

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 219, the nays are 207. the previous question is ordered. the question is on the adoption of the resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it.

for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts -- mr. mcgovern: a recorded vote, please. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote is requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.]

the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 218. the nays are 209. the resolution is agreed to. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table.

the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. for what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky, mr. comer, seek recognition? mr. comer: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 75, i call up the bill h.r. 139, the show up act, and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: h.r. 139, a bill to require executive agencies to submit to congress a study of the impacts of extended telework and remote work by agency

employees during the covid-19 pandemic and a plan for the agencies' future use of telework and remote work and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 75, the bill is considered as read. the bill shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on oversight and accountability or their respective designees. the gentleman from kentucky, mr. comer, and the gentleman from maryland, mr. raskin, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky, mr. comer. mr. comer: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. comer: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. comer: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in strong support of h.r. 139, the stopping home office work unproductive problems act, or the show up act.

this legislation is urgent. the federal workforce needs to get back to work. federal agencies are falling short on their missions. they are not carrying out their duties. they are failing the american people. during the covid-19 pandemic, most of the federal workforce stayed home. they relied on telework because they could. as the rest of america went back to work in person, many federal workers did not. and the american people have suffered as a result. they have waited for months for their tax refunds from the i.r.s. they have waited for months for their social security administration to answer their questions and provide their benefits. our veterans have even waited for months to get their medical records from the national archives. the national archives is responsible for maintaining medical records for our veterans but our veterans could not get access to these records because the archives staff were at home. this is unacceptable. and it should be downright embarrassing to these agencies. the american people have struggled with high inflation,

scarce goods, prolonged and disruptive lockdowns and other hardships. meanwhile, the biden administration has showered federal workers with perks and pay increases all while working from home. but federal employees not being in the workplace hurt the federal government's ability to achieve its missions and deliver vital programs. house republicans have fought hard to find out just how much expanded telework has decreased agencies' ability to deliver services to our constituents. and we have tried to get this information from the biden administration but to no avail. during the last congress, the house oversight ranking member, i wrote to the administration requesting information on federal workforce return to work policies. but the biden administration failed to provide adequate responses to our inquiries. instead, it kept expanded telework policies in place, long after the pandemic was over. and it used its expanded telework policies not to help

our constituents but to help recruit new employees to the federal government. the federal workforce already enjoys many perks not enjoyed by the private sector including unparalleled job stability, healthy retirement benefits and a reliable pay growth expectation. one would have thought that, as the pandemic wound down, federal workers would have returned to their offices just as private sector works a -- workers across the nation did. but that's not the case. according to the office of personnel management most recent report on telework, 47% of federal workers telework routinely or situationally in fiscal year 2021. that was a 2% increase over fiscal year 2020. the year in which the pandemic struck. according to a federal times report this past october, just one in three federal workers had returned to their office full time in 2022. but just last week, "the wall street journal" reported that a new study by cushman and

wakefield failed only a few went back to work in federally leased buildings in washington, d.c., in october and november. the federal government's abuse of telework has gotten so bad that washington, d.c., mayor bowser has called on president biden to suspend its telework policies for federal workers or turn over federal buildings in d.c. for conversion to affordable housing. and the current o.p.m. director stated that federal employees are actually getting transfers to agencies where they can telework more. not so they can serve our constituents and the american citizenry the best. the show up act offers a much-needed solution to this problem of federal agencies and federal employees putting their own comfort before our constituents' needs. it requires federal agencies to immediately return to prepandemic levels of telework. this ensures that from the day of enactment, priority number one for the federal workforce

will be profmpt and effective service to our constituents, not increasing the perks for an already privileged federal bureaucracy. . it also requires a government wide review of teleworking policies. this will help congress see whether it improved or harmed people. the bill would prevent the biden administration from locking in higher levels of telework until congress receives detailed plans on how mission performance would be impacted. if the agency's plan show increased telework would substantially improve agency performance, lower agency costs, ensure agency network security, and better disburse federal employees across the nation, increased telework can be considered as an option. but not until increased telework has been proven to better serve our constituents and the nation. i urge all my colleagues to support this vital legislation

and reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself such time as i may consume. we strongly oppose this bill which is an assault on all the progress we have made over the last several years in telework policy. telework has strengthened private and public workplaces across the land, enhanced productivity, increased efishency, improved the morale and satisfaction of the work force, reduced traffic congestion, and made positive environmental changes. when the chairman says it's time to return to work, i believe this is a misnoarm because people who participate in telework are working. they are already working. so they don't need to return to work. this bill would take a sledgehammer to federal telework policy and law which the

sponsors seem completely oblivious to. you can hardly blame them, because the leadership brings this measure forward without the benefit of even a single hearing in the oversight committee, which means congress has not heard from the office of personnel management, it's not heard from any of the federal agency chiefs, it's not heard from any federal workers, or their collective bargaining representatives. it hasn't heard from any of the stakeholders other than secondhand, i guess through hearsay, the mayor of washington, d.c., who not surprisingly seems to be resistant, according to that report, to telework policy. this is an arbitrary effort to roll back all of the progress that has been made under legislation and administrative rules over the last decade without any participation of the key stakeholders. the bill falsely equates the development of telework as part of a balanced federal workplace

policy by o.p.m. and the agencies with the sudden and near complete shift to virtual work in certain sectors because of the pandemic. those are two completely different things. this conflation produces nothing but con confusion and the bill a wrecking ball tense telework poy which has been successful in workplaces. dleetion, the -- colleagues, the workplace is changing because of technology and new focus on productivity and efficiency as opposed to industrial age assembly line seating and command and control work relations. before the pandemic hybrid and remote work were growing more prevalent across professions, particularly for jobs performed in an office setting. the pandemic accelerated these dynamics, not only in the federal workplace, but even more dramatically in the private sector. from fiscal year 2019 to 20 as we entered the pandemic, federal

telework doubled from roughly 500,000 people to more than a million. practically overnight traditional barriers tolly wrk such as technological obstacles and manage many resistance disappeared. federal agencies implemented sweeping new guidelines as an essential tool for the continuity of government operations. this was -- the pandemic of course will not last forever. indeed the president announced that he plans to end the public health emergency on may 11. so the federal government will not maintain a pandemic-level telework posture in perpetuity. we cannot ignore the lessons that we have learned over the last several years. as o.p.m. put it in its 2021 annual report on the status of telework, there is no going back. enhanced demand in the national work force and among federal employees will continue as workers and supervisors report greatly enhanced productivity and focus from flexible work

practices that reduce time wasted in endless in-person meetings, water cooler gossip sessions, and the proverbial b.s. session that is overcome so many -- sessions that overcome so many people's offices. according to the survey by a conference board, 82% of companies are going to offer hybrid work options to employees going forward. and the number of private companies willing to let at least some portion of their work force go fully remote has tripled to an astonishing 36%. in another survey, 63% of employees rated the value of two to three days being able to work from home as equivalent to a pay raise. to remain competitive with the private sector with which we compete, the federal government must offer reasonable telework options. o.p.m. says it well observing we must appreciate the sea change in the american labor market. telework saves money. it helps the government recruit top talent. it reduces traffic gridlock.

makes environmental sense. and it ensures the continuity of operations at agencies that americans rely on every single day. it is a lifeline for people who have disabilities or immunocompromised, and offers dramatically expanded opportunities for people living in more rural areas to enter ad sustain a career in the federal service. we cannot enter a time machine and simply wish away the utility of telework in recruiting and retaining new generations of federal workers. we should embrace telework as part of a balanced workplace policy to promote employees satisfaction and overall mission outcome. o.p.m. director offers a clear-eyed vision for the future in her annual report saying federal agencies must continue to embrace workplace flexibility such as telework to remain comprehensive for top talent. decisions about telework, however, must be driven by

delivery of mission. we all work for the american public and how we best serve them needs to be the paramount consideration. that means telework does not make sense for every worker and every office or every activity. if you are guarding the capitol, obviously you need to be present. if you are researching groups that were involved in the insurrection against the capitol, you might be able to work part of that time virtually. processing paper tax returns at the i.r.s., may require in-person work. but i will note that although people are blaming the problems with i.r.s. responsiveness on telework, that does not make sense to me. telephone work is something that can be done from the office, home office, or somewhere else. which is why we have been on our side of the aisle invested in increasing staff at the i.r.s. because our constituents are so frustrated with being left on the phone and not getting

answers returned about when they will be getting their i.r.s. refund. in the inflation reduction act we added 5,000 new positions for people on the phones to respond to our constituents. i know that some of our colleagues across the aisle have opposed additional funding for i.r.s. positions. and that is surely a far more likely culprit than whatever teleworkle tocies -- telework policies are in place at the i.r.s. the biden administration's telework guidance seeks to strike a balance between getting people who need to be in person back in the office safely, and helping agencies design their post-pandemic telework plans to build off the prior successes of this policy. i reserve the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky. mr. comer: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the the gentlewoman from north carolina, ms. foxx. the speaker pro tempore: is

recognized. ms. foxx:00 thank you for yielding. mr. speaker, let me state a simple fact that has evidently been forgotten in washington. the federal work force's primary imperative should always be to promptly serve the american people. unfortunately, what the american people have experienced over the past two years is the exact opposite of what they deserve. thanks to the federal government's pandemic era telework policies, which were instituted by bureaucrats in baryk, delay -- in washington, delay and disarray might as well become hallmarks of federal agencies and departments. according to a federal times report from october of last year, just one in three federal workers has returned to his or her office in a full-time capacity. it's abundantly clear that something must change. and house republicans have the solution. mr. speaker, i'm particularly pleased to serve as a co-sponsor of h.r. 139, the show up act.

that's sponsored by oversight and accountability chairman james comer. under this legislation the biden administration would be prevented from cementing pandemic-era telework policies for the federal work force until it provides congress with a viable plan to avoid the negative impacts of remote work. yet again house republicans are acting on our commitment to the american people to ensure a government that's accountable. mr. speaker, it's time that the entire federal work force returns to its in-person capacity and fulfills its responsibilities to the american people. i urge my colleagues to support h.r. 139. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: mr. speaker, thank you. i want to tell you a story about a couple that both work for the federal government.

earlier this month the spouse of an army service member seeking approval to go work overseas for the state department, contacted the oversight committee because she was being forced to decide between quitting her very successful federal career for the state department, or returning to washington, d.c., to continue her federal service without her husband and without her two children. her agency was fighting desperately to main continue her expertise and was perfectly fine with her performing her duties from overseas with her husband who is in the army who was being relocated over there. luckily we were able to help make sure that her overseas telework request was approved. now, is that someone who is not really working? do we want to tell her to get back to work? her situation is common for thousands of families in the federal work force where you have one member who is in the

military who is being relocated, the other who might be working at a site in washington who is now able to work out the terms of service under the telework policy. but that's precisely an element of the policy that will be crushed by the legislation that's been brought forward without the benefit of a single hearing in the oversight and accountability committee, despite the fact that our colleagues have said they will only bring legislation to the floor after there has been a hearing. we are just a few weeks into the session, yet this legislation comes forward without hearing from anybody like this constituent who is being put in such a tough posture, or the directors of the agencies, or head of the office of personnel management who is in charge of actually superadvising and coordinating -- super advising and coordinating the annual report to congress. telework is a vital tool for the government to recruit and retain and grow the talented work force

we need to make the federal government work. it ensures the federal workers can serve the nation even during disasters. again it was the pre-existing telework policy that established the infrastructure that made for such a relatively smooth transition when we got into the pandemic. but i have to say that denials of telework for the spouses of military personnel are still common. and they are consequential and they would be pervasive if the legislation passed. i hope all of our colleagues will reject this. at the very least send it back to the oversight committee for real hearings so we can talk about what this really means. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky. mr. comer: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fallon: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you, mr. speaker. this is common sense. for two years our constituents have been calling our office and

wondering why the i.r.s., the social security administration, the v.a. aren't answering their phones. why can't they get in-person meetings with federal workers? why -- they talk to a robot on the phone for hours or wait for months on one end just for an email. to update their case. today, folks, house republicans are going to stop the lackadaisical policies of the biden administration. the show up act is a wonderful bill that i'm proud to support. it's going to make an end to covid an actual reality. federal workers should do the same thing that the private sector industry has done, which is they have gotten back to work for over 18 months in large measure. it's time the federal workers get back to work it's time that the federal workers start serving the american people to their capacity. this bill requires the federal agencies to return to the 2019

prepandemic telework levels within 30 days. reasonable, common sense. requires federal agencies, you know what, show up to congress and show them how pandemic-era telework impacted their missions. and it this -- and this oversight will help save money and create jobs outside the d.c. beltway. it's important to stress this bill is not some radical notion. we're not ending all telework. we're just snapping back to 2019 prepandemic levels and ensure a reasonable pathway for agencies to retain telework employees. the bottom line is the pandemic is over. the american people need federal government to function. in order to do that we need our workers back. the i.r.s. has failed to get americans the refunds in a timely manner for three years running and as late as last year still had 12.4 million returns to process.

the veterans affairs administration has hundreds of thousands of backlog claims. 30 more seconds? mr. comer: i yield 30 seconds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. fallon: thank you, mr. chair. thank you, mr. speaker. the veterans affairs administration has hundreds of thousands of backlog claims. as for the social security administration, "the washington post" states more than a million disabled americans, more than poor and elderly, are waiting months or years to hear whether they will receive benefits. processing times have doubled in some states, almost tripled in others. so long as the american people are not getting the services this government is mandated to provide we're not operating a government for, by, and of the people. so thank you very much, mr. chair, mr. chairman, i yield back. mr. comer: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: thank you kindly, mr. speaker. i want to address two points. one is, let's grab the bull by the horns with thirst point. -- by this i.r.s. point. the president's budget included $80 billion to increase staffing and update technology at the

i.r.s. so our constituents can get their calls returned. if you're waiting for your i.r.s. tax refund, that's something you planned on, that's part of your family budget, and if it's stuck somehow, it's extremely frustrating for people not to be able to get through. now, they, bizarrely to my mind, blame telework for this. and they oppose the $80 billion. i think they say that will create 75,000 or 100,000 new i.r.s. agents who will be chasing working class people around the country. on the contrary, we've got a report showing the $80 billion will produce $200 billion in new revenue and it's rich people who are the ones that are being protected by the refusal of my colleagues to invest in the i.r.s. telework is a complete distraction. it is an absolute red herring. it has nothing to do with whether or not you want to invest in the i.r.s. or not. with that i want to yield three

minutes to my colleague, mr. mfume from maryland. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mfume: thank you very much, mr. speaker. i want to also thank the ranking member on oversight, mr. raskin, for yielding this time. couple quick things. h.r. 139 is an overly broad proposal that stretches across the entirety of the federal government workplace to say that each and every telework policy, practice, and procedure implemented in response to the global health crisis must end immediately in 30 days because the majority of the house of representatives says so. well, let's remember that in the word telework, the last four letters are w-o-r-k. people who telework are working. they are working day in and day out and they have been working through the crisis, working to

get us back to where we need to be. the bill says that the rest of america must then take time to study the majority of our edikt today to see if it made sense in the first place. now, if that's not a classic case of putting the cart before the horse or the tail wagging the dog, i don't know. i do know that this is not how a deliberative body, particularly this chamber, should operate. we should at least have a hearing on this, bring in the proper agencies, review this in a real sort of way and then figure out what we do. but to act this way creates a real problem. the solution, i think, is looking for a problem, and this is not the place it ought to be. we have not worked with o.p.m. we have not talked with federal agencies. we really have not talked with the i.r.s. we really just condemn them.

we got to remember the 5,000 i.r.s. agents that we were putting in place on this side of the aisle is to augment what they were doing. the i.r.s. has been slow in terms of responding. this was an effort to speed that up. and i appreciate the distinguished gentleman from kentucky's first district, mr. comer. he and i, i think, want to get to one thing and that's the idea of greater productivity. but i would ask that we think about another way to try to do this. i got a department of defense inspector general report, mr. speaker, from march of last year, which i would like to ask unanimous consent it entered in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mfume: based on 56,000 respondents to its survey, 88% of the department of defense respondents found telework accommodations increased their overall productivity. this is not my imagination.

this is how thousands and thousands of them responded in the survey. a similar 2021 survey conducted by the american federation of government employees, which represents 700,000 federal employees all across the country, found that 62% of them surveyed thought significantly that their productivity had been increased while teleworking based on what their previous levels were. so american federal workers are performing for the american people and have been under the most difficult of circumstances, even before we got to covid. and i know that because i have, like many of you, had a chance to speak to so many of them. as the chair of the subcommittee on the government of ops, this particular issue is welcomed before the subcommittee. i will convene hearings next week so we can figure out where we are in a bipartisan way and move forward. and so i just want to make one point. federal workers are not here in

washington, d.c. alone. i mean, that's the misnomer. federal workers are in everybody's district in this entire congress, and they're looking to us to try to find a way to help them, not to punish them in 30 days. we're not going to save money on gas. we're not going to save money on energy. we're just going to go back to where we were. and i would strongly urge that this measure be defeated, and i yield back. thank you, sir. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky. mr. comer: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from florida, donalds. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. donald: i want to thank the chair for yielding time. mr. speaker, in short, the pandemic is over. it's time for federal employees to go back to the office. you know, i find it interesting in this debate, one of the things that's occurring right now is that the president's budget is due next week. we're in the middle of this calamity around debt ceiling that the president, by the way, has led us to.

his budget's due next week and he's telling everybody he needs another month. i wonder if this is because some of his own budget staff aren't in the office. this is something that should have been done long ago, and if the president was doing his job, being the leader of the executive branch, those employees would have been back. and since congress is the body responsible for appropriating funds to the executive branch and the president does not do his job of making sure it's working effectively, then congress does have the responsibility to make sure these employees come back and get back to work, like has been happening here in the people's house. a couple of things. it's already been said about the i.r.s. delays. right now it's shocking that it takes two to four months to get assigned an agent. assigned an agent. and if you call the i.r.s., you won't get a call back for four weeks. it's also important to understand, right now it takes 30 days for uscis to respond to a congressional inquiry. there are many backlogs at the v.a.

some of them almost two years, 197,000 backlogs. how is that affecting the men and women that served our country with honor and with dignity? mr. speaker, this is simple stuff. most of the american people have gone back to work. all we're saying is let's go back to prepandemic protocols which does have telework provisions throughout all of the federal agencies. but it is clear, looking at the backlogs that have occurred through covid-19 and continue, that extended telework situations in federal agencies is not working for the american peo people. my colleagues should be supporting this legislation. this is good legislation. it will help all of the american people. and frankly, help the president probably pass his budget on time. i yield back. mr. comer: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: thank you, mr. speaker. they complain about delay at the i.r.s. and then they oppose funding to assist the

overwhelmed workforce at the i.r.s. which is staggering under the weight of all of these obligations. so this is the first time i heard that telework was the source of the problem, but apparently that's what it is this week. of course, we haven't had a real hearing so we had no witnesses on it. so somebody has apparently just dreamed that up. it's just been linked to the debt ceiling. interesting that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle voted to lift the debt ceiling three different times under donald trump who increased the debt of the united states by si single -- single handedly by more than 20%. all of the debt of all the president, under one president, 20%. let's get back to the issue at hand. members of congress make very strange opponents of telework policy. not because we don't work hard. because i think we do work hard. but we use telework all the time. members of congress might be in their district office working.

they might be at a town hall meeting working. they might be here on the floor. they might be in a committee meeting, a subcommittee meeting. they might be meeting with constituents somewhere else. and i dare say the vast majority if not all of us engage in telework. and we wouldn't say to them, get back to work and stop teleworking. we understand that that's part of an overall telework policy. if people have employees who they think are abusing telework, well, they got a problem with that employee or they got a problem with their supervisor. but to my experience and knowledge, as someone who i admit may have been a little bit occur each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip shall be limited to five minutingly when we hear some of the colleagues here today when the covid-19 crisis, the employees who are super productive at work will be super productive at home. in my case, that's almost all of them. in fact, i think it's all of them. if you got an employee who blows off their assignments at work and doesn't turn it in, they

will do the same thing if they're working from home. that's a question of supervision. so the real issue is why all of a sudden they want to turn against a deck ate of progress on telework policy and start affixing to it all of these other problems. and for that i don't understand other than people seem to want to blame the federal workers for everything. those workers belong to all of our districts. they're all across the country. 80% of the federal workers are not in washington, maryland, or virginia. they are all over the country working everywhere from military bases to indian reservations to public health service who are -- you name it. these are our people. these are american citizens, and they deserve something a lot more than the implied contempt of suggesting that if they use telework they're not really working. i'm happy to reserve my time, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes. gentleman kentucky. mr. comer: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from wisconsin, mr. grothman. mr. grothman: well, thank you very much. i've been waiting this day for quite a while. whenever i go back to my district, i talk to my staff back then and again and again, they want something done with the v.a., they want something for the i.r.s., it can't get done. they're behind. i'll tell you a lot of -- mentioned today that it's time for people to get back to work. when i think of my district, i think the vast majority of people, their work schedule never changed even the teeth of the epidemic. obviously, wisconsin, a lot of cheese factories in my district. go home every night and there would be people there at 11:00, 12:00 at night, 2:00 in the morning. all of a sudden we hear how horrible it is for federal employees to go in. i tell you the current situation -- this is true in many other programs as well --

the government works for the b benefit of the government. not for the benefit of the people. and that's why people on that side of the aisle are trying so hard, so desperately hard today not to have people come in. i talked to a lot of employers all over my district. you know, there were times a given number of their employees worked from home but they know it's not the same thing. and why in the world should the government be operating on a separate schedule, i don't know. i'll give you an example. the national personal records center, as an egregious example, the nprc has a large warehouse containing records for people before world war i. they need records to get disability records and home loans. the nprc still decided to its employees work remotely. a perfect example of the employee's interests put ahead of the public's interests and this time the public is veterans. you can't copy

you can't copy record if no one is there to pull the records and make copies. these employees are paid and since they were not at the nprc, veterans were forced to receive their benefits. they show up act will require these federal agencies to return to precovid levels. mr. comer: an extra 30 seconds. mr. groth:man: so we can bring this up. i think it's such an insalt to all the people back home. many of which, whole factories they never took time off, to be told they have to wait for the federal government because their people -- my goodness. still at home almost three years after this thing? do you know any private business that is are still having people stay home? thank you very much for my friend from kentucky. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: i yield to the distinguished gentleman from virginia, mr. connolly, for three minutes.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. connolly: i thank my friend anti-speaker. i rise in on ig -- and the speak every. i rise in opposition to this bill. we often hear republicans want to roll back the clock. roll back the clock on abortion rights to 1973 before roe v. wade. roll back the clock on teaching the history of american slavery. i don't know when. 1860? 1619? but this bill actually rolls back the clock. it's right there in the text. the bill mandates, quote, each agency shall reinstate and apply the telework policies, practices, and levels of the agency as in effect of december 31, 2019. which begs the question what was the state of federal telework in 2019. president trump's administration had across the board limitations in telework -- had across-the-board limitations on telework. that had made progress before like the department of education and agriculture. the overall telework

participation rate had recorded its first drop since the enactment of the telework enhancement act authored by myself and mr. sarbanes of maryland. we had not yet experienced the onset of the global pandemic which forced us overnight to move the federal government to a posture of substantially enhanced hybrid work. we deploy telework as the critical continuity of operations tool, it should be. we procured i.t. i.t. security we needed. supervisors figured out how to manage hybrid work. at the height of the pandemic, 75% of the federal work force was working remotely. not everybody will continue to telework full-time nor should they. federal telework participation rates have already decreased substantially as more federal employees move back in person. the most recent telework survey show that 47% of federal employees teleworked in the last fiscal year. but the fact remains that

increased stability of telework is here to stay, in the private as well as the public sectors. the beur bureau of labor statistics found that 80% of u.s. businesses expect increased telework levels to continue after the pandemic. that's in the business community. that is the nature of the work force of the future. we should be embracing the productivity and employee satisfaction gains realized through telework. i offered a amendment to this bill that would have done just that, unfortunately we are considering this bill under a closed rule. we should be using a measured approach to determine where hybrid and remote work might be -- might not be the best fit. i know i have done that in advocating for more in-person work at the i.r.s., processing paper tax returns. and at the state department, responding to passport applications. and at the national archives fulfilling veterans document requests. all of which require in-person

functioning. i have supported it as have my colleagues. i have also offered a telework legislation bill, the telework metrics and cost savings act -- i ask for 30 seconds. mr. raskin: 30 seconds more. mr. connolly: which would help agencies track telework goals, cost savings, and using telework effectively. but this bill is sort of a one-size-fits-all come back to work no matter what. let me say to my friend from wisconsin, i had a constituent die from covid because there were no protocols in his federal workplace. there ought not to be any more casualties to covid. we ought to have systematic protocols in place. and that's what i think has to precede this kind of legislation we are considering on the floor today. i thank my friend. thank my friend from kentucky for introducing this bill. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from kentucky is recognized mr. comer: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to

the gentlewoman from colorado, mrs. boebert. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. boebert: thank you, mr. chairman. the pandemic is over. joe biden has said so. i don't know why he's waiting until may to do something about t. but the pectd is over -- about it. but the pandemic is over. it's time for the federal government to get back to work. it's far past time for the policies of the federal government to reflect this reality and the policies of hardworking americans and for federal employees to show up and get the job done. in my district, the bureau of land management headquarters was a hot topic of debate because this administration's -- one of their first actions, they wanted to take that from my district and move that back to washington, d.c. but why so haste? why so fast to do this? no one is going to work. the build something m they didn't have anywhere to bring the employees to a new building here. in fact, the employees that they did relocate to washington,

d.c., still only show up to work one day a week. according to one disturbing report by the federal times, just one in three federal workers has returned to their full-time job. equally disturbing, a leaked memo from january 2021 to then chief of staff of the department of health and human services showed that between 20% and 30% of the department's employees did not log into work on any given day between march and december of 2020. this negatively impacts all of our constituents. the v.a. has been incredibly slow to fulfill records requests that our veterans can get the care that they need. the care that they deserve. the social security administration faces a massive backlog of appeals. and as of last month, the i.r.s. had a backlog of 2.5 million returns from 2022 that are still unprocessed. this republican-led congress is moving toned biden's emergency

powers. he won't do it at the executive level. we have created these agencies. we fund these agencies. now we are demanding that these federal employees get back to work. i'm proud to be a co-sponsor of this legislation. and i strongly support it. i urge adoption. with that, mr. chairman, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: thank you, mr. speaker. the gentlelady makes an interesting argument. of course physical presence in washington is necessary, then that agency never should have been stripped from washington and relocated in colorado in the first place. one could say that entire work force is calling it in or not really working because the entire office has a telework policy. obviously she's carved out and exception for that. she thinks they can be effective even though they are not in washington, d.c. look, mr. speaker, this has been not just a closed rule but closed process there. was no hearing in the oversight and accountability committee despite the fact that those

hearings have been promised. there's been no hearing about t let me tell you one of the things we would learn if we actually had a hearing about it. the bill contemplates rolling the clock back to 2019 for every federal agency. what would that mean for one small agency, the federal communications commission, which has decided upon a plan to reduce its leased office space with savings of $119 million. precisely because of the existence of telework saying we don't need that space. now, since we roll the clock back and presumptively say you can't do that, we are going to be costing the taxpayers $119 million a year because we have to go back to their prepandemic plan. simply because we have got this one-size all categorical cookie cutter approach undertaken without any hearings. the u.s. patent and trademark office similarly would be forced

to abandon its $12.5 million a year in savings in leasing costs, made possible because of reduced office consumption space by telework. so do we really want to say that we hate telework so much, we distrust our workers so much, even though the studies show it's yielding benefits in office productivity, that we are going to force the taxpayers to pay more money for more expensive office space in downtown washington, d.c.? we haven't even looked at the question because there was no hearing because there was just a rush to get this to the floor so we could tell workers already at work to get back to work. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from contract complvment comer: mr. speaker, may i inquire how much time we have remaining? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky has 14 minutes remaining. mr. comer: i yield four minutes to the gentleman from texas, mr.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. arrington: i thank my friend from kentucky. and to my colleague across the aisle. they need to get back to work. only in washington, d.c. and only with this president are we operating with covid as a national emergency. the only national emergency coming out of washington is the economic disaster from the failed economic policies and the reckless spending of my colleagues. it's created an inflationary firestorm. and people can't sustain it. soaring interest rates. an economy teetering on recession. and $5 trillion of debt that have us dangerously close to the precipice of a debt crisis. that's an emergency. but our constituents across america, they got to go back to work. they have to take their kids to

school. somebody's got to teach them. somebody's got to save a patient. serve a customer. they don't live in this fantasy world of washington. my colleagues, unfortunately, have used the public health emergency in large part not to protect the public from covid but promote the big spending, big government bailout agenda. what i'm talking about is this in the name of covid bailing out student loans that cost taxpayers $1 trillion. bailing out schools that don't open their doors to their students. bail out after bail out. that's what this is about. so while democrats are jamming us with all these bail qulowts -- bailouts in the name of covid, taxpayers can't get their social security benefits or their tax returns or their passports. you heard the stories. here's my question. a simple one.

how can the people's government serve the people if the people in the government don't come to work? that's the question for my constituents in west texas. here's the answer. it can't. it doesn't. if hardworking americans don't have the luxury of not coming to work and teleworking for the rest of their lives, then the biden administration and our government employees should do the same. get back to work, do your job. serve the customer. because that's what you signed up to do. we are here to hold them accountable with all due respect. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: thank you, mr. speaker. some of my colleagues seem to betray no understanding at all of what federal telework policy is. to say that the work force is not going to the office and it's

time to get back to work simply suggests they don't know that every agency, every commission, every department makes its own decisions about this as part of the complete workplace policy going job classification by job classification defining when it makes sense and when it doesn't make sense. that's the way it works. but they want to have a broad brush one-size-fits-all straitjacket policy where they just decapitate a decade of progress using the pandemic or the end of the pandemic as the excuse for doing that. to repeat, this is not a washington problem. the vast majority of the federal work force is fred out across the -- is spread out across the country. the hardworking people we see in front of us today who work for the clerk u.s. house of representatives and for the house are just a small example of the work force located in washington which is a tiny minority of the federal work

force which is all over america. that flexibility has been given to federal work force supervisors all over the country to deal with. and they would clearly try to elevate what i think is a frivolous talking point over the cost savings that have been created because of telework policy. they would elevate it over the increased job performance and job satisfaction that is being demonstrated in studies around the country, and they would elevate it over the clear success of telework within the private sector. oftentimes my colleagues will sairks we have to be more like the private sector. well, it's the private sector that's been leading the way here. the federal work force has been very much in the rear guard doing it. . remember they're conflating two different things. one is the federal telework policy that evolved over the

last decade and the other is the pandemic. it's true the pandemic response was made for a more efficient because there was an infrastructure in place in order to make telework possible, but those pandemic policies can be reversed without destroying all of the policy that was develop thoaferred last decade and there are an incredible number of unintended consequences that are exacerbated by the fact that we have not had a single hearing on this question which is a fundamental importance to hundreds of thousands and millions of people across the country. i reserve my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from kentucky. mr. comer: i have no further members to debate, i'm prepared to close whenever the gentleman is prepared to close. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. raskin: we have no further speakers and i'm prepared to close whenever the chairman gives the word. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from maryland. mr. raskin: -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized. mr. raskin: thank you. the title of this bill, the show up act, consists of the stop home office work unproductive problem act. and i understand that in washington this really is a washington problem, there's always a search for the perfect acronym over the actual meaning of the language. and the -- this title does some real violence to the english language. i don't know what an unproductive problem is. i don't know what a productive problem is i wonder whether the person who wrote that was working on telework or wrote it at the office. to me it makes no difference. somebody should have said, that doesn't really make any sense

for a title for frl legislation. but in any event, the point is that members of congress, of everyone, should know we're able to be very effective, often being two places at the same time you might be at your district office, might be at a meet, a town hall meeting in your district but you call into a meeting with your chief of staff and your legislative staff. or you call in to have a meeting with subcommittee staff or what have you. i don't understand the sudden effort to demonize technology in all of the advances that we've made. i don't take this to be serious legislation. there was no hearing on it. there seems to be in effort to cop vince anyone that it's serious. i hope we can do better in the days ahead. i yield yield back my time to you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized.

mr. comer: mr. speaker, may i yield one minute to the gentleman from louisiana, the majority leader, mr. scalise. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. scalise: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my friend from kentucky for yielding and for bringing this important legislation to the floor. you know, when you look across the country as people have worked hard to get their lives back in order, to get their small businesses back up and run, states that pushed to open their states up again because they knew that the health of their people, the mental health, the ability for kids to get back in school, was so critical and of course data is out there all around but especially amongst our young kids who many millions of young kids in america lost a year plus of learning because of virtual learning because being in the classroom just wasn't the same. and those communities that made

the effort to open back up again were able to provide a much higher level of education than those schools that went out of their way to stay shut down. and daniel was caused to so many. and so, as you see most of the country now back at work, they look at congress and say why isn't washington? back at work? when you look at federal agencies who are there to provide a service for the 330-plus million people all across this great nation. mr. speaker, those people expect that when they pick up the phone and they call those agency, you're a military veteran who served this nation, you surely showed up for work. you showed up, in fact, overseas in some cases. risking your life. receiving injuries. and you want to get your military record so you can be eligible to go get the health care you deserve. and when you call the v.a. and

they can't get your health care records because there's still people not at the office, those are things you can't do remotely. and those veterans wait for help. that hurts people. when you've got millions of people who are trying to get basic services like a passport, maybe they're trying to go on their honeymoon, waiting for a loved one to come back home they haven't seen who lives overseas. and they've been waiting for years, they want to go visit a relative. they have waited six mops in some cases. we get calls to our office on this problem. people that have been waiting over six months to get a passport renewed. that's something you cannot do remotely. if you call that office, and somebody is at home, they're not able to process your passport from their home. so you just have to wait and wait and miss dates and dliens. when you see what's happening with so many other people that are counting on the federal government to take care of their needs. and they wonder why haven't they

gone back to work when i've had to go back to work? you saw the president wanning to hire 87,000 more i.r.s. agents. there are many i.r.s. agents that are not showing up for work. we still get calls to this day from constituents, hardworking people who live paycheck-to-paycheck, who filed tax returns in 2021 who still haven't gotten their check back. and they're wondering why is somebody sitting at home not able to process that payment, why do they have to wait over a year to get their money back from their government? the answer is not to double the agency and hire another 87,000 people. it's to let people go back to work. this bill just says show up to do the job to serve the millions of people who are paying your salaries and counting on you to get the job done. this should have been done a long time ago. i'm glad we finally are getting this bill blowght to the floor. i thank the yell for bringing it. i yield back.

mr. comer: this legislation asks every member to ask a simple question do, you put the needs of your constituents first or do you put the preferences of federal bureaucrats first? we know expanded telework in the pandemic harmed agency service to our constituents across multiple spry vie tall agencies. instead of fixing those problems and making sure they never happen again, if increase thread work needs to continue in certain case, the biden administration is blindly doubling down on federal telework across the board. not to imprief service to our constituent, but to dangle a shiny perk in front of existing federal workers and perspective new -- prospective new federal hires my bill ensures a new expectation is set for the federal government's work force. that you need to return to your agencies and get the job done for the american people. federal telework should only be utilized when it's been proven to improve agency performance, lower agecy costs, ensure agency network security, and better

disperse the federal work force across the nation. in the meantime, it requires federal agencies to reimplement prepandemic policies which were working just fine. under this bill, we will know that, whether we have increased federal telework or not, it will only be to unsure that federal agencies and their employees provide the best quality of service to our constituents and our nation. i urge my colleagues to support this much-needed bill and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. pursuant to house resolution 75, the previous question is ordered on the bill. the question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: a bill require executive agencies to submit to congress a study of the impacts of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during the covid-19 pandemic and a plan for the agencies' future work of

telework and remote work and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the bill. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the bill is passed. >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman wish to be recognized? >> recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: does the gentleman request the yeas and nays? >> i ask for the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed.

the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri, mr. graves, seek recognition? mr. graves: mr. speaker, pursuant to house resolution 75, i call up h.j. resolution 7 and ask for its immediate

consideration in the house. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the title of the joint resolution. the clerk: house joint resolution 7, joint resolution relating to a national emergency declared by the president on march 13, 2020. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to house resolution 75, the joint resolution is considered read. the joint resolution shall be debatable for one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking member of the committee on transportation and infrastructure or their respective designees. the gentleman from missouri, mrn from washington, mr. larson, each will control 30 minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri, mr. tbraifs. mr. graves: thank you, mr. speaker. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous materials on h.j. resolution 7. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. graves: i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. graves: thank you, mr. speaker. today i rise in support of house

joint resolution 7 which terminates the march 13, 2020, national emergency declared for covid-19 under the national emergencies act. the time has come to move past the covid-19 pandemic. it's no longer a global emergency as it was nearly three years ago. it's that simple. president biden said in his own words, the pandemic was over. he said that last september and our senate colleagues with a bipartisan vote agreed by passing a resolution last congress in november 15, 2022. the n.e.a. was intended to provide emergency authority to the president to respond to extraordinary situations in which the president must act quickly. we're no longer in that spot. the national emergency was declared by president trump at the beginning of the pandemic, nearly three years ago in march, 2020. at that time it was a new virus, the american public and the

world at large had little information, and we had to get a hand home to spread of covid-19. today we are in a vastly different spot. we have treatments, we have better methods to track covid, we have a better understanding of the virus itself. and the federal government has spent trillions combating the virus and protecting the economy from the fallout of the global shutdown. at this point, there's no longer a need for the declaration to utilize extraordinary authorities provided under the n.e.a. and it seems the white house agrees with this too but thinks we need to wait until may 11. that logic and math doesn't seem right to me. consider this. the declaration is scheduled to end on march 1 of this year so the president is suggesting he does intend to once again extend the emergency. that is why congress needs to act on this resolution. it's simple. absent the president's -- absent the president ceding these emergency powers it is incumbent on congress to rein in the executive branch to ensure these

authorities are not abused and do not continue in perpetuity. america should be fully open, kids should be back that the classroom, our families should be back at work. here in the house we're starting by remove this emergency declaration. with that i urge support of this resolution and i would reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. larson: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. larson: thank you. today i rise in opposition to house joint resolution 7 a resolution to terminate the covid-19 emergency declaration, the resolution introduced by representative gosar. the the coronavirus pandemic has been an economic calamity. we lost over 1 million citizens to deadly virus in wave after wave . entire industries have been forced to shut down and restart

from standstill. others had to re-imagine doing business costing billions of dollars in the process. the impact of the pandemic was extreme. the digital divide was even wider that those with internet access to work from home while others were left behind. transportation workers, grocery store workers were unable to work from home leaving them at an elevated risk. but thanks to actions by this congress and the previous congress including the american rescue plan, the chips and science act, inflation reduction act and bipartisan infrastructure law, we are on our way to recovery from this dark chapter in our nation's history. our work is not done. new variants are taking a toll on our work force and exacerbating the labor shortage. health care workers are still on the front lines.

last week, i saw 4,000 americans die from covid. terminating the emergency declaration could send the wrong message. in my state alone we had over 4,000 cases in the last week. the uncertain impact of covid especially those with preexisting health conditions with these complex issues, local leaders and the american people, it would be harmful and irresponsible to force an end to the flexibility offered by the presidential emergency declaration from march of 2020. president biden has no intention of using these emergency powers forever because he announced to end the covid-19 emergency on may 11. this will develop a strategic and thoughtful plan of the termination of these authorities. no need for congress to act now before the president acts on

this issue forcing the end of the emergency declaration and this is shortsided and wrong. to end the national emergency declaration could have negative consequences for the u.s. any emergency declaration will impact individuals who lost their jobs to pay for covid premiums. and including laidoff workers and their families. pending the emergency declaration will reverse efforts to address mass incarceration and prison crowding by terminating the cares act home confinements and make it difficult for guards. it will end video court proceedings. this is inefficient and cost time and money if they transport inmates. pending the emergency declaration will cut preplanned sickness benefits and

unemployment benefits for rail workers. it is wrong to cut these earned benefits when rail workers need them most. this will also threaten voaka funding dealing with the aftermath of a crime. the administration has a plan to bring the national emergency declaration to an orderly end on may 11, aligning with its commitment to give 60 days notice prior to termination. this is a sensible and reasoned approach that congress should support. we shouldn't be using an axe when a southern california pell will do. and this is the wrong approach and i urge my colleagues to oppose it and i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: i yield two minutes to the chairman of the committee on highways and transit, mr. crawford. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized. mr. crawford: thank you, mr. speaker, the pandemic is over, at least that is what we were told by president biden several months ago in a september interview. and we are five months later and the white house has failed to roll back the emergency declaration. and it wasn't until house republicans scheduled a vote to terminate that declaration that president biden announced that he would end it on may 11. what he did was announce he was giving our friends on the other side of the aisle little political cover to vote no. instead they would rather continue to watch the american economy suffer for an additional three months while we continue this unnecessary declaration of an emergency. i am glad president biden has followed republicans's lead. why wait months? we could end it now. we have let it drag on for three years signifying an egregious

use of powers. this has harmed our economy and exacerbate our supply chain problems. our supply chain doesn't need this to continue anymore. it needs to end now. and time for us to stop living in the past. americans are ready to move forward and tired to hear mixed messages and seeing the consequences in implementing covid regulations. the end is near, it is right here, right now. i urge my colleagues to support the underlying resolution and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. larsen: no record that it exacerbating. every record that covid exacerbated supply chain problems bringing our economy to

a standstill and investment in the bipartisan infrastructure law and chips and science act are doing what they needed to do is to bring our economy back. there is no evidence otherwise. i just want to say that for the record. we at this point reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: i yield three minutes to the the gentlemanfrom arizona, mr. gosar. mr. gosar: i rise in support of legislation i introduced requiring the biden administration to end the outdated and abusive covid emergency use declaration. nearly three years have passed since president trump declared a national emergency concerning the covid pandemic. the factual basis was apparent then. as time last progressed and as we have learned about this virus, we know it is no longer a

national emergency since president trump's initial declaration, the house of representatives has not once voted let alone debated whether to terminate this national emergency or keep it as required. let me repeat it, required under the national emergencies act. it requires congress to review termination or continuation of a national emergency no later six months after its implementation and at least every six months thereafter. yet former speaker pelosi repeatedly to bring simple debate about the merits of extending or terminating the declaration despite the law requiring review. that would make it four to six times we should have had debate. what type of representative body cannot discuss a national

emergency? until now the house of representatives has failed to perform its most basic constitutional duty, checking the powers of the executive branch and the power of the purse. in contrast, companion legislation has twice passed, twice passed the senate. most recently with an overwhelmingly bipartisan support. mr. biden declared the pandemic is over. cases are down and america has opened back up. this hardly sounds like a country under our national covid emergency, yet joe biden continued to extend the national emergency to force americans to live under extreme measures. this week, mr. biden issued an administrative policy opposing h.j.res. 7. this stands in stark contrasts that biden would end the national emergency. let's not forget that mr. biden

once promised the american people there will be no federal covid vaccine mandate and lied and mandated covid vaccines. you simply cannot trust if and when biden will keep his word. the evidence is to the contrary. it is time to end this emergency declaration now. if passed through the house the national emergency acts requires the senate to vote on my resolution within 18 calendar days. i urge my colleagues to support this legislation and send it to the senate. do your due diligence, do what the law requires. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities towards the president. the gentleman from washington. mr. larsen: we currently reserve

the balance of our time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: i yield to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. perry. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. perry: i thank the chairman for the opportunity and tell the body and everybody listening not since world war ii and that crisis that our country had to deal with as the cause of socialism and big government as advanced more than the declaration of this national emergency and people might disagree with me. federal and state governments have stopped people from working in their businesses, stopped their businesses cold, forced them to inject something into their body if they wanted to go to work, to school, if they wanted to travel. if that is not big government or oppression, what is? people say what does it matter? 120 special statutory

authorities granted to the administration that are now going to go away. people say he is going to do it on may 11. he said last september he was going to do it then. everyone knows the pandemic is over and the national emergency should be over as well. they know that part of the 122 special statutory authorities includes allowing the president to suspend a prohibition on testing chemical and biological substances on unwitting human subjects and allowing the president to shut down radio station or freeze any asset or financial transaction. the pandemic is over. the president announced it last september. the senate just in november voted for it to end it overwhelmingly for anybody concerned about title 42, the statute governing title 42 does not make any mention of the emergency declaration. it needs to be ended and needs

to be ended now and americans need to be free and not oppressed by the federal government and extraordinary powers that have advanced the cause of socialism like no other time in our history and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from washington. mr. larsen: everyone is looking forward to the day when covid-19 is a distant memory but we have to work towards that day steadily and cautiously and should not be terminated until there is a careful view on science and not terminated on the whim of one member of congress. the president has a plan to bring it to an end on may 11 and give 60 days notice prior to the termination and it is a sensible and reasoned approach. and with that, i ■reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri.

mr. graves: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from california plrks lamalfa. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. lamalfa: the emergency declaration was on march 13, 2020, nearly three years ago. this legislation we are talking about today passed the senate nearly 2/3 of the votes of the snars. but the former speaker repeatedly blocked the resolution from coming to the floor on the house. the president has granted special statutory, which means passing a law to an emergency national declaration which he continues to wield as long as this emergency is place. the president has extended the emergency twice which would have terminated the first time of the declaration. these powers are met from the time of actual emergency. president biden has said the pandemic is over in a "60 minutes" over in september of

2022. they use the national emergency to enact liberal policies without the approval of congress. these are things that probably wouldn't pass muster in congress because i don't think my colleagues want to vote for them on the record. they have spent $6 trillion in response. students lost invaluable time learning in school facilities. countless businesses closed down that aren't coming back and families separated from loved ones during holidays, at hospitals to see dying loved ones or not even a funeral. heartless. nurses and doctors called heroes become goats because they don't want to take an experimental vaccine. we have jekyll and hyde ideas coming we have jekyll and hyde things going on with the government,

saying we're going to make people wear masks on plane, but end it all in may. we're going in the wrong direction so why don't we pass this legislation if the president won't do it himself and put the power back into the hands of the people here that are elected by the people, not bureaucracy. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. larsen: thank you, mr. chairman. i would note that if we're going to cite president biden's comment that the pandemic is over, well, the house also agreed with the president that there will be no cuts to social security and medicare, and will the house also agree that president biden has said the economy has turned around creating 11 million jobs and the economy is robust? if we're going to pick and choose what the president says to make any one argument let's look at the totality of the president's record in fairness to the president. with that, i want to yield two minutes to the gentleman, representative payne, from new jersey. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman is recognized. mr. payne: thank you mr. speaker, i'd like to thank mr. larsen for allowing me this time to speak. mr. chairman, i rise today in opposition to the bill before us. h.j.res. 7. i am pleased that president biden announced this week that he will end the covid-19 national emergency declaration on may 11. this will provide a reasonable path to winding down the pandemic measures without leaving states and cities caught offguard with sudden shifts in their budgets. covid was once -- was a once-in-a-lifetime emergency and an abrupt end to the spending under the emergency declaration would cause chaos for americans. the wind down aligns with the

administration's previous plans to give cities, states and businesses and taxpayers at least 60 days' notice prior to the termination of the emergency declaration. mr. chairman, this is a sensible policymaking -- this is sensible policymaking and it is a welcome change from the prior administration's frantic, poorly-considered and dangerous approach to any sort of emergency including covid. i agree with the president's plan to wind down the emergency declaration and i know my colleagues on the other side of the aisle agree with this plan as well. why? because this bill was rushed to the floor without allowing our committee to review it, without soliciting input from any of the cities or states that would be

impacted. nobody has seen, nobody has been working with the senate or the white house to find a solution that makes sense. mr. larsen: i yield the gentleman and additional minute. mr. payne: they know abrupt policy shifts are bad yet they're free to vote for a bill which they know would cause chaos. they also know it won't be considered by the senate. but i can forgive a messaging bill, we all do that from time to time. what's so galling about the bill before us today is that it shows just how far outside the mainstream the republican party is. the american people want common sense solutions that protect our economy, not a far-right agenda driven by the most extreme

voices in their party. the same voices that brought us yesterday's anti-veterans administration -- anti-vax bill. who knows what over secret promises the speaker made to the extremists to secure the gavel. so let's get the bill over with because we all know that it's going -- it's not going any anywhere. mr. larson: i yield and additional 30 seconds. mr. payne: thank. then we can get on to debating the majority's economic plans like a 30% national sales tax or holding the debt limit houghs daniel. i urge my colleagues to vote no so we can stop wasting time with these nonsense -- with this nonsense and get back to the work for the american people and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from missouri is recognized.

mr. graves: thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i yield two minutes to the gentleman from kentucky, mr. mass see. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. massie: i find -- mr. mass see: -- mr. massey: do you remember when this was invoked, the national emergencies act? march 13, 2020. after that we were told 15 days to slow the spread. how many days are we up to? does anybody over there know? it's over 1,000 days. and what has happened in that period of time? how did we get to this position? the law that congress passed that was invoked by the president, former president and extended by this president, the national emergencies act requires at least every six months you vote on whether to extend it. we did not follow the law. under the former speaker. they used the rule committees to prevent this bill from coming to a vote. and then to claim that the senate would need time to deal with this, the senate has already passed this. even the senate.

the bipartisan senate. passed 67 -- or 61-3. i expect there would have been a lot of votes here but the president came in to try to save their skin. the gig is up. the gig is up. he wants to keep the music going a little bit longer. mr. biden says that he wants to honor his commitment to give 60 days' notice before ending it because he's issued this statement of administrative policy and he only issued this when this bill came to the floor he said he's going to honor his commitment to 60 days notice. why is he taking 100 days? if anyone can do the math for me, may 11, is that 60 days from now? no, it's more like 100 days from now roughly. the notion that this is rushed to the floor is ridiculous. biden wants to keep it going. he wants to spend money under his emergency authorities which he shouldn't have right now. it's very irresponsible with the debt limit loom, with us in extraordinary measures.

the reality is he wants 100 more days to shove money out the door and waste money that hasn't been guarded very well or audited. it's been 1,000 days into 15 days to slow the spread. i support mr. gosar's bill and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from washington. mr. larsen: reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i yield one minute to the gentleman from illinois, mr. bost. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized mr. bost: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my friend from missouri for yielding to me. back in september, president biden said the pandemic is over. in earliian he extended his public health energy for covid for the 12th time. now he says the public health emergency will end may 11. the emergency has been ended, then extended, then expired, when all of us know that it

hasn't existed for months. but i guess we can say now that covid will magically disappear in may because he says so. who knows. we might even get new guidance tomorrow. i guess the americans should watch out. but the american people, regardless of what was said on the o'side of the aisle are tired of this. they want to get back to business as usual. the american people are fed up with shutdowns that killed our jobs and restricted our rights. we're going to end this madness now and we need to. that's why i'm co-sponsor of the bill and with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. larsen: thank you, mr. chairman. my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are fond of quoting the presidency, the pandemic is over. i hope they'll also agree with the president that we've had the two strongest years of job growth in history the last two years. we've had the lowest level of unemployment in 50 years.

we have a new record low unemployment for black and his tannic -- hispanic americans and record low unemployment for people with disabilities. i hope as they're picking and choose what they choose to agree with the president on they look at these facts and also come out in agreement with the president that these are also the facts. with that, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from missouri is recognized. mr. graves: thank you, mr. speaker. at this time i yield two minutes to the gentlelady from colorado, mrs. boebert. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. boebert: mr. speaker, it's been nearly three years since the first national emergency declaration was issued related to to the covid-19 pandemic on march 13, 2020. since then the federal government has authorized over $6 trillion in response to covid-19. our children have suffered severe learning loss due to school closures and countless small businesses have been forced to permanently close

their doors. the democrat party has used and abused the national emergency authorization to push their unpopular, radical agenda like the eviction moratorium, student loan forgiveness and reckless spending that has led to skyrocketing inflation that is impacting my constituents today. your constituents today. when they go to the grocery store and are paying $9, $10, $11 for 12 eggs, this is a problem. they also put unconstitutional vaccine mandates in place to put health care workers and our military service members serving in all branches of our military out of work. covid is over. yet nearly three years later, more than 35 national emergency acts are still in effect and the current administration is continuing to abuse more than 120 special statutory powers,

only meant for times of emergency. even joe biden said the pandemic is over. we agreed with that long before he said it and we're happy he's finally saying it. it is far past time to put an end to this abuse. i thank my friend and colleague, representative gosar, for hi strong leadership on this issue. i am proud to be a co-sponsor of this legislation and i strongly support it. with that, i yield back. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields. the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. larsen: i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from missouri is recognized mr. graves: i don't have any more speakers, i'm prepared to close if the gentleman is. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves. the gentleman from washington is recognized mr. larsen: mr. chairman, the administration has a plan to bring the national emergency declaration to an early end on may 11 aligning with its

commitment to at least 60 days' notice prior to termination. this gives time for a deliberate and sensible wind down of the national emergency. i ask my colleagues to oppose h.j.res. 7 and with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. the chair recognizes the gentleman from missouri. mr. graves: thank you, mr. speaker. in close, last year president biden acknowledged the president was over -- the pandemic was over. this is no compelling need for the president to continue exercises the extraordinary authorities under the n.e.a. the senate on a bipartisan basis, they agreed in november, and here in the people's house i think it's time we do the same. with that, mr. speaker, i urge support of this joint resolution and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields. pursuant to house resolution 75, the previous question is ordered on the joint resolution. the question is on the third reeding of the jointres. -- reading of the joint resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no.

the ayes have it. third reading. the clerk: a national emergency deblared the president on march 13, 2020. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on passage of the joint resolution. those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it this joint resolution -- >> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from missouri seek recognition? mr. graves: i demand the yeas and nays. the speaker pro tempore: the yeas and nays are requested. those favoring a vote by the yeas and nays will rise. a sufficient number having risen, the yeas and nays are ordered. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the house in recess subject to the call of th