mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, at this time it's my privilege to yield five minutes to the gentleman from maryland, our distinguished whip, mr. hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from maryland is recognized for five minutes. i see er: mr. speaker, four people in the gallery. i see three members on the floor. the galleries are empty. the floor is empty. because we are not doing anything. and it's not because we don't ave a lot of things to do. e have six, seven if you count tomorrow, where we will leave by in the x full days left session in 2013. and yet we fiddle here while the country sees itself burning. on bills that are going nowhere, that have no priority, and deal with the subject energy which happily is one of the most successful places we are at in america today. where we are fast becoming the energy independent, low-cost energy of the world. and we have no budget conference coming to this floor scheduled, in the six full days we have left, and the two other days that may be counted in w

mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i want to thank the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess, for giving me the time. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i rise in strong, strong opposition to this closed rule and to the underlying bill. in is effort number 46, by my count, to gut the affordable care act. now, before i discuss the problems with the underlying bill, let me address just so the record is clear the latest example of lousy process foisted upon this house by the republican leadership. the bill before us today would make sweeping and significant changes to the affordable care act and thus to the nation's health care system. it would profoundly affect the lives of millions of americans. up end the individual market and add confusion and uncertainty into an already complicated situation. so how many hearings did the republicans hold on this bill? zero. let me repeat that. zero. how many expert witnesses did they call? z

mr. mcgovern: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank my colleague from massachusetts. it is a real privilege to be here with my colleagues to honor barry sullivan. and when i heard about his retirement, i couldn't help but think that this is the end of an era. as my colleague mentioned, both barry and i came here under the mentorship of a great man, joe mockley, who understood what public service meant and the best tradition -- in the best tradition. and i think one of the things that i admire about barry is that he has been a public servant in the highest tradition. he has been got-to guy for everything and anything. and, you know, a lot of people don't understand who don't work here about all the people who kind of work behind the scenes, whoing work longer hours than we do, and barry is amongst that group of people. always here. early mornings, late nights, separated from his family at times when we couldn't get our act together here in the congress and he has been incredible. and so we're going to miss you, barry. for a whole bunch of reasons. and i'm going to miss

mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, what the gentleman conveniently leaves out are the hundreds of hours of hearings and markups that occur in the committees of jurisdiction on the fract -- on the affordable care act. this is not the only bill wrt committees of jurisdiction have been cut tout of the process, where members' voices have been silenced. where they are enforcing rules with an iron fist in this chamber. this unfortunately is not unique. it's a pattern. to suggest we don't have a time to offer amendments is justry particular -- is just ridiculous. we have plenty of time. we could debate this all day. both democrats and republicans to amend it given the fact that they were denied that right in the committees of jurisdiction. mr. speaker, i would like to also ask unanimous consent to enter into the record an article that appeared in the national review online entitled boehner it, colin, upton bill a step on the bath to obamacare repeal. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. mcgovern: what is g

mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, last wednesday i had the privilege of joining monty belmonty, who is a wrsi in north hampton, mass marks on a 26-mile walk to raise awareness about the issue of hunger and to raise money for the western massachusetts food bank. it was an incredible experience. my legs are sore, but it was inspiring to be part of that march. for the entire 26 miles we were joined by a diverse group of people, people like bill stapleton, who is the president of the north hampton cooperative bank, andrew moore house, the director of the western massachusetts food bank. we were joined by dan finn of pioneer valley local first, and a fell named sean barry who runs four season liquor store in hadley. and along the way various people joined us for part of the march. we met with school groups along the way. we even marched along with a group called mutton and immediate -- meade. as we marched, people would stop their cars to offer their support and offer some money. but they would also tell us storie

mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i want to thank the gentleman from texas, mr. burgess, for giving me the time. i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. mcgovern: mr. speaker, i rise in strong, strong opposition to this closed rule and to the underlying bill. in is effort number 46, by my count, to gut the affordable care act. now, before i discuss the problems with the underlying bill, let me address just so the record is clear the latest example of lousy process foisted upon this house by the republican leadership. the bill before us today would make sweeping and significant changes to the affordable care act and thus to the nation's health care system. it would profoundly affect the lives of millions of americans. up end the individual market and add confusion and uncertainty into an already complicated situation. so how many hearings did the republicans hold on this bill? zero. let me repeat that. zero. how many expert witnesses did they call? z

the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. mcgovern, for five minutes. mr. mcgovern: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. speaker, next week is thanksgiving. all of us in this chamber will go back to our districts and we will celebrate this holiday with our families, usually with a big turkey dinner with all the fixings and all these wonderful desserts. mr. speaker, for millions and millions of americans, they won't have anything to celebrate next week. they don't have enough to put food on the table for their families because close to 50 million people in the united states of america, the richest country in the history of the world, that are hungry. close to 17 million of them are kids. of mr. speaker, in the face these terrible statistics, we have a congress that is working overtime to make life for many of these people even more miserable. there has already been a cut in snap as a result of the ending of the recovery act moneys that provided an extra boost to the program. so everybody who

mcgovern. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to thank you and breaking number peterson as well as chairwoman stabenow and ranking or copper and for all your hard work and dedication. i want to thank the staff of the many hours of work they put into this effort. let me set as elegant what else you i very much want a farm bill. i look forward to working with the members of this conference to try to me to achieve ago. being from massachusetts the are many important parts of this farm bill that will impact my state, and new england. the gary conservation and especially crop provisions are especially critical but a part of the country i represent and i strongly support full and robust dairy conservation especially crop provisions in the final conference report. i'm also pleased to see both the house and senate included language to close the animal fighting spectator loophole. both bills would prohibit knowingly attending an animal fight will bring a child to an animal fight and urge my colleagues to support these provisions. i

mr. mcgovern: on that i ask for a recorded vote. the speaker pro tempore: a recorded vote is requested. those favoring a recorded vote will rise. 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 222. the nays are 196. the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid upon the table. pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the unfinished business is the question on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal on which the chair will put de novo. the question is on agreeing to the speaker's approval of the journal. so many as are in favor say aye. those opposed, no. in

the chair recognizes the gentleman from massachusetts, mr. mcgovern. >> thing too, mr. chairman. i want to thank you and the ranking member as well as chairwoman stabenow. i too want to thank the staff for the many hours of work they have put into this effort. let me set the outside, like everyone else, i very much want a farm bill. i look forward to working with the members of this conference committee to try to achieve that goal. from massachusetts, there are many important parts of this farm bill that will impact my state and new england. the dairy conservation and especially cropped versions -- revisions are critical for the part of the country i represent. i strongly support full and robust dairy conservation and specialty crop provisions in the final conference report. i'm also pleased to see that both the house and senate included language to close the animal fighting spectator loophole. both bills would prohibit knowingly attending an animal fight or bringing a child to an animal fight. i urge my colleagues to support these provisions. i would like to spend my remaining t