Date: 2013-11-21
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. sequestration is not only impacting the whole of the work of FERCs. but. in actuality. sequestration is undermining the economy of the United States of America. In my State alone. we have lost 153.000 jobs. The United States has lost 1 million jobs. It is so devastating that I offer to submit a letter for the RECORD from the Republican cardinals. dated November 18. 2013. calling upon the Budget Committee to rid us of the disastrous sequestration. It indicates that we have a severe problem in sequestration. This legislation to expedite the approval of needed gas pipelines is. again. an initiative looking for a solution. Since fiscal year 2009. FERC has completed action on 92 percent of their pipeline applications. Mr. Chairman. there is no problem. There is no backlog. The idea that sequestrations impact is overstated is not true. According to an analysis conducted by Regional Economic Models and Third Way. the damage to the economy caused by sequestration is substantial. I would also like to offer a personal story that deals with the impact farreaching. It is the fact that pediatricians today are seeing babies who are malnourished. Because of these horrible cuts and the cuts in SNAP. mothers are putting water in the formula. It may be a far reach. but because we are under these horrible caps of sequestration. it is impacting the far reaches of government. Even babies are suffering and are malnourished because of sequestration. So. if this bill passes today. my desire isif it even goes anywhere. if it finds a problem that it is trying to solvethat it should not be implemented at all. but if it is implemented. it certainly should not burden an agency that has proven to do its work timely 92 percent of the time. It should not burden that agency by insisting that it goes into implementation right away. It should not be in until we have moved forward and have gotten rid of sequestration. In conclusion. there are enormous amounts of human toll impact through social safety net and health education: 600.000 women and children thrown off WIC. 807.000 fewer hospitals for Native Americans. the national security impact of the U.S.s "lets prepare for WMD incidents." So I ask my colleagues not to support the underlying bill. but to support the Jackson Lee amendmentno action until sequestration is gone. I yield back the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman. my amendment is simple. straightforward. and practical. It simply postpones the effective date of the bill until the end of sequestration. Although I share many of the concerns of my colleagues and the administration regarding the wisdom of this legislation. my amendment does not effect any change in the bills regulatory scheme. Because of sequestration the legislation would achieve the opposite effect intended by proponents. In other words. fewer projects would be approved. not more. My amendment avoids this outcome by conditioning the effective date of this bill upon the termination of sequestration. Mr. Chairman. I am not alone in recognizing how detrimental sequestration has been to our fiscal policy and to the economy. Earlier this week. the chairman of the Appropriations Committee. joined by the 12 subcommittee chairs. wrote a letter to the budget conferees in which they call upon the budget conference to reach an agreement as soon as possible because. among other things: "the current sequester and the upcoming Second Sequester in January would result in more indiscriminate across the board reductions that could have negative consequences on critically important federal programs". The appropriators go on to state that: "The American people deserve a detailed budget blueprint that makes rational and intelligent choices on funding by their elected representatives. not by a meat ax." Rather. my amendment merely delays the date upon which the bill can be implemented until such time as the Federal Government is no longer operating under a budget dictated by the "meat ax." instead of a balanced plan of needful investment and deficit reduction. Mr. Chairman. pursuant to section 2. paragraph (4) of the bill. a permit or license for a natural gas pipeline project is "deemed" approved if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) or other federal agencies do not issue the requested permit or license within 90120 days. The likely impact of this bill if passed is to put FERC in the position of having to work faster to issue decisions with fewer experienced employees and a reduction in resources. This is because FERC. like virtually every federal agency. is operating under the onerous and draconian provisions of the disastrous sequestration which has caused so much misery and disruption across the Nation and to our economy. FERC. for example. with a budget of $306 million faces a $15 million reduction in spending authority this fiscal year according to OMB. That sum amounts to 5% of FERCs budget. So if H.R. 1900 were to become law the most likely outcome is that FERC and other agencies would be required to make decisions based on incomplete information. or information that may not be available within the stringent deadlines. and to deny applications that otherwise would have been approved. but for lack of sufficient review time. Mr. Chairman. I could not agree more with Chairman ROGERS and the subcommittee chairs. Sequestration is bad fiscal policy. It results in unwanted and unintended legislative consequences. It is bad for the economy. It is unfair to the American people. I urge support of the Jackson Lee Amendment because it will prevent the bill before us from yielding unwanted and unintended results. Hon. PAUL RYAN. Chairman. Budget Committee. House of Representatives. Washington. DC.