I have an amendment at the desk. The Acting CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment. The text of the amendment is as follows: Strike all after the enacting clause and insert the following: SECTION 1. STUDY ON LENGTH OF PROBATIONARY…

As indicated, I appreciate the intent of my friend from Montana, but this is a bad bill. We ought to be studying the effect of the existing pilot program at the Department of Defense to see how it works, and we ought to be adopting the GAO…

Could I inquire of the Chair the schedule on the amendments. The CHAIR. After general debate is completed, the Committee will proceed to the amendments.

Did we act on evidence-based policymaking? Were there studies and data that showed how successful extending the probationary would be for all of these Federal agencies?

Did my colleague just say there was not a single hearing on a bill that affects the entire Federal Government?

I thank the Chair for that clarification. Mr. Chairman, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Raskin), who is a professor and a very able member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. {time} 1545

I have no further speakers at this time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Some senior diplomats have called dismantling the Foreign Service and... Secretary Tillerson takes great exception to that.

In 1999, along with then-Congressman, now Senator Ed Markey, I co-founded the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer's disease.

We have seen authoritarian regimes rise in Egypt and in other parts of the region and they now know that no one's going to hold them to account.

He has--well, the President has proposed a budget cut at State and USAID of 31 percent.

Ceding, frankly, Syria to Russia and letting the Russians lead the negotiations for what comes next--you're worried about Iranian influence?

Under HHS Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole's extraordinary leadership, the fiscal year 2018 omnibus appropriations bill was enacted.

I thank my good friend, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Neal) for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, you can put all the lipstick you want on this pig, and it is still a pig. Let's be honest, this isn't tax reform. This is a cut on…

I have experience both in the public sector and the private sector. If you don't set heroic goals, stretch goals, nothing happens.

11 is hardly a stretch goal. And I hope when you come back here, you're able to say, well, we said 11 and it's 110.

I will not defend the indefensible. The bill before us today calls out the indefensible.

What makes me feel better about your score is you, because I think you are committed to making this happen.

I am glad for the legislation before us.

There is an old saying that there is no Republican or Democratic way to pick up the trash or fill a pothole.

I am deeply troubled by recent Trump administration actions that undermine the health protections and coverage that millions of Americans have come to depend on through the Affordable Care Act.

The administration's actions and proposed regulations are literally making it harder for Americans to receive health coverage.

My constituents know that having health insurance saves lives.

The hard truth is that, when the United States does not act as a forceful advocate for those principles and our interests abroad, we leave a vacuum.

Democracy is built from the bottom up, not the top down.