| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
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Pardons And Peace
00:03:32
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|
unidentified
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And there was problems and oath keepers with the riots when George Floyd was going on. | |
| So, how many of those that were released were part of those riots and previous criminal history? | ||
| Congressman Jimenez. | ||
| I part of the George Floyd riots. | ||
| Is that what she said? | ||
| I don't believe any of them were. | ||
| I really don't have the specifics on each individual. | ||
| What I do know is that President Trump campaigned said he was going to issue the pardons for the January 6th folks that were involved here in the Capitol. | ||
| And he kept his campaign promise. | ||
| Unlike Joe Biden, who said he wasn't going to pardon his son or wasn't going to pardon his family, who did just that. | ||
| And so President Trump kept his promise, and President Biden broke his promise. | ||
|
unidentified
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Tom, Percival, Virginia, Independent. | |
| Good morning. | ||
| Well, good morning. | ||
| Congratulations, Congress. | ||
|
unidentified
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You're dwelling on the fact this week that you've been sworn in. | |
| You've been sworn out, just sworn out. | ||
|
unidentified
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We're going to leave this here, but you can keep watching online at C-SPAN.org. | |
| As we take you live now to the U.S. House, the House will be in order. | ||
| The prayer will be offered by Guest Chaplain Chaplain Judy Milana, United States Navy Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremony Staff, Washington, D.C. Let us pray. | ||
|
unidentified
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Almighty God, you are the creator and sustainer of all life, the God of new beginnings. | |
| Because of this, we humbly invoke your presence among us here this afternoon inside the United States Capitol, the People's House. | ||
| Dear Lord, may those of the House of Representatives be faithful stewards of the higher purpose of their calling. | ||
| Grant them discerning hearts of wisdom as they work together in a spirit of unity to carry out the promises of our Constitution and our enduring democracy. | ||
| Most merciful God, may your grace fill the chamber of this honorable assembly. | ||
| Bring our lawmakers clarity of mind in the midst of the complexities of the issues they face. | ||
| Strengthen them, their families, their loved ones who support them. | ||
| And oh sovereign Lord, continue to hold our nation in the very hollow of your hands. | ||
| May your peace permeate and prevail in the heart, mind, and soul of the American people. | ||
| And for all of us, may we ever strive to act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with you in service to our nation and each other with utmost compassion, gratitude, and love. | ||
| And we ask these things in your most holy and precious name. | ||
| Amen. | ||
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Indiana's Medical Perspective
00:15:45
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| The chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the House the approval thereof. | ||
| Pursuant to clause one of Rule 1, the journal stands approved. | ||
| The Pledge of Allegiance will be led by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Thompson. | ||
|
unidentified
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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to you republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | |
| The chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute speeches on each side of the aisle. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, request unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize January as National Blood Donor Month. | ||
| Since its inception in 1970, National Blood Donor Month has aimed to increase blood and platelet donations during one of the most challenging times of the year for collecting products, blood products, the winter months. | ||
| In my district, the Center County Commissioners have officially proclaimed January as National Blood Donor Month in Center County, joining the nationwide effort to honor and celebrate those who selflessly roll up their sleeves to help patients in need. | ||
| Since July 2024, the Central Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross has held 101 blood drives in Center County, collecting over 3,000 units of blood. | ||
| According to the Red Cross's Center County operations, this is the highest count in the region. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, it's staggering to realize that someone in this country needs blood once every two seconds. | ||
| By the time I finish the speech, nearly 30 people will require access to a blood transfusion. | ||
| Blood donations are critical because the supply relies entirely on the generosity of donors. | ||
| It cannot be manufactured or stockpiled. | ||
| To meet patients' needs, the Red Cross must collect approximately 12,500 units of blood every single day. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone listening to visit redcrossblood.org and click on the donate blood tab to find a blood drive nearby. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for unanimous consent to dress the health for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the extraordinary life of James Sears, a truly remarkable Eastern North Carolinian. | ||
| Mr. Sears was a dedicated advocate and a steadfast supporter of communities across our region. | ||
| He served on the Gates County Board of Elections. | ||
| He was an active member of the NAACP, his home church, New Hope Baptist Church in Gatesville. | ||
| So many organizations, but one that he loved and devoted over 30 years to-the Eastern North Carolina Civic Group. | ||
| He always prioritized the needs of others. | ||
| His unwavering commitment to families across eastern North Carolina was evident in all that he did. | ||
| We are incredibly grateful for his contributions and the positive impact he's made on so many lives. | ||
| His passing has left a void in our community that will be deeply felt. | ||
| My heart goes out to his family, the Eastern Civic Group, to the Gates County community as we now remember and celebrate his legacy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House and ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Huntington County Pennsylvania Institution, which is celebrating a milestone anniversary. | ||
| This year, Shavers Creek Grange number 353 will mark the 150th anniversary of its founding with a series of events, including a fellowship event that reflects the organization's mission to embrace community members from across generations. | ||
| Defined by its enduring commitment to family values and community standards, the Shavers Creek Grange represents the organization's motto. | ||
| And that motto is, in essentials, unity, in non-essentials, liberty, and in all things, charity. | ||
| On behalf of everyone in Pennsylvania's 13th congressional district, I congratulate the Shavers Creek Grange on this sesquicentennial milestone and thank its members for their continued work to strengthen the community, to make the fabric of their ideals a part of each and everyone's life in Huntington County, Pennsylvania. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Very small instances. | ||
| President Trump's excuse last night for freeing the January 6 violent criminals, to the 140 dedicated police officers who were injured that day, to the officer who was crushed in a door and had to protect his eye from being gouged out, to the officer who was punched with a flagpole. | ||
| This was hardly Trump's day of love. | ||
| Now he has released these criminals back to their communities. | ||
| One boasted of buying guns. | ||
| Another would, quote, turn up the heat in the spirit of vengeance. | ||
| Total disrespect for law enforcement, unleashing a heightened threat to the safety of families in communities across this country. | ||
| And by freeing the leaders of the Proud Boys and the oath keepers who were convicted of seditious conspiracy, Trump seems to be following the example of the authoritarian leaders he has admired and telling them to stand back and stand by his private militias available to crush any opposition at the slightest dog whistle. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from South Carolina seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I ask the elementary consent to address the House for one minute, revised to extend my remarks. | |
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Iraq has been oppressed by kleptocrats who support Iranian terrorism. | ||
| Sadly, Iran-backed militias throughout our organization are part of the Iraqi government, including the National Security Advisor. | ||
| Badr was armed by terrorist Soleimani. | ||
| Iran-backed militias in Iraq should be designated as terrorists, as Congressman Greg Stuby and the Republican Study Committee have proposed. | ||
| There must be sanctions on kleptocrat politicians complicit with Iran, such as former Prime Minister Maliki. | ||
| Any aid to Iraq should be conditioned not going to terrorists. | ||
| Brett McGurk's policy of replacing ISIS with Iran has failed. | ||
| President Donald Trump will reinstitute policies of maximum pressure on Iran, stopping Iraq purchases of Iranian electricity as he responds to the Tehran regime to plot to assassinate him while they were shouting death to Israel, death to America. | ||
| In conclusion, God bless our troops as the global war in terrorism continues. | ||
| Open borders for dictators puts all Americans at risk of more attacks as warned by the FBI. | ||
| Trump is protecting American families. | ||
| Americans oppose rigged elections in Georgia and support the legitimate President Salome Zoris Radri of Georgia as protest bill for free and fair elections in the nation of Georgia. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields. | ||
| The gentleman from New Jersey is recognized. | ||
| For what purposes does he seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Okay, we're going to go with that. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today not just as a member of Congress, but as a physician who has treated patients for 30 years, and I want to express my strong opposition to the House Republican Reproductive Health Care Surveillance Act. | ||
| Let me make one thing clear. | ||
| Over my 30 years of practice, I have come to treat patients in the most difficult times of their lives, and I understand fully well that no one but the doctor and the patient should be in that examination room. | ||
| Like any other issue, abortion care is medical care and needs to be treated by a physician trained to deal with that very difficult situation for women. | ||
| Unfortunately, the bill we're considering today undermines medical expertise and seeks to bully physicians into not providing the care that they've been trained to provide according to the best medical science. | ||
| This bill is just another attempt to strip women of their reproductive freedom by pushing misinformation that endangers not only the lives of women, but the public health at large. | ||
| Like with any other medical issue, politicians are not equipped, generally not trained, to manage the health care of patients, but we hope they will address the important needs of public health. | ||
| Let the doctors and patients lead the way on health care and let women make the decisions that it's their right to do. | ||
| The gentleman's time is exactly the same. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Indiana seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today to honor an exceptional leader, dedicated public servant, and my dear friend, Major General Dale Lyles, Adjutant General of the Indiana National Guard. | ||
| General Lyles' journey of service began when he enlisted in the Indiana Army National Guard in 1986. | ||
| Over the years, he's demonstrated dedication and leadership in every role. | ||
| His service included key positions such as commander of the 219th Engineer Brigade and Chief of Staff for the Indiana National Guard, where he oversaw operations and strategic initiatives. | ||
| In 2019, General Lyles was appointed Adjutant General of the Indiana National Guard by our Governor, Eric Holcomb. | ||
| Since then, he's led efforts to modernize the force, ensuring Indiana's National Guard is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. | ||
| Under his leadership, the Guard has excelled in responding to national disasters, deploying overseas in defense of our freedoms, and serving our communities in times of crisis. | ||
| His unwavering commitment to the well-being of his soldiers and their families has had a lasting impact in Indiana and beyond. | ||
| As he retires from nearly 40 years of service to the United States, it's my honor to recognize Major General Dale Lyles for his outstanding service and dedication to a grateful state and nation. | ||
| On behalf of Indiana's 9th District and a grateful country, thank you, General Lyles, for your years of service, of sacrifice to America. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Arizona seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to share the story of Milagros Heredia, a dreamer who calls my district home. | ||
| Milagros was a baby when her mother carried her across the border for a better life. | ||
| At eight months old, Milagros was diagnosed with a brain tumor. | ||
| Specialists gave her a 15% chance of survival, and she defied the odds. | ||
| Now, 22, she's a student at Grand Canyon University, studying to become an oncologist. | ||
| But like many dreamers, she lives in constant fear of losing everything. | ||
| Because of executive orders proposed by President Trump and the Lake and Riley Act, Milagros and more than 20,000 DREAMers in Arizona live in fearful uncertainty. | ||
| Arizona is their home. | ||
| This country is their home. | ||
| They are American in every way that matters. | ||
| It's past time for Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers and for Democrats to stand up to Trump's un-American policies. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Nebraska seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the remarkable life of one of our greatest Nebraskans, Jack Hoffman. | ||
| For over a decade, Jack's story captured the hearts and minds of Americans and Nebraskans as he battled brain cancer. | ||
| Through it all, the Cornhuskers state cheered him on. | ||
| In 2013, Jack made national news when he ran for a 69-yard touchdown during the Husker Spring Game. | ||
| In that moment, Jack became a symbol of perseverance and hope for kids and families grappling with pediatric. | ||
| To help others facing the same battle, his family founded the Team Jack Foundation to support research on pediatric brain cancer. | ||
| When Jack passed last week, our entire state mourned his loss. | ||
| His legacy will be forever etched in the hearts of Nebraskans. | ||
| He joins his father, who also died of brain cancer, a very good friend of mine, and somebody that I know welcomed his son into heaven with open arms. | ||
| With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from North Carolina seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I seek to address the House for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Yesterday, we marked 52 years since the Supreme Court issued its landmark ruling in Roe v. Wade. | ||
| We should be celebrating 52 years of reproductive freedom. | ||
| Instead, nearly three years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we live in a very different America. | ||
| In North Carolina and across the country, women cannot access vital health care services, and doctors are being criminalized for simply doing their jobs. | ||
| We now have a president back in the White House who's bent on restricting access to women's health care even further. | ||
|
Brother Ronald's Legacy
00:04:01
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| On President Trump's first day in office, his administration even removed a federal webpage that offered important reproductive health information. | ||
| While the next four years will bring immense challenges, we cannot give up the fight for a country where women can make decisions about our own bodies and our own health care. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I rise to celebrate Lunar New Year, Sola, which is called in Korean, and Tet Festival in Vietnamese as we ring in the ear of the snake. | ||
| Snakes are mysterious, smart, alert, determined, and calm. | ||
| We enter this new year with the same calmness, wisdom, and alertness, standing ready, steady and ready to take on any challenges or opportunities that come our way. | ||
| So I wish success, good health, and blessings for you and your family in the new year. | ||
| In Congress, I will embody the calm determination of the snake as I build on my record of effectiveness and deliver results for our Southern California communities. | ||
| So let me wish everybody Happy New Year. | ||
| In Korean, Sehe Pungmany Badiseo. | ||
| In Mandarin, Xinyang Kwaila. | ||
| In Cantonese, Gongye Fa Choy. | ||
| Vietnamese, Chokmong Namoi. | ||
| Happy New Year. | ||
| With that, I yield back. | ||
| Does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Brother Ronald Gallagher, who passed away earlier this month after a distinguished life of service to La Salle in education. | ||
| Brother Ron was a son of California. | ||
| He took his final vows in 1972 and went on to earn his PhD in comparative literature. | ||
| He began teaching at the high school level before joining the faculty at St. Mary's College of California in the early 1980s. | ||
| After a successful teaching career, Brother Ron served as a college president from 2005 until 2013. | ||
| As President Emeritus, after his term as president, he oversaw academic and athletic facility improvements and was honored for his work during all of that time with the naming of the Brother Ron Gallagher Baseball Stadium at St. Mary's. | ||
| Brother Ron will be remembered for his vocation, for his sense of humor, love of sports, and passion for literature. | ||
| Please join me in recognizing Brother Ronald Gallagher for a life of unwavering commitment to service, education, his faith, and his community. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Mr. Speaker. | |
| The Birthright Citizenship Act is a necessary step to restore integrity to our immigration system. | ||
| The 14th Amendment was never intended to grant citizenship to children of individuals who enter or remain in the country illegally. | ||
|
Protecting U.S. Citizenship Rights
00:07:09
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|
unidentified
|
Its purpose of the 14th Amendment was to guarantee full rights to freed slaves, not to fuel illegal immigration or exploit U.S. citizenship through birth tourism. | |
| Today, one in 10 births in the U.S. is still an illegal immigrant mother, and nearly 400,000 of these mothers come across the border illegally every year to give birth. | ||
| The drafters of the 14th Amendment couldn't have imagined that that's how it would be twisted to make that somehow legal. | ||
| The loophole also fuels a global birth tourism industry, further undermining the integrity of our laws. | ||
| Citizenship is one of America's most precious privileges. | ||
| By closing these loopholes, this legislation prioritizes the rule of law and the interests of American citizens. | ||
| It's about fairness, not denying opportunity, but ensuring our laws are respected and applied consistently. | ||
| Let's take this vital step to protect the value of U.S. citizenship. | ||
| Citizenship. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Florida seek recognition? | ||
| Pass the limit and revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Okay, Mr. Speaker, we really need to. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise to honor Mary Barley of Islam, Florida, to celebrate her much-deserved induction into the Everglades Hall of Fame. | ||
| Mary and her late husband, George, brought unmatched passion and commitment for decades to saving America's Everglades. | ||
| For instance, this award-winning advocate was pivotal in helping pass the bipartisan comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in 2000. | ||
| This landmark legislation authorized the world's largest ecosystem restoration effort, one that continues to guide our renewal efforts today. | ||
| Mary is also a founding director of the Everglades Foundation, the leading scientific advocacy and educational group working to restore this ecological treasure. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, Mary Barley has been more than a leading bipartisan force in the historic quest to save the River of Grass. | ||
| She's been a mentor, friend, and role model to generations of young environmentalists who were fortunate to learn from her passion and devotion to this cherished ecosystem. | ||
| We are so fortunate to have a persuasive advocate to preserve and protect this unique and magnificent ecosystem. | ||
| Mary's induction into the Everglades Coalition Hall of Fame is timely and well-deserved. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from New York seek recognition? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I have a question. | |
| I ask the consent to address the House for one minute to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today on behalf of everyone on Long Island to welcome Romy, Emily, and Doran home after more than 470 days in Hamas captivity. | ||
| We will not rest until every hostage comes home. | ||
| I want to thank the previous administration and President Trump for working together to get this deal across the finish line. | ||
| We will never forget October 7th, the single deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. | ||
| 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists, including Omer Nutra of Long Island. | ||
| The terrorist attacks of October 7th must never happen again. | ||
| We must always stand with our ally, Israel. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentlewoman from Texas seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to address the House for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. | ||
| Without objection, the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I rise today in opposition to the Republicans Reproductive Health Surveillance Care Act. | ||
| I'm from Texas, and the last thing any Texan wants is the government telling doctors or women what they can or cannot do with their bodies. | ||
| And that's exactly what this bill does. | ||
| I was there in Texas in the state legislature when Texas Republicans wanted to pass this same bill. | ||
| They wanted to use big government to reach into doctors' offices and make personal health care decisions on behalf of women in my state. | ||
| These are complex medical issues, and no politician should be interfering in the lives of women and their families. | ||
| Doctors have medical training. | ||
| Politicians don't. | ||
| We must protect the doctor-patient relationship. | ||
| Simply put, Republicans should not have a seat at the table in your doctor's office. | ||
| And it amazes me that my colleagues in the so-called party of small government continue to put forth bills that seek to control women, families, and doctors. | ||
| I will always make sure women and families have the tools they need to make their own health care-related decisions. | ||
| This misguided bill endangers the lives of women, and I urge my colleagues to oppose it. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from Arkansas seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H.R. 471. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| I'm due to House Resolution 53 and Rule 18. | ||
| The Chair declares the House in the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union for consideration of H.R. 471. | ||
| the chair appoints the gentleman from Alabama, Mr. Strong, to preside over the committee of the whole. | ||
| The house is in committee as a whole. | ||
| House on the state of the union for consideration HR 471, which the clerk will report by title. | ||
| A bill to expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and improve forest management activities on National Forest System lands, on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and on tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown fire-prone forested lands and for other purposes. | ||
| Pursuant to the rule, the bill is considered read the first time. | ||
|
16 Recommendations for Fire Safety
00:15:37
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| General debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and the ranking minority member of the committee on natural resources and their respective designees. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Westerman, and the gentleman from California, Mr. Huffman, each will control 30 minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Westerman. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I rise in strong support of H.R. 471, the Fix Our Forest Act, a bipartisan bill I am leading with my good friend from California, Representative Peters, along with 16 other Democrats and 37 additional Republican co-sponsors. | ||
| Our prayers are with the people of California as they are enduring horrendous wildfires and experiencing loss of life and property. | ||
| We have a unique opportunity today to put feet to those prayers and prevent those tragedies from happening again in the future. | ||
| There are two reasons why we can't afford to wait any longer to reform forest management policies in this country. | ||
| Number one, the stakes are too high. | ||
| And number two, what we're doing is not working. | ||
| First, let's talk about the stakes. | ||
| The Los Angeles wildfires have caused unimaginable damage and will likely become the costliest in American history, with early estimates suggesting upwards of $250 billion in damages. | ||
| More than 16,000 structures, homes, schools, grocery stores, entire neighborhoods and communities have burned. | ||
| And sadly, at least 28 people have tragically lost their lives. | ||
| But we know, and we all know, that such figures can only tell part of the story. | ||
| No price tag can be placed on the loss of a beloved family member or friend. | ||
| No property valuation can register the pain a family feels after losing a home where cherished memories were made. | ||
| No bookkeeping accounts for the lost dreams of a small business owner whose life work has gone up in smoke. | ||
| These are the true costs, the human cost of catastrophic wildfire. | ||
| Losing 16,000 structures is nearly unfathomable. | ||
| Local officials reported that it looked like a bomb was dropped on these communities after the smoke had cleared. | ||
| But what's truly startling is that there are 44 million homes in the wildland urban interface nationwide, more than 70,000 communities just like Pacific Palisades, at risk of being wiped out by catastrophic fire. | ||
| This brings to my second point. | ||
| What we've been doing is not working. | ||
| This bill passed the House last September with a strong bipartisan vote. | ||
| Unfortunately, the Senate failed to move it. | ||
| In the interim, more than 1.5 million more acres burned across the country. | ||
| The Fix Our Forest Act offers a broad set of common sense solutions that must be enacted. | ||
| This legislation creates a needed framework for prioritizing treatments in our highest risk areas. | ||
| To identify these areas, FOFA utilizes state-of-the-art technology to determine the most vulnerable firesheds across the country. | ||
| Then it incentivizes the use of emergency actions to prevent wildfires. | ||
| Many of these actions, like clearing brush and creating fuel breaks, are exactly what local authorities hastily undertook as they scrambled to save threatened neighborhoods in Los Angeles. | ||
| The key difference, however, is that this bill ensures that such measures take place well before the fires start, not in the heat of an approaching blaze. | ||
| Without these tools, completing a single forest management project takes an average of three to five years. | ||
| Under FOFA, land managers can act immediately to protect communities. | ||
| FOFA also expands existing categorical exclusions up to 10,000 acres so that prevention measures can meet the scale of the crisis. | ||
| Under the status quo, if land managers want to reduce hazardous fuels in an area roughly the size of the Palisades fire, they would need eight separate categorical exclusions. | ||
| Under FOFA, they would only need two. | ||
| This change is based on proven results like the 10,000-acre CE in the Tahoe Basin. | ||
| That was a bipartisan effort by Representative McClintock and the late Senator Diane Feinstein. | ||
| These efforts saved South Lake Tahoe from certain destruction during the Caldor fire. | ||
| FOFA also protects communities by creating a community wildfire risk reduction program and clearing hazardous trees from utility rights-of-way to prevent fires like the ones that destroyed Lahana in Maui and Paradise in California. | ||
| FOFA supports wildland firefighters by creating a new casualty assistance program for firefighters killed or injured in the line of duty, ensuring they have access to the latest technology so they can detect and put out fires faster and standardizing repayment timelines with local fire departments so non-federal partners aren't waiting years to get the money they are owed. | ||
| I've only briefly described some of the important bipartisan pieces in FOFA, but it involves much more to make forests more resilient, healthier, and safer from sea to shining sea. | ||
| All these tools available in this bill echo a similar theme. | ||
| We must restore common sense to our approach to forest management. | ||
| This comprehensive package is the result of years of hard work and bipartisan collaboration formulated through hearings, site visits, and member feedback. | ||
| Fixing our forest should not be a partisan issue, and today it's not. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support this bill and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in opposition of H.R. 471, the Fix Our Forest Act, sponsored by Chairman Westerman. | ||
| And while this bill is flawed, and we'll be discussing those flaws here in a moment, I do appreciate that Chair Westerman and Representative Peters did come together and work on this issue in a bipartisan way that acknowledges our wildfire crisis. | ||
| That is a good thing. | ||
| Addressing that should be a bipartisan priority. | ||
| And the Fix Our Forest Act includes some, some helpful provisions. | ||
| For starters, it has incorporated a number of key Democratic priorities that are in direct alignment with the recommendations of the Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. | ||
| That's what's referenced in this poster here behind me. | ||
| 148 nonpartisan consensus recommendations for making us safer from the threat of wildfire. | ||
| And if this bill simply moved those consensus recommendations forward and also did something that the Commission told us we had to do, critical priority, fund them and make sure that the agencies responsible for overseeing these projects have staffing. | ||
| If this bill were simply doing that, we wouldn't be here today because this bill would already be law and many of these good things would already be keeping communities safer. | ||
| But as you'll hear in a moment, this bill goes off on some tangents that have nothing to do with fire safety and also with respect to the good provisions it does include, fails to fund them. | ||
| That's why we're here. | ||
| That's why the path of this bill has been more complicated and that is unfortunately a missed opportunity. | ||
| We were able in this bill to include reauthorization of the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program and the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership sponsored by our newly re-elected Federal Lands Subcommittee, Ranking Member Joe Nagoos. | ||
| The latest version of the bill also includes a revamped version of the Fire Shed Center, which aligns with several of the Commission's consensus recommendations aimed at enhancing coordination, using predictive services, and unifying decision-making capabilities. | ||
| I am glad that this bill has evolved to include these priorities my Democratic colleagues have championed. | ||
| In fact, we have Democratic bills that do all of these good things and more because fire safety is a huge concern for all of us. | ||
| But our Democratic bills do not pair these good provisions unnecessarily with harmful environmental rollbacks and that unfortunately is what the bill before us does do. | ||
| Now if you scratch beneath the surface of H.R. 471 you start seeing problems starting with the fact that the beneficial provisions are totally unfunded. | ||
| There's simply no money, no resources to help any of the good things actually happen. | ||
| And there are also several poison pills that have the potential to undermine science-based management and public engagement. | ||
| On top of doing nothing to address the key driver of catastrophic wildfires, climate change, the so-called Fix Our Forest Act inappropriately co-opts emergency authorities under the National Environmental Policy Act, undercuts the Endangered Species Act, and even makes it more difficult for communities to engage and scrutinize or even know about projects that could directly impact them. | ||
| Wildfire is deadly serious. | ||
| In a matter of minutes, iconic landscapes, entire neighborhoods can be reduced to ashes. | ||
| I know because it's happened all too often in my district. | ||
| It's not something politicians should use as a pretext to jam through unrelated industry favors or special interest agendas that undermine our foundational environmental protections. | ||
| So let me be clear. | ||
| House Democrats agree that we need to increase the pace and scale of restoration in our national forests and on public and private land. | ||
| That's why we worked to secure robust funding in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. | ||
| This enabled the Biden-Harris administration to develop the wildfire crisis strategy and other key restoration activities. | ||
| And thanks to the funding we provided, the Forest Service has been able to achieve record numbers for both hazardous fuels reduction and prescribed burning. | ||
| They have even identified Southern California as a priority landscape through this work. | ||
| The only thing holding them back from doing even more beneficial work on the ground is lack of money. | ||
| However, as we're seeing with the Los Angeles fires, addressing the wildfire crisis is not all about work in the woods. | ||
| Southern California is dominated by chaparral, where things like timber sales and clear-cutting simply do not provide a fire safety solution for these communities. | ||
| My Republican friends seem to think that logging is a panacea for fire safety, and in fact, it will do little or nothing to reduce wildfire risk in many of the most vulnerable communities. | ||
| The fuel in the Los Angeles fires was not trees, the fuel was homes, schools, businesses. | ||
| We will learn many lessons from this tragedy, but one that I hope we can take away right now is that we can't keep taking a siloed, myopic approach to wildfire management and prevention. | ||
| Built environments like Los Angeles must be a priority, and we shouldn't have to fight lies and disinformation as our brave federal firefighters who are already underpaid are out there still fighting fires. | ||
| I'd like to set the record straight on some of the misinformation and disinformation swirling around this debate. | ||
| While Los Angeles has some of the strongest building codes and fire safety requirements in the nation, there are still thousands and thousands of homes that require retrofitting to ensure that they're adequately protected. | ||
| Now, clearly, we've got a lot more work to do, and this bill misses the mark by failing to advance that work. | ||
| Keeping homes and property resilient also requires constant upkeep and maintenance. | ||
| Our communities need guidance, and again, more than anything else, they need resources to ensure that this happens. | ||
| While Fix Our Forests includes a community wildfire risk program, which is a good thing, it's not enough. | ||
| We need to pass the Wildfire Protection and Community Resilience Act that I introduced earlier this week with my Republican colleague, Congressman Obernulte, which provides actual resources to help local communities defend themselves from the growing danger of wildfires. | ||
| Our bill would empower communities to implement science-based methods for mitigating wildfire damage and we provide funding to design and implement new community protection and wildfire resilience plans with community members, first responders, and relevant state agencies. | ||
| It would designate a targeted specific grant program for home hardening within FEMA and add-home hardening as an allowable project under an existing Forest Service program. | ||
| The bill provides actual support with an adequate focus on the built environment, and that's why I filed it as an amendment to this bill. | ||
| But unfortunately, the majority decided to move forward on this bill without allowing a vote on that and many other amendments. | ||
| I had been hopeful that the amendment process would be an opportunity to address some of the critical gaps in this bill, especially the absence of a pay raise for our federal wildland firefighters, but that too has been left out. | ||
| What happened in Los Angeles this month is a national tragedy. | ||
| And in moments like this, we should overcome all politics and find ways to work together on solutions that actually help the people we're here to serve. | ||
| And with that in mind, I want to discourage any of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle who might want to embrace this wrong-headed idea that relief and support for Los Angeles can somehow be a bargaining chip or used as leverage to advance other policy goals. | ||
| You're not going to turn California into a red state by hijacking critically needed disaster relief. | ||
| And in fact, a thought like that never would have crossed our minds when we had the back of the people in Florida and North Carolina and Louisiana and when we have simply been fellow Americans helping each other in the face of these terrible tragedies. | ||
| That's the way it's always worked in this Congress and I hope we're not going to set a terrible new precedent now. | ||
| I will be recommending a no vote on this bill today. | ||
| I hope that we can continue to work together, however, to improve this bill and to address all of the critical issues that have been left out. | ||
| I also hope when it comes to the broader critical need for federal disaster relief, we can remember that we're all fellow Americans and we need to have each other's back in these moments. | ||
| And with that, I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, if throwing money at a problem would fix it, we wouldn't be having fires today. | ||
| Over the past few years, our federal land managers have been showered with $12 billion to battle wildland fire and to make our forests more resilient. | ||
|
Fix Our Forest Act
00:15:36
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| The result of that is the Forest Service estimates you're going to treat less acreage than they've treated before. | ||
| It's not a money problem, it's a policy problem, and Fix Our Forest will help solve that problem. | ||
| I yield three and a half minutes to the gentleman from California, Mr. McClintock. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Over the last 10 years, we've lost fully one quarter of our federal forests to catastrophic fire. | ||
| An untended forest is no different than an untended garden. | ||
| It will grow until it chokes itself to death, and then it will succumb to disease, pestilence, drought, and ultimately catastrophic fire. | ||
| This is how nature gardens. | ||
| She doesn't care that it takes a century or more for a forest to regrow. | ||
| We mortals do. | ||
| Excess timber will come out of the forest in only two ways. | ||
| Either we will carry it out or nature will burn it out. | ||
| That's why we created the Forest Service to do our own gardening and remove excess timber before it can choke off the forest. | ||
| Every year, foresters would mark off surplus timber and we'd auction it off to logging companies who paid us to remove it. | ||
| For a century, we enjoyed healthy, fire-resistant, and resilient forests. | ||
| But then we passed bureaucratic laws that have made the active management of our forests all but impossible. | ||
| A simple forest management plan now takes an average of 5.3 years to complete, and it costs millions of dollars, more than the value of the timber to be harvested. | ||
| Since these laws were passed, timber harvested from the federal lands in California has fallen 75 percent, with a concomitant increase in acreage destroyed by fire. | ||
| My friend Mr. Huffman is concerned about climate change and carbon dioxide. | ||
| He should know that a UCLA study revealed that just the 2020 fires in California alone released twice as much carbon dioxide as had been prevented by 17 years of the restrictions and regulations that California has imposed, costing its consumers and taxpayers billions of dollars. | ||
| Now, we were able to get a categorical exclusion from NEPA for forest thinning projects in the Tahoe Basin in 2016. | ||
| In the nine years since its enactment, it's reduced the approval process for forest thinning projects at Tahoe from five years to less than four months. | ||
| It's reduced the environmental reports from more than 800 pages down to a few dozen. | ||
| Timber harvested has increased from roughly a million board feet a year to 9 million board feet a year. | ||
| The treated acreage has tripled, and the Tahoe forests are returning to fire resiliency. | ||
| This is what saved the city of South Lake Tahoe from the Caldor fire two years ago. | ||
| Now the town of Grizzly Flats, which was not protected by this law, was wiped out by the same fire. | ||
| I've been trying for years to expand these proven reforms to the rest of the national forest system through the Proven Forest Management Act. | ||
| That measure is now included in this legislation, and its enactment is long overdue. | ||
| This should not be a partisan issue. | ||
| The choice is between policies that have proven to work and policies that have proven to fail. | ||
| Let us return to the policies that work before we run out of forests to burn down. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Reserve. | ||
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| It's always refreshing to hear my colleagues across the aisle who typically deny climate science forcefully suddenly get interested in things like CO2 emissions, and they have discovered correctly that forest fires actually cause CO2 to go into the atmosphere. | ||
| So I guess that's progress. | ||
| I hope now they will begin to listen to the overwhelming majority of climate scientists who are saying that this fossil fuel energy bonanza of theirs is actually the primary driver of catastrophic climate change. | ||
| It's the reason we have record-breaking disaster one after another because of this fossil fuel bonanza. | ||
| And I hope that we can build on the progress, this awakening that we've begun to hear on at least some climate science. | ||
| Now, it was mentioned by the chairman, I believe erroneously, that forest treatments have gone down since the passage of the legislation that I mentioned two Congresses ago. | ||
| In fact, we need to do a little bit of correcting there. | ||
| Since the passage of these two laws, the Forest Service has been treating a record number of acres, including a record number of prescribed fires in California and across the country. | ||
| We also know that from 2002 to 2023, the Forest Service consistently increased the acres that it treated. | ||
| But let's pick up where the Trump administration left off. | ||
| 2.65 million acres treated in 2020, and we know that the Biden administration was able to treat 4.3 million acres, a lot more than the Trump administration in 2023. | ||
| The numbers admittedly leveled off over the last two years because of Republican budget cuts, but they've still topped 4 million acres a year, and so it's a very different trajectory than what has been suggested. | ||
| With that, I would like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from Virginia, Mr. Beyer. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Fix Our Forests Act, and I rise to fight what could be the first successful attempt to undermine the Endangered Species Act. | ||
| I believe that the California people deserve our urgent support to recover and rebuild from the tragic wildfires, and I'm disappointed that this was not a productive discussion, bipartisan discussion, to help address what they need. | ||
| There are many excellent pieces of legislation that we should be looking at for that support, including many that are bipartisan, like the Modernization Wildfire and Safety and Prevention Act. | ||
| Those bills provide much-needed funding, deliver desperately needed support to firefighters, and address the needs of frontline communities. | ||
| This bill does not. | ||
| Instead, it regurgitates long-held longing industry priorities to reshape environmental laws on forest service land and allow profit, not science, to dictate forest management decisions. | ||
| As a co-chair of the Endangered Species Caucus, I am particularly troubled by this bill's rollback of the Endangered Species Act enforcement by overturning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Cottonwood decision. | ||
| This decision basically says that when new science is emerged or develops on endangered species, it must be considered in Endangered Species Act protections. | ||
| By the way, the science goes both ways. | ||
| It can both identify new dangers, but it can also identify successes and reduce stresses to threatened species. | ||
| The industry has long tried to include this so-called cottonwood fix in several pieces of must-pass legislation, most recently in the Farm Bill. | ||
| And they now see in the response to the California wild wires their newest opportunity to undermine cottonwood. | ||
| This industry wish list item would exempt federal land management agencies from reconsultation under the Endangered Species Act. | ||
| That process ensures that federal agencies' land management plans incorporate the best available science as it becomes available. | ||
| It is absolutely essential, but this is also a rare occurrence. | ||
| It doesn't happen very often. | ||
| When it does, it's important to consider it. | ||
| As any student of history of science knows, our shared knowledge is continuously evolving through new inquiry and discovery. | ||
| If we didn't incorporate new knowledge, we'd still be stuck with the geocentric model of the galaxy, placing the Earth at the center of the universe. | ||
| Or think about the modern medical system. | ||
| The modern medical communities built off 19th-century germ theory, which has saved hundreds of millions of lives. | ||
| Incorporating new scientific knowledge is the bedrock of our modern society. | ||
| It makes no sense when new science emerges to close our eyes, put our hands over the ears, and deny what the best science tells us. | ||
| And this anti-science ESA poison bill is dropped in, unconnected to wildlife management. | ||
| Yes, we need good faith forest management efforts to prevent wildfires, but not environmental rollbacks that allow for logging and other ecologically damaging activities that would worsen, not reduce, the risk of destructive wildfires. | ||
| We need to take real action to mitigate the risks and effects. | ||
| And I'm ready to work with all my colleagues to make that happen. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield two minutes to the gentleman from California, Mr. Lamalfa. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you to the gentleman from Arkansas for his hard work for a long time on this work in creating a bipartisan bill that's intended to succeed. | |
| The area I represent in far northern California is one that has seen so much fire and so much destruction over the years. | ||
| The Fix Our Forest Act is an important step, a meaningful step, in having this not occur anymore. | ||
| And so I'm really pleased that the effort can be bipartisan and Chairman Westerman is able to advance this cause. | ||
| Indeed, this is what one of my cities looked like, Paradise, California. | ||
| It's already been six years. | ||
| 85 lives lost. | ||
| Three other towns affected in my district. | ||
| Two of them almost completely gone, Greenville Canyon Dam. | ||
| A third one called Doyle burnt right through that as well. | ||
| We're getting tired of this. | ||
| We're getting really tired of it. | ||
| Now, with the tragedy in Southern California, I guess that puts an underline since it's getting a lot more national press. | ||
| Unfortunate. | ||
| What I appreciate in this bill is its common sense will help these disasters and keep our power grid more reliable with legislation to have more clearing around the power lines, a bill that I was able to pass a while back that we're adding to in this bill. | ||
| Also, I'm pleased to have a provision in here that advances more grazing. | ||
| Of course, grazing is a very cost-effective way of keeping the fuels down around fire zones, and you can get actually paid for it by those doing the grazing. | ||
| So, when you see what success looks like, this is a managed forest here. | ||
| It's thinned out and it has a much better opportunity to put fire out and stop fire, or at least have it burn through slowly and much more cooler. | ||
| When you don't manage the land, such as so much U.S. Forest Service land looks this way, this is a tender box. | ||
| It will burn completely down. | ||
| You may not see any growth for 50 years after that. | ||
| So, let's go with success. | ||
| What Mr. McClintock was talking about in the Tahoe area and even in a small town near Paradise called Megalia, where a private concern had done some of the work, and half of Megalia did not burn because of the work that was done adjacent to it. | ||
| We know these processes work. | ||
| Why can't we advance this? | ||
| Why do we have this opportunity to have the destruction of the environment, waterways, everything? | ||
| Let's advance this bill. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Our reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The picture my friend from Northern California just showed is instructive because both the left and the right side of that picture are areas that were clear-cut. | ||
| You can tell that because all the trees are exactly the same height. | ||
| It's what we call a plantation forest. | ||
| It's unhealthy. | ||
| It is absolutely vulnerable to wildfire. | ||
| I'm glad that they did some thinning on the left side of that picture. | ||
| But the unhealthy forest on the right side is also a vestige of clear-cutting, which does not make anyone safer. | ||
| It actually makes communities a lot more vulnerable to wildfire. | ||
| And it's exactly the kind of project that would go through the huge loophole created in this legislation. | ||
| More clear-cutting is not going to make us any safer from the wildfire risk. | ||
| And with that, I would like to yield two minutes to my friend from Southern California, from San Diego, Scott Peters. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| I thank the gentleman for yielding. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, the wildfire crisis is not just the product of inaction, but decades of wrong-headed land management that let our forests, our wildlands, and our hills turn into tinderboxes. | ||
| We have suppressed all natural fire all the time, and we've let invasive, fire-prone vegetation grow unabated. | ||
| The work of clearing dead trees and dry vegetation that fuel fires requires long environmental reviews, often followed by years of litigation. | ||
| And while we wait for analysis, forests burn down, habitats are lost, air pollution worsens, and our communities are threatened by catastrophic fire. | ||
| And the wildfire crisis is also climate change. | ||
| California wildfires in 2020 contributed more greenhouse gases than the state's entire power sector. | ||
| And as was said before, the fires in that one year undid the state's entire progress on emissions reduction from 2003 to 2019. | ||
| Our Fix Our Forests Act will simplify and expedite the most critical forest management projects while maintaining strong environmental standards. | ||
| It will reduce the threat of litigation and add new ways for communities to provide input early, something that does not exist today, and it's one of the reasons why the National Congress of American Indians supports this bill. | ||
| The tribes support this bill. | ||
| This bill will also protect communities on the front lines of wildfire crises like Los Angeles and my hometown San Diego. | ||
| It helps localities craft modern, fire-resistant building codes and promotes public-private partnerships to clear inflammable materials where nature meets our homes. | ||
| We crafted this bill with input from groups like the Nature Conservancy and the Environmental Defense Fund and others who have their priorities reflected in the text. | ||
| And while we don't have the firefighting pay increase which we need and we must get, the Grassland Firefighters and Western Fire Chiefs support this bill as is because they know it will help relieve the strain on their already stretched thin resources. | ||
| There's more we need to do and along with Chairman Westerman, we support providing aid for all those hurting in Los Angeles without conditions. | ||
| No legislation is perfect, but this is a good bill that takes on a problem that's serious throughout the West and the entire country. | ||
| For once, we're not just making speeches. | ||
| We are passing a bill that can become law and solve problems, and we don't have more time. | ||
| I implore my colleagues to join me in this bill and bring some relief to constituents scared that their towns will be next. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, as a forester, I can tell you that the only clear cuts that are happening on federal lands right now are wildfires. | ||
| That is nature's way of clear-cutting. | ||
| So when we see these devastating wildfires that burn everything off of the landscape, that is a clear cut. | ||
| What Mr. Lamalfa was talking about was uneven-age forest management and thinning, which we know works. | ||
| With that, I yield two minutes to the gentleman from Oregon, Mr. Bence. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
|
unidentified
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Thank you, Chair Westerman, and thank you for your tireless efforts as an engineer and as a forester to help save our forests. | |
|
Fix Our Forests Act
00:15:37
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unidentified
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I'm from Oregon. | |
| My state has some 15 million acres of federal forest. | ||
| H.R. 471 addresses many issues, but the fix of the infamous cottonwood decision applicable to all 15 million of those federal acres is one of the most important. | ||
| Section 122 of this bill clearly states that no additional consultation under Section 7A2 of the ESA will be required under certain circumstances set forth in the bill. | ||
| This part of H.R. 471 is one of the key provisions that constitutes the long-awaited fix for the 2015 Cottonwood Decision. | ||
| This reform limits unnecessary litigation, enabling forest management projects to proceed without undue delay and ensures that critical restoration and fire prevention efforts can actually occur. | ||
| With this legislation, the Forest Service NBLM will no longer have to delay dozens of wildfire prevention projects anytime a new species is listed, critical habitat designated, or other information brought forward. | ||
| This legislation fixed this wrongfully decided case. | ||
| I'm in full support of this bill. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Westerman. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Our reserve. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I yield one minute to the gentleman from Central California, Mr. Panetta. | ||
| Gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, thank you. | ||
| In the past few weeks, in the past few years, communities all across America have witnessed devastation, destruction, and death from wildfires. | ||
| Much of this calamity and crisis is due to the many communities being in high-risk areas known as the wildland-urban interface. | ||
| Not just in Los Angeles or California, but throughout the entire United States, over 99 million people live in these danger zones. | ||
| In my Central California district, numerous towns are located right next to National Forests. | ||
| Now, don't get me wrong, it's nice to have National Forests as your backyard, but national forests have been neglected and mismanaged, and the risk of wildfires is much worse due to extreme weather and climate change. | ||
| Some say that we shouldn't do anything and just let forests manage themselves. | ||
| Unfortunately, we all bear witness to what can happen when we do nothing. | ||
| Fortunately, the Fix Our Forests Acts would do something by restoring the health to forests, bolstering the resiliency, and yes, reducing the threat of wildfires. | ||
| As wildfire seasons have turned to wildfire years, we must be proactive when it comes to our forests. | ||
| That's why, rather than just suppress fires, the Fix Our Forests Act would prevent fires, and that's how we protect our communities. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
|
unidentified
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I yield back. | |
| Thanks. | ||
| That was right on the mind. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, General from Arkansas, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield one and a half minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Stauber. | ||
| The gentleman from Minnesota is recognized for one and a half minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 471, the Fix Our Forests Act, which I am proud to co-sponsor. | ||
| As you can see, it will pass with bipartisan support. | ||
| Over recent weeks, Americans have seen the devastating consequences of poor forest management in Southern California. | ||
| Unfortunately, for those of us who hail from rural America, this risk isn't out of the blue for us. | ||
| It's a risk we face far too often, and that's largely because we are not doing enough to prevent it. | ||
| But our hands are regularly tied because of the mess of bureaucracy and red tape that's preventing us from acting. | ||
| You know what doesn't require a NEPA analysis or doesn't face a threat of years of litigation, Mr. Speaker? | ||
| It's a wildfire. | ||
| Until we fix our broken regulatory system that is putting American lives and our pristine and national environment at risk, we're going to continue to lose this battle. | ||
| The good, bipartisan legislation that will pass before us today will help address this by bringing some sanity back to our forest management practices. | ||
| I urge all my colleagues to join me in supporting this good legislation, and I yield back. | ||
| Our reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I yield one minute to the gentleman from the San Joaquin Valley, Mr. Costa. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
| I thank the Ranking Member and the Chair for this effort on the legislation. | ||
| Over the last two weeks, we've seen the devastation that the Los Angeles fires have caused. | ||
| The lives, the housing, and the commercial structures that have been lost that, in some cases, will never be replaced. | ||
| More than 40,000 acres are burned, the equivalent to over half the District of Columbia here in Washington. | ||
| Lives are at stake, and that's why we need to pass the Fix Our Forests Acts. | ||
| We know that climate change is having its effect. | ||
| This bill will better help us maintain our forests by prioritizing the treatment of hazardous fuels and fire-prone areas and expanding wildfire resilience. | ||
| But we also need to recognize that fire management requires different strategies for different geographies. | ||
| I'm also pleased that my bill, the Headwaters Protection Act, is a part of this package. | ||
| The bill will strengthen public and private partnerships in forestry and watershed management. | ||
| And yes, we will have to find bipartisan additional funding sources. | ||
| Our nation's forests are critically overgrown. | ||
| We need to have better management. | ||
| That's clear. | ||
| The common sense changes are necessary to prevent wildfires for generations to come. | ||
| But let's be clear, much more needs to be done. | ||
| We salute the brave firefighters, firefighters, and first responders who are acting today on a 24-7 basis. | ||
| I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserve, General from Arkansas, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield one minute to the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Crank. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership on this important wildlife prevention bill. | ||
| We need these provisions in FOFA to protect our communities and maintain the health of our forests. | ||
| My own community has seen its share of wildfires. | ||
| The Heyman fire in 2002 burned 138,000 acres in Pike National Forest and killed five firefighters. | ||
| Colorado Springs lies west of Pike National Forest, which contains over a million acres of forest. | ||
| I was evacuated from my own home several years back from a forest fire. | ||
| Portions of the Pike National Forest are included in the wildfire crisis landscape, and four of the five largest fires in recorded Colorado history have occurred there. | ||
| This is a real threat in my backyard, but the pace we're doing fire management is unacceptable, and it has deadly consequences. | ||
| The scale and severity of wildfires can be managed and contained, and this bill gives us the tools to do that, but we have to be proactive. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote in support of this critical bill, and I yield back. | ||
| Our reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I yield four minutes to the gentlelady from New Mexico. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in respectful opposition to H.R. 471 and to also express my concern and my condolences to all who are suffering in California by the devastating wildfires. | ||
| Like California, communities in New Mexico that were similarly devastated by a wildfire last summer are still picking up the pieces today. | ||
| It's very clear that our climate is in crisis, and I rise in opposition to this bill because of the dangerous precedent that this legislation sets for climate and environmental policy as we face a new administration. | ||
| There is so much that I like about this bill, but I am extremely concerned about provisions in the bill that undermine NEPA, the Endangered Species Act, judicial remedies that are available to communities and to the environmental community, and that it tries to micromanage instead of putting in place comprehensive solutions to address the climate crisis and forestry practices. | ||
| Now, I greatly respect the chair for his forestry expertise, and as I said, there is much in this bill that I like. | ||
| But I am highly concerned, especially about the undermining of NEPA and these other environmental bedrock provisions, especially in the wake two days after Donald Trump has taken office and signed a slew of executive orders undermining the fundamental environmental, climate, and clean energy legislation that we've put in place over the last several years. | ||
| In these executive orders, he took us out of the Paris Climate Agreement. | ||
| He opened public lands and offshore for drilling. | ||
| He stopped progress on clean energy projects, revoked spending for the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure bill, and is clearly trying to undermine the bedrock environmental provisions of NEPA with an executive order that would stop the modernization of that bill. | ||
| It is in this context that passing new legislation that would give the opportunity for the administration to exploit loopholes in NEPA as well as the Endangered Species Act and judicial processes is untenable. | ||
| It is not true that our country is facing an energy emergency as was declared by the President. | ||
| It is, in fact, facing a climate crisis. | ||
| 2024 was the hottest year in human history. | ||
| The wildfires in California and New Mexico were not started by bureaucracy. | ||
| They were the result of the climate crisis. | ||
| We must be clear that if we are going to address the catastrophic and increasing wildfires that are happening across the West, we have to stay the course in our commitment to addressing the climate crisis. | ||
| We can't stand here and pretend that this bill is actually the result of the deadly wildfires in California. | ||
| In fact, it's a bill that's been presented several Congresses, and many of the provisions in it have nothing to do with these wildfires whatsoever. | ||
| So I say to my friends across the aisle, please join us in actually putting forward comprehensive solutions that will address the climate crisis, that will increase pay for firefighters and their benefits, that will address the resilience needs of our communities and help them rebuild. | ||
| And it is with that that I respectfully ask my colleagues to vote against this bill because we must address the climate crisis and we must protect our bedrock environmental laws. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Reserve the balance. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I'm happy to report that Republicans have an appropriations bill for the Interior Department that has firefighter pay increases in that appropriations bill. | ||
| I hope we can all work to pass that as we move forward. | ||
| I'll now yield one minute to the gentleman from California, Mr. Valadeo. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Chair. | |
| The Bipartisan Fix Our Forests Act is a critical piece of legislation that will restore forest health and increase our resiliency to catastrophic wildfires. | ||
| The fires burning across Southern California have devastated entire communities and will have lasting impacts on our state for years. | ||
| Beyond a terrible loss of life and property, wildfires cause hazardous air conditions that lead to significant health concerns. | ||
| Smoke and particulate matter from these fires can travel hundreds of miles, and geographic conditions trap these air pollutants in the Central Valley, which creates dangerous conditions for our families, farm workers, crops, and those already battling respiratory diseases. | ||
| In 2023, over 1 million acres burned across California, and while fires are inevitable, decades of forest mismanagement have directly contributed to the severity of the wildfires we are witnessing. | ||
| While there needs to be serious conversation at the state level about the management of California's natural resources, the Fix Our Forests Act will help address the root causes by providing federal agencies with the tools necessary to help states practice proactive forest management and mitigate risk. | ||
| I'd like to thank the House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman for his leadership on this issue, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I'd like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from Orange County, Mr. Minn. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for three minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in respectful opposition to H.R. 471, the so-called Fix Our Forest Act. | ||
| Right now, as we all have seen, tens of thousands of families are without homes. | ||
| 28 people that we know of have died. | ||
| The scale of the devastation in Los Angeles is just unthinkable. | ||
| Now, I represent a district just to the south of this catastrophe. | ||
| We have thankfully not been affected, but we are subject to the same dynamics year after year. | ||
| In recent years, we have had the Santiago Canyon Fire, Laguna Fire, the Canyon Fire, and a number of others. | ||
| Because when you compile 80 to 100 mile-an-hour winds, and these winds are made worse because of climate change in the annual Santa Ana winds with dry conditions, you are creating the conditions basically like tinder out there. | ||
| And that is why we're having this fire. | ||
| I just want to note that this particular bill would have done nothing to have prevented Los Angeles fires, would do nothing to prevent similar wildfires going forward. | ||
| Now, if you talk to your firefighters, they will tell you, when you have 80, 100 to 100 mile-an-hour winds, little embers can turn into massive fires, and there's nothing that we can do to stop that. | ||
| You cannot deploy firefighters. | ||
| You cannot deploy water or other resources until the wind dies down. | ||
| So there's been a lot of misinformation, unfortunately, about these LA fires, that there's not enough water, there somehow our water systems are inadequate. | ||
| We have had these things that many have described as blowtorches, trying to fight a fire that is like a blowtorch. | ||
| And I would just urge you all who are believing these conspiracy theories to talk to actual firefighters about how they might fight fires like this, because I've talked to firefighters and they have told me that measures like this would not have prevented the LA fires. | ||
| Now, this particular bill has some important provisions that I support. | ||
| Some of these have been mentioned by opposition, by people on my side of the aisle, but I would note that it lacks the funding mechanisms to actually make these implementable. | ||
| It also fails to include any pay increase, permanent pay increase for federal wildland firefighters who continue to be overpaid and overworked. | ||
| This bill is at best a messaging bill, an unfunded mandate. | ||
| And I would just note that it is wrapped up in this inextricable question of will we in California get the aid that our families so desperately need. | ||
| And unfortunately, that seems to be a question that increasingly looks like the answer is going to be only with grossly political conditions. | ||
| And I want to note that I introduced an amendment to make clear that federal disaster assistance to the Los Angeles fire victims needs to be prioritized and must come with no political strings attached. | ||
|
Urging Action on Wildfire Prevention
00:15:40
|
||
| This is something we've done for every other disaster out there in America. | ||
| When we've had hurricanes in the southeast, we've had flooding in parts of the country. | ||
| California has stepped up. | ||
| We get 60 cents back for every dollar we pay in tax funding. | ||
| And so I'm disappointed that we are politicizing aid to California now that we need it. | ||
| I was disappointed that my amendment was blocked from even basic consideration. | ||
| And I'm disheartened to learn that House and Senate Republicans continue to threaten conditions on the basic aid that Californians need right now. | ||
| This is something un-American and consistent with every other federal disaster response. | ||
| So I respectfully yield back with that. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no. | ||
| The gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| Mr. Chairman. | ||
| A gentleman from California Reserves, a gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I had the opportunity just last October to visit Orange County and to fly over the airport fire with Representative Kim and also to attend a local town hall meeting where I saw residents who were traumatized by these fires, but also residents who had concerns because they either couldn't find homeowners insurance to buy or they couldn't afford it if they could find it. | ||
| These fires are devastating. | ||
| What we're doing is not working. | ||
| And there are provisions in the Fix Our Forest Act that will allow us to create these defensible zones around communities in the wildland urban interface. | ||
| I yield one minute to the gentleman or gentlewoman from Orange County, California. | ||
| One and a half minutes to the gentlewoman from Orange County, California, Ms. Kim. | ||
| The gentlewoman from California is recognized for one and a half minutes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman Bruce Westerman, for yielding. | ||
| I rise in strong support of H.I. 471, the Fix Our Forest Act. | ||
| At this very moment, multiple fires are burning throughout Southern California. | ||
| And my heart goes out to the communities affected and to our first responders, especially as my constituents, and I know the devastation of wildfires firsthand. | ||
| Just months ago, as Chairman mentioned, the airport fire started in my district and burned over 24,000 acres in Orange, Riverside counties, and including the surrounding fires that burned through that at that time, we had over 100,000 acres burned. | ||
| That's why the chairman came out to our community and met with my Canyon community leadership and saw the firsthand the devastation and what we would do. | ||
| And we had our conversation regarding the Fix Our Forest Act. | ||
| In that, we talked about the innovative technologies that we need to respond to the threat of wildfires. | ||
| The Fix Our Forest Act includes wirefire technology, demonstration, evaluation, modernization, and optimization, or DEMO Act, which I introduced to create a public-private partnership to test and deploy the emerging wirefire mitigation technologies. | ||
| So, I want to thank Chairman Westerman and Representative Peters for making it bipartisan and for including my legislation in this critical bill to protect our forests. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote yes on H.R. 471, and with that, I yield back. | ||
| A gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, a gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I reserve. | ||
| the gentleman from california reserves gentleman from arkansas is recognized Mr. Chair, I yield one and a half minutes to the gentleman from California, Mr. Colli. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for one and a half minutes. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, today we will pass this vital legislation to fix our forests, and we will do so with bipartisan support. | ||
| This bill has a number of very important provisions. | ||
| It simplifies and expedites environmental reviews. | ||
| It ends frivolous legislation. | ||
| It ends endless agency consultation. | ||
| It strengthens the Good Neighbor Authority. | ||
| It creates a new categorical exclusion for vegetation management for utility rightaways. | ||
| It prioritizes hazardous fuel reduction in high-risk fire sheds. | ||
| It protects communities in wildland urban interfaces. | ||
| And it incorporates technology in a smart way. | ||
| I'm particularly grateful for those in the California congressional delegation on both sides of the aisle who have spoken in support of this legislation. | ||
| The contrast could not be clearer to what is going on at the Sacramento in Sacramento at the state capitol right now, where just in the last hour the runaway supermajority rejected legislation by Assembly Republican leader James Gallagher to add $1 billion to the fire prevention budget, the very budget that the current governor has slashed time and time again. | ||
| And he was even caught by NPR exaggerating the amount of fire mitigation work done by, quote, a staggering 690 percent. | ||
| So today, we will pass this very much needed legislation at the federal level, and it will make a big difference. | ||
| It will reduce the risk of wildfire. | ||
| But until California's political leadership gets its act together, our citizens will remain at risk. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I yield back. | |
| The gentleman from Arkansas Reserves, a gentleman from California, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I reserve, and I'm prepared to close. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I yield one minute to the gentleman from California, Mr. Fong. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| I rise today as a co-sponsor in support of the critically needed Fix Our Forest Act. | ||
| As wildfires continue to threaten communities in Southern California, including now a new fire near Castaic that borders my district, it is even more urgent that our nation prioritizes preventing these catastrophic tragedies through proactive forest management. | ||
| In the past five years, my district has seen over 600,000 acres burned by wildfires. | ||
| I've seen the devastation that it leaves behind. | ||
| Our state has seen millions of acres burned, and with preventative forest maintenance, these fires could have been extinguished much sooner and saved countless lives, homes, and businesses. | ||
| These out-of-control megafires need to be greatly mitigated before reaching the point of complete destruction. | ||
| By expediting environmental reviews and prioritizing active management of our nation's forested wildlands, it will be critical and essential to saving lives and communities. | ||
| I'm grateful for the leadership from Chairman Westerman, who has traveled and visited the forest in my district. | ||
| I'm grateful to the Natural Resources Committee and the House by immediately enacting the bill into law. | ||
| The gentleman is yielding another 30 seconds. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Time is of the essence to prevent the next catastrophic wildfire. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I ask unanimous consent that the list of 102 supporting organizations be entered into the record. | ||
| These stakeholders include tribal and local governments, grazing and forest management organizations, and a diverse coalition of hunters, conservationists, natural resource managers, outdoor recreationists, educators, and scientists. | ||
| 47 of those organizations also provided support letters. | ||
| Each letter expresses strong urgency for passing H.R. 471 to ensure improved forest management on federal land. | ||
| The groups that wrote support letters included American Sport Fishing Association, Boone and Crockett Club, Citizens Climate Lobby, Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, Federal Forest Resource Association, Public Lands Council, American Sheep Industry Association, | ||
| National Cattlemen's Beef Association, American Farm Bureau Federation, American Forest Resource Council, Association of California Water Agencies, California Farm Bureau Federation, Family Farm Alliance, National Association of Counties, San Bernardino County, and many others. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I have no further requests for time and I'm prepared to close and I reserve. | ||
| The request is covered by General Leave. | ||
| The general, the gentleman, reserves. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I think we can all agree that wildfire is a complex, traumatic, and challenging issue. | ||
| It's serious stuff, the devastation that it can wreak on entire communities, the destruction that can happen in a matter of minutes. | ||
| Addressing our wildfire crisis is a national priority that should never be politicized. | ||
| House Democrats are committed to supporting a robust, all-of-government response and to doing that in a way that acknowledges critical realities, starting with the climate crisis and the role of human-caused climate change, especially the burning of fossil fuels, in these worsening conditions that are exacerbating not just wildfires but many other natural disasters. | ||
| And second, the reality that solutions, including many of the ones in this bill, actually require resources in order to mean something. | ||
| And we hope to continue working with our Republican colleagues to address our outstanding concerns about this bill. | ||
| And we hope that the majority will work with us on additional legislation to address critical issues like adequate pay for federal firefighters that were left out of this bill. | ||
| They need the resources to do their work. | ||
| Communities devastated by wildfires also need the resources to rebuild. | ||
| So there is plenty of work that we still have ahead of us. | ||
| I hope we can do that together. | ||
| It is unfortunate that this bill came up so quickly, so quickly that, in fact, Republicans refused most Democratic amendments. | ||
| At a time of crisis, we should be trying to find ways to work together. | ||
| And the fact is, Democrats have a lot of good ideas. | ||
| I really think this bill could have benefited from an open and transparent amendment process. | ||
| And unfortunately, we were denied that. | ||
| Forests are critical carbon reserves. | ||
| They are majestic destinations for outdoor recreation. | ||
| Their habitat for a range of wildlife enjoyed by millions of Americans and short-circuiting environmental review and not allowing the public to participate in decision-making actually has negative consequences. | ||
| It could put all of these values at risk. | ||
| We have to be able also to talk about the climate. | ||
| Like the recent fires in Southern California or the ones that tear through my Northern California district all too often and throughout the West all too often, some of the most destructive and devastating fires that we've seen in the past five years on non-federal land started as grass fires exacerbated by the climate crisis. | ||
| In the winter of 2021, the Marshall Fire broke out in Boulder, Colorado. | ||
| At that time, it was the most destructive fire in Colorado history, over a thousand homes lost. | ||
| And Boulder County was experiencing at that time hurricane-force winds, just like Los Angeles. | ||
| The fire blazed across open spaces that had been desiccated by months of extreme drought conditions. | ||
| Everything about the Marshall Fire was unusual. | ||
| The level of high winds, the condition of the landscape from an unstable climate, and the proximity to an urban interface. | ||
| But what was once considered unusual is rapidly becoming the norm. | ||
| We need to acknowledge that reality. | ||
| Like the Marshall Fire, the fires in Maui started on non-federal grassland. | ||
| They were fueled by hurricane-force winds and significant drought. | ||
| This is a climate disaster. | ||
| Fix our forests would not have stopped either of these fires. | ||
| Communities like the ones in Southern California, Boulder, Lahaina, Hawaii, need resources so that they can prepare and respond and be more resilient. | ||
| Unfortunately, even the sections of this bill that purport to help in these situations completely lack funding. | ||
| They need to be refined. | ||
| They need to be backed up by dedicated funding in order to mean more than just thoughts and prayers. | ||
| Rushing bills like this to the floor to capitalize on a crisis does not always lead to the best outcome. | ||
| We should know that by now. | ||
| Let's hope this is not a model for the entire 119th Congress. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I will close by urging my colleagues to oppose this bill and urging my Republican colleagues to do a better job of working with Democrats. | ||
| We should be tackling these issues together, and with that, I yield the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from California Yields, the gentleman from Arkansas, is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I will state again that Republicans have a firefighter funding fix in the appropriations bill that when it came to the floor was not supported by my friends across the aisle. | ||
| We want to provide more funding to our firefighters. | ||
| This is an authorization bill. | ||
| It's not an appropriation bill. | ||
| And it is regrettable that we're having to bring this bill up again already because we passed it last year with large bipartisan support. | ||
| We had 55 of our friends across the aisle vote with every Republican to pass this bill. | ||
| But unfortunately, it went nowhere in the Senate. | ||
| So we're bringing it back again because this is bipartisan legislation. | ||
| And I hope this is an example of how this Congress will go because I don't know that I've worked on a more bipartisan piece of legislation my time in Congress. | ||
| Again, I thank my colleague Representative Peters for all of his time and effort in bringing this bill to the floor once again. | ||
| And I just want to say that the time to fix our forest is now. | ||
| Actually, now is not the real time to fix our forest. | ||
| The time to have fixed our forest was yesterday. | ||
| It was last year. | ||
| It was 10 years ago. | ||
| It was 30 years ago. | ||
| The condition our forests are in now is the result of bad management decisions over a long period of time. | ||
| It's kind of like the saying about the saying about planting a tree. | ||
| The best time to have done it was when you're a child. | ||
| The next best time is today. | ||
| And if not today, we need to do it tomorrow. | ||
| Regardless of where and when catastrophic wildfires occur, they offer a grim lesson. | ||
| The cost of thoughtful prevention would have been far less than those inflicted by merciless flames. | ||
| The old adage of an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is never more true than when it comes to managing our forest. | ||
| We spend billions of dollars fighting fire every year. | ||
| Our forests should be an income stream to our federal government, not a cost. | ||
| People manage forests all over the country and they actually produce great products that go into homes, that go into sustainable buildings, that actually become a carbon sink because wood is 50% by weight carbon. | ||
|
Fix Our Forest Act
00:02:20
|
||
| And when you build with wood, this table was atmospheric carbon that was stored in this wood at some point in history and it's still in this wood. | ||
| Instead of burning these forests up and spewing more carbon into the atmosphere, we should be looking at innovative ways to use our forests to keep them healthy and resilient because they do provide clean air, they provide clean water, they provide wildlife habitat. | ||
| But they don't do that when they're burned to the ground. | ||
| And these fires oftentimes are so hot that they burn the organic material out of the soil. | ||
| So it's hard to get trees to grow back. | ||
| We've seen this in the Angora fire. | ||
| I visited it several years ago. | ||
| It was 12 years after the fire, and it had been replanted six times, and the trees still wouldn't grow on it because the soil had been so damaged by these intense wildfires. | ||
| The argument has been made that these fires are a result of climate change. | ||
| If that is the case, the question still remains, what are we going to do about it? | ||
| We have unhealthy forests. | ||
| They're way overstocked, way more trees per acre than we've ever seen. | ||
| Small trees that are competing with other trees for light, for water and nutrients, and they get weakened and they die and insects and disease come in. | ||
| And this just isn't California. | ||
| It's all across our country. | ||
| We know what to do. | ||
| The question is, will we do it? | ||
| The Fix Our Forest Act will give us the opportunity to do what we know needs to be done. | ||
| I've talked to many of our land managers, federal land managers across the country. | ||
| It's disheartening to them to have gone to forestry school or whatever educational experience they had and they wanted to commit their life to working in an area to make a difference and they see these resources they're charged with taking care of going up in flames and instead of being land managers and forest managers they're firefighters that's really what most of the budget for our federal agencies goes to anymore to fight fires it doesn't have to be Way. | ||
|
Bipartisan Biochar Amendment
00:15:43
|
||
| This is something that should be bipartisan. | ||
| It is going to be bipartisan today. | ||
| It's something the Senate should take up in a bipartisan manner and get it to President Trump's desk as soon as possible. | ||
| Again, I encourage everyone to support the Fix Our Forest Act, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas yields. | ||
| All time for general debate has expired. | ||
| Pursuant to the rule, the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. | ||
| The bill shall be considered as read. | ||
| No amendment to the bill shall be in order except those reported in House Report 119-1 or printed in House Report 119-1. | ||
| Each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report by the member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report, equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question. | ||
| It is now in order to consider amendment number one, printed in House Report 119-1. | ||
| For what purposes does the gentleman from Pennsylvania seek recognition? | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I've got an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk will designate the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number one, print it in House Report number 118-1, offered by Mr. Perry of Pennsylvania. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 53, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Perry, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Pennsylvania. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I want to begin by thanking a good friend, the chairman of the committee, for his hard work to try and save one of our country's greatest assets that we see burning to the ground on an annual basis. | ||
| And we're always shocked, like we're surprised that it happens. | ||
| And it seems like my good friend, the chairman, continues to work on this issue while some of my I don't know if my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, but certainly in the states, maybe the state governments and their local governments don't seem to get that policies produce these outcomes. | ||
| Now, we've got a great chairman here who is prioritizing the solutions here and managing the risk so that we do better. | ||
| This amendment, which I think the chairman agrees with, strikes the prioritization of carbon sequestration and ecosystem services in the biochar demonstration projects in this bill. | ||
| And it is by prioritizing projects based on their impact on carbon sequestration and the impact on ecosystems rather than the impact on forest health and forest fire reduction that we risk throwing more money at the problem while failing to improve the situation on the ground. | ||
| And Mr. Chairman, I think that that's what we all want to focus on today. | ||
| That's our priority. | ||
| That's the chairman's priority, is focusing on finding a solution to the problems that we see today and occurring in our country. | ||
| As the most recent wildfires in California has demonstrated, the continued prioritization of other things at the expense of risk reduction. | ||
| And that's what we're talking about here, is risk reduction, not only to property but to lives that are lost, creates deadly disasters that kill Americans and destroy their property over and over again. | ||
| The underlying bill makes important changes to improve how, improve how our forests are managed to the maximum extent possible. | ||
| And it's not like Mr. Westerman is just some guy here that's trying to do the right thing because he believes it's the right thing. | ||
| He's the guy in Congress that actually knows how to do this stuff. | ||
| So it's great that he's the chairman, and it's great that he's leading this effort. | ||
| This amendment furthers this intent by focusing, by making sure we're focused on demonstration projects on those which maximize forest health and resiliency. | ||
| And let's remember, Mr. Chairman, we're $36 trillion in debt every 100 days. | ||
| Another trillion dollars go by. | ||
| So we've got to really make sure that the resources that we're spending get to fixing the problem. | ||
| We'd like to do other things. | ||
| We sure like to do a lot of other things. | ||
| But there are needs and there are wants. | ||
| And Chairman is focused on the needs, and so am I. Moreover, this amendment ensures that these projects are not hijacked by those who would use them to implement the U.N.'s natural capital accounting to block the actual productive use of land and undermine one of the fundamental values of America, which is personal property rights. | ||
| I certainly appreciate Chairman Westerman's support for this common sense amendment to improve this bill. | ||
| And I yield to Chairman Westerman such time as he may consume. | ||
| The gentleman yields to the gentleman from Arkansas. | ||
| Thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in support of Representative Perry's amendment, which would remove certain references from Section 301 of the bill. | ||
| I wholeheartedly support Section 301 of the bill, which provides opportunity to have a new market for this overgrown material that needs to come off of the lands and in biochar. | ||
| Biochar can be thought of as a soil amendment that improves soil fertility. | ||
| It allows more water and nutrients to be stored in the soil, and it almost seems like the perfect thing to have in these western forests where you have water issues and you have overgrown forest, and you can actually make a product that is very beneficial to the whole system out there. | ||
| So I appreciate the gentleman's support. | ||
| I support his amendment, and I yield back. | ||
| I reserve it. | ||
| The gentleman from Pennsylvania Reserves, for what purposes, the gentleman from California, seek recognition? | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I rise in opposition to this amendment. | ||
| And, you know, we were under the impression that this was going to be... | ||
| That is recognized for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| We were under the impression this was essentially a closed rule. | ||
| Many of our beneficial amendments were rejected out of hand, ruled out of order. | ||
| But apparently, there's always room for an amendment that will make the bill worse. | ||
| And we've got a great example of that right now. | ||
| You know, the CO2 sequestration benefits and ecosystem benefits, potential benefits of biochar, are a couple of the most attractive possibilities for this program. | ||
| I know Chairman Westerman believes that because we've talked about biochar. | ||
| He's talked about the possibilities of this. | ||
| And the truth is that the science on biochar is not settled. | ||
| We have more work to do by way of studies. | ||
| So establishing a program to carry out demonstration programs for the development and commercialization of biochar could be a good opportunity to better understand its role in a healthy forest and to explore some of these interesting potential benefits. | ||
| But now with this amendment, we've got to do it with ideological blinders on because apparently merely mentioning words like CO2 sequestration and ecosystem benefits are triggering. | ||
| And so we're going to end that part of the study. | ||
| We're going to put the ideological blinders on. | ||
| We're going to fire the scientists. | ||
| We're going to burn the books and rename the Gulf of Mexico. | ||
| This is just remarkably wrongheaded. | ||
| I'm so surprised and disappointed that the chairman, who actually put a good provision into his bill, let me make it very clear. | ||
| Democrats like that part of this bill, and we're about to lose the beneficial aspects of it because of this absurd ideological obsession where you have to deny all climate science and not talk about the environment. | ||
| It's just deeply disappointing, and with that, I reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from California Reserves, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, is recognized. | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| And let's not mislead anybody here. | ||
| We've got amendments. | ||
| This is one. | ||
| I think there's another one coming very shortly from the other side of the aisle, which is awesome. | ||
| We want to have these debates. | ||
| And this is not ideological. | ||
| Maybe it is great. | ||
| Maybe it is. | ||
| Maybe the biochar demonstration needs to happen. | ||
| But the question really is, does the federal government need to pay for it? | ||
| I mean, if it's so valuable, then the private sector, private industry should do this work. | ||
| Private industry should make this investment because we're out of money. | ||
| American people, this government is out of money. | ||
| I don't know how many times we have to tell everybody here. | ||
| I support the amendment and I yield the balance. | ||
| The gentleman from Pennsylvania yields. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| If the excuse for this amendment is that we don't have the money, then you do an amendment to strike the whole program. | ||
| You don't simply single out the parts of it that are environmental or that have to do with climate solutions. | ||
| That's what's happening with this amendment. | ||
| It is just the same old ideological blinders. | ||
| And so I reserve the balance of my time, again, in great disappointment that the Chairman is allowing this further worsening of his bill. | ||
| The gentleman has the only time remaining. | ||
| I'm sorry? | ||
| You have the only time remaining. | ||
| This is all the time. | ||
| Well, in that case, I will close with great disappointment that the chairman is allowing a flawed bill to become even worse with this wrong-headed ideological amendment. | ||
| Yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Pennsylvania. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| The amendment is agreed to. | ||
| It's now an order to consider amendment number two, printed in House Report 119-1. | ||
| For what purposes does the gentleman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk. | ||
| The clerk would do to make the amendment. | ||
| Amendment number two, printed in House Report number 119-1, offered by Mr. Carbajo of California. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 53, the gentleman from California, Mr. Carbajal, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. | ||
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from California. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I yield myself as much time as I may consume. | ||
| The gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| My amendment to H.R. 471 simply allows the U.S. Forest Service to approve the removal of hazardous trees or vegetation near power poles, power lines on federal land without the need for a timber sale. | ||
| Unfortunately, catastrophic wildfires continue to ravage California and the western United States. | ||
| We do need some common sense solutions that balance sustainable forest management practices with reducing wildfire risks. | ||
| My amendment strives to find this balance. | ||
| I firmly believe that if we can take action to prevent wildfires, we should. | ||
| We know it pays to be prepared. | ||
| We also know there are solutions that can help mitigate the impacts of wildfires. | ||
| But apart from this, I also know that we need to act to address the underlying intensity of these extreme weather events fueled by the climate crisis. | ||
| Apart from supporting my amendment, I also urge my colleagues to continue to work to find common sense solutions to act on this crisis impacting so many American families. | ||
| My thoughts continue to be with the people who have lost loved ones and their homes in these horrific fires. | ||
| I also thank the brave first responders and firefighters who have been battling these fires. | ||
| Again, I urge passage of my amendment and reserve the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from California reserves, the gentleman from Arkansas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chair, although I'm not opposed to the amendment, I ask unanimous consent to claim time in the opposition. | ||
| Without objection, the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. | ||
| Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of the amendment offered by Representative Carbajal, which would enable the Forest Service to approve the removal of hazardous trees near power lines on Federal land without being required to do a formal timber sale. | ||
| This would help address a very serious wildfire threat. | ||
| Downed hazard trees within utility rights of way remain one of the biggest ignition threats and have sparked some of the most significant and deadly fires in the country's history. | ||
| For example, the single largest wildfire in California state history, the Dixie fire, ignited when a hazard tree fell onto electric lines. | ||
| Similarly, the campfire, the deadliest wildfire in California's history, was caused by a faulty electrical transmission line. | ||
| The campfire killed 85 people and destroyed the communities of Paradise and CONCAL. | ||
| In recent years, catastrophic fires in Maui and Texas have also been linked to utility lines, and early reports suggest this may have been the cause of the Eaton fire near Pasadena in Altadena, California. | ||
| To mitigate these threats, utility companies try to maintain clear rights of way by removing hazard trees within their utility corridors. | ||
| This is done under a special use permit. | ||
| However, to dispose of the felled timber, utility companies are required to go through a lengthy timber sale process. | ||
| This frequently leads to wood waste stacking up in piles, which further increases wildfire risk. | ||
| It's an unnecessary burden that is preventing active management in some of the highest-risk areas in our national forest. | ||
| This amendment will allow the Forest Service to permit utility companies to fully remove hazard trees and other vegetation within the vicinity of distribution or transmission lines without going through a separate timber sale. | ||
| If the utilities eventually sell the material, this amendment requires the proceeds to be returned to the Forest Service. | ||
| This amendment was a bipartisan effort during the 118th Congress, and a similar standalone bill was passed unanimously out of the House Natural Resources Committee. | ||
| This is a good amendment. | ||
| It's a common sense amendment that will empower expedited wildfire mitigation efforts near at-risk communities. | ||
| And it's a great example why we need to take action to change bureaucratic policies that have gotten in the way of common sense forest management. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to support the amendment and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas yields. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, may I inquire the amount of time both sides have? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman has three and a half minutes. | |
| The gentleman has three and a half minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I yield two minutes to my colleague from California, Representative Huffman. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized for two minutes. | ||
| I thank the gentleman. | ||
|
Amendments to H.R. 471
00:06:36
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||
| Mr. Chair, we still have concerns, obviously, with the underlying bill, but we do support Congressman Carbajal's good amendment. | ||
| I want to thank him for his leadership in working on this issue. | ||
| Vegetation management around utility lines is a very important priority. | ||
| That is why the Forest Service and BLM require operating plans and agreements for maintenance and vegetation of these lines through our public lands. | ||
| This amendment aims to improve the process and make it easier for utility companies to complete that work, especially when hazardous conditions exist. | ||
| That's a good thing, and we should all support it. | ||
| But I do want to mention that it doesn't fix the underlying problem with Section 203 of the bill, which includes some language that will have unintended consequences on this issue. | ||
| Utility line operators are already responsible and liable for hazard tree mitigation around their lines, but the Forest Service has told us that the current language in this bill could potentially increase liability for utilities by a factor of 15, making it even more challenging for them to get the insurance that they need to operate. | ||
| Utility lines often spark fires. | ||
| We need to make sure they're operated more safely and efficiently. | ||
| But it's also critical that whatever relief we seek is carefully crafted, thoughtfully drafted, and unfortunately, there's still a lot of work to do on the underlying parts of this bill. | ||
| Hopefully, that work will take place in the Senate. | ||
| And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman from California is recognized. | ||
| I reserve the right to close. | ||
| The gentleman from California has the only time remaining. | ||
| You have the only time remaining. | ||
| Great. | ||
| I will refer to my colleague from the other side of the aisle. | ||
| The gentleman from Arkansas has already yielded his time. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I'm prepared to close. | ||
| Gentleman is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I think my amendment provides a glimmer of hope in this bill that certainly could use some improvements. | ||
| And I'm happy that my bill is being considered. | ||
| With that, I will close. | ||
| Gentleman from California yields. | ||
| The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from California. | ||
| Those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those in favor say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| The amendment is agreed to. | ||
| There being no further amendments under the rule, the committee rises. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You'll stand here and turn around, and she'll recognize you. | |
| Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Madam Speaker, the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union has under consideration H.R. 471. | ||
| And pursuant to House Resolution 53, I report the bill back to the House with sundry amendments adopted by the Committee of the Whole. | ||
| The Chair of the Committee of the Whole on the State of the Union reports that the Committee has under consideration the bill H.R. 471 and pursuant to House Resolution 53, reports the bill back to the House with sundry amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole. | ||
| Under the rule, the previous question is ordered. | ||
| In a separate vote demanded on any amendment, is a separate vote demanded on any amendment reported from the Committee of the Whole. | ||
| If not, the Chair will put them in gross. | ||
| The question is on the adoption of the amendments. | ||
| Those in favor, please say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The amendments are agreed to. | ||
| The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor, please say aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| A bill to expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and improve forest management activities on National Forest System lands on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and on tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested lands and for other purposes. | ||
| The question is on passage of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor, please say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The ayes have it. | ||
| The bill is passed. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I request the yeas and nays. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| The yeas and nays have been 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 the Rule 20, further proceedings on this question will be postponed. | ||
|
unidentified
|
For what purpose does the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Roy, seek recognition? | |
| Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 5, I call up the bill H.R. 21 and ask for its immediate consideration in the House. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will report the title of the bill. | |
| H.R. 21, a bill to amend Title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise a proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the bill is considered read. | |
| The bill should be debatable for one hour, equally divided and controlled by the majority leader and the minority leader or their respective designees. | ||
|
Protecting Innocent Life
00:05:11
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|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Texas, Mr. Roy, and the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin, will control 30 minutes. | |
| The chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Roy. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on H.R. 21. | ||
| Without objection, I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen's recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act protects one of our most vulnerable populations, innocent children. | ||
| I am proud that at the beginning of the 119th Congress, we are taking this step toward protecting life and the fundamental rights of our most vulnerable American citizens. | ||
| We are all too familiar with the horrors of abortion and the unchecked power of the abortion industry. | ||
| We know it is simply common sense to provide life-saving care to those babies who survive an abortion. | ||
| In 2013, Jill Stanek testified before the House Judiciary Committee, seeing the horrific realities of being a nurse and seeing children being aborted, alive, and left to die alone in a dirty utility closet. | ||
| I can hardly believe that those words are coming out of my mouth sitting here on the floor of the House of Representatives in this, the beacon of hope for people around the world. | ||
| She said, I was traumatized and changed forever by my experience of holding a little abortion survivor for 45 minutes until he died. | ||
| A 21 or 22-week-old baby who had been aborted because he had Down syndrome. | ||
| Hard to believe. | ||
| One of my guests for the inauguration, one of my dear friends in Austin, Texas, a somewhat well-renowned musician and songwriter, brought his son who has Down syndrome and is such a blessing to this world. | ||
| That child, as well as this child, that was left to die alone in a dirty utility closet, was and is a fellow human being, a fellow American whose right to life should have been protected by the law. | ||
| Congress cannot stand by and allow this type of suffering. | ||
| We have both a moral and a constitutional duty here. | ||
| This legislation is simple. | ||
| The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act requires that infants born alive under an attempted abortion receive the same protection under the law and degree of care of any newborn, combined with, by the way, the penalties associated with those who would ignore their duty under the law. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, it's a common sense measure. | ||
| Unfortunately, as evidenced by comments from many of my Democrat colleagues, not everyone believes that a child born alive should be protected. | ||
| In 2019, then Virginia Governor Northam stated, and I quote, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. | ||
| And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother, the Democrat governor of Virginia. | ||
| This blatant disregard for human life has no place in the medical profession in our country. | ||
| Last Congress, unfortunately, only one Democrat voted in favor of the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and another voted present. | ||
| My Democrat colleagues send a clear message to the American people that these innocent lives are not worthy of protection, and those who intentionally let infants die after birth should not be held accountable. | ||
| If a baby American, a fellow American, is lying on a table dying, and we cannot, as Congress, as the leaders of this country, the leaders of the free world, cannot say that under the language of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, under the language of the Declaration of Independence that animates our Constitution, | ||
| under the privileges and immunities, the roots of which are found in English common law, that create the bedrock of our entire justice system, then we need to make sure that that child is protected, even and especially because of its defenseless nature. | ||
| That is our duty. | ||
| That is why I rise in support of this legislation. | ||
|
Obstetrician's Plea for Care
00:15:34
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| That is why I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I reserve the balance of my time. | ||
|
unidentified
|
John from Texas Reserves. | |
| John's recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I yield myself such time as I may consume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen's recognized. | |
| While their leader boasts of pardoning hundreds of convicted violent felons who attacked and brutalized 140 police officers in this building, the party formerly of Abraham Lincoln in Congress today is working to create a new crime and to perfect three great GOP legislative arts visible this week. | ||
| Number one, complete legislative redundancy. | ||
| Two, interfering in other families' private lives to prey on their tragedies and medical catastrophes. | ||
| And three, threatening to send American doctors to jail. | ||
| I want to yield three minutes first to the very distinguished Congresswoman from the 3rd District of Minnesota, Congressman Morrison, who is a mother of three, an OBGYN, a former state legislator serving in her first term, and this is her first speech on the House floor. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman's recognized gentlelady is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, today I rise not only as the Congresswoman from Minnesota's 3rd District, but as an OBGYN who has had the honor and privilege of caring for patients for more than 20 years. | ||
| As I've said many times throughout those years, being an obstetrician is the greatest job in the world. | ||
| Being present and helping people during one of the most joyful moments of their lives is an incredible privilege. | ||
| It's also a serious responsibility. | ||
| And on most days, it is the best job in the world. | ||
| But sometimes it can be absolutely tragic and heartbreaking. | ||
| Sometimes medical complications can prevent a patient's dreams of building her family from coming true. | ||
| The moment when a patient and her family learn about a lethal fetal medical condition that is incompatible with life, it is devastating. | ||
| The pain and the grief in that moment is unfathomable. | ||
| You can never unhear the mother's cries of despair. | ||
| Meeting each patient where they are and making a care plan that meets their needs is essential. | ||
| Knowing that their baby will not survive, some want to plan a delivery that enables them to meet and hold and care for their baby for the precious little time they have together, the time and the space to say goodbye. | ||
| But this shameful legislation would insert the government into this tragic situation and deny families the care they want for their baby. | ||
| Instead of allowing parents to hold their dying baby, this bill would require doctors to forcibly take the dying baby from their parents and even though there is no chance of survival, place the baby directly on a medical table under bright lights and perform interventions that will not work. | ||
| Sometimes chest compressions, intubation where a breathing tube is placed in the baby's trachea, IV lines. | ||
| And if those measures were not taken, the doctor could be charged with murder. | ||
| This bill is cruel. | ||
| It singles out patients who are facing the worst days of their lives. | ||
| This bill does not solve a problem. | ||
| Doctors are already both honored and obligated to provide appropriate care for their patients. | ||
| It is illegal to kill a newborn infant in all 50 states. | ||
| This bill is designed to confuse, to frighten, and to misinform people and criminalize medical providers. | ||
| It would inflict further and unnecessary tragedy and trauma on patients and their families. | ||
| We should be doing everything we can to support pregnant women, mothers, families, and their care providers, not attack them. | ||
| So I stand before you as an obstetrician on behalf of the patients and providers across the country who should never be subjected to this cruel and harmful mandate. | ||
| I implore you to reject this legislation. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlelady Yields. | |
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Maryland Reserves, gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I would note another abortion survivor, Melissa Odin, testified to the House Judiciary Committee in 2015, quote, you wouldn't know it by looking at me today, but in August of 1977, I survived a failed saline infusion abortion. | ||
| I know where children like me were left to die at St. Luke's Hospital, a utility closet. | ||
| End quote. | ||
| I now would recognize the gentlelady from Minnesota for two minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleladies recognized. | |
| Thank you very much, and thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And I rise in strong support of the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. | ||
| Democrats are trying to distort this issue and this bill, and they are trying to mislead the public, claiming that this is an attack on abortion rights and privacy and all kinds of things. | ||
| And what it is, is it's nothing like the situation that my colleague from Minnesota spoke about. | ||
| We only need to look at the actual language of this bill, and I quote, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise the proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion. | ||
| The same words the clerk read when we began this debate. | ||
| And I am appalled, I am absolutely appalled, that we have to dictate in law that a newborn baby is a patient and not medical waste. | ||
| The fact is, Democrat lawmakers all over the country are pushing legislation to give abortion providers an out from providing care to babies born after failed abortions. | ||
| Babies born after a botched abortion are living human beings with blood in their veins and a beat in their hearts, just like you and me. | ||
| And they deserve the same standard of care that any baby at the same age would receive. | ||
| Is providing medical care too much to ask? | ||
| This bill is not about abortion. | ||
| It is about medical care for babies. | ||
| And I will repeat this. | ||
| This bill is not about abortion. | ||
| It is about medical care for babies. | ||
| I am so grateful that Representative Ann Wagner is leading the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and I'm honored to be a co-sponsor. | ||
| I urge everyone to support this bill and support medical care for babies. | ||
| I urge a yes vote. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen from Texas Reserves. | |
| Joe from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| I yield two minutes to the minority whip, Representative Clark. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleladies recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Republicans have one goal today, and that is a march towards a national abortion ban. | ||
| They want it so desperately that now through this bill, they're treating doctors like criminals, demonizing heartbroken women, and accusing mothers of killing their newborn healthy infants. | ||
| Let me tell you what happened to me, a story that can be told by so many women in this country. | ||
| I learned during a routine sonogram that the doctors could no longer pick up a heartbeat. | ||
| I was devastated by this news, and my doctor said that I would need abortion care to prevent infection. | ||
| I asked for more time that I could go home and somehow hope that this could all be reversed. | ||
| And when the time came where I needed to have this procedure to protect my own health and be the mother I wanted to be for my children, I asked one more time, please check that that heartbeat is there before they did this procedure. | ||
| These are horrible, painful situations that women and families, expectant parents find themselves in. | ||
| And when you introduce the politics into these moments of grief, they have real consequences for people. | ||
| When the Republicans continue to threaten doctors with prison, what have they achieved? | ||
| They have gutted reproductive health care in this country. | ||
| OBGYNs are fleeing states with abortion bans and leaving the field altogether. | ||
| Today, one-third of all counties in our country have no obstetric care, no doctors to help women deliver babies safely. | ||
| One example: under Georgia's abortion ban, currently half of the counties don't have obstetrician. | ||
| If you truly care about the lives of women and children, you will vote no on this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen from Maryland. | |
| We yield to the gentleman from Maryland Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| It is my honor to recognize the lead author of this legislation, the gentlelady, Ms. Wagner. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleladies recognized. | |
| I thank you, Mr. Speaker, and I thank my friend from Texas, Chairman Roy Four for yielding to me. | ||
| And I rise today in very strong support of H.R. 21, the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, legislation that I have been blessed and honored to lead since 2019. | ||
| Today, thanks to the Herculean efforts of the pro-life movement, the American people have finally regained the power back from the courts to decide how to protect the most vulnerable among us. | ||
| However, Congress has a clear role to play when it comes to protecting newborn infants, babies who have been delivered alive and are experiencing their first moments in the world. | ||
| All children should be welcomed with joy and wonder, no matter the circumstances of their birth. | ||
| And yet, too many of these little ones are denied the medical care that they need to survive and thrive, simply because they were unwanted. | ||
| This common sense legislation will require health care providers to administer the same level of care to babies who survive abortions that they would to any other child born at the same gestational age. | ||
| That's it, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I believe that life is a miracle and children are a blessing. | ||
| And as a proud grandmother of four, with a fifth coming any day now, hang in there, Julia, I've watched my own children grow into wonderful, loving parents. | ||
| And I've had the joy of experiencing the world through their eyes, the eyes of my grandchildren. | ||
| It breaks my heart to think of the infants who were denied the opportunity to share their light with us and were instead deemed unwanted and left to die. | ||
| We must remember today that children are not the only victims of born-alive abortions. | ||
| Mothers, fathers, families, and whole communities all suffer deeply from the loss of a child. | ||
| We must act with compassion to protect each little one and give women a strong support system as they navigate the miracles and challenges of motherhood. | ||
| This bill will save real lives, Madam Speaker, and it will give survivors a precious chance to build a future. | ||
| This is an historic time with a pro-life House, a pro-life Senate, and a pro-life administration. | ||
| And I am so proud that one of our first acts in the House of this Congress will be ensuring that every single baby born in the United States receives life-saving medical care at their most vulnerable moment. | ||
| I want to express my gratitude to the co-leads of this bill, Representatives Katnick and Majority Leader Scalese, to the leadership of this Congress, and especially to the multitude of champions for life across the country for their tireless work in support of the unborn. | ||
| And finally, I implore my Democratic colleagues to put aside politics and stand in support of life-saving care for these innocent newborns, as they did when it passed the House in 2015, in 2018, and yet again in 2022. | ||
| I urge every member of the House to vote yes on H.R. 21, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and I yield back. | ||
| Thank you, gentlelady from Missouri. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Texas Reserves. | |
| Gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I yield three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from the 26th District of New York, Mr. Kennedy, the father of three and the still-bereaved father of Bridget Nicole. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you to Ranking Member Raskin. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I rise today to oppose H.R. 21, an assault on women's health care and fundamental rights. | ||
| On October 19, 2007, my wife Katie gave birth to our beautiful baby girl, Bridget Nicole Kennedy. | ||
| My wife and I had lost some pregnancies, and we were so excited when we got the news that she was expecting. | ||
| It was a girl, and we'd name her Bridget. | ||
| She was kicking and doing all the things you'd expect during a pregnancy. | ||
| Six weeks before my wife gave birth, we went for an ultrasound and received the worst news imaginable. | ||
| Bridget was diagnosed with hydropsphetalis, compressing her lungs with fluid, putting her and my wife's life in danger. | ||
| We were devastated, and the only answer was to terminate the pregnancy in order to save the life of my wife, whose health was becoming more and more threatened. | ||
| It was a choice we did not want to make. | ||
| It was a choice we had to make. | ||
| We wanted our baby more than anything. | ||
| We saw doctors, specialists, neonatologists. | ||
| We traveled where we were promised we'd receive the best care. | ||
| If there was something we could do to bring her safely into this world, we did it. | ||
| We embraced each other as a family and prayed. | ||
| Then, with the guidance of our doctors, knowing that we were losing our child, knowing that she would be born, and we would only have a very short period of time with her, we chose palliative care to keep our daughter comfortable and to love her during her time on earth. | ||
|
Baby Bridget's Legacy
00:15:17
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| Baby Bridget, who was already loved, would not live the beautiful life we had dreamed for her. | ||
| We had to schedule what we knew would be a devastating delivery for the sake of my wife's health. | ||
| We held her, baptized her, and sent her on to the Lord. | ||
| She was with us for only four minutes. | ||
| We watched our baby girl become our baby angel, and our lives were transformed forever. | ||
| As we faced one of our darkest days as a family, the last thing we needed was legislation that served to stand between the health of my wife, unborn child, and the future of our family. | ||
| If this bill had been law, doctors would have been required to whisk Bridget away from us, inhumanely poke and prod our baby girl with tubes, needles, and IVs, causing her needless pain, suffering, and torture. | ||
| My wife and I would have been robbed of those precious minutes with our baby Bridget. | ||
| It would have eviscerated the one moment my wife and I cling on to is baby Bridget's parents. | ||
| It would have only added to our pain, hurt, and helplessness. | ||
| That's if they would have performed the procedure at all for fear of breaking the law and going to jail or losing their license in order to save my wife. | ||
| I thank my wife Katie for allowing me to share our story. | ||
| And I share it because it's not ours alone. | ||
| Countless women and families with dreams for their children and their future face difficult decisions and unthinkable circumstances every day. | ||
| Our government has no business intruding on a family's deeply personal medical decisions. | ||
| Yet, the Supreme Court's Dobbs decision has opened the floodgate for states to rob women and families of the ability to make health care choices with their doctors, including the very difficult choice to access legal and oftentimes medically necessary abortions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman's time has expired. | |
| They are now using this bill built on a despicable lie rooting in neither medical science nor science to restrict access to abortion nationwide. | ||
| It would levy criminal charges against health care practitioners and providers, jeopardizing their ability to deliver proper medical care to women and impact people all over this country. | ||
| Today I will vote no on H.R. 21. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to do the same. | ||
| No to criminalizing health care. | ||
| No to imposing more hurt on families facing very difficult days. | ||
| The morning after we said goodbye to Bridget, I woke up in the hospital and a rainbow appeared. | ||
| It was a sign from above our baby girl, Bridget Nicole, was home in heaven. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| I want to thank Mr. Kennedy. | ||
| I want to thank Ms. Morrison. | ||
| I want to thank Ms. Clark for their poignant, riveting personal testimony. | ||
| I hope our colleagues are listening to our colleagues over here. | ||
| This bill is all about demonizing women, threatening doctors, exploiting other people's tragedies, and dividing the country. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from Texas, is recognized. | |
| I thank the Speaker. | ||
| Our heart goes out to our colleagues who have suffered personal tragedies. | ||
| Unfortunately, none of the things that were just described to this bill are true. | ||
| The bill does none of those things. | ||
| I will yield the pro-live caucus, Mr. Smith. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| Thank you for my friend for yielding. | ||
| The gentleman recognizes Ann Wagner for her tremendous leadership and for her courage in authoring this important bill. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, in a Florida abortion clinic, Secloria Williams delivered a perfectly healthy live baby girl at 23 weeks. | ||
| The clinic owner took the baby, who was gasping for air, cut her umbilical cord, threw her into a biohazard bag, and put the bag into the trash like so much garbage. | ||
| Heartbroken, Ms. Williams later had a funeral for her baby girl, who she named Shanice. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, why are these live births so little known? | ||
| And we're talking about, in most cases, perfectly healthy babies were killed, but they survived. | ||
| The Philadelphia Inquirer did a cover story years ago called The Dreaded Complication. | ||
| And in it, the abortionists were complaining that so many children were surviving late-term abortions and they didn't know what to do. | ||
| The partial birth abortion ban where the baby's brains are sucked out, which we did, the ban, but the actual procedure, was in part a response to that. | ||
| They wanted to ensure that the baby was dead. | ||
| But in that article, Dr. Willard Cates, former head of the Center for Disease Control Abortion Surveillance Unit, said, and I quote, live births are little known because organized medicine, from fear of public clamor and legal action, treats them more as an embarrassment to be hushed up than a problem to be solved. | ||
| It's like turning yourself into the IRS for an audit. | ||
| What is there to gain? | ||
| The tendency is not to report because there are only negative consequences. | ||
| Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Kosnell, one of the few who got caught, was convicted for murder for killing so many children and women at his abortion clinic in Philadelphia. | ||
| The grand jury described it this way. | ||
| Gosnell had a simple solution for unwanted babies. | ||
| He delivered them. | ||
| He killed them. | ||
| He didn't call it that. | ||
| He called it ensuring fetal demise. | ||
| The way he ensured fetal demise was by sticking scissors into the back of the baby's neck and cutting the spinal cord. | ||
| He called that snipping. | ||
| These children are not junk. | ||
| They cannot be treated as so much garbage. | ||
| This legislation strives to say we need to protect them once they were born after the abortion. | ||
| The Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act seeks to end or at least mitigate this egregious child abuse by requiring that a health care provider must, and this is from the bill, exercise the same degree of professional care, skill, diligence to preserve the life and health of the child as a reasonably diligent and conscientious health care practitioner would render to any other child born alive. | ||
| Why can't we have that standard to try to save that child? | ||
| The bill empowers women upon whom the abortion is performed to obtain appropriate relief and civil action. | ||
| Yeah, we passed a bill like this. | ||
| Steve Shabbat was the prime sponsor years ago, but the enforcement has been almost nil, if not none. | ||
| This is humane, pro-child, pro-human rights legislation. | ||
| And I hope my colleagues on the other side will realize these children have great values. | ||
| They should not be treated like junk. | ||
| Reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Texas Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I appreciate the passionate vehemence of the gentleman, but the whole substance of his argument completely undercuts the meaning of their bill. | ||
| The case that I could hear him talking about of Kermit Baron Gosnell was of an American serial killer who indeed engaged in precisely the conduct the gentleman's talking about and was convicted of murder in Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia. | ||
| Infanticide is against the law in 50 states in America, and this guy was picked up for the conduct the gentleman spoke of, and he was prosecuted for it, and he was sent to jail. | ||
| No, I will not. | ||
| I'd like my time restored if I could, and I want to yield one minute to the distinguished ranking member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Ms. Scanlon from Pennsylvania. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman is recognized. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Look, we're here again because Republicans have prioritized a bill designed to make headlines, not good law. | ||
| H.R. 21 is designed to mislead the public about those who need abortion care and the doctors who provide that care. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| As stated, the law of the land is that doctors have an obligation to provide appropriate medical care to their patients, including infants, and no one here is advocating for infanticide. | ||
| But this bill goes farther than restating the current law. | ||
| And it's our job here to read the fine print. | ||
| This bill would create harsh criminal and financial penalties for doctors and clinicians providing medically necessary and appropriate care to their patients. | ||
| As Representative Kennedy's heartbreaking testimony just made clear, every pregnancy is different. | ||
| Patients and providers have to be able to make the health care decisions that are right for their families without politicians mandating a one-size-fits-all approach and threatening health care providers who disagree. | ||
| So Republican extremists can continue attacking health care providers and women's fundamental freedoms. | ||
| But we're going to keep fighting to ensure that women can make their own health care decisions. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Excellent. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from Texas, is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I would like to yield one and a half minutes to my friend and the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Murphy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank the gentleman from Texas. | ||
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I am a health care provider. | ||
| I've been doing one for 30 years. | ||
| I rise today in support of the Born Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act to protect the lives of our country's most innocent. | ||
| This is not about abortion. | ||
| As a physician, it is beyond my comprehension that anyone would not intervene to save an innocent and defenseless human life. | ||
| I cannot, in my deepest soul, understand how anyone would not come to the aid of a helpless infant child. | ||
| Neglect in this instance, the baby is outside the mother's body, is murder. | ||
| Plain and simple. | ||
| There have been so many instances of individuals who are alive today who were saved after an attempted abortion. | ||
| They testify how their life was saved because some physician abided by their oath, primum non no sere, do no harm. | ||
| The child is born alive. | ||
| It is not part of the mother's body. | ||
| This is not about abortion. | ||
| Neglect is harm. | ||
| Neglect is immoral. | ||
| Abortion is not the issue. | ||
| I strongly support this bill, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, and I urge my colleagues to do the same. | ||
| And I urge my colleagues across the aisle to understand the delineation between an abortion and trying to save the life of someone who survives an abortion. | ||
| That I yield back. | ||
| I appreciate the powerful words from my friend from North Carolina, and I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Texas Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield one minute to the gentleman from New York, Mr. Napler. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Speaker, I strongly oppose this legislation, which is not rooted in medical realities. | |
| Physicians do not abort babies after birth, period. | ||
| Health care providers have always been legally required to provide appropriate care. | ||
| Patients and providers must be free to make health decisions based on their circumstances without political interference. | ||
| But I will tell you what this bill will do. | ||
| It will cause more pain and suffering for families who are already facing an extraordinarily heartbreaking situation. | ||
| In many cases, it may be safer and healthier to treat a baby at the birth location rather than wasting precious time traveling to a hospital. | ||
| But this bill would take that medical judgment away from doctors and give it to politicians, putting infants' lives at greater risk. | ||
| That's outrageous. | ||
| This bill is not about protecting children. | ||
| It's about controlling women's lives. | ||
| Republicans campaigned on the promise that they would not ban abortion. | ||
| Yet here we are in the first month of the new Congress, and the GOP has already brought this cruel bill to the floor in an effort to advance a dangerous agenda to ban abortion nationwide, although this bill really will ban no abortions at all, but rather will threaten the lives of some newborns. | ||
| It is shameful. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to reject this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from Texas, is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| I would now yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Hondur. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| Today I rise in strong support of H.R. 21, the Born-Alive Abortion Survivor Protection Act. | ||
| This legislation says that infants who are born alive after an attempted abortion are entitled to the same respect and medical care that would be provided to the same infant of the same gestational age. | ||
| In some late-term abortions, the abortionist is unsuccessful at ending the life of the baby and the baby is born alive. | ||
| Babies are able to move and to breathe on their own. | ||
| And even pro-abortion academics admit this is often the case. | ||
| It is not rare. | ||
| A June 2024 article published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that of 14,000 second trimester abortions, over 1,500 babies were born alive, a rate of 11.2%. | ||
| This legislation, unfortunately, is necessary due to heartbreaking reports of abortionists in the United States placing these living, breathing babies in biohazard bags, vats of formaldehyde, or storing them away in a utility closet to die alone. | ||
| And in that sense, there is a complete analogy between what goes on in these abortions after these abortions and what Kermit Gosnell did and languished in prison for. | ||
| This common sense legislation requires that abortion survivors be treated with dignity. | ||
| Remember, this bill applies to the baby's right to care after a baby is born alive and has no implication for abortion or the mother's health. | ||
| I yield an additional 10 seconds. | ||
| I thank the gentlelady from my home state of Missouri for bringing forward this important bill. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Reserve. | |
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| The chair lays before the house the following enrolled bill. | ||
| Senate 5, an act to require the Secretary of Homeland Security to take into custody aliens who have been charged in the United States with theft and for other purposes. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We have a letter which I want to submit to the Speaker for the record calling this a dangerous government intrusion into medical care which injects politicians into the patient-provider relationship signed by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Academy of Nursing, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Public Health Association, the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine, and a dozen other organizations. | ||
|
Pregnancy Tragedies and Rights
00:15:29
|
||
| I now yield one minute to the distinguished member of the Judiciary Committee, Representative McBath, who herself has experienced three miscarriages and had to give birth to a stillborn child. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman is recognized. | |
| I'd always wanted to start a family of my own, but like many women in America, I struggled to get pregnant. | ||
| And some days I kept praying to God, wondering if he was ever going to allow me to have a child at all. | ||
| And for far too many women in this country, the miracle of pregnancy often ends in tragedy. | ||
| Our state of Georgia has one of the worst rates of maternal death in this country, and black mothers face even worse statistics. | ||
| And now, extremists want to mandate our health care decisions and intimidate our doctors with political games that cut off access to care. | ||
| Care that once saved my life. | ||
| My story is not unique. | ||
| Lives are at risk, and I fear for the safety of families in Georgia and across the country if these attempts succeed. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from Texas, is now recognized. | |
| Reserve. | ||
| The gentleman from Texas Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is now recognized. | ||
| I would like to yield one minute to the gentlelady from California, Ms. Kamlaugur Dove. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlewoman is recognized. | |
| Madam Speaker, I rise today to call out the glaring hypocrisy of H.R. 21. | ||
| Once again, the Republican Party is twisting the truth instead of telling the truth. | ||
| With H.R. 21, Republicans claim they are saving lives of newborn babies. | ||
| Last night checked, infanticide is already illegal in all 50 states. | ||
| This bill is the first step of the Republicans' radical agenda to make us last less safe. | ||
| They boast about being the party of law and order. | ||
| However, it seems that notion only applies when punishing women and health care providers, not the violent insurrectionists who stormed our Capitol on January 6th. | ||
| Shamefully, they don't seem to care about the five Capitol police officers who died as a result of January 6th or the 104 others who were injured. | ||
| What happened to back the blue? | ||
| They also don't seem to care about the women who have already died as a result of Donald Trump's extreme abortion ban. | ||
| Apparently, not all lives matter. | ||
| The goal of H.R. 21 is clear, to further strip women of their fundamental rights by threatening doctors and health care providers with jail time. | ||
| So now Republicans want to lock up those who save lives while freeing cop killers. | ||
| It is radical and not what the American people want. | ||
| Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to stand with their constituents, not against them, and vote no on this dangerous, grossly hypocritical, and unnecessary bill. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| And we reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman from Maryland Reserves, the gentleman from Texas is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Madam Speaker. | ||
| My colleagues like to dismiss this as if it's not a real problem. | ||
| Of course, those that have suffered through it, including the baby that I described that was being held as it was dying for 45 minutes after such a grotesque procedure, beg to differ, as do the 143 babies that the CDC, hardly a paragon of pro-life propaganda, the CDC writes that between 2003 and 2014, | ||
| at least 143 babies died after being born alive. | ||
| Hardly a fiction. | ||
| Hardly something that we should ignore. | ||
| Certainly, these are babies deserving of equal protection under the law, and our fellow Americans deserve protection. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| Representative Wasserman Schultz from Florida. | ||
| One minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise in strong opposition to the Republicans' Reproductive Health Care Surveillance Act. | ||
| This bill is the very definition of a wolf in sheep's clothing. | ||
| It uses an intentionally scary title that simply doesn't happen. | ||
| Babies born alive are not killed by abortions after birth. | ||
| Republicans pretend to support families and pregnant women, but this bill is clearly another attempt to control a woman's body. | ||
| It is a bill to wedge the government between couples and their doctor when faced with incredibly difficult decisions. | ||
| This bill pushes lies and misinformation about pregnancy and abortion care. | ||
| It targets women who received heartbreaking diagnoses of serious health complications, the kind of complications that put the life of a fetus or their own life at risk. | ||
| That's why the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists strongly oppose this legislation. | ||
| These are the very frontline medical professionals who provide care for women throughout their pregnancy. | ||
| We all know women who are suffering due to the Republicans' agenda that puts pregnant women in the crosshairs of their extremism. | ||
| Sadly, these tragic stories are not hard to find in my home state of Florida. | ||
| Please, let's not create more of them. | ||
| We must reject these attacks and stand up for women in our country. | ||
| I urge my colleagues to vote no, and I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman yields. | |
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman Reserves, gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | |
| For those who are not here at the beginning, I would repeat the testimony of Jill Stanning, who testified before the House Judiciary Committee. | ||
| After seeing the horrific realities, she was a nurse and she saw a child being aborted, was alive, and was left to die alone in a utility closet. | ||
| She went over and held the little survivor for 45 minutes until the baby died. | ||
| Again, the baby had been aborted because the baby had Down syndrome. | ||
| I want to remind that Virginia Governor Northam said, quote, the infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that's what the mother and the family desired. | ||
| We're talking about a fellow living American baby. | ||
| That's what we're talking about. | ||
| We're not talking about abortion. | ||
| We're talking about a child. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, the gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | |
| I recognize the chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus, Representative Leisure Fernandez, for one minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, when I was pregnant, I ended up in an emergency room, raving my ultrasound picture showing I was pregnant. | ||
| I was so proud. | ||
| After multiple miscarriages, I wanted to keep this pregnancy so I didn't take anesthesia. | ||
| As I lay bleeding on that operating table, I could hear the doctors yelling, we're losing her. | ||
| We're losing her. | ||
| My doctors had to worry about keeping me alive that day, but they didn't have to worry about going to jail for any decision I made. | ||
| But today, Republicans would criminalize reproductive health care nationwide. | ||
| Women experiencing heartbreaking, life-threatening pregnancies will die on the operating table because doctors will be scared of going to jail for five years under this bill. | ||
| Republicans don't seem to care about these deadly consequences. | ||
| Do they care about women at all? | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yields. | |
| Gentlemen Reserves, gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Well, there are a lot of strong women on this side of the aisle that would beg to differ, including the lead author of the legislation. | ||
| And I would note that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle refuse to focus on the main point. | ||
| Born alive. | ||
| We're talking about, again, a fellow living human being, a fellow American that is alive. | ||
| My colleagues don't want to address that because they know the horrors of that will not be accepted by the American people. | ||
| Because we're just simply saying that when you have a living human being, it should be protected and be given the same equal protection as any other American. | ||
| And the fact of the matter is, this is real life that we're dealing with. | ||
| 284 babies were reported to have been born alive between 1997 and 2024. | ||
| Florida alone reported 14 babies born alive in 2023. | ||
| This is a real issue. | ||
| And we're just simply saying these precious babies, fellow Americans, deserve protection because they are alive. | ||
| And the Hippocratic Oath and doctors should care for these living fellow Americans. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman in reserves, gentlemen from Maryland is recognized. | |
| I yield one minute to the distinguished gentlelady from Oregon, Representative Bonamici, who's the mother of two wonderful grown children and a consumer advocate. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak against this extreme legislation that would criminalize doctors. | ||
| As we've heard, killing a baby is already against the law. | ||
| What we should be doing is working together to get accurate health care information to anyone who's pregnant or who wants to be pregnant. | ||
| So here's a real story from Oregon. | ||
| A county public health clinic closed, and when a local woman, Mr. Period, she went to a so-called crisis pregnancy center. | ||
| She got a test and an ultrasound. | ||
| The center said, you're pregnant. | ||
| All is well. | ||
| You should plan for a new baby. | ||
| Well, a month later, she was hemorrhaging. | ||
| She went to the emergency department where the doctor diagnosed uterine polyp and early cancer. | ||
| And that blurry ultrasound she got at the crisis pregnancy center, it was not a baby. | ||
| It was impacted stool in her colon. | ||
| She was obviously and dangerously misdiagnosed. | ||
| And sadly, stories like this are not uncommon, which is why I will soon introduce the Stop Anti-Abortion Disinformation Act to prohibit unfair and deceptive advertising of services by crisis pregnancy centers. | ||
| They often engage in deception to get people in, and then they mislead them about the services they provide and often tragically mislead them about their condition. | ||
| Now, that's a real problem and one that makes a compelling case, not for this bill, but for comprehensive reproductive health care. | ||
| I please vote no on this bill, and I yield. | ||
| Thanks to the gentlelady, we reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman in reserves, the gentleman from Texas is recognized. | |
| I thank the Speaker. | ||
| I was just handed by my pro-life female legislative director, by the way, information here about pregnancy centers. | ||
| Pregnancy resource centers nationwide serve millions of pregnant women and new mothers each year. | ||
| These centers provide services and resources at no charge, often at no charge, and include ultrasounds, pregnancy testing, STD testing, diapers and clothing, and educational programs. | ||
| Private and public adoption agencies assisted in approximately 115,000 adoptions in 2022. | ||
| These are organizations and entities that want to protect life. | ||
| But again, I will note that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will not address, do not want to address, the simple purpose of this bill, protecting a living American from being allowed to die without having medical treatment provided to that child. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| I yield one minute to the Chair Emerita of the Democratic Women's Caucus, Representative Franco of Florida, a proud mother and grandmother. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| My, my, my, here we go again. | ||
| This bill is not about protecting anyone. | ||
| It's about intimidating doctors and making it harder for women to get the care they need. | ||
| Let's be clear. | ||
| Every baby born in this country is already protected under the law. | ||
| The bill creates unnecessary rules that aren't based on medical facts or science, and it threatens health care providers with jail for doing their job. | ||
| Instead of focusing on real issues like making health care more affordable or addressing the maternal health care crisis, Republicans are doubling down on their dangerous agenda, banning abortion nationwide. | ||
| Women, women deserve the freedom to make their own medical decisions without politicians getting in the way. | ||
| That's why I strongly oppose this very deadly bill. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We ask the mothers and fathers of America, who do you want in the doctor's office with you making this decision, a medical decision, OBGYNs and doctors who vehemently oppose this legislation, or the mega-politicians who are applauding this week the release of hundreds of violent cop-assaulting convicted felons. | ||
| The vast majority of the American people reject this legislation and say, let us trust the medical practitioners we reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| We're going to talk about jail and we're going to talk about who might be pardoned. | ||
| I'm proud that President Trump seems to be on the verge of pardoning a large number of American citizens who have been put in jail at the hands of a weaponized Department of Justice against American citizens simply carrying out their First Amendment rights to speak out in defense of life. | ||
| For example, Lauren Handy, 31 years old, and by the way, an active progressive activist for human rights. | ||
| And she was put in jail for 57 months. | ||
| I am glad that it seems that President Trump is on the verge of pardoning Lauren Handy, even though I disagree with her on a whole lot of issues. | ||
| I was proud to sit with her and meet with her when she was being targeted for prosecution by the weaponized Department of Justice under Joe Biden to be put in jail because she's pro-life. | ||
| And I think it is a great thing that that's going to happen. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | |
| I'm happy to yield one minute to the distinguished representative from California, Representative Jacobs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member. | ||
| It is sadly unsurprising to me that members of this body know next to nothing about pregnancy or abortion care, which is why we should not be the ones getting involved in these decisions in the first place. | ||
| So let's clear a few things up for my colleagues. | ||
| First of all, killing a baby is already illegal in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. | ||
| It is called murder, and we already have criminal penalties for it. | ||
| Second of all, no one, and I mean no one, goes through eight or nine months of pregnancy and all that comes with it, morning sickness, heartburns, swollen ankles, and all of the other uncomfortable and painful parts of pregnancy, and then after eight or nine months of that, is just like, nah, I don't want to do this. | ||
| Only 1% of all abortions happen at 21 weeks or later, and if they do, it is because of a serious fetal abnormality or the health of the mother. | ||
|
Babies and Medical Care
00:15:48
|
||
|
unidentified
|
And if you are the one getting that news, it is heartbreaking, it is earth-shattering, and the last thing families need is government to interfere with their access to care. | |
| This bill isn't based on science or reality. | ||
| It is a horrible, disgusting bill, and I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, my distinguished colleague from Texas keeps referencing his female staff and colleagues, but it seems like there's been a co-ed exodus from his side of the aisle as support for this bill vanishes. | ||
| Meantime, I don't have enough time, and I'm happy to be yielded time to share with my colleagues, and I will reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time each side has? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Texas has eight and a half minutes. | |
| The gentleman from Maryland has nine and a half minutes. | ||
| How many? | ||
| Sorry? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Eight and a half minutes for the gentleman from Texas, nine and a half minutes for the gentleman from Maryland. | |
| Well, I would just simply say I'm proud to have my colleague here from Minnesota, co-ed, last time I checked. | ||
| The fact of the matter is, as my friend from Maryland is trying to allude to here, when we're talking about in the last speaker about it's oh, it's already against the law and it's murder on the books. | ||
| Well, here's the problem. | ||
| We've got here in the District of Columbia, we have the DC5, which were very clearly full-term abortions. | ||
| We've got the bodies of five babies discovered in Washington outside of a Washington clinic. | ||
| And as subcommittee chairman, I sent a letter to Washington, D.C. authorities to preserve the records. | ||
| Biden's Department of Justice refused to look into this information, but the five reveals the uncomfortable truth about abortion and a reality that we're all dealing with here. | ||
| And again, I go back to the point, talking about murder. | ||
| We're also talking about babies being allowed to die. | ||
| Babies being allowed to sit there and literally gasp out their last breath rather than have doctors resuscitate those infants. | ||
| That's the truth that our colleagues on the other side of the official just simply do not want to recognize. | ||
| With that, I would reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| I'm yielding one minute to the very distinguished representative from Oregon, Representative Bynum, the mother of two. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| This extremist bill undermines women's access to health care. | ||
| That's unacceptable, and it's frankly not what I was sent here to work on. | ||
| So I'll be voting no. | ||
| The evidence is clear. | ||
| In states with less access to care, maternal mortality is higher, infant deaths are higher, and racial inequities are greater. | ||
| These restrictions also make it harder for expecting mothers to receive the care they need in pregnancies with complications. | ||
| It's nonsense that my daughters have less rights than I did at their age. | ||
| It's nonsense that we have had to decide with them where to live and where to go to school based on where they have rights. | ||
| And it's nonsense that my daughters are less safe because of government interference in their health care. | ||
| It's time House Republicans put aside this foolishness and start focusing on real issues, like eliminating maternal mortality and increasing rural access to health care, like lowering costs and creating good jobs, like working across the aisle to deliver real results for the gentlewoman's time has expired. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman reserves. | |
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| I'd yield one minute to my good friend from Minnesota. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| And I just have to bring this back to what we're talking about because I've heard so many passionate words from the other side, and the words have nothing to do with the bill that we have in front of us. | ||
| Like I mentioned before, this bill is about medical care for babies. | ||
| It says it in the title. | ||
| The clerk mentioned it. | ||
| I've mentioned it. | ||
| It is about medical care for babies. | ||
| What we are trying to do here today is make sure that babies are treated with dignity and medical care that they will need so that babies aren't left to die in a closet alone and discarded like medical waste. | ||
| We recognize the humanity of these babies. | ||
| We ask for them to have medical care. | ||
| That is what this is about. | ||
| Don't let the other side gaslight you and pretend this is about abortion rights. | ||
| This is about babies and medical care, and I will continue to repeat that. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| I yield, Mr. Speaker. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Reserve. | |
| The gentleman reserves. | ||
| The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| Delighted to yield one minute to the co-chair of the Reproductive Freedom Caucus, Representative Presley from Massachusetts. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Raskin. | ||
| Well, another day under Republican majority of an anti-science, anti-facts health care agenda. | ||
| I don't know which is worse, the cruelty or the ignorance on full display here across the aisle. | ||
| I would ask my colleagues: have you ever met or spoke to a woman who had an abortion care late in pregnancy? | ||
| If you had, what you would have heard her share is about the nursery that she lovingly decorated. | ||
| If you had, what you would have heard her share was about the name that she picked out. | ||
| If you had, then you would have heard her share about how her world collapsed. | ||
| All around her were learning of her baby's devastating medical diagnosis. | ||
| Let me be clear what you're doing here. | ||
| You're not only putting women's lives at risk, but you want to deny them the chance to hold their baby who will not survive. | ||
| I don't know what God you serve. | ||
| God I serve is one of love and mercy and would not deny a mother final moments with a dying child or subject her to carrying a lifeless fetus around. | ||
| You want to force your way into the exam room during one of the most impossible dangerous moments in someone's life. | ||
| When a family learns their baby has a fatal diagnosis and we've been born with only a short time to live, some people make the decision to end the pregnancy so they can hold their baby during their final moments. | ||
| I yield the lady an additional 20 seconds. | ||
| How cruel the Republicans in Congress would deny them that small comfort. | ||
| In these dire situations, families forgo treatment, which has no hope of saving their babies' lives, and instead spend time comforting them and saying goodbye. | ||
| Physicians who care for families have shared how their patients spend this very limited, devastating time with their infants. | ||
| So once again, we have ignorant, uninformed men who think they know better than doctors and mothers taking to the House floor to deny us our medical care. | ||
| Another day under Republican majority. | ||
| Enough. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Gianna Jesson, another adult survivor of abortion, testified to the House Judiciary Committee in 2015, stating, quote, I was delivered alive at an abortion clinic in Los Angeles on April 6, 1977. | ||
| Thankfully, the abortionist was not at work yet, because had he been there, he would have ended my life with strangulation, suffocation, or leaving me there to die. | ||
| I will have plenty to answer for when I meet my Maker and talk to the good Lord for my life as a flawed and sinned human being. | ||
| But I will not have to answer for not standing up in every way that I possibly can to stop those kinds of horrors and to stand up for a fellow living American, a fellow living human being allowed to die for the political whims of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. | ||
| I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, gentlemen from Maryland is recognized. | |
| Delighted to yield one minute to the distinguished representative from New York's fourth, Representative Gillen, the mother of four. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Thank you, Ranking Member. | ||
| I rise in strong opposition to this bill. | ||
| Since the disastrous Dobbs decision, we've seen nothing short of an all-out assault on women's reproductive rights and freedoms. | ||
| Make no mistake, this bill has nothing to do with its fallacious title. | ||
| Infanticide is already a crime. | ||
| Instead, this bill is aimed at deterring physicians from providing reproductive health care that is many times life-saving. | ||
| I know this firsthand because when I was supposed to be thrilled by a 20-week sonogram, I got the devastating news that my daughter had no heartbeat. | ||
| And I needed to have an emergency abortion procedure to ensure that I could live to raise my two children already at home. | ||
| It is unthinkable that this law and laws like it are trying to strip my daughters of the same access to this health care. | ||
| Americans want Congress to lower costs, secure our border, and create jobs, not interfere with heartbreaking family medical decisions. | ||
| America's women deserve better. | ||
| Our daughters deserve better. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Well, thank you. | ||
| Thank you for your eloquent words. | ||
| When will they stop feeding on other people's tragedies? | ||
| We don't need MAGA in the delivery room. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | |
| Reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, gentlemen from Maryland is recognized. | |
| Delighted to yield one minute to the distinguished gentlelady from Oregon, Representative Dexter, the mother of two and a critical care physician. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I rise today in vehement opposition to this bill, which amounts to legalizing physician intimidation and health care obstruction. | ||
| Killing infants after birth is murder. | ||
| It is illegal everywhere in this country. | ||
| This bill is a thinly veiled attempt to make health care providers fear that they will be criminally prosecuted or sued for giving life-saving, legal health care. | ||
| Under this bill, infants born with a heartbeat but without any chance of survival must be subjected to immediate traumatizing life support rather than being allowed to die peacefully in their mother's arms. | ||
| This bill does nothing to save babies or protect mothers. | ||
| Instead, it is a disgusting fear tactic and it will absolutely exacerbate the already dire shortage of women's health care across this nation. | ||
| Make no mistake, women across this country will be harmed with this bill. | ||
| No doctor should have to choose between administering the treatment their patient needs and going to jail. | ||
| And no politician should be making decisions about any patient's health care. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves, gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| I would just note that in the very text of the legislation, Congress finds, one, if an abortion results in the live birth of an infant, the infant is a legal person for all purposes under the laws of the United States and entitled to all the protection of such laws. | ||
| Two, any infant born alive after an abortion or within a hospital, clinic, or other facility has the same claim to the protection of the law that would arise for any newborn, for any person who comes to a hospital clinic or other facility for screening and treatment or otherwise becomes a patient within its care. | ||
| That is hardly anything to do with what my colleagues on the other side of the aisle are talking about. | ||
| And we just heard one of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle describe very specifically, yes, what we're trying to say we shouldn't do, which is after a procedure, an abortion, or otherwise, if you have a living human being, that yes, you should try to resuscitate and save that child. | ||
| I would yield one minute to my friend from Virginia, Mr. Klein. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| I thank the gentleman for yielding. | ||
| I know that this has been discussed already, but in Virginia, this has been talked about quite a bit. | ||
| And that is because our governor, former governor, Ralph Northam, was the one who really laid bare the horrible attitude on the left that if a child is born with some abnormalities, | ||
| that after that child is born, that child may not necessarily be given life-sustaining treatment. | ||
| But instead, according to our former governor, a conversation between the mother and the physician would ensue about whether or not to attempt to save this child's life after it had been born. | ||
| And so this is a tragic story of just how far the left has gone, the attitudes toward children born alive, and we must do all we can to stop this treatment of human beings. | ||
| And I yield back. | ||
| I think the gentleman I reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentleman Reserves, gentlemen from Maryland is recognized. | |
| I yield one minute to the gentlelady from California, Ms. Simon, a mother of two who, like so many women, was forced to make a choice when her child died in utero. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you, Ranking Member. | ||
| I oppose this misleading bill that deeply will criminalize doctors who provide the most basic and emergency health care to women. | ||
| His name was Sela. | ||
| Sela Weston. | ||
| At 21 weeks, his faint heartbeat clapped right next to my daughter's. | ||
| He was a twin. | ||
| I was given the opportunity to go home and perhaps Sela would expel himself from my body, but we, all three of us, became septic. | ||
| I had to go back to the emergency room and my OBGYN sat with me and my then husband, who is now two in heaven, and gave us the opportunity to say either we go through this procedure or you die, Layla dies, and Sayla dies. | ||
| I want Congress not to be in those conversations with OBGYNs who have to mourn with women who are facing death. | ||
| I strongly oppose this bill. | ||
| And if we want to talk about children, let's talk about child care. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's talk about housing. | |
| Let's talk about health care. | ||
| We can come together and create beloved communities for our children and parents. | ||
| This ain't it. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen Reserves. | |
| Gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Reserve. | ||
| Gentlemen Reserves. | ||
| Gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| I yield two minutes to the very distinguished gentlelady from California, Ms. Troup. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| H.R. 21 would rob families of the ability to make difficult, complicated medical decisions in some of the most heartbreaking circumstances imaginable. | ||
| It is a mean-spirited solution in search of a problem. | ||
| Infanticide is already illegal in every state of the union, and Congress unanimously affirmed this with a law in 2002. | ||
| But this bill is not about saving lives. | ||
| It's about spreading misinformation about abortion care to further anti-abortion talking points. | ||
| If the majority is interested in caring for newborns, I invite them to support Democrats' efforts to provide paid family leave to every new parent. | ||
|
Life Begins at Conception
00:03:48
|
||
| Republicans are welcome to join our efforts to expand the child tax credit to families struggling with paying the bills. | ||
| And we would be thrilled to have bipartisan support in this chamber to make child care affordable everywhere. | ||
| Instead, House Republicans have brought up a bill designed to intimidate doctors and perpetuate disinformation about how abortion care really works. | ||
| For this reason, at the appropriate time, I will offer a motion to recommit this bill back to committee. | ||
| If the House rules permit it, I would have offered my bill, the Women's Health Protection Act, legislation that would create a federal right to abortion care free from medically unnecessary restrictions in all 50 states in all zip codes. | ||
| I ask unanimous consent to insert into the record the text of this amendment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Without objection. | |
| Without objection. | ||
| I hope my colleagues will join me in voting for this motion to recommit. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentlewoman yields. | |
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Gentlemen reserves. | |
| Gentlemen from Texas is recognized. | ||
| Honored to yield one minute to my good friend from Georgia, Mr. Quad. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman is recognized. | |
| Thank you to my good friend from Texas. | ||
| You know, it's hard to imagine, hard to believe that we're actually here debating a Born Alive Act, that we actually have to do this. | ||
| The question is about life. | ||
| When does life begin? | ||
| And is government responsible for protecting life? | ||
| And I would say life begins at conception, and government is responsible for protecting life. | ||
| If we look at our Constitution, but yet go back to the document that is before our Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, what does it actually say? | ||
| It says we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and that they are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, and among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. | ||
| And that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. | ||
| So, what is one of the first unalienable rights? | ||
| Life. | ||
| Life. | ||
| And so, I guess the question is: when does life begin? | ||
| Life begins at conception. | ||
| And that's why I stand here in support of this bill, and I yield. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| Gentlemen in reserves, gentlemen from Maryland is recognized. | ||
| We have no further speakers. | ||
| We're ready to close. | ||
| The gentleman reserves prepare to close. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman from Maryland is recognized. | |
| Well, now we've had the opportunity to be lectured about life by a gun dealer. | ||
| That's pretty impressive. | ||
| And I think he gave the game away when he said he finished his remarks by saying life begins at conception, a proposition that's rejected by the overwhelming majority of the American people who think that women have a right to choose. | ||
| But that's a topic for another day. | ||
| After spending all their time saying it wasn't about abortion, I am afraid he gave the game away at the end. | ||
| This bill is an exercise in complete legislative redundancy. | ||
| It is an interference in other people's private and medical lives to prey on their personal tragedies and catastrophes, as we've heard throughout the debate. | ||
| And it is a shocking threat to send OBGYN doctors and physicians to jail at a time when we have a chronic shortage of OBGYN doctors and physicians, as well as nurses across the country. | ||
|
Legislating Life Rights
00:03:15
|
||
| Their bill proposes to move in exactly the wrong direction, which is perhaps why they had a shortage of speakers on their side and we had a shortage of time, because I could have had dozens more people who wanted to speak on behalf of the American majority against this absurd attempt to interfere in the medical lives of the American people. | ||
| We reserve. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Texas is recognized. | |
| Are they closing? | ||
| Well, we yield back if we're all done now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does the gentleman from Maryland yield? | |
| I yield. | ||
| Gentleman yields. | ||
| The gentleman from Texas is recognized. | ||
| I thank the Speaker. | ||
| Thank the gentleman from Maryland. | ||
| We started this about an hour ago, and I was moved to talk, as I said, about a woman that testified before the House Judiciary Committee. | ||
| And she described having been a nurse, having witnessed what occurred, where in her testimony, the child was born after the abortion procedure. | ||
| The child survived for 45 minutes, having been discarded into a utility closet. | ||
| And this nurse held this 22-week old child, a child of God, who had been aborted because the child had Down syndrome. | ||
| This legislation is very simple. | ||
| If a fellow American, a fellow human being who is afforded equal protection under the law is alive in a hospital, in a clinic, frankly, | ||
| anywhere where a doctor is there and present and can perform life-saving treatment, it is our position that that child is deserving of the same equal protection under the law under the Constitution of the United States as any other living American. | ||
| Any of us in the chamber, any of the Americans watching this now, that this child should not be left to die, should not be left in a utility closet without getting the care that a doctor who is present, having taken a Hippocratic oath, and could administer that care to save that child. | ||
| That is what this bill is about. | ||
| Nothing more. | ||
| My colleagues on the other side of the aisle know this. | ||
| It is why for the last hour they have literally refused to address those facts, have literally refused to defend the grotesque procedure that in the greatest country in the history of mankind, we allow the most vulnerable of our citizens to be denied equal protection under the law and denied the care that they deserve. | ||
|
Suspend Rules for Passage
00:03:26
|
||
| I urge support of this legislation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The gentleman yields. | |
| All time has expired for debate. | ||
| Pursuant to House Resolution 5, the previous question is ordered on the bill. | ||
| The question is on engrossment and third reading of the bill. | ||
| All those in favor say aye. | ||
| Those opposed say no. | ||
| Any opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| Third reading. | ||
| A bill to amend Title 18, United States Code, to prohibit a health care practitioner from failing to exercise a proper degree of care in the case of a child who survives an abortion or attempted abortion. | ||
| What purpose does the gentlewoman from California seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The clerk will report the motion. | |
| Ms. Chu of California moves to recommit the bill, H.R. 21, to the Committee on the Judiciary. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 2B of Rule 19, the previous question is ordered on the motion to recommit. | ||
| The question is on the motion. | ||
| All those in favor say aye. | ||
| All opposed say no. | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the no's have it. | ||
| The motion is not agreed. | ||
| Mr. Speaker, I ask for the yays and nays. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The yays and nays are requested. | |
| Those favoring a vote of the yays 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. | ||
| Proceedings will resume on questions previously postponed. | ||
| Votes will be taken in the following order. | ||
| The motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 375. | ||
| Passage of H.R. 471. | ||
| The motion to recommit on H.R. 21 and the passage of H.R. 21 if ordered. | ||
| The first electronic vote will be conducted as a 15-minute vote. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 9 of Rule 20, the remaining electronic votes will be conducted as five-minute votes. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from Arkansas, Mr. Westerman, to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 375 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title. | ||
| H.R. 375, a bill to require the Secretary of the Interior to partner and collaborate with the Secretary of Agriculture and the State of Hawaii to address rapid Ohio death and for other purposes. | ||
| The question is, will the House suspend the rules and pass the bill? | ||
| Members are ordered to record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a 15-minute vote. | ||
| This is the first and only vote series of the day here in the House and the last vote series for the week. | ||
| Right now, members voting on a bill debated earlier in the week requires the Interior Department to partner with the Agriculture Department and Hawaii to combat a fungal disease that's impacting the state's trees. | ||
| Two-thirds majority here needed for passage. | ||
| By the way, votes on the failed abortion bill that was just debated are coming up later in this series. | ||
|
Republican Contract Against America
00:15:28
|
||
|
unidentified
|
A quick reminder that we'll have live coverage of the anti-abortion March for Life rally tomorrow. | |
| It gets underway at noon Eastern. | ||
| We'll have live coverage from here in Washington, D.C. on C-SPAN at noon. | ||
| While members vote here, we'll show you House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries' weekly briefing. | ||
| We should also let you know: President Trump is signing another executive order in the Oval Office this afternoon. | ||
| We will attempt to bring that to you live when it gets underway. | ||
| It should be any moment. | ||
| In the meantime, Minority Leader Jeffreys. | ||
| Good morning, everyone. | ||
| Good morning, Jim. | ||
| House Republicans can no longer hide their intentions from the American people. | ||
| Their extreme budget plan is out. | ||
| It's a 50-page document. | ||
| I have it in my hands, and it's available for all of the American people to read. | ||
| The House Republican budget plan is a contract against America. | ||
| It will hurt working families, hurt the middle class, hurt our children, hurt our seniors, and hurt our veterans. | ||
| The House Republican contract against America will end Medicaid as we know it, destroy the Affordable Care Act, and eliminate the mortgage interest deduction, which will raise costs on tens of millions of working class and middle class Americans. | ||
| The House Republican contract against America is an extreme plan that will not lower costs for everyday Americans. | ||
| It will make our country more expensive. | ||
| House Democrats will oppose this extreme contract against America, and we will push back against it on behalf of everyday Americans with every fiber in our body. | ||
| Questions? | ||
| Chair? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good morning. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| We're approaching this deadline in mid-March to fund the government. | ||
| Can you give us some sense of specific things the Democrats would want in these negotiations? | ||
| Would you want the Obamacare tax cuts or the things that would go up for millions and millions of Americans to be maintained? | ||
| Would you push for the wildfires with the strings? | ||
| What are the two or three things you're going to want in that bill? | ||
| With respect to the upcoming March 14 spending deadline, Republicans now control the House, the Senate, and the presidency. | ||
| They promised the country that they would lower the high cost of living. | ||
| We are willing to work with our Republican colleagues to address the cost of living crisis that we have in the United States of America or any other issue that will improve the quality of life for working class Americans and the middle class. | ||
| What we are not willing to do is to enable extreme MAGA Republicans to have a blank check so they can enact massive tax breaks for billionaires and wealthy corporations and make working class Americans pay for it through cuts to Medicare, | ||
| Medicaid, Social Security, veterans benefits, or nutritional assistance. | ||
| The ball is in the Republicans' court right now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They're going to need your help on getting some votes on this. | |
| Have they come to you with some of these requests already? | ||
| The Republicans have not opened up any line of communication with us, and they've made clear to America that they have a big, massive, beautiful mandate, which presumably means to us that they intend to pass a spending agreement on their own, to avoid a government shutdown on their own, and to raise the debt ceiling on their own. | ||
| They've had no communications with us. | ||
| It's not hard to find me. | ||
| They know where I'm at. | ||
| They know my number. | ||
| I haven't received a single call about a single one of these issues. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Leader, so this morning, Republicans undealed the bill to end birthright citizenship for children whose parents are not either a lawful permanent resident or a U.S. citizen. | |
| What's your reaction? | ||
| House Democrats are prepared to work together with our Republican colleagues to find common ground with respect to securing our border, with respect to fixing our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way, | ||
| and with respect to defending dreamers, farm workers, and keeping families together, which is a high priority throughout the House Democratic Caucus. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So you reject a bill like this? | |
| I haven't seen the legislation, and so I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the legislation, but we have no plans to support any extreme agenda that the far right wants to jam down the throats of the American people. | ||
| We've made clear we will work together to secure our borders. | ||
| We will work together to fix our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way, and we will defend dreamers, farm workers, and families. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Leader. | |
| President, this week rolled back a number of diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, rolled back LBJs, affirmative action initiatives. | ||
| I wondered what effect do you think those have on American families and how Democrats are going to respond to them? | ||
| Diversity, equity, and inclusion are American values. | ||
| It's about economic opportunity for everyone. | ||
| We support merit for everyone based on what you know, not who you know. | ||
| The problem that seems to be unfolding is that there are some in this country who want an America of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires. | ||
| Not for working class Americans, middle-class Americans, or everyday Americans, a country of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires. | ||
| Diversity, equity, and inclusion are about economic opportunity for everyone, even if you're not wealthy, well-off, or well-connected. | ||
| These are values that everybody in this country should embrace. | ||
| And we're going to take this issue, working with the civil rights groups, head on. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Leader. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a follow-up to that question. | |
| Now, Dens, do you have a plan in place to combat Trump's DEI executive order? | ||
| Is that something that you're going to have to work on? | ||
| No president in the United States of America can change the Constitution or change law like the 1964 Civil Rights Act by way of example through executive action or executive order. | ||
| It can't happen. | ||
| So it's my expectation that in response to all of the activity that we've seen this week, it will unleash an avalanche of righteous litigation on behalf of the American people on that issue and on many other issues. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Leader Jeffreys. | |
| Since President Biden left the office, the Democratic Party doesn't have a clear leader as the face of the party. | ||
| Are you going to become that new leader, and is it something that you're looking at to assume this role? | ||
| It's my honor to serve as House Democratic Leader. | ||
| We've got a strong House Democratic caucus. | ||
| Republicans represent the smallest majority since the Great Depression. | ||
| When they're at full strength, and over the first 100 days, when there will be 217 Republicans and 215 Democrats, despite their claims of a big, bold, beautiful, massive mandate, we're searching for it in the House of Representatives. | ||
| We're going to stand up on behalf of everyday Americans as a caucus, as a unit, as a team. | ||
| And I'm proud to be in the leadership of that team. | ||
| And we recognize that House Democrats are on the front lines of many of the battles that will be fought in the year to come. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Trump just said to the crowd in Dalmat, we're working with the Democrats and getting an extension of the original Trump tax cuts, and we're bringing them down substantially even from the original Trump tax cuts, to be clear. | |
| You've not had any communication with the administration on working on extending the tax cuts. | ||
| And that doesn't sound like something you're planning to work with them on. | ||
| I have not had any communication with the President or the incoming administration on the issue of the GOP tax scam. | ||
| Here's what we know. | ||
| This document, the Republican Contract Against America. | ||
| The reason why it exists, the reason why there are so many extreme cuts in the GOP contract against America, including ending Medicaid as we know it, | ||
| eliminating the mortgage interest deduction, and slashing and burning the Affordable Care Act is because extreme MAGA Republicans in the House who put out this document want to enact massive tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations and stick working class Americans with the bill. | ||
| We're not down with that approach. | ||
| Can I say it any clearer? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Leader. | |
| Last year, House of Democrats spent a lot of time talking about Project 2025. | ||
| You spoke about it weekly during press conferences. | ||
| There was a big kind of hearing on it last September. | ||
| A lot of the executive orders that President Trump has signed come straight from Project 2025. | ||
| Now that you've had some time to think about it, do you think that House of Democrats did an effective job connecting with voters to warn them about the dangers of the executive orders that have now been signed in to return office? | ||
| Here's my assessment of what happened with respect to Project 2025. | ||
| Last year, Republicans across the country lied to the American people by claiming that they knew nothing about Project 2025 and have spent the first few weeks of this year implementing Project 2025. | ||
| They were not truthful with the American people. | ||
| And with respect to the high cost of living, the inverse has happened. | ||
| Last year, Republicans spent an excessive amount of time promising to lower the high cost of living for everyday Americans, promising to lower housing costs, lower grocery costs, lower insurance costs, lower child care costs, and lower utility costs, but this year have done nothing about it. | ||
| In fact, they're proposing the exact opposite. | ||
| The House Republican contract against America will raise costs on everyday Americans. | ||
| How dare they even contemplate eliminating the mortgage interest deduction? | ||
| That's a missile aimed directly at the financial heart of working class Americans and middle class Americans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Over the next two years, how will House Democrats fight back against those lies? | |
| You said that House Republicans lied to the American people about Project 2025. | ||
| How will House Democrats make that case to the American people over the next two years? | ||
| We're going to make sure consistently and authentically that we hold Republicans accountable, particularly here in the House of Representatives, when they were running away from Project 2025 and acting like it didn't exist, and now they've fallen in line as it relates to full implementation of the extreme Project 2025 agenda. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thanks, Leader Members. | ||
| There's new reporting that Republicans, House and Senate, are now weighing a plan to attach California wildfire aid to a debt ceiling hype. | ||
| Is that something the Democrats could support, not pairing? | ||
| It's a non-starter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
When it comes to California and the wildfires there, we've seen the fire chief have a back and forth with the mayor about funding the fire department. | |
| We've seen accusations of forest mismanagement. | ||
| Obviously, we're going to have a talk at some point about funding for California, but does there need to be a discussion about forest mismanagement, funding for firefighters? | ||
|
Florida's Insurance Crisis
00:02:14
|
||
|
unidentified
|
Do those things need to be talked about? | |
| There will be a time and place to do an after-action analysis as it relates to state preparation for extreme weather events, including but not limited to wildfires, | ||
| hurricanes in the southern part of the United States of America, floods all across the country, the rise of tornadoes that have appeared connected to hurricanes in places like Florida, | ||
| and a real assessment that needs to be made as to whether those states are actually prepared for the climate crisis in a meaningful way. | ||
| We should look into things like why are insurance costs through the roof in the great state of Florida? | ||
| Why hasn't anything been done about that? | ||
| Why are so many working class and middle class Floridians who are homeowners struggling? | ||
| Why has nothing been done in the state of Florida to deal with the insurance crisis that exists, notwithstanding that they are smack dab in the middle of the hurricane belt in the United States of America? | ||
| These are all legitimate questions. | ||
| And if the House Republicans want to have this discussion, we will make sure in the United States of America and in the Congress that it's a comprehensive one. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Peter Jeffries, are you concerned at all about the future of this administration when you're looking at the fact that during Inauguration Day, you had a long line of those tech billionaires who were present? | |
| Elon Musk is now reportedly has an office in the EEOB. | ||
|
Making Life More Affordable
00:03:34
|
||
|
unidentified
|
Do you think that there's a possibility that Silicon Valley could have more of an influence on the president and the decisions he makes? | |
| The bigger concern is what kind of America are we trying to create? | ||
| House Democrats are focused on making life more affordable for everyday Americans because we recognize that housing costs are too high, grocery costs are too high, insurance costs are too high, child care costs are too high, and utility costs are too high. | ||
| America is too expensive. | ||
| It is not acceptable in the wealthiest country in the history of the world that there are far too many Americans struggling to live paycheck to paycheck. | ||
| It's not an acceptable thing. | ||
| And House Democrats are ready willing and able to work with this administration and our Republican colleagues to build an affordable economy. | ||
| We are not going to work with our Republican colleagues to build a country of the billionaires by the billionaires and for the billionaires. | ||
| That is a path that we will not take. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thanks, Leader Jeffries. | |
| Last night, Shota Lake and Riley Act, almost four dozen of your conference voted for it, 48 the first time around. | ||
| Does that signal to you that the politics around immigration and the border are shifting in some way? | ||
| Obviously, this is not going to be the last bill related to these issues that y'all are going to have to vote on. | ||
| House Democrats are going to continue to make decisions based on what's right for the districts that we represent. | ||
| And the politics will take care of themselves as they did in the last election cycle. | ||
| 27 of 31 battleground members in the toughest districts throughout the country won in the so-called Republican wave year. | ||
| We won four out of five open seats that were in the congressional battleground in a so-called Republican wave year. | ||
| House Democrats flipped four seats in New York and three seats in California and a total of 10 seats across the country. | ||
| We're not concerned about the politics of any issue. | ||
| We're concerned about doing the right thing by the districts that we are all privileged to represent. | ||
| Our position on working to solve this problem is simple: we will work with anyone to secure our order. | ||
| We will work with anyone to fix our broken immigration system in a bipartisan and comprehensive way. | ||
| We will work with anyone to defend dreamers, farm workers, and families. | ||
|
Police Officers Subjected
00:03:04
|
||
| Is Mayor Eric Adams taking a firm enough stance on issues like raids at public schools, like birthright citizenship, which he's kind of demured on weighing in on? | ||
| And are you comfortable with his warming relationship with Trump? | ||
| To the extent that Eric Adams decides to seek reelection, the voters in the Democratic primary in New York City will make a decision, perhaps decisively, as to whether he is the right person to lead the great city of New York moving forward. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Talk to a lot of your members in the caucus and their staffers who say they are more concerned about their safety now because of these pardons. | |
| I see the poster next to you. | ||
| What do you think the safety and security implications are for Democrats, people in your district, because of the pardons? | ||
| Shameful that House Republicans have embraced the freeing of violent felons who brutally beat police officers on January 6th. | ||
| These are violent individuals who beat police officers severely with fire extinguishers, sticks, flagpoles, and other types of weapons. | ||
| Officers were tased. | ||
| Officers were subjected to bear spray and other toxic weapons. | ||
| And these violent criminals have been released, and those pardons have been embraced by House Republicans, including the top leadership. | ||
| The release of violent felons who brutally beat police officers and women doesn't make America safer. | ||
| It undermines public safety and community after community after community in the United States of America. | ||
| Same on my House, Republican colleagues. | ||
| What happened to backing the blue? | ||
| Next question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much for hearing from the new statesman. | |
| You just said that DEI represents American values. | ||
| I was wondering to what extent you've learned from the election in November, and I'm wondering to what extent your opinion on DEI has changed. | ||
| It seems like many of your co-patrons don't agree with you. | ||
|
Yea and Nay Votes
00:05:45
|
||
| It's not my understanding based on anything that I've seen that support for diversity, equity, and inclusion had anything to do with the results in November. | ||
| The results in November had everything to do with the high cost of living in the United States of America. | ||
| And that should be everyone's takeaway, along with the importance of working together to secure the border. | ||
| Diversity, equity, and inclusion are American values. | ||
| Perhaps I can explain. | ||
| The motto of the United States of America is E pluribus unum. | ||
| Out of many, one. | ||
| That's diversity. | ||
| The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution, one of the most important amendments in our country, provides equal protection under the law. | ||
| That's equity. | ||
| In this country, we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, a flag that we just presented to the new president and vice president. | ||
| And in that pledge, we promise one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. | ||
| A L L. That's inclusion. | ||
| Not complicated. | ||
| Diversity, equity, and inclusion are American values. | ||
| It's about economic opportunity. | ||
| It's about merit for everyone based on what you know, not who you know. | ||
| Thank you, everyone. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And waiting here for the last few votes to come in on a measure requiring the Interior Department to partner with the Agriculture Department and Hawaii to combat a fungal disease that's affecting the state's trees. | ||
| Two-thirds majority needed for passage. | ||
| Coming up next, a measure to help control recent wildfires. | ||
| Mr. Missouri. | ||
| On this vote, the yeas are 359, the nays are 62. | ||
| Two-thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is passed, and without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 to rule 20, the unfinished business is the vote on a passage of H.R. 471, on which the yeas and nays are ordered. | ||
| The clerk will report the title of the bill. | ||
|
unidentified
|
H.R. 471, bill to expedite under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 and improve forest management activities on National Forest System lands, on public lands under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management, and on tribal lands to return resilience to overgrown, fire-prone forested lands and for other purposes. | |
| The question is on passage of the bill. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So now House members are voting on a bill debated earlier today on the floor that creates a national fireshed registry of wildfire risks to expedite environmental reviews and to thin forests. | |
| A civil majority here needed for passage. | ||
| Yesterday, Congress approved a bill requiring undocumented immigrants who are arrested for theft or violent crimes to be held in jail for trial. | ||
|
House Speaker Signs Bill
00:05:01
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||
|
unidentified
|
It's the Lake and Riley Act, and it's the first bill passed under the new Trump administration. | |
| Earlier today, House Speaker Mike Johnson signed the measure. | ||
| Here's a look. | ||
| Something's going to change in here. | ||
| Where's Andrew? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| No, you came from me. | ||
| Yes. Hey. Hello. Hey. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Here you are. | |
| Good. | ||
| So good day. | ||
| I'm going to sign slowly, they tell me, so I can... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are we giving these away? | |
| Yep. | ||
| Okay, good. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Where's my mic? | ||
| Right ahead. | ||
| You get that. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| And then everybody gets one and we'll pretend that they were used. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm not that. | |
| Much better goals, man. | ||
| Much better. | ||
| Yeah, you know it is. | ||
| We're not talking about college football today, so I love you all. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mike. | |
| We're in a basketball now. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I know. | |
| He sees Benny Tate right here to the hard work. | ||
| What's that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's Danny Tate right there. | |
| Yeah, that's a nice guy. | ||
| He's back on the bridge. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Congratulations. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | ||
| Let me just say, as we're here today, that we're really grateful this will be the first bill signed by the President. | ||
| Mike Collins did extraordinary work of Georgia. | ||
| All the Georgia delegation worked so hard on this. | ||
| This is the right thing to do. | ||
| It's a really important moment for the country, and it's always good when the right thing is also the popular thing. | ||
| And this is what the American people demand and deserve. | ||
| They want accountability. | ||
| They want us to address the human catastrophe that has come from the broken, wide-open border that Biden, Harris, Mayorkis, and the team did for the country. | ||
| And we are so grateful we have a new commander-in-chief, a new sheriff in town, who is willing to stand for border security, safety, the sovereignty of the American people, and that we have all these strong leaders in Congress who are standing with the president to get this job done for the American people. | ||
| This is our priority. | ||
| It's the country's priority, and it is the right thing to do. | ||
| Our hearts, our prayers continue for Lake and his family and all those who've been affected by the violent criminals who have been allowed to come across that border. | ||
| We're going to stop it, and it begins today. | ||
| So thank you all for being here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| Thanks, Maddie. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Speaker? | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Thanks. | ||
| Thank you, Speaker. | ||
| All right. | ||
| I should have ordered that. | ||
| Thank you, Joe. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
While members continue voting here, We'll take you to the White House for remarks from President Trump earlier today, signing executive orders in the Oval Office. | |
| And some technology. | ||
| Do you want to explain that a little bit? | ||
| The basic idea is to get together top people from government, the private sector, technology industry, as well as educational institutions to make sure that America maintains its leadership position with respect to science and technology development in the years ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good. | |
| That's great. | ||
| Next, sir, we have a presidential memorandum encouraging departments and agencies in your government, including the Department of the Interior, to promote federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina. | ||
|
23 Pardons Announced
00:03:06
|
||
| I love the Lumbee tribe. | ||
| So this is their first big step, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
This would be a huge step for them. | |
| Yeah, they were with me all the way. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They were great. | |
| north carolina lumby track okay we'll send you'll send them a copy of that Yes, sir. | ||
| They were great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| And if you'd like, I could get them that pen, sir, as well. | ||
| Yeah, that's too. | ||
| Next, we have a set of pardons for peaceful pro-life protesters who were prosecuted by the Biden administration for exercising their First Amendment rights. | ||
| Do you know how many? | ||
| I believe it's 23, sir. | ||
| 23 people were prosecuted. | ||
| They should not have been prosecuted. | ||
| Many of them are elderly people. | ||
| They should not have been prosecuted. | ||
| This is a great honor to sign this. | ||
| Page of 141, the bill is passed. | ||
| Without objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table. | ||
| Pursuant to clause 8 of Rule 20, the unfinished business is a question on agreeing to the motion to recommit on HR 21 offered by the gentlewoman from California, Ms. Chu, on which the yays and nays were ordered. | ||
| The clerk will redesignate the motion. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Motion to recommit H.R. 21 offered by Ms. Chu of California. | |
| The questions on agreeing to the motion to recommit. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
A procedural vote now on a bill requiring health care practitioners providing medical care for a child born after a failed abortion. | |
| The bill is coming up this week, coinciding with Friday's anti-abortion March for Life. | ||
| Final passage is expected. | ||
| Next, take you back to President Trump's executive order signing a short time ago. | ||
| RFK U. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, sir. | |
| Okay? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Mr. Hesitant. | |
| Mr. President, a U.S. judge temporarily blocked the birthright citizenship order. | ||
| Do you have any reaction? | ||
| No, obviously we'll appeal it. | ||
| They put it before a certain judge in Seattle, I guess, right? | ||
| And there's no surprises with that judge. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, Senators Collins and Murkowski have now said they will vote against Pete Hegseth. | |
|
Use Recess Appointments?
00:05:03
|
||
|
unidentified
|
Are you worried about his confirmation and your reaction? | |
| And no surprises there. | ||
| It's too bad. | ||
| The way it is, too bad. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And when would you adjourn Congress to make recess appointments, Mr. President? | |
| Well, I'd take a look at that. | ||
| I've listened to John Thune. | ||
| He's doing a fantastic job. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're moving along. | |
| The Democrats are trying to delay government, as they always do. | ||
| They can't help themselves. | ||
| Even John Ratcliffe, who's very, very strong, very popular, and liked by the Democrats, I guess he gets a lot of Democrat votes. | ||
| That's taking a long time, and it shouldn't be taking a long time. | ||
| They're maxing everything out so they can delay everything as much as possible. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Does Senator then support an effort to use recess appointments if you choose to do that? | |
| I'd be willing to use recess appointments. | ||
| It's up to John. | ||
| We'll see. | ||
| John Thun's a great guy, great senator, knows his stuff inside out and backwards, but I would use recess appointments if he wants to do that. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| The Democrats are just delaying. | ||
| They always delay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, you spoke with the Saudi Grand Prince yesterday. | |
| Who? | ||
| The Saudi Grand Prince. | ||
|
unidentified
|
How was the call that these $600 billion begin to invest? | |
| $600. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll ask him for a trillion. | |
| You said you're going to ask it correctly. | ||
| Will Saudi Arabia be the first foreign country you will visit since they invest in that much money? | ||
| Well, if they do that, I would, yeah. | ||
| I would be glad to do that. | ||
| I did it, as you know, four years ago. | ||
| We did $450 billion, meaning the money all goes to American companies, and they purchase jets and they purchase computers and everything else. | ||
| And we did $450 billion, and I guess we're at $600, $650. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'll see if I can talk him into a few minutes. | |
| Mr. I don't think it leaves again. | ||
| You showed great confidence in Steve Woodcock. | ||
| Why you said that you doubt that the ceasefire in Gaza will hold, since you appraised his... | ||
| Mr. I think he's great. | ||
| But it's a very tricky place. | ||
| It's very tricky. | ||
| And we'll see. | ||
| And if something does happen, they will not be happy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir, follow up on that one. | |
| In terms of Steve Witkoff, are you going to put him in charge of Iran's strategy? | ||
| And do you want him talking directly with the Iranians? | ||
| No, but he's certainly somebody I would use. | ||
| He's done a fantastic job. | ||
| He's a great negotiator. | ||
| He's a very good person, a very popular person. | ||
| Gets along with people. | ||
| I have great negotiators. | ||
| They have no personality whatsoever. | ||
| And then I have some that do. | ||
| Steve has a wonderful way about him, and people like him. | ||
| And even in this case, both sides like him. | ||
| And he was able to make a deal. | ||
| That deal would have never been made without Steve. | ||
| The Biden people couldn't make the deal. | ||
| They were working on it for a year and a half. | ||
| They couldn't make a deal. | ||
| We got it done prior to the inauguration. | ||
| We said it has to be before the inauguration. | ||
| I mean, the deal should hold, but if it doesn't hold, there'll be a lot of problems. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is related to your AI EO, just hours after you made that big stargate announcement, Elon Musk tweeted, that they don't actually have the money. | |
| Is that true? | ||
| I don't know if they do, but they're putting up the money. | ||
| The government's not putting up anything. | ||
| They're putting up money. | ||
| They're very rich people, so I hope they do. | ||
| I mean, Elon doesn't like one of those people, so you're not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are you sorry that AI is going to replace many American jobs? | |
| No. | ||
| Is that where you? | ||
| No, no, it's going to create tremendous numbers of jobs. | ||
| It's going to also create a lot of benefits medically for cancer research and other things. | ||
| It's going to have a huge positive impact. | ||
| And, you know, we want to be ahead of China. | ||
| We're right now way ahead of China. | ||
| David Sachs is one of the all-time experts. | ||
| People are amazed that you just met him. | ||
| I don't know if he's still here. | ||
| There he is. | ||
| But one of the most respected people in that world. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a world. | |
| It's a whole different world. | ||
| And we're ahead of China now because of what I'm doing. | ||
| And I think it's going to be very successful. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Ross, please, you just asked the Davos forum again that major countries should spend 5% of GDP on defense. | |
| The United States don't spend 5%. | ||
| It should also apply to the United States. | ||
| We're protecting them. | ||
| They're not protecting us. | ||
| We're protecting them. | ||
| So I don't think we should be spending, I'm not sure we should be spending anything, but we should certainly be helping them. | ||
| 205, the nays are 216. | ||
| The motion is not adopted. | ||
| The question is on the passage of the bill. | ||
| Those in favor, please say aye. | ||
| Those opposed, please say no. | ||
| The no's have it. | ||
| The bill is not passed without objection. | ||
| A motion reaches laid on the table. | ||
| For what purposes, gentlemen from South Carolina, seek recognition? | ||
|
Requesting Yays and Nays
00:06:34
|
||
|
unidentified
|
I request the yays and nays. | |
| The yeas and nays are requested. | ||
| Those favoring a vote by the yays and nays will rise. | ||
| A sufficient number having risen, the yays and nays are ordered. | ||
| Members will record their votes by electronic device. | ||
| This is a five-minute vote. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Members voting on a bill requiring health care practitioners to provide medical care for a child born after a failed abortion. | |
| The bill imposes criminal fines and penalties for failure to do so. | ||
| Simple majority needed here for passage. | ||
| This is the last vote of the day and for the week in the House. | ||
| And we'll take you back now to President Trump taking questions in the Oval Office a short time ago. | ||
| The right time, I would. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir, did you go to January 6, 2021? | |
| Do you plan to meet with any of them or meet with them at the White House? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| I'm sure that they probably would like to. | ||
| I did them something important, but what they did is they were protesting a crooked election. | ||
| I mean, people understand that also. | ||
| And they were treated very badly. | ||
| Nobody's been treated like that. | ||
| So I'd be open to it, certainly. | ||
| I don't know of anything like that, but I think they're going to meet in some of the congresspeople, congressmen, women want to meet. | ||
| But I'd certainly be open to it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Have you spoken to them since you issued pardons? | |
| I haven't spoken to any of them yet, but I know they're very happy. | ||
| Mr. President, I gave them their life back. | ||
| Their life was taken away from them unnecessarily and unfairly. | ||
| I gave them their life back, so I can imagine they probably would like to. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, what did you say when you said that Biden took bad advice in not pardoning himself yesterday? | |
| Well, he did. | ||
| I think he did because he pardoned all these people that are crooked as hell. | ||
| Look, the congressmen, they're crooked. | ||
| What they did is they destroyed evidence. | ||
| When you destroy evidence, especially criminally like that, they did it criminally. | ||
| And the reason they destroyed the evidence is because it proved that I was right. | ||
| They didn't destroy evidence for no reason. | ||
| They destroyed it because they found many documents saying that I offered 10,000 soldiers. | ||
| If they had 500 soldiers or National Guard, there would have been no problem. | ||
| If they had 200, that would have been, I offered 10,000 if they needed them. | ||
| There would have been no problem. | ||
| That's been now totally disproven. | ||
| And it's also been disproven by Nancy Pelosi's daughter, who has her on tape, saying it was her fault that she has full responsibility for this. | ||
| And they have all this stuff. | ||
| They destroyed everything. | ||
| And they go through a year and a half, two years of nonsense. | ||
| They come up with tremendous evidence and they destroyed evidence. | ||
| And Schiff knew about it. | ||
| That's why he's on there. | ||
| He knew all about the destruction of evidence. | ||
| A lot of people said he's the one that got him to do it. | ||
| And he's a crooked guy, a totally crooked politician. | ||
| And so he's pardoned, and some other people are pardoned. | ||
| And these are crooked politicians, every one of them. | ||
| Benny Johnson, what he did, is incredible. | ||
| I mean, he was the leader of the committee, and he did it. | ||
| Cheney, Crying Adam, Kinzinger, all of them. | ||
| They destroyed evidence and deleted everything. | ||
| There's nothing. | ||
| There's no evidence now. | ||
| They're crooked politicians and they should be punished. | ||
| You know, that's even in a civil trial. | ||
| You go to jail for a thing like that. | ||
| They destroyed every document, from what I understand, every document, because it proved that I was totally innocent. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President to send 10,000 troops to the southern border side. | |
| Yeah. | ||
| Oh, southern border? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I said. | |
| When you say southern border, when I said 10,000 troops, I was referring to the capital. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, I see. | |
| And when is that? | ||
| When do you plan to 10,000 troops to the capital before January 6th? | ||
|
unidentified
|
And as for the 1,500 at the southern border, sir, to clarify, what exactly do you want them to be doing right now? | |
| Making sure that the border is safe and secure and that criminals don't come into our country. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, do you think that sanctions on Russia will force President Putin to negotiate? | |
| I don't know, but I think he should make a deal. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. President, does it bother you that Elon Musk criticized a deal that you made publicly that he said that he tweeted that? | |
| No, it doesn't. | ||
| He hates one of the people in the deals. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Have you spoken to them since then? | |
| No, no. | ||
| Well, I've spoken to Elon, but I've spoken to all of them, actually. | ||
| No, no, the people in the deal are very, very smart people. | ||
| But Elon, one of the people he happens to hate, but I have certain hatreds of people too. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir. | |
| Sir. | ||
| China. | ||
| What do you think Xi Jinping can do on the Ukraine-Russian war? | ||
| Which one? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ukraine-Russia-Russia war. | |
| What can Xi Jinping do about that? | ||
| China? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| They have a lot of power over Russia. | ||
| They supply energy to Russia. | ||
| And Russia supplies energy to them. | ||
| They supply other things to, you know, it's really a very big trade. | ||
| It's a very big trading partner. | ||
| But Russia supplies a lot of energy to China. | ||
| China pays them a lot of money for that. | ||
| And I think they have a lot of power over Russia. | ||
| So I think Russia should want to make a deal. | ||
| Maybe they want to make a deal. | ||
| I think from what I hear, Putin would like to see me. | ||
| And we'll meet as soon as we can. | ||
| I'd meet immediately. | ||
| Every day we don't meet, soldiers are being killed in a battlefield. | ||
| And that battlefield is like no battlefield since World War II. | ||
| And I have pictures that you don't want to see. | ||
| Soldiers are being killed on a daily basis at numbers that we haven't seen in decades. | ||
| And it would be nice to end that war. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's a ridiculous war. | |
| You said that Ukraine's ready to make a deal. | ||
| Did President Zelensky tell you that personally? | ||
| He's ready to negotiate a deal. | ||
| He'd like to stop. | ||
| He's somebody that lost a lot of soldiers. | ||
| And so did Russia lost a lot. | ||
| Russia lost more soldiers. | ||
| They lost 800,000 soldiers. | ||
| Would you say that's a lot? | ||
| I'd say it's a lot. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You said that you wanted to make Dr. King's dream a reality. | |
| What's your response to his children, the civil rights leaders, who say that your DEI orders are a contradiction of his dream and could further drive racialized people? | ||
| Well, on this vote, the yays are 217 and the nays are 204. | ||
| With one answering present, the bill is passed. | ||